Oct/Nov Review

A huge backlog of writing coupled with a real lack of motivation just like in the previous post has meant there was little to no interest in reviewing what currently is the last six weeks and as such means this post will included the second half of October and the month of November as a whole.

Alike the last post, sport is the main focus but sadly the negatives far outweigh the limited positives for my four respective teams. Skelmersdale United ended October fairly well with wins at home to Witton and Stamford coupled with a draw and loss away to Blyth and Ashton.

November was a bad month overall with just one win which came on the fourth at home to Nantwich, defeats in cups to Workington and Nantwich saw a turn with a Senior Cup win over Widnes. The month also saw draws against Curzon, Matlock and two against Grantham meant they stayed top of the NPL with the only negative being a 4-1 loss at home to Ilkeston.

Since the last update, Liverpool have had a mixed run of form which included a new record for me by attending Anfield twice in the space of a week. A win away to QPR was followed by a bad defeat at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League. My attendances saw me take in a draw against Hull followed by a last-gasp Capital One Cup victory over Swansea.

November featured a miserable run with defeats to Newcastle, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Crystal Palace which were halted by a draw in Europe against Ludogorets and the sole win of the month over Stoke.

Despite the Super League and Academy season ending in early October, there was one last game for me to attend in 2014 which came just last week as Wigan U19s hosted the touring Australian Schoolboys and despite suffering a defeat, it was the final piece of what has become and may forever be my best year of attending games with a total of 49 games attended overall and 46 involving a Wigan side.

This year's goal of attending five away games seems primitive given that I attended 17 across all competitions and sounds even more amazing when my previous best overall was last year's haul of 25 games. Despite my finances not being as good as they used to be, I have renewed my season ticket for 2015 which will be my fifth as a fully paid member of the Warriors faithful.

October's biggest plus in terms of my teams was the form of the Washington Redskins who secured a narrow win over Tennessee before stunning rivals Dallas in Overtime. November was a woeful month though with a four game losing streak featuring defeats to Minnesota, Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Indianapolis.

On a personal level, the only notable career progress saw another rejection when I applied for a media position in Leyland but to give some positive to a negative year of career searching, my freelance writing has seen me published on two popular websites. Vibe Tickets saw me feature with two articles but the second outlet -Serious About Rugby League has seen me published four times and the success of the posts led to me becoming part of the site itself as a features contributor.

The negatives from career searching have dampened my motivation for gaming with the traditional hours of playing in a day dropping to just an hour at best on some days but despite that I have increased my game collection as a whole after scoring some tough completions and also have formed a co-op partnership with fellow gamer Tonyboykid which hopefully will improve my charge towards further gaming goals and means I will not just be a solo gamer permanently.

Significant milestones have seen me close up on 6000 achievements overall and just 100 away from 1000 on the Xbox One itself with 850 unlocked in the first year of the consoles existence while the backlog on the Xbox 360 is steadily being caught up with and hopefully will be a bit healthier by the end of the year.

In a change to recent posts, there are some upcoming events with others 'in the book' for 2015 already planned. This month will see me go to Liverpool v Basel for my first Champions League attendance since the run to the final back in 2007 and will complete a set of League, Cup and European attendances in the same year..

Of course, trips to watch Skem continue after spanning nearly a whole season in the last 12 months and this month the visits of Whitby and Marine will round of the year. As I have retained my Wigan season ticket, trips to St Helens in pre-season and the World Club Series home game against Brisbane are already booked as is next years Magic Weekend in Newcastle though travel for the league games is still to be confirmed.

People say that a new year inspires them and creates a new them but for me, a new year hopefully ill be the start of a new beginning and a turnaround from a mixed second half to 2014.

Sept/Oct Catch-up

A huge backlog of writing coupled with a real lack of motivation in recent weeks which still seems to be inside me has resulted in a mixed post which rounds up September as a whole and discusses the first half of October so far.

On the subject of sports, there is a lot to cover so I will split it into the trio of sports that I regularly follow and begin with Football and my hometown team of Skelmersdale United. Skem currently sit atop the Evostik Northern Premier League after a decent six weeks at home with a draw against Ashton United followed by wins against Blyth and Belper either side of a loss to Barwell in September.

So far in October, I have been to just one game which was a Liverpool Senior Cup win over Litherland Remyca but enjoyed listening to them secure a late win away to FC United via FCUM Radio last night.

Liverpool have had a far more mixed set of results with defeats to Aston Villa and West Ham either side of a European win over Ludogorets and coupled with a stunning night at Anfield in the League Cup against Middlesbrough which created history and a night I was glad to be a part of as a spectator as a 2-2 draw ended with 14-13 win on penalties for the Reds.

