Toy Story 3

Have you seen it yet? i have and i bloody well enjoyed it.

There was a little organisation issue which meant waiting a little longer than expected. I ordered the tickets they day the film came out for "what i thought" was the IMAX 3D. So we rocked up to the reddragon centre on Wednesday (forgetting the orange Wednesday deal, even though i'm with orange) and it was packed !!! anyway i got my ticket from the machine and didnt even check them. They let us in and as we stood half way up the stairs lisa asked me "where's my glasses" to which the alarm bells went off, i wasnt having this.... About turn and back to the ticket man to enquire abou thte IMAX shabang. Did you know there's only 1 IMAX showing of toy story because every film released right now is also in the IMAX (shrek and Inception which looks good). Thus we could only get the 3d film and fair play to the staff they sorted us out.

This meant we had to wait an hour so the popcorn got eaten before we actually sat down. Right the film.....
I've been well into toy story i remember seeing it at a Butlins with my step brothers years and years ago thinking, this is a kids film i'm too cool for this, being about 14 at the time. But i loved it, it brought back memories of driving my tractors around mums plant pots and making massive railways around the house. The characters are superb and for me the best animated film in my locker. Toy Story 2 is better than 1 (for me anyway, except the part when Jessie reminisces about Emily leaving her on the side of the road with the crappy music). Fifteen years have passed since that toy story and landmark film for pixar, the cash cow in the library, fifteen years is a long time and i felt this film was made for us middle to late 20's and 30 +'s as the theme, like all pixar films has an adult level with lots of in jokes. However it's less fluffy that the previous 2 and addresses issues that maybe only the older viewer will fully understand. To get everything in they made it longer and very fast paced which keeps you involved all the way. Its a sweet ride and i recommend you all go see it.

I'm not gonna say anything about the plot because it's good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_FfHA5whXc&feature=channel

put the kettle on for this one......... (Part 1 of a few)

Hello everyone

I’m sorry these blogs have been inconsistent and laboured but it’s been quite a busy time, especially the more i think about it. People have got married, i’ve been ill, the world cup has taken centre stages, festivals season is upon us and we decided to do a mini tour of Europe which is where this blog begins.

The bases behind our journey was a wedding. Myself & Lisa, Neil and Keil were invited to the wedding of Elodie and Pierre, Elodie being an old friend of ours from our Netherlands days. (Me, neil and Keil studied there you see). Anyway she decided that extra entertainment was required for her wedding day so sent out some invites to us 3. The wedding was in Troyes (locations and detailed maps will follow) which we’d been to 5 or 6 years ago and is a lovely medieval town, for me a little like Chester but it’s VERY close to the wine regions which made us think..................we’re in france for a wedding so why not make a tour out of this.....

So the planning began.... Planning something like a mini European tour sounds very easy and the words come out of your mouth as easy as carbon dioxide, try it yourself! “Let’s plan a European mini tour” easy isn’t it. So where do you start????

GOOGLE EARTH that’s where you start people and it’s essential to active the road and train options as this makes life even easier. Google earth amazes me and they’ve even got a star and sea one now but i haven’t found a use for those yet. The need to navigate by stars wasn’t essential on this trip but i’m sure i’ll use that later in life. The plan began to unfold and a route appeared but some major hurdles had to be discussed, firstly how do we get to France? Ferry, plane or train..... For those who know me very well you’ll already know my preferred option and to my surprise everyone opted for my first option without hesitation, This option is of course the train, eurostar is something new to me and everyone else involved so from day 1 i was excited. Two reason 1, i like trains, 2 i find train stations fascinating and at risk of sounding cultured or “sad” (no I’ve already mentioned i like trains so sad has already been established) there amazing architectural structures (Paddington, St Pancras) so I was pumped.

Right so we’ve decided on a train to paris then we needed to get to troyes SO train again for that one and then myself lisa and keil would hire a car and drive down France towards Spain. The plan was coming together. 

