Non stop Wu Bangers! Wow. What a crazy month again - forgive the break but I've been silly busy. Since last I was last here... Where to begin? Worked with Clive Barda - very nice chap. Very good beard and a very good knowledge of classical music and opera. Felt a bit out of my depth on that front but was a great way to spend my birthday. After work I went to the pub with tom, stu, pugh, al, polly, dom, jamin and assorted friends of friends. Saw the real life version of Peter Griffen - was amazing. There was a band on and very good craic. Was so cool to see lots of people I haven't seen for ages. Had a great night - lovely way to see in my 26th year. Delivered the Bloms wedding album and bought a new camera! Geek speak - it's a Canon G9 and is amazing. Really proper amazing. Raw files, 12mp, a hotshoe and full manual control! Boom. "I love technology - but not as much as you, you see, but I still love technology" So anyway that was fun. The following week was a ton of bike prep for my trip. Never stressed so much about it before. The list of to do was as long as my arm - plugs, bulbs, fuses, seat, box, tyres, tools, rack, board, gear lever, oil, cables, chain, pack, route, insurance, fuel, etc etc etc. Slotted in to the middle of that was work on a shoot at West Ham training ground - lots of big cars and bigger egos. Made me chuckle - what a hard life egh. Anyway - Adrian was using a lot of lights and we managed to blow more fuses but it's all good - the photos looked ace. Oh yeah - met Mike Leigh the following week as he's promoting his new film and Adrian was shooting him for Empire. Really good bloke - very quick shoot - days work in 2 hours, plus full english breakfast in there too. Unfortunately not with Mike. The next day I did my own shoot for Cycling Weekly in a Hypoxic training centre in Covent Garden. Was pretty much a glass box but some blue light made it all pretty. It simulates altitude so you can train as if you were up Everest. Except without the views. Really interesting stuff. Had shot a fashion piece for Lauras makeup project on monday too - two shoots in one week! Good stuff.

SO, that was pretty much that and on Thursday morning at a silly hour I left on my very overladen motorbike for France for two weeks. The emotional goodbye was made more poignant with the binmen watching I tell you. So basically I drove my bike (with my snowboard strapped to the side) to the Alps for my big holiday. Whenever I met confused French people who asked me questions about the trip, the reply "ce'st mes grandes vacances" usually clarified things as best I could. Saw some scary war cemeteries and dropped my bike twice on day one. Visited the Paris - Roubaix cobbles, spent a fair amount on lift passes, drank Red Erik, took a ton of photos, got engine oil on the base of my board (doesn't help it go faster), rode Val, Tignes, La Plagne, Coches, Menuires and VT in 2 weeks, saw Dan pull 7s first hit on black kickers (young knees), rode more off piste than on, fought 50mpg headwinds and torrential hailstorms on the way back, was filmed on the A39 south of Dijon on a mobile phone, rode off-piste-on-piste all the way down masse 1 (first) and had the biggest hugs off Tim and Tom at the bottom, hit Itineries and watched Dan (again) ride about 40m down pure rocks / grass / cow pats (one of the single best things I've ever seen on a snowboard), got trench foot - lots, built kickers in heavy snowstorms with a drunk french skiier, rode kickers at 02:30 with Wu Tang on the mini ipod speakers, drank two cups of chocolat chaud each stop as it was that cold, got ill again - risky riding with dodgy guts, planned on a bike tow through a puddle but the snow was cleared too quickly, dodged looming piste bullys in zero visibility after last lifts, built and hit a great on-off terrace jib, saw a ton of friends and made a few more. I don't know if you can tell but I had an amazing time. The story will be in Document next season (fingers crossed) and will be great.

Having a lovely easter weekend. Two years ago today I broke my arm. How exciting. Fera is in the kitchen (where she's been most of the day) cooking a (ph)fat roast and an apple and blueberry crumble. I love her MASSIVE amounts. She's actually whooping so I'd better go in.

Speak soon. Hope all is good for you.

RB