blue eight

2011-04-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

This has been a great snow season, lots of snow, some sun (in Jan at least), great people to play in the snow with.

It is a shame that the season is winding down, there is still 14ft of snow at meadows! but the people, the people stop going :(

There is plenty of footage for another 10-15min video this year, I just need to make sure I get all the footage from the various bodies!

We probably have a couple of weekends left now, then we will turn our attention to golf and bikes. In fact we have had our first golf outing, much fun in the rain!

2010-11-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time coming but finally the 2010/11 winter season is here! So far we have made 3 days up at the hill and it is not even December yet! The first night riding is just around the corner! So with a little luck the knee will hold up and we will top the 40 day marker :)

A few things have changed this season, we traded our trusted Escape (Ernie) for an Expedition (Eddie). With the addition of a hitch mounted ski rack and a roof box we can ride 6 up with all our gear in limo comfort :) There is even a DVD player to keep the kids in teh back quiet!

We also revamped our out-ware with new Oakley and Northface gear, and I finally replaced that dented helmet..... well overdue!

The dear wife bought me an early Christmas present, a nice Ride DH :) I had the DH2 last year, but a rocker board is not for me....

We have a new camera for on hill video and it looks like there will be a team effort for a video this year! I should really media-fire the one I put together from the previous years footage....

We have condo up the hill booked for Smurf's 30th Birthday and we are even importing friends for the occasion!

I will post some pics later of Eddie and the early season snow.

2010-04-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have managed to go an entire season without blogging. I think the reason is simple, the journey to Tahoe and back is a killer. Average of 4.5hours each way. But we managed 34 days riding with some amazing powder days, awesome tree runs and we got to ride the best Tahoe has to offer.

We had season passes for Heavenly/Northstar and Sierra. We also rode at Squaw a few times but did not get to Alpine or Kirkwood this season.

Mrs M got some great piccies this year, some will find their way on here - when she has finished the editing :)

2009-07-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been fun. I have been out on the mountain bike for 4 of the last 5 days. Today was particularly gratifying, I'll explain!

The ride I tend to do can be broken down as follows:

1. 1.5 mile on the road then a brief stop to cross the road

2. 0.5 mile to the entry of the fire road at Waterdog Lake park, rest in prep of the main climb.

3. 1.7 mile climb up the fire road - then rest!

4. 0.25 mile of a short but steep decent and then a short but steep ascent!

5. Take in the view and turn around and head back!

Total ride is just shy of 8 miles and take just under 1 hour. If I am riding with someone else then the ride is a bit longer and takes on some nice single track, but from 1-5 is where you earn your stripes as it is all climbing!!!

Today, for the first time I got to the end of point 3 - with no rest! More importantly I made it up the steep ascent at the end of point 4 AND on the way back I made it up the other steep ascent taking you back to point 3!

This is the first time ever I have managed those climbs. It is not just the gradient that gets you but the surface is really dry and loose, so if you loose traction it is really tough to get going again...

Here are some snapshots for you. I should get some to lay out the points above, but I only really thought about the points tonight...

This is taken from the highest part of point 4. The trail on the left is the fire road up to point 3, you can see from point 3 to point 4 is quite an increase in altitude...

This is the view from the highest point at the end of point 4, you can see across the bay into the east bay here. The trail off to the right is the single track that I ride, from time to time!

I am hoping to get out again tomorrow and then Wednesday is the weekly ride, but my legs are in a bit of pain tonight so we shall see...

2009-07-23T18:42:00.001-07:00

With the ever changing world and the evolving mediums we use to communicate with people it is amazing how closely you have to keep an eye on content... With that said, I am reviving my blog and in the foreseeable future will go back to having my own domain...mwahahaha!

Originally I set this blog up to stay in contact with friends, family and my now wife! It was very successful in allowing that and it would appear it's time has come again!

This has been an interesting couple of weeks, some business travel with a colleague I have a great rapor with, some good discussions, meetings and meals.... which really leads to my current issue.

Weight.

Or more particularly:

Mass.

Body mass.

And a somewhat of an excess.

Each summer, or as I like to call it - the off season, I put a good few pounds on! With that said my mountain bike has been rebuilt and survived its shake down (as did I!) and should be getting more use out of it for the next few weekends while Kate is at college. The business travel is over for a while so the food intake should normalise and I have every intention of, oh dear how can I say, going to the gym. At least once a week..... So I get my minimum of 3 good exercise stints a week...

That last part is an admission to the gravity of the situation. As you all know, mass times gravity equals weight...

2008-11-24T18:10:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we made it up to lake Tahoe for the weekend. There is no fecking snow though!!! One small run was open at Boreal, so we played there for a bit. Lots of rails and jibs out, so naturally I took a nasty couple of spills, including one to the nogging. Apparently it could knock some sense in to me!

We spent the night in a little hotel in South Lake Tahoe. It was cheap and clean! We also found a dive bar and a couple of randoms who we drank the night away with. Much fun!

We decided not to ride on the Sunday, due to hang overs and not much snow.... instead we mooched about the shops and stuff. Was a very pleasant day! The drive back was 3.5 hours and we were tucked up in bed by 9:30pm.

I think Smurf still has pain in her abductors.... Personally I have a pain in the neck! (bad pun, but true!)

It is 50/50 as to whether there will be good snow at the weekend, but we will still go up for our 2 night stay, it is a nice place to hang out and we have plenty to do there.

2008-11-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

It is here! We have snow. Well, there is a light dusting of stuff around and about....Tomorrow we are off to Boreal to ride the park in the sunshine, nothing wrong with riding a rainbow rail in a hoody. We are taking the new video camera, so we should have youtube foot-age a plenty!

Sunday we will trek over to ride Mt Rose, again mainly parky thingys out :) Then we have a timeshare thingy, we just want the free night they promised us..... Expect a full review on that session.

We are all packed up in our new bags with our new trousers and jackets and gloves and goggles and cannot wait to get up their.

Piccies and video to follow next week(ish).

Just in case - Happy Thanksgiving :)

2008-11-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

As the winter sets in in California (it is below 20deg C...) we are preparing for the snow :) Heavenly reckons it will be open on the 21st November. We found a roach hotel for $56 for the night :) SWEEEEEEEETTT!!!

So we will be up the hill playing the snow :)

To help capture those moments up the hill, we have invested in a video camera :) We decided to go for a low end one as I will be carrying it for most of the time.... Not sure if this is a good idea or not. I need to carry out some tests on the camera tomorrow and we will see from there.

mmmmmm

Snow :)

2008-10-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

New boots - check

Non scratched googles - check

New gloves (goretex - womens size as they were $35) - check

Season passes ordered - check.

Bright green boarding pants - check

Man, I need some snow..... Hopefully by thanksgiving we will have some and I can get up the hill......

2008-09-08T21:05:00.001-07:00

Now this is something I can relate too :)

Thank you xkcd!

2008-08-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

I am stuck out in Atlanta for a few days for work, trails and tribulations of working int eh USA. Today was a long day, 5 hour flight then basically worked a full day! I managed to call the wife. Today was day 2 at college for her, sounds like it is going ok :) Smurf is studying a ton of stuff Maths, Physics, Physcology.... It looks pretty packed, she is in college everyday....

Hmmm....I wonder if I will go back to an apartment full of cushions and scented candles? She has been threatening me :) I think she may just drink all the wine and eat all the coco-pops!

I am nearly done reading "Touching the Void" - in short, if you have not read it then do so! It is gripping. I have only put it down so I have something to read at the airport tomorrow!

The weekend was great! Smurf and I met with other friends in Golden Gate Park on sat morning and played another 9 holes of golf, this time in day light! I did a lot better then on Friday. Then we went home and cleaned up in order to head out for the 8th annual dive bar pub crawl in San Francisco. We were a few hours late and everyone seemed.... very happy...

In short it was a RIOT! So much fun in the The Mint Karaoke bar and Zeitgiest - a SFO must go to bar. We caught the pumpkin train home (midnight)- the Train driver was on form "You will have to do better then tat Batman an Robin" We wish we know what he was talking about! The folk seating in our carrige were fun too. It was more like a party train :)

We went to Bay Meadows race track on Sunday and watch some horses race. That was fab! We even cycled up there, it seemed up hill both ways witha head wind both ways.... Very crazy. When we got to the track we even place a cople of bets, we though one came in, but then it was pointed out we did not know anything about betting and we had not won anything.

I came to the conclusion that I like doing anything that involves sitting in a grandstand seat and drinking beer:

Horse racing
Baseball
Basketball
Ice Hockey
Football
That American egg throwing game aka Football

I think I could just sit in a grandstand watch paint. If I could drink beer at the same time...

Smurf was a good lass and did not drink. Well, she did not get a beer but she kept trying to drink mine! Cheeky I tell thee.

Anyhoot - I thought I would use my time wisely here in Atlanta. Now my work is done and my body is still on west coast time, I thought I would spend some time and carry out some maintanence on the Blog. For those of you who are too lazy to hunt around and see what...

- Changed where I live
- Added the 2 potential Tahoe resorts to "My Snow"
- Added XKCD to the the links
- Fixed Ad-trip link

So there you go!

I am now going to climb into bed and watch some commercials on TV....

2008-08-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

A simple question for y'all....

Kirkwood

Northstar

I am erring towards Kirkwood at the moment....

Answers on a postcard......

2008-08-16T00:11:00.000-07:00

Ah, random Fridays, I love them. We were meant to go to Santa Cruz tonight, but as Neil-a-tron could not make it we decided to go to the local park movie night thing. But we found out it was going to be full of rug rats....uuurrgghh..... NO THANKS! Kate suggested we should go hit some golf balls. Turns out to be a STERLING idea! We met John and Yolanda, that are a fantastic couple, and we played golf at sunset with floodlights, see the vid for details!!!!

