Ginger DJ Rob

Second week of work benefited from our own bed. Yes, we’re both finally in Brighton thanks to Kev and Karol lending a hand with the moving. No more Ocean Village and low flying aircraft. It’s slightly materialistic and sad to admit it but having a few more familiar thing and furniture around you cheers me right up, including our bed. The move was slightly hampered by the storage area having all the essential stuff at the back but by around 9pm Saturday we were eating a well-deserved local take-away curry to an almost settled flat. Still adjusting to the new job and new campus – it’s not quite as good Southampton I’ll have to admit. On Tuesday I decided to sort out my fitness regime and called the Brighton branch of GKR, my old karate club. Turned out that the class I wanted to go was about 12 miles away and was a ‘once only invitation’ from the regional sensei. Didn’t quite appreciate the attitude so switched to Capoeira (see the Wikipedia entry ). It was a bit unfair to schedule th...

If you're a fan of mugging, car-jacking or shooting innocent people and you were rich enough (or mug enough) to buy a PS3 then you should be excited about the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer just released. This next gen version is based in New York with some amazing detail and the best landmarks pixelated for HD. It sounds like the central character is an East European mafia type who's into human trafficking. Personally I'd rather wait until at least £100 gets knocked off the price and await some more positive game reviews. YouTube scum Over the last few weeks I have some w**nkers leave some non-supportive comments on my YouTube video of my karate tournament fight. Although I'm not 100% behind the club ethos it doesn't mean people can graffiti my site with anti-GKR slurs. I've removed them all now but it ticks me off when people disrespect web space with sh*tty comments. YouTube gold One good thing coming out of YouTube lately is Adam & Joe's BBC3 (or 4)...

House hunting in Brighton is getting stupid (again). We saw loads on Saturday and one of them was worth a second look. Booked another viewing with it only to get it canceled as an offer had been accepted. By yesterday we felt we were scraping the barrel of house choice and doubts started creeping in that we'll be priced out or having to consider a shitpit. Still no job news which is also worrying. Wednesday evening we joined Steve and Sam at the Astoria for another dose of The Rapture . They were supported by three other bands but only saw Sh!t Disco for the first tune then ignored them. Compared to the Koko club, both venue and performance was rough around the edges. Too many tall people obscured the view and the pocket camera we have is pants for this type of thing (soon to be on ebay). Favourite moment was at the end when Luke went stage diving for the second time then returned to stage dancing like a drunken Bez as if to make up for the weak dive performance. Disappointed to s...

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...

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...

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...

If anyone regular is reading this expecting something exciting or remotely insightful, you'll be asking for your money back. But as this is a free service - tough! Last night after work I went to the doctor for my arm injury from that karate tournament. Although I was glad to show off my bruise to impress the ladies, the nagging pain was making me wake up from sleep and painful whenever I stretched it. Not sure what the doc's name was but it sounded like Dr Umbongo who grabbed my arm and forced his fingers into my arm muscle. What didn't hurt as much before certainly did after and concluded it was a 'tennis elbow' injury. He recommended no fighting and after asking if I could still do the exercises in Karate he cut over me saying NO FIGHTING. Just spent over a fiver on some Ibu-profen gel which isn't doing much for me. With no karate that night I needed cheering up so Kerry drove me down to Hythe where the chippy is legendary. Shame it was closed so went to Hy...

Getting up at 6:30am and arriving at 8:15am for the karate tournament was a complete waste of time. There was no registry desk, just multiple copies of the day's schedule posted up around the sports halls stating the times of the groups by grade and age. Instructors group, which I was competing in, was starting at 2:30pm - 6 f*cking hours to hang around! If I had known that... Anyway, it gave us a chance to watch the kids battle it out and get a sense of what to prepare for. The place was packed with proud parents with video cameras, kids either running wild or plugged into PSPs/Gameboys in silent trances and judges looking a little bored. There were 8 rings marked out with tables of judges between, spectators filling the gaps or sitting at the tiered rows of seats. Judging and competitor quality was varied which made some of the results a little strange. One of my students achieved bronze medal in kata which was great news. She nearly got gold if she hadn't paused too long f...

Work's been hogging my attention this week which is no bad thing. Everyone wants a piece of me lately and I've been rewarded with a good reputation with managers. The budget annoyed me this week in the most obscure way. Normally, such a dull subject passes me with only a headline to summarise my understanding of it but this year will cost me an extra £500. I've been waiting to buy a laptop since last year taking advantage of the Home Computer Initiative with Kerry's work offering it once then my work mentioning its fore-coming last month. But thanks to a fat Scottish bloke I'll have to either fork out extra or get cheap crap. Rant ends. Flickr brings up some strange encounters every so often. My latest Spinnaker Tower photos impressed someone in the weirdest way. This photo was picked as someone's favourite for a disturbing way. Flickr allows you to see their photo collection in a picture-loving community way but after seeing this guy's photos I'm n...

Last Thursday evening I got graded for my next karate belt - I'm now a blue belt, 5th kyu. Next belt will be hard to get with a kata (sequence of 10-20 different moves) I'm crap at, Bassai Dai. After this, there's red then brown (split into 3 separate gradings) then black! Back home, we booked our Friday (23rd June) day tickets for the Wireless festival . The line-up for that day is Massive Attack , Flaming Lips , Pharrell and DJ Shadow . Not that bothered about Pharrell but seing Shadow play is extremely rare. Bit gutted with the timing of the Coachella festival announcement. For Kerry, seeing Madonna has been a life-long dream and for both of us, Daft Punk making an appearance anywhere is like Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed appearing on Stars in their Eyes as Bros. Other acts making the entry, travel and hotel costs justified in my opinion are Franz Ferdinand, Depeche Mode , Juan Maclean (DFA), Derrick Carter, Joey Beltram, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Scissor Sisters, Jazzanova, Giles ...

Hands are great, aren't they? Let's put our hands together and give them a round of applause. Ow, maybe not! There's more than 10 good things you can do with hands, though some of them are quite painful at the moment. Clapping hands (that's out at the moment), typing (digits are working ok so had to goto work), dipping into pockets for keys and change (bit painful that), playing games (that's out as well). Why I am talking such tripe? Well it all started yesterday.... Helpdesk was a bitch in my ear, karate was ok with lots of sparring, though there are a few characters you need to avoid who use it as an excuse to have a pub brawl. Took a few hits in the ribs but my quick fists got some good shots in, though didn't make him flinch - the dead faced git! Cycled back home after karate and took the paths. Came off a high kerb and bam!, the front wheel stuck, the back flipped over and my hands attempted to sand the concrete. My thumb had bits hanging off i...