Ginger DJ Rob

Yesterday was our trip up to London taking advantage of a 2 for 1 ticket price for Monkey, Journey to the West and meet up with everyone for Steve's birthday meal. With the Jubilee line closed, it was an early start for a Sunday morning catching the 9:30am train from Brighton. We took the Thames Clipper from Tower Hill upto the O2 Millennium Dome. The chill factor in the wind was the invisible enemy of warmth and it was worse at the O2. Monkey was based outside the dome in a massive big top tent. Luckily they'd devised some sort of inflatable tubed heating system but our coats stayed on. We couldn't believe our luck with our allocated seats as we were on the front row at the very middle. However, a shoehorn was required to wedge us between our neighbours. The show started with projected animated sequence of Monkey's egg hatching then the screen rolled away to present the live action players as the yellow/black track-suited Monkey played with his minions (and constantly ...

Christmas Day was an in-law family affair with Kev and Karol, Donna and niece, Morgan plus Viv bringing along one month old Amy. Lunch was a stuffing of turkey and enough vegetables to sink a ship. My present to Morgan went down rather more better than first thought with a can of fake snow (as pictured) which she used to create many creative pictures. The Wii Board came out later between more eating and Wallace and Grommit etc. Below, I've tried to review the games we bought with it based on a number of sessions over the Christmas holidays. Wii Fit is worth getting though only the committed will really gain from it. Its the gaming equivalent of the sandwich toaster, which after the family and friends Christmas could easily be a dust collector if you dismiss the quick fitness evaluation and instant games. It's quite amusing comparing your social circles with it's perceptive Wii Fit Age calculator. I consider myself above average for fitness so it was quite complimentary ran...

I'd completely forgotten about a Brighton tradition on the Winter Solstice. ' Burning of the Clocks ' was a parade of paper lantern art towards the beach then set alight to mark the shortest day. Getting a decent photos was near impossible but it wasn't the best parade I'd seen. It climaxed as all the paper lanterns were stacked on a heap then some clockwork music prepared for the lighting of the bonfire behind a scaffold platform then the fireworks were let off. The Wii Fit got delivered and with the limited time we've had its a bit of a giggle with some home-truths coming out. Like the Brain Training on the DS, it measures your age in BMI, weight and based on other exercise results. Proudly, I came out 5 years younger with the ideal BMI. Haven't yet tried the Shaun White Snowboarding just yet as we've got Batman on the PS3 to finish. A couple of pieces of news today which made me smile. The Icesave money has finally been transferred to my account - Me...

Not sure I'll get enough time to update the blog before the big X so Merry Christmas readers. Little Big Planet has launched a season special update pack on the PS3. Quite a cute costume if you want your game to look all Christmasy. We finally caved in and bought ourselves a Wii Board . Argos Santa is delivering it tomorrow. Can't wait to get into the Shaun White Snowboarding game. It's an in-law Christmas this year meeting at Kev and Karol's. On the 28th we'll be in London to see Monkey: Journey to the West at the O2 . It was extended to 4th January and they had 2 for 1 ticket deals on . Otherwise we'll be fighting over the Christmas Radio Times. Luckily I bought a HDD DVD recorder for those schedule clashes.

Christmas present paranoia set in the next day as I panicked I wouldn't be able to find a decent gift for Kerry before it got too late so braved the rain and went into London. As I came out of Bond Street tube station I was confronted with around 30 Father Christmas's drinking at a local pub. Before I attacked Carnaby Street's new shops with my plastic swipe sword, I found a cafe for a quick bite and coffee. It had to be the best ever cappuccino and toasted panini I've ever had. The shopping wasn't as successful as I liked but I did eventually found something. After a tasty carbonara (no restaurant can out do Kerry) a birthday cake was presented or was it a giant Nintendo DS . The evening surprise was unfortunately given away in the working week seeing Kerry's Facebook history joining an event called the Parisian Police - Daft Punk Christmas Party at the New Hero . Before we got there we headed over to Kemp Town for a cocktail treat at the Om bar . The doorman ...

