Author: Richard

2013 Review

| Richard

Well as I sit here munching on Jelly Babies until I feel sick – check! – it’s time to do a quick review of 2013:

January

Work took me to Paris a few times. At home I viewed a house in the block I live in, but was unable to move on it until all the financials were sorted, so I had to let it go. Gigging involved James Gillespie.

February

A couple of great photoshoots this month: Elle Black at the place she was living in in London and the London Fashion Weekend and my first proper catwalk shoot.

March

March started with some running to build up my fitness before the proper training for the Berlin Marathon, which I carried on whilst over on holiday in Fuerteventura with the ‘kids’ despite breaking a toe after a day or two there. Amy’s performance for her finals went ahead which was a really produce moment for me.

I also enjoyed afternoon tea and burlesque with GT one weekend! On the work front, there were more seminars and training to give.

April

The highlight for April was GT running the Paris Marathon and a luxury dirty weekend in Paris. My training was going OK-ish with my tricky calf muscle being a problem: I was using Ibuprofen tablets and gel.

May

Lots more running with a few 5km runs as I was beginning to build up my distance running. GT was running the Milton Keynes Marathon – on a very hot and dry weekend… – and I decided to do their Superhero Fun Run. Not so fun in that heat and with my calf muscles playing up badly, but I was still the first superhero home:

Milton Keynes Superhero Fun Run
Milton Keynes Superhero Fun Run

There was a lot of fine dining: celebrating a friend’s life with champagne and dinner at Le Pont de la Tour with GT and the Harelquin’s End of Season Dinner at the Hurlingham Club; I decided then I needed a new dinner suit…

Work saw a lot of client training in England and Northern Ireland.

On the photography front, I started shooting again: this time Alexa Star for what I was calling my Polaroid Project:

Alix - Polaroid Project 04
Alix – Polaroid Project 04

June

The highlight of June for me was undoubtedly our Eurothrash to the Pyrenees with Yox and Purge. Photos and videos and a write-up are in this blog post.

Other than that, my knee was starting to play up really badly when training…

Oh and I ordered a new motorcycle: a Triumph Sprint GT.

July

So I picked up the Sprint GT: very pleased with it, too.

July saw the start of some physiotherapy on my knee to try to improve – but not fix – it. I’d had to cancel my place in the Berlin Marathon; postponed until 2014 now.

Work-wise, it was Paris, London and Manchester.

August

Still having lots of physiotherapy on the knee which is beyond salvation short of an operation. My Consultant had suggested I stop running and do biathlons instead – cycling and swimming – but “run a marathon” remains on my bucket list so he said I should do the one to get it crossed off and then stop … after a 14 week lay-off. In the meantime, cycling would help: high cadence, low impact/pressure stuff, so that’s what I started doing – 43 miles this month.

Gigging was Iron Maiden at the O2 Arena.

September

Well the Berlin Marathon was September’s highlight: not for me, as I couldn’t run it, but for GT who scored a (well below) sub-4hr marathon PB which gave her a Good For Age entry for London in 2015.

Gig this month was Kings of Leon as part of the iTunes Festival and cycling mileage was 41.

September also saw my photo of the year: walking home from work, I came across the London Air Ambulance landed on Potters Field by Tower Bridge as a cyclist had been squished. I happened to take a quick iPhone shot of the landing site pausing only to try to set it up as best I could and then I uploaded the image to Instagram. That night, a local news site picked up on it and asked if they could use the credited photo on their site, which they did. The next morning it was picked up by ITV News and used on their site with credit (eventually). And the London Air Ambulance themselves picked up on it and asked me if they could use it for their promotional stuff. I was happy to licence it to them and indeed made a bigger version for them as the original would be too small for print:

London Air Ambulance at Tower Bridge
London Air Ambulance at Tower Bridge

October

Work-wise, I was here, there and everywhere: London, Manchester and a day trip to Vancouver to do a presentation! That was hard work.

I also arranged another photoshoot with Marlyn Lindsay: this time at my apartment. Very pleased with the results too:

Marlyn Lindsay

November

Or “Movember” as I grew another hairy slug under my nose for the month.