October began badly with a defeat away to Basel in the Champions League with the most recent game seeing Liverpool secure their first League win since August as they beat West Brom. My NFL side, Washington had had a torrid start to the season as they currently sit on 1-5 and a long way from a play-off spot. September began with a defeat to Houston and a win over Jacksonville before a narrow loss to division rivals Philadelphia was followed by another divisional loss as they were humbled by New York. October has so far seen them lose both games by a ten point margins as they were defeated by Seattle and Arizona.

Rugby League has sadly come to an end as I write and with good and bad endings for the two respective Wigan teams but going back to September, Wigan U19s made a perfect start to the month with a 38-24 win over Salford U19s before losing the final regular season game 19-18 to Leeds U19s which saw them finish third in the table.

The play-offs saw a 42-16 win over sixth placed Hull KR U19s before getting sweet revenge on Leeds U19s with a 26-12 win which put them just two wins away from retaining their title and the month ended with a stunning 44-18 derby win at Langtree Park over St Helens U19s. October saw the Grand Final take place at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and a tight game saw Wigan secure the 2014 Academy crown with a 24-22 win over League Leaders Warrington which was a brilliant game to watch.

The senior team had a good September which a duo of home wins to end the regular season as Leeds and Warrington were beaten 21-6 and 24-20 to secure second place for the Warriors in the Super League table. The play-offs began with a 57-4 mauling of Huddersfield before a last-gasp 16-12 win over Warrington in the semi-final earlier this month secured a successive Grand Final place where they would face St Helens.

The Grand Final which completed a record 48 game season on a personal level was a bad way to end the season with Ben Flowe being dismissed for punching Lance Hohaia in the second minute before the 12 men of Wigan led 6-2 at half-time before going on to lose 14-6. After going to five consecutive Grand Finals from 2010, seeing Wigan lose for the first time at Old Trafford was hard to take and unlike the two non-Wigan finals where I stayed to see the winners collect the SL trophy, this time I just had to leave the stadium as I just could not sit and watch St Helens collect the trophy.

So a mixed six weeks overall for my sporting sides with two now finishing until the new RL season begins in 2015 means Washington and Liverpool hopefully will improve while Skem will hopefully continue their good form.


On a personal level, there has been some career progress but sadly it is more negative than positive with no reply from an interview at Festive Lights in Wigan in September followed last week by a rejection from the BBC after applying for an entry level position in Salford. Hopefully there will be some good news before the end of this month but the negatives have been a big factor in my decline in motivation.

Since I returned to my Wigan solo attendances, I have found that although sometimes there is a missing of company but mainly it is nice to be back to how I was before I craved company and fell into a bad group. Seeing some old friends at the Grand Final was nice as it was nice to reminisce about previous years and hopefully it happen a bit more next season as I enter my fifth full season as Season Ticket holder.

After reaching the all-time gaming goal of 100,000G, September's superb haul of 139 achievements saw 2014 become my best gaming year of all-time with the most achievements unlocked, TA points accrued and gamerscore earned beating the trio from 2010. The usual Autumn gaming spree of recent years will be limited this year due to no major current income but hopefully I can continue to clear out my backlog and trade in for some more funds.

Usually in past posts, I would list upcoming events but for the rest of October but there are not planned trips out due to my weekly RL trips now on hold until next year with the exception of a minor trip in November.

Hopefully, by the end of the month I will have my old motivation back and not be half asleep while tying which I am at the present moment as I realise just how dull my life is at times.

Eight Down Four Remain

After such a big post last week that in a way covered most of the month, this summary will cover the final days of the month with some goal discussion.

Sunday the 24th began with the news that Washington had lost for the first time in pre-season with a 23-17 loss to Baltimore with the day focusing on the completion of story mode on Rayman Origins on the Xbox 360 which continued into the next day.

The next morning saw more gaming into the afternoon until I went to watch Skem host Workington with a 1-0 win for Skem making for a good afternoon out which turned sour in the evening as Liverpool lost 3-1 away to Manchester City.

Tuesday saw a great day for gaming as the final path to reaching 100,000G began with an afternoon on Crimson Dragon on the Xbox One followed by some writing about the weekend's Rugby and Football action.

Wednesday featured some Rugby League research and notes and in the evening, finally got around to doing my Ice Bucket Challenge for Joining Jack and ALS which also included the A&L mascot and uploaded it and warmed up into the next day.

Thursday saw the creation of the weekly Super League preview and it inspired me to have an afternoon gaming session on RL Live on the Xbox 360 before watching the Champions League draw which saw a huge match-up for Liverpool against defending champions Real Madrid with Basel and Ludogorets also being drawn into group B.

