Whereismal?

Q: Whereismal?

2009-10-12T17:21:00.003+02:00

A: Mostly here or here these days but photos are always here, videos here and music here.

Nike Media Apprentice

2009-04-26T22:51:00.001+02:00

It's been a while since I've updated this blog due to the growing use of Facebook. But seeing as I have just entered the Nike Media Apprentice competition I thought I would also add my chosen pictures here.

Better odds than the lottery

2008-09-08T18:32:00.001+02:00

Thank you very much for entering the Oldborough Retreat Competition.

Your entries are now in the Draw.

Good luck

www.winadevonpropertywithfishing.co.uk

J'aime Paris

2008-07-26T17:53:00.001+02:00

OK so Paris is meant to be the city of love right? Well I wouldn't got that far but we did have a nice time when Emma and I travelled down in May to catch up with my Mexican friends Agueda and Daniel on their whistle-stop European tour.

Naturally I snapped the Eiffel Tower:

But we soon got bored of that and made some comedy photos instead:

And at night time the VR on my lens gave some nice steady shots without my tripod:

But it's not only the tower there. Here's the Arc de Triomphe:

I can't decide which of the two photos below I like the most. Shame I can't combine the blurred traffic with us sharp in the 2nd photo to make the best photo.

Looks like I found another Church my mum would love - the Sacre Coeur:

There's quite a few step to tackle mind:

Where's Wally (Emma) in the photo below:

But the views at the top are worth it:

A few more Paris photos here or in slideshow format here

I've been trying to get all my photos out the way ready for our Whistler trip just in case we actually have time to stop on holiday and take photos - no promises though!

10 days to go

2008-07-21T17:01:00.002+02:00

10 days and counting till lift off!

(providing I can actually get hold of Smith to tell me where he lives and if he's built my new baby yet!)

Keukenhof Sunshine Weekend

2008-07-15T22:08:00.001+02:00

Back in April, Emma's friends popped over for their annual Sunshine weekend and they certainly got lucky with the sun. We visited the famous Keukenhof flower park which is apparently the most photographed place in the world. Judging by the number of photos I took, I can see why!

The problem is that once you've taken one photo of a tulip...

...then the rest look all the same!

But I tried some blurred variations like below:

Plus a bit of B/W photoshopping:

But I soon was over-flowered and started looking for people inspiration and there's hundreds of them there like below:

My mum would've loved it just like these below. Scorching hot weather and still in rain coats - just in case!

The girls enjoyed their time:

And I even found time to mess about with Emma:

There was some map confusion below:

But we eventually found the worlds largest (plastic) tulip:

I've picked a few of my favourite photos below but there's plenty more on my Flickr account here or in slideshow format here

Happy gappy chappy

2008-07-07T23:12:00.001+02:00

Remember this post from my first visit to the Filthy Trails in Belgium? The one with the photo below:

Well the weekend just gone I returned to the Filthy Trails for the Kona Comp 2008 and I nailed the gap in the above photo. Well I guess a more accurate statement would be that the gap nailed me!

I went along with the view to take more photos than actually ride the competition. But the conditions were fast yet grippy due to rain earlier and the week and I was stomping the 4th jump on the big line which previously scared me.

So I thought "Sod it" and went for the 5th jump - the road gap. I've read somewhere that the gap is 8m which I find hard to believe but looking back at the photos and video that I took it does look like it is 4 x bike lengths so maybe 8m is true!

I pedaled what I thought was like the clappers and sailed off the launch ramp. The rest was a bit of a blur but my interpretation of sailed was more like falling. Although I did land on the down ramp, I think I was still going too slow and my lardy arse pounded my rear wheel slightly flat.

But there was no kick from my shock, no pain in the ankles or wrists and gratefully no landing sideways so I was able to ride out to a stop. I knew something had happened to my bike cos it was loud but I was stoked and didn't care. I survived!

God knows how I managed to egg a DT Swiss 6.1 rim (the heaviest duty rim DT Swiss make) but I managed it and I didn't hit any of the bigger stuff again that day in fear of collapse. It also gave me a good excuse not to enter the competition ;-) So I managed to get some excellent photos instead:

The guy below was heel clicking the gap - big balls!

And no footing the top drop:

This custom green Kona was a sweet setup and I caught a sequence of him hitting some shore:

I landed about 3 feet behind where this guy landed so how come his wheel is still round?!

There was some nice style over the last jump:

It wasn't all big boys with big balls though. This kid was loving it and has great helmet taste ;-)

I tracked some of the guys dropping the large drop which blurred the background nicely:

This guy also had some sweet style:

The flash worked really well on the wall ride:

I was loving the use of the flash as the light through the trees was tricky. But if there are any photo geeks out there, then I would appreciated an answer to a flash question. My D40 camera would only take photos at 1/500th sec when using the built in flash. If I bought an external SB-200 would I be able to use a faster shutter setting or do I need a better flash or is it not possible with my camera?

I also created a short video clip of the day that shows the gap jump in all it's glory. I've registered with Pinkbike now for biking videos but you can also rate it on YouTube here.

Finally at the end of the day I spotted someone riding my new bike to be. I got chatting with the guy and found out it was a small which is the size I have ordered. I was previously only able to try a large so I jumped at the chance to ride a small with a 55mm stem (I'm getting a 50mm stem). I took a full run from the top including the drops and although the setup was a little stiff for my preference, the size was spot on. It's going to be a long 23 days until I'm on the plane to Canada!

In the meantime enjoy all my photos here or in slideshow format here.

Oh and I forgot to mention that Emma has bought me an awesome birthday present - a coaching session with Shaums March from MMR for when we are in Whistler - sweet! I wonder if I'll be gapping 8m in my sleep after that :-)

Battle of the year Benelux 2008

2008-07-01T23:01:00.001+02:00

What seems like ages ago I went along to the Battle of the Year finals for the Benelux region held here in Amsterdam at my favourite music venue - the Paradiso. The Battle of the Year (BOTY) is a breakdancing contest. It started off really poor as each team had to perform a choreogrphed performance first which felt like we were at a cheerleading contest! But after the rubbish people were knocked out the true "Battles" began and that's where it livened up.

I took several photos but did not have the best location as the light was poor but here's a couple for you anyway.

Loving the guy below polishing up his Protec ready for the spins:

There was some class head action:

The DJ was scratching out some classics:

Paradiso is definitely my favourite gig venue in Amsterdam:

Try and figure out this move:

The one handed jumps and pressups without feet down combo was hard as nails:

I spotted this T'shirt and it reminded me of double time Paul at uni:

The final battle:

All photos, including a few more, can be found here or in slideshow format here

naked photo

2008-06-27T10:09:00.002+02:00

I have several photos and stories waiting in the sidelines to add to this blog, Kate/Jenny sunshine weekend, Paris trip, my brother visiting, Nicks stag do - the list is endless.

But the sun has been out for a while now and I've been enjoying my time away from t'internet.

However, this photo must leap the pack and make it on here by priority. It's the naked shots of my new baby:

Much love to Smith who has been going through the pain of ordering all the other parts I need and arranging the build. Plus Emma who has put up with my countless hours researching the parts I want.

5 weeks and counting...

Dear Transition...

2008-04-25T22:30:00.002+02:00

Hi,

I am considering custom building one of your fine BottleRockets as a treat for my impending 30th birthday. I currently live in the Netherlands but am considering the purchase during a vacation trip to Vancouver I have planned this summer to visit a friend in Whistler. Because of the limited knowledge of Transition bikes here in the Netherlands I would greatly appreciate some advice to help me build my perfect bike. Please excuse the long email!

About me, my riding style, current bike and reasons for choosing the Bottlerocket

I thought I'd give you a little of my background so you can tailor the advice for me. I have been riding all my life but for pure social adrenaline buzz rather than any competitive urges. My current bike is a 2004 Kona Coiler which I have beefed up to take more abuse that my riding style has evolved to. I'd prefer taking a charilift up and riding playful trails down enjoying trying new lines rather than getting to the bottom in the fastest possible time. I enjoy small jumps and medium drops but find it's my confidence rather than my skill that prevents me from progressing. My fear gets the better of me when I'm confronted with jumps that require high speed or gaps larger than 3m and the max drops I am attempting top out at 2m. I feel my current bike is a little heavy for the amount of travel it has plus I'd like to raise up the front end with some better quality 180mm forks but feel this may upset the rear of the bike. Therefore I'm in the market for a new frame and fork combo. I don't want an all out downhill monster as I'm often riding normal XC trails and want a dual ring up front. I'm attracted to the Bottlerocket for it's playful lightweight simple yet strong attitude to help me progress yet it has an all round appeal. Plus it includes my must haves of an uninterrupted seat tube for saddle height adjustment and double front ring capable.

Shocks

I have been a fan of single crown Marzo forks and am considering the 66 ATA's but I'm wondering if I am going overkill and would I be happy with the 55's instead? My rational behind choosing the 66 ATA's over the 55's is that I am more likely to ride downhill tracks with rock gardens than session dirt jumps. However, I am attracted by the ATA version so I can reduce the travel for cruising around urban style or XC rides. Would you be able to confirm the 66 ATA's are available in 1.5" steerer tube? If the frame accepts 1.5" then I want to make sure I get a 1.5" fork to feel the benefits.

As I understand the market leader for rear shocks is the Fox DHX. I think I would prefer the reduced weight benefits of the DHX Air but what are the other benefits to having a coil shock in case I am making the wrong decision?

Ultimately, for my riding style will the 66 ETA's be a good match for the DHX Air or should I be considering a Talas/DHX Air or a 66/Roco combination to have better matched ride?

Size

I had the pleasure of trying out a BottleRocket in the large size with some 160mm forks and the DHX coil at some local trails. At 5'10" I could immediately tell the reach was too long for me. However, from your size guide I am right in the middle of the small and medium recommended sizes. What would help me make the right decision? I very much doubt I'll ever performing flips or spins to need the benefit of a shorter wheelbase but I have the medium Kona Coiler and feel a shorter reach would be better. My 17" Coiler has the same effective top tube length as the medium Bottlerocket but an 80mm stem.

Paint Job

I recently read on your blog about DropN'Zone custom paint jobs and since I am going all out on this build I am also considering a custom paint job. How does a deep blood red sound?! I think it would go really well with a mix of white decals/forks/cables with a splash of gold parts. Is DropN'Zone the best quality place to arrange this or can you recommend anywhere else? Wherever I chose, are your coloured pivot caps readily available for order?

Other parts

My friend currently works in a Whistler Village Sports. Alebeit not a Transition dealer, but he can order from Norco distributed or Canada Outdoor Gear brands so I have quite the range of options to build my setup. I have a few questions about specific parts that I hope you can answer for me:

I will probably go for a set of Holzfeller OCT cranks or the 2009 Saints if I can get my hands on them before August. I understand the BB shell width should be 73mm but what length BB axle should I order to have room to fit an e13 DRS guide?

I presume the Chris King 1.5" fits but please confirm?

It looks like a top pull style front mech is required - please confirm?

Does the cable routing allow for cables to be attached by ties or do the brakes require disabling and threading?

What's the seat tube size? (for ordering the front mech)

When ordering just the frame will it come with a seat pin? QR is preffered

Ordering

If I don't go with a DropN'Zone build can I order direct from you and have delivered to Whistler?

Finally, I though it would be cool to visit Transition whilst I was out on my trip this summer. See where my bike was conceived, buy the designers/staff a crate of beers, pickup a T'shirt, maybe even shred some local trails with you guys if at all possible? (but being an old man now I might slow you down!)

Cheers and thanks for taking the time to read this rather long email :-)

As you can probably tell I am rather passionate about my next bike being the best for me. It's a little concerning that I will have to trust the parts I am choosing work well together, the custom paint shop does a good job and my friend organises a quality build without actually being there to oversee. I certainly don't want my 3 week trip to Vancouver to be spent mostly in the bike shop and not out on the trails! That is why I really appreciate your opinion to minimise the risks as much as possible. Thank you

Malcolm

Dancing Silhouettes

2008-04-16T21:57:00.001+02:00

I had my camera out late last weekend after taking some photos that will eventually make it onto this blog as part of another story. The Silhouettes that I took that night have come out great so I thought I'd put them up here first. The best way to view them is in slideshow format here

Are two planks better than one?

2008-04-15T00:04:00.002+02:00

This winter was always going to be tough to repeat last years snowboarding efforts but I still managed a good couple of trips. 1st up was my yearly pilgrimage to catch up with Mr C and his entourage in Lech, Austria.

After a dry period we got lucky with some fresh snow during our stay. I'm sure it was only enough to prevent me from driving up the hill yet not substantial to host some epic deep turns. Never the less we had good fun and it was nice to also see Eva who I met in Whistler last year.

So with the lads warm up trip out the way it was time to get away with Emma and fellow Amsterdammers for a week on the edge of the Les Arcs resort in a place called Peisey Vallandry. We stayed in a very spacious chalet a little down the slopes and arrived to find no snow!

One morning I was up early enough to catch the sun coming up over the mountains where I took the following photos.

In particular, the photo below is one of the best I think I have ever taken most of which is right time right place.

But as the week progress we had 15cm one night that was enough to entertain me on the snowboard until the majority was tracked out. Can't complain at the rest of the weather though as it was glorious sunshine. Which leads me to the questions as the title of this post - are two planks better than one?

Emma ski's, so I took it on myself to also give it a go. When the suns out and the pistes are fast hard packed, I'll have to say the ski's are much more fun. I've have no style or technique but it's not too difficult to get some serious speed whilst remaining on the edge of control.

I was soon leading Emma on some off piste adventures and hitting some natural gullys and the odd jump here and there.

We made it to the top of the resort at over 3000m one day and the views were stunning.

It wasn't till the end of the holiday that we went further afield and found the larger park. Shame really cos the red jumps looked perfect and really well maintained. Even the greens were sizable and I would've been comfortable trying rotations on them. I was on the ski's that day so thought I'd see how hard it could be? No daffys or helicopters from me but I nailed the green line of 4 kickers a total of 3 times with no stacks. We'll have to work on Emma's videography for future trips though ;-)

Now before my friends all rip me, I'll be the first to admit that I will never get the same feeling on ski's that I have experienced many a time on a snowboard. That freedom of expression through line choice would be I doubt I'll ever achieve on ski's. In the best snow conditions I am just not willing to put the time in on ski's - give me a board any day :-)

But it's just good fun to learn something new. Probably the same reasons why I bought that BMX a while ago that is still in someone's shed in Nottingham? So when I'm an old man and body parts don't work as well as they used to, I can see that I'll be skiing just like I can imagine I'll be golfing. Here's hoping I don't kill myself on a snowboard first!

