You know what’s strange, ever since I started changing
gender I have found myself doing things that I probably never would have done before,
or actively pursuing things that I wanted to do for a long time.
I’m now going to share some of these experiences.
Blink 182
Strictly speaking this one counts, even though I had this
planned for long before I started officially being Kate, infact, I have the
tickets for a full 18 months before I went to this, but in July 2012, just 9
days after I had come out to every as transgendered, I went to watch probably
my favourite band of all time live in Nottingham.
It was a great event and it was a great chance to see the
friends I had made whilst I lived in Nottingham. Obviously it was the first
time many had seen me since I started changing, but they were all cool about
it.
Manchester United
Many people know that
I am a Man United fan and have been since around the second month of liking
football (the first club I actually supported was Sheffield Wednesday…..I have
no idea why), and whilst I had been occasionally to Old Trafford, I got the
chance during the summer of 2012 to get a season ticket at Manchester United.
After a bit of a debate, I took up the offer, meaning that I
would comfortably beat my previous best of two games in a season. For the
experience it was great, I went to nine games and saw some of the world’s best
players during my time. Some of the players I saw (other than United players
obviously) included Juan Mata and Gareth Bale, some truly world class
players……I also saw Andy Carroll.
Despite the positives, this fucked me financially. It was
£74 a month for the season ticket and £50 per home match in the cups. Basically
you were forced to have a ticket for every game at home in the cups, regardless
of whether you wanted to go or not. The problem with this was that United
played at home in every single round of every single cup, with the exception of
one game in the Carling Cup (Chelsea away). In one month the season ticket cost
me nearly £300 because of cup draws.
There were also occasions when people had promised that they
would buy the season ticket off me for a game if they couldn’t go…..but these
people were nowhere to be seen when the time came. I probably wouldn’t have got
it had I known that I would only go to 9 of the 26 games that United had and I
wouldn’t sell the ticket for at least ten of the rest.
Jack Dee
I have always been a fan of the deadpan comedian. Ever since
I first heard of him (towards the end of the last millennium), I have actively
followed his stand up career but then he sort of retired from that about 10
years ago. It had always been an ambition of mine to see him live but my
opportunity had passed.
One night I was watching the Graham Norton show and he was
on it. He spoke about numerous things, but also about his upcoming tour. I got
really excited and he was even coming to Lincolnshire….Skegness to be precise.
I bought the tickets, booked a hotel and went to watch him. It was hilarious.
Barcelona
I had never been abroad on holiday before this year. I had been to France with school but it's not the same,
so I was excited when I organised a holiday to Barcelona. It was a fantastic trip and although it was only a weekend, I feel in love with the city. It is truly majestic, it really is. If you haven't been, go.
The main reason I had never been abroad on holiday was that I am I terrified of heights, and therefore the thought of being on a plane sends shivers down my spine, and it's funny in a way because I was really nervous on the plane, sweating heavily and it wasn't helped when the plane tilted and I could see the M6 from about 1 mile up.......I shook and I could tell the person next to me was getting a bit worried.
Thankfully I made it through both journeys (I was fine on the way home) and would love to go again some day.
Moving to Blackburn
I had long had ambitions to move out of the East Midlands and whilst the plan two years ago was to go to either Canada or America, I suppose Blackburn isn't an absolutely awful place. I was actually quite surprised at how nice Blackburn is....not in terms of looks because it does look like a massive council estate, but as a place to live I can't complain at all.
Despite the town centre being shite, there's nothing I don't really like. The people are friendly enough and there is a bit of do in various areas. My one small issue is that I still haven't really made any friends here.
Blackburn Hawks vs
Solway Sharks
I have been a fan of ice hockey for many years but never really visioned that I would actually go to a game, mainly because I didn't think the English leagues would be any good, however, when I found out Blackburn had a team I thought it was a good idea to go with it.
The game I went to was the Hawks vs the Solway Sharks and it was very different to any kind of sporting event I had been to. It felt in many ways more like a party that an ice hockey match. Even though Solway went on to win 2-1, the home crowd never got frustrated with their team and it was such a relief from football, where that is certainly not the case.
In all honesty, I have seriously contemplated taking this up as my main attended sport and stopping attending football. I have found in recent years that I sort of hate going to football, and it is something that I can actually see doing in the future. Maybe not right now, but certainly in the future.
It's been more than two months since my last blog entry and that wasn't particularly relevant to anything, so I just wanted to take some time and talk about how my life has changed in the last two months.
I mentioned in my last blog entry (well, the last one about me anyway) that I had been offered a new job, a job which I have now started. I handed my notice at Vodafone pretty much straight after being offered the new job and it was a bizarre four weeks. It's amazing how little you give a shit when you know you're leaving. Before that I was a hard worker and hated not having something to work on, however, immediately afterwards I was happy just to sit there with nothing to do most of the day.
Don't get me wrong, I still got on with work, but I no longer actively sought things to do in between, and people weren't in a hurry to give me more stuff. They knew I couldn't give a crap. Anyway, four weeks pass and it gets down to the final day of me working for Vodafone and I say goodbye to everyone that I want to say goodbye to. There are numerous people who work there that I will quite gladly never see or speak to again, but there are several people who I consider good friends that I know I won't ever see again in all likelihood.
I got on really well with the members of the Tech Admin team and had a laugh with them every day (SHAMONE, HE HE), and I will miss people like Vic, Jamie and a few others. It was strange in a way that I had wanted to leave for so long and then it was all of a sudden right there, and I think at that point I realised that I would miss it in a way, but oh well, it's in the past now.
So I moved up to work for BT and I now live in Blackburn. I've been in the job for two weeks now and I think I'm doing ok, but I am always my own biggest critic, so yeah. The training doesn't end for another three weeks, so I probably know until then whether I am good at it or not, but it's something different and that's always a good thing.
The only thing I really miss is my friends. I haven't made a single friend since I moved up to the area, although I do get on well with some of the people that I work with, however, it takes a lot before I start considering my colleagues as friends. I know I am back in Lincoln on a semi regular basis anyway, so hopefully I will see some of them at some point, but yeah, I just miss them, and it's a shame because my friends have gotten me through some pretty hard times over the years, and people such as Jenna, Debra, Charlie, Ellen and so many others really helped me when I came out as transgendered last year.
That leads me nicely only my transition. Things are starting to process as my oestrogen levels went from 161 to 836 in the space of just over 2 months, which is an insane increase, especially when you consider that my testosterone levels are now 3.2, which is the same as the average female apparently. I know I still look and sound like a guy, but I am trying hard to become more feminine in various aspects of my life, but it's not an easy thing.
