A Very British Christmas by Rob Temple

Just when you thought the laughing ended, now Rob Temple has done it again. He's come out with a how-to guide on surviving the holidays, referencing Christmas, Boxing Day and even New Year's Eve

Read this how-to guide on surviving the holidays with a dash of wit and humor to keep your sanity intact as you watch relatives turn a simple game of Monopoly in to the next world war, how relatives take over your kitchen and make their food like they are a chef with their own cooking show or even who sits next to who so as to avoid awkward questions or handling the Christmas shopping in such a way that either no one gets arrested by the police or no one gets a gift that they will later give away or re-gift to someone else

Very British Problems: The Most Awkward One Yet

This is another standalone book from Rob Temple, the same hilarious mind who brought Very British Problems to life

Have you ever found yourself in these types of situations? Broken out in hives at the suggestion that you 'introduce yourself' over Zoom? Been extra dramatic while rubbing in the shop's hand sanitiser, so everyone knows how thoroughly decent you are? If you answered yes, Rob Temple firmly believes you are suffering from Very British Problems

He takes the quirkier things in life and adds a dash of humor to it. Some of the things he mentions are quite relatable. You'll be laughing in no time

Britain According to Very British Problems by Rob Temple

This standalone book is from the same comedic genius who brought the world Very British Problems

Rob takes every region of Britain and describes them with loving and hysterical humor. This A-Z road map of Britain will have you laughing from beginning to end. He says Britain is a maze of unique and eccentric sights, even going as far as to describe The Shard in London as "The Eye of Sauron". He takes everything Britain is known for and adds a dash of humor in it, saying things to the effect of "Birmingham being known for Black Sabbath", "Platform 9 3/4-after a few hours waiting in a railway station, have your photo taken next to a brick wall"

Very British Problems Volume III by Rob Temple (3 of 3)

The third installment in the highly successful (and hilarious) Very British Problems series

Here Rob tackles random things that can turn in to full scale arguments and regards them with a dash of hysterical humor. He also references his Twitter account @soverybritish regarding random polls he's posted. Also, he now has a Facebook page called Very British Problems where the hilarious situations continue

More Very British Problems by Rob Temple (2 of 3)

The second book in this highly successful (and hilarious) series by Rob Temple

Read about very relatable travel woes that we've all experienced at least once or see when going on vacation or holiday. I especially love it when he describes different kind of accommodations. It's all about the various travel woes we've all faced at one point or another. He describes all inclusives as all drunks

Very British Problems by Rob Temple (1 of 3)

This book series caught my eye when I was browsing the Humor section on the Amazon Kindle store. The title caught my eye. When I read the description, it sounded funny and interesting. After reading it, I realized I have never laughed this hard in a while.

What the book is essentially about is sarcasm regarding every aspect of life. How being socially awkward is a common thing, how to combat being odd in more ways than one and trying to make it day to day with your sanity and dignity intact. Some of the things he mentions are very relatable

Here is a link to it on Amazon

The Grinch (2000)

This was one of my all time favorite PlayStation games

Summary

-It's your job as The Grinch to undo all of the holiday cheer for the Whos of Whoville. With your sidekick Max, you'll steal presents and decorations. But, watch out for those Whos that are determined to stop you!

Levels

-Each area has a specific set of tasks that need to be accomplished. Once accomplished, you'll see "Mission Complete" scroll across the screen. There are blueprints to collect in each level, which will need to be assembled to gain new powerups. You'll also need to leave the areas and come back with the powerups to do later missions

-There will be blueprints you need to pick up and assemble to gain new gadgets

Rotten Egg Launcher. Your most effective gadget

Marine Mobile. Explore the underwater world

Slime Shooter. Slime anyone for a short time

Jet Spring. Reach new heights

Grinch Copter. Fly around

Octopus Climbing Device. Ascend / descend walls

Whoville

-The main city near The Grinch's home. Explore the city, learn your way around and look for items you'll need later on, such as mission-related items, blueprints for inventions, etc.

