I hate the lottery

Not won a thing AGAIN tonight and I can't remember the last time I had anything back :( Being bored I decided to work out how much this is costing me.

I've had 5 lines every wednesday and saturday for the last 12 years and what have I won.... about 3 tenners a year and 4 numbers twice which paid out around £40 each.

so, (12 * £30) + (2 * £40) = about £440 I've won in total.

Considering that it's cost me (12 [years] * 52 [weeks] * (2 [draws] * 5 [lines]) = £6240 then I'm down by £5800.


£5800 !!!


And of course that's only going to increase further as I know my numbers off by heart and you just know that the day I don't put them numbers on it will be the day they come out. What would you do if that happened? Let's hope we never find out. :o

In the meantime, I'll just keep donating to Camelot in the 14 million to 1 chance that one day my numbers might just be drawn!

Karaoke - 25th Jan 2007

No Scott, Hayley or Tina tonight so short on singers once more although there were a few more non-singers in than last weeks ghost pub! The cards got won finally after been running since way before christmas. A nice £300 for the guy that won them...grrrrrrrr. :p

Tonights songs:

Others: Mike & The Mechanics - The Living Years
Me: ATB - Killer *
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Others: Madonna - Papa Don't Preach
Andy & Louise: Abba - Does Your Mother Know
Me: Automatic - Raoul *
Others: The Corrs - Breathless
Andy: Squeeze - Cool For Cats
Me: The Fratellis - Whistle For The Choir *
Others: Robert Miles - One & One
Others: Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High
Andy: J.Geils Band - Centrefold
Others: Ronan Keating - If Tomorrow Never Comes
Others: Cher - Believe
Me: Mika - Grace Kelly *
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin
Andy & Louise: Robbie Williams & Jane Horrocks - Things
Others: Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Me: Razorlight - In The Morning *
Others: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
Others: Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free
Me: The Fratellis - Henrietta *
Others: Donna Summer - Hot Stuff

** NEW STUFF **

The Automatic - Raoul - Been wanting to do this since it came out last year. This was their debut single not Monster as many believe and it was re-released this January. The Sunfly version was the album version too so slightly longer than the radio edit but it's the one I know best anyway so was pleased with it. Will do again :)

The Fratellis - Whistle For The Choir - Love them, love this track. If only I could convince the karaoke manufacturers to put out the whole album then I would be very happy!!

Mika - Grace Kelly - The first great record of the year. Number 1 this week and although I was slight worried about the high bit he does, it actually turned out to be alright (I think, please let me know if you thought otherwise!). I reckon I just might do this again, such a fun track. If you've not heard it yet, check it out on YouTube here.

Karaoke - 18th Jan 2007

Wow - bad night tonight. I knew it was going to be the case after a not so good week at work, but I ended up being called out no less than 3 times away from the pub. Fortunately I'd pre-emptied this and went up in the car (only about 2 minutes drive) so not too much time lost in between flitting up and down. I still managed to get some songs in despite my limited appearances thanks mostly to the pub being the quietest I've ever seen it. For the last few songs there was only 6 of us in there :(

Songs sung this night (thanks to Tina & Louise for noting down the ones sung whilst I was not there):

Me: J.Geils Band - Freeze Frame
Tina & Louise: Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High
Andy: Frank Sinatra - That's Life
Others: Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart
Others: Ben E King - Stand By Me
Others: Keane - Everybodys Changing
Tina & Louise: Emma Bunton - I'll Be There
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin
Others: Yazoo - Only You
Andy: Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet
Others: Blondie - Sunday Girl
Tina & Louise: Petula Clark - Downtown
Me: Razorlight - Before I Fall To Pieces *
Others: Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
Others: Westlife - If I Let You Go
Andy: Billie Jo Spears - Blanket On The Ground
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Tina & Louise: Dolly Parton - Jolene
Others: Cher - Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves
Me: Franz Ferdinand - Matinee *
Tina & Louise: Shania Twain - Honey I'm Home

** NEW SONG **
Razorlight - Before I Fall To Pieces - Enjoyed this one although I got a couple of bits slightly out. I'll most likely do this again at some point, it depends on whether or not Scott does it better in the meantime, lol!

