| The Update |
[May. 15th, 2010|09:44 pm] |
Nothing really to update at the moment. Tiffy has an overactive thyroid but she is taking medication and all signs point to her recovering and being fine. I love my little baby so this is good news,
I am still preparing for a move to Canada to take place in about 4 weeks, not sure how long I am gonna be gone for but I hope to have a good time seeing my family and friends, who knows I might even make some new friends back there.
On that note I FINALLY got my Canadian passport in January after them not liking my gaurentor and then not liking my NHS card because its cardboard and "flimsy." Well, the important thing is, I have it and I learned a valuable lesson-next time get it done in Canada!
Aside from that not much happening, life is chugging along and all that. |
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| the update 2000-2009 |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|11:50 am] |
As this decade known as the “naughties” limps its way to a close, I thought I would take a moment to look back at the high lights and low lights.
One thing that strikes me is that this decade may very well end up with a culture identity crises-we had the swinging 60s Disco 70s go-go 80s and the caring 90s but what of this decade?
There are certainly defining moments that this decade will be remembered for 9/11 and its aftermath, the war Afghanistan and the war in Iraq not to mention the protests that came before it.
I thought I would organise this in topics that mean a lot to me namely-political, wrestling and social.
POLITICAL...
America, we have a problem. This decade ended Bill Clinton’s 8 year rule over America. What followed was one of the bitterest and ugly election campaigns in the nations history which ended with a decision from the Supreme Court to appoint Texas Governor George .W. Bush as President of the United States of America. So finally on rainy morning, amid egg throwing protesters Bush was sworn in as “leader of the free world.” In 2004 he would go on to beat Sen John Kerry in what was another close call. Under the Bush administration America would see many changes including the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, and tax cuts of up to $1.3 trillion. He also lead the fight against AIDS in African countries.
The end of decade also marked the end of the aforementioned Bush era and once again America was lead to the polls. After a closely fought Democratic battle, under dog Illinois Senator Barack H. Obama beat former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary R. Clinton. On the Republican side Arizona Senator and 2000 GOP candidate John McCain won the nomination. Both candidates came to the shock of many who had pegged Giuliani and Clinton to take the nominations. In November and with no controversy, Obama became Americas first black President.
In Canada this decade saw the end of both Jean Chretian and the Liberal party in government. On the right , we saw the merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance parities and former Prime Minister Joe Clark retire from politics finishing off as an Independent MP. After the Crown sponsorship scandal and the resignation of Chretian, Prime Minister Paul Martin led the Liberal party to a minority government and eventual defeat in 2005 when Stephen Harper led his newly aligned Conservative party to a minority government. At the end of 2008 however due to the growing dissatisfaction following an election the Liberal Party and NDP proposed a coalition with a written guarantee from the Bloc Quebcoise. The Prime Minister responded by asking Governor General Michelle Jean to “prorogue” Parliament meaning that Parliament was shut down. By the time it reopened Liberal leader Stephan Dion was replaced by Michael Ignatieff who rejected the coalition.
In 1994 Britain fell in love with Tony Blair. He was dashing, young and charismatic a small wonder then that in 1997 the public handed him one of the biggest landslide victories in British history. However by 2005 Blair had changed-ravaged by scandal, war and mistrust you could see his hair grey and that magic sparkle fade away from his eyes. He was tired and weary and it was beginning to show. In 2007 he resigned and handed the job over to his Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. Brown would have a great opinion polls in 2007 and almost called election-his dithering on the subject on other matters has now but him at least 10 points behind David Cameron’s Conservative party.
WRESTLING
Perhaps the biggest news story of this decade was the collapse of WCW. For almost 2 years WCW had been beating the once powerful WWF making many wonder how long the company could continue. However, bad management and ignoring their younger stars saw the company being bought out in 2001 and the end of the Monday night wars. WWF would later loose its own war against World Wildlife Fund and change its name to WWE.
Another company that folded was ECW the plucky fed from Philadelphia it too was bought by the WWF and while its original version is gone it is still remembered by any and their wrestlers are remembered as legendary.
Sadly this decade will be remembered for many tragic deaths in particular Eddie Guerrerro and Chris Benoit. Eddie died in 2005 suddenly and it sent shock waves through the whole community but the truly shocking death was Chris Benoit. I will not go into it as most people know the story and anyone who doesn’t can look it up all I will say is that I was shocked and deeply saddened and to this say still confused about what could have cause it. Amidst Guerrero’s death the WWE administered its wellness policy which is supposed to combat drug use.
But this decade was not all about death and destruction-from the ashes of WCW a new fed Total Non-stop Action was built and introduced the world to names like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels. Their show Impact is set to go head to head with the WWE on Jan 4th with many speculating a new Monday Night war.
Ring of Honour was also founded in this decade and if the above mentioned names got famous in TNA, they got their start in ROH. ROH was a new kind of fed-it focused more on in ring product and less about promos their code of Honour had wrestlers shaking hands before and after a match.
The British scene has seen a lot this decade with the death and resurrection of the FWA and 1PW. On a personal level as someone who saw the best and worst of 1PW it was quite a ride but I have the feeling that the next decade may belong to Pro Wrestling 101 built up by former 1PW promoter Steven Gauntley. Today we have British wrestlers taking big roles in TNA and WWE it’s a good time to be a fan of the British scene.
To cap off, I thought I would in no particular order list some events that stand out in my mind…- 9/11
- The 2000 election
- Multiple wrestling deaths
- Rise fall and rise of 1PW
- Pro wrestling 101 is born
- The war in Iraq and the protests
- Israel firing on Lebanon
- England winning the Rugby world cup
- Canada winning Olympic gold beating America 5-2
- Obama becoming America’s 1st black President
My hope for next decade is an end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for the recession to be over. I hope that Canada regains political stability and that Harper is removed from office. I hope we have a peaceful and prosperous decade. |
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| Ask Tiffy |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|11:01 pm] |
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I thought I would hand over my blog to Tiffy so she can answer some of her many emails...
