On Saturday I ventured out of Woking again and this time I ended up at Thorpe Park with Emily.

It’s a lot like Dreamworld on the Gold Coast but probably more rides, and a absolute load more people. After standing in a huge queue to get in I had to stand in a security queue so I could be searched and then went to stand in the Saw: The Ride queue. That queue was taking ages (1hr 90mins according to the sign??) so we went and stood in the queue to get fast track tickets to queue faster…there was a lot of queuing.

Anyway the Saw fast track was sold out and I just couldn’t wait 2.5hrs so we got an ultimate fast track that allows you quick queuing on 4 different rides. One of them being ‘Tidal’ and considering it was already raining I didn’t like the thought of being soaked completely. After we went on a few of the rides we stopped for some Corona’s and it cleared up a little but this being England the moment we went back out it started raining heavier!

After the ‘Nemesis’ I felt quite sick and thought we should leave but after a tweet from Gavin I thought “we’re here now, we may as well go on the Saw ride”. The sign said 70mins so I thought why not, 1.5hr and some routine maintenance later we got on and I’m really glad we decided to wait because it was definitely the best ride of the day.

I don’t think I will go back to Thorpe Park, as it was mainly full of teenage chavs and mingas so I think I will give Alton Towers a go next.

_B

The other weekend was Matt from work’s Stag-do weekend and we headed out to sunny Santiago.

There is only one flight in and one out so I had to be up at the sparrows fart hour of 3:30 Friday morning to get ready, get a cab and then catch the hour long bus out to Stansted airport.
Once there I caught up with Neil, Matt, Paxton, Chris and John and a Weatherspoons breakfast and beers were in order.

The flight was pretty good and once the hatch door opened I could feel that magical heat I haven’t felt in almost a year.  After some negotiations we got a 7 seater bus but with luggage it was really only a 5 seater, so John ended up squashed in the back…top marks.   With that sorted we headed into town for some lunch and to meet up with Rupert. The tapas and beers along with the warmth made for a relaxing afternoon.

However that was all to change when the 7 of us piled into the car and headed out for some paintball action. We meet up with a young girl running the show and then ended up the the wood just outside a nearby village, it was great as it was only the 7 of us playing and asides from the basic safety stuff there were no rules.

After we had sufficently shot the shit out of each other we jammed back in the car and headed out to Ruperts villa to clean up and unpack.
The place was magnificant in all aspects but it was the shower that did it for me, ‘Best Shower Ever!’

Once cleaned up and a few more beers later in we headed out to a local restaurant for some home-made style local cusine. After a mix of stews, seafood, pork and devine cheesecakes we finished off with a local spirit (much like a scnapps) and then back for more pool at the villa.

Go Karting was first thing Saturday morning after a much needed sleep in. Rupert even snuck in a few quick laps before his wife noticed him missing.   John was kind enough to sit this one out and document the race for us. Neil was unsupprisingly the course leader but Chris and Paxton faught quite a battle for secon place, I clearly had a weight disadvantage but countered that with some thrilling drifting. 

Now Matt on the other hand was playing it very safe (either him just getting his licence or trying to protect his body for the wedding) but this didn’t last, 5mins or so in and a rouge tyre rolls past Neil, we look over and Matt has managed to park his kart on top of a tyre barrier right on the hairpin! He narrowly avoided being staked so we can be happy about that but I think if he just gave it a little more gas he could have launched the kart and created a course shortcut.

All that excitement had built up a hunger (which was surprising after the 7 meal bonanza from Friday) so we (eventually) made our way to the supermarket for more supplies for our big last night feast.

The rest of the day/night went pretty much as expected, plenty of drinking, loads of food, trying the swimming pool but not getting past my toes. After dinner and many more drinks there was some discussion and with some self help from Matt I threw him in the pool at about midnight

Sunday it wax time to leave and with only one flight in and one out it was important we packed up and left early, so it was really great when the GPS/ Matt/Paxton got us lost on the highway and we started heading in the wrong direction! I had resided to spending another day there but some tactical driving from Paxton and a spot of airport running meant we made the flight and were on our way back to the UK.

Congratulations Matt and Nikki! I can’t wait to see the wedding photos.  I look forward to seeing all the guys again sometime, I had a great weekend away.

_B

Not much really!

Getting excited about moving in a couple of weeks, getting out of London and out to Woking where I work. Got a much better place for a lot cheaper and will be saving almost 3hrs every day in travel…so yeah pretty excited.

I went to ‘The Comedy Store’ last night at Piccadilly Circus, not really for comic relief but it was the same night so I like to think it counted in some way.

Next weekend I am off to Spain for someone from work’s stag do weekend, they are quite more elaborate over this side of the world, generally entire weekends in another country. I can’t remember exactly where in Spain we are going but  it should be a blast.

For those of you that care (or have noticed the messages on the right side side of this screen updating) I am now using Twitter a fair bit for my general updates and will try to keep these blogs a little more topical rather then general ramblings such as this. 
You can follow here or on the actual Twitter site http://twitter.com/urbanseven (you could even get an account and start following).

_B

During the week my modchip arrived, I bought a torx screwdriver, soldering iron and roll of solder…all ready to do the modding on Sunday. Taking all my previous experience into consideration this should have been a breeze however as usual with my Xbox projects things didn’t start so well. First of all my TV doesn’t have a remote, I have a set top box which auto-swtiches so I just assumed the Xbox would do the same, but as Leyton would say “Assumtion, it makes an ass out of you and me”.

So I had to go out and find a universal remote, having done that and confirmed the thing actually worked, I began the mod.
Once I opened the case I realised I was working with revision v1.0, the very first release. At first this was good news however as 4 attempts and quiet a few hours later it turned out to be difficult, the LPC port didn’t have holes like versions 1.1-1.6b so I had to opt for the wire install rather then the easier pin header install. At the end of the day I was still without a working mod, so tomorrow I am going to buy myself a solder-sucker and make my second attempt.

I’ll keep you updated on the project.

_B

Had an enjoyable weekend just past, Friday night I stayed home and watched new Lost, 30 Rock and The Office (US). Saturday I had to go to the post office and stand in a queue for almost an hour, which sucked but from now on I will get everything sent to work. Later on I attempted to go to the Natural History museum but the Darwin expo wasn’t on for 3hrs and there were screaming kids everywhere, nothing against them but it makes it hard to read. So I changed gear and headed towards Camden but not before coming across the Lamborghini showroom…OMG!

Back in Camden I felt more at home, so I bought a new hat and meet up with some friends for a few drinks at ‘The World’s End’ pub.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, I slept in then wandered up the street looking for a second hand Xbox game as I bought an original Xbox during the week (for £19). Alas it was not to be and I’ll have to wait until the modchip arrives =)

Also really sad new about the fires in Australia, hope it rains hard for them today.

_B

Well as you all would have heard about by now, London was hit by a massive snowfall yesterday (the biggest in 6yrs actually). It all started on Sunday about 12pm whilst I was already out without a jacket on and froze my ass off. It came down all night and when I got up Monday morning it was like a foot deep and although I didn’t feel that well (always take a jacket out in London) I couldn’t get to work because all public transport was closed.

So rather than hiding inside I rugged up and headed down to my local park to put my new camera to use. The park was amazing, it was like a ski field, and people were treating it like one…fantastic!

Today I am working from home because there are still massive delays on my train line but things should be back to normal tomorrow.

Below are some of the photos from the day.

_B

After work I headed into the city with some other Aussies for drinks at a Walkabout pub. The place was absolutly packed to the brim with trashed Aussies (and Poms) drinking beers and eating pies! I met up with Emily and her sister as well as Cherie from Australia, didn’t get too pissed as I had work the next day but it was awesome.

Check out more pics here

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

_B

I havn’t been up to much lately as I am completely broke from all my holidays so here are some photos from a night out in Woking where I work for my 25th birthday.

_B

For my birthday my awesome work mates got me a hilarious card and a catapiller cake.

What else would you want on your 25th???

_B

Because it excites me so much, here is what is was like walking to work this morning.
I bet I slip over!

_B

This is what I found at my local supermarket ‘Sainsburys’ the other day… XXXX beer!

I love the phrase on the side of the carton too.

Good as gold mate!

_B

This weekend I went and saw Electric 6 play in London with some mates. In case you aren’t familiar with their work they’re responsible for such classics as ‘The Gay Bar’ and ‘High Voltage’. They were great but I must say I was impressed with the support band, Tragedy – A Metal Tribute To The Beegees!