2008-07-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

So on a Friday night we all like a little music. Here is a classic from the vault!!!

2 weeks until Smurf arrives :)

2008-06-29T01:19:00.001-07:00

It is now the end of June and I have not been on my snowboard since May, so here is a .... montage..... of my last week up the hill.

Enjoy, spelling mistakes an' all...

2008-06-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

It seems only fitting that my first post on my blog in California follows the form of my early "move to USA" posts. In short.

1. I am missing the Mrs :)

2. I am ... "mildly" inebriated

3. I have some free time on my hands!

Smurf arrives 1pm on Saturday, we are going to see the Red-bull helicopters then watch the Turkey game :). we may have a few beers!

Then I have the week off. So needless to say, with the Cal-i-forn-i-a sun we will spend a lot of time on the beaches, a lot of time playing golf (I bet Smurf bloody wins....) and a lot of time doing NOTHING.

Soooooooo, this was kind of a Sienfeld post, a lot of promise, nothing really happened, but you still enjoyed it!

FYI: I am now web-cam enabled..... select video at your peril....

2008-01-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

So last week up the hill was the usual mix of fun and games! With a little disaster thrown in too :( Alison buggered her MCL . . . Andy and Dave managed to scare the snow away for nearly a full week and Andy managed to coin a new phrase:

"The snow is ME deep"

:)

Here are a couple of pics, I wish Smurf was there to play too :~( In a couple of months it will be all good!

Despite what Smurf may say, this is actually me and it is NOT a superimposed image from the meadows standard gallery . . . . women ;)

Andy found a flat-down rail and promptly had to "HAVE-IT!"

Dave is practising to be a stick man stuntman . . .

A great shot from Andy at the end of the day. Just need to shop out that board in the bottom right and he could mint it with that pic!

There are other pics in bars and stuff, but this is all about the snow :) This will be my last full season for a couple of years and I am already pretty depressed about that. Really trying to make the most of the mountain and the conditions. We have already surpassed the YEARLY snow full average and we are less then 1/2 way through the season. It truely is epic this year.

2008-01-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

So I am sat here with some of the best snow conditions Mt Hood has ever seen, yet I am stressed . . .

With snow this good right now, will it still be epic in 12 days when the guys are here? I hope so but I need to make time to look at the forecasts. . . .

So today trucks are getting stuck at Govvy, even with chains on, here is a piccy of the HWY 26, can you even tell it's a highway???

Here is the bottom of Meadows, looks amazing up there . . . Wish I wasn't working :(

And here is the snowfall history, this season versus last season . . So far this season 337 inches of snow compared to the same time last year 193. Yearly average is 400 . . . . This is an epic year already .. . Blue line is this season pink line is last season.

2008-01-06T22:14:00.001-08:00

New TV shows on in the USA: American Gladiators. This is pretty good, a lot harder hitting then the original or the old UK version. And they have Hulk Hogan presenting, much better then John Faschnu!

Secondly . . Well, click here and here, tell me you don't want to see it . . .

2008-01-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

So New Year, new challanges :) Kate has agreed to marry me, we are aiming for the 22nd March. More news to follow in about 10 days on that one!

The subject of this post is snow. Lots of snow :) Not as much as Tahoe 5 feet in 24 hours! but still a lot of great snow. We have had a storm here for pretty much 3 straight weeks. I have caught something like 6 straight powder days. How amazing is that!

Today I was a little pissed off I had no one to ride with, it happens from time to time, I had a great 1st hour but I realised I was just hitting the same old areas. I needed to find something new in time for the boys coming over. So I signed up for the Meadows Frontline guide at 11am. It cost $20, but in retrospect I would have paid $40 for those 2 hours of riding. I was in a group of 5 riders with 1 instructor (Jason). We hit a lot of steep and deep trees, untouched freshies all over, I was in 3-4 feet of snow! If it was not so steep I would have had problems. We hit 4 1/2 bowl, dropping in through some trees, Andy is going to love that. Found some sweet natural hits, on one I got too much air and had a serious flappy hand moment!!!

I want to go back up now and do it all again.

2007-12-27T21:34:00.000-08:00

Ah,

After riding Christmas day and Boxing day in unbelievable powder, today was a real let down. . . Back at work . . Only 1 more day before I have 3 or 4 more days of powder :)

The conditions have been unreal the last week, the best powder I have ever ridden and the first time I have had to be rescued by ski patrol!

I don't think Smurf was too happy when I was telling her all my antics! God help me if mother finds out . . . .

2007-12-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Found this on xkcd, says it all . ..

2007-12-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

T-Line was fun on Saturday. The cloud base was really thick and covered the whole lower mountain. Once the magic mile and palmer were open the fun really kicked in. Unfortunately Damien had a stack and hurt his knee. So Meredith and I carried on while Damien took some alcohol on board!

Here are a couple of pics. Of course there is one of the new jacket, you can see how thick the cloud is, it was bretty warm and so it was burning off, but the wind kept blowing more in:

D&M at the end of the day when the clouds cleared and we could see Mt Hood in all its beauty!

2007-12-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

This week it was clear that things were not going to go my way. On top of stuff I have told some of you I found my orange jacket has a couple of tears in it. I think this is result of you lot wishing I would stop wearing it . . . Anyhow, I was pretty pissed off and thought I would go look for a cheapo jacket to get me through the season and then I can buy a goretex shell in the spring sales.

The jacket I wanted was sold out :( but then I found this - reduced from $200 to $129 .. .. Not a bad deal. Espcially when yo consider it was in this colour :)

SWEEEEEETTTT!!!

2007-12-04T21:53:00.001-08:00

An odd week. My tyre blew out on me, Kate has gone back to the UK, work sucks and a friend committed suicide.

Rob was a pro photographer, I was looking forward to showing this pic to him, but instead I will dedicated it to him.

This one is for you Moose.

2007-11-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

As you can see the snow is finally here :) I have been up the mountain 3 times so far. Kate has been practicing her manuals, I have been practicing my butters and tail taps. Stuart and Helen have had their first 3 lessons and are loving it :)

It is looking like we should get a nice dump tonight and tomorrow. As a result I am taking the gang up tomorrow for a day at Meadows (only been to T-line so far) then we are going to stay Govvy camp for a night. That means I get to drink once we are done on the slopes!!!! Friday should see us back up at Meadows again.

The guys go back on Saturday but I should be back up the hill on Sunday with Ben.

It is all happening now :)

2007-11-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Looky here, Kate pulling a manual :)

2007-10-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

With the first snow now hitting Mount Hood I have reset the snow days counter. The final tally was 37 snow days for last season. A little short of my annual target of 40 but still pretty good :)

Anyhow, look at this picture from Meadows and you can see it is looking good. They reckon it will be a colder and wetter then normal inter this year, that means more snow :))))

2007-08-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

So here we are, in about 8 hours I will be on a plane flying back to the UK for 2 weeks! I get off the plane Sat morning and I am straight to Craven COttage to watch Spurs :)

Then on to Enfield to see the folks and Kate and stuff. . . From there not a lot going on, up to Scotland to see the game on the 8th (I think it is the 8th . . .) then a couple of Curry nights in Enfield and may be a bit of cricket and drinking!!

Anyhow, if you are reading this and will be about then drop me an email and we can meet for fish and chips :)

2007-08-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am pretty sure I just got the last day of my season in this weekend. Kate and I rode at Timberline and we had fun!

The snow was ace, we were above the clouds and it was all good :) Helen (Kate's sister) is over at the mo too, so she came up with Christa Barney (pooch) and Johnathon. They went for a jolly hike and we all met for a beer at the end.

I tried the half pipe on the way down but I was tired and could not even get up the vert. Rubbish, but here is proof I was trying!

The day before we went for day trip to the state capitol. It is called Salem and is full of old people. you know, pension day type thing.

Anyhow we left there pretty quick and headed to Woodburn outlets where the we all shopped. I bought some new trainers, how call are they :)

The girls got some bits too - belts and shorts and stuff. . . . So on we drove to Newburg. That is a little town 30 mins SW of Portland. It is the only drive in movie place in Portland. We were a bit early. . Well 4 hours early, due to Salem being utter poo. So we drove around looking for a pace to go fly the kite. We found a park and we found a bench to finish our lunch and what-not when I realised . . there was a frisbie golf course there! I had seen that on transworld sport about 5 years ago and thought it look fun, now was my chance to find out. So I ran across the road and bought my Pro Disc Golf Association certified frisbie ($18!!! buggers . . .) and the fun ensued!

The picture above was when we finished playing the 9 holes and were larking about. Anyhow. It was fab! More of that in a bit . . .

We trekked to the drive in and we were about 1.5 hours early. Which was fine as people were arriving and playing around.

We got some popcorn and some nice people lent us a chair. The owner, Brian, stopped by a couple of times and had a good few chats with us, he even gave us bumper stickers!

Kate and I are definitely going back. It was soooo much fun :)

So anyhow. Mother dearest sent some hard currency over to pay for a few drinks. Instead of liquidising the assets we invested it. I topped it up and we got some tennis raquets. Kate and Helen use to have lessons when they were younger, so I am being sorely educated! It is great fun but I do suck at tennis. . . . I don't have the pictures to hand at the moment, but I do have pictures of today's fun playing disc golf.

Helen a blaze of action fury . . .

Kate taking a more relaxed approach:

And moi, poised for my sponsorship deal :)

People do this professionally . . . can you imaging being paid for this . . . hoooowwwww coooool . . .

2007-07-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

So after a hard day on the bikes on Sunday I have finally recovered! Here are some piccies to prove we were out and about!

