Guest contributor

Michelle has jetted off to Singapore for a 5 week business trip. I'm sure she we will get up to a little more other than business. I hope some cool postings will come our way soon! Hey I've just had an sms, it's 4am and she can't sleep HA ! Jet Lag !

Foo Fighters

Went to the Foo Fighters concert in Hyde Park on Saturday. The perfect hot afternoon for a day in the Park, we were treated to another great Angels and Airwaves gig, The Queens of the Stone Age also played and finally Motorhead hit the stage for some serious old style Rock and Roll!
Most importantly the Foo Fighters played in style and gave us (all 85000) a full-blown display of all their biggest hits! 1hr 40 minutes worth…The sheer size of the Hyde Park set-up meant it was nothing like the intimate venues we are accustomed to in the U.K. Most of the gigs we go to are played in the Academy’s around London "old play houses" or small night clubs. We were about 200m from the stage so couldn’t see much but the vibe was definitely good. Friends in the golden circle said it got quite hectic… The lasers were awesome, I haven’t seen a display like that in a while. I definitely want to see them play again but in a smaller venue…

Coins "shrapnel"

I have a bad habit when it comes to coins…I leave them lying around the house. No I’m not an over paid ungrateful sod, I just don’t like coins or carrying them, so when I end up back home after a night out on the beers, I empty my pockets and clutter the counters. Michelle gave me a money tin to put them in. What a great idea, however I decided it would be even better to put only £1 and £2 coins in it. This I have been doing since Christmas and now it’s full.
With the £1 and £2 coin problem solved it seemed that the small change was still annoying Mich, so she got me a money Box in the form of my favourite beer.. Check it out in the photo. I’m still busy filling it up with my left over small change, it’s just past half way.
None the less I have opened the £ tin and counted the dosh… how much do you think I saved?

Angels and Airwaves...

Saw Angles and Airwaves play at Brixton last night. Despite being 45 mins late on stage "due to a technical fault" they were surprisingly good. I didn’t know a single track, yet I managed jam to every one played. They even through in a couple of Blink182 choruses. To those of you who don’t know, Blink182 are on a break, Angles and Airwaves was formed by the lead singer " Tom DeLongue". Same type of music with loads of Blink style to it. They rocked the house with their small catalogue of tracks, definitely worth a listen if you were once or are a Blink fan. I’m gonna get the album.

27 year old TV..

I was at a mates house party on Saturday evening. I spotted this TV in the study, couldn’t believe how old it looked and yip he confirmed it was 27, that’s older than I. It had all the old knobs and buttons and check out that bulbous screen. I actually remember playing ATARI tv games on something similar as a kid, that’s why it grabbed my attention. A far cry from the Flat Screen High Def LCD technology we are growing accustomed to now days. And it still works Ha! I should have got it’s history, I bet it’s an interesting one…

London to Paris update...

Have been informed by the event organizers that there has been a huge over subscription to the ride and that I have now been moved into a 3rd group of cyclists. Group 3 will now cycle 350km over 3 days ! Grrr very very very annoying. The original plan was for 2 groups to cycle to Paris via separate routes covering similar distances.

That's all I know for now, 3 groups, 2 traveling over 4 days and 450km and now the 3rd as stated above. More to follow as soon as I find out more.

The pins are out !

Just got back from the Hospital, they are out! Yay, but still another or 4 or so weeks to go. Now all I have to do, is wait for the wounds the pins left behind to heal and then I can get back into the gym! I couldn't believe the size of each pin, they looked more like nails, so I kept them for the mantle piece. Ha Ha !

Surfing... Weekend wash out

A group of us headed west to Woolacombe on the North Devon coastline for the 1st surf trip of the year, a special occasion to mark the start of summer. We all held expectations for sun, swell and off shore winds. We got the swell and a morning of off shore but no sun, in fact the conditions were miserable all weekend. The broken finger problem meant that my weekend was written off anyway so I wasn’t to fussed, I relaxed and got the London tension out of the system. The surfers got in the sea and persevered, all credit to Lols and Mich for pursuing waves in 12-degree water and howling winds. I spent my time on the beach coaching mates in the art of flying power kites in heavy winds, I must say my kites have saved many a blown out surf trip a great investment and additional hobby.
We hired out a very cool and very well equipped self catering house……… Actually I take that back the spot was missing one essential item, a BRAAI!
In true South African style we had to have a braai albeit without one, we bought 4 disposable BBQ’s (a small A4 sized device made up of baking tray with self lighting coal and a grill) Utterly useless but better than nothing, in the rain, 5 beer fuelled men attempted to cook enough meat for 10 people.
Some Saffas may ask, why surf in England? Well it’s better than nothing and actually very very cool. Woolacombe is a great little surf location with excellent locals a cool town and the potential for great surf.
As usual I had a great trip and can’t wait for the next one, already looking at calendar dates. It’s not exactly J-Bay but it’s good enough and if you are lucky it has the potential to fire.

Hard Fi In operation @ Brixton

5 nights at Brixton academy, all sold out, the first band to do it. What a gig, we were there on the final night (Thursday). They played most of their Stars of CCTV album plus a couple of extras. I enjoyed the concert, I thought they were good and definitely worth the sell out. However some of the group that I was with thought it was average. They are a young band with a very gritty rock sound. They haven't developed that massive stage presence yet, their front man is a seemingly low key individual who would rather deliver a cool performance than wind up the crowd and over perform. The crowd was certainly there and got involved with some of their bigger hits and demanded more at the end. So I wonder what makes a great gig great? Why would I think that the gig was great and def worth another see and others not? Perhaps I am not being critical enough ? Or do I levelexpectations off.. ?All I can say is that nobody can compare a hard-fi gig with an Oasis gig. Yes they might be playing similar music but are completely different bands.

Cycling from London to Paris

This is a charity ride, I'm doing it to raise a bit of cash for action medical research. Why ? Because I haven't done something like this before.. It also looks like a good challenge. Check out their page (click on banner) and please make a donation if you wish. You can do so by logging into my personal online profile where there is a safe and secure electronic system. www.action.org.uk/~brycellloyd

We will be riding from London to Paris over 4 days, covering around 120km per day. Our route will see us leave London on the 19th of July heading towards Newhaven, from Newhaven we catch a Ferry to Dieppe. We leave Dieppe on Day 2 heading towards Lisiex, this route takes us through the Saane Valley. Day 3 we head from Lisiex towards Vernon and finally on Day 4 we head off from Vernon towards Paris where we finish up under the Eiffel tower. We spend Saturday night celebrating our accomplishments and Sunday welcoming in the finishers of the tour de France, hopefully Jan Ullrich will capture his long awaited 1st title !