But I then thought I would use my love of music to find some subject matter for the next exciting installment, and have therefore decided to use this space to do an album review (hence the slightly tabloid-esque title). I once applied for a job as a reviewer with Kerrang! magazine, but surprisingly I didn’t get it. I guess having no background in writing didn’t help.

I first came across Ellie Goulding one afternoon while chilling at home and watching the NME music channel. On the screen was a young attractive blonde wearing a blue hoodie and chilling out in a loft. A rather uninspiring video to be fair. Only the song, ‘Under The Sheets’ blew me away. A powerful electro-pop song, Goulding had set my hopes high as I scoured the internet for any of her music I could get my hands on. She certainly did not disappoint as the song set a standard that is achieved throughout the debut album ‘Lights’.

Goulding was only spotted a year or so ago while singing at University and was advised to take a gap year to persue her talent. The youngster from Hereford has already won the BBC Sound of 2010 award as well as the Critic’s Choice Award at this years Brits, making her only the second artist to do this after Adele two years ago. As well as her recent debut album, Goulding has also written tracks for the new Diana Vickers album.

‘Lights’ is a mixture of floaty acoustic/electro ballads and powerful electro-pop hits. ‘Under The Sheets’ and ‘Starry Eyed’ are both recent singles and both will have you dancing and singing along. I can see ‘Starry Eyed’ being remixed and played in clubs across the land. Gentle synth opens the track before the electro beat kicks in, and the chorus is certainly catchy. Opening track ‘Guns And Horses’ shows off Ellie’s talented acoustic guitar talents and is mixed well with a good backing track. My other favourite is ‘This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)’ which has the excellent line ‘who are we to find ourselves in other people’s beds’. A gentle reflective ballad with energy in the chorus, it could well be a future single.

I’d personally recommend it to anyone. It’s not going to be great work out music, it’s not going to get you pumped, but if you’re looking for an album that you can listen to while riding the tube, working your way through traffic, or at a chilled house party then this is for you. Ellie Goulding has a lot more to offer and I personally think she will only get better. ‘Lights’ is out now and is available from all good retailers.

My girlfriend, Teeny Tiny Leanne, has always been a keen reader and movie lover, so it was only a matter of time till we became exposed to Twilight mania. It all began when we noticed the first Twilight film was on Sky Anytime. We sat back and watched, and I think it’s fair to say that we were both fairly underwhelmed by the whole thing. The film wasn’t brilliantly made, some of the special effects looked terrible (I challenge anyone to tell me that the scene where he runs through the forest really fast with her on his back doesn’t look shit) and we were both left feeling fairly disappointed following all the hype.

An example of the hype

So Teeny Tiny went on to Twitter to complain to her many followers that the film was rubbish and that she couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. She was met by a barrage of discontent. How dare she sully the name of such a great series. It wasn’t helped when they found that she hadn’t read the books. In fact it only made it worse, much worse. It was the equivalent of being run out-of-town.

But Teeny Tiny is not one to sit back and take it. So she went out and bought the book. And her conversational skills disappeared overnight. Except if we were talking about Twilight. It reached a point where we would be sitting on the sofa and there would be little yelps as she read. I’ve never seen anyone finish a book so quickly, apart from when she read the second book, ‘New Moon’, which was gone in a day and a half.

The more she read the more hooked she became. It was like a junkie needing her fix. ‘I’ll just read a bit more’ or exclamations of ‘Oh my God!’. When the first one was finished she had a desperate two-week wait till her birthday till she got the next two books (I told her I was getting them for her birthday so she’d have to wait, in order to actually be able to interact with her for a couple of weeks). When she got them, she read them both in the space of about 5 days, then immediately ordered the 4th book. And waited. And waited. And waited. And each day she’d comment it hadn’t turned up, check the post three or four times. Two weeks later and no book, Teeny Tiny could wait no more, and off she went to buy it. And once again we were descended into sofa sharing in silence.

On top of this, the films have started appearing, and pleas to watch them more frequent. I’ve watched the first Twilight movie again, and I still think it’s pretty terrible.

The point is, Twilight fans – don’t forget the people around you when you’re in your fantasy vampire induced world. We don’t want to know if Edward is breaking Bella’s heart, or if they’re back together, or if you suddenly really fancy Edward but can’t decide if you fancy the other one (you know, the wolf one). Living with a Twilight addict is tough, I just keep hoping that either finishing all four and knowing there’s no more will ease the madness, or that something else will avert her attention!

Once she has finished the last one, she plans to read all of them back to back. Again. I’m hoping she doesn’t mean without stopping, or I may not see Teeny Tiny for a while!

The stag do is of course the pinnacle of the Best Man responsibilities. It is what stag do’s have become about. For the groom, it’s not about how the big day went, the planning, the wedding gifts, no – it’s the stag do. The day labelled as the last day of freedom for grooms worldwide. The day their allowed to go crazy and do what they want, which usually includes manly activities and drinking the yearly alcohol consumption of Moldova. And I was not about to fail in this task for my groom, Dan.

The plan was simple: gather 11 of Dan’s closest friends and family (most of whom had never or rarely met), stick them on an EasyJet plane to Newcastle for two days, and let the party begin. Of course I wasn’t going to just freestyle my way through it, so I set up a mixture of classic stag do activities and some stuff that Dan would love.

