ChicGeek

Hmmmm… not too sure what to make of this Man City take-over - if they want a top four spot, I think it’s going to be the one that we’ve been clinging to by the skin of our teeth for the last few years!! Boo!!

Will be interesting to see who comes out on top of the Berbatov saga - though at the moment, it’s looking like Man Yoo have the upper hand.

Not too impressed at hearing that Alonso may be going to Arsenal - we’re going to be seriously shown up soon - Torres is out injured for around 3 weeks, and Gerrard’s out too - and it seems to me that Rafa has built his entire team around those two.

I hope I’m wrong, but I see another slow and frustrating season for us this year - after all, if we can’t beat Aston Villa 3 games in, then what hope have we when we face the giants - Chelsea, Man Yoo and Stoke?

Just come back from a week in Portugal, about 4k outside the Old Town of Albufeira. Was absolutely lovely, lots of sunshine, a huge, wonderfully cold pool and some quality time with my Mummy.

Went to this place called ‘Zoomarine‘ - which was absolutely brilliant. Was a bit unsure about how it was going to be - I love animals and am always a little anxious about seeing them in an enclosed situation, but this place was great, and the animals seemed very happy and well cared for - they trusted their ‘trainers’ implicitly, and seemed excited when it was their turn to perform. Obviously they were getting lots of tasty treats along the way, but it was great to watch! We saw Dolphins doing the Lambada (seriously, I’ve got a video which i’ll try and get around to hosting sometime soon), and a little seal bobbing along on his tummy - possibly the cutest thing I’ve EVER seen! There was a parrot show and a bird of prey show too, both of which were brilliant. I’d recommend anyone who is off to that part of Portugal to go to Zoomarine, especially if you’ve got kids - I heard people going off to other aqua parks complaining that the kids were bored half way through the day, well Zoomarine has all the animals and a swim/water park too, so there’s loads to do! As for us, we certainly had no young ‘uns with us, and we were there between 11-5 and could have stayed longer if our coach wasn’t ready to go.

The hotel we stayed in was called the Balaia Atlantico and it was beautiful - very similar in style and furnishings to the Malmaison rooms I’ve been in and so, so clean!! It was about 4k outside the old town centre, about 1.5k from the new town strip and about 2k from the nearest beach. We had a courtesy bus that went every couple of hours and we went into the Old Town most nights - although the taxi queue was funny - we had to wait about 5 minutes each time (far better than Liverpool/Manchester on a Saturday night!) and it was around 8-10 euros (£6.30-8.00) per trip (with tip), so it wasn’t cheap - but it was worth it, in my opinion. The hotel shop was hilarious - because you were out in the sticks, it was the most stupendously expensive shop I ever came across - £5 for a small packet of Cornflakes, £4 for a pot noodle and £3.20 for a tin of Heinz beans! Obviously because they were imported… or so I thought!! The local produce was almost as expensive - but then I guess they have you over a barrel, as there’s nowhere else to go really, so you buy it there or go without.

The bar was really expensive too. We bought a G&T, a half pint of beer, two seven ups - and it came to £12!! The only time we ate from there - having a snack in the day - we got a little hotdog, a little cheeseburger and fries and 2 seven ups - came to nearly £20!!

Being so far away from the centre, the hotel was really lively, mostly with Portugese and Spanish people, which suited us fine. There was nighttime entertainment (mostly cheesy) but that was fine with us too, as we just wanted to kick back and relax. It was really busy, but we really enjoyed it. All in all I’d recommend it but I’d make sure that people are aware of the added costs before they book a bargain there! If you want to go, chill out, have fun and aren’t too worried about spending £100-£200 per week on food/travel (for 2 people), then go for it. Otherwise, the second you get there, grab a taxi to the nearest supermarket and stock up, then you’ll be fine and only have taxi fares to the Old Town to pay for! The stuff supplied in the hotel is all top class and the kitchen appliances were all top notch - not to mention the cutlery, pots and pans, crockery and glassware - absolutely gorgeous stuff, if you’re a homebody, you could really enjoy cooking in there (if you can afford the ingredients ;))

Was really nice, but even so when we came home I was glad to get back to Mr Elvis, I missed him and the furry beasties a lot. Back to work today (BOoOOOOOooo!!!).

had a lovely day on Sunday. As it was shaping up to be the hottest day of the year so far, we headed off to the beach with our dog - she’d never been near the beach before so we though it would be a good new experience for her and we’d have fun too and get out of the house in the sunshine. There’s always so much to do at home, if you don’t leave it behind, you end up spending your life indoors washing/tidying/cleaning.

So we set off via Ormskirk where I went to Uni and sat in loads of traffic to get to Southport. I found out afterwards that there was a festival on, but we didn’t know that when we set off. By the time we’d waited 15 minutes in the blaring sunshine, it didn’t seem to be worth turning around and trying to find another way - we figured they were probably all as bad as each other, and so we waited and got there in about an hour, which isn’t too bad.

We got there and saw a MASSIVE sign on the boardwalk saying ‘NO DOGS’ with a picture of a dog with a line through it (like a no entry sign with a dog in the middle). We decided to go up to the booth though and ask where we could go, and the woman said ‘Dogs are allowed, it’s ok - just not on this bit).

WE wondered how many people had turned around and left because they thought their dogs weren’t welcome. There was a van driver who’d walked over to the booth while we were passing who she told the same thing - so off he went back to his van until he could join the queue again.

