In what appears to be something crossed between Nathan Barley, The Day Today and perhaps The Borrowers, Fox News has installed a series of enormous touch screens in the newsroom. They seem to be iPads but scaled by 50 yet at a lower resolution than an iPad. It just looks ridiculous, and it appears that each screen can show only four tweets at a go.
Just look at them. Madness.
There’s something really nice about knowing someone has a photo or two of yours on their wall. A while back I did two prints for James, at cost, but completely forgot about it. They were from our trip to Dungeness in January. Then recently this picture popped up on Instagram. It’s a great feeling seeing them framed and ready to go on the wall and the images seem to work well together too. Nice bed spread James.
The original images are below.
I’m not a big fan of astrology really. I think Russell Grant ruined it for me on TV-am all those years ago with his crazy jumpers. However this easy to use guide is well worth remembering. For instance I’m a selfish pessimist.
Picture by Emma.
So I made it to the grand old age of 33 and 3/4s without seeing a football match in a proper stadium. To be honest I had very little interest in seeing any football as I’m just not a fan. But I had thought that it’d be a great experience to one day go to one.
Fortunately an email popped into my overflowing Outlook from Bob Barton. Would I like to go to an international match at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea vs Basel, with steak and beer before followed by more beer.
Hell yes.
We had some absolutely cracking seats as Bob is a season ticket holder. It’s smaller than it looks on the telly but a great atmosphere. Completely loved it apart from queuing for a pee with 800 or so other men in close proximity at half time. Crap result but a great evening with Bob, Bart and Henry.
And here’s a wonky picture of the view from our seats.
Another ace Tumblr to add to the list. I really should do a post with great Tumblr pages and just update it regularly.
Anyway, yes, beards are good. Get one.
And here’s me before and after a wee trim. I cut it when Emma says it’s looking “…a bit pubey“.
I’ve known Nat since September 1996 when I started at City of Bath College and stayed in touch ever since. He’s a been a great friend to me all that time. Nat turned 40 this September so I wanted to do something to mark the occasion rather than stick a card in the post, I actually forgot to give him a card. I decided that a weekend surfing would be just the ticket, neither of us would be any good and the location in Devon would be great for walks etc.
I’d already been to the same spot with Emma at the invite of Vaughan and Shannon, who are proper surfers, back in 2009. I booked the same campsite as well as some lessons with Surf South West. I went down to Bath to stay with mum on the Thursday night and then headed over to meet Nat on the Friday morning. It was great to hang out with Nat and Cath as well as Elsa and Joe. Caitlin was at school unfortunately. We then headed down to Devon, found our campsite and had a wander around. We stopped at Saunton Sands first for a coffee and wander around after the drive. It felt really good to breath that fresh Devon air in.
Our cabin was a shed really. Two beds, a door, a Stella fridge and a kettle… and not to forget the campsite rules and menu laminated and then stapled to the wall. Classy stuff. Still it was better than pitching a tent and the site had a great view of the sea.
We peaked a little early on the first day, having cycled down into Woolacombe for a ‘quick pint’ which turned into three and a burger. The cycle back up the hill was pretty grim on my Brompton. I’m amazed neither of us saw the beer or food again. Having felt a little woozy after that a nap was in order. Then some crap TV courtesy of Kevin Bacon and The Happening and then over to the capsite bar to join ‘happy hour’. Oh my, what a sight that was. Stag do’s, lads on tour, a man with stars tattooed all over and wearing a muscle vest as well as women in little or no clothing. Still they had an outside bit and we managed to drink through it. Nat also brought a bottle of bourbon which went down a little too well after.
So next morning it was up to fill ourselves with a greasy breakfast and get down to Croyde to learn how to surf. Not before a good coffee was had though to ease the hangover.
We had a great day splashing around in the water, taking little steps on how to surf, mainly on the foamy waves coming in. Both of us managed little balances then falls. Both also got donked on the head by the big foamy boards – not great for a hangover.
