Dublin 2009

A New Year means time for my annual trek to Ireland to visit Funderland, Kylemore Karting and other pleasures the city of Dublin has to offer. First observation was that the Pound is so crap against the Euro that everything was 40% dearer than last year. The hotel bar was selling a pint of cider for £6, thinking it was just the hotel pinching us tourists we were very surprised to find a nearby pub offering similar for only 20 pence less.

That aside I still had a nice weekend away, definitely needed as I'd worked most of Christmas and New Year.

Here are some pics...

Quite a bit of development had taken place North of the Liffey. This weird tipped cylinder building wasn't there last year. Further up the riverside the main music venue The Point has been replaced with an O2 complex.

The rubbish scrawl graffiti around U2's studios.

Some nice graffiti in a car park.

Look like this has been done by Eine, who's notorious for doing similar around Hackney and Shoreditch in London. Some of the letters here don't look as sharp as there though.

Eelus is perhaps mostly famous for being mistaken for Banksy as he uses a similar stencil style.

With the exception of the Cans Festival this was the first time I'd seen his stuff on the street.

As much as I hate the scrawls, this one did make me chuckle.

Another Eelus tucked away behind the Grafton St shops. I seem to be developing a sixth sense for finding nice pieces. I had done no research into what to find here and still managed to come across bits like this.

Local boy Maser has left his mark all over the city.

A little hard to make out in the pic but the sticker says "No bombs please"

There were loads of these of various sizes all over the city. No idea who they were by though.

Liking the warning sign.

Not the best crew to belong to.

This is the Grand Plaza development across the road from the hotel that has taken years to construct. In fact the last 2 years I'd been here the site was flat, so at least progress is being made now.

The eternal flame that usually flickers here had gone out. Not sure if that signifies the end of the world or not.

Kylemore Karting have managed to somehow squeeze a third circuit into the building, so close to the ceiling in fact that the crash helmet saved me giving myself a concussion. Having won the first 2 championships then losing last year, I was keen to reclaim the title, perhaps a bit too keen as I spun out on the first race and had to ram my way into victory in the second. I came second overall, so no trophy this year.

In the Smithfields part of the city is a little big wheel and ice rink, still fairly popular but not as popular as Funderland.

A random stroll around the city. Having been here a number of times previously I have to find new quarters to explore. On this occasion I chose West Dublin and the Castle.

The castle grounds were stunning!

Cute!

Clothes peg art

A Pro-Palestine rally took place on the day I was there.

A couple of nice pieces beside the O'Connell bridge.

The Ferryman was the first place I ever stayed when I came to Dublin in 2002. Its rather coincidentally around the corner from the where I now stay.

The looping star is the standout ride at Funderland.

This ride was spinning so fast that the majority of it was spent felling like I was going to fall out.

New for this year was Psycho, a haunted walkthrough that was supposed to feature live actors (we had one) and 3 effect rooms. It was alright but not great. I've done some similar in Germany that were much better.

Once again a nice break, roll on Next Year!

Prison Broke

I'm still a fan of Prison Break even though the current storyline is ridiculous. However I think the makers of the show are feeling the tightening economy as they've resorted to using shop mannequins instead of hiring stunt men.

Christmas Lights

Some quick photos of London's Christmas Lights

One of the Selfridge's window fronts.

Debenhams looked OK, plenty of lights anyway...

A similar display at House of Fraser

The Oxford Street lights were pretty similar to previous years, quite minimal but alright.

Regent street had these big lit webs, which were OK but still better than the movie-sponsored lights seen in previous years.

Another shot of Oxford Street.

Selfridges shop front, plenty of Christmas trees!

My favourite Christmas display was again in Carnaby Street with these large inflatable snowmen running its length.

PS3 Home

Sony finally released Home, their social networking application for the PS3. Initial overloading of the app prevented people from getting onto it for the first week, but once that was sorted it seems to be a whole lot more stable.

But there's not a great deal to do to keep people there. The US one has game specific locations such as a Red Bull Air Race game. However in the UK all we have is one mall, a bowling alley, a cinema and a communal park type area. I'm sure we'll get similar once the commercials are sorted.

The only thing that has given me a reason to revisit Home is the running man record breaking attempt. I've managed to lead a group of 10. As stupid as it is it seems to be the one activity that can bring a group of disparate people together.

Lack of beard aside I think the likeness is there :D

No Traffic Day

As part of the pre-Christmas rush the 2 busiest streets, Regent and Oxford are closed to traffic and the pedestrians get streets to themselves. 

It's not every day you get the chance to sit and unwind here!

Decorated trains in Japan

Decorated trains in Japan ::: Pink Tentacle

Some really cool paint jobs here. Hopefully they'll still be there when I go out there next year.

Florida 2008

I was last there 4 years ago and quite a lot has happened since I was last there, so it was great to receive an email back in March asking if I'd like to go back. Of course I said yes and for a week in November it was time to go enjoy some of the best theme parks in the US.

The full photoset can be found here.
But here's the pick of the bunch (mostly new stuff)





Sheikra is a superb ride, especially in the front and totally dominates Busch Gardens in Tampa.





Over in Disney's Animal Kingdom Expedition Everest is another great ride with a couple of surprise hidden within the really impressive mountain structure. It was just a shame we didn't get the main yeti animatronic inside. It is rather a complex beast and prone to downtime.





Most popular attraction was the new Toy Story Midway Mania dark ride in Disney Studio park. Its a rather cute 4d shoot em up game as you drive through several shooting games and aim to amass as many points as possible. Just a shame you had to queue for an hour to ride it. Even the fast pass queue was half an hour long, a sign of its popularity!

Whilst out there I also knocked up another Cirque de Soleil show, catching La Nouba at Downtown Disney. I also saw the Blue Man show for the fourth time, joining London, Vegas and Berlin. It was particularly great to have the KLF finale as opposed to the Donna Summer one.

Overall I had a great time, thanks to James for doing the majority of the organising and both James and Tom for driving me around.

Wykahmix #2 - Descent

I've been tinkering with Ableton some more and here's the second mix.

Link

Tracklisting
1. Let Go - Kandi & Neumann - Anjunabeats
2. Nailed - Paul Webster - Armada
3. The Last Pluck (Fluffy Mix) - Marcus Schossow - Tone Diary
4. Ipanema - John Miller - Vision Soundcarriers
5. Edward Carnby (Tiesto Vocal Mix) - Tiesto presents Alone In The Dark - Kontor Records
6. Ways and Means (PVD Remix) - Jon O'Bir - Dance4Life
7. Dream Way (Arctic Moon Remix) - Dereck Recay - (Redux Recordings)
8. Don't Wake Me Up (San Antonio Harbour Mix) - DJ Shah ft Inger Hansen - Armada
9. Upgrade - Will B - Vision Soundcarriers
10. Pandora (Daniel Kandi's Emotional Mix) - Rapha - Armada

Winter Wonderland

Pictures from this year's Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. With a decent sized coaster, which wasn't a spinning mouse, and a fairly decent Christmas market the event was the best yet. Even better I got to ride for free when I gatecrashed a pre-opening private function. At £4 a go on just the coaster a family day out here would be expensive. It just needed some snow to give it that wintery feeling.