It turns out that dogs were allowed ‘past the second red flag and beyond the pier’. Problem is you can’t go underneath the pier in a car cos it’s all blocked off, so we had to park up and walk along the other side with Sal. So we parked up and attached her onto her long training lead (she’s usually very good but with so many other dogs and kids about and so far for her to run, we weren’t taking any chances).

Anyway, here she is trying to work out what this weird stuff she’s standing on is! Unfortunately I only had my phone camera so the photographs aren’t very good, but watch out!! You can make out a very mucky dog in upcoming photos

Then she discovered the water:

The sea was glistening in the distance, at least, we THOUGHT it was. It turns out that after around 3 miles walking, and an hour later, we could finally see the sea, still a fair distance away! Anyway, when we finally got to it, some guys came over in a little jeep and hoarded us towards the other side because the tide was coming in and would cut us off on the sandbank we were walking on. This then put us on the wrong side of the pier with the dog, but it didn’t matter, it was so far away, we couldn’t even see where the pier had gone.

After about 20 minutes splashing in the sea, Sally was absolutely shattered, and covered in mud and salty water. She was also really, really thirsty. We gave her a drink then walked her all the way back, headed up onto the pier and got some seafront chips, then walked back over the pier to the car ready to head off home for a good long sleep. She was so tired in the car that she was trying desperately to do that thing that kids do - keep her eyes open and make sure she didn’t miss anything, but then her head would flop back as she started to fall asleep - so cute

I went home and had a bath, desperate to get rid of all the sand, and when I finally got out of the bath I discovered that I was horribly sunburned all along my back and my arms. I had a little woollen cover-up although I didn’t put on sun-cream, which I usually always do because I burn so easily. I think I forgot because I didn’t expect to be out in the sunshine for so long, and because the wind was keeping us cool.

Anyway, it’s killing now, still bright red and sore. And I’ve spent the entire day in and out of NHS walk-in centres and my GP’s surgery for completely different reasons, so I’m feeling a little rubbish at the moment. But I’ve got some pictures of sally on the beach, for the very first time.

Who on earth behaved in such a way that the manufacturer’s needed to add this little gem of a warning??!?

see more pwn and owned pictures

If you’re after a fantastic, personalised design (and by personalised I mean drawn for you, rather than just choosing a generic design and adding personal wording) then head over to http://www.akettleoffish.co.uk/

Run by Clare, affectionately known as Pheebs, a kettle of fish is one to watch, and having just signed deals with some of the Uk’s biggest card dealers, it’s likely you’re going to be seeing more of Pheebs’ designs in card shops near you very soon.

Here’s one she did for me, to reflect my love of writing - not sure if you can see it in this size, but the curly bits have the word ‘words’ written all through them :

There really is no other word for Pete’s photography. He is an incredible talent and somehow manages to get better and better every day.

Vanilla Days : Tall Ships - Parade of Sail - 6

Ok, well because I am obsessed with lolcats, and failblog and hotdogz and because they have kept my chin up when things have been rubbish, I’m going to do a weekly round up of the best of these little gems. They just prove beyond doubt that geeks are the funniest and most intelligent of peeps out there

Just saw this one, I’m still giggling now. I’ll do a roundup number 1 of the best soon.

Well I remember how I used to blog on the older versions - so..

Eviction night tonight, who is gonna go?

It’s between Bex, Mo and Darnell. Personally I think Darnell is going to go, but it depends on how well the public have taken to Bex getting her baps out at every opportunity.

I think Bex is annoying, yeah, but she’s fun. She’d be a nightmare to live with but she’s entertaining to watch, so keep her in. She’s also smart and has got this whole ‘love’ thing going on with Luke, so she knows the BB watching public will be wanting to see where that goes. Clever move guys!

Darnell doesn’t so much have a chip on his shoulder as an entire bag of King Edwards, and is now starting to see the effects of his behaviour now he is finally up for nomination.

Mo - doesn’t really do much but eat, but I think in a different group of people we’d have seen a totally different side to him. So I think I’d like to see how he’d cope in the house after Darnell goes.

It’ll be interesting to see how many of the Hell housemates vote for Dale next week after he didn’t give them the snacks and alcohol this week and plumped to give them to Heaven instead. Dale seems to be well liked to me, and I reckon even if he goes up for eviction (which I don’t think he will), then he won’t go anyway.

I was lucky enough to see this little gem of a film recently, and I absolutely adored it. The use of music was so good, it was so funny, and so bittersweet, it made my heart almost ache just to watch it.

There is such little dialogue, certainly to begin with, that the film itself had to be something special to be able to cope with that - and I think that Pixar have done something amazing here . They seem to have made it even more intruiging and interesting with the way they have made their characters interact with each other. My other half doesn’t usually get too emotional about stuff but about half way through the movie he said it was making him feel really sad because Wall-E was so soppy about Eve (you’ll know the part I’m on about if you’ve seen it - but if not, I don’t want to spoil it for you!).

I love Eve, she rocks :

I think my favourite bit (without giving anything away), is where Eve starts to dance in Wall-E’s home. Had me in stitches. The cockroach is great too, and the little bot who runs around cleaning after Wall-E is hilarious too.

Definintely out of the ordinar-E, make sure you see Wall-E as soon as you can, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

See the official trailers and teasers here

How can you not waste your life away here with stuff like this