AndrewDart.co.uk

May 14th 2008

I promise you I am not going to get drawn back in to mentioning the birthday of every mildly hot female celebrity who just so happens to be getting a year older, but seeing the young lady in question is on my list (she actually shares a space with Danielle Panabaker because, let’s me honest, I think they may be the same person) I felt I had to. So please join me in wishing the ever so lovely Amber Tamblyn a very happy 25th Birthday. As always here are some pictures for your enjoyment. Sorry it is a bit less adult orientated that usual guys but our Amber is a nice girl, the kind you could bring home to mother, and tends to keep her clothing on.

And while we are on the subject of birthdays I owe a couple of my friend’s apologies for failing to mention theirs. First up is my friend Lauren Thomas who’s birthday I missed on Saturday, at least I think it was Saturday. Now this was partly due to the fact that I was travelling home from Newfoundland at the time and partly because I didn’t know anything about it…though mainly that second part. Now I don’t actually know how old she is and as that is not the kind of question you ask a lady I can’t tell you. So please join me in wishing her a belated and somewhat generic Happy Birthday. As she is very photogenic here is a picture of her as well taken by her very talented hubby Ian.

And then of course there are siblings Paul and Cheryl Westley who turned the big 30 and the slightly less big 26 respectively on May 7th. Again as I was on holiday I completely forgot about them and for that they have my apologies. I hope they both had a wonderful day. Oh and so they don’t feel left out here is a picture of them too, bet you can’t guess which one is which.

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May 14th 2008

Why do the good die young?

So the American TV stations have just released their Fall schedules and it seems a few more good shows have fallen by the way side. As my good friend Broadpaul has already mentioned good TV shows really don’t seem to last that long these days and it seems that a few more have gone the way of the dodo again this season. As I am sure you already know Journey Man was cancelled along with Bionic Woman staring the lovely Michelle Ryan. Also to go are Las Vegas (my sister will be gutted), Jericho (again), Men in Trees and Women’s Murder Club, which I am not sure has even made it to this side of the pond yet but is, or should that be was, actually rather good. At risk of joining them are legal drama Shark (most likely due to Second Season Syndrome), Moonlight and military drama The Unit. That’s like half the programs I watch.

But is not all bad news. Comedy spy drama Chuck will be back for a second series, as will Reaper, though to be honest there isn’t a lot of difference between the two shows. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will be back, sorry poor joke but couldn’t resist, along with Supernatural (phew), Smallville, House, Bones, Medium, NCIS, Numb3rs and Prison Break. Knight Rider will be getting a full series and Heroes will get a third…or maybe finish out the second, I have kind of lost track of where they are with it at the moment.

There are a number of brand new spanking shows as well…er maybe that should have been brand spanking new shows as they are not shows about spanking, well at least not as far as I know. These include Dollhouse from the genius that is Josh Whedon and staring Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker in a show that seems to be about Eliza dressing up in lots of different outfits, oh thank you god. They are also making a yet untitled Beverly Hills, 90210 Spinoff, though am I the only one who really doesn’t understand why they would bother and who thinks they are about ten years too late?

So there you go, shows to me mourned, shows to be celebrated and others maybe to be avoided. Better get setting that video.

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May 14th 2008

Tell me that is not cool,

Now you all know how much I like freakishly large animals, you only need to take a look back through my blog to know that. Well here is another one for you. Apparently there is a giant cow in Somerset. Standing at 6ft 6ins Chilli, a black and white Friesian steer, is believed to be the tallest cow in England. According to the article, and why someone would go to the effort of working this out is beyond me, he weights the same as 16 St Bernard dogs; 12 newborn elephants; five adult gorillas; or 1.5 Smart cars and could provide 5,510 8 oz steaks, though I think that last one is a little cruel. Naomi Clarke, the rather attractive care manager of the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset where Chilli lives, summed things up perfectly and demonstrated the kind of perceptiveness that probably got her the job in the first place. “As the years passed we noticed he was getting rather tall.” Well put Naomi.

