We arrived in Kyoto somewhat weary after three days of hardcore sightseeing in Tokyo. When we booked our hotel room it appeared that there was not a big price difference between the cheap rooms and something half decent so we booked the Granvia which was pretty fancy, right in Kyoto station and even had a decent pool. As soon as we got to Granvia we decided to head for the pool, though we nearly didn't make it in. Upon arrivial we were told to read the rules, which said that no tatoos were allowed. Fortunately after flashing our tats we were [View Full Entry]

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Hello !!!! whilst we are still in blogging mode thought i would stick an entry about our journey from Tokyo to Kyoto on the bullet train as Carla going to do the next entry about our time in Kyoto so watch this space. I wrote the below whilst on the train, so its a bit poetic !!! apologies but i promise loads of crude jokes about lady boys when i blog Bangkok! The Shinkazen (Bullet) trains' have a simple excitement about them. Waiting on the platform we watch them glide in with their Concorde-like noses and pristene white carriages. But like [View Full Entry]

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After a sad send send off from our entourage of Winn, Moz, Chris, Lynne, Trev and late 90s rap sensation Coolio - i kid you not - we left Heathrow and the UK for the next 10months and touched down at destination number one Tokyo. What a place!! we had read many opinions so were keen just to take it all in so after a short nap we headed out to Yoyogi Park, the sunday hang out for all the Harajuku Girls and costume gangs. Basically this is where all the youths from the boring suburbs head for every weekend all [View Full Entry]

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Ok so I lied !! Kentish town just aint Japan (a bit more like Beirut with a couple of nice pubs) but just had to get down some photos from last nights Arctic Monkeys gig. Most people will know that i like my music and must of seen a few bands in my time but last nights gig topped them all, by a mile !! For those of you that dont know the Arctic Monkeys are a group of oiks from Sheffield, who without any image or silly hats had the fastest selling debut album of all time and have been [View Full Entry]

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Yep i know what your thinking.........when are these people actually gonna go travelling and stop listing entries about the UK or their holidays?????? well its nearly here folks so this should be the last entry before Japan (i promise) but so hooked am i on cataloguing my life in blog format here is an account of our day including photos at the V2006 Festival. Arrived on site about 12.30pm and headed for the beer tokens stand so drinking began about 1ish, we had sneaked in approx 2 bottles of Merlot in Ribena bottles which if you keep reading you will find [View Full Entry]

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I thought that having given up work on 21st July I would have no more early mornings so it was with some shock that I received the information from Matt's parents that the wake up call to head for France would be at 4.30am! .......a time I was sure only happened once a day. Having arrived at the house some 12 hours after the wake up call we were greeted by a lovely blue sky, this was not to continue the following day was fairly grey and wet but good weather has prevailed since then (but for a few chillier days). [View Full Entry]

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To celebrate the finding of a Sunset & Sunrise function on our camera, plus my love of a good sunset we have decided to add a non specific section which we can add photos of sunsets and sunrise as we travel. I guess most will be sunset photos as its likely that we wont be arsed to get up early enough for sunrise, although I believe that there is a point in NewZealand that claims to be the first place on earth to see the sunrise each day! so that may be worth setting the alarm for (if we were taking [View Full Entry]

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There comes a time in every man's life when he must admit that he's getting old and as my 30th fast approached I decided to face it head on and make an event of it, it's not as if our round the world trip has been arranged by Saga!!! STA travel is for students and youngsters (so i keep telling myself). With Carla's birthday on the 27th and mine on the 29th, we had a busy week either side of the 2 dates. Firstly another trip to North london to visit Lorraine and Andy, great food, a comedy club and a [View Full Entry]

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After an intimate gig last week (check out http://www.mk-music.net/Page_Article.asp?Site=1&Section=47&Page=1&Article=480&M=21 for full details) blackstar headed off to the Northamptonshire countryside to record their second demo full of hope and bravado. The weekend began at 9.30am on Saturday with set up and levels on Liam’s kit and Al’s bass and initial run throughs sounded good and by late morning 2 basic rhythm tracks were down. As you will see from the pictures the setting is fantastic and I think this added to our more laid back approach which was to prove dividends by the t [View Full Entry]

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Thought we would report on our Car Boot sale in order to raise further travel funds and clear out some of the thousands of books, CDs and DVDs we had filling up Chris Parrys garage. The day began at 5.30am with some of the previous days excitement waining, the car had been filled to the brim the day before so straight to MK bowl to arrive at 6am and set up in the rain with dealers hovering "Got any Jewlery, sweetheart???" "er no, how about a Storm watch that doesnt work?" although a request for CDs was met with a first [View Full Entry]

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