25 Random Things About Me

Seeing as everybody else has done this, I thought I would too.

1. I have sung live at both the Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena.

2. I have supported Man Utd since the second game of football I ever saw on TV, (3-3 vs Tottenham, I think 1985), but, perhaps unsurprisingly I have only seen one game at Old Trafford.

3. I have however been lucky enough to see England at Wembley five times, but I have not been to the New Wembley yet.

4. When I was growing up I wanted to be a professional footballer, my mum put me off and kept telling me that I was crazy as there was no money in football, and all of the top footballers are miserable as they also have to work as plumbers and in shops during the week.

5. My school once set up a student council, I attended two meetings and demanded school lockers and a payphone, we got both so I stopped attending… the school council stopped meetings less than two months after starting up.

6. In 2003 I was convinced Saddam Hussein had weapons of Mass Destruction that they could be deployed within 45 minutes. I shall never, ever, blindly trust any government’s statement anywhere in the world after this lie.

7. After John Kerry was selected to run for the Democrats in the 2004 US election, I am the only person I know that thought he would lose. I said so out loud in a pub in Uxbridge and spent the next two hours arguing with the entire pub and staff. (I was right though).

8. I did however predict that Rudy Giuliani would win the Republican nomination and Presidency in 2008.

9. I did see the credit crunch coming, and my wife and I told anyone who would listen. We sold her house in 2007 and are now renting. We look forward to getting back on the property ladder in early 2010. No one believed us, but my in laws think I am some kind of genius now. (we didn’t see the £ crashing so bad against the €, and paid for it getting married in Ireland last year)

10. I only got into blogs about 14 months or so back. I discovered blogging when regularly visiting the Daily Telegraph online and contributing to online debates on the UK and the EU… Eventually I found my way to the blog pages, particularly Daniel Hannan's page and have ever since had a bit of an obsession with blogs and blogging.

11. Before he disappeared, my favourite blog was Tractor Stats.

12. Even though I am of a centre right political persuasion, I cannot bring myself to join the Conservative Party because of their views on Europe. I did once contribute money, (I think it was £20) under Iain Duncan Smiths Leadership.

13. I think the BBC should be sold off in piecemeal.

14. Overall, I think the US makes better TV than the UK.

15. Overall, I think the UK makes better music than the US.

16. I think the “greatest film ever made” is Forrest Gump.

17. As a child I teased my dad mercilessly about his bald head, he had been losing his hair since aged 29. I started losing my hair at 19, and was ‘balding’ at 22.

18. I met my wife through work, meeting her is the best thing that ever happened to me. I never considered myself as “happy” before I met her, and now she is my whole world.

19. Whilst studying, I would work up to 90 hours a week as a chef because I needed to pay my own way and couldn’t face working in a shop. I got a strong work ethic and learned a lot of life lessons from one of my head chef’s.

20. Whilst working as a chef, I cooked for Christopher Dean, a Super Grass concert, (when they were topping the charts), Bill Oddie and am told that I was Radiohead’s favourite pizza cook (During a stint at a Pizza Express restaurant.) I never got to meet any of them in person. One of the Italian restaurants I worked for had 3 sites, I found out last year that my wife had, back then worked in one of them, whilst I was also working for the company; we never met until ten years later.

21. I play the same numbers on the lottery every week since it started. I have never won more than £10; I don’t think I have won more than £50 in all these years. I am convinced, absolutely convinced that my numbers will be drawn one day, whether I have purchased a ticket or not.

22. I once shared a flat with somebody who was in exile from Zimbabwe and had organised rallies against the Government there. One day I came home and the clock in my bedroom, which had been wrong by an hour, had reset itself to correct time, and every time we used the phone from then on it would click; like in the movies when it has been bugged. (I always assumed it was him that was being monitored). When I moved out I left my phone and video cassette player in the flat for the people that took my room on.

23. The same flatmate has become an artist in the UK and paints. Each painting is worth in excess of £10k. At one point, we had over £100k worth of art stored behind some chairs.

24. I am absolutely convinced that my late Grandparents house is haunted. As a child we would spend school holidays there, every child in the village would pack into their front room with us and we would do Ouija boards. I could probably host a whole blog on the ghostly goings on of that house (and their neighbour’s house). One of those people got in touch on Facebook recently, in her first message she revealed she still tells people about my grandparent’s haunted house.

25. I was in favour of the Monarchy until the Queen signed the Lisbon Constitutional Treaty. I still like Queen Elizabeth, but now think we should do away with the monarchy, in a law making sense anyway. I also think we should have a wholly elected second chamber in parliament. (I have some things in mind for later blog posts, but still have a lot of home work on this first.)