-Some of the missions here include: Shuffle the Mail. This involves going to the post office and sneaking past security. Use Max to go into the air shafts to unlock the doors to shuffle the mail in each room. By door 4, the security has been turned off. Modify the Statue involves going to City Hall and using a hammer and chisel to modify the statue of Mayor Whovier. Painting the Mayor's Posters involves using a paint bucket to vandalize the posters. Smashing the Snowmen involves butt dropping them to smash them. Egging the Houses involves using the Rotten Egg Launcher to shoot rotten eggs into all of the open windows. Advancing the Countdown Clock will require the Jetspring, to give you the power you need to reach the hatch to the upper levels. And then you'll need to solve a few puzzles to get to the top

Vandalize the Mayor's Posters

Watch out for kids and other Whos

Modify the Mayor's Statue

-The blue prints here should allow you to assemble your first powerup, the Rotten Egg Launcher and the Jetspring

Who Forest

-The mountainous ski resort outside of Whoville. Explore the city, learn your way around and look for items you'll need later on, such as mission-related items, blueprints for inventions, etc

These chimneys are where you put the beehives

Shoot the swirling target to activate the lift

Shoot the snow above the dog to trap it long enough to enter the area

-Some of the missions here include: Putting bees in cabins. Use the jet spring to take hives you have collected (you will be timed on this otherwise the bees will attack) and you will shake the hives and put them down the chimneys. For the cabin in the center of the resort, it is situated on a tall tree top. You will need to ascend the cliff across from it and use the Rotten Egg Launcher to activate the lift to reach it. From then on, you can reach this high house. Droop the Trees simply involves breathing on them. Replacing the Candles on the Cake with Fireworks involves picking up fireworks from the White Mountain Civic Center and replacing the candles on the massive cake with them

-Here you will collect blueprints for your next powerup, the Slime Shooter

The Dump

-The place where all Who trash goes to

-This is, by far, one of the trickier areas to navigate. Some of the missions here include: Collect Parts for Computer, Take Food from Birds, Conduct the Stinky Gas to Who Bris' Shack, Shave the Dump Guard, Infest the Mayor's House with Rats, Short Circuit the Power Plant. To do the Collect Parts for the Computer, shoot a red egg (easy to pick up) at robots and pick up the glowing parts left behind. To do the Take Food from Birds, shoot a rotten egg at the bird with the pizza in its mouth and it will drop. The collect it. There are pipes you need to shoot using the Rotten Egg Launcher because this is part of the Conduct Stinky Gas Into Who Bris' Shack mission. There will be pipes you need to enter to access new areas, but they are blocked with electricity. You'll need to use the Jetspring to enter small tunnels and hit buttons, which will show you which tunnel has been deactivated. Run through the tunnel before the timer runs out. Conduct the Stinky Gas into Who Bris' Shack involves shooting pipes in and around the dump to send the gas into the resident Who's shack, behind a wall of steam. There will be a chess area behind a fence. Look at the house to see the arrangement the chess pieces should be in. Once correctly assembled, the garage door will open to reveal sleigh parts

-Short Circuit the Power Plant involves entering the Power Plant and either getting rid of or eluding the pesky security guards. Once inside the plant, shoot buttons to deactivate power lines, which you can use to access new areas. Hit buttons to deactivate generators. Work your way to the top, solving puzzles until you turn off all of the electric to Whoville. Once done, all of the electricity will be out in the Dump

-Infest the Mayor's House with Rats involves using Max to lure rats into a tube that will send them into the Mayor's house. Shave the Dump Guard involves traversing a minefield. Use the Rotten Egg Launcher to shoot down hanging mattresses and use the Jetspring to hop from item to item. Use the Slime Shooter to slime the orbs and try to safely make it across the minefield to the guard's house. Enter the garage to find Scissors and tiptoe into the house and up to the guard. Once that mission is complete, you can just hit the minefield, which will send you back to the beginning

-Here you collect blueprints for the Octopus Gadget, which allows you to climb walls. You will need this to ascend the wall to enter the Power Plant