After two hours in the water they let us have lunch. We were both shagged. Fortunately we had time for a nap in the sunshine.
The afternoon session was a bit rough. The tide was out and throwing some fairly aggressive waves about and beating us to a pulp in the process. Still great fun though. After we headed out for coffee in Croyde and both looked weary from it all.
Then it was over to Woolacombe for a massive fish and chips followed by yet another nap back at our shed. Neither of us had the energy for another big night and both struggled with our pints and conversation. Back in bed for a reasonable time and then back out the next morning for another few hours in the water.
Amazingly the second day wasn’t as hard as we were expecting. We both managed to stand up properly on the board and we were taught how to get onto unbroken waves without nosediving. It felt great and completely exhilarating to be forced through the water that fast on the front of a wave. Brilliant fun and far more enjoyable than the day before.
We had meant to stay the Sunday night and then do a walk or something on the Monday. Both of us were completely shattered and the kids were missing Nat. So we headed back to Bristol to have a bit of food, I had another nap, before driving back to London.
Superb weekend. Can’t wait to go again.
Each year I sign up for the Zumptobel Lighting competition. They send you a disposable camera and every year I forget to use the damn thing. I’ve done it so many times I now have a collection of them stretching back to 2010, which is even in its original wrapper.
So this year I’ve actually got round to using it. But rather than just snapping away I’ve decided to only take pictures of scaffolding with it. I’m sure they’ll be a little confused as to why anyone might do that but then they probably don’t know about #scaffoldlove / scaffold of the day on Instagram.
I’m pretty sure I won’t win anything.
I miss the days when I could sit down and do a massive drawing task over a few days relatively interrupted and just churn through album after album in iTunes. These days I struggle to listen to an album in a day and it’s never in one sitting. Not that I’m complaining, I enjoy my job a million times more now but still long for a good isolation-CAD-music-therapy.
Today I’m trying to listen to Ghostface Killah. You should too.
I see so much crap towards cyclists people who choose to travel by bike online. I follow loads of pro cycling people on Twitter and plenty of people post shocking and dangerous clips, as well as the odd idiot copper. I’ve also spent plenty of my time being on the receiving end of this crap too. There’s also these bullshit campaigns, the Nice Way Code being one of them recently. I try and not post about that stuff here but then once in a while one of them tips me over the edge. This time it’s the city of London and this bullshit film.
Lets all share and be nice. How about the driver doesn’t drive on his phone, doesn’t go in the ASZ, uses his indicators and doesn’t drive aggressively? No we have to be nice to each other. For fucks sake this shit makes my blood boil.
There’s no room for proper cycle infrastructure in our medieval streets… pans to wide boulevard. Just a fucking joke all over. Try again City of London.
Via @veloevol
I’ve been riding around the Surrey Hills for years now. But as I’m a bit of a boring person creature of habit I tend to ride a similar loop. I rarely break out of this except when riding with others who are guiding. When you only have one ride every two weeks you don’t want to get lost and not enjoy it. Whilst I know my favourite trails very well and how to link them up I don’t actually know where I am. That sounds ridiculous but I really don’t. All I know is the trail and the series of links to get back to the van / tea shop.
The one person who drags me out of my usual route is Matt. Mainly due to him being so, so bored of riding my favourite trails I’d imagine. With this in mind I went to look at getting a map of the area and starting to properly map out and record some of the trails. I was thinking I could GPS a few then compare them on the map and know where I was, or had been. I also wanted to then use the map to be a little more adventurous and explore, but with the comfort of knowing which main road we were crossing etc.
So i found the maps we needed at 1:25,000 scale. Unfortunately the area I wanted was split over two landrangers, numbers 146 and 147 I think. So I had a quick look at the Ordnance Survey site which isn’t crap anymore. It turns out you can make your own custom maps there. So I centred the map, added my own image to the cover as well as a title. I got it in the post today. Somehow I’m completely amazed that this is possible. Completely custom on demand printing. Looking forward to riding more trails and pencilling in some new ones.
