Off to Glastonbury festival

Laden with our heavy rucksacks, Leah and I set off this morning for Glastonbury festival, where well be spending this week helping the Greenpeace crew set up the showers on their field. This is not the first time I've been involved with the set up since my dads been doing various showed and saunas for as long as I can remember. However, it's been 10 years or so since I last came for the build. This is Leahs first time however, and I think the prospect of camping for ten days is slightly daunting for her! Nevertheless we're both excited about this years festival, and it's always great to feel involved.




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Beds, sofabeds, tiles, paint...

So Leah and I have managed to exchange on a little flat on Portnall Road in Maida Vale. It's our first very own place and very exciting. The only thing is that now we have to try and furnish and decorate it, bearing in mind that we only have a coffee table, a rug and some shelves to our name as far as furniture goes. So we've spent the weekend trawling furniture shops in search of a bed and a sofa bed, and also tiling places as we feel we need to re-tile at least part of the bathroom...

We're off to Glastonbury next week for the build before the festival, so we've got limited time to find and buy stuff that we like in order that we can have it delivered for when we want to move in... It's gonna be a busy week!


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Mic check one two one two

Been drawing hair dryers all day today, bit of a change from rockin' out with RATM! Made up for it with a jam this evening, although things are going slow with Chimovski.... then someone nicked a mic stand from the room we were in and the studio are calling me asking where it is!
RUBS

Rage Against the Machine

Went to see rage against the machine yesterday in Finsbury park. Was an awesome gig that took me back to being a teenager, rockin' out with little to worry about!



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Machotaildrop

Been to the premier of Machotaildrop this evening, a satirical look at the world of skateboarding idolism, which was actually pretty funny.

Here are all the skater boyz and girlz after the show:



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Exchange immanent

Looks like we might finally exchange on the flat we're trying to buy at the end of this week... and then complete a short while later! Eeek.

Cross town traffic

Phew! What a week of East - West run around! Was back at the Clerkenwell Design Festival last night, but to be honest it was a bit rubs. I had arranged to go with my client who is over from the US and there was talk of live graffitti and a hog roast. However, it all seemed to be people designing office chairs and equipment, maybe this is the pinnacle of design achievement- but I'm not so sure! Anyway, we decided to head further East, jumped a cab and me Leah back at Honda's Dream Factory. They were having a second preview night... Or something like that. Since I've finished my antibiotics I celebrated with some of the free beer and settled in to chatting with Buzz about php coding, music and taking on the world.

This is my shoes waiting for the girls to return from the washroom.




On our way to meet Tasha and her friend for some (fairly mediocre) mexican food we stumbled upon a shop selling purely wind up mechanical toys. This was a bit if a find as my client had mentioned not so long before that she actually collects these! If she can find her way back there I think she'll have collected a few more before she heads home...


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Biomimicry and the Clerkenwell design festival

Been east to a talk Biomimicry with Andy Middleton, who i found out is also co-founder of the Do Lectures. The talk itself was ok, though it's always hard to be scared shitless about the state of the planet and all that needs doing, and presented with solutions so far removed from the current status quo. While anything is possible, I winder whether we're going to sort it all put in time! Eek. Can but try! There is a growing Market for socially concious products, my Camper shoes gauramteed for two years is an example of this, as are Innocent, Howies, Patagonia and many more. However, I do keep wondering whether it's just the well to do, well educated and comfortable middle class who are the ones doing the buying, and also shouting about the problem... But I might be wrong. I might put it to John Grant later when I head East again for his work shop as part of Honda's Dream Factory.



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Innocent drinks AGM

Well, yesterday was a write off due to the lurgy in my chest, but the antibiotics seem to be doing their thing now, and maybe it's the sunshine too as I'm strting to feel a lot better.

Just been the Innocent drinks AGM, which was very interesting and inspiring. Fruit towers is actually a bunch of single story industrial units joined together, but they have a great space inside. The day was really about learning about how they do their thing, trying out some new recipes, making some smoothies an then a fantastic Q&A with the three founders. The best thing is that the innocent brand, language and feeling runs throught the company, you can really feel that it's a core and fundamental part of the business




The smoothy blending kitchen



The innocent but inspiring people

Innocent drinks AGM

Well, yesterday was a write off due to the lurgy in my chest, but the antibiotics seem to be doing their thing now, and maybe it's the sunshine too as I'm strting to feel a lot better.

Just been the Innocent drinks AGM, which was very interesting and inspiring. Fruit towers is actually a bunch of single story industrial units joined together, but they have a great space inside. The day was really about learning about how they do their thing, trying out some new recipes, making some smoothies an then a fantastic Q&A with the three founders. The best thing is that the innocent brand, language and feeling runs throught the company, you can really feel that it's a core and fundamental part of the business


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LEDs and Magic Tables

Went to a Cleantech Investor breakfast this morning at the Gherkin, which was interesting. I'm pretty sure LEDs will be playing an enormous part in everyones life before too long. CF bulbs are very poisonous to the environment and don't actually last very long, whereas LEDs are pretty non toxic, very efficient and last for ages!

This evening we went for dinner at Inamo, a Japanese fusion style restaurant that uses projectors to create an interactive menu experience right on the table. It's pretty cool and novel, but the interface already needs a bit of 2.0! The food was very nice, if a little expensive.

My thoat feels like it's full of barbed wire, but I'm supposed to go to Telford tomorrow for a plastics moulding exhibition...

Leah got her UK passport!

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Def jam

Went to jam this evening with Chimovski, but arrived to find that the Pre Sonus Firestudio Project sound card that we use had inexplicbly died. We checked the fuses and the power leads but it refused to come on. This is the second one since January and it really sets us back- no jamming this week then...


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Lunch dinner lunch dinner

This weekend seems to have been made up entirely of lunches and dinners! We're just on our way back from dinner with some cousins, and before that we were at Brents last Sunday lunch before he moves back to Australia.


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Survived the surprise birthday

This afternoon we went to Anu's surprise birthday party and had many a beer on the lawn. Everyone seemed to have kids...

The Camper guarantee

Yesterday I bought my third pair of Camper shoes and was surprised at the checkout when I was informed that they come with a two year guarantee. Thinking about it though, I've not managed to wear out my other Camper shoes, they just look pretty worn!

So this inspried me to put a stick in the ground and see what journey these shoes travel with me over the next two years, and whether indeed the guarantee holds up!

So here's where I'm at:

33 years old
married
no kids
in a band
work in product design
live in Maida Vale, London
take photos

I'm not sure where this journey called life will take me and my new shoes over the next two years, but providing we make it through here are some things that are destined to happen:

The Football World Cup 2010
The Olympics in London 2012
Almost half of the new coalition governments term
two summers, two winters and everything in between

So I'm going to wear my shoes at least once everyday for the next two years, and that's when this blog will finish, unless they (or I) break down first - which hopefully wont happen!

Here they are: