Ginger DJ Rob

Angel Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . After SW4 and the party Sunday and Monday were sleep catch-up. Monday we biked upto the Common where the fairground rides were. Before we reached the waltzers and win-a-goldfish stalls were loads of trashy market stalls with net curtains, cheap rucksacks and even kitchen pans, the biggest I've ever seen. No kidding, it was restaurant, 20 in a family size, you could boil a teenager in it! We left the chavs and passport dodgers behind with Daft Punk 'Around the world' playing in the distance and headed to the Common's cemetry where this photo was taken. Quite creepy but pretty with it. Loads of overgrown trees, bushes, plants, etc. Some of the plants had even grown around the gravestones (more photos on FlickR). Most interesting person buried there was marked on his gravestone as a 'Comedian' which I imagined as the Fast Show character saying "where's me washboard?".

4 deck view Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . 4 DJs, 4 decks, 1 CDDJ deck, 2 laptops and 2 mixers were ready to used when we returned from SW4. It took over about a quarter of the spare room and we had to crawl under the table for access. The previous night was scrambe through my collection for tracks with acapellas and minimal beats which paid off for the first hour. However, no-one was interested in dancing. A few others returned from SW4 plus Paul and Sarah looking like trucker Ying and angel Yang. Roger took over the DJing duties with some cracking tunes gaining some dancefloor support and I took on club photographer role. A few hours later Kev and Paul played for a bit with Paul mastering the effects firing up the full dancefloor (8 at a push). Paul couldn't resist putting on some cheese, some gay anthem I'm sure and I couldn't resist slapping him for it! As dawn broke, my weary bones called for a bed which was alittle awkward for everyone as our make-shi...

Shiney people Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . After B Live on Clapham Common in July, SW4 was pretty low on my excitment radar. Usual suspects were there but so were at least 3 times the crowd size which meant queuing for practically everything and no entry to the Space Terrace tent (wasn't arsed about the 3rd tent). Mainstage started with Shapeshifters DJing who kept the lunchtime crowd happy. Carl Cox next at 2pm whose highlights were a live drummer; Carl MCing over saying "here comes the beat" (very imaginative); a DnB singer where a quick exit for a good burger;lastly, the Sunday Sport provided some gatecrashers who pleased the majority of the male (and some female crowd). Otherwise, he went back to his roots as a wedding DJ and announce stuff here and there. Eric Prydz was next so we walked about and managed to find somewhere to sit. Zabiela next and boredom set in for some of us. Even the organisers had to gee up the crowd (open air stages need some...

Friday night we were guests at Emma and James's pad for some pizza and poker. I must confess I had no real interest in playing poker thinking that betting with cards would be an evil vice that would be more addictive than free cocaine. But the buzz of having a good hand, betting with a little strategy really stroked the ego. Playing for real money maybe awhile away but sign me up for more! Our thrifty plan to save money for our Japan holiday continued with a pair of DVD's rented for Saturday night. Though, just hours earlier I threw caution in the wind and bought a pair of special edition Adidas Forest Hills trainers. I did need some trainers and they do look the cat's pyjamas (I'm still looking to see if anyone sells pyjamas for cats though would be certain that 8 out of 10 cats would choose a design of 3 red strips, a silver outer and blue highlights). Oh, and HMV robbed me for the purchase of Evil 9's Y4K mix and some Ibiza style sunset mix CD. Anyway, DVD's ...

What Pirate magazine Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Thanks to Steve Wilde for this! Was having a really depressing day until this turned up. Respect to pirate Paul for putting up with our mutinous behaviour.

Flyer for web portal Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . This is the flyer I designed (in concept) to advertise the forthcoming web portal for the University of Southampton. It's aimed at students for that festival pass look. Quite proud of it as most of it was my idea. The web portal has been named 'SUSSED' hence the branding. Only students and staff are able to view the portal.

Following yesterday's entry all hotels are now booked so no need to panic. Now we can sit back, learn some lingo, buy a large rucksack and think about the sights we're going to see. Other than that a few comments on recent telly. Lost on Channel 4/E4 is going down extremely well. Theories are being spoken of a radioactive island hence no communication capable and the polar bear must have come from another plane crash years ago(?). Mighty Boosh however is letting the side down. Although it's great to see it back on TV, I can't help thinking they forgot to add something important, like humour! Taking it out of the Zooniverse was a mistake and leaving out the characters of Dixon Bainbridge, the Zoo owner and Bob Fossil was criminal. Bollo is a little annoying now. He didn't have much of a role in the first series which gave room for Vince and Howard's banter which really is the best bit about Boosh. Boosh will still be watched as it is still the most original thi...

Art Vaults 10 , originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . This was one of 7 vaults around the old town area of Southampton with art installation.

With less than 60 days to go to our trip of a lifetime, booking hotels has become slightly annoying. The 60 day reference is due to the ANA internal flights 'cheap seats' availability. If we couldn't book them there's no point booking everything else. So with the flight times we wanted confirmed, we've been booking hotels this week. Here's a breakdown of our holiday:- Tokyo - 2 days Fly to Hiroshima - 2 days Train to Kyoto - 2 days Train to Hakone - 3 days Train to Haneda Airport to fly to Okinawa - 3 days Fly back to Tokyo - 4 days Tokyo hotel is Star Hotel in Shinjuku (2nd choice I think) Hiroshima hotel is Tokyu Hotel (2nd choice) Kyoto hotel is Aranvert (2nd choice) Hakone hotel was going to be a Ryokan but was priced way over budget so we're now waiting for the Fujiya Hotel to confirm Okinawa hotel is our current pain in the neck situation. Even though its off season, our 1st choice Busena has ran out of standard rooms with the next price being outrag...

