Give this man a round of a applause and a big fat DUI !!!

Well done sir! I see someone wasn't listening to all those thousands of road safety ad's that run on tv all day every day...


*note the lovely new angle of our telegraph pole

So last night I had been out with Matt, Raj and Sarah, up at the Odyssey watching 'Hitch' (yes, yes it is the second time I've seen it...but Kevin James just cracks me up...) and returned home only to find THIS outside my door...


"atmospheric" photo of the drunk's totalled car ...I'm pretty sure this is how he saw it too...idiot

After dropping Sarah home we decided to grab a bite to eat...which I guess added a good 45mins onto our travel time...

CAN U IMAGINE IF WE HADN'T???!!! Matt's car would have been parked there! Or it could have been us he crashed into...eesh...it just doesn't bare thinking about...

My first thought as we pulled up was "oh lord don't let that be dads car" as it was the same colour and from a distance roughly the same size. My knees nearly went from under me as I ran up the street

I thank God it wasn't. His car was still tucked neatly in the driveway, and he and mum were fast asleep in bed...didn't even hear the almighty bang of the crash...

All the neighbours were out in the street...some said the car was being chased...but y'all know what nosey neighbour gossip can be like!

The driver had been pulled out of the car by the time we got there and was being questioned in the back of the police car. Drunk. He was feckin DRUNK! What an idiot. He could have killed someone! He had hit another car, but thankfully the girl was ok...a bit shaken up, but physically ok...

The telegraph pole was another story...the hit had taken it right out of the ground and it was kinda balancing by it's wires. Somehow though we still had a line from our phone...go figure...

The BT guys have been out there all morning fixing it. Think they've managed to get it upright again! *applauds*

Anyways...moral of this story folks... Never EVER drink & drive ...it's not big, and it's not clever.

Favouritest song...ever!!!

Well, much of today was spent down at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast at a Business Ireland trade show, where companies get the chance to meet potential clients and other business contacts face-to-face, showcase new products and services, and raise awareness of company activities blah blah blah blah...

I had been asked to attend as a guest of the Prince's Trust, and the general idea was that I could go meet people, show off my portfolio, hand out cards etc...and then also be there to testify that the Prince's Trust was an essential component in helping me get my business off the ground...which incidentally they were.

Anyhoo, besides the random 'networking', most of my day was spent catching up with an old work buddy, Kerry, from the Cinemagic days...salivating over the new Mac Powerbook complete with the shiny new Tiger OS...and having my business cards slagged off by Todd Kelman, who then tried to convince me his printing company could do them much better...hmmph...well, we'll see! =P

Anyways...when I got home I logged on to msn messenger for some general chit-chat and amusement whilst I waited on Matty coming over with food...he'd nipped home after dropping me off so he could shower and change after work...tho not necessarily in that order...

Sarah, the shiny one, was online so we exchanged pleasantries, caught up on the days events and then proceeded to update her music collection...

(It turned out to be the right time to do this as Matt ended up taking two and a half hours to shower and change....*blinkblink* whyeee, I ask you?! At least when I take forever I have a 'makeuping' excuse...but anyhoo...)

A couple of the cd's she had previously foraged for on my behalf in Nottingham (during the playoff weekend) were Ben Harper's 'Burn To Shine' and 'There Will Be A Light' with the Blind Boys Of Alabama...so I figured it was only right she hear a couple of the songs, which of course will eventually enrich her life in many many ways...

So as I was flipping through the tracks on iTunes, deciding which she needed to hear most...I was listening to one called 'Not Fire, Not Ice' which was on his 'Ground On Down' single. THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the one! My absolute favouritest song ever. If you havent heard it, go out and buy it...right now...go on!

Well with this in mind I decided to revive my Top 5's that I used to do every six months or so when I was a kid....don't laugh, I had a little book for them an' everythin'!

I'm thinking I might do them a bit more frequently than that, but whatever I may as well start with this months Top 5 most listened to songs, seeing as this is kinda were we're stemming from. I'm actually taking the play count data directly from iTunes, so here goes...

Top 5 Frequently played Songs of April 2005

5. Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
4. Temporary Remedy - Ben Harper
3. High Tide or Low Tide - Ben Harper & Jack Johnson
2. Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
...and at number 1... Not Fire, Not Ice - Ben Harper

Yes folks, as you can see there is a bit of a running theme here...

Despite me having more music than MTV itself, I just cant seem to tear myself away from these two particular musical geniuses...and you'll just have to stay posted to see if that changes over the next few weeks =P

In the meantime, go buy everything ever penned or recorded by both of them...honestly, once your bank balance realigns itself with the circling of venus, you will thank me for it...I promise! ;o)

xx jo

It's Here! It's Here!! =D

Devils Jersey (front)

=D Yay! How exciting is it when you run downstairs in the morning to find a nice big shiny parcel waiting for you to open? It rocks, doesnt it?

