Martin's Journal

1:43pm: Now this would be awesome!!!! Go on choose Springfield, Massachusetts!!!!
Film prize for real Springfield

The Simpsons is now in its 18th series on US television
Sixteen US cities named Springfield have been asked to compete to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie in July.
The cartoon series is based in its own fictional town of Springfield - creator Matt Groening has said he chose it because it is a common US city name.

Film company 20th Century Fox will pick a winning short film submitted by the real-life cities about community life.

The fictional Springfield boasts several prisons and a nuclear plant. The series is now in its 18th year.

"There's plenty of serious issues to talk about, but this is something that we might as well try to have a little fun with," the mayor of Springfield, Oregon, Sid Leiken, told local newspaper the Register-Guard.

Worldwide success

The Simpsons revolves around the antics of bald, beer-guzzling family man Homer and his spiky-haired son Bart.


It is the longest-running prime-time entertainment series on television in the US and a worldwide hit.

There has long been speculation about whether it would be turned into a film.

Groening has said that the animated hit would keep going as long as he and his colleagues could keep generating fresh ideas.

"That's what you're looking for in television - surprise," he added.

10:02am: Hotel to use for our wedding in October....
http://www.martinandcarey.com/index.cfm?fa=accommodations

have a wander around the rest of the site too - we are adding stuff all the time.

1:00pm: Happy New Year Everyone!
Happy New Year....

Had a good Christmas with ALL the family. Mum Dad and Kath flew over to spend Christmas with us plus it was my first crimbo with all Careys family too. Had a really nice time. Got some great pressies too (thanks for the golf clubs carey xxxxxxxx).

With my gift card presents I picked up some Dvds and PS2 games including lego star wars II (fantatastic!) and also the family guy PS2 game which is still unplayed but is bound to be pretty rubbish (but who cares its family guy!!).

Back to work now but we are off up to New Hampshire for the weekend to relax in a nice hotel and getting some nice treatments at the adjoining spa complex! Its what we need to start what we hope is a great year.

Played my first game of competitive indoor footy last night for two months since I broke my ribs and was absoluely knackered by the end. It didn't help that 3 of our team were missing so we only had two subs. We were also playing a team of athletic 17 year olds with a full squad. We lost 6-0 leaving us way down in the league. Its good to back playing though!

Anyways, thats all for now!

11:44am: testing putting images in here



Edit: hmmm welll I guess i suck at this....

maybe its the photo album I am using...

5:27pm: ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS
So, me and Carey headed up into the hills of a snowly western Massachusetts on friday to get some official engagement photos done. The results came out pretty well....

www.hough.momentskept.com

4:21pm: we have...
... a playstation 3!!!! woo hoo

4:21pm: series of updates.....
17-19th Oct
Drove to Canada (US Embassy in Ottawa)and renewed my US VISA so I can carry on working here...

20th Oct
Got call from US Border Controls to say my VISA has an error on it and I need to get it redone by sending my Passport up to Canada (mass panic as I am flying to England in 1 week)

23rd-24th Oct
See Barenaked Ladies (its a canadian band!) twice in 2 days, first in Manchester NH and then in Amherst MA. Careys fave band so we hung around afterward to get all the photos/autographs etc. 2 late nights but good fun.

25th Oct
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig relief as I get my passport back from those incompetants at the embassy (to be fair they turned it around very quickly and apologised profusely at every turn)

21st Oct
Proposed to Carey

28th Oct-Nov 5th
Me and Carey Fly to England
Saw Deano and Ian
Did a shopping trip to Chester
Flew to Nice (France) for a couple of days
Drove up to Gretna and stayed with my mates Dave & Sinead before driving over to Newcastle (via Hadrians wall) for my old uni housemate Rob's wedding to Beth. Saw all the Uni lads which was nice. Drove back after the wedding to Nantwich before getting a lift from mum & dad back to Heathrow. Stopped off at Lynseys in Slough on the way to see her and her new baby - very cute indeed!

