WOW

The last site I did for a friend was featured on the BBC web site – as Kate was on Five Live and the nice people at the bbc linked to and mentioned the site – listen again to Kate (and Matthew Bannister mention my site!) – http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/morning.shtml

I”ve also just completed writing an RSS feed from the blog on the site, the first time I’ve done so, and I can see me doing it a lot more now! It was easy!

So there we have it, a popular web site and RSS. I am officially a web geek!

Well there we go.  Awesome weekend.  The trip started quite badly with the fact the Nia, Dan and I missed the first flight out, due to a few problems getting to the airport, thankfully we managed to get our flights changed (even though we were literally seconds away from missing that flight as well!) and a very relieved three people touched down at Nice airport  a couple hours later.

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.

So I have my cycle and all this week I have been cycling around 25 miles a day on my commute to Chelsea and back. I have been rather hindered with poor navigation issues (getting lost) and some problems with punctures. So much so that today I will be spending money at Evans investing in puncture resistant tyres and new inner tubes, before having to replace thos on my bike before riding home.

The journey is rather nice and not to crowded with cars. Along the way I go alongside Regents Canal, through Green Park, past Buckingham Palace along Strand, past Trafalgar Square, and down to Chelsea. It has to be said it’s more scenic than the tube journey.

It is also quicker than the public transport alternative. In only an hour and 5 minutes I can be at work, which is about 10 minutes faster than tube and bus, when not lost or runnning on flat tyres!

One thing that did surprise me about London, is actually how small it is. It”s really not big at all, and the tube stations, which I wouldn”t have thought twice about using the tube to travel between, are often just round the corner. It”s really quite amazing, for me. It has definitely resulted in me hardly ever using the tube, and when I know London better, I expect I”ll use it even less. Anyway. I better get those tyres so I can get home in one piece!

Last night was possibly the weirdest night of my life.

Started poorly with having to work late and therefore not being in the pub for very long before Ruf had to go, but a few cheeky pints later and I was away home to collect the shopping delivery.  That’s fairly normal.

What wasn’t normal was that on the bus home there was a bloke that was clearly not right upstairs, and he started harassing this poor lady sitting opposite, and as he was sitting next to me, I decided I better talk to him to let her get home in peace.  What a mistake!  The bloke was a philosopher, who was writing about the black man’s role in the future and how they are a different and higher species than other races.  He told me all about the conspiracy between the West and the East and how the July 7th bombing were proof.  I asked what the conspiracy was set to achieve, but he didn’t have an answer for that, obviously my smaller white man brain couldn’t handle it.

But the best was yet to come.  Once I had gained his trust, he revealed that he was actually an eternal being who was set to judge who went to heaven and who didn’t when the time came (he didn’t have a date unfortunately), but the shocking thing is that only the black man will go to heaven.  To be fair, I was a bit gutted, but I think I hid it well by concentrating on not bursting out laughing.

Worst bit is, the holy being got off at my stop, so I just hope I don’t see him often, it will only remind me of the fact I’ll never make heaven.  Damn.

THEN!!!!!!

After getting a pizza, the police turned up next door, apparently the lady had been locked out by her son/husband, whoever, and they had barricaded themsleves in the house.  So while I was loitering wondering whether or not to offer her a sit down and a cup of tea, Luke di just that.  We let the police run back and forth through our house to get into next doors back garden, which is when the police man was told he was too old and fat to be doing this (jumping over walls) he said to me “That’s it, he said I was too old and fat to be a policeman!”

I, in all my wisdom, replied “Don’t be silly, you’re not too old.”

Thank God (or the above bloke I met at Stratford) that the policeman had a sense of humour.  So anyway, after coaxing the lady next door in from the cold for a cup of tea while the police got on with it, everything got sorted, the police took a man away and we all went to bed.

Oh – and amongst this we had a discussion on the cat and flea situation, and Claire and I will draw up a plan with dates and timescales and Luke and Lou will instigate it.

So a fairly interesting night.

