walkies!!!

good morning/afternoon/evening

James now has an armed and fully operational walking ring at his disposal, as pictured here.

James is most enamoured with what one would conventionally define as reverse gear, as well as an interesting "wobble move" left and right. going forward, alas, does not hold much interest for the lad, but i am sure that one day he will see the benefits of it. nonetheless, he always looks rather stylish when in his walking ring - just check the most smart "beanie" hat thingie!!

otherwise, no sign of a phone line yet at home, but we have been promised "soon". i look forward to reporting success in that area, then. sorry for all those who wanted to get emails from me but have not!

be excellent to each other!

S A 2 0 1 0

hey everyone

here's the logo for one of the biggest events to hit my adopted homeland. it looks smart, and it will be a smart time!!

i have no idea if i am supposed to freely post this, but i intend to make no profit from it, so i cannot see what harm will befall the distribution.

the countdown begins!!

Viva Zizou, Thank You

nice one sinbad, thank you for this explination as to why one of the greatest and most gifted players of all time bowed out, as it were, in such an interesting and somewhat unusual way!!

adept at grabbing toes, almost eating them...

hello again

not long after his experimentations with the bath ring, James did his usual class Obi-Wan impressions in his hooded towel, and then gave us an excellent display of his skills in grabbing his toes. alas, no shots of him attempting to eat his toes, but i am sure that these will illustrate his skill and prowess for you.

sorry that there are not too many "smiling" images. James tends to wait until the camera is put away before he starts posing and smiling. is he shy? not really, not really, not really no. he just likes annoying Daddy and his class camera.

be excellent to each other!!

James takes a bath himself (almost)

hi there

one of the "investments" we made over the weekend was a bath ring type of thing, which should allow James to have a good deal more freedom in the bath. that it certainly does, and as you can see he tends to use this new freedom to attempt to eat his toy ducks!

James at 29 Weeks (the big 3-0 around the corner)

hey everyone

well, at last here are the 29 week pics of James. erm, they were taken a little bit later in the evening than usual as we kind of got "involved" with V For Vendetta, as per the earlier posting. hence him being asleep :)

otherwise, James had a busy weekend. we went off shopping and had an as usual excellent breakfast at Wimpy, where James sat in a high chair and was given a balloon on a stick to smack around. nice one!!

i even managed to find a pair of Size 13 shoes that fit me, which Mrs R kindly bought for me!!

OK, i have more pics to upload, and the usual Monday verk things to do, so will sign off by advising all to be excellent to each other......

Sinbad's Avatar

hey everyone

just a reposting of Sinbad's avatar for his Metallica thingie.

a cinematic masterpiece

hey there

well, after many good reviews, one in particular from my good chum Blondie, we finally sat down to watch V for Vendetta last night. what a good decision it turned out to be!!

rare is it that i have seen such a scathing, socio-political statement made in such an entertaining, bold manner. i urge you to see it as soon as possible, unless of course it is the case that Michele and i are the last people on the planet to have gotten around to watching it.

there are the usual weekly pics of James, but they are at home! i will bring them in and upload them next week!

be excellent to each other!!

i'm truly sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing.....

good morning

well, with the impetus being the rather excellent BBC production of Blackpool, featuring an unusual and somewhat inspired use of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side on the soundtrack, i have uploaded the now Twenty (!!) year old epic album The Queen Is Dead into the Car Shuttle. is it the masterpiece by The Smiths? tough call - a lot of people see Strangeways Here We Come as having that honour, so to be on the safe side i have put that in too.

if you have a copy of either or both kicking around, why not treat yourself by loading it or them into your iPod, walkman, car CD, car tape, car shuttle, discman, 8 track or whatever device you listen to vibes on. if you have it on vinyl, you are a god and should play it loud.

be excellent to each other, and remember - some girls are bigger than others.

Snakes + Plane = Snakes On A Plane

OK, i know full well that this film has been doing the rounds dans le internet for some time now, but most people would appear to include a rather crass, oedipal-like reference in the title, and so i thought i would put a cleaner version up for the more casual and careful browser.

as far as i know, this film features Samuel L "Mace Jules" Jackson, an aeroplane, and some snakes.

it will probably have more artistic merit than the film version of Miami Vice.

no, no, no, no, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

hello there


last night i watched the trailer for this film version of Miami Vice. i kind of clung to a hope that, as Michael Mann was involved, it would be OK, and not a blasphemy against the original TV series. i seem to be wrong, very wrong.

i could almost be persuaded that one could kind of survive the concept of seeing Colin Farrel play Crocket. almost - if one had some sort of brain melt and forgot how excellent Don Johnson was in the role, then Farrel would not seem to be too bad. but unforgivable is Jamie Foxx as Tubbs. he just looks so wrong and so far out of his depth it is not funny.

the greatest obscenity of all, however, is reserved for the soundtrack. there was no hint whatsoever of the music of Jan Hammer audiable at all. for many people the music was Miami Vice. instead they have opted for some horrendous, sampled hip hop nonsense on the trailer. oh dear, so much for substance and style being at the core of the concept.

will i watch the film? probably, but i will complain all throughout it and complain a great deal afterwards. and they say Jeffrey Barnard is unwell......

be excellent to each other, ie reccomend the original Miami Vice to people who you suspect will blindly watch this pale imitation.

