BIM!

Me, Manu & Dubmaster C headed down to the Commodore last night to watch Mad Professer & Dr Israel. Thanks Oz for hooking us up with tickets, it was a cracking show.

First on the stage was Dr Israel, bringing his Brooklyn rub-a-dub-dub sound. Fantastic!

Around 12, the Mad Professer took to the stage. Out came the chest cavity bass rumble, the mastery of dub echo and sound system - just incredible. "This one is from 20 years ago!". 20 years ago! - it sounded relevent and new tonight.

I have to say when I was knocking around Manchester the MadProfesser came around often and there was always a dub sound going down in the polytechnic -but after a weeks work making C64 games .. sitting around on the floor listening to echoes just didn't sound as good as having a laugh down the pub with my mates (lol). Tonight, I was blown away by the sound.

Powderhound Session 2007.4

Today me, M, Mr & Mrs Wii headed upto Cypress Moutain for a walk in the woods. It was fab!

The snow has been falling like crazy lately ... 50cm in just the last 2 days. Heading up the mountain the snowline was low and the snowfall was piled high. We rented some gear, grabbed a trail map and waddled off in our new attire. It was lovely sauntering through the snowy forests and meadows. After a while we made a pitstop in the lodge for the alpine treat of hot chocolate and french fries.


We all had a great time. We're hooked - next stop is the mountain gear shop to buy some equipment. Goodtimes.

Here's a video of todays adventure ....

Holidays In The Sun

Here's a collection of clips for our vacation in Spain. You'll see Ronda, Seville, Marbella & Fuengirola. Enjoy.

Powderhound Session 2007.3

The original plan for todays powderhound session was to head up to Whistler. The alarm went of at 6:30, the new dawn faded and I headed downstairs to check out the conditions ... ouch .. high of -5 low of -9. This clearly required debating with Oz. We decided to go local. So off to Cypress Mountain we went.

With all the cold weather, I was expecting it to be chilly but to our suprise the sun was shining hard, the powder was descent but the place was c-r-o-w-d-e-d. One Jedi Mind trick later we aquired excellent parking.

Preperations over, we headed off to carve some warm-ups on our favourite run. It was quite the log-jam so we headed off to find some desolation. We discovered a new fave run - great terrain, epic views.

The best was yet to come. The views were truly, truly epic - from sweeping views of Mount Baker and the Cascades (USA), the Sunshine Coast/ Vancouver Island (CAN) , the Olympic Mountains (USA) to the BIGGEST TREAT of all MMMMMMMMOUNT RAINIER. Mount Freaking Rainier from Cypress Mountain ... that's a distance of 190 MILES!!!!!! Unbelievable. That made my day. Wow.

Brrrrr - It's Cold!

It's really cold here in Vancouver. The temperatures are ranching from -13 to -4 ... brrrrrr. It hurts to be outside.

Coldness aside, there's been blue skies and some epic views of the mountains to be enjoyed. Here's a few pictures I've taken from my office and the pier in front of my office.

.... brrrrr.

More Snow!

Snow! Snow! Snow! . It's snowed yesterday, it's snowing today. It's a winter-wonderland here in Vancouver. Nice! Nice! Nice!

Pike Market Blues Man

I've always been impressed with the quality of musicianship in Seattle. Often I'd go down Pike Market and check out the buskers. I had my favourites who'd pop up now and again. Some - I didn't like their flavour, but I was always impressed by their skill ... the blind lady who played a steel harp comes to mind.

Here's a blues man jamming down in the market during the Xmas holidays.

Reiver Released!

Reiver was released back into the wild whilst we where in Seattle. Great News. Reiver if your reading this, feel free to come grab my pizza and any amount of French fries if you see my down Granville Island. No problem.

Powderhound Session 2007.2

Come on! 50 cm of new powder overnight. I was straight on the dog and bone to my neighbour Oz sorting out a powderhound session. Oz was up for it, so off we headed up the mountains for the >oz_fest< powderhound session.

We arrived to a mix-bag of weather. Bit of rain, a tad too much fog. Fearing not, we braved on. Lucky we did, because conditions improved quickly and we had lots of great runs.

After a few hours we broke for a healthy lunch -- hot chocolate and french fries. (lol) then headed back onto the slopes for a few more runs, before calling it a great first day for Oz around tea-time.

Powderhound Session 2007.1

This had to be the best opening day of anyones season.There was 36cm of fresh kill-pow (lol) that landed on the North Shore mountains in the last 24 hours. There was so much snow, you could almost smell it.

I grabbed my gear and headed upto into the mountains, Han Solo style. There was a bunch of the super geeks from the office heading up. I knew I'd bump into someone who would want to talk algorithms with me :) And sure enough I did. I also ran into a lighter from another team and we bantered about pixel shaders - alpine style (lol).

The snow was marverlous - I got some great runs in. After about 4 hours, I called it a great 1st day and headed back down the mountain in the snowy darkenss.

Here's the video I made of the day, enjoy.

Snow


I was in bed, asleep in the land of nod when M said "Hey, look at the window you won't believe it!" Awaking and jumping to the window I couldn't believe it ... "Snow!!!!!!".

Double Rainbow Over Vancouver

After taking in my snowboard for a pre-season tune up, M and I headed over to the old neighbourhood beach for a stroll. Amidst a fine rain we watched the clear water lap up against the fine sand and took deep breaths of cold salty air. A little later the sun came out and a majestic double rainbow formed. Magnificent!

Happy New Year - 2007

Best wishes for 2007 from M & Me.

Our old pal, Seattle rock star/Willy Wonka's lovechild - Ms. JoyVille followed us back from Seattle to celebrate the New Year with us.

After spending the afternoon sight seeing and grocery shopping M and Ms. JoyVille got busy in the kitchen and made an array of delicious dishes.

xs

We started the festivities Swiss Toni style by enjoying fine wines and belgium chocolates and lovely little party on the deck.

It was time to ring in the New Year, and in the spirit of sharing we headed around to the neighbours. We enjoyed numerous Auld Lang Syne's, exchanges of best wishes and ooo's and ahhh's at the Niagra Falls fireworks on TV.

At 2am, we re-callibrated and re-celebrated with Ms. JoyVille's partner who is in Hawaii. Much woot-wooting as the images of the firework display beamed over from Hawaii. You have to love technology.