the little things

There have been certain traditions here at tobiwan.co.uk. Certain traditions, holy days and recurrences.

I missed one already this year. That was that I've been going (ish - I know) for 4 years now.. Gosh.

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd missed another, but in fact it got postponed because of the nipperival.

Correctness! Tomorrow is Lord of the Rings day. All is good.

Nipper is doing well thanks.

Keep it easy yo peeps

This used to come easy to me..

This one's for you Dave. And anyone else who has recently referred to my distinct lack of blogness. Which at a very basic count would have to include Matt and Teh Dadhead.

I'd better clear the air before launching into anything serious. It's important to self-reference early on I feel. And plus I know you all be thinking a million different wrong things about why I int blogged recently. So here's the skinny.

Incorrect or wrong reasons for lack of bloggage:
1. Growing up and all responsibble now I am about to have a nipper.
2. Now actually have a life.
3. No longer a geek (pretty much the same reason as #2 but hey ho)
4. Blogger.com blocked at work
5. In a huff about lack of people submitting quotes.
6. Nothing interesting to say anymore (the more astute amongst you will realise immediately why this couldn't possibly be the reason).
7. Fallen in love (married people don't do this)
8. Fingers have fallen off.
9. No internet connection (what is this, the dark ages?!?)
10. CJD

I will do you all a favour and dispel the myths once and for all..

Correct or right reasons for lack of bloggage:
1. I go through phases

That's pretty much it.

Sorry.

Anyway. Here's a bunch of undeveloped thoughts that should really be expanded upon for you but won't be because I'm already stupidly tired and in need of going to bed.

• I'm unconvinced that as human beings we are able to know objective truth. That's not to say that I don't believe there is such a thing as objective truth, nor actually that we are unable to know objective truth actually. Just that we can't objectively know that we know objective truth. We are subjective beings and that is our limit.


• Having a baby isn't as scary as people would have you believe. Or at least, the run-up to it isn't as scary as people (apparently) would like it to be.


• Losing your hearing is bullsh*t - on any level.


• Having a new boiler goes down like a genius.

I have a sneaky suspicion there was more for that list, but I really have run out of steam.

It's been nice to have this little catchup with you all. I hope you're as glad about the return as I am. Don't forget, you can ignore the real world all you want whilst you're living it up in La La Land, but at some point it's gonna jump and bite you on the arse..

overandout

another year goes by

I'm doing a little garden blogging today. Underneath a recently purchased gazebo (more fun if you prounounce it gayzbo I find) sat at our weathered but newly varnished table which happens presently to be crawling with ants.

And so to a thorough and all-encapsulating (all-encompassing?) report of the days that we find ourselves to be living in. No doubt the frivolity and general "larks" are a direct attempt to draw a contrast to the darkening days our nation is sliding into. If you believe the redtops at any rate.

Birthweek is still operational. You will be glad to know. I know I am. The programme has not been, perhaps, as comprehensive as in past years, but let me take you through a few of the highlights:

- a weekend at ashburnham where I was one of the team leading the musical side of things. Always a joy.
- McDonald's breakfast
- drinks!
- Family Harding meal
- Open Mic (the return of oh yes)
- Childhood heroes fancy dress partay
- worky drinks
- A drink with the Hatt
- Red Lion Open Mic

Still to come are:
- Family Hawks meal
- Bowling my brains out
- Giggity
- At least two "people who missed my partay" hookups
- GWS crew pubbity

That's not at all bad now is it. Plus - bowling my brains out. Damn!

I know you all want to know this, so here's the guestlist for the childhood heroes partay last nite:
John Lennon
Tony Hart
Malboro Man/Brokeback Mountain/A Cowboy (variously depending who you're talking to)
A Centurion/Gay Centurion (as above)
Jesus
Audrey Hepburn
Pocahontas
Tinkerbell
Bananaman
Wolverine
Wilma Flinstone
Peter Venkman - Ghostbusters
Ray Stantz - Ghostbusters
Baby from Dirty Dancing
Captain Pugwash
Indiana Jones
Wonderwoman
The Fairy Godmother
Huckleberry Finn
Slash
Woody
Ronaldo
80s Kylie
Marty Mcfly
Supergirl

There were probably some more as well as a bunch who came straight from work or "weren't down with that dressing up thang". Good times.

K that's it.

Look after your faces.

I did look for it last nite

This is a bloggin' post.

I know that becos I sin one before I ave.

Right. To business. We're sitting in the garden on a new swingin' chair and I can smell cut grass and all is right with the world. You see it doesn't matter what's going on around you you just gotta live the moment. Or whatever.

We had some talks last nite and the Open Mic nite (what used to be called Jack's but won't be any more - see below) may well be returning hurrah!

And Mr The Jack is back!

Hurrah!

Foop-ball is tonite. Hopefully that'll be good.

I know I'm not really saying anything here, but it's hard to say something when you're me because you have to justify it all so much. Mmmhmm.

I'm gonna go and enjoy life instead of typing about it.

ovout

seams

Long weekend.

Seriously.

On the plus side though, we're getting a new car on Saturday, there's a new person living on the globe (probably quite a few, but I had a specific one in mind), our house is a lot tidier (against the odds I should think) and I am one tired little monkey.

I gave my monitor ears.

oao

The red flags that fly

It's a summery Saturday.

And I'm about to eat cheesy chips.

I'm still awaiting the sudden surge of reinterest (from me I mean) in this blog. It will happen sooner or later. We've had waves of posting here at tobiwan.co.uk and we've ridden the storm.

I didn't mention all the crazy snow time that we had. Snow watch was a good ol' time we had here once upon a time, but without any watchin' we had some serious snow. We went sleddin (kinda) and snowballin on the meadow. Nice.

This week has been rather tirin. Had a gig. Nice. Then we had lacks of sleep. Nice. Can't remember what else there was. Losing momentum. One day I will write proper on my blog. One day I will organise everything. One day.

The letter g was always overrated anyways.

overandoutg

in defiance of all the facts

Well hello my friendss.

I realise that fobbin' you all off with pictures isn't "the done thing" and nor is it "entirely satisfactory". Hell, it's probably not even healthy. Be that as it may, it was nice to have a front page full of pictures. That's my thoughts on the matter anyway.

I've been up to goshloads of things so a quick précis is probably in order. In list format, naturally. Altogether now.. (and in no particular order)

• Played us a lil ol gig at the Lark. Good times. Family was even in attendance


• Missed a lot of foop-ball. I'ma rectify that monkey tonite.


• Went out in London with two groups of friends. In the same nite. If they'd have only been closer together I could have done that classic film plot and kept nipping out to the toilet but really visiting the other group of friends. Alack alas.


• Work very nicely sent me on a php course. In London. My head a splode


• Went to visit Inspector Git and Gibbs near the Oval


• Went to Mardu to visit the Misses' grand-rents.


• Ate way too much chocolate


• Gave up alcohol for a week.


• Had laughs


• Had times

That's about all I can remember right now. Did you see my correct use of an apostrophe? Just like Elbs told me!. At least I hope it was right. Otherwise there will be egg on my face..

I very much enjoyed spending four days in London. I usually do. I don't think I could work there, but sauntering along the Thames as the sun rises and then chipping off for a sausage and bacon sandwich from a shop just off Fleet Street really puts a skip in your step.

Unfortunately I am now becoming pressed for time as I have to pick up the Hat and the Chalk before zipping down to foop-ball, so I will finish off now by telling you aboot my newest new blog thang. You will recall that I got a loop station for Christmas? No? Allow me to refresh your memory. Well since then I have found recording little loops to be quite relaxing. And I've decided (response not withstanding) to share a few with you now and again. You'll need flash player, but I'll link to the mp3 as well cos I'm nice like that.

So. This little loop here is my anticipation of summer loop. Imagine yourself chilled out with a glass of something nice and cold as the barbecue sizzles and women in not enough clothing pass by. You can play it just the once, or loop it as it was intended to be. Let me know what you think.

overandout

PS. If you like the track so much that you decide to download it for your own nefarious purposes, the mp3 link I gave above comes out at much better quality (edit: that's no longer true - they're both good quality now. Hooray!).. Yeah. It's licensed under Creative Commons.


summer by Toby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Where brains? Where brains gone?

My brains have all been bowled out. It's an occasional hazard of bowling one's brains out. Whilst I would prefer not to relate most of my scores over the four games of bowling (I'm at least consistently inconsistent - for what that's worth) I will report that I won game two with a very restecpable (yes yes) 145.

Also of note was the highest score of the evening. It was going to be The Network with a mighty (for us lowly non-expert bowlers) 155 until the Kidsis, out of nowhere, pulled a spare, a turkey, another spare and another strike out of her metaphorical bowling satchel. The Network couldn't believe his eyes as she pipped his 155 with a nice n' tasty 156. Disaster!

Anyhow. The weekend has left me sore but contented I must say. One lesson that I will pass on to you completely free of charging runs thusly:
Never play over an hour's foop-ball, play poker until 3, wake up after only 4 hours sleep and play another 90 minutes of foop-ball without expecting implications. True story.

