Thursday, November 25, 2004

A long time ago a point of view

Was broadcast by Mr. Bartholomew.

And hello readers! As usual not much to report from my boring life. I've just taken an exam in Strategic and Project management which was as exciting as it sounds. Although I was really panicking about it yesterday I actually think it went rather well. So hopefully I'll be doing the higher level exams in May/June next year... Hang on, do I really want to be doing three exams at that time? I never really think these things through do I, eh readers?

Something rather good that happened to me is that I've found out that another girl thinks I'm attractive. A week or so ago I bumped into a friend from work and even though I only saw them for a minute or so, one of the people who my friend was with thought I was kinda cute. This is always nice to know. And the girl who works with my flatmate who thought I was cute has been asking about me again.

Other than that I've found out my job is moving teams, which doesn't really affect me too much as the team I'll be moving to sit right behind me. And I also know most of them already so I'm really not bothered about it.

The major thing that is happening to me is that I'm off to London for a special event. Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy) wrote this web show thingy called Ghosts Of Albion which is rather good and is most enjoyable to watch. There's a competition on there that if you get a question right (one is set every day) you get the chance to go to London for a special VIP event and for the chance to win a crown worth two thousand english pounds. So it should be good fun, I just got my ticket today so I've got to book a train to London for the 18th December. Wish me luck, I'll still remember you when I'm royalty.

Cheerio,
Ben x

Sunday, November 14, 2004

It's sixteen miles to the promised land

And I promise you I'm doing the best I can.

Hello readers and welcome to another posting where I go on about my life whilst people around the world are having problems infinitely worse than mine - which currently consist of worrying about exams, gizmos breaking on me and having to talk to girls.

Oh but I have spoken to some girls, remember the cleaner? Well when I got my haircut on Wednesday (still trying to grow it longer, but it needed tidying up) I saw her sitting - with a guy - by the fountain. Now of course I'm not brave enough to go up to someone in the street and chat them up, but on Thursday it was a different matter. Late at work she came close to my desk so I thought I'd mention I saw her the day before. And bless her I think made her really embarrassed, she didn't think anyone from NU would recognise her outside of the building. I think she was secretly quite impressed though. I doubt anything will happen but it's nice to talk to people you don't know (and it helps if you think they're rather cute).

Yesterday I had a mock exam in Project & Systems Management (you know it's taking accounting exams that must just make me irresistable to the opposite sex) and it went quite well. Just over fifty percent in two questions, twenty-five percent in another and over ninety percent in another. So I feel I just may have a chance in passing this exam, it's gonna be close though.

Recently I have bought the new Cake and the Donnas albums. Both are rather excellent, but I'm going to have to send the Donnas CD back as it didn't come with the DVD as promised. The Donnas are playing in London on my birthday (17th Feb) so I'm definitely going to have to go to that and see if they'll sing me Happy Birthday. Oh I went to see Dizzee Rascal on Friday - he was excellent. I highly recommend his brand of Hip-Hop - 'Grime' - to anyone.

That's about it - oh I have a new cousin called Scarlett and I understand she is quite a nice baby. I doubt she looks as nice as I look in my baby picture below, but then again who can?

Bye, I love you all.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004


A very cute baby

Me at a friend Sarah's birthday doing a hip-hop stance - I'm so cool!

Me giving the thumbs up

My Uncle Andy, me, Carl's 'friend' Gemma and my Uncle Carl going on Air

My brother Tom doing the biggles eyes

My little cousin Joe at Alton Towers

Cut off in my prime

OK, been meaning to write for a while but have simply not been able to get to a computer. Firstly about 3 weeks ago our phone line got cut off - not because we haven't been able to pay it - but because Tom (my really horrible flatmate) moved out and he decided to cut the phone off. This is why I haven't been on for ages.
I think the last messages I sent were some pics from when I went drinking with my colleagues. It was (as usual) a rather drunken night.

Other things I did was go to Alton Towers with my brother, my Uncle Andy, my cousin Joe and my Uncle Carl. It was a great day, the weather wasn't too bad & there were no queues so we got to go on all the rides. The best bit however was when we were leaving and (because it was nearly Halloween) there were a load of employees having to put on a show with scary music in the background (for example Thriller or the theme from Ghostbusters). There was this one guy who obviously didn't want to be there and just wasn't putting in the effort at all. I'm gonna try and include it as a movie on here if possible.

