Just a quick headbutt review of 2007 with the aim of passing a dull, cloudy lunchtime and also to look back on the 7th year of this millenium! It was a tumultuous time for our nation, the Facebook craze gave us all a reason to live! It showed the average person what the average person thinks about the average things! Gordon Brown stepped upto the plate to rule the UK with a iron fist; this Gordon Brown, not this Gordon Brown! The Spice Girls came back, Take That came back, Josh Brolin came back, my Dad hurt his back, and the domestication of the dog continued unabated...

You always start of a year feeling baaaaaaaaaaddddd! From complete mental and physical exhaustion after weeks of eating like you're planning for a famine and drinking like prohibition is about to hit! Those 2 small weeks are fantastic fun but for your body, its like Iwo Jima bitchslapping the Wild West leaving it reeling and in ruins. One word... consequences!



However, you chill January cold and relax it like Frankie suggests and you make new years resolutions in the form of drinking less and eating less and you forcefully stick to them for 4 weeks max. Come to think of it, January gets lied to more than the American public! My new years resolution of 1997 was to never make new years resolutions again and to my credit, I've stuck to that ever since! What skill! But like any superhero, you bounce back and hit it with true grit and 2007 gets beat down like the odd number it is!



Combine: Bath, London, music, booze, humvees, rollerboots and the 80's and you have yourself Katie and Kim's 80's rollerdisco party which went down in our countries capital. The night kicked-off with pre-drinks at Katie & Kim's pad in Bath which included plenty of mockery of people's attire and a swanky humvee limo down to London! Everything is going to jump at once! It was a like a mobile disco club complete with a lasershow all housed within a tank! Champagne flowed and so did the music with appearances from the likes of Huey Lewis, Michael Jackson and Dead Or Alive! The night was fantastic with bucket loads of flare, wristbands, aviators with shellsuits and was brilliantly filmed by moi with a kickass DVD to boot at the end of it all! Bravo!



Absolute madness!...Welcome to the house of fun!...Katie then took us around Bath in fine style and managed to squeeze in plenty of sights, sounds, gossip, history and humour! The nighttime was taken up by firstly; a fantastic meal in a local restaurant, followed by the tearing up of Bath's pubs! I'm not sure what we were drinking, but Mark wanted to see the smallest pub in Bath and with it came lashings of the local brews Dundledorfs and Bellringers!



One of the best places in England, without the smallest shadow of a doubt is York. Even though it spent most of this year under water, York is a great place for shopping and moving your living class up a notch with the addition of nice bars to rinse and one club to evisarate, York is a definite place to visit.



February was a boss month for films! I always thought January was a dumping ground for post-Christmas trash; box office cannon fodder if you will - but I was showered with good flicks all February and heres the pitch!

Smokin' Aces This is the ultimate popcorn film, probably appreciated more from the male perspective (cue guns, chainsaws, flares, neo-nazis, FBI, mob enforcers, etc!) A complete rampage of a movie!

Hot Fuzz Somerset and shotguns = A strange and hilarious mashup of a film! Nowhere near as great as Shaun Of The Dead but luckily it was a fantastic way of laughing off 2 hours!



Dave turns 21! Our kid emphatically managed to outdo and outclass any 21st Ive had the honour of shotgunning and I have had the pleasure of helping usher in a fair few! Dave decided to take on board a host of friends who quite simply rip shit up and catapult them into a foreign mashup of culture seeking frenzy! These are the guys you send in when you don't want anything left standing or breathing! So we tore apart Nottingham's nightlife and flew to Poland for a few days of sight-seeing/drinking/eating and spending sweet Fanny Adams! What a beautiful city! The city square is a sight itself, with a fantastic market, fancy bars, swanky restaurants and drop-dead gorgeous girls to drool at! The Salt Mines were something else - it was one of the world's oldest operating salt mines reaching down to a depth of 327 meters, and is over 300 km long. Also featured are beautifully carved chambers, chapels, an underground lake and exhibits on the history of salt mining. The mine is justly referred to as "the underground salt cathedral of Poland." Pure human skill and spirit at its best...



The hostel itself was awesome, the people were friendly and the first night was carnage! Especially for the birthday boy who peaked far too soon due to much Polish vodka and pole dancing attempts from himself and myself! "Shall I take my belt off now?" as Scott emphatically said as he gets in the 15% lager!



One question has preoccupied us lads for a while now. One huge quest of a question - is Jamie a pimp?



Have you ever noticed that people have their own style of carnival-funhouse-freakshow faces that they pull everytime a flash photo is taken? Well a particular face has emerged in various photos - the poor kid face! The bemused look, hunched shoulders, upward stare and the slight smile all point towards a poor kid look...



