Tomorrow was supposed to be the day that Hospital Tavern were promoted by beating Hoxton Foxes, having lost the title to FC Highstone, but the opposition can’t get a team. It means on Tuesday we will either be awarded the points by the league or have to play again. I hope it is the first because otherwise it will eat into my training schedule, which I would prefer not to happen. However the jubilation of being promoted by actual beating Hoxton and the celebrations afterwards would be great!!

Bank holiday weekend has not been enjoyable, having a terrible hangover all day (really considering less drinking…) today (Saturday) and planning on working on Monday to meet a deadline for SportsAid.

Speaking of which, I better try and get the DNS and domain sorted for that!

Contents:

1. Fallen windows
2. Christmas parties
3. Sunday league
4. Chas n Dave

Fallen windows

Probably the most exciting, most inconvenient and most boring thing to happen lately was when our bedroom window fell off its hinges, smashing through Warren and Kathy (our downstairs neighbours) garden furniture on the way! Not only was it in the middle of the night, but it was also bloody cold and windy! So a nice cold night with my bike cover trying to keep out the elements was endured before a visit from a glazer – who couldn’t do anything, despite me suggesting to the landlord that a glazer wouldn’t fix the split frame. So next we had the carpenter round (not Karen) who very kindly gave us a warm plywood window. It has not improved the view unfortunately – but if only we had one in Leytonstone – it might have made that house quieter!

We are still waiting for a new frame, we do have our fingers crossed for a few double glazed windows, but I doubt that is on the cards.

Christmas parties

A couple of Christmas parties have already come and gone, both events organised through work. There was first the Virgin Atlantic client/Gyro party including (but not limited to) rubbish dancing (me), good dancing (everyone else), gin, cocktails, Pete Doherty’s hat, tiaras, Iron Maiden, Mercedes, loss of memory and a hangover. Excellent.

The Gyro staff party was even better than that. Starting with a meet in Balham where I looked a little strange as an English country gent at 2pm, half the digital team slowly arrived. Griff saving my embarrassment by being superbly worse (or better?) dressed as a Morris dancer, alone until the rest joined him at the main party. Next we had the Gryo digital meeting where a few things in the pipeline were revealed, which sound both promising and daunting. Only time will tell on that one.

I have to admit that from then on, memory lapses were all too common, although I remember Pangaea champagne, double decker bus ride, excellent meat, deserved awards (I’ll get one one day!), another bus ride, gin and tonic, karaoke (Snooker Loopy as standard), not liking George better, hotel room gathering, mini bar gin, tube home (7am), grab footy kit and straight to Sunday league with a small amount of alcohol in my system. By small amount, I mean I was completely hammered. The cold weather sorted me out though, and I got through the game, not even playing badly (we won 4-2, by the way).

Sunday League

We lost to Hightstone, bastards. Beat Wenlock though (as mentioned above!). This essentially still leaves it in our hands, since Highstone lost to Hoxton a few weeks ago. We know it’ll be hard and we will probably have to play like never before to win every remaining game and guarantee the title, but hopefully one or two results will go our way and we can keep the momentum going and finish the league in a promotion spot. Second will do, but Champions sounds so much better.

Chas n Dave

13-01-2008
100 Club
Oxford St, London

Chas n Dave live in concert.

Ticket bought, friends attending, braces yet to be purchased. But they will be.

Chas n Dave. I can’t bloody wait! I’m honestly more excited about this gig than I was for the Foo Fighters, or Cut Chemist n DJ Shadow (not quite got the same ring to it as Chas n Dave) in March. Rockney here I come.

So after a few days in work, not very long (but long enough!) I was off away again to Ruf Y Anun’s wedding in Palma, Mallorca. The flight was fine (easyjet aren’t that bad) and waiting for Jen in the hotel was great as I managed to squeeze in four pints.
Standard Mallorca holiday malarkey until the wedding on Saturday 1st September, 5pm local time. The Church was amazing (see above and below). Anunciada went to school there apparently, which is a bit nicer than the brick building in Hamsterley that taught me to read!

The service, in a mix of Spanish and English was lovely, with readings from both sides and the priest even doing his best in English.

Rufous is clearly impressed with the whole marriage lark.

Afterwards we got a few buses to the Hotel Delta Beach Club, on the coast with a great view, great food (the beef was EXCELLENT, as was the sorbet!). I think being seated at the Bride and Groom’s table was a bonus – it meant Hufty could entertain us! Free wine flowed freely and the dancing was inspired (I cleared the floor at least twice!). I just wish someone had told me the Spanish were going on to a club when the bus home dropped us off in El Arenal about 5am, since I definitely could have partied on into the day – at least I think so!