Facebook has turned into my virtual mantle-piece with lots of mates wishing me a happy birthday - certainly brightened up an ordinary day at work on Friday. Kerry spoiled me again this year with another well chosen gift selection. The jaw-dropping, jewel-in-the-crown present was the Ferrari race day experience at Thruxton. As well as the F355, I'll be doing laps in a Maxda MX-3 (to get used to the track), Porsche Cayman, a couple of cars driven by an instructor and a go at a single seater Formula Renault - that's nearly 40 miles on probably the longest track in the UK. Not only that but they'll film me from the dashboard just like Top Gear for a take home DVD. The gift pack was the perfect marketing gimmick with the card-opening sound of a Ferrari starting up and driving off - music to my petrol-head ears. Santa begging James and Emma turned up a bit later for the weekend and before we headed out to the restaurant we heard some seasonal music outside. We opened the door to ...

Had a quick trip to Norfolk at the weekend to see some family and the plan to do some quality Christmas shopping in Norwich. I've always raved on about how good the clothes shops are but all the regular places have gone a bit too 'safe' for my liking especially Elements. Philip Brown has also cut down its weird stuff and Dogfish has jammed so much stuff on its rails its beginning to feel like a flea-market. Its sister store, Catfish has gone stale and relies too much on brands long in the tooth and aimed at the pint-sized princesses. A curry catch-up in the evening with my dad revealed he'd crashed his car thanks to some black ice but mainly because of a dopey couple who were driving in the middle of the road. Fingers crossed his insurance company will understand. Sunday was another attempt at Chrimbo shopping, this time in Brighton. There were plenty of items I could buy for my double or myself but no luck with the special lady. Looks like either an online xmas or a la...

Whilst searching for unusual Christmas presents I came across the Forbidden Planet website and saw these. They're on pre-order only at the moment but supposedly in time for Christmas. (Click on each photo to pre-order and view more details). For £20 you get two characters at 4.5 inches high designed by Pete Fowler, who does the Monsterism series.

I’ve had two punctures in the space of a week. Wasn’t too bothered about the first one but the second one was halfway home in the pouring rain to meet a locksmith for the front door lock which I thought had broken. Turned out that I’d left the spare key in the other side of the door and it took just the locksmith to use a ‘U’ shaped bar to turn the handle open. That was an easy £80 down the drain. Icesave and Orange are officially my least favourite companies. In order to reclaim my inheritance, for the past two weeks I’ve been trying to get my password reset and after the 5 th attempt it was down to Orange blocking my emails, who their Indian call centre won’t admit or understand. The Plumber issue has finally been sorted – his emails actually got friendlier when I mentioned complaining to the Chartered Institute. I can't say I'm happy with the final amount but glad to get rid of the man. Socially, we've been keeping it local. We entertained Paul and Sarah with som...

This has got to be the Mighty Boosh of gaming. Little BIG Planet on PS3 may be a simple platformer but it's great fun for co-op playing. So far we're about 70% through the story mode collecting all the materials, stickers and items which will help us create our own game levels to share on the network. The character design is very cute as you can see with your very own SackBoy or SackGirl being able to customise their own clothing, headgear, wigs, tails(?) etc. The controls are quite simple though in places they can get slightly frustrating but the home-made style graphics and infectious music make up for it.

After seeing the preview show back in August, I hadn't set my expectations high for the actual paid for show in Brighton. Although we bought our tickets way back last year in November I thought we'd be a lot nearer the front especially being a member of the Modwolves fan club and being a day earlier than the general public were allowed to buy theirs. Unfortunately, this was not the case as we were to the far left with about 200 seats getting a better view. Another gripe was the early start and no chance to buy drinks - damn that Brighton Centre for running a tight(arsed) ship. There were quite a few changes for the better with many of the fragmented scenes re-ordered including the Honey Monster (I won't say when and how in case you haven't seen it). I think the Boosh management have been listening to their public (they may have even read my blog but I may be getting cocky now) as they included Series 3 character favourite, Crack Fox . Rolled on in a huge wheelie bin su...

