day two

lovely day to walk to work. clear blue sky and a crisp cold morning. no clouds - a nice change from Manchester. wonder how long it'll last. :)

london morning

beautiful clear day

Better than a photo with Santa

New Header

Okay, it's taken me many hours over the last few weeks, but I've finally finished the new Bandwagon Header. I wanted to update it with the new members of our extended family, so I figured why not just update everyone as well.

I hope you all like it.

Just for you Mum I've got a tee on RedBubble (with zero markup, the cheapest I can make it). I've changed the design a bit to make it more tee friendly. You can see it here http://www.redbubble.com/people/damienmason/t-shirts/4124819-1-family

I'll also separate out all the different people so you can grab yourself or reorder or remix them.. My plan is to do it now but it'll depend on how Ossie goes, I've just put him to bed for a nap :)

So what do you think of the new header?

Edit: Okay, here are the files.

If you want to remix the header, grab these ones. They're all transparent PNGs with a background the exact size as the header bg and everything placed as it is in the header.. so you should be able to stack the pngs in layers in a photoshop file and then work with each person independently.
Adam
Carolynn
Chez
Dad
Me and Oscar
Daria
Dayna
Dee
Glenn
Jared
Lisa
Mum
Nana
Trinity

I've also put together massive (1000x1500) transparent pngs for each person, in case you just wanted yourself (for avatars etc) which are here

Adam
Carolynn
Chez
Dad
Me and Oscar
Daria
Dayna
Dee
Glenn
Jared
Lisa
Mum
Nana
Trinity

And finally I thought if you wanted to do a calendar rather than using the long horizontal version you might like the more compact tee version, so I've made a big (2880x2100) white background jpg of that for you. It doesn't have the text the tee has.

Calendar pic

Hopefully that's enough to keep you all going for a while :)

Exams again

Yes, I'm at that exciting stage of the year again...Exam time. Our exams go for a week but over two weeks (yes it's strange to put the weekend in the middle of them). I'm not looking forward to exams but im definatly looking forward to the formal. Its on the 2nd of December, I already have my dress (I made it) and all my friends and I can't stop talking about it.

Popcorn for dinner

I finally got around to uploading some photos today; you can find them on Flickr (with a couple retroactively added to our last post). I've also got a new phone (an Android phone, whee, it's "wik" (wicked, good) for all you non-geeks, nyah-nyah) and so have a few ... creative ... digital-filtered photos from around London.

One filter makes photos look like a polaroid,
and gives me a manly, straggly beard

So we had the beer festival in Norwich (Norfolk) the other weekend: a massive, Hogwart's-like hallway under a vaunted, cathedral ceiling filled with barrels and barrels of delicious beers. Traditional ales, lagers, stouts, ciders; there was something for everyone (well, everyone who likes beer I guess), and all paid for with little paper tokens we bought when we arrived.

You'll be a pinball-wizard, Harry

With too many different types to possibly try all of, I tended to base my decisions on the name of the brewery and/or the beer itself. So after a Red Dragon ale I had a Jack The Ripper, a Hobgoblin, a Pirate, a Neverwinter Nights (confession: I'm making them up). We stayed in a local hotel, had breakfast downstairs and headed back to London with Chris and Tina.

We also saw an amateur production of Jack The Ripper (The Musical) -- yes, the same one I was in so many years ago (ours was better :-D). It was in a tiny little theatre built under London Bridge (literally under -- in a gloomy tomb, very appropriate for the show and probably more spooky than the acting).

Another filter: "toy camera".

Yesterday we visited "Befnal Green", our old 'hood in the East End. Took the bus into Liverpool Street, walked through Spitalfields (Jack The Ripper again!) and up Brick Lane; street markets and food stalls and crowds of too-cool hipsters scared us into the straightest bar with the campest name: The Birdcage. We sat with a bunch of old rummies and watched Arsenal play Wolverton ... then finished our drinks (I had a Fosters!! Tee hee!) and ran away to watch some fireworks.

The number of people were intense! After 30 minutes of the fireworks we thought we could beat the crowds, and so ran away to the nearest bus-stop. Unfortunately, no bus came and eventually we were walking along with the herd looking for another way home. Turned out to be another bus stop, then a late night taxi back here -- our planned early night after a few nice fireworks turned into a gruelling trek across the urban jungle towards the safety of our temporary nest!



The punchline: we got home, ordered some dinner from a local curry house (yes, lazy, but nothing in the 'fridge because we've been so darn busy) and then settled in with a tasty glass of Australian red. Waited for food, waited some more, waited, waited, waited. Eventually we got through to the curry-house who informed us that a power-cut had shutdown their kitchen, so it was no dinner for us. We searched through the cupboards, and ended up with popcorn for dinner...

