Ginger DJ Rob

Bunker entrance Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Saturday was a lazy affair watching TV films including Tron which was nice. We had the option to go back to Global Gathering with the weekend tickets but the drive put us off. Instead we drove towards Salisbury to meet our London friends camping at Vinfest, an all weekend party on the grounds of Vinnie's step dad's field. This was no ordinary country field but an ex- Ministry of Defence site which stored nuclear weapons in bunkers and even had its own railway. Most of the happy campers were in full swing dancing under canvas as the weather had drastically changed. Marc was playing his trademark US Soulful House and a few of the ravers were in costume or face-painted. After Marc, the music/DJ quality went down for some of us so used the time to scout out the area and talk to a few people. A table-tennis tournament had been arranged by Trev which was held in the bunker. He even had his own clip-board titled ...

Harder Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Just a small entry for Thursday. Went to my normal karate class with my sensei announcing it would be all kumite (sparring). Usually I pick up minimum injuries such as bruises but this time resulted in one bloody nose from the sensei himself and one very winded stomach from a higher grade - its supposed to be non-contact. Getting up to the Global Gathering site took forever thanks to the traffic north of Oxford and the M40. Luckily Kerry found a back road and we were soon parking at around 5:30pm. Walking towards the entrance was slightly dodgy seeing a younger bloke on the ground being kicked and punched by two larger guys. Even worse when he somehow got up to leg it then chased and shouting for help. Everyone stood amazed as the two other guys laid in more hard punches shouting out to not do it again then he ran off again. Very scary. Queuing up was no way as bad as last year thank god and the searches were very relaxed until we spot...

Here's a thought for you: When do ducklings or chicks lose their 'cheep cheep' noise and gain either their adult quack/bwok noise? Are they like human teenagers and one day their voices just crack? Not much else to report apart from spotting this new animated film coming soon. Renaissance is a French film using the same technology for video-game graphics and looks the dog's. There's influences of Sin City , Blade Runner , Akira and Ghost in the Machine so its got my vote already. Haven't been able to find an English version of the film site but the visuals give you an idea of the style. Here's the French website .

Another skint weekend. Saturday had the worst timing of a down-pour of rain. Sunday I went upto Dorking to see the man behind the karate club I'm a member of. 'Kancho' Robert Sullivan was giving a rare class in the UK. He comes over from Australia about twice a year and created the G o- K an- R yu ( GKR ) club about 20 years ago. I've always been a little cynical about the club thinking its the McDonalds of karate with a pyramid selling business etiquette. Bit of background for you. More than 2 years ago, my sensei knocked on my door 'selling' the club. His sales pitch was well rehearsed and practised though I always remember questioning him on some points with his responses just repeating parts of his patter which I just put it down to a hammy technique. Still, I wanted to get back into shape and was unimpressed by the other local clubs. It was reasonable too and within a few months I had removed alot of belly bulk. A few months in, I was asked to join the c...

It might be Ibiza -beating weather out there but I'm feeling the chill of The Shining as destiny whispers suggestions to kill everyone. Just had a phone call from HR. I didn't get the job in Marketing as someone with alot more experience waded in and pi$$ed on my parade. Other things aren't going my way either. Madonna tickets are like trying to sell gas fires in this weather. Too many fools like me on Ebay so will be advertising at a 99p start price with £100 off reserve price. Plus there's no air-conditioning in the office! Watch the headlines in case I find an axe.

With all the excitement last week of the potential for promotion in two possible jobs has been shelfed for the time being. My boss apologised for getting my hopes up as the whole department needs to be re-assessed. It might mean I get it after that or they might think the role is best suited at the same level. The other opportunity has gone quiet so I went into the weekend with a small, grey cloud over head. Saturday night was a small party at Trevor's summer house. Brought along some summer brazilian house tunes whilst everyone tucked into the BBQ. Left a bit earlier than normal as we had tickets for Fuerzabruta at the Roundhouse the next day. Just round the corner from Chalk Farm tube station near Camden was the venue. Banksey had left his mark with a hotel maid sweeping dust under the wall (will post photo on Flickr). Our mate Steve didn't give too much away about the show apart from the advise to get in the middle of the standing area and get there a little early. We...

Been reading GQ lately and came across this clever website: Pandora.com allows you to enter a song name or artist you like then it comes back with a continuous selection of tracks you might not have heard or considered before. Tried a few searches and was impressed it found Glimmer Twins 'Cassette' but the selection after that got a bit weak. Other tunes I tried kept bringing up Deep Dish. Not quite sophisticated to be a real guru of music.

I had one of those dreams last night/this morning. Instead of the trouser-less wandering or rushing around to find something random, I was going to an awards ceremony to be presented a certificate by the Queen. I'd got there with two possible outfits that were totally rubbish. One was a suit made from net curtains, the other a denim affair with canvas white patches. Then it all went rushed with decisions of what queue to stand in. Should I stand in the Nottingham University certificate queue or a Southampton one, then some terrorists scared everyone off and I was being chased on a moving train. All this has been caused by last few days' events. The University marketing department head-hunted me offering an interview which went quite well. HR cocked up a bit phoning me yesterday of the appointment date & time. What made it even more interesting was one of the panel members was a manager from my department! I had kept this secret for awhile but it goes to show how things...

Nutty friends Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . No wonder we couldn't find it at first but what looked like a piece of derelict land with a few cars was actually where to park for the reception of Kerry's work friend's wedding. The social club was something I'd expected to see on a bad housing estate with signage hand painted on a brickwall. Inside matched the low expectations with pool tables, a dart board and West Ham balloons everywhere?! The lucky lady hitched herself up with another lucky lady who was in the Army. Lovely couple and all the best to them. Like us everyone who'd been invited were expecting to see the promised Trannie DJ but instead it was a camp looking guy in an England shirt. He mixed the normal wedding disco and sung himself to a karaoke machine. Already propping up the bar was Chris, husband of Alex, Kerry's friend from work. He's an ex-Army man himself and has tons of stories to make any type of situation fun. Some scary gangster enc...

Frazzled and past-caring. This week has been a mess of picking myself up from management change and (in)decision, getting a good appraisal and requesting a promotion, a head-hunting phonecall for a job elsewhere in the university, to more management indecision and staff meddling in my plans. Just like the laptop I received last week, once I switch on I can't be bothered with all the changes, switch off and think of going home. That was annoying as well and I await a replacement. Wednesday night was a trip to Clapham and meet up with Kerry's family for a trendy Italian meal. Next door but one was a French bar packing in the fans for the World Cup semi-final. Celebrations spilt onto the road, TV cameras caught blue-shirted fans dancing, bus passengers waved their Tri-colour flags and police tried to coax them off the road. Tonight we're going to a wedding reception for a lesbian couple. I've been updating the YouTube video site . It now has two Flaming Lips videos - E...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr It was our summer visit to Norfolk . Too many people to see and no time to enjoy the scenery. Not that we really saw any as the majority of Saturday was spent in Dereham, my home-town. They've added another shopping centre nearer the library and there's a lot more houses, otherwise it’s the same type of people: old people (which includes my mum) and chavs. There is a minority which include teenagers waiting to move out either to university or Norwich as well as a growing number of Portuguese (due to cheap labour for Bernard Matthews). My mum was first on the list and although in good spirits, she's starting to repeat things which is a worry including her obssession over some rabbit that's taken residency behind her garden. We walked into town for lunch passing a couple of places including the Portuguese owned bar/restaurant filled with smoke. Later we caught up with Mark, our best man and one of my oldest mates. He was proud to show us ...