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May 14th 2008

It still sounds cheesy,

Last night I was told by one of my mates that they are making a movie based upon the G.I. Joe line of toys for violence addicted boys. My initial thought was along the lines of “Oh god that is going to be truly awful.” Well it seems I may have been a bit too hasty in my dismissal of the movie as it looks like it might be worth watching after all.

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May 12th 2008

What’s going on here people,

Ok so I’ve just watched the full trailer for the new Incredible Hulk movie, staring Edward Norton, and again, like the new Indiana Jones flick, it looks good but the effects look really iffy. I mean maybe it is just because I am watching the trailers on a PC but the Hulk in this one doesn’t look as good to me as he did in the first movie, and that was five years ago. Again please watch it for yourself and let me know if you agree or not. I am rather looking forward to this film but once again seeing the new trailer has rather dampened my spirits.

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May 12th 2008

Nooooo Inddddddddddy,

So I have just watched the new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and I have to say that I found that my excitement for this movie was less at the end of the trailer than it was at the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, I still really want to go see this film and my excitement level was at a pants wettingly high level to beginning with, it is just that this really isn’t a very good trailer and it makes this new film look more like another movie in the Mummy series of movies than something to stand up, shoulder to shoulder, besides the truly epic Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is also a worryingly high large amount of fairly obvious CG stuff in the trailer. Now the Indiana Jones movies have always had their fair share of dodgy effects but from the trailer alone it looks as if many of the things they did for real, and which looked amazing, in the originals have been done CG this time round and I for one think that is a really bad thing.

Anyway watch it yourself and let me know what you think.

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May 11th 2008

No way I could miss this one,

So I am once more back in good old England and to celebrate that fact I thought I would do a birthday shout out. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to do any more but people today is Holly Valance’s 25th Birthday, fricking Holly Valance! There is no way I can pass up this perfect excuse to spend all afternoon browsing the net for pictures of her. So let’s all wish her a very happy birthday and then sit back and bask in the glory that is Miss Holly Valance…did I mention the pictures are of Holly Valance? I did? Ok just checking.

Do you have any idea how long it took me to narrow that down to just four, ah let’s make it six, no sod it let’s go for eight, pictures of her? It was hard work I can tell you but, as I have often said, my readers come first and I forced myself to examine every picture in minuet detail until I got the right ones. Don’t say I never do anything for you. Oh and can I just say it’s bloody hot over here in England, I kind of miss my icebergs.

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May 9th 2008

Day Eleven - Last day in Twillingate,

I have purposefully missed out day ten simply because we did even less on that day than we did the day before. To be honest we came at completely the wrong time of year to get the most out of Newfoundland. Everything is shut as the tourist season doesn’t really start until the end of May or early June. Now I was unaware of this before we came but my parents weren’t. I think the problem is that we were looking at the holiday in different ways. They were looking at it as an opportunity to come out and get the house all ready and set up for when they come back later in the year with a couple of their friends when they plan to visit all the interesting places we have been previous years. I on the other hand viewed it as my actual holiday and I don’t think they really realised this. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a really good time, I just think that had I known in advance what the plan was I would have suggested that they push the holiday back a few weeks so that I could go off and do things on my own if they didn’t want to come. Ah well.

That said today we went out to a place called Pikes Arm that, surprise surprise, is a little coastal fishing village with a population, according to the notice board, of 194. As with most places you can go in Newfie this involved a walk up a hill and an amazing view out to sea. I of course took loads of pictures but the over cast weather had the same effect on them as it did on me and made everything appear sad and gloomy. I will admit that I rather lost interest after that and was glad when we got back to the house. I have spent most of the afternoon in my room writing and this has cheered me up a fair bit. Tomorrow we set off back to Gander and fly back over to Halifax. Now while I am no where near as worried about this as I was coming out and to be honest haven’t really though that much about it I suspect that having this knowledge in the back of my mind hasn’t helped with my mood at all.

