Another year, another address..

Being buggering about with the idea of a new site layout for a while. Played around with Django, the Python framework for a wee bit, but in the end decided to avoid all the work and just install Wordpress. Wanted to start hosting our photos here rather than on 23 in order to keep everything in one place as well, and a very nice plugin for Wordpress, Nextgen Gallery, made it very easy to do. Hope you like the new site.. let me know if you find any problems

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Christmas and all that

Ollie left for Madeira yesterday to enjoy relatively warm sunny christmas with her parents. Im off back wales to spend the holidays with my family at the end of the week. Looking forward to that.
So I will just leave you all with my best wishes for the festive season - have a great time and a fantastic new year

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Machinedrum

I bought myself one of the new MKII Machinedrums from Elektron the other day. Have fancied one for years, but was always put off by the high price. Said sod it a few weeks ago when I got my new job, and went and ordered one from their website.
Bloody fantastic machine! Its a drum machine of sorts, but so much more than that. It really does sound good, with four different synthesis types, which can all produce very useful sounds. It is a percussion synth, but can be talked into making melodic sounds as well. Saying that, adjusting the pitch to try and find the note I’m looking for is not always that easy, but can come up with some interesting results never the less. But its the whole work flow that just suits my style of writing so well. I can see my self writing complete tracks on the MD alone, although I imagine that more often than not it will be accompanied by Matt on (real) drums and me on guitar. Routed my wee blue Nova synth through it last night - sounded better than I’ve managed to get my Nova to sound on its own - the filters on the MD gave the it that edge that it lacks sometimes. The MD will definitely be accompanying me back to Wales for Christmas
Other toys on the horizon - I’m tempted to say a Monomachine, the other synth that Elektron produces, but first more practical issues need to be sorted. I am speaker-less at present, so a set of monitors is needed. I also need some guitar stands to tidy up the studio a wee bit, plus lots of clips for the million leads that are everywhere. Matt has set up his drums in the room as well, so I am trying to find a way to accommodate both live playing of all this stuff as well as having it all set up for recording.
Time to start writing music again

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Norway update

Its been over 6 weeks now since we moved back to Norway. We spent the first few weeks up in Røyse with Ollie’s family while we looked for jobs and a place to live in Oslo. I managed to get a couple of interviews quite quickly - seems that software developers are in demand here in Oslo right now. I took a job as a Java developer with a company called Viz Consulting based in Skøyen. Viz create risk management software for the electricity market here in Scandinavia as well as in Europe. Decent people (when they are not hammering me at darts) and a relaxed place to work.
We then had to find ourselves a place to live. We managed to get an apartment in St. Hanshaugen, a 5-10 minute walk from the center of Oslo. Matt and Ollie had to organise the move as I was in work. All our stuff we’d brought from the UK was still in Gertrud, but Gertrud, deciding that she had done enough driving for one life, started playing up. Ollie and Matt did manage to get our stuff down though (eventually), before driving Gerts back up to Røyse where she now sits. Hopefully she likes the view from Ollie’s parents place, cos I’m not sure if we will get her going again.
Its a nice flat, old-ish (built 1912), and big enough to have a dedicated music room for Matt and myself Plus we have several half decent (certainly by Norwegian standards) Indian and Thai restaurants nearby. Five minutes to work on the train (although its a 10 minute walk to the station), so the commute is fairly gentle.
We are mostly unpacked now.. just got the music room to set up properly, which is all wires at the moment.
Plenty of room for guests of course. Just let us know when you are coming over

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Gertrud and the Big Move

Two days and counting. The flat seems to have 200 times the amount of stuff in it compared to last week, despite the fact that a large chunk of our things are now in the van. Ah, I have not yet mentioned our van.
We bought Gertrud a couple of weeks ago now. She is an ex-police riot van, a big blue thing with dark bulletproof glass, jet windscreen washers and a huge amount of space to load stuff into. She has a nice 3.5l v8 petrol engine in her, so she runs quite economically, as you would imagine.
So the plan is for Gert to take us (us being Matt, Ollie and myself) up to Newcastle on Tuesday, where we will get the ferry over to Norway. 22 hours later, the ferry should drop us off in Stavanger, from where we will drive over to Honefoss, the home of Ollies parents. The trip from Stavanger to Honefoss is around 8.5 hours, so we might stop overnight in Kristiansand if we can’t be arsed to drive all that way in one go.
Still have loads to do, packing-wise. And just to make sure we get no rest before we leave, there is dinner at Alex, Tammy and Matts tonight, lunch in the Ritz tomorrow, followed by a complimentary dinner in the evening at our local Thai restaurant.
Signing off from the UK for now. Next stop, Norway

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Wedding Photos

Lots of photos from our wedding are making their way online.
The official set, taken by Graham Wyles our photographer, can be found here. You can buy prints from him if you are interested (the online versions are deliberately tiny, but you get the general idea).