WhoLake

-A tranquil lake where all Whos go to relax

-This is, by far, the trickiest level in the game. There are many missions and items to collect here. Most of the blueprints you'll be picking up will be for your Marine Mobile, a submarine. Some of the missions here include Flatten Tents. Do the butt drop on the tents to flatten them. Shoot thistles into boy scout uniforms. There will be small brown porcupines running around. Shoot them using the Rotten Egg Launcher and pick up the thistles. Find clothes lines and shoot the thistles at the uniforms. There will be a hut on top of a massive tree, that can only be accessed by swinging your way from the bottom branch to the top. This is where you'll get your Scout Uniform to enter the North Shore. There will be a changing booth nearby that will allow you to change into the costume, to access the North Shore of the lake. Now, once in the North Shore, you will not be able to use any of your weapons, since you're in disguise.

Right outside the Mayor's Villa is a changing booth that will allow you to remove your costume. Inside the North Shore, one of your missions is to Drill Holes in the Boats. You will find a drill in a small cove near the entrance to the North Shore. One of the trickiest missions in this area is Hook the Mayor's Bed to the Motorboat. For this, you'll need a hook from a local pirate, who lives in a cave. He will give you his hook if you bring him five scout scarves. Sneak into the Mayor's Villa, avoiding the carpet and hit the action button when prompted to hook his bed to the motorboat

I'm Really Excited

The reason for my excitement is that I am in the beginning stages of planning my trip to London!!! A city I've dreamed of seeing since I was 16. I've been reading articles and taking notes on where to stay, what to do, how to stay safe, how to dress and more. I'm still planning everything out, as I stated above I am in the beginning stages of planning. I recently read an article about restaurants worth trying in and around the various boroughs of London. I'll be honest; some of them sound very good. Like, for example, there was one restaurant mentioned on Travel Lemming, which the link is provided below, called Imad's Syrian Kitchen. I've never had Syrian food before, but the woman who wrote the post raves about it. I might need to try it. She described some of the food there and it sounded very good. There are certainly no restaurants such as that around where I live. It's mostly Chinese, Indian, Mexican and fast food. If I am in London, I think I might try Indian food. I've never had it, never gotten a chance too. I feel like trying Indian food while on vacation (holiday) might heighten my memories and experience. And it's probably good. Again, I've never had a chance to try it

As a complete and random side note, I do have to say that I am happy that a lot of places in London do take cards. I will definitely have to let my bank know way ahead of time that I am going out of the country, when I'm leaving, where I'm going and when I'm returning so they know it's legitimately me and not fraudulent activity. Sorry about that. My mom worked in card fraud for 10 years at a local bank. I have heard the horror stories she experienced at work, of people not alerting their bank ahead of time and then calling in angry because she or someone else blocked their card. I am very cautious like that. If I wasn't, my mom would give me a piece of her mind to feast upon!

I'm happy to read that a lot of places do accept cards, and that the only places that typically take cash only are small businesses and some of the smaller markets. That means I won't have to bring as much cash as I thought. That's certainly comforting to know; I'd rather not run into any trouble carrying too much cash on me

I often use my 15 minute breaks at work to read articles about going to the UK and taking notes. It relaxes me and takes my mind off of work for 15 minutes, reducing my stress. I just started reading an article yesterday about 15 foods in England that simply must be tried. They all sounded good. And it even stated where to find them. I've also been reading articles about things like etiquette on The Tube, buses and taxis, which Jack the Ripper tour to take, walking / bus tours that are worthwhile for any interest and more

I'm really excited that Formula 1 gear is considered acceptable wear there! Yay!! I have two Formula 1 jerseys, one for the Aston Martin Aramco team and another for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team because my favorite driver is Sebastian Vettel, who was on the Aston Martin team and George Russell, who is on the Mercedes team. Also, I read that it's also acceptable to wear music t-shirts. As long as there is no offensive imagery or anything offensive on it, you should be fine. If anything, I'll probably get a lot of looks for my music t-shirts, considering they would be for bands I listen to, such as Iron Maiden (have quite a few of those t-shirts), Judas Priest, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Def Leppard, Deep Purple. The only graphic print t-shirt I would wear (and I know that will mark me out as being from the US) is a black t-shirt that has two crossed Gibson Flying V's and two bony hands doing the Metal Horns gesture while saying "Yes I'm a girl and Yes I speak fluent metal". Ironically, the wording is done in the same type as Iron Maiden's logo.