The evening saw a trip to Langtree Park with some A&L friends for the regional launch of the late Steve Prescott's autobiography - One In A Million. The night focused around a forum and q&a from former team-mates of the St Helens, Hull and Wakefield legend which included a hotpot supper and was a great event to be part of.


Friday began with the Europa League draw and in the afternoon I made the trip to Widnes to complete a season of regular season away trips in England having missed out on the trip to Catalan in July which means I have done 12/13 in one season.

A truly horrible game led to a disagreement on the trip home with my friend and made me question how I go to games and who with which led to the decision to leave the A&L group and cut loose from the matchday events as a whole.

The weekend focused around watching various Premier League games on TV with Sunday forming the final part of my path to 100,000G which saw three achievements across the two main consoles. The finale of the trio came on FIFA Street on the Xbox 360 in the form of World Grand Champion for 100G which put me on exactly 100,000G and meant that after seven years one month and five days, I had finally reached my main gaming goal.

 However, despite the gaming success the month came to an end with no job progress mad worse by the company I had visited for an interview earlier in the month not living up their promise of informing me whatever the outcome.

September looks to be less busier than August with only the following planned so far...

• The final two games of the Super League season as Wigan host Leeds and Warrington on the 5th and 11th with a 19's game on the 6th at Orrell between Wigan and Leeds.
• Trips to watch Skem at home on the 9th, 13th and possibly the 20th depending on if Wigan's participation in the Super League play-offs clash as that would be a priority.
•  Hopefully something in the was of progress career wise and the successful continuation of my recent weight loss and more goals unlocked on my 2014 list.

A Packed August So Far

Usually the gap between blogs is 10-12 days at the most but its strange to only get around to writing on the 22nd of the month so rather than write a very long three week summary of what has been a good month so far, it is best to just pick out the highlights and minor negatives.

The biggest highlights have come from my sporting trips out with my first trip to Anfield in over a year on Sunday the 10th as Liverpool took on
Borussia Dortmund and what a great game to witness as Liverpool secured a 4-0 win. The chance to finally visit the Hillsborough Memorial was amazing as I was able to pay my respects to the 96 by tying my most treasured scarf to the famous gates on what was a very emotional afternoon.

Due to exiting the Challenge Cup in the last eight, Wigan have only played once so far this month due to two game weeks being devoted to the cup but Thursday the 14th saw a 224 mile round trip up to Hull to face Hull Kingston Rovers.

 A brilliant game saw Wigan seal a 14-14 draw right at the end and a fun coach trip with Jay and Jake made the night even better even though after setting off from home at 3pm, I didn't arrive home until 1.30am on Friday.

However, I was able to go to Orrell on Friday the 8th to see the Wigan U19's stun top of the table Warrington U19's in a superb game ending 36-16 to the young Warriors and in the next few weeks there will be two more trips to Orrell hopefully with a similar outcome.

Also after taking in a friendly against Fleetwood last month, I have been back to watch Skem United at home with a friendly against Burscough on Tuesday the 2nd followed just last week by the first game of the new season against Halesowen Town which saw Skem miss out on a win late on in a 1-1 draw.

Away from sport, there was some limited progress on the career front as I was invited for an interview at Festive Lights in Wigan on Thursday the 7th but sadly  have not had any response since the interview so I assume I have been overlooked for a job yet again this year.

However, the free time between job searching and trips out to watch my teams have seen four of my 2014 goals completed which began right at the start of the month when I reached 20,000 views across my two YouTube channels which I very good seeing as I haven't posted many new videos in recent months.

My visit to Anfield for the Dortmund friendly saw my goal of attending a game this year fulfilled but hopefully it won't be the last but the biggest accolades came with two of my gaming goals completed and two that have ended far quicker than expected.

By reaching 138,526 TA and 98,280G it means that I have earned more TA points and gamerscore in just over eight months this year than I did in the entirety of 2013. That in a way shows that I have had far too much free time this year to have made so much more progress than at this time last year and if the progress continues it will my best year of gaming Xbox wise since I began back in 2007.

Despite there being only nine days left this month which will see a mini summary after such a big coverage in this post but the trend of a packed month may allow for more content as follows...

• The trip to Widnes next Friday which will complete the goal of visiting every Super League away ground in one season with the obvious exception of Catalan which has proved illusive but hopefully will be a goal for 2015 but I can still say I will have visited all UK based teams.
• A third visit of the year to Langtree Park but for a change not for an actual game as I will be attending on Thursday for the local launch of the late Steve Prescott's autobiography.
•  Hopefully the long wait after my interview could see an happy ending but if not an interview for another job maybe the best hope for success.

Seven Gone Five Left

A busy end to July means that the usual duo of updates to end a month will be combined in this post to summarise what is hard to believe is the seventh month of the year.

