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. 

June Starts Quietly

After a busy end to May, June has begun quietly in comparison but with a busy few weeks ahead it is kind of a good thing.

The month began on Sunday with some summary writing and magnet updating with some tidying up and sorting and disposing of some clutter in my room. Monday began with some Xbox Music and an afternoon session on Forza Horizon with a friend over Xbox Live with the evening featuring the usual Monday night TV schedule and a quick return to Forza Horizon.

Tuesday focused around some writing and some play on Need for Speed Rivals on the Xbox One with an exciting but emotional final episode of Happy Valley and the second episode of The Complainers.

Wednesday began with a wide job search but sadly nothing stood out so put my mind into some writing followed by the Games with Gold double download alongside my yearly renewal of Xbox Live which means I will continue my subscription for a seventh year since I began back in July 2007.

The afternoon saw an exercise session on Kinect Sports Rivals which was good to return to bu sadly ended badly as when on the Tennis mode, my backhand swing went too far and resulted in my right hand smashing against my bookcase. The evening saw some recuperation alongside some TV and a go on one of the downloaded games, Max The Curse of Brotherhood.

Thursday began with some Xbox blogging and a trip out for a walk in the morning with an afternoon on the Xbox One culminating in a number of unlocks and then i wrote up my Challenge Cup preview
and watched the final episode of Tyger Takes On.

Friday began with some Twitch viewing and the devising of a new blog idea which at present is still just an idea and may progress in the coming weeks with the afternoon focusing on a sort of a lot of storage boxes in my room and a rejig of the layout near the doorway which was well worth the five hour sort-out.

Saturday began with another Twitch viewing early on with some writing in the morning followed by the rip to Wigan to meet up with the A&L crew prior to the Wigan v Castleford cup tie which was great as it made a change form the usual loneliness from arriving in Wigan and waiting for the kick-off and is something I will be doing again in the near future.

Despite a loss for Wigan, the day wasn't soured as I reunited with the A&L crew for post match discussion and had a good end to the night before getting a lift and bus journey home and relaxing with some TV to end the evening.

Sunday saw another sports based day as after a relaxing morning, I watched Bradford v Warrington followed by the F1 Canadian GP and a short session on Ilomilo+ before an evening of TV including the final episode of In The Flesh.

A new week meant Monday and a blogging catch up in the morning which was dampened later in the day by the sad news that the comedic genius that was Rik Mayall had died meaning yet another great had gone too early as 56 is no age really. The early evening focused on the first day of E3 with some truly stunning reveals with the Halo Collection and Sunset Overdrive being the standout highlights.

Tuesday began with a co-op session on the new Dead Rising DLC which looks and plays amazing which was followed in the morning by the disappointing news that Blake Green would leave Wigan at the end of the season meaning another overseas star returning home continuing a long trend of recent years.

The rest of the day focused on some blogging and updating with the evening taking in the next episode of The Complainers as Wednesday then began and some sorting out took up the early morning with the weekly updates with some quizzing on Channel 4 in the afternoon and the day ending with some TV and Xbox.

So a fairly quiet start to the month but the main reason I commented earlier that it was good is because this time last year, I was at rock bottom after being cruelly mistreated by my then girlfriend and after what is now a full year of being single, I'm actually feeling better despite my continuing unemployment as aside from the stress of watching sport, there is no personal stress.

The next post will be around this time next week as with two Wigan games, Castleford on Friday and Widnes on Wednesday, hopefully i will have more positives to write about.

Five Months Gone Already!

After a fairly slow start to 2014, seems to be getting busier with each passing month with May no exception with the football season ending but with a bumper month for Rugby League.

Away from sport, it has been a busy month personally with an election into the NUJ union and the acceptance of my NUJ Press Card application as well as a trip up to Chorley for an interview at Pro-Mark Publishing for an editorial assistant position but sadly I was unsuccessful with a small positive a new place visited.

Fitness wise, Runkeeper saw a total of 12.1 miles which is less than April as number of events needed high battery power so the GPS had to suffer so the true walking amount is about 20 miles.

The Xbox achievement progressed well by matching April's haul of 103 unlocks and edging me closer to my goal of 100,000G and currently I am 66% of the way towards beating 2013's records.

