Doctor Who: Cold War

Coming soon.

F1 China 2013

Coming soon.

Meat Loaf Birmingham LG (NEC) Arena 12/04/2013

I have to talk about this show.

Meat Loaf: Last At Bat

So I have been to MANY Meat Loaf shows (some mind blowing, some ok, some awful) but this was a first...
The show was structured into two parts, with the second part being all of the songs from Bat Out Hell in their original album order.

The time on the ticket stated 8pm and they weren't kidding! After waiting for more than half an hour at the merchandise stand because they only had one working card terminal for the whole building!!! I had time to eat a handful of chips before with a megaphone announced "the show was about to start and there would be no support act".

Set List (Part One):
Opened with "When I'm Sixty-Four" (The Beatles)


Runnin For The Red Light (I Gotta Life)
Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)
Dead Ringer For Love
If It Ain't Broke (Break It)
Los Angeloser
The Giving Tree
Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are
Out Of The Frying Pan (Into The Fire)

Meat's vocals were ok during the first half, he still has the power there for the most part and certainly gave it everything he had.
The band were awesome as ever.


Set List (Part Two):
Bat Out Of Hell


Bat Out Of Hell
You Took The Words Rigtht Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)
Heaven Can Wait
All Revved Up With No Place To Go
Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad
Paradise By The Dashboard Light
For Crying Out Loud

Vocals were much better in the second half and Meat seemed some how more relaxed.
I still can't get used the having "Bat" midway through the show, I believe it should always be at the end but hey.
Each song was preceded by clips from "Classic Albums" which I understand the reason for but it was just a little wierd as for me its all about the music and the performance and think that just broke it up.
Meat got very emotional leading into "Heaven" he seemed genuinely moved by saying goodbye to the venue he has been visiting since 1981.
Loved the inflatables during "Bat" and "Paradise".

Encore

I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
Boneyard

"Anything For Love" was abridged as it has been for a few years now, Meat came in part way through the song. But it was really good.
Fantastic energy during Boneyard and still one of my fav tunes.

In conclusion despite the fact that Meat's vocals were not the best I have heard, I would have to say this was a great show.  Really enjoyed it throughout and ears are still aching.

Keep Rockin' forever Meat.
Loves ya. x

Greys Anatomy

Again been a little while since I watched but am very glad I did, really enjoyed both of these episodes for both individual story lines and also on-going character building.

Season 9 Episode 19: Can't Fight This Feeling 

Great episode guest starring Sarah Chalke (Elliot in Scrubs).
There are hints that Jackson and April make get back together (I hope so).
Also Hunt shows what a great dad he would be (sure that old peanut ain't going away).
Meredith asks Bailey to test her for the Alzheimer's gene.

Season 9 Episode 20: She's Killing Me

Continuing story from previous episode.
Plus patients start coming in with post op infections for which intern Leah takes the blame from Bailey.
However the episode ends with the revelation that infact it was Bailey herself that was the link between the cases.
Awesome cliff-hanger and right at the point where the show goes on a break in the US, but not long to wait now.

Revolution Eps 5 & 6

Stopped watching Revolution for a while, but picked it back up where I left off and will get through the rest soon.

Episode 5 (Soul Train)

Episode 6 (Sex and Drugs)

This was my favorite  of the two episodes as I think it was much darker in some respects.
The plot needs to pick up the pace a little though as it's becoming a bit "LOSTish".

Celebrity Juice 28/03 & 03/04

Celebrity Juice catchup.

Watched Celebrity Juice Series 09 Episodes 05 & 06

Guests were:

Ep 05 28/03/2013 (The Big Reunion Special):

Members of:

Blue
5ive
Atomic Kitten
Liberty X

Ep 06 03/04/2013:

Gok Wan
Nick Grimshaw
Millie Mackintosh
Joe Lycett

Wrestlemania 29

Wrestlemania 29 NY/NJ 07/04/2013

Really liked this Wrestlemania matches as follows:


The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) Vs Sheamus, Randy Orton and Big Show
Mark Henry Vs  Ryback
Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) Vs Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston (with AJ Lee) (Tag Team Championship)
Fandango Vs Chris Jericho
Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez) Vs  Jack Swagger (with Zeb Colter) (World Heavyweight Championship)
Undertaker Vs CM Punk (with Paul Heyman)
Triple H (with Shawn Michaels) Vs Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) (No Holds Barred match)
John Cena Vs The Rock (WWE Championship)

Results (Winners)

The Shield

Mark Henry

Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) (Retained Titles)

Fandango

Alberto Del Rio (Retained Title)

Undertaker defeated CM Punk to go 21-0

Triple H If Triple H had lost, he would have been forced to retire)

John Cena (Cena won WWE Championship)

Was really happy with the results, long may the streak continue.

