Went out in Liverpool on Saturday and had a great time. Got to Liverpool about 645pm and got back home to Manchester about 430am – I was knackered!

Went for a nice meal in Casa Bella on Victoria St and then moved onto the new Sports Cafe. It had only been opened recently. Spent a while in there and chatted and played a party game involved a cork and passing it to the next person from mouth to mouth. I don’t know the name of the game but I am sure lots of you have played it before.

Sports Cafe was OK but the dance floor was a bit quiet really (and the ratio of men to women wasn’t that good – where were all the women!). There seemed to be quite a few Hen Parties.

We moved onto Mood in Concert Square and stayed there till it closed at 2am. Started of in the RnB floor, moved to the dance floor and then ended the night with cheesy music – a strange mix of music including the Ghostbusters theme song and the Proclaimers. We then walked someone home, had a quick drink and chat and then I gave a couple ppl a lift home. Got home and was hoping McDonalds was open – unfortunately it wasnt so found some stuff in the cupboard at home. Some lamb stew or something. It was about 515am by the time I got to bed and the sun was almost starting the rise.

I planned to have a nice lie in but someone rang at 730!!! It was my parents who are on holiday. I jumped out of bed but didn’t manage to answer it before she put the phone down!!

Photos online! The page is password protected – you will need to email me for password. If anyone has any photos from the night please tell me.

Gumball Rall 2005 was recently held – in May 2005. It was a rally from London to Monaco.

A good site about the Rally is http://www.antandpete.co.uk/ with loads of videos.

(You can also view photos from last years rally on Kimbles site – http://www.kimble.org/gumball2004/)

The idea the the Gumball started in 1933. Motorcycle racer “Cannonball” Baker crossed the United States from one side to another in about 54 hours. The first rally was in 1971. This inspired the 1970s movie Gumball Rally and 1980s movie Cannonball (and all the various sequels such as Cannonball Run).

Maximillion Cooper started it all up again – he did this by getting 50 (rich) friends together, partying and then going from London to various countries in Europe. The rally has been happening every year since. Loads of celebrities take part in the rally include Jay Kay, Johnny Knoxville and Jodie Kidd.

You can view more information about it on the official site. (The flash version of the site isnt that good – the normal version of the sites good with some good pics).

The Manchester United players – who are currently on tour in Asia – celebrated their win against Hong Kong at the weekend by going out drinking with several hot women.

Pictures can be seen on the Red Cafe forum – http://www.redcafe.net/showthread.php?t=83198

Watched a few movies over the last few days. I got round to watching War of the World and Fantastic Four. I also watched a couple others including Kung Fu Hustle.

I had heard that War of the Worlds wasnt that good but I really enjoyed it. It had its flaws but overall pretty good. The ending was abit quick but apparently thats how it ends in the original and also in the book so can’t complain too much. Tom Cruise was playing a different sort of character he usually does and did a good job. He had a nice car too – not the usual fancy shiny car etc – it was a Mustang. Dakota Fanning played his daughter and acted really well but she was annoying in away – the american childstar kind off way. Tim Robbins did seem to over-act his part but it didnt ruin the movie.

Read some other reviews of it: BBC Movies, Aint it cool.

I had heard the Fantastic Four wasnt that good either – apparently it was really aimed at the younger pre-10 year old audience and it was. However it was still quite entertaining. It also had its flaws – Dr Doom was a crap baddie. He just seems the normal sleezy bad dude. A lot of ppl have been saying how bad Jessica Alba was rubbish but I thought she did an alright job. Maybe I am biased since I thought she looked so hot!!! There wasnt enough action in the movie but when there was it was pretty good – The Thing and The Human Touch were the best characters. One other thing that did bug me – Ioan Gruffudd – who is welsh – plays a American character. However, his welsh accent could be heard a few times in the movie.

Read some reviews of it: BBC Movies, Aint it cool.

Next movie,……. Kung Fu Hustle. I had heard this was really good but had some great reviews. However, I didnt think it was that good. The kung fu action was impressive but that was it really. Bit disappointed.

Continuing on the subject of movies – watched several trailers today. One of the most interesting is one called Aeon Flux. It stars Charlize Theron who has black hair in the movie (and she looks great in it). The movie is based on a MTV animated series set 400 years in the future.

Check out more on the official site – http://www.aeonflux.com/

Pro Skateboarder Danny Way jumped over the Great Wall of China a few several days ago. He used the Megaramp he designed to gain the height and speed.

View the jump and photos on this web site – http://www.dannydoeschina.com/

Also check out more information on Danny’s web site – http://www.dannyway.com/

The actual video can be downloaded from here - right click and select Save Target

On Saturday I went hiking in the North York Moors. It was the first time I have been hiking for ages. The last time was some school trip. There were about 5 ’short’ walks ranging from about 2.5 miles and 5 miles.

Got there at 11 and by the time everyone else had arrived and was ready it was almost 12. We went on a 2.5 mile walk which talk 1 and half hours. It was OK but it was very warm and my hayfever was kicking in

We got back and had some food to eat. We then did another walk – not sure how far but i think it was about 3.5 (?!??) miles. Got back to the cars about 7 and had a picnic. We had lots of lovely food to eat thanks to someone making all the food – she spent the whole day before making it all (Thanks!!). After slowly eating the food, a little bit of football, some salsa dancing from some ppl and 12 ppl standing on a tree stump (it had to be seen to be belived – some photo evidence is around somewhere) we headed back home.

