Ginger DJ Rob

This will probably be my last entry so here's a summary of my year. Just wanted to list those highlights and lowlights of the year. January - Origami and Chinese New Year February - Mighty Boosh live, Goldfrapp, Edward Scissorhands ballet March - 5th year Anniversary, Karate tournament, Blue belt graded, Sock porn April - Kerry's 30th, New York , Stella club tours Southampton, Cycle (almost) theft May - Wii named and previewed, Lost, Fonejacker, YouTube , MySpace , Low - Audi A3 going June - Paul's Ibiza party, Brighton sand castles, Wireless, Brick July - Daft Punk, Fuerzabruta, Vinfest, Big Brother, Low - no promotion/no marketing job August - Ibiza, Brain Training, SixTV September - Phoenix Wright Attorney, Lego Star Wars , Japanorama, low - being skint October - The Rapture, Extras November - Paintballing stag day, Borat, Game On exhibition , Casino Royale , Teaching karate December - Wii, T and V's party, my birthday, Snowboarding, Low - my...

What the Wii controller could have looked like! Image from C&VG website

So Monday was the interview at 12pm. What a stupid time of the day that was with an hour's written test afterwards. I forgot to bring any food with me so my stomach did a little of the talking (moaning). It went well and thought I'd be in with a good chance. Director guy was rushed and kept butting in to my answers. The next day I received the call for the decision. Someone more suited to the role was chosen i.e. someone internal! At least I don't have to worry through Xmas of moving plus I had my doubts of the job (too much travel costs and campus a bit dull). So stuck in the office, holidays start in two and a bit days and boredom is kicking in. Whilst looking for Wii news, I found this game called Line Rider which you can play online. The movies section is excellent and playing it will make you miss deadlines! Apparently Nintendo loved it so much it will be repackaged for the Wii and DS. The Wii's online facility has properly started. We can get get nifty weather rep...

Forgot to share this with everyone. This is a section on my 5 year old niece's advent calendar! Other areas not shown here are other reindeers with 'Camberwell' carrots, Santa Claus surrounded by white powder a la Scarface and elves tripping out with blue smurfs. Currently watching Twister on TV or should I say The A Team with wind. Bill Paxton for me will always be Chet from Weird Science.

The day after my birthday (probably whilst writing my brithday blog) I had an out of the blue mobilephone message. The University of Sussex actually invited me for an interview for Monday 18th December. Now the nerves are really kicking in, not just about the interview but the whole move. Friday night we bought a needle shedding mess-maker then settled down to more wrist-flicking action (easy) with Zelda. After only a week the batteries to the Wii remote are almost dead! Habit-tat Saturday was a well-appreciated lay-in after Kerry's random working hours and after a Tesco's run our Wii addiction kicked in and the house got neglected from ever being tidied. We dragged ourselves away from it just in time to get ready for Trev and Viv's hat party. Preparations started mid-week after getting the Final Scratch working on Windows with a mini-set of new tunes. Also, Kerry already had some fancy dress accessories she'd acquired for a training role-play thing therefore contributi...

Nice lady, Kerry treated me good last night. Lots of lovely presents, the above birthday card and an amazing meal at Puccinis, an Italian restaurant. Based on Shirley Road, its less than 5 minutes walk for us nestled between the Co-op, favourite haunt for shop-lifting, under-aged drinking Chavs and a dodgy Indian restaurant with not much else. The deal was if it's your birthday you get a free 3 course meal. So bit of a novelty, low expectations though above average décor and good reviews online. The menu had a reasonable range, drinks list a little short. But as soon as the food was tasted it blew away any fancy, exotic or expensive restaurant away. The chefs had an angel touch making the food taste perfect. The proportions were generous, staff attentive and ambience buzzing yet well-behaved. We made the mistake of ordering a starter each and a garlic bread with cheese filling us up. The main course was just trying to be greedy but the quality was just luxury in the mouth cooked wi...

Image by BitchBuzz via Flickr Pretty chilled day so far. Already opened one present from Kerry, Super Mario Bros. for the DS - nice one! Otherwise I thought I'd use this entry to show what's interesting about today's date. Famous people who share my birthday Ol'Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra Lionel Blair Jennifer Connelly My Nan Today's news: 3rd Ipswich prostitute strangled - The Independent is trying to link past murders to same killer including one in 2002 finding the body in my home town, Dereham. The Guardian says Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied gas project, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon. UK No.1 Take That - Patience   Ananova quirky news - X-rated Christmas decorations A gift shop is in trouble for selling x-rated Christmas decorations. The d...

My day off work started with a slight pang of paranoia. BBC News got me worried with stories of Wii shortages even for those who had pre-ordered. At 9:30am I was in shop picking it up. Wasn't allowed to open it until I picked up Kerry from the airport. Finally opened it at 11:55am. Setting up was easy and the machine itself was tiny, even the remotes were half the size of other remotes. Spent too long creating the avatars or Miis for the Bartlett family reunion and not enough time testing out the games. The image above is not the Wii one but a web flash version . Friday night was just drinking beer, eating pizza and playing Wii - which I bet a lot of people were doing. Wii Play was a really simple introduction to the controls. It was only the extra remote we bought it for otherwise I wouldn't bother. Oh yeah, Donna's house was amazing, a 5 floored new build and a big living room perfect for playing more Wii! Wii Sports went down a lot better than I thought. Tennis was the b...

After a weekend of cleaning the house and not much else, my geek-excitement is peaking towards Friday with the Wii launch. I had expected the Game store to open at midnight Thursday but instead the shop is opening at 7am. Pity the poor buggers who will be serving. Check out the Japanese guy who's just that bit more excited than anyone else. I did catch up with that French animated film, Renaissance which I blogged back in July . Very stylish, some interesting ideas of the future and a couple of great action sequences but the story was boring and the dialogue dragged on a bit. Daniel Craig, Ian Holm and Jonathan Price all provided voices. This weekend coming will be a Bartlett family reunion in Plymouth. Nice as it is I'm completely gutted that the Rhino club in Southampton have James Lavelle DJing on Saturday night. Other highlights (and I'm struggling this week) was receiving my first birthday card...from Sainsburys with a free box of chocolate truffles. At least they care...

GingerDJRoblog has been lynched by the Six TV mafia. Back in August (10th) I reported about the Solent Sci-fi TV programme we watched and its DIY presentation. This week I've been bombarded (well two of them) by the makers of the show with defensive swipes. From the recent bollox on digital lately I could be persuaded to view more of the Adventures of Stephen Brown . I'm also considering to ask for a walk on part for their next production. Picture above is from their Tubcon Invasion series - great costume and more exciting photos from their picture gallery . I've also found their YouTube videos . Talking of costume, I've learnt that the NYE party will have a mandatory dress-code of hat wearing. A little research has uncovered some websites for inspiration including Sabrina, the teenage witch's cat (or rather its stuffed relative) modelling some ideas. Just found a cute animation on YouTube called Kiwi!

I'm quickly realising that digital TV is shite. More choice, means more repeats, more reality and more tight budgeted crap that falls flat on its arse after two shows - no wonder people are turning to the internet. Give it 5 years and the licence fee will be dead. Blunder , the new Friday night comedy was brave with its range of characters but only one really stood out. Karate Johnson blew everything away. Tom Meeten played a martial arts expert who tells morality tales then demonstrates his karate skills and er, bollocks. Talking of double '0's, cinema finally offered some solid entertainment with Casino Royale . The whole presentation was great and different to other Bond films: slick, dark and edgy - no cheesiness, not so many gadgets to rely on, Daniel Craig made the character more real and no super baddies that were larger than life. The only spoiler for me was the constant product placement. Sony was far away the worst offender with their Vaio, phones, Bravia and cam...

Started the working week with a 2 day course away from the office. After the hassle trying to claim for travel costs I arranged a lift with 'Bill' from my department. I'm normally quite a good passenger but after experiencing his driving habits I was close to slapping him a few times. Almost all traffic lights he stopped at he would turn the engine off (just mildly annoying), drive at 5 mph below the speed limit (quite annoying), constantly played classical chamber music that reminds me of Blackadder or listen to Radio 3(very annoying), driving back home he would avoid traffic by taking a different road only on guess-work then getting lost then arriving at an even worse place before therefore taking longer to get home without asking my local knowledge (biting hand to stop slappage), getting totally flustered when given directions and snapping at me to give one at a time (hand curling into fist but still being bitten) AND refusing to drop me off anyway near my house in case ...

