As I had built up so many hours at work I took a few days off this week and have made a start on my next project to make a back up of the family photos. This involved routing around in boxes of photos and getting them scanned, I have scanned about 200 photos so far and still have hundreds more that need to be preserved. I have been meaning to do this for years as with each passing year the quality of the photos is degrading. Once I have them scanned they will stored on DVD's and who knows if I get around to it I may attempted to restore some of the photos. I also said goodbye to my car this week as I got myself a new one, pretty sad as I had my last car for the last five years and during that time it has served me well and I am sure it would have kept on running for years to come but with the expense I had during April with all the welding work that was needed and the thought that more welding work would be needed next year I decided enough was enough. So picked my new car up on Wednesday and after speaking to a friend in work I managed to get rid of the old car - I could have gotten more money if I had sold it for scrap but the car deserves to rack up a few more miles before it gets to that stage and hopefully should help the new owner get back and forth.

Would you believe on Thursday night I went to a speed dating event? I know I am finding it hard to believe as well but I thought I would give it a try and it was an interesting experience. This one was held up in Swansea and organised by Spark Dating and there were more men then women at the event but basically you got to spend three minutes talking to each date before moving on to the next table, you are given a form to complete which you would tick (yes) if you are interested in romance (no) if you are not interested at all or (friend) which I would have thought is an safe bet and would give people the chance to get to know you better. This form is then handed in at the end of the evening and the organisers match up people who selected either (yes) or (friend) for each other and they pass on the details. I tend to think of myself as a very uninteresting person so I was filled with dread having to spend Three minutes talking to women but surprisingly the time seemed to go by so quickly and the majority of the woman there seemed "normal".
Of course when the night is over you have to wait to see if anyone thought the same about you and I can tell you when you get an email back telling you that you have or haven't received any matches can be quite soul destroying if you were expecting people you felt you got on well with had not felt that way back.

I was flicking through the news pages and was saddened to learn that Don S Davis had recently passed away.

I always think that it must be upsetting for an actor/actress to be remembered for there most recent role and taking a look at all the shows he had been in there was quite a few but I think most people would have best remembered him for playing General George Hammond in Stargate SG1, or as Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks. I will be sad to watch the latest Stargate SG1 movie and see him in it and I am sure many fans from all over the world that will miss this talented actor.

It was only when I was looking for more information that I discovered that he was quite a talented artist so more than just a good actor.

Don Sinclair Davis (August 4, 1942 - June 29, 2008)

With a few hours to waste yesterday afternoon I decided to take a look around a few shops at a local retail park. I have been thinking of getting a freezer for a few months now so took a look around two electrical stores (Currys and Comet)

Now anyone who has gone into a store like this is guarded for the sharks sales people who circle potential customers waiting to draw blood. It was not bad in Currys I looked at the freezers and pretty much decided on the model I would eventually get and walked out the store. Wanting to check out the competition and to find the best deal for me I went into the Comet store. I don’t know why both these stores have to hide the fridges and freezers at the back of the store but needless to say I was not impressed with the selection they had on offer and as I was leaving I noticed the display of televisions and as my television is getting on I thought it would be worth a look. (Cue Jaws theme tune) Don’t ask me where he came from but before I knew it the dreaded sales person had struck – he can’t have been very experienced at sales as I was able to get rid of him with ease. I spent a few more minutes looking at the televisions and video recorders before making my way to the exit and safety.

My next challenge was ScS I have no need for a new sofa nor do I have the need for a sofa or any furniture full stop so there really was no need for me to go into this store other than to just have a general look around. From working for Harveys I had a dreadful feeling that I would be pounced on as soon as I entered the shop and sure enough a sales person was trying to engage me in conversation within minutes of me entering the store. I know from past experience that many shops that rely on sales people selling goods have policies in place to acknowledge customers within a certain amount of time and as most of these sales people rely on commission to bolster there wages you can understand the cut throat mentality of working in this sort of environment. Not wanting to have this guy waste his time trying to sell me something I have no intention of buying I tell him that I am just taking a look around (I did not want to be too honest and tell him I was wasting time), however this guy was good and did not take that as an answer trying to find an “in” that he could use to take control. He soon realised that I was either a WOT (waste of time) or not in a position to buy a sofa as he rattled off the normal spiel. Knowing this would not be the end of it I carried on walking around the store and have to admit it was a decent set up, not wanting to encourage the sales staff I did not actually sit on any of the furniture as that is a sure sign you are going to buy!! Even on the way out another member of staff tried to engage me asking if I was looking to furnish a new house as I was at the door I felt safe enough to talk to him and got the conversation off me and on to the store and its local competition.

Some people would love to feel like they were getting this sort of first class service, going into a store and having an attentive sales person listening to their needs and saving them time by taking them directly to the item that suits those needs. Others would get so annoyed that they would just turn around and leave the store.

