The Kelly Jones gig was good. His solo album in full followed by Local Boy, Just Looking, Hurry Up And Wait, Maybe Tomorrow, Billy Davey's Daughter and Dakota all done solo Kelly style.

His album was released on Monday, next Monday it's the 10 year Phonics annoversary DVD. Later in the year it's the release of the 6th studio album which Chris Moyles has allegedly heard and thinks is great! So therefore if it is that good, hopefully the 10 year anniversary year might be crowned with some mega gigs!

Apart from all the Phonics stuff I'm enjoying a quiet and restful week off. I've been doing a bit of work on my course and get more materials delivered tomorrow. I've been befriending our funky pensioner neighbour Rick and his lovely cat Princess. I've cleared the yard of the last occupant's crap and I'm about to wipe down all the wooden doors and get rid of the traces of paint.

Charlie's got her last uni deadline of the term today, so the next few days we're going to do a few things together and go into town, go for a drive to Swansea and go to a club before the smoking ban comes in over in Wales.

I'm now free from my Orange contract completely and I've got my same mobile number on a PAYG which is all I need these days.

The Impossible Quiz" Silly, hard, a massive flash file, but very addictive! I'm stuck on number 91 now.

Weebls! Here comes the Pope, he's been blessing some apples!

6 days to go until we get the keys for our new place!

Today I'm working late and then we're off out to Barfly for the first time in a while. Then it's time for a load more packing.

Went to Ikea last night to buy a new bed and wardrobe...the idea being we'd get them delivered to the new place on Friday next week...but they make you buy them and get them on a trolley and then take them to a delivery place who tell you they can only deliver in the next 2 days and can't hold stuff for a week! So they're having to be delivered here tomorrow and then we'll have to make a trip over with them in the van...grr!

While the new Kaiser Chiefs album hasn't grown on me yet, the title track The Angry Mob certainly has! Track of the year for me so far!!!

We signed the contracts for our new flat yesterday, so as from Friday 9th March, we'll be living at - 93A Richmond Road, Plasnewydd, Cardiff, CF24 3BS.

We celebrated with a lovely evening of indian takeaway, alcohol, mighty boosh live DVD and stuff :)

Tomorrow, the new Kaiser Chiefs album is out. While I'm not a great fan of Ruby, The Angry Mob (track 2) sounds great! Can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

I've now taken Lloyds TSB to the small claims court to get my bank charges back. I can now claim £3600 including interest at 8% as they've refused to settle before now. They've made me a part payment of £750 this week, but I've told them I'm persuing them for the rest (because I want a widescreen TV lol).

Pay rise next month at work. I've got a week to take off before the 1 I've booked in June, not sure what to do with it yet.

Busy, busy Steve!

I'm sorry if anyone thinks I've been a bad friend recently, but I've had a lot going on since I got the net back and any spare time I have had has been spent with Charlie.

We've found a flat to move into. It's right close to Uni for Charlie and much further up the bus route for me. We get the keys on March 8th and will be out of here by March 15th. It's only a small place, but it's big enough for us and if we carry on this cheap way of living, we're going to be able to start saving.

My insurance company have paid out for the accident. I'm going to sit on that cash for now. I don't need to drive again right now so it'll be good to save it.

I've started the process of taking Lloyds TSB to court to claim back nearly £4k of bank charges that they took off me in Hull. It's not an easy process, but the money is mine and since it was ruled that £30 charges for going over drawn or returning direct debits were illegal, almost 1 million people have won cases against the banks to get their money back now. It'll probably take me a few months, but I will win.

Gig update - we went to see Patrick Wolf the other week who was very good to watch. Tomorrow we're off to see Little Man Tate at The Point (the 3rd time we've seen them) and we've got tickets for the Kelly Jones solo tour in March and the Manics tour in May. There's a possibility we might go to see The Rapture in Bristol next month as well, but that might get given up for the sake of moving.

I think that's all for now, but I felt the need to come and write something relatively substantial for once.

EDIT - a cheque for £315 just came through the door from the Inland Revenue for overpayment of tax in the 05/06 tax year!!! Now the question is...I thought I already had that back over 6 months ago thanks to tax back appearing on my salary at O2...so what the hell was that for?! OK I'm not going to question it :P

Still offline.
Car written off.
Everything ok.