And soccer (football) shirts are acceptable as long as you don't wear them in a rival team's territory (wearing Manchester United gear in Manchester City territory or the other way around. Or wearing Arsenal in Tottenham territory or the other way around). Some pubs have even posted signs saying "No football colors" because of fights breaking out. I would love to see at least one football game. Just to experience the excitement of game day, see everyone excited about the upcoming game

As for clothing for going out in the evening, I read that jeans are acceptable, along with dressy t-shirts, skirts, leather boots, etc. I have nice skirts (which, thankfully come to the knees or about an inch or two above) and leather boots. If I did go out in the evening, I wouldn't go anywhere super fancy; I'm simply not like that. I'm more of a corner pub to eat and watch whatever sport is on TV type of person. Just sitting amongst the locals and seeing what their lives are like, seeing how they go through day to day. 

Of course, if I go during the summer, I will have to try and cover my tattoos. I have nine of them and am contemplating at least three more. I'll have to cover them up so as to avoid offending anyone. I am unsure how people in England would react to seeing tattoos on a young woman. So I feel it would probably be best for all intents and purposes to try and cover them up as much as possible. Luckily sweaters are acceptable all year round, which is good for me, as I have at least two sweaters, both are able to be put on and removed like jackets. I have to wear a sweater at work when I wear a short sleeved / sleeveless shirt because of the aforementioned tattoos, so I can look professional and decent at work

The bottom two links are sites that I found by complete accident and I've been taking extensive notes on. The people who write the articles on those sites seem to really know a lot about traveling. I feel like I can trust their expertise. The bottom two sites seem to have a lot of really incredible information. I've been taking extensive notes because I know for a fact that, even if I dress like the locals, they will know I am from the US the second I open my mouth. I count my blessings that I am street smart. I NEVER wear headphones when out and about in a foreign city or in a big city in general. I like keeping my wits and senses about me. I'm always vigilant about my surroundings

That Travel

Travel Lemming

Rockers with Hidden Talents

Everyone has something they are good at. Whether it be speaking a foreign language, drawing exceptionally well or something else. That also extends to rock / metal musicians. In addition to writing exceptionally good music, musicians have additional talents that not everyone knows about. These talents can also transition into passions they have outside of music. According to the people at Ultimate Classic Rock, here are some rockers with additional talents not everyone knows about

Joey Kramer

-Aerosmith

-Coffee creator

-He decided to indulge a passion of his during some down time from Aerosmith. He decided to open a coffee company that sells whole bean, organic coffee. He struck up a partnership with Comfort Foods, who would package, roast and distribute this type of coffee called Rockin' & Roastin' Coffee. This even inspired new coffee shops to be opened under this name as well

Alice Cooper

-Golfer

-After a stint in a healthcare facility for his alcoholism, Alice Cooper turned to golf to keep him from drinking again. He started playing up to 36 holes a day and even wrote a book called Golf Monster: My 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict

Dan Spitz

-Anthrax

-Master Watchmaker

-After two separate times with Anthrax, he joined his family's watchmaking business. He'd first become interested in this unique craft when he visited his grandfather's store in the Catskills region. Dan became a Swiss-certified master watchmaker, who also holds degrees in luxury mechanical watchmaking and micro-mechanical watchmaking. This led to him working as an instructor for the North American branch of the Swiss watch company Chopard

Bob Dylan

-Iron Worker

-In a Rolling Stone interview, Dylan once said "I've been around iron all my life, ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country, where you could breathe it and smell it every day." In his spare time, he makes artwork out of iron pieces

Bryan Adams

-Photographer

-Back in the early 2000s, Bryan Adams started pursuing a backup career of photographer. The images he takes, of actors, musicians and models have appeared in many places. Some of the best images he's photographed were put together for a 2012 book called Bryan Adams Exposed

