Donington Superbikes

Pete, his girfriend Jess and I attended the Superbikes in Donington this weekend.
Donington is about 2 hours North-West of London. Due to the amount of detours we made, it took us 4 hours. We left the accommodation a bit late and ended up staying out in Birmingham. I always thought Birmingham would be a hip place to be but apparently it’s rough as guts. Young girls pushing a pram around everywhere, it must be a craze to have kids at such a young age. The motel we were staying at was an absolute shithole. The entrance was a fire exit; even the stairs to our room was a fire exit. The rooms we so small that the door will not open fully. There was rubbish on my floor and the bed has been made with the same linen from previous visitors. Shit sleeping experience.

Now to the fun part; the Superbikes. Superbikes is one class below MotoGP. It was rainy, muddy and slippery. Bodies were flying everywhere and hitting the pavement at Ferocious speeds. Of course entertaining. We left the raceway soaking wet and smelling like horse manure. The 2 hour drive home plus the 1 hour tube journey was not the most satisfying.
Pics from Donington can be viewed here

10 Star Hotel Part 1 - 5.7 MB
10 Star Hotel Part 2 - 4.7 MB

Sam





Fast Crotch Rockets







brrrmmmm...








Final Race

I am no longer a shitter

As I sat patiently on Friday; ready to slit my wrist, I was offered a role at Interconnector UK. The role is basically supporting staff and using my Trump card on vendors. Today was my first day, it was slow as expected; absorbing as much information as I can about the environment. I also spent about 5 hours crawling around doing cable management. Here's another famous Soh Wisdom

'You have to wash the car, to be able to buff the car'

I don't have any pics this week as Eileen borrowed my Camera for Barcelona. I am however going to watch Superbikes this weekend at Donington raceway so that should be good. I don't know which will be more interesting; The superbikes or the population of 7000 at Castle Donington. Oh, I also managed to obtain another Microsoft Certificaton; I am geek, hear me roar

Peace

Sam

Notting Hill Carnival

It was Bank Holiday weekend. They don’t call it a public holiday over here, banks are also closed hence the name ‘Bank Holiday’
Jakey and I attended the Notting Hill Carnival to gain our London experience. Over 1.5 million people will be at this festival over the weekend. The people that live around Notting Hill are mainly Caribbean’s; you do get a few whities but Asians are a myth around this area, other than groups of Japanese tourists. So the Carnival is based around the Caribbean theme, bongo drums, steel bands, traditional music (which was awesome) and of course some Hip Hop & Dance to keep the crowd happy. The food there was amazing as well, BBQ chicken, skewers you name it. Anything that could go on a BBQ was there.
Pics from the Notting Hill Carnival can be viewed here

Since I am still unemployed, I have been spending a lot of time watching the Beijing Olympics. Don’t get me wrong, I love New Zealand but we are so shit. I have even come up with a new slogan that marketing NZ may be interested in.

New Zealand, We have more bronze that you!

With a population of around 4.2 million; you would think that we would walk away with more Golds. NZ government agencies spent $80 million since Athens 2004 to get 9 medals in Beijing 2008. Prime Minister Helen Clark says New Zealand got fantastic value for the money it put into its Olympics team.
But let’s not stop there, since NZ is already in recession why don’t we burn more money for London 2012; maybe we can get 6 or even 7 bronze.

I see an easy solution to get more medals. New Zealand is one of the fattest populations in the world. Look at the likes of Valerie Vili and Beatrice Faumuina; they are big strong girls. Let’s make use of our potato/kumara diets by burning off the fats to build lean muscle. Get away from mainstream sports and spend more time on Weightlifting, Judo, Boxing and even Fencing.
One athlete that I was most impressed with was Sarah Walker in the BMX, although she came into the Olympics as the World Champion, no one in NZ knew who she was until they saw New Zealand embroiled across the chest.
NZ, take off your tunnel vision goggles and broaden your horizons.

Notting Hill – 3.3 MB

Dr Soh

7 ft Jakey










Everyone on the lash








foot train

I want to fly away, yeah yeah yeah

Eileen got tickets to Lenny Kravitz on Wednesday night. He is touring to promote his new album 'It Is Time For A Love Revolution' and I must say, it's pretty good. His voice was amazing, the guitarist, drummer and bass all put on a great show for the crowd. I have uploaded a small clip for all to experience the crispness.

It was Eileen's 28th Birthday on Saturday so we had to get out on the piss. We went to a very pretentious rooftop restaurant with a beer garden. I felt so out of place, everyone was in a suit and I'm standing there in jeans and a t-shirt. At around 12am, my mate Jakey from Australia and I left the bar to get some food. We managed to approach two beautiful girls from Czech Republic and convinced them to come see the view from the rooftop. It was all downhill once we started chatting. Conversation went something like this:

Girls: We have no respect for people that take drugs, they are a waste of time! You don't need it.
Us: If your friends took drugs, does that mean you will disown them.
Girls: Yes

Then we started ripping into them with stuff like people have rights to do whatever they want, its their life, who are you to tell them what to do, blah blah blah.
It got pretty funny but what a stupid conversation, should have turned my back and walked away. Anyway still unemployed but that has not stopped me from booking trips. Currently booked is Amsterdam, Munich, Iceland, France. Will need to try to squeeze a few more in before Christmas.

