All About Me!

"Getting to know you, getting to know all about you" - Anna (The King & I)

You know, I started writing this blog nearly 4 weeks ago.  I turned 36 at the end of July and I thought it would be a bit of a fun/lighthearted blog if I gave you all 36 'facts' about me that you might not know or maybe even care about.

Firstly, it was harder than it sounded.  Secondly I had a big distraction.  But now it's here and I'm done.  Remind me to never do this again...

36 Facts About Me!

1) I share a birthday with the following: Arnold Schwartzenegger, Daley Thompson, Kate Bush, Lisa Kudrow and Jimmy Anderson.  And I share it with the anniversary of England winning the world cup.

2) I am allergic to bananas.  And penicillin.

3) My favourite film is The Elephant Man and my favourite pop act is Pet Shop Boys.

4) I swear a lot.  Far more than is healthy...

5) My biggest fear is open water, ever since I nearly drowned when I was 10.  Even now, I hate putting my head under water (even a shower can make me panic).

6) My first ever job was a chef.  Hence my love of cooking.

7) The first car I ever drove after I passed my driving test was a Rover 600.  Company car.  Lovely.

8) I have two middle names, Stuart and George.  Named after my Grandfathers.  However, I was only meant to have ‘George’ as a middle name, as family tradition, but that would have made my initials ‘KGB’ and in the mid-70’s, that would NOT have been good…  So my parents added another middle name.

9) The first record I ever bought was ‘Hi Ho Silver’ by Jim Diamond and I have a horrid feeling that the first album I ever bought was by Chas n Dave…

10) The first song I ever performed solo at a karaoke was ‘Monster Mash’.

11) I’m still a big kid at heart, as I love seeing all the new Lego kits and other toys, wishing I could play with them without looking like a twat.

12) I’ve never been further abroad than France.  I’ve been all across Britain (and even the Channel Islands) but my ambition is to visit America and New York in particular.

13) I love my food (no really!) and I’m always up for trying new things.  Especially food from other countries.  Earlier this year I even had authentic Ethiopian lamb.

14) I chose the online ID of ‘Khaos’ back in 2000 when my life was literally chaotic, with living in London, Bristol, Cardiff and driving hundreds of miles, etc.  And I put the K in because of my real name.

15) I have a certified IQ of 136 which puts me in the top 6% of the world.

16) My best subjects at school were Computer Studies and Maths.  My favourite was Law.  Fascinating subject.

17) I’m not the biggest sports fan on the planet, and rarely watch it on the television, but I support Liverpool FC and Surrey CCC.

18) I don’t have any tattoos or piercings, and never will BUT if I were forced to, I’d have a lion or dragon tattoo, on my arm.

19) My DREAM job would either be a West End musical singer (Javert would be the role I’d KILL for) or a comedy writer.

20) I am a geek too.  I love some Sci-fi (not Star Trek, urgh) and I still read the occasional comic book (not Batman, urgh).

21) My favourite names are Bret (for a boy) and Kaitlyn (for a girl).

22) I am related to former Prime Minister Edward Heath (my Nan’s cousin) and possibly to the ‘Great Train Robber’ Ronnie Biggs.

23) I was born and raised a Catholic but now, I follow no religion.  Safer that way.

24) If I had a dream ‘dinner party’ inviting 5 people dead or alive, I’d choose Eric Morecambe, Les Dawson, Jimmy Carr, Sarah Silverman and Lisa Lampanelli.

25) My favourite actor is Anthony Hopkins.  My favourite actress is Gillian Anderson.

26) I love dogs.  Hate cats.

27) Conspiracy theorists piss me off.  Seriously.

28) I read all 7 Harry Potter books in 6 weeks.

29) My shoe size is usually 11 (depends on the shoes)

30) My best quality is my sense of humour.  My worst is that I can be very introverted and moody sometimes…

31) I’ve often thought about going on Dragon’s Den for a couple of ideas I have, but I hate rejection.  Besides, I’m no entrepreneur.  So if someone wants to team up…?

32) I’ve been to hospital twice.  Once for heatstroke, when I was a baby and the other time for an infected ingrown toenail.

33) One of my interests is reliving kids TV shows and I love talking about them, reminiscing.

34) I consider myself a late bloomer in life, so many things I didn’t do for so long, with usually one of my younger brothers getting there first.

35) I don’t have a sweet tooth and can’t say I’m a massive fan of chocolate.

36) My signature dish to cook is steak diane, with jacket potato, stuffed mushroom, and grilled tomato.

Well, that's 36.  Is there anything you want to ask me that I haven't covered?  Use my Formspring account to ask me anonymous questions.  Be nice!

:)

Aftermath

"This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect."  - Dwight D Eisenhower

A couple of weeks on and things in Croydon are largely back to normal.  Other than House of Reeves looking more like Roman ruins and the acrid smell emanating from the area, it's business as usual.  Even the trams were back in service after 3 days of being out.  The buses were back shortly after. Gotta love the British.  "Carry on regardless" stiff upper lip indomitable people we are.

And don't forget the power of a cup of tea!

