TV Issues

It's nearly 3:00PM and I'm finally getting to write today's post.

I haven't really got much to cover today. Or rather, I do, but I would rather wait a few days.

The thing is - myself, and neighbouring homes, have had some major TV issues with our cable carrier - Virgin Media - since Thursday night.

Nothing seems to be improving. It's really frustrating because my family and I have missed a lot of programmes that we like watching.

It's a huge letdown and the customer service has been abysmal. I could never recommend Virgin Media to anyone. Not after this.

I'll write more about this situation when I am able to tell the full story. 

Until then,  forget Virgin Media if you are considering joining this crappy TV, Phone and Internet provider.

I Was Right About Sergio

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I didn't really have a dog in the Champions League final fight that was played last night.

With that said, I opted to side with Manchester City because I wanted to see Sergio Aguero cap off his tenure at City with a Champions League victory.

Sometime during yesterday, I took a look over something I wrote about Aguero after I saw his debut game for City in August of  2011.

It's titled 'My New Favourite' and I write about how much I enjoyed seeing his game against Swansea City. I had high hopes for City with the star signing on board.

Nearly ten years later and I believe it's safe to conclude I was right.

It would have been such a great follow-up to write about how he won the Champions League in his final game for the club. Unfortunately, I can't do that. Chelsea won with a score of 1-0.

Champions League Final 2020/21

It's the Champions League final tonight and - barring a hiccup from Virgin Media (long story) - I am planning to watch it live.

The game will see two British teams - Chelsea and Manchester City - compete at Estadio do Dragao in Portugal; the home of FC Porto.

Both Chelsea and Manchester City have been teams I have enjoyed betting on over the years. I have no allegiance to either side, but I think I'll have to go with City. 

This will be the last time Sergio Aguero will don a Manchester City kit. He has been such a great player for them over seven years that it kind of seems fitting for him to raise the trophy that he hasn't won at the club during his tenure.

So, yes - even though I like Thomas Tuchel as a manager and therefore have a reason to root for Chelsea - I am going to side with Manchester City for the Aguero story.

With that said, I cannot shake off the feeling that the win will come in extra time. I have visions of it being 2-2 at the final whistle of regulated time and then City will score the winner before there is a need for penalties.

We'll see how that prophecy goes....

SummerSlam On A Saturday

This year's WWE SummerSlam will take place on August 21st. 

It shouldn't come as a surprise to see WWE's biggest PPV of the summer to be in August. It is, however, interesting to note that August 21st falls on a Saturday.

SummerSlams first started out as a Monday night event for its early years dating back to 1988. However, the PPVs were moved to Sunday nights in 1993 - likely due to '93 being the year that Monday Night Raw first started - and have remained that way until this year.

Even though people are going to report that this will be the first SummerSlam to take place on a Saturday, it technically isn't true.

Emphasis on the word 'technically'.

1992's edition of the event took place from Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday August 29th. It aired on PPV the following Monday to keep with its then tradition.

Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium is the rumoured venue for this year's show. 

This is also noteworthy because there is a Manny Pacquiao fight being hosted in the same city on that very night.

An Unfriendly Post

It looks like it's going to be a tough day on the Internet.

That's because I woke up to news stories all about the Friends Reunion that aired on US TV last night.

As someone who has never watched an episode of Friends, yet was fully aware of the hype around it back in the day, I am not looking forward to the news coverage today. It was bad enough in the weeks leading up to last night.

My instinct tells me this is going to snowball into a new series.

Or a movie.

And that's just guesswork from someone who - other than writing about it in this post - has close to zero interest in the programme whatsoever.

Plus, James Corden is involved with the project, so that's an immediate double negative.

League Opens For 2021 Season

I received an email from the NFL yesterday. 

Looks like the fantasy football league I play is open and is in the early stages of preparation for the 2021 season.

After the disaster of last year, in which I closed the season 3-11, I am scared to see what happens next. I would say 'it couldn't get worse'.

But, it could.

It'll be interesting to see how it's played this year now that there is an extra regular season game.

A New Personal Best

Look at the codewords puzzle I did in the Telegraph's All New Codewords book I first wrote about on May 5th.