All my photos can be viewed here or in slideshow format here

Visitors welcome

2008-04-06T23:51:00.001+02:00

So we've finally moved into our new flat. After a lengthy few weeks living out of boxes in my friends room in my old flat, we now have a new place we can call our home. So that means the visitors can start rolling in. But the weekends are filling up fast so be quick!

Stu and Pamela popped over recently so you can see what to expect on a visit here by their photos below.

Good sights and good food.

Plus some biking adventures

More photos from their trip can be seen here or in slideshow format here

Recent Biking Adventures

2008-03-24T18:15:00.002+01:00

Since Emma moved here she'd had to keep up with my biking addiction passion. We try to get out locally every week but at the weekends we've been further afield. Here's a few photos of one of our first trips since she arrived way back in February to the Filthy Trails.

On an earlier trip to the Filthy Trails, Giles, managed to snap the following shots of myself sporting my new helmet. Don't worry I know the sunglasses don't exactly make the helmet look the best but I have since purchased some goggles to look a more aggressive!

Next Month my friend Tanja will be running a Freeride Girls only workshop at the Filthy Trails which Emma will be attending. We managed to catch up with Tanja this Easter when we found a fantastically sunny gap in the persistent snow, hail and rain there is over here at the minute. Tanja has a short write up on her blog of the ride where she took the following excellent photos of myself.

All of my recent biking photos can be found here or viewed in slideshow format here

Redneck biking

2008-03-21T10:49:00.002+01:00

In response to my recent post about going biking in Canada, maybe I don't need to travel as far to get my fix. Perhaps I could just build something locally like these rednecks:

Fond farewell

2008-03-20T22:30:00.001+01:00

Here's a few photos of the last Amsterdam nights of a couple of friends of mine. They'll be missed...

Aspirations

2008-03-19T22:58:00.003+01:00

I'm really looking forward to a biking trip to Canada this summer - must get round to booking the flights soon. The roots of the style of biking that I love came from where I'm hoping to visit. However, parts of this video of the area scare the hell out of me. I think I also need to ensure I have pretty damn good health insurance!

Stockholm Sights

2008-03-17T00:32:00.003+01:00

Last December I was fortunate enough to attend a week long conference for work in Stockholm . So I took the opportunity to arrive early and spend the weekend getting to know my first Nordic country.

This was also my second attempt at Couchsurfing. My host was extremely trusting and within minutes of meeting her at the central train station she had handed over to me her house key and explained that she had a few errands to run so I can head back to her place whenever I wanted!

My host left me with friends in a Jazz bar where we drank and enjoyed the local artists jam together. One of my hosts’ friends is actually an awesome didgeridoo and harmonica player. In fact after the beer was flowing I was invited to stay at their home for the night rather than making the longer journey to my hosts’ home. The night ended in their apartment quite tipsy and discussing music tastes. I can certainly confirm I will not be entering any talent shows as a didgeridoo player anytime soon!

I left the next morning with a copy of my hosts CD to listen to whilst I explored the sights of Stockholm . I got a bit snap happy with my camera and here’s a few of my favourite snaps.

I stumbled across an outside ice skating rink and the kids really looked like they were having fun there.

With it being Christmas time I also planned to do most of my Christmas shopping whilst I was there. I’d have to say that Stockholm has been the one and only place in the world where I have been Christmas shopping and actually enjoyed myself. The shops are well spaced out, it was never manically busy and I could find everything I wanted without resorting to buying socks. In fact most of my gifts were purchased in Stockholm ’s equivalent of Harrods called NK – a good job to as they had a free wrapping service!

Inside the NK store there was a convincing Santa handing out gifts and where I snapped my favourite photo of the trip below:

The conference ended with a posh nosh evening in one of Stockholm ’s most impressive museums. I originally wasn't going to attend the gala dinner but I blagged a last minute ticket. My late attendance meant that I wasn't in the full tuxedo as most people were but I think my black Burton T’shirt was plenty good enough ;-) The venue was superb. An old Viking ship that sunk close to Stockholm was raised and restored in all it’s glory.

I made the most of the free booze and retired to a bar with some crazy Belgiums . I find it’s always good to be in a bar with some Belgiums as they can recommend a good beer. However, the morning came too quickly after only 2 hours sleep and I managed to check in for my flight just 10 minutes before take off time. That’s 10 minutes before take off time and not 10 minutes before the check in closed. I got a pretty funny look from the check in girl but the gods must’ve been looking down on me that day because the flight was delayed. However, I got my punishment when the delay turned into a cancellation and I had to spend an entire day in the airport recovering from my stonking hangover :-(

Stockholm definitely gets my thumbs up and goes on my recommended list of places to visit. I can see myself returning in the summer at some point and exploring some more.

The rest of my photos can be viewed here or in slideshow format here

Sams 1st Birthday

2008-02-20T10:50:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time coming but I finally have uploaded the photos from Sams 1st birthday. Now I am officially plus 1 over here and Emma has arrived in Amsterdam I've been busy having fun away from my computer. But with Emma's help last night I finally got round to publishing this message, even if the birthday party was way back in October!

I'd have to say that taking pictures of a biker jumping or a kayaker in white water is actually easier than taking pictures of kids. They just don't stay still! However, I am pleased with the following few favourites.

Here's the birthday boy himself far more interested in his bike than his cake ->

With Ray and Grandad ->

This is Olivia captured by Emma in the ball pit ->

My favourite is this goody bag investigator ->

Or perhaps how the sun caught this balloonist just nicely ->

All of the photos can be viewed here or in slideshow format here

I've found it

2008-01-19T16:54:00.001+01:00

It took a while but I finally found it

blog neglection

2008-01-15T19:42:00.001+01:00

I've not kept the pace going on my blog over the last couple of months compared to the early days so I can amusingly relate to this guy

Smooth riding

2008-01-10T20:50:00.000+01:00

26'ers may be able to hit things faster but there's just something about the smoothness of a BMX that can't be beat and this guy is about as smooth as it gets

A sad day

2008-01-05T18:54:00.001+01:00

It's a sad day. Due to the impending home move and an arriving member of the female species, my Basingstoke drinking and dancing Kickers have gone to a better place. May they Rest in Peace :-(

Bloody freezing

2007-12-17T20:08:00.001+01:00

Roll on the summer

elf me

2007-12-15T04:42:00.000+01:00

I can dance too!

Sir Gig-a-lot

2007-12-14T02:00:00.001+01:00

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending 3 music gigs in the same week at the same venue!

Not that the venue really has much to brag about. Yes I admit the Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall is a pretty impressive place with a great sound system, but the huge capacity doesn't quite have the same level of charm as the smaller Amsterdam venues like Melkweg and Paradiso. Also the fact that you have to queue to buy beer tokens before queuing again to exchange those tokens for the beer really bugs me! But enough complaining, back to the gigs...

Bloc Party kicked things off, thanks to a friend who let me have their spare ticket. I'm not such a huge fan but they put on a well deserved performance aided by the worlds longest microphone lead. This enabled the lead singer to get all the way to the bar at the side of the venue and back in one song! More Bloc Party photos here

Next were Arcade Fire who without a doubt have been the best non-electronica live act I have seen. Their albums do not do their live performance justice as I find the albums a little flat. But just go and see them live, I was blown away. Their set is much more of a show or a spectacle than a gig. As well as the standard singing of songs and performing with a multitude of instruments there was a well thought out projection and light show. Two thumbs up :-) More Arcade Fire photos here

However, Arcade Fire left me worried about the next act who took to the stage on the following night. It was the Kaiser Chiefs and I was really looking forward to them as I'm quite the fan of their albums. I admit their set was not quite the show that Arcade Fire put on but it didn't need to be. The feel good factor and general sing-a-long nature of their songs was simply good fun. You didn't even need to know all the words as there are plenty of ooh's and ahhh's to join in with. More Kaiser Chief photos here

So as the music industry struggles to find a new business model, I believe it is bands who can perform live acts like this that will lead the way. You can't steal the feeling you get when you see and hear a fantastic live band. Amsterdam has a few more gigs in the pipeline for 2008 and I can't wait...

Homies from the hood

2007-12-10T21:51:00.000+01:00

Way back in October the Beacon Road boys came over for the last leg in the Dutch Playboat Cup. Held at Dutch Water Dreams (DWD), this competition is the highlight of the series of 5 events and saved for the finale.

If you remember I helped judge the freestyle event at the opening of DWD but this year there was more time for a larger kayaking only event. So worthy of the trip from the UK, Mark, James and Kate flew over to see what was on offer.

I collected them from Schipol and we ate at a nice pancake house on route to DWD. My guests were easily impressed with the food which was a good thing cos as soon as we arrived and unpacked the car it became obvious I had left my tent behind - doh! So James and Kate took Marks tent whilst Mark and I setup a cosy dwelling together in the back of my car. There was no time for relaxing though as we got geared up and on the water for the late night practice session. I hardly paddle over here anymore, with just 1 other DWD and a couple of surfing sessions under my belt. So it was great to be with some friends paddling again.

However, after a few races down the course against Mark and James, I was quick to realise any previous paddling fitness I may have had has definitely been replaced by beer belly. Nevertheless, I could still hold my own in the competition hole and managed not to swim so met my most feared goal!

Mark and James entered me for both the Boatercross and the Freestyle with the amusing bib number 13. Boatercross I was looking forward to as it's a head to head race with 4 riders down the course making a couple of must moves to touch banners on the way down. It was the Freestyle I was not so keen on. I've been cheekily proud of my 100% freestyle competition record since winning the 2000 student championships and therefore not entering any other events ;-) But now I struggle to name all the new moves and combos the new kids on the block are performing today.

So being the performance athletes that we are, we all hit the sack nice and early on Friday to get a good nights sleep ready for the days competition on Saturday. Yeah right, as with any kayaking event anywhere in the world, we were staggering around a campsite carpark still drinking at 4am in the morning. Not such as bad thing if it wasn't for James setting his alarm clock an hour late. I exited our passion wagon about 8am busting for the loo. There I was standing in my boxers shaking the snake against a tree struggling to stand up without wobbling when Casper came running up yelling at me to get ready for our heats. Within 15 minutes all three of us were geared up, on the water and heading up the conveyor belt for our freestyle heats - messy :-(

But not knowing which way up was probably a good thing as in between gagging in the eddy, I managed to cartwheel my way a few points above Mark. Which I was stoked at and thoroughly enjoyed pointing out to Mark as often as I could. My favourite dig was that I think I have been paddling the same number of times this year as Mark normally does during a typical summer week! Ha ha, below is the results sheet showing my name clearly above Marks on a whole different sheet!

The freestyle heats were a great new method I have not seen in a kayaking event before. With 5 people in a heat for 15 mins, it was held like a Jam session, 30 second runs each and the best moves you performed in all of your runs counted. Perhaps this counted towards my success with my slightly more cannonball attitude than Mark. Although I did get 6 ends at one point which I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have done that in my life! Next up was a quick blast on the Flowaves which Mark was styling as shown below.

Even James in the pictures below was showing that Adam and I must've been even more hungover when we tried it last time.

The rest of the day was spent lazy about in the surprisingly warm October sun. Here's a favourite picture of a view of mine kicking back at the beach bar.

Later that day was the boatercross heats. I've never entered a boatercross event as what I have seen from the ones in the UK they rely heavily on fitness. However, the DWD course already flows at a fairly fast rate so I had a chance! I have never been so tired from kayaking before though. I was properly out of breath and coughing up my guts afterwards!

I made it through my heat which again I was chuffed at cos there was only us three and a couple of others in freestyle boats. 95% of paddlers were in big fast creek boats. So it was a nice feeling that I can still pick a good line and a better one than half of the paddlers there in faster boats.

Even more enjoyable was the fact that Mark failed to make it through his heat - see how far behind he is in the picture above! James and I had a field day ribbing Mark to the point that maybe we were a little to harsh on the old man ;-) Ha ha ha

James has come a long way since paddling like an aggressive obnoxious punk in his attak in the Loughborough EHB swimming pool. So he managed to get as far as the semis in both the freestyle and the boatercross. Possibly even deserving more support than the 30 seconds we gave him (the bar was much more cosy). I took a few snaps of the final but as it was dark it was difficult to get a good shot. However, some of the blurred shots really show the movement like the one below:

The Dutch awards ceremony lasted hours and probably contributed to our lack of commitment when it came to the crunch time of decided should we head to the dodgy local nightclub or not. The thought of scaling the 8 foot barbed wire fence to get back into the locked campsite didn't help either. So we had a relatively early night and made tracks to Amsterdam on the Sunday.

Sunday was a day of recovery with just a short blast at the funfair which was setup in the Trafalgar Square of Amsterdam. Cheers lads and Kate for a great weekend and I hope to see you here again soon. Credit to James and Kate for some of the photos of which you can view the full set here or in slideshow format here.

Speaking of photos, I have used Aperture for the first time with these photos. I've been highly impressed at the difference it has made adjusting the shadows and highlights of the photos with whitewater. The difference between the shades of white are much more noticeable after a little tweaking than with the original shot. For example the shot below:

One last thing before I go is to put a copy of the video that Teva, the main sponsors of the event, put together of the whole event. It's pretty impressive and shows what was missed to all those back in the UK who were too lazy to make it over - you know who you are!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-09T01:28:00.000+01:00

Wall of death

2007-11-22T17:06:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday was my second trip to the local indoor go-kart track. Not content with driving a go-kart on a horizontal plane I thought I'd take it to the 2nd dimension:

No that's not me dressed in the lions outfit in the sidecar but I did have a go at riding the wall of death in a go-kart. For €22.50 you can terrify yourself at having a go on a full setup about 6m in diameter and 4m in height.

