Happy Christmas!

Barring any weather- or otherwise related catastrophes, this time tomorrow I'll be at me maw's in Norn Irn for Christmas. One of my first tasks will be to set up her new computer, but given that she's moving on the 1st of January it's doubtful she (or I) will get on to the internet while I'm there.

So, happy Christmas to all and see you in the new year (or, err, slightly after Christmas when I get back to the flat).

Ho ho ho!!!

Flickr

I had 86 views of my photos on Flickr today, which represents a bit of a bloody spike in the figures (usually about 2 pictures get looked at a day. Am sure it must be someone I know, as most of the photos looked at have been on there since I first joined the site and aren't named anything or even tagged, but for a few hours am gonna pretend it's because my photography has finally started to gain ...

Read More »

Almost that time of year again

and I'm starting to get a bit concerned about this rally malarkey. We have, mercy of mercy, managed to send a few emails to vehicle manufacturers of late asking for an ambulance. But rules on what we can and can't take are still way up in the air (latest I've seen - "if it passes for an ambulance in the UK, it'll probably do the same in Mongolia". Eh?) and the responses from the companies were ...

Read More »

Paris! Tres Bonne!

ah, bloody Paris, it was amazing! Hard to believe we were only there for about 36 hours.

Such a beautiful city, and after living in London the quietness of the streets was weird, even a few yards from the main attractions. We ticked off most of the main sights and thanks to the prohibitive price of alcohol (or even coffee), instead of being holed up in a bar we spent most of our time wandering ...

Read More »

A chooay chooay chooay choo

Guess where I'm posting from? Only the bloody Eurostar, that's where! Ever since I was a small child and watched Maggie Thatcher shake Francois Mitterand's hand through the small gap where the two sides of the tunnel finally met, I've wanted to be on this train. And now I am! Sitting in London waiting to "depart", as they say in France - have been through French Border control already and le driver has just welcomed us aboard "zis train to Parees" as if it's as natural as the 23.04 to London Bridge via East Croydon. So exotic! So jet-set! So early I'll be asleep by Ebbsfleet! Salut maintenant!

Been updating the 'official' blog

We're going to try and get ourselves an ambulance. Hopefully there will be someone out there with a decent wagon they're willing to donate.

We actually have the option of jumping ship and joining on to one of the other two rallies that are taking place next year - one a traditional 'banger' drive where the cars need to cost less than £100, and the other where engine size must be less than 1.2L.

...

Read More »

gissa tenner

irie ma bredren.....

awfully sorry for the lack of updates on the rally preparations of late. We've had guests staying with us hence have been swept along in a whirlwind of entertaining and drinking for the past week. Highlights were watching the majestic Cottagers (ooer) grind out a tedious 1-0 win over CSKA Sofia on Thursday (but hey, it's still live football), and a trip to Greenwich Royal ...

Read More »

Still at a bit of a loss on the vehicular front

Got a summit meeting on Sunday to try and work out what the hell we're doing, get a common focus and try and actually boot this whole adventure into gear. The ambulance idea is seeming like it can work. We just need to get ourselves shipshape and start planning.

In the meantime we have some special guests visiting in the form of J's cousin and her husband and are off to watch the mighty Fulham FC take on CSKA Sofia in the Europa League tomorrow. Beggars, choosers, chance to watch the footie for not much money 'n' all that. And I have Aaron Hughes as an excuse for supporting them. That and the stadium's in a pretty part of town.

Ulaan Bulance

It never used to be this hard to raise a bit of money for charity and have an adventure into the bargain.

Turns out we can't take a car on the rally either. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The vision I've had in my mind over the years is a dusty veteran car careering over the desert. But apparently, dem's the rules for the particular rally we're signed up to - all to do with import duty at the ...

Read More »

the most spontaneously arranged plans....

no sooner had we decided on a general theme for our fund-raising than those cheeky scamps in the Mongolian government have apparently scuppered our library-driving exploits. It would appear that the only cars that are import tax-exempt are those which are no older than 9 years old, with no more than a meagre 65,000 miles on the clock.

This bumps the price we'd have to pay up by a few grand, and ...

Read More »

Buzzin & searchin

There's something about that first hit of red wine in the evening... Instant warm fuzzy loveliness in a glass..

Currently scouring the net for a rally vehicle in my Banrock Station bubble, dinner having been deferred so as not to "ruin the effect of the booze". You can't buy class like that, you have to mature into it.