It took fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds to complete.

I have to pat myself on the back for that result considering these Telegraph puzzles are meant to be more difficult than I am used to. As well as that - they only give two letters to start off with.

If I'm not mistaken - 15:15, for a regular-sized codewords puzzle, is the best time I've had. I started 2021 with a goal to do one in under twenty minutes. I had already beaten that aim in February when I completed a puzzle in just under seventeen minutes.

If you had said I would have done one of these Telegraph puzzles in a little over fifteen minutes, after I first opened the book to see its contents, I would have laughed at you.

Buy The Book From Amazon

Season Handicap Betting: 2020-21 Results

The Premier League concluded its 2020/21 season yesterday. This means I can finally take a look through all of the season handicap results from League 2 right up to the Prem. 

So, without further ado, let's see which teams won the bookies' handicap tables and how they compare with the projections I shared before the respective seasons kicked off.

League 2
League Two's actual winners were Cheltenham Town. The team did so with a points tally of eighty-two. Going in, the bookmaking firm had given them a ten-point head-start. The ninety-two points wasn't enough to win the season handicap table for 2020/21. That honour went to Cambridge United.

The U's finished second in the real league with eighty points. Add on top the twenty-five points the bookies gave them and they won the handicap table with 105.

As you'll see, in the table above, Bolton Wanderers are highlighted in yellow. The reason why I've done this is because Bolton was the selection my system picked out ahead of the season.

Bolton did not have any points to start off the season because the bookmakers evidently thought the team had a chance of being League 2 winners. They finished in third place, which was enough to give them automatic promotion to League 1.

League 1
The season handicap winners for League 1 was Hull City. It did so with ninety-five points. Six of which were the points it was given before a ball was kicked.

Hull wasn't only the season handicap winner for League 1. They were winners of the actual league itself and will now play Championship football in 2021/22. 

My system opted to go with Oxford United to top the season handicap table for League 1. Just like the eventual winners, Oxford had a six-point head-start. They finished the real league in sixth place with a points accumulation of seventy-four.

The pre-season projection had Oxford to pick up ninety-four points and to top the season handicap table with 100. Instead, it finished in tenth place on the handicap table with eighty.

Championship
Norwich was the winning side in both the Championship season handicap table and the actual league.

The Canaries topped the real division with ninety-seven points. It beat the other teams in the season handicap with its one point head-start.

As you'll be able to conclude, by seeing Norwich in the yellow highlight above, my system correctly picked the winner.

It projected that Norwich would get ninety-three points and would be at the peak of the table with ninety-four points once the real season ended. It didn't go completely like that, but 'a win is a win' as they say.

Premier League
West Ham United was the winning selection in the season handicap table for the Premier League's 2020/21 season.

As you'll see below, the Hammers picked up sixty-five points from their sixth-place finish in the actual league. Add in the +44 by the bookies and West Ham topped the season handicap betting table with 109 points.

The actual 2020/21 Premier League champions - Manchester City - ended up in twelfth place in the season handicap list.

Sheffield United is the team my strategy opted to go with. 

What a bad call that was! 

The Blades finished bottom in both the real and handicap tables. In the real table, the team had twenty-three points from seven wins and two draws. The season handicap table added forty-six points to the twenty-three to leave them in the basement on sixty-nine.

Going in, my system predicted that Sheffield United would get forty-six points. Seeing as the bookies were giving a forty-six head-start, the strategy predicted the Blades would close on ninety-two. 

Bad, bad call.

Betting Results
As per usual, I placed the pre-season predictions in a Lucky 15 bet for a bit of fun to look at as the season was in progress.

I laid out a total of £7.50 on the bet. Norwich being the only winner meant its price of 18/1 was doubled bringing back a return of £10.63.

Therefore, after all that, I finished off with a profit of £3.13. Not bad for something I do for a bit of fun. As a noted above - a win is a win.

Over the next few days, I'll tidy up my spreadsheet in preparation for the 2021/22 season handicap predictions. 

I'll share the results near the time.

22 On The 23rd

I am going to spare a thought for Owen Hart today seeing as it's the twenty-second anniversary of that tragic night when he fell to his death during the WWF Over The Edge show.