Nov 8th
Guns N Roses at Worcester, MA
Great show - shame they only came on stage at 11.45pm!!!!!!!!!!!!! meaning we had to leave a full 45mins before the end (it apparently finished at 2am) as it was a wednesday night and we all had to be at work in the morning!! Damn Axl and his prima donna ways. Support from Sebastian Bach and Papa Roach.

No other gigs or sports or exciting trips. Just been very busy.

I really need to work out how to do photos on here!!!

2:04pm: UK trip
OK, so onto my trip home for a week (Sep 23rd-Oct 1st).....

Flew out of Boston on the friday night for the 6 hour night flight to Manchester. The five hour time difference means it is 7am when I land in Manchester. Mum and Dad are running a bit late so of course a)I am first off the plane b)My bag is the first on the carousel!!! Grab a classic breakfast of a bag of Cheese & Onion and a sandwich from the shop at the airport while I'm waiting.

Anyway, Mum & Dad pick me up and we head home for a brief change and shower stop before hitting the road south the 200 miles or so to Yeovil to go and watch Crewe. We leave Mum with a friend who lives down there and the me and Dad carry on to the game. See quite a few of the exiles there like Mike L, Steeley, Andy K and Si Wood. Was having a good day until the match itself got in the way!!! a 2-0 defeat to a distinctly average Yeovil side summed up by the fact that Ben Williams (our keeper) contrived to score an own goal!!! So straight after the game we pick up Mum and hit the road for Exeter to dump our bags at the hotel before heading to Barnstaple in Devon for the next stop on our crazy one day tour!! Was seeing the Levellers at Barnstaple Queens Theatre and after a bit of confusion finding it we eventually got in about 20 mins into the levellers set. Place had been sold out for months so the atmosphere was pretty good. Was in the seats at the back (didn't think Mum & Dad would want to stand down front!!) and witnessed a great show! On;y complaint was the 65 yr old female versions of hitler who were stewarding the seats. I was told quite rudely to put my camera away when in fact I was actually texting chaff (my camera was in my pocket hehe). When I pointed out that it was in fact a phone not a camera she snapped back that I shouldn't have my phone on because it "interferes with the music" what tosh!! Dad wrote a complaint letter about them after the show!!!

On day 2 we made our way slowly home via Torquay and Glastonbury (where I fulfilled a long time ambition to climb up glastonbury Tor).

Monday was a down day with a quick trip into Nantwich being my only excitement.

Tuesday was my next footy game. Swansea v Crewe. Went on the coach with Dad for the 4 hr journey to South Wales. Nice new Ground, pub right outside. Again the only complaint was Crewe's performance as we lost 2-1!!!

Can't really remember what I did on the wednesday (can't have been too exciting) but on thursday Rob drove over from Liverpool and we had a good old chat over dinner.

Friday night was dinner with Mum Dad & Kath for Kaths b'day followed by a trip to the pub with Paul and Froggy. Great to catch up and hear Forggy new house tales.

Saturday was a full day too. Met up with Carlisle Andy (an old friend from Boston) for lunch (after getting the early train to Crewe with Paul) before heading down to the match (Crewe v Carlisle). Met up with the rest of the lads (Ian, Touche, Colin, Ben) in the corner bar. Dave and Sinead were there too! Crewe ran out easy 5-1 winners so I at least managed to see Crewe win for the first time in over 2 years!! That evening (plus a froggy now too) we all headed to the old haunts of the Black Lion and the Green. Was a good night. Crox, Deano, Crab and Dave were all missed but it was good to see so many of the lads.

Sunday am was a 6am departure to Manchester Airport for the flight back to the USA. Still feeling a bit rough from the night before and also no thanks to Carlisle Andy for calling me from Nantwich at 2am asking if I was still out!!! Anyway, that was it. A good week at home and a nice break where I didn't have to think about work!!!!

4:39pm: my monthly update...
... well it apprears like I only get around to updating monthly despite being on here every day...

