They’ve recently moved into their new place, it was their temporary stay until they found a place to start buying. The location was near to where Rachel worked / studied. It felt like yesterday that we were sitting on some steps in a shopping centre eating greggs bloomer sandwiches for lunch at college (food at college has horrific). Now they’ve found a place to stay and will eventually get into the whole mortgaging business, oh how we’ve grown.

…well for them anyway. I feel like I’m still stuck in a time bubble where I’m still at college, just that work is actually work in a company, and we don’t do games/p.e. (boo I like running). I think I need to begin the plan of moving out and starting a life of my own, though this will inevitably take time and money to execute. I suppose I can live with the salary I make, but it would be ideal if I can save up as well for that move in the property ladder. No point in renting and forever stuck in a “renting” state.

So what’s the goal? What’s the plan? Well I don’t intend on moving out this year, and maybe not the next either. I don’t think I’m in a comfortable position to move, both for financial and personal reasons. I think for the next two years I’m going to first get out of any existing debts I’m in (hopefully random juicy bonuses will help!) and then review whether the situation changes and that I’m comfortable in moving.

I’ve already begun saving up via a savings account. I just need to continue that momentum and build up a momentum of constantly saving up, ignoring expensive gadgets and games and focusing on more long term things. Having this goal down in writing gives me the clarity I need and takes me out of the zone where I feel like I’m simply procrastinating in life. I’ve been moving forward pretty rapidly and I don’t want that to stop.

So where do I see myself in 2 years? Well hopefully I’ll be living in my own place in London, with a more senior role in the company. I will be in a more comfortable position to review my status in getting my own place but at that time, I have a place I’m renting and saving. A place that reminds me of where Jason and Rachel are living right now, where everything is customised to perfection (subjectively) and taste. It would be a place I feel comfortable living in as well a place that’s actually near work (I’m losing 2 hours of my life per weekday just sitting down waiting for transport C to take me to destination B)

The goal is pretty standard for anyone, suppose it’s the milestones and timing that make them my goal. You definitely need to be in a place where you can stop and review on what’s going on in your life, so a lovely reminder from 43things will do just that.

That’s it for now, I’ve recently got a raise from work and hopefully I can prove my worth in the company. Things will only get better, you just need to have clear goals and an ass that won’t quit.

The graduation itself was pretty boring, it was fun wearing the fancy graduation robe, but my part went quite quickly… a bit too quickly one might say, I was literally the SECOND person to receive my certificate. First class students get to go on stage first ;). But yeah the rest of the event was spent listening to a bunch of imbeciles hoot their fellow students when they received their awards, I mean, it’s a formal event, we’re at the Barbican, dressed up in robes and hooting? wtf? Ah well. The highlight of the graduation event (me picking up my award aside) was the fact that Mark Shuttleworth (founder of ubuntu) was there to make a speech! That was pretty epic. I spoke to a few students but kept it simple.

We went to hardwok cafe afterwards, Alice had never tried it and it was lunchtime so it made sense hehe. We managed to get the last of the yummy hardwok food, I had a Thai Red Curry (per usual) and Alice had a chicken in black bean sauce. We ate outside the place and had Krispy Kremes for dessert. Alice finally understood why I kept raving about hardwok cafe (if only the rest got it). Later on that evening we met up with Jason and Rachel for ANOTHER Royal China. We went to a Caffe Nero beforehand since it was a wee bit early and there we talked about how “judge judy” was the ONLY famous judge. Rachel said that there was another famous judge called “judge brown”. It was hard trying to make her crack that it was a lie since she kept building up a more and more elaborate lie about who judge brown was and what he did that made him so famous, it got to a point where Rachel said she was in contact with him and that he was her father. After a the battle of judge brown we headed to Royal China for our grub. This time we ordered a half duck to feast on as well as some dim sum dishes and awesome seafood noodles / ho fun. The meal was epic as ever (especially when we got ourselves some scallops action too) and though it was about £20 odd per head, it was a yummy meal! Afterwards we settled in the Natural Cafe and had a lovely chat like before.

The next day we had a meal at Wagamamma and spent the rest of the day at Central London, I took Alice to loads of places including Cyber Candy at Covent Garden and the Apple Store (beautiful landmark). It was disturbing how we managed to get a lot of things done, we also went to china town and got ourselves… ANOTHER duck haha, this time I went into a restaurant and ordered one cut up for din dins, it came to £14 which was amazing! We went to picadilly circus to so Alice could take the ubiquitous shot of the lights (not as epic as times square though).

