So need a holiday after planning the holiday

I realised I haven't had a proper holiday since last year in Ibiza so with the pressures and stress of the house move, job responsibilities and planning the actual holiday, I'm am so looking forward to it.

Hopefully this will recharge me because as soon as we get back we're moving out of the flat and into the new house - the very next day we fly back. Not looking forward to the 11 hour jetlag from a 24 hour flight but at least I've sourced a cheap removal bloke by a chance meeting through ebay.

Our landlord, Stav took the move out news rather well, in fact he should be nominated for the nicest landlord award 2007. We invited him out for a pub drink and agonized over how to break it to him with half an hour of cheery, subject-avoiding chit-chat.

At least last weekend was an extended bank holiday one starting off with Trev's bbq party. Nice to see some different people including some German guy who worked on colour effects of movies. His latest work is on the new Batman film (check out the new bike above). Party was fairly good only ruined by the Final Scratch for my DJ set. One channel decided to stutter then give up totally after six tracks. Even Kev had the same problem on a newer version so both of us were left to use old vinyl or Kev's Virtual DJ.

Not much to report for the rest of the weekend apart from discovering the Lego shop for some childhood nostalgia and a posh ready-made meal shop for rich, lazy London commuters.

Before I finish, I want to share with you what we've got planned for the NZ holiday, trips-wise, not places:-

• Heli-hike
• Waitomo Caves
• Lost World including abseiling
• White Island - volcanic island
• Tandem Sky Dive over Lake Taupo
• Hobbiton
• Doubtful Sound - beautiful lake, valley, mountain view
• Milford Sound - as above
• Jet boating
• Bungy - let's see if my pants will accept that one
• Whalewatching
• Geyserland - not geezerland
• Edoras Tour - Lord of the Rings locations
• Snowmobile - personal favourite on top of a mountain range
• Snowboarding - if we get time!
  

Spot of bother

Why does everything peak at the same f*cking time! Late last week and out of the blue the chain decided to commit to a completion date the weekend before we go on holiday. No warning, no consultation, nothing! Kerry worked her socks off to get the paperwork sorted and negotiated a better date which will save us a few quid on rent and mortgage etc. As soon as we’re back from holiday we’ll need to move in whilst our mind and body are still 11 hours ahead.
We’re dreading the moment of telling our landlord as he’s such a nice bloke and he’s got every right to ask for the full 6 months rent. My work is reaching a critical point in the project I’m managing plus we’re trying to figure out where we’re going in our NZ holiday. My mum needs help since she’s never really recovered from two hip replacements and my dad’s asking for help to sell his business.
On top of that my face has decided to build an unregistered extension with an almighty huge spot. It started out feeling like a mouth ulcer then grew through the cheek wall to poke out the other side. I’m wondering whether this is the second stage of adolescence and my voice will break (again?).

Loop festival: Transforming and falling

It was a hard week with Kerry visiting the hospital and our house plan reaching a critical point so we were looking forward to our most local festival yet. No camping required and even a wrist pass to pop in and out of the Loop festival site in the middle of Brighton.

First surprise was seconds after entering was spotting our old mate, Harry who we haven't seen for 6 years! Now a mini-festival and club promoter, he visits Brighton almost twice a month. The site was compact using the university building across the road for chilled music sets and multi-media art pieces.

First band to see were Transformer, a local unsigned DFA inspired setup. I can see good things happening with these guys who played really well. Let's hope they're higher on the bill next time to match their dirty disco sound.

Second band to see were The Bays. Although local, they've set themselves up a worthy reputation as crowd pleasers across the festival circuit. Their ethos is to play like a DJ and respond to the crowd building the set. By the end of their set we were hooked and wished they would sell their recorded material.

After a bus-ride home for some grub we were ready to see Fujiya and Miyagi. Midfield General was DJing just before and played some nice electro. Although their album's great to listen with their strange lyrics and laid-back beats, I was surprised at how funky they came across. The end of their set (and possibly the reason an encore wasn't allowed) was ruined by some twat climbing the centre pole taking everyone's attention. The security cleared a space around the pole but the guy continued and made it to the top. Not content with his success, he monkey-barred across then dropped in front of everyone. Amazed he lived really. It even made the front page of today's local paper, The Argus. Spotted the band members of F & M and ran up to them to say how good they were. David Best, the lead singer looked like he needed the compliment and asked if the pole-climber was ok.

Boosh lads in retro music video: Mint Royale

Post Chill, Pre Loop

I was supposed to restrain the plastic-swiping but went and bought a new pair of specs. At the moment they're pinching the side of my head into two. Also bought was a pair of Loop festival tickets, a new electronic music and arts festival right here in Brighton. Personal highlights will be Fujiya and Miyagi but there's loads of new acts which sound quite good on their MySpace players.