Time for me to mosey on around aboot now. Have a good day. Yes yes.

voerndoot

I dreamed a better day

I thought I saw a brighter future.

This weekend so far has been très sportif. As they say over the channel. Foop-ball on foop-ball on foop-ball. With goals. Oh gosh.

Columbo is back in fashion in Hawksville as well. Right now it's the episode that's called Short Fuse. Nice.

We're going to see Granny Hawk tomorrow. And then I am going to bowl my brains out. Beauty!

Gotta go. Need to concentrate on the great lieutenant.

There's just one more thing. Nah, just kidding. Y'all be on your way. And take care you hear?

overandout

well there's that

Howzit!

I hear that other people have taken up "cooking the saucepan"™. If you're confused, check me out.

Yup yup.

Blogger tells me that I can now post voicemails to my blog. I can't for the life of me imagine why any of you would need that as well as this. So to speak. But I could be wrong. Mebbe I should try it out.

The other thing is that we're well going to have a kid in September. Which is very kickass.

There's probably some other stuff as well.

So yeah.

overandout..

sincerity

Hello hello and what is up.

I thought it an opportune day to blog as there will not be another opportunity to have a blog dated Feb 29 for a few years. I wonder what the world will be like then. It will probably be a strange and different place, for I will be 30 then. Yes.

Anyways.

Got ourselves a fun-packed weekend ahead. The ever-present foop-ball tonite. Hopefully last week's insanity will provide me with a little more stanima (yes yes I know) for tonite.

Then tomorrow we're squeezin' in Bluewater, an afternoon of celebrating Pizzagirl's birthday - hopefully with all the members of Family Hawks in attendance, but who really knows - and finally a party in honour of Captina Chaos. IN LONDON.

Sunday is when it all goes off the chain. Well probably not. But again, assorted raggle taggle members of that mighty Clan Hawks will be in attendance for MotherVic day. What fun!

I'm afraid I don't have anything profound for you at this point in time. Maybe you could come back some other time for that? Maybe? Ok, thanks.

You can't have it all..

ghost ship

I was a little worried that the lack of personnel at work this week would be sad times, but in actual fact I think I might prefer it.

This goes back quite a way actually. To my school days. I used to love it if I had reason to stalk the corridors during lesson time when there was no-one about. Or if there was event in the evening and I had to go through an area of the school where the people weren't.

So yeah.

On another tack, I realise my blogroll has gone a bit nuts lately. I'm working on my own version that will be based on latest posts and not whether or not someone nudged the server that the blog is on, but the version I've got to so far takes frickin' ages to load. So it won't be coming any time really soon.

Foop-ball tonite and tomorrow. There's gonna be a whole lotta aching going on Sunday.

I think it's aboot time I wrapped this little puppy up. Sorted.

overandout.

I feel closer than I've ever been

Heylo my prittys.

Sorry to harp on again, but it does really grill my cheese when people assume the worst of situations before they really should. Honest to god.

But what kind of life to lead that you're so concerned about a situation you assume is going to happen that you feel the need to let everyone else know through passive-agressive posting of news articles and such?

It's not healthy.

This is how I can claim I'm not cynical I guess. I want to believe the best of people/situations. I may also observe bad things that do happen but I remain defiantly optimistic.

For all of you lovers of conundrums and puzzles, head over to the Network. He's been running a link competition for his last few posts and it's causing quite the stir.

I'm not sleeping at all well of late. This is a fairly teenage blog statement, I know. Wah wah wah. Last nite was just wisdom tooth pain, but it seems that most nites recently it's been blowing a freaking gale, then I get up in the morning and all seems calm and peaceful as if the nite's turmoil never happened. There's probably a good metaphor to be had there but my tired mindtank can't make the link.

Oh well.

overandout friends.

say it again

This has been a jolly long week. Monday/Tuesday feels like rather a long time ago.

How about a brief summary? Ok ok.

- David Ford in Oxford
- M & M over for dinner
- recording. This has taken over quite a lot of time. It's coming along nicely, but there's still a fair amount to go
- there were a few glasses of wine and a couple beers
- played this morning. 'twas great.
- cooked up a hunter's chicked stew this afternoon. Another Jamie recipe. Very nice. Although I suppose it should be with 3/4 of a bottle of chianti in it.

I've had thoughts. But they are elusive little beggars it has to be said.

One thought that occured to me this afternoon was that in my reckoning it's a positive thing for famous people to use their position to encourage people to vote, but it's a very negative thing for them to use their position to encourage people to vote for a particular person or party.

This probably sounds quite reasonable on first inspection, but dig a little deeper and it's all based around the assumption that democracy is inherently a good thing. Which I'm not necessarily disputing, but the fact is that it is just another system. To assume it's the best idea is still an assumption.

In fact, I've heard it said that benign dictatorship is the best form of government. Which might be fair enough if you could assume inherent goodness in a leader with absolute power. But when we talk about democracy being the best solution are we not also talking in ideals?

Food for thought I suppose.

Have a good week would you?

overandout

real job

Hello.

I meant to tell you. I'm a full time type person now. I even have to work in the summer holly-days.

Rubbish. But more money. And it's all about the green.

The latest craze in Hawksville is House. Although actually it's not so much of a craze because Elbs can only cope with up to 3 episodes in one sitting and The Noock can only handle 1 episode a week. He's seen 2 over the weekend and I think it's affecting him.

In other, other news we were at Face and Saffa's house last nite with L-Idea, Bits, and Fizz. We had a 'nice old time'™.

No other thoughts for you right now. I think I'm getting bored with just digesting what's happened, but I'm not sure where else to go right now.

Center Parcs this weekend..

Oh gosh

and why not?

It's time to harp on about that old Christmas thang again. What a day!

I think it might be the time to bust out the strangeday highlights/lowlights template and show y'all what was what. I know that's what you're here (hear?) for. So. Without further ado and, of course, with no more gilding the lily.. shall we dance you and I?

highlights
christmas dinner (natch), midnight mass with traces of alcohol, cheapo stockings!, Boosh live, presents (but of course), new watch, new shirt, new scarf, money for loopeys!, wine, vodka jelly (jon kavelli?) - still to come, partays! - still to come, seeing El and Fizz open their presents, so much more

lowlights
may have burnt the potatoes to some extent, the weather - I SAID SNOW Y'EEJITS!, think that's about it

So there you have it. What's to look forward to now? Well a hell off lazy week, more food tomorrow as well as FAMILY OH MI GOSH and of course the END OF THE YEAR OH WOW. We're nearly clear of 2007. That's significant I guess.

Anyway. I'm sidling off onto other things. Onwards and upwards you crazy kittens. Keep it nice and tasty y'hear?

overandout

I'll just clear my diary

It is nice to have a Saturday that would have been busy but has become free through unexpected.. um.. ness.

So we're having a lazy day. Watching The Science of Sleep.

[cut]

It's later on now. Science of Sleep is a good film but it left us feeling a little surreal. Weirdness.

Right now I'm sat around with Misses, Nikbo, DaveFace, Bits and Bobs. We drinkin', we chattin', we chillin'.

Only three more days of work before the holly days. Tuesday is work Christmas 'do'. That should be 'the fun'. Already bin to an unofficial ex-work do last work. That was also 'the fun'.

That's about it.

As an extra piece of information for all o' y'all: don't worry about what you hear here (hear hear?) in the real world. I wouldn't use this forum to carry out fights with people, or.. well.. anything like that. Just so you know.

Also, our car's broken down again. Bloody cars. I think it's the starter motor. We couldn't get it booked into the garage we trust until Monday so we've been without it for nearly a week. Rubbish. That's what that is.

That's about it. As you know, you can't have it all..

makin' tunes

I have not written a song in a while.

It is something that I should definitely get on.

Tonite we are going to a quiz.

Tomorrow we travel to old Hastings Town whereupon we shall embark upon a mighty celebration of the life and times of that loveable rogue The Network. I must stop mentioning him in every single post I write. It's just not right.

It is required that you make up nicknames for people when writing in the Real World because this protects a persons identities™ and this is good. People identities are castleness to the people involved.

I myself have many nicknames: tobiwan, pedestrian zero, the toaster, spiller. And yet I compromise everything by aliasing my name DOTCOM to tobiwan.co.uk. Retarded much? I think so.

It's shower time!

don't count on it..

So long November

So hey, we're nearly all out of Novembers here at tobiwan.co.uk. But to replace them we're bringing in a whole new stock of Decembers just for you. They're fresh from the overworked hands of sweatshop elves in the far north. Don't worry too much about those little guys though, the particularly bad Polar Night that they get means it's best for them to keep themselves busy and occupied or the overwhelming tide of depression beckons them.

I ramble and digress.

So Christmas in Hawksville starts tomorrow. We're gonna decorate up the house real good. This is the first time we've stayed at home for Christmas so it's the first time we're gonna bother doing Christmassy type stuff with the house. Fun. See?

In preparation for this I have tidied like some kind of dervish or anomalously small tornado. Whisking round the house returning items to their correct and proper place and depositing knick-knacks and the like in their coves. It looks quite nice. And I have my breakfast bar back again as well. Which makes breakfasting a pleasure and a treat.