Our initial gung-ho enthusiasm for pimping a mobile library to take to ...

Read More »

Ulaan Book Tour

How good is that name? Ulaan Book Tour? Ulaan Baatar? Geddit?

After our first meeting with the rally guys on Saturday, we were encouraged to start getting our message out to people asap. All well and good, except that we hadn't even got a team name at that point.

Lucy teaches English as a foreign language (or whatever it's referred to these days) and a large number of her students of late have ...

Read More »

The worst kept secret...

way back in August, I vaguely alluded to some exciting news that may or may not be happening at some point in the future. Predictably, such a tease got the internet whirring into speculative overdrive. That, and the fact I've already told my only three regular readers (Lee, I'm assuming Helen told you), means that the big announcement is not going to come as a total surprise.

But, announce it I ...

Read More »

want an iPhone

I like my current Sony Ericsson K800i, and it does everything I need it to - y'know, making phone calls, sending texts and the like - but recently people have started to mock it. I'm hurt. I only bought the bloody thing 18 months ago, although admittedly the model's about 3 years old now which makes it positively geriatric in mobile phone terms.

I worry though. All those apps, all that mobile ...

Read More »

word

Kind of feel I've been neglecting the old blogging recently - as witty as my tweets are they are surely no substitute for the real thing.

So...err....you well? Umm, what you been up to? Me? Oh, you know, this and that. Working mainly.


must start running again, actually. Was gonna start tonight - the Reading half marathon is only 4 months away - but got back to the hood and wouldn't you just know it, it was bloody raining. What are the odds in mid-November? Definitely will recommence my jogging routine tomorrow, as long as it's not too cold.

Bonfire night rocked

out in the country with only a bonfire, some rural types and gallons of hot homemade cider for company. Oh, and the Mangled Wurzels. Yup, a Wurzels tribute band, who rocked the cow shed like it had never been rocked before.

Flat-iversary draws to a close

Raised a small glass of beer to the special day and spent the evening on the internet while 'er also-indoors yakked away in Polish to her friends over a bottle of plonk. Just the way we would have wanted it.

Off tomorrow to Pizza Express! Gawd bless ya, Voucher Codes

What is the 3rd anniversary anyway? Apparently for those folk who are married it's Leather. Maybe I'll buy her some chaps or ...

Read More »

Remember remember

the first week of November... This time last year, etc...

As you will notice from perusal of some of my other posts I'm prone to more than a little nostalgia at the best of times, so I'm veritably hyper-ventilating this week as not one but two significant milestones pass....

This time last year, I was bedding down for my last night of being munched by bugs in my old house share, prior to mov...

Read More »

Autumn's here

there's a strange orange glow lighting up the sky from the direction of Clapham tonight. It's very specific - almost like something might be on fire. It could just be the fog which sems to be covering South West London this evening..........

..........

.........

yup, just stuck me head out the window. It's fog. Wrap up folks, winter's a comin...

Root of all evil

Thought my filling was perhaps a bit dodgy recently, as I have a mild sharp pain from time to time. I've now been reliably informed that it might be the root and I may need a root canal...

I think I'll ignore it for a bit and hope it goes away. I hear that works.

Brighton mate....

I had an unexpected trip to Brighton at the weekend, a birthday surprise from the lovely J.... Bloody fantastic place - it's kind of unfair that one little city gets to be so great whilst the rest of us slum it in the real world. All I knew in the build up was that I was to keep Saturday 'evening' free and that I had to get up at 9am in the morning, so couldn't get drunk after work. I failed, of ...

Read More »

Just watched 'Confetti'

the British film starring a host of well known faces about a wedding competition. Usual pleasant enough British rom com fare, but I'll never be able to watch Peep Show in the same way again, having just watched 90 minutes of Jez and Sophie romping around in the altogether.....

sage observations

I'm 32. How the feck did that happen? That's proper old.

getting old

my 32nd year draws to a close, and I'm planning on hitting the sack in all of about 15 minutes. Still got it.

To be fair, was up at 4.30am this morning to fly back from Northern Ireland, making it two pre-5am starts in 3 days. I'm not quite the doddery old man who wakes up at 5am every day so I'm feeling the pace a bit. Had an amazing time back home with J and mum; can't remember the last time I ...

Read More »

There's a certain irony

to the fact that an iconic image of a freedom fighter synonymous with the creation of a communist state is now being mass produced in an asian sweatshop for Primark.

