Kristjan on Tour...

Back and Forth… and Back again.

2011-03-15T13:25:00.001-04:00

So it seems like I’ll be using the blog again, although not completely sure of it’s relevance this time around, with Facebook, Skype and a ton of other ways of keeping in touch around now that weren’t used as much “back in the day” (2005).

This time it’ll be a little different though, because Saima will be coming with me… I’ll be heading back to Canada but this time it’ll be Toronto rather than Montreal. Should be really exciting, and especially since I’ll be working with Ubisoft again, and some of the team I worked with back on the original Assassins Creed.

It was a really tough decision to go back in some ways, but in others it was by far the best solution. I feel that the industry in the UK for the time being at least, is in flux and it’s hard to offer stability which as most of you know is what I’m looking for now. If it wasn’t for Saima opening the doors to this opportunity we would likely be staying in the UK, but it would be on a job to job basis which at the moment I’m not comfortable with. Ubisoft Toronto is a new studio with some big ideas, they have offered me an amazing opportunity to get involved with some great projects and knowing the team that I’ll be working with as I do, it’ll be one hell of a ride and I am looking forward to starting work again, but this time as an Animation Director, a step up but one I feel ready to tackle head on, but this time, with the support of my Wife!!!

It’ll be easy to keep in touch with me if you want to, and I’m going to miss everyone (again) but I hope to see you soon. If you board/ski, see you out in Canada for a trip, or just come and visit, we’ll have plenty of room in the place we find.

Skype Nickname: zadgeman

See you soon Canada.

San Francisco – Day 3 & 4 GDC lectures and expo

2010-03-11T03:07:00.000-05:00

Contrary to some friends and family’s belief I’m here for work, Wednesday saw us speaking to all the other teams in Activision about the work they do, we were there to learn off of each other but it seemed to be more of a sales pitch than anything else, so it isn’t really worth talking about here. Although one talk was about SFX and how they could be applied to games and the work we do.

Anyway the main reason I’m here is for the Game Developers Conference and Expo highlighting some of the experts in the industry and giving us an insight into some of their working practices.

The 1st day of lectures were really interesting for me, with a talk about Storyboarding from Pixar, followed by a talk about the Cinematics in the multi award winning Uncharted 2, as well as a post mortem, but that seemed more like chest bumping than informative.

I’ll not bore you with the details but suffice to say I’ve been taking pictures left, right and center as well as feeling like I’m back in school with all the note taking that I’ve been doing. It’s been really interesting getting to speak to some of these developers, business cards have been swapped, emails exchanged, meetings arranged along with drinks, drank.

There isn’t much to say that won’t be said once I get back to Liverpool, some of the talks have been validating, just confirming things and working practices I am already aware of and others have been completely eye opening. Plenty of meeting people from different companies, mostly forgetting names but in-between has been some really interesting conversations about work. As after all, that's what I’m here for. I’m hoping to meet up with a couple of friends out here, from Montreal and from back home, and I feel like I need to hit the gym hard when I get back… Damn red meat!!!

San Francisco – Day 2 Alcatraz and Barings

2010-03-10T10:15:00.000-05:00

Day 2 would see us finding our way around, with us mostly getting over our jet lag but still waking up early we decided to go to breakfast a little French cafe, again not surprised by the size of the portions but happy with the value for money. Neil had a meeting with Autodesk later on in the afternoon but didn’t need us to be there so he pointed us in what he thought was the right direction for Pier 33 and Alcatraz. It turns out that we should of taken the directions he gave us and flipped them 180 degrees and we would of been closer. But at least we managed to find our way around San Francisco and if Neil is with one of us he won’t get lost.

San Francisco Album

So we missed our original boat but managed to get on the 11.30 with no problem and then after a short one way conversation with the guy running the tour where he let us know all the things we couldn’t do on the Island we were good to go.

Approaching Alcatraz from the Bay

Arriving on the Island we get another orientation speech, but this one is interesting and gives us a little bit of history about the Island, from it’s beginnings as fort, then as a military prison, then onto it becoming a state penitentiary in 1943 to it’s closure in 1963, followed by it’s occupation but Native American Indians for political activist purposes and then finally it becoming a national park with full blown protected status.

The sign welcoming you upon arrival

We were then pointed in the direction of the Audio Tour, this involves you walking around in silence with your headphones on following the directions on the tape, this was a really good way of taking the tour at your own pace as you could stop the tape when ever you needed too, although very strange when you take your headphones off and look around and everyone is quiet, it’s a little creepy.

D Block with the full isolation cells at the far end

We are led through the prison via general population, with the tape recounting all the events in Alcatraz’s history including the riots that saw a number of guards and inmates killed whilst foiling an escape attempt, to where Al Capone and the Birdman of Alcatraz were housed in D block aka Isolation.

A selection of the famous inmates held here, notice Al Capone looks quite happy to be there.

Inside one of the Isolation blocks known as “The Hole”

Once out of isolation we are taken outside and this shows you just how tantalizingly close these inmates were to “freedom”, where you can see and even hear San Francisco on a good day.

The view just outside of D Block’s doors near the control room

The burnt out shell of the warden’s house on the Bay side of the Island

It came as a surprise to me that inmates weren’t the only ones that stayed on the Island, over 70 guards and their families also lived full time here, in a different part of the Island, but that means that this was some children’s first home. Apparently it was a really quiet and safe place to live as inmates would only be allowed outside for 2 hours every day in the recreation yard on the other side of the Island to the families, that would also be during the day when the children were on the main land at school. The Warden would also live full-time on the Island in a mansion, with a few trusted inmates doing all his chores whilst under guard.

The cell with the head and escape route at the back of the picture

Back inside we are told the story of the supposed escape from Alcatraz, when 3 inmates dug our the back of their cells with spoons, climbed up the pipes in the wall out escaped to freedom, they also made fake heads out of toilet paper, soap and hair to fool the guards. Although no one actually knows if they escaped or drowned on the crossing over to the Bay, either way Alcatraz records maintain that no one has ever successfully escaped the maximum security prison.

San Francisco – Day 1 Arrival for GDC 2010

2010-03-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

GDC or to the uninitiated the “Game Developers Conference” is essentially a time when a load of people in the industry get together to talk about games. Sure it’ll probably be a little geeky, but it’s in San Francisco Baby!!!