Um-de-dum what else?

Not a lot really. We had a good laugh in Personchester. The Hat has delved into it briefly, but The Network has declined to comment so far. All you really need to know is that we spent around about 31 hours actually in Personchester, of which:

around 8 were spent asleep
around 4 were spent playing poker
around 4 were spent watching DVDs
around 1 were spent on buses
around 4 were spent in pubs and clubs
around 10 were misc.

Also, they really overpack their nightbuses there. I mean for reals. It got to the point where you couldn't fit any more people on. They were on the stairs, standing upstairs, in the buggy holder bit, all the way up to the drivers seat. And at that point, when it was most full, the driver stopped to let more people on. I kid you not.

So.

Time to get dressed. Then it's hi-ho, hi-ho. etc.

overandout.

say my name say my name

Hello.

I was thinking earlier. Sometimes you know, you have ways, certain ways of doing things. You've done things these ways for a jolly long time.

And sometimes it occurs to you to wonder why you do things a certain way.

And you remember knowing that the reason was very logical and practicable.

But you can't remember the actual reason itself.

It's a funny thing.

I don't remember a lot of things. Either that or the misses makes up a lot of things that I've said and done. I suppose both are plausible.

Anyway. Two things for you.

1. Off to the Personchester tonite. Yummy.

2. Apparently I look like this guy. I don't see it personally.

you can't have all the crossroads.

where's that chain again?

Ok so the crazy part's all done with. It's just that trip to Personchester to register now.

Apparently England lost last nite. I really can't say I was hugely surprised. I think it was when I heard Steve Maclaren in an interview that was played on the radio news that I could see it coming. Not that I'm cyclic or anything. I think I'm what most people would call as a realist but what I call as a pessimist. About certain things you understand.

Regardless.

Since 'the preshaars' are over we're cutting loose. In our own special way. This involvings some wine, some currys, and oh yes, wouldn't you know it, a Will Smith film.

Not that I'm coming across as obsessive or anything.

Well I probably am. But I'm ok with it.

Never mind.

I'm off now. Things to do and all that. Expect some photos of the debauchery over the weekend. Yo.

overandout.

so tired my eyes

Today has been a good day.

What happened?

- cakes of pan with bacon and maple syrup
- fresh coffee an' tea in plentiful supply
- Will Smith fest: I, Robot followed by Enemy of the State
- Glass of wine
- Spa: Steam, Sauna and Jacuzzi
- Glass of wine


Yayus! The only slight downers were the possible beginnings of a cold, the fact that I had to do some work during the films and after the spa and the fact that I can barely hold my eyeliddings up even though it's not even half ten yet. Rubbish. Ah well. There's still tomorrow to enjoy the funs.

This week should be quite busy. There's an inspection on. So there will no doubt be lots of reprographicalisilating to do for the peoples. All the whiles I will be maintaining a calm facade and a supportive demeanour to make the whole process less stressful for people. Cos I'm nice like that.

I suppose I had better submit to the despotic demandations of my eyeballs. They must be listened to and their commands had jolly well better be adhered to. Strictly! Post haste and all that jazz.

A bientot, adieu, adios and farewell. Until we meet again, just down the road from the crossroads.

As they say, you can't have it all..

tin man

Internet mookery INITIATE!!

Time to check myself in and present myself for your general perusal. It's been an interesting week. Been pretty busy. Working on various. Having fun with Flash don't you know. And that's all ways a good fun.

The misses has left for a weekend of fun in sunny Sussex which leaves funs to be had. Foop-ball, poker, Cakes of Pan, Divvids, beers, wines, See-gars.. The list it goes on.

In other news, it's good to see The Network and The Hat back online and tearing up the webbernet. Always a pleasure.

I'm not so good with the thoughts when I have Pirates fighting in the background, so we're nearing that part of the post which I like to call 'the end'.

Mmmhmmm.

overandout.

oberon

well well.

Once again it's Tuesday nite. Once again I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. See I should be doing some work bits, but instead I'm not doing some work bits. And I'm also messing with everyone on facebook.

Please allow me to sum up the weekend (plus Monday/Tuesday) for you.

- Friday was foop-ball, but y'all knew that. They had a small shark infestation whilst we were playing. Kind of a pitch invasion but involving sharks. It was kind of surreal actually, but don't worry I dealt with it in a very masculine way.

- Aha gig day. We were playing in Chesterfield. It was a slightly weird one. Not sure if we were quite the correct band for the audience, but hey, I enjoyed myself and the organiser liked us. And we got paid so you can't complain too hard.

- Whilst in Chesterfield we had a great old time. We were staying in some rooms above the venue afterwards which meant that we could get a couple bottles of strongbow and KEBOIBS (not scoffers ones. And not Sheesh Keboibs neither) which was HELLA!

- 3 hours sleep plus a 3 hour drive the next morning - ALWAYS FUN!

- We made some lovely music on Sunday morning. What with the 5 part harmonies (me, Anwar, Saffa, L-Idea and Bits) and the delicious guitar parts (me, Anwar, Bobs and Saffa) and plus and also the lack of sleep it was a-mah-dandy-azing!

- Curried whole roast chicken. Durban style. Now this is a tasty dish. I even made a cake afterwards. Yum!

- Sunday early nite

- Dave hit 50 posts

- Can't be bother with Monday and Tuesday. They were fun. Ish. And I was still tired.

- Oh apart from I was listening to Avenue Q soundtrack earlier. Forgot how good that was. Really should go see that show.

This has been danged long. I feel like I should congratulate you for reading this far. Congratulations.

About time to go I pretty much think. You've been here too long. They'll be on to you soon.

overandout..

here's where it is at

Reporting in once more. You can't get by without me. I suspect.

Now. I don't have much to say as we're having a 'nice old time' with Bits & Bobs and also NickBo. So.

What I am going to say is that we're on the edge of a momentous occasion. The final release of

BEATS BE PHAT.

The bugged out maxjam by Family Hawks and guests. Featuring:
The Misses
Mothervic
The Azzman Network
Helium Breath
DJ Sub-C/MC Banista
Car Lar
Kidsis
The Butcher
Pumbino
Davo B

The questions remain:

Should it be an mp3 download? Should I remix it into some kind of trippy Youtube video? How much do the protagonists protest?

I'll leave it all to you!!

HUZZAH!

Peee ESSS: Object to your nickname? Tell me what it should be in the 'COMMENTS'™

at week's end

In these secular days we live in what day is considered to be the last/first day of the week? Not a huge relevance I'll grant you.

Had a nice weekend. Anwar's birthday partee was yestre-daye. He made fajitaz. Wicked bad yo. His birthday is actually tomorrow though. Firey works day.

Not much to say. I suspect my dad has mentioned this before, but this scared the bejesus out of me: http://www.slate.com/id/2176185/.

Well. Not exactly scared the bejesus out of me, but certainly made me think. It's quite a balanced piece on the whole. Not that I've fully researched it of course.

Bed.

what is the sound of one hand typing?

Hey there yogi bear!

Typing whilst teeth brushing (grammar? El?). Always a charm.

To sum up:

- half term good
- david ford good
- fizz moved to the 'cup
- tommorrow is always too soon to go work
- nick sorted us out with some tasty birds tonite (rock-n-roll-ized versin of the story)
- sleep good

timeout. over

then again..

How's it going my inter-buddies. Time for your daily (ahem) dose of Toby.

Went out to 'the shopping' yesterday. In Brommers. Bought me some shoes, a shirt, a belt and some rings. All at 'knock-down' prices. Caloo Calay.

Tonite it's back to the foop-ball. Let's see how 2 weeks of inactivity will go down. I'm guessing bitter. All the way down.

What is it in human nature that is attracted to the bitter-sweet? Dostoyevsky said "Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering..." I'm taking it that he meant wo-man too. Ho ho. Anyway. It is a strange thing when you think about it. I'd be interested to hear religious people explain it. They can be good at that..

That aside, I wonder whether and how the human tendency to find definition and/or character through suffering has an affect?

I couldn't tell you. I'm all about the questions. Hee.

Anyways. Gotta eat to live, gotta stop blogging to eat. Otherwise this would go on.

Wrong!

Buh. You can't have it all.

web dizzy(ne)

Oh gosh.

Web design is one of the most infuriating things I have chanced my hand at. You think you've got something nailed but then you look at it in a different browser and BAM! Added to that I was trying to edit a Flash 8 file using Flash CS3 which was mostly fine but there were one or two things that just weren't as they should have been. Something which I can only guess at attributing to the discrepancy between the two versions..

Still. I think I'm done now. Until I get another raft of changes that is, I suppose.

Anyways.

Half-term is lovely thanks. Got band practice tomorrow, something else on Thursday, the usual on Friday and ohmygod David Ford at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Saturday. Hella.

I suspect it's all going to be over far too soon.

But I will enjoy it!

overout

reasons to be cheerful Pt n

Part n^n. That's a lot of n.