To be honest, once strapped in with the four point harness, helmet on and hands placed through loops in the steering wheel, I was a wee bit nervous. Sorry mum but I think I let out a few rude words!

With no brake to worry about my foot was planted firm on the accelerator and away I went. Round and round, steering wheel slightly curved into the turn zooming around the bottom building up the speed. Then I felt the car kart creep up the sloped walls and the tyres were squeeling. So I eased the steering back straight and up I went. Cue more rude words!

I made it as close as I wanted to go to the top without clipping the barrier on my first attempt but came down early as I was quite shaken. But the second go I was lapping it up all the way until the instructor called time.

How was it? Pretty nutts to be fair. There's no skill needed really but there's a lot that screws with your head as you are going around and it's surprisingly hard work concentrating. Coming down is the most difficult challenge cos you have to ease off very gently whilst you are physically and mentally drained.

Good fun though and I have Rog who's a bit of a petrolhead here this weekend so we might make a return trip.

This video is of the actual wall that I rode but the guy is a wuss and only just makes it onto the vert, let alone getting to the yellow line halfway or the red line at the top. So I also found the following video that gives a better impression of what's possible:

So what's next? Perhaps the 3rd dimension...

North Sea storms

2007-11-19T13:45:00.000+01:00

The weekend before last there was big storm in the North Sea whipping up some good waves. I hit the beach in Ijmuiden with Nick and his kite surfing gear. This beach is the closest to Amsterdam and very popular amongst wind powered surfers.

Naturally I was the only kayaker there and there was even only a couple of board surfers. But it was quite funny surfing between speeding windsurfers and kitesurfers flying over head!

But the wind was fierce and on shore so I can count the number of decent rides I had on one hand. I even opted to walk miles up the beach and along the sheltered sea defence wall to aid paddling out. The waves were big but not very steep and proved difficult to catch. You had to really be in the right spot at the right time but I caught some good air and enjoyed getting the cobwebs wet inside my boat.

I don't take any photos but I wasn't the only one kayaker out on the coast during those storms. Martina has a blog entry about her trashings and Casper made it out on Monday when the wind had died down.

The photo is from Caspers session taken by Patrick of fotodolkens fame.

Love me, love my bike

2007-11-12T23:39:00.001+01:00

OK so ignoring the fact that I've crashed Betty on two recent drunken nights out, I still love Amsterdam for this reason. But someone shoot the cheesy voice over guy in the vid?!

A short biking clip

2007-11-08T00:40:00.000+01:00

You may have seen some of these clips before but this short clip is a good combination of all the crazy shit that people are doing on bikes these days. This one short clip combines both my dreams and nightmares.

Sorry I've not been blogging much recently as I've been busy upgrading to Leopard amongst other things but watch this space for updates on the Teva Playboat Cup and Sam's 1st birthday. I'm not sure what is easier to take photos of, kayakers freestyling in the dark or kids running around a playground?!

Paradise winter hibernation

2007-10-22T22:02:00.000+02:00

So this weekend my paradise closes for the winter. Nearly 5 weeks ago marked my last Winterberg visit for 2007 and I've been really pleased with my progression since I fell in love in April this year. Every visit I've stepped up my game and tried a new line, bigger or faster challenge but my last visit was not quite as valiant an effort.

I met Tanja there again who brought along a Winterberg virgin - Lars, a hardcore marathon XC rider keen to try out a bigger bike and see what all the fuss is about. I arrived a little earlier and managed a few warm up runs but as soon as Lars was charging I found myself working hard to keep up. That dented my pride a bit and I was a little off my game.

We soon hit the more challenging downhill run and I was avoiding many of the more technical lines that I had taken before. Probably something to do with watching Tanja slam in front of me but I just wasn't feeling it. The park was also too busy for me to build myself up into my zone so I felt a little off for the rest of the day. It's always a pleasure to ride with Tanja tho, she's got some good skills, patience for others and not too crazy that I'd break a leg trying to follow her.

I felt a little better once the camera came out for a photo session in the afternoon. The Karousel was one piece of shore that got my heart pounding the first few times I rode it. But it's surprisingly easy and Tanja snapped the following photo of me whizzing around:

It was great to big up Lars and watch him rail the Karousel too. As a reward I created the following sequence shot of him all the way round:

Just around the corner there is a nice step down and much more shore. Here's Tanja tweaking it out and myself launching:

I was feeling it a bit more by now and my confidence was pumped so I attacked the large seesaw for the first time. It's pretty tall but also quite wide so not really too bad. Tanja snapped me making it look easy poking my tongue out:

Finally we sessioned the bottom drops, sending Lars off too. I'm fully confident with these drops now and have been running them blind for the last couple of visits. Something I enjoy running early to get ready for bigger things later in the day.

I walked the road gap next to the above drops and have to say it'll be a long time before I'm running that. Never say never but wow do you have to hit it with speed. I watched the following group of lads hit it pretty hard and Tanja spotted they were all on rental bikes. Nutters!

Then it was time for the last run, with the cameras back in the cars it was time to unleash the fury. We hit the downhill run hard and I don't know what clicked but something had or someone put a firework up my jacksie! I had my best run down the track ever and was loving it. So much so that I stormed past the halfway point where we normally catch a breather and nailed the next line that I normally take the chicken shoot. It's a fairly nerving drop into a left hand berm that I've struggled having the courage for. I normally go wide of the kicker and plop into the berm like a lemming. But this time I held the front wheel up and went for the kicker. Whilst in the air you have to tweak the bike out a tad sidewards to enter the berm at a safe angle to rail rather than shoot off the back. My line felt

spot on and gave me a real buzz. I had so much speed out of the berm that I glided over the next rock garden. I'm always too slow through that section and often have to steer my front wheel precisely between two unforgiving boulders. This time I was nowhere near and it felt like I was floating. Well OK maybe some exageration there but it did feel awesome!

My heart was pounding and my lungs were bursting but I tried a different line on the penulitmate corner hoping to be setup faster for the last berm. It worked and I was able to get an extra pedal stroke for the final table top. Exhausted but over the moon, we loaded on the chair lift anxiously wondering if there was time for "one more run". It was borderline and by the time we were at the top of the lift, our hearts had returned to a normal pace and our brains were engaged - best to end on the high we had than a low that could've been.

Thanks to Tanja for the photos and Lars for the company. The rest of my photos can be found here or in slideshow format here

Slippery when wet

2007-10-17T22:22:00.000+02:00

This summer I've managed to go wakeboarding a few times to the local cable tow. Back in Nottingham there is also a cable tow but I never really got on with it as you start from sitting on the jetty and I've always been rubbish at that. Here you start in the water and I've been up and running full laps on my 2nd/3rd attempt everytime I've been.

I took my camera for the first time a couple of weeks back so I thought I'd put a few snaps up here. Emma, Kerry and Victor waterskied whilst Nic and I wakeboarded. About 2 thirds into the session I spanked my head on my board during a crash. It was only a small bleeder but I was a little dazed so I called it quits to take some pictures from the shore. Helmet next time for sure!

It was Emma's second visit and despite the following facial expression she was again very close to completing full laps.

It was Kerry and Victors first time - both also made it to the first corner. Here is Victor hanging on for dear life and heading into the distance.

Nic was styling it on his kiteboard, but I never saw him attempt a 180 like I landed. But then I was the one bleeding at the end of the day so I suppose he wins!

I have a few more photos here or in slideshow format here

Groningen Bikepark

2007-10-15T22:27:00.000+02:00

So I'm slowly catching up on all my recent adventures now I have the Scotland photos out of the way. The last weekend of my holiday coincided with the Dutch 4X championships which if I was in Amsterdam, I would've gone to watch.

The 4X track is a couple of hours drive from Amsterdam so that's why I'd never been before. I prefer the Filthy trails in the opposite direction, but fancied something new so I went to check it out on Sunday 2nd September.

It's a pretty big fast track on quite a steep hill in Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. There's whoops, a step down, big fast walled berms, a step up, some monster tables and a nice hip at the end. All of which I was soon to realise too large for me! I am certainly no racer but enjoyed watching some locals style it up.

As much as I tried I did not have the bottle to fully open up and go for it. Speed is key here and I think I left that at home that day. So I concentrated on the short slopestyle section that was recently built. At the top is a choice of 3 lines as shown below:

Two ladders and one piece of shore. Both ladders also were droppable and I comfortably nailed the smaller of the two drops on the right. The middle drop was above my comfort zone on that day. The picture below should give you an idea of the size:

The shore line on the left looked awesome. It's two small gaps, followed by the ladder berm which cuts short then you have to jump off an into the dirt berm. I was intregued as this is the riding I love. I prefer a nice challenging line, man made or natural, to hurling yourself as fast as possible at a 20 foot jump! So I watched the locals make it look easy:

After they left I gave it a go myself and was surprised how easy it was. The difficult part was letting it all go in the beginning so you were fast enough to clear the two small gaps but then easing on a smidging of brakes so you were able to land safely in the dirt berm and not in the bushes! I was pretty chuffed so got the camera out to capture some footage. I only managed two recordings before it started to drizzle but here you go anyway:

The rain put me right off the shore but I'd had a good session so it was a good time to hit the road home. I have a few more photos here or view them in slideshow format here

Blogpot?

2007-10-11T10:47:00.000+02:00

Watch out if you type my web address wrong!

http://whereismal.blogpot.com/

Bonnie wee Scotland

2007-10-10T01:30:00.000+02:00

So I finally had time to upload my photos from our trip around Scotland this summer. Asides from a drunken millenium weekend and a few relatives visits when I was a nipper I have not spent as much time in Scotland as I'd like to. So it was a nice change to spend a week or so there this summer with Emma. We were not alone as we met Emma's sister Nic, husband Dave and newborn Sam. Also this fella decided to hitch a ride for some of the way:

1st stop was a short rainy no camera session in the Bike Park at Glentress and then onto my folks for my birthday. Mmmm

Then we speed up the road to Fort William to setup camp for the week. First up was a short walk along Glen Nevis following the river which soon turned into a bog as I chose the wrong side of the river to follow. Fine for me to scramble the tiny slippy cliff path, not so fine for Sam in his rucsac!

Next up was a bike ride along the Caledonian Canal and Neptune's Staircase. Not exactly the marvel we were expecting as you can see from the faces of the girls. I think it would've been better as an aerial view.

But we did managed to find an old rocking horse playground thingy. Think we had more fun on that than Sam!

Unimpressed with Neptunes Staircase we decided to do a quick fly-by Loch Ness for some monster spotting. All we found was a rainbow leading to a closed Urquart castle.

The next day was a highlight for me. Dave and I headed to the Fort William downhill mountain bike track to strutt our stuff. Dave headed off to investigate the XC routes whilst I attacked the downhill run. On my first lift up I was with the Aussie junior team including the psycho that cleared the GLC drops to flat at this years Crankworks. Out the window I could also see the Brits training and soon realised I was a little out of place! I managed 3 runs before meeting Dave for lunch and was glad of a short break. On my first run I struggled with two sections, both steep drop off come boulder gardens. Dropping say 5-6 feet with half wheel size rocks littered about the place. You can tell the good guys just fly over the whole lot but at my speed I could not (read did not want to) hold the front wheel up that long for that high. So I had to pick a line where to plant my front wheel which would've been easy if the line was not blind due to the steepness! I could never see the line on approach and it took me till my third run before I ran both sections without dismounting and realigning. But that third run was awesome, I really felt like I was gliding over the rest of the terrain rather than weaving around rocks.

After lunch and some voices of encouragement from myself, Dave was kited up in Emma's pads and buying a lift ticket. I kept the bit about the pro's practising on the track quiet but he'd already spotted the team trucks. Fortunately the bubble up doesn't really make the track look that bad. It's only when your riding do you actually realise how rocky it is and how big those rocks are! We managed one run down with Dave and full credit to him on a trusty GT Zaskar with V brakes. A few tumbles and some walkies but he was stoked when we got to the end. There's a huge steep roller and it looks like a drop from above. On my first run I scrubbed off all my speed in case it was a drop, but subsequent runs I gave it all I got. Because of this I told Dave to do the same and follow me. He was beaming at the bottom, good on the fella :-)

There are 4 specific points on the course where I am goosed and just have to stop to catch a breather. A round trip, including a 10 minute uplift would take me about 40 minutes. Full credit to the pros who at this years World Championships where going down the track in under 5 mins - IN THE WET?!!!

Sorry no pictures of the track as I was too busy getting as many runs in as possible. But you can check out the highlight video footage of the World Champs here. It's worth watching the 4X footage as well cos the length of the 4 whoops that Lopes clears going into the final left hand berm was huge - a sweet line. Also watch for the two step downs at the end of the 4X/downhill run entering the finish gate/arena. At the end of my first run I dropped both of these and needed new underwear - I skirted them after that!

The next day we encountered the delights of Scottish weather. But that was easily made up by eating Haggis and some excellent fish and chips. The rain also filled the Nevis river and provided a worthwhile sight. Emma and I trooped off and whilst I got all geeky about the river playing spot the sieve or the chicken shoot, Emma kept dry under the umbrella.

The sun came back the following day and Emma and I headed to Glencoe. Quite a beautiful place if it wasn't for the coaches full of Japanese tourists. But we escaped them by talking a walk up to a hidden valley inbetween two peaks. A nice little walk once away from the midges by the river and a surprisingly flat open sight at the top.

A quick zoom back north in the car and we caught Loch Ness at Fort Augustus. I took this panorama shot - looks a bit cold doesn't it for swimming?!

Our final day in Fort William was one of the best days for weather which was lucky as it was the day we walked up Ben Nevis. I've walked up Snowdon and a few other peaks in Wales but Ben Nevis was a surprinsgly long slog. OK so Emma and I were not exactly running up it but we only had the one break for lunch and it still took us a solid 4 hours to get to the top. Even more surprising was the walk down which also took us 3 hours with next to no stops. Emma's nursing talents and my old stuffy triangular bandage came to the rescue when we saw one mother who had fallen. It looked like she had broken her wrist so Emma patched her up and we left them to poddle down That was pretty close to the top, poor lass - she must've been down after dark :-(

The weather was great for photos. The one below is where we stopped for lunch:

Then a nice one of Emma leading McDuff:

Below is the view from about halfway:

Below is the final neverendingness:

But we got there in the end. I love the photo immediately below of Emma and the two after that are of us both on the trig point at the very top:

But my favourite photo of the whole trip is the one below peering through a window in the ruins of the observatory. Great view :-)

No rest for the wicked though cos as soon as we were down it was back in the car to my parents for a brief evening visit. Then up early to meet Dave again at Glentress for a quick loop of the red route. Wow I do love Spooky Wood - makes the pain of the ride up easily forgotten. And the rest is history, Leeds festival history to be precise...