My Mum and Dad have been over. Mum looks really well, but my Dad's belly has just gotten huge. I hope that this doesn't mean it'll happen to me in the future...

I've finally moved flats - the old place was just getting far too manky. I have an even smaller room, but the place is nice and warm, has a good view and is really close to town. Little things like that really make a difference. Just need to get the shower & TV working properly...

I won an award at work for putting in the extra effort to complete something. What happened was we weren't charging VAT on some invoices for about 15 months. Unfortunately I had just taken on responsibility for invoices so I had to sort out the whole sorry mess. It turned out we owed the taxman £1,500,000. Quite a bit of shrapnel I'm sure you'd agree. So I have £125 worth of vouchers to spend.

Other than that, not much to report. Did I mention I fancied the cleaner at our work? She's younger than me, brunette and (natch) really cute. Perhaps I will ask her out next week, need to actually speak to her in the first place though...

I will write more regularly in the future. Oh the Zutons are a good band.

Sunday, October 03, 2004


me at the end of the night, pissed but finally looking at the camera

me, michelle & kully - looking up but also looking wistful

me & kully - my current boss

me early on... therefore i'm not looking up... i should've shaved though (still haven't however)

again looking up... this is really stupid

me & michelle

me, michelle & debbie at this point i started looking up for every picture

taken at the end of the night

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Dr. Jones: Wake Up Now

So I guess from the last comment on this site I haven't blogged for a while. Here's a quick update of what's happened in the past week or so:
  • Emma and I handed in our notice at the flat to move into a new place
  • Emma went back to look at the new place again and the landlord was being really dodgy to her "You remind me of my wife... You can't afford the rent, come work at my restaurant". Needless to say we didn't take it.
  • Just looked at another flat today. Rather expensive (more than twice as much as I currently pay), but I think it's worth it. Need to speak to Emma about it.
  • Worked exceptionally long hours almost every day. I stayed so long that the cleaners were having to clean around me.
  • Realised one of the cleaners is rather cute.
  • Got Rilo Kiley's (More Adventurous) and Nellie McKay's (Get Away From Me) new albums. Both are rather excellent.
  • Watched the usual American shows.
  • Finished watched my series 2 DVD of Alias. As usual a classic.
  • Wore a black tie to work in honour of Brian Clough. He was the best manager my football team ever had and he died last week.
  • Wore a lucky green jumper on Sunday for Forest's footy game as that's what Cloughie wore to every match. We finally won our first game of the season. Cloughie had something to do with that.
  • Saw a GameCube with Donkey Konga on it. Seems like it will be one of the best games I could possibly play.

That's about it. Oh and the cavaliers and roundheads were having a fight near my house, but I'll write more about that later.

Bye!

Saturday, September 18, 2004

I'm Greg Dyke...

and I was director general of the BBC.

But anyway. I'm currently halfway through my 5 hour tape of American shows that I recorded during the week which is Sopranos, 6ft Under, Nip/Tuck and Line of Fire. I would include the West Wing in that but I actually watched it when it was on instead of being asleep at ten o'clock. You may not know what Line of Fire is but it's a rather good FBI vs Mob show. It flicks between both sides and I'm rooting for the Feds.

Oh forgot to mention that Laura Prepon (that 70's Show), Alicia Witt (Cybil) and Lauren Ambrose (6ft Under) are also cute Redheads. And also I'm not purely into redheads. Just that I feel they're not recognised as the cute creatures they are. Most people would just be against redheads. And that's a Bad Thing in my book. Can I just say I fancy both brunettes, blondes and redheads equally.

Well, I'm planning on doing nothing this weekend. Saturday is nearly over and all I've done is listen to BBC radio 2, which is meant to be the old fogies channel but actually plays some decent tunes. Then I watched my video and now I'm drinking some Becks. Gonna have an early night.

On Wednesday I went to a pub quiz with some mates from work. Decided to drink Guiness instead of my usual Becks. Unfortunately this coincided with me wearing a green jacket and a white/green top. So everyone was teasing me that I looked Irish. And because I wasn't drinking my usual beverage (and the fact I foolishly forgot to eat when I got back from work) I got a little more lubricated than usual.

According to Debbie who was there this meant that I just was really chatty compared to usual. Two other people there had been at a team building session which meant they were really pissed and therefore really not chatty. So I came out of the whole thing in a good light. And we came third so we got a load of booze.

