Pirate video

Don’t let the song get stuck in your head!

I went to the Brake Road Safety Awards on Friday evening with work. The company that I work for won an award for our risk management product which I thought was pretty cool. Nothing like drinking on company expenses.

I am going to have a Pimm’s party. It is called Pimm’s in the Park and will be on Saturday 11th August at 2pm in St Andrew’s Park, Bristol. Everyone is invited, just bring along a picnic, some chums and a bottle of Pimm’s!

I have visited my parents, met up with Lauren who is a friend from high school and now works in the same hospital as my Dad, been bowling – a sport that I definitely need more practice at, done a five mile walk over Cannock Chase, ate in multiple restaurants, been to the gym twice, wrote two Facebook applications on their new Facebook platform, washed the car, visited the Festival of Nature in Bristol and many other things besides.

Successful bowling is very much a combination of skill and luck. Dad was surprisingly good at sending the ball down the alley to remove all the pins in its path. However he did manage to slip over while showing off and cut his hand. Stuart, my sisters fiancé, had a quietly accomplished bowling technique while my aunt managed to get the ball into the gutter 99% of the time. The other 1% was when she got a strike halfway through the second game.

On Thursday I visited Casa Mexicana on Zetland Road in Bristol. A subtly themed Mexican restaurant with bored waiting staff greeted James, Jacky, Ross and myself as we chose a table by the window. Our drinks order was taken three times by three different waiters although we couldn’t complain when it arrived – the sangria that Ross had ordered certainly had a kick to it. The food was spicy and good although I think they were a bit stingy with the rice that was served with my Chimichanga.

Facebook is a social network site that began with American college students and has now rolled out across the world. Last week they released Facebook Platform, a development API allowing programmers to connect to and produce widgets for Facebook. I have created two Facebook applications this week. The first allows users of PleaseGetMe.com to display their wish lists on their Facebook profile page. The second, LifeKarma, allows you to give good or bad karma to your Facebook friends – and lets them retaliate. Your karma score is shown on your profile and you can even access a graph of your karma rating over time. If you have Facebook then please give them a try.

I have signed up to Last.fm so if anyone else is on that then add me as your friend

Is anyone going to the QFC party in November? I was thinking of getting myself a ticket but only if others are going too.

My Eurovision weekend was spent in the company of my good friends down in Exeter where Roz organised an exciting party in the house of Reagan, Dave B and Damo. I was allocated three countries that I had to support, as well as the UK, which were The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Belarus who did surprisingly well in the competition by coming sixth overall.

I think this year more than ever the political voting spoilt the competition. Eurovision has always been a bit susceptible to national bias with Greece and Cyprus being the main culprits over the years. However with the introduction of the Eastern Bloc and Balkan countries into the EBU it has become far more prevalent. It was laughably easily to predict the set of countries that were going to be gaining votes. I would be willing to bet that it will be these same set of countries that rank highly next year. Not that I am a sore looser or anything.

Our entry, a cross between Steps, 5ive and Eurotrash, with stunning chorography and deeply meaningful lyrics came a joint second to last with France. Not only that but it also managed to set Damo’s surround sound amplifier on fire with acrid smoke pouring out of it by the end of the performance.

Roz bought the most amazing burgers from some farm shop near her flat. They tasted gorgeous and I am very jealous that they have such a fine purveyor of burger goodness so close to them. I think at the weekend I will have to go to the delicatessen on the Gloucester road for meat treats.

It was also great to catch up with my friend John (Prom) who has been absent from my life for a good number of years now. He is coming to the end of a philosophy degree at Exeter so good luck to him in the coming months.

Oh, Serbia won Eurovision – much to Becky’s dismay as she had to drink from The Cup Of Europe (a bowl of sparkling alcoholic fruit punch) whenever they were given 12 points

Here’s to a great weekend, it was nice to catch up with everyone again.

Led by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam the orchestra clip-clopped along to “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” and set a new world record, beating the American total of only 1,789 people.

