As if having a great Christmas and Boxing Day with my family wasn’t enough, I am off to Maine tomorrow to see Elise. To say I am over the moon, would be the understatement of the century.

I’m all packed and ready to go, even taking the Salomon 1080’s as we are hoping to get some skiing in up at Sugarloaf. Got to be up at 4.30am tomorrow, then off to Heathrow, then Boston, and then finally up to Maine where I will spend 9 glorious days with the Boyson/Grant family!

Post team lunch, many a glass of champagne, red wine, pretty fu*ked, drinking 1-6pm, and the team is back and just about to start for round 2, it looks to be pretty messy!

Have a betta Christmas!

B x

Well it’s been a fantastic year for HB a.k.a me (Ben), I’ve travelled, surfed and partied all over the world, met some great people, seen some amazing things and even got myself a new girlfriend!!! Work has gone from strength to strength, and I’ve learned so many new techniques and approaches in the world of the web.

All that remains to say is that I am looking forward to Christmas with family and friends, and in 5 days time I am off to beautiful Maine to spend the New Year with Elise.

All the best to everybody and have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!

Just a few photos that I took on my lunch hour in London today. The cold weather and fog gave the city a Dickensian feel, harking back to the Victorian age, all kinda special…

Only 6 days until I fly back to the USA, this time to the beautiful state of Maine to see Elise, for what will hopefully be the most fantastic New Year’s holiday ever!

Interesting article about targeting screen sizes beyond the standard web browser, might try and implement some of this on my next projects.

So it took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel the 35 miles between Elsenham and London today, the reason why, well we all know how this story goes, but I will tell you again away…

Got up at 6.30, had breakie etc. Left the house in the dark. Boarded the train at 7.49, found myself a quiet corner, popped on the iPod and got prepared for an hour’s kip until Liverpool Street. 30 minutes later the train stops and the driver announces that no one should get off at Tottenham Hale as the Victoria line is up the shitter. Bad news no. 1.

About 2 minutes later after departing the station the train loses power and the driver gets back on the PA to announce that the overhead lines are down, so can’t continue with our journey. We stand still for about 10 minutes and then regain the power only to be told that there is an electrical fire further down the line so we have to wait a bit longer. Eventually we get moving and roll into Liverpool Street about 30 minutes late.

After the 1000001 people disembark the grubby train, there is the usual rush for the gates. But today there seemed to be a lot more people moving slowly along the platform. It turns out that a lady has collapsed on the platform and is laying on the ground blocking the progress of the mob. People casually walk by, rubbernecking only to see what is going on, and then progressing with their day. A National Rail attendant assists the unconscious lady, hopefully she regained consciousness after I left.

Ok overland train journey complete, next: The Tube. I boarded the Central line carriage and just closed my eyes and focused on the fact that I had only 4 stops until Holborn. I stood ram-jammed in the carriage, my only conciliation that it is winter and so only about 25 degrees on the tube, instead of the summer 40.

Anyway in conclusion, as I was on the escalator going up to exit Holborn tube I was thinking, fu*k there has to be a better way to earn a buck and live a nice lifestyle. There is certainly nothing positive about commuting to London, as seen in the numerous articles in the papers, but then the choices are limited. Move to London, pay through the nose for a shoebox and live in an expensive, dirty city where people hardly talk to each other, or live out in the sticks and grin and bear the daily struggle to get to work.

My choice is neither, you see people on the TV that have escaped the rat race and moved to Europe (or further) to lead a less stressful lifestyle. My uncle has packed up and moved to Thailand to live with his wife. My mate Alex has buggered off to work in Melbourne (Oz). Sulli is living and having a ball in Hong Kong. Friends of the family moved to Canada and Australia 30 years ago and have never looked back.

So it can be done, you just need to work at it, find somewhere you want to be and focus on making that happen. I’m not gonna let the London economic machine suck me in and wake up when I am 35 with high blood pressure, grey or no hair, stressed to the eyeballs on a the verge of nervous breakdown, no, in the words of Ben Harper “I believe in a better way”, and I am gonna find it.

I was reading the paper on the train this morning and noticed a few thought-provoking stories about how the Christmas experience has changed over the past 50 years. Ok, so I wasn’t around 50 years ago, but I could empathise with a lot of what was said.

For me Christmas is/was about the coming together of people who you cared about, enjoying family times and showing those close to you that you cared for them. It was also about celebrating traditions, namely British traditions.

These days it seems that we can’t even call Christmas by its traditional name, it now has to be “Winter Festival” or some other politcally correct term, as not to offend non-Christian residents (I don’t grumble about Ramadan or whatever…) What’s next, is Santa Claus gonna become outlawed as his red outfit is not appreciated by some minority group. It goes further though. The once merry times associated with the office party: having a few drinks, stealing a kiss with a stranger under the mistletoe now result in a law suit and losing your job, rather than a touch of embarassment and an apology on a Monday morning.

Christmas has been commercialised to the extent that we now get adverts and decorations on sale as early as September and companies such as Debenhams branding the experience with slogans such as “Christmas designed by Debenhams”.

It just makes me sick to the stomach. It seems in the race for politcal correctness, commercialism and creating a mulitcultural society, we in Britain have lost our sense of tradition and nationality. The idea of a common set of beliefs binding together a group of people into one common culture is one pillar of building a nation. We can’t even do that anymore because there is no common set of beliefs, because we have about 10000001 different nationalities overcrowding our small island. I am not saying that I think we should revert to an all-white fascist state, but tightening the door on immigration, severing our ties with that c*nt Bush and taking care of what happens at home rather than spending millions on fighting pointless wars 1000’s of miles away would be a bloody good start.

But I digress…

Couple that with climate change, and the much-treasured notion of a “white Christmas” has become a thing of the past.

Anyway all that aside, I am looking forward to spending time with my family and friends over the Christmas period, having the time to sit down at the table, share a few drinks and laughs and appreciate that we are lucky to have what we do.

Will things change in this country? Will the sense of tradition and what is British be completely lost, I don’t know, but some action is needed pretty smwifly, before this country ends as the sewer for Europe.

Out with the boys after work last night, here’s a few photos from our little beer session. Was good to see you all, (shame I’ll miss you all at New Year, enjoythe powder) hopefully have a few more before Christmas, cheers…

It might not be The Alps, or The Rockies, but I am stoked to be skiing again this winter, and outside of Europe, which I havent’ done since 1996. Should be hitting Sugarloaf some time between the 27th Dec - 5th Jan. Gonna give the 1080’s a spin and tear up the piste, pipe and whatever else they have in store. It should be interesting as I will be skiing with Elise, who has about 15 years experience behind her, and skiied for a team etc, so I think she will (hopefully) give me a run for my money. She tells me she loves the powder, so we will see, can’t wait!

With my Xmas break that will make this year’s holiday/working ratio about 50/50, stats that I am into big time!