The only bad thing was Debbie was teasing me about a really gorgeous mate of hers called Sophie who was at the quiz. I thought she was good looking, but not my kind of girl.

Some news just in... When I was looking at a flat with Emma, my current flatmate we bumped into one of her friends on the way back. A while later I was saying that she was really cute, but Emma said she didn't think she was my type. Just now Emma said "Oh, I've got some good/bad news. You know that girl Freya you thought was cute? She thought you were really cute too. And now she's gone to university." My timing is really bad.

Ah well. At least I know I'm cute. From four different people now.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Redheads

Why are redheads so cute? I dunno but here is my list of cute redheads :

  • Enie van de Meiklokjes - a really cute German girl on TV
  • Amber Baretto - a cute girl from the crappy sitcom Hang Time
  • Jennifer Garner - I know she's not a proper redhead, but that first episode of Alias was really good
  • Isla Fisher - used to be in Home & Away I had a massive crush on her
  • Heine - is in a band called Bitch Alert I saw them in York. Very nice
  • Nicky - strictly speaking she has pink hair but my workmates know her and say I would like her so I guess she should be included on this
  • Franke Potente - the star of Run Lola Run
  • Linzi - the most gorgeous, sexiest redhead ever!

Sunday, September 12, 2004


This is the spot on my finger. It was most annoying

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Bad news for me

But good news for all you ladies! Just found out Jenny already has a boyfriend. Ah well, you shouldn't let something like this set you back. I'm still gonna go out on Monday, who knows there may be someone there who takes my fancy. Still, bummer eh?

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

A spot of bother

I've got a spot on the end of my finger. It's really annoying and whenever I touch my finger (which is often as it's my middle finger on right hand) it hurts. Hopefully it will disappear soon. I'm gonna try and get a picture soon just to annoy everyone who looks at the page.

I thought Jenny was supposed to be back on Saturday, so I called in the sandwich shop but she wasn't there. I did see on the calendar there that she was supposed to be working then. I guess she must have been on a break. By Monday I decided I should do something about the situation so I gave her a call. She was away so I left a message on her voicemail saying that I hoped she had a good holiday and would she want to go for a drink on Wednesday? She texted back saying she couldn't on Wednesday 'cos she's filming (don't know what that means - hope I get to find out) but would I want to go for a drink on Monday for her friends birthday. Obviously I said yes.

And my friend Cathy in California is getting worried about a wedding she has to go to. Let me say: Cathy you are really hot and cute and I'm sure you'd look good in that bridesmaid dress - even if you're not!

Sunday, September 05, 2004

We all live in a headphone world

The headphones on my mp3 player (no iPod for me - I'm not cool enough for that) have finally given up the ghost. As usually happens with headphones one 'bud' (I think that's the technical term for them) kept cutting out so for it to work I had to keep putting a finger in my ear in the style of Ron Burgundy - Anchorman. God I love Will Ferrell. And not in a macho blokey sort of a way - in a french kissing sort of a way*. And I want to see Dodgeball too.

Anyway, the headphones. I decided to spend a fortune on them so I went to the coolest hi-fi store (£10,000 speakers? Well worth it I'm sure you'd agree) and bought some Sennheiser Noise Reducing Headphones. For ninety quid.

Now I know what you're saying "But Ben, ninety quid for some headphones? Isn't that a little too much to spend, considering you might be moving into a new more expensive flat and have just bought a reasonably expensive laptop?" Well I say, tch money eh? I'm going to be broke this month, but I have full faith that I will be able to pay off my Visa bill this month and still have enough money for the antics and scrapes that a bounder like me gets involved with. Also, these headphones are amazing. They have this little box that they connect to and when you turn it on it cuts out most of the noise in the background. This became most useful when I was on the train today and was able to silence the 'grrrrrrrrrrrr-clunkety-clunkety-grrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRrrrrrr-clunk-clunkety-clunk-ono-ono-onomatopea-clunk' of the train's engine at once. A wise investment. ("I agree" - Martha Stewart)

Today I've been in String Of Beads ("Leeds" - Cockney Ed) stuck in a room all day learning about Strategic and Project Management. Needless to say I spent most of it trying to stay awake. And mostly failing. Oh! A spider's just crawled up to me - to set the image I'm writing this in the hall so I'm not annoying my flatmates, currently the jukebox is playing a song by Diane Cluck called Monte Carlo, I've not heard it before so I'll let you know how it goes. It peeked around the corner, saw me and then shiftily went back. It probably wanted to use the phone.