Just need to remember to black up before I die so I can got to heaven.

“That’s a poor challange to the left of Florists Arms penalty area, to be fair they’ve struggled to contain Justin all morning. Jason steps up to take the free kick, and delivers a great ball towards the back post, and Matt Bee (Woody) has made a late run into the box, read the cross beautifully and glances a great header into the bottom right hand corner of the goal. It”s a great finish from the centre back, although the Florists markers should have picked up the lanky Northerner well before he got to the edge of the six yard area.”

At least that’s what I think the commentator would have said about my goal on Sunday. Although the scoreline of Hackney Wanderers 7-1 Florists Arms suggests anybody could have scored, I’m still extremely pleased with a goal so early in the season.

So that’s 2 games down, and 6 points. Even though we have played some of the weaker teams in the division, I think we have strong enough players to dig in for results against the better teams. But it doesn’t look like we’re going to struggle, which is all that matters for at least the first season.

After listening to some early Arctic Monkeys live tracks this morning at work, I am tending to agree with The Modes that our songs (Let Me Know by the Modes, and a song (title escapes me) by James Venis and myself) sound EXACTLY like two Arctic Monkey tracks. I wouldn”t normally be suspicious, and fair play to them for making it, but the coincidences that the relevant Arctic Monkeys songs appeared after our songs were made available on sites that linked to each other and that two songs sounded similar to very different songs of ours means I raise an eyebrow a touch.

I would just like to know if we are right, or completely wrong. So come on Monkeys! Tell us if you were a Modes or Hijack the Busker fan once upon a time!! It would be nice to have influenced someone that is successful!

Well, I’m not really in Mexico, but my friend Dan W-H is in America at the moment, and when he looked on a completely random Mexican girl’s iPod he only found the classic song Talk to Me by James Venis (with me on bass and arranging the pretty rubbish drums). Amazing.

So I suppose that makes me a worldwide artist? Should that go on me CV or something, or should I get James back down for more recording sessions and get an album’s worth recorded? Or should I stick to being a geek and save the guitar playing for retirement!!

I’m still in a bit of shock, but it’s nice to know that long recording period of my youth is being appreciated by someone somewhere. I am waiting to hear the reaction of James.

Well I think I can honestly say I have never been as uncomfortable as this because of heat. The office is officially the hottest place I”ve ever known. But it”s made worse by the fact I have work to do and can’t just drink cold drinks and sit in the shade smoking.

I was extremely annoyed yesterday due to the collections company explaining that when they said my payments would be up for review, they actually meant “Pay us it all now.” Needless to say I had a barney and the monthly payments continue, but they have risen to £340 a month, which is way too much for me to enjoy myself. It”s more than my rent for God”s sake!!! I will have to see if I can afford it, if not, some form of goodwill payment each month will have to keep them happy, since it”s not really worth me going bankrupt (especially since they wouldn”t get paid off that way anyway!

And finally, on a lighter note, the picture you can see below is my good friend Mr Neil Collins on Countdown. I know!!! He has hair!! Amazing isn”t it!!

Well, back to work me thinks!

Well that was fun!! A nice Friday day trip to Portsmouth, lunch on historic Spitbank sea fort 1 mile off the coast (see the picture!) and then flying around on RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats or something!) for the rest of the afternoon. Then we had a nice barbeque and free bar in our lovely hotel. This is much better than a quick Italian meal on a Saturday night like at Electric Avenue (no offence guys, but it is).

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.

Well I”ve dropped myself in it this time! I offered to do a short flash animation for a joinee friend – but with the move and so forth I don”t think I”m going to do it justice. Basically it”s for a play which includes a character that did a flash animation of another character”s violent past… and I don”t think I”m going to be getting it done to the standard I hoped I could do and probably to the standard they hoped for.

So I think I”ll be doing a sample for Tuesday and then I”ll let them see if they want to try and find an alternative! I”ve already warned them of this so hopefully it”ll all work out fine.

Fingers crossed anyway…