We only rode 13 miles, but 3.5 of that was all up hill at the end. It was epic :)

2007-07-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

So Dave finally bought himself a new mountian bike, despite being terribly purple it is tre-plush! He was so chuffed with the new toy he took it out in his back yard, got about 20 feet and went over a piece of glass putting a nice hole in the new toy!

Anyhow, I digress. We went for a ride, Christa came along too. We hit 16 miles of nice smooth tarmac and 2 miles of real cross-country! That up the hill bit nearly killed me, sheer drop on one side, nature on the other. Was a lot of fun.

I decided tonight that I would go for a ride along the river. We are going for a big ride on SUnday and I felt the urge to do some preperation! I managed 10 miles tonight on tarmac in 39 minutes. Plenty tough enough for me. The way back was all in a headwind too.

Anyhow, now I am cooled off I am going to grab a shower and do some house work. . .

2007-06-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if any of you have heard of the film 11:14, but I do recommend checking it out! It has a twist about every 90 seconds! I only caught the last 20 mins but this is one I will watch for sure.

2007-06-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, 2 months and no post. That is a record for me. Let's work out why this has happened and what's been going on . .

Kate was out with me for 2.5 months, that was fab! This meant I was less inclineds to play on the world wide interspaz!

The winter snowboarding season has ended, so I am back to $45 a day passes at Timblerline. I guess I may go up next weekend.

I am just at the end of a 3 week work trip that has sucked all my money out of my bank, worn me out totally and left me stranded in an airport for HOURS!

On the plus side I spent a week in Alberquerque, went on the world longest cable car, played some footie, drunk a lot, ate a lot, Scutter died :~( but HAL is filling the hole :), my bike is making a shitty noise (bottom bracket clicking. . . grrrrrrr) and Kate is comming back over in a few weeks :)

OOo, I went to the Champ car race! That was sooo cool, next year Ben and I are going to get a RV and camp out for the full weekend (don't worry Kate, I'll make sure we pack you a ton of Fox Horn!!!)

Kate and I have been sucked into the Facebook revolution, so go find us on there too.

2007-04-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

oooo, Here is the picture from Bens camera.

2007-04-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

A link to some pictures of the carnage . .

2007-04-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Porsches are shit.

Now I have the attention of Marty, Tons -O, Muppet and some others I will now tell you why Smurf and I will forever side with Jeremy Clarkson and not Hamster on the 911 debate.

I was invited to take part in an autocross event (driving around cones in a car park one at a time to compete for the best time) at Portland International Raceway today. My chum Trimbo (Ben) has a rather smart Mazda speedsix. The mazda version of a scooby STi I guess.

I decided against it as it would not be too much fun in the automatic I have at the mo. I was dead keen on doing it except for that :(

In the end Kate and I went snowboarding this morning, 4" of fresh overnight and it was snowing all day. We left early to go and see Ben at the track and tell him how he drives like a girl.

I found a place to park and we could see some cars going around the cones at a fair rate of knots. I took Smurf for a walk to find Ben's car, as we went down the pit lane we found the mighty speedsix, but no Ben. I dug out the mobile and gave him a call, typically enough it went to voice mail. Then Kate and I were temporally distracted by a very flashy red 911 GT3 tearing around the course.

As the beep went for me to leave a voice mail the wanker of a driver of the GT3 after completing the course mistook the accelerator for the brake, floored the bastard, tore through the protection of the little orange cones and came straight at us!

Luckily, and I REALLY MEAN THAT, Smurf and I jumped left, the 911 swerved away from us, missing us by 1 METRE! and took out SIX OTHER CARS!!!! The white Celica we were stood in front of got shunted a cars length back . . .He must have been doing 50 at impact, at least.

I then hung up on the voice mail. Ben has a very interesting message on their that I will try and post on here or something later along with a few pictures of the mess . . .

Anyhow, we are all fine, luckily no one was injured. I will not be going back to the course and I will not be doing any autocross over here and I will not buy a Porsche!

Jeremy, we are 100% with you.

2007-03-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

My parents read my blog and sent me an email after seeing my post from yesterday. Some parts made me laugh so much I had to post them here, so keep in mind my Mother wrote all this!

"Dad took his new van to the garage on Monday afternoon and they have ordered a complete new locking system and until this is installed he cannot use it for work."

And then this:

"We have problems with squirrels and we have borrowed uncles squirrel cage and so far have caught two - Dad releases them on route to work - let them bother other householders!!"

If you suddenly have a squirrel problem and see a guy trying to break into his own van . . . . I swear I am crying writing this!

2007-03-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

It was Mothers Birthday on Monday, Happy birthday! Your present and card are sat here waiting to see if they can be hand carried back to the UK. I may have to send you a picture of the present as proof!

Dave arrives out here on Friday and Smurf arrives on Tuesday. That means this week is Smurf preparation week!

The Bedroom is ready with new Smurf coloured sheets:

The fridge is getting ready with Smurf friendly drinks. More to come, there is no Mountain Dew in there yet!

The Deck is ready for Smurf Lounging, complete with little drinks tables For the stuff above :)

The big table will be useful for eating all this Smurf fiendly food! You can there are Oreos, Pasta and Snickers. . .

Don't worry Dave, we have "a starter for 10": 2 bottles of Scotch, Cab-Sav and Rioja.

The spare room is ready too. 2 new up lighters, clean floor and wardrobe. The last bit due to the fact that I now have a storage unit to keep all my snowboards/fishing rod/empty boxes/4 snowboard bags (only 1 is mine HONEST!) No pictures of that as it is a tip!

As you can see above I have spent out a bit to make sure all is ready for Smurf. I even shelled out for a microwave and a toaster as well as frozen pizza!

I am done in now, time to crash. I am just a little gutted the snow is not looking to great for the weekend, I really wanted to show Dave what Meadows is like in deeeeeeeeep powder.

Sleep tight one and all :)

2007-02-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

So here are some piccies from the weekend, cool or what :)

One of the natural half pipes I like to ride, if you go off to the left you get some nice tree action!

When I opened my eyes, this is what I saw . . .

Then I realised I was on my back and looked around a bit:

Took me a long time to hike out, the snow was so deep I could not walk in it, have to go now, more later ;)

2007-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

Lifted from the BBC website:

"The glacier resort of Timberline (290/315cm) has reported temperatures of around -6 Celsius recently. The resort has the deepest base in North America so this is definitely a prime location to consider skiing at if you are on the west coast."

I love Mount Hood :)

2007-01-16T22:42:00.000-08:00

I had a disaster over Christmas, my computer died. This is the messiest my apartment has ever looked! $450 to repair it . . . It was worth it. I now have a 1.3GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 200GB HDD, previously it was 1GHz CPU, 512Mb RAM and a 80Gb HDD. But what a lot of money to sort it out . . .

That is a new piccy on the fireplace. It is a VW van, printed on canvas. Kate bought it on her travels and had to place it in storage!

When I woke up this morning, this was the view outside. . . Needless to say I worked from home as the roads were manic. I ventured out at 4pm and there were abandoned cars everywhere! The roads are a mess and I am not sure I will venture to the office tomorrow, all depends on the traffic reports. . .

Had a manic week last week and I am desperately trying to finalised holiday stuff. I managed to get the insurance sorted today, which was a huge relief! Not long to go now. On Saturday morning I will be driving a 34ft long RV for 400 miles, mostly if not all on snow . . .

I will keep you all posted!

2007-01-13T22:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all.

I know it is a little late but the last 2 weeks have been manic!

Too tired to write much expect the holiday is less then a week away and I have nasty cough and temperature. . . Not happy . . . .

Anyhow, I am going snowboarding in the morning and that should make me feel better!!!!

Real update to come soon, before the holiday :)

2006-12-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

I'll skip most of the details, suffice to say Christmas Eve was spent with friends (John and Karen hosted). We ate a ton and played games! All very fun.

Christmas day was cool, I got up late, made a Duct tape wallet, met up with some the guys and ate loads. The two Victors are Chefs and the rustled up 5 raks of chops, garlic mash, divers scallops and then cinamon apples and pears . . . was most fantastic!

Today was the the important day. Today was Day 6 up the Mountain for me. It was really hard work. mainly because there was 18 inches of fresh snow! It was pretty warm too, making it the 2nd wettest I have ever been outside of surfing. . . It is crazy how much you sweat and with it snowing at the same time it is impossible to stay dry! It looks good doesn't it!

We hit the first lift about 10 am and by 2 pm Ben and I were dead and buried (Christa was over it by about noon, but she worked hard out there!)

Ben and I had an amazing last run. I followed him under the Mt Hood express chair, a black diamond run, through some trees. Ben jumped out left of the trees and went high and right, I went out to the right and carved a huge left turn with hand drag, switch to my other edges with another hand drag (and this was a seriously steep bowl!) The people on the chair lift were cheering "looking good! Nice carve". Fatal last words. I am not sure if a land mine went off or a truck hit me, but next thing I am rag-dolling down the rest of the bowl in DEEP powder. I botom out on a flat and had a short hike up to the piste.

On that particular run Ben and I must have bought it a good dozen times between us, and Ben has been riding for nearly 20 years!

It was excellent! My favourite run of all time!!! Ben muttered "One more run?" To which I said NO!!!!! I have no legs left!!!!! After that I hit the bar and a beer :)

This is the view of the hill as we left.

And this is hte car. As you can see I actually have snow chains on. First time for everything! Look how much snow there is in that parking lot, impressive isn't it!

Enjoy the pics :)

2006-12-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

Oh, and this picture is for the 2.5 Richardsons out there, soon to be 3 :)

2006-12-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

I should not leave it so long between blog entrys. To much has happened for me to put in one entry!

SO in summary, I have been up the mountain lots, well 5 times in only a few weeks. Not sure if I will acheive 40 days for the season, we will see!