How rock and roll is that!!? :-D

A busy October indeed

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us this month, with: a visit to Manchester; a trip to the country; Sunday roast for my birthday; a Brazilian barbeque; leaving drinks for MI5; an office move; a halloween party; a sci-fi film all-nighter. To top it off we're headed up to Norwich for a beer festival next weekend! Perhaps November can be a quiet one?

I think I already mentioned Manchester (in an email?) -- we took the bus on Friday night, arrived quite late and were very happy to see Dayna & Bruce (thanks for picking us up! I'm not sure we could've handled another 20-30 minutes on a bus, even a Magic Bus.) It was really good to see Dayna, and we spent the weekend talking, playing Wii, drinking Dayna's impressive collection of donated alcoholic beverages (as Vicky has left for kiwi-land). We even did some tourism/shopping around Manchester central, with the mandatory "duck into shops and pubs to escape the rain" manouever. Then it was back on the bus on Sunday to get here! All in all a fun weekend away.

Another weekend was spent away in Dorking, south of London. Only an hour or so on the train, but out of the city and surrounded by greenery: fields and glens and forests and hills. We stayed with Martin and Helen (of "Jack The Ripper: The Musical" fame -- Martin is originally from Castlemaine) and had a lovely dinner in a pub/restaurant in the middle of nowhere (Helen drove) with delicious food and an awesome, relaxing atmosphere. Seriously! Good! Food! The kind of place you have dessert, even though you can't really fit it in. The next day we hit a farmer's market, before returning to the big smoke on the train.

Hmm, all these relaxing weekends, we should be completely chilled out, right?

The weekend of my birthday Dee cooked a lovely roast lamb for us & 9 guests. We stuffed ourselves silly, I got presents (yay!) and played Xbox. Tim Churchward, who I went to Uni with (and who is known as "the nicest man in the world") even visited with his wife -- they are travelling, and stayed with Martin and Helen for a few days. Great to see them!

Chris and Tina (housemates) were away for my actual birthday, so when they returned they took us out to dinner at the O2 Arena to a Brazilian barbeque house. Dear Goddess, so much fresh and tender barbeque meat: you grab a plate, load up on the bare-minimum amount of salad required to keep away the scurvy, then wait with hungry eyes as the waiters bring freshly cooked skewers of lamb, beef, chicken, fish and other poor, delicious animals straight to your table, slicing off as much or as little as you request before putting the skewers back onto the barbeque to continue cooking. I ate. And ate. And ate. For days I couldn't eat red meat! I even tried chicken hearts! (Chewy, tastes more like beef than chicken, and more than a little freaky.)

Afterwards we took a ferry back along the Thames to London Bridge, then had a traditional ale in a real pewter tankard at The Cooperage. We spoke to the manager about some of the paraphenalia hanging on the walls -- apparently in ye olden dayes of cobblestones and muck it was easier to drag barrels of wine and beer on gigantic wooden "cask sleds" dotted with flint than to risk breaking the wooden spokes of cartwheels.

On the work-front this week we moved into a new office, a proper "City" office. I'm even wearing a suit again (although not a tie)! Right in the heart of the square-mile, our office is newly appointed, clean, bright and airy and has a coffee machine. Yes, small things like that are all that is required to make me happy. The week earlier we said goodbye to a young man who may or may not have joined the secret-service -- we'd become good friends, and I'm hoping he stays in touch, even if he can't talk about what he's working on :-).

Right now we're sitting in our local "indy" cinema, Shortwave, having a glass of wine and trying to decide whether we want to see the Mexican film they're showing this weekend. It's free, as they're meant to be showing Coco Before Chanel, but I spent last night in a sci-fi film festival so I'm not sure how long I can stay awake, even with a nap from about 8am until 1:30 (I got home at 7am, and only slept a little bit in the cinema).

T'was fun though: I met Martin at Victoria station on Saturday night, then we headed to Troy's place for a Halloween party. We were amongst the first to arrive. We didn't dress up, as we were off to the film festival later, but I put in some scary looking contact lenses and we both donned wigs that Troy had from the last dress up party. Soon enough more people arrived: Frankenstein, Death, witches, zombies and even Jack Pumpkinhead and his lovely Lady (what was her name?). Troy cooked nibbles, and Martin and I filled up before heading to meet Allen (from RBS) at the film-festival at midnight.

It might sound daft, going to a party before an all-night film fest, but I think it was a stroke of genius: at about 5:30am Martin and I headed back to Victoria Station and he jumped on the express to Gatwick, where he was catching a flight to Australia at 9am!! With that kind of schedule he was bound to fall asleep on the 'plane, wake up in Dubai, then fall asleep again when he got to Melbourne at about 11pm -- time zone adjustment sorted! Or, at least, that's how the thinking went. We'll wait 'til he gets back to report on how successful the plan was...

