Collected my car from South London yesterday morning. It was quite a trek back, with me jumping on the first bus into town at 8:02am and catching the 8:38am train into Marylebone. I then caught the tube to Elephant & Castle here, I walked into the shopping centre and bought a ticket to Tooting. I waited a few minutes for the train and then walked around to the garage. The car was just being washed as I collected, it was 10:38am. Excellent job! I then had the mission to get back home. It took me a good few hours. There was a burst water main on the A4 Great West Road which meant the three-lane dual carriageway was closed down to single file. Even in the hot sunshine, with the air conditioning on full blast, I switched between my CD and the radio. I listened to KISS in patches. That was one of the benefits of being in the capital, crystal clear perfect reception. As I listened to Break The Ice by Britney Spears, it was as if I was listening to the CD you would not have been able to tell the difference. When I got home, after pondering about for an hour or so (going online for a bit and watching television) I headed outside and vacuumed the car. Washing it was a bridge too far and it was relatively clean from the garage. Plus my trip over to Kent today was going to pick up the motorway dirt. I left it and went inside to spend a few hours on the net before the big kick off to Euro 2008.

I watched Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (re-titled”Get The Munchies” for European markets) last night. I had decided to download it around midday on Friday. I had seen the trailers for the new movie and thought it would be worth watching. It finished quite late on Friday evening but instead of staying up until 4am on Saturday morning, I thought it best to wait until Saturday night after the football. It was very good, entertaining but generally a complete crazy mess. Good fun, with some hilarious moments. My personal favourite was singing along to cheesy ballads by Amy Grant and Wilson Philips in the truck they hijacked. I will hopefully catch the sequel on DVD or DivX very soon.

Was over in Bexleyheath this morning. Well, I got up around 7am and was down the gym for 8am. Matt was there, so I got him to adjust my chest press weight from 25kg to 15kg (much more manageable). At 8.55am, I checked out of the gym and headed home. After I changed, I grabbed all my things and headed to the car. Destination Kent – the garden of England (apparently). I left just before 10am and got to Ricki’s house just after 11am. It didn’t take long to get her old computer up and running once the new hard drive was installed. I threw on XP and then Office 2003. Job done, all within the hour or so. Then we headed off to Lakeside to have a look around and get some lunch. I had been over in this part of the world, just under a year ago. On that occasion, we went to Bluewater. Little did I know we would go there again later. The reason I wanted to go to the shopping centre in Thurrock, Essex was because I had heard so much about it and it had almost mystical persona until now. It turned out to be quite an eventful afternoon. First, we had to pay the £1 toll to be able to drive through the Dartford Tunnel. Then we got across to Lakeside and found a quick parking space which I spotted. We headed through some of the shops starting with Debenhams. We walked through some of the shops and I came to realise why the upmarket Bluewater on the right side of the Thames, I might add is the preferred shopping destination. Firstly it was much smaller than I expected. Plus, most of the shops were smaller too, with the exception of the department stores and Primark (which was one of the biggest I have ever walked into). We went up to the Food Court but there was not much in terms of decent sit-down and eat food, so we made the executive decision to head back to Bluewater. It would take a while but there was a much better choice. So we headed out and cross the bridge and paid the toll at the end (it was 13:58) as we went through the barrier. We got to Bluewater, found a quick parking spot and headed in to get some food. We went to La Tasca and it was very good (and relatively quiet). It was getting late and it was past 3pm by the time we finished our meal so I decided to take a quick look around and then head back as I had a long and tiring journey back home on the M25. We went to have a look in House of Frasier but there was not much on offer. We then headed back to Bexleyheath, I jumped in my car, put on my sunglasses and headed onto the long journey home. It had just gone 4pm and I got home just after 5pm. A nice afternoon spent with my friend, just a shame it was so much of a mission, could have gone to Bluewater in the first place and saved all the hassle (and two quid).

Talking of music, I burnt a new CD last night. I had heard a small snippet of a song on KISS in the car, on my way back from London and downloaded the track in full. Keri Hilson’s debut single (she has written for many others and featured on Timbaland’s Shock Value, as well as being the beautiful love interest in Usher’s “Love In The Club” music video) will be Energy. I have listened to it regular today and it has grown on me, absolutely fantastic. Plus nice to have an RnB with a slower pace for a change.