Should be back 1st Feb. Hope everyone's well x

Did anyone miss me?

Orange have had us cut off the net for the last 10 days.

I'd be bothered to explain, but after a lovely weekend in Cumbria, driving back I managed to swerve into the path of another car on the M6, overcompensated, clipped a tanker and crashed into the central reservation between junctions 24 and 25.

Miraculously, I was unhurt. And I thank the Lord that Charlie escaped with just a scratch on her arm. My car is a complete write off.

A 6 hour journey has just taken 12 hours.

I'll update properly tomorrow night. Right now I'm going to be thankful I'm alive

"For 24, Sky One will be 6 days behind the US (same week broadcast, after the first three weeks where Sky One are airing double 24 to catch up, as Fox are doing an odd mini-series event with 24's premiere).

For Lost, Sky One will be 4 days behind.

Here's the broadcast schedule for the next few weeks:

Jan 21st: 24 DOUBLE BILL - 9pm
Jan 28th: 24 DOUBLE BILL - 9pm
Feb 3rd: 24 DOUBLE BILL - 9pm
Feb 10th: 24 - 9pm, Lost - 10pm
Feb 17th: 24 - 9pm, Lost - 10pm

This will continue to be the case until Sunday 26th May, where both shows have their season finale (most likely 24 - 8pm to 10pm, Lost - 10pm to 12am)."

-Digital Spy forums........can't wait!

I'm hoping that I can say that without offending too many people.

Talk at work today has been of post Xmas blues, with people breaking resolutions and having no money and nothing to look forward to this month and for the foreseeable future.

In a fortnight's time, Charlie and I are going to Cumbria so she can meet my mum and spend some time in the Lakes where she's never been before. The weekend after, we'll be down in Torquay celebrating her brother's 18th. I wasn't expecting an invite for that, but her step-mum has invited me down, and it appears I'm starting to be thought of as part of their family now...weird thought, but a good one.

In between those 2 weekends we'll have our friend Jess coming up from Southampton for a night as well.

It'll be a pretty busy time that will only cost us petrol money, so we can just about afford to do it all. But I'm very glad I've got something to look forward to so that I don't end up being fed up like seemingly everyone else is today.

I'm finished work for the week and the year!

Great to ifnish the mind numbingly boring data entry that we've been doing this week while we're not allowed to harrass people for money. Tuesday it will be back to the day job.

I'm off down to Torquay in the morning. I'm slightly scared about this as it will be the longest I've driven without anyone in the car with me (although I did drive to Birmingham, Brighton and back from Torquay with Charlie in the car with me, so I've got nothing to worry about really), and I pumped my tyres up this morning as my right front has been looking a bit saggy. The drive to and from work was a bit weird, the handling of the car just didn't feel right as I seemed to have to correct my steering a fair bit while turning. I'm hoping that this is just natural getting used to how it should handle though - and I'm not telling Charlie that I'm worried as she's worried enough about me doing the M5 on my own tomorrow anyway.

Before I go down I want to nip into town and buy her something which I won't mention on here as it's a bit soppy. But osmething that will possibly go down well during the 2 weeks we'll shortly have to spend apart.

I'm off to watch 24 series 4 dvd now before I start on the just bought series 5 so I can be right up to date again when series 6 starts in mid January (Lost and 24 back to back on Sky One on a Sunday night shortly....mmmmmm!).

I'm going to come back in a bit and do a review of 2006 type post because I feel the need to note this one as it's been a bit of a landmark year for me.

Coffee calls!

Yay for being back home an hour before I'm supposed to be.

As we're doing admin at work til after New Year rather than answering phones, there's no pressure to be there at any point, so I turned up at 8:30 thanks to the wonderful traffic to be told if I started straight away and only took half an hour's lunch then I could go at 4:30pm. Tomorrow it's 4pm, hurrah!

So I've been to Asda to do a mini-shop, rang Computeach and left a message for them to call me bacl. Now I'll go watch an episode of 24 with a coffee, before cleaning the bathroom and settling down to evening TV with yesterday's pizza and potato salad. The Saturday TV thing on BBC2 at 9pm looks good tonight, followed by the best of the muppets on ITV if I can be arsed.

All this is in aid of trying not to miss Charlie. My bed was hellishly empty without her last night. Ah well, 2 more sleeps and I'll be back with her for new year.

Hello and goodbye...I'm off to Torquay with Charlie for Christmas in the morning (via Nantwich and Manchester!), taking in various relatives and a Morrissey gig along the way.

I'll be back here on the 27th, so I'll sit down and have a catch up on what everyone's been doing for Christmas then.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! :D

More for my own reference. Here's what I will be covering in my course...alot of it actually makes sense too!

this
and this

I haven't spoken about my computing course for a long time really. Let me explain why.

When I agreed with IT Skills last year that I'd pay £130 for 5 years, it was to do an MCSD which is a Microsoft qualification in Solutions Development. They told me that it would take me approximately 9 months to complete at the rate of doing 10 hours a week and that I didn't need a background in computing to do it.

I was getting demoralised with the amount of time it was taking me, the lack of preparation I seemed to get for the actual exam questions and the lack of support I got from their staff - so a few months ago I cancelled my Direct Debit to them and quit the course.

I was pretty despondant about this as I thought my aptitude for computing and my intelligence level should have seen me able to do the work.

I decided to contact Computeach after seeing their ads on TV the other week just to see if I could get a second opinion and I met with an advisor on Thursday night. I told him about my experiences with IT Skills and he was agog. Apparently, the MCSD is the hardest Microsoft exam to attain...solutions development is something which you can't just walk into in the IT industry, it's a senior management position. Many experienced IT guys don't even try to do the course as it's not necessary. At the rate of 10 hours a week, Bob told me that I'd be looking at at least 5 years if not longer before I could get anywhere with it!!!

He's reviewed my strengths and after agreeing with me on a few things is applying for me to do a course which if I complete it will get me into Networking. As a minimum, I'm going to do the Internet Core Computing Certification and the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician qualification, with a view to doing the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer course once I'm working in IT. This course will cost me £75 a month for 2 years and I've been shown a list of vacancies in Cardiff currently - there's a lot.

I find out tomorrow if I'll be acepted onto the course. Fingers crossed!

On my second day of my first ever job where I need to drive to work, my car broke down. The alternator has probably gone, this will cost me in the region of £90 to get repaired. Money that I can ill afford to lose right now.

Added to that, the fact that the £3 bus ride will add an extra 2 hours on to my day tomorrow...well Steve is not a happy bunny right now.

I was not expecting to be estimated to have to pay £55 a month for gas and electric combined. When I last had a house on my own it was nearer £40.

For those on my friends list in the UK who might not be aware...

the third series of Lost starts tonight at 10pm on Sky 1. They're showing the first 2 episodes back to back.

If you can't make it tonight, then they're repeated I think on Thursday on SKy 1 and Friday on Sky 2.

For those who like Lost and don't have Sky, my sympathies...bittorrent is your friend.

I GOT THE JOB!

More details soon...I'm wrestling with an unstable connection right now, but Yay! :D

I will pop on to update about the job when I know, but I might not be around much until late next week now. Stu moving out will mean me moving my computer, changing phone lines and ISPs, so I might be offline completely for 3 days.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend :)

Well Monday night at the Bristol Academy was excellent of course!

Luke Toms the support was pretty good I thought. A dandy, he looked like the Duke from Moulin Rouge (musical version) and sounded a tad Divine Comedy-ish. I'll be looking out for more from him.

The Feeling have seriously polished their act since March. They now come on to a recorded vocal harmonising opening to Fill My Little World with lots of lights etc, and the set featured a shiny piano that Dan sat at for Miss You (the hidden track at the end of the album).

I think this was the set...

I Want You Now, Fill My Little World, Anyone, Same Old Stuff, Rose, Never Be Lonely, Miss You, Video Killed The Radio Star, Sewn, Helicopter, Join With Us, Love It When You Call / Blue Piccadilly.

Join With Us was still the highlight (although I do feel bad for cheering so hard for a track that is not released apart from as a free live download on their website. But that, Sewn, LIWYC and the surprise cover of VKTRS were immense!

I liked the Academy as well, super cool venue so I didn't boil for once at a gig, dead easy to get front row if you don't have a bag, and car park right by it that was only £1.60 for the night! I'd go back again for sure.