La Belle France

I'm in la belle France ce moment. I jetted (albeit via Ryanair) off to Pau from Bristol on Friday soir, and have been sunning myself, building bridges, watering plants, swimming in our green swimming pool ever since.

Oh, and I've been finishing off my final aMap content for the first 5 launch maps - which I'm trying to push out the door ready for Christmas.

Aren't I clever (ish)

I discovered the joys of a new site called Animoto, which let's you quickly and easily create your own videos.
It's a great idea, and well executed, and is should be super-useful for making promo vids for TeamRubber's various software products.

Here's a first attempt at a promo for Opinion Tracker (which we use for online opinion research)

. . . errrr, in fact I can't work out how to embed the film, so here's the link

Holy Smokes

Bank holiday was spent on the Devon / Dorset borders - in the heart of Fearnley-Whittingstall country.

Catherine and I were staying at Sam's (one of Catherine's friends from uni) cottage which was a thatched number with a rambling garden and rambling views.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely Mackerel fishing, followed by lunch at Hix's Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis. I'd never been Mackerel fishing before, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was - literally whack a rod overboard, and minutes later a nice juicy mackerel would be attached to the other end.

We caught 14 of the little blighters in total, and took them back to marinade followed by some adventurous BBQ-ing.

More dance sh*t

DJ Holy Ghost

The daddy of dance re-mixes . . .

Laggers victory

Britain may have won 17 medals at the Olympics, but the real sporting story of the weekend was the Laggers victory over Grayswood (@ Sunday League cricket).
I scored a fairly swift 19 (including 2 6's) . . . though the opposition did consist of a 12 yearold (albeit a 12 yearold County player). Still victory is victory, even we were 3 times their age . . .

Kid in a sweet shop

Yesterday I popped by Mrs Kibble's sweet shop on Brewer Street. A bag of lemon bonbons and midget gems later, I was buzzing around the office in a kid-like frenzy. mmmmmmmmm

Aye Ooooop

Spent the last weekend oooop North, at my folks house (see photo of the blissfully silent Raskelf high street). The main reason for journeying North was to return my MG to its homeland (and to its nice cosy garage), however I've also had recent Northern cravings for Yorkshire puddings and cheap warm ale which needed sating.

Food played a major part to our weekend: Saturday lunch @ Norman in Leeds (a great Asian-fusion restaurant where one of Catherine's friend's husbands - from Japan - is a chef), Saturday dinner @ the Crab and Lobster, Sunday Brekker @ the Thompson teashop in Kilburn, and Sunday Lunch @ the Hare at Scawton. I haven't eaten since.

MG vs Tuk Tuk

My fellow TeamRubber Director Andy finally got delivery of his new shiny 3-wheeled Indian death-trap - otherwise known as a Tuk Tuk. Given it has no doors, and has "lay a turd in the back as a funny student / tramp joke" written all over it, Kirk has set up a sweep-stake based around when it will get either nicked or moved. I plumped for the first week of September . . .

As I was down in Bristol in my MG, we did a quick photo shoot in Trenchard Street Car Park (over-looking beautiful and smoggy Bristol)

Mockingbird wish me luck

So a couple of months back me and Catherine went on a dirty (ish) weekend to Bristol (on the way to Catherine's great aunt's 90th birthday - rock n roll!). We spent a lovely night at the Hotel du Vin, and spent the rest of the day wondering around the streets of Brizzle.

Bizarrely whilst sat on a bench by the docks a Swedish band called Mockingbird Wish me Luck turned up to shoot an impromtu music vid - and low and behold it's now on YouTube! You can see us in the first 5 secs sat on the bench just behind them!

Check us out here: