What a week! Great food, great pizza and a few to many beers during the day

Last weekend was one of the best I’ve had in ages… a couple of mates were in town so we hooked up for some lunch at the Garage burger restaurant in Central World – not bad grub. I was a bit surprised we were able to order beers as the Bangkok governor elections were on which meant all Bangkok restaurants and bars were not permitted to sell alcohol. One beer followed by another, followed by a few more - I was feeling pretty tipsy. I haven’t drank heavily during the day in years… in fact I only seem to do this when I’m with friends in England

We then went onto Patpong in hopes they would serve us more beer, and luckily they did… in plastic cups! Anything is possible in Thailand! One of the guys who I was with had never been to a stripper’s joint before… it’s always fun taking a first timer I think.

After a few rounds of pool, I called it a night, picked up the missus and treated us to a really nice meal over at Zanotti – The food was good, not as good as Biscotti, however the atmosphere was great. Resturnats that have really lively/buzzing/classy atmoshphere are very rare. I’m not sure how they create it, I guess it’s to do with the decor mixed with loud clientel? It’s hard to explain - but Zanotti definatly had a real “buzz” about it that no other resturnat in Bangkok I’ve been to has had. It reminded me of the downstairs room in Langan’s Brasserie restaurant in Piccadilly, London (If you’re in London, Langan’s is worth checking out - Micheal Cain used to own it a few years back).

I got home, switched on the PC and my mate come on chat asking if I was up for a beer. Still a little pissed from the beers I consumed during the day, I was game. We headed over to Cowboy, which was closed. Next stop was Nana, which was open but no alcohol was being served. Back to Patpong. I never used to like Patpong, but after that day I was pretty impressed.

While having a few beers in one particular bar, a guy stopped me on the way back from the toilet and asked me if I own this blog. Wow… strange feeling. Thinking about it, I have gotten to know many people based in Bangkok through this blog - most of them I consider good friends. I think that’s one of the biggest advantages of having a personal blog.

This week has been pretty uneventful really – working. I got an amazing job offer in London, have been taking some client work on and am in talks with a potential investor interested in FeedZa (even though I was very tempted to sell FeedZa at the beginning of the week – It was a bad day and a stupid idea) .

Check out Base Sites if you are in need of any development work as I have a spare week or two next month that I plan to use to take on some extra work. On the flip side, if you can code or design and are looking for extra work, get in contact as from time to time I receive projects that are either to big or two small to fit into my schedule.

Today I joined the gym and went for a swim – one of the great benefits of working from home

One last note, and one that’s very important if you are like me, and simply adore good pizza. I ordered a Pizza from the same management as Zanotti the other night and it was by far the best Pizza I’ve EVER eaten! Serious, the Parma ham pizza is excellent. You can find the menu here.

FeedZa Elevator Pitch

Breast Cancer Awareness Month - My Blog turns PINK!

In support of breast cancer awareness month, I decided to turn my blog pink It looks a bit silly, but it’s worth every bit of sillyness.

My Nan was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, as was my cousin, so this campaign really does have a special place in my heart.

You can read more about breast cancer awareness month (October) and breast cancer in general over on the Breast Cancer Care site.

If you have a blog and want to turn it pink this month but don’t know how, give me a shout and I’ll sort it out for you. The more people who support this cause the better! I’ll even revert it back to your original color at the end of the month

Nan, I’ve been thinking about you a lot today. I miss and love you with all my heart!

FeedZa launches a bunch of new features

I just posted a blog post explaining the new features over on the FeedZa blog, however I wanted to feature one of the features that I think is really cool here:

Blog owners can now claim their blog feeds, add an avatar and can then add links to all their social profiles. I’ve only added Twitter and Facebook in my profile (above), however there’s options to add lot’s more including Flickr, Delicious, Digg etc. etc.

We are now working on another set of features, and a site re-design is in the works to make the site even more user friendly.

What do ya think?

I want to buy you a gift from London. Tell me what you want

After a busy day at work today I was going through my Twitter messages and noticed a tweet from Ryan Carson about his competition to win not only a ticket to all of the 2009 events he organizes, which includes the Future of Web Apps conference I spoke about in my previous post, but also a bag of other goodies such as an invite to a VIP speaker dinner!