Our weekend began with a work's leaving do at Banana Wharf in Southampton. You can smell the money next to the motor boats and the bars are full of middle-aged boaty types or WAG wannabe's sniffing out Saint players. Another bar, another location on Saturday night. Inigo in Clapham hosted Sam's birthday mash-up. Decided not to drink but drive. Got a bit messy. Sam, bless her, was in a happy, huggy, birthday trance, Kev got quite out of it and Trev leading the way to dance on the tables. Got some good photos on FlickR but by 1am I was getting bored with the general rammedness of the place with beer-heads at the back of the place getting upset after me stepping on their feet to get to the toilet.

Glad it was 2 for 1 Orange Wednesday last night. The Prestige had received some good reviews but at the end of it I didn't think it quite deserved the acclaim. The cast list was great - Hugh Jackman (Wolfman to Kerry), Christian Bale (Batman), Michael Caine (Batman's butler), Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis (Gollum) and David bloody Bowie all directed by Christopher Nolan who did Momento & Batman. All good on paper and the film got more interesting as more clues revealed themselves. Nolan and Jackman start off as assistants/stooges for magic acts before developing their own performances. The wife of Jackman's charcter dies after drowning in a trick which Nolan tied the ropes to her. He can't remember if he tied a different knot which could have caused her death so Jackman blames him for murder. Before that though we see Jackman dying after his 'final' act but that's just the tease to find out what actually happened before and after. Bowie plays some stra...

Whilst Kerry had her mop chopped in Notting Hill I turned into Mr. Sensible and did my Xmas shopping. By 1pm I had got almost everything I needed. This gave me plenty of time to mooch around and visit the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum. With a ticket time for 4pm entry I was given 1hr 30 mins to look and play. Highlights for me were rekindling memories of playing, the arcade machine, on the N64 and, a classic Spectrum game I used have as a kid. Lowlights were having my arse whipped on (the guy had obviously been there all day). Loads of games were available to play plus lots of things behind perspex glass to ogle at including a ZX81, the first Pong game, promotion stuff for GTA such as a baseball bat and the game's plot on post-it notes. Staff were a bit clever checking ticket times and booting out hangers on. I left before my alloted time as my feet had taken quite a punishment all day. What was weird for me was walking around a museum experiencing antiques within my...

Grand Theft Mario If you've seen [adult_swim] on Bravo you'll like this.

How Steve got shot Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Mark's stag do went rather well with the paintballing. Campaign Paintball was proud to host such celebrities as Maurice Gibb from the BeeGees and some of the Bill (plus more), even Daniel Beddingfield had left his mark in grafitti. Surprised at how busy the place was and concerned whether we had to fight against under 16 years. In the first game I shot 3 balls and lasted 2 minutes. Second game I started to hang back a bit crouching then soaking my decent trainers in a wet ditch. We were winning a perfect game thanks to some more experienced players. 3rd and 4th games were in the Dodge City with lots of wooden buildings to get smoked out of. After lunch came the Speedball game using inflatable shapes with a British Bulldog game rule. Our opponents were a different team than before and had more players who cheated big time. Last scenario was the muddiest just like WW1 trenches. Because of the numbers disadvantage we were...

Last weekend was just decorating so I won't bore you with the details. Work has been good but busy hence no blogging. Teaching karate has its ups and downs. Tuesday night was Halloween so I had the feeling a few people would be missing. Only 6 people turned up so my treats of sweets, karate related games and scary mask went out the window, and my least favourite student, ugly and fat kid Joe wound me up in front of the class pointing out my mistakes as usual. He's about 13, probably eats chips with everything and has been promoted to a high grade without putting any effort into it and for just turning up 5 times a week. You'd think all that training he'd be skinny as a rake but his lardy spare Formula 1 sized tyre hasn't shifted and he wears socks because the floor's too cold. I'm sure he's only doing karate to ward off bullying at school but the kid's got too big for his boots and needs to learn a lesson in manners. According to Kerry's training...