Thus far the plan is

Cardiff to London (train) Thursday Night

London to Paris (Train) Friday Morning

Paris to Troyes (Train) Saturday Mid Morning

Troyes to South of France (Car) Monday Afternoon

Who has been on the eurostar? It’s very fast, easy, comfortable and not a bad price and for me put’s you in a different mindset. Unlike every trip outside of the Uk i’ve been on i’ve always flown so to go by train changed everything. When I fly, not sure about the rest of you, but you associate it with holiday time, sun tan lotion, problems at airports, being search by a very grumpy person at the airport, stupid questions like “did you pack this case yourself” and “are there any sharp or dangerous items in your bag” who would say, Yes I’ve got 4 knives, 2 guns and some pepper spray for the in-flight meal. Pointless question, even my mother attempted to take 6 or 7 cooking knives onto a plane on one of our family self catering holidays. She’s not a danger to anyone she just decided to take the cooler bag as hand lounge and forgot she’d laid knives on the top of the bag wrapped in a tea towel, BUT the security guys face at Cardiff “we wish we where an international” AIRPORT was priceless. He’d waited his whole life to see a bag containing deadly items appear on his little screen. Image if that had happened in America, saying that My mother got her bag searched there because she had a large can of hair mouse!!! The Americans didn’t like that especially so close to 9/11 and the security guard there provided us with the best line ever. After seeing her bag on a table for about 40 mins untouched we asked the security guy what was going on, politely we said “sir we’ve been told we can’t go until our bag is cleared so what’s taking so long” He replied in all seriousness. “You can’t blame us for the delay, Blame the terrorists!!!” YES people American airport security believe terrorists style their hair before every mission. There dicks..........

Anyway i was saying going on a train rather than flying puts you in a different mindset which is very relaxed, chilled and less hassle so you never think you’ve left the country. 

First destination PARIS. Hands up if you’ve been before!!!! “Meeee i have” and my first time was ok and just ok. This time however it was amazing, we arrived very early, i think around 9ish after our super ride on the eurostar. It’s immence, fast, quiet, comfortable (i’ve said this before) but no bloody CROISANTT’S which upset a French man at in the food carriage. He was great though, he told us he travels on eurostar 2 or 3 times a week and no croissants, EVER. He picked up the plastic display version but they wouldn’t even let him have that.

Seeing new cities is always interesting but i would recommend jumping on one of those red tourist buses that covers everything a “tourist” wants to see, you can hop on and off and they run pretty late plus you can get a 2 day pass. So our red bus route was Tour Eiffel, Champ de Mars, Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee D’Orsay, Opera, Champs Elysees, Grang Palais and Trocadero and it takes about 2 hours if you stay on the bus but you really need to get off any wonder around. We didn’t go into any museums because of time restraints but saw everything and under the Eiffel tower we came across a MASSIVE skate ramp. At the time we had no idea what was going on but watch this.............. he just jumped off the Eiffel tower wearing inline skates onto a massive ramp they’ve knocked up.

So from here we went to Troyes, the medieval place i was on about. Now, i’ve been to a few weddings in my time and thought i knew what was coming, but how wrong was i! In the UK weddings are very formal and have a strict structure which, to my naivety, i thought happened everywhere but  i was wrong. In France it’s alllll different, well not that different, one to many L’s there but it’s just a different line up i suppose..... So the format goes something like this Immediate friends and family (us included as we’d travelled from the UK) attend the town hall with mayor and sign the documentation with his approval.

Then – Photo’s and to the Church for the GOD part (Remember there already married on paper by now)

Then – more photos, and to the evening venue. Here you have 3 hours where EVERYONE who know’s the couple turn up for canapés and champers darling. After the 3 hours the uninvited meal guests leave and....

Then – We all sit down for food. So from 8 pm to 1 AM in the morning you eat. 6 courses of food and its a salad, pate, fish dish, meat dish, dessert, cheeses THEN coffee and then DRINK DRINK DRINK. At this wedding there was 89 guest and to the disappointment of the brides father we only drank 8- bottles of champagne(Very good champagne too as we’re in the champagne district at this stage) The champagne was joined by massive buckets of beer, spirits and i can’t really remember.

Now, whilst we ate there was an array of random skits (little performances by brides maids, best man and best mates, random dancing etc etc) but it was ALL amazing and so relaxed. Overall it was the best wedding i’ve been too and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Elodie and Pierre.