• Photos of the event
• Video of the orchestra

Rosie and I set off on the 3pm train from Bristol and arrived in London just before 5. Rosie and her mum had created white tunics with a red “St George” cross on the front. Rosie spent most of the journey tidying up the slightly frayed edges of the crosses with a pair of scissors. The tunics really did look amazing.

We grabbed a Krispy Kreme donut in Paddington, mmm raspberry glazed, before heading off on the tube to Trafalgar Square. Rosie had also managed to get some plastic swords from a party shop in Bristol and we were slightly worried about going past the Transport Police carrying shiny swords but in the end not an eyelid was batted.

We got to Charing Cross tube station at just after 5pm and climbed the stairs up to street level. A fair sized group of people were gathered in the square but it didn’t look like a record breaking number. After registering for the attempt we went and found a pub as we needed some dutch courage before changing into our Knights of the Round Table tunics. Jamie and Gabriele joined us, although Gabriele had to vanish off to work.

Time was ticking along so we quickly walked back to the square. By the time we returned the square was packed full of people. We had no idea how many but it must have been thousands. Rosie located Greg, who was standing on the edge of a fountain, and we squeezed through the croud to meet up with him, his brother Alex and some of their friends. The attempt began with a practice session explaining how to use the coconuts. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones came on stage to talk a little about the use of coconuts in the context of Monty Python before leading us in the world record attempt. We all clip-clopped along before it was announced by the editor in chief of the Guinness Book of World Records that we had smashed the American held record!

After the event Rosie, Jamie and I said good bye to Greg and Alex before going to find Rosie’s friends, Claire, Matt, James, and two others who i can’t remember the names of, on the other side of the square. We were getting pretty hungry by this point so it was suggested that we go and find an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant that Jamie knew. I have only had sushi a few times and I have always been fairly non plussed about it, however this place was great. Loads of different things on the traditional conveyor belt and it was all really nice. Claire and I did have a minor issue with some soya beans but the technical difficulty was quickly resolved.

Once the eating of the sushi was complete, and we did manage an impressive stack of plates, we walked briskly over to a cocktail bar called Thirst where I had a dry martini. Rosie and I could only stay for one drink as we needed to catch the 10.15 train back to Bristol. Jamie led the way back to the tube station and we were on our way home.

• Sponsor Norm to wheeze across the country

Nick turned out to still be at Becky and Dave’s house and I was cunningly invited to stay for dinner. Becky cooked a lovely chilli while Nick and Dave went off to Tesco to buy some sort of pie. The pie was good, it was apple pie.

At some point in the evening we came up with the Gloucester Road Pub Crawl™ which will have to be performed at some point. For the sake of reasonableness we have limited the crawl to only pubs, licenced bars and cafés between the Texaco garage opposite Sommerville Road and the point where the Gloucester Road becomes Cheltenham Road (aka The Arches). In vague order this will cover:

1. Robin Hood’s Retreat
2. Yellow Café
3. Bristol Flyer
4. It’s A Scream (The Rising Sun)
5. Halo
6. Foresters Arms
7. Hobgoblin
8. Some new café bar just before The Prom
9. The Prom
10. Prince of Wales
11. Hush Hush Bar
12. Bishops Tavern

Rosie then arrived and we went on Secret Mission 2 (which I shall write about at some future date) before trundling off home.

Oh, and I might be off to Tunisia at the end of the month!

Thursday: Drinks with Rosie at the Flyer where we discussed two secret projects that we are going to be working on.

Friday: Hit the city centre with MattyT and went to Mr Wolf’s for some noodles and then on to Timbuk2 for a drum and bass night.

Saturday: Off to my parents in Stafford, nice relaxing day and a short walk on Cannock Chase.

Sunday:  Grandparents visited for lunch and then I went and met up with a friend from high school who I hadn’t seen for nine years!

Monday:  Drove back to Bristol, collected Rosie and Nick from the airport, entertained Nick in the Flyer before putting him up for the night.