Ginger DJ Rob

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)

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr I needed a break from my blog after May's daily spew of Fringe reviews. Luckily I have Twitter to remind me of my past happenings. Chelsea Flower Show With Kerry's RHS membership, we avoided the hoi polloi to visit the Chelsea Flower Show on a members day. We took a half-day off work and arrived about 3:30pm. First impression was how stupidly busy it still was. Seeing any of the show gardens meant shedding your manners and elbowing your way in. Anyone saying that the youth are rude obviously hadn't visited this place. There were one or two gardens that really impressed me including the Australian one with bar/pool. After about 3-4 hours we were pretty well much done with the place including a glass of Pimms at £5 and Kerry buying the most expensive but stylish Hunter wellies ever .   Xpress2, Maxxi Soundsystem 3 May's bank holiday weekend was mainly to celebrate Paul's birthday night though started without him as I warmed u...

Brighton buddy, Julian turned 40 this week and he wanted a big blow-out. Bored of Brighton clubs (especially Audio), we answered his birthday wish with a time-machine going (or what seemed like going back 10 years) to Ministry of Sound . I really didn't fancy the multiple train journey or the shuddering feeling of waiting for the tube stations to open at 6am on a cold Saturday morning so opted for the drive with James tagging along. Before driving up to London we gave Julian his special present of a Venture Bros. mug we'd designed. This went down extremely well and surprised that no one picked up the copyright infringement. Nowhere outside the US actually sells the merchandise due to copyright issues. It was the Gallery 's 15th birthday and had brought back some of the biggest name DJs to celebrate. Check this out for a golden oldie special: Danny Rampling, Paul Oakenfold , Seb Fontaine , Tall Paul, Lottie and more. For Kerry and me, this really was a nostalgic journey...

So, that was an interesting week. I wish I was feeling better to appreciate it more to make snowmen and other things. A snotty cold I'd picked up couldn't be shaken off so grumpiness was at maximum. Cabin fever also increased as the week progressed particularly with Kerry as I was (un)lucky to be able to get into work. Lucky as it was warmer than home! Caught up with a lot of TV recorded over the break as well as some good DVDs borrowed. Can recommend The Wrestler and Step Brothers . Forgot to mention we saw Avatar 3D between Christmas and NYE which was excellent, though a little too long. Tried to move the car from its frozen position on our road Saturday but failed which scuppered my plan to go snowboarding at Stanmer Park. Saturday night was a catch up with good friends at the Globe then a carry-on at Sukey's. Sunday was more successful with the car as temperatures seem to be rising. I found our old shower duckboard and re-constructed it as a sledge . Packed the sno...

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...

What a night at Soulwaxmas! First of all I must thank my amazing missus, Kerry for getting me some excellent gifts this year. I must be one of the most difficult people to buy for but she's done it again and again. Presents awarded this year were: Charlie Brooker 's new book, The hell of it all; Star Trek on Blu-Ray ; a B+W kasemann polarizing filter (an inspired idea) and Nikon SB900 flash (thanks Kev for the technical advice). I'm a lucky, lucky boy. I tired the filter down at the seafront taking some photos, and although it was raining I was rewarded with a rainbow behind me. The evening started with a quick buffet and friends (thanks again Kerry) before the mini-bus up to Brixton Academy . An 8 seater with a return journey worked out at £250 (about £35 with 7 of us). So much better than the thought of waiting on a cold platform and multi-taxis. Shame we had to put up with some dull Radio 2 sounds. Amazingly, even after turning up 15 minutes late we arrive in Brixto...

After weeks of preparation, design work and a lot of UV paint, our London mate Sam turned 40 in the most glowing, raving and Trade worthy way possible. Thanks to Paul and Sarah for hosting the event which saw possibly the most pink balloons you could get in one room. The décor downstairs looked fantastic thanks to Kerry and team, and with the smoke machine turned on and lights behind the DJ booth adding that little bit extra, the disco dungeon was transformed into sweaty, beneath the arches illegal rave . Below are some highlights to the evening whilst you can click on the title above to see my Flickr photo set: Birthday girl! Kev finally comes out of the closet!   Pirate Paul's Disco Dungeon in full UV glory.

Congratulations to Trevor and Pom who got married yesterday (or should I say 'wadded' according to the translated invite). Through the magic and trickery of the internet, Trev televised the ceremony, held at Pom's house in a town in Thailand via a webcam . We invited most of the Brighton crew to view on our big TV. Not sure whether we missed the first half as the camera was fixed on four of the seven Buddhist monks praying and giving their blessings. We didn't get any sound either but it was great to see them both looking like Thai royalty and a couple of cheeky waves from Trev. I heard the rumour that Trev had financed a road to be built and there's a local Tesco planned for next year for his Stella addiction. All the best you two!

Our Friday night cocktail evening based on Spaced went well, I think. Thanks to Kerry, we had a late inspiration to base it on Simon Pegg and co. and designed the cocktail menu accordingly with every character receiving their own drink. Thankfully the ice-crusher bought on ebay arrived just in time though typically only got used twice. There was a frantic 3 hours of shaking, mixing and washing then it seemed everyone realised how drunk they were and calmed down taking it easier preferring to extend their stay. Personal favourites were the Bubblegum shooter made of Creme de Banana, Blue Curacao and Baileys Irish Cream which actually tasted like Hubba Bubba. Saturday teatime/evening was another comedy festival event. I'd never heard of the theatre group Spymonkey but they were presenting their version of Moby Dick at the Brighton Corn Exchange. With our front row tickets we got slightly more than we expected from the performance. The stage props and scenery looked quite basic ...

Must be time for a break from the pub quiz as we came second last Thursday. Luckily we had an opportunity to earn some money instead of trying to win it but more on that later. The weekend was a new cosy one with Kerry for a change. Our Saturday night was an unplanned meal out but quickly learnt that not booking ahead meant many restaurants were fully booked at 8pm. After the third place we tried we headed into Seven Dials (Brighton) with the intention of visiting The Tin Drum . We checked the other restaurants within the area but settled for our original choice. Although the décor was a little scruffy with a relaxed cafe/pub style, the food was really tasty. The organic, locally sourced range of food was delicious. We had some small problems with the service but after some polite nagging we were given the desserts for free as well as a round of drinks. The bill was well under what we expected so won't have any problem going back or recommending it. Retro tech TV I'm likin...

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 weekend welcomed our Norfolk friends Josh, Christie and their two blond-bombshell daughters, Lily and Rachel. We had a boozy catch-up on Friday night taking advantage of our over-stocked cocktail supply then Saturday we had a family day out on Brighton Pier and the beach. For £20 you can get 30 tokens to pay for rides which doesn't stretch that far with two kids and four adults. The log flume was a greedy 4 tokens each which had just two splashes but broke down just before we tried going on. Finally got to play the legendary Dolphin Derby with Lily winning the prize. Otherwise it was watching the kids on slides and the carousel. We finished the day relaxing on the beach watching Josh swim out and some airplanes flying in for the Shoreham Air Show.

After the previous weekend of excess, I thought we'd be ready for a quiet one until we decided to host a cocktail evening. Within a week we'd (perhaps) over-did the preparations with a cocktail menu and far too much booze ordered through Asda (surprisingly well-stocked with obscure spirits), Ocado (who stock Tuaca ) and a grand haul of Japanese beer, Shocho and plum wine ( Japan Centre ). The menu was scripted by Kerry on PowerPoint whilst I injected some themed style of using The Usual Suspects which got us in trouble with Kerry's work. It wasn't the cock in cocktail but the quote within the emailed document of 'Gimme the fuckin keys you fuckin cocksucker mutha fucka arrghhh!'. Something like foul, non-business language with sexual explicit under-tones. Ooops! The night itself was another mad rush of fast drinking with Keyser Soze's canopes going down well and the following drinks being asked again: Lady Killer: Gin(1), Apricot Brandy(3/4), Cointr...

Although we've lived in Brighton for two years, we were Gay Pride virgins and our first experience was a wet and stressful one. The plan was to drop off all our stuff at Kev and Karol's in the North Laines which included laptop and stuff for DJing, drinks and a cake Kerry had made the night before (6 hours of chocolate labour). We wanted to catch some of the parade after this then collect enough willing mates to join us at the festival in Preston Park . When the taxi arrived for us at around 11:40am we bundled out without realising the front door key had been left in the lock. The last time this happened it cost me about £90 to get a locksmith out who used a type of bar. I'm not going to give away how I did it but got back into the house without another expensive call-out. Kerry and Emma went without us in the taxi but rang 10 minutes later saying the parade had blocked all traffic and there was no way of crossing the road in the North Laines. This left James and I to cycl...

Thursday night was a visit to the Pond pub on Gloucester Road, Brighton, opposite Paul and Sarah's house for some tasty Thai food and to take part in the weekly pub quiz. The food went down very well and at 8:30pm we'd paid £1 for each team member to the quizmaster, a character called Horace McSquirter(?). Our team name of Pirate Paul's Parrot Posse won us a prize for the funniest, thanks to Kerry, with a prize of some chocolate doughnuts. There were five rounds with a current affairs/news for the first, a topic round on Heroes, a picture round to identify famous people when they were children, a music round (a bonus round that didn't count towards the main points and a bottle of wine as the prize) and a multiple choice. We climbed the ranks through the rounds and playing the joker on the picture round we were 2 or 3 points off the leader. We somehow managed to win the music round for some bad wine to add to our hangovers including latecomer Julian who was already pret...

W ednesday night was a fun one out with Viv and baby Amy as we took them to Brighton's finest fried finery, Bardsleys for an expensive fish and chip dinner. The staff are really friendly, there's a wine menu and their reputation for quality was proven with the best chips ever. The owner was very chatty and, as he was hanging around the entrance Norman Cook walked past and said hello. Weirdly he was carrying a large bin bag. The owner told us that Steve Coogan and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from Harry Potter ) were also regular customers. Saturday started with a delivery of this Daft Punk cartoon artwork for our decorating masterplan. Domestic , a french decor website specialises in cool wall stickers to liven up plain walls. The day continued with a satisfying DIY-athon Saturday day (I won't bore you with the details) then another good party around Casa de Paul e Sarah welcoming Kev and Karol to Brighton. Their new rented house was compact especially with the amount of ...

I'd been praying for good weather all week for this and watching the forecasts like a hawk with a driving license. Luckily all that happened on the track was the odd flurry of drizzle. So after 2 and a bit hours of M25 and M3 traffic we made it to Thruxton , the other side of Andover to do my birthday present from Kerry. After a long briefing video, three of us were driven around the track in a Mazda 3MPS (hatchback) by an instructor who pointed out where to brake, accelerate, positioning of the track etc. The track had some useful cones to mark these useful points which were greatly appreciated later. Porsche Cayman The next bit was to drive myself in a Porsche Cayman with an instructor pointing out when to brake etc. Whilst I was driving he was marking me on my performance. The car itself was very smooth and quick but driving on a race track was so different to the road you almost lost the speed sensation. There were a few places where you couldn't really floor it like n...

After a marathon session of DIYing and the recent heatwave, motivation to do anymore decorating has dried up. For the last weekend of June whilst Glastonbury was on (slightly jealous at not going), we went to Norfolk to visit my dad and put Sasha's ashes on my mum's grave. My dad is still trying to sell his business and had a couple of people interested after an advert placed in a Jag magazine but banks are making it difficult for borrowers. Set up a blog for his company just to see if it helps SEO. July the 4th was Paul and Sarah's basement party which had a good turn-out. I was amazed at Sue's singing voice on Paul's Gaydar Euro-trance track, TXT. I could honestly see that going down well somewhere. After Paul's house-disco set I came on with some new tunage like Grum , Mark Broom's Meltin Pot , some tracks from the excellent Gildas and Masaya's New York album, and Afrojack's Radioman always goes down well. Shame my mixing wasn't up to scrat...

Happy Birthday to Paul as we tried out some free all nighter at Al Duomo on Friday night. Can't quite say whether it will catch on having banging tech-house in a restaurant. The soapy Tuacas mostly put us off but mainly the decor and lighting stopped us from really going for it. Saturday was the always welcome visit to Wagamamas with a stop at the legal high shop in Sydney Street then down Paul's basement to try out my new laptop for DJing. Modern Toss Last Sunday we saw Modern Toss - A Night Of Edwardian Chamber Filth at the Old Market, Hove which was part of the Fringe entertainments. The evening cocked up before even seeing it as I got the location completely wrong so had to walk a mile across town thinking we'd miss about 20 minutes. Luckily, the ticket got the time wrong and we were able to get a drink and get a decent seat. It was Fantastic! Basically it was a clip show presented on stage to some classical music from a live string quartet and pianist. Simon Greenall ...