The summary begins where the last post left off, in the third week of the month and the 17th which featured a re-design of my magnetic layout with the weekly production of the Super League preview followed by the viewing of Leeds v Castleford and the ordering of a special Liverpool shirt in time for the new season.

Friday began with the signing off of the World Cup reports with the afternoon focusing around the trip to Wigan for the A&L meet up and the home game against Hull that followed which saw Wigan ease to a 56-10 win and complete a good day out with friends.

Saturday began with the fallout from the Wigan game namely the traditional takeaway and the uploading of videos and pictures captured during the game before bed and the Wigan trend continued into the daytime as I made the trip to Orrell to watch the Wigan u19's face Hull's u19's with Wigan claiming a 38-0 win. The early evening saw the catch-up viewing of Preston v Liverpool with Liverpool coming from behind to win 2-1 followed by the viewing of Catalan v Wakefield and a short session on Rayman Legends to finish the day.

Sunday continued the sporting trend of the weekend with the F1 German Grand Prix and the writing up of my Wigan and Super League reports across a fairly quiet day with another session on the Xbox ending the weekend into Monday.

The start of a new week saw the announcement of the ticket and travel details for Hull KR away and the good value allowed me to confirm my attendance on the same day with an afternoon of blogging catch-up with the usual Monday TV schedule filling the evening.

Tuesday started well with the arrival of my Liverpool shirt which can be seen in the adjacent image and will be debuted at the Liverpool v Dortmund game on August 10th with the afternoon featuring a session across a few Windows 8 games and a blast from the past in the evening as I watched the superb film, The Green Mile.

Wednesday began with the weekly weight and Xbox update which mixed results with the afternoon focusing around research for the upcoming Super League round and an evening watching the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Thursday began with the viewing of Liverpool v Roma and sadly a late goal saw Roma secure a 1-0 win. The morning began with a reading and dissecting of the new RL structure for 2015 which led into the afternoon and the production of the weekly Super League preview.

An early writing of the preview was due to me making my first trip to watch Skem at home since the end of last season and they took on League One side Fleetwood as part of the deal that saw Matt Hughes go from Skem to Fleetwood last season and despite a 4-0 loss it was a good workout for Skem.

Friday began with a co-op session with a friend on AlphaJax as we combined to complete some difficult achievements which led into the early morning meaning a some relaxing in the afternoon and an evening of RL with the viewing of Salford v Leeds.

The weekend began with the completion of AlphaJax with a friend and a good way to mark the seventh anniversary since I began playing on the Xbox with the afternoon focusing on a session on Rayman Legends and Burnout Revenge.


An early start on Sunday saw a trip to Wigan for the coach trip up to Bradford which for the first time saw me travel with friends as Jay, Jake, Karen and Pat as well as the mascot Al Croc accompanied me on the journey and despite a good afternoon meeting up with more A&L friends, Wigan suffered a surprise 16-8 loss to Bradford and made the trip home a bit quiet.

The evening featured the writing of the match report and improved my mood as Liverpool claimed a 1-0 win over Olympiakos in their first game of the International Champions Cup which carried over into Monday which saw a bad start to the morning as I woke up to a seemingly water damaged iPhone screen.

Some research later and a full charge and the majority of the unknown water had cleared but this took up a fair part of the day meaning into the evening, I watched the usual Monday night TV programmes and had a quick go on Rayman Legends.

Tuesday began with a trip to the Concourse to cash my second HMRC refund of £52 followed by an afternoon of writing including the production of my weekly RL review and the watching of Utopia which continued into Wednesday. The weekly weight and Xbox update began the day with another afternoon of writing following including my first piece for Sport Tipster after being approached via Twitter.

The month came to an end with Thursday which began with some blogging and magnet catch-up and a superb penalty shout out win for Liverpool against Man City after a 2-2 draw and the afternoon saw the writing of the weekly RL preview which was earlier than usual due to Wigan playing in the evening.

The late afternoon saw me make the trip to Wigan for the usual A&L meet and later on the Wigan game against Salford which saw the Warriors secure a 45-4 win which was followed by a trip back to the Robin and a nice chat while walking home a new friend from A&L and the night ended with the traditional takeaway and having to wait for the bus home while being spoken to by a group of drunks at the bus stop but I just replied to questions of where the bus was going and how the Rugby had gone but was a strange end to the month.

As for July as a whole, the prospect of my career still has failed to bear fruit despite a lot of effort and I still stand by my wish not to succumb to a return to agency warehouse work unless I am left with no choice.

Sports wise, other than the aforementioned wins for Wigan and Liverpool, it has been a good month for travels with visits to London and Bradford and the next two away visits to Hull KR and Widnes are already in the booking stage.