Emotionally the hormones have definitely taken a grip and I am now more prone to showing my emotions. I have twice started crying in recent months for situations where I wouldn't have cried before the hormones, such as seeing a friend leave (even though I know I will (hopefully) see them again in the future.
My voice is particularly getting me down at the moment, I have been to five therapy sessions and my voice still sounds exactly like it did before I started, and as my gender consultant says "You can dress as femininely as you want, or wear as much make up as you want, but until you sound female, you will always have a dead give away that you are naturally male."
Don't get me wrong, I know that I still don't put in a lot of effort in terms of my appearance, but I still have a lot of body issues and until the effects of the oestrogen are more obvious, I will continue to dress in a covered up nature. Breasts are developing slowly and I think that once they are a half decent size, I will feel more confident with regards to wearing more feminine clothes. Just so you know, all of the clothes I do wear did come from womens sections of stores, but I choose to only wear the more truly feminine clothes (such as dresses) when I am in a situation where I feel comfortable with it, such as seeing my doctors.
Don't get me wrong, I don't give a fuck if you like that I am transsexual or not. What is between my legs is my choice and I have had too many people dragging me down over the years. I am finally doing something that I have spent my entire life doing, so sorry that it's not what you would want, or what you find normal, because at the end of the day, this is my life. I lost my fear of people's reactions long ago, and only during my first few days of living as Kate was I afraid, but I believe I have shown more courage trying to achieve a life's goal than the average person will ever achieve. So if you want to join me on my journey and what happens after I have reached it's end, then great, if not then get off now, but don't expect me to bend to what you want me to do, because it isn't happening.
So I will leave it there, but yeah, I just wanted to write a blog entry and even though I know not a lot of people read this, it certainly makes me feel a lot better about a lot of things due to being able to write it down and not keep it in. I kept a lot of things in for far too long, so even if no-one reads it, it is nice to be able to at least put it somewhere.
In my part time job at the Lord Ted, I work with a lot of people were born in the latter half of the 1990s, meaning that by the time that they reached an age where they can remember stuff, they had virtually no chance of watch or hearing of. So below are five movies from the 1980s that won't be well known by the younger generation that I would highly recommend.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Long before before he was Neo in The Matrix, Keanu Reeves was part of a film about two high school slackers who are about to fail their history class. They make a half-arsed attempt at their last report before a person from the future comes and tells them that they eventually form a band that brings world peace, however, they must pass their history class to do it was Reeves' character will be sent to military school if they fail.
They use a telephone booth to travel through time and gather various famous figures from history, such as Billy the Kid, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund Freud and various others. Various problems occur along the way, such as having part of their booth destroyed by a member of Ghengis Khan's army, and they struggle to deal with it due to their slacker nature.
This is a fun movie and definitely the type that you don't get these days. It's 90 or so minutes of fun. It was so successful that a sequel came out in the early 90s, although the lacked some of the charm of the original and had a much, much darker tone, including being killed by clones and having to fight their way through the after life in order to save their girlfriends.
There is also talks of a third film coming out soon, but given that Reeves and co-star Alex Winter have gone on to have significantly different careers, it'd be surprisingly if it does ever come out.
Spaceballs (1987)
Arguably the biggest films of the 1980s were the second and third installments of the original Star Wars trilogy, but they were far from immune from the Mel Brooks treatment. Mel Brooks was one of the main spoof directors of the 80s and 90s and his legacy ranged from westerns to Robin Hood, however, this spoof of Star Wars is probably the best of the lot.
The story is that the people from the planet Spaceball are running out of oxygen and have decided to steal their air from a nearby planet. Meanwhile, on the nearby planet, a princess is getting married but runs out on her groom and the king hires a guy called Lonestar to track her down, eventually the two stories meet and Lonestar tries to prevent Dark Helmet (the leader of the Spaceball army) from executing the plan.
Spaceballs is one of those great films where you can just sit back and enjoy, it takes no thinking power whatsoever and it's just fun, a thing that a lot of movies of today have forgot about. I guarantee you will laugh and if you're not a big Star Wars fan, you will find this brilliant.
Willow (1988)
My favourite film comes from the 1980s. I love this film.
The storyline is about a baby that is destined to kill a witch who controls the land. The baby ends up in a village of Nelwyns (basically midgets) and in particular, Willow (played by Warrick Davis). He and several others set off on a trip to find the nearest Dikini (normal sized humans) but ends up staying with the baby even after they find someone who agrees to take her....Madmartigan. What follows is the struggle that the good guys have against the witch's army, as well as the desperation to protect this baby.
The film revolutionised morphing technology and was a true pioneering film of the industry. I love this movie as it has pretty much everything, action, adventure, comedy, drama, war, romance, horror, everything is rolled into this film and it fits the bill regardless of what mood you are in.
Unfortunately Willow didn't do that well at the box office and that's why many people from the younger generation haven't heard of this film, other than from myself probably. It was the first film featuring Val Kilmer as the lead actor, and also Warwick Davis' first appearance on a film where he wasn't covered in prosthetics or heavy, heavy make up.
Krull (1983)
Krull is a film from the 1980s that I doubt many from the 80s will remember or even heard of. I can't even
remember when I first saw this film but all around, it was quite a good film.
The story is about a prince and princess are set to wed on an alien planet before a destructive alien race kidnaps the princess. The prince then goes on an adventure with a vast array of different characters, such as a wizard, a cyclops, a magician and various bandits. Throughout it all their journey to the ever-moving castle, they have to deal with the powers of the alien leader taking over various members of them, their struggles as members of their team are regularly killed and the various personal difficulties throughout.
In what was a largely unknown cast at the time, it contained several people who would become very well known actors in holiday, such as Liam Neeson, Robbie Coltrane and Alun Armstrong.
Much like Willow this film had a lot of different elements to it, with the exception of comedy, and again is a good all around romp. It's slow paced though with a lot of time dedicated to character development.
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Basically "He Man" the movie was a film I had largely forgotten about until I found it recently on Youtube.
The story for this is that a key that can open doors to any world has been sent to Earth accidentally and the evil Skeletor wants it, however, He-Man and his team try to defend Earth and the key. Meanwhile, a young couple are dealing with their personal difficulties and the two storylines mix, making He-Man's task all the more difficult.
He man is a film that doesn't take itself too serious, whilst not actually being a comedy. If you like a good old sci-fi romp with some terrible acting then this is the film for you. It has it's moments throughout and whilst not a brilliant film, it's certainly not a boring one.
If you've got about 2 hours to kill then I would recommend this film. Again, you will think at several points that it is a bit rubbish, it's certainly not one for the awards categories, but again, it's a good laugh and for a non-comedy film, it does have it's moments again, although nothing I can personally point out.
Firstly, a song for you all to enjoy. I know, I'm generous aren't I?