There are also a load taken by friends. Most of these are on Facebook, so you would need to have a facebook account and add Ollie or myself as a friend to see those. Otherwise you can find some photos taken by Dave Powell here.

We will compile the best photos from everyone and put them in the photos section this site at some stage. Till then, enjoy the photos

EDIT: The photos can now be found on this site - go here to see them

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Back to the Land of Trolls

Resigned from work today. Felt damn good
We are planning on moving back to Oslo, Norway, as we’re both getting a bit fed up with the UK. We did look briefly into buying a house here at one point, but quickly changed our minds when we saw what we would get for our money. Now we just want out altogether.
The move is planned for around the end of October, so that should give me a few weeks for getting organised once I’ve finished work. Planning on driving to Norway - gonna get a trailer to try and drag as much of our stuff as possible over, although there will inevitably be things we will have to sell or throw away.
So life will be back to skiing, walking, biking and doing more outdoory things. Looking forward to that. Been looking at flats and whatnot in and around Oslo. Found some lovely places next to the woods, and yet still only 20-30 mins by tube from the centre of town. These places have not only been much nicer than anything we’ve seen here, but also cheaper. Plus the wages are higher over there.
Of course everything else in Norway is horrendously expensive - groceries, going out, electronics etc.
The in-laws commented on their last visit that there wasn’t much difference in cost between getting a haircut in Norway and flying to the UK to get a haircut here. Admittedly this was flying with Ryan Air, but it did include airport taxes.
Worst of all though - beer is £4-5 a pint.
Ah well - just means regular trips back to Blighty for haircuts, computer games and brew your own beer kits

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A Moon of Honey

Just got back from our honeymoon - a weeks liveaboard diving in the Red Sea. It was bloody excellent - we were on the Royal Evolution, a fantastic boat that took us out to the Brothers, Daedalus & Elphonstone reefs. Got to dive with a school of 15+ hammerhead sharks, eat good food and generally have an excellent time.
It was so excellent, in fact, that while sat on the top deck of the boat in the shade, enjoying the warmth and view out to sea, it made me realise how miserable I’ve been living in the UK recently. Its not just the weather (although I am definitely happier in the sun). Ive spent the previous 10 years living in places with easy access to nature/wilderness.
In Thailand, Indonesia, Norway and New Zealand we lived by the sea, and had mountains and forests near by. Watford on the other hand has.. erm.. Cassiobury Park. So I’m thinking it might be time to bugger off again soon.
A big thanks goes out to Yasser and my brother Simon for organising the trip for us, as well as to all the crew for making it a brilliant honeymoon. Simon also made us a really cool DVD, so we can now sit at home and watch our underwater explorations on the telly, which is great cos its just like real diving except you don’t have to put all that heavy equipment on and get wet. Probably.

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Married!!!! :)

I am now a married man!
Not a great deal has changed, to be honest. Except that a large amount of money has gone missing from our bank accounts. Oh, and we are both very tired. Other than that, things are pretty much the same i.e. we are both massively happy and hugely in love.
The wedding was brilliant. Best thing I’ve ever done! Loads of our friends turned up from all over the world. The castle was very castley, the weather was actually nice and sunny, and the whole day went swimmingly.
For the weekend we all buggered off up to Bwlch in the Black Mountains, where it pissed down for pretty much the whole weekend (except for Friday evening, which was gorgeous). Good times
Ta to everyone for coming! Ta to all those that traveled long or short distances, ta to those that took time off work or otherwise made the effort to come and celebrate with us. Ta for all the toilets, llamas, condoms, school dinners, teachers and other stuff that we got through the post from Oxfam, and ta to Leif and Astrid, and Sigs and Marie for the trip to the North Pole! Ta to Alex for being an excellent knight and supurb best man, ta to Dave, Matt & Alex for organising and playing the gig in the evening, and of course a huge ta to Ollie for actually turning up and marrying me in the first place.
Hope everyone had a great time!
Right, off to email the wife.

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Countdown!!

Ok, 3 days and counting. Now I’m getting nervous. Its a big thing, getting married. Even when you love the person you are getting married to with all your heart. Even when you know with certainty that you want to spend the rest of your life with that person, and you just couldn’t imagine life apart. Its still fucking scary.
Just spent a couple of weekends in Wales sorting out a few odds and sods with the registry office and the castle. Still some stuff to do, but nothing too major. Alex had his appointment at the National Theatre this week to get his suit of armour, Vibeke, Ollies maid of honour has got her medieval dress, and I have got my viking war helmet, so we are mostly set.
And all our friends from New Zealand are now here - Shaun, Keith & Adrienne and Ann & Colin (we had seven people staying over in our wee flat last night). And more will be coming over from Norway over the course of this week.
Band practice tonight, then off back to Wales tomorrow.
D-day on Thursday.
No going back now…

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