It began on a cold Friday morning last September when we all met at Stansted, all dressed as the 118 guys. And I don’t just mean the vests, we were full on. tight vests complete with 118 logo and nicknames, even tighter red shorts, white socks, 70s afro wigs and 70′s moustaches. No one in the place knew what was going on, but everyone seemed to find it brightened their 6am airport experience!

What followed that weekend was immense, incredible, and some of the best fun I’ve ever had. Here are some of the highlights:

• A visit to Wet ‘N’ Wild water park, the largest in the UK. The groom was kitted out in a lime green mankini under his swim shorts, the shorts he later lost going down the flumes, cauing a certain amount of indecent exposure and a lifetime ban.
• A night clubbing in Tiger Tiger, where the drink flowed and we got our groove on.
• Paint-balling, where me and Dan kicked some ass and I received a shot either side of my gentlemans agreements.
• The 118 188 night out, where we bar crawled, bought shots, ran through Newcastle shouting 118 slogans, rode a mechanical bull, sang football songs on the way home, then ended up collapsing at about 5am.

Once we had returned, and the 3 days it took the majority of us to recover has passed, we could all reflect on what an amazing weekend we’d had.

But now I get to thinking about the next stag do, and the different challenges it will bring. What is the groom, Alex, looking for? For a start, we’re having two stag do’s, one in London and one in Las Vegas where the big day will take place. For London? I’m thinking go-karting, comedy club, clubbing, bar hopping, and much hilarity throughout. For Vegas? If I can get close to reaching the dizzying heights of ‘The Hangover’ I’ll be happy, even if the bridal party may disagree!

I was recently best man at one of my best friend’s wedding. It was an honour to be asked and the day went brilliantly. But the wedding day itself is only a small part of the best man duties. To this day I don’t think I know most of them. Obviously as a best man you’re very important on the day – making sure that everyone is ready on time, that the taxi’s are there, that everyone is greeted at the church, knows where to sit, the all important speech and of course looking after the rings…

Ah yes, the rings. I don’t know how it happened, I couldn’t have been more careful. One minute it was on my finger, on the very edge of my inside pocket of my suit jacket. You know, the little one that I can only guess is meant for rings. The next it was gone. There was the gentle bump of a thin silver ring hitting a white carpet in a cluttered bedroom, and for a second the world stood still. At first I tried to subtly look for it, while pretending to tie my shoe laces or looking through a bag. But it was gone. I’ve never felt more alone. If I hadn’t had the support of four superb groomsmen, I probably would have fallen apart. By the end I was sweating profusely. I have never been so immediately panicked by anything in my life before. It didn’t help that this was the bride’s ring.

20 minutes later, having turned most of the room upside down and much crawling on my hands and knees, I found the missing ring a fair distance from where I’d been standing, behind a bedside cabinet. I’ll never forget the relief, at finding the ring and even more so at being able to do it without alerting the groom or his family to the worrying events. I have to admit that at this very moment, regardless of how well things had gone to this point, I couldn’t help but think I was a rubbish best man, that I should never have been given this responsibility. Then I realised that I’d got away with it, it was going to be ok, and experienced a sudden feeling of elation!

Very similar to THE ring!

The rest of the day went without a hitch, the ceremony was excellent, the reception was loads of fun, and the speech went really rather well. Mr and Mrs Millar are very happily married, and while I had a very scary moment, I loved it. So much so that I will be best man again next year, this time in Las Vegas!

Next time I’ll tell you how to arrange an awesome stag do, like the one I arranged!

I will be writing this all about things I get up to, weird and wacky stuff I’ve experienced and maybe bring you a few recommendations *wink wink*.

But I think the first post should probably tell you a bit about myself. After all, we need to get to know each other. I wouldn’t expect you just to religiously read a blog by someone you don’t have a clue about. That’ll be later.

When I first come on to WordPress to post this blog, it said I’d already posted a blog, called ‘hello world!’ I was worried that this was a case of the fastest hacking ever and I’d lost control of my blog to a spotty 13 yr old from Ohio before I’d even been back from clicking my confirmation e-mail. Luckily it’s just a cheeky ruse to try to make you put your first entry on, which I’m doing… darn it!

Anyway about me. I’m 26, male (hence the mr bit), grew up in Essex (the nice bit) and have lived in London for 8 years. In that time I’ve lived in various parts of this great city, the big smoke, the capital, and have experienced many things. I am a lover of Twitter (@MrMcBear) as well as lots of manly things like pizza, football, rock music, going out and having a good time. I have a job.

Oh and my nickname is Bear. Not in the gay community sense (but big up to all you bears out there), but in the ‘Mate you dance like a bear’ way. The nickname originates from when I first moved to London and worked at the now sadly departed Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. I was 19 and well into Heavy Metal which included having piercings, weird coloured spikey hair and big old jeans that meant you couldn’t see my feet (and I have size 11 feet!). Me and my good mate Dan were at the back of the warehouse, sorting out millions of CDs onto the shelves. I don’t know what we’d done to deserve it, we probably enjoyed it at the time. Dan was having a rough day and seemed a bit down, so when someone put a ridiculous song on the radio (I’m probably talking Spice Girls or something equally distressing) I did a stupid dance for him which resulted in much hilarity before telling me I dance like a bear. And thus the name did sticketh.

Me dancing

But enough about me, so how are you all?

I will blog about more interesting, full bodied stories later. I promise. I just felt we should all become friends first. That’s all you really need to know. Feedback always welcome!