I hurt my foot playing football, went in for a big challange, won it, but at the cost of my foot hurting for the last 2 weeks!!! grrrrr. . . Still I don't feel it much when riding.

I got my hair cut too . . . finally!

Any how, pictures . . .

Below is a picture of I84. Imagine the M1, same thing. Please note I went this route to go up the mountain as it is meant to be a more relaxed drive . .. Was it hell, this was one of the times I felt confident enough to get a picture and one lane was snowed out and the lane I am in is 80% black ice . . . it was a very ropey drive up!

This picture of Crabman has me in stitches! He looks like a right `ol farmer Giles! But trust me, he is the best rider I have ever been up on the mountain with, respect when due and all that!

And here is Crabman in his natural habitat, he forgot his coat, which had me laughing for about 3 hours :) But he survived!!!

And one of me :) Please note that this year all the workers at Meadows are in Orange jackets . . . what a nightmare . . . It was a fab day, lots of fresh snow, lots of tree runs, lots of pain in my legs and my bloody foot!

And not to forget the Mighty - MIGHTY Fusion, in all its snowy glory. It has been under more snow, but this is the only time I have bothered getting a picture.

Back to the snow, I have been trying to ride pipe more this year, I really enjoy it! Such hard work on the legs. I think I will spend most of the holidays in the pipe, see if I can get some air out of the 18ft superpipe! I can worry about freeriding when in Whistler.

Oh! that reminds me, the RV is paid for, the RV site is paid for, the big truck thing to get around town is paid for . . . . all we need now is to get to the end of January and we can play in the Canadian snow :)

Anywot, I am tired and off to bed! Speak to you all soon, well, cept for Andrew, who I called by mistake today . . . at midnight UK time . . opps! Sorry Stone!

2006-12-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

I had a very nice Saturday snowboading. I am very tired and going back tomorrow for more. Crabman is comming tomorrow too. I have some pictures and I will post them at some point ;)

2006-12-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, toooo much good news . . .

I bumped into the apartment manager and I have a parcel from Australia waiting for me. I just need to get there when it is open . . . I got a gift aid from my mother, a snowboard magazine and a copy of national geographic (Had a whole big thing on Saturn in it!!!!!!)

I yielded to Dave's wish and changed my "count down to Meadows opening" counter to . . .well . . . you can see yourself.

Now don't go getting a big head Dave, click the meadows link on the left and see why . . . too lazy to do that? Well, I'll tell you then.

MEADOWS OPENS ON SATURDAY AT 9AM!

No prizes for guessing where I will be on Saturday morning! I get to break in the season pass at last :) I am soooooo happy! All I need is for Smurf to be here for Christmas and I would be as happy as a pig in . . an organic, vegan, Muslim farm!

I am off to do a victory lap of the living room :)

2006-12-03T21:37:00.000-08:00

Not much to say at the moment! I had a great time at TImberline on Friday night and I am looking forward to a full day up there on Saturday :)

In the meantime I hope you like the funky counter I have on the page!

A quick thnks to Mother for the magazines!

A quick Hi to Smurf and Em, hope the boat was ok and the Birthday was fun!

2006-11-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

Thursday Morning at Timberline

Thursday Lunch at Timberline !

A bulldozer digging out the tow truck that came to TImberline to rescue us as Ben's Jeep had broken down!

Ben looking a litle peeved about the towing of his Jeep . . . Took 30 mins to get out of the parking lot . . .

We had soooooo much snow, look at this poor vehicle in the upper lot . . .

Explinations to follow :)

2006-11-21T16:07:00.001-08:00

As you may notice I am making some small changes to the blog. I have got a snow day counter, extra blog links and there may bemore changes to come if I can be bothered in a few days . . .

2006-11-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

OK, so this has tickled me pink!

As you know I was up the mountain snowboarding yesterday. Had a great time, conditions were great! I called Dave and told how good it was, I then sent a text to Tons-O saying the same . . .

I got no reply from Tons-O, which was a little odd. I was expecting a phone call calling me all sorts of names and saying how good it was to be in Australia.

Anyhow . . . When I got home there was a post on my blog fromTons-O, I have copied it below:

--------------------------------
did i get to australia before you got snow.

im sitting in the lounge in sydney waiting for my connection to brisbane now - sunday 9.50 local time- i have no idea what time that is anywhere else in the world!

--------------------------------

I was suprised there was no mention of my snow related text message.

Things got cleared up for me about 20mins ago. Dave called for a chat. . . . And it turns out he spoke to Tons-O yesterday.

Turns out Tons-O needed to find out how much it would cost to send a mobile phone from England, well specifically his flat, to Australia. . .

I laughed.

A LOT!!!! :)

2006-11-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

Right now I am grinning like a Chesire cat!

I am going up the mountain for my first turns of the season in the morning (pending car parking at resort . . . long story) and it would appear that the road to Meadows (where I have a season pass) will be open on the 15th December! ! ! ! !

I am now going to have a few glasses of Talisker over ice, I will post photos /links as appropriate!!!

Actually, a 3rd reason to be jubilent:

My dear Sister and her eternally patient man have tied the knot! Sunday is the family celebration. Unfortunately I can't make it over but I will hope to talk to them both over the weekend. I don't know how Shen deals with her, he is clearly a stronger man then I!!!!!!

No offence Sis but you know where I am comming from!

2006-11-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

I have just been checking out the damage to the Hwy 35. Wow, these pictures are on the route I normally take. The picture are all between the village of Government Camp and Mount hood Meadows. Apparently the North blockage between the village of Hood River and Meadows is not quite as bad . . .

This is the debris on the road, only a few small rocks. . .

No idea how they are going to clear this bridge let alone evalute the integrety of the structure afterwards. . .

lol! This used to be a road!

SO estimates are for this section of the road to be knackered until early next year, then it will need more work in the Summer . .

The north blockage, it not meant to be as bad and could be open in a couple of weeks . . . Boarding at Meadows at Thanksgiving is looking to be a pipe dream.

But as people keep saying, it is amazing what can be accomplished by those big yellow machines! I will keep posting updates, even though it is only me that cares!!!

For the record, the snow forecast for between 3Pm friday and Sunday night is:

Top lift 23.3"
Mid-station 21.7"
Main lodge 15.1"

2006-11-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Some local news on the closure of the Hwy35. It could cost $20M to re-open . . . . Ouch!

2006-11-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Meadows snow forecast from Friday morning to Sunday night:

Top lift 21.6"
Mid-station 21.6"
Main lodge 12"

We are getting good snow, but it looks like it could cause problems for the work they are trying to do on Hwy 35 . . . . Hoping they issue an updatelater in the day . . .

2006-11-09T23:22:00.000-08:00

It is started to look good. This is the top of the main lift (Mt Hood Express) I guess it is about 2/3 up the mountain.

2006-11-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

Good news and bad news . . . Good news, we are getting tons of snow :) I have found 3 RVs that we can choose from for the trip in Jan, looks like more people will be in Whistler the same time too.

Bad news, Marty looks like he may not be comming :( , There is no road acces to Meadows . . . Ouch. It actually hurts to say that. Due to the mega rain from the pineapple express the highway 35 north AND south of Meadows is knackered. See here for details . . .

Next weekend was meant to be the opening weekend. Well now it looks like it will be the staff orientation weekend and hopefully the north part of the road should be fixed by the end of November . . . I am gutted . . . I really hope it gets sorted .. .

I am off to bed now :(

2006-11-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

Todays snow report for Meadows. Between Thursday Morning and Sat night we will see the following:

Top lift 21.7"
Mid-station 18.6"
Main lodge 15"

Looking good! Not sure what the outlook is for next week, but if it stays cold there is a good chance I could be boarding next weekend :)

I will be keeping you posted.

Question is, will Santa bring me an early present? In the shape of that 686 jacket?

2006-11-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

hmmmm Saw this jacket in the US outdoor store in downtown tonight. It is the updated verison of the one I got in Austria about 2 years ago that cost £280. This new one costs $335. That is £178. It comes with an outer shell, a fleece zip in liner, a base laver and a beanie . . . It is uber water proof 20k/15k material and looks the mutts.

I have always been a fan of 686 gear. It is just smart. The cable routing for your ipod, the zip in liner. Zip off hood and pow skirt. Pass pocket on the sleeve cuff. Money pocket by the cuff. Zillions of pockets (we all know how important that is . . .)

I will stop boring you now.

Oh and the Portland Trailblazers just beat the LA Lakers, very convincingly - 101-90!!!!!

2006-11-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hmmm not too happy at the moment. Meadows is supposed to open in 9 days, the 17th November was meant to be the start of my season. It now looks like I will be travelling for work that day and I will miss it. Never mind as the 18th will be good enough :)

The reeeaall down side is, in order to open they need 20" of packed snow. That means more then that needs to fall and they need to get the grooming machines out to work it . . .

Although we have had flash flooding here in Portland (and most of Oregon) this week there has been little snow. The reason is a phenomena called the "Pineapple express". This is a warm wet front that comes in from the Pacific dumping warm tropical rain. I.e NOT SNOW!

On the plus side the weather is turning colder. Between now and Firday night the accumilated snow at meadows will be:

Top lift 15"
Mid-station 13.5"
Main lodge 11.2"

What does this mean? Well the 18th as an opening day is looking optimistic, but not impossible. . . .

2006-11-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

Did the Earth move for you?

As some of you know, when I was last in Tokyo I got woken up one morning by an Earthquake. Totally bizarre, being on the 27th floor and about 60 miles from the epicenter of a magnitude 6.7 quake . . . Most odd.

In some what stranger set of events, about 9:30pm when I was watching Fight Club my apartment shook. It was as if a truck drove in to the building. It was in fact another earthquake . . . Details

On another note, I think I found the right RV for our trip in Jan . . . mmmm 35ft 6 sleeper . . . mmmmm . .

