I’m off to Download 2011 tomorrow with Josh – can’t wait!

Definitely looking forward to KoЯn’s new stuff like this:


As well as load of other bands: SOAD, The Darkness, BFMV, Framing Hanley, a7x, Disturbed, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and more that I love! See the full line up here.

I’ll be uploading photos all weekend so watch this space!

Today I went to see Fast and Furious 5 (aka Fast Five) in Odeon Colchester with Jeff Tooze and Chris Holman.

We had intended to see the new X-Men film using free tickets we had received after complaining about the poor experience we had last time, caused by the lack of any picture during the showing of Scream 4 (took 45 minutes to fix), but due to the fact the free list for it had been suspended, we opted to see Fast Five, a film that I had already seen on a previous visit.

After booking Fast Five, we found ourselves with an hour to waste before it started, so we decided to visit the local Wetherspoon pub, the Playhouse, for a few drinks. Chris was hungry (as usual) and therefore had to attempt ordering food from the bar; he proceeded to try and order a “ham, egg and chips” meal by using every combination of the three ingredients as he could (eg “chip, egg, ham meal” and “egg, chip, ham please”), before accepting defeat and ordering a burger instead.

Subsequently, we made our way to the cinema. 5 minutes (and several racial comments later), we got to the door of our screen where we were told that it was still being cleaned (even though we arrived perfectly on time, with other people). After cleaning had finished we went in, where the barrage of sweets between Chris and Jeff commenced. As usual, I had the misfortune of sitting next to Chris, meaning I had to put up with the constant sweet throwing.

After watching the adverts for films I have absolutely no intention to see, such as Cowboys & Aliens and Bridesmaids (whose advert was inexplicably around 10 minutes long), the film finally started. Or did it? There was a picture playing and there was sound but being Odeon and being Colchester, there was inevitably problems. Firstly, the lights hadn’t been dimmed, meaning the audience had lost immersion due to being able to see everyone else in the room and also due to the light on the screen making it harder to see. The other problem was the aspect ratio was wrong; we were watching a widescreen film in good old-fashioned 4:3. After somebody decided to get out of their woefully uncomfortable chair and get someone to fix the problem, we could finally watch the film properly (even though we had missed some of the subtitles because they were off the screen).

The film was quite enjoyable, bearing in mind it was the second time I had watched it and I think this is because of Chris’ comments and noises throughout it. Whenever a person with a larger than average build came on screen laughter ensued, followed by a proclamation that the character was Jeff. Another oddity of Chris’ is his facial expressions that can vary between slightly confused and a serious brain damage look; these expressions can be very distracting when they are facing you for minutes on end, instead of at the screen. While I am on the topic of Chris, it seems fitting to mention that he recently learned a new sitting technique – being the giant he is, Chris has trouble fitting his legs in the seats at cinemas but he has recently found that if you sit further back in a chair, your legs have more space.

Once the film had finished we decided to try and find an old, burned down church in Alresford; we drove round for a while, passing people reminiscent of “The Hills Have Eyes” and finally found it. After walking round, we realised it wasn’t as impressive or scary as it had seemed when we were children so decided to leave. To see a horribly blurry picture of the church, taken by Chris, click on the thumbnail: