"For England, James....?"

2008-04-07T14:44:00.001-07:00

So my first true vfx film came out... too bad it sucked. VFX, not too bad- movie: suck. Fortunately for ole Ronnie' Emerich it looks like it will be at least a modest financial success in no small part to blatant media spamming on a level you would think 10,000BC was running for the democratic nomination in the US. Incidentally I haven't even seen the movie in it's full finished glory yet- though i have it on very good authority that the next time we're treated to an emer-epic (you like that one? I just made it up.) the tired 'from the director of independence day' to 'from the director of a steaming pile of poop'. But hey, all is not lost, they had a soaking wet damn tiger. Which I also had no part in.. sniff. The blurry ass image below is from the trailer and shows some of my handiwork on the giant 'terror chickens'-

Giant Domes,Retared Weather, and pirates.

2008-04-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

So Roubina is starting a new job at the Berekeley hotel, and will henceforth be getting the royal queen Lizzy shaft for weekends off, so we decided to run off for a quick one night stay in sunny, rainy, snow-y, hail-y, utterly random ass-y Cornwall- was a neat trip, hit up the 'Tortoise Gardens' .. (yup seriously)- which is like a tortoise refuge in the UK, and day 2 we went to the 'Eden Project' which is what you get when you combine an archeitect and a filthy rich hippie- kind of like the movie 'biodome'- it's actually pretty neat, and they have like live concerts there and stuff do, though nothing was on when we were there- Also, weather was fantastically ridiculous, the whole time at the eden project, it was a minute by minute combination of sun, snow, rain, and hail. Literally a switchover like every 20 minutes. Some pretty gorgeous scenery
on the train ride over as well, which incidentally terminated at penzance, as in pirates of... who know it was a real place..? -all in all a really sweet trip, might be back some time soon to catch the stuff we missed, or perhaps further down the coast-

Still here, not dead

2008-04-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

So I figured I would try and start posting again, though it's fantastically difficult to do it not having posted in so long.. I suppose I'll just try and hit the high points of the last several months, given that this is the first post of 2008!

Italy! So the good Count Tosti took a bunch of us to Rome, and to his home town in Frascati, just a bit north of Rome, and boy what a trip- thank sweet zombie jesus we had someone who spoke italian with this! Also having Daniele around really helped when I was almost robbed by a tag team of gypsies about 15 minutes after arriving in Rome..=P Still, awesome trip, I thought paris was nice, but rome takes it to another level in terms of 'hey, fuck you! We're steeped in history and we have the giant marble balls to prove it!'

New year was a wash because i didn't get my passport back in time due to holding on to it for rome, but all in all worth it-! Shortly thereafter it was off to Marrakesh in Morrocco with Roubina- damn that was an awesoma powah trip as well, just like being in an indiana jones movie-!! I think this might be our favorite trip so far--!

The last little dribbles of winter were otherwise pretty uneventful, and then over easter it was back home for a week for a fantastic albeit too short trip- thankfully the week before was biblical snow storm week and the week we were back was chilly, but reasonably sunny and dry- was awesome seeing everyone again- best thing about bein' away is comin' back for the short party trips I gotta say- fit a lot of drunken stupidity in to the trip, along with some quality family time, and even a little paintball to even things out-

All in all, a great 2007, and a really promising start to 2008. Future is uncertain for later this year, but hopefully good things will keep happening... stay tuned..( *and I mean both of you..) for more updates!

Home!

2007-10-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

So I went back to T.O... again! You jerks all keep getting married the year I go away.. but a fantastic trip.. just not long enuff =P... got to see mostly everybody for about 2 seconds each =P. Stag in Montreal the weekend before Toronto went off without a hitch, much good times as always, and then it was back in town for a whirlwind tour... Stag was awsoma good times, thank god because I was sweatin' everything big time, we ended up going to a shooting range in montreal, thank got that went ok, cuz 13 guys hung over and on a stag + guns doesn't always make a good mix!! Beyond that I think we've redeemed Montreal as a stag destination of choice- Wedding was great as well even if I made a near dog's breakfast of the speech.

Didn't quite get to do the full Starz/DKP tour... only managed to catch Dharney, Gardiner, MikeG and Fabrillo, next time must book more time off to come home... hot damn was it nice to be on Canadian soil again, if only for a little while.

On the more random side of things ended up going to Screamers fri night for the first time, good times, the asylum haunted house was the best, the others were so-so... no idea when I'll be able to go home again so not managing to see everybody was a bit of a disappointment, but with any luck be back for a bit of a visit early next year. That reminds me, still gotta send out a thank you letter to all the stag boyz and show them the pics- the pics for the wedding, stag, and general visit pics are in my gallery in the usual place- since I'm pretty sure Roger and Roubina are the only ones that read this thing I'm guessing you guys know where to find them =P!!

Ooot and Aboot in Sheep/Wine Country

2007-10-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

Soo.. been a while since the last post... lazy lazy me... anyway, last few months have been funz, hit up Edinburgh for a few days in August, and then Bordeaux in beginning of Oct. Both cool places-! I think Bordeaux was more fun but damn you have to see the scenery to believe it in Scotland- Bordeaux was no slouch either, St. Emillion which is a small village near by is incredible-

Food wise was also pretty neat, had a few good wines in Bordeaux, tried 'Ris de Veau' (cow lymphatic glands) in France... and a little bit of Haggis in Scotland. Haggis was pretty good, Ris de Veau was pretty gross... live and learn.. Next stop I think we are going to try something a bit on the warmer side, originally we were going to go to Marrakech, but ole Allah likes his Ramadan nice and quiet so that kinda sunk that trip.