2006-11-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

A month is a long time in the world of blogging. Many things can happen. Colin McRae can get a WRC drive, Alonso can stretch his lead in the F1 and I can score another goal for the mighty Kiwis! To cap it all Spurs beat Chelsea in the Premiership, for the first time in 16 years.

Yep that’s right, playing footie last night (9:50pm kick off, that is just not fair) with 3 mins to go in the 2^nd half I get the ball on the ½ way line dribble up to the edge of the penalty area having taken on a defender then get a low drive in between the diving keeper and the right hand post! That took us to 10-9 down. Keeping to form last week I went out on a high and subbed myself off, John came on and with 6s to go he score the equaliser, amazing game!!!! After 2 heavy defeats we got a hard earned draw against a team that normally plays a division higher then us!

I am getting a little ahead of myself here. I have yet to mention how the birthday weekend went. Well work on Friday got in the way of an otherwise fine day! Lunch at Hooters (not my choice but not complaining), Ana bought me a Hooters calendar, Brett made the girls sign it, so I hung it up in the office general area. Much better view then that sodding gooner scum calendar Ana has!

After work I went home to clean up, then made my way to Christa’s, dumped the car there, had a quick glass of sparkly then made it to the Bitter End for a couple of PBRs (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer). We were there for about 45 mins, a load of the guys were there. I had not seen Steve since the last Timbers game I made in August, Catherine and Carlyn (Sp?) were there to, although they had to leave to tend to their dogs/Children (what’s the difference???).

On we go the Harvey’s comedy club, premium seats up front; Victor makes it just in time (no surprise there!) And we had a lot of beer, Nachos and some top laughter! Ana got dragged on stage to help with the magic act ( I those pictures on file for my annual review!) I think the funniest thing that happened was when Victor had to wait 7 mins too long for his next Jack and coke to arrive, he hauls up the waitress and says “Just bring me 1 of these every 20 minutes, even if my glass is full, I will catch up with you. Every 20 minutes. . You got that?” Then Kiwi Dave butts in “Yeah, yeah, and bring me a beer to yeah?” Best thing is, she did do it!!!! next time I go to a busy bar and it is table service, I am going to adopt the same attitude! GENIUS!!! Brett proved once again he is safe and secure with his metro sexuality but wearing a funky pink shirt! I really liked it, may go get one myself for next weekend.

I digress. . . After the comedy of Ana being on stage, and a very funny female comedian there was a slightly crap guy that I was too drunk to notice. It was then onwards to the local meat market, to make sure I felt 30 we went to the Dixie tavern. Now the average age in there, including the offset of our group of waning thirty-somethings, could have been no more then 22. It was hysterical watching some of the guys “try their luck”. . .

Things get real sketchy around here, we ended up in the Gypsy (another bar) then the Alibi (a karaoke place) and then we called it night, went back to Christa’s (live over the way from the Alibi) and called taxis to get home. Now as we were 1 short on the taxi front and I was snoring on the sofa . . .You can see where this is going . . . I woke up with my jacket on and a cat sleeping on me as I was sleeping on the sofa. Christa later let me know that she managed to take my shoes off but I was so grumpy she did not bother trying to wrestle the jacket off me!

As a thank you I took Christa out for breakfast, not the same as a full English but good none the less. The guy serving us looked worse then I did, I was going to ask him if he slept in his clothes too, but it did not seem appropriate . . .

Eventually I got home and got under the shower and on the to sofa. I spoke briefly to Smurf, then passed out! The guys made it over to mine about 5 pm and we set up a big table on my deck for the poker to begin!

I will be short on the details only because I remember very few . . . We played poker, Brett and I drank lots of fine scotch (various Taliskers and Obans). I won the first hand of Poker I was dead chuffed! But then I lost all my winnings in the subsequent games. But overall I broke even, which I guess is a great situation!!! I will let the pictures in the previsous post do the talking here.

2006-10-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ok you complaining typs people thingies!

Some photos with full stories to come tomorrow!

So on my 30th Christa and I cracked up 2 types of sparkling!

At Harveys comedy club later that evening:

The next night playing poker on my deck

and again!

The aftermarth!

Crabman at work!!!

My tour party in SFO, that small white building is the oldest small white building in SFO.
The people are (left to right) Christa, Katherin, John and Quinn.

On the way to getting grub the whole gang on the crawl

Again left to right: John, Katherin, Thom, the blond of Quinns head!,Lara, Crabman, John (I think!), Janet, Chris (I think!), Big Rob, Sarah,Megan, Christa, A passer by and I think that is Linda on the end!

Few, I am off to bed :)

2006-10-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

I am alive and well and not negletingmy duties intentionally! I will be posting a big up date before the weekend, it is mostly written already I just need to get the pictures sorted out!

We now have 4 people 100% signed up* for the Jan trip to Whistler.

*Well 3 have booked flights and I live in the starting town!!!!

Night-night, speak soon!!!

2006-10-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I have had such a good day today! I woke up to hot coffee, my mornings work went well, got to talk to Smurf, got an email from Mother (apparently I need to mind my language on my blog . . . . .I am about to turn 30 and I still get a ticking off!) That was all before lunch!

Now I hope you are all sitting down because a few big things happened today . . . Firstly I bought a pair of jeans . . . Yep, that’s right! I bought, from a real shop, a new pair of jeans . . . .that means I have bought 2 pairs of new jeans in 5 years. I bought the pair today, before that I bought a pair in Feb as I had to get some (they are now in the bin). Last Spring I bought a pair of twisted on eBay and the pair I got before them were in about 2001 and were acquired by swapsees with Mullot!

Right, I take it you have picked yourselves up off the floor and are sipping your water. I will continue. I had a good lunch with Ana and a successful afternoon at work. Then I picked up my season pass  How cool is that, I actually have in my hand my season pass  Check the back to back season passes and the coolio photo for this year! Last year apparently I was not elidgible for PVC, not such exclusions this year ;)

The day gets better. I went for a swim, it was hard work but was great! Then I needed to go shopping to get some bits and stuff. When I was walking around safeway I noticed the champers was on sale, I got a Cliquey for $33 . . . call it £14 ! It was the last bottle on the shelf and the offer ended today!

So I got in, ate my sushi *yummy in my tummy* cracked a beer open sat down and told you how great my day has been. An to top it all off I get to call Dave in a bit, today is a special day in the year (well, October 5th is) as it is the only day of the year Dave and I are the same age lol !!!!

K, I am off to chill before it is my bet time!

2006-09-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Bollocks, my game on Thursday is actually at 10:40pm . . . that is just not fair! I guess I will go check out the last Thursday for a couple of hours then trek over to "Soccerplex" and run till I puke!

Between now and then I do not have much planned. I plan on swimming tonight and tomorrow night in preperation of the game ;)

I see that Fox Soccer are showing Spurs V Portsmouth on Sunday morning, I will be staying in to watch that and depending on the result I will either go play golf (it is still 80 degrees over here) or go for a bike ride into town. . .

There is a ski and snowboard show here in the start of November, well the 3rd-6th November. The Expo center is right next to where I live so I will be heading off there to see what is happening. I am not planning on buying any new boots this season but I will go round and try on every pair at the show just incase there are a magic pair out there . . .

Not much else happening, I may go zoo-bombing again on Sunday but on the whole I am hoping for a quiet weekend and a good result for Spurs!!!!

2006-09-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

Oh wow. . . I am beat . . . Just played an hour of league 6 a side. We play indoor on a special advanced astro turf, really good stuff. We won 9-2 (C'Mon!!!!) and now I can't walk . . I played ok, as always I need to be fitter! I got a couple of asists and some good challanges in. Needless to say I made 1 shocking defencive error in the last 3 mins, but the keep made a class save! NExt game is nex thursday, thankfully at 7:30pm not 9:50pm!

Mmm, whats new . . well turns out some of my old boarding chums are doing a season in Tahoe :) I have an open invite to stay with them :) I ended up getting some clear heal action last night, bit random for a Wednesday but there you go. I bought a chair for my lounge, only $20, reduced from $120 . . . I got a light blue, I will go back and get a red one tomorrow, not quite lay-z-boy but there you go! Finally found a clothes horse I like and got some more wooden hangers, these things are important!!!

Mmm, what other news do I have . . well turns out one of my friends partners is a Physio and can help when Smurf comes over to get an interview, that is a great relief! Hopefully that will come through and make all that a little easier . . .

Tons-O put me on to a thing called LogmeIn. Well if you need remote PC access then looking it up, free, you can access from your PDA wicked. Means I can check on things at home from work, with out using my work PC! Smart as :)

Right, I am done, I need a shower and some much needed bueaty sleep , maybe a week will help!

2006-09-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

I hope this works . . .

The last 10 seconds is my fave, this gives you an idea about zoo bombing!

Now go to you tube and do a search for the other zoo bomb vids ;)

2006-09-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

So Last night I finally did it. I went on a Zoo Bomb. I convinced Suzanne (aka Lillian or Trouble) it would be a good idea. We went to Takahashi Sushi for a bite to eat, I am not sure Lillian enjoyed it, it took them an age to bring her order over and she had to ask for it 3-4 times, but it was cheap. 6 plates of sushi and a beer for $15, not bad value in my book!

We headed over to Rocco’s pizza on Stark and something (still not got the hang of referencing street location, or finding them). This is where the tower of mini-bikes used for Zoo Bombing live. Sure enough a few minutes later there are about a dozen people on mini bikes and tall bikes, all looking very funky and very wasted!

