Up

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I have now discovered how to embed videos from YouTube into my blog.

This is exciting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.

To celebrate, here is the awesome trailer for Pixar's new movie, Up. It looks incredible and will be the first Pixar film to be released in 3-D.

Enjoy.

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Santa Banter!

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Sean has recently convinced myself and Mark C Turnbull to join him in doing the London Santa Run on the 7th of December. This involves dressing like Santa Claus and joining 1,000 other people in running 5km across Greenwich Park.

I am hoping that this ridiculous festive gesture will help me rediscover a bit of that ol' Christmas magic.

We have all agreed to raise money for the Brooke Hospital for Animals (mainly because Sean works there). You can visit my fundraising page by clicking here.

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And you can learn more about the Brooke Hospital for Animals (healthy working animals for the world's poorest contries) by reading this article.

After running two half-marathons, I am hoping that this run will be easy-sailing. However, no doubt running in a Santa costume will provide its own challenges and introduce whole new levels of chaffing.

Excitingly, we are coinciding this Christmas dash with a Carnival reunion down in London so we will have lots of lovely people cheering us on. Although the plan to go out the night before could prove very detrimental to our performance.

Anyway, ten days till the Santathon!

Santa Claus is coming to town in a big way.

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Long Time, No Blog

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Shockingly, I have not blogged for a mammoth six weeks.

This is predominantly due to my workload exploding over October and November at the mighty Notts SU. Since I last blogged, we have elected the JCRs, trained them, bye-elected more JCRs and then trained them. I did a whopping 52 hours of overtime with two late-night ballot counts that lasted until midnight.

I am well dedicated to my JCRs.

Anyway, excuses aside, here is the exciting stuff that I should have been blogging about in no particular chronological order...

• I ran Birmingham half-marathon in 1:54:10. This is about three minutes slower than the Nottingham half-marathon but to be fair, I was stuck behind lots of fat people.
• I was coerced by Sean to sign-up for the London Santa Run --> www.justgiving.com/santabanter
• I have rediscovered my love for reality TV via X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity...
• I attended an audition for The Weakest Link with nine others. This involved playing a mock-version of the game and having a camcorder interview.
• I was ill for three days and therefore did not see a single firework around November 5th.
• We have been having board game nights at Ellen's house. Highlights include Scrabble and Monopoly.
• I got well drunk on mulled wine last Friday with the girls, Marc and Steve. My mojo is returning.
• I have seen every Deal Or No Deal for the past three weeks.
• I bought Friends Scene-It and Laura Clark spilt orange juice over it. Grr.

Bulletpoints save the day yet again. I will blog more regularly henceforth... FACT.

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My Toilet Legacy

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Whilst helping my girlfriend move to Birmingham this weekend, I couldn't resist a trip back to the Guild to inspect the new Guild toilets.

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These toilets were the first phase of a three-year building redevelopment which I worked on during my year in office so I was more than a little bit excited about checking them out.

And whoop, they were awesome!

The musty, leaking, broken, graffitti-smeared and smelly toilets of old have now been replaced by chromatic heaven. Highlights include:

• flawless plasterboard.
• a lovely new blue colour.
• energy-efficient lights.
• dual-flushing toilets.
• separate urinals.
• more cubicle space so you don't have to edge around the toilet door when closing it.
• and most excitingly, a dyson airblade hand drier (see right).

And there are great new additions such as a staff shower, baby-changing facilities and the soon-to-be-finished toilets on the first-floor by Beorma Bar.

When you gotta go, you know where to go!

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Go Go Tokyo!

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Simon is going to Japan! Oh yes!

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I have wanted to go to Tokyo ever since I saw Lost in Translation in 2004 and next February I will be fulfilling this ambition when I fly to Japan to visit my mate Alex.

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My flights were finally booked last night and the trip is officially going ahead :)

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Despite my exciting and colourful life, I have never actually travelled outside of Europe. This will therefore be the furthest I have ever ventured and will also provide me with one hell of a culture shock.

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I am also excited about:

• temples.
• sushi.
• electronic superstores.
• a heck of a lot of comic book stores.
• drinking wine from a wooden box.
• dropping by the hotel from the aforementioned film.
• and maybe trying my hand at the infamous Japanese karaoke.

Konichiwa Japan!

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Rocketman

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"If I calculate everything right, I will land in Dover. But if I get it wrong, I take a bath." - Yves Rossy (pictured right).

Well, Rossy did calculate everything right because last Friday, the Swiss aviator and former military pilot became the first person to fly solo across the English Channel using a single jet-propelled wing.

Known as 'Fusionman' by his friends and 'Jetman' by the media, Rossy aimed to follow the route flown by his hero, French airman Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the Channel in a plane 99 years ago.

Here are some facts about his flight:-

• The flight from Calais to Dover covered a distance of 22 miles.
• It was postponed twice last week due to bad weather.
• The 49-year-old began the flight by jumping out of a plane more than 8,200ft in the air.
• Rossy reached speeds of up to 125mph.
• The entire flight took less than ten minutes.
• The wing had no rudder or tail fun, so Rossy had to steer using his head and back. It is the closest anyone has ever come to flying like a bird.

I think this is an incredible achievement. Man has always wanted to fly (ever since the Superman cartoons of the 1930s) and now Yves Rossy has taken the first steps to making that become a reality.

Upon completing his flight, Rossy said: "I only have one word, thankyou, to all the people who took the journey with me."

Mr Rossy's name will now be up there with all of the best aviators: Superman, Boba Fett, Buzz Lightyear.

To infinity and beyond.

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REVIEW: Righteous Kill

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Al Pacino + Robert De Niro = ?

This film exists because somebody asked the above equation. What does happen when you put the world's greatest actors in the same film?

This has happened twice before of course.

Firstly, in the Godfather: Part II, although De Niro's scenes and Pacino's scenes were separated by about thirty years on account of De Niro playing a flashback version of Vito Corleone.

The second encounter of these two legends was more memorably in Michael Mann's Heat, where the two finally were allowed to share a scene. Admittedly, this was only five minutes long in a coffee shop but it was enough to get the hearts beating of even the most removed cinema-goer.

Well, that was in 1995. Thirteen years later and now we get a film where De Niro and Pacino practically share every frame. Surely, this is going to be the greatest movie ever?!

Unfortunately, no it isn't. But it was never going to be.

I read so many derogatory reviews of this film before seeing it (even my ever faithful Empire only gave it two stars) that I was pleasantly surprised because Righteous Kill is a very good film.

It is such a joy watching De Niro and Pacino acting as life-long pals onscreen. They are heroes of the old school, joking about The Brady Bunch and Underdog whilst making the young new bucks (played ably by Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo) look like over-excited kids.

And De Niro and Pacino compliment each other, relying on their best catalogue of work. De Niro is the quick-to-anger Turk (see Goodfellas, Taxi Driver), whilst Pacino is the gum-chewing wise-cracking Rooster (Heat, The Devil's Advocate).

The criticisms of the film are fair in some cases. Empire commented that there is not one memorable shot in the whole film and that Jon Avnet is no Michael Mann (although the splitscreen therapy session is incredibly crowd-pleasing). But maybe Avnet is simply an actor's director. He certainly gets great performances from everyone he points a camera at - Carla Gugino's sexy CSI detective is particularly captivating.

Furthermore, many critics have said that the script borders on convention and is full of cliches. Maybe I haven't seen enough cop films but I think that's a tad unfair. The concept of a cop serial killer is interesting, the twist was impressive if predictable and the pace of the film never slows.

So ignore the reviews (except this one obviously) and go see this film.

No other film in history has these two great actors starring opposite each other to this extent and that alone is worth the admission. And let's be honest. Both men are getting old now. There won't be much opportunity for them to play cops anymore, so enjoy it while you can.

So if you ask me, Robert De Niro + Al Pacino = ruddy good viewing.

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