London maps

LondonTown.com have added a nice map to their website.

It has the tube stops and lines marked on, as well as some landmarks. You can also pan it around in the google maps style. Nice. It only covers central London, and is really geared towards hotels, but I think it's worth using to plan a trip!

View the website

Drayton Manor Park

Yesterday we decided to make ourselves feel dizzy and sick by going to Drayton Manor Park. The highlight of the day was 'shockwave', the UK's only 'stand up' roller coaster. It was one of those strange experiences where you think: 'why on earth did I agree to go on this ride' whilst you're slowly climbing up the first slope. For the rest of the ride you realise it was in-fact the most stupid mistake of your life. But by the time you get off, you think its brilliant and can't wait to get on again.

View the album

REZ style game in flash

http://www.geocities.jp/flashgame_zone/zero.htm

It's a bit like REZ, hold down the mouse button and move the cursor over the targets to get a lock on them. Press the space bar to fire and say goodbye to your Friday afternoons.

MUSE at Wembley

Last night Clare and I went to see Muse play Wembley. Arriving just as 'My Chemical Romance' finished their last song (perfect timing!) we waited we waited for Muse, whilst admiring the stadium's civil engineering, listening to Pendulum on the sound system (a good omen). With a dramatic opening, straight into 'Knights of Cydonia', they delivered a two hour set of their usual heavy riffs, over the top guitar solos and rock showmanship. With a light show which became progressively more jaw dropping, including ballerinas suspended from large helium balloons, swivelling satellite dishes and plenty of fire and smoke, we weren't disappointed. Such performances surely secure Muse as the greatest band in the UK/World/Universe? I think they are pretty good anyway.

First medical article

Clare just had her first article published, a letter to the Rural and Remote Health Journal - yey! You can read it here.

In other news, the Neufelds have gone back to Canada - boo. And the Talbots (Astburys in disguise) have returned from Cameroon - yey!

30 years old, and still looking good.

What an excellent birthday! Clare took me on a mystery journey, which involved driving, walking, the train and the tube, and ended up at the London Eye (I've never been on it before!). As soon as we arrived we bumped into my Mum and Dad, Clare's Mum and Dad, Kev, Suzanne, Rich, Claire and the girls (amazing coincidence?). So we took a trip on the big wheel, saw lots of good views, and had a great time.

We then stopped by the Tate Modern, and wandered up to Belgo's in Covent Garden for a bite to eat. When being shown to our table I recognised Josh sitting on the end of it. It then slowly dawned on me that the whole table was filled with 26 of my friends, some of which I've not seen in years. I was overcome! We had some excellent muscles and Belgian beer, and continued the party later at the Porter House.

Thanks to everyone who came along, and most of all to Clare, who has been scheming and plotting behind my back for months! I should really change my gmail password...

View the photo album

Castle run video

Josh shot some video while I was doing the castle run, and compiled it into this excellent movie.

There are also some photos here.

Thanks Josh.

Australia

Clare flew out to Australia in March to do her medical elective. For those of you unfamiliar with medicine, it seems that part of the course involves jetting off to some exotic location to relax on a beach, drink a few cocktails, and occasionally pop into the local hospital.

I joined Clare at the start of April, and we spent three weeks working our way down the east coast, from Cape Tribulation to Sydney, with a few stops in-between. I was amazed out how diverse Australia is. Having been educated in the culture by watching 'Crocdile Dundee' and 'Neighbours' I had always assumed that the country was a dusty, arid place with a housing estate in one corner. In fact we found rain forests, miles of beach, coral reefs, modern cities, extremely friendly people, perfect weather, and abundent wildlife. I highly recommend a visit, and I can't wait to go back.

We took 850 photos in total, there are a small selection in the following web albums:

Newcastle
The Blue Mountains
Port Stephens
Armidale
Melbourne
Cairns
Cape Tribulation
Magentic Island
Fraser Island
Noosa
Sydney

Things to do before you're 30: Task 6 COMPLETE

The final task to achieve before turning 30 was to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. As you can see from the above photo, I did it (thanks to the sponsership from my parents as an advanced birthday preset). All I need to do now is wait two weeks and complete the greatest challenge of them all: becoming 30 - argh...

[yes I know it's a terrible photo, but they made us do the pose before letting us off the bridge]

Things to do before you're 30: Task 5 COMPLETE

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to achieve this one. For the last couple of days I have been feeling under the weather, with a sore throat etc... and I couldn't do the training schedule I had planned. I decided I would give it a go anyhow, so I eased off from Kenilworth Castle at about 4pm on Saturday. Josh accompanied me, taking photos and videos, and being generally encouraging. I also had my secret weapon, the Radio 1 essential mix by Pendulum playing on my MP3 player.

So I arrived at Warwick castle sooner than I thought, it took me 45 minutes and 40 seconds, and I'll be honest, I could have gone further. Bring on the next challenge!

Photos and videos to come...