I'll upload some photos and link to them here in the coming week: Manchester, and full photostream.

Happy birthday Glenn

Hey bro,

I know you had a fab day with cake and fizzy drink (but no fairy-bread.. awwww). Hope the rest of the year is as good as today has been.

Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay to yooooooou...
Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay toooo yoooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu...
Haappy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaaay deeeeear Glennnnnjiiiiiii...
Haappy biirthdaaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!

keep smiling!
*hugz*

Happy birthday Dad

Happy birthday Dad!
Hope you have a fun-filled day with lots of smiles.
*big hugz*

Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay to yooooou...
Haaaaappy birrrthdaay toooo yoooooooooouuuuuuuu...
Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaay deeear Daaaaaad...
Happy biirthdaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!

Happy birthday Damien

Happy birthday to you...
Happy birthday toooo yoooooooooouuuuuuuu...
Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaay deeear Damiennnnnnn...
Happy biirthdaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!

Hope you have a fantastic day, a lovely week and a terrific year.
*hugz*

Kerkyra with pictures

More photos, as promised -- press play, then rollover the slide-show for the "full-screen" icon, kick back and enjoy. :-D

Actually, that's exactly what we did in Greece -- a whole lot of relaxing by the pool, a little bit of exploring in an air-conditioned car, and a fair amount of searching for decent Greek food (strangely hard to find).

The trips themselves were somewhere between average and downright horrible: late/early flights, lots of waiting, the stupidest aeroplane seat-configuration I've ever seen (so close together that you couldn't really bring your knees together!), and general chaos on the part of the officials from both Kerkyra and the holiday company, Olympic.

(Our 3am bus, 6am flight happened as predicted. What was not predicted was the hundreds of fellow passengers suffering the same situation -- hundreds of Brits with hangovers, or sunburn, or missing luggage; girls with "flip-flops" and sarongs flirting with boys in cargo-shorts and ridiculous sunglasses; families and individuals with ridiculously large, heavy luggage (what could they possibly be bringing back?!); officials with less idea about what was happening than the human cattle they were responsible for. I remember saying to Dee, "The only way to make this airport more miserable is for some of the fluorescent lights to start flickering." Then a thought struck me: "Or to fill the place up knee-high with stagnant water. That might do it.")

But once we were there -- brilliant! Brilliant despite the crummy accomodation, despite the dodgy bar-tender with his penchant for late nights, loud music and funny cigarettes, despite the narrow, dangerous roads and crazy scooter-riders. Eventually, under the brilliant sunlight, all these things took on a certain romance, a gleam -- they became as much a part of the whole experience as the smell of the ocean, the gentle buzzing of bees and wasps, the sound of our fellow holiday-makers splashing in the pool. Okay, the airport didn't, but the rest ... walking into supermarkets and buying groceries without a word of english is just, just, awesome!

So yes, we explored the entire island by car while we were there -- hiring it from a boy who couldn't have been more than 10 (his uncle came to do the paperwork, but it was the boy's sale, have no doubt). He tried to convince us to get an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) instead: a roll-cage, four chunky tyres and a 250cc engine, no windshield or floor, bucket seats ... Of course we stuck with the little (air-conditioned) Hyundai, thank you very much.

Corfu Town is the main metropolis, and we spent a day walking through markets along tiny streets, dodging scooters and keeping out of the midday sun. It's really crazy how weathered the buildings are -- I kept expecting to hear a crash and turn to find our way back blocked by rubble! We also found beaches, both pebble and sand (hot, hot sand!!), everything from "British" beaches (a whole lot of pale bodies and east-end accents) to secluded ones used by locals and those in the know.

I think the pictures say it all really.

Oscar's first trip to the pool

We have just gotten back from Oscar's first ever trip to the pool! It's been a bit cold and rainy this weekend, but the pools were indoor and heated, so it was quite warm when we got there.

Initially we took him into the baby pool. I'm sure mum and dad can guess his first reaction - he kicked around like he was in the bath :) However after a bit of that I think he realised he was somewhere different, and spent the remainder of the time studying everything he could with a detached expression of mild curiosity.

The pool we went to has these weird mushroom things which rain water down, and he rather enjoyed that. It also has a sea creature which sprays water from it's head and he really tried to grab that water, even though it just made it spray into his face :D

After a bit of a play in both the baby and the kids pool (he was a bit weirded out by floating I think) we changed him, wrapped him up and he instantly fell asleep. He's still asleep now that we're home :)

We didn't take any photos at the actual pool, but there are a few shots of his cute little outfit on flickr and facebook, so check them out :) He looks very tall in that first one..