As today is a Sunday, it hits me even more considering Sunday May 23rd 1999 is the date.

I can vividly recall that Sunday night as if it had just happened. Well, it was technically Monday morning for me. 

I remember the stunned feeling when Jim Ross was keeping us informed of the accident and then Jerry Lawler returning to the broadcast table with this look on his face. His 'it doesn't look good at all' punctuated the expression.

And then, later in the show, Ross was back on screen to inform us that Owen had died. 

I ran upstairs. In shock, My dad was working the night shift, so it was only my mother and sister at home. I woke my mum and told her what had happened. The first thing she asked me was 'have they stopped the event?' and it was here where I realised how even more messed up everything was.

They had continued with the show even though Owen had died.

I woke up the next morning in haze. Sure, it was a post-PPV morning, I always felt out of sorts. This one was a lot different. I still remember going to the Teletext or Ceefax on my TV (this was before we had the Internet at home!) and reading the story. 

Even more random, I recall picking up a copy of a newspaper supplement from the day before to see that Snoop Dogg had released a brand new album. That surprised me considering it had only been eight months since his last release.  

I couldn't concentrate in the lessons I had that day. I do recall my Law teacher bringing it up with one of my classmates. That was quite surprising because I didn't know that either of them followed pro wrestling. And it was quite late in the school year to talk WWF/WCW/ECW with those two because that was the final week of college for us. 

What a way to remember my last week in my most favourite place I studied at, eh?

Betting On Eurovision 2021

Here's a sentence I rarely write, but I am going to today: I have had a bet on tonight's Eurovision Song Contest.

I was browsing Twitter on Thursday night and came across a tweet from somebody who was talking about Iceland's entry. I happened to click on the short video showing the group's song and thought it was catchy.

Before placing the bet, I looked up some more about the act (called Daði og Gagnamagnið) and it made me even more sure there was a chance they could win tonight.

One of the members of the group failed a Covid test earlier this week. As a result, they'll be unable to partake in the live show. However, they have progressed to the final because their rehearsal video has been well received.

The same video will be used tonight as the entry.

As I said, it was very catchy and thought it was worth a gamble at the 14/1 - and later 16/1 - that I backed them at.

I'm hoping there will be viewers out there who will also feel compelled to have a vote because of the situations the group has found itself in. 

Pundits thought Daði og Gagnamagnið would win last year's contest, which ended up being nixed due to the pandemic. Now, after finally making their way to this year's contest - with a new song to boot - the members will spend the night in isolation.

There could be a silver lining, though. One I hope will work out for them.

Winning tonight's contest would give them the opportunity of a live performance at next year's show as the host nation. 

My fingers are crossed.

Loki On Wednesdays

I found out that the new Disney Plus series, Loki, will be streamed every Wednesday once it premieres on June 9th.

This news kind of threw me off, to be fair. That's because I am used to streaming platforms putting out their big new series' on Fridays. 

On top of that Disney Plus did state, during trailers for the series, that it would premiere on Friday June 11th.

With that said, I'll be there each week - along with my nephew - to follow along for the six episode programme.

The series is a spin-off from Marvel's Thor and Avenger movies and will see Tom Hiddleston reprise the role he played in those films. A second season is in the works.

An Early Star Wars Celebration (Of Sorts)

I had planned to publish a post in which I wrote about Star Wars Episode I yesterday, but it turned out I was far too early for the celebration.

What I wanted to do was write about how May 19th it was the twenty-second anniversary of the film's release and I was going to mention how my friends and I went to see the film on the first showing at our local cinema.

But then, the realisation dawned on me. May 19th 1999 was the date the film was released in the US. It didn't reach my shores until July 16th. 

It's incredible to recall a time blockbusters came out in the USA months ahead of us. I think The Phantom Menace was the last time that happened, in regards to Star Wars movies, because I vividly recall the following movie, Attack of the Clones, having a worldwide release on May 16th 2002 (once again, we went to the midnight screening and I remember it was a few hours after Real Madrid won the Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen).

It's funny how I've spent this post writing about The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Both films are right at the bottom of my rankings of the Skywalker Saga.