Naturally the riots are still the biggest topic of conversation in pubs, clubs, cafes and offices; probably will be for a while too.  But the tide is turning from "Where were you?" and "What were you doing?" to "Why did it happen?".

To me, it's obvious.  This was purely and simply greed and jealousy on a MASSIVE scale.  What triggered it was people seeing the vandalism and looting happening in Tottenham and Enfield, and thinking "I'll have some of that."  The riots were not about class, or status, or race, or religion.  People saw that others were stealing things with impunity, with the police seemingly unable or unwilling to take action.  All they had to do was get a group together, and let them get groups together, cause a ruckus and grab whatever they wanted.

And so they did.  All over London.  And Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Manchester, as well as small pockets elsewhere.

Whilst I can't comment on other areas, I can say what I've seen in Croydon.  The shops that were affected were almost all ones that stocked electric goods, jewellery, clothes and/or alcohol.  These gangs knew what they wanted.

But CAN they be generalised so easily?  I don't believe so.  These rioters/looters/scumbags clearly have come from all walks of life.  Some were just caught up in the thrill, some were professional criminals and everything in between.

When you can't accurately generalise, it becomes difficult to give reasons and find solutions.  It's not all people on benefits, nor is it just 'disaffected youth' or black kids, etc.  If you want to generalise them, use one word. Scum.

They didn't care about their communities.  They didn't care about making a statement.  They didn't care about the opinions of the government.  They saw an opportunity for getting free stuff and they took it.  They knew they outnumbered the police and they'd be helpless.

The only thing that would have stopped it is the 'robust' policing that was talked about (sadly, after the event) in Tottenham.  That would have shown the looters that they would be dealt with harshly.  Instead they saw the police holding back, while the looting just went ahead.  That's why so many looters were confident that they'd just get away with it.

Whilst I generally support the police and think they did a good job under the circumstances, they really only have themselves to blame after the G20 protests, etc.  They were clearly scared of being too heavy-handed and facing criticism from the public and ministers.

Government NEEDS to make a definite ruling about the difference between a protester and a rioter.  One should be policed, one should be stopped.  What that ruling should be, I don't know;  I'm not a politician.  (I know that's the coward's way out but so what...)

There's still plenty of anger in the country, and rightly so.  This was the darkest day for England, that I can remember.  Although deaths and casualties were surprisingly low, it was the sense of sheer evil in the streets, radiating off the news reports, from the pages of the newspapers.  And worse, it was OUR evil.  No blaming terrorists or dissidents.  These were OUR kids, OUR neighbours.  And we were helpless.

I'd like to think that even from this, some good can come out of it.  We've seen lots of community projects starting up, and a spirit that I can only imagine was similar to the 'wartime spirit' talked about by our grandparents.

There's no easy solution.  Part of me thinks that there will never be one.  And the danger of complacency slowly creeps back over us all.

I just hope I'm out of town if it happens again.

Croydons Worst Day

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - Franklin D Roosevelt

Some time in the Summer of 1995 I was seeing a girl called Charlotte.  Lovely girl, half American, met through work.  She worked at weekends at a club called Bagleys up in King's Cross and she invited me along one Saturday night.  Good club, great atmosphere but, at 3am, her Dad came to pick her up.  She lived in Hemel Hempstead, so I got a kiss goodnight.  And I decided to go home, back to Croydon.

Now, I have NO idea if any of you know the area but it was, in a word, notorious.  (Granted, it's a lot better now.)  There I was, alone, walking the streets of King's Cross in the VERY early hours.  I saw one mugging, one guy getting beaten in a phone box, three prostitutes (I think they had an equivalent number of teeth each too) and more druggies and dealers than I've ever seen or since.  Waiting nearly 40 minutes for the night bus to get me to Trafalgar Square, so I could get the next night bus home only added to the anxiety.

I got in at about 5:30am.  And it was the scariest night of my life.

Until Monday night, 8th August 2011.

Two nights before that, the Tottenham riots took place.  The following night, more riots broke out in Enfield, as well as other little pockets around London.  Then came the Croydon riots.

I left work a bit earlier than usual, as I had heard of tension mounting across London.  I got home about 6:15.  There wasn't anything different about the journey, nor anything out of the ordinary about my street.  Shops and businesses had closed early, but that was more precautionary than anything.  Or so I thought.

About 7ish, my friend Terry sent me a photo of West Croydon.  The 'battle' had begun.

Also see here and here...

My heart sank.  Croydon was better than this.  We are a multi-cultural town/city and should not be at war with ourselves.  I rapidly discovered that this was never about race, or religion, or status, or class.

At 7:30-ish I hear shouts and screams, coming from my window.  I look out and see about half a dozen hooded people milling around Church Street tram stop.  It was about this time that the bus parked by the car park behind my flat had been attacked.  Argos had been broken into and looted, as had the jewellery store and Lidl.  Yes, Lidl.

A few minutes later, while keeping people updated via my Twitter account, the flat began shaking, and a noise like a heard of stampeding animals went past my window.  About 60-odd hooded people/youths were running past, carrying boxes, bottles, etc.  One young man stopped and shouted "Hang on, there's more of us than them.  There's more of us than them!  Come on!"

