Anyway this is only a short update for now just filling people in as to my where abouts.

Since saturday we have been in Rotherham visiting Rachy's Parents.

Today we are heading to London to see Phantom of the Opera this afternoon, we are following that up by seeing Mousetrap, a show that i've always wanted to see for as long as i've been reading Agatha Christie novels.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the London Dungeon and the Tate Modern. Finally the reason for first visiting is to see Devotchka in Scala.

We travel home on Thursday for a well deserved rest.

Right I'm off to drink overpriced tea and listeniing to “I'm sorry I haven't a clue”.

Hope you are all having a good week.

It's been a very busy couple of months with lots going on and I didn't really feel in the mood to write in my blog for reasons explained below.

As of the 29th of February my employment with Lloyds TSB ended after a 9 and half years with my job being offshored. The past 4 months have been very odd and difficult there is something slightly depressing about training someone else to do your job.

So anyway in the next few months I plan to get some things in the house completed, I have lots of training to wade through and hopefully slot some driving lessons and test into the equation when possible, Oh and looking for a new job. Busy me!

I shall be keeping my blog updated a little more too.

So thanks to those that have visited and those that commented in the past year, I hope you'll rejoin me in 2008 for what looks set to be an extremely different year for me.

So in the words of Bill Bailey:
Merry Primary Gifting Period and a happy Auxiliary Generosity Zone.

What annoys me no end, is that website owners/managers seem to believe news/blog/article entries only exist for 12 months. It's unclear what exactly happens to them at that point in time, maybe they just fade into the background noise or perhaps some form of internet meme appears and devours them.

What ever the answer, the fact remains that all of this items have a time stamp that takes the following characteristics : 24th July 13:45.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't there be a year in that date?

I find it highly annoying when i stumble blindly onto a website that has this year-lacking date format. It's not a large change to display a piece of data that is already stored on a database with the rest of the time stamp information, is it?

So when a user visits your website they can instantly see when the information was posted, in turn this give the user chance to judge the information and how relevant is it.

All of the characters were very well cast and they nearlyall portrayed the novel descriptions very closely.   I agree with comments others have made about Robert De Niro, who I thought was damn brilliant as Captain Shakespeare. I was pleased that Ricky “I can only play one type of role” Gervais couldn't even spoil this film for me.

There are alot of known British faces in this film, albeit in cameo roles but it was very nice to see them pop up occasionally. 

Considering that the film has been out for a while now it's still sitting the top ten UK films, which should make Mr. Gaiman happy. If you get chance it’s well worth going to catch this film at the cinema before disappers to the small screen.

I quickly scanned the messages sitting in that isolated folder to see what type of crap was being filtered on a daily basis. Any Phishing attempts that I receive, I tend to attach to an email to the Anti-Phishing working group. But today I'm honoured I find the worst crafted Phishing email that I have seen in a long time.
It read as follows:

[blockquote]Subject: HSBC – WARNING
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 13:20:35 -0400
From: HSBC

Dear valued Halifax® member: Due to concerns, for the safety and integrity of the Halifax
account we have issued this warning message.

It has come to our attention that your Halifax® account information needs to be
updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to
reduce the instance of fraud on our website.

If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.
Please update your records on or before janvier 16, 2007.

Once you have updated your account records your Halifax account service will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.
To update your Halifax® records click on the following link:
http://www.halifax.co.uk/
Thank You. Halifax® UPDATE TEAM[/blockquote]

First point, as any person of moderate intelligence can see, is the use of 1 company in the title and a different company in body of the message.

Secondly is the 'Dear valued Halifax member', firstly it would be customer and secondly since I'm a great 'member' how have they managed to forget my name? No attempt to butcher my email address for a name to use, very poor.

The hyperlink to update you records wasn't hidden or manipulated to appear like a correct address, nope, it just pointed at some page over at www.swindon-speedway.co.uk.

And in last place is the French word for January that's been so wonderfully added into the template.

I managed to get the graphic novel of Neverwhere and V for Vendetta, both of which I've wanted to read, but for entirely different reasons.

After reading any book you build up mental images of the characters portrayed within them, I wanted to see how the characters from the Neverwhere graphical novel, compared to my vision of them. Richard was very near the mark and his expressions denoted the emotions that he was obviously experiencing. Mr Croup & Vandemar were very well done, although I wasn't sure on the colour of Vandemars' clothes.

With V for Vendetta I wanted to read how Alan Moore wanted it to be rather than the Hollywood cinematic version. I've only read 1 of the 4 books so far and it is easy to see how much it was altered, no wonder he asked for his name to be removed from the film.

On leaving Abergavenny my parents took us for lunch at the oldest pub in Wales, the Skirrid Mountain Inn. After navigating the cobbled road outside to come to a large wooden door that dates back to the 14th century. Inside there is a fire burning away in the hearth and we get drinks from the very welcoming barman/owner.

After claiming seats we set about deciding on our meals, there was alot to choose from on the main menu, plus there were additional items on a chalk board.

Afterwards Rach, my mum and I took the landlord up on his offer and went to have a look around upstairs. As you climb up the stairs the is the old cell room, Now stacked with glasses and the like and used for storage.
Further up the stairs are the guest rooms, converted from what was believed to be the courtrooms. Both the rooms we looked at had wonderful 4 poster beds in them.

Mmm that sounds rather boring but it should be a great evening.
Some of you may know him from his Sandman graphic novels or the book Neverwhere, others may have read Good Omens that was writen by him and Terry Pratchett.

I'm currently in the middle of reading American Gods with Anansi Boys waiting to be read straight afterwards. I also picked up a copy of the illustrated version of Stardust while i was in York on sunday.

What with Stardust due to be released next month, looks like it going to be a very bizzare and interresting month, all from the mind of Neil. Yay

I've also been reading Stardust and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, both of which are highly enjoyable if you are looking for a good book at the moment.

There is a great interview with Neil on the BBC website that details coverage of the Hay on Wye festival, where Mr Gaiman was previewing the film Stardust, the interview can be found here

Following the tradition of cashing in on movie franchise I spotted this gem :

Superman Returns Yoghurt It begs so many questions,

• how late must it have been in the office for some company Exec to decide on that as the name to go for
• Why is he returning the yoghurts?
• Did he get a refund?

I wish I had kept a closer eye on the shops after the film release of Batman Begins.

Anyways enought for now, I need to head to bed after taking my Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chesty Cough Syrup.