Sunday we had a lovely meal with my dad and then spent the rest of the day watching Harry Potter (we managed to watch Sliding doors at one of the days too, it was a must!). We also watched Kill Bill and had a lovely meal at home. The next day Alice went back up north and I went to work again, it was a lovely day but it was always a bummer going to work and ONLY just departing with Alice. Ah well

I’m not sure how we spent our evening and morning but I believe we did have an amazing breakfast! We bought everything we needed to make the perfect full english breakfast and got delayed for the actual event that Max and Aino organised. I believe we did quite a fair bit of smash brothering too which made us disturbingly late, no worries though since we’re the host I guess *shrugs*. Passing Brent Cross I was able to smuggle myself a black DS Lite for Stu whilst Karis and Inn were able to distract Stu for a bit.

We arrived at Regent Street pretty late and finally found everyone, we then headed to a very packed Oxford Street finding the restaurant. We were going to have tapas at a place called La Tasca. Quite a fair amount of people were about which was fun and we had a lovely seat booked and all.

The meal was alright, paella was just wet rice and bits of stuff however we did order a fair amount of stuff and in the end, the bill was a joke. It came to £200+ and people were simply gobsmacked by it, it was rather awkward for people, especially when some were refusing to pay any more. Me and Alice decided to save the day by pitching in the rest so everyone was able to pay the bill and avoid embarrassment. But boy Max and Aino aren’t planning any meetups in the future. Tapas is a 2 person event, not suitable for orgies.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Alice, we met up with Jason and Rachel and had some yum yum dim sum at Royal China, I chose this place because Jason and Rachel previously took me to “Ping Pong” to have dim sum when I told them that Royal China is a nicer place and do a wider range of dim sum. So yeah, it was a pretty epic meal at a far less scary price (especially when Jason and Rachel could afford it all hehe). I was very pissed off that we didn’t get free oranges! They usually do it so

We went into the Natural Cafe to sit around and chat for the rest of the day, Jason got me an orange to eat hehe. Was always nice seeing Jason and Rachel, Alice got on well with them too so it was all good We then called it a night and that was that day.

The day after I had to go work and Alice had to return back up north, we said our farewells at Monument and that was the weekend. Lesson of the day, don’t get tapas. Stick with a golden crispy fucking duck haha.

Meeting Up and getting some grub

People were arriving at weird times and all. Kev was only joining us later on so we were going to meet up with him at some point. I spent most of the morning lounging about at home since Stephie was staying in a hotel near Fulham Broadway, this meant that travelling was awfully easy to her place (since Fulham Broadway and Southfields are pretty close to each other). I eventually leave the house with all my stuff (including several Yo Sushi! Rainbow vouchers and my dslr camera for taking photos of the gig) and went to fulham broadway to meet up with Stephie. I did leave pretty late since I managed to meet up with inn at the station instead of meeting Stephie first. We took the bus to Stephie hotel since Stephie was too lazy to come out and meet us (tut tut). Upon arriving the hotel room we soon discover that Stephie actually had a double bed and single for the room she booked. It was pretty nice since me, Inn and kev were hoping to sleep there (though I’m more there for show since I could easily pop back to my place hehe). We had a quick friendly banter and soon afterwards we were heading off to meet up with kev. Around the time of meeting up with kev I soon discover that I have left my Yo Sushi! vouchers in Stephie’s room so our plan on having Yo Sushi! today was slightly foiled. Trying to be sneaky I persuaded everyone to goto Nando’s in Brixton instead since it’s so close to the venue which makes it a more relaxing experience. Inn complained for a bit since she had her heart set on Yo Sushi that day but we all agreed that Nando’s was more convenient as well as me telling her I’d get her a chicken using my loyalty card.

Once in Nando’s (we’re now in Brixton) we ordered our food (wings for me I believe). Twas quite a lovely meal and Inn didn’t seem to mind having the free chicken (well she hardly paid a penny for her meal haha). Me and Stephie quickly popped round to the venue to pick up her tickets she booked and after having some Tetris battles and bantering we went straight into the venue (slightly late since we weren’t too keen on the support). We found out that Michelle and Caff were actually coming to Silverchair too so I contacted them to see if we could meet up with them inside the venue and all.

