I’m off for 2 weeks of surfing in 2 day’s time, and can’t wait. The first stop will be a week in Devon hanging out with the Lee Bay Massive (BJC, P-dog, Luke) and hopefully getting some serious wave, sun and relaxation time away from London and the office.

The second trip is to southern Portugal for a surf safari with Richie and the Extreme Holidays crew. Again hopefully we will get some sick waves, new experiences and loads of sunshine.

The weather in the UK has been shocking crap ever since I returned from Brazil. We have had the odd day of sunshine, but on the whole the British summer has been a complete and utter washout. We have had so much rain that half the country is under water and suffering from intense floods.

It will be nice to escape the crap and hopefully return refreshed and ready to enjoy what will be left of the summer.

My Brazil surf DVD is nearly complete, and I will be sending it out, as I did last year to all the nice people I met from around the world on my trip.

Other news, I got a new MacBookPro at work today, so the tried and trusted PB will be taking a back seat whilst I take it to the next level with the MBP.

I have been going mental down the gym, swimming at lunch time and then running and working out in the evening, all going well and I feel in good shape all round and hopefully that is gonna pay off when I hit the surf in a few days.

The Mitch mobile is back on the road after a hefty £800 refit, hopefully he’ll stay in one piece for me and Richie to drive down to Devon on Saturday morning.

Well that’s all for now folks, off to cook up some nice king prawns.

It is only 2 weeks until I take a well-earned break, well when I say well-earned, this is going by my old freelance work timetable, I did have 2 months off to go to Brazil earlier this year, but anyway.

In 2 week’s time, Me, Richie, Luke and Beej will be hitting up the North Shore, haha, no not the REAL North Shore, but the north shore of Devon, England. We will be attending our annual surf trip down to Lee Bay, where magic things happen with cider, killer sunsets, Bill’s BBQs and sloppy, small summer surf sessions. Lets hope the weather pics up soon, as the summer has been shocking of late.

We have a week down there, and then me and Richie will head off to Portugal with Extreme Holidays and surf for a week down in Lagos, which is just along the coast from Sagres and Faro. It will be really cool to practice my Portuguese and see to what extent there are any parallels between Brazil and the motherland.

Back to the gym tomorrow to continue on the twice-a-day preparation for the forthcoming antics.

Mmm… another one to add to the collection it would seem. Me, Beej, Tom, Mark, Steve, Richie and Lionel all met up for the first time in at least a year on Friday night and unleashed a huge can of whoop-ass on Upper Street.

It was such a laugh hanging out with the boys, having a few drinks, well actually not a few, a tonne of drinks (far too much judging by my hangover the next day). We started off in Cuba Libre and had frozen margaritas and moijitos and after a few hours of talking shit moved swiftly up the road to the Keston Lodge for a few more beers etc. It was great to see Tom and Beej finally talking to each other after such a long time, and I remember telling them both on numerous occasions how beautiful I thought it all was, funny, that would be the drink talking I guess.

I remember getting the dance vibe on when the Rolling Stones came on the sound system and the obligatory Jagger Swagger and foot stomping came out, which was all a good laugh…

Here are a few pics from the evening:

So it is official, I am a fully-fledged member of Crayon London. I got my offer letter the other day and I am now known as an Information Architect, which is all kinda cool. After 6 years of self-employment, I have finally gone permanent.

The last few months have seen some pretty dramatic changes in my life, travelling to Brazil, going from being in a long-term relationship to being single, going from self-employment to permanent etc. Anyway I am still settling in to London life, I really like being exposed to more people at work and having the whole social interaction thing, which I have missed for so many years whilst working at home. It is also nice to get out and about around town and see so many different people. Although the commuting sucks and adds 3 hours on top of my 9 hours at work each day, I still like the space of the countryside and the fresh air.

I re-joined the gym this week, and have been doing stupid amounts of exercise, swimming at lunch and then gymming in the evening after work. I figure a few months of this and I will be fighting fit, although I think I have overdone it already as I now feel ill and have a cold… woops.

Not much else to report, looking forward to the weekend and having the obligatory Friday afternoon office cocktails and then a few drinks with the boys tomorrow night and then hanging out with Deano on Saturday and maybe a few in the evening.

