Little Elf graduates..Pt1

Been back from the UK a few days now but I came back with a killer cold and not really been in the mood to blog, sorry. However I'm here now and ready to update you all on what happened, there are loads of pics so i'll break it up a little.

Our Friday in London was spent at the UK passport office, Fee needed to get her new passport with there married name (Groves) in it. I wont go into details but it was a nightmare that shaved 5 years off my life and gave me high blood pressure....but she now has the passport which is a good thing.

We got the train up to Bath where the graduation was taking place, never been there before but it is a really pretty place and I would recommend if you have not been. Kind of wish we have visited Abi at some other point....oh well.

Bath is an old city and full of things like this, pretty right?

People even play Cricket here, how English is that!

I think he whipped his bails off with that one.

Once we got to our cute little hotel we dumped our bags and hit the town as Fee and me needed a big drink after the day we had. My Dad and Brother LOVE a beer so they were on a mission to drink as much as possible, me and the girls needed some food after a little while so we ran off for a curry..Yum!

One of the many, many pubs we went too that night.

Abi had to get my Dad a burger and chips on the way home from Mr D's burger van. Apparently this was the best burger he had ever had....he was rather drunk at the time.

The next morning my Dad, Spencer (my brother) and Toby (Abi's boyfriend) were a little hung over....Spencer didn't make it to breakfast and now has the nickname 'kebab pants' but i'll spear you the story that goes along with that one.

Pop, Toby, Spencer and Fee.

We went to the Uni Early with Abi to get her gown and photos done, so we hung around which gave some people the chance to re-hydrate a little.

The Bath Spa University has a very pretty campus with some nice old building like this.

So after a long time sitting in a hot test listening to boring people talk and clapping until our hands hurt it was finally Abis turn to go up. Well done Sis!

Awwww the little Elf is all grown up*

The classic.

Toby and Spencer were still nursing a hangover at the time.

Pop, Me, Abi, Toby, Spencer.

Stop nagging, i'm trying to take a picture!

I think we were teasing Toby about being shorter than Abi..Awwww.

It was a nice day and we managed to get out of there before it rained, the plan was to get some food then rest up for a night out.....so stay tuned for pt2!

*When Abi was little I convinced her she was a Elf from the bottom of the garden that we adopted because she grew to big for the rest of the Elf's to look after.......what?....dont look at me like that!

"just wait to get on that road again..."

No sooner am I back from London then i'm off again.....

It's my little sisters graduation ceremony from university, so it should be a nice family get together in the town of Bath. I'll take the D-90 this time so there should be some nice pics once I get back.

This is the post-it note I have left on my screen so people know I am away.

Pip-pip!

Living it up in London

Hey hey people!

So i'm back from London and the Toy Story premiere and you'll be glad to hear that we all had an awsome time! The film was great, it was cool to finally see the film after months of seeing sketches and reference matirial to build the models.

Here are some pics, I didn't take the D90. Its a bit of a beast and I knew I would be doing a lot of walking so I took the little Cannon. So the pics are few and simple but i'm sure you will enjoy...

So we got to London early Saturday and after cheaking in we went to find some food. I took them to 'The Tottenham Pub' , it's one of the oldest in London...you dont see many like this any more.

It's like some sort of film set from a period drama set in the smog filled street of old London town.

It even has this amazing glass sky light.

After re-fuling and talking to a mad sailor who made a very bad joke about the Titanic we went for a walk around London, and as the native I was the guide. Our first stop was a coll little shop called 'Magma'. Great for design/art books and magazines, they even do some toys and Dvd's.

It's small but packs a punch!

The place is packed with coolness and the shelves go to the ceiling.

YES! Thats me!

We then had a little walk towards Covent Garden and poped into 'Kid Robot' along the way which specialises in Vinyl Toys and collectables.

Even their bags a super cool.

Gitte and Lauge liked the shop, they don't see places like this in Billund.

Mega Dunny!

Fee and me a BIG 'Futurama' fans, so I picked her up a little collectable. You dont know whats in it until you open it...she got lucky and nabbed Nibbler.

Once we walked though Covent Garden we jumped into 'Forbidden Planet' which is like Nerd heaven. Comics, novels, dvd's, collectables, you name it they got it.

How do you get a man to read Jane Austin?....ADD ZOMBIES!

It was even a signed copy.. sweet.

This looked good, just started reading it....makes NO sence what so ever!

Got a great book about the art work of TS3 for the gang at work.

I love this kind of stuff, seeing how it got from concept to the final product is great.

We had been walking for a while now and we decided that we should head up to 'Hamleys' which is Londons oldest toy shop and have a look round. Once there we all had a little snoop around and then call it a day so we could all go do some personal shopping....that was after a vist to Starbucks ofcourse.

You know your in London when......