Currently I've been watching classy American shows every single day. The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Line Of Fire and Nip/Tuck all must pass judgement under my gaze. However The OC's started again so now I can spend all my time admiring how cool Seth is. And believe me he is cool.

Michelle at work had a 21st birthday party a while back. Unfortunately due to study (at Leeds) I wasn't able to make it. I understand it was rather special. To celebrate her new-found maturity she had a bouncy castle. According to Debbie (also from work) there was a girl called Nicky who she thought I would be good with. Apparently she's really nice, is a art student (I love art students - it's the scatty dress sense) and she has red/pink hair. I'm sold.

Bye bye folks!

* This is me being ironic.
Oh and D Cluck was good. Can be found on the Antifolk Vol 1 CD

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Slow news day

So what have I got to report today? A big fat lonely zero. Done nothing. Actually that's a bit of a lie, got very drunk on the booze cruise. I drank WKD Blues (a dodgy alcopop) for the two hour journey down the river Ouse which had the effect of me forgetting how I actually got home (I suspect it was me staggering home). Luckily I didn't take my camera so none of this dodginess has been recorded.

Over the bank holiday weekend I did absolutely nothing. Nearly went to the shops once but I couldn't be arsed. That was my weekend. I do have to say that this is a good website - http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/.

Oh and I watched Wild Zero and Christie Malry's Own Double Entry. Both were excellent. Wild Zero was a totally bizarre Japanese Zombie movie which starred a rock ("And" - Ed) roll band called Guitar Wolf. I laughed twice at the weirdness of it. Christie Malry is about a slightly austistic kid who takes the world of accounting to a violent conclusion. All CIMA students should view it.

Must go Home And Away's on now. Hope Tasha's in this episode.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

New edition

Wow, everything's so new. I've cheered up greatly since my last blog, even though I've worked really late today (6 o'clock which probably doesn't mean much to the hard-working readers of this blog) and have
probably got the most work I've ever been given. I think I was just in a glum mood, the kind that hits you and then seems to stick around and makes you feel worse.

I've finally got my new laptop and it's far better than my old one. It doesn't turn off for no reason, the keys don't stick and I can type normally. I know these things shouldn't be that impressive, but when you've had as crappy as pc as mine it's a revelation. And I can finally play deus ex at a decent speed! Hurrah!

I got some CDs sent through the mail from Shelle on the same day I got the laptop too and these made me smile even more than getting the laptop. I've finally listened to the mix cd Shelle and I love it! The Sing-Sing song is excellent and I will get round to returning the favour soon.

Jenny's still on ("vacation" - american editor) so I haven't any news to report there. Apparently she's back in a few weeks time. I'm going to have to be really patient. Hopefully I can do it.

Cathy sent me some pictures of her on ("vacation" - american editor) in Vegas. It looked really cool, wish I could've been there. She looked really hot as well but she's probably going to call me a dork for saying that.

Oh, I also met this cool German girl on Sunday. She was impressed by my pronounciation - said I didn't have a trace of English in my accent! She's going to be here for a while so I'll probably see her around again. I watched Roger & Me over the weekend too. I liked it, but I still preferred Mikey's TV stuff. I dunno, it seems to drag on a bit.

Well I'd best go now, I've got a booze cruise tomorrow so I might have some dodgy photos up over this weekend.

Bye!

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Crappy PCs and flats and life

I'm really annoyed with my flat, pc and life at the moment. The first two of these are easily solveable (gonna get the local paper on Thursday and the new pc gets sent out this week) - it's life that's gonna be a lickle but trickier.

You see aside from people at work I don't really know anyone in York. Sure there's Jenny (the sandwich girl - who actually asked me to a party at hers a few days ago) but I want to be more than friends with her (if that's possible). So any ideas what I should do?

I'll write more soon, but my laptop is so crap.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Postcards from Deutschland

I've found out one of the postcards I've sent (from when I was in Germany) has finally reached it's destination (Hello Shelle) but the other one I sent to Catrocs hasn't been seen yet. Tch postmen eh?

Surprisingly I haven't got any new adventure games I'm too busy trying to find a decent new laptop. I suspect I'm gonna become a 'Dell Dude' and get one of them. "But why do you need a new laptop Ben?" I hear you ask. "Good question," I reply "The CD drive doesn't work, the keys kkkkkeeeeeppppp repeating and it overheats so much I have to use it vertically instead of the usual way." "Oh." You feel ashamed for even asking.

