Morning - or afternoon now. Argh - been at this for ages. It's lunchtime. Anyway, as you may or may have not noticed, there's some new photos floating around... amazing. Should have updated this place long ago but then again I've been busy working. Check out the galleries.

My interesting news is that somehow I managed to pull together a heap of people who I'd never met before through the power of Facebook & Jockey Journal and get a funky photoshoot shot! King Lizard found me through FB and I found Maxwell Paternoster through the JJ. The moons aligned and with some invaluable help from Dr Pete, Dr Robin & James Purssell it got done relatively painlessly. Although my fingers still hurt the next day from the cold. Shots up in a gallery soon but thanks again to everyone - great way to spend an hour or two. The gig was ridiculous by the way - rock and more rock. Long hair, flying fists, massive solos, mics in the crowd, fights and blood. Legitimate. Loved it.



Sunday was cold again, hanging out at a Little Chef on the A1 with Simon from CW and Ian Cammish of Testing Times fame. 12 hour time trials? That's riding as fast as you can for 12 hours and seeing how far you get... CRAZY. Can't say I understand fully but to each their own. Nice guy - great old bike, hand built by Brian Rourke in 1981. First downwards sloping top tube used for road TT's; i believe I heard correctly...

Met the lad from Slumdog Millionaire on Monday. Well done on the Baftas! Really nice guy. He had to spray champagne in a provocative manner for Heat mag... At 09:30 in the morning, lots of cheap champagne is not something you want to smell of all day! The studio was soaked and reminded me of walking back into some crazy party the morning after and the place reeking of booze. Felt hungover even though I wasn't. Really good shots though - keep an eye out for Sam Jones's pics in the next Heat. PS: She has her new site up. Bonus points if you can find the shot of Al on there... clue, it's here.



On the bike thing - managed to ditch the old key switch and cut away more cables. Missed something out and the bike went a bit disco on the way home - lights flashing when I pressed the brake and all that. Fixed that this morning with some more tape and the diet continues... Would have loved some knobblies for la petite neige last week but was fun sliding around on the slicks in any case. Elephant run next...? Still undecided wether to strip it and clean / paint / polish or just leave it ratty... What to do?

Off north tonight to see a man about a Manta. Valentines with the lovely Pugh on sat (who's name IS actually Pugh, it's not just an endearing term!) DC is off to NYC this morning - best of luck. Have fun and we'll hopefully all catch up soon.

Be in touch - Feb already. Can't believe it. Birthday soon - mash up!

All the best.

RB

I have to get all this down before I get stuck into too much work... What a few days! Headed up to Sheff on Thursday with the 20" and the epic-big camera bag. Not traveled with the BMX for WAY too long and forgot how easy it is. Even if I looked like a turtle on a bicycle. Caught up with Joe & Jim in the eve which is always fun. Friday was a busy day driving round Sheffield with Dave of biketrack.org and TGN construction shooting their many builds for their site. Drive like you stole it & work gets done! That eve was Nev's leaving do - she's off to Argentina with her friend Laura & then traveling up to Vancouver over the course of a year which sounds like the trip of ten lifetimes. Poppy Longstockings (I think) and the Banana somethings or other were brill - just good good music. Sorry I can't remember the names - i suck. I can't even blame drink as I was cruising the Saab with seats on full heat. Anyway, so good to catch up with everyone. Good luck.

How rubbish is 'Gossip Girl"!? Sat in't living room keeping Fera company but sheesh, rubbish TV!

Sat was just fantastic. Picked up joe and we headed out to some toxic dump near Chatsworth House. Amazing drive which (AGAIN) made me realise how much I miss the north. The trails were just amazing - like a ski slope for a bicycle - lines everywhere, jumps everywhere, toxic mud everywhere. So good. We rode, dug sessioned, dug some more and marveled at how 3 guys could play with a super noisy radio controlled car for 3 hours non stop and not get bored. They probably were thinking something very similar about us but anyway - we were quieter! We stopped by Bakewell for a pie and a tart (both were tasty) and then onto a fun pump track in Bamford. I'm way happier riding small tracks - always been a pansy on a bike. Doesn't matter that we weren't flying 20 feet above perfectly shaped doubles in the sunshine; muddy and wet and rolling along was just fine with me.

Saturday evening was hectic. One of the best nights ever. As you may or may not know, DC of blogspot fame is off to New York for a year to work. What a gig. Anyway, Lauren Smith managed to get most of the BMX scene from all over the UK in one room in Sheffield, on time without Dan knowing in the slightest. Everyone was paranoid they'd let the proverbial cats out of the bags but it all worked perfectly. Even his family was there, all the way from Romford. Unbelievable. Been looking forward to seeing everyone for ages but couldn't say anything. "social networking" egh. Well done Lauren. Such a good time. Alex from the Forum left a crate behind the bar as way of an apology (he broke the "Bah!" photo when putting up the christmas exhibition) which was super cool of him. Even though most of it was given away, we were pretty wobbly by the time DC got ejected for crowd surfing to Dizee Ras! Kebab, Predator and a cycle home to round off a very special evening. What a send off. Stoked just to be a part of it.

Sunday was a very cold session at BH and then a train back to LDN...where it was snowing. No thameslink services so cycled in a blizzard from Kings X to London Bridge. At any other time I'd have been mad but loved every second of the ride. Got onto one of the last trains to Peckham Rye and learnt that because I'd cycled, even though I was soaked through, I'd saved myself about 2 hours commute across the centre - busses were appalling apparently.

The snow carried on and have managed two days on the board. London ground to a halt and I've never chatted to so many people on the street before. Snow makes people happy. Kebabs, Kung Fu Panda, walks to Catford, riding home down Forest Hill Road, surfing the moto across the ice, friendly people and achy feet. Awesome.

Really didn't mean to go on so much but had such a fun filled few days. Managed to ignore the boring and the scary bits of life and just got on with enjoying it. The 365 hasn't dropped off so go have a look for all the day to day nonsense.

Going to get off now and do some proper work. Whilst you're here check out Stu and the new Arbcraft job here and listen to Bon Iver. Beautiful album which has pretty much been on repeat since Thursday. Serious - get in in your life.

Ramble over. Take it easy.

RB