It so nearly didn’t happen and by mid afternoon Saturday we even debated to cancel the party. All through the working week we were struggling to muster up enough energy to do any preparation and even missed out on the annual chaos that is Lewes Bonfire Night thanks to that crappy flu like cold. Luckily, we’d booked Friday off for the back-breaking work to clear all the remaining hardcore, old plaster and concrete fireplace taking it to the dump. Kerry was still too ill to help so I dosed up with everything we had to scrub the back yard clean. Saturday was more work with the dining room (soon to be dance) floor to be have the laminate finished and skirting boards fitted. The weather started to misbehave and with 60mph winds expected we ditched the pop-up marquee for the tarpaulin. A few breakages and scratches along the way whilst moving furniture and decorating put us on a downer but the fakes cobwebs, skeletons etc. made the place look excellent. Trev and Pom rolled up early with th...

Cleaning the house with a head cold isn't at all fun obviously but that's exactly what had to be done for our visitors, Neil and Nikki before their Oz migration. It was Tuesday that hit me the worst having to take the day off work but even then I couldn't totally rest with more tidying and food shopping to do. Kerry spoiled us with cinema tickets to see Quantum of Solace at the Duke of Yorks. They offer some cosy double settees for a little extra. Shame the audio was so naff sounding like a loud TV through the neighbours wall, plus the heating was unbearable. The film itself needed close attention to follow what was going on, doubly so with the sound levels so low. Some of the action sequences were great but they tried too hard. This Guardian article seems to sum up what's wrong with action film editing. The critics were correct to say there was very little humour as it turned out to be a dark film, still gripping (if you were paying attention) but after Casino Royale...

Last Saturday was yet another Underworld gig but had plenty of promise. Brixton Academy always delivers a good vibe plus we were meeting up with new mates, Candide, Gavin and Jackie from St. Albans which we'd met from Wireless. Kerry was in London anyway having her haircut by long-time trimmer, Tony who had earlier that day had been released from an over-night stay at the police cells for GBH not GHB. Apparently so extra pervy gay guy stuck his hand down Tony's pants then after a Tony telling off, the guy cracked him over the head with a bottle. Somehow Tony recovered and beat the crap out of him. If it wasn't for the CCTV proof Tony could have been charged. With Kev and Karol bedridden with flu, we prepare for the night around Steve and Sam's who have just got over the hideous same illness. I could almost feel the germs attacking me or it might have been having to watch X-Factor again thanks to Jake. After small cock-up with the pizza delivery, we went to the Ivan'...

I'll be so glad when the Burnt Flesh Fest party is over to be honest. Next year might be different with everything in place but the hard slog to prepare the house and garden along with the stress of the plumber and added work pressures I would be just happy to have a week in bed. The weekend before last I made the impulse hire of a vibrator, ground compactor that is to flatten the mudded area into a patio and path. Without any warming up I did my back in again (Christ, I'm sounding like a moaning old git) just lifting it into the car. If it hadn't been for James and Emma, the weekend would have been written off and more. Thanks to them we created the foundations and lifted the hulk of 58kgs of pure awkwardness in through the house. The patio and path took another two sessions to finish it off. We laid the patio stones and slabs straight after work mid-week and finished under torch-light running out of materials. The second session was Saturday with the path created with de...

My current workload both professional and personal has meant very little blogging. The entry below has also caused time away from anything fun. A few weeks ago the plumber, who caused one of the most stressful moments of my life tried to bill me with work for three times as much as quoted. I was slightly surprised he had the nerve to be honest. This over-the-top bill and the fact he could have killed my tenants, according to Transco was naturally refused with a deftly written letter. The reply came back with an irate response. With the prospect of getting a solicitor involved I was actually glad to hear the opinion from the other, saintly plumber who came in to save the situation. Apparently, he's got such a bad reputation that the majority of Norfolk tradesman and Transco are driven round the U-bend and wish his stop-cock cut off. Since then I've done a few things. Reported the plumber to the Trading Standards, though they haven't done much, contacted CORGI, who pointed me...

