Nigel II

Nigel II (The Revenge)

We have acquired our very own Nigel (in fact we also have Nigel III, a black and white cat - pics to follow). He likes to run in and eat Lenin and Roxy's food. He's quite friendly now and will let us stroke him and pick him up. He has yet to try to pound/claw my groin or sleep on my couch. Like Nigel, Nigel II also has a disability in that he is distressingly ginger. Nigel III has yet to manifest any such retardation.

York - UK Medical Schools' Secretaries Conference 2009

York Minster

The worst restaurant name I've ever seen.

Heslington Hall - yes, its the University!!

Part of the immense lake at the centre of the campus

Hotel 53, York. Very nice

Bands - Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds and Goldblade - The Globe, Cardiff

Goldblade - 16 April 2009 - I even 'sung' on a few tracks. Wicked gig.

Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds - 28? March 2009 - another awesome gig. Who doesn't like classic punk played on folk instruments!

Matt Related Amusement

Matt likes to wear clothes which explain his syndrome.

Matt and Shell's rabbit. It makes a lot of noise and may be a homosexual.

Endless fun in Homebase. Although images of Matt poledancing not so good

Like Harry Potter n shit. With less gingers.

Always a good idea.

Admiral Ackbar really should have realised sooner...

Summer Randomness

Carreg Cennen Castle

View from outer wall down into the valley.

No idea. Cats are dumb.

Tortoise in Plantasia.

Tits.

When digital switchover happened I thought I had to wave goodbye to Ceefax. It's still there, making this post pointless.

Don't they read this stuff first?

Ditto.

Bike 1 - Specialized Hardrock '07 Custom

Just finished putting my hardtail back together while the Epic frame is in the shop getting refaced and a new headset (bearings rusted through!). What a pain in the arse installing those flying snake shielded cables is, especially when you don't pick up that the rear derailleur is a rapidrise for 2 days! All done now, following a lot of swearing, shouting at cats who find rapidly fraying gear cables are a fun toy (think rocket firing boba fett fun), and a replacement for the brand new front cable. Joy.

Indexing on the rear still isnt perfect, but with oldish and unmatched components I dont expect miracles (only Zool).

Specs:

Specialized Hardrock 2007 HT frame
Rock Shox Recon 351 Air forks with poplock (100mm)
Race Face Evolve XC chainset
Cranks Bros Cobalt Bottom Bracket
Cane Creek Tank II Headset
Specialized stem, bar and saddle
Race Face Evolve XC seatpost
SRAM X9 front and Shimano XTR rear derailleurs off XT Shifters
SRAM PC951 chain and 980 cassette
Hope Mono M4/Mini brakes (180 & 160mm)
Mavic 219 F and 519 rear on Hope hubs wheelset
Panaracer Fire XC (single compound as I'm too cheap) tyres
SPD pedals (probably will replace with Crank egg beaters in due course)

weight: 12.98 kg. Not bad.

New Bike - Specialized Epic

I treated myself to a new bike (sort of by accident) for my birthday - won off eBay from some bloke in Manchester for something of a steal. It's the first full sus bike I've ever really wanted (quite liked the Lapierre Spicy/Zesty but not really for XC) - HT performance with the advantage of a rear shock for rougher bits. For me it seems ideal - I was also looking at the Whyte HTs, but these were £1500 upwards. I went for this particular one (it's a 2005 frame) as the guy had obviously looked after it and upgraded a lot of the components - it came with:

Hope mono mini/M4 brakes
Fox F100 RL forks (standard) and Fox + brain rear shock.
Race Face evolve XC xhainset
Crank Bros cobalt BB
XTR rear mech, LX front, XT shifters
Mavic rims on Hope hubs
Race Face Carbon seatpost, Hope/on one stem/headset and RF alu bars.

I have already switched the grips (ODI lock-on) and saddle (SDG Bel Air Ti) and modified the control layout as the previous owner seemed to have smaller hands. Shortly I will be taking the whole thing to bits and rebuilding it!

Truvativ Stylo EBB + Crankset (will probably upgrade to a Hope ceramic EBB once this one dies)
X-9 groupset with X-7 shifters
Flying snake shielded cables
Crank Bros Egg beater SLs
Might switch my newer mono mini set up onto this one
New Mavix XC717 rims on Hope hubs

I also splashed out on some new Fire XCs for it - thought about some Nobby Nic but Fire XCs are tried and tested around these parts.

Had two test rides so far - once around Clyne in the Mud (fun but probably not the best test bed - although predictably the LX front mech did stop shifting the minute it got damp - its going first!), and one up at Afan on the Wall on Saturday. First impressions - accelerates very quickly, lighter than my HT and handling is improved by the back end being stuck down more. My legs felt a lot fresher at the end too. At Afan on the descents it was positively scary it went so fast (and I tend to take it easy!) - confidence inspiring handling and the forks and shock suck up so much my arms and legs weren't nearly as sore. Still cocked up the rock garden in the Graveyard and stacked it on the zig zags near the bottom, but at the top of the zig zags it was mental.

Still not really tested it on a decent XC ride, but plenty of time. First impressions are good!!

Hardrock HT is being rebuilt with components switched from this as a fun/trails bike, hence why I'll probably put the M4 front on that bike!

We are now officially a 4-bike household!