So visit Scotland as the advert says.

All my photos can be found here or viewed in full screen slideshow here but I'd put the kettle on, you may be a while ;-)

Bad Oktoberfest tips

2007-10-02T23:49:00.000+02:00

So last weekend a few friends and I hit the road to see what all the Oktoberfest fuss is about. I can recommend not following these really bad tips:

1) Assume there will be no traffic thereby experiencing a nice surprise when the journey takes 10hrs rather than the under 7 that you were hoping.

2) Drive the whole way yourself, thus preventing you from sleeping on arrival as your brain is still running at 200kmph.

3) Arrive later than the campsite is open to engage in local dialect with the campsite security staff.

4) Eat only snacks during the journey and for breakfast so that you have a completely empty stomach once the driking commences.

5) Wake up early enough so that you don't have a good nights sleep but late enough so that there aren't any free tables at the festival.

If you follow these above tips you'll end up like me, face down on the table asleep as darkness falls. Luckily for me, I was amongst great company who dragged my dead weight back to the campsite in one piece before the scary men in leather shorts and beards abused me. Up until I performed the "Jimbob", I had an amazing time. Just checkout these pictures:

In 2005, nearly 6 million people visited the Oktoberfest which runs for about 2 weeks and just over 6 million litres of beer are consumed, half a million roasted chickens and 80+ oxon devoured. I've seen reports that over a million people visited the opening weekend of this years Oktoberfest. That's quite nutts considering the entire population of host city Munich is just a fraction more at about 1.3 million.

The volume of people is like nothing else I have experienced. The closest thing I can describe it to is like a music festival but without the music, crap beer or paper cups. We were lucky to get a table after some cheeky flirting skills by the girls and the generousity of some Germans who helped us order some beers from their table. But once the crowds really picked up it was a full on rugby scrum to get to the toilets only 20m away - just like being at the front of a Prodigy concert. Thankfully all beer is served at the tables so the only movement is back and forth to the tiolets. (Perhaps I should've also made movements to the eating places then maybe I would've been able to last longer than a 40yr old virgin in a brothel but hey)

The tents open at 9am and are full by 9:15. By tents, I mean aircraft hangers. Most where bigger than I've seen at the Leeds or V music festivals. There is a reservation system but I believe it's way in advance and pot luck anyway. So we were told to queue really early and hope for the best. We got there at 10am after travelling from the out of town campsite and had to settle for sitting on the many benches outside the tents. By no means is this a compromise as the singing, dancing and general carnage is experienced throughout the site.

Surprisingly, Sunday was quite painless. Probably cos I barfed out any nasty chemicals left in my body on the way back from the bus to my tent on Saturday night. However, I very much doubt I was the only one. We cruised into Munich city centre to enjoy some more sights and sun before heading back on the road home. By chance we stumbled accross the Hofbrauhaus and popped in to witness more crazy German drinking carnage and scran a large portion of pork and potato to bind our empty stomachs.

Whilst travelling home, the offer of shared driving was much appreciated and we all crusied home dozing in the back of my car or insulting my iPod contents. There was still some horrible traffic but we made it home in a bearable 9 hours. The festival pro's far outweighed the journey cons and I will be back for sure...albeit a little more physically prepared ;-)

Before I go, I quote from an opening weekend report:

<The Red Cross ambulance service counted only 60 so-called "beer corpses" -- people who had drunk themselves into unconsciousness -- on Saturday, half as many as last year, but a spokeswoman for the Munich police had her doubts about the figure. "I can't imagine it was so few," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE, adding that the police attended to 112 incidents over the weekend and detained 53 people for a variety of offenses>

Just imagine a million Brits drinking in one place and how many offenses you think there would be?! The vibe at Oktoberfest was genuinly awesome :-)

All my pictures can be seen here or in slideshow format here. Kerry also has a nice selection of photos on her Facebook account here

Holiday part 1 - Winterberg with Emma

2007-09-22T22:24:00.000+02:00

So although it has been a full 4 weeks since my holiday, I'm still phaffing around getting the photos sorted and on Whereismal. But here goes with pitstop number 1 on our holiday. After surprising Emma with her birthday present when she first arrived here over 6 weeks ago, we loaded the car with biking gear and headed off early the next morning to Winterberg - my paradise.

You've already seen two of my highlights of our 2 day stay in Winterberg. Emma also rode brilliantly considering she's never ridden anything more extreme than a cruise along the seafront in Sunderland. I shot a lot of sequence stills and the best way to view them is with the short video clip below:

Emma did crash 5 times during the 2 days but every crash was followed by laughter and not tears. Tackling the berms below on the 6X track with good body position and just a dash of covering the front brake. She must've had a good teacher ;-)

There was one steep section that Emma was not best pleased with and took a fair bit of encouragement to get down. But as you can see from the following photos she was nailing that smiling by the end of our stay.

My personal highlight was dropping the big funbox in the park. You've seen the sequence shot before, but below is a second image of me flying like a birdie.

Those with sharper eyes amongst you may notice I'm not perfectly straight which can be seen in the landing photo below:

That put the willies up me so I didn't do that again! If you zoom in on the above photo you can see my front tyre nearly folding off the rim. Check it out below:

I think I was going too slow as I didn't even take a warm up run and stop on the top to assess the speed. I just went straight for it - an awesome buzz but I think I'll do what I did the previous day and checkout my line first. In fact one of my favourite pictures is of me doing just that below:

A couple of my other favourites are below. Park rats shredding the dirt jumps, a mid flight abort and my personal favourite of Emma pushing her bike uphill showing her commitment for another go at the whoops. Shame Emma doesn't like the photo though as she says my old biking shorts don't do her any favours! But I think it shows a better story than some of my action shots

Plenty more can be seen on my Flickr account here or by slideshow here. Oh and soon as I hit the magic send button, I'm hitting the sack cos I'm up early and back to Winterberg tomorrow for what may be my last trip this season. The weathers looking perfect, the bike is running sweet with my new wheelset and I've been reading a great tips book and watching a DVD I got for my birthday. It's going to be awesome...

Progression

2007-09-15T15:44:00.001+02:00

A really good but bad idea

2007-09-13T00:20:00.001+02:00

Emma was over again last weekend for a visit and I organised something completely riduclous for us to do. I was awarded at work a similar voucher to that of a Red Letter Day in the UK and I chose to hire a motor trike for the weekend. Here's a picture of us both in the riding position ->

The beast was collected just by the German border at 4pm on Saturday. I thought it would be rude not to make a return trip to the Nurburgring for really testing out how well this thing goes. 3hrs, numb bums and a tank of fuel later we arrived in the dark at Herschbroich - a small village right in the centre of the Nordschlief. I fully recommend the guest house we stayed at called the Pension Muhlenhardt but I don't recommend driving a trike in the dark whilst wearing sunglasses!

The next day was spent plucking up the courage to have a lap around the track. I was pretty damn nervous to be honest which I think I hid from Emma quite well! Our nerves weren't helped by the numerous track closures during the day for what we can only presume were crashes. One severe enough to need an air ambulance and the owner of the M5 Touring below surely wasn't happy with his wide line choice?

Well eventually it was all or nothing and we went for it. We waited till about 6pm for things to quieten down a bit and saddled up. It was much quieter at that time than my lap with the Focus and we were only overtaken about 10-15 times. There was still a good crowd spectating at all the hot spots and we had a few cheers/waves. We saw the aftermath of 2 crashes on the way around but generally the other drivers/riders saw us a mile away and I also took it quite steady. Emma held on with all her might and I was pleased she had a seatbelt when I clipped one of the curbs! She was apparantelty cursing me all the way round which I didn't hear. But I shat myself when I heard her scream as we went round the Karousel - the high line of course! We topped out about 80mph but that certainly felt waaaaaaaay fast enough.

I don't know if you can see from this photo but note I have no seatbelt or helmet visor - it was certainly a liberating experience!

So that was Sunday - a cracking day. Shame the same could not be said for Monday. We awoke at 5am to make it back to Amsterdam in time for me to go to work. But the trike had other ideas as she would not start. I thought it may have been the cold but numerous attempts jump starting and using jump leads proved that wrong. The hotel owner and neighbours were really helpful especially for that time in the morning. We gave in and called the roadside assistance company who came out to collect us on the back of an ADAC truck.

To cut a long story short we were not home till 10pm but along the way we had a ride in a flatbed truck to the local empty restaurant, an ignition coil was replaced and several heated arguments and threats with the repairing garage, hiring garage and recovery staff. We were thouroughly pissed off by the end of the day as the trike was ready to go at 10am, it was the payment that was the hold up :-( Sods law meant that it was also pissing it down when we were finally "allowed" to go home. But halfway home when the heavens really opened, Emma and I had to stop cos we were wetting ourselves with laughter. Y'know the kinda tired laughter where you are laughing at the stupidness of the situation! I've not laughed like that for a while...

A couple more photos can be seen here and in slideshow format here. I hope to find a picture of us going around the track taken by one of the numerous spectactors. If I do, I'll add it here...

Leeds Festival 2007

2007-09-05T00:27:00.000+02:00

OK so I am working backwards a bit here cos the Leeds Festival was the last jolly we had on holiday. But I still have some processing of the rest of the holiday photos to do so you can have this update in the meantime.

Emma and I joined Emma's sister, Nic, and husband Dave for the full weekends madness arriving on the Thursday. Kate and boyfriend, Dale, joined us on the Saturday and Sunday so it was a good group of revellers.

The campsite wasn't that busy as the more experienced Leeds festival go'ers amongst us suggested pitching up as far away as possible. It was still only a 30 min walk to the main arena so a good idea if you ask me. We had cracking weather all weekend, the suncream was passed around and the gazebo was even put up to shade us from sun not rain! This photo below is from the sun setting on Thursday night.

It was mostly a blurry weekend as an obscene amount of cheap weak lager was consumed. But I think I managed to see Fall Out Boy, Jamie T, CSS, LCD Soundsystem, The Klaxons, Gossip, Maximo Park, Interpol, Kings of Leon, Razorlight, The Young Knives, Pigeon Detectives, Digitalism, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers and U.N.K.L.E.

The biggest let down of the weekend had to be the Pigeon Detectives. I really love their album but the lead singer is an utter prick. He was leaping around the stage totally wasted like he thought he was god. Listen mate, just because you've knocked out one good album doesn't make you a genius. If he continues like that I don't think they'll last that long. Fame too quickly me thinks. It wasn't helped by the fact I thought I was watching a Busted gig as I was surrounded by teenage kiddies at the front of the crowd.

Ah well now I have got that off my chest I can go on with the highlights. I quite liked Fall Out Boy as the lead singer was not afraid to chat up the crowd in a much less embarrassing way than Gossip. But Gossip got my thumbs up for a belter of a voice and Bloc Party also had a great crowd rapport. Digitalism were a good match for my Daft Punk love but the highlight had to be Razorlight. Probably not due to their performance but more likely the amount of cheap shite lager we had consumed that day and the singing/dancing that followed!

RHCP closed the whole weekend with a monster 2 hour set. They were a surprising let down but good for me as I nipped off on my own to go see U.N.K.L.E. in the dance tent instead. It was fairly quiet in there as most of the dance mob did not realise how rocky U.N.K.L.E. are but I loved it. Some guy I didn't recognise came on to sing three songs of which one was Lonely Soul. A brilliant song for the last set of a top weekend :-)

Back next year? Hmmm not so sure, too many people for the size of the site and too expensive but maybe just maybe if the line up is closer to my tastes...

Checkout the rest of the photos here or in slideshow format here

Hi honey I'm home

2007-08-29T23:46:00.001+02:00

I'm back from from my hols and the dot com bomb has dropped. You can now reach this blog directly from www.whereismal.com

That is not the only thing dropping around here either. Checkout the photo below of the first of my many many many holiday highlights.

Yes that is me @ Winterberg. Emma was the photographer and I'm over the moon with the sequence. Mainly cos if you zoom in far enough you can see the little bit of poo coming out my shorts ;-)

There are plenty more updates to follow shortly but I need to catch up on some serious sleep first. Zzzzzz

Whereismal.com is currently down

2007-08-09T20:40:00.000+02:00

With Emma flying overhead as we speak, I can finally reveal to all what I got for her birthday. I got pretty lucky on an eBay sale and bought her the following bundle of joy:

As you probably read this we'll be either in Germany biking at Winterberg or over the channel in the motherland. Maybe popping in on Notts, definitely seeing my folks but mainly playing in and around Fort William with Emma's sister, hubby and wee bairn. Finally culminating in a good old mosh at the Leeds festival. Hopefully we'll squeeze in a run or two down the World Cup track and the Glentress freeride park.

See you all in nearly three weeks and I'll try not to take too many photos to put here! Over and out..

43kmph flying bananas

2007-08-08T00:55:00.000+02:00

Last weekend was another short trip for me to the Filthy Trails. I'm off to Scotland and various other places soon on hols soon but I wanted to quickly get a few photos up here before I bugger off. I wanted to write more and tweak some of the photos but I know I won't get the time before I go away so this is all yer getting...

I've gotta show off this pic I created - it's a blinder ->

That's Styles who heads up the Filthy Trails crew building the trails. I had a quick chat with him about the road gap. 43kmph is what it takes, do the math cos that's pretty fast. I remember being a kid and not being able to go that much faster on a flat road in top gear. I bottled in for lots of pussy reasons which I won't give you the pleasure of listing here. But mainly due to not wanting to spend my hols in hospital.

This is me tho, taken by Styles on his compact camera ->

Still not going too small and I was pretty close to taking on the big drop.

Maybe next time and I was pleased to hear they might build a middle sized drop between the two cos I am more than happy nailing the smaller one at speed now to the point of over shooting the landing and hurting my ankles. I need something in the middle to work on next.