You scored as James Bond, Agent 007 . James Bond is MI6's best agent, a suave, sophisticated super spy with charm, cunning, and a license's to kill. He doesn't care about rules or regulations and somewhat amoral. He does care about saving humanity though, as well as the beautiful women who fill his world. Bond has expensive tastes, a wide knowledge of many subjects, and his usually armed with a clever gadget and an appropriate one-liner. James Bond, Agent 007 92% Indiana Jones 75% Maximus 71% Batman, the Dark Knight 63% Neo, the "One" 63% Lara Croft 58% Captain Jack Sparrow 54% William Wallace 54% The Terminator 50% El Zorro 50% The Amazing Spider-Man 50% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Reported back on 2nd August last year, Man to Man with Dean Learner , the TV series finally materialised on Friday night. It was originally called Deano's After Dark Show when we saw the live, rehearsal version without any of the set pieces. I had a cosy memory of it being very funny only to be bored rigid by the end of the TV version. If it wasn't for a couple of moments including the War of the Wasps film clip, we would have switched over. I was slightly worried that my recent purchase of Garth Merenghi's Dark Place DVD would be ruined by sketchy but good memories. It wasn't as funny as I remember but still worth a look. Good to see the special guests such as Stephan Merchant of Extras and Julian Barratt of the Boosh. TV was the only company we had at the weekend apart from the bungled job of wallpapering the bathroom ceiling. Rented The Warriors on PS2. Its been out awhile now but everything's slowing down with the new generation consoles coming soon so a good...

"Trick or treat" will soon be "Trick for a treat". Just been sent some great animal costumes for Halloween including the one in the picture. In case you're not satisfied with just one photo (like I was), here's some links to sniff at:- > Costume Craze > Spoiled Rotten Doggies

If you've ever seen the Simpsons episode when Bart celebrates his birthday in some strange pizza restaurant where animatronic animals sing Happy Birthday? Then you'll appreciate this website . It was found after Kerry convinced us that some children's TV/Film/cartoon character was called 'Munch'. She couldn't confirm what situation it was in so we tried searching for it. Chuck E Cheese's restaurant must have been used the key influence for that Simpsons episode. There's some amusing sound clips and YouTube videos which sound and look like second rate Muppet performances. Never did find out about that 'Munch' character though.

The Rapture Saw them last night at the Koko club, Camden. What a great place! I'm sure some Channel 4 music programme has been filmed there with its multi-tiered, old theatre balconies. Saw the last two songs of The Presets who sounded good. Rapture though were in class of their own. All the songs we wanted to hear, the crowd up for it and a little boistrous in places, sound acostics spot on. Mattie, the bass-player and singer was gurning and winking to the crowd like an old-time raver throughout with even Luke making a comment on his band-mate's behaviour. When the encore came on, Luke had attached a strange red vinyl cape with stiff collars then climbed the left speaker for the last song.

Discovering the slow puncture at Winchester whilst driving to Norfolk should have been used as a warning to the weekend's success. We arrived at my dad's about 10:15pm and watched TV for a bit. Quite impressed by Jack Dee's new sitcom, Lead Balloon . Went to bed about midnight and for 45 minutes had to battle with a fly infestation. We lost and took a chance finding a hotel hoping to find one with a night porter. Luckily, we did but had to fork out £55. When we returned to my dad's the house was surrounded with flies dotted about on the roof and buzzing above. We could see how they were entering the house through a crack in the roof which my dad repaired later. Spent lunchtime in Dereham with my mum wandering around charity shops. The flies seemed to have followed us as the bakery we stopped at had loads behind the counter. The afternoon was in Norwich helping the Dog and Catfish shopping empire with the prurchase of some new clothes. Saw Josh and Christie in the evenin...

Moan of the week: The Acer laptop we bought a few months ago came with the Vodafone Mobile Connect for free (like broadband anyway). Thought I'd try and set it up this week only to discover after a few phonecalls and downloads that the laptop is incompatible with the datacard software. I think Acer have some explaining to do. Otherwise, we've been looking at NZ places to go for our holiday next year. Finally finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS. Now looking forward to getting the next one. Modwolves: A name you should get excited about if you like the Mighty Boosh . Launching next week will be their fan club for £10 membership plus a load of jiffy bags to send them. As well as a sew-on badge, they'll offer exclusive live gigs to test material on them.

Updating the blog is taking alot more effort these days with work getting busier and less interesting things happening so apologies for that. Last weekend saw the in-laws, Kev and Karol. Highlight was discovering a new New Forest location called Burley full of cosy pubs and unusual gift shops. Finally finished Lego Star Wars thank god. No longer do we have to listen to that 'da da da...' music, however I feel I have brain damage with those chords bouncing around inside my head. The working week ended up with a two-day course away from the office. Key Client Management was the subject held at the Rose Bowl, Hampshire Cricket Club’s home. It meant a £15 taxi fare each way and an earlier start. It started off ok with great buffet food and a funny cockney trainer who looked like Sgt. Flint from Hong Kong Phooey. The room wasn’t warm but the trainer had brought his own desktop fan to stop him sweating like a pig. As the course progressed we all realised management had stitched us up...

