Had a wander round Newcastle, then off for a pint or 4 and over to watch Middlesbrough get through to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup. Shame I didn’t have the camera there as we were 3 rows from the front and could have got some awesome shots!
12 miles is a lot longer walking through bog in 40mph winds than it seems driving down the M27 :p
I’ve just managed to jump onto an unsecured wifi connection to post this and upload some pics. The fact that someone in the middle of this town of <100 people has broadband and a wireless connection is actually fairly impressive. Perhaps it's one of the sheep.
There is no mobile signal here. No calls from work, nice booze, great scenery, plenty of sheep - FANTASTIC 
Went for a 6 mile walk yesterday and going to double to 12 tomorrow. It's not as hard as I thought and thankfully there is a pub stop half way round. We went to Whitby today and I look a few pics. All up on my Flickr and more to follow tomorrow.
Wifi signal can be described as flaky at best so there may or may not be contact until I'm back - Enjoy folks
Well Shelley has finally made a decent man of Mark! The big day went of with without a hitch due to months of careful preparation by Mark and Shelley and everyone I have spoken to had a wonderful time and was very greatful for all their hard work.
Despite some last minute speech nerves it was an honour to be part of such an important day in their lives and I hope I didn’t stitch you up too much fella 
Highlights included Suze waking up Mark at 2.30am because we locked ourselves out (and subsequently immediately found the key), ending up in the only chavy pub in the whole of Wiltshire, Shelley’s request for more compliments during Mark’s speech and the whole event being generally awesome and everyone having a great time.
Lots of piccies in the usual place.
We’ve got the confirmation letters from both the estate agents through that everyone solicitors have begun soliciting, so hopefully we’ll be looking to move house in the middle of July. End the end, we went for a nice little 2 bedroom semi in Shirley, only about 10 minutes walk from where we currently live. I think the best thing about it is that after looking at about 15 houses, it was the only one where there were no annoying niggles - Living room too small, bathroom accessed via bedroom etc. It’s also in really top shape, so although we will redecorate to our tastes, there is no work needed initially.
The sellers dug their heals in with the price but luckily the flat sold for the valuation (actually slightly higher than I thought it would) and we have an excellent buyer who is paying cash so hopefully there won’t be any niggles 
In other news, the reality that I’ll be 30 soon becomes ever more obvious as I’ve now entered my 30th year. Had a nice evening in a Japanese restaurant with friends which was perfect after the adventures of the previous weekend at Mark’s stag do - Pics to follow when I renew my Flickr membership.
It’s been an expensive couple of weeks after a miscalculation on my behalf led to a taxi journey that cost £58 which I only managed to get down to £45 by an embarrasing sob story and plenty of piss taking by Joy! Then the next day, some chav smashes the passenger side window of my car and 2 others parked next to it. Now most people who know me would say that I have a fairly positive attitude with things like this, and I certainly think the police have got far more important things to be getting on with than investigating a smashed window. What I did find a really needless waste of resources is that after informing me that they wouldn’t be taking any action, I was asked to answer all sorts of questions on things like my age, ethnicity etc and was also visited twice by “Victim of crime” support officers who offered all sorts of councilling! The last thing I want to do is sound like a middle aged Daily Mail reading London taxi driver, but I really think that public services would be improved by focusing on the resources themselves, rather than bureaucracy and target levels.
On a positive side though, I’ve hopefully secured a nice little source of games by reviewing them on a website belonging to work. Joy did the first review for Mercury Meltdown Revolution on the Wii which you can read here. I really enjoyed this game on the PSP but it plays fantastically on the Wii-mote and is definately recommended.
Finally, after a bit of a lull on the Geko front, we’ve changed rehersal studios to Planet Sounds in Southampton, as noone actually lives in Winchester anymore. Although the whole place smells and feels full of damp, there is a lot more space and I think it will definately be a positive move We had a gig last night which was the first time that I’ve not been driving to for ages and I used the oppertunity as a scientific experiment to establish whether or not my playing ability would be affected by the intake of many pints of lager. The conclusions so far seem to be that it does, but it’s funny.
Submarines are awesome
Check out the Royal Navy submarine museum in Gosport if you get the chance. We also spotted the Museum of explosions nearby which sounds worth a visit
The third wedding we’ve been to this year (and no funerals, that’s 3-0 up!) was the lovely Gaz and Suze, or Mr. and Mrs. Liddon. Absolutely cracking affair and I was truely amazed by the happyness, warmth and good feeling from everyone there. It was also obvious how well both G & S compliment eachother as individuals to make a fantastic couple.
Highlights include
Many years of happyness to you both
Woohoo! A week off work!
We made a good start to it by getting away for a few days to Cornwall. I’m sure I’ll tell you all about it, so I won’t explain too much here. As ever the pictures are on my Flickr. Split into 3 sections : -
Looe - Where we stayed at The Old Malt House
The Project Eden - We went here for most of Tuesday
Plymouth - We called in here on the way back
Over to Joy’s parents tomorrow to visit the beast!
Thanks to Suze for dispelling the myth that the top end of town is only for the Burberry clad masses by inviting us out the the Fruit Bar. After really enjoying Zen a few weeks ago, the Fruit Bar may even have topped it for interesting places. The music has a nice balance as you don’t notice it, but it adds to the atmosphere and the furtiture is interesting and comfy (with cusions!)
We had to duck out a bit early as Joy was running a 10k race in the morning as I was recording. We managed to get the majority of 3 tracks down and with the mix and mastering done, I think they’ll come out OK. You can have a sneak preview of 1 of the tracks here.
http://www.geko-online.co.uk/songs/sleeponit.mp3
Meanwhile on Saturday we are playing the Bang Bar in Basingstoke.
And I’m beginning to feel normal again, only the exhaustion remains!