This is hilarious.

You know those times when...

you want the ground to open up and swallow you whole.

This Saturday afternoon I went down the main part of Covent Garden and whilst walking back to work via Drury Lane I saw this sideshow. The quiet looking city boy on the horse had got married earlier in the day and the brides family had obviously decided on some traditional Hindu marching the groom up the road on horse to the reception ceremony. Picture it 3 o'clock on a busy Saturday in central Covent Garden on a horse being walked at plod pace up one of the main thoroughfares. You could see the dread in his face as he got on the horse as about 150 tourists stood around pointing and taking photos of him. Things only got worse for the groom as the loud six piece band piped up in front of him to lead him up to the Royal Opera House(WTF? as they say) where the family were waiting. The 100 metre journey took a while so on top of the band you had the accompaniment of half dozen taxis honking their horns trying to weave their way through the growing crowd of bystanders, the groom's face was saying 'this was a much better idea six months ago' on it. To cap it all off when he finally reached his destination the family showered him with rose petals and the large crowd all cheered as he disappeared into the lobby of the opera house. Rather him than me.

Yeah Eddie!

I felt nephew Ed hadn't had enough blog coverage so I thought I'd give him his own post. Aside from being one of the worlds largest new borns he's also the worlds happiest baby who never cries and always has a smile for you. Missing you Ed.

One day clean

My chocolate habit has got a little out of hand recently so this week I've been working hard at getting it under control as I was feeling like Augustus and if left I would end up some fat, toothless blimp.

They're just jammin' man.

After the showdown Ray Barbee and Tony Alva jammed for everyone which sounds good but they got a bit noodley and it was verging on jazz sometimes. Tony Alva's a bit whatev's but Barbee's a legend and never stops smiling.

26 hours in Turin

Last weekend Kat and I were taken on a flying visit to Turin to go to the Vans Downtown Showdown (thanks NIck and Victoria) which was on the roof of the old Fiat building. It was my first visit to Italy and I got to hang out with some friends who I don't see too often like Jasper who was a party soldier that night and just about got home intact.

This is my autumn song

I think Neil Young may have received more air time in Slam than any other artist and if you work there you become a fan of his whether you like it or not. This song reminds me of when I first started there which is nearly five years ago and makes me think of how much has happened in that time.

This was on the wireless a moment ago

There's a new sheriff in town.

Whatever...

Everyone loves a meerkat.

Sandy Park!

This was Ed's first time in a swing whereas Emily and William are experienced swingees and Joel is a seasoned professional.

A new thing to get into

On the way to Gatwick I helped guide Kat through her first Sudoko puzzle which after all the previous it looks too difficult comments she seemed to find pretty easy to finish. As you can see she wasn't the least bit pleased with herself.

Crew Shot

I went to Jersey at the weekend for nephew Ed's christening and got to spend a few days with the family which was a lot of fun although every day started a little bit too early for my regular life schedule. There are many more photos from my excursion to the channel islands so I promise I'll blog more of them asap. This is also the first appearance of my Mum on my blog so welcome to the internet Mum.

Sunday Afternoons

I forgot I had this photo from a few weeks ago when Kat and I spent the afternoon at the pub reading the paper and eating lunch. It was pretty much amazing.

Motown in the morning.

Step away from the Ipod.

Bev's back! This is a slightly drunk Bev heading towards the ipod in search of music to dance to in her living room as you can imagine this was highly dangerous and both Erasure and the Communards got some air time that evening. That said we had fun and I made up for Seth's reluctance to dance, there was also talk of Monopoly! Whilst I'm happy for this whole family thing they've got going on I've missed the aggressive monopoly shark Bev, happy days are here again.

Sorry it's been a while.

My internet has been a bit mal so my blog capabilities have been nil the last week or so, to make up for it here's a picture for the nephews of a fire engine that Kat took shortly before she came home. I'll be more frequent with the updates from now on hopefully.

Definitely mid-life.

This is my regular morning set up:

Guardian web-site

Granola (today I opted for soya milk over yoghurt)

Coffee (Monmouth of course)

Water (filtered)

The further into my thirties I go the more I embrace my mid-life urges and I feel perfectly fine about it.