A big month for me this one: I split up with GT as it just wasn’t working as both of us would have wanted. Better to end it on friendly terms too.

Lots of gigs this month too: Bring Me The Horizon, The Cult, Lacuna Coil, Queens of the Stone Age, The Pixies and Vampire Weekend!

December

December saw another Canadian day trip: this time to Toronto which was fun.

Gigs were London Grammar and Placebo. Both excellent!

I finished my photography off with another shoot with Marlyn Lindsay who never fails to produce the goods: this is why I like shooting seasoned professional models.

Marlyn Lindsay

And so as we go into 2014, it’s looking really good: work is on the up and up, my personal life is great and on the photography side I’ve already got a lot of shoots in the diary including one with a Hollywood-based International fetish model. Wow!

December So Far…

| Richard

Well November ended on a high: whilst up in Norfolk for the weekend, I took Amy – Jack baled out at the last moment – to see London Grammar play the Open in Norwich and very good they were too (as expected).

Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich

I was also impressed in particular by one of the support acts: Josh Record, who may or may not use my suggestion of “Geoff” for the title of their presently unnamed track. Or not.

Josh Record at the Open, Norwich
Josh Record at the Open, Norwich

Tuesday of the following week and I was back off to Canada; Toronto this time to speak at a major exhibition (people actually had to pay to see me speaking). This time, it was a morning flight so I arrived at lunchtime EDT . Straight from the Airport via our offices to check the venue out for the following day, then off to the hotel to do a quick shower and change and back out for the evening: dinner at the Toronto Maple Leafs where their top player, Phil Kessel, celebrated his career 200th goal after scoring against the San Jose Sharks. Very enjoyable evening.

Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks
Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks

Wednesday and it was up early for breakfast and meeting colleagues before heading down to the convention centre to do my thing. A quick drink afterwards – bought for me by an ex-pat British lawyer (I didn’t have time to get her name) – then off to the airport for the red-eye to Heathrow.

Friday I had the day off: I was heading down to Gloucester for the PurplePort social. Great fun with lots of drink and chat: Katra was memorable for touching my face all evening looking for (non-existent) plastic surgery scars and Ali was memorable for not falling out of her corset despite all odds!

After breakfast, I headed back to London … via Bourton-on-the-Water where I lived when I was a little boy and we’d come back to the UK from Malta. I’d been taught our address parrot-fashion as we all do with our kids, so I popped it in to Waze on my iPhone and headed there. It was still as I remembered it, bar the houses that had been built behind the bungalow. Off into the village centre which was as I remembered it for a coffee and a walk around.

Fosse View
Fosse View
Selfie in Bourton
Selfie in Bourton

More of the same the following week – another seminar to give in London – and then the following week was fabulous, starting with the Placebo gig at Brixton on Monday 16th with GT. Really, really good they were too and it was nice to see GT after a few weeks.

Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton

Later that week, in Crawley at a Client’s, I dropped the RX-8 off at the nearby dealer to see if they could sort out the headlight washers: hitting a pheasant at {cough} MPH had split and lost the thick hose that feeds the headlight washers. They have had to order-in the hose which will be a massive £380 fitted! Expensive car, this one. Then back on Thursday evening for the company Christmas Dinner Cruise along the Thames, during which I gave a younger colleague a pep-talk about his forthcoming new baby and how he shouldn’t envy my lifestyle. He didn’t go home that night, apparently. So much for mentoring…

Friday I had the afternoon off as a friend, NT, was coming to stay at mine for the weekend. I picked her up from the railway station and we stopped off at London Bridge to pick up my car from the office where I’d left it overnight. As it was a lovely day, I took her up the Shard – fnarr! – before heading home. A lovely steak at Gaucho that evening. Saturday she wanted to do some shopping for her kids so we went up to Camden; tapas and t-shirts. Saturday and it was off to Le Pont de la Tour for dinner from their tasting menu. Excellent nosh.