- it's half term huzzah!
- Megs, Malcs and Charlie are here.
- I just had porridge with choclit
- We had lasagne last nite

You see despite appearances and cynicism I iz Glass Half Full typa guy. It's true I am. I am a walking contra-muh-diction. But I'm ok with it. Life's a good laugh.

That aside, it's looking like we're going to be hanging out at Bluewater today. So I will be looking at lots of things and not buying them. Uh-huh.

Must be time for getting dressed.

what a sport

Hiya!

That one's just in case Nigel reads this. Oh ho.

So now. Here's what has all gone down in these last couple of days. (day's - day is?)

Yestermahday we played in good old Islington. Very good fun. Surprisingly the voice held out. The just boiled water wins the day hooray. Although I was discussing the relative merits of different brands of honey with someone in one of the other bands beforehand. Very rock and roll.. Actually, I can make that statement more rock and roll quite easily. Watch and learn:

I was talking about honies with someone backstage before the gig.

I win!

Today has been a lazy-ass day (lazy ass-day?). Which was nice. Then I watch-ed the rugby. In a kind-of reverse situation to the one that Rants was facing. In that we were a room full of brits with one Saffa. The Saffa no less. I've never watched rugby before. It's pretty brutal. My ambition now is to watch an Australian Rules game. Cos I hear that's even more brutal.

I digress. (Cos I haven't used that phrase - to death - before).

My point is that television was a bad influence because not 5 minutes after the match we found ourselves in a big-off scrap on the landing. There was some scrumming, a lot of sean-piling and some definite crash-bangs. The funny thing was that the Saffa was the one that (undeliberately I *think*) ended up with a black eye. Ho ho.

Was good though. Not had a decent scrap probably since I was living with the Badger and the 'Noock. Maybe since I was in the studio.

So there you have it. Conclusive evidence that TV can make you do stuff. Or somethings.

ovorondout

steaming

Back to work today it was.

Not too bad. Still fightin this chest infection madly yo.

Now there's a song I haven't heard in a while. Just Jinger's I Like You Madly. Check it out if you get the time.

Today's post is a little freeform in its.. um.. form. So whilst I'm thinking about freeform, check out Flight of the Conchords on youtube. Specifically this song. Brilliant.

You'll also notice that I have been checking out radiohead's new album. I love it. I paid a fiver, but I would have paid more had I had more money. It's very atmospheric. I like music you can get lost in. Radiohead are good at this. As is Nitin Sawhney and also for me, Lemon Jelly. I need to find more like this though.

I made a new strangeday website as well. Check it out. There's some hidden pages in there. I'm going to try and make it more and more labyrinthine as it goes on. Whilst not trying to rip off radiohead too much. Although their web presence presented me with some influence for my confluence yo.

Speaking of strangeday, we have a gig this Friday. Hopefully this one will be quite important for us. Which is why it's so neat that I have a chest infection. Which is why I gotta be leaving you to stick my head above a bowl of just boiled dihydrogen oxide.

What fun.

Peaceoverandout

of iced tea and poisoned fingerfoods

Hello and good morning one and all.

We've got a lot to get through so sit tite and hold on.

First and foremost I would most definitely like to say that I'm very sorry to have missed such a special date yesterday. I can only guess how terrible it must have been for all of you sat there waiting at your computer screens, fingers poised quivering above the refresh button. A drop of sweat hits the desk as you feverishly press that key over and over whilst muttering to yourself and wondering, wondering, wondering..

Truth be told I was ill and lost track of dates somewhat. In all honesty I'm still not better but I'm sitting up, and they tell me the worst has passed.

Now.

I've been laid up for a while so watching films has been the order of the day(s). I can taste your expectation even across the webbernet so I won't hesitate, deviate or repetition.. myself.. um.. I'll get right into telling you what's going down.

Little Miss Sunshine.
What a great film. This was right up our street. Quirky and all about the characters.

Pay It Forward.
Also a good film. That Osment kid sure had it. Good ending as well.

Crash.
Holy carp there's the hattrick. This was also. A good film.

Jurassic Park - The Lost World & Jurassic Park III
Oh. Well, you know.

I was also gonna have a little chat to you aboot ideas. I think it's weird the way ideas come upon you. I've never particularly been one to work hard on ideas. I either just have them or I don't have them. I don't know if that's everyone's experience. Mostly I think for me this relates to songs that I write. I can't really sit down and bash them out. Usually when I write them they just occur. So I'm not going to be running any songwriting seminars anytime soon.

But so I wonder what ideas might be to come in the world. I read about that one guy with the million dollar webpage just sat there and worked backwards from a million dollars. I don't think I have that approach.

But maybe, just maybe an idea will just hit me and you'll be reading about me in the Times or the FT yo yo. Just maybe.

Anyway. I'm out.

and over.

choice phrases

Hey hey. Took the Saffa to Brighton for an interview for BIMM. He got his place hurrah!

We also went to the downs where we had fun with panoramic pictures.

Going out for dinner tonite. The Cricket dinner. Larks yo.

that's it

So many thoughts..

So tricky to capture them all..

Ah well. We let the thoughts escape that will and we ensare those that we can.

It's been a very swift week. So swift that I've in fact barely noticed that I haven't blogged. I should, however, inform posterity that the Mothership has this very week departed to become MotherVic.

Also worthy of mention this week (although not quite as worthy):

- Jack's International Open Mic Nite tonite. Yes, it acquired international status since we last discussed it.
- There were some philosophical thoughts pertaining to something or other, but they've been dropped in favour of 'not bother with it don't you know'
- mmmhmm
- somethingsomething
- dreaming a lot this week. I'm sure psychoanalysts could feed that into their probability matrix and work out what I'll be doing for the forseeable future
- it's been far too long since I watched twelve monkies

That all said, it's becoming quite clear that the real reason I came on here has clearly eluded me and therefore I should go before I make a bigger fool out of myself than I already have.

Maybe a day in pictures tomorrow?

I'm not promising anything though because.. well.. you know..

overouatnd

statistics, dreaming and the like

Hi there faithful real-worlders. (funnily enough, as I typed that I was listening to In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, and as we all know, his record label is.. that's right little timmy, Real World. How bizzarely inconsequential).

I hope you're enjoying yourselfs. I know I am. I'm on a break from work you see.

I was thinking it would be interesting to see some statistics about my blogging in order to further analyse myself. Specifically I have a hunch that I generally tend to post more towards the year's close. But I could be wrong. The closing in of the days, the bright but chill days in autumn, the sitting drinking hot drinks watching the poor weather in the lowlight: these cause me to be wistful and slightly melancholic in a good way. And, god forbid, this makes me feel 'artistic' which makes me want to write more. Probably.

I've been thinking about dreaming again. It truly is a weird state of affairs. Particularly the location aspect of dreams. You see I often dream about places that I know and I know in my dream that it is said place. But it bears little or no resemblance or likeness to the actual place. But yet I dream it the same in different dreams over long periods of time. Why? Why does my brain rearrange locations? I think I would understand if it rearranged them randomly each time. Or at least it would trouble me less.

Now, I'd better get back to work so I'm going to head, but so you know (and I know you want to), yes, David Ford was fantastic last nite. There were some odd people in the crowd but we didn't let it spoil the moment.

overandoutt

on the money

you see the thing is that I'm not sure what to write right now. Right write now?

But the other thing is that I'm being put to shame by Nonick Dave and the Saffa. Perhaps I should spend more time comparing myself to Mothervic or Boy Crossroads. That bears a little more comparison.

And I do still have the weight of ages behind me. Coming up to 3 years in October. That's mad good!

I will stop cooking the saucepan (as they say*) now and move on.

Tomorrow we are going to see David Ford. I think I have mentioned him. We're hooking up with Mr Ashton once down there as well.. Nice.

Tonite we were watching Scrubs again. Series 5 is getting better and better. Watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the weekend as well. Stoopid Hollywood ending aside it was a delight. Gotta love the Deppstah! Having said that, you can never replace the Gene Wilder Wonka. Although I think now you can't replace the Johnny Depp Wonka. So there's some contradictin' for you. I'm ok with it though, generally speaking.

Moving on to something else, I've been back at school for just over a week now and it feels like it's been about a year. Not because work is that hard or stressful (how taxing can it be to make one piece of paper into 2 pieces - or 60 indeed), but because I don't know why because. (that sentence sounded tortuous on purpose - honest).

Similar thing with Greenbelt. We played at Greenbelt only 2 weeks ago and yet it feels like so long ago. You would think this would make me feel damn old, but I feel so young. Or at least I feel so green. That is, not young in a "young and carefree" cliched way. You know.

Gots to go though. Bed it beckons to me.

overandout


* they being me. But it will catch on.

fake tan

Scrubs is the watchword of the day. Series 5 to be precizzle. Which I think is an improvement on Series 4.

Back at work now by the way. I can't remember if I mentioned that I now get 6 weeks (ish) off in the summer. Ha. But I'm back at work now. Although mr photocopier decided to breakdown somewhat. Gotta love them machines.

Machines is where it's at.