Firstly, and most importantly is my sadness of hearing about the Death of Deano's dad back at home. A real shock to both me and my parents when Deano called me last monday. Obviously my thoughts are with Mrs Dean, Paul and Deano at this time. After knowing Deano's dad for pretty much most of my life it was a pretty tough one to get my head around even though he had been ill.

On a lighter note, I have as usual been up to plenty of stuff since my last entry.

Aerosmith & Motley Crue was a great show although Mr Tyler is clearly showing his age now. In contrast Motley Crue stomped around behaving like 21 year olds with loads of cool Pyro's too. Much fun and another band (Aerosmith) ticked off my "would like to see at some point" list!

Other fun activities have been a beer festival (much yummy booze), the red sox (much rain), Mamma Mia at the theatre (much unexpected fun!) and a surprise visit from Bev (my mate Colin's wife!).

I also disappered back to England for a week. I had a great time (although of course I missed Carey - we are both going to England at the end october) seeing friends, family, football and the levellers - the four things I miss most about being away from England!!! I'll describe all in my next post...

3:32pm: other stuff going on....

went to six flags - the New England equialent of Alton Towers. Won a huge blue cuddly dog for Carey on the darts game - I knew all those hours in the swan would come in handy!! Our new "pet has now set up permanent residence on our sofa!!!

did my first ever whale watch last wednesday off the coast of northern massachusetts. Much fun! the whales come so close to the boat too!! I have about 50 pictures of whales just dissapearing under the sea and about 5 that are any good!!!

not to much else to report. I am back in England on Sept 23rd for a week which will be good too. Seeing Crewe on the 30th vs Carlisle which I have somehow persueded Ian, Colin, Touche and Ben to join me at!!!

Thats all for now...

3:24pm: Music Notes:

Korn & Deftones Sun 3rd Sept, Hartford, CT.

Fun all day show with about 10 bands. We only saw 4 of them after a)staying in the parking lot drinking beers for too long and b)because we had never heard of the and there were far more interesting things going on elsewhere as a lot of extra entertainment was put on. Tickets were only $10 - Korn giving something back to the fans!! - so it was impossible not to get value for money!! We had a good laugh and the band were just fine too! Flyleaf were not too bad, stonesour sounded like Nickleback, deftones was cool (although the sound was a bit dodgy!) and Korn were excellent.

Next show: Aerosmith and Motley Crue - tonight!!!

6:41pm: Well, a month into the new living arrangements and all is going well :) I am learning more about Carey every day (!) and love having her around all the time when we are not working!

All our furnature (new bed, new sofa) arrived on time and of course no new home would be complete without a new fridge, tv, coffee table etc. The house looks great (if a touch untidy until we fully unpack all our boxes!!).

What else have I been up to .... lots I think.

I always feel guilty about not doing more regular updates (Crox I wish I had your ability to write things up so often!!) but I guess thats just my lazyness!

The world cup was obviouly a big let down. Living in a Portuguese community just rubbed it in (and left me $40 poorer due to bets at work!!). I even watched the game in oiur local portuguese pub - at least the atmosphere was good!

Saw Lady in the Water at the movies - very enjoyable if a touch bizarre (cool cameo from Silvertide too!) - and also have been to a few local summer festivals here too.

Sporty wise I've done 2 red sox games and a quite ridiculous 600 mile road trip to watch a pre season friendly involving Sheffield Wednesday (in upstate New York on part of their US tour). Puts Crewe's pre season trip to Southport in the shade somewhat!! Was good to see Kenny Lunt (ex Crewe captain) though playing at his new club.

Last weekend was a bit nuts. Drove to New York City on saturday 29th to meet my mate Lith from uni (on holiday with his fiancee and his best mate Twedd). Nice day doing touristy stuff and walking the length of Manhatten. Sunday was the annual pilgrimage to Ozzfest! Went with my buddy Mike and despite the line up being a bit weak we still had a good time. Saying that beer at $10 a pint is NOT cool!! System of a Down, Disturbed (surprisingly) Unearth and Hatebreed were all excellent. Shame there was no "old school" band (like Iron Maiden last year) to beef up the line up!

