Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012

| Richard

Well that was a great weekend!

After an horrendous, six hour drive down from Manchester on Friday night – idiots who can’t drive in a straight line on a road with one-way traffic crashing into each other – Amy and her housemate drove over to stay the night.

Saturday morning dawned bright and dry and found me cooking the sausages and eggs they’d kindly brought over before we headed off to Hackney Marshes, arriving at around 11.00am and queuing to get into BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend 2012.  Somewhat bizarrely, we were asked to show our tickets five times before we actually got into the main area. Bizarre, because after the first gate and ticket check, there was no way for someone to have sneaked in.

Amy and Sophie
Amy and Sophie
Hackney Weekend
Hackney Weekend

Once inside, we wandered over to grab an ostrich burger and  cider before the acts came on to the various stages. And there were some cracking acts: in my case, I watched Deadmau5 (fabulous and loving the two electronic mouse helmets), Emeli Sandé (what a voice!), My Panda Shall Fly (great name, amusing self-deprecation), Paigey Cakey (not my thing but well done), Example (OK, I suppose), Ed Sheeran (absolutely great set, well done – one man, a guitar and a loop machine keeping us in thrall for an all too brief 45 minutes). Nicki Minaj (whose outfit let go after the strain of her miming), Lostprophets (fabulous set and the cover of “Earthquake” with secret guest Labrinth was really good), Jack White (rocked it) and finally Jay-Z who was supported by guests Rihanna, MIA and Kanye West to close the night off. And the best thing was the rain stayed off until late on the Saturday evening so we didn’t get particularly soggy either.

Ed Sheeran at Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012
Ed Sheeran at Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012
Lostprophets at Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012
Lostprophets at Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012

So a great time with a bit of pratting about thrown in for good measure:

Owling Under the BBC Studio
Owling Under the BBC Studio

So thank you so much BBC Radio 1 for such a great weekend and so well-organised to boot!

Olympic Route Network – Clear As Mud

| Richard

Yet more fuckwittery from TFL and LOCOG, I presume: this time it’s the Olympic Route Network which shows the already-busy routes that will be completely messed up by bussing all the VIPs around in their 4,000 chauffeured BMWs – oh and maybe one or two athletes who aren’t staying on site at the Villages for some unknown reason.

So here’s a map of the routes: London 2012 Olympic Route Network (PDF)

There you go then: the Olympic Route Network … oh and an Alternative Olympic Route Network “to be used if the Olympic Route Network cannot be used”. Eh? Wait, there’s an explanation:

“Some road race events including the Cycling Road Race, the Triathlon and the Olympic and Paralympic Marathons, will take place on sections of the Olympic or Paralympic Route Network (ORN/PRN). During these events, which are mostly at weekends, some parts of the ORN/PRN will be closed and an alternative ORN/PRN route will be in place.  These alternative routes will be open to all general traffic. However, there will be some temporary traffic changes, including changes to traffic signal timings, on these roads so that athletes, officials, media and key Games workers can get to events on time.”

No news as to what other traffic changes will be planned if us common people are supposedly still allowed to use them. And there’s another map for us to look at showing these ORNs … which doesn’t tie-up with the AORNs on the first map, of course: where’s Jamaica Road, etc.?

Confused? You will be…

Quality Time

| Richard

Well that was another good weekend!

Friday saw Jack coming down First Class as usual with me meeting him at Stratford and then heading to Surrey Quays for dinner at Frankie & Benny’s before heading over to watch Prometheus in 3D – neither great nor disappointing – before heading back to the apartment for a late night.

Mid-morning and we headed off to Surrey Docks Farm for their fabulous Farmhouse Breakfasts and then off to Oxford Street to go suit shopping for Jack. He wasn’t taken with the more expensive suits even on offer at Lewin or Tyrwhitt and Ted Baker, so we settled on the suit he’d seen at Top Man as well as a new pair of shoes. Then back home for Papa John’s pizzas and Euro 2012 on the telly.

This morning, we got up late and then headed off to Liverpool Street for Jack to head back up to Norwich whilst I went off to Spitalfields to buy some Doc Martens for the USA trip.

Now enjoying the television and catching up as always.

Another Change of Plan

| Blue

Sadly, Global Enduro had to cancel the Sturgis trip as a group had had to cancel. Thankfully, there was another authorised trip on Harley Davidson’s website: Route 66 Westbound – 2400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles with more or less the same dates, so definitely do-able.

This was on my bucket list and whilst I still want to do Sturgis at some time in the future, doing Route 66 will be an amazing ride with some sights along the way like Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

So I’ve booked with Italian organisers Bikers American Dream and waiting to hear further details now. Still aiming to book a Road King but I may have to go for an Electra Glide if not.

Happiness

| Richard

A beautiful, sunny day today! I left Manchester this morning and drove through the Peak District to do a presentation at an immensely impressive off-site fabrication park near to Worksop. Due to the amount of traffic, my speed was forced lower which meant I could actually sight-see as I was driving along and made my journey so much more enjoyable.

The middle of the afternoon found me heading back down to London and I chose my preferred route, via the A1 and M11. What this meant was that I ended up driving back down the route I used to travel twice a week when I was living in Cleethorpes and hence was very familiar. As it was still hot and sunny and with the music playing loudly, my mood was its usual positive one, genuinely happy. I did find myself reminiscing about the times I’d done this same journey as I passed Grantham, my former turn-off onto the A46.

I thought about the good times I’d had as a result of those journeys and how ignorance had been bliss; ignorance of my being conned, betrayed, deceived and then blatantly lied to before I left forever. And then I was reminded about how much I’m enjoying life these days without all of that baggage and how I’m at peace with what happened. I’ve already forgiven but not forgotten. It appears that what doesn’t kill you does indeed make you stronger: in my case it taught me that I could still be generous whilst suffering fools and con-artists graciously and to value family and friends more. And it meant that I could have true happiness without hassle and heartache. And that’s got to be good.

It's better to have loved and lost than to live with a psycho for the rest of your life
This was on my Facebook Newsfeed recently!

So I’m back in London tonight but heading back up to Manchester in the morning, this time by train so I can have a leisurely breakfast and a snooze in First Class. Work hard, play hard, love lots and live life to the full: looking forward to seeing more stunning European Cities (like Vienna, again in June) and then my Big Trip in the summer.

Hello Kitty!

| RHMP

A weekend shoot with the lovely Marlyn Lindsay saw us trying a Catwoman theme and then some secretarial lifestyle and tease shoots.

As always, Marlyn and I had a great laugh – I love working with her – and now I need to work on the edits; in the meantime, I’ve had a quick play with a couple of images so far: they’re in my Fetish portfolio page:

no images were found

Quick Update

| Richard

A busy couple of weeks! The last fixture of Norwich City’s Premier League season saw a lot of good-hearted banter with the Aston Villa fans on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Saturday had seen tapas and shopping in Norwich with Jack before going ti watch Dark Shadows that evening. It didn’t quite live up to the hype but I enjoyed it anyway.

Lots of business development since then with lunches and dinners to attend so it was nice to be able to fit in dinner at Gaucho with Amy even it was a tad expensive.

In other work news, apart from work and meetings coming up in Manchester, I will also be lecturing in Vienna next month again – I’m hoping to be able to take GT over there for at least part of the time as well as our planned Venice trip as a prequel to her birthday in November.