Random thoughts

I bet people who talk to themselves, or have invisible friends loved the invention of hands free devices for mobile phones.

I was driving home from work today and in the ten minute journey from work to home, I counted seven people who were sat in their cars, alone, quite clearly talking to someone. Were they on handsfree? Dunno. Were they talking to ghosts or invisible friends? No idea. Were they singing along to the radio? Possibly.

But no longer are mental people who talk to themselves visible...they can just pretend they're on handfree!

Back home...!

Well i've been back in England for just over one week and I think I've finally recovered from the holiday!

I found myself falling asleep on the flight back, as well as during my 3-hour wait in Kings Cross Station and the train back to Leeds. Easter weekend was filled with little snoozes that annoyed Charlotte.

Had a good Easter though and it was great to be back home and back in the arms of the Doddster. We had a quality day out on Sunday at Knowsley Safari Park with the Monkeys climbing all over the car...amazingly, the entire car stayed intact, which was quite amazing as at one point we had 6 baboons running rampant all over it.

Back to work too, oh the joy!

Our Laura signed up for a Mobile phone package last night too where we get a free Nintendo Wii with Wii Fit...so about a year after flogging my Wii to Hamish to fund buying an Xbox, we've got the Wii back. I only wanted to get it with Wii Fit though because me and Charlotte had a go on it at Carli's at the weekend and it's really good fun as well as being great exercise!

WRESTLEMANIA 25

WOW! What a day!

Got up this morning for the Breakfast in the hotel and then just chilled out for most of the day before heading down to the Reliant Stadium about 3pm. Me, Lawlor and Euan met up with Lauren, Gary and Katie down there. We all went into the stadium and went our separate ways as we were all sat in different places...then when I'm sat in my seat, I turn around, and there's Lauren and Gary sat in the seat behind me...how very odd!

The set was awesome, the arena was huge.



The show kicked off with a lumberjack tag-team title unification match in which Carlito and Primo took all four belts. We then had Nicole Scherzinger (or however you spell it) warbling America The Beautiful.

When the show kicked in, the Money In The Bank Ladder Match was the opener on Live TV. It was a typical big-fall, high intensity match and surprisingly, they gave the win to CM Punk!

Next up was a cool performance by Kid Rock which led to the Divas Battle Royal, won in some style, by Santina...Santino's sister...!

Jericho was out next to face Superfly Snuka, Roddy Piper and Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat actually put in a decent performance and I certainly wouldn't begrudge him coming back to the WWE full time! He's still got it.

Typically, Jericho won and then offered on Mickey Rourke who then nailed him in the ring.

Brother Vs Brother next...wow...those two really went crazy on each other. Matt picked up a nice victory after a Twist Of Fate whilst Jeff had a chair wrapped around his neck.

Next up, JBL came out and bad-mouthed Texas, then Rey Mysterio came out and beat him in about 30 seconds leading to JBL quitting the WWE. I think he could be going back to commentary.

Then it came...the best match ever seen in the WWE. It will go down in history as being epic. HBK Vs Undertaker. It was intense and emotional. Back and forth. The arena was going insane by the end of it. People were talking about this match long into the night! Undertaker's streak stayed alive.

Then we had to sit through Cena/Edge/Big Show's match which was half decent with Cena picking up the title with a double F-U, picking them both up!

Then an odd Main Event. HHH vs Orton. Everyone expected Legacy to get involved...they didn't...everyone expexted the McMahon's to screw HHH...they didn't...everyone expected Orton to win...he didn't!

It was a very weak finish to an otherwise awesome show.

I have loads of photos that I have uploaded to Facebook, so check them out on there.

Just gotta start saving for Phoenix, Arizona in 2010 now...!

WM25 - Day 5 - Midday Madness & Hall Of Fame

WOW!

What a day today.

Only managed to get a few hours sleep last night. Got up eventually and me, Lawlor and Euan all jumped in a taxi to the Axxess session that was going on. Did a few of the activities that we'd not yet done and then made our way to the queue for the midday madness meet and greet session.

