Dusk till Dawn with Gargoyles

Dodgy old seats on the Eurostar at 6.55am, lunch at Amelie's cafe on rue Lepic, a fantastic sunset and a fantastic evening with a friend from Clichy and said friend's friends were just some of the delights of my most enjoyable day in Paris ever.

Paris in the spring

A kind colleague has agreed to let Susan and I stay in his apartment near Montmatre when we visit Paris next weekend. This was a trip arranged before we decided to go our own ways - a birthday present for moi. I wasn't going to go but in the weekend we decided that it could work just fine and it seems such a pity to waste good eurostar tickets. Positively irresponsible. Some people will and do think me/us crazy.


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Losing my Identity

This is an experiment. I felt like writing something but somehow the keyboard and I don't quite get on and think it's the nasty way I have to twist my wrists and sits in a chair.. yuck I'd rather lie on my bed looking out the window so that's what I'm doing talking into my microphone and letting the computer do the hard work.

It just occurred to me with all this talk of identity theft on face book, if people know your birthdate and your name pretty soon they'll have your wife and kids as well. When I first put up my blog it didn't occur to me that I should keep those details a secret so I had my mobile number and my address on the Internet.

Then one day as I came home late to my apartment in dodgy Deptford, while fumbling in my pocket to get my keys I must have let my wallet slip out and onto the ground. But I didn't realise.

The next day I received a text message from someone who had my wallet and said he lived just downstairs so I could pop down and get it.

He had found a and looked my name up on the Internet and found out who I was where I left and gave it back to me including all the cash and we became friends.

Battersea power station

 
 
 
 

Opotiki animals

While on our mad, road-trek around the East Cape over xmas, one of the places Gianghi, Peter, Susan and I stopped was Two Fish cafe in Opotiki. Amazing. I love small town New Zealand.

Peak District

In March, Susan and I took the campervan for its first drive up to Scotland and on the way stopped to check out the Peak district and stayed for three days it was so nice. The first night we couldn't find a campsite so we just parked up on the side of the road. In the morning we went for a bike ride and found the most amazing campsite called upper booth or lower booth - I can't remember which. But anyway it was superb and we were the only people there.

Made

makezine.com: MAKE: Technology on Your Time I figured it was time I introduced the new love of my life. I can't get enough of this magazine its changed my life.

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Snowboarding in Brockwell Park

This is long overdue. It definitely definitely belongs on my blog.

One day in February it snowed so after Susan had left for work and I should have been looking for work myself I went up the road with my snow board and found a hill that is all of.. what.. 5 metres tops... (click to watch)

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Nude Juice Bar - Leeds

First post in a while. I've made a new photo gallery, I've quit my job, finish on December 1st and fly to NZ on the 4th for.. a month or so. Haven't bought my ticket back yet because I'm trying to figure out how I can pop in and see JJ in Tasmania on the way back.

Things on my mind this morning..

Why don't the 90% (wild guess) of people who don't have the time or the inclination to
acquire the knowledge they would need to make best use of the technology available to them have anyone to support them?

I would like to see technical support come out of the dark ages.

If I can write this from a cafe in Leeds, it should be possible to get in touch with the person who can analyse and provide the right answer to your question within minutes and it shouldn't cost more than the computer they're trying to fix. But then why just computer problems? Actually, come to think of it there are some freaky sounding services in the UK that promise to answer any question and text you back the answer...

Sunday

Cold, still, time-less Sunday edging by my window.

london

in my memory we drove through the dark, kobi and i in my silly little convertible with the roof down even though it was raining which is actually fine as long as you don't have to go under 40 Ks. when we got to muriwai it wasn't raining much - just spitting but it was windy as hell. it was so different to see the gannets at night in the nasty weather. i'd never thought about those guys perched like that in the rocks against all that horribleness. they all seemed to be awake making little noises at each other you could occasionally hear over the wind and i lay down on the big wide railing and closed my eyes and thought about what it would be like to go to sleep like that, i'd be afraid of the wind and the cold and the rain. then i realized, yes, but you'd just have to trust it wouldn't you and i felt myself relaxing. i think i try to carry that feeling around with me. especially at the moment. london is a scary place - but i am love, love, loving it. i don't think i've ever fallen for a city before. sure, i flirted with Wellington but never let myself be fully tempted.

quiet

very quiet weekend. friday night at home - early to bed. saturday poker night with the boys from work. lovely ride to brick lane on sunday morning for a delicious brunch at cafe 1001 and met the maker of my favourite "I'd rather be wanking" t-shirt. met up with lisa for a bite to eat at Soba in soho which was disappointing - the food, not the company.

now it's monday 8:15 and i'm off to work at 8:30 to cycle through the 2 degree morning.