The dangerous Wheat Free Soya Sauce

We eventually left Nando’s and headed into the venue to catch Silverchair. I was once again able to smuggle my DSLR camera into the venue, this was however a close one since the guy was able to actually feel the camera in my bag. He was quite determined to find the source of what I was hiding however I told him that it was just padding. He did give the bag a proper search but failed to find the camera. After getting passed the guards we discover that kev was having problems getting in. The guy who was searching for my bag was now pretty pissed and was getting more arsey than ever. He found kev’s Wheat-Free soya sauce he had in his bag and was going to confiscate it since it could be used as a weapon, he demonstrated how it could be used as a weapon by holding it from the neck and pretending to hit kev on the head with it hehe. Eventually they let kev through on the condition that he put the bag in the cloakroom. Was quite an embarrassing moment for kev as he joined us shamefully to watch the gig hehe.

The gig was fun, Silverchair weren’t that bad though I didn’t know many songs from them so it wasn’t as fun as it could have been. We met up with Michelle and Caff during the gig and eventually I also departed the crowd and went to take photos of the band. A lot of squeezing in was involved and eventually I had a lovely spot for photo taking. Quite a nice evening, ended with some glorious Tropicana drinking. We went back to Stephie’s place and enjoyed some Tetris’ing and TV. Stephie got quite addicted to Phoenix Wright as she borrowed kev’s DS Lite to play with it.

Yo Sushi and Somerset House

Though there was a Yo Sushi in Fulham Broadway, we were hoping to have the rainbow combo in Victoria so we could meet up with Wincy as well as Lindsy. I took a quick detour back home before meeting everyone back at Fulham Broadway station! and heading to Victoria. Once there we lounged around at Wetherspoons for a bit to wait for other people arrive, once everyone was there we went straight to Yo Sushi! and got tuck into the Rainbow combo action. Food was lovely once again though I pretty much ordered the same food since I’ve got my combo down to a science. Afterwards we did some lounging about in Leicester Square since Stephie and co needed to do something else whilst I was going to the somerset house to watch 2001 Space Odessy. I eventually left everyone and they went and saw a comedy event which sounded pretty awesome.

Somerset House was pretty amazing. I’ve been there last year to see a double bill and this year I was watching 2001: Space Odessy in the daddio screen! Jason and Rachel were slightly late and I came to the venue slightly unprepared. All I had was some food bought from the newsagent, a towel brought from the venue and a very thin shirt (it got really cold near the end :(). When Jason and Rachel arrived we had a fun time playing a bit of Tetris and Mario Kart. I let them double team me at Tetris DS which was fun but I won most of the time.

The film was pretty amazing, last time I saw it I fell asleep near the beginning since it was far too long and dragged on for a bit. This time I finally got to watch the intense parts of the film involving the computer rebelling against the people. I took the train back to Wimbledon with Jason and Rachel and went back to Fulham to see the rest of the gang. I told inn to buy me some food since I was pretty hungry after that film, she kindly got me a sandwich and some rice cakes, twas pretty yummy. More Tetris action for the rest of the evening and Stephie also completes the second case in Phoenix Wright. Bless her.

Random park strolling and GBK

The final day left and we decided to go to stroll in Hyde Park whilst Stephie went to meet her Uncle for a bit. We went passed some Jewish Festival and lounged around the Princess Dianna Memorial place (was a fancy fountain place) and got our feet wet. More tetris DS’ing involved and eventually we met up with Stephie again and went to GBK in Soho for some burger action. This was the first time kev and inn had tried the burgers at GBK so they were quite excited for it. Kev ordered a bunless burger since he couldn’t eat wheat, I ordered milkshake too and had a classic burger. It was all yummy and nice. Kev eventually left us all to go back to Leeds and we soon left GBK to do some random internet browsing and eventually heading back to the hotel room. That was pretty much it. I packed up and went back home (which was disturbingly quick hehe).

A lovely weekend filled with loads of nice things to eat and all.

Travelling to her place was cool since she lives in Wimbledon and all, I was originally going to just walk it but decided to use the tube since I was a tad late, bad idea… the tube was slightly delayed due to signal failures at Earls Court (grr) So i was stuck there eating a Malteaser Icecream. Eventually the tube arrives and I meet up with Jason and do our usual catch up. We immediately get to Rachel’s place and I learn that she’s cooking Nando’s style oven chicken as well as Chicken Satay and a host of other things. Lovely

Jason brought out his wii and immediately we got down to it, Jason had managed to purchase a lovely copy of Mario Strikers for the occasion (was still sealed) and we managed to get stuck into it and all in no time hehe (the wii that is, we didn’t play Mario Strikers first). First things first, I needed a Mii. So I quickly did myself one and got Jason to play Wii Sports haha. I ruled at most of the games hehe.