The biggest positive of the month of course was the huge tax refund of over £500 which meant that I barely spent a penny myself across the month due to the unexpected and muchly welcomed income.

The Xbox achievement chase progressed well continuing the run of 100+ unlocks in a month and as a result means the prospect of beating the amounts reached in the entirety of 2013 being beaten inside eight months.

On the subject of my goals for 2014, progress is certainly being made on many but three were completed during the month with the first two both coming on the seventh as I eclipsed my previous best of betting/Lotto wins by earning £317 which beat last year's haul of £311 and meant the completion of the goal to win £300 across the year. At the end of the month, I currently have earned £400 which puts the dream goal of £500 within range

The third success of the month came when I attended my 100th Rugby League game of what I call my supporting era which began officially back in 2010 and came with the trip to Bradford on the 27th with my next goal of 100 Wigan games likely to fall before the end of the current season.

The month ahead hopefully should be a busy one with the following included...

• Trips away to Hull KR and Widnes with Wigan which will mean with the exception of Catalan I will have visited every Super League ground in a single season.
• My first visit to Anfield since last August as I attend the friendly between Liverpool and Drtmund and hopefully have the chance to pay my respects at the Hillsborough Memorial for the first time.
• A visit to Orrell for the 19's game against Warrington which would have been coupled with a visit from Salford had it not been postponed.
• A trip to the launch of the late Steve Prescott's autobiography with some friends from Ancient and Loyal.
• Some career progress in the right direction for a change and talking of the right direction, a loss in weight rather than a gain.

Hopefully, the return to weekly posts will come in August but I will see how it goes.

Joyous July So Far

In what may be the longest blog summary that I have ever done on this outlet the reason it has come late is because with every planned post, something had happened that encouraged me to delay but anyway enough putting off and more writing.

The month began with Tuesday and good news on the sporting front with the news that Liverpool had seigned Lallana which was a good start to the day and was followed by the unveiling of the new Xbox One profiles on the official site so a fair bit of time was spent viewing and checking my own profile into the afternoon.

The evening focused on a trip back to my childhood as I discovered a site that housed downloadable Commodore 64 games and in finding some of my old favourites such as Dual Cassette II, Detective and my all time favourite in Flimbo's Quest made for a very enjoyable night.

Wednesday began with a session on Minecraft and carried out the weekly Weight and Xbox update and to my surprise, I had gained weight despite a lot of exercise in the previous week but just means more has to be done and in the afternoon I continued my writing catch-up.

However in the early evening, I was stunned to read via Twitter the news of Millie-Rose Heaton passing away and came close to tears as even though I had an outsider view, she was a very inspirational young girl who brought the town of Skelmersdale together amazingly during her fight against Neuroblastoma and will live on in the minds of the town forever.

Thursday began with a morning of surveying online which so far this year has earned me nearly £100 and has helped with some much needed purchases with the afternoon seeing some research and analysis ahead of the writing of  my weekly RL preview.

I stopped writing around 7pm to view a truly amazing tribute to Millie-Rose as hoards of balloons were released in memorial to her passing 24 hours before and the most fitting came as videos and images were posted from a huge tribute on the Greenhill in Old Skem which was a great way to honour such a wonderful young girl.

Later in the evening, I took in the Widnes v Castleford match via Sky Sports and had set a new record for views on a single post with my preview as inside an hour, the count reached 300 with my previous record being just 155.

Friday began superbly with the news that my view record had now reached 400 and I made me think that finally I had a wide audience for my posts and inspired me to put even more than the usual 100% that I put into previews. Later on, the catching up focused on Xbox blogging with a split screen for the viewing of the World cup and the match between Wakefield and Leeds.

Saturday began with my excitement keeping me awake so a huge caffeine hit in the morning was needed to prepare me for my longest Wigan away trip for a league game as I travelled down to London with a very relaxing four and a half hour journey.


Despite travelling solo on the coach, I was delighted that on arrival that I met up with Paul Campbell and his daughters Lucy and Megan who are devout Broncos fans but also have a liking of Wigan and are part of the Ancient and Loyal group I am in. The match saw a huge Wigan win but allowed me to see the two sides of the coin on how such a result can be as the anger and disappointment I saw in Paul showed just how passionate he was despite the players awful performance.

A long relaxing and partially drowsy trip home contained the writing of my match report which I should have left until being more awake as on returning home, I was informed by friends on A&L that I looked like I had written it in my sleep so a thorough read through was needed and some corrections followed.

Sunday began with a long lie in after a busy Saturday with some sorting out of my EA account and followed  the viewing of the GB F1 race while following the day's RL games via Twitter and some Xbox blogging with the evening featuring a brief session on Guacamelee.