Let me explain the principle in a little more detail. As I said people congregate at the pizza place either on their own bike or they borrow a communal bike from this huge stack. Then you make your way over to the max, get the train to the top of the hill at Forrest Park. This park is the largest of any metropolitan area in the USA. Then everyone at the same time gets from the top of the hill in the park, back down to the train (MAX) station as quickly as possible, often with only a coaster brake (you know, pedal backwards . . .) or NO BRAKE! This takes place on public roads and the first half of the 2.8 mile course is the same for everyone, then there is the stop point and you can splinter off to easy or difficult runs . . . read on . .

In small groups we head over to catch the Max and get to the top of the hill, and then it is a 500ft elevator to the surface and about ½ a mile cycle/hike to the hang out point on the top of the hill in the park. No lights allowed, just sat chilling in the dark talking rubbish. No-one had a real name, it was all “B-rad” or “Tackler” etc . . . We just chilled out, sat around drinking for a bit with people randomly shouting “10 minutes” then someone else would say “5 minutes” until eventually enough people agreed it was time to go and a mass exodus of about 50 people went to the unofficial start line for this non-centralised meeting of people.

The newbies (Virgins) got pulled to one side and got a brief, it was sensible, you know: wear a helmet, give way to fast people, call the side you are passing on, obey traffic laws or risk a ticket . . . then there was the count down . . .

3 . . .2 . . .1 . . . ZOO BOOOOOMMMMMBBBBB!!!!

And that was it, a few seconds later I look at my speedo and I am already doing 25 miles an hour with people flying past me . . Then I am doing 29 miles an hour and I get over taken by a guy on a long board . .another guy on a skateboard and a big guy on a small bike, I mean a bike for a 4year old . . . I nearly crashed laughing! At this point I start on the front brake and I am thinking, shit this is a new front brake, have I tighten the screws correctly? Shit, the pads are not worn in . . Then I hear the noise you never want to hear when doing 30MPH on a bike I just built, metal clanging noises and a vibration. . . SHHHIIIIIITTTTT!!!! Now I am panicking, trying to use the rear brake only to slow down 13 Stone of drunk Turk, in the dark, from 30MPH . . Then I realised, it was just my beer in the drink holder  lol !!! We got to a mid way point which is the middle of the park about 1.2 miles into the ride, really nice spot, with the reservoir to one side and the park patrol on the other shaking their heads! Then we splinter off into groups “Virgins – Blue Square this way”, “Dude, Hell way this way”.

Let me explain this in more detail, as I now understand it . . . The runs are graded like on the mountain, the Blue square is the tight switch back road that is slow but fun, the Hell way is the highway 26 that is the major east-west highway in Portland . . . so the cars are doing a good 60MPH, It is like being on the M1 when it is free flowing. There are other routes but I can’t remember them . . . Needless to say Trouble and I opt for the switch back route, which is badly lit to say the least, even on the full suspension Wallgoose Mart 2 (you like that name? I think it is funny!) I am bouncing around a lot and scared to go over 20MPH, you just can’t see were the bends are, there are people trying to marshal you around and calling out “TURN!” or “CAAARRRR!!!” Which if you hear the call you are meant to echo to help other get an early warning.

By the time we get to the bottom of the hill we have covered 2.8miles of down hill free fall, my front brake is now officially bedded in and need adjusting already . . . when are they going to invent a self adjusting disc calliper for bikes that costs $20????

We get back to the top and I am all ready for another beer, chill out and go again, but Trouble points out it is 11:30pm and basically a school night, so we take a 5 min break and then head back down, at a more relaxed pace.

It was a great night, Trouble and I have different opinions on it, I loved the communal “I wanna go fast!!” but for Trouble that was boring, she cycles to work and goes up and down Portland hills all the time so that was boring. We both enjoyed meeting the folk that do this week in week out, in the nude in the rain drinking champagne (well Cava, $4.99 a bottle), Trouble more so then me as I am one step removed from that culture compared to her. I will go back and do it again, I had a great time with the people and the whole activity, I am not sure Trouble will, we will see! Get onto Youtube and search for zoobomb. There are a couple of good videos that show you what it is about, look out for the police video ones as one ends with a long-boarder getting pulled over!

By the time I got home I covered 23miles on the Mart2, not bad for a Sunday night chilling in Portland. My top speed was 30MPH and I can confirm, my bike brake disc smelt the same as the front brakes on my Skoda use to on those lovely Sunday afternoon drives . . .

2006-09-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Up until 1961 there was a arial lift (gondola) that ran from the village of "Government camp" to the lodge at Timbline ski resort.

I wouls happily pay the 75 cents to ride in this beast! What say you guys?????

Here is a link to more information!

2006-09-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm, more snow at Meadows last night! This is lifted from their website, I could sit and stare at this picture allllll day :)

2006-09-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Turns out when I was born Dancing Queen by Abba was Number 1 in the charts, says a lot doesn't it!

Murray was Elvis - Way down

Smurf was John Lennon - Imagine

What was your birthday song?

2006-09-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

Oh my god, how could I forget to mention this . . . It is SNOWING !!!! Timber line are to get 6inches in the next 24 hours :)

I can't go up at the weekend as I am spending a fortune this week on season pass and PDA :(

But I have seen the first picture of snow fall at meadows :) It's not much and it was probably all gone by lunch, but the snow is here and I can now go wax my board!!!

2006-09-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Not happy.

As some of you may know when I was in the UK my PDA broke. The port on the bottom that lets you plug the charger in is knackered, meaning you have to take the battery out to charge it and yo can only sync the thing via IR or BT. If any of you have a PDA then you will know this defeats the purpose of them being quick and easy to use.

It turns out it will cost $60-$100 to fix my lovely HP2215. So I jumped onto craigslist (a classified ads website) and did a search. Sure enough I found a HP4150 (smaller and better spec then mine, has BT and Wi-Fi) $100 later I had it. It came with a cradle/CD spare dock/chare cable and a metal case. The later being very important if you have followed my tales of GPS woe . . .

So here is a piccy of the new bank breaking device. Mine is in English not Japanese, you smart arse gits . . .

Brett just shelled out $600 for his new PDA which is a slightly better specced DELL but is a bit bigger too.

Good news is TomTom works faster on this (although it is the the MHz as the 2215) and Skype works really well on! I will be using it tons more in Wi-Fi hot spots (like PDX).

On another note, I am one step closer to a Meadows season pass, I have a group of 3, the last person is being pinned down and whipped until they agree . . . I will update you on that saga another time.

A big thanks to Mum and Dad who gave me a massive contribution to buying my season pass as my 30th birthday present. Mother forgot I woudl be 30 in a few weeks. Looks like I am officially off the hook from earlier in the year when I did not remember her birthday! i won't rub it in . . . much!!!!

2006-09-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

If I post the immortal phrase:

"Thursday night, 8PM at Shades "

Will word spread organically???

Will the widow maker turn up for a butons show down???

Will much draft Bud be consumed????

P.S Did anyone ever switch to guns??? I tried once but laughed so much I don't think it will count . . . :(

2006-09-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

Right, I am back in blighty now and I am on my mothers PC. It turns out that MSN messnger is running with my profile on this machine! So if anyone has tried to MSN me over the last 6 months and been ignored please not I was not ignoring you, my mother was!!!!!

How funny is that . . .

I think it is fixed now so the only MSN in the future will be me :)

Time for a nap .. . .

2006-08-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

My taxi will be here in 3 hours and I will be flying over to Blighty! I finally bnanged out a couple of emails to people to see if they aer around next week so here is hoping. As you can guess I will not be updating this as I will be in the country but if you wanna call you can get me at my parents, I may be skype enabled at some point!!

Oh, as I am on holiday, I am drunk on scotch! *hic*

2006-08-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well it is Thursday here and I am on my lunch break . . . What can I say, well in 1 week I will be boarding aplane to come over and see all you muppets in person ;)

Bike: Well I went for the LX rear derailleur, XT 8 speed cassette, XT rear V-brake, Forte rear wheel+hub, continetal town and country tires. $200 . . . Next month will be the LX crankset then next year will be new hardtail frame (Kona probably) and fron shock. . . But that will be in the spring.

Erm . . wot else . . not much . . . As you may know I had a hard drive failure last week and lost all my music . . I have 60% of it back now . . . mumble-mumble . .

Spurs won 2-0 the other night, much better performance, new signings fitting in well, Michael who??? ;) TOns-O did you send me texts??? I did not get any . . . mmmm . . we need to talk about that one!

Neeeedddd foooooooddd . . . .

2006-08-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a good weekend! played Poker on Friday, won some money :) got drunk on good beer and better Scotch, cycled home. On the way I stopped to watch some drag racing too!

Saturday sucked . . . Spurs lost 2-0, I had to change the front deraileur on the bike $33, could only find a flipping Shimano XT one, talk about over kill . . .

Lost ALL my music on my computer, computer then crashed grrr. . . had not beer . .

Sunday was good, got a lot of the music back, watched some Ricky Gervais and got lots of homey things sorted (bills and cleaning). I went for a bike ride too, bought some new earphones (drunken tantrum saw the last ones die) and I ended up on a nice beach, reading a book for an hour or two. I then cycled home to drink some beer and watch some Shakespeare.

What a lovely day!

Today sucks, it is a Monday so no surprise! I am playing "real" Poker tonight. I decided I have to go play one real game in my life and tonight is an oppotunity. I will let you know what happens . . .

Oh, and Tons-O your comment was usefull. Reaaally Useful!!! I am going for a Meadows pass, it is the best resort. The others are not as good no matter how convenient they are. . . . Besides, Skibowl is cheap I can always go there off the cuff!

Time for lunch!

2006-08-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

I Have a new favourite problem . . .

Meadows lift pass is $550. If 4 of you team up and buy your passes toegether by the 5th November you only pay $400 each.