Friday evenings and the M25 can only mean one thing and that's exactly what happened. After a depressing average speed of 5mph for about 20 miles we got to Kerry's brother's place near Bicester about 8:45pm. Lucky the pizzas were ordered in time so we were blown away by Neil's enormous new HD-TV and Netgear media centre. Whether it was the hardwork of the week or the quadruple shots of vodka, I was wiped out by 11:30pm and stumbled into bed. Although the weekend was about seeing Neil and Nikki before their Australian new life, I'd organised a Spy Games experience (through Lastminute.com) for Kerry which was an hour's drive near Hemel Hempstead. I'd booked this back in August before I knew Kerry was organising her work's Xmas bash to the same experience so I knew she'd be up for it. After cocking up the directions we arrived at the Scout's camp and was slightly shocked at how many people were taking part. Instead of the estimated handful of peopl...

I don't think I've ever been affected by any national or international news directly but after getting home last night from work every news programme and station was watched in disbelief. This BBC news story will tell you all my and Kerry's worries as the Credit Crunch finally gets us. Under the advice of the Money Saving Expert, I deposited £40k of my mum's inheritance into the Icesave account. Kerry had been saving monthly with them and had been left this morning hanging on the bank's helpline. Checking today's news has at least eased some of the stress away but experts say it will be months until I see that money and without any interest. Fu*kers!

After the stress of the shed it was good to be rewarded with a decent night out thanks to Kerry's success at work. She'd been awarded £100 to spend on a meal out and that's nearly what we spent. Oki-nami in Brighton is relatively new Japanese restaurant but had previously been in Hove. Its also part owned by Mr. Cook of Fatboy fame. Started off with some Shochu cocktails, of which I'd say Kerry's plum flavoured one beat my passion fruit and melon one, and to eat some Maki and Nigiri sushi filled with shiitake mushrooms, sesame seeds and king prawn. Quite adventurous for me but I avoided the prawn. A nice touch in case the conversation runs dry was that the chopsticks were wrapped in origami paper with folding instructions. I made a jumping frog. Second course was some Japanese tapas or otsumame taking in some Nikku gyoza (dumplings filled with pork & vegetable), Hotate yaki (Pan-fried fresh scallops in garlic butter) and Yasai ten. (vegetable tempura) which we...

I did my husband duty of watching the Sex and the City film on Friday night. I can handle the normal 30 minutes format of the TV programme which can be quite funny but 148 minutes of fluffed up nothingness made me reach for the laptop. Even Kerry commented that it made women look like brand junkies with too many product placements. Our Burnt Flesh Festival party preparations are going well overspending on the Halloween decoration. The house will get a proper haunted make-over ready for the big night. Even Sasha, our cat has got into the spirit of the party with his own costume (I can't believe how well he posed for the camera). The home improvement plan also took its toll over the weekend as we had two major jobs to do: 1) erect the new shed and 2) remove the plaster from the fireplace. The weather was a complete contrast to last week starting with patchy rain but with the shed parts taking up most of the dining room we took the risk. We painted two sides with a wood stain then put...

I read about this in today's Guardian. Cringe factor 8.

Friday was a bit of a wipe-out after the Midnight Juggernauts. My ears were still ringing and alertness down to minimum. We had a tasty BBQ in the evening and I thrashed everyone at poker. Saturday was the Big Beach Boutique 4 down on Madeira Drive and the weather was perfect with warm sunshine and blue skies. Before our planned 4pm entrance I prepared a load of mp3 tunes for the after party at Paul and Sarah's. We all met up including new friend Nick who'd flown in from Ibiza then headed for the beach party. I say beach party but it was actually a road and car park party. No drinks were allowed and a police sniffer dog to welcome us in. As we got in we still had about half a mile to walk to the stage going past various food stalls, bars, toilets etc. under the promenade arches with expensive looking branded signs. We found a cosy spot to dance about 20 metres away from the stage whilst Danny Tenaglia DJed. He wasn't too bad although he did drop a couple of desperate old sc...

A special school night treat for Thursday night at Digital with Paul, Sarah, Emma and James. It was a bit of a hassle getting the tickets as the club website didn't mention it; Resident, the record shop in town hadn't heard of it ; and even emailing the club they were a bit sketchy saying it was next door and tickets could be bought from a shop in Newcastle?! There wasn't really any local promotion for them either and it was only down to a joining a Facebook group had I found out about it. With all that said the club was practically empty with an estimated 40 fans turning up. The support act was ear-ringingly loud and just made everyone edge further away from the stage. The Juggernauts came on quite late and kept the set quite short but concentrated on their best work ignoring the small crowd. There were a couple songs where the keyboardist and guitarist swapped roles like 'Tombstone' which got the crowd rocking. Later the guitarist stood off the stage and rocked al...

