DJ BeatNick

H and I met up with Nick for dinner at the High Road House (part of the 'Soho House' chain) in Chiswick tonight. Nick is looking sickeningly healthy and brown from his catalogue of holidays including a private cruise round the Med with his family. He's enjoying his new job a lot and getting on really well with his colleagues there. I'm sorry to say the quality of the food at High Road House has dropped considerably since they took my favourite 'quails egg scotch eggs' of the menu - bastards. Helens risotto was tip-top as always, but my pork belly sandwich was soggy and tasteless.. I think they boiled it. Anyways, Nick is off to Ibiza now *sigh* and we'll see him next round his house at the Notting hill carnival in a few weeks. I've got to wear black and be his doorman, choosing which of the ladies can come in to use the toilet (slap round the back of the head from H).

Open Air Theatre

Went to the open air theatre in regents park last night with the folks. As is the way these days in the middle of the balmy English summer, it pissed down from the moment we sat down to the end of the show. Not just normal rain either.. This was the sort off doggedly depressing drizzly rain that's letting you know it's there for the long run - none of this pansy light shower nonsense. We countered it with a succession of big red wines, and the evening turned out just lovely thank you very much. Fair play to the actors in their sodden costumes - they put on a fantastic performance. I guess they've had a lot of practice in the rain.

Lula is orange - woohoo!

While we were in France, Mark and Angela sent us some pictures of Lula our project Porsche. Mark is working all ours of the day to get her done on time for the Cannonball 8000 rally, and she looks amazing with the first coat of Signal Orange paint on. More details on our RSR blog: http://myrsr.blogspot.com/ or try our main web page http://www.myrsr.com

Race down to Reims with M&M

Just got back from a few days driving through France with Moz and Mel in their black '80s 911. Lots of racing through gorgeous countryside, cutting up Frenchy whenever we could with outrageous overtaking manoeuvres - heh heh! Having a walkie talkie in each car allows the car in front to radio back and say if it's OK to overtake or not if there's a blind corner/ hill / chateaux etc in the way. Great fun. We stayed in Reims for a few nights, then a Chateaux further south. We drank loads of Champagne, and as a bonus I also found out that Moz has a few quirks I didn't know about… such as doing a small skip when ever he crosses the road (for good luck or something). Gay? Oh yes yes yes.

Trip to Wales to see Lula!

Drove up to see Mark in deepest Wales on Saturday to discuss the progress on our Porsche RSR project (more details here http://www.myrsr.com/). It was a nightmare journey up, but we get really excited when we saw the car and went over some of the final details. There was a carnival in the town, and it seemed like the locals we completely wrecked by 5pm. We went for a curry with the guys, and all we could see through the windows were people staggering down the street, drinking and fighting.. Actually, that sounds a lot like us on Friday night outside Gouchos!

Department outing into London

Went out with work to posh 'Gouchos' in Chancery Lane last night. There were fifteen of us including our Intel account manager James (who not only being a very nice chap, was also paying for it). Anyway, needless to say it was carnage, with Ruan getting hammered and fighting everything that moved (apparently the police got involved an hour or so after H and I had retired), David stripping off at every opportunity, and just the general mayhem that inevitably follows my department on a piss up. The other dinersin Gouchos were NOT impressed… It was brilliant!

Little Venice, London

We went to Londons 'Little Venice' last night for dinner with Fiona and Brian. Lovely place - bit of sun for a change and fantastic food. Last time I was in Venice, I don't remember seeing loads of long boats painted in pikey livery though. Brian said that earlier on in the day he'd seen Rhys Ifans climbing out of one of them. Being the naturally inquisitive chappy he is, Brian had a good nosey through the windows and saw the kind of squalor you'd expect from the dirty man of film - empty wine bottles and fast food wrappers everywhere. He was talking in a faux cockney accent as well apparently... Shame on you man, you'll always be Welsh!

La Manga, Espania!!

Just came back from a relaxing mini holiday in Spain. We stayed with John and Ruth at their lovely place in the La Manga club on the South East coast. Of course we ate and drank an awful lot, with me desperately trying to make a dent in Johns seemingly endless supply of San Miguel. We did a bit of lounging by the pool and, well, not much else really.. Fantastic!! Here Jon's making the first Gin and Tonic of the holiday. The first one is always the best as they say!

M&M BBQ - Dylans birthday

After a rather heavy night last night, me and H had to drag our sorry asses over to Melissa's parents house for Dylans birthday. The little tyke is a year old, though you'd swear he'd older - he's almost as tall as Moz now. As usual the guys put on an extravaganza - they even had a dance tent sort of. Anyways, we drove back after a few hours and collapsed into bed to watch the last few episodes of 'Lost' series 2... What a crap ending to the series, I feel empty inside! I might take down the magazine poster we have of Jack and Kate.