Here’s some picture of the night!!!

Time for a sticker or two

Panini sticker book.

I’ve written about this in the past, in fact i think it was a very early culture vulture. Number 4 ???. In that article I discussed the wonder of sticker collections and how it captured the imagination. This time with the world cup it’s happened again but I have a different reason behind my sticker addiction. This time it’s for sentimental reasons and 20 or 30 years from now i hope my work comes into its own.

Anyway, the excitement of purchasing a pack of stickers and opening them is immense. 50 pence has been put back on the map and the sheer mention of the word Panini stickers at your local news agent, supermarket or street corner perks up the ears of nearly 30 something’s around the land. I’d say our book is over half way done but we’ve got a lot to do and there is now an online world of SWAPSIES sites and forums, it is amazing. The usual suspects have sites i.e facebook all dedicated to lists of numbers which correspond to stickers needed but I’ve noticed Panini has missed a generation. The late teens to early 20’s don’t share the excitement and when i told my girlfriends brother I was going to buy some panini’s and asked if he needed a pack I was greeted with a 2 reactions. The first reply was “can I have a ham and cheese” which made me think, “does he know what i’m on about here” so i explained and the second reaction was a  look which i’d expect Blair to display when his general said “ Sir we now think saddam didn’t have any WMD’s”. But there we go and In this world of “green” we still feel the need to print books and fill them with stickers and i hope the tree’s don’t mind. It’s only once every four years...................

Enough words now some pictures which highlights a key moment in the world of PANINI

p.s a massive blog to come about our european trip!!!!

hello..............

Hello all,

it's been a long long time since i updated this and i can only apologise. This isn't a full blog but a little nudge to say that I'm still here and this blog will continue. It's been a busy few months for me with work (blah blah boring) and trying to get other ideas up and running as well as some cool travelling. All of which i'll blog about over the next few days.

So hi and more to come ASAP

choice.............

Living away from the parents brings a lot of new concepts, one being the weekly food shop. Now your out on your own in the "real" world you find it an unnecessary necessary to venture to those colossal soul-less buildings usually situated "out of town" for our convenience. There an interesting bunch and all come in oblongs, Tesco Extra (oblong) Asda (oblong), Morrison (oblong), Sainsbury (Oblong), Somerfield (can't afford the oblong so a square) but you get the point.

So we all venture into these establishments, more than we'd like to, and we're constantly bombarded with price comparison adverts aimed at teasing us to enter Asda because their bog roll is 1pence cheaper than Tesco or Morrison offers a market style supermarket to make us feel like we're back in the war or living in a normal society where shops exist on the high street............ It's a bit like this election isn't it, Asda are the Green Party, Tesco -Conservatives, Morrisson - Lib Dems, Sainsbury - Labour, Somerfield - UKip, anyway there all trying to get our money.

So we all fall through their doors but my point being I now get to choose everything that goes in my cupboard or fridge and I've noticed little things about my buying habits. Basically if its got a yellow sticker on it i'm interested. e.g. if there's some kind of bogof, money off, promotional thing then its more than likely i'm gonna pick it up but these little things only apply to random items we buy. The coffee tag is true, your more loyal to your coffee brand than your bank and i believe that, we've settled into a coffee brand and we're sticking with it  but I've noticed I'll buy any variety of butter which is on offer which leads me onto the main point of this blog. What's a good butter to buy............

Now, over the last 7 or 8 months i've subconsciously been rating spreadable butter and this only came to light this afternoon. It's one of the only items i'll go mad on and purchase at the drop of a hat without much thought. Obviously there's some basic rules, mainly it must come from cows. You may go, of course you idiot but ahoy Lisa purchases soya spread which is plant thing in a tub and then tastes weird and it's ALWAYS the last spread left in the fridge. I never thought butter brands could taste different until GOLD changed their recipe years and years ago. do you remember gold? Just tried to get a picture for you and there seems to be a massive campaign to bring it back. Anyway it was nice then it went horrible, Why?? (crap picture i know)

So I've been mixing up my spreadable butter/spreads and here we go.

