Fuzz and Face

Saturday morning Face headed up to East Strand for a surf while I went to my trampoline class.  After it was over I drove straight up to Portballintrae where I met up with Andy, Grace and Shaggy who were putting together a £2 kite they bought!  It actually flew pretty well for something that looked like it would break the moment we let it go!  After that we went for some pizza at Coast (under Ramore) and then to Sweenys in Portballintrae where there was a band playing (if you could call one girl and her guitar a band!).  Was really good craic, was nice to be able to chill and not have to think about stuff.  

(After waking up in the middle of the night with projectile vomit?!) Face and I were up early on Sunday morning and went on a search for croissants but couldn’t find any!!  Walked down to the harbour beside Grace’s apartment and watched a few guys body board in some pretty mental waves, was such a nice day.  When Grace and Shaggy surfaced we all headed out for brekkie/lunch then went to Giant’s Causeway, the wind was mental had long walk before we fed our faces on ice-cream.  Went into Portrush for a walk along the beach before we headed home.  Face and I finished off the day with a meal in McHughs Bar in Belfast.  We weren’t too impressed with the food but then again we ordered Pheasant (didn’t taste too pleasant in my opinion!)

Last weekend Face and I headed to Dublin to shoot Dan and Gerard Wolfe for Break the Cycle.  Was a brilliant weekend, good craic, the weather was great and some kind person named Shane and his girlfriend came down and set up a zip line for us for a couple of shots.  It worked so well and was quite funny to see Andy flying around in the sky.  Got some amazing scenery shots etc on the Sunday when we headed to the lead mines near their house.  Check out the link for a short vid and some photos www.breakthecyclefilm.com/wolfe-brothers/

Only managed to get out on my bike once this week as been flat out in work, really got spoilt when I was off for nearly a month and had all the time in the world.  Will really have to try squeeze some more sessions in.  Think I am going to invest in some bike lights so I can head out at night, should be fun, I have enough trouble staying on my bike in the daylight!

Heading to Rostrevor this weekend to film Meave Baxter.  Looking forward to the shoot, hopefully the weather will be as good as it was last weekend.

Just a quick post to update!  We were at down at Waterford from Sunday to Tuesday filming couple of riders for break the cycle, check out the clips at www.breakthecyclefilm.com

Apart from one of the riders riding into a tree and having to go to A&E and my forehead covered in Midji (not sure how that is spelt) bites it was a really good few days, some funny times had.  Have been pretty flat out in work the rest of the week.  Spent Wednesday morning with one of the anaesthetists in the Obstetrics theatre where I seen a caesarian, was really interesting, I did feel a bit nauseated at one point, thought I was going to faint but managed to pull it together.

Am just getting ready to head over to Face’s here and then we are heading down to somewhere near Dublin for the weekend to film some more riders.  The weather is awful outside, hopefully its a bit better down south.

Last week was very upsetting for my family and I as my Granda died on Tuesday morning.  It hasn’t been an easy week.  The funeral was on Friday and was very sad.  Everyone is holding up as well as can be expected, will just take time I guess.

After the funeral on Friday I left Face off to airport then headed into town to meet Jude for a coffee.  We went to Murials, our now regular spot, Im not big into coffee, but Jude says its really good, so if you’re a coffee addict check it out.  Apparently the food is good too, havn’t got round to eating there yet myself though.  Didn’t stay too long then headed home to chill, was a strange day.

Saturday I headed into town with my Mum for a spot of retail therapy.  Got a really nice Vans coat in TK Max, its so cosy I love it!  Then I headed trampolining where I caught up with Helen who wasn’t feeling too good.  That night I headed out with my sister and her friends to see the Jungle Book at the Belfast Opera House.  To be honest I didn’t think it was that great, but still enjoyed it, had a really good laugh, one of her friends in particular is hilarious.  We went to Robinsons restaurant first for some dinner, I had the chicken fajitas, they was really good.  I didn’t even know there was a restaurant in Robinson’s until Saturday!