Well it's been an interesting few days to say the least. To cut a long story short I got a new job, yay me. After four years of working for Vodafone, I got offered a job at British Telecommunications and I accepted. Not only is it a new chapter in terms of job, but in terms of location. The BT centre is located in Accrington, over 100 miles away, meaning that I will be moving to the area and it's the first time in my life that I will be living outside of the East Midlands, so just that on it's own is a scary prospect, but it's a good kind of scary. I could sit here and whine and bitch about my time at Vodafone, and believe me, part of me really wants to, but I won't.
Accrington - One of a few places to choose from.
It will be nice to live in an area where no-one knows me, it's effectively a clean slate. No-one there knew me as Nathan and therefore very few people could refer back to stuff I use to do and question it. I have wanted to get a new life for a while and whilst I wouldn't necessarily have chosen Lancashire, it's a good place to start relatively.
There are a few places of where to choose to live, I could choose the easy option and say Accrington, but I've been to Accrington many times and there isn't a lot to do. Nearby are also Preston, Burnley and Blackburn, which the latter of the three being the most likely choice and I do have some views of houses booked for in the near future.
Then we get onto the gender change. Things are moving slowly in terms of physical changes, however, I am told that hormones really start to kick in after a year, so I won't worry about it until it reaches December, which will be a year on hormones. I'm really struggling with the voice therapy and after three sessions I am no closer to having a feminine voice than before I started, which is frustrating. It's not that I can't get my voice to a higher pitch, but the difficulty is proving to be getting it like that whilst still breathing normally. I can't really stress enough how difficult it is.
My face continues to show no development so on Friday I went to a facial surgery consultation in London and the real life simulations were interesting. I don't think that I looked that different but it's something to consider and as they say, every little helps....whether I will be able to afford it or not is another matter, however, as I will be getting paid considerably more at BT than I was at Vodafone, that will certainly help.
However, the most memorable part of the trip came afterwards, I had time to kill so ended up talking to two women called Jenny and Miriam, the latter of which had been through the facial survey herself and I was absolutely amazed, I would never have guessed that she was trans. After seeing her before/after pictures, I was convinced that FFS was a good thing to be considering, and if I can financially commit then I'm going to go for it, although I don't know how much it will cost at this point (a lot I imagine).
As you can tell from the pictures on the right, Miriam's facial transformation as a result of the surgery was absolutely incredible. I am still struggling to believe it now.
But yeah, anyway, I spoke to Jenny and Miriam for a while and it was the first time that I have had felt like I have had a genuine connections with new people that I have met, it feels quite strange in many ways, but all of them good.
I stayed for three hours after my appointment just talking and what we have established is that I have been mispronouncing Tromso for many years (apparently it's not said like it's spelt), that at some point I will go over to Norway and Miriam will teach me how to snowboard, I will take her to a Manchester United game at some point....and I owe her a drink.
I must say that although I am nervous, I am really looking forward to the new parts of my life.
Today I went to London and it was one of the most incensing trips to our capital that I think I've ever had. Why the fuck people would ever holiday in London, I will never know. You go on a holiday to relax, something that is impossible in London. So, here is a list of everything I hate about London.
"Busy" queue jumpers
You're in, let's say for argument's sake, a coffee shop and there's a line, all of a sudden someone walks in and just walks straight to the counter as says "coffee, black, to take out" and when told by the staff and the queue that they have just pushed in front of that they will have to go to the back of the line, they say "I'm too busy to wait in line and am due in an urgent meeting!"
If this only happened once or twice then I wouldn't mind, but at one point a few months ago I was waiting in a Starbucks and on four occasions in the same queue, someone came in and tried to jump queue because they were "too busy" to wait.
Randomly direction changers
So you're walking behind someone and perfectly minding your business......all of a sudden the person changes direction randomly and without warning, you almost walk into them and they look at you as if it's your fault.
I know you can get this anywhere but in a 35 minute walk from Wimpole St to Kings Cross today, this happened on at least 8 occasions.
"Have a newspaper"
So, I'm in WH Smiths today, I have a bottle of water and some haribo, I get to the self service till and I scan in the water and all of a sudden the "helper" just scans in a newspaper for me.
"What are you doing?"
"It works out cheaper if you get the newspaper."
"Well how about asking me before you scan it in. I don't want the newspaper and don't care if it works out cheaper, so take that newspaper off of there now!"
He didn't have authority so had to get a team leader to do it, I told them what had happened....they weren't impressed with the person.
The amount of people in London trying to give you a newspaper is ridiculous. I could probably collect a tree's worth of paper in a day if I wanted to.
Central London - Yeah, it looks nice, but move a few miles down the road and London is not pleasent
Groups gathering
So, the path is quite narrow and it's the middle of the day, meaning that there are a lot of people about. What you don't need in this case is groups of people just hanging about in the middle of the path and forcing people to bottle neck, and much like everything else on this list, this happens a hell of a lot more in London than anywhere else and on the 35 minute walk I mentioned earlier, I had to stop four times because groups were causing bottle necks and people walking the other way weren't allowing other people through.
I have no problem with people gathering, just as long as it's not on a narrow path.
Oi, dickhead, someone is behind you.
Slow walkers in confined spaces. Enough said.
I know you go to this tube stop before me, but.......
Much like most other train systems in the world, there is an attitude of "I don't care how long you've been
waiting, I am getting on this train before you," but I have never seen it in action as much as on the Underground. Infact, on several occasions I have seen someone run past the people waiting for those to get off of the tube before getting on themselves, yes, running past them. It wasn't even busy.
The tube is a test of patience, endurance and most importantly, trying not to lose your sanity. I never willingly subject myself to it during the middle of the day and it's only in the evenings it becomes relatively tolerable, that is unless you're getting on at the first few stops on the route before it goes into central London.
"London is brilliant"
There are those that claim that London is brilliant, mostly Londoners, not, whilst the touristy bits are nice, about 90% of London is a proper shit hole. Whilst the central areas of properly nice, during my life I have visited various other areas of London where words such as "glamourous" certainly do not apply.
I'll bring this into some sort of context and base this on the assumption that "if it's on the tube routes, it's in London" and on that, I have been around the areas of Barnet, Leyton and Dagenham, amongst others, and they were all complete shitholes. I mean seriously, one of the most common lines of 2012 was "The Olympics showcases all of the brilliant bits about London" and my immediate response was "yeah, but it ignores the other 90%.
Seriously, London is, for the majority, a shithole. Like every city and town, it's has it's nice areas and it's shit areas, but nowhere that I have been to has a higher ratio of shit places to nice places.