5. Country life -

 i want to butter my toast ASAP not wait half an hour and only get enough to cover half of the bread whilst the other half is ripped to shreds because i get inpatient and the knife does its worse.


4. I cant Believe its not butter -

Now, it does spread well but taste wise its not got much going for it.

3. Utterly Butterly -

For me this is similiar to number 4 but, now im a tad clumsy and always drop the butter (ha ha yes butter fingers hahahahaha) but other than taste, colour, spreadability a sturdy lid comes into play and it does my head in when you cant get the lid on properly becasue a little corner has broken. So this is the only reasen UB is in 3 as the lid is better than 4.

TOP 2 and its very close

2. Clover -

Long standing number 1 in my eyes, tastes good, melts well on butter, solid performer and good lid but.......

1. Flora -

Flora has taken the top spot because it's less salty than our friend Clover. And omg on the spreadable, flows off the knife onto the bread like nothing else out there.  But i'd only have come across such a vast spreadable options thanks to those yellow discount stickers.

Well done "offers" and there's another random blog.

*note there are not the actually tubs i bought.

gavin@theallotmentpr.com

happy easter people.........

i hope you all had a nice Easter with plenty of food and drinks...........

Mine was work based and didn't really have any time off to indulge in the nicertese of life, but saying that i was out most nights  enjoying a variety of wines and stouts with lovely company. The whole Easter merry go round has kind of passed me bye which is rather odd considering i work for the salvation army, but there you go. So, this blog is related to my previous one and one line in particular that i wrote, i'll quote it now using the traditional " (quotations) and it was written as my 2nd pro under easter

"presents (if your from one of those families, we didn't get anything but there you go)" well I got something this year guys. Not what you'd expect but you can have a moment to guess.............................................................


nope your all wrong. If you've scrolled down then you know by now but i got a vacuum cleaner!!! Surprised? yep me too but (this may be my age) it's a super gift for our house. Matt has a vacuum cleaner, well more of a vacuum cleaning shell. I say that because i'm not sure it understands the basic principles of a vacuum cleaner which is to suck things it. It's brilliant at moving things around the floor but you never hear that sound of items rushing up the pipe. The sound you only really notice when you suck up some money. Anyway it's incapable of the sucking so dun dun duuuuun super mazza aka my mum presented me with a VAX cleaner. Check out the before and after pictures of the vax not built then built. by me

3 screws and it's put together, amazing and 2200 WATTS of power which will suck up any house but also means its the loudest possession under our roof. anywhoo i've woffle on again so for now people Happy Easter and have a nice week


Gavin.


again please meail me at gavin@theallotmentpr.com or gavin@culturevulturezine.com if you'd like up dates about this blog or anything else


Gavin

It's day light saving time...............

hello all,

its been a few weeks since i posted something and its not down to a lack of things to write about but i've been mulling over feedback about this and chatting with experienced bloggers e.g. Nick. There seems to be an unwritten code to blogging and i've been given lesson 101 on "best practice" and the main lesson is, new topic equals new blog. But i'm still playing with my style so we'll evolve together....

Easter is upon us and i've been thinking about easter and christmas, not thinking but comparing and not based on religious merit but more on how much stuff you get for free. Obviously Christmas wins hands down on actual things you unwrap but what about the other stuff! so here is a pro's and con's of christmas vs easter

Christmas Pro's and con's

Pro's

presents
family
food (Christmas dinner, best meal of the year???)
alcohol
tree/decorations

Con's

bad tv (what happened, it used to be amazing)
traveling (lot's and lots of traveling from family to family)
itchy jumpers
Means new years eve is around teh corner (its just annoying)
tree/decorations  (i dont like it when there taken down)
reality tv stuff taking over christmas
songs

Easter pr's and con's

Pro's

its spring and USUALLY nice weather
presents (if your from one of those families, we didnt get anything but there you go)
Family
Easter eggs / loads of chocolate
nice food
TV seems better (easter sunday channel 5 - wizard of oz then big fish)
hot cross buns
no coke related merchandise
no reality tv related crap using a holiday to make money
Summer is coming - festivals (future blog)

Con's

not as many presents
for me, no time off work
ummmmmmmmmmmmm can't think of anything else, got any suggestions???


both have football so that's good. So on that bases Easter Wins. well done easter

look we bought some eggs

thats 126 eggs in my car aka big dunc. yes we had to fold the seats down....................................................







have a nice easter. more posts to come

Gavin

written whilst listening to Capdown

What, When, Where, How, Why?

hello people.