Mum & Dad are on a cruise for 2 weeks so I've not really heard from them. Am really looking forward to them (and Kath) coming over here for Christmas.

Next Gig : Korn & Deftones, September 3rd
Next Game : Western Mass Pioneers vs New Hampshire Phantoms, tomorrow night.

thats all for now.

12:03pm: Moving House Moves Closer....
Well, lots of small things are happening with regard to moving into our new place on July 1st.

Done lots of shopping so are now proud owners of a Sofa, a Bedroom Set, fridge, washer, dryer lus various little things. Stove is nearly acquired and a table & chair set is sitting in Carey's dad's garage! All very exciting (and all very expensive!! - my poor credit card doesn't know whats hit it!!)

World Cup Watching has been rather strange. Have been at work while 90% of the games have been going on (kick-offs at 9am, noon, and 3pm) so as such most of my watching has been via text commentary on the bbc website. Enjoyed the weekend games though and managed to sneak out to the pub for the weekday england games. Everyone here is very apathetic towards the World Cup - an injury to a baseball players little finger gets more coverage on the news!!

Good news from home with Lynsey's baby (Zoe Isobel Flitton) being born on 16th May - I must call to see how mother and baby are doing. Also my mum has gone and taken early retirement! Good for her!!!

Me and Carey did a lovely trip down to Philadelphia at the end of may too. Saw a couple of baseball games and had fun doing all the touristy stuff (horse drawn carriage ride, duck tour, ate a proper philly cheesesteak, saw the liberty bell etc). A very enjoyable weekend away :) I loved the place.

My birthday on the 23rd was reasonably quiet (A nice meal followed by the Da Vinci Code at the movies with Carey, Jen & Adam). Carey already has the geek in me worked out... one of her pressies was a book on football grounds!! hehe

Not done too much this month as we've mainly been thinking about house things. I did manage to squeeze in a day trip to New York though with AJ which was fun.

Anyway, thats all for now...

4:38pm: How well do you know me?
How well do you know me? For instance, did you know...

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Shop Assistant
2. Sausage Maker
3. Warehouse Worker
4. Waiter at weddings

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Shawshank Redemption

2. Hunt for Red October
3. Memphis Belle
4. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Five places I have lived:
1. London, England
2. Cheltenham, England
3. Sheffield, England
4. Agawam, MA
5. Palmer, MA

Four TV shows I love to watch:(right now)
1. The Dog
2. The Amazing Race
3. Family Guy
4. House

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Australia

2. California
3. Hungary
4. Poland

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Subway Club sandwich on honey oat!
2. Dunkin Donuts Sausage Egg and Cheese on a wheat bagel!
3. Pasta Alfredo
4. Dairy Milk Chocolate

Something I would rather be doing right now:
1. Traveling around the world
2. Watching sport or going to a gig
3. Lazing around the house
4. Going on a random road trip with Carey

Four Friends who have been tagged who I think will respond
1. April
2. Erin
3. Adam
4. Not AJ

Four things I always carry with me:
1. Phone
2. Wallet
3. Keys
4. Camera


You are tagged. So here it goes... Copy and paste. Delete my answers,
replace with your own and send it back to me and on to other friends!

12:06pm: Time to update!
OK - one month since my last entry so its about time I put something in my journal!

Well since last months entry, me and Carey have decidced to get a place together. All very exciting although we won't be moving very far. We found a nice place a couple of towns over that a)is lovely and b) isn't too expensive!. Fingers crossed we pass our credit checks so we can move in!

We did a Red Sox game on April 16th which was cool although we did all get rather drunk leading to us forgetting most of the game!! Most fun I've had in ages! Next redsox game is this sunday (weather permitting - its a bit like cricket in that respect!).

I've started playing sunday league football too (soccer is a summer game here!) although our record after 3 games is lost 2, drawn 1 :( I did manage to score a spectacular own goal in our first match though :)

Not really too much else going on....

Crab (plus girlfriend) are flying over from England tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. We are seeing Peal Jam on saturday night and then as I mentioned it is (hopefully) the red sox on sunday!