Well what can I say apart from...IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE!!!!!!

*giggles* ...ok...so I'm a tad excited...and yes, very very sad ;o) lol

Incidentally this thing is huge...across the chest from arm to arm it stretches 6ft...eek! That's some reach!

It has a reasonable amount of wear for only being worn during the away play off games, some puck marks, a couple of holes in the right sleeve, stretched and now wonky lettering and some sticky stuff from the stick tape on the right arm =)

I'm sure I'll get a pic taken asap of me getting lost in it and when I do, I'll post it here...I haven't even had a chance to see how it measures up to Paxtons yet!

Right, gotta run do something that's considered "constructive"

Catch y'all later

xx jo


Devils Jersey (back)

...can you tell I'm bored?

*sigh* ...lack of sleep does strange things to ya folks...

Tonight in my intense state of tiredness I've suddenly become ponderous of many many silly things...like if Hooters were to become a door-to-door service would they have to change their name to Knockers? When you snap your fingers, does the sound occur when your middle finger releases from your thumb, or when your middle finger hits the palm of your hand? Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours? ...and just what the feck was Captian Hook's name, before he had a hook for a hand? eh?

...answers on a postcard....


Jersey Status: Not here yet *pout*
Eye Status: Twitching

going...Going...GONE!!

*grins mischeiviously* I love auctions...

I cant help it. It's such a great feeling when you finally get that thing you've been watching so intently for the last 2 weeks.

I'm a big fan of sniping in at the last minute on ebay. A fixed ending time on an item makes it all so easy. But what happens when the item you want has a clause that all bidding must have ended for a solid 5 minutes before the auction will close...

Well...I'll tell ya...

YOU HAVE A FECKIN HEART ATTACK, THATS WOT!!!

*clears throat*

'scuse me...*re-composes self* ...well, I almost had one...it's just waaay too much pressure... You think you've finally got it when no one has bid after 4mins and 50 seconds....then in comes some git bidding 400 million squid more than you can afford!!

eesh! I originally had my eye on Craigheads #88 red road jersey, but as the bid's went on during the first week, this went quite a bit higher than the white home one.

Today was the final day of the auction and, as the bids hadnt really changed from the week before, I turned my attention to the home shirt.

I waited, not so patiently, till the last minute of play then entered my bid...and I was immediately outbid by someone else by the time the page reloaded. I tried again. Right, I had the high bid. The ending time was up and the five minutes of overtime started counting down...with ten seconds left I refreshed the browser....aaarrrghh! I had been outbid AGAIN! I tried once more...and then again...and just one last time...but I'm pretty sure, whoever this annoying little rat was, must have had £500, or maybe more, on it...as the final bid for this shirt was 460 quid! Yikes!

Now I know it's not unusual for a jersey to go for this amount, and maybe even more...but as much as I like Craighead, I wouldn't have imagined his jersey reaching the 500 mark....anyhoo...

I quickly flicked back to my original choice of the red shirt...and to my surprise bidding had hardly changed...yay! ...I quickly rushed a bid through and was the highbidder...finally...

The overtime started again...eesh I couldnt handle this...I was soo tense, my heart going nine to the dozen...

With 2 minutes to go suddently the time sprang back to 5 minutes again! I almost passed out, but I still had the high bid...for now...

All I could think was, 'ok, whoever that last bidder was, he didn't get it that time...he'll be back'...

...my hand reached for the whiskey...

Two seconds left on the clock and I did the dreaded refresh...I still had it...holy crap! Refresh! REFRESH!!!

The browser stuttered for what seemed like an hour...just for dramatic effect...but finally when it came to, the auction had closed...

I had it!! Yay! Go me!

Now I just cant wait to get it! It's like XXXL, and the weirdo hockey freak in me just want's to measure it against mum's Mel Angelstad jersey and my Paxton Schulte one...I'm just gonna assume it wont be as big as any of the Mike Torchia ones! =/ ...but I'll let ya know! lol

Eeeee I'm all esscited! ...the only probem now being - how the hell am I gonna get rid of this fixed grin?!

xx jo =D


John Craighead in his red road jersey
EIHL Auctions

Just couple more pic's from playoff weekend... =)

Jason Cugnet ...............and Mike Hicks


Johnny Craighead


Sarah & Maxi ......................and the Cardiff bench


Devils v Panthers


Raj confuses Matt with the power of his Berry Juice

Come fly with me...

(Monday 11th April - Playoff Weekend in Nottingham, Day three)
(...going home)


Next morning, despite all odds, we woke up bright and early.....well...early, anyways...

To be honest we didnt have much of a choice if we wanted to go up into town before boarding our coach at 11:45am to head back to Birmingham Airport.