Again, it looks nice and pleasant.....but then again so do many of the world's most dangerous plants
Recently the official battle of Playstation 4 vs X Box One begin, and it got me thinking about my own personal history with computer games. Although I don't play games as much as I used to, back in my youth it was very rare that I wouldn't spend time on computer games (although unlike today's youth, I did plenty of outside activity as well, such as playing football), so I wanted to go through some of the more memorable games that I have played, all in chronological order.
Outlaw - ATARI
The first console system that I ever owned was the ATARI, a system that I suspect a lot of people who are younger than 20 have never heard of. It was pretty much the first home console in existence and whilst the games look extremely basic by today's standards, they were incredibly addictive.
Cowboy was the first game I can remember playing and the objective is to simply shoot the other person on the screen, that is it. It was about as basic as a game could get, but I remember playing it for a long time. The deaths weren't dramatic (basically it was a guy falling over), but it was a good first game to remember. If anyone still has an Atari that works, get this game.
Rainbow Islands - AMIGA
I have early memories of this extremely colourful game. The objective was simply to get from the bottom of the screen to the top, whilst also trying to avoid enemies and the rising waters. To do this you shot rainbows to form a bridge and climb up to the next level.
Looking back on it is also looks quite trippy and I don't think I have ever seen a more colourful game. I think the only colour they don't use at all is black.
Would I play it again now, probably not, but I will always have fond memories of this day.
Monkey Island - Amiga
Back in the early 90s the most popular type of game was the point and click adventure, and none were better than Monkey Island. This was the first game I truly fell in love with, it was amazing, it was pretty much everything you could want in a game. There was comedy, pirates, romance, horror (the main protagonist is a ghost, and takes various similar guises in the subsequent games), sword fighting and action, it was pretty much the pretty game.
You take control of a wannabe pirate, Guybrush Threepwood, and take him on a quest that he hopes will lead to him being a pirate, the only problem is that he's a bit of a wimp. Along the way he meets a woman and falls in love, only for the aforementioned ghost (LeChuck) to kidnap her. Along the way Guybrush meets several interesting characters, such as a bridge troll who turns out to be George Lucas in disguise, as well as the lasiet ship crew that ever existed.
For the time it was probably one of the most graphically sophisicated games available, and also one of the longest, as a full playthrough, even if you knew exactly what you were doing, would take at least two hours, which was very long for the time.
They made a special edition version a few years ago along with the sequel, which you can view below (none of the videos for the original were good enough).
Mortal Kombat - Sega Megadrive
Those who I went to school with know how obsessed I became with the Mortal Kombat series throughout my teens, however at first it was just another computer game, a game that I was very good at. It got to the point where I was regularly beating my brother, who is 15 years old than me, quite easily, and at one point he invited me and a friend round, I was told that I wasn't allowed to use special moves (such as freezing people with one of the characters) to make it fair....did I stick to that? Did I fuck.
What made this game so much better than the vast majority of it's sequels was that there were no overly poor characters, which is something that the games later on in the series suffered with, each character had a great background and a decent ending, and you knew they weren't just thrown in for the sake of it. The first three games were all like that, but then after that they started introducing shit characters that no-one really gave a shit about (hello Kai, Tanya, . Infact, in the Armageddon game, the last before they rebooted the series, there were so many characters that it became a bit of a farce.
Mortal Kombat, the original one, was everything a multiplayer game really should be, something you can just pick up and get right into, and most of all have fun with. Most games these days have forgotten about the fun element.
Theme Park - Amiga
Not many people remember Bullfrog games (and this isn't the only time they will appear on this list), but for those that do, you would agree that they made some awesome games. If you want to talk about addictive games, few could ever replicate the "Theme" series, and it all started with a game where you built a Theme Park.
It was one of the earliest games where you were rewarded for sticking with the game, as you could buy researchers after getting sufficient customers into the park, and they would come up with new games. You do start off with some very shitty rides and attractions, but stick with it and you end up with rollercoasters that allow you to build the track yourself, as well as other similar attractions.
This game was followed by the equally addictive "Theme Hospital", and then the slightest less addictive and considerably more cartoony "Theme Park World". Would I play "Theme Park" again? No, probably not, but as I say, it was one of the earliest games where you felt rewarded for sticking with a game.
Resident Evil - Playstation
In 1997 my brother gave me a game called Resident Evil. He had owned it for a while and couldn't get past a snake that appears 30 minutes into the game, and just got completely frustrated with it. I didn't even know what it was about, it could have been anything, so I start playing and within minutes I find a zombie, and from that moment on I have loved zombie games and movies. I played the game for the rest of the day and easily defeated the snake that my brother had struggled with.
Whilst not generally scary, especially by today's standards, this game was groundbreaking and unlike most of the sequels, there was VERY limited ammo around the place, so much to the point where you regularly had to rely on your knife....which isn't very handy.
Whilst not brilliant in it's own right, it started off one of my favourite computer game franchises and a series for which I have owned ten titles (1-6, Code Veronica, Zero, Re:Make and Outbreak).
It remains the only Resident Evil game I have never completed.
The Curse of Monkey Island - PC
At the time (1997) I had never been so excited about a new game. The third installment in the Monkey Island series became one of the first games I got on the day of release, however, I couldn't play it due to system restraints. My first PC had a capacity of 12MB, no, that isn't a misprint, the youth of today will never know the limitations we had those days and running out of space was a common occurrence, the problem with TCOMI was that it required 16MB of space and my dad bought me a new PC specifically for the purpose of playing this game.
Unlike the previous two games, this game had vocal audio rather than text, which I personally thought made the game far, far more enjoyable as it was easier to understand the jokes. Visually it was also superior to the previous games, understandable given that Monkey Island 2 came out in 1991, and the advancement in technology in those days was far superior to these days. Although it looks very cartoony, this was probably one of the funnest games that I ever played.
I played this game a LOT and it even proved to be the basis of my Graphical Technology coursework during school. I do still also play the game occasionally, although it requires installation of the ScummVM engine if you're playing it on Windows 7.
This was the last good Monkey Island game. The subsequent sequels of "Escape From Monkey Island" and "Tales of Monkey Island" were both terrible and lacked what had made the previous games fun to play.
Populous The Beginning - PC
I had played the demo for this strategy game and become slightly obsessed with it. I even kept the demo long after I had gotten the game because there was a level on the demo that wasn't on the game.
The basic premise of the game is that you control the Shamen of a tribe and the aim is literally to destroy the other tribe(s) on the map. What makes this different to other similar games (such as Age of Empires) is that you use magic to help you destroy the enemy, afterall, what could be more fun than walking up to your opponents and casting a tornado on their church, or even creating a volcano right in the middle of the camp? It was damn addictive and the best part is you can make the levels last as long as you want. There is nothing actually saying that you have to attack, occasionally I just set up my defence and built my force. At one point I just left the game for six hours to go to football, came back and all I had lost was one defence tower....but had gained an army of more than 500 (which was very big for the game), I subsequently marched on the other tribe....500 vs 30 was very one sided.