Lots and Lost to talk about (see what I did there? Not a spelling mistake but a play on words. Eh, clever hmm what?) The weekend started with the arrival of my Dad and his girlfriend, Gail. Had only met her once for about 10 minutes and didn't come away with a good impression. My over-grown doubts and worries of hating her were soon driven away and found out alot more about her over a Kutis curry than I sometimes know about my dad. Kutis do amazing Indian food including Venison Masala. The other thing which is worth going there is for the traditional curly sandaled waiters like Ali Baba. Saturday morning was a rude awakening at 8am as Coleman Snr was keen to get down to the boatshow, the biggest annual event Southampton ever puts on (another reason to move out). So big that Paul and Sarah couldn't get a hotel, B&B or bush to lie under that weekend. As I was rubbing my tired eyes to see if all was well for breakfast, my dad was stirring a cup of tea in his shirt, pants and ...

What Pirate September 2006 Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Apparently its Talk like a pirate day today so in honour of our favourite salty seadog from Ibiza I give you the new issue of What Pirate magazine. Picture taken in Ibiza bar/restaurant KM5 where the bill comes packaged in a miniture treasure chest as modelled by Paul (couldn't resist the photo). Arggh matey!

Nothing too exciting this week hence the lack of blogging entry. Highlights of the weekend were shopping and repairing the garden fence whilst avoiding the spider invasion. I've never been in a house to have so many different types of spiders. The downstairs bathroom is rife with skinny blob-with-legs spiders that live off lint whereas Kerry gets terrorised by the monster tree spiders with the muscle to crawl up the plug hole. Another slightly annoying thing is our Polish neighbours who are getting a bit noisy lately playing naff folky music before we want to get up. Although there's the regular couple, they seem to have a different friend or two staying every other week with bathroom noises through our paper-thin bedroom wall. Latest purchases are the new Lego Star Wars II game, which has been on all week and currently listening to Whitey 's album, The light at the end of the tunnel is a train . Discovered his talents on that Leave them all behind mix album. It’s electr...

You're suppposed to feel better after a holiday aren't you?! Ever since the delayed flight back from Ibiza I've just felt crap with little energy and the sweats. Had to skip karate Tuesday night though have mixed thoughts about going back having to take over the class from now on. On a good day I'd be able to do it but I have the feeling I'm going to get bored of the whole responsibility plus my memory for it is sketchy at best. Watched A Cock and Bull Story Sunday night and although Coogan and co were good the staggered multiple plot thing sort of tripped on its arse. There's a few laughs there but it ended up as a production white elephant. Seriously addicted to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS - I may have a problem. Have since banished it from bringing it to work. Work has been very uninspiring lately. Today I did a 10 minute presentation in front of a dozen PHD students only to discover halfway through I'd left my flies open. Luckily the beast w...

P9010285 Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Our last day to take advantage of the hire car we drove over to the South West of the island for a view of Es Vedra, a huge rock island just off the coast. Paul wasn't up for the joy ride after the previous night's goose-chase so we explored on our own. What we didn't realise was how mountainous the roads would be to get there and it scared the crap out of poor Kerry with vertigo. Found a place to park on a 15% gradiant which was a little touch and go then took some photos. Couldn't decide where to eat so headed over to Salines beach near the airport which is famous for a jetset favourite. Drove past some wild flamingos (though Kerry didn't believe me until the return) and the huge areas of salt plains. Salines was too busy so back to Ibiza Town for grub. After our sunset cock-up the night before we actually planed for champagne picnic with well timed results as you can see! Nice to finish the holiday with an old school me...

Benirras beach Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Another attempt at getting up before noon, this time to hire car and head for our favourite beach called Benirras. Went for a small car as parking near Paul and Sarah's was tricky and ended up with a Kia in bright green. We thought this would be a one-off until we spotted about half a dozen as we drove up the island. Benirras was busy therefore lost the charm we'd discovered last time. I'm guessing it was non-peak season for us 3 years ago. On the route back home I spotted the sign to Bambuddha Grove, a restaurant/bar place we'd all agreed to go before the holiday ended. It should have been so easy finding it again - you'd think. We failed getting over to San An for a proper Mambo sunset, just minutes late then headed back over to Bambuddha Grove. About 2 hours later we arrive after missing it 3 times doing loops round it etc. The Grove is an amazing place and one you know you could be rubbing shoulders with those in...

