Back In The Day

Since I've been back at uni time just seems to evaporate. Apologies for neglecting the blog over the last few days, it's a mixture of genuine amnesia and procrastination so I'll try to be more focused. Hmm... what's on my mind today?

Childhood. Let's take it old school!

I was a 90's baby - '93 to be precise. This was the golden era. Spice Girls were topping the charts, Power Rangers was actually a decent show and Pokemon was the centre of my world. My love for games also began around this time. I vividly remember playing Super Nintendo at my cousin's house. To say he was a bit greedy is an understatement. My brother and I would hardly have a turn but it was still enjoyable. The day we got our own console was unforgettable, the original Playstation. Powering it on for the first time was a magical experience.

Naively, I believed nothing could make me as excited ever again. That is until the arrival of Scalextric. For those who don't know, Scalextric let's you build your own circuit and use a triggered controller to race against an opponent. Our Scalextric set lasted about a week. The car engines simply could not handle the heat. Now I think about it a lot of my toys broke from overexertion, the mini air-hockey table, swingball, action figures. I was a pretty destructive kid.

Thankfully, I've become more calm as an adult but my wilder side is prevalent in certain situations. Some things never change though because Space Jam is still one of my all-time favourite films and I'm into games now more than ever before. As a child, you imagine yourself as a grownup: what you'll look like, how you'll speak, your profession etc. I never would have pictured myself where I am today, hell! I used to wanna be a fireman to be honest.

Ah well!

Times change, people grow older, we might lose the ones we love. All these things can influence the person we become. As I see it, it doesn't matter so long as you have an aspiration and the commitment to reach your goals.

Ugh! this sounds all preachy and motivational. I'm off for a well-deserved games break, ciao!

Dishing It Out

My favourite food? Macaroni cheese. It is so good. I remember as a kid I would only eat bananas, custard and macaroni cheese (not in the same meal; well the macaroni anyway). Growing up, more foods were introduced to the equation: my grandma's chicken and rice was a staple part of my diet. Cooking amazing meals runs in the family and I'm no exception. My partner's gene pool must share a similar level of culinary finesse. After all who doesn't want a master-chef baby?

Cooking is a necessity if you want to live a long and healthy life. Some people can cook. On the other hand others cannot fry an egg - yes it's a sad world. Worse yet, living among us are those who don't even like eggs. Now I'm not really too fussed whenever food is concerned apart from two travesties:

-Mushrooms.
I find mushrooms to be completely pointless. Furry, tasteless fungi - no thank you. Any amount of breadcrumbs won't save the damn things. I implore you all to leave the mushroom life behind.

-Yoghurt.
A mess to say the least. Hard to define exactly what I despise about. Maybe the diabolical texture, maybe the rancid taste. Banish it now!

Anyway, it's gonna be a short post today. All this talk is making me hungry...

Kirby from Super Smash Bros Brawl ©2008 Nintendo

Breaking The Seal

The Jamaican authorities called. They want my black man card back. Why? I broke the seal. Yes. I cried. 

I thought black guys crying was a myth. Until today. It wasn't even a particularly devastating circumstance either. It was a film that did it. Nevertheless, regardless of reason I should  have kept it all together right?

Make no mistake however. It wasn't a flooding affair,  bucket loads of  salty fluid -insert sexual innuendo- did not escape my eyes, Niagara Falls was not cascading the length of my face.

So what happened? Let me take you back in time..

The year is 2009. It is June and as it is my friend's birthday we are on our way to the Vue cinema in the O2 Arena to see Zombieland. Now I think you will agree that Zombieland is a reasonably manly film which is what helped fuel the rage when the ticket clerk tells me they were sold out. To make matters worse, the clerk then accuses me and another friend of being too young to see it anyway. In an effort to humiliate us further he smirks and says:"You could always watch UP, it's the film of the year!"

We all laugh, disregarding his statement as utter nonsense and head home for a testosterone fueling session of fast food and fifa. Good times.

Fast-forward to November 2012, a movie night with my uni buds. The tears are yet to come.

So we were watching Buried which put me in a severe state of depression (it's a really good film, check it out). My housemate suggests we find videos on YouTube  to cheer me up. "Oh, a Disney film Noel! This looks good!" *clicks play* *cue opening scene from UP*
Let's just say I went to bed with no faith left in humanity.

Anyway, today I happened to be browsing the films section of BBC iPlayer. Guess what film they have available? For 19 years no film has ever made me cry. Today all that changed. I lost my movie-tears virginity to UP. It really is a brilliant film, both the music and animation are outstanding.

Here I am 3 years later I will finally admit, THAT CLERK WAS RIGHT.

The seal is finally broken!