That was when I knew this was only going to get worse.  I went downstairs to the front room, being careful not to get seen, when an explosion went off, behind the flat.  I went to the kitchen to see smoke pouring out from what I thought was the car park, but turned out to be the 157 bus that had been abandoned.

Lots more whooping and hollering, so I went back upstairs to observe, where it was safer.  I had no idea at the time that they were attacking House of Reeves.  I went back to my laptop to Tweet and update people on Facebook.  Then more shouting.  I looked again, saw some thing burning next to the flats over the road.  I looked down and saw Riot police moving down outside my flat.  I was relieved.  Thinking it was either a bin or a car on fire I just thought this was surely coming to an end now.  I went back to the laptop, and watching Sky News.

Then even louder shouting.  Not only was it House of Reeves on fire it was clearly starting to burn fiercely.  Minutes later, I could see the unmistakeable flickering orange light in the sky.  Whatever was burning out the back could NOT be going that high, and so I looked out the window.  That's when I saw the fire leaping out, over the roofs of the opposite flats.

This was about 9pm-ish.

Seeing a local landmark burning, one that was mere seconds away from my flat, was distressing.  But worse was the fact that, selfishly, I realised that I and my property was in imminent danger.  Thankfully, some of my friends had seen the inferno and rushed to see if things were OK.  We decided to just get the hell out.  Knocking for the girl in the flat next door, (who is Russian and speaks VERY little English) and her 7 month old baby girl, we all rushed out of the block of flats, not even stopping to lock up.  Standing at the Tram stop, watching rioters and looters laughing, running amok, scared me.  I looked down the road to the blaze.  I saw a woman jumping from her upstairs flat, the riot police using their shields to cushion her landing.  That scene has become one of the iconic pictures of the riots.  I took this picture a few seconds after it happened.  (I know it's not clear, I have a cheap shit phone, I'm still not stooping low enough to steal one.)

Decided to seek refuge with friends in South Croydon, we walked off, past the smashed windows and debris of Argos, et al.

The atmosphere can only be described as 'evil'.  I can't compare it to anything else other than imagining you're in the middle of a zombie film, just putting your head down, moving on, hoping not to be noticed, yet feeling eyes on you at all times.   Suddenly a guy next to me checks his Blackberry phone and shouts 'Richer Sounds, South Croydon' and about 20 youths and adults, all wearing hoods or masks just run past us, down the road.

Once safe, I called as many people as I could, to apologise for just leaving Facebook and Twitter without much warning.  But no laptop and very little battery on my phone meant radio silence from me.  So I spent the rest of the night watching Sky News, watching Reeves burn down, watching London Road burning down and just hoping that things would calm down in the morning.

I think I got an hour of sleep, maybe two in total that night.  Told work that I wouldn't be going in, and to their credit they were fine about it, telling me that I was to concentrate on being safe, first and foremost.  But I had to go back to the flat, to get a change of clothes, my laptop, charger, and other bits.  Then I was going to my Brother's down in Godstone and seeing if it died down during the Tuesday.  While I was in my flat (which was under Police guard - and thankfully undamaged and not looted) I took a picture of the remains of the House of Reeves.

Obviously, the trouble seemed to have dissipated but the scars will remain.

In my next blog, I will give my thoughts on what happens, why it happened, if it'll happen again and what we as a community, as a society can do to stop it.

Film Review: Captain America

9/10

And that wraps up 2011 for me.  All the films I had been waiting for this year have been released and now I have to wait until 2012.  My wallet is grateful, if nothing else...

But what about Captain America?  It's the third and final Marvel film of the year and with the first two being both critically and financially successful, it probably had much more 'pressure' to do well.  Well so far, the signs are good.

And I have to say that I agree, largely, with all the positive reviews.

The film is exactly how I wanted a Captain America film to be.  Cap is the moral compass of the Marvel Universe and Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers absolutely perfectly.  Actually, I can't think of a single bad performance from anyone in the film.  Tommy Lee Jones is solid as General Chester Phillips (with the best one-liners too); Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is tough, yet vulnerable and sexy; Toby Jones and Sebastian Stan are great in their small-ish roles.  The biggest props go to Hugo Weaving who plays the Red Skull and I look forward to seeing him again in the next Cap film.

There are some flaws, of course.  The way Bucky 'dies' is too soon after he's been found and, to me, the Cap/Bucky relationship is not as meaningful as it is in the comic.  (And if the Winter Soldier doesn't appear in Cap 3, I'll eat my own arse.)   The Howling Commandos are nothing more than spare parts; they deserve better.  Also the final fight between Cap and Skull just seems to stop out of nowhere, but the rest of the film more than makes up for it.

The fight sequences are brilliant, the special effects are spectacular, with Chris Evan's face being put on a little guy's body being the biggest highlight and, of course, THAT scene after the credits...

So out of the three Marvel films this year, I have to put Cap just behind Thor, but ahead of X-Men: First Class.

Just roll on May 2012 for THE AVENGERS.

(ps. Ironic that 'The First Avenger' is actually the last Avenger film to be made, before the big one. Heh.)