I will be sad to leave Newfoundland and our little house, and not just because I will miss seeing the girls basketball team clear up our beach. At the same time I am looking forward to getting back to my real home in England and seeing my friends and the rest of my family again. Not too fussed about going back to work though…which reminds me I haven’t bought my work mates anything yet and really should do so before we leave the country. Anyway I have had a great time and still have as full day ahead of me tomorrow before we return to England. We are meeting up with Linda, sister to Doreen and owner of the place we stayed on our two previous visits. She is planning to take us out somewhere which should be interesting and will give me a chance to take a few more pictures as so far I have only taken 623 of the things.

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May 7th 2008

Day Nine - Er did we actually do anything today,

Today we did nothing pretty much constantly all day. I am not sure I even left my room other than to top up on chocolate milk. I did a lot of reading, a little bit of writing and more than my fair share of dozing. All in all a very productive day.

In the evening however we went across the road and met up with Doreen for a meal out. I had half a chicken and a rack of BBQ ribs and managed to get through a good 90% of it before I really couldn’t eat another bite. It was really good. My Dad has a plate of snow crabs, which are really rather freaky, and I spent my time waiting for the meal to arrive taking advantage of the restaurants Internet access. And that is about it for Wednesday.

Oh I did learn one bit of slightly upsetting news during the course of the meal however. The beach outside our house is covered in all kinds of junk that has washed up on it over the years and Doreen kindly said she would arrange for someone to come over and tidy it up for us. Well apparently she had now done this and it seems that some how she has managed to get the local college girls basket ball team to agree to come over and clean it up for us and so soon our little beach will be full of tall, slender 18 to 19 year old girls bending over a lot…BUT NOT UNTIL I HAVE GONE HOME! I’m sorry but that is just cruel. Would it be wrong of me to ask Doreen to take pictures? Anyway if you would excuse me I need to go now and, er, lose my passport.

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May 6th 2008

Day Eight - Taking a gander at, well, Gander,

Today we went on a bit of a field trip to the town of Gander. This is the place where the airport is located and as such we had already driven through it but hadn’t really stopped to take a look. Now how can I accurately describe the place? Do you remember that I said that Halifax in Nova Scotia reminded me very much of West Baltimore in the TV show The Wire? Well Gander reminded me of a TV show as well, though this time it wasn’t a gritty crime drama but the sitcom My Name is Earl. It seemed that almost everyone we saw looked like a member of the cast, though unfortunately there were a lot more Earls and Randys than there were Catalinas, and I could swear I saw a place actually called The Crab Shack. In one shop there was a guy wearing full fishing gear drinking a six pack of beer and in another a guy so creepy that we decided to leave by a different exit rather than walk past him again. Now this may of had something to do with the fact we spent most of the time visiting the various shopping malls to stock up on things we needed for the house, but who can say for sure. Most of our shopping was done at the local Wal-Mart, which, if you have never been to one, is one of those shops where you can buy a TV, a box of cereal and a pair of jeans at one end and a high powered hunting rifle, a canoe and one of the hats that you can put beer cans in at the other. Naturally I felt right at home.

We went to Gander with the intention of buying some towels, some extra cutlery and a couple of pots and pans but, thanks to my input, came away with a wide screen television as well. It is now set-up in our living room and I have wired my Mum’s portable DVD player into it. I can’t really think of much to say about Gander other than that when we were leaving we saw a sign announcing it to be “One of the top ten places to live in Canada”. Now I don’t now how old that sign was but it really doesn’t say much about the rest of Canada. It was nice to get back to Twillingate, which so far appears to be a genuinely nice place to live. Heck we already know more people in town than we do back in Fordham.

Oh and PS I discovered that woodlice don’t actually eat wood so there is a good chance the house will remain standing for a bit longer. Now if only I could say the same thing about our shed.

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