Jessica's Blog!
Archive for November 2006
25/11/06

Video games live

You may have noticed that myself and Rich enjoy playing the odd video game or two (or three or four...) and so won't be surprised that we got all excited about a concert being held to play themes and music from all kinds of computer games.

The place was packed with other excited gamers - lot's of them had even brought along their own Nintendo DS lites so that they could all play together. There were a few people who had come along in costume, some in Zelda costumes and another one was in a fantastic "Yuna" outfit. I had been thinking about going along as "Jessica" (one of the characters out of Dragon Quest) - but sadly forgot to at the last minute.

The concert started with a medley of tunes from some of the very early games, like "Pong" and "Donkey Kong". It then went on to include scores of music from more modern games, which worked really well when being played by a full orchestra and sung by the choir. My favourite part? Probably the blindfold pianist who came on and played a medley of the "Super Mario" music.

22/11/06

Bill Bryson reading

Have you ever read any of Bill Bryson's books? No? Then go out immediately and try one as they are fantastic fun. He writes about his travels around the world, but the books aren't really travel guides, they are more a collection of humorous anecdotes.

I've been a fan of Bill Bryson for a few years now, so when I heard about him coming to do a book reading in Croydon I was very excited. He was promoting his latest book "The thunderbolt kid" which is a bit of a departure from his travel books as it is about his childhood in America. Mr Bryson read excerpts from a number of his books, as well as including a "visual element" (powerpoint) with slides of funny newspaper headings and some photos from his travels.

I shall now go out and borrow from the Library all of his books which I have yet to read.

20/11/06

Evanescence concert

Tonight Rich and I made our way into Hammersmith to attend an Evanescence concert. I've only recently started listening to some of their songs (Rich got me into them), but I really enjoy their music. Rich says that they defy classification - they used to be a Christian band when they first started out, but now they do some very loud music which could be described as rock/metal.

It was a great concert, it had a nice atmosphere and we both came back with our ear drums intact.

17/11/06

Fireworks

This evening at work Rich and I went along to a firework display that had been organised in aid of Children in Need. The weather leading up to it had been horrible (I ended up getting very cold and damp selling tickets) but luckily it stopped raining for the display.

There were lot's of flashing light toys and glowing things (Rich took some of the left-overs home to play with), a little merry-go-round for the kids and a cake stall. Pudsey also made an appearance and you can see him giving me a hug on the left.

Photos can be found on James R's photo page here

14/11/06

Rich turns 28!

"Happy Birthday to Rich,
Happy Birthday to Rich,
Happy Birthday dear Rich!
Happy Birthday to Rich."

Today was my sweetheart's Birthday and to celebrate we decide to take the day off work and go into London to visit the 'Game On' exhibition at the Science Museum.

So many different computer games - from the very earliest 'Pong' to the much more modern 'Halo 2'. We spent ages playing some of the old arcade classics like Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and asteroids before moving on to a huge range of games from many different platforms. Rich and I competeted on a few games, and most of the time I won!

After we had played far too many games we wandered back to Croydon to find somewhere nice for Rich's Birthday dinner. Somehow we ended up at Anna's Thai Restaurant again... the food was great and the starter even came with a carved carrot duck. We then came back home for Rich's final Birthday surprise some tasty cake.