So how was your long Easter Bank Holiday weekend? Mine very good, even considering the weather was absolutely rubbish. Perhaps I should have stayed in Newbury but I hear that apart from today the weather was not that great either. So let me quickly sum up what I have been up to for the past seventy-two hours or so.

Saturday morning, I got up around 8.30am, watched some television. My main aim was to catch a glimpse of David Tennant on BBC Breakfast, as he was interviewed by Sonia Deol (and Chris) about his forthcoming Easter Special (The Planet Of The Dead) which was screened later that evening. He was very tight-lipped about any future plots and in particular the regeneration. After breakfast (tea with Nutella on toast) I headed to my room to get ready and go online for a bit. I got distracted by reading various blogs and queuing up Sarah Connor season finale as well as episode nine of Dollhouse torrents. I missed Click, as I was in the shower and returned to the lounge just in time to catch Football Focus, which I watched with my cousin-in-law, Anis. It was a special programme live from Anfield on the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. At 12:44pm, we switched over to Sky Sports 1 to watch the Liverpool versus Blackburn game and watched as the minute’s silence was impeccably respected. The match was pretty much a one way traffic from start to finish but good to watch. I have forgotten the last time I enjoyed a match with four goals from the comfort of the sofa at home.

At 3pm we headed off into town. I did not have anything to buy but it was nice to get out of the house for an hour or so even if it was still raining a little. My cousin bought some hip hop albums from HMV, as they had a sale on. (They seem to permanently have a sale on, particularly the store in Newbury). We then headed back home on 100 Park & Ride bus. When we got back in, it must have been around 4.30pm and I wanted to check on the Arsenal score. We were winning two one against Wigan and the boy Walcott had scored!! I decided to watch the season finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on the television, my cousin watched as well but as there was a lot of background noise from my family, I did not make out all the dialogue and will watch it again over the weekend. It was a great episode and everything we had hoped for and more. A link to Terminator Salvation? Well maybe a subtle hint but nothing concrete. The main question is though, where did John Henry go? To the past, or back to the future?

After the show, I spent a bit of time on the computer before we had dinner. Well actually before dinner we watched the Easter special of Doctor Who, which I must review. Michelle Ryan was fantastic as the one off companion, picking up from where she left off on the Bionic Woman (although of course, I would have preferred a bit more girl on girl (fighting action) but then I realise that this is a family show!). I was really surprised that The Doctor refused her as his next travelling buddy but then still aided her to escape from the police. It was good fun and enjoyable, mainly good to see the big man back for the first time since Christmas but also the fact that his next episode will not be for a while. After dinner, I had to rush off to town to meet up with Ryan and Trev. Well unfortunately Trev could not make it as he was not well, but it was good to spend a few hours catching up with Ryan in The Falcon. Just after 11pm, my Mum came to pick me up as Samantha (who had originally dropped me off) was already asleep. Everyone was waiting for me to get back so we could watch Hancock. My cousin, Anis had wanted to see it but we had a bit of trouble understanding each other. I thought he was talking about I Am Legend, the film we had seen back at Christmas 2007. However, when he described throwing the fish, I got it (with a little help from my sisters). So it was a Will Smith weekend at our house. We watched Hancock on Saturday night (even though I had seen it on the big screen back on Independence Day last year). I did not stay to watch for long, I must have watched barely twenty minutes before I decided I was tired and headed not to bed, but the computer of course. I was online for a good few hours before finally crashing out around sometime after 1am.