Timberline and Skibowl have teamed up. You can get a pass for both resorts for only $400.

What do I do?

I love Meadows.

Skibowl is 1 hour away.

Timberline is open 12 months of the year.

But I love Meadows . .

Answers on bottle of scotch . . .

2006-08-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

The choice for female hygene throughtout California and Oregon.

New Clorox sanitary wipes, sometimes there is no alternative . . .

2006-08-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

I f**king hate spammers. Hate some twat spam a political comment on my blog . . . as a result if you wanna post a comment you have to be a member and I will moderate the comments. . . I am pretty pissed about it but I rather that then someone using my blog as a political forum . . . grrrrr . . .

2006-08-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

I really need to get a Flickr account on something, loading photos on here is a pain. So here is a teaser from the weekend and I will post more on another site when I awake enough to drive the interspaz . . . .

The SFO contingent help Christa on stage, this is not Rockstar ladies!!!!! I bet you were singing Bon Jovi weren't ya?!?!?

The Duet of the night?

What you have to appriciate is Dave could hardly stand, or see and did not know th song he was singing . . .

But he still got his lovin!

Never did find out what was so funny, I reckon it was something Ben said . . .

Freaky hang over camera fun!

2006-08-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

So from the last Thursday thing I went on:

I know this needs to be rotated, I fogot! But how cool, a Ninja bake sale . .

This girl is 15 years old and messing with fire Poi at the Clown house . . .

Typical Alberta house . . . Jazz band jamming on the porch, really good!

And the day at the beach with Chris and Dave, that hunk of junk is a Chevvy Impala. Avoid at all costs . .

2006-08-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

Righty, I am now back in Portland after a long old trip . . . Highlights are few and far between but I will have ago!

If you are ever looking at coming to America, please do not go to Orlando. There is only one reason to go to Florida and that is the Kennedy Space Centre, so unfortunately I will be returning for that very reason! I can I justify my comment about Florida? Well, it was hot and Humid . . . That is all you need to know . . . Oh and full of little shits from Manchester. . .

Onwards to the next destination . . . Las Vegas. What a hole. The best thing about LV is the view flying in, it its very impressive. I think I can handle the place for maybe 1 or 2 days but then I would go crazy . . . The only gambling that took place was when I was checking in . . . 45mins of mayhem ensued before giving up and going to bed. I returned to the desk in the morning to try and resolve it and left with a bill that looked correct. When I checked my bank balance today I have not been charged correctly for the room. In fact I have been fully refunded . . .

Skipping on to something more interesting I got to spend a full day in San Fransico! A Saturday in the bay area, how cool is that! So obviously we (Dave, Chris and myself) dug out a map, marked all the sights to see in downtown and jumped in our rental car . . . to go surfing. Like I am going to spend a day in 90 degree heat walking around a city . . .

We went to Half moon bay, not to Mavericks but to another part that is where surf schools are held. We took our boards and proceeded to get beaten up my mother nature for our sins. The problem was the waves had a lot more power in them then you get in the UK, so although I was aiming for small breaks (3-4 feet) you ended up with the front of the board plunged into the water and being thrown off. I did catch a big wave by accident . . . Trust me, it ended in an accident. It looked like it was going to be a nice 3-4 feet, but I did not realise how far out I was. I caught it nicely, realised I had picked up lots of speed and I was way to forward on the board. I tried moving back on the board but it was too late, the nose got pushed under, I slipped off and I was rolling under the waves in the foetal position being hit by my board . . .

We stayed out for a few hours and then dropped the stuff off back at the rental place. We got invited in for a BBQ which was nice, just hanging out with the surf shop owners, was really cool!

The rest of the trip was pretty non-descript, except for the atrium at the Marriot I stayed in. It was huge! As soon as we walked in I wanted to go to the top floor (10^th or 11^th I think) and throw a paper plane into the atrium to see if I could make it spiral down. They other guys did not think it was a good idea so I did not get a chance to do it . . Boo hiss . . .

Another point of note is I have once again done my best to prevent the “squid end of the universe” scenario arising by having Calamari for 6 straight days . . . . If you do not understand, I am not explaining.

I am now back in Portland and I have a top few days in fornt of me. I think the Timbers are playing on Friday night. This means I have to get my bike fixed so I can cycle to the game.

Yes that’s right, I have broken the Wal-mart special already. Not sure if I have mentioned this on the blog yet but a couple of weeks ago there was the Portland beer festival. It was on the Friday before I was travelling for work and the idea was if I got all my stuff packed and sorted then I would go meet the guys for a quick jar. SO I got there with about 10mins to spare, downed a couple of beers and went bar hopping. When the end of the night drew in and the guys were making their way to cabs/trains etc . .. they were walking and I was on my bike. We crossed a road and when I got to the pavement on the other side I did not realised how big a step up the curb it was literally 18”. So I got the front wheel over it, but the back did not make it. This meant I got flipped over the handle bars, landed flat on my back, much to the amusement of all the people I their cars.

Still, a least I was not damaged (unlike from the break dancing competition the week before . . . . .) the damage to the bike was the chain came off and the derailleur’s are out of alignment . . .

Tonight I am off to watch Talladega nights (saw a snippet last night, really funny!). It does mean I am going miss the Timbers play tonight, but they are at home again next Friday so I can watch them then. Not doing to good at the mo . . .

Saturday I am heading up to Timberline for some long over due snow action. For $43 I get to play on the snow from 7:30am to about 1pm. I am really looking forward to it. I will get some piccies so you guys can see what it looks like up Hood in the summer. Full report to follow.

Christa is having a party on Saturday afternoon, Hawaiian themed, so it is snow in the morning and then boardies in the afternoon!

Sunday is the Portland bridge ride. There are something like 8 bridges in Portland and they all get closed off for this big bike ride. I am think about doing in, but it is a 7.5 mile ride to the start, then 24-35 miles of riding (depending which one you opt for) then another 7.5 miles home . . . not sure about it at the mo . . .I may be too hung over and just need a good sleep in!

Next Thursday is the Vans international event in the Rose quarter. Why is this important? Well, Snowboard rail jam. Yep, lots of snow and stuff to motivate me! I will be taking a camera and I let you know how it goes.

So as you can see the next week or so is going to be a lot of fun, I have lots of snowboarding, bike riding and football to look forward to! Not to mention that I am going to be back in the UK in a couple of weeks, more info on that to follow later!

Oh and Tons-O. I have changed my link format, I prefer the things to open in the same window, but as you asked so nicely I have tried to make a change for you!

Oh, Looks like I will be around for ManU V Spurs, we need to make some plans . . .

2006-08-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

You have to love the x-games! So many highlights it is sickening. I mean, DOUBLE backflip on a moto-cross bike . . . Back flip over a 100ft jump on a skate board . . . It was amazing viewing.

One thing really stood out for me. Colin McRae. The man, the legend. He is just the most spectacular rally driver I have ever seen. I am pleased he did not win the x-games rally gold, silver was much better. Silver was better because we got to see Colin do what he does best, go all out no matter what. That is a fine libe to be on. When it comes together he is unstoppable, but sometimes is can go wrong . . . I doubt a rally event would ever be complete with out a Colin crash!

Here is the vid

X-games interview with Colin

2006-07-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

Ug . .It is late and I am tired! I cycled for 5.5 miles to get to the last Thursday stuff tonight. It was awesome! Spent 3.5 hours walking around looking at nutty people do nutty things, lots of arty/crafty stuff for sale, including a picture I want to buy. I wil lpost piccies over hte weekend.

The ride home was 6 miles, I went a longer but easier route. 2 roads are easier then 8 . . ..

Spoke to Smurf, I think she is hungover! Bless!

I am off for a de-ming shower! Enjoy your friday!!!

2006-07-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

So after spending the last 4 months with the worlds worst cell phone it looks like I am now about to return to the Nokia stable! I am so damn happy I find it hard to explain! To start with I found a network over here that uses international standards! Then I found the codes to unlock my Nokia (I think I have anyhow). And to cap is all off, as a back up, I can get the SIM and a Nokia 6020 (very basic phone .. .) for $30. So even if I cannot unlock my 6230 I will still have a nokia J. Oh, and you just do not see the 6230 over here so it is a pretty unique handset too, who would have though!

Now you are probably wondering why I am so keen to get my 6230 up and running again. The answer is as follows:

· Nokia menus, they are intuitive.

· Predictive text. The LG I have at the mo makes Motorola look like a market leader . . .

· PC sync. . . This is a biggie, I keep all my contacts in Outlook and I miss being able sync them (along with my calenda and important notes) on to my phone. I have to carry my PDA around for that crap at the mo . . .

Three points are enough, anymore is just being bicthy!

UPDATE: I have my new SIM and number and $15 of phone credit. It all cost me . . .$15!!! Just need to get home and see if I can get it all to work . . .

Oh, and Smurf is trashed . . . she called me at 9:15pm, walking about town with her friends, absolutely wellied!!!! Very amusing ;)

2006-07-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

There are important questions we all ask ourselves from time to time. Important questions like which episode of Top Gear would you choose to show a jolly foreigner?

Now I have to say the supercars in Paris would be my first pick. Marty went straight for the Bugatti (although I am sure he would prefer it if they squeezed an extra couple of turbos on the engine). But how about the Toyota HiLux? Or the Caravan conkers or cheap supercars . . . So many to choose from. . . What would you go for? I mean, this weeks episode must be up there, what with the amazing Parkour and shit Peugot! How about he Koeeeinnsiiiggg, the car that tried to kill the Stig and instead killed the lap record . . .