New Star Wars

Star Wars Guess Who? Did your character once save Ephant Mon...?

Clone Wars collection

41-Back ESB carded Rebel Trooper

77 ROJ Back Luke (Hoth)

Clone Wars Children's fold-out couch/bed (inflatable)

GI JOE - The Rise of Cobra

I'd been looking foward to this with a mixture of excitement and trepidation (after Transformers), so wasn't expecting much, but hoped to enjoy it. We went on preview day (6 August) and whilst it probably wasn't great for anyone not into GI JOE as a kid, I thought it was actually a pretty decent movie. It had a plot (better than Transformers already) and really was a set-up film for the franchise. The reveal (towards the end of the film) of who Cobra Commander is was fairly suspenseful and an interesting twist, which threw the admittedly currently rather 1 dimensional characters into some new positisions. Despite deviating from the standard background and storylines for the characters somewhat, I didn't really mind and found it added to the story of the film. Some good in jokes (kung Fu grip and realistic hair!) and Star Wars references (particularly from Ray Park as Snake Eyes) stood out for me. I think my favourite, and perhaps most true-to-cartoon character was Joseph-Gorden Levitt as Cobra Commander, although with some interesting twists. The major downsides for me were that the character set was limited (although in retrospect this is probably good) and that at the end it really did feel like a 90 odd minute set up for the franchise, despite being a reasonable film in its own right. Nothing particularly wrong here, just want to see the next one! Oh, and the annying shakey cinematography on everything did give me a bit of a headache.

Plus points - Night Raven, nod to Dr Mindbended, genesis of Cobra Commander, Destro, Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow, links into the (admittedly terrible) prequel book.

Negatives - intra-relationships between main characters may have been overdone somewhat, constant flashbacks to Storm Shadown and Snake Eyes' youth got a bit tiresome and seemes shoehorned in somewhat.

Continuity error spotting - Heavy Duty's earring changes side in one shot of him piloting a Shark on the assault on the polar base.

Overall - given that is was called "The Rise of Cobra" it did what it said on the tin, and for a movie based on action figures was actually really entertaining and not annoying! I would have happily watched another 2 hours of it to see what happened next. PLEASE don't let Brett Ratner anywhere near it.

30th Birthday Bonanza Part 2 - The Gifts

Genuine Jeremy Kyle autographed Autobiography from Matt and Shell. Nice.

Birthday cake from Phil and Sof

AT-TE in bits...

AT-TE built (an afternoon of Lego and Young Indy)

Republic Gunship

AAT from Claire

In addition Cath got me Segway rallying(!) and some other bits and pieces, plus the seminla Kung Fu/Basketball crossover movie Kung Fu Dunk (following the success of Shaolin Soccer). Sweet.

30th Birthday Bonanza Part 1 - The Party

Kunt & the Gang headlined the night - here performing Wank the Dog

Kunt and A101 Backstage

Food theme for the night - Chips or Tits?

A101 in action

Our touching tribute to Michael Jackson (or should that be ...tribute to Michael Jackson's touching?)

My Special Limited Edition birthday hair

Me and Kunt

Me looking almost cool for a change

A101

Shaun and I enjoy a Status Quo moment during Fucksticks

A101 – SETLIST – 09 JULY 2009

ECSTACY OF GOLD [ENTRY]

HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN

CHILDREN OF THE GAMBIA

BLITZKREIG BOP

NO FUN

STREETS OF LONDON

TERRITORIAL PISSINGS

KIDS IN AMERICA

ENGLISH NATIONAL ANTHEM BASS SOLO INTO…

TURNING JAPANESE

SO WHAT

--- ENCORE---

ANARCHY IN THE UK

FOR YOU

WHISKEY IN THE JAR

--- A101 & KUNT & THE GANG---

FUCKSTICKS

Well what can I say - what a night, and what a way to celebrate turing 30! Thanks to everyone who turned up, A101, Kunt, Cath for doing the food, Myles@Moloko for the venue, Shell for making me plentiful tea at 3 am and Rach for being hot ;-).

Given that we hadn't really had much of a chance to practice together, we weren't too bad, although I'm sure many people would dispute this. We accept that the impromptu Kids in America was terrible, and Whiskey probably wasn't that great, but Andrew as guest drummer won some fans. The highlight for me was playing Fucksticks with Kunt, 'cos I really like our version of it (see it on You Tube (under A101) and Facebook). Anarchy sounded pretty decent too. Hell, we made a drunk bloke and a tramp outside dance and we played So What on Wind Street, so I was happy. Blitzkreig is also on You Tube I think, along with Fucksticks http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Fizzwizz1&view=videos#play/uploads. Coming on to Ecstacy of Gold was entertaining for me, although I'm not sure who else got the joke. The Michael Jackson riffs (smooth criminal, Billie Jean, Beat it) seemed to fill some time and be sort of appreciated I think. For You was a bit pants as the cable was loose on my pedal so we had to restart. But hey, we got to play it 1.5 times! We had actually decided to scrap Kids, Hey Mickey and Blitzkreig, but managed to wangle all but Hey Mickey back in, much to Shaun's ire.

I think Cath should get special mention for making my Chips or Tits? food theme a reality, although neither of us want to make tit shaped food ever again.

More pics on Facebook.