Karaoke - 11th Jan 2007

Much better night tonight. Plenty of singers in and a decent atmosphere.

Songs sung tonight:

Me: Will Smith - Miami
Tina & Louise: Sara Evans - Suds In The Bucket
Andy: Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Tell Me Lies
Me: Snow Patrol - Spitting Games
Tina & Louise: Rachel Stevens - More More More
Andy: Dire Straits - Walk Of Life
Others: Razorlight - America
Others: Tina Turner - Simply The Best
Others: Gabrielle - Out Of Reach
Me: Razorlight - In The Morning
Tina & Louise: The Corrs - Angel
Andy: Dean Martin - That's Amore
Others: Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Others: Zoe Birkett - Get Happy
Others: The Corrs - Runaway
Me: The Wonderstuff - Size Of A Cow
Tina & Louise: Girls Aloud - Wake Me Up
Others: The Commitments - Try A Little Tenderness
Others: The Zutons - Valerie
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Tina & Louise: Shania Twain - Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?
Me: The Fratellis - Henrietta
Others: Stereophonics - Handbags & Gladrags
Others: Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Andy: Abba - Does Your Mother Know

decided to just specify me, Scott, Tina, Louise, Hayley & Andy as singers and group everyone else as 'others' from now on.

** NEW SONGS **
2 new ones tonight:
Snow Patrol - Spitting Games - Started off too low and never really recovered until the last verse. Love the track but probably won't sing it again.
Wonderstuff - Size Of A Cow - Was more worried about doing this one but I think it went ok. Will attempt again, possibly after more beer!!

Karaoke - 4th Jan 2007

First Thursday night of 2007 and very very quite which I suppose was to be expected. There was a bit of a miserable vibe going round which I'll put down to post-christmas depression (back to work and all that) so karaoke was a bit flat.

Songs sung tonight ( I only wrote down our songs this time. Others are from memory only):

Louise & Hayley: Abba - Voulez-Vouz
Scott: Kasabian - Empire
Russ: Keith Urban - Days Go By
Me: Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
Louise & Hayley: Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child
Nikki: Patsy Cline - Crazy
Scott: Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
Me: The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian
Louise & Hayley: Bryan Adams - Baby When You're Gone
Scott: Van Halen Thunder - Love Walks In
Nikki: The Corrs - Breathless
Me: Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men
Andy & Russ: Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying

**NEW SONG **
This weeks new song was The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian. Why? Who knows!! Less said the better I think. Lets just say I won't be doing it again :o

Sing-a-long-a-karaoke

Anyone who knows me knows full well that I love my karaoke. I've been indulging in this pub version of Stars In Your Eyes for around 8 years now on a very regular weekly basis. It's a great way to let it all out at the end of a weeks work and although I'm never going to be the next chart-topper, I'd like to think I can hold my own!! ;)

Over the course of this year I'm going to be logging all the songs that I and others sing at the Birches Head Hotel (S-o-T) on a Thursday night and publishing the results here. This is partly for my own interest in seeing what gets sung over the year and also for a similar year long survey that's taking place on the KJ Forum. One goal I have this year is to do at least one song each week that I have not done before. I think it's possible but it may see me having to delve into the archives and going retro some weeks when nothing new is out!

Let's get it started...

One of the things I've decided to do this year is to learn to play the guitar. As a christmas present, my wife brought me a nice black acoustic guitar to learn on. It's nothing fancy and didn't cost much (probably because she thought I'd be bored of it after a week, I'll show her!!!) but it's good enough to practice on. She also bought me Guitar for Dummies which I'm going to work my way through. I'll keep you posted how I get on as I go along!