The focus on consoled seemed to go with the Xbox 360 this month with 57 unlocks compared to 46 on the Xbox One which had Dead Rising 3 DLC as the main contributor with 36 unlocks


Sports wise, it has been a mixed month for my two playing teams as Liverpool narrowly missed out on a first Premier League title after a slip-up at Crystal Palace left them with slim hopes but finishing second after win over Newcastle was still a huge achievement after being seventh a year ago.

Wigan began and ended the month with defeats away to Leeds and Huddersfield but a trio of superb wins over Hull, Leeds and Salford with a young team made it a good month for the Warriors overall which also included added joy for myself with the receiving of a superb gift from the club for attending all games in 2014 so far.

Also, the attendance at games has build up a number of TV appearances which is nice as it allows me to document my travels and also creates good memories with another busy month of Wigan games ahead but with more at home than away after a month on the road.

On the subject of my goals for 2014, progress is certainly being made on many but with both completions in May focusing on Wigan which are attending the Magic Weekend and a week earlier going to my fifth away game of the year which was up in Hull.





The month ahead has hopes of the following...

• A double header at home to Castleford, the re-arranged game at home to Widnes, a trip up to Wakefield with the month ending with the fierce derby at home to St Helens.
•  Some job progress as it is sorely needed after six months unemployed.

Magnificent May Comes To A Close

The final weekly post of the month comes as May ended just as busy as it started in what has to be the best month of the year so far.

Friday begins the summary with some researching after returning home from Salford the night before with the afternoon featuring the downloading and testing of 4 Elements II on Windows 8 and the submission of my application for an NUJ Press Card after successful election earlier in the week.

The evening saw my usual Friday night TV routine alongside the writing and publishing of my Salford v Wigan report.

Saturday began Die Another Day (ITV) and Kingpin (C4) which made for good company alongside some blogging with the daytime focusing on the viewing of Catalan v Bradford with some blogging and preparation on Fantasy iTeam ahead of the Champions League final which was the main focus of the evening and I was delighted to win my Mini League meaning a prize of £25.

Sunday began with an Xbox session and the watching of the F1 Monaco GP which lived up to the past exciting races in Monte Carlo with the afternoon multitasking between playing on Dead Rising 3 and following the Super League games via text. The evening saw a double lot of new Simpsons episodes and the completion of the Dead Rising 3 DLC with the night ending with the weekly episode of In The Flesh.

Monday began with some note collation ahead of writing my Super League weekly review with an afternoon walk over to my former workplace to collect my iTeam winnings so for the first time in a long time, I left the place in good spirits and even spotted a few former colleagues who exchanged positive greetings.

The walk caused a lot of pain with it being my first six mile trip for over two months and my recent drop in fitness added to the pain so an evening of recovering was on the cards alongside the Monday TV routine with some blogging research.

Tuesday began with some planning for a first trip to watch the Wigan U19's in Orrell with an afternoon Xbox One and in the early evening, the trip to Orrell which saw a third meeting of the week with the A&L crew of Jake, Jay, Louise and Karen who made what would have been a solo trip and exciting and worthwhile evening which saw Wigan complete a huge win over Bradford and a safe trip home thanks to Louise and Karen and a bus journey with the evening closing with some TV and a small meal from the local shop.
session on Watch Dogs on the

Wednesday saw some play on Watch Dogs and the weekly weight and Xbox update with the afternoon focusing on the production of my Super League preview and some Windows 8 playing with the catch-up of Xbox magnets and blogging in the evening.

Thursday began with some document catch-up with some playtime on Windows 8 and in the afternoon, the trip to Wigan for the coach up to Huddersfield, my first since last September's play-off visit but this time around I wasn't alone as I met up with Jay, Jake and Louise which made for a great evening of Rugby despite the 31-22 loss but after a superb month for Wigan, it was gutting to end it with a loss.

The coach trip home gave me chance to write my match report which has since gone on to break a record as the the most viewed blog post I have ever written with a total of 155 views beating the previous record of 101.

Friday began with the return form Wigan and the post-match takeaway with some TV catch-up and an afternoon of Sky Movies while tidying up my room and giving the floor a good clean as well as doing some sorting out. The evening saw the usual Friday night TV alongside a session on Watch Dogs.

The month came to a close with Saturday and the monthly shopping trip which alike the past few months saw a massive drop in spending compared to 12 months previous with a long walk home that gladly wasn't as painful as Monday's journey. The afternoon saw an session of Watch Dogs alongside listening to the Froch V Groves fight on the radio and producing my season review document.