Superman Returns....and finds a class new format

well, "at last", the new Superman film, Superman Returns, has been released, after years of speculation, assumptions and so forth. going on numerous reports and screenshots on the internet (you know where to find them if you are so inclined), it would appear that the world is awash with pirate copies already. no mean feat, that, since as far as i was aware they had a huge security shroud wrapped around this one. oh well.

in regards of the above, i cannot for the life of me figure out why they do not just release the things on DVD at the same time as they do at the theatres. i mean, money earned is money earned, however people chose to pay to see it. no?

i have no doubts that i will bear witness to this film eventually, but i am in no rush. some "making of" thing on TV recently suggested that this lad playing the caped flying machine looks like a reasonable mimic of Christopher Reeve, but the problem could well be Lex Luthor. Kevin Spacey is a fine actor, if one pretends that the over-hyped, over-achieving and general disaster area that is American Beauty just never happened, but Gene Hackman was so outlandishly OTT and class in the originals that i cannot see how the more "restrained" interpretation of the part will hold up. ho hum, will be worth a look to see exactly what footage of Marlon Brando they have inserted and how.

be most excellent to each other, and if you want to see Superman return, please try to do so via legal, conventional means.

James and the class toy ball

hello again

here are some pics of James with his very noisy and very throwable toy plastic ball. oh, the simplicity and innocence of the youthful one - he can spend many a happy moment battering the hell out of it, and then throwing it on the floor so it makes a nice, loud "thud" sound as he watches it roll away.

thus far he has not lamped any of the cats with it, but it is only a matter of time before he clocks that his would be a good thing to try. he did come extremely close to lamping me with it, but then again that was kind of my fault for leaning over to pick something up in his usual chosen trajectory line for the thing.

i will post reports and updates as and when he breaks something with it, or the ball itself.

be excellent to each other!!!

James on his visits again

hi there

here are the only two usable pics of James heading off to visit Ouma Monica and what I suppose is called "Groot-Ouma" over the weekend. Michele and James haven't been able to go and see them for a few weeks now, owing to things like house moving, verk requirements and so forth. oh well, at least they got there this weekend!!

the rest of the pics Michele tried to take (something like 30 or 40!!) all suffered heavily from motion blur. James spent most of his time trying to grab the spectacles off the wearers, a favourite trick of his. whilst it is an impressive move that he does, and adds to his growing reputation as a possible Hannibal Lector for a new generation (you should see the look in his eyes as he moves closer to bite some one/thing any one/thing), it does make it tricky to snap away!!

whilst Michele and James were visiting, i sat and watched this Salo business. a rather revolting, disturbing film i guess - probably quite right that it was banned, for there is little or no artistic merit to the endeavour, unless you want to get all poncy, aloof, "Oxbridge" like and make up some sort of post-modernist nonsense to justify it. it shall sit at the back of the collection and remain untouched bar serious request.

be excellent to each other!!!

James at 28 weeks.......sing me to sleep

hey everyone

here at last are the pics of James at 28 weeks old. not many to pick from, as you can see he was sound asleep and thus not to be disturbed!!

his top two teeth are due out any day now - we can see them desperatley trying to break through the gum!!

be excellent to each other!!

nice one Matt!!

hey everyone

thanks to Matt, another oddity of the world of cinema is in my collection! i have not watched it yet, but thanks for the loan of
Salo!!! it looks ace!!

otherwise, my fathers' day gift from James arrived at last!! thank you very much indeed to James (and Mummy) for the Revenge Of The Nerds set, as well as Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), the latter featuring the ever impressive comic talents of Vic 'n Bob, so it is presumably smart!

i will endeavour to bring in new pics of James to upload for all to see next week!

be excellent to each other!!

enough!!!

i was browsing the web today and have discovered that yet another Saw movie is being released!!

the poster looks tasty (hee hee), but i fear that an original, creative film is about to have its reputation knackered by a series of sequels.

you never know, it may be good.

be excellent to each other, which means do not chain people to metal poles and give them a hack saw to sort it out with.