I've noticed lately that my blog has turned into a weekend write-up and this entry will be no exception. As soon as I returned from work on Friday we were back into the garden laying the turf. It was a bit like laying carpet but muddier and using a kitchen knife and spade to cut the edges. Saturday was supposed to be another hard grind but ended for me at 10:30am doing my back in. Whilst lifting the boxes of old hardcore for the dump I did my lower back in. Ignoring it we drove to the local dump with four boxes of brick and concrete to chuck. After the 2nd or 3rd box I somehow twisted the wrong way whilst picking up the box bringing in more pain across my chest. The rest of the day I was doing very light lifting of tree cut-offs though I did manage to create an equivalent of a Stannah lift for our old-aged cat. Poor puss can't jump too far and is in danger of breaking his legs so I built him a platform/shelf to get over the fence. Skydiving with her indoors Back in April, ...

I've been a bit crap lately including updating the blog. Work's been quite monotonous which just gives way to researching my Bonfire Night of the Living Dead costume, party props and the strange desire to get on with the garden renovation. I surprised myself how addictive it was to keep working, digging, forking to get the railway sleepers in for the new landscaped backyard. I got quite excited Saturday to buying my first wheel-barrow and sledge-hammer and nearly every evening we've been doing something or other to the garden until it gets dark. Saturday evening was to celebrate James and Trudy's belated 40th at a very cramped Little Buddha restaurant, a Thai place in Fiveways, Brighton. Amazingly they served up about 40-50 people in good time but decided to split the bill by table but forgot to tell us who was on which table. This meant half an hour of chaos as someone complained they wanted to pay just their meal instead of paying a share all for the sake of a few qu...

Thanks to my Modwolves fan club connections I managed to win exclusive tickets to see the brand new live show from the Mighty Boosh on Saturday. After our (unsuccessful) Thames boat ride we made our way over to 3 Mills TV studios in Bromley on Bow. If you don't want to know what's in the new live show then you'd best not read this as it will spoil the surprise. However if you want to know a summary of how it went then I'll say now, the performance was slightly worrying with only a week to go. There's a lot more mini-sketches and no real story compared to the previous tour. There's some great gags, some surprises but if it wasn't for their natural talent and personality the show would be slightly disappointing. Hopefully they'll put in some practice, improve the sketches that didn't quite work and maybe even come up with some new ideas. So, if you really don't want to know what happens in the show stop reading now, you have been warned. Mighty Boo...

The masses have spoken. Saturday 8th November 2008 will see the dead rise again in Brighton.

Last Sunday I had a shopping splurge buying this T-shirt. Completely mad design and just thought it was from the mind of some weird designer trying to combine a Star Wars reference and other random things. As I described it to a work colleague I decided to type in the above heading as keywords into Google to see what would come up. Amazingly, the image is actually a Tim Burton film that was only once transmitted on the Disney Channel and has never been seen again. According to Slash Film blog , he made this short film in 1982 and can not be bought, downloaded or seen again. Hänsel und Gretel vs Godzilla By Keptn EMPYSTRING

After a great BBQ on Saturday with Emma & James and Paul & Sarah, we're now cooking up a party for Halloween/Bonfire night. The problem is that Underworld play on Saturday 1st November so are people willing to come down to Brighton for a tame Halloween on the Friday night or would rather save themselves for a Saturday night. Either way we only have one proper room for guests, though Paul & Sarah may put up a few, or you'll have to make your back by train or car. Email, text, call us to say which you'd prefer: Friday 31st October or Saturday 8th November (If you can't make either then please say as well) Whichever date we go for we want to make it a memorable one with Kerry's Pumpkin Lantern Competition which there will be prizes. Have a look at these websites for some ideas and guidance. Our back garden bank will be a gallery of spooky lanterns amongst the bamboo, trees, plants and tree-stump. Pumpkin Carving 101 Zombie Pumpkins More details to come soon...