We then got stuck into Smash Brothers! This was a painful match haha, Jason managed to beat me on both games we played due to his sneaky fight evasion technique and use of proximity mines placed EVERYWHERE so I can make a move! The wins were close shaves but fair play on him being so sneaky hehe, this is what Smash Brothers is all about though so yeah Rachel played too but she was new at it and all she did really was evade and occasionally kill me with her random moves (granted I was at 100-200%)

We also played some table tennis, and then Mario Strikers and got tuck in with the food. Table tennis was really addictive, Jason was really good at it since he plays a lot Tennis and all so he’s good with the paddle. We had a rally going on as well as a quick match which he beat me in hehe. Mario Striker was probably the climax since it was a game that none of us played and was a fair idea of who’s good at games that they’ve just picked up hehe. It was pretty hard to get in since you can do an ungodly amount of moves and tricks, it resembled a lot like smash brothers in terms of tackling and the use of all star nintendo characters and all. I later on figured out the key to scoring goals and used that to beat Jason. Jason however did have an unfair advantage of playing with Rachel in which she’d sort of lose the ball to the opposition hehe. Eventually we did a switch in characters and Rachel was in my team (and I eventually lost :(). We then had a one on one battle to settle the score, I came out victorious, but only just since Jason was pretty good at it too.

After some striker we had a lovely meal and ate at the table (obviously). It was yummy! Here’s some photos

Oh that’s Rachels cat Abbey, Jason is feed her chicken. We also had some cheesecake, mmm

Afterwards we played some more table tennis, wii and I managed to give Jason his present and all for his birthday (which I couldn’t come to hehe (booked up with Rachel)). I also showed him Resident Evil 4 which he enjoyed (was fun watching him run away from crazy villagers!). He also showed me Resident Evil 1 on the DS lite, it looked pretty sweet! Think that was it, I went for a dirty KFC before I got home and enjoyed it at the comfort of my own home

We decided to go watch Magicians (rather than 28 Weeks Later, I’ve sort of gone off that due to lack of original talent hehe). But yeah, we decided to piss about in Funland before the film, we booked our tickets and all (I was still Student oh yeah) Jason bought the tickets (and I bought the food later on). We felt like adults haha. We then went to the arcades and played Point Blank, was an awesome game, Jason only discovered it today, he enjoyed it quite a bit and yeah at 50p a game you cant really go wrong.

After that we went to watch Magicians, shockingly we were the only ones there! Well later on another couple turned up, was slightly homo erotic one might say haha. But yeah, the movie was really good. Not as gross as Peep Show but still nonetheless good. Not really a Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz though, I dont think Magicians was that impressive as a movie when you compare it to the likes of Shaun of the Dead etc. Was fun seeing loads of Peep Show casts in the movie.

Afterwards we went to Yo Sushi for some Sushi, Jason was missing Japanese food from Japan so I thought it was the best place to go. We had chicken yakisoba straight away and then ate all sorts of japanese stuff, including Prawn Tempura! mmm, that was godly haha. We also had some fried chicken stuff, it was all nice and yummy. We had a very minimal amount of Sushi, just one prawn/tuna/salmon Nigri. We talked a lot about Japanese culture and it was pretty interesting. No singing sushi chef though Thats the only reason you spend £2 on 2 nigris instead of £1 at Wasabi’s. Ah well, the tempura was awesome enough to cover that.

Afterwards we went to loads of random shops in the rain haha, Jason told me to have a look a Abercrombie and Fitch, he explained how Rachel told him to go there and it was filled with women in Bikini’s and thumping techno music. OH HOW WAS HE WRONG! First thing we got was a topless man and thumping music. The paintings are homoerotic and everything else followed the same theme, immediately we left haha.

We also went to the Apple centre, I played some Logic Express, wasn’t too impressed by it to be honest, Xpand and Pro tools did the same job and all. But yeah, afterwards we went back to Wimbledon where we had a nice Frappe Latte and some hardcore DS battling (Elite Beat Agents). Jason met up with Rachel and yeah, she was too tired so they left and I went back home. Quite a nice day, I enjoyed the sushi in particular No photos sorry.

