Mat Harden

Last Wednesday there was a novelty story in the Metro about a metalworker in Indianapolis who built The Blue Flash rollercoaster in his own in his backyard. It might not have made it into the RCDB, but I thought it was great. There should be more of this sort of thing. Like that guy who put a fake shark through his roof.
Anyway, it reminded me of the backyard monorail I found on the web about a year ago. Maybe these guys should get together and make a backyard amusement park?

Today I was given the sad news that Jackie passed away this morning, after her short battle with cancer. I first met Jackie when she was working on the reception at Tarsus, as I arrived for my interview. Her warm and genuine greeting brightened my day, as it did everyday we worked together. Jackie was generous, joyful, kind and everybody’s friend. Jackie, I will miss your laugh, your stories, your values and your outward fondness for George Clooney.

Girl singing into a microphone

I saw this picture in the London Lite paper on 22 September. Andrew said it’s a must for the blog, so here it is. It’s simply a girl (Alice Russell) singing into a microphone, but the light on her chin creates a rather unfortunate image in context with the way she is holding the mic combined with the expression on her face.
I’m sure I’ve seen something like this before…

I’ve been getting 2 phone calls a day on my mobile phone since last Thursday. My handset will ring once and then stop. The calls are from different numbers each time, but the all start with 07099 8. The first call is about 13:20 and the next just before 19:00. I can only think that this is a scam, where they expect me to return the call which is probably a premium rate line.
I don’t ever call back numbers which I don’t recognise if there’s no voicemail. Unfortunately I was drunk on Saturday night, and my call register tells me I returned one call for 1:25 minutes. I can’t remember what happened. So when my statement comes through I’ll let you know.

The dodgy numbers so far are:

• 07099871684
• 07099845250
• 07099878879
• 07099871869
• 07099845567
• 07099871165
• 07099890461

I’ve recently been introduced to the powers of YouTube. Having this awesome video resource at my fingertips has really excited me. All the good music videos you can think of are there. The Big Brother 7 (UK) audition tapes are there.

I was going to blog about the Crazy Bike video, because of the amazing human skill. But then I saw Top Gear and I started to type Parkour in to the search. What I’ve found here is really amazing. Parkour or ‘Free Running’ as it’s known in England is a new sport which consists of running, jumping, back-flipping, wall-running, spinning and summersaulting from great heights, at speed, usually in urban areas.
I saw a show on UK TV about 3 years ago called Jump London which studied the activity. A little research led me to discover that its founders are Frenchmen Sébastien Foucan and his friend David Belle, who appear in the blockbusters Casino Royale and Luc Besson’s, District 13 respectively. So watch out for them in these.

I’ve picked out a few which I think are particularly good. So click, sit back and prepare to be amazed. Anyway, the closest I’m going get is playing Prince Of Persia.