Bordeaux pics <============> Edinburgh pics

United Kingdom - 3 Adrian - 0

2007-06-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

So a big fun filled weekend just passed, despite the fact that i was in various states of soaking wet for most of it-! Sat. Night me and Ruby went to Taste Of London, basically like summerlicious back home but there is also actually a bunch of pavillions at regent park to taste food and drink.. towards the end biblical level rain... yay! Food was great, didn't get to try out as much as we would have liked, could definitely do a whole day there / 2 meals-- was getting pretty damn hammered towards the end too from all the free tastings and stuff. Had one of the best mojitos eVar ... mmmm... rum ...

Sunday, went to Goodwood Festival of Speed ... that one was rainy from that start... and muddy as fuck-! Really kind of put a damper on the day as most of the grounds were dirt so it was a big dirty muddy mess- didn't stay that long and missed out on a few cars that I really wanted to see- also stayed off the actual hill as our shoes were getting ruined just fine walking around the paddock- phooey! Did get to see some really cool bio concept cars, some F1 cars, and a bunch of exotics- most of the WRC paddocks were empty alas, but did catch a few rally cars here and there... bailed on the Supercar area and missed out on some nice ones in there as well, ah well- next time I'll save my £s and go to motoGP or F1 silverstone instead-

Monday took work off to go to wimbledon-!! Lined up at 4:00am and ended up getting Court 1 Tickets! Awesome seats a few rows back, first match was Andy Rodick, and second match was Justine Henin, noice! Last match was supposed to be Blake, but (of course) on and off rain all day long meant long delays and at one point we were pretty close to them cancelling the matches altogether- Wimbledon is definitely a first class operation, tons of staff, not too crowded, super well organized. I wish those guys would run personal banking and broadband internet here ... =( Rodick match was awesome and could have been very tense if Gimblestob had won the second set, also had the classic longest deuce evar (at least 8 times-!) .. Henin match was a typical 1st round n00b slaughter, but entertaining (and briefly sunny!) nonetheless.

Damn you soggy Britain. Damn you all to hell. Click for PICS ..

Oh La la I got off my ass

2007-06-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

So Ruby and Me finally got off our butts and went to paris for a weekend, was pretty cool I have to say, first major diff between paris and london you notice, when you come out of the subway, there's always something cool to see... took the train, going in the chunnel is definitely anti climactic... goes black suddenly.. ears pop a bit... and out again. Did all the tourista classics there.. tower.. churches.. catacombs ... napolean's novelty sized jumbo coffin. Good times, possibly head back there again and do the country wine tour thing in versailles in the fall-

Also realised belatedly we manged to miss out on both MotoGP AND F1... fux! duh... stupid me...at least we're going to goodwood festival this weekend... pics and info about that soon- My internet as been down at home for a week.. hooray for crumbling infrastructure...grumble

pics ====> here <=====

Some pics!

2007-01-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

From Welcome to Lo...

So some pics are up here

Finally got broadband...! I admit I'm a pretty lousy photographer, so I tried to pick some of the better ones out of the bunch...

Meet you at cockfosters

2007-01-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

Oh yah, almost forgot, they have a station here called Cockfosters. AHAHAHAHAHA hahah AHAHAH hahah AHAH HO HOHO hoot hoot holler bwahahahah lololol rofl .... good times.

First Week Out of the Way

2007-01-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

So The First week is out of the way... haven't found a place yet, but still looking. London is pretty cool so far, Roubina flew back yesterday, *sniff*, but she'll prolly be back soon, around march-ish at the latest, so now I've just got to find a flat and get all settled in. Work has been pretty cool too, hasn't been to o busy, and co-workers all seem pretty laid back and as far as I can tell so far really damn talented!
The food kinda blows, but I was kinda expecting that. Went to one or two good restaurants with Ruby, but man, how the hell do you screw up breakfast? Ah well. Haven't done too much touristy stuff, checked out the museum, and Ruby almost had an anuerism at Harrod's food hall. When we went they had an opera singer in the escalator area, which was pretty neat actually!

The weather has been unseasonably mild which is fine by me! Only a small amount of rain here and there, though it's typically gloomy as hell. More pics and stories to follow ...

Entry Visa Nightmare

2006-12-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

So I'm not anywhere yet, flying out Jan 1st. ... got my work permit in the mail via fedex last night, which I have been chomping at the bit for as I needed to go to ottawa to apply in person since they company is cutting time so tight... so I get the app yesterday afternoon and try and make an online appointment, guess what, the only appointment left is the next day at 9:15am or 9:45am! So I have less than 12 hours to go print out a bunch of paperwork, get a passport photo (thank god for shopper's drug mart...), drive my ass to ottawa, and then come right back! Definitely not a fun day, but happily I have my entry visa and all is well in the land of international terrorism. Incidentally the security at the embassy is nuts these days! I'm surprised I didn't have to leave a stool sample on my way out just in case...

In other news Ottawa is kinda like a cleaner version of London in 28 Days Later when Cillian Murphy first wakes up and finds that all of the people are gone. Pretty sleepy place-! Perhaps there were polite, canadian zombies all hidden away somewhere just waiting to pop out, too bad i didn't stick around...

Straight Bloggin'

2006-12-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hey, so I have a blog now! Which probably means I've exponentially increased my odds of any of the following:

-no one reading it
-attending either a lord of the rings, or star trek full movie marathon some time in my life
-dying alone

But anyway, I thought this would be a neat way to jot down some impressions of living and working in London, as I'm known to be really god damn forgetful. Got the idea from Justin, who's got a similar blog set up for his life and times in sunny san diego! Shoud be cool to compare notes at some point no doubt-! Also, when people ask me how I'm doing, I can totally avoid them and just say 'just check my 'blog, yo!'

Sry for the lack of 'real' photos, no digital camera yet.. but hopefully that'll have sorted itself out by christmas time. =)