San Francisco by Sunrise from the Hotel

Bizarre have kindly offered to send me out all expenses paid with a bunch of other people from the company as the Animation/Art representative, but at the moment I’m sat in the hotel room watching NCAA basketball and drinking a coffee whilst looking out over the city and trying to adjust my body clock to the fact that I’ve got a whole 10 extra hours of the day to do something with as it’s 4.30 pm on Monday here but 12.24 on Tuesday back home. For the first time I can remember I actually slept on the plane, but I think that might have something to do with the 3 mini bottles of red wine and the sleeping tablet. Then through the always friendly and helpful US customs, although this time no full cavity search, just the regular full hand prints, retina scan, duplicate visa application and credit check, the funny thing is that when ever I do this I can’t help but smile, which doesn’t go down well.

Neil the Head of Art knows San Francisco pretty well so he decided that we should all head out for a Steak at one of San Fran’s well known steakhouse, I had forgotten just how big American portions of EVERYTHING are, with just a massive plate of Porterhouse Steak appearing in front of me, followed by mountains of mash and vegtables, topped off with a overly large portion of cheesecake. Great food which is a good sign for the week, I’ve also heard that there is an all you can eat sushi resturant around here.

Anyway, tomorrow we have some downtime, assuming that I’ll of gotten over any jetlag a bunch of us are heading over to Pier 33 to do the Alcatraz tour, and then I might go and do a little bit of recreational shopping, that may or may not include a present or two for Saima. Then hopefully meet up with some people I know that live here and a couple of people we know that are also out here. I’ve also been told that you don’t come to San Francisco if you are trying to loose weight, and with the wedding in less than 8 weeks, I might have to hit that gym a little harder when I get back.

Gisburn Forest…

2010-01-31T10:21:00.000-05:00

What did we do on Saturday?…

A few of us headed over to Gisburn forest, 22k, and 2 and bit hours later of the badly kept secret, where I found out that my pedalling is massively inefficent, so the uphills were pretty hard for me making me look like a duck, but I’ll sort that out I think it’s my saddle position. The downhills MORE than made up for it though.

This is the most fun run for me so far since I started riding. I knew it was going to be tough, but it’s one hell of a lot of fun if you have the kahonas.

This is a video of the new black section that opened last year and although this isn’t us as we didn’t have a camera on us, it give you a taste of how much fun it was. Note the drop at 1.20, this is where I nearly came off and into the ravine on the right, it caught me by suprise, but managed to save the bike as well as myself, lesson well and truely learnt.

We’ll definately be heading back here. IF we can find it again.

The view from the halfway point just before the black run

Naughty's Retrospective :2000 - 2005 What did I do?

2009-12-30T11:05:00.000-05:00

So there has been radio silence on the blog for quite a while, I can only put that down to laziness if I’m honest. It was mainly a record for me and my family of my time in Canada. But I thought that it would be fitting to post an end of year/decade retrospective, after all everyone else (on telly) is doing it.

2000, the year of my graduation from Newport with a 2:2 in animation the all grey suit, shirt, tie combo that made it look like the photograph was taken in black and white. It’s so far back now that I can’t find any pictures in digital form that I can put up here. I do remember how amazing we thought our student house was, even if the front room was held up by scaffolding, we thought it looked “artistic”, is a wall of porn artistic? I remember playing Goldeneye in the front room with the “No Boris, No oddjob” rule, I also seem to remember winning a lot with slaps.

This was also the year that I started my first job at Hothouse in Bristol, I didn’t even want to work there originally. I had actually refused to go for an interview 3 times. I only decided to go because I was going to be down in Newport for my graduation ceremony anyway and thought that I might as well. It was also smack bang in the middle of the petrol crisis of 2000, when petrol reached crazy levels of 80 whole pence a litre!!!

This was the true transition from student to professional if you can call developing computer games professional, it turned out that I had talked so long in my interview that I think I was just given a job on the condition that I would shut up. I had no idea where it was going to take me, there were plenty of people I was leaving behind that I didn’t want to but I was hungry, ambitious and willing to move anywhere (except London) to become a professional animator. I had no idea whether I could sustain a career with it. But it would prove to be fun finding out, no more working in a bar at least.

2001 The year of Who Wants to be A Millionaire, over and over again, all I remember doing this year is working, having constant deadlines but not caring because I was working in computer games, that and getting bonuses for seemingly doing a very simple task I thought I had it made. I blew my first bonus on a state of the art Multi Region DVD player which I still have now and plays anything as long as it’s disc shaped. I also went out and bought Gangster No1 and American Psycho as my first films as I had a fascination with gangster films and the lifestyle, that and they weren’t out here yet made me feel like I was getting something that no one else had. I also bought a computer that lasted me a good few years and my salesman's car, a 1997 Vauxhall Vectra in what I thought was silver… It wasn’t, Mike Devereux called it “Golden Shower”, I hate to admit it but he was right. I threw in decent stereo and alarm that I think was probably cosmetic and made a nice weep weep sound when activated.

I thought I had hit the big time, with regular bonuses coming in fromWWTBAM, it seemed like a licence to print money, it had sold over a million copies in the UK, the Germans went nuts for it and it seemed like everywhere else was going to follow suit. So why not blow some cash, after all I was only just out of Uni.

Yeah so the bonuses dried up, I had moved into a flat with my mate Lee Dowesett another animator, although he was actually getting to animate as for some reason Steve Goss my “producer” a 1950’s throwback with slicked back hair at the time didn’t think I could animate to a level he thought was appropriate. He basically didn’t want to admit that he had hired me for work on Who Wants to be a Millionaire that required no animation, so made out that I wasn’t good enough… Yeah, we didn’t get on. I “think” he was let go and found another job somewhere, but certain bridges I’m quite happy in burning, that's one on them, I had no interest in ever working for or with him again, nice guy a person, but as a professional… Useless. I could see that within 9 months of becoming professional and my opinion hasn’t changed since.

Gina (Became Lee Dowesett’s wife) and I

Matt, Ian, Pete, and Bill Barna

Ian’s party piece, that he can still do now

Anyway there was the flat in high rolling Clifton, the parties with endless open bars, the jumping into the Avon for a laugh (and a pay rise), hanging out at the Mud Dock with work buddies, drinking over expensive Jack and Cokes, travelling over to Cardiff to see Andy and Sharon and basically living like a student with a bit of cash. Life couldn’t get much better.