To say I've had a hard week would be a serious understatement. After the fun of last weekend filling the diesel car with unleaded, my bank balance has taken a small beating and looks to get cut to shreds after the getting the new tenants to my mum's house in Norfolk. At the start of the week a CORGI registered plumber who'd been asked to check and issue a gas certificate discovered a gas leak. Instead of the simple £60 plus VAT he quoted around £300 to get it right (copper piping and man hours). I was told that the new tenants would start their contract on Wednesday but would be physically moving in on Friday with the a meeting arranged at 3pm to hand over keys and sign-off the inventory with Mark, a mate who did the renovation. The plumber told me he would leave the certificate in the house well before they moved in. At this point I haven't been invoiced for the work. Tuesday I had arranged to pick up my Ebay winnings from Peacehaven. One of the best bargains yet of th...

Preparation With Pav's 40th birthday party themed as anything starting with the letter 'P' Kerry had the idea to go as Pav himself in face-mask form. Either everyone thought it was such a great idea or they were too lazy to get an outfit themselves so we made 7 masks on Friday night. Unfortunately I only had a couple of photos of Pav in high resolution so had to lift them from Facebook. We ended up with 6 identical DJ pose Pavs and one 'teethy goon' Pav. Kerry's printer served well with the output glued to cardboard then some chopsticks sawn in half taped to the back. Party Pav's party itself, hosted at the Clapham's Artesian Well was a great laugh. The birthday boy had punked himself up whereas there were a fair share of police, pirates, more punks, a Playboy bunny , a couple of priests (special mention to Jake for his Father Ted outfit), oh and a pimp. The winner of the competition was a Primadonna but slightly confused by Pav's speech to say ...

You might have seen the snail art in the newspapers but this is the official blog of the artist who has a Lilliput/Borrowers obsession. There's some mention of a treasure hunt for the 31st August which sounds fun. Also, there's a new book launched for the artwork.

Be prepared for quite an ordinary entry as I summarise a quiet week. You'll be glad to hear that Sasha the cat is back to his normal food-pestering, cupboard-love self and the limp has almost gone. The vet, who's made enough money out of me this year, wrote to say they have a free 'senior' check-up service. He's not quite ready for geriatric care yet. My mum's house is nearly ready for the new tenants but I won't be seeing any profit just yet with the gas engineer finding a leak and the electrician recommending new earth cables. A scary estimate of £300 plus VAT was downgraded to £80 for the gas side - apparently its been leaking about 4 units a day! Finally saw The Dark Knight last night. For nearly 3 weeks old and on what should really be a quiet night the cinema was quite full. Its a bit of a marathon to watch and some people (like Kerry) will get bored towards the end. However, there's some amazing set pieces, Heath Ledger performed well, all the c...

I have to admit it but Friday was a bit of a doss (sorry boss if you're reading this). I blame it on 1) having a bar in the building, 2) having a bar with a large TV and 3) the opportunity to see the Olympic opening ceremony. Quite a few others had the same idea as the bar attracted other summer working students and staff. I left after an hour but with no boss and only another team member in the office we set up another PC with the BBC live feed to see the rest. Loved the scroll idea and aerial running man to light the touch. When I got home I was reminded that the students next door had warned us of their house party which had already started at 4pm. They were quite polite and good-natured even at about 8pm when they spread themselves out to the back and front of the house, introducing themselves and moving cars for us. I predicted with the amount of booze and early start they'd be wasted by 2am but from the look of their eyes they'd already necked a few cheeky ones (if y...

The weekend saw the second year running that we've missed Pride (first being Big Chill). This time a change of events meant having to go to Norfolk to see folks and friends as well as check up on my mum's house. My poor dad told us about his planned bonfire attracting some unnecessary village community interference resulting in numerous visits from locals, a stuck-up council lady, a farmer and the fire brigade. Also, caught up with some quality Norwich shopping with an evening visit to Josh and Christie's. Since last week we've been planning our Peru holiday for next year. For the first time we'll be doing an organised trip which actually works out cheaper. Using Llama Travel we've finally decided on the following itinerary: Lima , on the Pacific coast, was the most important and magnificent city in South America for the Spanish. Visit the colonial district and some of the finest museums in the world, with amazing collections of pre-Hispanic treasures. Cusco , ...