On Wednesday I had my knee tattooed. Why do we put ourselves through such pain, for what are essentially vanity reasons?I suppose we think the long term gain of things like tattoos, piercings and waxing (shh) is worth the short period of discomfort. But how weird is that when you think about it? The pain is sometimes excruciating. If you got the slightest headache you’d be laying on the sofa complaining, or at least reaching for some painkillers. But you get a tattoo and you just grin and bear it, and then go about your day (or try to, depending on the positioning of the tattoo).If I felt even a fraction of the pain of a tattoo in my everyday life I’d go into a mad panic. I’m nowhere near being a hypochondriac but I’d be dosing up on painkillers and getting myself to A&E, or rather getting someone to take me to A&E, convinced my life was coming to an end.It doesn’t seem worth it when you think of it like that does it.Still, even as I write this I know I’ll forget the pain soon enough and be eager for the next one.

Things that have annoyed me or things I don’t understand.Despite ‘be more positive’ being my new year’s resolution, I felt like a there has been some things that I just don’t get.1. squires curtains scarboroughYolo – ‘You only live once’, an obvious statement used for what seems like anything. plaid red sedona shower curtain“Eating cake because Yolo.”argos cream tab top curtains2. Crocs – No need to explain3. lowes motorized curtain rodSwag – ‘a curtain or piece of fabric fastened to hang in a drooping curve.’ pencil pleat curtains bhs

So why are kids saying they have drooping fabric curves?4. The Kardashians – All of them.5. jcpenney cape cod curtainsTwerking – Or Miley Cyrus, either way they’ve messed up a lot of kids6. curtain cleaning whakataneUggs – Also called ‘Slag Welly’s’ by Sam Walsh7. Man bun – Not if you have long hair and just tie it up, when you have grade 1 sides and a deformed pony tail on the top of your head8. The Dog filter on snapchat10. Heelys – Because they didn’t have them in my size and apparently, it’s not ‘socially acceptable’ for someone of my age to wear Heelys.11. Reddit – I just don’t understand how or why it works12. Abbreviations – “Totes Emosh”, “Don’t be Jel”. You get the ideaThe relentless murk of winter rolls on without end. The incessant grey skies of the North permeate the days and the armies of darkness cover the face of the earth.

I’ve had enough of it now, and like a true Englishman i’m going to bloody well moan about it!It’s at this point in the year that you start forgetting what blue skies looked like and the sun on your face felt like. As I scrape the sheet of ice off the inside of my windscreen, creating a snowfall directly onto my face first thing in a morning because I bought a crap French convertible that doesn’t seal properly instead of a normal car, I weep loudly and long for the t-shirt wearing weather and long summer days of mammoth hunting and spider fighting.A nice cold beer in a beer garden on a sweltering hot day will suffice though.Increasing Fan Engagement for Man City FCIf you’ve been following my Twitter over the past week (who are we kidding, of course you do!), then you’ll have spotted that I will be visiting the legendary Etihad Stadium next weekend to work with Manchester City Football Club to improve their fan engagement. This three-day event dubbed “#HackManCity” will focus on working closely with fans to ensure that their voice is heard and relay creative and programmatic schemes that can be implemented.

I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to work with Man City, and I’ll follow up with more information after the event. If you’d like to see what you’re missing, then be sure to check out the recap montage of their last event. Last weekend I spent a good amount of my Saturday running around an old warehouse full of screaming children, covered in sweat and grunting. I normally find myself cooling off in the back of a police van after these type of incidents, but not this time. I’m even allowed to go back for another lively afternoon at Liverpool’s premier trampoline park!They’ve got it all there, trampolines, toilets, erm…more trampolines. There’s even an opportunity to ‘shoot some hoops’ (youth slang for basketball) and hurl things at each other’s heads in the dodgeball court.One overly enthusiastic attempt at a slam dunk saw me nearly rearrange my face on the ring. I decided to take a break after this, so asked one young lad if he fancied playing with the balls.

He was too scared to say no, bless him.Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was sending a terrified 3 year old hurtling through the air after some 15 stone moron (me) came crashing down next to her on the airbag, her mum’s face was a picture. Not the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but bloody close.Every year around the end of January a group of my mates and I go on holiday to somewhere in Europe. Usually its Poland (we once went to Latvia), having experienced most of the larger cities Poland has to offer, sans Krakow, I now declare my love for Poznan.It may just be because my brain is still addled from the vodka but I think this year was by far the stand out destination. Id actually liken it to Leeds a bit but not full of idiots like me and very cheap! At about £1.50 for a decent pint and £15 for the fanciest meal we could find it’s a cracking get away on a budget.Poznan was a winner, we stayed here. It was a bit of a squeeze.This week after seeing Black Sabbath play Leeds arena on their The End tour, I’ve been on something of an Ozzy Osbourne binge.

Rediscovering some of his lesser known solo music but more importantly watching some of his absolutely flawless TV appearances. There are fewer things in life that bring me more joy at the moment than watching Ozzy getting dropped into social situations and watching him trying to work out what’s happening as well as figure what decade it is.I wanted to use this week’s blog post to talk about privilege.But because I’m male, white, middle class, born in a developed country, heterosexual,  and cisgender (google it – I had to)… Statistically, I have one of the easiest lives it’s possible to have as a human being.Better not screw this up.It’s not like I’ve just turned 30 and still have no idea who I’m supposed to be, or what I’m supposed to be doing or anything… If someone could tell me what I’m supposed to do with this golden ticket of an existence, that’d be great. Thanks.PS – Is it discriminatory to make assumptions about people with ginger hair? Because my sister just got engaged to a red-head, and I need to figure out whether it’s racist to offer him some sun cream if he happens to be outside between February and October.