2002 – 2005 I’m sure plenty more happened but I’ll summarise, 2002 was world cup year, England got knocked out by Ronaldino and Brazil, I saw the game in Crete where I had my first (and last holiday) with my then girlfriend, we split up a couple of months after but I should of seen it coming, It just wasn’t meant to be and it hit me pretty hard so I threw myself into my work finishing off work on the last of the WWTBAM gravy train games, with the bonuses completely dried up.

Now that my old producer had “left” the company I managed to get a chance to animate on Casino Inc, Hothouses next project, having a great time making people throw up, dance, play blackjack, flirt, chat and various other things. I’m sure loads of other things happened, but I can only remember the work things, that shows you how much of a work-o-holic I turned into around this time. Although I did meet Al and Dunc and started playing basketball with them, that would lead onto me moving in with them and having the best time in a huge house in Southville, Al and Dunc invented “Cork” the game you could play in your kitchen with a cork and washing machine…

Al “The Cork Magician” in our kitchen

Redcliffe 84 Basketball team, great guys had a ton of fun with

Al and I in the same kitchen, looking “Buff”

I enjoyed being single for a bit, but then met another girl who I thought I was really serious about, but things changed as they do and I ended up wanting to move on, but this time it was my decision.

Hothouse released Casino Inc in 2003 and was one of the most fun games I’ve ever worked on to this day, the team was really tight, but the idea wasn’t solid enough, and Konami eventually buried it with no marketing, I became Lead Animator, but this was a case of being too much too young, sure I was good at my job, so I naturally thought that becoming a Lead was the way forward, problem was I knew nothing but thought I knew it all. We had some great ideas for Pop Idol for Codemasters, but it was ultimately… Crap, due to us trying to do everything, from make the engine, animate hours of singing, create an original soundtrack, the Lead Programmer was only lead because no one else wanted to do it, so the project was doomed from day 1, I do remember pulling many an all nighter to prove the concept with Mike Baker, then getting annoyed when my producer said that it was just OK, obviously working until that late doesn’t make a quality project… In fairness he was right it was rubbish!

Hothouse bought by Zoo Digital a DVD production company in Sheffield in 2004 we moved into town, and we kept working on another project called Crimelife – Gangwars… That was also rubbish (there seems to be a pattern emerging), no one really knew what the game was supposed to be and then it was decided that we were going to compete with GTA for a fraction of the cost, we managed to get D12 (Emenim’s Crew) involved, to the point where they recorded a song for us specifically for the game.I had wanted the game to work so much I ended up in Hospital, it was at that point I had had enough, and focused my efforts into finding another job. I produced my demo reel with what animation I had, produced a website, and worked on a couple of other pieces and sent them over to Ubisoft Montreal, where I didn’t expect to hear anything from them. In the mean time I forgot about it and a good friend introduced me to my future fiancée, of course I didn’t know that at the time, we tried to keep it casual as I was looking to move to Canada, but we would stay in touch (obviously).

Overall though I would say that the first part of the decade consisted mainly of me working, which I don’t regret as It’s paid dividends now, but considering they tend to be the things that I remember the most that must mean I did a lot of it.

Silence… 2 years to the day back in England

2009-08-07T17:51:00.000-04:00

Although things have been quiet regarding all things blog, I can assure you that there has been plenty going on. Work and Personal, but more about that later. I just haven’t had time or to be honest the inclination to get any of it documented.

I’d love to tell you all what I am working on at the moment, but due to the way things work you’ll all just have to hazard your best guess. I can say that it has tremendous potential, and if things end up going the way I hope they will, we should have something I’ll be extremely proud to put my name to. The problem is I can’t help but look at it with the “difficult 2nd album” point of view, after the huge success of Assassins Creed (*cough* 8 million sold and counting) it’s hard to top that. Sure there will still be a fair wack of my old animation in there which is great but it’s a whole new game now, of course I’ll still be proud of it when it comes out, but indirectly. Hey if any of the team are reading, just give me my head butt and I’ll be happy!

It’s fair to say that work wise I don’t feel I’ve achieved as much in the 2 years since I left Canada, than the 2 and a bit years I was there. But I have learnt a lot about what I’m capable of achieving given the right opportunities. I want to prove that Assassins wasn’t a fluke and that I can do it again. Maybe the project with Pivotal would of been it, maybe that trailer will see the light of day who knows (I know it’s out there somewhere) but if I’m being honest I don’t think we would of gotten the backing even if the game was published. But at Bizarre with Activision, there is no question about the backing, the animation is starting to come together and there are moments of absolute genius, we just need to make that more consistent. If the meeting I had with a certain stuntman this week is anything to go by, I have a feeling that, that might be one of the many things that could push this project over the edge.

Anyway I am bursting to say something and I best stop before I do, I’ll update back here once something is officially announced, but I think Bizarre could surprise a lot of people.

Business in Oxford

2009-03-22T15:08:00.001-04:00

Bizarre sent me to direct a motion capture shoot in Oxford on Friday, and as a result would put us up in a hotel so we could be ready bright and early Friday morning, usually you get put in a Holiday Inn, not that there is anything wrong with that, but there is no denying that it’s functional and that's it.

So when you find that you are being put up in the Malmaison (there was a deal on, making it the cheapest option) in Oxford you can’t really complain, and it does make it a little more interesting especially when you find out that they filmed parts of The Italian Job and Porridge there. Wait a minute what scenes?

The prison scenes, turns out that the Malmaison in Oxford not only is it next to the castle but it’s built in a refurbished prison, it’s a very strange experience, especially when outside your room you have a tour guide letting you know how many executions happened in the grounds and at times, in the rooms. A little worrying.

I obviously can’t talk about the shoot, but I can say that I always have a good time with the guys at Audiomotion and hopefully I’ll be able to talk about it later on in the year, maybe even show some of the moves we captured, this shoot was by far the most interesting I’ve directed especially considering the subject mater and the guys we used on the day.

Boarding in Bansko (Bulgaria)

2009-01-18T19:57:00.000-05:00

My (rented) snowboard for the week

Early 2009, and time to get fit and Andy, Justin, and Gary invited me on their snowboarding trip to Bulgaria, and a relatively new resort in Bulgaria called Bansko, apparently a load of money has been pumped into the resort and you can see why. Bulgaria is fast becoming the snowboarders destination of choice and we wanted to visit before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. It felt very much a confused place, wanting to be the finished article with bars, hotels and ski runs up and running, but with so much unfinished it almost felt cheeky that people running the resort were charging so much for everything. I say “much” but it was actually only the same prices as here in the U.K. but you got the impression that you were only being charged those prices because you were IN the resort.