With that said, I'll firmly defend the opinion that the teaser poster for The Phantom Menace was badass:

I remember seeing this poster where I would catch my bus. Seeing it now brings back a memory of feeling excited to know that we were getting to see a brand new Star Wars movie after sixteen years. 

The image of Anakin Skywalker, with the shadow of who he'll become - Darth Vader, was such a great way of promotion. 

Beef Space Raiders Potato Shapes

A week ago, I published a post in which I mentioned that I had tried Iceland's Space Raiders potato shapes.

The flavour I purchased was the 'Pickled Onion' variety. I have now tried the other flavour in the range: Beef.

I made the right choice to start off with. 

Pickled onion had more flavour. The beef version was lacking in a strong beefy taste, which you would expect if you've tried the Space Raiders potato snacks that these potato shapes are related to.

Still - I've tried both of the flavours now, so I can tick them off my list.

A Payment To 'a DAVID DUNGLE'

I received a phishing text message on Saturday evening claiming to be from Lloyds Bank.

It claimed that I had attempted to send a payment to 'a DAVID DUNGLE' from a new device and that if the transaction was 'NOT' made by me, I could remove by clicking on a link.

I obviously (a) don't know 'a DAVID DUNGLE and (b) didn't attempt to send him a payment on an old device let alone a new one, so it was obviously an attempt to scam me.

Most importantly, I don't have an account with Lloyds.

The link was not clicked and the text was deleted after taking a screenshot to share with you in this post.

Rating Drink Powders

A friend from the USA gifted me a handful of drink powders - among other things - for my birthday a few weeks ago and I thought I would do what I did earlier this year with bottles of Calypso Lemonade and rank them to work out which flavour I liked the best.

All of the powders can be found in the picture below. I'll write about each powder in their order of appearance in the photo starting with the Berry Blast Typhoon flavour of Hawaiin Punch. 

The drinks will be rated out of five stars.

Hawaiian Punch Berry Blue Typhoon
I have a huge bottle of blue coloured Hawaiian Punch here at home, but haven't opened it yet. The reason why I mentioned it is because the Hawaiian Punch drink here is also blue, but I am not looking forward to trying it now. This is because I found the powder drink to be lacking in flavour. 

Rating: ** 

Country Time Lemonade
This tasted just like traditional lemonade you find in supermarkets. I prefer that sort of lemonade to regular varieties, so this gets two thumbs up from me. 

Rating: *** 1/2

Orange Crush
Of the six powders I sampled, the Orange Crush sure was the brightest! It had a nice flavour, but it wasn't as strong in taste as the other Crush drink I tested (see below).

Rating: ***

Great Value Lemonade (Walmart)
As I mentioned above, the Country Time Lemonade reminded me of traditional lemonade and I liked it a lot. This lemonade powder, from Walmart, was very similar. And that means I have to give it an identical rating.

Rating: *** 1/2

Grape Crush
During my childhood, when my American relatives were based over here in Europe, I would visit them and get to try American sweets and drinks. Something I noticed from those treats was there was an abundance of products with a grape flavour. It was very rare back then to find anything grape flavoured back home, so I found anything with that ingredient to be the most appealing. Here we are many, many years later and I find myself pouring powder into a bottle of water to make a grape drink. The smell brought back some fond memories even before I took a sip. Once I drank it, I knew I had to give this this powder a high rating. 

Rating: ****

Starburst Blue Raspberry
I'll be straight up with you. Even though the Starburst Blue Raspberry flavour is the last drink in this rundown, it was the first one I tried. It was all downhill from there because every single drink I tasted after had a job on its hands to beat it. They all failed. 

My favourite Mr Freeze ice pop flavour is Blue Raspberry. My favourite Slush Puppy flavour is Blue Raspberry. See the pattern forming? If not - Blue Raspberry is my favourite powdered drink flavour!

Rating: *****

Doing Another Telegraph Codewords Puzzle

On May 5th, I published a post titled 'Doing A Tricky Codewords Puzzle' in which I tried my hand at a puzzle from All New Codewords - a book from The Telegraph newspaper.