Brighton

Brighton - nice and friendly. Think I'll be back. My cousin Susannah and I took off after equally horrid Fridays at work. Susannah came back to London on Saturday night for a party, while I stayed on for the whole weekend, met some charming folk and generally tried to forget the horrid Friday.

Antwerpen

Here I am at the end of the week about to head off to Brighton for the weekend and still haven't got anything up about last weekend. Struggling to get to bed early enough to wake up in time to get to work this week. Body clock seems to be back to normal now though as today is the first time I've woken up early early. (or has the stress caught up with me)

This is a new and entertaining concept for me at least: if you want to see the pics from antwerp you have to have the password which is my first middle name - starting with 'd'. Just use your name for username.

Visited Saskia at her soon-to-be-ex-flat in Antwerp, Belgium as she is off home to NZ next week. Lovely weekend; delicious food and wierd coloured belgian spirits; fantastic cafes and delightful company. One of those weekends when everything seemed worthy of a photograph, though I have picked just the best for the site.

awake

at 3am; not good. i am determined not to call it jetlag. i think its more disorientation. i guess if you consider where its been over the past couple of weeks, its kind of clear why my body might be a little confused right now. i don't have any pics of nz to speak of. i guess i should try to describe.. no, i can't; here's one photo:

snow

too tired to write. well, ok. went to a party on new years eve in tufnell park after scouring my address book for anyone in europe who might be having a good party. and it was. lisa came home with me at 4am to help me pack bags and make sure i got to heathrow by 7am which i did, well, close enough. sergio met me at vancouver airport a little jaded (me not him). and there began the last 4 days of glorious vancouver action holiday. snoeshoeing, snowboarding in whistler, bike ride in the snow, very fun. click pics above for more. leaving for nz tomorrow midday.

Canada and New Zealand Dates Updated

When am I going to be in NZ? Good question.

Jan 9 - 16th, a whole week. Sunday to Sunday. Then back at the end of March for a week or two to go sailing.

Going to Canada on my way to NZ to catch up with Sergio and Heidi and go snowboarding. Flights as follows:

To Canada
=========
Flight: LH 4723 operated by: LUFTHANSA
from: LONDON GB HEATHROW, TERMINAL 2
to: FRANKFURT DE INTL, TERMINAL 1
Departure: 01. January, 09:10 h
Arrival: 01. January, 11:40 h
____________________

Flight: LH 492 operated by: LUFTHANSA
from: FRANKFURT DE INTL, TERMINAL 1
to: VANCOUVER BC INTL, TERMINAL M
Departure: 01. January, 12:25 h
Arrival: 01. January, 13:45 h


To New Zealand
==============
Flight: UA 1137 operated by: UNITED AIRLINES
from: VANCOUVER BC INTL, TERMINAL M
to: SAN FRANCISCO CA INTL, TERMINAL 3
Departure: 07. January, 13:16 h
Arrival: 07. January, 15:35 h
Class: Q, confirmed
____________________

Flight: NZ 7 operated by: AIR NEW ZEALAND
from: SAN FRANCISCO CA INTL, TERMINAL INTL
to: AUCKLAND NZ, TERMINAL INTL
Departure: 07. January, 19:30 h
Arrival: 09. January, 05:15 h
Arrive 5.15am Air New Zealand flight 7.

Back to London
==============
AIR NEW ZEALAND NZ 2
DEPART SUN 16 JAN 05 AUCKLAND 10.30PM
ARRIVE MON 17 JAN 05 LONDON - HEATHROW 9.50AM
TOTAL TIME AUCKLAND TO LONDON 24.20

xmas and boxing day

Crikey. Rode all 'round the houses. Click map for proper view.

(1) Stayed xmas eve at Lisa's in Acton. Woke up very early with beautiful cold blue sky and had to get out in it.
(P) Rode through Hyde Park even tho you're not s'posed to.
(2) Got to work where I had left all my xmas day stuff then Bex called to see if I was going to make it to Jeff's in time for brekky which was soon and I was hungry so I said yes.
(3) Ride up to Jeff's took an hour because I went the wrong way and had to stop lots to check where I was. We opened pressies and played games and misbehaved until it was today.
(4) Woke up early again, got on my bike and once I was in town, decided to take a ride down Oxford St, considered going to Selfridges for Boxing Day sale but there were queues at 9 and it opens at 11:30 and I was afraid it would put me in a very bad mood so I took off...
(5) back to work where i am typing with cold fingers and empty tummy

2nite

2nite I'm meeting Hannah at Brindisa

Revision - Rome

Rome Photos
From September if you missed them. Mad holiday with Leith staying in a flash hotel when I still hadn't got a job.