Friday was the Big Brother final which was good - shame Anthony won - didn't deserve it as Eugene was the only one having any personality. Saturday was a wash out thanks to the bollox weather we've been having. However, we managed to book a couple of hotels for our Japan holiday, Tokyo (part 1) and Hirsohima. Only Kyoto, Hakone, Okinawa and Tokyo again to go. Plus the internal flights to/from Okinawa. Other preparations to do are: Learn the lingo (or try as much), get a rucksack, plan exactly what we're doing everyday (sad I know but we want to use every opportunity to see all we can), prime me for Japanese food - perhaps get used to chop sticks! The weather finally remembered it was August on Sunday so we biked into town for a bit of shopping then went to see Southampton's most innovative art exhibition (don't laugh as it was surprising quite good). Art Vaults uses the city's medieval underground vaults where artists used the below street level environment to...

It's Wednesday and I'm doing my bit for the (un)help(ful)-desk so time to reflect on the past few days. My pathetic cold has since shifted and energy returning. However, not satisfied with internal health problems I decided to fall off my mountain bike by doing something really stupid. Wheeling down a ramp, I saw a branch of bramble that was going to cut into my arm. Instead of stopping and walking around the thorny branch I decided to let my left hand go off the handlebars whilst braking with my right to slow down. The right brake is the front brake therefore I flipped over hitting my right knee and left shoulder. Have some nice battle injuries to prove this. Picked myself up, went into work then noticed my specs were missing! Had to run in case anyone had stepped on them. Luckily some kind angel left them on a bollard in mint condition. Phew! Still not satisfied with my earlier mutilation I decided to go in for some more damage. Last night was the first time back to kar...

Just describing how I feel at the moment. Last week's pathetic cold caught up with me after Friday's poker night with Emma and James. Never played it before and after some lucky hands plus a bit of "f*ck it, see what happens if I do this" I pulled off some great wins and bluffs. If we kept playing until the next day chances were that I could win. Saturday was a day of nothing but feeling crap (maybe do them in halves so least I get some sleep). Kerry managed to book some of the internal flights for our Japan holiday coming up in October. Continued with Killer 7 which is starting to lose it's appeal. Sunday felt even worse as my nose was in need of a plumber. Kerry made good headway with some holiday research finding some good travel blogs and ideas. Finding the Ghibli museum was the diamond idea whilst in Tokyo - the animation studio that did 'Spirited Away' . With this inspiration I went to the video rental shop, trying to get 'Princess Mononoke'...

031 , originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . At Global Gathering July 2005 - more to come

Image via Wikipedia Last night we drove all the way to Hammersmith's Riverside Studios to see a new TV show being 'tested'. With the same actors and writers of Garth Merengi's Dark Place (one appearing in Nathan Barley ), it seemed great on paper. After a great bar meal and beer to warm us up, we took our seats ready for the show. I knew they were front seats but these were in breathing space of the actors which freaked us out alittle. The 'set' was simply a scabby old settee, a bar stool and a couple of mics on stands. In the corner was a camera to record the action. With everyone settled, the producer walked on and announced the concept of the show mentioning that it was going to filmed in the future for Channel 4 and that today's show was to practise their material and to see if it was that funny - therefore we didn't need to force any laughter. He said the set would be completely different - hmmm, good idea! So Deano, who I think was Ga...

Saturday night was our recovery evening so didn't fancy doing anything too excessive so took our guests to Harbour Lights, the independent cinema in Southampton. If you want to avoid kids and chavs, want a decent bar (with cake) and a small gallery tacked on for a tiny bit of culture this is the place! Oh a good view of the yachts. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Tim Burton does exactly what it says on the tine - weird, wonderful, funny and Depp stealing the show as usual. Visually stunning, the sets were amazing, all the cast were excellent and the story did the book proud, although I still like the 70's version. Nice to see a very British cast especially Mark Heap (Spaced) and Kevin Eldon (Big Train, Fist of Fun) camping it up. Highly recommended!

Friday daytime was a long lie in after the tour of over-hyped bars of Southampton (perhaps more booze was needed) and enduring the worst of Sky digital daytime TV. Steve & Sam being Sky virgins couldn't get enough of it forcing me to do tidying up and other errands to keep me sane. We left for Stratford-upon-Avon direction around 3:30pm and squeezed all 4 of us into Kerry's temp car, the Hyundai Coupe. After seeing the most idyllic country villages ever, being stuck behind one too many German tourists and getting a little car sick from the curvey, hilly roads we finally saw the site of Global Gathering. Somehow I think the organisers only considered drivers to come from the motorway as there was only one direction sign which pointed to the carpark! After parking, we starred in disbelief at the queue to get in to Global Gathering. It was at least 6 people wide and about 1km long. A closer look at those queuing we noticed alot of camping equipment being carried. I then asked ...

Its been awhile but will try and do something as often as I can. Before I launch myself into work (well after I've done the ebay stuff), here's a summary of the weekend. Thursday night Steve & Sam came up to stay for Global Gathering. After feeding them we taxi'd out to Lizard Lounge and Apartment 26 in Southampton to see the monthly Bestival promotion. Normally we would get charged £5 for entry but they let us in for nothing even when I questioned they still said not to worry about it. Terry Hall from the Specials was DJing with someone from the Dub Pistols. Terry looked fat but had a fashionable greasy pro-barnet playing soul and ska which became quite tedious after awhile. Crowd were older than me but reflected by the fact that no-one had heard of the Specials unless over 30 though seemed like only over 40s turned up. Transferred after one drink to the downstairs bar where an up-4-it house DJ played okay stuff until we got bored. Transferred again to Orange Rooms hop...