I am thinking I might carry out an experiment to see how pushy sales people can be by visiting a number of retailers

Yesterday must have been a busy day for me as I had fallen asleep by 9.30 last night!! After work I met up for lunch with Lydia as she had been unable to come out with us when I had gone out for my birthday. Had some really interesting gifts of her, an Tequilalix lolly(I don't know why people seem to think I like tequila), and a Doctor Who mobile phone alert and the most interesting item was a packet of freeze dried ice cream and I have to admit this is the thing I am looking forward to tasting and don't worry I will post some sort of review about it (unless I am dead)

I spoke a few weeks ago about changing my car and one of my brothers have been helping me search and had told me about two cars he had seen advertised on the internet at a garage up in Swansea, so after lunch I went to take a look the first one was easy to find and looked pretty good (well if you forgot about the colour) so had a look around the car and saw the reason why they had only put photos of the drivers side online - bit of damage to the sill area of the car and looking it seemed to be pretty new with the paint coming off in my hands. This put me off the car immediately and having a look around the garage I was unable to see the second car or anything else that caught my attention.

So getting home I watched Doctor Who and was all set to watch Broken Flowers but fell asleep minutes before it started only to wake up just after it had ended - why does that happen?

Went to see THE INCREDIBLE HULK at the local cinema last night and after getting over my initial anger at being charged £5 for the ticket (I really was glad I had bought my own popcorn with me).

I can remember watching the old television series every Saturday afternoon and was disappointed with the Hulk film which was released back in 2003. This new movie however is a completely different story we are not taken back and given the story of how Bruce Banner, played by Edward Norton (and what a great job) became the Hulk. Instead during the opening credits we see the failed experiment and the aftermath we then go forward in time and catch up with Banner who has been moving from place to place avoiding the authorities and doing casual jobs. It was very nice to see that that the film makers played homage to the late Bill Bixby who had stared in the original Hulk television series (he appears on a television show as Banner is flicking through the channels) we also get to see cameos from Lou Ferrigno who was the original Hulk and from Stan Lee which you come to expect from Marvel adaptations. Another nice touch was the use of the classic theme tune, I only noticed it once but it really did strike a cord.

Back to the film, as I have already said Norton was a great choice to play Banner and we join him and learn that he has been taking steps to keep his anger under control and to find a cure and you just know that this control is going to be tested to the limit before we get to see the alternative side of Bruce Banner. However General Ross (William Hurt) has other ideas and wants to be able to use the secrets locked in Banner to create super soldiers and with the assistant of Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) they go after Banner…

show

This film is spectacular and superb in every way, with good effects (I could be picky if I really wanted) and plenty of action it is a must see film and certainly one that I shall be adding to my collection when it comes out on DVD. Some of the scenes were pretty scary so maybe not one to take your younger children along to see.

As always been a little slack when it comes to updating this thing, I had a good birthday (was very surprised to get a personalised card from the bank). As two other friends (Andrew and John) were also going to be turning thirty at around the same time big plans were going to be made to celebrate this milestone birthday, however plans change and we ended up going to Heatherton Activity Park near Tenby. The plan was to spend a few hours there taking part in the various activities before heading to Swansea for a night out. With Heatherton Activity Park you don't pay to enter but you do need to pay for any of the activities that you want to do, I would suggest one of the activity credit passes as they tend to work out cheaper. I did think that after half an hour we would have used up all of our credits (we got the 10 credit pass) and maybe it would have if we had not decided to try our luck on the pitch and putt, this activity cost three credits and could take about 2-3 hours. We did not play for that long as none of us were really any good and it had started to rain but when the scores were counted up I came out as the winner.

Next was the karts and again another activity that cost three credits, because they run the karts for adults and children we had to wait a few minutes before being able to race and I have to say that the karts were pretty fast, normally you would expect them to be rather lack lust. I thought that John had the one kart that was slow (there is always one) but apparently it was just his driving. We also managed to get in the pistols and the laser clay shot and archery each costing just one credit.

How does that old saying go, something about time flying when your having fun!

Well on the 3rd June 1978 (thirty years ago for those that can't count) in West Wales General Hospital I came into the world and well been living. I am sure that most people from time to time will stop and wonder if they could have lived their life so far better. I am sure no one wants to get to their deathbed and have regrets about the things they never got around to do or places they wanted to visit.

So 30 years have passed and I am still living in Carmarthen, looking back on the last thirty years, I have already started recording details of my life on this site (this is currently being rewritten with a load more information and memories and I have also began work on my life after I left Queen Elizabeth Cambria School in 1997 as a part of my 1001 project) I have no idea when this will be completed but it is something that I have been trying to do for the last few years as a sort of aid to when I get really old and start losing my memory.

You might come across people who when they were 18 or 21 had some sort of idea of where they wanted to be with their lives by the time they got to 30 but I was not one of those people, heck when I was 18 I considered retail work the way to go with my career, I seem to remember in school thinking that people would always need food and clothes so it would be a safe job - Today a job in retail would fill me with dread.