Sunday I plucked up the courage to do a xc mtb race in Castlewellan Forest, Shaggy was doing it too.  I got up there pretty early and bumped into a few kids that I teach trampolining who were also racing.  They introduced me to a girl who was in my category and she took me around the track for a practice run.  That took about an hour and I was wrecked, then I only had 1/2 hour before my race started, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.  The course was pretty steep and technical, the technical bits really held me back as I had to walk a lot of them, I came last (obviously) but I am not going to let it put me off, definately going to work on my skills a bit and thinking of checking out the cyclo cross race in Lurgan this Sunday.  I have no idea what to expect at this either, should be funny!

Was seriously wrecked after the race, I only had 2.5 hours sleep sat night, just couldn’t sleep, so think that contributed to my wrekedness!!  I had free tickets to a UTV live gig in the Limelight for that night but I could hardly make it home never mind going out that night.  A bit gross sorry but when I got home I realised I hadn’t gone to the toilet for 9 hours which is a miracle for me!  I must have sweated away every last bit of fluid in my body!  I was starving as well, so I just fed my face had a bath and went to bed.

Yesterday I picked Face up from airport, who was a sleepy mess and then he dropped me off to work, my first time there in two weeks.  Am not so excited to be back but am off tomorrow which is good.  I am actually helping Face out with a video job which I am quite excited about, should be good.  

Today well, was in work this am then went with Face to his hospital follow up appointment for his leg.  Was totally pointless him going.  The doctor actually picked up his wrong leg and was moving it about asking him how it felt lol!  I headed out on my bike this afternoon for a bit then met Face and we headed to the cinema to see Death Race.  Its really good, pretty fast paced, if you like Fast and the Furious you would like it, only its a lot more hard core.

Very sleepy now so gonna go, nights!

I’m just back from a very hard weekend of work at MotoX of nations in Donnington Park.  I was over there producing video for an online tv channel called Freecaster.  It was quite short notice but i flew out on Friday evening and got back Monday morning.  

As I said the work was very busy.  I had to shoot video in the morning, and then edit 3 videos together the same evening.  I was using the lens adaptor on my camera on Saturday so I was quite tired at the end of the day from carrying the equipment.  I took the adapter off my camera for Sundays racing so things were a bit easier.

The racing was amazing with the top motoX riders from around the world competing.  It was hard to enjoy everything fully though because things were so busy.  I was mostly going back and forth from the track to the media centre.  I worked 7am to 2am on Saturday, and 7am to 4am on Sunday!  Just catching up with some sleep now on Monday.

We have been so busy lately with Break the Cycle stuff I have nearly forgotten about our blog.  I have been off work now for just over a week and I am loving all my free time.  Last week I was out on my bike every day, although I am totally covered in scratches and bruises.  I was out with Face a few times around Beaver etc and also went up the Cavehill myself to try out a few of the trails i had walked when we filmed Rosco for the film.  It was seriously slippy up there from all the rain, chickened out on a lot of the trails but rode a few of them was good fun but I was so scared being on my own.  Totally lost it on the road on the way down from Belfast Castle, I braked too hard round a corner and I went flying across the ground on my belly, thought I had broken a rib.  Had to cycle about another half hour then to get home, was glad to get off my bike then! Went round to Ormeau BMX track on Fri evening, have got this thing in my head that I want to get a BMX bike, but just trying to build up my strength on my hardtail first.

We caught up with Shaggy and Grace for our usual Friday night Indian and dvd.  Went for the madras which finally was up to our hotness standards!  Was really good.  The dvd was pretty good too, cant remember the name of it, it was about Joy Division, maybe it was just called Joy Division?  Who knows!  

Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn to head down to the Mournes to film Ewan Dogherty.  We headed up Donard, took us about half hour to reach the spot we were to start filming and on his first run he got a puncture and had to go all the way back down.  That was just the start, there was 3 more punctures that day!  We headed back to Ewans house after we finished and took a few shots there then headed to Helens Bay to take some cross country shots.  The weather was pretty amazing all day, we had a quick look at the footage later that night, it looked pretty good!  Sunday, another amazing sunny day, we headed back to Donard with Ewan to finish off his section (another puncture and broken rear mech!)  then met up with Turkey at Tollymore to shoot him at one of the trails.  He ended up with a puncture too but thankfully we had nearly finished his section so we just scraped the last bit of the trail!.  

Yesterday evening Face and I headed up the coast.  Was such an amazing night, the sunset was pretty cool.  Face headed in for a surf at White Rocks and I headed out around Portrush on my bike.  Went for a walk along the beach after I finished on my bike, felt so chilled out, wish I lived up there and could do that every night!

Face and I have been pretty busy with the Irish Downhill Mountain Bike Feature Documentary we are making.  Face has put together a website so you can check out our progress, looks pretty good check it out at www.breakthecyclefilm.com  Will be updated regularly!  I have been searching for bands to contribute their music to the doc, if you know any good bands out there who would be interested please give us a shout asap.

Last week was pretty good, started back to work last Thursday night trampolining coaching, and then Friday in the Royal back in theatre.  Saturday we headed to Rosco’s gym to film him taking his spin class, and then in the afternoon after I finished my trampolining classes, I headed up the Cavehill to meet up with them and give a hand shooting Rosco.  I took quite a few pics, in-between helping Face with lens changes etc.  Check them out below.  Rosco has asked me to come to a wedding in his church in October to be the ‘wedding photographer’, will definitely have to get some more practice in before that!

Saturday night we headed to down to a pub in Newry to catch up with Glynn and a load of other mountainbikers.  Think it was called The Brass Monkey.  Was a good laugh, got talking to a few of the girl bikers and think I gonna head out with them on the bikes sometime soon, should be good!

Last night we went to cinema to see Step Brothers, was hilarious, a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be.  Was in work today then headed out with Face and Shaggy on the bikes, was so good, managed to hold it together and not have any crashes at my previous crash sites which I was pretty happy about!  Not long back washed my bike and now Im probably going to hit the sack soon!

April!  Where did that come from?  Its been a while, nearly forgot about this thing, thought I better update it.  So what’s been happening..  on the house front we have handed our house over to an estate agent to do our dirty work for us and find us a tenant.  Hopefully that will happen soon or I will end up moving in!  We were donated a load of furniture which was nice! 

On a not so happy note, Andy got his orifice broken into a while back there, yep; things were all a bit doom and gloom for a while but are definitely starting to look up now.

Andy is feeling a lot better and is racing for the first time this weekend after a long break.  I know he is not feeling as fit as he would like to be yet but I guess will just take time.  Will be interesting to see how he goes.  This will be only the second time I have seen him race, can’t wait, go Honcho!

As for me, I am still threatening to get fit. I just need to do it!  Been out on my bike a couple of times this week, nothing too major though.  Heading up Cavehill tomorrow with Helen after our Saturday trampolining session, should be good. 

Thinking of hiring myself out as a private trampoline coach since so many people have their own tramps these days, if anyone interested or knows of anyone who would be let me know.  As for work have got my first exam coming up in June ahh!  Time for the studing to start.  Roll on the Summer!

 

 

I spent today down at our house in Larne doing some finishing touches, even had a go at painting in the snow (never again).  It is looking pretty good and if I wasn’t a student for the next 2 years I would be very tempted to move in, I think we both would.  I am studying to be a Physicians Assistant (Anaesthesia) so basically I put people asleep for their operations, keep them stable throughout, and then (hopefully) wake them up again after!  It’s a steep learning curve but really enjoyin it!!  Andy is starting to get better which I am so happy about.  He even ventured outside last night for the first time in a few weeks while we went to get a dvd and ice-creams!  I am getting pretty lazy though spending so much time chillin out, really have to get my ass back to the gym and get out on my bike a bit more instead of just admiring it in the garage!  Sleeps.