A new week began with Monday and the weekly magnet and blogging catch-up with the temptation to fulfil one of my goals for the year early and after some research took the jump and bought a ticket to the Liverpool v Dortmund friendly in August on a weekend that became free after Wigan's Challenge Cup exit.

Hopefully, it means that I will see a team of mine win rather than having to sit watching Leeds and Warrington face off for a place in the final. A lucky afternoon saw a random trio of games on the Lotto site resulted in a win of £24 with the evening focusing around the usual Monday TV and a session on FIFA 14 with a friend.

Tuesday saw a continuance of the writing and magnets with a stunning evening game in the World Cup with Germany winning 7-1 against the hosts nation Brazil and some play on Guacamelee into Wednesday which began with strange surprise.

A letter from HMRC arrived which included two tax calculations and a huge potential repayment which after an extensive phone conversation was proved true meaning I would receive a cheque from them for £454 which was a huge boost after a big spending month in June.

The afternoon featured research for the RL preview which has become more in-depth and the night ended with a FIFA14 session with a friend which continued into Thursday and in the morning an early phone call from Jay saw some discussion about the end of the month trip to Bradford.

The collating of my research resulted in the creation of the weekly RL preview followed by an exciting game between Wakefield and Widnes with some FIFA14 ending the night. Friday began with a nice positive as I unlocked the final achievement on FIFA14 meaning it was my 34th completion overall and first ever on a FIFA version.

The afternoon saw the announcement that an agreement had been reached for the sale of Luis Suarez which despite meaning the loss of such a great player was not heartbreaking after his antics had severely dented the club's reputation in recent years.

Super League Friday saw me watch Castleford v Huddersfield while following the other games via Twitter and setting up my RL board for the weekend and from there the weekend began with Saturday. A bumper morning for post saw my tickets for both the Dortmund and Bradford games arrive as well as my lucrative cheque from HMRC.

An afternoon on FIFA14 helping a friend unlock some achievements was followed by a superb game between Catalan and Wigan which was the first Wigan game this year that I hadn't attended due to it being in France and the cost preventing me from going so It was strange to be watching on TV but should be the only one I miss all season hopefully. 

Sunday saw a more relaxed day to the previous few with the completion of the story on Guacamelee and a session on Dead Rising 3 with some blogging in the evening and a superb World Cup final which saw Germany edge a narrow in in extra time.

Another new week meant another Monday and a trip to the Concourse to cash my cheque and have a small browse before an afternoon writing up the Wigan report and the long reinstalling of Forza 5 on the Xbox One and the usual Monday night TV.

The summary comes to an end with yesterday and after a successful reinstalling, a session on Forza 5 followed by a go on Dead Rising 3 and later a session with a friend on Plants v Zombies Garden Warfare with the writing of my RL review of the weekend's action and a really interesting drama on BBC3 called Glasgow Girls.

A really packed fortnight with some really good high points but the continuing failure to find a job that I can fit into is a low point and hopefully will improve by the time of the next post by which I will have return to Wigan attending duties and maybe completed a goal or two.

Six Down Six To Go

Never in my wildest thoughts did I picture that at the halfway point of this year, I would be writing the June summary still without a full-time paid job. Of course, I could have signed on when my ban expired at the start of the month but with the new job seekers conditions where basically you are forced into the job they choose for you with my experience it would be 12 hour shifts packing in a warehouse.

Such a job is not beneath me far from it but after the troubles I have suffered in warehousing, it is a job even if desperate I would never wish to return to as at my lowest point such a job nearly led to my killing myself just an explanation of why despite numerous applications, I am still not in work.

I would say less of the negative but June over recent years has not been the best month for me with a number of relationship problems and last year the latter mixed with what was the beginning of the end for my stay at ASDA.

This year, there have been negatives but on nowhere near as a bad a scale with the key problems being the breakdown of my computer system and the necessary cost for a replacement coupled with the month ending with watching three Wigan losses first hand.

Despite the defeats, it also meant that I was able to gain new experiences with a trip to Wakefield the only away game but at the home games taking part in more Ancient and Loyal meets and gaining some more new friends and improving what was a non-existent social life.

Fitness wise, there was only a few miles walked due to a lot of my trips out being long journeys and there fore with little walking involved but hopefully that will turn around for the rest of the year.

The Xbox achievement chase progressed well by beating the previous two months' hauling of 103 unlocks with a total of 112 including six app based unlocks and also saw the milestones of 5250 achievements, 135,000 TA and 95,000G reached meaning the year's goals of 150,000 TA and 100,000 G.

The completion of a few games on the Xbox 360 meant the unlocking swing over the Xbox One was obviously going to happen and also reaching 33 completed games overall boosts my slim chances of reaching an all-time goal of 50 completions before the end of the year.