Daisy smashes into her 3's! The original madam of terror has hit her third year on this earth and has already managed to overtake me with her grammar and speech skills causing me to be confused and bewildered more than usual. "Daisy don't confuse Uncle G!" Congrats to the rents Martyn and Sarah for the construction of this clever young upstart! Disney are making a killing off me every May and December because Disney DVD's are not bargain bin material!



PPIK Leeds - Pole Position Indoor Karting, pulled an absolute blinder for Ricks 25th birthday - endurance racing! This was just an awesome day! I now have new found respect for Formula 1 drivers as only a short stint in those karts is punishing because a day in those speed demons can strip two stones of weigth off of you! Anyways, after all the adrenaline had dissapated, we hit Leeds and descended upon Oceana for all the usual giggles! Achin' heads and achin' bodies all round!



Everyone and Everything! the most extensive words I could dig up to describe the photo album which embodies it! Every digital photo I have ever taken and liked, loathed, messed around with and edited is in this album - half a thousand of them! Have a goosey gander, you will probably exist somewhere within this album, if not - spend some more time with me!



In May we managed to clock up a few girls birthdays and decided to mesh them all into one huge dropkick of a nightout! Sarah, Cat, Nichola all shared a birthday slot together so we had a well deserved knees up in Baja which was pure silk in a glass! Baja has long been a haunt of Kristians, Daves and myself as it provides the guiltful tunes and booze that make your night worth while! Being able to text Top Gun phrases to the big screen is a huge advantage too! "Goose, do you see a trailer??"



The band Mogwai did an amazing song called 'We're No here' and that to me best describes the British summer of 2007 (or lack thereof!) 'Hell Is Round The Corner' from Portishead also desribes this lackluster summer: very little sun with the ever present burden of full tilt work! Thus, as pure Brits, every time the sun decided to shine, we took upon the newly created decking to capture the rays that have forgotten us for so long...



I don't know my arse from my earhole when it comes to holidays and I've hit the banana peel hard in the past so it was decided that we'd take off for sun, sand and sangria aplently in Cyprus! 35 to 40 degrees heat on average! Generally, I could withstand the heat the sun threw at me, but during mid-day it was sweltering and 5pm-7pm quickly became my favourite part of the day - still hot but manageable. Mark, Rachel, Cat, Sarah, Nichola and myself stayed in a lovely hotel in Panera which was 15 minutes walk from buzzin' Protaras and 15 mintues drive from the unhinged Ayia Napa. The holiday itself was the usual 'pool or beach by day and a meal with drinks by night.' Though the nights themselves did get somewhat more clumsy as the holiday went on! We gotta laugh a little or we'll cry a lot, As the holiday went on, we realised that Ayia Napa had to be done, and with that decision came a huge tiddal wave of severe of laughter and hangovers! All in all, as Mike Skinner says, a tow-all-riz-hull-of-a-'oliday!



All who went to Cyprus benefitted from a gfunk produced DVD as well!....



No mask, no cape, no problem!...July came the month of not just my birthday but some of the best films of the year: Die Hard 4.0, Transformers and The Simpsons Movie! Transformers though, wow! This represents everything that I love about films since my birth; the shear f*ckoffness of it all and the absolute balls to wall style of action which still appeals to me even at the age of 25! "Maybe you should grow up?" I hear you shout...nah...thats just how I roll!



So the wet and dismal summer continues to roll on and I still maintain a nice tan from holiday but still no sign of the English sun! But there's still nothing better than sitting outside the Angel in Baildon on a late sunny afternoon smashing down the reasonably priced ale whilst talking about Hollyoaks, cars and boobs! However, if theres very little sun and its not too cold, what does the British mentality stretch to? - that awesome word that summons out the shorts of hope and exposes those pale legs of experience! - BBQ! Ribs, rolls, ribena, rollos, ripped jeans, rent-less, right-on! The weather manages to hold out for just enough time to light the disposable barbeque, eat some cow and down some suds! But do you know what I really love about BBQs? It is when my gracious and always kind mates decide to leave lots of alcohol in my fridge because...
a) their too p*ssed to care,
b) they completely forget about it,
c) or they love me and are fully aware of my agreement with Chris Boardman that 'alcohol is part of a balanced diet!'



Sam and Jess: Everyone has mates that when people ask about them, you respond with 'they are the nicest people ever!' Well these two ARE the nicest people ever, more accurately, the nicest couple ever! I spent most of my university years with Sam & Jess and I was so happy for them when they got married! So I travelled down to the beautiful shores of Kent to see them both get hitched during the hot summer down there and what a fantastic wedding it was! Congrats to you both! Muzel Tov!