The mountain we would be frequenting for the week

So after a long journey from Liverpool – Bristol – Gatwick – Sofia – Bansko (12 hours), we arrived with enough time to have a quick look around, quickly finding the best deals on the equipment that we needed and saving ourselves over 100 lev (50 GBP) by simply crossing the road to another rental company, the only price that wasn’t going to budge was the lift pass price, but at 280 lev for the 6 days that wasn’t too expensive, and after all no one said that snowboarding is a cheap past time.

I’m top o the world ma… (2600 m above see level)

So we are up early to try and catch the first lifts up, and after a 20 minute ride up about halfway, we thought it best to get some practice in, call it a refresher course. The last time I was boarding was whilst living in Montreal in March 2007 so it was a wise decision to do a little bit of catch up, strangely though I found going up the slight incline on the button lift the hardest part and kept tripping on my board. But that problem was soon fixed and with our confidence restored somewhat we headed up to the top of the Pirin Mountain where many photo opportunities await.

Gary in contemplative mood

That first day was tough! I think we all got a little carried away, and instead of pacing ourselves, we went flat out boarding without breaks all day, and then decided to board down to the bottom (that took 2 hours), but this was mainly because it was so flat if you lost your momentum you were done for. I think we definitely deserved a few beers after that though… Early night!!

On our way down

The next few days were spent improving on the slopes, morning would consist of the same Michael Caine film on one of the Bulgarian channels that seemed to be on at the same time as us having breakfast every morning, then the walk down to the lifts through the building site (good warm up) followed by some confidence building slight inclines halfway up, then we would tackle the rest of the mountain.

Justin halfway up…

Justin caught my first “proper” run on camera… One linked turn at a time

I’ve well and truely caught the snowboarding bug now, and all was going perfectly until late Friday on our last run of the day, when I was getting smoother with each run, but bit off a little more than I could handle on a turn, and flipped over on a ridge in the snow/ice that saw me land square on my chest, which knocked the wind out of me and meant that I had to give Saturday our last day a miss as I couldn’t even lift myself out of bed I was hurting that much, so I’ve been popping painkillers like jelly beans since.

Boarding in Bansko Picture Album

Happy 30th Doctors Nawaz and Bills

2008-12-20T20:44:00.000-05:00

With Saima’s 30th birthday this close to christmas we weren’t sure how many of our friends would be available the weekend before christmas, but they all came through as Saima and Vic had arranged a fantastic cottage in the North of Wales for us all to celebrate. A luxury cottage with a pool table 6 double bedrooms loads of space for extras and a bar, which I intended to make my own domain…

Everyone and me looking like a bouncer…

The place was amazing, on the Saturday day we all went our separate ways with us heading up to the castle in Ruthin, and Vic and her crew heading to the go-karts. This gave me a chance to stretch my itchey trigger finger and attempt to take plenty of arty pics.

The girls…

Saima with one of her Cosmo’s

and to top it off we had hired a chef to come in on the Saturday night and cook for us, how very civilized, Saima decided everyone needed Cosmo’s, I started churning out the Mojito’s and very quickly a civilized night turned into Rock ‘N’ Cock that’s Rock Band and Cocktails, just incase you wondered?

Happy Birthday Saima x

Santa Dash 2008 in Liverpool

2008-12-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

Thousands of Santas, ready to Dash around Liverpool Ho Ho Ho

A load of people in work suggested that I should do the Santa Dash, and this year Liverpool’s Santa Dash was trying to break a record, all we needed was over 8000 Santa’s willing to freeze their bits off whilst running 5K around Liverpool city center.

Well we only just missed the record by a couple of hundred but running around the city with 7000 other Santa’s is a very strange experience, as we were running up one of the roads in the middle of town all that we could see was a sea of red…

Sea of Santa and…

…Santa is (apparently) an Evertonian

Anyway, the first half of the run for me at least was supposed to be “fun” which it was, even though I found myself weaving in and out of everyone as I felt the pace was too slow, so my second half competitve streak kicked in and our final time after a sprint finish ended up being around 27 minutes, not bad, but come on I was wearing a Santa Suit… You ever tried running 5k in a santa suit???

That’s me on the right in the beard :-)

Say Hi to Lisbon

2008-10-22T21:11:00.000-04:00

Lisbon the new kitten in the Zadziuk household, he’s basically a dog that looks like a cat, don’t be fooled, I’ll be taking him for walks with a leash at the end of the year I guarantee it.

Sorry Karen but loving the look on Lisbon’s face.

New Job in a familiar City

2008-09-22T20:48:00.000-04:00

So after Pivotal Games announced that they were shutting down, it was time to find myself another job, a couple of guys from Bizarre Creations came in for me upon hearing that I might be available should Pivotal actually shut down. I had met some of the guys from Bizarre a few times one of them I used to work with and a few of them I had met on a night in an English pub in Santa Monica.

Bizarre have been a mainly racing studio known for PGR3 and 4, but after The Club, Bizarre’s latest project, the company were looking to build on their 3rd Person knowledge with potentially more 3rd Person projects, so this opens the doors to more animators, and thats where I come in.

I had always wanted to move back to the north of England, but the opportunities weren’t really there. For those of you that understand the NDA’s of the games industry I obviously can’t talk about the game/games I may or may not be working on and hopefully soon I will be allowed to spread the news of the project I’m working on, and for those of you that know me will totally understand why I’m working at Bizarre and trust me it’s more than just the location.

I really hope that this move works out and I’m going to put as much as I can into this project and company and this could be a fantastic move for me and my career, I just hope that this place is more stable than Pivotal.

I’ll keep you posted.

The End of Pivotal Games

2008-08-31T20:16:00.000-04:00

Whilst in Rome, I was texted basically letting me know that Pivotal Games was shutting down, not exactly the best way to end a holiday but there was nothing I could do, this partly explains my lack of blogging, as I’ve had to find myself alternate employment and somewhere else to live.

The clouds gather over Pivotal Games how ironic.

So it was clear that unless a buyer came in for Pivotal I would have to leave Bristol (again) but this time I was intending to stay in the country as tempting as it would be to move back to Canada. So we were all working extremely hard to do everything we possiblly could to get Pivotal out of trouble, my team did all they could but it’s hard to motivate everyone when they could all be out of jobs within the month. I wanted us to do the best we could but I also wanted to make sure that my team had enough time to sort their portfolio’s out.