On the subject of my goals for 2014, progress is certainly being made on many but he first of the month was renewing my Xbox Live membership for the seventh time since I began playing back in July 2007 followed midway through the month by the goal of setting a new record number of Rugby League attendances which came at the Widnes game which was my 26th of the year beating last years previous best of 25.

Currently, I am on 29 for the year so goals of 100 overall (currently 96) and 100 Wigan games (currently 87) have been added to the new goals list. My goal of doing three years of to-do lists has continued and the last goal of the month was my hopes of writing a total of 1000 blog posts being reached on the 20th with this actual post being number 1026.

The month ahead has hopes of the following...

• Trips to London and Bradford while sadly missing out on the fabled Catalan trip due to cost and home games against Hull and Salford.
•  Some job progress as it is sorely needed after six months unemployed.

No Happy End To June

It is hard to believe 2014 is now into its second half but after the way June ended, maybe the second half will be the better half overall.

This summary begins from Friday 20th which started with a huge change on the A&L group which saw me invited as an admin something which is a big thing for me as it shows people like the way I do things.

The afternoon began with some writing on the World Cup followed by some browsing and the creation of my weekly Super League preview with some World cup and Super League viewing in the evening.

Saturday began badly as in turning on my laptop, I was greeted by a flashing power light and no further action which meant there was a problem so some research later, I noticed a couple of cables were damaged and that the power supply could be the main problem so ordered new parts. I had to use my mum's spare laptop in order to order the parts and to use until such parts arrived.

So the day was taken up doing the above but some World Cup viewing took up the evening as well as some blogging and a session on Watch Dogs on the Xbox One.


Sunday began better than the previous day with a trip to Wigan for the coach up to Yorkshire for the away game at Wakefield meaning another new ground to add to my list but despite a good atmosphere and meting some friends, it was a loss and meant the curse of new grounds had resurfaced since the loss in May to Leeds.

A quiet trip home was followed by the viewing of the F1 Austrian GP which was an interesting watch and the day ended with more play on Watch Dogs.

Monday meant the beginning of a new week and some blogging with the Wigan and Super League reviews followed by some more World Cup coverage and a strange but very intriguing drama on BBC3 called 'Murdered by my Boyfriend' which was even more harrowing because it is based on a true story and shows just how sick some people are out there.

Tuesday saw the arrival of a new power supply but without the other required cables, I was unable to test it out fully so no progress there but I found my old laptop which had overheating problems and got it working in the afternoon. To add insult to a bad week, later on after I had turned it off due to not needing to use, it turned on but the screen and processor had failed so that was the last straw with that one and it had to go.

The evening saw some World Cup coverage and the start of play on a previous Games with Gold download in the shape of Deadlight.

Wednesday began with the arrival of the new cables form my laptop but to my devastation they made no difference so it proved to be a waste which made me glad I only spent £20 overall and had to decide whether to get a new laptop as the one I was using was a borrow and of course not mine so in future would be taken back.

An afternoon of blogging and searching was followed by more progress on Deadlight and into Thursday, I made the decision to get a new computer but set a limit of £250 which I spent on the current ASUS system I am writing this post on. The afternoon saw more blogging and the creation of the weekly Super League preview with the evening featuring a split viewing of the World Cup and the Hull Kr v Huddersfield game which sadly ruined my weekly SL accumulator as I had tipped the home side.

Friday has the best start to a day of the entire week as my new laptop arrived followed shortly after by my ticket and travel for the away game in London. The day was focused around setting up my new system while also installing and transferring the required files from my main HDD which stunned me as I have around 170GB of documents/music/pictures combined which will be sorted out hopefully later next week. 

The afternoon saw a chat session with Microsoft to sort out my MS Office activation problem and was followed with the trip to Wigan for the A&L meet ahead of the derby game against St Helens but despite a good meet-up the game went along the lines of the previous weekend which meant another loss.

A return to the pub after the game was nice and met some new people and the night ended with the trip home which went into Saturday which saw more setting up of my new system and in the morning was followed by the monthly shopping trip to the Concourse but after spending on my new laptop the purchases were few.

The afternoon saw me travel to Orrell to watch the U19's derby but annoyingly the result was similar to the previous night meaning I had watched three Wigan defeats in the space of a week, something that ironically hasn't happened since this time last year so next June, let's hope there is a change.
 
The evening saw further World Cup coverage and the continuing road to completion on Deadlight. which continued into Sunday with only two unlocks left before completion just after 1am and the morning saw the final setting up of my new system and some spreadsheet updating and research on Xbox storage.