NT at Tower Bridge
NT at Tower Bridge

Then into the Christmas Week: Christmas Eve was peculiar as due to the storms that hit the UK, I was one of the first into the office and it remained that way until mid-morning when just a few made it in. Drinks and snacks at the pub and then home. Christmas Day and I’d been invited to GT’s for what was a lovely Christmas Dinner including her fabulous Cheesy Chestnut Roast. Feeling bloated, I headed home to an early night before heading up to Norfolk for Boxing Day and the first of two defeats this week for Norwich City.

New Year’s Eve beckons now – after a shoot I have planned tomorrow with Marlyn Lindsay – and my plans include a possible NYE at Slimelight. I did wonder about grabbing a last-minute flight to Moscow to see the New Year in with Manuel and Angelo (friends from Route 66) but flights are stupidly expensive for what would be a one-night stay!

Movember

| Richard

Well, November has been an interesting month…

I decided to join in with Movember again this year: fundraising for men’s mental health. A good cause. But yes, I end up looking more ridiculous than usual and hating the annoying slug festering under my nose! At least tomorrow I can shave the bastard off or at least trim it right back!

Tonight, I’m supposed to be going to their Gala Parté at the Roundhouse Camden, but I came down with a heavy cold this week which is on its way out – thankfully – but is on my chest right now, so I can’t really be arsed. And I’m a little bit down at the moment, if I’m honest, but shh! That’s our secret, right?

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The 6th was the Bring Me The Horizon gig at Brixton. A good one, if I’m honest, although the band’s lead singer was a knob trying to look big in front of the predominantly young, female, screaming audience. More noise from them than from the stage.

That Friday it was the PurplePort London Social: it was good to meet up with some photographers and some models, including Sakura Star who’d previously said she was keen to work with me on a somewhat noir bondage and fetish project going forward: she has some excellent work on her portfolio already.

The next day it was off up to Norwich to see Norwich City beat West Ham United and thereby save Chris Hughton from the dole queue for a little longer…

The following week was fun at work: I was put forward for a major commission in Canada without my knowledge so I had a meeting planned with my boss – the owner of the business I work for – which never happened as we’d heard that I was needed in Chicago for a meeting which was then cancelled at short notice as they’d gone with a local company instead of ours. So that’s parked for another day…

I had a couple of days off that week to recharge and the Wednesday was a good opportunity to have one last thrash on the Sprint before winter sets in. I headed off down to Sussex, for a “Bigboy Breakfast” at Wesson’s Cafe, stopping off en route to get a warning for a dodgy numberplate as it’s too small, apparently. Oops! Must order a legal one: the bike never came with one because the vanity plate came later. The that night it was off to the O2 to see Vampire Weekend and Noah and the Whale in concert. GT and I stayed for three songs, it was that rubbish…

At the weekend, GT and I were off to an 80s party in the evening: her goth’d up (more so than usual thanks to crimping her hair) and me with a poodle perm wig, Frankie Say Relax t-shirt, white linen trousers and some horrendous white canvas shoes. A late one at that, DJ-ing from my iPhone with some 80s tracks. And then there was the Sunday…

GT had a race first thing in the morning, so while she was gone I got up, bathed and had a coffee. When she got back I made more coffee and joined her in the bathroom whilst she had a post-race bath. I told her there was something wrong: I felt she wasn’t that in to me any more – we’ve been seeing each other for nearly 3 years now on an irregular, regular basis – and that it’s become more pronounced since she was promoted, working longer hours with shifts, etc. GT agreed that she seemed to have no time to put in to a relationship these days to make one work, so we agreed to split up rather than just going through the motions. We then spent the afternoon shopping in Kingston and had dinner before I left.

The following weekend was all about gigs and bikes: on Saturday it was off to the NEC for Motorcycle Live. A chance for me to buy some new Goretex Alpinestars SMX Plus bike boots in black for next summer’s Austrian Eurothrash. It was also great to bump into Emma Kate Dawson for a chat and a catch-up.

Then on the Saturday night I saw Queens of the Stone Age at the Wembley Arena and as I had a spare ticket – I always buy two out of habit – I invited Sakura Star along as I knew she was at a loose end having just split up from her bloke. She showed me some great photos that another photographer had taken of her in a fab leather and feather dress which are now on her profiles having got clearance from the designers and we had a few drinks before the gig. QOTSA were excellent and SS was good company.

Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Ages

Then on the Sunday night it was off to the Hammersmith Apollo with GT to see the Pixies who were also absolutely superb.

The Pixies

 

The Pixies

Last week was busy: London, Birmingham and Manchester with lots of different hotels and lots of travelling. And there’s more to come soon when I pop over to Toronto to speak at a major event.

At least that should keep me busy and my mind off relationships past, present and future. In the meantime, I’ve booked next year’s holidays to Fuerteventura with my ‘kids’ to go with the Austrian Eurothrash.

Busy, eh?

| Richard

Well that was a week and a half!

Or actually just a week! It started with a visit the week before from one of our Non-Execs to have dinner with a bunch of us to tell us about the Canadian market that he’s helping us get introduced into. I found out that a colleague and I had been included in a proposal for a Client that we were hoping we’d win. It was useful too for me to meet him as I was heading out to Vancouver to do a seminar to some potential Clients the last week of October…

…and so it transpired: I was out – economy class – after work on the Tuesday. The plan was to do the 9.5 hour flight, ‘regain’ 7 hours due to the time difference, meet our Americas President and the Non-Exec for drinks, etc. Sadly, a four hour delay on the tarmac at Heathrow put paid to that. At one point, the pilot told us that we might miss the last flight slot. That would have caused serious problems for us as I was the only one with the virtual reality/augmented reality stuff loaded onto an iPad. We were on the tarmac long enough for me to watch the first two films from the decent selection of recent titles that I enjoyed:

  • Alan Partridge – Alpha Papa
  • Fast and Furious 6
  • Iron Man 3
  • Now You See Me
  • World War Z

So after the long flight, I landed at Vancouver, went through customs and out the other end to get a courtesy bus to the Hilton … which took a little while. By the time I checked in it was 1.30am local time, so a quick decaff and then it was bedtime. Up at 7.00am to get ready for breakfast with my colleagues and it was off to downtown Vancouver for a meet and greet and then do my thing, which went down very well with lots of interest.

Back to the airport to do some catching up on work e-mails using the work presentation MacBook Pro Retina rather than my shite work laptop before an evening flight home … overnight, landing at around midday. Films on the way home were:

  • A Good Day to Die Hard
  • Pain & Gain
  • Zero Dark Thirty (though I didn’t get to see the last half hour, so looking forward to that on Sky next week)

I stayed up until late Thursday night to try to get back into the swing of things. 6 hours’ sleep in 3 days.

Friday and it was in to the office for a catch up and to be told that yes, I’m back out to Toronto in December … and in the meantime, there’s that proposal I was included in which seems to be coming our way. So next week it’s Chicago (and possibly Toronto).

Friday night and it was off to the Roundhouse at Camden with friends to see the Cult who were really, really good.

The Cult Electric 13 Tour
The Cult Electric 13 Tour

Saturday evening there was a party in Epsom to go to, so another late night.

A lay-in on Sunday was much-needed before lunch and shopping and then heading back to the Roundhouse in Camden again to see Lacuna Coil who were excellent!

Lacuna Coil Paradise Lost Tour
Lacuna Coil Paradise Lost Tour

Phew!

Southwark Council and Capita Local Government Services

| Richard

Even typing that title reminded me that with such epic organisations, the degree of fuckwittery would be of epic proportions.

And so it is with Southwark Council’s “Council Tax Single Person Discount Review” letter which threatens to withdraw the discount if you don’t reply within 14 days.

“We are using an external agency to assist us, which will include checking data from other sources and reviewing details of credit applications made at your address.”

OK, so it’s more jobs for the boys and more cost to the council tax payers.

But you can’t fill in a form online to declare that yes, it is still just you. Likewise a telephone number. No, you have to fill in the form and post it back.

Capita have chosen not to include a reply envelope to do that. Not even one that needs a stamp. Not even a blank one. The reason?

“The Council hasn’t paid us to send out envelopes or stamps.”

So I asked what would happen if I sent them their form in an envelope without a stamp?

“Oh it won’t even be delivered to us and your reduction will go.”