The animation team and I getting our drink on, cheers guys

But credit to all the guys on the team they all pulled together and helped us produce one final trailer for the unannounced game, which I would eventually like to put online, but for the moment I’m not sure it’s appropriate, but I’d like to think that we were working to something that could of been really interesting. Of course I can only really speak from an animation point of view, we had made some pretty interesting advancements on the tools that Pivotal had, had previously and at least our guys were enjoying there jobs.

But alas it wasn’t to be, but I think that the writing was on the wall and in hindsight with the whole credit crunch and quite a few other games companies going bust it might of been too little too late.

I personally think that the way Pivotal was treated was a little unfair, but we were about 120 people and sustaining that sort of head-count after Denied Ops received luke warm reviews was always going to be tough, the most upsetting thing was that we had some very talented people there and for the first time at Pivotal we were developing some real “next-gen” tools. Unfortunately we have all had to go our separate ways but not without one hell of a blow out…

Haven’t got a clue what I was saying to Alex here, just hope it wasn’t embarassing???

I wish everyone the best of luck, but it’s always a sad day to see another Games Company go down, I was only at Pivotal pretty much a year to the day it closed, and if I had known it’s fate I probably wouldn’t of left Montreal when I did… But still, Pivotal was good to me and I had a blast working with the people I worked closest with, and there were people I hope to work with again someday. But it’s time to move on (again).

Roman Holiday

2008-08-07T19:26:00.001-04:00

The Trevi Fountain of La Dolce Vita fame

Been a while since I last posted, plenty has been going on, although I have to admit I've been forgetting about the blog because of the evils of facebook, but I intend to change that... Although I have said that quite a few times.

Will try and do a catch up, and I'm sure I'll have some interesting things to say on my Bristol situation in the coming weeks, but anyway...

Saima and I visted Rome last month, and I got to play around with my new camera, so took advantage of this by taking an obscene amount of pictures of ancient ruins, and other fantastic sights. So if you fancy taking a look, just click the link below.

Rome Pictures

Aston Martin Driving...

2008-05-15T04:12:00.003-04:00

Ever since watching my first Bond film in 1987 (The Living Daylights), I've loved the Aston Martin, to me, Bond and the Aston Martin go hand in hand...

With this I've always wanted to live out part of my Bond fantasy and drive one, with them costing quite a bit of money it'll likely be more expensive than my first house when I eventually get around to buying one, so you can understand that for the first lap of my 4 laps around the track I would be quite tentative.

Saima for my 30th birthday managed to get hold of a driving day for me in an Aston Martin, and I have to say it was amazing, not really sure if the video does it justice, but as soon as I came round the corner on that second lap and put my foot down for the first time, you might be able to see a little smile come across my face. But I wanted to say thanks again to Saima for having the insight in getting me 8 minutes 30 seconds of as close to being James Bond as I am likely to get.

Work life after Creed

2008-04-26T09:56:00.004-04:00

It's been around 8/9 months since I returned to England now, and even though it's my home country it's taken a little bit of time to get used to everything again, and only now am I starting to feel back at home.

My blog updates have been few and far between in that time, probably in part due to the evils of facebook, which I am seriously considering knocking on the head, if it weren't for how difficult it was to just switch off from it I would of probably done it alot quicker. Although it have to admit it has kept me in touch with a load of friend back in Canada as well as old school friends, but I can't help feel that because I know what they are upto with pictures and posts about their latest comings and goings I don't need to actually talk to them, pros and cons I suppsoe.

Anyway, things at my new company Pivotal Games haven't been easy, with plenty of ups and downs and alot of thinking "have I made the right decision", to be honest the jury is probably still out on that one, although I don't regret anything and everything really does happen for a reason. 9 months on and I'm finding that Assassins Creed is becoming a distant memory, and I am now starting to apply all the things I'd learnt to my new job, and finally the fruits of that are showing themselves. Although I can't talk about the project I'm working on for obvious reasons, I can say that with everyday I am starting to feel a little more comfortable in my role, and the fun it just beginning as gameplay is starting to go in.

This is my first game at Pivotal as I arrived too late to have an impact on their latest release, so I focused my time on getting the tools and pipeline up to scratch for their future projects. Pivotal's (to me at least) animation department is coming on leaps and bounds, we are starting to build some fantastic tools which I truely believe will end up rivaling those I was used to using in Montreal, the animation department is now taken seriously which is one of the things I was brought in to do, and provided the progress continues and we are allowed to work in this way I am confident that this game; what ever it ends up being, will not only look great but feel great to play as well, we have just completed our first motion capture shoot, to add some extra realism, but even with the placeholder animation done by the team is feeling solid.

We'll have to see what happens in the future with the company and the project but it could potentially be some very exciting times ahead, following on from Assassins Creed as an animator isn't going to be easy, but rest assured I'll give it a damn good shot...

Jamie's Gambling Stag

2008-04-12T13:22:00.003-04:00

Feeling a little fluffy in the center of Birmingham.

So one of my friends from Uni is getting married this May, which of course means that it's an excuse for us all to get together and give him a decent send off... Although "send off" probably isn't the best term to use.

Anyway Andy, Justin and I traveled up to Birmingham from Bristol for a weekend of gambling, football, dodgy chinese meals and plenty of drinking. My advice to you... When in a large group don't go to a chinese resturant at the end of the night, you'll only regret it the next morning (and probably a few days after as well). All you can eat for 20 quid can only end up messy in more ways than one.

Anyway, pictures of the weekend can be seen here.

Academy Awards for Gaming...

2008-02-09T13:28:00.000-05:00

The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were heldon Thursday at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with twenty-six awards handed out honoring the best in gaming of 2007.

Suppose this is like the BAFTA's or the Oscars for games, to be honest I didn't even know they were happening. But whilst at work yesterday I get sent an email from one of my old collegues with a link to the award winners.

Well...

Outstanding Achievement in Animation:
Assassin's Creed

* Publisher: Ubisoft
* Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
* Animation Director: Alex Drouin
* Lead Animators: Elspeth Tory, Sylvain Bernard

Well done everyone, probably the nearest I'll get to an actual oscar, for the moment...

January Break in Prague

2008-01-20T15:39:00.000-05:00

Wallenstein Palace from across the river

One of the advantages of living back in the UK is all the cheap flights to Europe, so before christmas I had decided that for Saima's birthday that she (as well as myself) deserved a break, Saima especially has been working insane hours and as I knew she would have a decent chunk of time off I wanted to take her somewhere with a little culture. So that ruled out Dudley near Birmingham, but meant that Prague would be perfect.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and headed straight to the hotel in the center of Prague, which with all the McDonalds and KFC's you would of thought that it was any city in England, so immediately we knew that we would need to travel off the square to see a more authentic Prague. After check-in we headed off for a little reccy to get our barings, it's something I always like to do, as I hate getting lost. So off to find the National Theatre in time for our visit to the Ballet that night, yes you heard me right... The Ballet.