One of my favourite types of game is building bases, defending and then attacking, but this is by far my favourite one of these types of games. It was hard at times as well, obviously as you move further up the 25 levels the opponents can do more, such as using invisibility spells, turning your own army against you, and numerous other things.
You can still buy this today and it does still work on more advanced systems (I still play in regularly on my Windows 7 computer), or alternatively you can buy it via the Playstation Store
I'm going to leave this section with a video of my favourite level....Level 17 - Middle Ground.
Forbidden Siren - Playstation 2
Fuck a duck, this shit was scary. I had NEVER stopped playing a game because I was too scared before, but that is exactly what happened with this, it's something I haven't done before or since.
This game was unusual in the sense that you could actually use your R3 button to tap into a nearby enemy and see exactly what they see, however, whilst you're doing that the normal gameplay still goes on, so you could come out of that and all of a sudden there was an enemy just stood in front of you....and you have no weapons to defend yourself with.
I played this at 2/3 in the morning with no lights on, and I was sweating buckets by the time I eventually went to bed because it scared the shit out of my that much. That game is AMAZINGLY tense. I still own this game and it's sequel....I have never even opened the latter (I genuinely don't know what I own it :P )
Resident Evil 4 - Playstation 2
Quite possible the PERFECT game and much like Curse of Monkey Island, the definite peak in the series, especially as the two sequels have been crap.
Resident Evil 4 was different to it's previous installments as it moved away from the zombie genre and did lose a bit of the survival horror aspect, however, that didn't stop it being a great game. The graphics are stunning and even nine years on from when I first bought it, it remains as one of the most beautiful games I have ever owned.
This game was excellent from start to finish, and the boss fights were far enough between that you actually enjoyed them when you got to them, whereas the subsequent sequels have had boss fights every five minutes. The boss fights were also genuinely difficult, again, something that has been lost in the sequels, and you had a proper fight on your hands, which was the case with 1, 2 and 3, but this was different due to the fact that in previous games you viewed the game from a fixed angle that many seeing difficult, but in 4 the camera moves with the character, meaning you can see what's coming at you, which in a way makes it scarier, or at least as scary as Resident Evil gets.
There have been a lot of Resident Evil games, but just talking in terms of the main series (in other words the numbers ones), here they are in the order of greatness 4, 2, 3, 1, 6 and then 5. Infact, 2, 3 and 1 are all pretty much on the same level, and 6 is only saved from being last by the Leon campaign in it.
The ONLY problem with Resident Evil 4 was that it was extremely difficult to actually get working. The disk would very rarely read correctly, so on many occasions I really wanted to play it but the PS2 was having none of it. Thankfully this issue has been solved since I was able to download for the PS3 and it works perfectly every time.
Assassins Creed 2 - Playstation 3
The first game I owned on the PS3 was, at first, one of the most frustrating things ever. The first thing you to try and beat the character's brother to the top of a church....it took me nearly an hour to get off of the ground, I was getting so incredibly fucked off with the game that I think I made one of my housemates at the time very worried. I also packed it all in after a few minutes, although I am definitely glad that I didn't.
As you'd expect, the graphics were beautiful and they did an excellent job or creating a brilliant environment for you to explore and kill people in, you could tell that they had spent a lot of time working on the look of the game and that made a change from most games I had played.
I got very involved in this game and completed the main storyline within days, and what I loved was that after you complete the main storyline, it allows you to keep playing afterwards, going around doing sub missions and exploring. At the time I had never had a game that allowed me to do that, and is one of the main reasons I keep buying the Assassins Creed games. I am definitely glad I played this game before the first one though, because whilst the first one is ok, it's very poor in comparison and had I played the first game first, I probably wouldn't have bought number two.
I let a friend from work borrow this in April 2010....I am still waiting for it to be returned to this day, however, I don't really feel I need it back because there is a need Assassins Creed game every year, meaning that you regularly move onto the next game, and forget about the previous one....afterall, it's just over three years since I got my PS3...and in that time 2, Brotherhood, Revelations and 3 have been released....and 4 is going to be released in a few months.
A few months ago I mentioned that the house I was renting was put up for sale by the owner, I was a bit upset at the time as I was happy living there and loved living with the housemates at the time, however, it was hinted to Amaury by the owner that she wouldn't be renewing her contract with the agency when the year's contract was up in July, and that is what has happened. On Monday I received confirmation that we have 30 days to leave the property, but fortunately my parents have agreed to take me in for a few months.
Now, some of you are probably reading that and thinking "what? why not just move somewhere else?" Well the reason is that I might by moving to the Manchester region in the next few months, so if I did start to rent elsewhere then it would mean I was committed to a minimum six months, and if I moved to Manchester then I would be paying for two places. Moving in with the parents means that I won't have to worry about a committed time period, and don't get me wrong, I don't want to live with my parents again, but it is the most sensible option open to me.
I will know by this time next month whether I will need to move to Manchester or not, and after that period I will start looking at moving to a new place, but not necessarily back to Newark. Don't get me wrong, I like Newark and in terms of pure convenience for getting to/from work, it would be by far the best option, but it's a chance to move somewhere I want to be.
There are two main options available to me really, Lincoln and Nottingham.
Lincoln
Pros
I love Lincoln, grew up there.
I have a lot of friends in Lincoln and it would be good to see them.
I know Lincoln like the back of my hand, virtually no chance of getting lost.
It wouldn't take me a long time to get home after the football.
The Brayford Pool (right) is one of my favourite places, I love to go and chill out there on a regular basis when I am in Lincoln.
Cons
There is precisely fuck all to do in Lincoln after 6pm except for the cinema and Rileys.
Properties aren't particularly cheap and very few have bills included.
Lincoln is the only place I seem to have trouble with regards to being transgendered.
Nottingham
Pros
Unlike the last time I lived in Nottingham, I am mentally prepared and know what to expect
Despite initially hating Nottingham, I love the place now, and have said since the day I left that I wouldn't mind living there again.
There are a lot of things to do and as much as I had my issues with Nottingham in the first spell of living there, but I was never bored.
The properties in Nottingham to rent are surprisingly cheap. On Primelocation the cheapest to rent was £300 without bills included in Newark, there are currently about 20 cheaper than that in Nottingham right now with bills inclusive. Bill inclusive is a big pull for me.
It would be great to see my friends from my days in Nottingham on a regular basis.
Excellent transport links
Cons
Crime. Within the first three months of me living in Nottingham, my car got broken into three times.
A very high representation of the chav culture in Nottingham.
