Ginger DJ Rob

Been planning to do this for years but I think Wireless Festival had always been on the same date. In comparison it was about the same price for entrance at £50 a ticket plus Goodwood FoS didn't specify what would be showing. It was also a chance for me to have some quality father-son time however when he turned up he was not alone! In fact he brought his new (since February) girlfriend along who he'd forgotten to mention...at all. Awkwardness ensued and luckily (for him) we were able to buy another ticket. We knew we had to get up early expecting some traffic (arriving about 9:30am) but really the queues for the car park wasn't too much to complain about. What we didn't expect was the time to walk and queue to the main entrance. It must have taken half an hour with no toilets along the way. You couldn't ignore the amount of helicopters flying in or out which I mistakenly took as a famous person taxi service. Alas it was just a pleasure flight, a very popular ...

Just thought I'd say thanks to those who sponsored me on the BHF London to Brighton bike ride. I raised a whopping £315 plus £71.92 in gift aid which is amazing. Below is the list of kind people that made the difference: Kerry Coleman David Coleman (Dad) Kev & Karol Phillips (Bro & Sis-in-law) Donna Saunders (sis-in-law) Jean Brinded (aunt) Mark Allison Julian Wood (thanks for helping me train) Neal Lewis (another L2B biker - thanks for the training and confidence boost) Steve Wilde (no fish costume worn, sorry) Sam Hayward Trevor Gross Emma Sharp Paul Ryan Lucy Tindal James Breen Candide Bench Sukey Booth Paula Lewis It's not too late to sponsor me as the closing date is in September. Related articles by Zemanta BHF London to Brighton Bike Ride 2010 (gingerdjrob.com)

My holiday break started with a bump on the Wednesday before Christmas. The combined icy conditions and previous evening's rain turned the roads into highly polished glass. Without checking the university website, I stupidly cycled into work coming off worse from a) cracking my arse after slipping off my bike and b) wasting my time after discovering the university had closed due to the conditions. The catch-up drink at the Eagle pub on Gloucester Road cheered me up with my Elf t-shirt going down well. Christmas Eve was a restrained one with the core (K n K and P n S) though never got to play our new Buzz game on the PS3. Another missed opportunity was watching the Christmas Day swimmers down at the pier. After unwrapping the presents we ran out of time and scrambled into action for a last minute tidy up for my dad's arrival at 1pm. As well as unwrapping his present to us (see picture), I kept him entertained (and sent him to sleep) with a recording of Channel 4's Queen in...

Like everything pathetic about the UK, my work closed because of the deep snow and imaginary travel chaos (even though the main routes were open and buses up to the University of Sussex were still running). A relief for those with hang-overs and great for my plans of visiting my dad in Norfolk . I say working from home but checking emails and adding a web page to the site that I manage hardly qualifies as a full day's work. In the background, the TV news was permanently on checking for the weather and travel. Could I even make it to Norfolk by car? I had to check out my mum's old house, which the tenant had moved out, and to see my Dad but with at least 6 inches on our street and Norfolk being affected by the snow it was a tough decision. With no one else 'working from home' I left at 3pm and ignored the media doom-sayers. Getting to Norfolk was actually easy with the main motorways clear. Norfolk was just as bad as Brighton though the temperature was getting lower a...

Started the day in a very, very tired state. It was a late one singing and our room flooded with dawn sunshine only hours after we got to bed so our breakfast appearance was slightly subdued. Apart from the previous night's happenings conversation was about how we were getting to the church. George, who turned up looking ten times worse than all of us, forgot to mention the mini-bus organised for us. At least we could recover our energies for a few hours with a 3pm ceremony. We went back to the room for a mid-morning nap. Yesterday's fine weather had extended for a perfect day for the wedding. We all met a 2:30pm with some of us driving to the church a few miles away. We took our places and waited for the bride and a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony. Another surprise from George was discovered as I forgot where I was with the instant reaction of shouting out 'bloody hell'. After browsing through the service pamphlet I saw my name printed to read out a section of ...