Anyway. If I carry on like this then I may well have to rewind and you don't know what that kind of behaviour will do to these girls.

So without further ado I must bid you adieu.

Just came up with that.

overandout

news and also news

I apparently have a new current favourite song. It's called 2nd Amendment by Easyworld. I've fallen in love with it.

The Saffa has jumped on board. I hesitate to report these sorts of goings on because most people appear to be hopeless bloggers. Or blaggers if you like.

In a similar vein and on a similar tack I'm going to be doing some pruning of my blogroll doon the sidebar there. Blogs that don't get updated oftener enough may find themselves 'trimmed'.

I scored a 'sweet goal'™ tonite at foop-ball. You wish you were me.

Poker very soon. Just got to get dressed.

over.

out.

bruv

how not to..

Myself and Saffa went to see the sunrise this morning. Good idea. What wasn't such a good idea was going to Wrotham Hill (which doesn't face east), driving to try and find somewhere else, putting tea in a flask that still smelt strongly of coffee (teacoffee is not so nice). So you know, it wasn't a romantic thing. There was supposed to be loads of people but no-one else showed. Turned out ok. We saw it rise over some trees eventually.

It actually felt a bit like those guys who go around chasing twisters. Only not as dangerous. And ah, we.. well, I, was a bit crap at finding somewhere where you could see the sunrise.

Mark even said he might blag aboot it. And he doesn't even have a blag.

Which brings us to now. I'm supposed to be doing stuff. But I'm not. But I'll go and make myself some tea (sans coffee) then procratinate a bit more then maybe do something.

Jack's International Mic Night tonite. Huzzah.

overandout

the eve of the war

Well.. Not literally. But it's a little nod for y'all Jeff Wayne fans oot there.

Bub and Sass get marrid on the morrow. Good times. Lots of music preparation been going on.

Going to drink whiskey and smoke cigars now. Sinfully delicious y'all uptights.

So much trouble for such few wordses.

love you

it's curtains for you

Been doing a little home improvement. It's satisfying. Plus and also we had people round last nite whilst I was doing it.

This helps for two reasons. The first being that I am less likely to break out in "anger" when things go wrong. The second being that the Jub was on hand to give a li'l assistance. As we know, the root of the word assistance is 'ass'. Which is why I needed it. Uh huh.

As an aside (just can't live without 'em) I do love finding word roots that have nothing to do with the actual word. It's a little hobby of mine. And as we all know, the root of little hobby is 'lit hob'. I think you know what that means..

Getting back to the point™, we had ourselfs a nice old time last nite.

Addressing one of the other of the questions facing us (see earlier post) I have worked out to a certain extent. Ahem.

Not a greatly philosophical post, I'll grant you.

But then, you can't have it all.

Where do we find ourselves?

You's got to love them sunscapes. Yeah?

We find our selfs lazing around back in the homestead. With the Fizz. The questions we face are slightly ones of losing the weight, of the sorting out of and of the playing of the music on Friday for the BubbSass wedding and of the sorting of the house. Small questions in life's great treadmill.

I really really don't mean this question to sound the way that I assume most people will think it sounds, and because of that I don't hesitate to ask it. How is it that a lot of blogs get all the comments that they get? Am I not resonating with the bloggernet? I get reasonable hits per month, but not many comments. And verily, I say to you, I honestly don't care in that way. I really don't. I'm happy with none. I just wonder how people get them. And maybe if I knew, I wouldn't put said knowledge into practice. Mebbe.

black and white and grey. Monochrome in fact. Or greyscale

Or grayscale if you're of the american spelling persuasion. Or ghrayschayle if you're cheating at Scrabble. Or greyskull if you're into nostalgia. Whatever.

Rants recently said something about the blog spectrum on his blog. I'm not sure where I'd fit on his restrictive little system (I jest, Mr Builder) but I've recently discovered.. well, I say discovered, it's more that I just made it up, so let's start again. I've recently made up that I would rather sit the whole way across such a spectrum than sit somewhere on it.

This goes for quite a lot of things. When I fill in those personality questionnaires or learning questionnaires or any of that guff I tend to come out as a hideous mish-mash of all of the outcomes/types. I'm running away from the truth perhaps?

On a vaguely related tack, we were just having a conversation about how different people see things in either black and white or grey (that's a very old concept so I'm sure you know what I mean) and how nice it must be to be able to see things in black and white.

I'm not sure I had a point to get to with this so I'm not sure how to continue. I would like to be able to see things as black and white. Maybe I do in some ways. For instance, I have a black and white view about how grey everything is. Everybody wins. Seeing things in grey is more tiresome I guess. If you see it as black and white it's easier to go about things.

Might be about time to wrap this up here and now. We're on holiday this week by the way. We're in Cornwall with the RealPilot and the Fogpilot (who now have a MiniPilot as well) until Thursday and then we're going up to Shropshire to visit the GrandRents-in-law. Fun fun.

overandout

what do you know?

I'm back again.

I just can't stay away now can I? I'm trying to think of some interesting stories to tell you all about myself. Not a lot is coming to me right now. Turns out I'm not all that interesting.

Oh I can tell you one thing. In addition to my bloggins of Serbia, Anwar has put up a whole bunch of photos and a diary blog of our little trip on the band myspace. Make rock not war peoples.

Today I am watching Jurassic Park. Then we have a wedding to go to this evening. Hopefully there will be drinksing and dancing. Or tanzen if you will..

That's aboot it.

Peace and love good webber-buddies

beware the red mist

This post is all about today. OK?

Today we went to the London and for to record some. We were recording some for a tee vee programme. It's a pilot for an entertainment programme that will be pitched to zeetv. We had to mime two songs. That was strange. You can see the studio set up on the right.

After we got back myself and the misses went for a spot of dinner with Anwar and Hanwar. That was nice. Nice food and nice chats. So thanks for asking..

I went to play foop-ball after that and let me tell you, that was not the best of times.. I hate to see grown men turn to pricks because of a game. Really I do. Especially when I follow suit. I have to confess I did yell at someone to "copulate" off because it all became too much. Not my finest hour. My own prickishness arrives not because of a game but because of people taking said game too seriously and becoming asshats. That doesn't excuse it of course. But hey, it's all square now. We're all good and I'm sippin' wine and chillin' and I'm leavin' you with a lovely sunset.

Yo Yo

gotta cut somewhere

cut and run baybee.



Aren't dreams kind of crazy things? I don't really remember what I dreamed about last night but it was something to do with going camping in America. Why? I don't know.

I need to fit more plans into these empty days you know. Otherwise I sit around. Today the Saffer is coming to play. I don't know what we'll do. Make some music maybe. Not sure what's happening in the evening.

Right now, however, I am watching the making of Lord of the Rings. I'm so cool.

overandout

here's how we do..

It's Bubb's stag weekend. Starting tonite o yes.

It recalls to me another time that was similar. We're going camping agin, there will be fi-arr agin, there will also be bee-ars again, and a beach. Woopwoop.

That will be all thank you.

overandpeaceout

the Carpathian

Hey hey my little webberface friends

I trust that you are keeping it oh so real and also on the very much down low.

Ridiculous greeting aside I feel it has been a time since I last went on about David Ford but he has a new single out and, well, it's dandy. It's up on his myspace and it's called Go To Hell. In particular check out around 2m20s when the middle 8 kicks in. Such menace.

In other news, school broke up on Friday but I have 3 inset days to complete. Nevertheless, high jinks were had in Black Heath on Friday and in a more extended fashion in Sevenoaks last nite. Good times they were had.

But I reserve the true de-mob happiness for Wednesday. Actually that's a lie. I'm the king of keeping up de-mob happiness all year round. It's the only way.

Behave your selfs this sunny-ish Sunday.

Peaceouts

[square brackets]

Heylo

I bet you're all wondering how fame and all that has changed me.

Pretty much the answer is not really. I mean I have a bigger sofa in the house and a newer tee vee but those were both free. Also there have been a lot less dancing girls than I thought there might have been.

I went to the horsey races last nite. The strange thing was that kidsis was there the day before. Weird. Anyway, I didn't win anything. But it was a nice time. I went with other colleagues from my place of work. We had those fun times you hear about. Then we fell asleep on the coach home.

Rock in roll my comraids.

overandout

cusp

or verge if you like..

So tomorrow we're off to Serbia. God knows what the bloggin' situ will be out there but he ain't telling me so like you I wait to see.

I'm rather excited but also tired.

Star Chamber got some new tunes up. Good skills to them. Yummy..

au revoir. Or whatever them serbs say.

the verdict

Fist gig after the smoking ban..

No need to wash hair or clothes.
Voice felt a little smoother
Could smell a lot of other stuff (that's not a positive really)

Overall that's a yea then I think.

How've you all been?

I'm just dandy thanks, and I'm heading off to bed. Early (ish) for a change. So there's your update on operation shuteye (I know you're on tenterhooks for this stuff. I do).

You can't have it all

hello dear boy

What is up with all o' y'all?

I am down and diggy.

I have a hurt toe due to a cricket ball.