Thats all for now!

3:08pm: Pictures from our England trip in March..
http://imageevent.com/houghmartin/england/triptoenglandmarch2006

pics from our last trip to England now online!

10:35am: busy busy busy
well ... what have I been doing for the last 2 weeks?

Lots of work - thats for sure!!

Its budget time for me at work and for the finance guy thats the busiest and most stressful time of year!

Lots of late nights at work have infringed on my social time but hopefully thats behind me now for another year!

We've had a couple of nice days out (up to New Hampshire and Vermont one day) and also some nice nights out (and in!). I've listened to Crewe finally win a few games and also saw the Springfield Falcons (Ice Hockey) fall to their worst defeat of the season 9-3.

It was Careys birthday last weekend - it didn't start too well on the friday as we went out for one of the worst dinners ever (the service was sooooooooo bad!). Saturday was much better - a lovely dinner at Uno's with a bunch of Careys friends followed by "Disco" bowling until 1am. Great fun. The disco part basically meant that they turned the lights down and had a crappy cheesy DJ playing some tunes!
Sunday was lovely and sunny and we took the opportuniny to have a lazy day. The most energetic thing we did was to go for a game of Crazy Golf and hit a few balls off the driving range (careys first try at golf!!!).

So whats coming up? Off to the Boston Red Sox vs Seattle on Easter sunday (can't wait). Its Caereys first trip to Fenway too! Also Crab mailed last week to say he is coming over to visit in May - cool!

Also booked tickets for Ozzfest 2006 and Pearl Jam.

Looking forward to summer!!

12:24pm: back in springfield - time for a rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok, well I'm finally back in springfield after pretty much 2 weeks away.

Had a great time in England on so many levels. Great to have Carey with me, great to do all those touristy things I haven't done for ages (like the tower of london), great to see mum, dad, and kath, great to see all the uni guys at Neil's wedding (the reason for our trip), great to catch up with a couple of the lads from home. Carey was ill for a couple of days :( but we made the most of it and (i think) we are even closer after spending this trip together. We bought some nice things and now have our very own pet Paddington Bear!!

Got back to Springfield on sunday night. Had a ridiculously hectic 15 hour day at work before flying off to Ohio and Detroit with work for three days. My only realy leisure time was spent at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio which was excellent (there for 3 hours but I could have stayed a lot longer!!). Note for Crox : they had plenty of Queen stuff!! No feeder (yet) though!!!

Very tired... lots of laundry and general tidying to do... will do that tomorrow or sunday.

Off to the brewery tonight though for a bit of a relax!!

Bring on the weekend!!!!!!!!

10:25am: Home in a week....
Yay, really looking forward to our trip next week. Neils wedding followed by lots of touristy things with Carey. Throw in a couple of Crimea shows and a trip to Hull to watch the Alex and we have a perfect holiday!

Quiet week this week too. Been to the gym and playing footy tonight. Will try to really enjoy it as I'm missing the next 3 games!

Sunday was a lovely trip to New York State to go to Howe Caverns. It a big load of underground walkways including a boat ride - all fun. And more quality time with Carey too :)

11:27am: looking up :)
2-1 to crewe now :)

woo hoo

10:23am: ... listening to Crewe lose again :(
god this is depressing - why do I bother getting up early every saturday morning just to listen online to Crewe losing yet another game!! Oh well... Maybe we'll turn the game around and win!

Anyway - a really good week this week. Went to see the band "live" on tuesday at the Worcester Palladium. Its years since I bought my last live CD (the "I Alone" single - still one of my favorite all time songs!) but I absolutely loved it. Lead singer Ed loves himself and due to looking like and prancing around like Right Said Fred I reckon the gay crowd had come out too (far too many screaming men down at the front!!) All the old rockers were at the back with us! I knew more songs than I thought I would and the performance was excellent. No gimmicks or fancy light shows, just good songs, charisma and a lot of talent!

Not really done much in the rest of the week - been to the gym a couple of times (Carey has joined my gym now too - yay!) and managed to not gain any weight at my weigh-in despite my texas trip. Even found that my health insurance at work will pay for $150 of my Gym fees - cool!

