Mini Vestman

I just realised I have never put this on my blog. Last Christmas Melissa got me a present!

One week until the Big Fight

On Friday I will be having my first boxing match, in front of 550 people (and completely sold out) in Birmingham's biggest club!

Originally I was going to be boxing a guy called Joe Phillips, but on Tuesday he had his rib broke while sparring. The week before another guy had to drop out, also in my weight class. This means that I have been matched with a new opponent, Edward Clark, a guy who started boxing around the same time as me, and a guy who I have been found drunk, raving in clubs with.

... but alas...

He is going down.

The training is going really well. I have started having private sessions with Neil Perkins, who was on the Sky Sports Contenders: Heavyweights III (that Audley Harrison won). I am working on my range, and boxing on the outside.

Wish me luck! And I am going to get really drunk after!

omglan Dodgeball: The Return

After my original team dropped out of the last tournament the evening before we were meant to play, our dodgeball activities were on hiatus. Determined to play again, I formed a new team of people from the Grad Community (houses near my new place) who were up well up for playing. They even wanted to play in a kit, AND were willing to let me find one.

It was really fun, but again, we didn't win a round. Highlights include:

• Watching Andy fit into shorts 4" too small.
• Paul go into what he thought was a changing room only to realise it was a shower that automatically turns on.
• Sunny falling over in the first round.
• Rob getting hit in the head a record amount.
• Joe getting carded for kicking the ball at the other team.

Video coming soon.

Andy vs Victims of Cancer

The last week I have been training hard. I usually don't put effort into things, but this I have. If I applied the same amount of effort to my College A Levels, I perhaps wouldn't have forgotten to turn up to 3 of my exams.

I have been trying to go to the gym twice a day, and the days I can only manage once I am cycling 7 miles. I am fully burnt out but trying to power onwards.

With that said, I noticed something on the website of the boxing gym, to do with the boxing event I will be participating in.

"There is a catch this time as Red Team will be representing Help for Hero's and the blue team representing Macmillan Cancer Support. Their will be a charity pot on the night (estimated to be £5,000) and the teams results will dictate how much of the pot is divided to each charity."

So basically... All my training is towards stopping cancer victims getting support. I can just picture it now, we will be exchanging punches, there will be a tense atmosphere, everyone on the edge of their seats to see the outcome... and I will look across at the crowd and catch the eye of a small, bald, wheelchair bound child, looking up at me with tears in his eyes.

Nostalgia - Favourite Song!

When I was younger, I used to love the 1991 film 'Suburban Commando'. I know it is one of the worst IMDB rated films, but I loved it. I even had the computer game and loved that too. And now my nephews love the film too!

Anyway, in one of the scenes, this music is playing as he walks down a sunny street. It was one of my favourite songs. I had looked in the past but couldn't find it, but today found it on Youtube.

Ahh I love it.

Poster now plastered around Birmingham

(ps. I am on the second row)

Camping with my Nephews

On Friday I camped in the garden with my nephews (Logan, 6, Sam, 5, Charlie, 4). They had been looking forward to it for weeks, so they had cute little excited faced when I turned up.

They helped me put the tent up in the rain, and the night was complete with hotdogs, Playstation, sweets, Mr Bean, and going to sleep at 3am.

Thinking about my '100 things to do list', I asked them what things they would want to do, now or when they are bigger, that they have never done before. The conversation went a bit like this:

Logan: Ermm. Put up a tent.

Me: But we have just done that... anything else? It can be anything at all!

Logan: Hmm... bungee jump!

Me: That sounds good. What about you Charlie?
Charlie: Ermm. Put up a tent!

Me: But we have just done that.

Charlie: Play on the Playstation!

Me: We do that a lot! Think of something you've never done before.

Charlie: ... Put up a tent?
Me: We are in a tent that we just put up...

Charlie: Okay... play on the Playstation?

Me: But... never mind... anything else?

Charlie: Bungee jump!

Me: ... Okay.. Sam?

Sam: Pour a big bag of sweets in my mouth!

Dusseldorf, Germany: My Memoirs

On the 23rd - 25th September 2009, Me, Ash and Craig ventured out to Dusseldorf in Germany. I hadn't been to Germany before, and knew very little of the language (other than 'vas ist das?'). I didn't have a blog back then, but after recently reminiscing with Ash, we wrote up our memoirs.

- Starting the holiday off well, me and Craig having Beers in the airport, and Sensible Ash having a gentlemans coffee. Then meeting a Canadian girl, Jolene Lust, on the coach, and finding out that we are staying in the same hostel.


