Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain time trial rolled into Knowsley Safari Park. It was a very wet day. the road surface was soaked and it was cold, so it must have been freezing in a skinsuit.  It was good getting to see how fast a person can go and amazing how close they are to the public. Mark Cavendish rolled past inches away from me. Bradley Wiggins was the favourite and he killed it. The school kids cheered and got hyped even in the rain.

New Bird birth

And so it begins.........

A cold and wet winter day. The first ever photo of the first layer of concrete on the first section of New Bird.

New Bird. Concrete sculpture by hand. Motorhead.

A few years ago I started helping out building New Bird skatepark. There was a constant and fairly regular crew building and paying for it. At the time I was so stoked just doing it and the more it seemed like people wanted it to stop the more my positive vibes towards the whole DIY idea grew. I'm sure one of the hardest days graft I have ever done on anything was at New Bird. There have been various events held at the park since it was (completed) and I'm sure there are a few mixed views on this but it is a good acknowledgement of what a few can achieve with hard graft and determination. This is the Vans demo and is by far the most populated the park has ever been. I think the park has fulfilled it's purpose to be skated and get skaters stoked to skate. I know and appreciate every person that moved bricks, cleaned up or 'got another mix on' and I'm stoked to know that my sweat and piss is bonding that concrete together.

Mash it in the summer

It was sunny for a few weeks but that it a very distant memory now and it's all back to normal with the weather. Nothing says British Summertime like having to wear arm warmers.

Snowdon

I try to go up Snowdon at least once every year. Each time there is always a few things that take me by surprise. This time was no different, apart from seeing a helicopter rescue, countless people in fancy dress, a large group claiming the summit for Pakistan and a whole stack of downhill bikers there was this clown riding down on a unicycle. He went to great lengths to explain about the special set up and as he wiggled off at speed all I could think was there is a reason why you only

see unicycles in the circus.

Jennifer Trouton

Jennifer is an incredible artist. Such skill, talent and craft. Exquisite attention to scale, detail and composition with wonderful subject matter that can be sombre and joyful with a delicate use of colour. Her work blows my mind that it is possible for a human to create such beautiful images by hand. Her work gets a reference (Looking at the Overlooked) in that 50 Shades Of Grey book and this is a print, that hangs proudly in my living room, of a section of that painting and the interesting thing for me is part of that painting is of a telephone in my house.  I also like that fact that the book about a perv and is bought up by horny middle aged housewives has sold more copies than the book about the baby Jesus.