Westlife are ruining my favourite songs!

Westlife, that awfully dull and insipid Irish boy-band, that are still seemingly topping the UK charts long after they should have come to a natural end, are ruining many fantastic songs by doing their own boring versions and making them their own!

Amongst the list are Michael Bublé's amazing "Home" and (I don't know if it was originally his, but) Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up".

These really are beautiful songs, but they have been soiled. Now they'll probably be remembered forever as bloody Westlife songs. This is so very very very wrong! Isn't it?

Oh and another thing ... how many times are we going to have to watch Westlife pouting while sitting on stools, miming along to their current cover-version travesty, and then standing up and walking slowly towards the camera/audience? Am I the only person that finds this annoying?

Somebody stop them! Please!!

Maybe I should get a life....

How not to buy a Mac

My partner (Neil) and I live together in Leeds, and last year (with a good Christmas bonus from work) we decided to get a new computer. After lots of browsing online we decided to plump for a new Apple iMac, thinking with our budget we can max out the Ram and hard drive and give us a pretty good computer for home.

The Apple Store had just opened in Meadowhall in Sheffield (about a half an hours drive away), so we figured we'd kind of quite like to buy it from them. So we set off in our little 2 seater Mazda MX-5 down the motorway. It's amazing what you can fit in those little cars, and having seen the size of the iMac boxes was confident that it would go on Neil's knee in the passenger seat. Hehe.

In the shop, after talking to a very helpful salesman, we changed our minds. With the money we were spending on a maxed out iMac, we could buy a MacPro and have a computer that was much more upgradeable, plus we could buy a bigger monitor. AND it came with a free printer! We were very happy, and purchased it there and then!

Bimbos!

A lovely gentleman helped us back to our car with all the kit; a great big MacPro box, a 24 inch monitor, and a printer! We stood there looking at the car and the kit, feeling pretty stupid. Where was everything going to go? This was a 2 seater sportscar for gods-sake! The guy who'd helped us had trouble stopping himself laughing. Mind you, we were the same.

So... the MacPro managed to fit snugly in the passenger seat (with the top down - in December!), the printer filled the boot, leaving Neil and a 24 inch monitor standing there! Thankfully there was a train from Meadowhall to Leeds, so he suggested he take the train with the monitor. I would then drive home, drop everything off there, then go and collect him from the station in Leeds. A plan.

He hadn't brought his mobile phone, so he took mine (just in case he needed to contact me). I'd then collect his phone once I was home and he could ring me on that!

I set off up the motorway, and as I neared Leeds I realised that he had the house keys! I had no way of getting in and offloading the Mac and printer. I also had no means of communication to let him know!

What a berk!

Thankfully, we have a friend who has a spare key. I went to his house praying he was actually going to be home. I didn't have a phone to call him, so I had to park the car (with the top down, and a new MacPro in the passenger seat) and go around the back of the house to knock on the door, dreading some chav noticing the car and nicking all the contents. It would have served us right I suppose.

The friend with the spare key was in, and after quickly explaining the situation to him, and enduring the laughs, I raced back home (no, the Mac hadn't been stolen thankfully), dropped everything off and went to collect Neil from the station.

A happy ending. Eventually.

I'm going to get a bigger car before I upgrade again, I think!

2007, the lost year (and still counting)

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart? No!) we bought a new Mac Pro (there's a story there which I'll share later), and as an impulse buy, picked up a copy of The World of Warcraft too. Years ago when I was a younger man (and out and proud geek) some college friends and I played D&D, so I thought this World of Warcraft thing might be good fun now that I'm in my (cough) 40s.

I was hooked the moment I started playing. I did manage to keep my playing to about an hour a night (usually before going to bed). My partner, Neil, was watching over my shoulder one night, wondering what all the fuss was about, and said "Ooh, I might create a character and try it", so he did. And he was hooked too. He went out and purchased his own copy, created his own account so we could play together, and that was it... We played every night for the next few months!

After experimenting with various classes and characters over the year we settled into what we are now comfortable with: I'm a human, female warlock named Holli, and he's a Night Elf, male hunter. Yes, we are on opposite factions so can't even team up anymore, but we still play together.

Last night we were racing to reach level 62. He beat me by about 2 minutes!! Bugger!

So the addiction is nowhere near over, as we race towards 70 together! Our friends over the year have expressed concern about our health, jokingly of course (I hope) and we do manage to eat healthily (??), and go out occasionally, and entertain guests every now and then, and do all the normal stuff couples do. But I must say how much I've loved every minute of sharing this strange new obsession with my loved one this year just gone. I'm so lucky...

:-)

Roll on 2008.