Now, be honest here… Have you ever got so excited that you can’t actually do anything? It’s a wired feeling that I’ve only felt a few times before. You can’t sit still, find it hard to breathe and tell anyone you are with to give you a minute. Once I read through the details of the competition, I experienced those feelings. To put in bluntly, I was sooo dam excited that my palms started to sweat

Just a few hours ago (last night) I was chatting to my mum on Skype, like we do every Sunday. I was telling her about the elevator pitch I was trying to record and that I just can’t seem to get it right. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most confident person out there so I’m having a little difficulty perfecting my pitch. Wise words from mum followed.

Me and my mum are proper close and with her birthday on the first day of the conference, coming back to London would mean that I could possibly achieve 2 of the greatest moments of the year in the space of a couple of days: the opportunity to network and learn from the biggest players in my industry and to be able to attend my Mum’s birthday bash. I haven’t seen my mum in a year now, so it would be a pretty darn exciting few days if I got the opportunity to go.

So you’re probably thinking that if I want to go to this conference so bad, why don’t I just get myself a ticket and go? Well, this boils down to lack of funds. Since I quit client work to work full time on my own at the beginning of the year, money has been super tight.

Attending the Future of Web Apps, and the other conferences Ryan organizes could well change my life. I believe I have a great product and so much to learn. If I was able to go, I’d be able to learn from people that have failed to those that have become a success

So, you now have a pretty good understanding of why I want to go, now it’s over to you…

I want to buy you a gift

If I win this competition and got the chance to go to London, It would be my pleasure to share my happiness and good fortune and buy a lucky reader a gift from London. All you need to do is leave a comment below and tell me what you want! It’s that simple!

The gift must cost less than $200 (₤100) and the deadline for entries is 1st October. If I win the competition, I’ll put all the entries into a hat (at the conference) and will ask Ryan (If he’s busy I’ll pass the duty onto Mum) to pick a winner.

Thanks, and good luck!

The competition has ended and I didn’t win I have decided that I will still reward a prize on my next trip to London

50% office, new features on FeedZa and a possible trip to London

Friday was a crazy day… with slow internet speeds at the office I decided on a whim to move half the office to my home where the internet is much more reliable, which in turn increased the speed of the internet at the office due to fewer users. It makes sense to keep this setup until the end of October, when we give the keys back to the office building. Here’s a pic of my new (over-sized) desk set up in my spare bedroom where I’ll be working with my programmer and designer for the next month (their desks are behind mine) :

My programmer and designer have never had a proper English breakfast before, so if get the time I shall cook them a feast (and get Tom/Alitta over as well to share)

Saturday was spent working… I feel really focused at the moment and with taking some pressure of my shoulders due to a few changes, this has allowed me to really get my head down.  Saturday night I went to watch Eagle Eye with my girlfriend… your typical action movie but I enjoyed it. Sunday (today) I’ve been sat on the PC all day (it’s 7pm and I haven’t even had a shower yet!)

Juice Mag has been acquired. It was great fun building the magazine but at the end of the day, playing editor just wasn’t for me. I guess sometimes you just have to try new things before you know whether they are the right fit for your DNA or not. The company who bought Juice Mag is run buy a guy I have worked with in the past and ironically, we are both working on a JV together at the moment that’s been in development for 2 months now (launching Friday), so I’m pleased the mag will be in safe hands, so to speak.

We “softly” launched a bunch of new features on FeedZa – I say softly as there are still a few kinks to iron out and I’ve yet to update the FeedZa blog explaining what all the new features are. In one sentence you can expect: accountant registration, avatars, friends and the opportunity for bloggers to claim their blogs and add extra connectivity (link to other social sites such as Facebook/Twitter). I’ll be spending tomorrow working on a blog post and I’ll link it up here once posted.