A couple more favourite pictures are below. I was experimenting with using the flash in combo with the bright sunlight. If only I got the first one a fraction sooner :-( All of the pics can be viewed in slideshow format here.

Sausage Fest

2007-08-07T00:28:00.000+02:00

From fat sausages...

...to skinny ones...

...a veritable sausage fest. Last weekend was the Amsterdam Gay Pride and zillions of people lined the streets to watch the canal parade.

Some people went to great lengths to watch by clinging to anything up high...

I managed to get a spot up a tree at one point to take some photos. But some sights were quite scary...

But my two favourites are below:

Click here to see a slideshow of the rest of my photos. Watch out for the floating red bull mini, the fabulous transvestite costumes and the gay Rooney fan!

Top of the pops

2007-07-31T21:34:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that this guy stole my idea. Now he's even a suggested entry on my google search! But nice to know I'm still top of the pops :-)

Wedding-tastic

2007-07-29T16:54:00.000+02:00

Last weekend Emma and I attended the wedding of Gareth and Louise in Leicester. I made an impulse buy at the airport of a new camera lens and got some shots despite being pretty inebriated for most of the night!

I love this shot of the happy couple ->

It was great to see Dan in all his comedy glory after losing touch since I moved away from the south of England ->

Stu was also present and up to his usual tricks ;-) ->

Speaking of tricks, we made sure Jenkins did not get off lightly ->

You can view all the pictures in a slideshow here

I love a filthy ride

2007-07-28T02:27:00.000+02:00

2 weekends ago I managed to get out to play on Betty's rival. She's been out of action for a couple of weeks whilst I was getting my forks serviced. I also bought a new headset which ended up being a bugger to fit. I spent all evening Friday trying to remove the old headset and finally yielded to the idea that a local bike shop would do a better job with the right tools.

But that was not all that bad cos it meant I could delay my planned ride to Sunday and head out on the lash instead! So there was me again dancing at 5am, singing along to a mash up of popular indie songs in the Melkweg. I can recommend a monthly residency called Club Rascal. The DJ's appear to be an odd couple, one short dude with some sort of irregular shaped back disorder and a larger lady but they love it up there dancing away on the stage playing their favourite songs. Rubs off well on the crowd. Much respect this time cos he played my request of Everlong by the Foo Fighters towards the wee hours.

And there began my odd sleeping pattern for the weekend. After 3 hrs, I was up and at the bike shop at 9am to ensure they could fit my part that day so I could ride on Sunday. Back to bed by 10am. Woken at 11 by the phone to find out the bike shop had already completed my bike. Back to bed by 12. Up at 3 to start rebuilding my bike. I had stripped everything due to the need to remove the handlebars for the headset fitting. With a bit of phaff with other stuff, iIt took me till 3am to get it back to tip top condition. Up at 9am to head to the trails the next day!

Having found on the interweb some new trails in the Netherlands I was a little confused when my sat nav took me down some different signed roads and discovered that I was actually in Belgium! One poor attempt at Dutch and some mime action with the car park attendant and I was off on my way trying to remember the route.

When I arrived at the trails there was a number of guys building the next section of the trails whilst two other dudes took me under their wing and showed me the lines. The top section splits to three sized drops and then you have 3 routes, a bermy fast run with a wall ride, a progressive jump section ending in a huge 5m road gap or a northshore run including a gap and seesaw.

I comfortably managed the medium drop, lost some fear of the doubles by nailing the 3m double and loved the shore even if it scared me silly!

The bigger drop was a little beyond my confidence level. I concentrated on hitting the medium one slow so I could make the tighter corner to the jumps or shore. Whereas perhaps I should've praticed hitting that faster. What put me off the bigger drop was the distance I had to clear to land safely.

I was in love with the double jumps. First 1m gap which I confidently went for, then cos that felt easy I kept going and surprised myself over the second 2m gap. It was on my second run I felt smooth enough to fly over the 3m gap and I was beaming. Never jumped doubles that big before :-) The 4th was another 3m gap but with less of a kicker and pretty close to a corner. I gave it a go eventually but hung up and popped by front brake cable around the fork to rub on my rim. Didn't do that again. But should do really as I don't push myself to failure enough on my bike - I think I have plenty more potential I'd like to explore. At the end of that run was a road gap and well....just watch the video footage I took of the day and I hope you'll understand why I did not give that a go!

The seesaw was at the end of the north shore run which had another couple of elevated sections. At the end of the second elevated section, say 2m high, there was a gap to the down ramp of about 1.5 metres. When I first saw this I was adamant I was going nowhere near it. But after nailing twice the distance over the doubles I was on a high and gave it a go. The first time I landed a little too close to the edge of the down ramp. The second time I went a little slower but had to huck a bit more resulting in my feet leaving my pedals - "Sweet, a no-footer". Err no I shat myself!

This is the original promo video that does a better job of showing the whole setup so far but they have big plans and hopefully an uplift service so I look forward to watching the acorn grow. I also read in a recent MBUK that there is now a legal formal agreement for trail building in the UK. So long as some rules are followed like no chicken wire to harm wildlife and less than 1.5m off the ground, we should start finding more places pop up in the UK to ride like this.

Find out more about the filthy trails on the website here and you'll find more videos on youtube including some headcam action. I only took a few photos of the day as left my decent camera in the car but there was a guy who also snapped me a couple of times and you can view the slideshow here. Now I've sussed it out I'll take my SLR and get some decent snaps next time.

Right I'm off to bed to dream about what I would like my perfect bike to look like and maybe I'll spot it tomorrow.

All quiet here

2007-07-20T02:06:00.000+02:00

Sorry I know it's been all quiet on the Whereismal? front but I've not made time for ramblings this week. That's not to say I've got nowt to ramble about. Quite the opposite in fact. I've made it out to see the Bright Eyes and Fischerspooner since my last blog waffle.

The Bright Eyes were a refreshing change from the beat fest that had been pounded into me the previous week. Although it may seem like a simple sound coming from a 1 man show, it was quite impressive to hear all 11 musicians put the sound together. Drums, flute, violins, chello and guitars to name a few.

They also had a simple yet very effective idea for the back drop. It was a screen projecting images from a camera mounted on an OHP. Remember those overhead projectors from school? Well they had some gut sat up at the back drawing scribbles, moving objects, flowing ink over the top off one all badly in time with the music. This was all filmed and projected onto the back screen behind the band. You even got to saw his hand wave from time to time. I liked it for it's "live" and not repeatable appeal.

Just last night I went to see Fischerspooner. I love their Emerge song and the rest of their stuff is a little more chilled so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I didn't expect was a very camp lead singer, crazy outfits and bizarre dancing routines. Nevertheless, a cracking show and I left certainly well entertained.

One point to remember was when the lead singer asked the crowd that when he raises his knee, he wanted everyone to reach out towards his knee. Then when enough people had a hold of his foot he stood aloft! He was crowd surfing but on his feet! It may have only lasted a few seconds but it was awesome. He then laid down on his back and crowd surfed around the Paradiso whilst singing the rest of the song. I hope to find a better pic of him standing up to show here.

I'd love to waffle more cos I have plenty to say about my biking trip last weekend to the Filthy Trails but that will have to wait. Watch this space for tales of me taming the doubles, pics of progression and videos of outrageous shore and road gaps.

Well I've gotta hit the sack now cos after Jenkins' last weekend of freedom the old fella is getting hitched this weekend and I'm flying home to attend with Emma. Hope the weather holds out...

Happy Birthday Mum

2007-07-12T22:36:00.000+02:00

So not only is it Emma's birthday tomorrow, but my Mum celebrates her 60th today. Celebrating in style too, on board a cruise ship somewhere near Istanbul with my Dad.

I was home last weekend to ensure she was well looked after in a spa for the day. Shock horror my brother Neil cooked (nice one!) and the next day nosh out was wolfed down at a nearby fancy restaurant. It was a top weekend of food cos I also managed to squeeze in a full Scottish breakfast too - Mmmm yum :-)

Spare a thought for Emma too as it's her birthday at the stroke of midnight tonight and she'll be at work on a night shift - bummer :-(

Happy Birthday Emma

2007-07-11T01:15:00.000+02:00

Although Emma's birthday is not till 13th July, we planned a week long celebration starting last weekend. Emma flew over on Thursday night with Kate and boyfriend Dale.

A simple Dutch meal out on Thursday inside an impressive old water pumping station kicked off the celebrations followed by a short sight seeing trip during the day on Friday. I returned from work and we headed over to the Heineken Music Hall to see The Chemical Brothers. After the initial rage of having to queue for beer tokens and then queue again for the actual beer we were double pinted and ready for the block rockin beats.

I've seen the Chemical Brothers 4 or 5 times before and love them but this time they blew me away. They had a new screen that was really fast, much faster than any projection screen I've seen before. Then thinking it could not get any better, more lights were shone and strobed though the huge screen - it was see-through! I'm stoked Emma, Kate and Dale managed to get to see this set and they were certainly impressed. I've scoured the internet for the best video footage and the BBC got some good footage of Glastonbury - I'd love to have been there. But this person has the best footage of the Amsterdam set - including the following clip that shows it really going off:

After such a incredible performace, I had to apologise that we were not going to find any night out in Amsterdam to follow! But off we hopped and skipped via the Metro to the usual Winstons to throw the remaining shapes our energy levels could provide.

A lie in was need but the celebrations continued with an earlyish rise, breakfast Mathie style and a car trip to Walibi World - a nearby Six Flags theme park. The same one I went to with Charlie when he was here. Giggles were had all day long and this photo will make us all laugh forever:

Saturday night was nosh at Bar 11 on the 11th floor of the old post office building overlooking Amsterdam. Great food, cracking venue and it was just a shame none of us had the energy to rave on all night to the DJ's and VJ'd specially on board for a "Sunrise" edition - yes open till the sun comes up.

Sunday was going to be an easy one with talk of a skate or bike around the local park. But with the weather looking sketchy we headed off to get properly wet instead. I took them to where I went wakeboarding previously. The girls donned waterskis whilst Dale and I strapped into wakeboards. After some agonising swims, everyone was making it up to the first corner and Emma even made it to the second corner before wiping out superman style!

There was not even enough time for a quick beer in the sun, before sending Kate and Dale back to Schipol for their flight home. I did not take any pictures but Kate managed a few snaps that you can see here.

In order to keep up the celebrations we could only muster enough energy to watch Hot Fuzz on Monday night and have a nice Moroccan meal out on Tuesday. Then after managing to keep it a secret all week, I surprised Emma with tickets to go see Daft Punk back at the Heineken Music Hall on Wednesday. Emma had suspicions that I had tickets for the Scissor Sisters who were also performing here in Amsterdam on the same night supported by Groove Armada - so it was a total surprise.

The last time we caught Daft Punk was the best gig I have ever been too. Not so sure about Emma though cos she can't remember much cos she was a little tipsy! Maybe it was the long day drinking in the sun, maybe it was the thrill of being in a foreign country with Emma and Jimbob - who knows? But last year at Eurockeennes in front of a home crowd they were incredible.

They had their famous tube lighting and projection pyramid last time so their setup was no surpirse. That was until the pyramid began to play moving images like a TV - awesome! Pretty sure it didn't do that last time?

However, they improved their set with an amazing encore. It includes "Together" that I've never heard before and samples from their production of the "Music Sounds Better With You" track by Stardust. Add in a dash of "One More Time" and it was blinding. Then they go and light up their Robot suits, pure brilliant. As much as I normally want to slap people that record video at live shows, credit due to the recorder of the following clip:

Emma flew back home on Thursday morning and I'm glad she only has 1 birthday each year cos I'm knackered! So if you get to see her, wish her a happy birthday from me on Friday :-)

So I would cut off my right arm to see the Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk play together on the same stage. With the Chemicals lighting setup and see-through screen at the rear, DP's pyramid and tube lighting at the front then topped off with some lasers - I'd be a dribbling wreck by the end of it. In fact I am going to check my lottery ticket now - anyone want an invite?

Yellow me

2007-07-10T21:38:00.000+02:00

Today in the ever busy office world I spend my 9-5 life in, I stumbled accross the Simpsons Movie website. I wanted to double check the release date and was pleased to find a Simpsons Avatar generator. So here's what I think I would look like if I was ever in a Simpsons episode:

Give it a go yourself here and I'd love to see the results...

Dirty Perverts

2007-07-09T13:20:00.000+02:00

Since adding my last post my blog has been bombarded with visitors searching google images for "Wimbledon Streaker". I"m glad I am providing such a service for the community - who says the internet is just for porn?!

Well back to the serious stuff. It's been a busy birthday time in Mathie land. Emma was over the weekend before last with Kate and Dale for her celebrations. Then this weekend was mums 60th so I was back to bonnie Scotland for that. I'll write more about both those when I get some time to recover but expect tales of mind blowing chemicals, thrilling theme parks, wet waterskiing chicks, mouth watering Morroco, raving robots, full Scottish breakfasts and dodgy tans.

Proud to be British, but you can keep the weather

2007-06-26T01:08:00.000+02:00

I just finished watching the Henman opening Wimbledon match. Add to the the Glastonbury footage that I saw over the weekend and I was feeling quite patriotic so thought I'd waffle on here for a bit.

I'm not a big tennis fan, yes I enjoy playing the odd game myself but I hardly ever watch it on telly. Except for Wimbledon. I remember growing up going through all those horrible school exams using Wimbledon as revision avoidance. I love the British optimism that one day there will be a male Brit champion. Tennis optimism is not like football optimism. Football fans genuinely believe England could win the World Cup and would analyse to death the results/form/tactics/mistakes etc. Tennis fans just seem to cheer along even when there is no hope!

Wimbledon also marks the start of the great British Summer. The May bank holidays seem to kick it off and then it'll rain a bit during Wimbledon but it still will make me want to get out more.

I don't think I would be able to raise a tennis racquet today though as I went cable tow wakeboarding at the weekend and am now suffering from it. Arms, legs and stomach all kill. Another sign that I need to get out more.

