Me any my mate Jill are off on one of these soon! A couple of us had been looking to get away from the dreadful Belfast summer to someplace hot for two weeks. Amazingly I managed to discover a little known, short-term offer on BA.com and Jill and I managed to score two return flights to Sydney, Australia for only £215 each – everything included! They’re usually about £700-£800.

So at the end of August, we’re off to Oz for two weeks. I can’t wait! I’ve been once before, but it was a family holiday for the Millenium, so I’m looking forward to exploring Sydney with a mate. We’ve already got our apartment booked and both wanting to take a surfing lesson, so nearly good to go!

The long flight doesn’t really bother me to much, although our layover in Singapore is only around an hour on the way back – I would have liked a bit longer there to go exploring. At least we’ll get in the lounges with my AA Platinum card!

Haven’t been posting for a while so sorry about that! I blame Jill actually as I was looking to get a better photo than this one to illustrate this post, but she never bothered her arse sending me any.

So, was over in London a couple of weeks ago there, and headed out with two lady friends for a night on the town. First of all we went to a really, really nice restaurant (however it was extremely expensive, so I think it’s a special occasion kinda place unless you happen to be loaded, which I’m not). It was called Hakkasan, and it’s all kinds of oriental and asian dishes. A lot of the fish dishes cost £54, so I had duck. Anyways, it’s a really nice place, although if you are going here, don’t think you’ll get any souvenir photos of your meal as photography is banned. Sitting next to us was X Factor presenter Dermot O’Leary, who came over and said hello (I’ve not met him before but he knew the ladies), so that was cool.

After that we headed off to a BRILLIANT (and yes it’s worthy of capital letters) club called Mahiki . It’s a Polynesian style affair, and my little sister goes there a lot, which is weird because the first thing I thought when I walked in was that it was full of people that looked like my little sister. Anyways, I liked it because a) they played good music b) you get to drink out of coconuts and c) it was not crazy busy (although we were there on a Tuesday). We also drank out of a treasure chest which some merchant bankers insisted we did. We did not buy a treasure chest full of drink (and it was life sized) because they cost £100 each.

Anyways, I would quite happily live in Mahiki, so check it out next time you’re in London!

After some giddy dancing we all headed home, and surprisingly for drinking out of coconuts all night I was not hungover the next day. Woohoo!

So thinking my bread baking skills meant I was a fantastic baker all round, I decided to make some cupcakes for Jill’s birthday bash. (She was sharing it with guys called Gavin and Michael, so that explains the g and the m). 

They didn’t take long, but I think I definitely need to improve my icing skills. Still for a first attempt I guess it wasn’t that bad. 

So I took em to the party and expected Jill to place them out for everyone to taste. But she got them locked away, and has probably forgotten to pick them up so they will be stale by now.

So, first night out in ages on Saturday night – for my mate Jill’s birthday. She was having a joint party with two guys down at AM:PM on Arthur Street – it was the first time I’d actually been to that one, and I quite liked it.

The party kicked off at about 9.30pm, and carried on well until the wee hours of the morning (and then on some more at one of the host’s houses). I was a bit peeved with two of my mates who failed to go with me (you know who you are!) but thankfully I was entertained all night by Jill’s lady friends. That’s Jill on the right in the pic above. She had big hair!

I ended up getting in at 4.45am – which is not too bad I think given my recent track history! Best of all I didn’t have a hangover the next day (despite Fiona convincing me to do a shot). Jill’s birthday is on Wednesday this week, but Happy Birthday for then anyway!

So Saturday before last was my birthday celebrations. It was the first time I’d been drinking this year (so that was 17 days alcohol free!) and it all got pretty messy.

I wanted to do something a bit different from the usual just-go-out-and-get-drunk shennanigans, so first of all we headed to the only bowling alley still open in Belfast – the Odyssey Bowl. Unfortunately I came second, but was happy with that! Then it was off to Muriel’s, which is tiny, but we all got seats so that was cool.

There Charlie was responsible for getting me to drink a tequila (with orange and tabasco instead of the usual salt and lemon, which was quite nice!) which I think kind of finished me off. We did go to White’s but I have no recollection of that. I also invited people back to mine to play Mario Kart, but that all went belly up as well.

All in all it was a good night, and it was cool to have everyone out together, but next time I shall be doing it minus the tequila.

This is by far the best Christmas card I got this year. It is weird! It has the sun, animals, santa, sand and a barbecue on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen all of those things together on a Christmas card before. So cheers to my mate John who lives down under!

The rest of the Christmas cards I got were nice as well by the way – this one just stood out.