Took 2 hours 15 mins to get home – the same time as it took to get there in the morning – even if I did get a little lost. The roads were a lot quieter – no roadworks or accidents. Got back at 11pm and was knackered.

Sunday didnt do much – had a little lie in and did some food shopping. It was really warm outside and while typing this now its very sticky and can’t sleep (thats why I am writing this now). Watched the British GP which unfortunately wasnt that exciting. Jenson Button finished 5th in the end which was a shame – I suppose it could have been worse but would have been good if he was at least on the podium. Also, because of the aerodynamics of the cars nowadays overtaking seems to be a lot more difficult unless you have a much faster car – hopefully they sort something out for next year. Lets all the blame the FIA!!!

One thing I did notice about the GP was before the start during the minutes silence (as a mark of respect to the victims of the London bombings etc), was that I few drivers were talking. Some ppl also appears to come up to them so they acknowledge and said “hello”, “thanks” etc. I have a feeling they did not know the minute silence had start since it wasnt very clear. Part way through into it you could hear engineers in the garage reving engines and also some fans tooting horns. After about 2 minutes ppl just seemed to start walking back to the cars etc. It was all abit confusing and not that well organised.

Photos are now online. Email me for the password to access them.

Four bombs were set off today right in the middle of rush hour. The first bomb was set off about 851am. Three bombs were on the tube and one on a London bus. At the last count there was 38 people dead and 700 injured. There have been many photos taken by people of the tragedy – several with camera phones and also videos.

My thoughts go out to all the family and friends effected by this. My brother who lives in London is OK – he was already in walk and doesnt walks home from work.

The police have set up a casualty bureau number on 0870 156 6344.

If you are concerned about relatives or friends who may have been affected by today’s incidents in London, please try and contact them directly before you call this number.

If you are unsuccessful and still have concerns that your friends or relatives may have been injured in the events, the contact the number. The Metropolitan Police would also like to hear from people who were injured or involved in the events so that we know they are safe.

Related links:

BBC News London Attack page
Technorati: London Bombing
Government advice
Transport for London

London got the Olympics got 2012!!! As expected it went down to London v Paris. As expected Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated – (actually in the 2nd round Madrid were ahead).

Its going to be great when Tony Blair meets Jacque Chirac later after what he said about British food. LOL

I hope this will be good for the whole of Britain. It will certainly be good for London and in particular the East of London where a lot of the work is going to be done. (I have a slight worry that taxes will rise to help pay for all this but we will see).

Well done Lord Coe and everyone else involved including the likes of Tony Blair, Sir Matthew Pinsent and David Beckham. Its a scary thought that I will be 34 when the Olympics is here in 2012.

Denise Lewis, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell react in their own way to the news.

Related links

Official London 2012 site
BBC Sport Olympic 2012 site

It was the Live 8 concert on Saturday and I managed to watch most of it. Watched the start on TV and then some of it while driving. I then watched some on TV before I went out in the evening about 7. It most pretty more all excellent especially Keane and Dido. I thought Pete Doherty was rubbish though!!

I saw Robbie Williams play while in the bar on the plasma screens – when he sang Angels several people in the bar started singing it. Robbie really knows how to work a crowd.

During the coverage they showed scenes from the other concerts including Berlin and Philadelphia. Green Day were brilliant. He did swearing a few times which I am sure the BBC were really happy about!! .

They sang American Idiot which has the f word in it. He shouted to the crowd at least once shouting something like “Make some f*cking noise!!”

Another performer which would have had the BBC sweating with Snoop Dog – one of his songs (”Whats my name”) has tons of swearing – he sings “Whats my motherf*cking name” a load of times.

After the performance it went back to Jonathan Ross who said something like there was a lot of mother-loving going on there!!! LOL

My favourites from the show (Hyde Park):

Robbie Williams
Keane
Dido

Others who were good were Madonna, Coldplay, Travis and The Killers (wish they played Mr Brightside – the best start to any song ever!) Overall it was an excellent show. Peter Kay was very funny introducing The Who. He of course sang Amarillo and got the crowd to sing it. LOL Ricky Gervais was crap though trying to make a joke which completely back-fired. He then did that stupid bloody dance! Also nice to see he put some effort when deciding what to wear – looked like he had just been to the gym or something.

Lets hope those 8 men on Wednesday can sort out (and start to sort) out the problem and “Make Poverty History”. One thing I heard – the Iraq war has cost $300billion. They managed to find that money pretty quickly!! To Make Poverty History $50billion is needed.

UPDATE (6/7/05) – I watched some of the Live 8 gig in Edinburgh. It seemed pretty good and people were saying it was a better atmosphere than in Hyde Park. Unfortunately it was not shown live and finished way past midnight. I watched it till about 1230am after Travis were shown. I missed several acts after including James Brown dueting with Will Young.

If you want to watch all the concerts again there is going to be a DVD. I have heard its only going to show the concert from your own country – which seems a shame. Would be good to see the other concerts in particular Berlin and Philadelphia. The DVD does have some behind the scenes stuff etc.

To promote the new show A Bears Tail (starring the bear from Bo Selecta) there is a promo video. Its shows Bear shooting the Crazy Frog. Its very funny.

NB – The movie has swearing in it.

There are 2 versions of the movie – Quicktime and WMV format.

Quicktime – http://www.abearstail.co.uk/video/frog/abearstail.mov
WMV – http://www.abearstail.co.uk/video/frog/abearstail.wmv

(Right click and select Save Target/Link As)