Kerkyra, Greek Island

Our second-to-last day in Kerkyra today -- we fly out at 6am tomorrow morning -- and we're at our first Internet cafe, trying to operate a Greek keyboard and drinking a tasty local beer ("Mythos"). It's been fun, relaxing and very hot, even with a pool at our doorstep and a coastline full of various beaches. When we get home I'll try to upload some photos!

One slight problem with our flight tomorrow morning, of course -- we don't have a room tonight! Standard practise for this particular "package holiday", apparently: we checked out today, and a bus comes to take us to the airport at 3am tonight/tomorrow morning. Package holidays from Britain are not all they're cracked up to be, that's for sure. No wonder the Brits are always complaining...

We flew in a week ago, and we're bussed from the airport to our "resort" -- and the word "resort" has to be in inverted-commas for the simple reason that it was the most basic room and facilities any of us (Dee, brother Chris and I) have ever seen. Including the complete dive we stayed at in Amsterdam! Two narrow beds for Dee and I and a camp stretcher for Chris; empty cupboards without handles; an electric hot-plate which electrocuted me twice; undrinkable tap-water (so they say -- we've been boiling it and it tastes fine); a smelly toilet (you don't flush the toilet paper here, but rather drop it in a bin... good practise for China, where they do the same thing).

But on the positive side: a balcony with an awesome view across the ocean to the Greek mainland; a bright blue pool for early morning dips (and you need 'em, it's 36 today); friendly (enough) bar staff selling cheap Mythos, Ouzo (more about that later) and chilled local wine. So, despite our dismay at finding neither drinkable water nor anywhere to buy some we arrived at 3am on the first night (again, the package holiday standard) we were all feeling positive when we woke late the next morning.

And overall it's been quite a positive stay! We hired a car from the very start, so have been able to explore the island -- from Canal d'Amour in the north to the seedy little nightclub town of Kavos in the south -- and find some really good beaches (Issos -- seems to be the locals hangout). We drove one day into Corfu Town, the main metropolis, and almost drove off Mount Pantocratos one day too, but mostly we've just been relaxing. We're all kind of keen to get home now, however -- the heat gets to you in the end, and we're all brown enough (even after putting on sunscreen twice a day!).

But yes, photos and maybe a little more detail when I have longer on the Internet!

Please Help Me

Can you please help me with an assignment im doing on the globe theatre and romeo and juliet?

Crossbows and winos

I wandered down to the Tower Of London from work one lunch-time last week, planning to mingle with the tourists and pretend/imagine I was one of them. Instead, I stumbled upon a demonstration of archaic weaponry! (Hopefully you can see the video above?)

Last night we had a nice, grown-up wine-tasting session at Vinopolis, a massive wine centre near Borough Market. We started with a "How To" session, where the most patronising (matronising?) woman I've ever seen outside of a kindergarten children's show taught us the basics of wine-tasting (hint: don't just knock it back in a single gulp, then belch loudly and ask for another). *Slurp-slurp-slurp* "Can you hear the noise I'm making, children? Can YOU make a slurping noise too? Big slurps for Madame Winey, that's riiight."

When M. Winey had finished our lessons we were let out to play with the other kids. We walked from table to table, exchanging tokens for tiny glasses of champagne, chardonnay, pinot noir, then onto reds: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, rioja. The tables were arranged by theme -- usually location, but there was a "premium" table all by itself -- and our tokens gave us 3 champagne tastes, 5 wines, 2 premium wines. To round out the reds, and because 9:30pm was approaching, I swapped two of my tokens for a tiny glass of madeira -- a bit like port, and delicious! Sweet and honeyed, with hints of burnt timber... or so I deluded myself!

It's not the amount of wine (as each glass was a mouthful at most) but the fact that you're sucking air through your teeth and coating your tongue with the stuff. So we were all feeling pretty "mellow" by the time we walked into the Bombay Sapphire Bar for a complimentary gin cocktail (I had a delicious one made with pear-juice ... but I like gin. Dee had a different one and didn't like it!)

So after all that you might think we were done for the night. You'd be right, but we still had two free tastings of rum to get through! Actually, that's not quite right -- we had two rums each ... but as you might imagine, some people (*cough*Tina*cough*) didn't actually want their rum, so it was more for meeeee!

(I think the major enjoyment I get from drinking rum is pretending I'm a pirate. Considering all the wine, gin and champagne I'd already consumed, it was just lucky for everyone that I didn't actually start singing a sea-shanty and hopping around on a wooden leg. "Yo-ho-ho an' a bottle o' rum!")

Anyway, I've just uploaded the pictures from this, and the weapons demonstration, to the ever-entertaining Life In London photoset!