Previous wakeboarding attempts, both behind a boat and on a cable tow, have left me a little disappointed with the sport. Once you get over the initial barrier of standing up, then it's relatively easy to carve back and forth. That gets a little boring for me after a while so I start to want to mess around a bit more - jump about and the like. Naturally this immediately ends in a wipeout.

A faceplant on a snowboard, kayak or bike normally only requires a dusting off and your able to get right back on it. Not so on a wakeboard, you've gotta wait for the boat to come back and pick you up or swim to the edge. That has got on my nerves before.

That was not the case on Saturday, I had a great time. I was up on my feet on the second attempt and making it around all the corners on my third. I was even riding switch with a few wobbles and tried my hand at jumping. Before the end of the day I had nailed a frontside 180 off the heel edge - surely that must have a better name?! Not down with my wakeboarding lingo ;-)

I was pretty stoked with that and made it my mission that evening to celebrate. Ending up in a nightclub called Odeon - I'm guessing where there used to be a cinema. After a slow start the closing DJ came on and was the best I have heard in Amsterdam so far. Laidback Luke is his name and by the looks of his website, he's been around so check him out if you get the chance. He played a mix of Daft Punks Around the World, whilst the VJ also projected parts of the same music video got me grooving in my usual chaotic style. He didn't need to drop Technologic or Rock 'n Roll later on - I was sold! Seems that quite a few clubs here have the VJ thing going on - is that on the increase back in the UK too?

The good thing about a night out in Amsterdam now is that you don't need your bike lights anymore. You can still head out at 10pm and wobble home at 6am in daylight!!!

Well bedtime now but one last thing to say is that I won't post for a while cos Emma is over again for a long weekend with Kate and Dale. Chemical Brothers, Themeparks or surfing again are all on the todo list. No doubt with some good stories to tell here if last time they were both her is anything to go by. Toodlepip...

Get in there and get yerself a nosebleed

2007-06-23T20:37:00.000+02:00

Last weekend just gone was a nice long one for me back in blighty. I was home to see Emma and we had an adventurous one planned but the rain called off half our plan which included the York Races :-(

I flew home Thursday night and for the first time my flight was delayed was delayed :-( At least I made it though as some flights were cancelled. Schipol was not allowing plans to land because of the rain! Which was the story for the weekend really.

Friday I joined Emma and her house mates to go and see The White Stripes amongst other at the O2 Wireless Festival near Leeds. It was pissing it down for most of the day so we spent most of the time in the smaller stage which was a tent. Once enough cheap nasty lager and smuggled in Vodka was consumer we were brave enough to venture outside. After The Thrills we spun on a few whirly rides at the fairground then headed to the main stage for the Queens of the Stone Age.

They were pretty good and the crowd were well up for it. We made headway to near the front and started jumping. There was a crowd of guys really going for it a few rows in front of us. That few rows soon became none and we were right on the edge of the pogo nutters.

Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of the Summer

I thought I was doing a stirling job of jumping into and fending off any guys that were content at jumping into Emma and Jaks. Until the "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" song came on and the heavens opened to an absolute downpour. The crowd went crazy and it was awesome. That was until I met some of the mad guys that I guess had seen me pushing anyone away that was going a little too mad. They grabbed me and one guy said "Get in there and get yerself a nosebleed" !!! And that was it there stuffed me right into the thick of it.

Had I not been with Emma, I probably would've got stuck in and ended up with a nosebleed. But I thought it was wise to bounce my way through to the other side of the carnage and find my way back to everyone else. Little did I know, that Emma and Jaks had already escape and I was left on my own in the crowd waiting for The White Stripes to come on.

I had no phone and thought it was best to stay where we were last together. My new stripy hat came to the rescue and was spotted by the girls and we all enjoyed the fantastic White Stripes together followed by the largest hotdog in the world ever part III waiting for the taxi. Class :-)

That may sound pretty rough but it was in great spirits and I loved it. So I am quite jealous of those at Glastonbury this weekend but then again have you seen the weather?!

Jenkins Stag Do

2007-06-22T00:52:00.000+02:00

So the weekend before last was the last weekend of freedom for ex Winchester buddy of mine the mighty Gareth Jenkins. (Although it probably felt less like freedom and more like punishment to him!).

The weekend began quietly with those flying in to East Midlands airport from all corners of the UK (and NL) too late on the Friday to hit the town so a few cheeky ones were consumed at Jenkins Leicester pad - tons of furniture!!!

Best man Rian, dished out the T'shirts and the few cheeky ones turned into plenty especially when Stu produced a bottle of Goldschläger!

Then it went downhill with some lung (and heart) busting "I love me mates" singing.

I think that was just to escape from further drinks. Never fear, we made sure the stag got what he deserved and inevitably it ended in tears.

Up and at 'em the next day Jenkins put in a top effort to be alive and kicking for the Go Karting. In 3 teams of 3 and 4 we competed against 2 other large groups in a Le Mans style 2 hour race. Le Mans style as in constant racing for 2 hours with pit changes. The race even started with a running Le Mans start.

Although taking the number 1 team number, Jenkins blurry state meant his team never made it onto the score board!

Unlike the rest of us who took 1st and 3rd with also the fastest lap time - I'll claim that one ;-)

The afternoon was spent drinking Weissbeer beer in the glorious German Festival sunshine. We wore our T'shirts proud and so too did Jenkins wear his Oxfam dress. So proud that he even went to change his shoes to find a better matching pair?! Beeeeeep Gaydar alert!

The day soon quickly became night were curry was wolfed, glad rags replaced and the challenges commenced.

All the photos from the weekend are on my Flickr account and can be view in slideshow format by clicking here

Cheers G - I'm looking forward to the wedding :-)

Give the Po' man a break

2007-06-18T20:05:00.000+02:00

No not the song by Fatboy Slim but we have a man down in Whistler. Jimbob is currently out of action with a busted leg.

To quote Number 2 from Austin Powers - He is "very badly burnt" but I've spoken to him on the phone and "he is still alive down there". He's gotta be pretty gutted at the mo as he'd just bought a new bike and I imagine was really looking forward to spending the summer biking down the world famous tracks of Whistler.

I'm sure the nice Canadian nurses will be able to fix it for him better than Jim himself

STOP PRESS - I wrote the above in draft form a while back and not to be out done, Alex has also joined the man down frontier. No leg injury but his back instead - a fractured lower vertebra. That does sound serious but he's also up and about hobbling around so hopefully the both of them will be back on the bikes before the end of the summer.

It's not surprising Alex is down and out, his accident sounded like the reversal of this outstanding display of biking ability in Les Gets during the summer of 2004 ->

Missing getting wet

2007-06-13T01:41:00.000+02:00

The weekend just gone I witnessed the ritual ruining of Jenkins for his stag do. But before I humiliate him here I will allow him some time to bribe me by putting some photos up of the previous weekend.

I was missing the kayaking and I went for my first trip of the year to DWD. It was a glorious day and I was surprised to find I was the only kayaker there. There were hundreds of inflatable craft to dodge though so I took a few snaps of them. I hope the management soon wake up to the fact that if they drop their prices then the place would be swarming with kayakers handing out their dosh.

It was definitely a wake up call for me paddling wise. I was knackered instantly and my favourite wave there had gone - I guess because only 3 pumps were working as opposed to the 4 when I ran it previous. I didn't have the bottle to get munched in the main hole straight away either. It's about the size of a nasty level looping pool at HPP. When I finally went in there I went straight for a cartwheel and immediately found the bottom - "I'll pass on a loop then thanks". After a few kickings I'd had enough of that hole and proceeded to try and nail a micro eddy I had spotted. Think I should grow a beard and get a Dancer :-(

Flickr has released a new version of it's slideshow so click here to see my photos. Let me know what you think of the new format, whether it is better than embedding a smaller slideshow and keep an eye out for the bouncy castle style volleyball court!

Exploding Panthers

2007-06-03T22:07:00.000+02:00

Yeah yeah, I know I have been slack at updating Whereismal in a while but I've been spending too much time in front of my new computer as it is without having to spend more time updating this! But that's not to say I haven't been busy...

Last Monday was also a Bank Holiday here in the Netherlands and I spent the day at the Pinkpop festival. A 3 day festival in the south east corner of the Netherlands. The line up on Sunday was also good but I only got a Monday ticket. However, a couple of my friends went for the whole weekend. To be honest tho. I'm glad I didn't go for the whole weekend cos there was a touch of rain.

I saw the following sign when I queued up to get through security and it made me laugh. My initial thoughts were "Wow this is going to be an awesome festival if people crowd surf the entrance gates!!!"

But alas, there was a lot less carnage than that image portrayed :-( For starters the main stage had a double barrier system to prevent crushing. But it was stupid - there was a huge queue to get in the front area and then when you were in there it was full of people complaining of being crowded. DON'T STAND THERE THEN!!!

Then cos there was not that many acts, once one band finished on the main stage, there was a mass exodus of people to the other 2 stages. Crowd control was daft - there should've been more overlap then everyone would not all be moving at the same time.

But enough winging, I did have a good time even in the rain. The bands I saw full sets of were The Fratellis, The Magic Numbers, Wolfmother, Artic Monkeys and The Kooks. Fratellis and Artic Monkeys were both the same really, took quite a while to get going but when they got there they were pretty good. The crowd enjoyed them too and everyone was humming the Chelsea Dagger theme waiting for the Fratellis to come on and were disappointed when the Artic Monkeys had to come off the stage for Linkin Park. The Magic Numbers again put on a great crowd pleasing show - they are good at interacting with the crowd.

Wolfmother was a surprise for me as I had never heard any of their work before - he's quite a character with a great unique voice. I will be finding some of his work at some point. The Kooks were probably the best tho. Again took a little while to get going but as they were the last band on that particular stage, they were able to keep going as the crowd kept cheering. No band following them so no need to get kicked off stage.

I also caught bits of The Dave Matthews Band, Scissor Sisters, Linkin Park and the closing ceremony of Smashing Pumpkins. I say bits of cos there was nothing there worth staying a long time for! I mean who chose the Smashing Pumpkins to close?!

Bored and like photos?

2007-05-15T15:06:00.000+02:00

Bored and like photos, well try this

Professional riders only

2007-05-13T19:19:00.000+02:00

Just a quickie to say that although this weekend has been a quiet one, mainly due to a 6am Friday night out here, but I have still be out and about recently.

This week the weather has taken a turn for the worst. After 7 weeks of glorius sunshine, it's been a wet and windy week. However, that has meant the surf has been up. So I was out for a session in my kayak after work on Weds with a local club. I never thought I'd ever be able to say "Last night I went surfing" after moving to Amsterdam! Nowt special but enough for a bounce and a blunt plus I got a good backstab. The water was surprisingly warm so I'll be out again once the waves come back up. I've been missing the boating but for next year I've spotted a Corsica trip with the Europagaai guys or maybe I'll get lucky with a Grand Canyon lottery application if I can be bothered to follow the long registration process.

But I am loving the biking as of late. Last weekend I made a trip back to Winterberg and had a great time pushing myself. I didn't nail the wall like last time as it was a bit erroded. There was a gap between the top of the berm and the bottom of the wall which I didn't fancy negotiating!

However, I was much faster down the downhill and nailed a few lines I hadn't done before. I was also racing off the smaller drops so went to the freeride park to step it up a bit more. Remember these drops?

Well, this time I noticed there is a sign before them that states "Professional Riders Only". Not sure why it is in English but then perhaps it is ony the stupid English that bust themselves. So being the stupid Englishman that I am I decided to give them a go.

I naturally started at the bottom on the smallest drop but was soon to find that the run out slope was perfectly designed - it was smooth as. So I nailed the smallest one 3 times to get the confidence going then stepped up to the next size which had a slight downwards slant to it. This helped adding more speed to my nervous attempts. 3 goes at that one got my heart pumping and I was walking up and down the next size up trying to muster up some bottle.

A few skips on my shuffle found a suitable track and I attacked the head height drop with everything I had. Which wasn't quite enough, I landed less than perfect but survived to ride it out. Unhappy with my attempt I gave it some more wellie and hucked another go. Much better. To prove that wasn't just luck I gave it a third go and was stoked with another clean line. No pics or video of me but here's a guy from the last time I went:

I knew that was my limit for that day. The 4th drop is a good couple of feet higher and I think it will take some abusive friends wanting to see me crash to get me fired up for that one. But I'm not ruling it out for the future...

We may all be getting older and with the thirties around the corner it's a nice feeling that I can still scare myself but then push myself to overcome those fears in order to progress.

Well 3 day week this week at work and I have a Weds evening ferry booked to get me back to the UK to see Emma for a long weekend. It can't come quick enough plus I also get to pick up my new toy :-)

Vroooom!

2007-05-13T17:12:00.001+02:00

So a couple of weekends ago I met up with Peach and friends at the Nürburgring in Germany. An ex Formula 1 racetrack with lots of history. Now it opens up the 20km north loop track to punters for ragging their own cars around.

As you can see from a previous post, I was advised that any laps undertaken in my own car would be at my own risk. So I was more than happy just to be a spectator. Yeah right!

When I arrived there was a VLN race in progress that happens every few weeks. Here's some video footage:

I've never watched a car race live before and it certainly fired me up for having a spin around the track myself - against the advice of my insurance company. After the race, Nick Heidfeld, took his BMW F1 car around for a few laps. Apparently a big deal cos that's not happened in something like 30 years.

Then we all jumped in our cars to the tracks entry toll gates. I was really fired up for a spin but it was probably a good thing that the track was closed for the day. That evening was an evening of steak frites, many German weissbier's and stupid tired laughter after a long day of travelling. The conversation soon deteriorated into developing a business plan for creating Nurburg's first stripclub to be called "Driveshaft". Helmet and ring gags were a plenty. World domination was contemplated by opening Bangors Driveshaft for the Angelsey race track punters. It was time to go to bed when special guests Ruth Maddock and Sue Pollard were brought to the table... But I guess you had to be there.

We awoke to the sound of another GT3 purring down the street to the track. Helmets polished and at the ready we headed for the track. Sorry, I'll try not to mention helmets any more!