Dear Tiffy,
my human keeps sitting in my chair and sometimes even decides to push me off! What gives?
Mittens,
Dear Mittens,
the truth is your human doesn't mean to be rude they just don't know that its your special chair. My advice is to mark it-claw the arms and shed there.
Pur pur
Tiffy
Dear Tiffy,
I contanstly find when I am with my human that a piece of string will appear-naturally I defend the house but what I cannot understand is how the human can sit there and laugh-can't they see the danger they are in?
Wuggles
Dear Wuggles,
no, humans have no idea of the danger that string poses and its a good thing to because if they did their mindes would explode.
Allow them to live in ignorant bliss-its best for us all.
Stay out of the bathtub,
Tiffy
Dear Tiffy,
how long should it take to train a human?
Pinky
Dear Pinky,
it takes as long as it takes but my advice is to be patient but remember this is YOUR house and YOUR human so train them right. When its time for food-wake them up if need be.
Don't get mouse breath,
Tiffy
Dear Tiffy,
my human has decided to put one of these new camera things on my coller to see what I do when they leave the house-naturally I am outraged-what should I do?
Bruno
Dear Bruno
sigh...what is the obsession humans have with what we do when we leave the house? I personally don't know nor care about what humans do when they leave. My advice? Mess with their heads and do stuff we never do that'll learn em!!
If the early bird gets the worm...get up even earlier
Tiffy
Thats all for now! |
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| the update |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|08:50 pm] |
Monday night was fun-Alex and I went to friend Ben's house to play Bamboozled with Ben and his girlfriend Hannah (who will henceforth be known as by her nickname Beanie). Its always great spending time with friends and a nice night in was just what I needed.
Not much else to update, should start my Xmas shopping soon but to be honest I don't much care for Xmas. That being said, Dave will be coming to visit and that should be fun. |
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| the update |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|03:24 pm] |
Spent part of this morning with Alex helping a friend clear out some storage space-we found all manner of crap including 30 year old tyres, spare windows and an old catalog before heading to Subway which was nice but I prefer the Doncaster Subway as they have this new bread which is delicious.
Wales are playing NZ in rugby today.
So far thats about it on my update.
Ben |
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| the update |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|10:23 pm] |
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Last night Alex and I met up with our friend Jed. I dunno how long it had been since we had seen each other but it had been way too long so it was great to grab a drink and play some pool. As he was in town tonight as well we had anoter meet up which I have just got back from. We played some pool, went over some old photos and basically had a fun night. It was great seeing the dude and he will be back in town later this month so we can have another fun night. |
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| the update |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|11:23 am] |
Gotta go to a meeting at work, I hate how these meetings are never planned, you just get a call asking you on the day if you can make it...pisses me off on the other, chicken and great TV tonight. I have been playing Red Faction lately, a good game.
I uploaded my Doncaster pics last week, brought back the good times-hopefully next weekend will be a provider of good times.
Tomorrow I am at work but then I am going to see my friend Jed, not seen him for a long time so it promises to be good.
8iuuu] <--- what you see there is Tiffy typing on my keybord. What does it mean? What doesn't it mean?
On Halloween the family enjoyed a nice raclette dinner which was great, I love raclette and most Swiss food. I think Switzerland has a much underated cusine. I would dare say its better than French.
Tiffy seems to have settled on my leg now...for now. I love my Tiffy.
Next autumn hopefully I will be back in Canada in time for Thanksgiving and gorgous Ontarian leaf changing. |
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| the update |
[Oct. 29th, 2009|03:28 pm] |
Not much going on nor not much planned. I had a great time in Doncaster last weekend it was great to be back and to be at PW101 a hot new fed ran by former 1PW owner and friend Steven Gauntley. Sadly it looks like the milkshake place is closed, maybe for good-BS if it is as those milkshakes are the best. Its sometimes sad walking through Doncaster High Street seeing the abandoned stores then again Melton is very much the same. I was thinking of how much the High Street has changed and not for the better.
Going back north in a couple of weeks which will be a blast and then again in Dec which will be a much needed break.
Big plans in January, more on that later though. |
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| Death of a superhero |
[Oct. 15th, 2009|10:39 am] |
I was sitting in the bath yesterday when I hear Alex through the door. He felt that I should hear from him that Captain Lou Albano had died.
Fans of the squared circle will know Lou Albano as a legendary manager who managed many legends including Hulk Hogan,Andre the Giant, the British Bulldogs and the Wild Samoans but thats not the Lou Albano I wish to write about because for me,Lou Albano will always be Super Mario.
1991 was a rocky time for Canada. Mulroony in power, the recession in full swing the NAFTA abd GST was wreaking havok and a people called Iraqis were being bombed. But I didn't care about any of that because, while I understood they were important somewhere in a far away land King Koopa was running wild and he needed to stopped. Ever since my Dad bought a Nintendo in 1989 I have been a huge fan of Super Mario and every week I tuned in to the Super Mario Brothers Super Show and watched Koopa get his. The show was mainly cartoon form but was hosted by Lou Albano playing Super Mario. The thing I admire about Mario is that hes not your average hero. Hes not built like a brick house, hes an overweight pizza loving plumber and hes happy with who he is. In an era where people are being told to feel bad about themselves he advocates truth love and pizza. For me, Lou Albano will always be a symbol of a simpler time, a time when you knew who the good guys were, a better time.
Now everybody do the Mario!!
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