The guy in the glass

The Guy in the Glass
by Dale Wimbrow

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your Father or Mother or wife
Whose judgement upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may call you a straight shooting chum
And call you a wonderful guy,
but the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he's with you clear to the end,
And you have passed your most dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may face the whole world down the pathway of life
And get pats on the back when you pass,
But your final reward will be heartache and strife
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Be the best of whatever you are

Be The Best of Whatever You Are
By Douglas Malloch

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley-but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here,
There's big work to do, and there's lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail
Be the best of whatever you are!

We Must

We Must
By William Arthur Ward

We must be silent before we can listen.
We must listen before we can learn.
We must learn before we can prepare.
We must prepare before we can serve.
We must serve before we can lead.

November...

Time flies when you're... working hard...

It's easy to lose yourself in work. In the stresses of everyday. But it's important to get away from that. This weekend I've had my urge for "creative" time... it seems to happen every now and then... but now I feel like I've been neglecting my creative side lately and realise it affects me.

Hence why I'm blogging again as well. It's one way of releasing. Another way was taking a day off work on Friday and walking around London taking pictures. My goal was to capture a few different sides of London, inspired by the protesters at St. Pauls. In such close proximity you have so many different worlds.

- St. Pauls and Bank - Bankers, corporate suits and work work work. Now St. Pauls has been taken over by hippies and protesters though which made for an interesting contrast. Atop all that... tourists from every corner of the globe.

-Old Street - hip, young, fashion conscious people who in some instances try to dress poor when they in fact spend fortunes looking like it.

- Goodge street and British Museum - tourists and school children. A very differing group of people.

Here are my favorite few shots of the day.

While chatting about this inspirational stuff... I've been watching a lot of X-Factor lately... getting a bit of ridicule for it but the reason it's inspiring me is because the fact that there is so much talent out there in this world. There are people who are incredible and don't get the chance to share it with others. When they do it inspires me.

This is Melanie Amaro from the US X-Factor and an extremely powerful song.

While we're on the video segment.

This is an old video that I thought about today. When I first heard it I was doing alright but a friend of mine wasn't. He was lacking some confidence and listening to it made me smile. I like this song. :-) Besides that, it's a pretty cool video as well.

There are quite a few new songs on my top 5 list right now...

1) Adele - Someone Like you

2) Adele - Set fire to the rain - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZiXMoYxG-I

3) Listen - Beyonce -

4) Breathe Gentle - Tiziano Ferro and Kelly Rowland)

5) Orphee Aux Enfers (Galop) - Jacques Offenbach

So that's a lot of links and stuff but haven't shared for a while. :-)

Vacation-e in Sweden

It's been a magical two weeks. Starting to come to an end but still have four lovely days off.

All I can say is it is absolutely magnificent coming to S

kanör for vacation and two weeks is just enough time off to really relax. To get your head straight. To forget about work for a while. And to see friends who aren't stressed about anything.

And if nothing else to look out over this incredible view.

It's been a fun filled time as well as can be seen in the following pictures from a hat party we had in Skanör.

The weather hasn't been all that great but who needs weather when you got friends, wine, music, and time.

The pace of life is extremely slow down here though and I do realise how much I love always having something to do in London. There is always people you can see, always things to do and it's all about taking your finger out of your butt and doing it.

Tonight I'm playing Squash! Can't wait. Should be a lot of fun. It's one of the best sports out there fitness wise.

Parents arrive in Skanör on Saturday night. And Monday evening it's back to London and work again on Tuesday. Fun and games.

Trashy pop

I'm not ashamed to say that I love trashy pop music and upbeat dance music. Whatever you say it gets me in a positive state of mind. The lyrics aren't important at all. It's the beat, it's the feeling you get when you hear the rhythm. If I wanted to get great lyrics or read profound things I'd read a book or listen to certain kind of deep stuff.

It's a bit like going to the cinema, sometimes you are just up for letting loose and being entertained and relaxing. I don't want to stand and listen to a bunch of words when I'm dancing, when I want to relax. I want to be entertained. That's why I normally go for the comedies at the cinema too.

I'm listening to quite a lot of stuff recently. I can't think of a better way to waste a few hours than by just being on youtube and going through song after song, or lastfm.

Or going onto this radio channel and just listenin for hours. ---It's a German radio station and you need to listen to the House channel (Funky HOUSE)

So I'm on vacation. What an incredible feeling. I feel like I don't need to do anything. I feel no stress right now. I'm just enjoying my own company. I know I spend enough time with others in London that I feel no real need to spend time with others but yet I'm still meeting up with others because I enjoy it. I realise how much more of a social person I've become recently. I've also become much more of a positive person.