Mani The Cat - a larger image

hello hello hello

same post as before, really, but just testing to see if i can publish a larger, better copy of the story.

by all means click on and download the pic to have a proper look!

cute cat story

hey everyone

well, cute and sweet stories about cats are a dime a dozen, but it is rare that one features a cat named Mani. i presume the cat is named Mani as a tribute to the most excellent bass player formerly with The Stone Roses, now with Primal Scream.

enjoy!!

be excellent to each other!!

The 21st Of The Spiros

hey everyone

my good friend, or, if you will, "bum chum" Spiros has very kindly scanned a range of vintage images and passed them on to me. here you can see me, several years ago, dressed as the construction worker out of the Village People as part of the celebrations of his 21st birthday. i must say i do believe i look rather smart in the pics!

right right right, it seems that verk has some interesting challenges at 7 in the morning, so let me tackle them with aplomb.

be excellent to each other!!

Standing Tall and Proud!!

heya

we had a number of visitors over the weekend, but only thought to get the camera out on Sunday when Katie came to see cousin James! sorry Spiros and Linda, one day we shall remember to get a pic of James and Robbie together to put up here!!

as you can see, the pair of them are coming along very nicely indeed!!

thanks Grant for fixing up the cabinet thing for the TV and all that stuff!!

James had quite a lucky weekend, as it happens, as he got to see Grandma on both days of it!

remain being excellent to each other!

James at 27 weeks

hey everyone

well, still no connection to the oracle at home, but i can still upload these most excellent pics from verk. at least i do not need a telephone line to transfer the pics from the camera to the the pc to a cd!!

here is young Napoleon at 27 weeks - growing fast, as you can see!!

otherwise, unless you want a lot of moaning and complaining about not having a telephone line at home, not a great deal to report on!!

be excellent to each other!!

James and the Giant Ribs

hello

when not chewing on items like the War Of The Worlds soundtrack CD, James will try and demolish pretty much anything he can get his hands on as part of his quest to attain equilibrium with his teeth popping out. here he is busy with some rib bones after dinner last week. it would seem that James will very much be a meat man!!

otherwise, we had a long weekend down here in South Africa, which meant more unpacking. i unpacked some books. i can confim conclusively that i need a consiserable amount of new bookcases to finish that particular job.

Sunday was also my first ever father's day. i got a most excellent range of confectionaries, as well as a smart card from James, featuring a red hand print from the man himself. i look forward to the further exploits of his Mummy as he attempts to get the remains of that red paint off his hands!

righty-right, i am back at verk, and i seem to have some four days worth of reports to shift through to check that all the money is in the right place. have a more excellent day than i will be having, then!!

most importantly, be excellent to each other!!

James at 26 weeks (six months exact!!!)

hi everyone

well, the battle continues for connection, and it still looks like weeks, if not months, before i am online at home. i am debating a wireless connection in the interim, but that leaves me with a rather large bill and a 24 month contract. ho hum.

here is young Napoleon at exactly six months. those rosy red cheeks should tell you that he is going onwards with his teething! actually, his teething is coming along ever so well, and i believe James as a consequence reccomends the soundtrack for War Of The Worlds, as he spent a considerable amount of time on Sunday chewing that very box.

be excellent to each other!!

communication breakdown

hey everyone

just a quick one to let you know that, apparently, it will be another 6 to 8 weeks at the least before i have my telephone line back at home, which means no regular updates here!!

it's quite annoying, but what can one do??

James turns 6 months tomorrow!! i will do my best to upload the regularly irregular pics as soon as possible.

be excellent to each other!!

a most excellent album

a trend seems to be forming, and it is an excellent trend. more and more tv shows seem to be using music from Mezzanine by Massive Attack. in particular i was impressed by the usage of a sample of teardrop in a recent episode of Prison Break, the song that was also used and changed for the even more excellent series House.

if you do not have this album, or if you will "cd", you could do a lot worse than go and get it!!

James at 25 weeks (most recently)

hey everyone

well, here you go with the first pics of James in the new house, not that you can see much of the new house in them!! i promise i will upload pics of the house soon!

a bit of a scare yesterday - James had a high temperature, and so it was off to the doctor. it seems that he has a bit of a cold/flu thing. oh dear! anyway, he seems a bit better at the moment, and no doubt he will be fully fit soon!!

be excellent to each other!!

James at 24 weeks

here he is, in what i think is the last pic of him at our old house!!

the move, all things considered, went pretty well!!!!!

no access......James at 23 weeks

hi everyone

well, as a number of you will be aware, we have moved house recently. as a consequence, we have no telephone line installed as of yet, and thus i have no access to the oracle, so to speak.

we are rather busy at verk, but will try and give some belated updates, like this pic of James at 23 weeks.

will put the rest up now now!!

be excellent to each other!!