The Ballet was something I had never been interested, but considering that Ballet is about the flowing of movement, strong poses and the lines of motion it makes sense that I would enjoy it as much as I did, I had managed to get hold of 2 tickets 5 rows from the front, and if we hadn't been 10 minutes late for the start we would of been able to sit in them. Luckily they said that they could let take our seats at the interval, but that first of all meant that we had to STAND in the gallery at the top of the theatre (I'm scared of heights), but it did give us a great view of all the action.

All very formal, Saima looked amazing so what better thing to do than head to a bar afterwards for a couple of Czech beers and Mojito's for the lady, followed by McDonalds... It was late.

So Saturday we headed off to another part of the city and checked out a Salvador Dali exhibition, and some of the other sights of Prague, all the pictures can be found here. Then for dinner we ended up in the Poshest restaurant I think either of us have ever been too, in a underground grotto with a grand piano player. Thinking about it now I have no idea how they got that piano down there.. Regardless the food was pretty good although not the best, but managed to bluff my wine tasting prowess so that we ended up with a cheeky little Czech number, the name escapes me. I had completely forgotten that the smoking ban in England has made eating out so much more pleasant, as the ban isn't in effect in Prague, so the guy on the table next to you is quite happily puffing away over your salmon steak...

Tut Tut Kristjan, you should know better

2008-01-07T16:03:00.000-05:00

Coming back to England in August and buying a car was something I was looking forward too, managed to get hold of the money, got all the correct documentation, and even managed to clear all the points off of my existing UK Driving Licence, Brilliant!

So on the 3rd of September I proudly drove to work on the A4 Bath Road the route that I would be following every day during my time at Pivotal, maybe a little bit excited and *Flash* at the bottom of a seemingly quiet hill, and this was my FIRST journey to work.

I didn't think much of it, but I'm sure I would of if I had seen the flash... The thing is I didn't, as it was one of those digital cameras, the ones that don't need a film AND are connected straight to a network the zips your information back to the DVLA immediately. In fact they are so quick now that you could have a letter and fine in the post before you arrive at your destination. The problem is, the registration documents on a newly purchased car don't get to the DVLA as quick. So when that speed camera information arrives at the DVLA they cross check it with the registration and send out the appropriate action, but if your car isn't registered they can't get you and are allowed a further 6 months to track you down.

This means that I had thought that I had gotten away with my little "mistake" so carried on driving the same way. Luckily when I did finally receive my penalty I was offered the opportunity to take a Speed Aware course under the tag-line, "3 points or 3 hours your choice".

Obviously I chose the course, and was re-educated in the ways of the careful driver, now I've always considered myself as a safe driver, but then again most people do. But the 3 hours was actually very interesting, I'm not going to preach so your safe, but some of the key facts that came out.

Think of each camera as a bunch of flowers, it's there for a reason and that reason is usually several fatalities or critical accidents, by law cameras aren't allowed to be placed randomly on Urban roads.
3rd gear = 30mph, 4Th gear = 40mph, plus only use 5Th gear when going 50mph or more, that way when your car starts screaming at you to change you know you are probably going over the limit in an urban area (may seem obvious but is a useful little fact), also staying in 3rd will slow you when descending a hill.
There is no excuse, imagine if the excuses you gave had to be given to you once a friend or family member is injured, would you accept it, all about perspective.

Now I'm sure you all knew that, but I have to admit that with over 12 years of driving, I had got so used to driving that I had forgotten a lot of these points, which is completely my fault and I hold my hands up to that. If you have a hobby or play a sport you keep up to date with the rules, everyone does, that's just the way it is.

But it seems that driving is the only everyday activity/hobby that the more we do the more we forget... Suppose I should do out a buy a new highway code, well it has been over 10 years.

Chino Latio NYE 2007

2008-01-02T19:10:00.000-05:00

New Years Eve in Leeds, Saima, Justin, and Saima's friends Hannah and V, relitively early start, pretty late finish, if my memory serves me right I'm pretty sure that I was involved in some sort of dance off that I'm pretty sure I won... But I have no real idea.

More pictures can be seen here: NYE in Leeds 2007

Christmas with the Gordons

2007-12-16T18:39:00.000-05:00

Andy wishes Justin a very Merry Christmas

Goodnight, god bless

2007-11-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ivy "Scorpio Number 1,the bruiser" Boughey

November 11th 1920 - November 23rd 2007.

Aged 87

My nan "Scorpio number 1" as she always used to call herself, Ivy Boughey. Passed away. It was something she always used to say, basically as our birthday's were only a week apart, I have to admit that I thought that it was getting a little old, but have to admit I'll miss being called "Scorpio number 2" there was something comforting about it.

Over the past couple of years her health had deteriorated, and over that time it had been 1 step forward 2 steps back. I have to admit that this is was also one of the reasons I had wanted to return to the UK and I'm glad I was in the country when she went. I'll never forget doing the robot with her at my sisters wedding, shooting toy pistols at cardboard cutouts on Christmas morning when I was a kid (and when I was 25).

Never a hair out of place as one of my sisters said, anyway, my family all wanted to put something in the paper in memory and wanted to share, check out some of my families rhyming skills.

Closure.

2007-11-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

After all the hype, all the anticipation, all the promotion, all the bruises, and the parties... It's finally here, come on by now you must all know what I'm talking about, since I left Ubisoft Montreal, my excitement has turned from developer to fan. Maybe because I knew what was coming.

Interestingly though the reviews have been mixed, (Gamespot, 1Up, Game Informer and Eurogamer) which in hindsight I suppose is to be expected, the Marmite of gaming someone suggested to me, you either love it or hate it. Personally I'm really happy how the combat has turned out, and now I've seen it in the finished product with all the presentation around it, and I've taken a step back and I'm really pleased with how things came together. All the decisions that seemed so hard to work out over my time on the project seem so obvious now, how could it of gone any other way?

A highlight from just last week, was when I caught some of the fighters from the UFC in an interview saying how much they were enjoying it. I was loving the fact they picked our a couple of the moves we had put so much effort into.