I think we all know which option I am going to choose.....
Today was a strange day, I felt human again. For around 2 years I have felt disconnected from the human species, often even being misanthropic. If anything I resembled one of my favourite fictional characters, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, I hated people and I'm not just talking about people who I genuinely had a reason to hate, I mean people in general. Below is the end scene from American Psycho and how have felt about the world for the better part of the last two years.
I found any reason I could to dislike someone, even if it was the most petty reason that I could find, and you know what, I even hated myself for some time.
Today that changed, today I became human again, today I felt emotion for the first time in a long time. I have no idea whether it was just the hormones taking an effect on an emotional level, or just because I will genuinely miss my friend, or a bit of both, but either way, I felt alive again.
To put some context into this, about 10 weeks ago a French guy called Amaury moved in and although at first we didn't really speak at first (and we both openly admitted earlier today that neither of us initially intended to speak to the other at all) but over time Amaury somehow managed to get me laughing again, and on a regular basis. I had been missing a genuine friend from my life for some time, a friend who I could see on a regular basis and actually enjoy their company, but that's what I got with Amaury.
For ten weeks Amaury would make me laugh until I couldn't breath anymore and introduced me to some
Amaury
things that will stay with me for the rest of my life, and in all honesty, he is the person who I have enjoyed living with the most since I moved out of my parents house. He was one of 15 people whom I have shared some form of house/flat with and he is one of only four who I haven't hated (the other's being Nat, Andy and Jim, all either currently or previously living at my current house), and it was really disappointing when he said he was moving back to France.
It was to be expected really, he had been talking about going back since he moved in and finally made the choice properly about a month ago. Skip forward four weeks and I am in London, he is coming down for the Eurostar back to France and we meet up and have a Costa. It's strange because all the way through it was a weird goodbye, and then the time finally comes for him to go and he walks off down the street (I'm only going to the hospital on the opposite side of the road so I stay there). I watch as he goes and all of a sudden I am overcome with emotion, I'm struggling to hold back the tears, even when I'm sat in the reception at the hospital.
In a way it was the best and worst feelings I think I've had for a long time. I hated that I had to say goodbye to a good friend, but I relieved as it was the first time that I have felt human emotion for two years. It's strange because I know I will see him again and I do plan on going to France at some point later this year to visit him in Lille, but for now this house feels empty...and it's nothing to do with the fact that I am currently the only person actually in the house.
So to Amaury, "bonjour amaury, merci d'être un bon ami dans les dix semaines que je vous ai connus. Ce fut un plaisir de vous connaître et je vous souhaite tout le meilleur à l'avenir. Je viendrai à Lille à un certain moment dans le futur proche, je vais vous voir bientôt. Au revoir."
I now have a varied emotional range
I just feel relieved in many ways. For 2 years I have done nothing but hate and feel misanthropic, but now I know that I am again capable of feeling. I am human again
Anyway, I'll leave this here, so until next time people.
It has been a while since I wrote a blog about my life so I just wanted to spare a few minutes and update those of you that care.
My throat in all of it's glory.
Right, I'll start with something that happened on Friday and that is my first foray into voice therapy, designed to turn my voice from masculine to feminine. I will remember this for years but not because it is the start of yet another part of the journey to become female, but rather having a microscope shoved up my nose and down into my throat.
I am pretty oblivious to pain, it takes a lot to make me even get uncomfortable, however, having a microscope shoved up my nose was quite frankly one of the most painful and uncomfortable things I have ever had to go through. It was not only uncomfortable, but it was ridiculously uncomfortable.
So there I am with a microscope up my down and I am then forced to sing happy birthday. Those who know me well know that I am absolutely hate that song, however, I sing it just because it would mean getting the microscope out of my nose.
The results were quite bizarre in many ways, afterall, as you tell by the screenshot on the right it looks like I have a creature stuck down my throat, but nope, it is supposed to look like that apparently. All went relatively well but then came some devastating news.....I am no longer allowed to drink Pepsi Max. It is rare to see me with a drink that isn't Pepsi Max or at least a Diet Coke (depending on where I am and what they serve), so you can imagine the panic that struck me at that point. Infact, it doesn't even stop at Pespi Max, it's any drink that has caffeine in it. If I intend for my voice to become more feminine then I will have to learn to drink other things, so since then I have been on water and orange juice, I suppose it's not that bad but I just miss Pespi Max.
It is yet another step I have taken towards becoming female and at the time of writing I have been on hormones for just shy of five months and I am relatively happy with the results so far. I have much softer skin than I had beforehand, the breasts have now developed to a size where they are noticeable if I wear a tight shirt (I still wear the fake breasts for the time being) and I am far more mild-mannered, taking a long time to get angry.
One side effect I am not keen on though is the weight-gain from the hormones. It was always inevitable that I was going to put on weight as obviously my body is gaining breasts and fat is being moved around, however, I wasn't expecting to put on as much as I have. Last year I lost 3 stone but had put a stone of that back on (which I think is only natural given that much weight loss in that small amount of time), however, since hormones I have put an extra six pounds on, so I have gotten my bike back out after seven/eight months.
I am not a fan of biking as my stamina has never been the best, however in many ways it is proving handy. I now get to work in half the time it used to take and I no longer get severe cramps at the back of my lowers legs when walking, and believe me, not having those anymore is a very, very good thing. It used to really hurt when I walked, some times into my 30 minute walk to work, I would get those cramps within minutes and it was torture getting to work.
But anyway. Other than that not a lot is really happening to be honest. I had a job interview in Aylesbury a few weeks ago for a role that is pretty much the same as what I do at Vodafone, just for considerably more money. I had my interview and fell in love with the location, but alas, it was not to be as I didn't make the second interview stage, with the two "finalists" both having experience in the specific industry to which I had applied. Oh well, at least it was nice to be considered for that type of role.
I still don't know what my future really holds, I still don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life but if you had said to me at the beginning of my time at Vodafone that I would there for four years then I wouldn't have believed you. I think I've now been at Vodafone nearly as long as I had been at every other permanent job combined, so almost four years is some achievement, and it brings a good level of security.
So I guess I will just have to leave it there really. I'm definitely glad that the football season is over as far as Lincoln are concerned as it was doing my nut in. Lincoln didn't get relegated, Man United won the title and Barnet went down, which was definitely long overdue.
I still generally dislike going to football but there is just something about it that makes you always want to go back. I am going to two more games this season, both Man United games and at the latter one (against Swansea) they will lift the title. It will be the last game I attend as a season ticket holder, so that means that it will end relatively well. When I bought the season ticket it was in hope that I would be watching them lift the title at the end of the season, so all in all it was definitely worth it. However, in many ways it was also a huge waste of money. I have only attended seven games (Galatasary, Tottenham, West Ham, Cluj, Sunderland, Southampton and Everton) so far, meaning that at maximum I will have only attended nine this season out of a possible 26 in all competitions, some games I have been able to sell onto other people, but the majority I have had to just take the loss. Although I am pleased it is ending well, it was a huge waste of money.
