My new friends

After work on a tuesday we go to Capital Ale House for steal a glass - you buy the featured beer and get to keep the glass.

Tonight we went to Moe's for munchies.

Here is Chris, my future new house-mate, and Laura.

Clockwise from left: Raz, Jenna, Kristal, Chris, Laura (hiding), Raphael (works for Capital One).

new logo

Soccer News.

The Spoccer.com team played it's first friendly on Saturday. We lost 5-4, which wasn't bad considering the slightly low turn out and lack of keeper. I played goal for the first half, letting in only one (after a mistake by a defender), right on the mark of half-time. We came back strong - I played centre forward and linked up well with another John (our wonder kid - 18 years old). We both got on the score sheet. Then I was stranded on the right wing for much of the remainder, and my legs pretty much gave up after 5 games in 7 days.

A good performance, but with plenty of room for improvement. I'm sure once the proper jerseys arrive we'll play much better!

Bike build update

Or: why the UK still kicks arse.

To recap, CRC delivered a massive order in 5 days including a weekend, for free, transatlantic, during a terrorist scare. Nashbar.com took 8 days to get me a wheelset from Ohio, and charged me for the privilige. To save all this online malarkey, I went to Agee's who, it turns out have nothing good in stock and are overpriced. Today, a guy tried to sell me a blue-grey LX crankset for my Red and Black themed bike. Oh, and he didn't have the BB to match.

So, I'm back on CRC spending over £250 to take advantage of free postage. Which of course was no problem at all.

I expect delivery by the end of the week and will get building.

This is the most important story ever.

Soccer

Here's a pic of my mate Tommy from Spoccer. It's not a very good picture because I'm bad with the camera, and he has poor ball control!
On Saturday 26-Aug-2006 we're playing our first friendly ('scrimmage', as they insist on calling it here). We'll be playing in our practice T-shirts (official jerseys on the way), so maybe I'll get some better shots for y'all (in the likely event I spend a lot of time on the bench).
Season starts 10-Aug-2006.

Pinball Highscores

You can't accuse me of working *too* hard!

Bike news

Turns out Nashbar Custserve are crap. I got a nice email from April who said that because the order had been processed, it couldn't be changed. No doubt the processing gets done automatically by their server, so one wonders what April's job is. I'd have thought it's to tappity-tap into her PC to keep the paper trail tidy, then phone Dave in the warehouse and tell him to change the order.

But apparently, computer says no...

My Job

I work for ppd who are a CRO. I spend most of my time in a lab conducting immunoassays.
Either you get it or you don't!

Kona Build

Specs:
Kona 'Hahanna' 18" 7005 Aluminium butted frame - red
Kona seatpost and QR clamp - black
2006 Manitou R7 100mm post mount - black
Hope headset - red
RaceFace Evolve XC Stem 100mm 8deg - black
RaceFace Evolve XC Riser 640mm 1" rise - black
Shimano Deore LX levels/shifters - silver
ODI Yeti Hardcore lock-on grips - red and black
Specialised Progel saddle - red and black
Avid Single Digit 7 V-brakes front and rear - nickel

Wheels on order from nashbar.com. I ordered some Mavic/Shimano LX but then realised I could get XT for $20 more. Sent an email to their customer service, so we'll find out how good they are.

Starting

This is going to be for me to

• keep a record of my progress in the USA


• post photos


• wax philosophical