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Elisha Foxx ®

Today we took Elisha into town to register her birth. As seems to be the pattern with anything remotely exciting, like being taken to the park for the first time, or on a walk to the shops, she slept through the whole thing. Not that I expected her to be sitting bolt upright and taking notes so she can recant it all during a milk break at nursery;

Did you have a nice registrar? Really? Mine was alright, I suppose – friendly, but quite obviously intoxicated by the power she wielded over us. Oh, and the barely concealed disgust because mummy and daddy aren’t married was unprofessional at best.

There had been a little bit of encouragement from my mum for us to choose a middle name for her, as all our family have middle names. Mine is John, after my Grandpa, and like Crazy Uncle John, his son. Not very original, but then I do remember my Grandpa quite fondly, so it does mean something to me.

Fliss doesn’t have a middle name, but, as her mum thought of such a unique first name for her child in the first place, there was probably no need to start showing off with all the other cool names that were on the back burner.

I think Elisha falls into that category – we really like her name and although right now she’s oblivious to the fact the choice has been made for her, we hope she likes it too when she’s old enough to realise it’s what she’s called. Granted, she could think it sucks, so we’ve reserved the space between her first and last names so she can choose her own middle name when she’s old enough to make an informed decision, if she wants.

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Video Editors – take the red pill

This year it’ll be seven years since The Matrix was released – a spectacular sci-fi action movie with ground breaking special effects, accompanied by an edgy soundtrack containing tracks almost tailor made to fit the onscreen content.

Perhaps it was due to the almost perfect soundtrack, or maybe the runaway success of the original movie was to blame. But for the last seven years, every time we see a fast cut montage on any sports programme it’s always set to the Propellerheads Spybreak. Likewise, if it’s a moody slow motion piece, it’ll have Clubbed to death by Rob D behind it.

And we’ve had seven bloody years of it – nobody in a Video Editing department has used a brain cell since the millennium. It’s always “Right, we have a bunch of snowboarders in an SSX event, dueling it out to the finish line. We need some music to set the mood for the quick cuts and jaunty camera angles we’re using in this piece. Anyone have any ideas?” A hand will go up in the room and someone will suggest Spybreak. “Genius! That’s that sorted. Next on the agenda we have a a minute or so of tense build up footage for a boxing match. The two fighters really hate each other, and we’re possibly going to have a voice over after the first ten seconds or so. Anyone got anything?” Someone in the room, possibly the same someone as before, will suggest Clubbed to death. “Again – genius! Lets get to it.”

I swear that exact same meeting takes place all over the world in creative departments several times a day, and has done since mid 1999. Due to that, it’s been a long time since I actually listened to The Matrix soundtrack – mainly because I watch a lot of sports, so I’m sick to death of hearing it.

People, you know who you are; it’s time to let go and use a grain of originality when you’re choosing your backing tracks. Take the red pill. Or any other pill, for that matter. Just stop abusing a great soundtrack because you’re a bunch of lazy fuckers.

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Looking back at 2005

At the end of it, I’d have to say 2005 turned out to be a pretty good year for me. It started off a little slowly, with us looking for a house to buy and going on the misguided holiday to Malta. In hindsight that holiday was just a bit of bad luck on our part, as when I went back there with work a few months later I had a much better time.

The first real highlight of 2005 would come in April, when we bought our house. Usually that kind of thing is quite stressful, but I have to say that with us it went really smoothly – perhaps because we were the first people in the chain. It was a really good move on our part, though – it’s good to have a place we’re actually investing money in and a roof that doesn’t leak.

Next highlight would have to be when Fliss discovered she was pregnant less than a month after we moved into the house. To say I was shocked at the time would be an understatement, but nine months of denial later and things have worked out alright.

When June came around I walked Hazel down the aisle, well, half way down the aisle, at her wedding to Ian on what was a great day for them and all of the assembled family.

Shortly after returning from the wedding trip I ran my first 5k and put in a fair effort, even if I felt I could have done better.

In July I turned 33 and celebrated by visiting cousin Iain in London – my first of several trips down to the capital over the months that followed. We had a really good weekend of excess in the hot weather, but it didn’t exactly help in my preperations for my second running event a couple of days after I got back. Indeed, the least said about my gruelling experience in the Sefton Park 5 Mile Run the better.

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