Sunday was a lazy day but as I had missed Match Of The Day and got up after the repeat, I decided to watch Football First on Sky instead. Fantastic service to be able to watch what they refer to as a ‘super cut’ of the match. Sorry, Beeb on this case Rupert wins hands down, particularly when I found out later that the Wigan Arsenal highlights were squeezed into the end of Match Of The Day. I had pretty much a lazy day in the house on Sunday, not really doing much. I had wanted to wash the car but the weather was just too bad and although it did eventually stop raining, it was too wet over the ground to get the vacuum out. That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I did though get some exercise in, because as you know Sunday is my gym day and I was failing to make it to. We had got my Mum an exercise bike for Mother’s Day. However, the model my sisters had chosen from Argos had broken. Well the right pedal came off and we were unable to screw it back in (thread busted) so we returned it and I suggested we upgraded to York Fitness bike. The lady at Argos in the town centre was very helpful and reserved the bike at the retail park and explained we could take the old bike there to arrange a refund and get the new bike. Fantastic, excellent customer service. Particularly when she was doing the difficult annoying job of updating the in-store catalogues with price updates. I wanted to show my Mum how it was done, so jumped onto the bike around 2.45pm and hit it. The rest of the family were watching the Eastenders omnibus while I pedalled away. I hit 100 rpm and after fifteen minutes had burnt nearly 200 calories. I told my Mum that she had to do a similar run of consistent speed. She said she would, I will have to see if she kept her word when I am next back in my home town.

The rest of Sunday evening was uneventful, a little time on the computer, watching the end of the City Fulham match on Sky. Trying to watch Dollhouse but losing track and stopping the episode so the family could watch something else on television. Back To The Future was on Sky Movies and we watched this for a while just for old times sake. Then when my cousin Anis came down we put on Seven Pounds. My sisters had already seen the movie but I had not and was looking forward to it. I had heard tiny elements of the plot from Radio FiveLive just before Christmas but decided to ignore it. A very good movie with, moving story and a complicated plot but you understand everything in the end. Will Smith gives a great performance but not as good as his leading role in The Pursuit Of Happyness. Rosario Dawson perhaps gives the best performance of her career to date. It great movie but the ending I thought as good as it was lacked some edge. I wanted to know more about the story of perhaps the selfish Tim Thomas before the accident. You want to see the process of change, not just the new person at the end of the line. Well worth seeing, so when it does eventually come on DVD, I highly recommend it.

This morning, I got up packed my things, sorted a few things out and headed out of the door at 11.16am. It was a beautiful day, I got into Newbury around 12:30pm and unpacked the car, headed into town to get some milk and Creme Eggs. I then got back to the flat, had some food before then getting ready and heading to the gym. I had my review with Adam at 2pm. When I got into the fitness suite, Adam was not there. He was downstairs, lifeguarding (is that word) by the pool. The moment he walked through the door, he asked, “Where is my egg then?” I produced the Creme Egg from my pocket to his amazement and we hit the final day of my programme, legs and abs. I have updated Gyminee with my new programme(s). It is hard work, particularly some of the ab work on the mat and Swiss Ball. I then went ahead and did my chest programme. I was very nervous going on the barbell to bench press a mere 10lb (yes ten pounds, around 4.53 kilograms) but I managed that and the rest of my weights before heading back to the flat. As I got into the car, Pav had text me, he wanted to come over to use my gym facilities as his gym closed at 4pm which was no good for him. My gym is open 8 to 8 on Bank Holidays and weekends. I had to decline his offer of the gym exchange but was happy for him to come over to Newbury, perhaps go for a stroll or kick about in the park. Make use of the wonderful sunshine before it dies away forever.

When I got back to the flat, I was disciplined enough to just spend a few short minutes on the computer before heading out to read my book for a while out on bench in Victoria Park. After about forty minutes or so I came back to the flat, jumped online for a while before then having some food. I was on the computer for a while, chatting to mates, trying to write this blog post and archive a few media files to DVD. I then had to choose how to spend the last part of my evening. I had an old movie outstanding. Well, Charlie had given me the DVD a while back but the audio had been too loud (yes, not the complaint you normally hear from a 27-year-old) but I opted to download another copy and have had it sitting on my media drive for months. I thought I should finally pop the cherry. I had very high expectations, as everyone has been saying how funny it is. It has become an overnight instant classic. I put it on around 10pm. It was good and in places very funny but I would not call it all that. Perhaps because four years have passed since it was originally released and in that time we have had many films by the same production company and have got acclimatized to the humour. The Indian sales guy at Smart Tech did crack me up though, I have to say. Not too sure about the end song and dance number.