Anyway, the game is out now, and I suppose that it's time to move on to the next challenge. AC was one hell of an experience.

Singing into my 30's

2007-11-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

No updates for a while, and now hopefully they will start coming in again, as I've finally gotten my internet connection back, so I can upload photos and make these entry's at least look interesting.

So I had wanted to find a way of turning 30 but do something memorable, by suggesting we check out the new private Karaoke rooms that have just opened in Bristol, I seemed like the only one that was up for it, but with Saima's powers of persuasion and the fact that it was my birthday and I would of thrown my toys out the pram everyone agreed to join me in a night of 80's power ballad's.

So we lined up the shots, got a couple of beers down us and within no time Duncan had loaded up the selections, and I was knocking out "Livin' on a Prayer" much to Saima's amusement. Taking the lesson I learnt from Dean in Montreal, that it's not about the song it's about the performance, everyone seemed to gradually come over to the idea that this was fun and not as humiliating as they might of first thought.

From what I remember I had a fantastic night... I think, well I know that I had a sore throat for quite a few days afterwards so I'm taking that as a good sign.

Anyway here are some more pictures of the night, the camera was taken out of my hands so I have no control over the 'action' shots.

Reverend and the Makers in Bristol

2007-10-29T09:26:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday night I took Saima to see Reverend and the Makers, now until I’d come home I hadn’t heard much about them but I had heard a lot of good reviews from other people that had seen them, and with my internal mandate of seeking new music and independent film (check me out!!), we jumped at the chance for tickets at the relatively small Carling Academy in Bristol. This place I reckon holds around 400 people, tops, so we were always going to be close the stage and get a chance to take in the show, for some reason blogger isn't letting me upload images, but there is some coming.

We get there about 40 minutes before the main event, and take in a small new band supporting going by the name of “The Ting Tings”, give them a listen, they aren’t bad and definitely something a little original, loads of energy but that was nothing compared to the Reverend.

On he comes to large bright flashing lights, silhouetted to the crowd, all you could make out was this lanky northerner with what could only be described as a haircut similar to that of Leo Sayers, his band is already on stage already playing the intro to the first tune. Straight away this guy gets the crowd involved, shadow boxing to the music. The girl in front of us clearly having a great time bumping into everyone decides to move further into the crowd of people giving us a clear view of the action.

For those that haven’t heard them, they are like a combination of “The Streets” and the “Arctic Monkeys”, and the reverend as he likes to be called definitely has a little bit of arrogant confidence about him, not unlike Liam Gallagher, and with being a massive fan of Oasis (still) I lapped it up. Anyway the gig was fantastic, and with this band more than likely to hit the big time pretty soon, I doubt that we’ll get to see them in a venue this small again, they are the kind of band that could easily fill a larger place and still entertain everyone, so my advice is if you get a chance to see them… Go!

A Little Catch Up

2007-10-10T12:38:00.001-04:00

It’s been ages since I last updated; bet some of you thought that I had dropped off the face of the planet. So my apologies for not being more proactive in updating the blog.

So… Instead of taking ages to bring you all up to date, I’ll do it in massively impersonal bullet point form.

Got my case back, completely wrecked, rotten and busted. Must have been sat in a puddle of something nasty, but with a big thanks to my Mum and Dad I think that they managed to save pretty much everything. Yes guys, that includes the awesome piece of Assassins art work you gave me, it is now hanging pride of place in the most appropriate room… The bathroom.

Applied for damages and BA decided to offer me 503 quid to not pursue it any more, which I quite easily could have, and after all the hassle I’ve been through with them, I can’t be bothered. So thank you BA I’ll take your cash, and recommend that you all avoid BA, especially if you are transferring through Heathrow, which should now be named the worst airport in the world.

The job is going well, although animation at the moment is minimal to none existent. Basically I’m helping establish the ground work for the future, but finding my feet for now and I’m sure that I’ll be back animating within no time, there is no way I’m becoming an excel jockey.

Now fully addressed up, and all my stuff has arrived from Montreal, so I’ve been nest building for the 3rd time in 4 years. Integrating myself back into the English culture, but still to see quite a few people because I’ve been so busy with setting myself up in my place and with work. The only people I’ve been seeing on a regular basis so far are some of my Bristol friends, the family and of course Saima.

Back with a car, and it’s now starting to feel more ‘normal’, driving to work everyday is still pretty cool, but I need to get my iPod connected because Radio 1 in the morning is beginning to grate. It seems very strange that I spent almost 2 and a half years in Montreal, I do miss it, and I will return to visit soon, just now isn’t the best time. Jeff put it in an interesting way in a recent email… I miss that going for a weekday piss up, any day of the week feeling.

Just started playing basketball again, after 2 months, and I’m trying to stay out of getting too involved in anything, but sure it’s only a matter of time before I start competing for a place on the team, yeah I enjoy basketball, but also enjoy the competition.

I’ve even got my DVD player back from before I left, it plays anything. So I’m back to building on my DVD collection, but this time with a heavy emphasis on war films. Dean you would be proud, but don’t think you’ll see much of my work for a while yet.

In the 2 months I’ve been back I’m getting a taste of what it would be like to anticipate Assassins, I’m really looking forward to the release in November. Any of the Assassins team reading this, make sure I get my copy!!! PAL compatible please.

To my Montreal buddies, the ones still there and the ones that have moved away to pastures new, I’ll be in contact on a more personal level soon, I have been following everything, and if I don’t reply straight away, I haven’t forgotten, trust me. I will speak to you all soon. Some of my pictures are on facebook, more coming.

No more "Le Brick"

2007-08-21T11:30:00.001-04:00

The new brick... well in 2 years time maybe.

Paul, Jeff and Blake were the main ones, whilst I was in Montreal, but at some point most of the Montreal crew quite literally mocked my old phone for it's weight and size. I didn't really care, but the emotional pain and angiush they caused my fragile mind, they may never realise. Blake would say that my old phone had some sort of skin disease, Paul would try to make out that he thought that the retro design was something he really liked (he was a terrible liar) and Jeff just like the fact I could use it as a weapon.

So I admit... I caved, and with a new job, back in the good ole U of K and the phone deals over here somehow being amazing I jumped in to a new contact and picked up this little baby the Sony Ericsson P1i.

I love it so far, but then again my last phone was a brick, even though it was a retro classic. I promised I would show a video of me smashing my old phone at some point, almost symbolic... But I'm not sure if I can bring myself to do it we had so many good times.