I had trepidations about having a go at the puzzle because - on paper - I was put off by the fact that I was given a two letter head-start. I am used to having three or four letters before I kick things off.

The first puzzle in the book was completed in twenty-three minutes and forty-four seconds. I have done more since then and have had times ranging from approximately eighteen to thirty minutes. I shouldn't brag just yet, but I have yet to spoil a puzzle by messing up. 

I thought I'd have a go at filling in the seventh puzzle in the book for today's post. So, here it is before I embark on it.

And here is the end result. I didn't mess up!

It took me eighteen minutes and forty seconds to finish it off (after taking a picture of it, I notice that I hadn't added an X to EXTOL on the bottom right of the grid). 

18:40 is around the second-best time I've achieved in this book. The best is 18:13 which was on puzzle two.

I'm sure it'll end up getting harder as I progress through the book, but - for now - I am doing a lot better than I had imagined when I first opened it up and was put off by the two-letter head start and acknowledgement by the editor that the puzzles are harder than what I am used to.

At the end of the day, I am having fun with this book. So far!

Buy All New Codewords 1 On Amazon

Coconut Lion Bars Are A Thing

Did you know that there are such things as coconut flavoured Lion Bars?

I didn't. Not until I saw one online when I was placing an online order the other day.

I have eaten regular, peanut and white chocolate flavoured Lion Bars in the past. I've even bought a box of the Lion Bar breakfast cereal that was out in 2012, but I had no idea that coconut flavour existed.

It wasn't too bad. It was white, so it was kind of like the white Lion Bar, but with a coconut flavour. And that's it, really.

Sorry for coming across as obvious, but that's all it was like.

The best coconut chocolate bar - behind Bounty (which will always be number one for coconut chocolate bars) - is still the late, great, original Boost bar. 

I miss that one. A lot!

This wasn't the only new Lion Bar flavour I came across. Stay tuned for another Lion Bar post in the very near future (ie when I can be bothered to eat it).

Christmas Night Football

In a follow up to yesterday's post, I have finally managed to browse through all of the Indianapolis Colts' schedule for the 2021 season.

One game stood out more than the rest.

I'm going to get to watch the Colts on Christmas night!

Or rather the early hours of Boxing Day morning with the kick off being 8:15PM Eastern (1:15AM GMT).

That's because the Colts will play the Arizona Cardinals on Christmas Day.

Indianapolis versus Arizona isn't the only game set to be played on December 25th. The first match of the day will see the Green Bay Packers (with Aaron Rodgers?) will welcome the Cleveland Browns to Lambeau Field.

For those not counting down - there are 225 days to go until these games are played.

NFL '21 Schedule Set To Be Released In An Hour From Now

The fixtures for the upcoming NFL season are set to be released in an hour from when this post is published.

I am looking forward to see the Indianapolis Colts' schedule. After that, I'll dive down into the latter part of the season to check out what the three Thanksgiving Day games will be in 2021.

The NFL - and some of its broadcast partners - have already given out some spoilers. 

The season will kick off on Thursday September 9th with the Super Bowl Champs - the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - hosting the Dallas Cowboys live on NBC in the USA.

The Colts will play Seattle in week one. 

Other week one games that have been revealed are: Pittsburgh .vs. Buffalo, New York Jets .vs. Carolina, Jacksonville .vs. Houston, Atlanta .vs. Tennessee, Los Angeles Chargers .vs. Washington, Cleveland .vs. Kansas City and the Miami Dolphins .vs. New England. All of those games will air on CBS in the US. The latter two are set for 4:25PM Eastern (9:25PM BST) while the rest are scheduled for 1:00PM Eastern (6:00PM BST).

I also know the two games that will be played in London.

The NFL UK sent me an email yesterday afternoon noting that Atlanta will be the designated home side against the New York Jets on Sunday October 10th. A week later, the Miami Dolphins will be regarded as the visiting team against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Both games will be held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 2:30PM BST meaning that they'll air live in the mornings for those watching in the United States.

UPDATE

After writing the above post, I found out the three Thanksgiving games. They are: Dallas .vs. Las Vegas, Detroit .vs. Chicago and New Orleans .vs. Buffalo.

