Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Can’t believe he’s really dead!!

Despite what he’s either done or done to himself, Michael Jackson remains one of the childhood heroes/icons that a lot of kids growing up in the eighties had. Most people I know grew up with at least one of his albums on cassette. Me and my brother had Thriller on tape and got Bad copied from our cousins, who were also very much into Jacko. As recently as christmas I bought his ‘King of Pop’ greatest hits, the music still stands up today – especially Beat It, Bad and Billie Jean. Before the media goes overkill on this and makes me sick of hearing tributes, i’d thought i’d give my tiny tribute right here.

When you hear of famous people dying, depending on how much they mean to you depends on how you feel. Michael Jackson obviously meant a lot to me as a kid, but i’m a man now! Obviously it still affects me, as my heart sank a little when I heard the rumours last night. I was on Twitter on the bus home when word came through that he was dead. I suppose he’s so ingrained in pop culture and so many peoples childhoods that it’s proving such a shock. I know at work later on they’ll only be one topic of discussion.

News websites are only now suggesting that the amount of painkillers Jackson was on was the reasons for his heart attack and death – he took so many in order to perform at the O2 that his body just gave up. I always thought something would happen so he wouldn’t perform the gigs, never dreamt it’d be this.

Now, i’ll let the news channels, papers and internets take over the 24 hour non-stop Michael Jackson coverage for you all. I’ve said my bit!

Midsummer Mundanities

Today, June 21st, is the longest day of the year. I always thinks this comes far too early – before we get chance to enjoy the summer, the nights start slowly getting darker again!

Today is also about one month before I fly away on holiday. It’s a well earned break, I must say. In the past month at work things have changed, duties are different, meaning I no longer have the cushy safe job with my mates and instead have a mind-numbingly boring job. Ho hum. That’s also not to mention the fact that my hours on Saturday have changed. I’m not a fan of working on Saturdays anyway, I finished at six but it’d kinda ruin the day, but now my hours have been shifted from 2-6 to 3-7. Perfect.

I’m all for looking for new work, but the severe lack of any decent jobs (the Nottingham Evening Post doesn’t even have a proper jobs paper anymore!) has led me to look at some sort of training in something else. I think I’ve approached the point of sink or swim. I’m 26, I’ve been at Royal Mail for three years and if i do nothing now, i’ll be there in three years time. Problem is, i’m not entirely sure what I want to do, and what I’d be good at. Certainly needs a few days off work (like a holiday!) to think long and hard about it.

I’ve been to London a good few times recently. Until the other day, my brother Iain and his fiancee Aleks lived in a ‘leafy’ north London suburb called Colindale. I say leafy, but a short walk down Edgware Road is enough to convince you other wise. They moved across the north of the capital last Tuesday, to a much larger and more interesting place called Wood Green – or more precisely Turnpike Lane – which involved me and my dad helping them both in about three car journeys to and fro.

Wood Green is automatically nicer, seeing as the high street is literally minutes away, there is a Wetherspoons serving non-London priced beer and they have the Turnpike Lane tube stop down the end of their road. Shame that they aren’t staying there longer (short term let) as i’d like to get to know the area better, plus it’s a few miles north of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – which I’d like to go gawp at.

Elsewhere, the new iPhone and the iPhone update were released the other day. The change between my iPhone 3G and the new 3GS is minimal, certainly not enough to go out and buy it. Besides, the recently released 3.0 jailbreak has seen to it that a lot of new features brought in on the 3GS can be got on my phone.

It’s called progress…

Always a fan of blowing my own trumpet (so to speak!), here is a before and after of my weight loss.

March ‘09

And this was a few days ago…

Yes, in that picture I do look a bit too happy. But i seem to have got weight loss down to a T. Three stone in three months, coupled with two days a week at the gym seems to be working fine. But until I get down another 4 stone, i won’t be happy. I prefer not to think about how I put on all the weight I lost, but rather on how I’ll manage to keep the weight off – that is the hardest part, no question.

Personally, i’m surprised my body hasn’t given up on me – what with the seemingly constant weight loss/gain. What can I say? I’m a medical marvel!