Buses for the nephews

Hello William and Joel here's a picture of some American school buses which Kat very kindly took for you guys she hopes you like it.

It seems like ages ago.

There's a whole list of things in this photo I'm missing.

Check out the composition.

This photo was taken on a late night tourist detour whilst heading home it was only a couple of months ago but feels like a lot longer and if you ignore the fact there's a finger in the corner of the frame the rest of the picture is good. London always looks good from the river at night so it wasn't difficult to take a good photo but, it's always harder to find a reason to take the trip down there on this occasion it was worth the effort and the end of an evening I wont forget.

Silver shoes don't scare me.

I like new shoes especially running shoes and whilst in every other respect I dress in a very under-stated manner I throw caution to the wind in this department allowing colour to be a part of my life where I would normally stick to a very limited colour palette of black, white, grey and navy. Yesterday I acquired a new pair of Nikes (thanks Mubi) which are my first pair of silver shoes and I love them, as you can see they're very spangly so much so they can barely be captured on camera.

License Plates

America is the land of the free and also the funny license plate. This was spotted on the way out of L.A. heading towards San Luis.

Good lads.

I got to hang out with Seth and Riley last night, these two were missed in Cali and our regular Wednesday afternoons will resume soon. I'm thinking I might introduce cards or dominoes into the equation of lager tops and olives at Primrose Hill?

1 x Annoyed Cat

As all cat owners or neighbours of cats will know if you go away for any time when you get back the cat isn't your friend for a little while this is despite the cats reputation for a being an independent/unloving creature as they do seem to suffer from abandonment issues as a species. This is my neighbours cat who was a regular visitor but, since I got back last week it's made a point of meowing relentlessly and tapping his claw on my window so loudly I open my window at which point he runs away to glare at me from a distance. I'm not sure how much longer this game will carry on so I'll let you know when me and the cat make a break-through and are once again friends.

Well done Joel.

Last weekend nephew Joel passed his grading for his yellow belt in karate with flying colours. Congratulation we're all really proud of you! Sorry this is a bit late mate my internet has been a bit rubbish.

The Holiday Hangover

There's nothing worse than a holiday hangover and it hits the moment you step off the plane back into the regularity of pre-holiday life which is nearly always a disappointment for the first few days. After my extended break it was bad coming from a sunny beach in the morning back to a grey and drizzly London so it helped to have such an excellent flatmate.

Tamsin wasn't in when I got home but she left me a welcome message.
Then she helped my jet lag with some seasoned traveller advice.
The best part for my transition back into home was a late birthday cake and present! Thanks Tamsin you're the best.

Only a 4 hour delay

So I got spend an extra hour and a half waiting at the gate then a further two and half hours in the plane on the tarmac. Luckily my super power is the ability to instantly fall asleep when I'm on a plane so I hardly noticed the delay and slept nine of the ten hours on the way back.

Goodbye Banana Stand

and Newport Beach.

The last meal

We had our last Banana Stand bar-b-que last night under an impressive looking full moon. Goodbye Balboa you were amazing.

Brunch and the Back Bay

It was my last full day in Balboa yesterday so Kat and I went for brunch at the Rusty Pelican then had a ride around the Back Bay for the last time. It was fun but also sad as the dream is nearly over.

For Joel and William

Hello nephews here's a lifeguard pick-up truck I saw on the beach yesterday.

Oh my patriotic!

Yesterday the wait for the ferry took approximately 1 hour instead of the usual 3 minutes so we decided to cycle round to Newport Beach instead. On the way past the endless line of cars there was this dude in the middle of it all.

Fireworks photo number 2

I thought none of my fireworks photos had come out too good but I had another look and this one was not so bad.

Happy Independence Day!

The next big thing is...

golfcarts!

Hollywood High

After eating cheeseburger number 3489 I looked across the road from Mel's Diner and saw the world famous skate spot Hollywood High. No funny or interesting story about this sorry.

Whatev's

This is Michael Jackson's star/temporary memorial as you can imagine everyone's pretty mellow about him dying out here.

There's never a bad time...

for a cheeseburger. We had ten minutes free post sign and pre boulevard so we nipped into Mel's diner for a cheeseburger, I think we're averaging one every three to four days and are feeling no guilt about it whatsoever.