Terry Chimes

-The Clash

-Chiropractor

-When Terry Chimes left The Clash, he became interested in the concept of healthy lifestyles. In the 1990s, the drummer then pursued a degree in chiropractic medicine and has, since then, opened a series of chiropractic clinics in and around London

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

-The Doobie Brothers

-Missile Defense Expert

-Starting off as a quiet passion, Jeff Baxter has turned this passion into a serious thing. He is now a highly trusted Pentagon consultant. He even appeared on a Congressional Advisory Board regarding missile defense

Eddie Money

-Law Enforcement

-Prior to getting bitten by the music bug, Eddie Money (born Eddie Mahoney), followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a police officer. He served as a member of the New York Police Department for two years. After Eddie found fame as a musician, his dad never got over the idea of his police officer son becoming a musician. "Can you believe that s---? He thought rock 'n' roll was a fly-by-night job." said Money in a New Times interview

Creed Bratton

-The Grass Roots

-Actor

-This musician left the band during a period where the band would see many singles hitting the Billboard charts, such as "Let's Live for Today", "Midnight Confessions." He would later find fame playing a character named Creed on the US version of The Office

Bruce Dickinson

-Airline pilot, writer, radio show personality

-When Iron Maiden travels, they do it to the nines. They travel in a customized Boeing 747 they have dubbed Ed Force One, usually featuring their menacing, grinning mascot Eddie. At the controls is a pilot and the band's vocalist Bruce Dickinson. He's a fully registered commercial airline pilot who also owns Cardiff Aviation. He is also a highly skilled fencer, almost to the point of Olympic standards

Jack White

-The White Stripes

-Furniture Upholsterer

-He started out doing upholstery on furniture, and even did this while pursuing a musical career. Even his first band was called The Upholsterers

Ian Anderson

-Jethro Tull

-Food writer

-It can be said that Ian Anderson literally wrote the book on Indian food. He wrote a book called Guide to Choosing Indian Food. He noted that there are "around 8,000 Indian restaurants in the UK, making one such eatery for every 6,000, or so of our total population."

Paul Stanley

-Kiss

-Painter

-He started out painting as a way of dealing with stress when he divorced his first wife, with whom he had his son Evan. He quickly found he enjoyed painting and that it was calming. In one year alone, he raked in $2 million on his artwork. He stated his painting style is inspired by the Abstract Expressionists from the 1940s and 1950s

Leonard Cohen

-Author

-Long before he pursued music, Leonard Cohen was an established author. His first book was a book of poetry called Let Us Compare Mythologies. It dates as far back as 1956. After pursuing music, he returned to writing, publishing books all the way up to 2006's Book of Longing

Marilyn Manson

-Artist

-Who knew that Marilyn Manson could paint? The beautiful watercolors he creates have been seen in the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Center in 2002 as part of an exhibit and another series he called "Genealogies of Pain" hung in Vienna's Kunsthalle Gallery in 2010

Dave Mustaine

-Megadeth

-Taekwondo Master

-During a bad time, he turned to martial arts. He said that taekwondo "helped me to eliminate a bad lifestyle of drug and alcoholism. It helped me to believe inside of myself and find the strength inside of myself that I never knew I possessed." He's served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Taekwondo Federation

Jason Newsted

-Metallica

-Painter

-During a period where he was recovering from a shoulder injury, Jason Newsted took up painting. Ever since then, the paintings he comes up with have been part of an exhibition at the Art New York on Pier 94 in Manhattan. He also had an exhibition in Lake Worth, Florida called Rawk: The Art of Jason Newsted

Neil Young

-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, solo artist

-Inventor

-Neil Young is, by all means, a highly intelligent man. He teamed up with Richard Kughn, a Detroit-based businessman who owns the Lionel Trains company. Together they created a remote control that made operating the model trains easier for those who were handicapped. Neil Young also invented an audio device that creates real train sounds and partnered with an investment firm to buy the Lionel Train Company, when they fell on hard times

Brian May

-Queen

-Astrophysicist

-He earned his PhD in astrophysics in 2007, after a huge break from his initial studies when his music career took off. He has since published books on astrophysics while serving as the Chancellor for the Liverpool John Moores University

Bill Berry

-R.E.M.