Anyway, a few more days of beach, burning, pool and Tapas later we all went home and back to daily life. This may be a little short, but then again, I was drunk most of the time and memories fade when intoxicated!

Ole!

So holiday time has come and gone, and I have been far too lazy to blog in the slightest.

Cornwall was excellent as normal, however the highlights include:

• Much Risk, and not coming last in one game!
• 2 barbeques
• Pubbage
• FInally meeting Del
• Wii
• Boat exploits
• Tintagel, legendary birthplace of King Arthur
• St Michael’s Mount

The best part of the whole holiday (apart from the sentimental “time with friends” rubbish) was surfing. It was excellent, and I even caught one wave, stood up and rode it all of 25m to the beach. I am definitely going to try and do it more often, either by getting down to Brighton and hiring a board and wet suit or seeing if Seaham is a possibility if I go back up North – followed by a full week next year dedicated to surfing. 2 hours is nowhere near long enough!

For the record that alcohol consumed that week include (but is not limited to):

• 1 x 18 pack Fosters
• 7 x red wine (bottle)
• 1 x Sierra Tequila bottle
• 1/4 x Tesco value vodka (aka meths)
• 1 x 18 pack John Smiths Smooth
• 1 x 24 pack John Smiths Bitter
• 10+ pints Tribute Cornish Ale

Please be aware the above list is what I consumed in full! Just me. No help (except a little on the Tequila from Claire Levison!) Good, eh!

Photos are up! Gallery, Flickr and Zooomr

Tarra for now!!

So last Thursday I went all Hip Hop on your ass and went to see Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5 fame at the Islington Academy with Ruf, Anun, Hufty, Ruf’s brother Rob (I think…) and his partner Dave.

I was pleasantly surprised and will definitely carry on listening to and buying more Hip Hop, just got to remember to steer clear of all the terrible Gansta Rap and all that rubbish.

Also adding to the quality night was spending time with Hufty and Ruf and managing to get a hangover the next morning.

Something interesting Hufty and I talked about on the way home, apart from much rubbish, was how good a photograph of hundreds of people queuing single file to get on a London bus or Tube train would be. With all the impatient pushy people, I thought it would be a fantastic image to behold. Now just to work out the logistics of creating it… erm… ahem…

So then it began.  A few beers in the hotel bar later and people were getting in the mood for a party.  Now why do the French (Monaconians??) never have enough pint glasses??  Obviously it wouldn”t have been any good for us to be drinking half pints, so after getting tuxedos on, we went straight onto the champagne, of which a lot was consumed.  And the free wine was also thrown down in huge quantities.  We had the office videos, showcasing each office, with the Dublin masterpiece shining.  It really was a piece of artistic genius, which I will try to locate and link to.  Mind you the funniest (probably as we knew the participants well) was the London office spoof of "The Day Today".  After these the memories seem to desert me.  Last I remember was a midnight (ish) swim (the photos are supposedly about to surface).

Dan woke me up at about 8:15 (for the mandatory breakfast) and a fry up followed.  Plenty of orange juice, grapefruit juice, bacon, sausages and egg later we were ready to complete the team building.  The brief was create a piece of art with the theme energy.  We went for an day in the life of a Gyro member of staff preparing for a Bond party, which somehow involved me being half naked in most photos, or wearing Laura”s cocktail dress.  Apparently I make a great woman.  Anyway, we got the photos printed, and Damo set about promoting the display, which apparently worked, as we all won some Ferrari apparel later on!!

So the time came for a long Bond theme preparation.  After a long session of body paint I made quite a convincing Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder in Live and Let Die) I impressed, and although I didn”t win the costume competition (Barnaby did with his impressive scuba get up) I was told how good it was and that I should have won something.  Again free wine, a band and singers and chaos ensued.  Stage, red wine, and me wearing nothing but a bit of a sheet, body paint and a top hat is not a good combination.  There is a video.

Shit.

After another night of missing memories I woke bright and tried to get the remaining body paint off, feeling rough.  So the best cure was a fry up, washed down with a bottle of wine and a beer.  I was described as an "animal".  By one of the top blokes in the company.

Oops.

It took some recovering on Saturday and the coach trip wasn”t all that much fun, but very worth it.

Now back to the grindstone, with websites and e-mails galore to do, and football to be played in between. Hopefully the Christmas trip will be even better – and I”ve been assured it will be.