We were in the queue when in walked Rey Mysterio, Evan Bourne, Mr Kennedy...KENNEDY, Maryse and The Great Khali. Mr Kennedy was on fine form, having a really good laugh putting kids in headlocks and winding up the disabled fans by pretending to ignore them and shouting NEXT.

Here's the photos of me meeting them...
Still can't believe I asked Rey Mysterio if I could wear the kids mask that was on the table...and I still can't believe that it fit over my melon!

All the superstars were awesome and it was one hell of an experiance. So much more fun that the previous year when it was a case of just having whatever you wanted signed passed down the line and you couldn't really have photos with the stars.

Mr Kennedy was by far the funniest of the lot...but we even got the signature of Khali's interpretor! Here's my two t-shirts with all the autographs.
The reason I have two shirts was that I was planning on getting the one on the right signed by everyone over the days...but today I forgot to take the t-shirt down to the Midday Madness so I decided to buy a second shirt, get it signed on the front, then I can hang them up next to each other so I can see both the front and the back and all the signatures.

So, after Midday Madness, we came back to the hotel and got suited and booted and headed out to the Toyota Centre for the 2009 Hall of Fame ceremony. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the main inductee but it was awesome seeing all the stars there as well as all the legends being inducted. This year they had a timer up on the wall so that the stars were not running over like last year when The Rock spoke too much and Ric Flair thanked every single person he has ever met and they had problems editing it for the TV.

After the hall of fame, we all went back to the Hilton and met up with the entire Wolfpack for the first ever Wolfpack awards...I was given the "Best Dancer" award for the Truffle Shuffle and the striptease at the Lawlor Invitational last year.

Then, at the end of the night, Richard Parker got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend Sara. She accepted and we all hit the bar to celebrate.

Here's the suited and booted wolfpack :



So with almost everything over, tomorrow is Wrestlemania 25...I cannot wait. Ashley in our group has bought a front row seat from someone and has swapped his old ticket with mine. So now I am going to be sat very close to the ramp...going to be able to get some quality photos!

WM25 - Day 4 - The Wrestling stuff begins!

And so...it begins.

After having plenty of fun for the last few days it was onto the hurty-feety stuff.

We moved across from the Hilton to the Hyatt Regency. The hotel is huge. Check out the view from my floor down to the lobby...

We had to wait around a little before we could check into our rooms.

I love my room though. Very nice indeed.

So today was the beginning of all the Wrestling activities.

We got Jean Michele to take us across to the Reliant Centre for our first Fan Axxess session.

The room we went into was massive. I got in the queue straight away with Katie to queue to meet Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. It took almost an hour to get to the front of the queue but was worth it for a couple of good photos.

There was a load of other attractions such as the Undertaker's Graveyard with all the tombstones of all his victims, and a section where you could record your own ring entrance and commentary. There were loads of other wrestlers doing signings too, but I didn't queue for them but still got photos from the side.

I got the back of a white Wrestlemania 25 shirt signed by the two guys above, as well as Josh Mathews and Tony Chimel.

After Axxess we went back to the bar and spent the night talking to loads of different people from around the world.

Knackered now though!

WM25 - Day 3 - We're going to the Zoo!

Awesome day today...but very tiring.

Got up this morning, not too early of course and jumped in the Hilton Shuttle across to Houston Zoo. I was surprised that it was only $10 entry, at which point I thought that it was obviously a crap Zoo, but I have to tell you it was awesome. Took so many photos of just about everything in there. We spent a good four hours going around the entire place. We saw Grizzly Bears, Crocodiles, and who can forget the Meerkats...and now everyone is annoying everyone else with the tones of "COMPARE THE MEERKAT...DOT COM!"

After the zoo, we went back to the hotel to get ready before all deciding to head to the cinema to see John Cena's new movie, 12 Rounds. Loved the movie! The action was intense and the story was actually pretty damn good.