Rock Vs Cena million times better than last year!!

Doctor Who 06/04/2013

Was a little disapointed with this episode after the amazing "Bells of Saint John".
"The Rings of Akhaten" Series 7 Episode 8.
The only thing that peeked my interest slightly was the mention of the Doctor's grand-daughter, which surely has to be a nod to the up-and-coming 50th Anniversary Special.

Development of Clara's character has also stopped for now which is disapointing to say the least.

Not the worst ep i've seen but certainly not up to the standard of the previous one.

Update

Been really busy recently.
Blog posts coming tomorrow (I hope).

Additional Currys Mini-Rant

In addition I found out today that KnowHow are not allowed to cover or repair Apple products (since September 2012) so therefore the policy would have been void anyway in the event of a claim. Having spoken to KnowHow directly today I was informed that in the event of a claim their policy is to refund the premium paid by the customer as any claim would be invalid.
Seems to me that they are still selling this policy with Apple products in the hope that the customer does not need to make a claim and therefore would be none the wiser and would continue paying for an invalid policy for the duration of the term.
Bad practice and I will be reporting this and taking it much further.

Currys Rip Off Warning

Ok I said I was going to have a rant about Currys and here it is....

On Bank Holiday Monday last week I went into my local Currys store (Evesham) with the intention to purchase a brand new iPad 4th Generation (Retina).
I have been putting off buying an iPad since it was launched and now believe it's the time to join the family.

Anyway back to the story....

There was plenty of staff there on this particular day and they were all very helpful (or so it seemed at the time).  I informed the member of staff who served me that I wished to purchased several items including iPad 4, Apple TV, Smart Cover and Apple Keyboard.
She was very helpful and went to the back of the store to get the items for me.
Upon her return she asked me if I had heard of "Infinity" my answer at the time was no however the simple thought of the word now fills me with anger and more anger.
She explained that they were running a special promotion and that for just £25 per month I could get the brand new iPad along with accidental damage cover, technical support and even 1tb of free cloud storage for the whole two years.  After the two year period was up I could keep the iPad and also had the option of upgrading to a brand new model at the time and renewing for the same deal.
As if that wasn't enough she told me that I would also get 25% of my total premium paid in returned at the end of the two year period with no obligation to continue.
She reeled off (ok printed) tons of figures none of which made any particular sense and looking back now my spidey senses should have been tingling but they were not.
After I enquired about interest payments, the member of staff consulted her manager and came back telling me that there was no interest to be paid and that actually, once you take into account the 25% rebate along with several other factors the iPad would cost me no more than if I were to buy it outright there and then (remembering this was my original intention).

At this point I realise that story was the wrong word and I should have just stuck with rant but hey ho..

Had I done the maths at the time it would have gone like this:

£25 x 24 (months) = £600
25% of £600 = £150
Total paid = £450

This would have been £50.01 over the asking price, but still a reasonable deal considering it was over two years and all the "free bonuses".

I went over to the seating area and signed in the places I was told to and left with my brand new iPad and accessories (I paid for the accessories separately in case you were wondering).

When I got home I had work to do so consequently iPad was left sad and alone in it's bag.
I was working on a computer and decided to look up the "Infinity" product that Currys sold me and was shocked!

Firstly this was a rental agreement with "Infinity" also known as "RentSmart" which meant that after two years of paying I wouldn't even own the finger grease on the screen!
Secondly the 25% cash back I was promised was not as it had been sold, in fact rather than getting 25% of your premium returned you only get 25% of the value of the iPad at the end of the term and you are only eligible for this puny amount if you are brain damaged enough to sign up for this again!!
Thirdly as this is a rental agreement and not a financial one you have no rights to a cooling off period.

I next looked at my receipt and paperwork in more detail and realised that the payment setup was not £25 per month as agreed but £29+ and that the "free" KnowHow cover was actually listed on my receipt as a large extra expense.

The total cost of this policy as was going to be in the region of £720 at the end of which I would have nothing to show for my investment except a load of AppStore purchases that I could no longer use as my iPad would be returned to Infinity.

I know this is a lesson in reading things more carefully at the time, but you expect when you ask for it to be explained in detail for them to do just that.