Sunny beer Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . The majority of the day we stayed either on the roof terrace or inside as the weather wasn't up to scratch. Watched one of Paul's favourite films called Razor Blade Smile . Not surprising it was a vampire story and with the low budget I was expecting too much. Was pleasantly surprised by its main star who over acted his bit and the story was quite original. Later we returned to KM5, the exclusive bar we'd found last time only to be disappointed that everyone knew about the place. Also, we intended to have a meal there without reserving but that was a mistake. Settled down expecting just the one drink then got offered a table. All was going well with glamorous stiltwalkers and nice deep house tunes until I realised my food hadn't been cooked properly. Sent it back at 1:10am and the waitress said it would take ages to do again. I opted for pasta for quickness and got cappacho instead. Complained again and the chef scared the...

Relaxing, Formentera style Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Managed to get up around 11am (somehow) for our trip to Formentera. Got the 35 minute ferry and watched some rubbish daytime TV programme on board (not allowed on deck) some matador getting divorced from a Spanish singer with endless loops of footage. Kerry didn't appreciate the bumpy waves so the end couldn't come quick enough. Arrived at the tiny port and sourced a moped hire company. No English spoken so all in hand gestures and badly spoken Spanish. As soon as we hit the road, we forgot about how rough we felt and looked forward to our 50cc/50kmph adventure. First stop was a lighthouse with a great view sparkly Med-sea view with dragonflies zooming around in the shade. Next was trying to find the best entry on the 5km beach. Found it after a couple of turns and discovered a few nudes - unfortunately they were retired old blokes sunning their wrinkled todgers. Still nice beach, no hassles, warm water. Couple of ...

P8280052 Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Paul 's Amazon addiction came in useful as we hardly saw daylight. Watched Serenity (again for us) then headed out for some simple grub in San An. Noticed how quiet the Brits Abroad were - unless they were getting hammered in West End.

We love Space - Sunday at Space, Ibiza Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Another long lie-in to recooperate the energy needed for We Love Space. To be honest I wasn't really up for it that day. Dancing in the daytime just feels wrong so spent most of the time wondering around the club. But things got a bit better, as they do ;), though Kerry had a rough patch spending more time in the chill out area. The terrace area was packed with more anthem tunes bashed out. Some of the DJs mind were slightly hopeless at basic mixing supporting my lack of interest for the place. Discovered the Electric Lady Lounge which was completely empty. Later we received a flyer promoting that very room so you could tell they were desparate for punters that night. Smoking Jo was in the main room occompanied by her famous girlfriend, Skin from Skunk Anansie. The music, similar to Tom Stephan, was a minimal techno , driving sound, not like the dull bleepy stuff. It worked well in the club but wouldn't...

One of Paul's new toys Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . A very long lie-in meant a late start to the day. Went to the island's Hypermarket (not Vipermarket as Kerry thought it was) to stock up for the week. Annoyingly, they didn't stock any squash. They did however a series of special edition of Fantas including a Japanese watermelon (see FlickR). The evening started off with a look around the Old Town with Paul buying two toys off a rug in a back alley. The first was an evil green eyed toy cat that yapped, the other a hypnotic coloured light fan that sang a Chinese version of happy hardcore . The evening ended at Jade Jagger 's favourite restaurant that night, apparently.

Made in Italy at Amnesia Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . First night's sleep was non-existant so opted for the easy option of a drive around the island. Lack of sleep forced us to have a 3 hour siesta before our assult on Amnesia for Made in Italy. Getting the tickets was a slightly dodgy cash in hand at a bar affair then waiting for the dealer to collect them from his flat. The promised 5 minutes turned into 30 minutes but he kept his word. After all the getting ready and high-speed taxi drive we arrived at the club around 2:30am! The line-up was quite good with Tom Stephan and Layo/Bushwacka headlining though our last memory in Pacha had secured the ticket purchase. Gladiator was the theme this year though didn't quite have the glamour as the Pirate night I remember. The crowd were mainly Italian but were of a chav equivalent - harmless but lacked the style and energy I'd associate with Italian clubbers. The main show was a singer in toga outfit supported by gladia...

View from Paul & Sarah's roof terrace Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Half day skive just in case M25 rush hour and airport security got too much. No probs and arrived in Ibiza . Hoping to see Paul with a hand-written card waiting but he'd only just got there on time. After struggling with our fuly loaded case up the steepest, oldest steps of Dalt Villa the complaints were soon forgotten after seeing the view from the balcony. Spent the rest of the early hours sipping the bubbly.