That line was delivered in a really sneery voice too by the ‘helpful’ Customer Service agent on the telephone when I rang them.

So yes, more of the usual bollocks delivered by an overpriced external agency to an unfit for purpose Council. No surprises there, then.

Berlin Marathon Weekend

| Richard

I was supposed to have been running the 40th Berlin Marathon: having been with GT for the London, Paris and Venice Marathons, I’d decided if she was running Berlin and I’d be there anyway, maybe I should run it. How hard could it be? {cough}

So after a few false starts with pulled calf muscles, I started training a little more seriously back in the summer, running a couple of 5ks a week and upping it slightly to a 10k with no apparent problem … apart from a shooting pain in my right knee the moment I started off. Ah…

I’d tried to overcome this in the wrong way: taking Ibuprofen orally and directly to the knee, but I knew that was the wrong thing to do long-term so I got referred privately to a renowned expert on knee surgery/conditions who confirmed patellofemoral dysfunction and early arthropathy (which explained the confirmed crepitus I’d noticed in the knee as well). After several weeks physiotherapy and taking up cycling – 20 miles a week currently on Saturdays when I’m home – it’s improving but I can’t start training properly until the New Year.

Despite being sidelined, I took a long weekend with GT, booking a €400-a-night room at the excellent Hotel Adlon Kempinski right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Or, as I found out the week we were going, two rooms. Oops! Luckily, they were kind enough to cancel the room without charge after a couple of phone calls. Phew!

We flew out to Berlin and settled right in to the truly luxurious hotel, with a quick wander about around the Brandenburger Tor and an hour’s ride around Berlin in a horse-drawn carriage which was quite romantic (and extensively photographed), then back to an epic Thai meal in one of the many restaurants at the hotel: fabulous food but horrendously expensive!

Saturday and after the most opulent five course breakfast with champagne, it was off by underground to a disused airport to get running chips and numbers – very badly organised compared to Paris and particularly London – before wandering around to find a lovely restaurant where we ate oysters, mains and cheese with lots of wine before heading back for an early-ish night.

Up at 5.45am on the Sunday as the hotel had laid on a special breakfast just for the marathon guests, then back up for final prep before joining a group of other runners in the lobby and the short walk to the start. GT had previously got so close to breaking the four hour barrier she was hitting that everyone was saying this could be the one due to PBs on all her recent runs, but she was getting fed up with the pressure from friends and was just going to go for the run rather than the time. Saying she didn’t really like marathons, this would be her 11th and last, she said.

After GT started off I walked off to find the underground as I was heading off to the Spreepark to taken some urbex shots of the deserted theme park during the four hours I’d have to myself. Despite the 6km walk to and around the park, I couldn’t find any easy way in that didn’t have too many onlookers nearby. Ah well. I was joined by a little old biddy who followed me around chatting away in German. I speak very little German… Then back onto the train to get back for the finish. The official marathon app was only suggesting she’d started but on the train I logged into the full website and found that GT was on for a sub-four time so it was a rush to get back to the finish line in time. I managed – just – as she’d not just beaten 4:00:00 – she’d smashed it! 3:49:06!

So it turns out this means a GFA: “good for age” which means an automatic entry into the London Marathon in 2015. Oh and as I still intend to run Berlin next year, GT said it would be rude not to run that. Oh and she’s planning a girl’s weekend in New York with her mates so they can all run the New York Marathon. And on Tuesday after we’d got back and the post-marathon blues kicked in, she’s booked Edinburgh (as have I just for a practice…).

Back to the hotel for a bath and then off to get wine, walking past other finishers who all looked at GT relaxed, cleaned up and wearing her finishers’ medal just as they’d only just finished the event! A bit of a crap Italian meal before bed.

Monday saw us walking around down to the Topography of Terror, the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie before getting a taxi back to the airport and home.

Abstract Heads
Abstract Heads
Rose-Tinted Spectating
Rose-Tinted Spectating
Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate with our Hotel Adlon
Spreepark
Spreepark
Haunted House at Spreepark
Haunted House at Spreepark
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
3:49:06
3:49:06
2013 Berlin Marathon Medal
2013 Berlin Marathon Medal
Topography of Terror
Topography of Terror
Holocaust Memorial
Holocaust Memorial
Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride
Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride
Brandenburger Tor
Brandenburger Tor

Qatar 2022 World Cup

| Richard

…or why football is utter bollocks.

