No excuse…
I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a long, long time - I’ve gone all facebook and ‘ting.
Maybe I’ll take it up again post November, assuming I can find a decent Internet connection!
July 3, 2008
April 8, 2008
February 25, 2008
Wir sind Berliner
My gf and I have our birthdays within two days of each other so this past weekend, to celebrate, we decided to have a long weekend (aka. ‘city break’) in Berlin. Neither of us had been to Berlin before, and neither of us speak any German - so it was always going to be an adventure…
Arriving in Berlin via Stansted and Schonfeld, courtesy of Ryan Air, we settled in quickly to our accomodation at the Kadiner Loft in the Friedrichshain area of the city. The modern self-contained apartment is a great place from which to explore the sights: spacious, quiet, and within a five minute stroll of Frankfurter Tor U-Bahn station.
Our first day there was my birthday and after opening the cards I’d brought with me, I had full reign on where and when we would visit. In the event, it turned out to be quite a busy day as we variously U-Bahned and walked between Potsdamer Platz, The Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and The Topography of Terror. We returned to the apartment for a couple of hours break and to glug some cheap three euro wine refreshments…
In the evening, we travelled south into Eastern Kreuzberg and had a great night out watching live music and drinking half litres of lager in Wild At Heart. We left the club to a very heavy, windy rainstorm and contemplated hailing a cab before just getting our hoods up, our heads down, and heading to the U-Bahn five minutes up the road.
Most of Saturday was taken up by a visit to the immense Jewish Museum before walking back into Mitte down Orienburger Strasse and home for tea. In the evening we went to White Trash, fast Food (briefly) and stuffed ourselves with food before entering the weird and wonderful home of Russian Disko at Kaffee Burger. RussanDisko was heaving, and there were plenty of real ruskies in there too, topping up on wodka and getting on down to the distinctive Russian/Ska sounds. Unfortunately, we were way too full of beer and pizza at that point, and the queue for the cloakroom was too long for us to join them on the dancefloor - but if you’re ever in Berlin, go - you won’t regret it; as we left discovered that a strict one-in, one-out policy was being enforced on the queue that snaked up the street.
Sunday was for markets, and we spent the late morning browsing the flea market at Mauerpark followed by a predominantly cheese and cappucino based lunch and a gentle meander through Kollwitzplatz in the sunshine.
Photos here (if you’re friend/family, log in to see extra pictures) !
February 13, 2008
Unsubscribe.
I’ve been receiving emails from rickygervais.com for some time now; ever since i signed up to the site to download free mp3’s of his show. Once he started charging for those mp3’s, I lost all interest - he’s not that good (any more).
So I decided to unsubscribe. Scrolling down to the bottom of the email I searched for the information on how to unsubscribe - something I believe is my legal right.
So I was somewhat surprised when I read:
To stop receiving mail from Ricky, send an email from glyn@rickygervais.com to unsubscribe@rickygervais.com
Does anyone have any clue how to do this (via GMail) ?
January 30, 2008
Cleon Peterson Arrives
 |
Not too much to report today other than the long awaited arrival of my Cleon Peterson print, ordered on 9th January. After stuggling for waaay too long on the copious amount of sellotape around the tube, I finally got the thing open. Very nice it is too - and number 69/100 - wahey! I’m spending the rest of the evening online trying to upgrade my mobile phone, in anticipation of changing to a PAYG. The Orange webshite is being rather difficult and obstructive… update: today (5th February 200 |
Shepard fairey is promoting and selling this very print on obeygiant.com. It goes on sale later today and, as with everything else on obeygiant, I expect it to sell out in seconds. Good to see I’m still 
January 27, 2008
Heavy Trash & The Sadies
H. and I nipped out last night after work to catch Heavy Trash & The Sadies at The 100 Club in London’s West End.
Surprisingly, The Sadies were also the support act, coming on sometime around 8.30pm.
—————-
Now listening to: The Sadies - The Last Inquisition (Part V)
January 22, 2008
Of Creeps and Cars…
Here in the latest of slightly iffy videos that they play in my Gym is ‘Freaks’ by The Creeps; or ‘The Creeps’ by Freaks. I’m not sure which and I’m certain that where vampire cheerleaders are concerned it doesn’t really matter…
Oh, and speaking of Creeps, my car got broken into again this week, they got away with my car stereo (minus fascia), the Lee Perry CD within the stereo, and the rubber sucker that attaches my SatNav to the windscreen. They left me with a hole punched through my driver’s door and a hefty body work bill (again). Grrr…
January 20, 2008
London Roller Girls
Wow, it seems like ages since I last wrote on my blog and so much has happened between now and then - not least, xmas and new year!
Anyway, I’m gonna gloss over xmas - ’cause I spent (at least some of) it with those I know and hold dearest, meaning they know all about it anyway; and I’m sure random person out in the blogosphere couldn’t give a toss what I did.
Fast forward to last night (Saturday) - being left in on my own cause none of my mates were out and the gf was in Goa, I took myself along to the ‘New Years retribution’ roller derby between the pink and black teams of The London Roller Girls.
Sunday (today), I met up with J and B for Sunday lunch at The Albion. J. was supposed to be going to work in Abu Dabi this Thursday, but now has a delay-of-execution for a couple more weeks. A bonus which means we get to spend Australia Day doing something fun.
Afterwards we took a walk down the street in Islington where Neve Campbell lives (peering through the windows to see how the ‘other half’ live) and bought some travel books and a Sunday paper in Borders.
December 21, 2007
Open Studios Closing Night.
Last night I met up with J.W. and J.M. at Open Space studios on Kingsland Road for the closing ‘party’ of the recent show. A few of my favourite artists were represented: Eine, Pure Evil, Dave The Chimp; and DTC was holding another ‘lucky dip’, where, for the price of a packet of biscuits or a couple of bananas, you could dig deep into his sack and retrieve some goodies. I provided shortbread and chocolate coated ginger snaps, and in return received a DVD of the recent DTC/Flying Fortress collab. in Germany and a Teddy Trooper.
Unlike the opening night of the show, when the beer had all run out by 7pm, the free beer was flowing well into the night; at around 11.30pm - after eight or so bottles, I called it a night; went home; and uploaded my photos.
My head hurts today.
December 19, 2007
Lindy Hop Week Two
Lindy Hop again last night at Swing Cats Corner. Week two was a rather less stressful affair, and I was able to keep up with what the instructor was saying and showing us, even if I couldn’t remember all the turns when it came round to actually doing it! The ‘intermediates’ in the beginner’s group were a little less uptight than last week’s group too, and were more willing to help out with individual steps when they could see i was having trouble. H. went through many of the same emotions that I experienced last week, getting frustrated and struggling to keep up; but we stood to one side and practiced a little in private as the intermediate class was underway.
Apparently Channel Four Television are going to have a film crew present at the first class of the new year; I’m not yet decided if I want to attend and look like a dork in front of the nation…
—————-
Now listening to: Pilchard - I Want A New Limb For Christmas