From now on out I’ll be spending most of my time on FeedZa, mainly working on getting the word out there.  I know what I need to do: build a community that shares the same passion as me. If I can accomplish that, FeedZa will be rocking! I know it. In order for that to happen, I’m going to go out and seek an angel round of funding for a site redesign and marketing. I’ve been researching investors to contact and have been working on a tight exec summary, thanks to Guy Kawasaki’s guide on “Writing a Compelling Executive Summary”

I’m trying as hard as I possibly can to attend the Future of Web Apps event in London which runs from the 8th to 10th October. TechCrunch UK are running a sweet competition for new start ups to pitch their product via a video elevator pitch in return for a chance to win an opportunity to present their product to a panel of judges that includes Mike Butcher (TechCrunch UK editor), Kevin Rose (founder of Digg), Ryan Carson (founder of Carsonified) and a mystery guest. I was going to record my pitch on Friday but run out of time, hopefully I’ll be able to submit an entry in a few days (closing date is Friday, 3rd October). The conference is taking place in Docklands, which is only 10 minutes from where I grew up – How special would it be if I could launch my start-up in my home town Also, I can’t forget that it’s my Mum’s Birthday on the 8th October so would be great to see her for a bit (it’s been a year now - sob sob). Anyway, we’ll see how it plans out.

Good times.

A typical day at the office

The team.

Everyones gone out for lunch.

Our view from the office. Got to love the lush green!

I go for lunch. Chinese red pork with another type of pork covered in sweet sticky sauce.

My walk home after work, passing the heavy traffic.

Sunday afternoon

As I haven’t really got any thing new to say, I thought I’d start posting images of my life in Thailand. Here’s the first of many (I hope). These were taking this afternoon when I went out for dinner.

Typical Thai cafe offering Thai dishes. You can just about make out the fresh produce in the glass display cabinet: I love that

I’m no expert on English grammar but who thinks this should read “as soon as he can talk, he’ll listen”?

Steak with whole roasted garlic and mushrooms at Zen, a very good Japanese restaurant chain.

Oysters.

This is by far the best curry I have ever had in Thailand. It’s a weird combination, a fried pork cutlet in bread crumbs, potato, carrot, pork meat and onion all topped with a delicious curry sauce.

Unripe mango that is very sour along with a selection of fishy chilly dips. Sour mango with fish infused chilly dip doesn’t sound that nice, but it’s actually pretty darn good!

A close up of the different chilly dips on offer.

I’m a sucker for desserts, but Thai desserts (Kanom) don’t really do it for me: apart from 2 that o’ so near perfect! The first is Mango (ripe) with sweet sticky rice and coconut sauce followed by the above: kanom bueng. They are normally a bit smaller than those in the photo and they consist of a pancake like dough which is spread really thin over a flat grill, topped with a marshmallow like substance and coconut meat - the orange stuff - although it hasn’t really got a strong coconut flavor. If you ever visit Thailand and see kanom bueng for sale (street side) I highly recommend giving these babies a go!

Closing my office

I won’t go into all the glory details why I made the decision to close my office, but we could put it down to 2 main reasons: cash-flow, poor internet speeds and needing a break away from the monitor.

Closing the office will allow me to re-charge my batteries, save up some money to pump into FeedZa and to test how myself and my team work remotely before making the final decision whether or not I will open up an office in Singapore (where the internet infrastructure is miles ahead of Thailand).

Since November last year, I’ve worked hundreds of thousands of hours and as a result, I’m in need of a much needed break. It’s been a fun year, but I’ve started to become ill due to too much pressure and work. My blood pressure is sky high, I get stressed over next to nothing, I’m constantly getting headaches and I’ve put on shit loads of weight. The lifestyle I’m living right now is not healthy, so hopefully I can get back to my old self very soon!

I have office equipment such as desks/meeting tables and PC’s for sale so if anyone in Bangkok is interested, please feel free to contact me.

I’ll still be working flat out until the end of the year… but from the comfort of my boxer-shorts Closing the office will not slow down the developments of my sites, the plan is to speed things up if anything!

I’m really excited to announce that we are launching lot’s of new features on FeedZa this week along with a new project I’ve been working on - watch this space for more info!

If you don’t mind, I’m going to get back dreaming about a sun kissed beach with a pina colada

My blog turns 2!

Today it’s been 2 years since I wrote my first blog post titled: Military Coup in Bangers. It’s been a fun and cool ride updating the blog - although right now it’s a little hard to do as I’m doing the same thing every day.

I just want to take this opportunity to say thanks to everyone that has left a comment over the last 2 years, I do appreciate reading/responding to them!

Watch out for 2009 - I’ll be on the road a lot more and hopefully will be able to write a lot more interesting stuff on my whereabouts, more fine dining and more business adventures!

PS - Mum, I hope you like the image! I miss ya loads.