We are playing at midnight on the Future Shock stage of the Exit Festival in Serbia on the Sunday nite.

Things are moving with the band. At last.

And I keep forgetting to blog.

And I'm going to drink some wine and play poker tonite.

All is well with the world.

Go busy yourselfs elsewhere whilst I ruminate.

Thanksbye.

down by the railway siding

You know what would be scary? If a malevolent and sinister force, agency or other third party were able to obtain a list of all your details, interests and calendar as well as photos of you, your friends, acquaintances and contacts with details of the exact nature of your connection to said people.


Don't you think?


So anyway, in an unrelated aside, what do you think of facebook? El loves it. I'm undecided.

What else is up? Well the Jub is getting marrid on Saturday. That's up.

I'm done, gotta pee.

You can't have it all.. Toby

to sleep perchance to dream..

we thought we were getting away with it but we couldn't fool ourselves for long enough.

I think on the whole I prefer doing things to not doing things. But then you knew that. Didn't you?

The stag day was fun, I played cricket but didn't get to bat (lordy, we won), mummy's going to be a vicar (but that's old news now) and I co-wrote my first song on piano.

What fun? What, fun?

I'd better be off now.

You can carry right along.

roight then

What have we been up to here?

Birthweek(ish) has not been the great event of past years but there's still been fun to be had.

So far the following events have been claimed as birthweek-worthy:

• Foop-ball and Poker with the brothers Hawks
• Steak Dinner with Elbs
• Work friend drinkys
• NAG friend drinkys
• a day at the Fox and Hounds with the Azzman Network
• BIRTHDAYPARTYBIRTHDAYPARTYBIRTHDAYPARTY
• Family Hawks meal
• Going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Bobcat

Still to come we have Dave Matthews Band concert tonite. YAY! Also, Open Mic tomorrow, some kind of funs on Friday, The Jub's stag (probably can't claim that one actually) and hopefully a meal with the Family Hardingo's. What joy.

Presents include a Garden Table, Dave Matthews Band tickets, Jack Bag, DVDs, CD, Whiskey, EDT, Banana box, Choclit, Wine and more.

Half term continues..

over&out

up 2 d8

I am down with the youngins! I know their lango!

Here I am no need to fret. Just been busy is all.. The new design is on the way. Haven't had time. I haven't even had time to plan birthweek. We'll just have to wing it and see what happens.

Don't forget Toby Day this Thursday!

Right. Updates.

New favourite webcomic: xkcd.com

I say favourite, scarygoround will most likely always hold a dear place in my heart, but what xkcd.com lacks in whimsy and delight it makes up for in sheer "I actually laughed out loud whilst reading it" ness. ity. osity. isiosity?

Also, new addition to the sitting room:


We've been given this on a long-term loan basis, so I am learning piano. Huzzah.

Finally:



I fixed the toilet. It's like new. I'm so proud. Ignore the scary black lines of doom. They're just holding the cistern in place whilst the sealant sets y'all.

That's it.

Bedtime.

(two more sleeps..)

contrast

In addition to my ramblings below I feel I owe.. who I wonder?.. you all? Myself in times to come? Posterity? Maybe nothing so grand.

I feel I owe somebody an explanation. Well. No that's too strong. I feel I owe somebody an account of my doings recently. Let's say if nothing else so that I can look back next year and see what all went down.

These have been a busy few weeks with things going on left right and centre. I'm not sure I will remember everything but we've had:

Gigs, recording, meals, people round, Hen weekends (not me obviously), Open Mics, practices, Birthday parties/celebrations, unexpected sibling visits, expected sibling visits, 6th form proms, GTP completion celebrations, attempted poker nites, fun, friends, drinks, meetings, work, cricket nets.

I think that gives a flavour. Tomorrow I am playing my first cricket game of the season. Should be fun. What else is happening? Well, I haven't overlooked the most important event of Maytime. That's right peoples, the birthday celebrations are to be had. I might scale back a little this year. Then again maybe not..

I think that's how we do.

The other big news here at tobiwan.co.uk is that we're undergoing a redesign. Something of an overhaul. Another reason why posts have been lacking lately actually. It was nearing completion today but I hit a snag due to lack of planning and foresight. But rest assured you'll be the first to know when it hits the shelves.

How's that for two posts early on a Sunday morning? I'd like to say that my fingers are tired, but I could go on for ages. You know I could.

of butterflies and hurricanes..

Performance is kind of addictive. I didn't twig onto this very early. I have vague memories of being an air raid warden in primary school and I also have more distinct memories of pissing myself whilst singing 'Lady in Red' in Year 7 (could it be I had taste even back then?). I vaguely remember Mr Baker being involved in that particular incident as well, though I could be mistaken.

I digress. Last nite's (that's Wednesday for those of y'all reading this on a different timescale to my posting of it) gig was super great fun and I bopped and bounced and threw shapes like a good'n. Then Open Mic tonite was also very good fun,

I may have had a point. I may also have had 4 pints and no dinner. What of it?

I'll stop now before I hurt someone.

overandout

down time time down

Hey hey,

gosh only knows what is been happening aroond here. It's been empty of late. Empty and without 'the posts'. What a calamity, hmm?

Perhaps I was just leaving it fallow. Perhaps it's time now for you to find fortune and fame on your own two feet without my helpings. Perhaps I wuz busy baking. It happens.

Bizzee week it is. Practice/Recording tomorrows. Then we're playing in Maidstone on Wednesday. Thursday is Jack's Open Mic. Prom on Friday and maybe Saturday we will rest. Just maybe.

That's where it is at. Homes.

Spangly

It's a good word.

I've been keeping myself busy. How about all o y'all?

Well that's good to hear.

Recommendations? No not today. There's nothing that springs to mind that I haven't already told you about. I need to hear/watch/read some new stuff.

Band practice tomorrow. New song sounding very swish. Possibly called Trademark Failure. Word.

Overandout.

What a beautiful day

again..

I'm sure we'll look back in times to come when all the bees are dead and gone and marvel that we weren't aware of the catastrophes this lovely spell of weather foretold but for now we're loving it and isn't that part of what life is about? Hmmm..

Anyways, there are many reasons to be happy.

- the sun is shining, the birds are swaying and the trees are singing
- this is post #600
- the weekend she stretches out before us
- last night's gig was all of the funs
- food
- friends
- family
- music

I could go on. I had a few random thoughts in the last few days, let's see if we can remember them..

- we tend to think we know/understand people's motives without knowing that person in the slightest. We tend to think the worst of motives or assume that they couldn't be altruistic. In my experience at least, motives seem to be a big ol' mixed bag. I don't think I've come across a pure motive.
- I love people who can write songs that pinpoint an aspect of humanity and either tell a story with it or just describe it. Ben Folds is very good at this. Songs that spring to mind: Gone (Ben Folds), Sadako (3dBs Down), I had some others but they escape me). I wish I could do it.

El's back now so I will truncate this post.

See you all soon..

Sunny Sunday

There aren't words.

I'll just say:

Yes.

Garden livin'

Wireless network ensures tanning opportunities are maximised. No longer will the geek be weedled out for jokes and points due to his "studio" or "computer" tan. The world has been turned upside down..

I made a warm bread salad with pancetta, parmesan and poached egg for lunch and Teh Fizz is here to fill in an application form with El's help and my (not very good) jokes.

What else I wonder? Oh, gosh, how could I forget. I went to see 3dBs Down last nite at the River Bar in Maidstone. That was some gig. Their new stuff is great and they generally blow me away. I tell no word of a lie.

I think there was some other stuff but I got shanghaied into typing things for El and Fizz and so have forgotten it all. You will cope I do not doubt.

a walk in the park

Yesterday we went for a walk in the park. It was easy. Some might just say it was a walk in the park. But enough of the asides and verbal wizardry (dentistry?).

It was nice to see some of the places where I used to go as a kid. Being in the home town makes you all nostalgic don't it..

I spent this morning slumming around on the internet and whatnot. Watched the Hamster's car crash from The Top Gears, checked out who's been visiting ah my site, wrote a blog post about internet arguments and deleted it, mooched about on myspace, forgot to drink two cups of tea. Pretty much the usual. Gotta love the holly days.

I feel in the mood for some creative writing but I can't think of what to write. So after all that not so creative. Mebbe I should do some uncreative writing.

Or a blog as most people call it. Oh ho. Got there before anyone else did.

Well I'm going to get back to my general meanderings through cyberspace.

You all take good care of yourselfs or I will be coming after yous.

PEACE and OUT

hay stings

What is up with all o' y'all then? Are you keeping it real? Real as?

I'm down in the Hastizzle. Could you guess? It's very nice and fun. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's super-good. We've been to Winchelsea, eaten a right pea-souper, been to King's (for the first time in over a year actually), had a reet good Easter Day scofathon, watched The Trap, Red Dwarf and Creature Comforts and generally lived it up.

However, there is now but a week left until it's back to work. That's not long. Especially since the days are flying by ever faster.

What to leave you with? A thought? A quip? A paradigm? A quote?

Howsabout this: I can do anything you can do better.

O&O

vacations!

