Motorcycles & Mancunians

Last week turned out to be a ridiculously crazy one. It also happened to be quite a bit of fun! Being busy at work helped only to make the moments away from it that much more fun. Things started out with the Motorcycle Safety Course (hence Motorcycle being in the title). Completion of this course would mean that I can go get my motorcycle license w/o having to do the road test at the DMV! The classroom session took all of Tuesday night and it left me anxious for the riding session that would occur over the weekend. More on that later. The night after that course, I went to Oracle Arena to see Oasis play (and hence the Mancunians in the title: Oasis was formed in Manchester, England). Here are some pics:

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Kevin, Gordon & Myself waiting amongst the crowd for the Brothers Gallagher to take the stage.

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After a ridiculously long wait, here they come!

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Oasis!!! Live in concert! I still can't believe it (kinda). Gem, Andy, Liam & Noel projected onto the massive screens. We weren't sitting that close to the stage so it helped to have those screens!

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Liam belting out a song. Probably tossing in some profanity as well. For good measure.

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As much as I love the band as a whole, I'm quite partial to Noel's songs (he's singing one in this pic). Hearing "Don't Look Back in Anger" had to be my highlight of the night (followed closely by Champagne Supernova). Those songs take me back to '95/96...

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In a nutshell (and to paraphrase the Gallaghers): F*cking Brilliant! Not much else to be said other than to thank Kev & Gordon for coming along.

Then when the weekend rolled by, I spent Saturday morning putting around a parking lot on a 125cc motorcycle and much of Sunday morning doing the same. They conducted a skills, riding test on Sunday and I managed to pass! So now all I have to do is take a little certificate down to the DMV and pass the written and more two wheel fun for me! More to come I guess. Just wanted to share the Oasis pics and Motorcycle stuffs. Still need to post old pictures...sorry about that. For now, however, I gotta catch up on some of the sleep that I missed out on last week. On that note, take care all. G'night!

Movember Update 3

So, the month ended and Movember came to a close. As did my mustache growing antics. How did I fare following 30 odd days of facial follicle growth? Observe:

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The Mo (& fuzz below my bottom lip) were untouched through the full month. A fun exercise though not as impressive as I would've hoped!


And here it is about to be gone! Even though it wasn't much, it began to get annoying near the end...particularly when I ate and it felt like there was a caterpillar sitting up there.


And there we are! Clean shaven once more!

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So, it was all good fun and all for a good cause. Thanks to those who donated on my behalf (er...thanks Mum). It's not too late to get in on the donation fun if you're still keen to contribute to a worthwhile charity! Ask me how! Mercifully, I reckon that'll be my last attempt at facial hair development (well, at least till Movember '09). Also, apologies for slacking off plenty on overall updates. This week looks like a busy one so I can't say the sitch will change. Hopefully I can update you all soon though! Take care!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

Gourmet teri burger, fries and portuguese bean soup! Who needs turkey?

Movember Update 2

So, here's a quick update on Nov 20. This is what I look like after a little bit of grooming! More to come!

Movember Update 1

So, some of you may know that I'm once again participating in Movember (in brief: growing a mustache and collecting donations for worthy causes). This will be the first year that I do so with any semblance of officiality. If you go to movember.com you can click on Donate to make a contribution. By searching my name (or registration #) under Members, you can either make a donation to my US entry (#2083412) or my NZ entry (#2083257) or both. Donations go towards the Prostate Cancer Foundation (US) or the Mental Health Foundation of NZ and the Cancer Society (NZ). I hope some of you may help support me in my fundraising quest.

Just to keep things interesting, I plan on keeping track of my progress (somewhat loosely) here on this very blog:


Here I am clean shaven on Nov 1st.


And here I am on Nov 10th. Pretty paltry but I reckon I'm well on my way to a fulfilling 'stache (yeah right...who am I kidding).

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Anyhow, enjoy folks and I promise I've got a ton of pics to post from the past month or so. Life has just been too busy recently. Take care and I'll keep you all in the loop. Cheers!