But anyway, I will leave it there and will hopefully talk to/see you all at some point.
After a rather interesting evening at work, I decided to write a blog about things I have noticed about it. I work at a pub on the outskirts of Newark (I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to say their name) part time to earn a bit more money, and I have worked there for roughly a year, and in that year I have noticed certain trends......
1) Regulars think they automatically skip to the front of any queue
At the pub I work there are, roughly speaking, about 40 people who come in on a regular basis, some are a few times a week, others virtually every day, however, a LOT of them seem to think that just because they are regulars that they will get served before everyone else.
Some regulars think that the queue doesn't
apply to them, especially at busy times
One particular example comes when one regular, who comes in a few times a week, saw a long queue at the bar and went at stood at a side bit. He then loudly shouted "I'll have three Carlings please, Kate." My subsequent response was "Yes, I will get those for you once I have served all of those who were here before you." He was not pleased but those who had been waiting were.
It happens a lot, especially those that actually just stand at the bar during the whole time that they are there.
2) People will ignore the recognised "food till" when they see a queue and try and get served for it at another.
At the pub I work at there are five tills, with tills four and five being generally designated as the tills to order food at, however, when people see a queue they tend to go to any of the other tills to order their food. Now, all tills have the same capabilities and most customers know this, and when there isn't a queue at the food till I will gladly serve the customers at whatever till I happen to be at, however, if there is a queue I will tell them that they need to go and order their food at tills 4 and 5.
Occasionally people will moan and my simple response is that there were people who were patiently in the queue for food and that they had waited, so why shouldn't the customer in question?
3) People think that standing directly in front of you whilst you're pouring a drink means that they are automatically put at the front of the queue.
I'm not sure whether this is simply because they are standing in a random place that happens to be where I am stood, or whether it is them trying a psychological thing and seeing if I will think that they are next because they are my line of sight.....it doesn't work with me.
I have a good memory and will almost certainly remember the order in which people arrived at a bar, so simply standing right in front of me to try and get ahead of the rest of the queue will not work, and this is what lead me to write this blog.
Tonight I had a customer wanting to make a complaint about me for "ignoring him". I simply said something along the lines of "Unfortunately sir, when you came to the bar you were actually fifth in line for being served, and I am serving people in the order that they arrived. When you came to the bar you stood right next to where I was pouring a drink, however, standing directly in front of me doesn't automatically make you next." He subsequently walked out.
4) You will ask "who's next?" and the person who is next won't say, but will then complain when you don't serve them first.
So, you don't say anything when I ask
who is next and then complain that I
didn't serve you first?
Occasionally you will walk around a corner or have any other situation that requires you to ask who is next. Everyone looks confused and then one person will say it was them, however, then a load of other people will say in the background whilst I am serving "hold on, it wasn't them." How am I supposed to know who was genuinely next if you don't speak up?
One such incident came when several months ago when whoever I was on bar with had decided to disappear whilst I was cleaning glasses. Whilst this was happening a large queue built up and I walked around the corner to it. I simply asked "who was next" and they all looked at each other before one woman said it was her. After I had served her one of the other customers said "she had only just arrived at the bar, I had been waiting for ages," to which my simply response was "well why didn't you say anything when I asked who was next?" She stood there looking dumbfounded.
5) People just don't listen
The amount of times I have to repeat myself to people who simply aren't listening is ridiculous. or even just the times when the customer has simply ignored what I have said.
For example, if I am taking a food order and they come up with something complicated that requires a message to the kitchen, you have to type it manually, so I will basically say something along the lines of "ok, if you bare with me a moment whilst I type that in,".......and then they just start talking again. Did you not just listen to what I said? I know I can type of 81 words a minute but give me a bloody chance. I have quite clearly just told you that I need to type it in, that isn't a cue for you to simply continue with the rest of your order.
"Do you want ice with that?"....."What do you mean?".......to which I really want to reply "question too hard?" in a really sarcastic voice.
6) People think you're a magician
What some customers think you are.
They have just wandered around the restaurant and seen that every table is taken, they then come to up to me and ask if there are any tables free......do I look like a magician? If you can't find a table after wandering around for 3 minutes, what chance have I got when I can't even see 3/4 of the restaurant. If there are no tables available then I simply can't magic one up out of nowhere.
7) People think you have personally drank and eaten everything that your bar offers
The amount of time I get asked by someone "what's the ....... like?" and I have to say "I don't know, I've never tried it," is ridiculous. I don't know why people think you have personally tried everything.
One couple recently asked me if I thought the lamb steaks were tasty and my simple response was, and I quote, "I hate lamb so I would have to say no,".....they still ordered it anyway.
8) People think that because you work behind a bar, you drink yourself
Now, I appreciate that this is an easy thing to think of someone as the majority of people in the country do drink alcohol, but I am not one of them, nor will I ever be, and yet people act as though you'd just shot someone.
So there you go, that's 8 things I have noticed working behind a bar, there are probably far more but I can't think of anymore at the moment. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a rant about the pub I work at, or indeed most of the customers, but I was just in the mood to share some thoughts.
I have occasionally hinted in this blog that I, every once in a while, go to watch live music. Whilst I don't object to going to see your favourite music acts, I'm starting to realise that it's just not worth it that much, at least not for me.
I've been to seven concerts, at least those that I can recall, and I can only truly say I have enjoy less than half of those....and two of those were for the same band. I suppose one reason that I don't like going around other people, and more often that not I just stand on my own somewhere. I'm going to go through the seven I have been to and what I thought was good and bad about it, which highlights some of the good and bad points of going to live performances. I will also give you five "rules" of going to watch live music.
One thing I will say for all of these groups is that they ALL performed their songs live, something which you would rarely get with so called more "popular" acts.
All American Rejects - October 2009
The first concert I can remember going to was to see the All American Rejects at Rock City in Nottingham. I had been invited by friends whom I had worked with at Showcase Cinema and it came just a month after I had stopped working there, so it was good for a quick catch up. Upon arriving at Rock City, just three or four minutes before the whole show was due to start, it was quite packed but the group somehow managed to get separated and I ended up on my own at the back. Standing at the back, even in a small venue, isn't great because people moving right in front of you means you often struggle to see.
After a reasonable support act (who I can't even remember), the AAR were on the stage and their first four songs were all of my favourite songs.....the only problem being that they were the only songs I knew, meaning that the rest of the song, whilst not bad, saw me just stood there. I eventually left with a few minutes to go, but it was still a half decent show.