Another qualification campaign draws to a close...

what price Northern Ireland reserves beating the Czech Republic away from home, whilst San Marino record their first victory since.... err...... ......28 April, 2004 - their only victory ever (against the might of Liechtenstein. In a friendly)? Against Slovenia, a team which beat them 5-0 two months ago?


Ah.

Bring on Euro 2012 then.

#Trafigura & #Carter-Ruck fail

Those who dismiss Twitter as a pointless waste of time and bandwith would do well to take notice of events last night and this morning. Within hours of the story breaking that the Guardian had had a court injunction served on behalf of libel lawyers to stop them reporting parliamentary question time, champions of free speech and those who follow them had bumped #Trafigura (responsible, ...

Read More »

car trouble

I got ripped off by a car wash the other day. Had just finished excitedly texting J from inside the fluffy wheels of fun (sadly, I love car washes) when the foam stopped mid-spurt, leaving the front half of the car covered in soap and the rest dry as a bone. I went back to try and get a refund from the guy in the shop, who was as intelligent, amenable, capable and fragrant as you would expect of ...

Read More »

happy anniversary to me

this time 3 years ago, I was inebriated and basking in the glory of having just completed my first ever 10K run....

Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday. The culmination of the long, hot, summer of 2006: the training, the fund raising, the regular blogging..... How we all wish for those days again, especially given I was still a relative whippersnapper at the time.

Still, I now have the half ...

Read More »

Who needs blisters anyway?

Got a beautifully crafted email this morning from Dave Bedford, erstwhile moustachioed middle-distance Olympian and current race director of the London Marathon. It gently broke the news to me that I will not be joining the 39,999 other participants pounding the streets of our nation's capital next April, as follows:

"Commiserations

By now you should have received the news that your applica...

Read More »

Result

The sun shone, my nose stopped running and apart from two unexpected, huge blisters that kicked in at the 7km mark, the whole experience was pretty good.

Made it round the Hampton Court 10K in aid of Cancer Research in a fairly respectable time of 56.10. No records broken - in fact it could be my slowest "official" run ever, but given I was about to pull out on Tuesday, I'm well chuffed. J came ...

Read More »

Something fishy...

Imagine my shock a few minutes ago when I opened my tea-time scampi to discover a piece that looks like AN ACTUAL FISH! Is it a sign? Considered calling the local paper or trying to sell it on Ebay...but I'm too hungry

10K on Sunday....

I have stood up, been counted, and declared, "screw you Mother Nature! Man Flu shall not stop me!" My Bestival cold is still in full effect and I had seriously considered pulling out of the Cancer Research 10K on Sunday, but the thought of waking up on Sunday (no doubt with a hangover) knowing I should have been there, the training I have been doing and the knowledge that two people sponsored me persuaded me to have a tentative jog this evening. I made it 7.5km and decided that I could just about manage it round the course.

I'll be puffing along at the back with the fat chicks, but at least I'll have done it.

Bestival

Ah, so it was all worth it in the end. All the stress of getting the ticket melted away in the baking hot sunshine on the Isle of Wight. This time two weeks ago I was getting ready to go, ensuring everything was packed (except, unfortunately, for the Pritt Stick that would have made my fancy dress costume marginally less rubbish looking than it ultimately was).

A few niggles aside - the ...

Read More »

I survived

Bestival. 2 Polish weddings. First day of new job. Done.

4 hours to get out of the festival, 17 hours of Polish train travel and a Bestival-related headcold later, I can finally take some time to relax and look back on the last week and a half....

Got some Bestie photos here....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tattie_chomper/sets/72157622427807070/

Will update more about the fun and frolics on the Isle of Wight and in Polska over the next few days. Suffice to say it was all worth it.

Just another nondescript evening in London town

Will I ever get tired of this view?

C'mon boys!

Yep, all that needs to be said for tonight's crunch game against Slovakia is.....

COME ON NORTHERN IRELAND!!!!!!

Bestival calling...

Yep, finally, I have my ticket.

After calling Wightlink back again on Monday to be told the same vague shit about it "definitely being with me in the next couple of days", I asked to speak to someone who could tell me exactly what was going on. A very helpful supervisor called Henry finally explained that I was just the unlucky one (although not sure how many other people were affected) and he ...

Read More »

Wightlink fail

On 2nd June, I paid £225 to Wightlink in an attempt to be organised and take advantage of a combined ticket for Bestival and the car ferry to the Isle of Wight.