Top Gear is without a doubt the most consistently great program currently on TV. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

On another note I am definitely getting fitter. I have been alternating between golf and swimming each night with a few bike rides thrown in for good measure. Last night was the first time I really felt fitter. I was swimming in the apartment block pool and normally I am knackered after a few lengths, stop for a minute and go again, but last night was a good 15mins continuous swimming. May not sound much to most of you but it is a big step for me!

I am really hoping when I get back from my next business trip that I can get some people together to play some football. I really think the key to getting fit is a variety of activities that work different muscle groups. It also keeps it interesting.

I am definitely going to Timberline on the 12^th august. This week I have really felt a bit odd, I think it is because I have not boarded for a while. The more I think about it the more I want to go. It has got so bad now that when I get home from work tonight I will strap my board on and jump around the lounge a bit! lol!!!

Actually tonight is the now infamous “Last Thursday”. This is labelled as a counter-culture event. I say counter culture, but that is media bollocks for street party. It (apparently) started some time ago as an alternative to the “First Thursday” Portland Yuppie scene. That is something that local press coverage and is basically pseudo high society cock knocking . So the last Thursday event is a big old street part, carnival styleeee, in a relatively rough/poor area of Portland. The area known as NE Alberta is a rich diversity of African American, true Origonians (flip-flop wearing Vegan hippies), a load of jolly foreigners, a bunch of extrovert homosexuals and most importantly a contingent of egocentric arty feckers.

I am going along tonight, should be good for people watching! It all happens about 5.5 miles from my apartment, given that is will be only about 85degress today I will cycle there and back. With a backpack of Heineken!

Oh, and to cap it all off, Friday night is the Oregon beerfest . . .I have a 8:15 flight on Saturday morning . . . this will be interesting . . .

One final thing, there is a film coming out called beerfest . . . It looks awesome . . . go forth and google!!!

2006-07-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Stolen from Marty who stole it from Kate .. .

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swam with wild dolphins
Climbed a mountain
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside the Great Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candlelit bath with someone
Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
Hugged a tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightning storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a trip on a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Got drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a roller coaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was shitfaced
Have amazing friends
Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Backpacked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken for longer than when you were in love
In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow
Alphabetized your CDs
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
Got married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Got divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Got a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news programs as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised children
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Created and named your own constellation of stars
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
Written articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 pounds
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African photo safari
Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the newspaper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love into hospice care
Built your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
Had a booth at a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident
Saved someone’s life

2006-07-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

What a week! I got back from NY on Friday night and had a chance to relax at last! Saturday was a great day. I nice lie in, then I got out to play some football for a couple of hours. I think I am slowly shedding those extra pounds I piled on when Smurf was here, too much eating and drinking!

After playing football for a couple of hours I got cleaned up and went for a bout of Poker at the Bitter End Pub. Problem was once I was there I was more interested in drinking beer then playing poker! So I ditched the car and got on it! Overall I lost at poker, at $5 for a set of chips I lost $15 . . . Not good! By this point we had decided to go over to Ben’s to play more (a band was starting and the smack talk had just started!) So a few Millers later and I had clawed a hand back! $15 back in my pocket! I was now only $5 down. Coolio! As yo may guess by the end of the night I was actually $10 down and very drunk! So the magic car came and picked us up and took us to our respective beds to sleep off the booze . . . .

Sunday was interesting . . . I woke up at 9am, thought, nope. I am not ready for the world yet . . So I dived back under my duvet for another hour. Then I realised. My car. It was at the pub. In a “2 hour only” parking spot.

Bugger.

So I jump up, grab a bottle of water from the fridge, get the bike and start on the bike ride to the pub. Now keep in mind if you go the direct route it is 7 miles direct route but I was hung over, so it was not quick and easy . . . On the way I saw parts of Portland that I had not seen before, really nice rivers and paths, a couple of parks and stuff. I even stopped at PIR and in the car park there were some people getting ivolved in an organise drifting day. Was really cool, wish I had my camera as there was Initial D style corolla (Truero) out there. Don’t worry if that does not make sense to you, it is a car/animie thing! Any how, It took me about an hour and a half to get to the car (Including stopping to watch the drifting and make a call to Smurf). It works out that it is quicker to cycle to the Bitter End then to get the Max. The Max take about 1 hour door to door and cycling is about 45 mins.

Cool.

Anyhow, when I got to my car I felt much better! So I drove home and kipped on the sofa! I popped back to Bens later in the day to help strip his 1993 RX7 engine (B13, for those that understand). We ate pizza (NEVER have a Taco pizza), watched some drifting, played Burnout3, degreased some engine bits and generally chilled. We were supposed to go play football again but the guy organising it was having a major crisis, his wife dinked the new M3 . . . and lied about it . . . so we never found out where the game was happening . . . Booooo-hiissssss!!

So that was the weekend that was!

2006-07-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

As some of you know I am in NY at the mo working at our office there. What you will not know is that a tornado hit this area yesterday! All very exciting. The road my hotel is on was closed off and I ended up in New Jersey at 3am trying to find a place to crash out.

I am fine so don't worry about calling, I did not even realise what was happening untill went to leave the office!

Here are some pics of the view outside. These are basically on the raod where my hotel is. The petrol station is the opposite saide of the road . . . I wish I had my camera with me as the view is really wierd!!!

2006-06-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

As you can see Christa was thrilled to be watching Agrentina V Mexico . . . . .

2006-06-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Just looking at some piccies from the last time Smurf was over, this is one of the waterfalls in the Gorge, pretty :)

2006-06-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

Hiya, last addition to my home cinema is a Samsung DVD recorder. The down side is it will only record at 480P 4:3 when sing an external input such as either composite or s-video (If you did not get that don't worry!) The best thing is it plays divx stuff! Infact it has played all MPEG4 stuff I had thrown at it so far!

This means Smurf can easily watch loads of the stuff I have on Divx DVD when I am at work and not have to worry about using a computer!

As you may know there has been a prob with my skype phone, well it seems it is all fixed now so you can call and annoy me again!

Phrase of the day once again is "If you are not wasted, then the day is!"

Oh, and incase you were wondering, I am going to Timberline on saturday for the first attempt and June boarding at Mount Hood! I have not boarded for a few weeks so I am really looking forward to it!!! I'll take my camera :)

2006-06-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Had a really nice email from my mum, she has been working with Dad to get some excercise and pocket money. Kinda cool if you ask me.

On the other hand, I have a £60 fine and 3 points on my license, so I guess Dave has too . . . .

Bugger.

2006-06-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well I have my digital cable box installed now! I can now watch all 64 world cup games and record them!

Best thing is they are all being shown here in high definition :)

Now for the bad news, the remote control arrived for my DVD player today, no joy . . . The infra red reciever on the DVD must be dead because the controller operates the TV ok :( I will take it back to the shop tomorrow and see if I can exchange it. I will loose money whatever happens. The DVD recorder cost $63, the remote control cost $32! So that is $95 potentially wasted . . . I will let you know what happens . . . grrrr . . . . .

I am watching Batman begins in HD, it is amazing . . .It is better then the cinema . . . It is also in kick arse Dolby digital surround . . . .

2006-06-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

2006-06-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well I have now recovered from the weekend! Firday night was all set to be a nice quite night, me, my laptop and a couple of buds! In the end I was on the phone to Smurf for 30 mins then my family for 2.5hours! I got through a few beers and a bottle of wine, that meant Saturday morning was . . well . . .late!

Some of you know that I now got some of my expenses and a small bonus so I invested in a TV and stuff. Nice JVC/Harmon Kardon/Infinity set up. Very happy about it all! It did give me a dilema with the wires though. I figured I would get some plastic things with nails from home depot so off I trekked. When I got there I found a staple gun with cable staples! It took me less them5 mins to get the cables into a scutter friendly state!

Needless to say it all looks and sounds fab, very happy about it! it means I can watch the world cup in HDTV, and the games I don't watch live I can record in HDTV to watch later, like when Smurf is safe and sound back in the UK! ;)

You may note I am watching the 2001 world cup qualifier Germany V England.

Great game that one ;)

SO that was my saturday morning, but sat afternoon was spent in the pub drinking PBR (lager) and going to watch the Portland TImbers Hammer Seattle 3-1. I was with a group of a dozen or so mad beer drinking Kiwi's, Canadians, Brits and a couple of Yanks! The post game was a good nights drinking leaving me on the last train home via a 24hour petrol station for a warmed up steak and cheese slice! Oh and a 10 minute stagger in the ran with no coat on, I am soooo smart . . .

Sunday was as sketchy a start as Saturday, with one difference, no home depot on the cards, just a football game! So I grabbed my trainers, a gatorade and a Maccy D brekkie and headed off for a noon KO. It was fab! About 1 peeps running in the pissing rain! I did not have studs so I was all over hte place. I was ject getting my footing in midfield when I took 2 tumbles in as many minutes, each time landing onmy left wrist. I was getting carried away and it was really wet. I was having a hard time staying upright and the second fall was classic. I lost possesion, turned, put the tackle in and went down. As I got up to chase the ball down I pushed up from my lft hand and I heard the wrist crunch an pop like a pop corn maker. I was really worried so I limped off. Sure enough I had definately pulled/stretched the muscles and stuff so I creid off home.

I forgot how fun and refreshing playing with a hangover in the rain could be! So I had a nice warm shower and laid down on the sofa to snooze through the comedy channel!

I eventually woke up to watch Top Gear. You know what bit I disagree about! But if it stops others being in my favourite car (see what I did there . . ) then it is ok!

I spent tonight at BBQ with the guys from the weekend. One of their good friends is over from Dubai for a few days so they are plaing intensive drink the beer!

I am off to another BBQ tomorrow, I get to bring the cake :)

Anyhow, I am bushed! This is a long week as I am prepping for trip to New York next week and I have to find time for a Timbers game on sat night. (that means beer!)

ISo I bid you all good night!