The rest of my weekend was pretty quiet as I am trying to save money for Christmas holidays. I am going to Bruge in Belgium.

_B

Last weekend I went to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with some friends. It’s was mostly for kids with a heap of rides, stalls and outdoor ice-skating but with a major German influence and as I have become a custom to with that you’ll find beer and sausages. Fantastic!

We wandered around for a little while taking in all the so obvious German Beerfest themed attractions and drunken German figures dressed in Christmas costumes. The ice-skating was completely sold out so I will have to go back, probably once I am on holidays.

I tried some winter Egg-Nog for the first time at one of the stalls, and it’s quiet different to the Egg-Nog I use to drink in Australia (ohh and just so you know there is no iced coffee here anywhere – it doesn’t exist) , mainly the extreme amount of alcohol in it…even for me.

So after I threw the last half of it out I went back to the classic…Bier.

_B

Yesterday my work gave me a new work phone…an iPhone!

It’s reward for all my hard work on the seal.com website and other things.

So I’m still getting use to it, especially the tiny keyboard but here is my first post with the Wordpress App from the Apple iTunes App store.

-B

I haven’t posted for awhile so I thought I would just let you all know nothing much is happening over here. It’s pretty cold now and most the leaves are all gone. I am crazy busy at work these days but that’s me.

Above is my own Park Avenue, my street in North West London.
Hope everyone is enjoying the heat back home.

_B

Friday night I went to Roller Disco with my work mates and Emily. We all dressed up in 70s and 80s disco costumes after work, had a few Stella’s and raced off to Vauxhall for Friday night Roller Disco

I can barely remember the last time I roller skated but it was back in Katherine and only briefly before we got roller blades. Turns out it’s much the same and I did alright, in fact we all did pretty well.

There were loads of great costumes there (and some very wrong ones) and totally can’t wait until the next time we go.

_B

       

On Wednesday night I went to see Kanye West perform his ‘Glow In The Dark’ concert at the O2 centre in London. It was without a doubt the best concert I have ever been to, the show, performance and the fact I was only 3 people back from the front meant the entire night was AWESOME!!

This concert was more of a stage show with an on-going story about him and his spaceship crash landing and having to find their way back home, it was great how each song fitted in with the little story.

At one stage he freestyled for about 10mins about his life,  his mum and the critics which was cool but he did start to sound like the usual “Kanye Ranting” but that’s why we love him.

_B

*YouTube clip coming soon (uploading)

Last night I attended a dinner for the Tourism Authority of Thailand, one of our clients at The Dorchester hotel on Park Lane. It was another fine night out in London and entertaining getting dressed up (I am sure none of you have ever seen me like this before).

We had plenty of Champaign and appetisers before the speeches, including one from the HRH Princess of Thailand, Ubol Ratana.

Tonight I am going to the massive O2 centre to watch Kanye West perform his ‘Glow In The Dark’ concert and I am psyched!

I will post photos of that tomorrow.

_B

On Saturday I went out with Neil from work to watch a rally stage out at Rushmore (about an hour or so outside London). Even though it pissed down all down I had a blast. The first stage saw a crash and an Accent almost wipe out a camera man. The 4-Wheel drives were the best though, loads of WRX’s, EVOs and WRC Focus’ all tearing up the stage.

Later that night we headed out to a friend of Neil’s to watch the traditional lighting of the Bonfire and Fireworks displays. Due to all the rain that day the Bonfire was soaking wet and they had to dose the thing in fuel, at first it was awesome as it was burning off but then the wind came through and smoked out everyone.

The fireworks were great, even in the rain.

_B

Me, Seal & Matt

Tonight I had a meeting with Seal in SOHO about his new website that I have been telling you all about. It was a fantastic night, Seal and his manager Ric are really nice people and it makes working for them even better than I could imagine.

We did a lot of talking, checked out Seal’s photography and watched some videos. The website is going to be packed with new content and I’m excited about all the things we have planned.

Tomorrow night we have another gig to go to, a new artist we will be doing work for. Maybe, just maybe after that we’ll be dropping in on the Guitar Hero launch party in the city.

I love this place!!!

_B