Sorry for being so slack again, here's a quickie of what's been happening.

I'm still working at Tesco, I haven't quite quit this job yet! There's some "exciting" projects coming up (read "hard work") so it should be interesting to see how the UK's #1 online retailer does things. Name dropping? Me? Never.

Kiting is still going on as planned although I'm a bit of a weekend warrior. There's a good crew around though and I've linked up with some good people. Pity that most of them prefer flat water but I'm working on it!

I've joined the trendiest gym I've ever seen, right in the heart of London. It's a boxing/regular gym, that I joined to break up my commute on the way home, and it's right in the heart of Covent Garden. They have a d.j. in there, cool lighting, sport videos everywhere, big screen t.v., lot's of trendy people looking cool (and some of the girls wear makeup) so I'm not sure I'm a perfect fit, but the boxing classes are fun without the usual feeling of being a human punch bag that you get in more serious boxing gyms. Who knows, in 6 months time I could be wearing trendy trainers and a trendy matching top  with a cool haircut. Or maybe not.
www.gymbox.co.uk

Here's some photos of people getting ready for another kiting session. Mmm, looks warm huh? I timed it just right (it stopped raining for 5 minutes)


Adam



  John (not me)

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last month, but I've been reasonably busy

I have another job! A company called Ivis Group and I'm one of their software consultants who's now based at Tescos in London. Good pay and a great job for the c.v. (Tesco's has the biggest retail e-commerce web site in the UK), sadly the 2 hour commute each way is a bit of a killer at the moment! THis should be sorted when I move up to London, but right now I'm living for the weekend!

My kite arrived and I've had an awesome (overpowered) session on it at Southend. There's banks out the back which leave the most incredible flat water sections that I've ever seen. There was a bunch of windsurfers doing speed runs and I couldn't resist a race. 30 seconds later my board was vibrating wildly and, although I was overtaking a windsurfer, I thought that he was more prepared for a crash with his helmet, impact vest and goggles! Anyway, it was good to get out and get wet again!

The cable park shuts this weekend until March next year, so I couldn't resist one last blast. Great fun and I'm still causing a stir using my finless, flat kiteboard that no one thinks I should be able to ride. (and their right, I can't ride  ;o)   )

Here's some photos, sadly I had the film speed set wrong so there's some blurring. You wouldn't expect anything else from me though would you!




18 Year old kid shows me how it's supposed to be done





Deciding what piece of equipment to hit.
(answer, none of them)

I managed to drag Lloyd along to the cable park this time. Another couple of days of good fun!

Here's a nice faceplant video of me : Faceplant






  Lloyd suited up

  And away!

Getting a bit bored of waiting for a company to come back to me about a contract so I hit the  cable park again!
I turned up to the bemused looks of the local wakeboarders who all thought I was a little bit mad going out in this cold weather, but 30 minutes later I was joined by five 18 year olds who had decided to show me how it was done. (Yes, I felt a bit old and crap after watching them)

Still great fun to get out and get wet. It's awesome to board in some totally flat water instead of the wind chop I'm used to. I may have to join the club! Pity they're shutting down in a month's time  :o(

Fingers crossed I hear from this company soon, I've not been working for a week and it feels a bit wierd! (and not much money to do stuff with)

Whilst I'm not working (I quit last week), I thought I'd pop along to my old favourites the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Science museum had a computer games display on, so I just had to check it out. It was full of old consoles and arcade machines, all free to play, and the memories came back quick and fast.
After destroying the Death Star, eating some spots and defeating the invaders (again), I thought I should really get back to the rest of the museum. Sadly the rest of the Science museum wasn't quite as interesting and I only managed to spend 15 seconds in the "History of Mathematics" before getting bored.

I then moved on to the Natural History museum which was more like it! Dinosaurs, woo hoo!

  Pacman!

  Animatronic T-Rex

  A real life (dead) Kakapo.

Well we had Jackie and George over for a couple of weeks for a visit, it was great to see them even if I was temporarily thrown out of my bedroom to accomodate them!

George wore his All Blacks hat and just started crawling before he left! Yay!
Kiteboarding won't be far behind I'm sure.

Well another week in paradise. The weather's not been too bad and I've been catching up with friends and family.
My sister is over from Vancouver so I've been hanging around with her and George, my nephew, although I've still managed to sneak away for a quick look at a local beach and to have another session at the cable park.

  Hayling Island


  Hayling Island

Well I've been in the UK for 5 days now and it's all going swimmingly. The weather isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be and my job hunting is going well. I've had 2 telephone interviews so far and have a full interview on Monday with a company that sounds good.

Today I thought I'd try and meet some local kiters so I went to the local cable park to indulge in some wakeboarding action. I met up with Ian Storer at the park and we had a bit of a laugh and a pint afterwards.

Ian goes for a swim

  Me coming around the corner

  One of the local kids shows us up

  Local kiter Chris

  Me trying to slow down a little

Chris was kind enough to lend me a 15m Griffin kite for my time in Sydney and, wow, I love this kite.

Thursday was a light wind day yet I was still able to tack around to Butterbox for some great wave riding. Better yet, I saw 2 whales on the way around! The first time I'd seen whales whilst kiting. Awesome!

Then Sunday came around and it was blasting 30 knots plus! Wow. The 15m Griffin still handled it though and I had an awesome time!

 

 Rob walks onto the beach

 

 Kim and Holly wrapped up

 

 I take on a wave

 

  Mark goes big

 

  As does Chris

 

  I ride a wave

 

  Mark slashes

I spent 5 days in Sydney catching up with Kim and all my mates.

Friday was a drunken day starting at lunch time with a "sizzler", which was my favourite lunch spot in Sydney. Then onto the Slip Inn for a few jars before hitting the Retro for another drunken night with plenty of dancing. Nice.

No photos this time, thank god!