Hooray it's the holly days. Those are good days.

I watched the sixth sense this morning. It was good. I already knew the ending unfortunately but it didn't ruin it really. That kid's a good actor.

Still in my pyjamas and it's nearly five. Baby this is living.

I think I'll link to Dr McNinja today. It's some good comickin'. Maybe it's coMACKIN? Anyways they're in the middle of a guest run at the mo' so be sure to check the archives.

Have a good evening.

Toby

tonight, tonight

Tonight is already shaping up to be funs™. It's Life Sentence's last gig (as you should know if you've been paying attention) which is very much sad, but it will also be a good crack.

That's all I have to say about that. See you on the flipside..

Toby

I don't like cricket

I love it.

Songs that get in your head eh?

How you all are these days? Good good. Pleased to hear it.

The busiest of weekends (not really) has for the most part passed. Fun times have been had. Alcohol has been consumed (I know, I know, but try to contain your disdain, Anonymous), films have been watched, books read, chats had and naturally, outrages discussed.

I didn't even mention the food that has been cooked.

El thinks I'm talking about things on here that I'm not. So does Fizz. Although one of the things they thought I was talking about was them, so I guess that's kind of true now. The conversation (or them asking questions) is getting a. intense b. weird.

Right. Done. And. Out

few and far between

I realise I've been thin on the ground lately. Something to do with something I shouldn't think.

We played the River Bar in Maidstone last nite. It was good. My 'rents will be pleased to know that there was no further deterioration in the throat department at least.

Not much else to report. I've been kept busy (and tired) recently and my fingers really aren't in the typing game this week, alright?

Tonite is Jack's Open Mic for those in the know. Tonite I will mostly be falling asleep during a David Ford song probably as that's what I mostly seem to play.

Booyar

there and back again

divergence of relevance of post title to post increases with time my good friends.

This are be a busy weekend. Tomorrow is red nose day and I unfortunately will not be able to watch it all as I am going to a gig at the Clapham Grand which our potential manager is involved with. Should be fun.

Then Saturday we be playing in the New Ash Green. It's St. Patrick's Day so I'm guessing there'll be a fair few drunk peoples there. Always a pleasure.

Sunday morning I'm playing in church and oh my gosh we have a drummer for the first time in the longest of whiles. Then it's down to Hastings to celebrate Mothership Day. Hooray.

Gosh.

Bed.

calm yourself

Hello there oh blog of my blog.

What pleasant weather we have been having of late. And all us britlanders can do is talk about it. It is useful though when you're rubbish at small talk. How do you leave a small talk conversation politely once you've both sensed that it is just small talk and it's not going anywhere? I find the best I can do is make some kind of lame excuse ('gotta go get some.. something') or pretend to have seen someone. Or actually see someone.

Just had a nice old bath. Always a treat.

And now to cook.

&out

minimum leisure facilities

Saturday nite cabin fever..

It's been an interesting day. From this evening backwards I guess.. In a few minutes we're off to a partay. Right now I am watching Red Dwarf - Quarantine. Before we had some Friends. I also got a cheap pair of new shoes this afternoon. Good stuff. Lunch. Nick was over. Fizz has been around too. I did try and lie in this morning but it left me with a sore neck/back.

Enough of the minutiae. This isn't helping anybody.

Where would sitcoms and short televisual stories be without the old deus ex machina eh? I guess if you've got a short time span and want to explore more in depth ideas whilst still retaining the situation (it's a sit-com after all) you've only got a limited number of ways of achieving that. Done well it can really enhance a story. Done badly it can fair give you jip (what's that? It was all a dream? Hurrah!).

I expect you all knew that anyway. You clever peoples.

What's your favourite deus ex machina? I think mine would have to be the ending to Enemy of the State. Although maybe that's more of a mexican standoff. Who can know?

Signoff time:

OVER&OUT YA CRAZIES

leave of absence

Oh my. It goes from bad to worse doesn't it.

Here's a few thoughts for you:

• What's with all this consolidation of online stuff? Blogger and google logins, yahoo and flickr logins. I'm sure there's more. Perhaps it will make things easier in the long run so that you can just log in once and you're done, but surely it's a little dangerous to have all your eggs in one basket?
• I know I say it a lot, but I appear to have proofs (PROOFS!) now: I'm tired. So tired in fact that when we had Aran and Carla round I kept drooping. I thought this might be one off, but then it happened with Jon and Kelly last nite too. Maybe I do too much
• "I was cooking beans" is not a good excuse for mistaking Dominic Monaghan for Billy Boyd.
• Once again I will be hitting the streets of Brighton for a night out. It's been a while.

That's about that.

One more thing. I stumbled across the following "table" whilst browsing wikipedia and ending up at the Received Pronunciation article. Now is it me, or is some academic dude having a gee-rarf? I think so. Would you just look at it!



K I'm done.

3 good things

1. Aran and Carla are here. YAY x 8 and a half

2. We (strangeday - or three quarters of anyway) had a meeting in London with a potential manager. Good meeting, funny times.

3. Aran just taught me a wicked new trick.

Byethen.

you'll never guess what I did..

I big fat went and ordered a JACK BAG! And one for Matt Hat too. So we're gonna be bag buddies.

'citin'.

I cooked more pancakes last nite. If you didn't guess from the pictar. That brings the total to around 60-80 I think. When I get into puddings I really do get into them, don't I? Remember that time I made like 6 lemon meringue pies in just over a week?

It's Car-LAR's brifday today so many happy returneth. Hopefully we'll get to see her and the Azman network at the weekend. That would be for the fun times. Oh ho.

Overandout.

sleep just to dream

It's been a fun half term all said and done.

Real life resumes in la-la-land tomorrow. Back to work and such. We're also playing a cheeky little gig at the Forum in Tunbridge Wells. All good.

Not altogether sure that I have an enormous amount to say. I'll leave you with a few thoughts I've had over the last few days..

• If you have to sell yourself on the basis of something else you've done that is completely (or sometimes only relatively) unrelated to what you're doing now, you may not be on the right tracks.
• Only Toby can temper a statement in the way you've just seen.
• I bought a jacket, two shirts, two scarves, three pairs of boxers and five pairs of socks for £16 this week. At Primark. Or Primani as I've heard it called. That's just good sense
• I can make pretty good banoffee pie and home-made pizza. Who knew?
• The old ones are the best

Sleep. Really very yes.

vrnt.

on life and such..

We've had a gloriously lazy Saturday today. Which is a welcome relief from the madcappery that has been occuring in recent weeks. Also, we didn't play poker in the end last nite so I managed to sneak more precious hours of sleep from my body which will insist on getting me up at 9 or 10 regardless of the time I retire. Very good.

It's starting to get annoying that all I seem to be posting is HEY I GOT UP LATE TODAY AND I'M DOING THINGS LATER. I guess the pictures do add some interest, and I will every so often get creative.

Speaking of which, do you recall the tea hunt story from back in November? I was thinking about it just now because I was making myself a cup of tea and it appears that that box has run out. Although I have the thought in my head that there should be one more jar of them but I CAN'T FIND IT.

Back to the point. I would like to post something of note or even possibly something inter-muh-lectual. But alas. I do have thoughts sometimes, but one of three things happens. I either wimp out, forget what the thought was or more likely the thought is banal or unshareable. Two such examples from this week:

"bacon rolls are always good."
"there's few bad moods that can't be solved by eating a couple of bags of poly-trans-fattiated-saturates" (that's crisps to you and your cousins THE NORMAL PEOPLE).

See?

Since this is the second time I have now typed this guff (it's not getting better with repetition let me tell you) due to Windows being a bastard, I am going to stop. Once again Toby relearns the inevitable lesson about saving work and so on..

A real jedi wouldn't have these problems..

overandout

not in a while at least..

We're going to play the poker tonite.

After foop-ball that is.

Why am I telling you all of this? Dunno really. That's the way of this blog life. No telling where we're going I'm afraid.

Anyway I'm busy.

Get out. And come again.

checking in

it's not flowing like it used to I know.

Jack's open mic was tonite. It was good. They've started giving me some drinks as payment for running it. This is.. interesting.

Anyways. This week has been fun. I don't seem to be able to have a non-busy one though. Even next week, which, let me remind you, is half term, is filling up with funs™.

Still, as I always say, you can't have it all.

Toby

ah the weekend

My favourite of all the ends.

I know that technically it's not the weekend just yet, but we almost there. And there aren't many kids in our school today so it should be a little less stressed than yesterday was.

But having said that, this weekend is anything but calm. Tonite, as I believe I mentioned, we're playing in the NAG. Then tomorrow we drive to Cambridge to set up for tonite, we drive back for a 40th anniversary party, we drive up to Cambride and are onstage at midnight. Then on Sunday (and how's this for foolhardiness?) we drive back to play for church at.. 10.30am! Plus we've got to be there early for setups.

We win the game of stupidity.

Then on Sunday I sleep.

And if you didn't want to hear any of that then close your ears.

Overoutand

it's feboo-ary now

This year seems to be tracking by at quite the pace. Still, life is fun so we can be glad of that.