- Getting to the hostel, walking up loads of flights of stairs, and then realising it was on the ground floor. Then getting into the dorm at 10pm, and realsing everyone was asleep with the lights off. Losers.

- Walking into the nearest small bar and having a 'music goes out' moment as we walked in and loads of Turkish guys starred at us. Then fearing for my life as we sat down, and loads of Turkish guys were still staring at us.

- Making friends with the barmaid (dispite being completley unable to verbally communicate), who then gave us free shots and drank with us... and crisps that we couldn't figure out the flavour of (I think they were peanut...).

- Chatting to our new Canadian friend who was called Jolene Lust...singing the song ‘Jolene’...telling her her name sounded like a porn star name... and her telling us when she thinks of England she thinks of Coronation Street...and that we all have good teeth contrary to the English stereotype.

- Craig dissapearing for ages, in the bar toilet being sick.

- Thinking how nice the scary Turkish guys were, when they said bye in English as we left.

- Talking to Benjamin, an American who was travelling around Europe. Then talking to the Russian guy for ages. I tested out my small knowledge of the Russian language. He showed me how they program is Russia, and remote desktopped to his computer to see if I could help him.

- Spending the day wandering around the city. Going up the Rhine tower, taking funny photographs, and looking at the really expensive shops and massive Games Workshop.

- Not being able to find our bearings at all. Damn you bendy Dusseldorf roads that all look the same.



- Starting off with early-bird cocktails, choosing each others, and then drinking typical German tankards of beer... to get the night started.

- Getting refused into a club that I had only left a few hours before, because my hair. The bastard.

- Going to a club, whipping out the camera, much to the enjoyment of all the German people.



- Talking to two German guys a lot and dancing with them.

- Captain Vestman making a nightclub appearance.



- Looking back at the pictures in the morning and realising the two German guys, now nicknamed Hank and Troy, were obviously gay.

- Getting told off by a guy in the hostel for talking. I had to point out that he is in a hostel, not a hotel.

- Setting out on a mission to find the second hostel, in a more subburbian side of Dusseldorf.


- Going to a Hooters bar, and the waistress getting sexually assaulted by one of her customers....not us!

- Doing karaoke (or just shouting loudly) in an Irish Bar, and getting into a bit of an argument with a small drunk Irish guy, who had the nerve to start mocking Birmingham.


- Going to the sheisha bar, getting an alcohol one and having no idea what to do... when I eventually asked, the barmaid said "awhh, aren't you sweet". Patronising :(.


- Finally finding a German hotdog after 3 days of looking (I thought the place would be littered with them!!).


- Throwing up all night after eating a bad German hotdog :(.

- Me and Craig getting slapped by the maid for Ash not making his bed, as he sat outside reading Batman graphic novels.

- Getting hopelessly lost trying to find our way back to where we had to catch our coach to the airport. Trying to ask German people for directions but nobody being able to understand me.

- Meeting the legend Tim Hamer at the bus stop in Germany, learning that we are both programmers, and finding out he lives just round the corner from me!

56) Have an MMA/Boxing fight - The Countdown

On Monday 22nd February 2010 I joined a local boxing gym. On Friday 26th February I had had two personal sessions. By Wednesday 30th June I was sparring (though quite badly).

It is now Monday 13th September. I have been training for over 6 months, and have found out I will be having my first boxing match next month. It will be on the night of Friday the 8th of October in Birmingham's largest club, Gatecrasher.

Two weeks ago I had a spar between me and Joe videoed.

I had became quite confident with my style, and was using it as a good base to improve. This was until last week. On Tuesday I sparred against someone who had a similar reach to me, which was enough to neutralise any attack and defence I had and people were learning my weaknesses, and being able to land shots before I could react. On Saturday I sparred a much bigger guy, which showed me how badly I am at combos. The guy was really nice, and helped show me some new things.

I found out it is Joe (in the video) that I will be fighting next month.

Anyway, as of today I am going to take the training a lot more seriously in run up to the fight, to the point where I am even adding a new item to the list... '118) Win a boxing match'. I am going to stop drinking (I think) and try and enlist the help of friends to make it so I am doing training at least 4 days. I am going to completely change my style, as at the moment he knows exactly what to expect from me, and how to beat me. Hopefully I will be able to shock him.

I found this clip from the last show. The last thing I want is to be knocked out.

... Wish me luck...

Yesterday I had a bit of a 'gay' moment...