Anyway, main reason to meet up with Jason and Rachel was the fact that they have come back from Japan. Loads of stories to tell and all :). After the food ordering and slight use of homo erotica with me and Jason (we like teasing Rachel that Jason and I are a couple haha but its pretty fun), we got straight down to business and talked about stuff them two did in Japan.

Seems like they had loads of fun in Japan, quite a hectic one for them too since they were moving around hotels almost every day. They even stayed in the hotel used in Lost in Translation (I asked Rachel if she did the whole “Lip my stockings” thing with Jason haha). They went to all sorts of places including… STUDIO GHIBLI! I was gutted that they had went there! Though thankfully they had bought me some presents in the gift shop :D.

Jason and Rachel got me a DS Lite stylus (pink) which they got from those vending machines, as well as a Porco Rosso badge and Keyring I loved them (not too keen on Porco Rosso but nonetheless, its still awesome that its from Studio Ghibli so I’m no doubt going to treasure it)

They also went to a naked spa haha, Jason was talking to some random Japanese businessman type guy there, apparently the guy mentioned about how Japanese guy’s things…werent too big haha. How lovely. The whole journey seems like super fun, they were going to save up for another time to go to Japan AGAIN. I said I’m definitely going to come along that time. I want to see studio Ghibli

They bought alot of stuff from Japan, including DS games (which were disturbingly cheap), Jason had got himself a DS Lite after his trip to Japan to play his games so now we can have crazy battles, I advised him to get an M3 Simply so we can have proper battles on whatever games we had and all :D.

I tried some of the green olives on Rachel’s little bowl of Olives, Alice kept telling me to give them a go so I thought I’d have a taste at it, not bad I must say Going to buy some soon after.

After food and crazy sangria we were sort of told we had to leave since we had no food on our table and yeah, they were quite busy *shakes head*. We then walked around blockbusters and talked about random films, including Studio Ghibli ones. Jason and Rachel kept rubbing it in that they saw a Ghibli Museum exclusive short film when they were in Japan ;(. Was a fun night, afterwards I took a few photos of them and we said our goodbyes, quite a nice day and all

Jason told me to meet up with him at Russell Square where we would find a local Nando’s and just eat there before the gig. Jason and Rachel were working so we had to meetup right after their work and all. Both were slightly late. Rachel being the latest (about 40 minutes late!). Anyway, we went straight down to business and got to Nando’s in no time (was pretty easy to find one must say) I really should have met them there so I could just munch on food whilst waiting haha.

We talked about DS lites, their holiday they were planning on going, stuff that was happening (and stuff that wasn’t), and my DSLR camera. I told them my plan of smuggling the camera in my laptop bag. Theres a wee compartment in the back of the bag which looks like its just padding (but it has zips and everything for storing extra stuff). So yeah, I also showed them my new lens I got, I was planning on using that lens if I wasnt at the front of the stage. We managed to munch down our nando’s pretty quickly and spent quite some time talking and drinking bottomless fizzy drinks.

Eventually we made our way to the gig, Scala was pretty close from where we were at so that was good. We initially thought the band wouldnt have sold out and I would have easily bought my ticket on the door without the need of booking fee’s and p&p charges. Turns out I was wrong, Tilly and the Wall actually managed to sell out tonight! There was queue going on outside which meant we had to wait a bit. At this time the bottomless drinks had kicked in and I needed to use the bathroom, thankfully that desperation disappeared when we managed to swiftly get into the venue without much hassle. Jason did get some hassle though, the security guard said they werent allowed to bring bottled water into the gig, so jason had asked them to hold onto the bottle until he left the building, he even had a ticket for his bottle bless him!

I managed to smuggle my dslr camera in without any problems. After using the toilet, I met up with jason and rachel who were buying t shirts from the gig. We went down to the dance floor/stage and immediately I said we should goto the front and watch the gig. It was a pretty risky decision as the security guards can easily spot a dslr camera being used and all.

