As a kid I used to love playing with Transformers, I had toys, sticker albums and books. Moving into older age I now have about 7 dvds of old school transformers episodes and Transformers: The Movie on DVD. With the imminent release of the new Transformers movies, I thought I’d post a picture of some books I found in a box:

I personally think they are pretty cool! They are all in really good condition as well.

The other day I was having lunch with Alex and we were chatting about this, that and the other. And one of the conversation topics got onto “how long are you realistically going to be flying kites for?”. The only real answer is “Until I can’t” and even though I have only been flying for about 11 months now, I can’t imagine what it’d be like not to fly, to not get that buzz. I was reminded of this conversation by a thread on the flexifoil forums: a guy who is 65 kite surfs here is a snippet of video that was, from what I gather was broadcast on a BBC program:

This lead onto talking about older kiters and this is one of the posts, and a great attitude if you ask me:

hehe we got a pretty old dude at our local, think hes like 60>75

his buoyancy aids the best! Accross the back it says O.A.P and under the big oap letters it states “if you have found me, dont worry i went happy!”

hes an awesome dude

By that reckoning, I have got a good 40 years of flying ahead of me. Bring. It. On.

Well, the 9m Guerilla2 and the 11m Guerilla2 where posted today having been sold to fund the acquisition of a 13m Venom. It is a sad day as both kites are really good fun to play on – I just know I will fair better on a 13m and 16m venom than a 9, 11 and a 16.

The only other problem I now face is that I need to obtain a new bar and lines as I have a 16m Venom with no control gear. Assuming that people are happy with the kites and give me the Ok tomorrow when they have had them arrive, I shall order a Zero7 bar and lines which will be good as the safety is improved over previous versions [it also includes a spinning chicken loop which is good for kitelooping].

It is also Webbie’s stag do this weekend. I am looking forward to being really mischievous well behaved.

Friday was excellent. Apart from a headache I was suffering, I had a most excellent time seeing a few bands at the Jug of Ale in Mosely. The first band on was Island Three which my mate Dave plays in. I was expecting to have to feign a degree of interest in the music they played, but actually, they were bloody good. I’ve yet to listen to the mp3s on their MySpace page but they were most excellent live. The next band was called The Rhythm and where very fratellis esque. The last band was Finding Calcutta which where excellent. They had a couple of acoustic guitars, a bass player and a drummer and produced an absolutely technically amazing performance. The music was very good. I picked up one of their demo CDs for myself, and Alex, if you are listening, one for you.

Saturday I went to EKS and had a play on the water. Did better than I have done before, which is to say I got up and going. The wind wasn’t in my favour though as it was all over the place. I put the 11m G2 down and got out the 16m Venom and still nothing was really happening. Got out, put the kites down and then the wind went nuts. It was measured at 15mph gusting up to 30. Fun. It wasn’t too bad as I did get to play out in the sun again. In the evening a number of us went out to celebrate Bailey’s birthday. We started at the Varsity, then went to All Bar One and ended in Walkabout. It was a good evening, although by about 1am ish I was starting to think I wanted to go [didn't want to be too tired for the next day], in the end I watched the Extreme Sports Channel in the bar and waited for the others to finish.

Sunday turned out to be a most excellent day. The wind turned out to be about the best there has been at EKS and in hind sight I was slightly gutted that I had elected to leave the water stuff at home. All was not lost though, land was beaconing. There are a load of photos here of the day at EKS. We had such tom-foolery as stacking a 13m, and two 16m Venoms to produce a 45m Venom, jumping of a bank over a fence, and general playing.

It was a really good day. Had a stonking session on the 16m V and fell in love. The kite is most excellent. Even to the point I am selling my 11mG2 [sold the 9G2 in a matter of hours] to fund the purchase of a 13m Venom to join the 16. We shall see if the plan is successful. In the evening we all bundled round to Spiky Jacks gaff for a party [as it was his birthday] where a BBQ was enjoyed, drinks consumed and Sing Star sung on. It was a most excellent evening. For what it is worth, I thought Sing Star would be rubbish – infact it is brilliant. If you like Guitar Hero, don’t mind potential making an arse out of yourself in front of others, you should find this game a really good laugh. There are some photos of the evening here and to prove that men [in the loosest sense of the word] sing:

Yesterday evening was a bit rubbish up the hill as there was no wind. The most fun was had by trying to use a kite to knock Dazs hat of his head. This was accomplished about 4 times. There was an amazing sunset:

I also took this photo of my Blade drying and thought it looked cool. It is hanging up across the shower curtain rails in my flat and this is taken of the side against the window. The attempt is to dry the kite as it has been washed to remove a load of horrid mud that was on it.

Yesterday morning I got up at 6.20am, got my stuff together, picked up Dave, met with Steve and belted it over to Wales for a day on the beach. We met Pete from the Sky Pirates in the car park and ambled down. The predicted wind was looking good although it seemed to be about 5mph lower on the actual beach. It was a shame because I was really looking forward to going out and having a play on the water. In the end it was 16m Venom and landboard day. The weather, as you can see above, was amazing and I even managed to get a little sun burnt. We played for about 6 hours in total and it was a good laugh. I had a real good go with the venom and found it deliciously floaty – had it been a bit more wind I think I’d have had a great time on the water. There are some photos that Pete took here.

Dave and I left about 4.30ish and bolted back to Birmingham. I dropped Dave off and got to the ICC for about 7.30ish in time to have a quick shower and get down to the table for main course. It was the yearly event that is medball. The evening was good and it was good to see old and new faces. I ended up drinking a little too much, most probably made a complete tit out of myself in front of Scott Mills and woke up with a fuzzy head. Early afternoon, Webbie, Gaz, Bailey and myself went to see Ghost Rider which was a really good film. Nicholas Cage was spot on and very amusing in it but the female cast was rubbish although had nice assets*. The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking tea and just doing nothing. This evening I have been mostly playing on my laptop, watching Top Gear and A Beautiful Mind and trying to stay awake

I have some photos I took on my phone of the beach and the ball which shall make their way onto the internet at some point. Maybe tomorrow. When I am sat at my main machine.

* Breasts

Update: I changed the photo link to mine and Petes photos