-Farmer

-He played drums for R.E.M. from 1980-1997. When he left the band, he bought a farm just outside of Athens, Georgia. He would later join R.E.M. on rare occasions, but he completely distanced himself from the world of music after suffering from a series of aneurysms on stages

Flea

-Red Hot Chili Peppers

-Expert chess player

-During slow periods on tour, Flea would play chess. After a time of playing it, his confidence rose enough to challenge a professional chess player at it. And it was said he was able to hold his own against this professional. This chess game happened during a period in Rio when the band was performing and world famous chess player Magnus Carlsen also happened to be in town

Rod Stewart

-The Young Faces, solo

-Model train enthusiast

-Trains are his thing. He decorated an entire room to look like post-war Manhattan. This room was first shown in Model Railroader Magazine and included intricate replicas of stations for the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads and the skyscrapers nearby. He constructed the majority of this display while on tour in hotel rooms around the world

-A cool side note. My stepdad and his brother Dave were out in L.A. once. They were on vacation and they went to a hobby shop that sold die cast cars of IMSA, Formula 1 and other race cars because they both collect them. The clerk behind the counter told them "You should have been in here yesterday. Rod Stewart was in here." My stepdad and his brother, both of whom are fans of Rod Stewart, had missed seeing him by a day

Sammy Hagar

-Montrose, Van Halen, solo

-Master Distiller

-Called Cabo Wabo Tequila, it was designed originally to be sold at his Cabo Wabo nightclub in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He unfortunately had to close that club due to pressures from the local cartels. It became the second biggest selling tequila in the US. Later on, Hagar announced the creation of Sammy's Beach Bar Rum, a small batch product made with Hawaii-grown sugar cane

Billy Corgan

-The Smashing Pumpkins

-Wrestling mogul

-His second career is in wrestling production and talent development. He is a co-founder of Resistance Pro Wrestling, founded in 2011. They run regular matches in Chicago. He left three years later to become a senior producer for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Steve Vai

-Beekeeper

-At his home in Hollywood, he noticed a nearby beehive was keeping his flower garden looking beautiful. That inspired him to take up caring for bees. In an interview, he once said "Honeybees have always seemed beautiful to me. If you look at their faces with those big almond eyes." Moving to the San Fernando Valley only strengthened his interest in beekeeping. He harvests honey and gives it as gifts and charity donations

James Williamson

-The Stooges

-Label executive

-In between gigs with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, guitarist James Williamson found things to keep him busy. He rose through the corporate ranks, quietly of course, to become the vice president of technology standards at Sony. Many people he worked with didn't even know about his days as a guitarist until he rejoined Iggy in 2009

Maynard James Keenan

-Tool

-Vintner (Wine maker)

-He's the owner of Arizona's Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars. Strangely, he comes from an Italian wine making family. This is one passion he very seriously. "Rather than making Metallica or Slayer wines, we're making Pink Floyd wines." He said in an interview

David Lee Roth

-Van Halen

-Fully licensed emergency medical technician

-From 1985-2006, if you needed a ride in an ambulance, and you were a Van Halen fan, you might have thought you died and went to heaven as you look up to see the face of David Lee Roth staring right back at you. No, you were not in heaven. From 1985-2006, David Lee Roth worked as an emergency medical technician. He passed the time working as an EMT during breaks from Van Halen. He took in more than 200 ambulance rides and earned high praise from his supervisors. He also felt wanted to give something back to people when they needed help

Roger Daltrey

-The Who

-Trout farmer

-He has owned the Lakedown Trout Fishery for years, indulging his passion for fishing. He is the designer of the four spring-fed lakes and the facility is 26 acres near the city of Heathfield in East Sussex. Even Trout Fisherman magazine took notice and ran an article about it

Joni Mitchell

-Artist

-Joni Mitchell didn't see herself as a singer-songwriter. In a 1998 interview, she stated "I'm a painter first and a musician second." Later on, she stated "I have always thought of myself as a painter, derailed by circumstance."