Lenny Kravitz - 5.7 MB

Sam




Lenny is the man









Still the man

Theatres everywhere

There always seems to be something on at the theatres here, whether it be musical, comedy or live acts. We attended a Hip Hop theatre show last Wednesday call 'Into the Hoods', the storyline and choreography was awesome. It was all a mixture of hip hop, jazz and even break dancing. Thursday night came around and Eileen got home all stressed out so we decided to head out for a few drinks and dinner. After a few rounds of Tequila, it was time to get a kebab for dinner and stumble home. One thing I forgot to mention was that I had a interview the next morning. I was late for the interview and no amount of cologne could hide the tequila stench. I was not surprised when they didn't offer me the job.

On Saturday, we walked around the streets to check out the amazing street art in random back alleys.
Street art gallery can be viewed here

Saturday was messy as usual but on Sunday, we attended the British Motor Show. The super cars and concept cars are amazing in the flesh. A Ferrari F430 Scuderia has now been placed on my 'To Buy' list. Some of the super cars there were:

Ferrari Enzo - $1,000,000 USD
Pagani Zonda C12 F - $741,000 USD
Mercedes SLR McLaren - $455,500 USD
Koenigsegg CCX - $600,910 USD
Ferrari F430 Scuderia - $230,000 USD

British Motor Show gallery can be viewed here

The week flew by and on Thursday night, a play was on the cards. This time it was 'King Lear' by William Shakespeare. Although I do not have any knowledge of King Lear, the play was very well done. It did however go for 3.5 hours but all well worth it.

Its past 3am and I need to get some shut eye.

ca va

Sam




London Burning








Mooning Mona Lisa








Koenigsegg CCX








Pagani Zonda C12 F

ABs are shit but Kora rocks!

What a major disappointment, I woke up with a raging hungover after sleeping for 3 hours and spending 1 hr on the tube just to watch the All Blacks lose. When will the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) admit that they hired the wrong person for the job!

Anyway, its midnight on Saturday and I am at home updating this blog. Some may scream 'Soft' but I think my explainations will be pretty valid. So I was out in Shephards Bush on friday night as Kora was performing. If you would like to hear some of their tunes, search youtube for hit songs like 'Politician' and 'Burning'. So back to the story, the night started at a pub (as usual) where I met up with Rangi; a mate from school. In the last 4 years, I have only seen him twice so it was random to see him in London. Wth reunions, there has to be alcohol. Big Pete was also kind enough to bless us with his presence. It was only a small concert (about 1500) but they rocked the party. I was pretty loose by the time I got there so I decided to try to get right up the front; I was like a snake weaving through the crowd. As I got to the fifth row, some girl tapped me on the shoulder and passed me a joint, SWEET! I do not condone affilating with illegal substances. I think it is irresponsible and damaging to your health. Being up the front is totally awesome, beats standing out back listening to static.
The concert finished at around 12am and drinks carried on till 5am.

All Blacks played Australia on Saturday so we had to get up bright and early. As stated, with only 3 hours sleep, I could still taste the rocket fuel of alcohol. But that is not the worst part (Is it 'more worst' or 'worser' Jacqui?), Richard Dalton was about to give me a turkey slap. I think people have different meanings to the term 'Turkey Slap' To illustrate:
Man sees victim sleeping
Man pulls cock out
Man slaps victim across the face with one-eye snake.

So yeah, what a way to start the day!
Anywho, we were back on the piss at 10am and clearly on a liquid diet only. AB's obviously lost but meh, we were too thrased to care. We caught a ferry to Greenwich to check out the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Greenwich Meridian. Wikipedia will have all the info on Greenwich but in a nutshell, NZ is GMT +12 and London is GMT +0. Greenwich Meridian is 0° longitude. The night ended with a BBQ on a small balcony and more drinks.
It is now 2am and I am not even tired but my liver needs a rest.

Ka kite

Sam





Chilling at Shephards Bush







Tower Bridge








Tourist?










Greenwich Meridian










Go Wellington!

Another Weekend of looseness

I was out in Chiswick on Friday night to watch a few stand-up comedy acts. The guy from the Hellers bacon commercial had a slot. I really wanted to shout out "Thats New Zealand Bacon". We were drinking heavily during the show and it continued till early hours of the monring; 6am to be exact. Sleep is for the weak, although I did sneak in 3 hours.