Whether it was the excitement of winning the pub quiz the night before or the alcohol, it was a bleary eye start for our trip to Ireland for my cousin's wedding. Getting to Gatwick was no problem by train though our first experience of cheap-skates, Ryan Air raised our eyebrows at the baggage over-weight cost. We shifted some stuff into our hand luggage to get it under 15kg. Touchdown in Dublin and we quickly realised that time had not allowed any potential sight-seeing with the logistics of the car hire. The airport is expanding with a new terminal so its roadworks everywhere. Still it was nice to hear everyone talking like Boyzone. We got slightly lost driving our under-powered Pug 308 trying to find the M50, twinned with the M25 as everyone in the local area decided to leave work early and enjoy the roasting sunshine. We avoided the toll roads for Moyvalley admiring the grass which is proven greener than the UK and arrived at the hotel's enormous grounds and golf reso...

Thursday night was another quiz and unfortunately, another failure to win. With Donna joining our over-subscribed team we were split into two but both of us came in last place. Friday was a family day with 7 year old niece Morgan being the centre of attention. Shame the weather couldn't repeat last weekend's roasting. Instead we introduced Morgan to some quality anime , Spirited Away - hopefully she'll go off that Hannah Montana and turn to some quality merchandise! Saturday, we turned our attention to getting some costumes for my cousin's wedding in two weeks. He's arranged a murder mystery with an 1899 theme. Kerry didn't have much luck but has arranged a visit to a costume hire place next week whereas I've got a ' steam punk ' look using existing wardrobe items, a bowtie and Sherlock style pipe. Just need the bushy ginger moustache to complete the look. The evening was a night out at Audio where the Schtumm! DJs were joined by Jon Kahuna. There w...

The main reason for our Norfolk visit was my nan's funeral. We'd left plenty of time for our journey arriving in generous time. My cousin flew over from Ireland but had to drive the rest from Stansted and arrived literally two minutes into the 'we are gathered here today' speech. It was a traditional service with a nice auto-biographic written when my nan turned 90. Otherwise it was trying to sing the chosen hymns getting the up and down notes wrong with the lyrics. At the wake, I was introduced to a new generation of family never seen before, including 14 year old twins are going to Shanghai for a school exchange and 17 year old thinking about Brighton Uni. My uncle, always one for coming up with good conversation and a knack for genealogy, had traced the family back to 1620 with possible links to a famous local witch in Derbyshire. Returning back to my dad's house and the snow fell, and fell, and fell. It was starting to settle at a disturbing rate and worries sta...

Inspired by the Extreme Dreams TV programme with flesh-eating bug contracted adventurer, Ben Fogle our Peru plan went into action as we decided to look for a worthy challenge before April. I've got to say though, however interesting the challenges are on that Fogle show (usually 6:30pm BBC2), they don't half string out the content with their every 5 minute summary of what's just happened followed by a preview of what's coming up for 5 minutes. The end result is about 10 minutes per episode and 20 minutes repeated highlights and countless reminders of why, where and who. Ok, rant over and we're going to Snowdon for our anniversary in March. It's about 4 times smaller than the heights we'll be encountering but if we can survive a couple of peak visits we'll feel a little more confident about it all. Found this place to stay to rest our weary hoofs called Penmachno Hall . Getting a catsitter is proving a little tricky and feel we've asked our saintly ne...

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...

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...

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...

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 , ...

Glow was an amazing multi-media and modern dance performance as part of the Brighton Festival. Held in Fabrica we were seated looking down at a white gymnastic white floor. The sound effects and eerie music kicked off and a dancer crawled out as if trapped in a padded cell. The projected light effects interacted with her as she squirmed, stretched and writhed around. Some of the lights were pulsing, other created a phased or shadowed pattern around her. The shadows were particular effective at simulating what could be described as demons possessing the dancer and actually scared the crap out of a small girl who's mum quickly took her away. Hopefully the YouTube video will give you a better idea. Saturday was more DIY with the evening watching the Euro-politics - what the f*ck is up with that! No wonder Terry Wogan is quitting. Sunday was a packed day of hosting mates and family to a lamb roast, killing and burying rats in the garden (found a large one amongst the flowers and anoth...

