Well it’s Boxing Day here in chilly Elsenham and the festivities have been pretty good fun so far. Today we have a load of friends coming round for drinks etc. should be good fun!

Have uploaded a few new pictures from the past month to my photos web site, worth a look!

That’s it for now, nothing exciting to report I am afraid!

Last day at work tomorrow, and then it will be the official winding down a few gears for xmas. Sulli is back from HK and we are all out for some team brews tomorrow evening, should be a good crack!

3 days until xmas… spread the good vibes to one and all!

Well as it turns out, I may be off to Bells Beach whilst I’m in Oz. Cathy, a cool Aussie chick who I met a few weeks ago has invited me out to visit her.

I am due to visit Noosa on the Sunshine Coast next March as part of my world surf tour, and had planned to spend 2 weeks hanging out and surfing. I am now hoping to book up a flight and pop down to see Cathy, hang out in Melbourne and also check out Bells Beach for my own 50 year storm!

The stoke increases by the day!

All presents wrapped up for Christmas now and 4 days to go! Am getting in to the festive cheer, bring it on!

It’s been a pretty cool weekend (bar public transport, don’t get me started grrr…). I was down in Richmond on Friday night, out on the beverages with my mate Phil.

We started off in The Pitcher and Piano. This is a nice little pub on Richmond river front. Back in the day, this was the place for drinks and scouting on a Friday night, but it would seem that times have changed as it was pretty quiet. After having a couple of beers there, we decided to move on to a cocktail bar just up the road from the infamous Park Avenue.

This bar was much better, full of festive cheer and hustle and bustle. Being a cocktail bar, it was time to switch from the beers to the White Russians.

One White Russian later, we bumped into some girls at the bar, well to tell the truth they bumped into us. Passed the next 30 mins chatting to a chick called Charlotte (and 6 of her friends), she was a student studying at the Roehampton Institute.

Saturday morning I took my kid brothers out for a little walk in Richmond. It was a crisp, clear and sunny day, so we popped along to the farmer’s market in Herron Square and then into Tide Tables for team hot chocolates.

That brings us up to about now, just checking out some new tracks by an awesome local band Sub Pop Sunday, and gonna hit the hay soon as tomorrow my friend Cathy is coming to visit!

7 days until Christmas, 43 days until I go on the world tour

It’s been a good day here in the office, I’ve managed to get in the zone and get some really quality code written, and am stoked on the day’s achievements.

Now it’s the weekend and I think London in it’s entirety is officially on the Christmas lash! So it’s off down to Richmond now to meet up with my old mate Phil, no doubt we’ll have a few Christmas beverages and undertake a little toe-hunting in the local public houses, just like old times.

5 working days left until Christmas!

It’s a blustery morning outside, with the wind howling and that classic UK grey sky that just sets you up for the day. I have just left the warmth of the house to go and get the train to work, and hey presto, One Railway have managed to balls it all up once again, not delaying my train, but just blantantly cancelling it, right in the middle of rush hour, thanks guys!

If there was an award for who could run the most poorly organised, expensive, dirty and unreliable train service, I would nominate these guys for sure!

If you visit One’s web site (which is pretty slick) they have a nice little marketing slogan on the homepage saying “One - taking people places”. Well they certainly do that, although they don’t take you to your destination, moreso to hell and back, stopping off at frustration and rages-ville on the way, just for good measure.

I commute daily to Covent Garden (London) from Essex, with the journey taking around an hour on the mainline. I only live about 35 miles from central London, but it still seems to take between an hour-and-a half to two hours to get to work. That gives the train an approx. average speed of 15-20 mph, that’s impressive in the 21st century, nearly up there with horses and bicycles.

To make things worse, the cost of the journey is laughable, with the rail companies anouncing they will raise their fares again in the new year, I am sure commuters can’t wait. The idea is to provide extra revenue, to further improve the service for the benefit of commuters. But we all know its a case of increasing the fares so shareholders get a better return. Customers, ah we won’t worry about them…

I guess I can console myself in the fact that I only have 6 more days of this bullsh*t, as in the new year I’m working from home for a month, and then it is off around the world for the surf tour!

So I do apologise for my rather saracstic tone this morning, but hey it is just another enjoyable journey for us London commuters. At least I can console in the fact that I will be greeted by 1001 miserable faces all moaping around grey London today, no one smiles in this city, no one talks to each other, it’s great, come visit friendly London.

There must be a better way!?

Anyway it’s time to post this and power down the PB and give those beautiful trains another try.

9 days until Christmas, happy times!

And so the count down begins, it’s just over one week until Christmas, got the last of the presents for my little kid brother’s today and only 6 working days left until the holidays start.

It’s off to Dad’s after work tomorrow for pre-xmas xmas dinner and various festivities etc.

Over the next month I will be preparing for my world surf tour which commences on the 30th Jan 2006, can’t wait!

Anyway that’s it for my first post, so until next time, take it easy!