The Infoserve massive - loving your work is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot but for me its not true! Work bores me out of my tiny mind and makes me wanna confine myself to a small padded space with some sort of shackle/straight-jacket configuration, but I do love the peeps I work with! They alternate between cool human beings and downright awesome human beings (even when the fan hits the shit for a change!) Working with good lookings gals is also a bonus in my book!...



But when the shit does hit the fan, it hits hard and it hits fast. Early October, redunancies swept the company in the space of not even one day and we lost a lot of friends, new and old. Given a pretty smooth year, this must have been the longest and most painful week for me this year. Not only is your own job on the line, but good friends are too. At the end of the day, after all the meetings finished, I managed to survive but a lot did not. So we all decided to pile into Leeds for a reet royale rumble to cemisarate the loses. I have not been on a weeklong bender for a long time and it brought back a lot of memories or destroyed a lot of memories! Either way, after the mist cleared I was able to get back to work. Ive had a few beers now so I will quote Maximus - "I knew a man once who said death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back." Heres some of the great people we lost...



Every year, the family dons the clobber of exercise and sheds the clobber of work and sets their sails for Centre Parcs where all the family convene for a week of exercise and compete in the Stella Consumption Olympics! After a few mates holidays this year, I decided to save my loot for an family holiday abroad during the tail end of October. So all campers descended upon Nerja which resides on the scenic southern shores of sunny Spain. To home your time senses, this was the week which included England loosing to Oz at rugby and Hamilton failing to lift the F1 world championship trophy. England prevails! Disregard this and take aboard the fact that we stayed in the most awesome castle-style villa ever, visited the Alhambra castle, swam in the Costa and were delightfully served for a week in a fantastic coastal town.



(Geek alert!) Nick, Djenan, Steve, Tim & myself got a rare chance to hear John Williams music being played by a live full orchestra during the Leeds Film Festival. This special event was held at the Leeds Town Hall and the full Leeds Symphony Orchestra was present to belt out the old school classics and new emsemble themes including; Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Munich, ET, Superman, AI, Harry Potter, etc. We were seated right behind the orchestra where we could feel the trumpets kill the marches and the massive steel drums smash our organs to bits! Top treat for someone like me who loves music and has thrived off Spielberg films all of his life which goes hand-in-hand with John Williams body of work.



Its in a mans blood to love speed...whether he denies it or embraces it more tightly than Big brother participants do the media, but men do love to watch and hear things go wroom!!! Kristian, his dad Brian and myself trundled down to Donington Park for the Renault World Series of exhibitions and races. The highlight being a F1 car flinging itself round the track with pure muscle and grit mixed with racing technology at its very best! Now I can add this to my power list next to a seeing a space shuttle take off in Florida!



Mark finally took the house plunge and sorted himself out with a fantastic new terraced house in Bingley (right over the wall from his parents!) To celebrate Mark's new pad - we decided to warm it up in proper British fashion! Even though at the time Marks furniture consisted of just a smelly couch and a DIY makeshift table, a reet royle rumble was had! Congratulations kid!...



Quote from Djenan - "Some people have a diary; I'm starting a photo diary. I'm calling it Project:365. A picture a day for 365 days."  Djenan's year is either short or he's lazy - 194 photos! Note to Djenan buddy - make it a weekly photo diary mate! Good lad...



Rob goes away, comes back, goes away again, comes back and then goes away again. Stu comes back then goes away again only to come back. Ben goes away, comes back, goes away, only to come back and go away again. Can't people just stay still?



Congratulations are due to Tim & Jo as they are set to wed next year! May they one day bring the world to its knees!



Ive always knocked iPods, mainly because of their low storage capabilities coupled with a large price tag. However, I decided to give the iPod Classic a goosey gander due to its 20gb video and music storage, sleek looks and the 150 bar price mark which makes more sense than the recent generations offerings. Check out below for this years mintest tunes that have been horsing their way through my iPod and into my moated brain!



Meg: still cantering her way through life! Many believe she still looks like a pup which is probably due to the vast quantities of attention she gets from us scrubs and the older rents which odviously has had a good effect on her!



DJ Shadow (real name Josh Davis): Known as the godfather of instrumental hip-hop, has proven himself with groundbreaking, genre-defining solo output on such respected labels as Solesides and Mo' Wax. Although Shadow's earlier works, especially Endtroducing, are known for their innovation in genres such as hip-hop, ambient, and trip-hop, his latest album, The Outsider, had several tracks dedicated to the 'Hyphy' sound. How can anyone be bad though with track titles like: Midnight in a Perfect World, Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt, Best Foot Forward, What Does Your Soul Look Like? and Giving Up The Ghost. Anyways, I caught a set in Leeds mid-year and it was superb! I am still a bigger fan of his older albums but he still knows how to bring the funk!



