Strike Factory

The last week aside from the football has been a pretty good. I attended an interview yesterday for the role of assistant manager at St Catherines Hospices shop in Burgess Hill, I felt the interview went alright, though there is oppertunies for me if I don't get offered the job, as I have been offered a voluntary role as admin/ receptionist at the Volunteering Centre/ Citizens Advice Bureau in Crawley also that will start in early January next year. Its one week until Christmas and got plans to attend one or two parties including an invite from the one and only Andy Rumble.

On Saturday I travelled The Heart Of Gaming arcade venue in Acton, West London, for their Christmas party, one of the chief hosts being April who I met at a filming session of We Got Games pilot show back in the summer of this year. Its a short walk from North Acton tube station as I found, and and entered the venue which has been ranked in the Top 20 best Computer gaming venues in the UK, whilst its not a big venue it has a good mix of gaming machines like 80s classic Pacman, to 90s Giants Street Fighter, a place where you can also try and sample various retro consoles from 1980's 1990's and 2000s plus bring yours up to challenge others and some interesting machines imported from Japan like Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2, that has never been offically released in the UK, and can only import. I seemed to enjoy this game more than the others at the venue, with Raver Charles certainly coming out to play with my dance moves on that machine and challenging people to take me on, towards the end. Its certainly a venue worth a visit if you are in the West London/ Middlesex area and love computer gaming.

Finally my next blog post will be my annual Christmas Statement, where I will be looking back in the past year of events in my life and beyond, and I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday.

P.S Thoughts with the people of Peshawar, Pakistan and my Aussie fans after the tragic events in their nations recent days.

Well the last 2 weeks have been a little bit stressful to be honest, having to get the Pre Employment Training course out the way and finished, which has been done now, heating issues in my flat, and also some issues relating to my ESA is in the process of getting reviewed, as its been over my year since the switich but the people of Crawley Open House are trying to help me out with that, though still feel a bit anxious and stressed.

I attended old Abbotsford school friend Stephen Foster's comedy show at the Village Hall in Billingshurst at the end of last month, where also attending was the old schoolmater the legendary Mr Moxon and his wife Anne as well as their son and daughter Jenny, was nice to meet them for first time in a few years, Stephen did some great songs, in tribute to the likes of Ziggy Stardust, and the late Alvin Stardust (who was a resident in nearby Loxwood.), which was certainly his best one especially as he knew Alvin. It was a great show and he performs around the South East of England regularly and recommend people go and see him.

Finally, there is not too much else to say other I will attending a retro gaming event in West London on Saturday, which should be fun and going to the big relegation 6 pointer battle between Brighton and Millwall, with both Albion and Sami needing a result to prevent this season getting any worse. It's a tough life being Charles Ball, and Albion fan but someone has too. Will be at last one more blog post, before my annual Christmas statement when I look back on 2014 in the life of Mr Ball coming up. Take it easy people.

So it seems the good people at Fremantle Australia are pulling out all the stops to make the 30th anniversary special of Neighbours a great occasion next year and to try and rival the great 20th anniversary celebration episodes of 2005, whilst I am excited about Harold Bishop returning to Ramsay Street etc, I am keen to know which of my past fave girls in the show are returning and the first one to be announced is the singer/ actress Delta Goodrem who played Nina Tucker between 2002 and 2004 although took a year out battling Hogdkins Lymphona, is the first to be announced, who was a lovely blonde girl who post Neighbours has focused mostly on singing and although initally suscessful in UK pop charts, most of her recent suscess has mostly been within Australia, but either way nice to see her return to UK TV screens soon, almost as exciting as the signing of Darren Bent for Brighton and Hove Albion.

The people at Strike Towers however are hoping more that some of the girls that featured in the Strike Factory 10 Fave soap girls published earlier this year will also make returns like Pippa Black (Elle), Stephanie McIntosh (Sky) and maybe Margot Robbie (Donna), but with her fame in Hollywood maybe she see Neighbours the same way as Kylie Minogue. :(

Since my last post, been a bit boring just getting on with my courses with Avanta (which should be completed by the end of next week), and getting on with the ECDL Level 3 training, plus with inspiration from fellow aspie George Thacker at Oxfam Crawley have applied for a mystery job with St Catherines Hospice where I offered my volunteering services for 3 years, leaving last christmas, more will be revealed in future. 

For those wandering who was on my 10 fave soap girls list earlier this year, here is the links if you want to enjoy again or read for the first time. 

http://strikefactory.blogspirit.com/archive/2014/03/04/10-fave-soap-girl-faves-from-down-the-years.html

http://strikefactory.blogspirit.com/archive/2014/03/07/10-soap-girl-faves-from-down-the-years-part-2-2997019.html

Roger Russell is English (29 years old today.)