Saturday night rocked around and it was time to head to Putney for a triple Birthday Party.

There was a guy passed out in the corner so we decided to take photos with him but as I got closer and closer to his face, he woke up and was he fuming!!

Going to watch Kora peform on Friday night and up early for the All Backs vs Australia game on Saturday. Should be a pretty good weekend.

Sam




Party back at the flat








Notice the Sun rising








ZZZZZzzzzzzz......

Unemployed Bum

Well I have been in the market for a week now and I am still jobless. Had a couple of interviews but thats about it. Also found a gym close by and have started working out since I have so much spare time.

Anywho, we went to an Adult puppet musical last weekend. Imagine sesame street characters having sex; very entertaining. After that, it was time to go out on lash. There's an Australian bar here called the Walkabout aka Walkie. This place was cheap for alcohol and girls. Skanky Aussie's and plastered English lassies, I will indeed return.
We also caught up with Richard Dalton and a few other Kiwis, Saffers and Frenchies.

The tubes are like spaghetti, a 20 min trip sometime takes me over an hour as I am constantly getting on the wrong train. I do have a whole year to get use to it though.
Not much else has been happening here, job hunting during the day, dinner and drinks during the evenings.

Sam





Party Mix








eh....Frenchies








Urinal on street corner

The eagle has landed, again!

I arrived in London on Thursday 3rd July at 5:00pm. After crossing numerous time zones, I was very jetlagged. After the long customs queue and getting lost, I was finally reunited with Eileen (my sister). We opted for the cheap (₤5) and long option when we were at the tube stop. This was a very bad idea! The whole Journey took about 80mins whereas the more expensive (₤15) option would have taken about 25mins. I was forced to stay awake to get used to the time zone but didn't last long and ended up passing out on the couch.

I tried to harden up and went out for a few drinks on Friday night, bad idea. I was tired, anti-social and was tipsy after 2 beers. Never have I felt so crap from beer.
So on the way home, we went to a place called Chicken Cottage and picked up a family pack which consisted of a bucket of chicken (18) and 4 large fries. It was disgusting just looking at the amount of food we got for just the two of us. Chicken for breakfast it is.

On Sunday, we attended the O2 Wireless Festival, it was cold, wet and muddy but the outing was great and I was able to embrace what London was all about. Each of the bands were playing 1 hour sets and we got to see, Goo Goo Dolls, Powderfinger, Ben Harper and Counting Crows.

So today is Wednesday and the first day on the market for jobs. Recruiters are totally different here, most don't even have an IT background. All they are doing is selling you like a used car; polished and shined. To give you an idea of my day, I applied for about 15 jobs today and spent about 4 hours on the phone speaking to 10 recruiters, think its time for a beer.

Sam




mmmm breakfast








Borrowed raincoat








Partying with Sis

Weekend in Auckland and Seoul Korea.

The olds and I decided to go up to Auckland for a final family trip away before I depart off the shores of New Zealand. While we were up there, we got invited to dinner party, great food, mahjong (Chinese game), drinks and karaoke were the main attraction. Never in my life have I seen so many random high 5’s, cheering of glasses and man-hugs go around. Not to mention and pace that the alcohol was getting drank. These guys really know how to party and would put us binge drinkers to shame.

The lads came around for dinner on Tuesday night. We ate, drank and reminisce the old times. I did not get to sleep till 3:00am and had to get up at 4:30am to catch my flight. I was feeling like total crap.

A lot happened while I was at Auckland Airport. As I was sitting peacefully trying to kill 4 hours, a Samoan family of 20 decided to sit next to me, across from me and all around me. Babies were crying, kids screaming and jumping on seats. I bet they were probably thinking

“Look, there’s a quiet Asian sitting over there, let’s ruin his day by causing havoc around him”

I was also greeted with a piece of hair in my ham & cheese croissant. Things were not looking good for me. But when I went to the Travelex to exchange some money, I gave the lady $85 NZD and she gave me $55,000 Won (Korean Dollars). She must have made a mistake as I am now filthy rich. Shortly after, the Airline paged me to advise me that there has been a mix up with my luggages. So now I have to pick one bag up in Seoul and pick the second one up from London.

I was only in Seoul, Korea for 1 night during transit. The room I was in had a touch panel for all the lights in my room. The toilet seat had water jets for Rear Cleansing and Front Cleansing options. I was even able to specify the water pressure, water temp and seat temperature; now that is what I call a luxury toilet. I went out for a few beers with some randoms that were on the same flight. Even though we were in a remote part of Seoul, there were a lot of eateries around.

Off to bed, have another 12 hour journey tomorrow

Sam

Asian Karaoke - 5.3 MB

Find the white guy?








Man-hugs all round








Spot the hair








Chicken 15,000 Won









Squid in a pack







Korean Breakfast of Champions









Engrish







Fresh Taste Keeping System?