After a rest and a shower we all met for dinner, we went to the St Martins Lane Hotel which was styled by Philip Stark. They have a great cocktail bar and resturant there, I got Fee on the case back in DK to find us a good place to eat as she did not dissapoint!

In true Stark form there was lots of 'odd' things around the place. These faces we about 5 meter tall and all over the walls with defferent exspresions.

Mmmm Pre dinner Cocktails...two Mojhitos, one vhanila berry and a KGB. Lauge had the KGB and it came with a shot of 'Monkey shoulder'. We had no idea what that was.....

...untill we came across it at the airport. Turns out its a Whisky.

The meal was amazing, the restarunt is called Asia de cuba. It's a fusion or oriental cooking and eating with a cuban twist...super tasty! Sorry not pics of the food*
We were all stuffed after the meal, Gitte and Lauge went back to the hotel, Laurence went to meet his sister but me and Mike stayed out for a couple of drinks.....well when the company is paying it would be rude not to right!?

So the big day arrived and we all headed off to the Empire cinema.... :D

There was a huge crowed and it took us a while to get though to the entrance....dont they know i'm a VIP!!

This was awsome, the didn't have a read carpet...they had a LEGO carpet!

It was hard to get a pic without peoples feet blocking the shot, sorry. We were being hurded along by security at thei point.

Lena, Mike P, Mike A, Lauge

A view of all the 'common' people who could not get in. HAHA!

We got to watch all the z-list celebrities arriving and being interviewed by Alex.

Patton was very excited.

Alex talking to Gail Porter...she is a TV celebrity who suffers from alipechia (loss of hair) and Alex was going on about how Jessie is his favorite charecter because of her long pretty hair....ops!

Heres Woody, sorry for the blur but he was rather 'animated'....kind of looks like he is raving...or having a fit.

This was (along with Buzz, Jessie and the Alien) a give away in our goodie bags...Gitte was the one who sculpted the heads so she was very happy.

There's the whole gang...... thanks for a great day!

*Im not a food pap...I just cant do it!

TOY STORY 3!!

-----Super Cool News Alert!-----

As some of you may know I was one of the designers who worked on the LEGO Toy Story line. It was a great line to work on and as a thank you from Disney/Pixar myself and the rest of the LEGO Toy Story gang are......wait for it.....going to London to see the PREMIER OF TOY STORY 3!!! :D

There they are, 5 of the hottest tickets in town...how much would you pay for one of those on eBay?

I came home a little early to get travel arrangements sorted (being the native Londoner I was put in charge) and packing. Normally I just throw a load of stuff in a case and only wear 20% of it, so this time I figured out my outfits before hand.

Traveling and bumming round London on Saturday outfit. Simple, comfy and practical... combined with a large(ish) travel bag that good for any cool bits I may pick up.

This is my 'hitting the town' outfit, kind of smart but with a cool twist. We are going to a cool restaurant Sat night, so this should work out well.

Outfit for the premier. Smart trousers, nice fitted shirt, Pink tie and trainers. Being a kids film I wanted to keep the look a little 'fun'...plus it starts at 1:30pm so it's not exactly going to be a Black tie evening.

Traveling home outfit, again its comfy, cool and light-wight.

I wont take my laptop as its only for one night but i'll e sure to post up some cool pics once I get back. Stay cool!

Welcome to the book club..pt1

While doing all the painting and clean over the past couple of weeks, we finally got round to sorting out reading area and bookcases. We have a ton of books but when we sorted through them I realised there were looks of book I had not read yet, forgot we had or meant to recommend.

So what better way to help remind me of what we have (and help you pick a good holiday read) than to post it here. So expect a few more of these on slow news days... :)

Marilyn Manson's auto-biography The long hard road out of Hell was a good read, everything you would expect and then some. Talks about his childhood and explains a lot about why he is who he is. Devil May Care was so-so, its a Bond novel but written by Sebastian Faulks in the style of Ian Fleming. I like the Bond books but this missed the mark a little, the originals are better. Addict was also a good read, true story of this guy who get sucked in to a cray life of drugs and crime in 60's london, they keep talking about making it into a film but it never seems to happen. The rest belong to the wife and I have not read them, but 'Ugly' & 'A Piece of cake" are those painful lives style books she loves so much....so if your into that those are for you.

Devil in Amber, The Vesuvius Club and Black Butterfly are three great books by Mark Gatiss. He's a British comedian/writer (The Leauge of Gentlemen, Dr Who) with a dark side that come out in the books, Fee and me both liked these books. Think James Bond but written by Oscar Wilde.... highly recommend! Two copies of The Outsider which is a classic book and one of Fee's favorites, guess thats why we have two. Got the screen play of Taxi Driver in there (you talking to me?) and no book collection would be complete without The Da Vinci Code. I must remember to read the Bowie biography someday...