I was certainly more nervous in the morning. The amount of traffic was crazy, Ferraris, Audis, Mercs, BMW's, Bentleys and the ringtool of choice a Porsche. And after the previous nights conversation of crashes and costs of barrier repairs and S2000 avoidance had put me off. So to get the adrenaline pumping I went out with Tom and his Clio Cup. Awesome, the track is long and sooo hilly. There is not much vision in front of you because there are so many blind corners and crests. Then add the crazy other drivers and motorbike riders, it is easy to see how you spend more time looking in your mirrors than forwards!

Returning to the entry/exit point, wild horses could not have stopped me from having a spin in my own car. And I was glad to see there was a VW Sharan people carrier in the queue! So off I trotted to get my wagon - aircon off, passensgers airbag off, engine warmed up, seat adjusted, steering wheel adjusted and set to "sports" mode (WTF?), radio off - didn't think I was going to need the Firestarter to get me going. And off I went.

Unfortunately for 50% of the way round the track I was stuck behind a 206CC. I was going faster but the bastard would not let me pass. Yet I was not going fast enough to overtake quickly enough to be safe before some supercar spanked into the back of me. But we came to the infamous Karoussel corner and the 206CC wuss went high so I dumped it down a notch and took the banked apex. Such a sweet feeling going around the banked corner overtaking hanging on for dear life. I felt like a world champion! Here's a few pics including Bod flying round the Karussell ->

Once I was free I zoomed around the next few corners only to slam the anchors behind a full sized 55 seater coach. Where the hell did that come from?! Apparently, you can take a bus round as a tourist! I joined the queue of maybe 6 cars behind the bus until the car behind me booted it past them all. So I followed. Yay more overtaking! Just called me Schumacher.

However, at the end of the run I was most glad that I had not bought three laps. 1 was definitely enough, the chance of spanking it was high, the cost of such scary high. I heard it was about €15,000 to €20,000 to repair barriers and get towed off, add the cost of my own car repairs as I was uninsured, the cost of maybe other car repairs (I bet replacing a Ferrari wing costs a few bob) and running over a biker can't be cheap either!

So I chilled out for the rest of the day, checking out the car porn in the car park and eating ice cream. But I did manage a spin as a passenger in Bods Mini which was class.

Cheers gents for a top weekend, here's the pics - watch out for the sticker I now have on my number plate!

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click here to view photo slideshow in Flickr

And some video footage I found whilst browsing around. Here's a selection of vids that show how busy it can be and a good on board video footage of the whole track.

Queensday 2007

2007-05-07T20:52:00.000+02:00

As you may have guessed from my previous but one post I went to the Nürburgring to catch up with Peach. Well I've been mincing around drafting a blog update gathering the best pics and vids that it's just taking too long so watch this space for that later.

What I can put up now is the photos of Koninginnedag (Queensday). A national holiday in the Netherlands last Monday to celebrate the Queens birthday. Basically an all day festival and the city of Amsterdam goes mad for it.

I was lucky enough to spend a good few hours of it on Nic and Estelle's boat - cheers guys! It was like the M25 in rush hour on the canals, thousands of boats but it was much better than braving the zillions of pedestrians lining the streets.

It was amusing chugging along past all the monster party boats all competing for the loudest sound system. I took some good snaps whilst sipping back the beers until I entered a world of pain. Funnily enough there is no such thing as a floating toilet on canals and plenty of police around to bust you for doing so where you shouldn't. I came close to crying before Nic pulled over and I was able to let out the most pleasurable sigh of relief in my life.

Back on it, able to beer top up even more, the boat toddled off to the boat shed and I boarded land in search of the best party. I caught up with Kerry and Liz, who were definitely in the orange spirit of things.

After a bit of crusing the streets we ended up in a bar with nice beer garden (poshly called a terrace here) converted into a stage. The dancing began, the drinking continued and the rest of the evening becomes a little blurry. But I was home at 4am and going to work was lovely experience the following day :-(

Somehow my camera survived and I've got some nice shots of revellers. Watch out for the pics when I managed to convince Kerry to jump on stage with the Jon Bon Jovi wannabe. Yet another reason for nearly wetting myself!

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click here to view photo slideshow in Flickr

And here's another poor effort on the video camera, but it least it shows how busy the canals were:

click here to view video in Google

Summer lurvin

2007-05-02T18:34:00.001+02:00

So the past few weeks has really become the start of the summer. I had a mad weekend this weekend and will post more about that later but here's a few snaps from the previous weekend showing that summer is definitely arriving

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View Photo Slideshow in Flickr

And everyone is out enjoying it, the Vondelpark is a buzz of people at the mo, cycling, skating, playing football or just chilling. I hope it lasts...

View Video in Google

Denied

2007-04-23T16:44:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I am going to visit friends at the Nuerburgring in Germany this weekend. Although I had not planned to drive my car around the track I have heard that it is a public road. Therefore I was wondering if the insurance of my IBM leaseplan car allows me to do a lap? I understand laps are possible without actually being part of a race.

http://www.nuerburgring.de

Good afternoon,

The Nuerburgring is open for public but not a public road. It is a race track. The lease car is not insured on this race track. If you take the car on this track you take full responsibility for all damage or other cost.

Winterberg

2007-04-22T12:17:00.000+02:00

So as shown in my last post I went biking last weekend. A Dutch rider, Tanja, left me a comment on this blog after I posted about Megavalanche and I emailed her asking where to go ride anything other than flat cycle paths here in the Netherlands. The short answer was to join her in a trip to the nearest bike park with a chair lift in Germany called Winterberg - just 3.5hrs drive away.

It was cracking weather and I had an awesome time. Tanja showed me around and generally proved a fun challenge to keep up with. She's sponsored by a local shop in the Netherlands so had all the gear including a brand spanking new Switch. It was great to follow her line and get a few tips about better cornering. I avoided some of the gnarlier lines she took but wasn't too far behind in the long run. I think she was holding back though, recovering from a dislocated shoulder last October!

There's one 2 man chairlift and basically 4 defined tracks down. 1 dedicated downhill track, 1 north shore run, a fun run and a 6X track. The 6X ended with a freeride park and joined either the fun run or the north shore run to the bottom. There was also a separate dirt jump section but I never made it over there.

The 6X was nuts but ridable. Full credit to anyone who completely clears the tabletops, let alone amongst 5 other people. I was tanking it and still only made it over halfway! Below is a little helmet cam footage of the 6X:

The downhill was what I rode the most, there were some tough drops on it, a harsh rock garden section and a steep slippy tree section. I rode this track a good few times and kept adding a new drop to each run but there were still 3 or 4 drops and 2 doubles where I took the chicken run instead. Something to improve on next time :-)

The north shore was tough, I only rode this a couple of times because I had to walk a fair bit! Although I did take on some drops larger than my comfort zone and I also rode a seesaw. At first I thought the seesaw was a drop so hit it too fast and pulled up on the bars to take off but as my back wheel dropped with the seesaw I manualled off the plank. Probably looked quite cool but scared the hell out of me and I nearly binned it.

The fun run was exactly that - fun. Just like one track I rode with the lads in Morzine, nearer the Les Gets side. Berm after berm after berm with the odd jump thrown in - fantastic. Here is some more helmet cam footage and I'm the guy in red right in front of the camera:

Later, I stopped to take a few shots in the freeride park. I've created animated GIFs of the best sequences shown below but Blogger is not showing them animated so click on the photos to show them animated on their own. Here's a sweet line one guy took:

Here's one wall ride:

Then Tanja showed me how to style it:

I had a go at that wall and that's how I got the photo on the previous post. But there was a bigger wall:

And a HUGE fun box:

The drops at the top of the run were pretty crazy too:

Here's a little helmet cam action of the whole freeride park including the comedy wonky bridge thing at the end:

In browsing You Tube I also found this video from someone that gives a good overview of the whole place:

So thanks to Tanja and friends for a great session. I'll be back for sure and here's all the photos:

Flash Slideshow

New favourite pic

2007-04-15T23:07:00.000+02:00

Wow! What a fantastic weekend. I'll write more when I have some energy but I couldn't resist immediately adding my new favourite photo of me taken earlier today :-)

Visitors welcome

2007-04-13T19:48:00.000+02:00

Just a quickie to say my flatmate, Mickael, has booked a trip to Italy for the last May bank holiday weekend (25-28 May). We also get the Monday off so if anyone wants to pop over and visit then you are more than welcome. Emma can't make that weekend but the snowboard airbag will be back and I've currently got tickets for the Pinkpop festival on the Monday so be quick and I can probably get more tickets. But for now, I'm off to enjoy a sunny weekend full of beer, beats, BBQ's, boating and biking - bloody brilliant!!!

Yeeeeaaaahhhh Booooiiiii!

2007-04-13T19:27:00.000+02:00

Tuesday night I went to see Public Enemy at the Melkweg. After trying to follow a Dutch hip hop support act, I was loving the warm up DJ spinning the likes of KRS 1. Initially Public Enemy lost a lot of credibility in my eyes when they refused to appear because an empty plastic bottle was thrown on the stage. Then after rapping over the PA system that it was "not cool" to throw things on stage they finally appeared with two burly dancers. Not a good start...

I mean come on - it was the 20th anniversary tour and what kinda hip hop band needs a choreographed act?! But it became clear later on that these two gorillas were not dancers, they were bouncers to keep an eye on the crowd. Their pathetic dancing skills, evil crowd stares and ability to hold onto the band members whilst they hovered off the end of the stage high 5'ing hoards of screaming fans was easy proof they were not for show.

Things did pick up tho and it ended up being a monstrous set. By the end of the night I could no longer jump up and down because I was that desperate for the toilet! Flava Flav is clearly a nutter. As quoted by Chuck D on the night he is "the oldest teenager in the world". Plenty of classics, including some tributes to the likes of Run DMC amongst others. The band musicians also rocked out some quality Jimi Hendrix and AC DC - even Flava Flav had a surprisingly impressive bash on the drums.

DJ Lord was quality - his scratching was fast, very very fast in his solo set. It's the first time I think I have seen/heard Final Scratch in person and I was pretty impressed the computing power of 1 laptop was all that was needed to produce those sounds at that speed. But enough of the new school, I'm looking forward to seeing the vinyl master himself tonight at Paradiso - Grand Master Flash.

Crazy Valley 2007

2007-04-13T18:59:00.000+02:00

As well as the Snowkayaking championships, 2 weekends ago also marked the start of the Dutch Playboat Cup. I went along camera in hand and took a few snaps on what was a glorious day.

Again it amazes me that with next to nothing the crazy Dutchies can organise a pretty good freestyle kayaking event.

Then there were two other obstacles not for the faint hearted (or more like weak backed!). A sizeable ski ramp...

...and a tow system incorporating a water ski jump ramp.

There was a comedy boatercross including bow stalls, cartwheels and obstacles. Also 2 attempts to enter the Guinness Book of Records with the longest bow stall and cartwheels.

Naturally, I was happy to stand on the bank in the sun and take pictures so I didn't compete. I have zero skill when it comes to flatwater moves, the ski ramp just looked painful.

The tow system looked fun but having already been towed behind a speedboat and over a full size water ski jump, the Dutch setup looked less inviting.

So here's the rest of the pictures in a slide show:

Flash Slideshow

Below is a short collection of video clips I took showing the tow rope system and the ski jump:

This also gives me the excuse to dig out the footage of me hitting the water ski jump in the summer of 2004 in Canada. Pure comedy :-)

Nevermind, better luck next time

2007-04-03T18:56:00.000+02:00

I return from the weekend still unranked in the world of indoor snowkayaking but victorious in my quest of having fun trying to be ranked. The whole event was comedy and I think the picture above sums up the weirdness nicely - can you spot the odd one out?! Or have you ever seen a kayak on a chair lift before like below?!

My failure to become world indoor snowkayaking began the night before in the bar as all kayaking weekends seem to here in the Netherlands:

A night in chez mathiewagon below also didn't help but by the time I had made it to getting my sleeping bag, there was no chance I was going to be able to find the room inside where everyone was sleeping.

So off I stumbled to register at 7am the next day and get some practice in beforehand. The building in the background housed the track and is the largest indoor ski centre in Europe - or was - I can't remember now? The morning was a little blurry but I do remember the 2 thoughts I had when I saw the end of the track was actually the freezing cold pool below. "Bugger, I didn't bring a spraydeck!" and "Well at least that'll sort out my hangover!"

So the track looked a little bit like a bobsleigh run as you can see from the following pictures. Below is looking up from the bottom:

Then hiking a little way up the slope you get a better view down into the finish line pool:

Then at halfway there is the DJ hut with what must've been the Dutch equivalent of Dave Pearce rolling plenty of phat ones and "Loving Detroit city" a little too much:

The view up from halfway still looked a long way to go like this:

So what was it like to ride? Well I'm going to be a bit of a bad workman here and blame my tools. A freestyle kayak, like mine, was slow. All the creeking style kayaks were faster and even if someone wiped out in a creeker, they were soon on your tail again:

The course was basically a zig zag path down the indoor piste. All the corners were banked to aid the kayaks in the right direction as expertly demonstrated below:

However, it was not always easy to point the kayak in the one direction. There was plenty of people (no doubt unintentionally!) preferring to take a more backward facing stance:

Then there were the jumps, nothing too big to induce spinal compression but certainly enough to jar you upon landing:

Again there were a few indiviauals opting to become airborn without looking at the jumps:

My favourite part the water jump finish line which did a good job of slowing you down. Without the pool, I'm sure there would've been a few through the windows and into the bar moments. Even with no spraydeck I manged to nail some decent boofs (spoofs?!) and stay relatively dry under my snowboard pants:

Not everyone went fast enough to reach the pool though, but there were plenty of volunteers more than happy to assist with an extra push!:

Most of the carnage happened at the first corner at the top. Surprisingly, only one guy was injured - it looked like a busted collarbone.

They did try to slow down the corner by putting rubber matts around and above as shown below:

But as you can see that didn't help at all!!!

So back to my ability - well I'd rather not but if you must know I didn't even make it through my heat :-( Races were in sets of 4 people and the two fastest went through to the next stage. I was third in my first heat - doh! I'll be getting my hands on a Rotobat for next time. But for proof there is a photo of me below from the website:

The Dutch guy won below and the TV was there to interview him in all his glory whilst his buddies pelted him with snowballs! All the results can now be seen on the website and I'll definitely be back next time to seek revenge.