Firstly thanks for the comments after my first proper blog, very well received and i think i've sorted out the subscription thingy, there should be a section on this page somewhere for you to click and you get an email everytime i blog.

i used the 5 title words this week for a presentation I did for work. Myself and my manager rocked up to Glamorgan's atrium, very nice shinny white building and stood in-front of slightly interested students, (some asked us questions afterwards). I'm trying to get universities involved in the salvation army by getting the students to make dvd's for us, fingers crossed we'll get interest. picture below is my boss preping himself before we go on. And by the way i've never seen so many mac's in one room.

in the world of the allotment its been a busy week, i used my nice book which lisa bought me for my birthday last year, i would have written nice new book but its old now. I should get browny points for using it and showing a picture of it here....

This book is my jotter plan (new phrase for business plans) i'm adopting the chaos theory business module and making everything up as i go, which is what i understand chaos theory to be but i'm sure there's a wiki page about it. o yep here you go. Its a nice book though isn't it, leather with a lovely elastic thingy to keep all my jotting in one place. But if you see this book please return it to me, no doubt i'll leave it somewhere as i do with a lot of things. Lisa, Nick CV and my mum will vouch for me on that. So with this book i can strive forward "to infinite and beyond"

That reminds me, Toy Story 3!!! is coming out on 3D and because of that i've google it and found the official traile,r please check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_FfHA5whXc . A spanish buzz and andy is going to college, what will the team do??? and 2nd most exiting thing, more randy newman songs. I got reminder of this because we got UP on Blue Ray last night and both of the new batman's which we're watching tonight BACK TO BACK!. I'm down the with blue ray and ps3 for having that within its magical walls. My playstation archive is growing now i purchased fight night 4 and tiger woods golf so if your on the ps3 add me and we'll game it up, my addy thing is GJBonson.

Anyway those things are all indoor activities, there has been outdoor developments for us. Lisa picked her bike up from the bike shop. What a legend that place is, Tom Davies Cycles and its a proper old skool shop.No organisation to be seen anywhere unless you count the baskets full of paperwork and bikes arranged  under the filing style of avant garde. Actually its the real life definition of chaos theory, any academics out there looking for an example of chaos theory management in progress, the Tom Davies Cycles is the place to be. If you have a bike or looking for a new one then go to this place. it's a traditional family business with staff who really do know what there on about, well for basic cycling needs anyway. Lisa was very impressed and it was really cheap plus the senior bike women person takes all the bikes out for a test run and reported back that Lisa's bike is a very good ride!

Other outside activities have been pencilled in for this weekend and most exciting is the overhaul of the greenroom's (Name of our HQ as everything seems to be green here) garden. Whether this happens is another matter but the plan is to plant some seeds (which i cant find right now) into old wellies and wait for our crop. Any tips from anyone??? please comment, email, what ever but it would be nice for some help here.
We'll take pictures and hopefully report back next week.....

Wow post is here and i'm gonna sign off, but not before i list my top 5 snacks to have whilst blogging.

1. Munchies (note leather book picture)
2. Pringles (90 in a tube now)
3. Toast with nutella on
4. Galaxy bar ( an chocolate wont do)
5. Dried fruit

and for those asking when the next Culture Vulture is out - i don't know. Email super N Dog nick@culturevulturezine.com that's .COM now same for the wesite, www.culturevulturezine.COM i think 2010 will be a good year for Culture Vulture.

p.s is this the best beard ever????? and meet stavros

P.P.S the subscription thing is weird if you'd like an email sent out when i update this then please email me at:

gavin@theallotmentpr.com or gavin@culturevulturezine.com and i'll set up a group. Also if you want to send me anything via post (zines, music, films, artwork, etc etc etc) or enquire about marketing help for your business, that's the best place to ask for the address