After a sleepless night, mainly reading forums and consumer advice sites, I woke up and started calling around Citizens Advice, Trading Standards etc. who explained to me that misrepresenting a product in order to get you to sign into an agreement is a criminal offence.
CAB advised me to write letters to Currys and Infinity explaining the situation, but that could take weeks and I was in a situation were I was too scared to use my iPad in case I got stuck with it.

Armed with the information from all these sources, I called Infinity/RentSmart directly and they were surprisingly helpful and said that they were a reputable company and they didn't like the idea of their products being misrepresented.
They advised me to go back to Currys and argue my case with the manager.

I entered Currys Evesham in a much less joyful mood than I had just 24hrs earlier and headed straight over to the manager.
The strange/interesting thing about the conversation was that at no point did he try and deny the misrepresentation of the product by his staff.  He disappeared for a few minutes to make some inquiries but never returned, instead he sent his assistant manager to deal with me (which I thought a bit cowardly but hey).
The Assistant Manager (who was disgruntled to say the least) proceeded to cancel the agreement and let me to purchased the iPad outright (bearing in mind this is exactly what I went into the store to do in the first place, she acted as though she was doing me a great favor).

I was lucky to be able to get out of this situation as I have read about many that have not.
My reason for writing this article is to give people a "heads up" about the actual terms and costs of the Infinity/RentSmart product.
Do not be fooled by promises of cash back and freebies.
If you go into a Retailer the expectation is to purchase a product, not to rent.
I can understand how this kind of service would be beneficial for people with poor credit who desperately need a laptop/pc/tablet for work/studies etc. But considering they ran Credit Checks (without ID by the way) this doesn't quite tally up.

I now am using my iPad and have indeed written this article using it.
I'm very happy with the tablet, but in future will stick to Amazon and Apple Store for my electronic purchases.

Thanks for reading and if this helps just one person I will be very happy.

Please Note:

I do not nor have I ever worked for Currys/PC World/Dixons Group PLC
I have no affiliation with any of the above companies nor anyone that works for or with them.
These are simply my views of my experiences and nothing more.

Doctor Who DVD Files 2

Watched Doctor Who DVD Files Disc 2.
Episodes were as follows:

The Unquiet Dead
Aliens of London

I had forgotten that Eve Myles (Gwen from Tourchwood) was in "The Unquiet Dead".
Both of these episodes were better than the previous two and I really enjoyed them both.
The Aliens of London story continues on the next disc with "World War Three" which I am hoping to watch this evening (after I have since the new Series 7 ep that is).
Also lovely to see the introduction of MP Harriet Jones who features later in the series.

Great Great Great!

Tomorrow

I am hoping to post some of my Ebay deliveries from the last few days and also will be doing my "Currys" rant.

Back to the Beginning

As I have started collecting the Doctor Who DVD Files I decided it would be a good opportunity to start watching right from the beginning  again.

Disc One:

Rose
The End of the World

I remember being really upset at the end of Christopher Eccleston's run.
I guess as he was my first Doctor it's natural to feel that way, but looking back on it now he was not a patch on either David Tenant or Matt Smith.

I did however enjoy the episodes and look forward to carrying on the Series.

The Doctor Is Back

This Saturday saw the return of Doctor Who to the BBC and amazingly I was caught up!

I can honestly say The Bells of Saint John is one of the best episodes I have ever seen.

There is no doubt in my mind now that Matt Smith is my fav Doctor and Clara intrigues me more and more.

Everything about this episode rocked and I can't wait until tomorrow.

The Snowmen

In an effort to get caught up, I had a real Doctor Who session.

I first watched the prequels:

The Great Detective (Children In Need)
Vastra Investigates

Both of these were awesome (I really like Vastra and Jenny wanna see more).

I think The Snowmen was one of the best Christmas Specials.  Richard E Grant was really good and it was a greeat introduction to Clara.
I can't wait to find out what the full story behind her is.

Last Few Days...

I've watched alot in the last few days but for one reason or another have not had the opportunity to blog it.

Here goes....

Starting with the second disc from the Doctor Who Series 7 Blu Ray boxset.

These were all episodes I hadn't seen before and I really wanted to get caught up before the show came back onto the BBC on Saturday.

The second disc contains the episodes:

The Power of Three

The Angels Take Manhatten

and also the extras:

Pond Life

Asylum of the Dalek Prequel 

Making of "A Town Called Mercy"

I thought the episodes were really good and a kind nice but sad ending for Amy and Rory (although I have a feeling we may see them again in the future).

I watched all the extras except for Making of ATCM and really enjoyed them.

Back up and running

Ok so this time I am back up and running for real.
More posts coming later today! Wooohooo!