Dell's website is acting really slow, I'm gonna go check out what they have on offerat PC World - that's if I can find it (WHERE IN THE WORLD IS PC WORLD?).

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Tired

Right, I need to jazz this blog up. This basic template's ok, but i've seen other blogs where people have songs you can select in the background and blue's rather boring. Green is the colour of choice, I think.

So I've been back at work for two days. Today I've been exceptionally tired and I've not even been bothered enough to obsess over girls that I daren't talk to. However I have decided that on Saturday I'm going to go up to the sandwich girl, find out her name and see if she's busy over the weekend.

Other than that I've bought the Adam & Joe DVD which I highly recommend - if only for the amazing Ken Korda & 1471 sketch. By watching the DVD's extras I found out that Adam and Joe went to school with Louis Theroux (I suspect this means absolutely nothing to the American Readers, but it's the equivalent of finding out Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen went to school with Hilary Duff - yes it's that amazing!). I of course already knew Ad & Joe were mates with Jonathan Ross as I remember seeing a picture in the papers of JR with Joe on the log flume. However only recently I found out that Jane Goldman (Jonathan's gorgeous redheaded wife) wrote for Zero. This fact is even better than the Louis Theroux one, but I can't think of a decent American comparison. Hope that this is ok.

Right Home And Away's starting. Just time for me to tell you to download the ScummVm engine and Flight Of The Amazon Queen - it's my adventure game of this week.

my mouth is scary here

team photo II

me, kully and becky

a team photo

me, my old boss kate, my old boss dan and the young michelle (check of the amazing colour matching between my hoody and my top)

friday night part 1: me pulling in front of my boss kully and mary "car-park" burton

this was me on new years eve, dodgy i know

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Intro

So I've now entered the jet-age and I've started a 'blog' - the diary that everyone can read! Which I'm sure means something, although I'm not sure what.

So I've started this paragraph with the same two words as the last one, this is very slack writing from me. I doubt that I should've started a new paragraph anyway but I guess I'll learn these things as I go along. Perhaps I should introduce myself. Yes that will do.

Well my name's Ben Hall, I'm 24 years old and I live in York (the one in England). I currently work as a 'finance assistant' and am taking exams in order so that I can become a qualified person in accounting which will hopefully result in me being paid more money. However the company I currently work for can be regarded as a cheapskate so I'm not holding my breath.

Other than being bored at work (and who isn't eh readers?) I try to go and see obscure indie films at the cinema, obscure indie bands at concerts and obsess over cute girls (whilst still not asking them out). I suppose I'm a gentleman at heart, in fact yesterday I lent my jacket - oh Ted Raimi's on telly - to a girl when we were leaving a bar to keep her hair dry. But then occasionally I'm really rude to friends who I shouldn't be rude to. It's completely innocent and I never mean it, but I always feel guilty straight after I say it.

Let's be boring and just mention 8 things that I like (in no particular order):
8 - Brackets (this should be becoming rapidly obvious - and annnoying)
7 - Timothy Stack (Comedian)
6 - That new single by Charlotte from Ash
5 - Coming back from 2 weeks staying at my parents and not having to watch Big Brother with them (well my Mum and my brother) anymore
4 - The sandwich shop girl waving at me when I hardly know her (see the bit after indie bands)
3 - The fact that Borussia Monchengladbach have moved into the school that my Dad used to teach in
2 - Maggie Gyllenhaal
1 - This remake of Manic Mansion (I *know* it's Maniac but I prefer this way - see Green Bert) that I've downloaded from http://people.freenet.de/lucasfangames/

Time to update my profile I guess. Bis bald!

Saturday, July 31, 2004

I know how it feels to be your age...

...once and never again

This is me.

Hello. My name is Ben. I've lived in Mansfield for 10 years, Germany for 8 years, Loughborough for 3 years and now I reside in York. I have against all odds managed to get a girlfriend. Who gets upset when I blog about girls I think are attractive (and so she should).

My blog is attempt to put how I am feeling into words. Without managing to depress the people reading at home. This has been a problem recently due to job issues*, but I'm sure I will cheer up sometime soon. My writing will still be rubbish though.

I've been blogging since August 2004 and at some point in 2005 I decided to start all my posts with a song lyric. These have absolutely no relevance to what the blog post is about.

* More to do with where I work rather than what I do. But as an accountant I'm sure what I do does depress me slightly.