I was a bit nervous about bringing the dslr camera at such close proximity to the security guards, but I decided to risk it and only take photos when needed (not doing a Regina Spektor again where I get told off for going nuts on the flash!). Anyway, the support bands were alright, the first one was Kate Nash, apparently she was a friend of Lily Allen and has the same style as her and the notorious Regina Spektor (no idea why I called her notorious, perhaps she sings too fast that it offends people or something i dunno?) anyway, the second band were called the small ones or something haha. They were an american band and played pretty chirpy songs. At one point we REALLY thought they were going to play coca cobana! They had the bells and everything! Unfortunately they didn’t.

Anyway, most of the time I was perving over band photographer and their photo pit access. Though one thing I had to remember was the fact that they were only allowed to take photos of the band for a limited duration (usuaully 3 songs) then after that they would be ushered out of the pit by security. I think the security guard took more notice with the photographers then with my smuggled camera.

I noticed that most of them used 50mm prime lenses for their photographer, I’ve already read alot of reviews and positive comments about this lens (it was even recommended by this author of an lens guide article who had pretty much slagged off every cheap lens there was out there). So yeah, I’m pretty certain that this the next lens I was going to be getting since it’s faster then any lens I have right now and was a f1.8 lens. (£60 too!)

Eventually Tilly and the Wall came out… no not to play, but to set up their own gear!!! I was pretty shocked that they had to do it all themselves, the venue roadie was pretty much standing about doing nothing. Though jason did tell me that previously when they let the roadies do the gear and all, they’d fuck up and it ended up with the band themselves fixing it. I guess its useful knowing how to do your own gear but its not good for the fans to see you doing it yourselves hehe. Though you must remember that this was no ordinary band, this was a tap dancing band haha. They had to install their tap dancing booths JUST right in order to really show off the tap dancing and all. The main tap dancer had to put a metal plate over her large platform. Was fun watching her gaffa tape it all together on her own. I felt bad for the band but then again, they’re not THAT big and their setup is pretty complicated.

Once the gear was all set the band pretty much started.

Photographers on your marks, get set.. SHOOT!

As always, the photographers go nuts when the main act comes out and starts their first song (wouldnt blame them, thats their third to last song they can have photo pit access to haha). I was doing some pretty discrete shots since I really didnt want to get caught, more photographers arrived on the scene and it was a hectic slush of photographers in the pit (as always).

At one point of the gig they played a new song in which the singer had forgotten the lines, that was pretty funny. The tap dancing was amazing. Its pretty cool how the tap dancer was doing it right in front of me, waas like my very own dancer haha. The second song they played was Fell down the stairs, that was pretty much my favorite song so it was nice to hear that.

The stage was pretty dark I must say, taking photos of the people on the right was hard, my lens wasnt wide enough to take a whole band photo so that was a bummer too. This was where I began playing about with settings too. At times I had to surrender to the camera and use ISO 1600 which took some slightly grainy shots but most of the time I was stuck on ISO 800.

The photos were pretty nice

Notice the third shot has a bit of light. Those are the fortunate shots you take where another photographer went nuts on flash and you’re using their light to take a nice photo haha. They were pretty sharp photos I must say

They even did some synchronised dancing at some point. I was really enjoying the gig and at the same time, enjoying taking photos of them.

The band did an encore of “requested” songs in which they pretty much pretended to hear what the fans said haha. Looking at the setlist they pretty much stuck to what was on there rather then listen to the fans. It was fun, the term used for it is “selective hearing” when you hear only one person suggest the song you already had in mind :p.

The ended with Night of the Living dead in which it was joined in with the support bands. The stage was pretty much invaded and mental looking haha. Hoepfully the last photo shows how mental it was.

I was really happy about the photos for the gig, I managed to juice out a whole gig worth of photos and also got the setlist (and guitar pick which i gave to jason) which was an added bonus.

And yeah, that was pretty much it, Rachel tried using the camera a few times and was jealous of the photos I had taken hehe (she tried taking some on her mobile and all bless).

our journey back was quite fun, since Rachel lives in Wimbledon it was quite an cosy journey back (ie I had company haha). I immediately reviewed the photos when I got home and deleted whatever I thought wasn’t “flickr quality” haha. I mananged to figure out a new system for my band photography in which I would only take a limited amount of photos, I made the number the same as the number of photos a 35mm film would store. inn said that was 32 but later on i found out it was 36. So yeah, I managed to squeeze the best photos from that gig and upload them to flickr. They’re pretty nice and varied so overall I was pretty proud of them :).