RULE 1 : IF YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO WATCH AN ARTIST, AT LEAST TRY AND KNOW MORE THAN A SMALL HANDFUL OF THEIR SONGS
Rammstein - February 2010
I had always been a fan of Rammstein since first hearing them on the soundtrack for Mortal Kombat Annihilation in the late 90s and when they announced that they were going to play in Birmingham then I jumped at the chance.
After a day spent in Birmingham, I eventually headed to the arena and after a long wait, we eventually got into the arena. About 3 hours after entering the arena and with only one support act (who themselves came onto the stage a full 90 minutes after the doors opened), Rammstein finally took the to the stage. Due to their late arrival, and the fact I had time constraints due to being on the train, I only actually got to watch about an hour of their two hour concert, and I wasn't the only one who had this problem as a lot of people left at around the same time.
Whilst it was awesome seeing one of my favourite bands, I was slightly annoyed that they took so long to get onto the stage.
RULE 2 : NEVER JUST EXPECT A CONCERT TO FINISH AT A CERTAIN TIME, IT RARELY DOES. Canterbury - November 2010
In 2010 I got REALLY into a band called Canterbury and couldn't get enough of their song "Gloria" and when I saw that they were playing at Sheffield (the nearest that they came to where I was living at the time), it became an inevitability that I would go. I booked a hotel nearby and my room had a delightful view of a multi-story car park.
Onto the concert itself and I struggled to find the entrance to the venue at first, only really figuring out when I noticed a girl just sat about randomly. I sat speaking with her for a while and her dad eventually came and gave us a cup of tea each....I thanked him but didn't have the heart to tell him I don't drink tea (he just gave me a tea, didn't even ask if I wanted one).
Anyway, onto the gig and being second in the line, I got the chance to stand pretty much where I wanted....where I stood was right at the front, even leaning on the stage because there was no barrier separating the fans from the stage. Whilst this provided a decent view (although a bit of a strained neck), because I was right next to the speakers (which were on the stage) my ears were aching for days...it was worth it though.
To this day Canterbury are still probably my favourite band, they were also the first band I saw live twice and I did struggle to think of a rule, but....... RULE 3 : DON'T STAND RIGHT AT THE FRONT AT A CONCERT WHEN RIGHT AT THE FRONT MEANS YOU'RE ONLY ABOUT 50 CENTIMETERS FROM THE FEET. Bowling for Soup - November 2011
Growing up I had plenty of bands that I loved but one of the main ones was Bowling For Soup, who were known for their rather immature songs, and admittedly when I went to the concert I hadn't actively listened to them in years. The thing about getting older is that you stop finding things funny that you found funny when you were younger.
During the set of one of the support bands I also got hit in the eye with a drumstick, which put a bit of a downer on the thing straight away, and it didn't really improve as I was listening to songs from Bowling For Soup that I used to love, and whilst not awful, they certainly weren't great, or at least not as great as I had remembered.
Because I loved them growing up, I will always have a soft spot for Bowling For Soup, but I wasn't listening to them regularly before this concert....and I haven't listened to them regularly since. RULE 4 : JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKED THEM WHY YOU WERE YOUNGER, DON'T JUST ASSUME YOU WILL LIKE THEM WHEN YOU'RE OLDER. Canterbury - February 2012
Oh yes, it's Canterbury again and you know what my only complaint about this concert was, it was photographs. I had gone to the concert with my friend Charlie and her boyfriend at the time. Afterwards Canterbury were in the foyer signing autographs, mingling, taking pictures etc, and I jumped at the chance and got pictures with Scott Peters (drummer), Mike Sparks (joint lead singer) and Luke Prebble (joint lead singer) and all was good at the time....that was until I looked at the pictures later and the picture of me, Charlie's boyfriend and Luke wasn't really a picture, more just a fine example of blurriness...so instead I will share with you the picture with Scott (please note this picture was before I started to become Kate).
Again, I loved the gig, and I would seriously recommend Canterbury, they are four of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet.....but the rule.....
RULE 5 : IF YOU WANT PICTURES WITH YOUR FAVOURITE BAND MEMBERS, MAKE SURE BEFORE WALKING OFF THAT THE PICTURE ISN'T BLURRY Blink 182 - July 2012
This was a brilliant night, a night I can't even put into words. I loved Blink 182 when they were immature but I grew to love them even more when their songs gained a far more serious tone. When I saw that they were coming to England I didn't even hesitate getting tickets for their gig, especially as I thought I had missed the chance when the split up several years ago.
They had All American Rejects as their support act, which is always a very good thing, and finally gave me a chance to watch their set properly, and heard my favourite songs again.
It was an unbelievable concert and unlike all the other concerts I had been to (with the exception of Canterbury) I knew every single one of their songs, so I was able to sing along and I had a great view of the action (as you can tell from the above video), and you'd think that I wouldn't even have a rule based on that, but unfortunately I made the mistake of planning to walk home.
I had moved to Newark and decided to walk the 15 or so miles back after the concert so hadn't booked a hotel or left in time to get any method of transport, so in other words, if I was to get home and not spent any money I had to walk really. I got a grand hotel of a mile from the arena before I realised that I really couldn't be bothered, so I ended up walking back into Nottingham and trying to find a hotel. Only one hotel had a room and it was the Jurys Inn.....they wanted £70 for the night. I had no intention of paying that so started to wait for a train....the next train was five hours into the future....I got bored after 20 minutes so phoned a taxi and got home on the same night.
The real annoyance is that had I left the concert a mere five minutes earlier then I would have been able to get the final train home. Oh well.
RULE 6 : PLAN TRAVEL/HOTELS PROPERLY Yellowcard - March 2013
Rule 1 certainly applied here. I went to the Yellowcard concert on a bit of a whim. I hadn't heard anything from them for years and then stumbled across "Hang You Up", loved it, and then noticed they were a few weeks away from a UK tour, so I got tickets for their Manchester concert.
After travelling across and a three hour spell that was filled by talking to two girls, I got in and got a seat right at the top of the room on a comfy couch. I REALLY enjoyed the support act (Set It Off) but I didn't really think much to set it off.
Even now I still only know three Yellowcard songs (Ocean Avenue, Sing to Me and Hang You Up) and they only actually sang two of those. I was sat there bored for most of the time, but as I had a train booked I couldn't just leave early.
Luckily they finished early enough to allow me to easily make the train and to go to the local shop to get some food, but much like Rule 1...... RULE 7 : DON'T GO JUST ON A WHIM, GENERALLY ONLY GO TO SEE BANDS YOU'VE HAD A LONG TERM INTEREST IN AND NOT JUST A FEW WEEKS.
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