What has all been going down I hear you ask? Well I'm guess it's time for a patented tobiwan list. Yup yup

• Joelyboy just turned 21
• We launched an album, but y'all knew about that hey
• Been doing some web design ideas. They look nice
• We're playing two yes that's two gigs this weekend.
• Work continues. Still fun.
• I'm watching Enemy of the State (again) as we speak
• Half term is in a weekish. I love working for a school.

Since I've mentioned work a couple times just now I'd like to talk to you about our collating machine. Now maybe these bad boys are gorgeous machines that cause us a lot of convenience. But my one is an evil bastard that deserves pain to be inflicted on it. Here's for why. Misfeeding multiple times during a run? Check. Thinking there's no paper in one of the feeders when there is? Check. Annoying beeps and clicks? Check. Randomly not stapling booklets in a run? Check.

Honestly, if I'm ever found dead in my office surrounded by paper with a collater on top of me it wouldn't be at all surprising. Morbid but true.

I think that's about enough about that.

yay

I know it's lame and all but it keepeth me happy.

We're going to Center Parcs today. Until Sunday. Fun fun fun. Although I can't go down the rapidding something like 400 times because last time I did that I went deaf in both ears for over a week and we can't have me being deaf in both ears whilst rocking it up at the album launch now can we?

Two posts in two days. That hasn't happened since 2006. Oh. Actually no I think it has. But don't let it get you down.

Overandout.

chilling out, maxing, and this hardly needs to be said: relaxin'

Recommended Watching:

Jeff Buckley Live in Chicago. I'm good enough to have found you Grace and I will post it below for you. I'd just like you to bear in mind that if you are of a more sensitive disposition it contains bad words (wah wah wah) and also swears. Also bear in mind that you should really be listening to the actual DVD, with a great sound system.



Recommended Listening:

Definitely Nitin Sawnhey right now. That is some chilled out deliciousness right there. Even his album artwork evokes 'emotions'™:


Recommended Eating:

Well naturally the mince/cheese/macaroni pie thingummy that Nick and I have just cooked. Goes without saying..

Recommended Drinking:

A nice Shiraz or mebbe a côtes du rhône. Works for us.


overandout

untitled

I love the looks of this pool. Click on the photo for more pictures.

Here we are, anyway, on a rainy Saturday afternoon sat in the living room watching King Kong. We played at Winterwalrus last nite and that was some good fun. Star Chamber were headlining and it was a joy to listen to them again. They've got some new tunes up at their myspace. I recommend that you check them out.

Today is the final christmas day. Because we were skiing and whatnot we didn't have a proper Harding Christmas. So this evening there will be eating, drinking and general merriment to the delight of all.

I will bid farewell to you all now as I feel I have rambled on enough. Byesies.

Stupid.

I should always remember. A bad nite can be cured very easily by watching Enemy of the State. I'm seriously. Do you know how good that film is? It's got everything:

Will Smith
Gene Hackman
Jon Voight
Jack Black
Seth Green
Explosions
Hi-tech talk
Satellite pictures
Quotes
A cat
Women in underwear
Car Chases
Guns
A green dog
A BLENDER

I really could go on. Tonite I don't need to watch it because it's band practice and you all know what that means! We're going to be practising our new almost-7-minute epic rocker! Really that isn't as bad as it sounds.

I'm off beeches.

Have a good Wednesday.

Toby

2006 - Was it worth it

AHAHHA. Of course I jest. Naturally it was worth it. But what a year eh? Not that I'm one for political comment but.. Well actually I'm not going to bother summing up the year politically. Or by newsworthy events. We all know there are other better sources for those kinds of summaries.

My next idea was to tell you my most played song for each month of the year. But I don't have that information.

So what did happen of note?

JANUARY - El was 24, I started taking 2 days off a week, new Star Chamber Songs, Jack's Open Mic nite happened for the first time and my first picture day on tobiwan.co.uk
FEBRUARY - Cooked Coq au Vin for 13, started buying albums from ebay (that didn't last long though), Cambridge and Rock garden gigs, It snowed!
MARCH - Dead iPod, Recorded guitars at Aaron and Hannahs, Megin came to stay, Alison's birthday
APRIL - Fizzle was 18, Went Skiing in Andermatt, Mark's party, Got addicted to slitherlink/kwontomloop
MAY - Nice weather, Rock Garden Semi Final, Third Annual BIRTHWEEK!, Dylan Moran, KICKASS PARTAY
JUNE - Nicer weather, Work went crazy, WORLD CUP, the infamous alcohol watch, Anthony's Stag Day IN FRANCE, New fence, First Cricket Match
JULY - England out of world cup, Gotta Dance.., THE HORSE-FLY BITE!, David & Jo's wedding, got the new job, THE PERFECT post, New phone, HATT's Birthday
AUGUST - Went to Switzerland - AGAIN, El's Blog begins, Finished at GWS, Matt & Catherine's Wedding, Posh Hermit starts blogging, Album sent off to be mixed & mastered
SEPTEMBER - 2nd new iPod, Design fun, NEW JOB, 8 NOT OUT, infected mosquito bite, bin marrid for 4 years, Bobcat gone to uni, LORD OF THE RINGS DAY
OCTOBER - Center Parcs, Temporary Deafness, BROTHERS HAWKS, 2 years of AIADW, GIGS!, Filming in Canterbury
NOVEMBER - Anwar's BIRTHDAY, Lemon meringue madness, Azzman Network online, Life Sentence Album Launch, The great tea hunt
DECEMBER - Post 500!, El finished her painting, Album Promo Video, MINESWEEPER RETIREMENT YAY, 24 day, Christmas things!, Third visit to Switzerland in a year..

That's about it. I'm sure some more important stuff happened but this is casting an eye over what I felt it necessary to blog.

Tonite should be fun. I've spent too long sat here so I'm going to wake up El and make some tea.

Overandout

Suppose I'd better

Hello there..

We're back. It was a great holiday. Lots of pics (and videos - eek!) to come (with the usual proviso that they probably won't until I remember in May).

Now I just have to settle into that weird back from holiday feeling. The passing eased by a new Cd (Iron Bottom Sound by Flick) and the fact that New Year's Eve is but a day away.

I'm glad to be back but also a little bit sad to not be with the snow and mountains. As I say, weird.

I will go now. Look after your fattened calves and eat your food.

goshdarn

These has been the busy days. Perhaps the busiest of days.

The album is finally off for duplication. We're getting close. Oh yes.

Aside from that I've been doing 'other stuff'™

Switzerland tomorrow. Who knows what the blogging is like there. I'll let you know.

Have a great christmas if I don't see or speak to you before then.

Peace.

And goodwill to all men and out

Not doing my reputation any favours..

Hello.

Here are some phrases I think I need to try and use more often:

"ETA on.."
"Move into position"
"Where are we staging?"
"I hope I'm not a psycho-path"
"We don't have time for your personality disorder"
"We've got to put all our energy into finding that nuclear warhead."

I think I can work all of them into daily use. Possibly not the last one though..

You may or may not be able to tell that I'm watching 24 season 4. And I have been since around 6am this morning. I think that unless you watch them on Tv this is probably the best way to do it. The adrenaline based plotlines that kick in around 2/3-3/4 the way through a series keep you awake. I am watching 7 hours more tv in one session than I ever have though (18 hours compared to Lord of the Rings' 11).

Still, 5 real hours left and 6 and a half 24 hours left. We'll get there my peoples. We'll get there..

Overandout

well fed

I helped cook a christmas dinner for the first time today. It consisted of washing things up to make room and all sorts of other fun.

I'm actually rather short of offerings for now. It's been a good weekend so far.

And you'll never guess what we're attempting on Monday..

good advice

Getting a chest infection then singing rock and or roll for nigh on 2 hours?

I wouldn't recommend it.

Last day of work before christmas tomorrow. Bring it.

calm before the storm..

Hello there..

I don't have much to say to you. People are coming over I think and I need to do another round of washing up before that happens. I did see this in the Word magazine and it made me chuckle. The basic context is about the difference between the world of the TV series, West Wing, where the president is played by Martin Sheen, and the real world, where the president is played by George W. Bush. To the top right of the article there are two pictures very similar to these with the following captions:

"President Bartlet: well-read, civilised, passionate, quick-witted and capable of fielding the most difficult question."

"President Bush"

Hopefully I've actually conveyed the funniness of this, but if not, just pretend I have and laugh at your computer screen like I am the god of all that is uproarious and humorific.

Overandout

all in all

That was a pretty good evening.

Scored a bloody good goal.

Had a couple of pints.

Ate crisps until my mouth hurt.

Hung out with friends.

Played pro-evo (although I lost).

Got a good score on kwontom-loop again.


Tomorrow I might try and take over the world. See if I can continue to be on a roll.

I've just moved over to blogger beta. I don't know if this will make any difference. It's saying something about labels for this post. Thing is I'll probably have to hack up my template again for it all to work. Chances of that happening? Fairly slim I should think. Busy boy right now. Got an album launch to plan for (27th January if you're asking).

You can't have it all..