2008! What to look forward to? Well its already only a slight way in and I am back to brassic already! This new flat business doesn't half enjoy taking my wallet to school! If I were Tax, I would be constantly loosing sight of my offspring; council, road, car, income, etc! At least I get to reside within a lovely pad in Guiseley, dead close to Leeds via the train station and only a stones throw away from our kid Meg!

1. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - You Look Great When Im Fucked Up
2. Bob Dylan - Ain't Talkin
3. Govt Mule - Far Away
4. Roots Manuva - Witness 1 Hope
5. Portishead ft. Tricky - Hell Is Round The Corner
6. Spiritualised - Do It All Over Again
7. UNKLE - Price You Pay
8. Ludacris ft. Sum 41 - Get Back
9. Prodigy - First Warning
10. Spiderbait - Black Betty
11. Dropkick Murphys - Shipping Up To Boston
12. Delirium - Silence (Europhoric Chillout Mix)
13. Faithless - Crazy English Summer
14. Massive Attack - Prayer For England
15. Doves - There Goes The Fear (UNKLE Mix)
16. DJ Shadow - Giving Up The Ghost
17. DJ Krush ft. Esthero - Final Home
18. Aphex Twin - Polynominal-C
19. Cinematic Orchestra ft. Roots Manuva - All Things To All Men
20. John Cale - Big White Crowd
21. Orbital - Funny Break One Is Enough
22. Shuggie Otis - Ah Uh Mi Hed

1. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
2. 3:10 To Yuma
3. Blade Runner: Final Cut
4. Smokin' Aces
5. The Departed
6. Transformers
7. The Good Shepherd
8. Die Hard 4.0 (Uncut)
9. Hot Fuzz
10. Shoot 'Em Up

Best Films Discovered This Year...

1. Children Of Men
2. The Insider
3. Sergio Leone's Western Trilogy
4. Touch Of Evil
5. V For Vendetta
6. The Breakfast Club
7. Downfall
8. Syriana
9. 1941
10. Chopper

Hottest Girls Of 2007

1. Megan Fox
2. Gemma Atkinson
3. Mary Elizabeth Winstead
4. Elisha Cuthbert
5. Lindsay Lohan
6. Natalie Portman
7. Olga Kurylenko
8. Anne Hathaway
9. Emilie de Ravin
10. Amanda Bynes

While your mind is now filled with mint tunes, awesome films and glorious girls, I will now bow out and get myself back to Top Gear. As there is no room for a cool closing line, I will let a sentiment that means a lot to you ride right here...

The Good Shepherd (2006)
Director: Robert De Niro
Starring: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Michael Gambon, Robert De Niro, William Hurt
Edward Wilson believed in America, and he would sacrifice everything he loved to protect it. Thats the premise of The Good Shepard which through the use of flashbacks, tells the story of Edward Wilson and his involvement in the birth of the CIA. Wilson is laconic and self-contained after the suicide of his father and he uses this to orchestrate covert operations for the US of A, like the Bay Of Pigs (and we all know how that turned out!)

Matt Damon plays the role with minimal acting, ie, a nod and a shift of a gaze is about as much as yet will get from Jason Bourne! Robert De Niro pops up in places, Jolie plays Damon's alcoholic wife and the rest of the cast flitter in and out of the screen story.

Overall, I really enjoyed being swept up in the world of deception and operations, but at 3 hours, this is a hard runtime and is noticeable on your arse! I can see some people slating this 'minimal film' but that is the way Edward and the film are, and that too me was enough to keep me entertained.

Wedding Daze (2007)
Director: Michael Ian Smith
Starring: Jason Biggs, Isla Fisher
My first thought was "this looks like another American Pie film!" Also, the films advertising doesn't even attempt to persuade us otherwise. So Dave and myself took a boring Tuesday eve out to see if this flick would turn out as advertised.

After the first 15 minutes of back bending American cringyness had flown by, it turned into a kooky, random, offhand comedy, which I enjoyed immensely! If you can deal with strange occurrences, random characters, then you will enjoy this!

Location: Baildon
Our local engineer, David Hird will be racing his soapbox derby racer in the Baildon derby this Sunday! Well, our local Angel landlord Tony will be racing this amazing vehicle!

So come support your local landlord, God knows you owe him after ranting drunken stuff at him all weekend (with Tony it kinda works both ways!)

Location: PPIK & Oceana, Leeds
Lucy (Rick's girlfriend) pulled an absolute blinder by secretly organising a day at ppik - Pole Position Indoor Karting! Top lass! This was an awesome day! I have new found respect for Formula 1 drivers as time in those karts is punishing!

After all the adrenaline had flowed out of us, we hit Leeds and descended upon Oceana for the usual giggles!

Achin' heads and achin' bodies all round!

Click here for the photos...