Friday night was great - first night of 2006 at the Paper City Brewery ($6 for all you can drink plus a four pack to take home!). Didn't drink too much though as I was driving. Was great to be out again with Mikey, Brian, Lynn and April. Me and Carey then went for a nice meal at Woodbridges in South Hadley - one of my fave places!

I am in a really happy place right now - life is good!

1:18pm: Lots to catch up on!
OK ... after a week of chaos my life has calmed down again (at least for now!)

Friday 10th saw us take the trip into Boston to watch Supergrass at the Paradise. We got there pretty early but traffic and, more importantly parking, was a nightmare. Eventually got parked up 4 tram stops away from the venue and made it inside just in time to see the support band (Pilot Drift) who were distinctly average. I always wonder how such forgettable bands get on these national tours! Supergrass on the other hand were truely excellent! They played most of the favorites (but not alright!) with them starting off the show acoustic with Caught by the Fuzz before the full band came in! I think Carey enjoyed her forst glimpse of British music too! It was sooooooo cold outside so we headed out for Pizza after the show (definately not on weightwatchers!) before heading for home. In bed by 2am!!

I think we spent the rest of the weekend veging out at home but I really can't remember (I'm really not supposed to be this forgetful at 27!!!).

Monday 13th was our Valentines day seeing as was flying off on my business trip on the 14th! We had a lovely meal at Luva's in Springfield. Very enjoyable indeed .. and most importantly Carey really liked it!

Tuesday was pretty long! 4am up for the drive to Hartford Airport for my 7am flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. Picked up the car there for the 3 hour drive to our sister company in South Carolina. It really is redneck country down there! After our factory visit we then did the 3 hour drive down to Atlanta, Georgia. Didn't see much of the place but we drove through downtown and I saw the ballpark of the Braves too. Eventually found a restaurant that wasn't full of valentines people! Got to bed in the hotel at 11pm and was asleep straight away!!

4am alarm for the trip to the Airport for the flight to Houston, Texas. picked up there by our Texas sales rep and then did breakfast. Sooooooo tired. Next couple of days were spent with our Sales team for our half year conference with some nice restaurants and a game of golf thrown in! Flew back late on friday with just enough time to nip into Naismiths in Springfield for last orders!!

Phew...........

Saturday was pretty relaxed. Took Carey to work, then shopped at the mall for a bit before coming home and then heading out again to pick Carey up and go to a party at Beths place. Very enjoyable there aswell with lots of nice (and new) people. left there at 2am - fun but very tired.

Sunday was wine day as we went with Adam and Jen on the Connecticut wine trail. 5 wineries later it was time for dinner then home. Had a lovely time. Spent quality time with Adam & Jen (my housemate) and had some nice relaxed social time with Carey. Life is good!

9:46am: Back in Massachusetts!!
OK i'm back after a week of travelling accross the States with work...

North Carolina... South Carolina... Georgia... and finally Houston, Texas before coming home!

will write more later!

6:57pm: ... not much going on.
Has been a fairly low key day today. Busy at work - just getting on with stuff. Big meeting tomorrow to be prepared for.

Its been an up and down week. Monday was busy. Tuesday was horrible at first - felt really ill and left work at lunchtime. A sleep in the early afternoon, followed by productive tidying of room and doind laudry perked me up no end especially when Carey came over to play nurse and brought home made chicken soup! yay! finally got around to watching Barman Begins although I still managed to miss the ending!! :)

Wednesday - felt a little under the weather but was much improved on tuesday. Work was non-eventful. Had lost a pound at weightwatchers which was just fine seeing as we had eaten lots of bad stuff up in Lake Placid. Then played footy. 2-2 draw against one of the best teams in our league. 2-1 up with a minute to go so we were gutted. Nothing like a nice pint afterwards to soothe the pain :)

1:53pm: lake placid pics....
http://imageevent.com/houghmartin/america/lakeplacidny

the pictures have come out very nicely!