There’s a bit of a hoo-ha about holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the moment.

It seems that people have just realised that with the World Cup taking place in the summer months (North of the Equator, anyway), it might be a little warm in the desert at that time. Nothing like forward thinking … and this is nothing like forward thinking (or any thinking at all, come to think of it).

Now I thought I’d read somewhere that to counter this potential issue, the stadium designs included some clever technology to air condition the stadia to reduce temperatures down to a more acceptable level for the footballers and spectators.

So what’s their gripe?

I mean we all know that footballers are a bunch of wusses when compared to, say motorbike racers. The former are off for weeks for minor injuries whereas the latter tend to just get it plated, sewn up and given painkillers so they can race the next week, or indeed they just race with the bones broken.

But then for the MotoGP, the bike racers simply raced at night when it was less hot.

FIFA don’t know what to do: they can’t postpone the World Cup until the winter months as that would play havoc with domestic championships and upset UEFA in terms of European competitions too.

So maybe it wasn’t such a good call to go to Qatar. But now they have chosen that location, maybe it’s time to tell the players to “man up, bitch!”

Qatar 2022 World Cup

| Richard

…or why football is utter bollocks.

There’s a bit of a hoo-ha about holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the moment.

It seems that people have just realised that with the World Cup taking place in the summer months (North of the Equator, anyway), it might be a little warm in the desert at that time. Nothing like forward thinking … and this is nothing like forward thinking (or any thinking at all, come to think of it).

Now I thought I’d read somewhere that to counter this potential issue, the stadium designs included some clever technology to air condition the stadia to reduce temperatures down to a more acceptable level for the footballers and spectators.

So what’s their gripe?

I mean we all know that footballers are a bunch of wusses when compared to, say motorbike racers. The former are off for weeks for minor injuries whereas the latter tend to just get it plated, sewn up and given painkillers so they can race the next week, or indeed they just race with the bones broken.

But then for the MotoGP, the bike racers simply raced at night when it was less hot.

FIFA don’t know what to do: they can’t postpone the World Cup until the winter months as that would play havoc with domestic championships and upset UEFA in terms of European competitions too.

So maybe it wasn’t such a good call to go to Qatar. But now they have chosen that location, maybe it’s time to tell the players to “man up, bitch!”

Fixed Penalty Payments

| Richard

The other day I was “making good progress” and was stopped by a Suffolk Constabulary PC who gave me a fixed penalty for the offence. We won’t even go to the whole “speed kills” bollocks (even the PC said my driving was exemplary but over the limit).

I was pleased that they’ve moved with the times and allow you to make online payments … or so I thought.

The Payment Slip part of the Fixed Penalty Notice has a “Ticket Number” (as do the other two parts you’re given) and there’s a “Payment Methods” box which includes a 24/7 automated payment 0300 line and a link to http://penaltynotice.direct.gov.uk

So off I went. The first step was to fill in the “Notice Number” box, so I entered the eight digit ticket number there … and got an error message saying “Invalid format for notice number”. The website doesn’t give any guidance – clickable or otherwise – as to what a valid format would be for the notice number. I tried losing the leading two zeros to no avail. Nothing.

So I rang the payment line and was given the message to enter the sixteen digit notice number. What? What sixteen digit notice number?

Eventually I was connected to an operator who told me that the “Notice Number” is actually the combination of the following:

  • three digit “Force Code”
  • two digit “Notice Type”
  • single digit “Source Code”
  • eight digit “Ticket Number”
  • two digit “Penalty Code”

Well how could I have been so stupid as to not know this? It’s obvious, isn’t it? So obvious that nowhere on the Fixed Penalty Notice does it tell you what the “Notice Number” is, nor how to work out what it is. So obvious that the website they point you towards doesn’t tell you what it is. And so obvious that the automated telephone line doesn’t tell you either. Or is it the usual Government ineptitude?