Guy Love

I think it is helpful to stick in this video post to help clarify what I was talking about in my reply comment (see previous post)

PS This is my 100th blog post - my blog is a centenarian! Whoop!

No hyperlinks please, we're Northern Irish

Comment was made today that all I ever do on my blog nowadays is link to other websites and videos. I would like to argue that this is not true and that I still am in the process of writing a valuable record of my life and my likes. Although I can see that just hyperlinking and importing video is a good way to blog, and relatively effortless, I must stress that this is not the be all and end all of blogging, therefore this evening I chose to blog by writing...

This week Chell and I have celebrated two things:
1 :- it was Chell's birthday on Sunday. She was ** years old (She was born March 25th 1983)
2 :- the following day (March 26th) was the one year anniversary of our engagement. Pretty awesome eh? My only regret is that this time last year I didn't blog on actually getting engaged. Why? I dunno really. Could have been all manner of reasons... the biggest one was that I didn't know how to express the way I felt at that time without feeling like a muppet. Well, now I can...and I can put up a picture of the ring...
















You will probably notice it is not on Chell's finger but I promise you it's the one I got her. Modest, pretty and a little gem - just like my fiance! (See, these are the cheesy platitudes I was worried about writing last year...ah well)

So this week I don't mind that time is spinning too fast and there's too many jobs to fit in not enough hours. I just know that I am in love with a beautiful girl who loves me back and we can't wait to start the next bit of our lives together. Roll on December 29th!

Pandora

I'm sure most of us have seen this before... www.pandora.com but for those who haven't it is a treat to behold. It's a site where type in the name of your favourite bands and artists and it searches out other music that sounds a bit like them.

That sounds a bit rubbish until you try it out and it comes up with all kinds of crazy stuff that you've never heard of but as a method for discovering new music it's pretty brilliant.

Wikimapia

Just stumbled across this website and I believe I have sniffed out a fun game opportunity here. The website ties in with google maps but you can label up anything you want - the tag line is 'Let's describe the whole world!'. Now that's just asking for trouble...

In the top left hand corner you click 'Add Place' then put your little square on the map and click save. It then asks you for a description. If we all do a few I think we could soon take over the entire world with our blithering definitons of diverse and unique places!

Check out my 'add'. Here's a clue - it's a church and it's in Chelmsford. Go...hunt!

A little bit of me

Over the past 5 years my guitars have gone everywhere with me so it is with heavy heart that I find myself selling one... and also, I am shamelessly going to promote the sale of my guitar on my blog. So if anyone wants to buy of piece of rock perfection then click here and bid!

Oh and yeah I'll write you a song for your next album Mr Laeger - no problem - what would you like it about?

This has to be seen

I'm not going to be able to afford a PS3 - but this looks incredible! It's like The Sims - except everyone is real!

An Apple a day...would be too expensive to keep up for long

Ok, so here's the scoop. Spoke to Chell on the phone tonight and she said these (soon to become legendary) words. "If you sell enough stuff you can can buy a mac" Whoop, whoop. That's virtually a green light already! And funnily enough today I sold a guitar pedal for a decent price...so now I'm scouring my house for other things to sell - a fact that Chell will be happy with in itself! (She thinks I collect junk - whereas I'm confident it will all prove useful one day. Anyone for a go on my blowup whale?) So far I have the following for sale:

- A '61 reissue Cherry Red Gibson SG: £700
- A Marshall JTM 6o 1 x 12 with 1 x 12 extension cab: £350

I have lots more stuff to sell but some of it's a bit rubbish - might sell on Ebay though? I'm sure someone will buy that old Epsom printer...

Oh and I can write songs by request - if you want one written I can negotiate a fee!

Tom and his mate

No, this isn't a MySpace post - it's about my sat nav... what a wonderful device it is too.

As of Christmas day I have been the proud owner of a TomTom One Europe version - Chell in her extreme generosity and kindness bought it for me. Sure, there have been a couple of incidents (one being when I was towing the trailer and it took me down a dirt track just wide enough for my car which in turn tried to lead us straight through a deep looking ford. We decided that wouldn't be the best idea and had to unhitch and push the trailer back up the lane! Hmph!) but on the whole it's been very handy.

The reason I mention it now? I haven't yet had a chance to try out the mainland Europe maps but today I had some time so I had a browse. I pointed it at Lake Garda, in Italy where we went on our hols last year. Apparently it would take 13 hours to drive there and it was 950 miles away... Funny how having the figures there in front of me made it all the more tangible; it suddenly felt like 10 minutes down the road! Full tank of diesel? check. Sat nav? check. Who's with me? Off we go!

Time to Type

...I got overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I was doing. It all started with a busy week around valentines day and then, because I've been up and about loads I've got so many stories that I've gradually become paralysed from the wrists down, and as such haven't been able to write. It's like TOO MUCH has happened to even be able to think about blogging about it. I think if had been able to keep going on the 'little and often' method it would have been fine but, even now as I type, I find myself away from home again. But at least there's an Internet connection here...

I find myself at Sunbury Court, the Salvation Army's antique retreat centre. It's very nice here. And it's particularly old and warm, like an overtly ornate and mismatching old people's home - it must cost a bomb to heat this place. In fact it must cost a bomb to do anything in or to this place.

By way of getting over the blog-clot (that sounds horrible in itself) that I have been experiencing here is a distilled version of the last few weeks. Since my previous post I have:

• Been to Glasgow for the Territorial Youth Rally (Scotland Edition)
• Been into London on valentines day to share a lovely day with Chell. We went to the Ice Bar (it was cool), the Marriot Hotel next to Westminster Bridge (it was posh), AND we went to IHQ for a coffee and cup of jelly beans (it was...well...IHQ!)
• The next day I met Grinner in Covent Garden for a coffee and a good chat following which I ventured into the national gallery to look at Monet and Van Gogh. It was awesome to see some real masterpieces in real life, like Monet's Waterlilies, Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Van Gogh's chair! Incredible.
• We (E=) went to Leicester South corps to play a gig and play during their worship on the Sunday. It was great to have some catch up time with Matt and Lizzy (and Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby) Elsey.
• Led worship in Chelmsford Cathedral
• Visited the Osteopath for the first time ever. It was awesome - I got cracked around all over the place. Loved it. I want more crack! (Can I say that?)
• Played a gig with Dweeb in Coventry - it went well. It was at the Nexus Academy venue. Very nice too.
• We had the prayer party at Mashbury - singing in the sticks! God bless us Mashbury residents!
• We had a great meal out with Andy Hill to celebrate his *****y-eth. Happy Birthday to you!
• We had a weekend off!
• And this last weekend we did some training with the Essential Course delegates, I played football with them that night (ALOVE UK beat them 29 - 13: Leeder got 2 for ALOVE UK)
• Then we gigged in Yeovil at 'Nth Fest' - along with One Hundred Hours, Vera Cruz, Dweeb and 15 or something other bands.
• Then we led worship in Exeter at South Western Division's Youth Councils.

That is why I haven't blogged. I had so much to say about each one I didn't know where to start and I got overwhelmed. But it's out now - I'm glad I was able to blog all that and draw a line under it too. Now I can blog with confidence once again - safe in the knowledge that there is nothing more to say other than blogging day by day. (Rhyming as we go - E I E I O)

As for now? Well, currently on retreat with all the officers from London NE division. So far it's been a really positive experience I am very glad to announce...may it continue that way too...

I'd better sign off now because I don't want my constant 'tap tap tapping' to irritate anyone sat here reading in the library. Here's to purposeful blogging and no more blog-clots - ever! ;-)