Not much socialising lately or going out. Jake’s birthday bash wasn’t quite what we expected. A lot of his so-called mates didn’t turn up and the after-party didn’t really happen. The builders’ visits have becoming more and more infrequent but all the big changes have been done including the plastering of the lounge ceiling. My mum’s house is finally on the market. I’ve completed the HIP myself and found a really cheap online estate agent called Hatched.co.uk which can advertise on Rightmove . Instead of paying the 1 to 2% commission using a high street estate agent I only pay about £250 to advertise and another £250 on completion. All this should save me a packet. Thing is, it was the For Sale sign that’s generated the actual interest from people walking by! Two of them lived on the same street and one noticed it from viewing another. Quite amazing for a road that’s less travelled. Grand Theft Auto 4 has arrived though disappointingly we’ve played it just once. With the amo...

Celebrated with a special Brighton restaurant visit to Gars and treated Kerry to a champagne breakfast and present marathon. To relive her sky diving experience, I've bought her a trip to an indoor place offering a similar thing without the 10,000ft flight. A Peru trip guide, a gardening book, a ring, a CD, Tom Ford perfume and this little guy below. She also received a cheeky gift of Mario Kart with wheel (though some might think this was really for me). Sunday was a lazy day apart from re-ordering the house with the builders demolishing the living/dining room wall the next day and us, ripping out the stairs cupboard paneling. The evening should have been a relaxing time enjoying our new kitchen until Kerry asked me to drain the spaghetti. Our kitchen sink was one of the outstanding things to be installed so any waste water needed to go outside. After unlocking the back door I picked up the pan and colander then tipped accidentally towards my hand. As you can imagine the boiling w...

Selling my mum's house or preparing for it is proving to be a trickier than I thought. Although there's a few websites out there to help someone like me, Home Information Packs (HIP) are an easy bit of money making for the experts and just time-wasting red tape. There's an opportunity there for a Dummies guide I'm sure. The Index and Sales Statement are easy and to be honest a bit of a joke. The Energy Performance Certificate was reasonable to organise at the cheapest price of £82. My mum's house did averagely but the report assumed bits of it knocking the score down. The Title Information was slightly misleading as the Land Registry is a mind-field of confusion. It turned out that all I needed was a letter confirming it hasn't been registered so no costs involved there. The Drainage report should be coming soon and instead of using an official conveyancing map to draw the plot I used Google Maps - fingers crossed for that will be enough. The Local ...

Easter was a family-in-law catch-up 5 hours drive away in Plymouth. Great to see Donna and my niece Morgan playing Picto-chat on her new Nintendo DS. Conversation with a 6 year old wasn't too demanding but it was still fun asking her if chocolate or cake was her favourite. Back home and we had things to move ready for the builders. Our kitchen/dining room/lounge was going to be transformed into an uber open plan cooking machine! We're now washing our dishes in the bath and learning to like microwave and take-aways. I feel the pounds subtracting from my wallet and adding to my waistline. Can't wait to see the back of the dust. Catch up with the day-to-day photo diary on my FlickR website under House Vs. The Builders .

Happy Birthday Karol by way! We couldn't make her meal in swanky London town on Saturday with Kerry still suffering but hear that Karol herself had succumb to the same belly troubles. Hope you're better sis-in-law. Watched some frogs get frisky with each other on Sunday as we walked round Stanmer Park (as pictured) trying out my new wide-angle lens. Double-crossing salesman Last night we were subjected to a sales pitch for some double-glazing. "You buy one ye get one free" as the annoying baldy Northerner says from SafeStyle who got in there first. With Kerry's sales training experience and my own marketing background it was almost embarrassing and was amazed that the same shitty, shifty sales tactics are still being used but dressed up for the 21st century. All we wanted was a quote for a kitchen window and it took 100 minutes. The salesman mentioned we could get a discount for using our window as a website case study then rang the 'marketing' department ...

Our post-Valentine's Day evening out went well on Friday. We booked a table at Shanghai Blues in Holborn just round the corner from The End. The food and service was really good but a bit pricey. The music was a little annoying with some jazz vocalist be-bopping and scatting. For some reason the toilets, looking like a posh opium den, had better music. Chinese gnomes The British Museum was also very local and we were lucky to get tickets to the First Emperor exhibition for the terracotta army. It was still busy even at the strange time of 10:30pm but a better set up than the Tutemkamon event. Going to museums isn't exactly the sort of thing to put on Facebook as a hobby but just seeing the roof was worthy of a mention. The Chinese over-sized gnomes were really impressive and beggars belief that the tomb had over 100,000 clay statues as an army, admin staff, entertainers and animals to accompany the emperor in his after-life. The curators had even mocked up what colours the st...