Space Raiders Potato Shapes

If you grew up anywhere between the 1980's right up to this very moment, you may know about a potato snack found in the crisps aisle of your local shop called Space Raiders.

The 'crisps' come in a range of flavours. The most iconic flavour - in my opinion - is pickled onion, but there is also beef and other flavours that I am trying to remind myself of (I am guessing there is a spicy one but can't recall the last time I saw that one).

Anyway, there is a reason why I am dedicating today's post to Space Raiders.

The supermarket chain - Iceland - has brought out potato snacks you can bake in the oven that resemble Space Raiders.

And guess who bought a packet for the purpose of writing about it on this blog?

Those who know what the packets of crisps currently look like will know that the Space Raiders logo and alien picture is identical on the bag of ftozen shapes.

They come in two flavours - pickled onion and beef. I chose the pickled onion flavour and cooked some last night to see what they're like.

As you'll see below, the shapes are also identical to what the 'crisps' look like. 

The alien faces tasted more like regular onion and potato bakes rather than 'pickled onion'. I guessed that would happen even before I cooked them.

I'll give the beef ones a go next time. Although that might be an empty promise.

You see - in 2014, I wrote about Iceland bringing out potato bakes with the Hula Hoops branding on them. It should be worth mentioning that the supermarket chain has brought those back claiming that they are 'new and exclusive'. 

In the post from 2014, I tried the cheese and onion flavour. I closed the post stating that I would try the beef ones next.

If I did try them (and if I had to fight with my memory, I think I'll find that I did but have forgotten), I never wrote about tasting them. 

I might have to honour that promise from seven years ago before I consider purchasing and cooking up the beef flavoured Space Raiders.

Wendy's Coming Back To The UK

I read - in yesterday's news - that one of the United States' most popular fast food franchises is looking to open restaurants here in the UK.

Wendy's first restaurant, in its current expansion, will be in Reading followed by two in Oxford and Stratford. The articles claim that there are plans to build four hundred restaurants across the country.

I was not aware of this, but Wendy's did have business in the UK but left in the late 1990's.

Knowing this makes me worried that the company will pull out of the UK before a store is built here in my city of Cardiff.

The thing that makes me slightly more confident of Wendy's chances of sticking around this time is the fact that 1999 was a different time. Nowadays, people can order food online and get the products delivered to their door. 

Why do I care so much about the news? Well - I would really like to get my hands on one of Wendy's popular items: a Chocolate Frosty.

The website states that this milkshake is 'thick enough to use a spoon, smooth enough to use a straw.'

I haven't really looked at the burgers on offer other than the current special - a bourbon bacon cheeseburger. 

Wanting to try one of those would be getting far ahead of myself, though. I fully expect the specials to differ from country to country just like they do with other fast food businesses.

That Joke Isn't Punny Anymore

I started following a Twitter account a number of days ago. It ended up being a big mistake.

The reason why I followed the person is because they had, what I believed, constructed a funny tweet. It also looked like they were from my home city. I thought it would be an interesting follow considering how funny and local they are.

It then dawned on me that the person behind the account was just firing off puns every time they tweeted. 

Even though most were funny to read, the rest weren't. All this person did all day was tweet out puns. And I am 100% sure they were from a book anyway. 

After a few days, the decision was made.

I had to unfollow.

I had a look at the account just before writing today's post just to make sure. Yep - they're still around firing off the puns.

At Least A 2 Week Wait

I was going to publish a post later today with the season handicap betting results for League 1, League 2 and the Championship but have decided to hold off to release it.

The reason why I have delayed it is because I believe I may as well wait until the conclusion of the Premier League season and then cover the results of all four leagues in one go.

This means that I won't get the post done until at least May 23rd - the day the Premier League is set to host its final games of the 2020-21 season.

In the meantime, you can READ THIS POST from last summer. It had the predictions and bets I placed ahead of the start of the respective seasons.

What I can say is one of the two results already in was a win. The other two remaining selections, that will be settled today (League 1) and later this month (Premier League) will be graded as losers.

Doubts Over The Olympics

I'm having trouble believing that the Olympics will take place this year.