Sure - I have my negative spells as well but I see the opportunities in everything which is something that I missed out for quite a while. I'm happy that I'm back. I have some great friends around me both in Sweden, England and the rest of the world.

Mika - more music

Another artist I'm big into at the moment is Mika. One of his old songs has really inspired me. Think it's super beautiful.

It's called happy ending and it's quite a depressing song but if you really look into it I think it's a beautiful positive song. Love it. Have attached the lyrics as well.

Happy Ending lyrics

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love,
Like it's forever.
Then live the rest of our life,
But not together.

Wake up in the morning, stumble on my life
Can't get no love without sacrifice
If anything should happen, I guess I wish you well
A little bit of heaven, but a little bit of hell

This is the hardest story that I've ever told
No hope, no love, no glory
Happy endings gone forever more
I feel as if I'm wasted
And I'm wastin' every day

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love,
Like it's forever.
Then live the rest of our life,
But not together.

2 o'clock in the morning, something's on my mind
Can't get no rest; keep walkin' around
If I pretend that nothin' ever went wrong, I can get to my sleep
I can think that we just carried on

This is the hardest story that I've ever told
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/mika-lyrics/happy-ending-lyrics.html ]
No hope, no love, no glory
Happy endings gone forever more
I feel as if I'm wasted
And I'm wastin' every day[repeated under]

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love,
Like it's forever.
Then live the rest of our life,
But not together.

A Little bit of love, little bit of love
Little bit of love, little bit of love[repeat many times]

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love,
Like it's forever.
To live the rest of our life,
But not together.

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love,
Like it's forever.
To live the rest of our life,
But not together.

This is the way you left me,
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory,
No Happy Ending.

Another song that I'm really into by MIKA, is this one. I feel the energy. I feel young, I feel free, I feel strong...

Music and tricks

The perfect start to a day? Wake up. Put this song on and see the ray of sunshines seep in through your curtains. It makes you feel absolutely FANTASTIC. That's how my Saturday started.

This is one of my favorite songs at the minute. I found the song from the latest Social Media Revolutions 2011 video by Erik Qualman. If you haven't seen that video definitely go onto that site and check it out. Always insightful.

So having listened to this song as soon as I got up, I went out for a 10k run. It was such lovely weather and as I run with my iPhone I could make a little film of me panting heavily. :-) Oh so exciting. :-) I use the Nike+ app to measure how far I go so that's the voice you hear a little ways in...

As you can see, Kew Gardens is an absolutely beautiful surrounding to go running in. Who would have guessed that's London eh?

So my Saturday started wonderfully. A friend of mine from my time in Bratislava - Kieran - was in town and so met up with him in Balham - a part of town I'd never been to. It's near Clapham common.

So thanks to last night I now have some new TIPS for places to go in London if you are over and want some great hidden gems off the beaten track.

• A pub called the Duke of Devonshire. - really cosy - for some reason it reminded me of a circus. don't know why. It had a really nice interior but I was expecting monkey's with wings to jump out from under tables. Very odd.
• A great Spanish Tapas restaurant in Clapham called Carmen Bar de Tapas -best Tapas I've had in London.

Also, if you're ever in Brentford/Isleworth/Kew gardens area, there's a lovely pub that's just been refurbished called Coach and Horses. Jon and I went for roast today. I've picked up some cold ... sniffly nose and sore throat.

I'll leave you with some fun music ---a little Lonely Island and Jack Sparrow. Michael Bolton is a legend.

Pics from the last few weeks...

So my 29th Birthday came and went on the 26th May and I had a great time. I invited just a few close friends to dinner at Circus in London. Here is the team.

The first thing that met us at Circus was a woman taking off her bra and swinging around some nipple tassles. And Joao was worried it was a strip bar. Needless to say there was no more nudity but it was a great place with GREAT food. I'd recommend the food.

The night ended with us playing ring around the party hat. What kind of ring, an ONION ring of course.

Pris got it twice. She's the champ. :-) Surprisingly we didn't get thrown out. Thanks Simon for brining the party hats.

Earlier that week I was in Barcelona... What a town. The hotel where the event was held is called Arts Barcelona. A real kool place.

And here's the team that went there. What a party crew. :-)

Matt, Rich and Jon dancing in the car

I promised you this video from Austin a while ago. Here's Matt, Jon and I singing and dancing in the car.