Kerry chose two DVDs for viewing over the weekend, Thumbwars (as pictured) and Little Miss Sunshine. It looked like it would have so much potential, a parody on Star Wars using thumbs for actors. The special effects were ok and there were some really silly but amusing moments. It was also a double feature with Thumbtantic (Titanic) as both features were only 30 minutes long. As a piece of advice, I would only watch the highlights on YouTube to get the idea.

Little Miss Sunshine - disregarded this originally as it looked a bit too cutesy from the trailers. There are some great, dysfunctional characters stuck together into a campervan on their way to getting their daughter into a talent contest. Ok so its another road trip film but its worthy of its Oscar nominations.

Went for a Sunday drive discovering our neighbouring costal towns of Rottingdean, Saltdean, Peacehaven and Newhaven. Three out of four were dumps (though Saltdean has its Lido) ending our drive next to Newhaven fort. Stopped at Rottingdean, the prettiest of the four places for photo opportunities and cream tea.

More Simpsons Avatar stuff

Do you take ginger discount?

Usually you have to be a child, student, OAP or Blue Peter badge owner to get entry discount. But the National Botanic Garden of Wales is offering free entry to ginger-haired people. Apparently, security guards will suss out and ginger-wigged gate-crashers. Special event to celebrate Ginger-ness will happen on Sunday 26th August. I AM SO THERE!

By the way, like my Simpsons avatar? Try creating yours at the Simpsons movie website.

Long tailbacks, short sleep & Big Chill

Managed to wangle a flexi-half-day from my lovely new employer meaning we could organise ourselves for Big Chill. However, the Friday night traffic started early on the motorways and some people decided their day wasn't interesting enough and caused a few crashes along the way. Some 6 and a half hours later, passing through some post-flooded areas smelling of fish, we get to the site.

It was our first time in a tent, at a festival and probably the last. Lugging stuff miles and the hassle of trying to find a place to pitch isn't the best. By a stroke of luck we spot James (Kerry's ex-yoga teacher) and Paul taking the last scrap of land next door. They had already made friends with two couples from Manchester who were already canning into their supplies. The pop-up tent was a master-stroke of genius and we were ready for attack.

The Chill starts here
Over the Big Hill, we saw the beauty of the site. So many great food stalls and all priced very reasonable. The line-up was very alternative with the Media Mix tent, Finlandia area and the Cabaret tent being our regular haunts. Zan Lyons did a soundtrack remix to Ghost in the Shell(2):Innocence. The manga film has gorgeous visuals and Zan's haunting violin really worked well. Next we rejoined our new happy campers to listen to Tom Middleton. Not the best set I've heard and regretted not sticking to Kruder & Doffmeister on the main stage. A little more exploring then back to the tents for some random chin-wags joking about pipes up arses and other things I can't really remember.

Saturday
A minuscule of sleep and an early wake-up from a capoeira club twanging and drum-beating meant a really tame day of lying down and watching the world go by. There was plenty of art, sounds and walking entertainment courtesy of the those dressing up. Whilst on our travels we saw the disturbing, paedophile-dream of the children's fashion show with the winner being an eight-year old boy in a dress with fake boobs. No photos were taken in case we were lynched by parents. By about 5pm we could see the potential of ruining the evening without a proper kip so stole an hour back in bed. More class costumes passed our way including two lads as Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter 2 and Old Greg from the Mighty Boosh.

We waited ages for a really tasty stone-ovened pizza which was well worth it. Whilst queuing I gained a pet bee who latched on to my shoulder for go knows how long. I named him Howie, who was obviously stoned, and even he even allowed me to stroke him. After a little persuasion I had to let Howie go and see DJ Yoda who put on a great VJ show. So many highlights including David Dickinson, film clips from Human Traffic and alot of old classics like Paul Hardcastle's 19, Paul Simon's 'Call me Al' and Bowies' Let's Dance. There was even a computer animated Star Wars Yoda breakdancing with Stormtroopers grooving in the background.

Animat, the same people that brought us their soundtrack remix of Belleville Rendezvous had a new film called the Straight Road. It's about an old guy who wanted to explore America on his mini-tractor/lawn-mower. After Yoda, I don't think anyone was really bothered about as it looked boring. A bit more wandering and tried to like Howie B's set but got bored of that as well. The evening ended up in the cabaret tent with punk-rock karaoke, some mixed can-can troupe then ending the night on a crap act involving a walk-on piano and some dodgey break-dancers. Time for some much needed sleep.

Face-hair World Champions in Brighton

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Make a date for Saturday, 1st September for the World Beard and Moustache Championships at the Brighton Centre.

• See the event schedule
• Buy tickets

I don't think you need to grow one or even wear a top-lip-toupee but will make enquiries just in case. Anyone who would like to meet up, drop us a line.