Matt had been wanting to go up to the guitar shop behind the arena all weekend, so finally he was to get his wish. Lu had already gone out with Sarah and her parentals for the morning, and Raj was ill in his room, so it was just the two of us.

The shop wasn't really that interesting and some guy was playing geetar really badly in the corner so we left sharpish and went to find breakfast.

As we were walking up the hill into town we heard oxo calling from in a little hidden sandwich bar....which was handy - breakfast solved! We ordered and headed to Starbucks to retrieve everyone their morning coffee.

We got back to the hotel with about 20mins to spare, ate, then checked out.
Our coach was waiting outside and our coffee foraging came as a welcome remedy to the night before. Lu was still wondering what had happened to her shoes.

With weekend banter exchanged, Sterling did a head count...but something wasn't totalling up...
Somehow we had one more on the bus than we should've had.

He checked again...

HELGA! Joe's new girlfriend had somehow managed to stow away with us on the bus...
Sterling tried to tell her she couldn't come with us, but she looked so deflated he decided to let her stay...

She even managed to sweet talk the FlyBE staff into letting her on the flight without a passport (!) and Joe carried her the whole way through checkin, security checks, and onto the plane...boy she had them all whipped ;o)

On the way through the xray at security it was discovered she was having twins! TWINS! Slapper...she's only 14!


The happy couple: Joe & Helga

By the time we got to the the flight gate everyone was wrecked...again. Especially Bill who had been spotted lying on the floor of the bar the night before trying to re-inflate Helgas ego... *cough* (sorry Bill lol)


Bill...hungover =P

Finally, after a rather smooth flight, we made it home, all safe and sound.

I cant believe the seasons finished again. It's aways sooo nice to see all our hockey friends from all over the country, all in one place...even for just a small time...and it sucks when it's over.
I know it's only a few months till September and everything starts over again, but eesh...it's gonna be such a long summer...

xx jo

Flights to Nottingham: £65 ...2 nights in hotel: £70 ...tickets to playoff finals: £60 ...finally getting that photo with Craighead: priceless!

Giants flag outside the NIC Arena


(Sunday 10th April - Playoff Weekend in Nottingham, Day two)
(Part 2)

In the break between games we headed back into town. It had gotten all sunny by this time and between my hair blowing round my face and the sun's glare in my eyes I could barely see!

I had remembered to pack sunglasses...everyone else had forgotten...so I was out-voted in going back to the hotel first to get them. We'd call in on the way back...

By the time we got to the center, everyone had gone off the idea of food. It was such a lovely day that we decided to just sit outside and relax for a while.
Now, you wouldn't think this would be any sort of traumatic experience...it's just...finding a clear spot, preferably near the fountains, and sitting down...EESH! I'm pretty sure we walked aimlessly round the square for about 20mins before I (yes, twas me!) took charge and directed everyone to a spot on a wall.

We sat there for a while, just chatting and watching the world go by, when right out of the blue the bin next to us swung open and molested sarah! We added bins to our tram and decided it was time to go...

We did call in to the hotel on the way back to the arena, though by this time getting my sunglasses was pointless as we were going straight in to the game. Screw it, I thought...and wore them anyway =P hehehe

To be honest watching our two biggest rival teams, the Nottingham Panthers and the Coventry Blaze, battle it out for the silverware was painful. Thankfully Dr Raj had a remedy...his dads special berry juice. It's basically just a home brew that was added to an Ice Blast Slushy and became known as "Gummy Berry Juice", thanks to Lu and her random naming of things ;o)


the cure

It was a great game of hockey, and that was all well and good...but I'd spent the entire weekend dandering round the arena and hadn't bumped into Mr Craighead once =(
As you can imagine I had aquired a rather pouty lip by this stage *sniffle*

The final game went into sudden death overtime, with some huge stops from both goalies, but in the end the Chaventry Blaze managed to score the winning goal and lift their burberry covered trophy in true chav style.... *sigh* ...it was a good goal...

We left them to their celebrations and headed out into the foyer. Suddenly something big and pink caught my eye. No, it wasnt a giant alien blamonge from the monty python sketch...although, after all that Gummy Berry Juice, it could well have been! ...but no! Twas the man himself, John Craighead...yay! Finally I was able to get a couple of photos that I took of him signed (see previous "giants v devils" post for photo example) and, of course I couldn't resist having one taken there and then =)


Me&JC

Yay me! That sooo made my weekend =)

All that was left to do now was to head to the bar and watch various people write all over Lu's shoes, socks and hat...which by the way, she still doesnt remember happening ;o) muhahaha...
That'll be the JD and Beechams effect, eh Lulabell?



I think matt's lovely out of focus...err, I mean "atmospheric" pic of me & raj kinda captures the berry juice effects nicely ;o)