So a couple of weekends ago, me and me ol’ mucker Jill headed off to London to see Strictly Come Dancing, which our mate Christine Bleakley is taking part in this year. If you live in the US, Strictly Come Dancing is our version of Dancing With The Stars.

Now I must confess I don’t really watch Strictly – I’m more of an X Factor person myself (Go Diana!), so I was more excited about catching up with Christine than seeing the show. However, after a couple of beers in Television Centre before the show, I think it’s fair to say Jill and I were excited.

The show was absolutely brilliant to watch. Bruce Forsyth is a legend in my opinion now – he was very, very entertaining and did a brilliant song and dance routine (”Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week”) before the show started. It was great!

After the live Saturday night show, it was off to the bar for more drinks, and then back to the studio for the pre-recorded Sunday results show. I think I was partly very excited by this point because we were sitting behind Lauren and Abi from EastEnders, and seeing any EastEnders people always gets me excited.

After the Sunday show had been recorded, we headed off to Christine’s dressing room and met her dancing partner, Matt, and some of the other dancers and celebs taking part in the show. After that it was off to a club in London (which apparently had a revolving dancefloor, but by that time Jill and I were too drunk to notice). That’s where the picture above was taken which Jill and Christine find hilarious for some reason. Apparently because I look like a “little boy”. I have had my hair cut short since.

After the club, it was back to the hotel, and I fell in to bed absolutely knackered while the rest of them carried on drinking – I blame the tonsilitis myself! It was a brilliant weekend though, and Jill and I are hoping to go back to see the show again soon.

We also got interviewed for the Sunday results show (Jill fluffed her lines, I was perfect) but unfortunately they didn’t use it. Next time!

The guy second from the right in the pic above is another of my mates, who goes by the name Dave Bull. He’s a bit of a cheeky chappy. Anyway, as if to prove that all my mates really do have more interesting lives than me, he has won a place on the Bushmills Trek 2008.

It’s basically a trip around parts of the world over the course of three months. In that time, Dave, and the other people on the trek, will get to do some amazing things like trek to the base of Mount Everest, working at an orphanage in West Kenya, and trekking around the Blue Mountains in Australia.

It really sounds like the trip of a lifetime, so obviously I’m jealous. You can follow the progress of the trekkers here. Good luck Dave and send us a postcard you cheeky sh***!

Oh – and on a by the by type of note, the pic above was taken in a club called Scratch in Belfast last weekend. It used to be my favourite bar (The Fly) but has been done up. And it was a great night there – perhaps could become one of my favourite places again! It’s a really friendly crowd, and I met a lady there who asked for my number (obviously she never called though. Grrrr!)

This is one of my mates, Christine Bleakley. She is a presenter on The One Show, and it was announced (ages ago but I haven’t been blogging) that she is going to be one of the contestants on Strictly Come Dancing this year! (That’s Dancing With The Stars if you’re American).

Obviously she will be getting our vote. Jill and I are hoping to go over and see her (if she’s still in it by then) in the show at the start of October, so if that happens I’ll let you know what it was like!

I’m more of an X Factor fan myself (which is brilliant so far this year, I’m glad it’s back), but I will be TIVO that once Strictly starts on September 20 on BBC One.

Well this is quite old news, but I have been busy recently so am only getting to post about it now. We were all at G’s Belfast wedding the weekend before last (seems like ages ago now!) It was called his barat. It is when Muslims celebrate the wedding in the home town of the groom, and the bride is introduced to everyone there.

As you can see from the picture above, G’s new lady wife, Fiaza looked stunning when she arrived. And when she left too. The reception (that’s what it was like really) was held at the La Mon hotel outside Belfast. I’d only been up there with G to have a look before, but it was really nice. So I reckon there were about three hundred people at the wedding. The room was ABSOLUTELY massive, and was packed with people.

As at the wedding in Watford that Jill and I had been to, the food was amazing. This time there were also some Indian sweeties on display – that’s them above. They were really unusual tasting. Very sweet but different from British sweeties, as they were flavours I didn’t really recognise. I can’t really remember much about them, but I think one of them had milk in it or something.

So we ate plenty at G’s wedding. And didn’t drink! Well I didn’t anyway. Glo and I were very, very tired after being the last ones to leave a barbecue party at G’s mate’s Omair’s house the night before. It was a full house there with only about four people drinking. Needless to say Glo and I were two of them, and I was so smashed (although perfectly well behaved) I can’t actually remember getting home. There was a really nice attractive redhead there as well, but nothing happened there. I was consious she was completely sober so that’s what put me off making a move.

So G is now a fully married man and off to Malaysia now on his honeymoon. I shall leave you with what is perhaps the best photograph of G I have ever taken!