I go to Devon in 2 week’s time surfing with the boys and my family, should be sweet. There is also a provisional idea for me and Richie to go to Africa, well Morocco for a week to surf as well, which will be a bit of an adventure.

Anyway off to bed, exhausted, have the pleasure of going to the doctors in the morning, awesome…

I had a another cool weekend hanging out with the Crayon crew. Friday night me and the boys had a few cheeky ones down the pub. Saturday I met up with Gustavo and Fame and went shopping for a black suit for the ball. We stopped into the pub for a few pre-ball cheeky ones and then headed back to the East End to get ready.

The ball was held over in Ealing Rugby Club. It was a great venue and we all got straight on the champers and various nibbles and whatever else we could get our hands on. After the party we headed back into town to Soho and went to Digress, picking up a couple of piss*d girls on the way who were up for a little partying. I vaguely remember me and Gustavo dancing with them until about 3am and then hazily waking our way back to Fame’s to pass out.

Sunday me and Gustavo hit up Spitalfields market before I headed back home on what became a classic Sunday mission on the trains. Here’s a few snaps from the party.

So this week we had the Crayon Summer Party here in the office. A lot of effort (and expense) was put in to organising an amazing evening of drinks, food, tarot, massage, music and general fun and frolics. The festivities started about 7pm and went in until the early hours.

I remember dancing and hanging out with the crew, but can’t quite recall how I managed to end up passing out in the tent in the office at 3.30am. I also remember telling one (or more) girl(s) in particular how I fancied her/them, which was all quite amusing. The tent idea seemed like a good idea at the time, and I thought I would get some extra hours sleep in as I didn’t have to commute in, but unfortunately the Spanish cleaners came in at 6.30am and woke me up. Needless to say work was a bit of a struggle yesterday and all rather hazy.

Last night me and the boys popped out and had a few drinks in the Old Queens Head, lots of Peitao around, which was all good. In fact me and Gustavo are teaching the guys some Portuguese, which at the moment just revolves around teaching them the bad stuff, but fun all the same.

Tonight we are off to Chris’ Black Tie Birthday party over at Ealing Rugby Club, the idea to get dressed up and cause some havoc, should be a good laugh.

What an action-packed weekend it was. Friday lunchtime was my official ‘joining drinks’ with the Crayon team down at the local Winchester pub. After a few Guinness, the afternoon started to progress quite nicely. I was then put in charge of the cocktails for the 3rd week in a row and chose to make Mojitos for everyone. So things continued along the alcohol-fueled vibe for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

BJC picked me up from the pub and then we headed down to Richmond where we chilled for the evening at my Dad’s. We awoke early Saturday morning and started our journey down to The Gower in South Wales. We headed to Tesco to pick up supplies for the journey and then BJC was treated to driving the entire length of the M4 whilst I was in charge of the iPod and talking general crap etc.

We arrived at Langland Bay about 4 hours later to be greeted by some rather small, well actually flat surf. We felt pretty bummed out having made all the effort to get there. We then cruised round the corner to Caswell Bay, but experienced the same reception.

A further 30 minutes drive and we hit up Rhossili and parked up on top of the cliffs to check out the surf. We had been rewarded, some waves at last. Although not amazing, we could see some nice lines coming in and a fresh offshore breeze helping clean up the small sets.

We checked into the Worms Head Hotel where we dumped, prepared ourselves with a few Guinness and then suited up. The surf was ok, BJ and I both got some pretty sweet rides, and probably stayed out for a few hours. It was a far cry from Rio and the warm water, but at least we made the effort to get out there and have some fun.

In the evening we had a few Bulmers to get things going, played some cards and ate some food, whilst I muttered various smutty remarks about the Eastern Europen barmaids.

Sunday was a bigger day, but the wind was onshore which meant Rhossili was an intense paddle out, 200m of whitewash and about 10-15 waves before you got out back, it was a little too much, and to be fair verging on the dangerous. So we took the party back to Caswell and gave that a go. Again very onshore, but we still had a laugh.

In the afternoon we headed into Mumbles for some classic fish and chips and then made the arduous journey back to London enjoying some heavy traffic on the way.

It was good to get away, to be near the sea again, and even if the waves weren’t amazing, BJC and I had a cool time! Am looking forward to the next trip asap!