Managed to get my closest friends to come out for a quiet night out at GBK in Wimbledon. I would have stuck to traditions and do a Nando’s but after last night I had to opt for a different kind of meat. Anyway, Rachel was at work that evening so I arranged the time to meetup around 7.30 (and Rachel finishes at 8). I was slightly late haha, but managed to catch Jason and Elliott at the two fat ladies promptly. Twas nice seeing Elliott again, especially with the right bunch of people (college goers and all). We considered going to a pub or a coffee shop (well, Elliott anyway) but opted for bantering at HMV for 30 minutes for Rachel to finish work. It was literally a case of looking at DVD’s and talking about them haha. Was fun.

We eventually went outside to meetup with Rachel and quickly shuffled into Gourmet Burger Kitchen for some burger action. We ordered our drinks and spent a bit looking at what to eat. I thought since it’s my birthday I might as well spoil myself with a double pattie burger with bacon. It was definitely money well spent. The size of the burger was just ridiculous.

I managed to present everyone with their presents, Jason got a Casio Poptone watch (since he didnt have a watch), Elliott got a copy of Punch Drunk Love (which Jason and some waitress recommended), Rachel got a years subscription to a Flickr Pro account, that would hopefully make her use her damn digital slr camera that she got. Everyone was chuffed with their xmas presents (me being good at selecting presents and all). Jason got me a rather unique and awesome game called We <3 Katamari whilst the other two didnt (poor being a reason).

Eventually our food came by and we went nuts at the eating. My burger was simply too much. A single burger was enough to give someone a locked jaw, but two was just asking for a lock jaw. Nonetheless I resisted using knives and forks and resorted to tackling the burger with the risk of locked jaw. It was simply too much, but I think I managed anyway haha.

We had a nice long talk, Jason mentioned his Wii he got as a present, was pretty jealous that he had one but its only a matter of time when the consoles aren’t sold out silly and I can get a copy myself. I need a decent tv as well to make sure its in proper use.

That was pretty much it. Very good company and everything, received a few birthday texts as well as a birthday thread from the muse board. Spent the rest of the evening playing We <3 Katamari, awesome game haha.

We got our tickets and bought some pop corn / drinks, jason bought the stuff, I told him I’ll buy him Nandos and everything. Me and Rachel shared a large sweet popcorn. I’ve noticed that the different in sizes were SO small. I poured a medium sized popcorn into a large pop corn box, turns out there was only room for a little bit more.

Anyway, on with the show, Was slightly glad that we were a bit late for the film. It was FILLED with ads and trailers, they really know how to sell stuff. Anyway back to the film, here’s a quick synopsis stolen from imdb about Casino Royale

Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to ‘00′ status. Bond’s first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world’s terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. ‘M’ places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond’s interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6’s local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.

This film was made by the guy who did Goldeneye, which was a proper classic so this bond film was definitely worth watching.

One of the first things I noticed in Casino Royale was when the guy opened his drawers at the first scenes, and BAM! A SONY WALKMAN!! It looked so out of place. Instantly I saw a trend going on, Sony REALLY went crazy on the product placements! Throughout the film I saw the following products that they tried selling: 3 types of Sony Erricson phones, Omega watch, Ford car, Sony Vaio Laptops, Sony Cybershot Camera, Prada Sunglasses (rachel mentioned them to me), Virgin planes (complete with Richard Branson), Aston martins, DBS, Rolex (just the name), Channel and Evening Standard.

The film itself was very good, it was done very nicely but was perhaps let down by the product placement, its really hard to treat the film seriously when you are so aware that the film is trying to sell countless products to you. The phones in particular, probably because its one of the things you COULD buy, rather then an Omega watch.

I’d give the film an 7 out of 10, would have been an 8 if it didnt have so many product placements. Everything was done nicely, the main villain looked like someone from Franz Ferdinand haha.
After a nice movie, we went straight to Nandos for some greasy hot chicken action, I ordered my usual :). Jason bought a medium quarter chicken and Rachel got some random pita bread chicken. Both medium I think haha, they should try hot, its awesome.

I took a nice photo of them (and my food haha). The camera went nuts on the ISO so its grainy as ever, hopefully it wont be the case when I invest myself in a Canon 400d haha.

and my food haha, the chicken is nice and dry

After a nice meal, I ordered some additional ExTRA hot wings, they were hotter then the ones at Wembley. We had a nice long chat, was awesome

Afterwards I went back home and enjoyed the rest of the evening lounging about