After the cinema, we decided to go looking for somewhere to eat but we ended up walking around in huge circles on an hilarious trek around what seemed to be the whole of Texas! We ended up finding a bar with a guy playing guitar and singing and we had a beer before getting Jean Michele, our taxi driver to come and pick us up. He then took us to this awesome restaurant that did Mexican food. It was about 11:30pm and it was still heaving.

Finally got back to the hotel and just basically zonked out for our last night in the Hilton.

WM25 - Day 2 - Out of this world!

After a quality night's sleep, woke up pretty early and caught a load of US Breakfast TV, which was funny as most of the news was from London and the riots and the President visiting Gordon Brown and the Queen...funnily enough, Mrs Obama brought the Queen an iPod...now is it just me or not...but can you really imagine old Queeny dancing around Buck Pal with her iPod cracked up to full, rocking out to Bon Jovi? Actually...nah, forget it...neither can I!


Went and tucked into a hearty fayre courtesy Burger King...$6 for a load of grub...marvellous! French Toast for breakfast...Marvellous!


Then we jumped in a taxi we had booked and took a ride to NASA!


Have you seen the size of the shuttle that was there?

It was absolutely huge and was something that needs to be seen to be believed.


The whole of NASA was awesome, from touching moon rock to seeing what life is like on board the shuttles to even eating some Astronaut Strawberries! I'm bringing some Astonaut food home so it's all good...and tasty...!



We were in NASA for a good 4 hours before heading back to the hotel. We had a few drinks in the bar before Brunning, Penny & Penny, Tipton, Parker and Paddy all turned up from their flight. We all had a few more drinks before heading out for an evening at HOOTERS!


My first ever trip to Hooters was a sight to behold. The food was amazing (even the Hooters Hot Sauce that I chucked down my throat to prove that Northern Boys really are hardcore) and the women were all cute...but it all just made me think about how much I was missing my own little lady who's back in Bradford (heehee, Bingley even eh Charlotte?).


A few of the others headed out after Hooters but some of us just went back to the hotel for another couple of beers and then bed.


Here's the gang at Hooters :

Wrestlemania Holiday Day 1 Continued...

Well...we're officially over in the States.

After sinking a few too many pints in the hotel in London and going to bed way too late for our 4am wake-up time, I emerged from bed ten minutes before the taxi to Heathrow was due. Suffering from a tasty hangover, we all went to Heathrow and Lawlor, Katie, Scott and Ashley all checked in and went on their merry way on a connecting-flight trip to Houston with what was meant to be a short stopover in Chicago which went completely tits up when they had a delay on the first flight.

Myself and Euan tucked into a Wetherspoons breakfast because, as everyone knows, they're the best hangover cures in the entire world!

Onto the Continental flight CO33, and sat near the emergency exit for the extra leg room and we noticed that the stewardesses were all sour-faced...not that I cared as I unclipped the TV after takeoff and dived straight into watching Quantum Of Solace, The Day The Earth Stood Still, High School Musical 3 and finally about 80% of Clerks before our 10hr flight touched down in the good ol' U.S of A.

We then found out that Lawlor and his party weren't making it to Houston for about another 4 hours so me and Euan jumped in the taxi and headed for the Hilton in the Medical Centre region.

My room was lovely...but the room Euan, Lawlor and Ash are sharing is bloody gorgeous. Living room area, big bedroom, two bathrooms...lucky buggers!

Tucked into a healthy meal of Mushroom & Swiss Cheese Steak Burger at Burger King...they have to release these over in England! GORGEOUS!

Lawlor and everyone finally arrived later.

I went to bed about 9pm because I was totally shagged out.

Already missing Charlotte so much but we've texted a few times so it's all good and it'll only be a week until i'm back.

Woke up this morning, watched a tonne of American Breakfast TV which was all about Obama in London and then went to Burger King for breakfast...I think there could be a common BK theme running through this holiday at this rate!

Just in the Business Centre in the hotel now. Gonna be going to NASA real soon...ooooh, I like you schpaceships (that one is for Charlotte x)

See you all on the blog tomorrow

x