As a pro wrestling fan, I've been casually following news about how Japan has been tackling the pandemic. 

I am aware that Tokyo has extended its state of emergency. This has forced New Japan Pro Wrestling to postpone big events that were scheduled at the end of this month. 

Seeing how NJPW is once again on the ropes during the outbreak does not fill me with confidence that Tokyo will be ready to host the games that were postponed last year.

The Games are meant to start on July 23rd. 

It's easy to say 'there's still time to turn things around.'

But, is there?

The Dream Job

Every once in a while, I find myself in dreams where I am back working at the restaurant I spent my late-teens and early twenties working in.

Some might think heading back to a place of stress would be a nightmare. Not me. I enjoy finding myself back in that environment. Even though it's fantasy.

I did another shift there in the middle of Wednesday night.

It was probably the most craziest restaurant dream I've had because I came across A LOT of things that I had forgotten about.

There was a customer who wanted to pay by cheque. He left it unsigned and I had to fill it in. That was the easy part. I then had to find the machine to swipe the cheque and its guarantee card. In real life, I remember my manager throwing it away in a bin because he no longer wanted to accept cheques.

It was at this point that very same manager popped up in the dream. He was wearing street clothes. I told him that 'wow, you're here as well.. it's like an old school reunion here'.

The duty manager was struggling to find the missing machine. I had to go back to the customer to try and see if he could pay in a more convenient way. While I waited for him to work out what to do, I was called by patrons on a neighbouring table. They wanted to be served. 

That was something I disliked about some customers. Yelling out to us while we were in the middle of serving another table. It happened quite often on the busy days. And it was our job to be polite amidst the rude impatience. Acknowledge them. Give them hope. We'll be there soon.

Some colleagues I hadn't even thought about in many, many years also made cameos in the dream. I have to admit that - yes, even though it was all in my mind - it was cool to see them again after so many years. The fact that they were in the dream must have meant that my memory had kept a place for them somewhere in that brain of mine.

The dream came to a halt when a lady with a pram did something that frustrated us. She walked beyond the hosting stand and sat herself down. I woke up before I had to politely tell her she had to wait to be seated. To be fair - I left at the right time. 

Those customers who didn't observe the unwritten 'do not pass the host' rule were often the troublesome ones.

MacGyver Cancelled

I've recently found that the reboot of MacGyver has been cancelled after five seasons.

I've been watching the programme since it first aired on Sky One over here in the UK months and was looking for news on the fifth season making its way to Sky.

I didn't find any UK airdates, but read that the final episode of season five was televised on Friday in the US and it was the series finale.

The original MacGyver was a programme I loved as a child in the 1980's. The adult version of me was intrigued when the reboot debuted a few years ago and I stuck with it watching it each week. I have been eagerly looking forward to season five.

Now I know it'll be the last.

I'll miss it. 

Maybe in thirty years time, the old age pensioner version of me will be hyped for another reboot..

Doing A Tricky Codewords Puzzle

I had a new Codewords puzzle book for my birthday.

It's from The Telegraph newspaper and is titled 'All New Codewords'. It looked like a regular codewords book at first. 

But, as the saying goes - don't judge a book by its cover. 

I read the introduction and was put off by the part which warned that the puzzles in the book are more difficult to other codewords puzzles that I was used to.

The trepidation I had, when I read the warning, wasn't eased when I turned to puzzle one. On that page, I noticed that The Telegraph gives its readers a two letter head-start. 

I'm used to being given four letters to start off with. Three at a push.

Anyway, I managed to talk myself into giving it a go. And - to be fair - I did better than I thought I would.

I completed it in twenty-three minutes and forty-four seconds. The time is around the same ballpark number I accomplish with the three-or-four letter head-starts. 

You'll notice that there is something edited out of the image above. 

Upon completion of each puzzle, I put the date on it. Puzzle number one was done on my birthday. However, when I went to fill in the day, I accidentally put my birthdate down instead. 

So - I didn't 'mess up' the puzzle. I simply screwed up what should have been the easiest part of completing it!