For the past 3 months, I've been looking forward to the festival, spending money on camping equipment etc, using my final holidays for the year and checking the news and line up information almost daily.

It is now the Sunday before the ...

Read More »

Ran 10km tonight

Got home from work, strapped on the gutties and off I jogged. I am a running machine!

Not literally, obviously. Things would be a bit weird if I were to lie in my local gym allowing people to run on the spot on top of me. Besides, if any item of furniture sums up my outlook on life, its a comfy plastic chair in the cafe, near the drinks machine and with a nice view of the swimming pool.

Safety advice

Apparently, this lighter shouldn't be given to Tintin when he's grumpy

750 up

Yep, my 750th post to STTR.

It's fair to say I've kind of limped towards this particular landmark, with posts appearing sporadiacally if at all over the last few months - the summer of '09 has been a busy one and as I've noted before, the more blog-worthy events that take place, the less likely I am going to have time to post about them. Ooh, the irony, eh?

Anyway, things are ticking along very ...

Read More »

The demise of an insitution....

Ok, so maybe the title's a tad melodramatic (and, well, untrue), but it was with a fair degree of sadness I read the other day that London freesheet 'The Londonpaper' is to be closed down as it's not making enough money.

Putting aside the bare fact that I think it shits all over its tabloid comic rival, 'London Lite', I do have a personal reason for lamenting its demise - this is the rag that, ...

Read More »

More helicopter based park action

Our tranquilitly shattered when the local copper chopper arrived to hover virtually 50ft above us looking for naughty people

Amazing what you can do with a drunk Pole and some salad

Brockwell Park, today.

Complete with airborne "There's only one Freddie Flintoff" banner in the distance over the Oval

Stuck halfway through day two of the great Sicilian Odyssey

We were in Italy for a week. At my current rate of documentation, it will take over 5 months to post about our experiences.

I make Stone Roses, Salman Rushdie and Charles Darwin look like Twitter users in comparison.

Melting

It's with great pleasure I can report that I am uncomfortably clammy and itchy. My windows are open, the mozzies are buzzing around and I am looking forward to a night's fitful sleep.

All it takes is one comment from someone north of Watford (monsoon, freezing cold, windy) to make me realise that I'm much more of a warm weather person. For now, anyway.

I almost got put on my hoop by a small dog this evening

I was leaving the park after jogging round a couple of laps, in a fair degree of pain, when a puppy came bounding towards the hedge. Didn't notice me - had eyes only for some indeterminate glittery / feline thing in the bushes. It became clear that if we both stayed on our current route there was going to be a collison, so at the last minute I skidded to a stop and tried to skip round the back ...

Read More »

Perseid meteors

So, anyone south of Watford see any meteors last night? A combination of southwest facing windows, central London location, heavy cloud cover and general laziness succeeded in ensuring we saw nothing whatsoever.

Are they still going tonight? The clouds are gone, my view is perfect, but alas, still facing the wrong direction and gazing out at an orange, light-polluted sky. I keep thinking I see shooting stars but it turns out to be just another flight on final approach to Heathrow. You'd think the flashing red meteors would have given it away sooner. Ooh! There's another one! Oh. No. That'll be the police helicopter shining its search light on Brixton.

Can tell it's Thursday

...as I crack open a second beer of the evening at the ungodly hour of 11pm. This is living, my friends.

Pink knuckle ride

Some called us crazy. Some gazed at us with misty eyed awe. But all agreed, the Log Flume at Harbour Park, Littlehampton ("where the Fun never sets!") is second only to going over Niagra Falls in a barrel when it comes to water-related bravery.

We tamed the beast and walked away with our heads held high. Women fainted. Men nodded in gruff respect. I toddled off to take a photo of the sheer scale of the trial we had just endured (below). And everyone chipped in for the souvenir photo once they'd picked themselves back up off the floor and wiped the tears from their eyes.

Shiny happy people

Back from a marvellous trip to the seaside at the weekend. The sun shone, the skin sizzled, the lobster look was everywhere, and at least one humiliating photo of me was taken when my guard was down at the sea side. Admittedly, by a photographer who wouldn't even take his shirt off, never mind the plunge into the glistening English channel.

Camping is the shizzle. What's more, have convinced 'er ...

Read More »

MLIA

Genius website - but be warned, horrendously addictive (see below post re: interview prep / horrendous performance link). Funny, touching, the whole nine yards of human life laid out anonymously for your entertainment. One day I'll think up something good enough to post on the site. MLIA.

Thanks to my compadre forgetful_chimp for remembering something other than where he's stashed his bananas for long enough to tell me about it.

My Life Is Average

The more observant amongst you will have noticed a lack of blogging from me this week as job interview prep took precedence (it was today - don't ask. I like my current job anyway).

Alas, your breath will have to be baited for a little while longer, as I'm off camping in Hampshire this weekend to celebrate the lovely Laura's birthday.

I shall return next week to continue the sporadic 'adventures in Sicily' series, and fill you in on what bin a gwan (in the local parlance) in my 'hood' of late.

Have a good weekend all......

Procrastination of the highest order

Things to do tonight:

• find notes for my interview on Friday
• write a blog post about La Rosa dei Venti Villa D'Arte - the amazing farmhouse we stayed in for a night in Sicily
• finally put the photos my mum has been asking for for months onto a CD
• sort out a duff battery to send back to the supplier for a replacement

What I actually did tonight:

• played about with photos on Yearbook Yourself

Love it!

Old age

Last year, I smoked between 10 and 20 fags a day and could run 3.1 km in 16 mins.

This year, I quit smoking in February and yet can still only run 3.5 km in 19 mins.

Doesn't bode well.

Balls

Joy of joys, Nikeplus has seen fit to upgrade their website in the month or so since I last checked it. For the uninitiated, Nikeplus is the chip thing that plugs into an ipod to measure running distance, calories etc and play you music / motivational American chatter as you jog round. I've always been disapppointed with the amount I could play about with the data once I uploaded it to the ...

Read More »

Sicily day two - Palermo to Enna

03/07/09 - Palermo to Enna

We were up bright and early on our first full day in Sicily, heading back to the airport to pick up our hire car. We hit the jackpot on the model of car we hired and soon were crawling back through the Palermo traffic in a 2 week old white Fiat 500 with a mere 900km on the clock.

I started to think I'd made a grave error bottling it at the rental desk.
'Would you like ...

Read More »

Sicily part one

It's surprising how little of the excitement in my life actually makes it onto the hallowed posts of STTR. For something that is meant, in part, to document this period of my existence, I rarely have the enthusiasm or inclination after an event to launch into grand detailed musings.

Sicily, however, was a trip we had been looking forward to since last December, and we crammed a hella lot into ...

Read More »

Ok Go

I think I've seen a video like this somewhere before, but to have a band doing a choreographed treadmill dance whilst singing their song.... genius.

Final Cut

I told J the other day that this 1998 Brit Flick (starting the 'Brit Pack' at the time - Jude, Sadie, Ray et al) is one of only two films I hadn't previously heard of that turned out to be really good. The other is Glory, a drama about the American Civil War with Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington that I subsequently found out had won Oscars and shit.

Anyway, I've bought Final Cut on DVD ...

Read More »

Back to normality

After what seems like a month, I returned to work today from annual leave. And woah, as if it wasn't a mere 2 hours before I'd started feeling like I never left. There were a few exciting developments though - not least the arrival of a Dyson AirBlade in the toilet. This represents a bit of a radical departure into "high quality fixtures and fittings" for the toilet in question, given that the bogs don't flush properly and the water from the taps sprays all over one's crotch should you stand too close to the sink. It resulted in me going to the toilet about 4 times today though just to try it out. All good for the hygiene in this Swine Flu conscious age, I suppose.

Graduation day

Portsmouth Guildhall. A suitably impressive location to congratulate one of the country's newest Masters of Geohazard Assessment.

God I'm knackered. Too much booze last night catching up with a long lost mate, too much touristy wandering about today and not enough sleep in between. Good, then, that I've got to get up at 6 in the morning to drive to Portsmouth.

It is good actually, given the reason for our trip to the seaside (and presence in our flat of a variety of family members) is the long awaited graduation of J from her Masters. I'll be welling up in my chair, if I'm not snoring and dribbling down the shoulder of the person next to me. Go J! Woot!

Back in Blighty

Woot! Am back from my travels. Now halfway through my hols, preparing for the imminent arrival of J's sister tomorrow and my mum on Wednesday - it's 'the graduation' on Friday.

Sicily was absolutely amazing - I beseech everyone who reads this to visit. I'm not skillful enough with the written word to convey everything we experienced, but I will try over the next few days. But then, it's a bit ...

Read More »