So taking pictures of brightly coloured moving objects in bad indoor light, with a white foreground and a spotlit background definitely posed a few challenges! As you can see from my full Flickr slideshow below it took me a while to get the right settings including flash to get it kinda OK. But here's my full set:

Flash Slideshow

I also took some very very short video footage which is not that good as I was holding my SLR camera in the other hand. The TV crew did a much better job and I grabbed their content online as well so here is footage of the previous days practice:

And here is the actual event itself:

There's also going to be a bunch of other photos and videos on the official website here

My world champion crowning awaits

2007-03-30T03:30:00.000+02:00

So I went for it...I've entered the Indoor Snow Kayaking World Championships that are taking place for the first time ever this weekend in the Netherlands.

Snow what you say?! Just picture some normal canoeist paddling around a lake or something. Then imagine the same canoeist in the same canoe hurtling down a ski slope.

Nope, there is no steering. Nope, there are no brakes. That's why I think I have a good chance and I'm genuinly going to give it my best shot. If I don't return victorious at least I should have some amusing photos and videos to post here next week.

I received an entry email last night so I'll leave a few quotes from it below for your entertainment:

"We have registerd 164 Gliders living in 10 different nations. It's a pleasure that many people want to come to this wonderfull event!" - I'm one of only two Brits!

"The participant is obliged to wear protection" - I don't think he means this kind of protection!

"The participant is obliged to wear a good helmet!" - See told you!

"Your fysic and mental statement need to be correct and you understand the risks of snowkayak and take the full responsibility for it." - my logic is that the bigger the beer belly, the more weight and potential energy to get me faster down the hill. I also state I am mental - is that correct enough a statement?!

"At last but not least: Think of your own healthy! Materials are replacable, your health isn't." - OK ok, I get the picture......but I have one last thing to say......

Cannon Ball!!!

A breath of fresh AIR

2007-03-30T03:12:00.000+02:00

Tuesday night I went to the Melkweg to see AIR, the French band with the Disco Queen. Apart from the fact that the two front men where a couple of miserable so and so's, I quite enjoyed the night. It was quite impressive to see how many instruments the 5 guys needed to make the sounds they do. At one point I counted 18 keyboards! It was also great to hear their older stuff from my favourite album - Moon Safari. But I was a little surprised that there wasn't such big cheers for songs from the latest album. Don't think I'll shell out the cash for that one...

Quick! Clean the flat, the parents are coming...

2007-03-30T02:48:00.001+02:00

The weekend after I returned from Whistler, my parents popped over for their first visit. I thankfully recruited Emma to come over at the same time to assist in the duties and was greatly appreciated! Especially as just shy of 3 years, it was the first time Emma had met my parents. But it seemed to go well and I think a good weekend was had by all?!

Everyone arrived on Thursday and whilst I went to work on Friday, the first bonding session was had by everyone else sightseeing around the city. Anne Franks house and the flower market to be precise.

That evening we went to a restaurant called Moeders (Mothers) which was my treat for the pending mothers day. I think I won some brownie points there but we couldn't stay for the great puddings as for xmas I had actually got my parents tickets to see Jules Holland. So off they skipped to Paradiso whilst Emma and I got the beers in elsewhere.

Saturday morning was a lie in for all and by the time we made it out, we could only squeeze in the Van Gogh museum before the evenings plans unfolded. I booked food and a live jazz show afterwards at the Bimhuis. I lost brownie points here as the food was not the best but at least the band made up for it.

Last but not list was a very brief and insanely windy drive to the beach for a cuppa before my parents were safely on their flight back to Glasgow.

So to prove I can be a nice son sometimes, see the photos of the weekend below:

Flash Slideshow

The world wide Mathie clan

2007-03-30T02:41:00.000+02:00

Another great thing about my trip to Canada was that I popped in on my cousin Craig, his wife Daniela and their great kids Andrew and Jordan. OK so I was a little selfish enjoying too much of a good time in Whistler to spend a great deal of time with them, but I did manage a couple of nights at the end of my trip. Daniella was kind enough to take some time off work to go sightseeing with me so we took a trip to Fort Langley. Then when the boys came home from school, Craig and I took them night skiing to Mount Seymour. It was miserable weather in the rain but a real good laugh with the kids. Andrew was lightening fast on the skis - he beat me in a race, admittedly I binned it at the end though whilst trying to show off! And Jordan had no fear on a snowboard for a someone who has only been once before. I look forward to my next trip out there when they'll be teaching me a thing or two...

Check out the pics - see it's not just this Mathie that has the good looks you know! ;-)

Flash Slideshow

Catskiing? More like the dogs boll....

2007-03-30T01:57:00.000+02:00

By far the best time I have ever had on a snowboard was during my trip to Whistler. I joined Alex and a few of his mates from work on a catskiing trip. For just shy of 200 of the queens notes, you're taken up a mountain away from the crowds to snowboard in fresh snow all day long. And we totally lucked out on the conditions, perfect blue skies and fresh waist deep snow. Check the panorama video from the top of our first run:

It was amazing and something I'd recommend for every rider to do at least once. However, for my second go I would probably want something steeper and a cat full of just my friends to make it seem like better value. Swings and roundabouts though because any steeper with all that snow and there would've been more avalanches than the two small ones we set off! Don't worry Mum, the guides aborted that face so we were not in any more danger - safe as houses ;-)

Check out the great pics from my new camera below and be warned there's plenty of them!

Flash Slideshow

Whistler life is like a box of chocolates...

2007-03-29T23:38:00.000+02:00

So enough about work, it's time to get back to the play. My 3 week trip to Whistler in Canada was fantastic and I could easily write a huge long article here about it. I've already let three weeks pass since my return and too much waffle would send readers to sleep (some of it I'm sure would be along the lines of "you had to be there..."). Therefore, I've decided to summarise the trip with a few photos and let readers imaginations fill in the gaps:

First up was the luxurious sleeping arrangements the boys laid on for me, AKA Jamie's wardrobe ->

But then that was a better option than Alex's room otherwise I may have been woken up by some strange noises during the night. Not like this either ->

It was great to see Jamie and Alex again although they have changed quite a bit. For instance Alex seemed to enjoy dressing up as a penis ->

And Jamie was experimenting with the "Munters Gap" ->

Still we had some good nights out where Jamie fell in love with the Karaoke guy ->

Also where everyone bowed down to my pool and darts skills ->

At times followed by some fancy dancing techniques due to still wearing snowboard boots until the wee hours ->

It wasn't all drinking though, there was some hardcore snowboarding to be had ->

I even tried attaching one plank to each foot a couple of times ->

There was no avoiding some really stupid people though ->

The best day had to be the mountain pub crawl though. An alcoholic drink in every place on the two mountains that sells booze. There's 10 to be had which is not so bad when spread out across the whole day. As usual we were running a little behind schedule and so 3 drinks had to be downed in 1 to make the penultimate bar before it closed. I doubt I will ever snowboard so fast and so drunk ever again in my life. It was fantastic and here I am enjoying that penultimate beer before the ride down to the last bar ->

The whole 3 weeks was superb, I had a great laugh with some genuine people. So much fun that I never found time to shave ->

But at least my growth was not as bad as Jamie's ->

All thats left to say is a big thanks to the residents of 3110 Tyrol Crescent for putting up with me and I hope my photos are enjoyed in the slideshow below:

Flash Slideshow

Not all managers are w@nk#r$!

2007-03-23T13:07:00.000+01:00

When I started this blog I vowed I would never write anything about work on it. Cos lets be honest, all work and no play makes for a boring read. But I've decided to break that self imposed rule today as last night I was pretty damn impressed by the actions of my employer. I am probably legally not able to comment further but I was genuinely stoked to be employed by who I am.

I met some seriously big cheeses in the bar after work and hearing what they had to say made me appreciate the company I work for. The decisions these guys make and the logic they use was an eye opener. By seriously big cheeses, I mean conversations about 911's, S4's, M5's and houses in San Francisco, Zurich and Brussels to name a few. I was going to chip in with how much I loved my new diesel ford focus estate and moan at the price of rent in Amsterdam but I thought I'll shut up and just enjoy my free beer! But no-one was a w@nk#r and they are pretty bright kids who've got where they have through hard work. They're welcome to it though, I had as much free beer as I could get away with and toodled off home, happy to be where I am not taking the sh!t they do.

So I've been working like a dog recently and it's affected my outside of work time too. You can probably tell from the lack of Whereismal updates recently! My parents were here last weekend with Emma and I was knackered and a little quiet the whole weekend. But now I have a long weekend to put my feet up and catch up on zillions of things. But for now I'm off to repair a puncture on Betty, run a few errands and find a nice quite bar to sit in and watch the world go by. Such a nice feeling after the past few weeks/months :-)

There's still chance for me to be a World Champion

2007-03-14T01:49:00.000+01:00

Anyone fancy popping over for the indoor snow kayaking world championships? There's gotta be a chance in it for me surely?! And it's only about an hour from me...

Amsterdam by night

2007-03-14T01:34:00.000+01:00

So before I post a zillion Whistler pictures I best catch up on some that I forgot to post before I left. The week before Whistler I went out on my bike and took the tripod that Emma got me for Christmas (thanks babe!) and took a few "Amsterdam by Night" shots. So I thought I'd share the best of the bunch here :-)

Flash Slideshow

Lech Tobogganing Video

2007-03-14T01:28:00.000+01:00

So I did find time in Whistler to put together a short video of the Tobogganing carnage that I had with Matt, George, Rich, Ben and Zach in Austria a couple of weeks back. Read the original post here. It was certainly funnier and more painful than the video portrays!

I'm back!

2007-03-14T01:05:00.000+01:00

So I'm back alive from 3 fantastic weeks in Whistler. There's plenty of juice to add here later but I'll leave my favourite photo of me to wet whistles for now ->

My parents are coming to Amsterdam with Emma this weekend so I have a few things to do before I make time to update this blog with all the goodies. So pop back sometime next week...

We're off to see the wizards, the wonderful wizards of Whistler

2007-02-14T23:21:00.000+01:00

This afternoon I jump on a plane to Vancouver, Canada to catch up with my two best buddies in Whistler. The sods are working the season over there and I'm really looking forward to meeting up again. I don't even care that the record snowfall over there has died down a bit - I'd be quite happy just to chill for a few days and enjoy not having to go to work. But with 3 weeks over there I hope I do get to dig myself out of the deep stuff on many occasions. See the forecast here and current conditions here or maybe I'll even be on the webcams?!

Seeya soon boys and RIP Whereismal as I doubt I will make time to make updates for the next 3 weeks. But rest assured, the reincarnation will be worth the wait if I stay sober enough to remember the best stories...

Lech, it's where the Dutch royal family go you know

2007-02-14T21:48:00.000+01:00

So last weekend was another trip away snowboarding. I have all the photos and a few videos below to show y'all what a cracking weekend it was. Thanks Matt, George, Rich, Ben and Zach for letting me tag along.

So first was the Monster drive on my own this time but I'll let the gimp in this video tell you all about it ->

((I was kidding myself if I thought I would have time before going away to edit some video, watch this space for an update when I return...))

Then we made the most of the new snow and found some nice freshish lines to play with. Top highlights include Dicky's ability to spot some sweet lines in gulleys, a steep section where I enjoyed hucking a big ollie off and trying to stand firm at mach 5 and ride out, Zach's new found love of snowboarding - from zero to kinda hero in 3 days, Georges camera taking effort taking shed loads of pictures, Dicky's wall riding skills resulting in a near death experience, a fairly large red park jump, the bush tucker challenge riding through the undergrowth, iPod riding and ducking the ropes for the lift line for 3 fresh runs where no-one followed. But I'll let the pictures describe a thousand words more ->

Flash Slideshow

Then there was the downside to Lech and that is that it is full of toffs. We were sat in one bar when some snotty teenager came up to George and said "My father has paid €250 for 2 bottles of Vodka which means these seats are reserved for us". Needless to say the response given was less polite and there was no departure from our seats!

But highlight of the weekend had to be the sledging. There was a purpose built tobogganing run which was floodlit until 10pm. On the first night we completed the Jagermeister challenge by downing a double at the top making comedy runs afterwards. Each run was chased with a beer until we passed 10pm and had to make the final run down without floodlights - so so dark but so so funny. We enjoyed it so much so that after getting narked with the toffs on the slope the following day we got the sledges again for some daylight off piste action. That was when I got "stung by a bee" - I think I am 2 inches shorter due to spinal compression from all the bumps and crashes. I've put the following video together of all of it for your amusement ->

((Again, watch this space for an update when I return...))

I flew like a butterfly but got stung like a bee

2007-02-11T22:05:00.001+01:00

fly
Originally uploaded by Whereismal?.

I've been neglecting Whereismal for a while but mainly cos I've not had much great stuff to add here. But I'm just back from another monster 2000km weekend mission to the Austrian Alps for some snowboarding. I wanted to upload this one photo of me before I hit the sack. The rest of the pictures will be added later this week. I'll also include the video of how I got "stung by a bee" but for now this is me flying like a butterfly :-)

Drivers wanted

2007-02-05T20:03:00.000+01:00

Busy busy busy but wanted to put a quick post here to say "Drivers Wanted" for another weekend snowboarding mission. I've sourced Friday off work and heading out somewhere to meet Matt, Rich and George. No details yet but get in touch if you fancy singing along in my wagon to get there.

That Friday feeling

2007-02-02T20:44:00.000+01:00

There are many many downsides to going to work but there is definitely one positive. That's the Friday Feeling and boy do I have it now. No blog updates recently cos I'm working like a mad man on this new project but I got on my bike tonight and peddled my wee heart out singing all the way home. I've got the buzz tonight, my mojo is back and can't wait for that first cold one. Logging off, hopping on Betty and heading city bound - over and out :-)

Megavalanche

2007-01-28T19:19:00.000+01:00

I love riding my bike, but I've never entered a race. Why? Well I don't see the need to race against the clock. But I'm always racing against my buddies when out on the trail. That's why the Megavalanche caught my eye in a magazine recently.

700+ riders on a mass start at the snowy top of a mountain all the way down for about an hour to the finish line. I found the following pictures of last years event and I'm really keen on going this July if I can convince anyone crazy enough to go with me!