... On TV, someone said "You only get one shot...". At that moment me and Melissa both burst into song.

Melissa continued with Eminem's lyrics - "You only get one shot.. do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime".

I started singing boy band JLS's - "You only get one shot, so make it count, you might never get this moment again".

Hetrosexuality fail.

Amy's Leaving Party

At the weekend we had another house party! This time it was for Amy leaving. She is going travelling for 3 months, and won't be returning to our house after :(. As she is going to be going around the world, we decided the theme of the party would be countries.

I dressed up as a French Mime (which I later found out Mimes weren't exclusively French, but a French guy was really famous as one).



Neil dressed up as an explorer, and spent the night having to explain what country he is either from, or exploring.



Tom (dressed as a Pakistani) started the night off quite badly. We did a shot of Raki, which he was only able to keep down for a few seconds.



People were dressed in some really good costumes. I was impressed!



One guy 'blacked up' to dress as another guy at the party, complete with sneaking into his house to steal his clothes earlier in the day. Funniest costume of the night.



A lot of people came as French and Mexicans. I was the only one who 'mimed-up' though.



Me and my housemates had a photo. The last one we would have together as a house. Becca was a Romanian Gypsy, Amy was a Thai statue, Emily was a Chinese person, Mark one of the New Zealand All Blacks and Tom a Pakistani.



In typical party fashion, it never really kicks off till 11-12ish. I managed to get one picture at about 11, until I lost my camera. There were people in the kitchen, garden, living room, hall, and my bedroom.



I got pretty drunk again... and spent the rest of the party stumbling around drunk, talking to people, then looking for my camera... and fighting with Neil (boxing and then wrestling).

The morning was pretty horrible. My bed was broke the night before so I was sleeping on a slant. I went upstairs to say hi to Becca, who had loads of people sleeping in her room. When I went downstairs the smell of fish sauce hit me and I was nearly sick. The house was a complete mess.

We sat around in the mess, with nobody wanting to start cleaning, and instead go to bed. I took this opportunity to try and ask people about the internet we are going to get installed. Nobody would take me serious in my pyjamas, so did the only thing I could... suited up!


... and then I found my camera outside, in the rain. It was all worth it though. I think we throw some epic house parties.

My accidentally stylised photograph

I was driving along the other day when I noticed a building that was being knocked down, by a crane... so that half of it looked like it had been blown up. I quickly pulled my phone out my pocket, rolled down the window as I drove past and I took a photo so I could show my mom.

I hadn't realised, but I had left it on black and white... and when I checked the photo I was actually quite pleased with it!

"There's no such thing as a flight for 50p". Incorrect.

I watched a really funny video earlier, about how cheap flights aren't actually cheap flights. It includes the line "Cheap flights cheap flights, we should have gone by sea. There's no such fecking thing as a fecking flight for 50p".



Now I would have to disagree. Last year I went on a lot of holidays, which I have decided to call 'Micro travelling'. The story is as follows...

While sitting at University with my friends, I saw on HotUKDeals with a Ryanair offer for 'Flights from 1p'. All the comments was insult the 'deal', saying that it is as good as a scam with all the extras. I decided to check it out myself.

I asked Mike for a number between 1 and .. possibly 20 (then number of airports Ryanair flew to from Birmingham). The number he chose landed on Billund, in Denmark. After a quick search we saw that literally the only thing in Billund is a Legoland, as it is the main place they make Lego. But... we couldn't let that stop us, we had already decided on the location.

I checked the flights, and they were 1p. That is ACTUALLY 1p for the flight, including taxes. I clicked continue. It asked me if I wanted priority boarding for £5... nope. It asked if I wanted bags for £30... nope, I'll travel light. It asked if I wanted insurance... nope. The flights were still 1p. Then it asked for a payment method. I selected Visa, and it added £10 on per person. Screw that! Not made of money!

I checked the terms and conditions and it said using a Visa Electron is free! Sorted, I changed to that and paid. The... flights... were... 1p. I even treated my friends to flights! What other friend does that ;).

When telling people they didn't believe me. At the time I had my bank statement to prove it. I then went on to have cheap holidays in Poland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Germany and so on.

So yes, if you read and do things correctly, there IS* such thing as a flight for 50p... actually, there is 50 flights for 50p!


... and there we are, drunk, in Billund, naked... in the winter.

* Things have slightly changed since, they have added a forced £10 fee, and the flights are almost never 1p now, but you can get a £20 flight easy enough.