Buy Telegraph Codewords From Amazon

Star Wars Day 2021

I won't start today's post with the 'May the 4th Be With You' line that I've done to near death over the years, but what I will do is start by showing you the t-shirt I am wearing today - Star Wars Day 2021.

As soon as I saw the tee, which is a parody of the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover, I knew I had to get it.

Wearing the tee isn't the only thing I've done today.

If you recall, a few weeks ago - I noted that Disney Plus had added the Ewok movies and cartoon series to its collection of Star Wars related titles.

I thought I'd take a trip down to memory lane and watch the first-ever episode of the Ewoks cartoon.

I used to watch the cartoon when it aired on Children's BBC back in the 1980's. People of today will think that - when I write 'Children's BBC' - I am referring to the channel. However, back then, 'Children's BBC' was the after school programming that would be on the regular BBC One station each weekday.

A lot has changed since then, eh? Well - I don't think much has changed in regards to my thoughts on the Ewoks cartoon. Or rather today's viewing highlighted something.

I don't believe I was ever happy to watch it. It was just... there on my television screen. Usually, I would go out of my way to watch my favourite cartoons. I didn't have those feelings for Ewoks. And now - with older eyes - I realised why I didn't go all-in with the cartoon as a child.

It's because it was crap.

Thankfully, there were two new Star Wars things on Disney Plus that did intrigue me.

Star Wars Biomes was an eighteen minute virtual journey through some of the movie series' planets. It was like a drone passing through overhead. 

The CGI special was great to watch on a 4K Ultra HD TV. 

The Star Wars Vehicle Flythroughs series was similar in ways to Star Wars Biomes with CGI drone-like exploration. Only they looked around - and inside - two of the most popular vehicles in the Star Wars Universe: the Millennium Falcon and a Star Destroyer.

Biomes and Vehicle Flythroughs weren't the only things added to Disney Plus today.

The new animated series - The Bad Bunch - had its first episode launch. I can't watch it, though. I am still many, many seasons behind on The Clone Wars series. Seeing as The Bad Bunch is a spin-off from that, I have to avoid it.

I'll get there. Eventually. I hope.

Doing A Kriss Kross 18

Seeing as it's Bank Holiday Monday, I thought I'd put up another 'Doing a Kriss Kross' post to show you how I fared in a recent puzzle.

The one I picked had a Bank Holiday theme with words that could be associated with holidays. There were also shaded boxes which spelled out a famous destination.

Here's how it looked before I began.

And here is the end result. It took me thirteen minutes to complete it.

The hidden word was 'Windsor Castle' which is coincidental considering the site has been on the news a lot lately with Prince Philip passing away there.

It's Dwayne Johnson's Birthday

The top trend on Twitter - as I am writing this post - is 'It's Dwayne Johnson's Birthday'.

And so it should be the top trend this morning.

Dwayne Johnson turns forty-nine today. One more year until the big 5-0, which will land on a Monday Night. So - the May 2nd 2022 episode of WWE Raw might be a good one. 

Especially if it's a few weeks after his last match (I have a feeling he'll wrestle at next year's WrestleMania in Dallas).

Anyway, it's hard for me not to remember that it's The Rock's birthday today. To celebrate, I am wearing the following t-shirt. I was going to wear it a few days ago, but thought it would be cool to wait until this morning to put it on again.

Other famous people share the day with him. For example: Engelbert Humperdink, Lily Allen, Jimmy White and David Beckham.

Last Night's Main Event

I have just watched the main event of last night's WWE Smackdown.

It was a big match because WWE Universal Champion - Roman Reigns - defended his strap against Daniel Bryan with the stipulation that, should Bryan lose, he'd have to leave Smackdown.

The match was unsurprisingly great. I had no doubt it would be as both wrestlers are two of my favourites from the current crop of talent in WWE. 

The result was also unsurprising. Reigns won. Bryan now departs Smackdown. 

It was a good finish, as well. Reigns won by submission/ref stoppage after Bryan passed out while in the guillotine submission move. 

I hope this isn't it for Bryan. The wording of the stipulation meaning he is banished from Smackdown opens the door for a move to Monday Night Raw or maybe even NXT. 

It could also mean he's done. 

For now.