The month came to an end with Monday which saw some early morning Twitch viewing followed by the writing up of my Wigan and Super League report and in the afternoon and evening some World Cup coverage and the beginning of Minecraft on the 360.

A mixed ten days overall but in the grand scheme of things, I cannot really complain as what was a bad week for me is nothing compared to the problems that a lot of people are having round the world which is a very sobering thought and a strange way to end this post.

Mid June Sees 1000th Post

Back in 2012 when I began blogging, I never believed that I would hit 1000 posts never mind in under two years but after an amazing 365 posts this year so far, it is a great time to hit the milestone during a busy nine days.

This week begins with Wednesday and some sorting out alongside the weekly Xbox/Weight updates and an afternoon of writing with a new docu-series on BBC3 in the evening called Street World Cup which was a good and intriguing watch and later followed by a split Xbox session on Halo Spartan Assault and Dead Rising 3.

Thursday began with an extensive job search and a single application for a company in Wigan but at present there has been no reply sadly, but the afternoon focused around a 2K6 Xbox session with both NHL and NBA completed resulting in few records being broken with a new highest TA and G amount of 1387/1250 in a single day and a first ever day of 1000G which is huge having played for nearly seven years.

The evening focused around the beginning of the World Cup with the viewing of Brazil v Croatia while writing up the weekly RL preview and also watching via SkyGo, Leeds v Huddersfield with the day ending with a catch up of my Xbox magnets.

Friday began with the delivery of Forty20 meaning a morning of reading and gathering research before an afternoon trip to Wigan which began with a visit to the Warriors World shop to get a new sponsor fitted on my home shirt due to wear and tear in the wash followed by a browse around a few shops.

The trip continued with a planned visit to Game to collect my share certificate and trade in a few games to the tune of £23.80 on a gift card that will be useful in Autumn when the new releases come out and the trip ended with a bus journey up to Robin Park to meet the A&L crew at the Red Robin before the Wigan v Castleford game.

A superb performance by Wigan saw a 46-6 win meaning some revenge for the previous week against the Tigers and the night ended with a return trip to the Red Robin followed by a lift home from Jay who is one of the nicest people I have ever met and is a joy to know.


Saturday began early after having been persuaded to attend the Wigan Warriors Fan Day by a few A&L members and arriving in Wigan and then Orrell, how glad I was that they persuaded me as it was a superb day that included getting signatures from the majority of the first team along with pictures with my two favourite players - Ryan Hampshire and Sam Powell.

The afternoon featured the U16s game between Wigan and Castleford with a huge win for the Wigan youngsters with a trip to the Red Robin following and in glorious sunshine it was well worth it despite the limited sunburn and then a nice rest in the evening while watching more of the World Cup games.

After a packed two days, Sunday was more of a day to relax with some TV and some uploading of the pictures and videos from the previous days and later in the day the new Simpsons episodes and some thinking about my uploads at the Wigan games.

Monday began with a deep clean of my bedside area due to a lot of stuff being moved about over the weekend and with the afternoon featuring some writing and the usual Monday night TV alongside more World Cup coverage.

Tuesday began with some blogging catchup with an afternoon relaxing before making the trip over to Orrell to watch Wigan v Huddersfield in the U19's competition and meeting up with some of the A&L members namely Jake, Jay and Karen and alike the previous trips to Orrell it ended with a comfortable win for Wigan with the evening seeing more World Cup coverage and a Twitch viewing of Lucy Vixen on Watch Dogs.

Wednesday began early with the fixtures announcement at 9am and a tough Xbox and Weight update before going to Wigan for the A&L meet up ahead of Wigan v Widnes and a great game coupled with a good atmosphere saw Wigan win 48-4 and go top of the table for the first time since last July.

start for Liverpool with Southampton at home and Man City away in the first two games and after some researching, I did my weekly

The night ended with some uploading from the game and the joy of resigning Joel Tomkins which saw me capture a superb video which continues my point that the West is a good stand to sit in.

Yesterday saw a quieter day which began with some research ahead of Sunday's trip to Wakefield and the ordering of some new ink for my printer ahead of some new designs in the summer while watching the Tennis at Eastbourne in the afternoon and the writing of the Wigan v Widnes report.

The evening focused around the viewing of Uruguay v England and as I expected Luis Suarez scored and England lost for a second time in the group and were on the edge of exiting after only two games (which they now have after Costa Rica beat Italy) and the night ended with a session on the new DLC on Dead Rising 3.

The next post be at the end of the month enabling a a single post for the monthly summary meaning ahead there are two Wigan games, Sunday away to Wakefield meaning a return up to Yorkshire and Friday's derby against St Helens which will be my 12th attendance at a Wigan v Saints derby with hopefully come job progress but I won't hold my breath.