Back in the UK, Update Pt 1 (The Rant)

2007-08-19T16:46:00.000-04:00

So I've been back home for just under 2 weeks, and plenty has happened. You may be wondering about the lack of pictures, the reason for this is that I don't have the cable to attach my camera to my laptop, did I leave it in Canada??? No, I was extremely organised, I had packed everything up and put it all in my suitcases. But there lies the problem...

You may remember that back in January I flew back to Montreal and my luggage went missing for a couple of days, well guess what happened again, only this time it's a little more serious as I have moved back to England which means that those 2 suitcases contained the rest of my life from my time in Canada and some of the stuff from before. As I had so many documents to bring back I couldn't fit them all into my handluggage so I put some into my check-in luggage, as well as the rest of my clothes, cables, even the original artwork given to me as a leaving present from Montreal. I thought that they would of been safe, suppose I should of known better, I was flying with BA again via Heathrow, quickly becoming one of the worst combinations to travel with.

Ok so one of my suitcases turned up the next day, but the other one is still MIA, and maybe for a while if the reports online about Heathrow are to be believed. So in the mean time I need to compile a list of everything that was in there and so if I can get something back.

Watch This Space

2007-08-13T17:50:00.000-04:00

Updates will be coming soon, I decided to keep this blog but will be changing the banner and maybe the style, but will be documenting my return to England and life back in Bristol...

Thats if your all interested, that is!!

Thanks for the memories Canada...

2007-07-28T18:22:00.000-04:00

With moving out of my place on July 1st, I’ve had limited to no internet access, except through facebook, as Ubisoft hasn’t seemed to cut off access to that yet. But they have cut off access to Blogger, so it’s hard to keep you all up to date with what I’m doing.

The biggest development is that now that I that my work is pretty much done on the project it was time to look at what’s next… I’ve mentioned a few times that I would make a decision nearer the time and that time has now come, and with that I’ve decided that now would be a good time to head back to the UK, and ironically of all places back to Bristol. This came as a surprise to me as well as after Hothouse I didn’t think I’d be back there, I think I always had an idea that I’d be back in England, but if I’m completely honest maybe not so soon, but I did always say that after 2 years I would re-evaluate and see what’s out there.

The chance to be a Lead Animator again is part of the motivation but it’s possible I could of gotten that opportunity at Ubisoft of possibly somewhere else, I’d been getting phone calls because of Linked In and my website for Santa Monica, Vancouver, Edmonton, and various other places, but my heart was always going to be back home in England.

It was a lot tougher decision than I had previously thought it would be, I’ve met so many amazing people in a little under 2 and a half years, that it’s going to be hard to leave that all behind. I’ve looking forward to going back home, but also extremely nervous as this is the first time that I’ll be entering to a company as a lead, instead of being promoted to one, but this is yet again another relatively fresh start for me, and I’m sure like every other opportunity I will embrace it with both hands.

But this 2 and a bit years has taught me so much, not just in my career, but about where I want to be, the 10 year plan I set out for myself has somewhat changed, and realised that work is important but where I am in my personal life is just if not more important.

I’ve been asked to carry on the Blog from England. So roll on the next chapter of my career, and about 50 new facebook contacts from Montreal, this is Kristjan on Tour, signing off…. Well from Montreal at least.

E3 with Assassins Creed in Santa Monica

2007-07-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to be one of the 12 members of the team invited to travel to Santa Monica for E3 2007 with Assassins Creed to demo the game, and get the first chance to show everyone what we've been working so hard on. Who knew that a trip to LA would be so exhausting. 4 Days stuck in a small room with a load of consoles that close to the beach was torture, but the thrill of showing someone that was so excited about the game when they sat down next to me was great, I've managed to track down a couple of the guys' articles that I demoed to and so far they all seem pretty positive, of course there will be good and bad press with everything you do, but the majority seem really good.

Offical Xbox Magazine and Infuze Magazine

The whole week was a little surreal, with being a rep for Assassin's Creed, we got the chance to enjoy Santa Monica on Ubisoft's coin, which is always fun, I mean it's not every day that you get to got to LA for free is it? Ubisoft is known for it's parties and E3 even though it was quieter than previous years was not going to be any different. The main stay of any Ubisoft party is the open bar. So a few martini's later, and Jonnie and I start on the shots, and the Kobe beef burgers, turns out that Kobe beef is basically drunk cow thats been massaged, and drip fed copious amounts of alchol in it's life, not sure how humaine this is, don't belive me? Check out what wikipedia says...

Then came the craziest taxi ride in the world, ever!

The remaining 8 of us missed the free bus back to the hotel, bare in mind we've been abusing the free bar for a good 5 hours, so this part could be a little hazy. Patrice hails a cab, that should only really be seating about 6, so 8 of us get in, 2 sit on the floor, with me in the front. The cd player gets cranked right up to 11, I mean the sort of loud that you can feel in the pit of your stomach. He floors it, and according to Patrice who looked at the speedo, we hit about 80 mph on the Ocean Road, no stoping for the lights and dodging in and out of the few cars. For some reason I should of been scared for my life, but I just kept laughing uncontrolably. I think he actually made about $50 on a $10 cab ride, as we all just gave him money... Not sure why.

Canada Day in Ottawa

2007-07-02T21:28:00.000-04:00

The 'Boat' we spent so much time on

Ok so since I moved out of my place I've not had much access to the net, so hence the lack of postings work has been insane the past few weeks and I seem to be doing a huge amount of highrolling as well, on the same day as I was due to head to Ottawa I had to move out into Karines place as a temporary home, but then after all that hard work of heading back and forth moving my remaining belongings to her's, I shot off to Ottawa and straight to dinner at 18 one of the swanky resturants in Ottawa owned by a friend of mines best friend, the people I had met last time I was in Ottawa had invited me there for Canada Day to see how it's really celebrated... Who was I to say no?

Here are some of the photos

The view from the bow of the boat whilst in the locks

Mum and Sister visit Montreal

2007-06-26T22:30:00.000-04:00

With it being the start of summer, and Montreal being one of the best places on the planet to be during that time, Mum and Karen decided that they were going to come out and visit me here before it was too late, with all thats been going on lately it was another welcome distraction, and with it being Karen's first time in Montreal I was hoping that she would enjoy it as much as I have.

They were incidentally staying at the same hotel as my mum stayed in last May and I was hoping that they would have better luck with the people of Montreal than Andy, Sha and Saima did back in May.

I had been so busy organising things with my flat, and with work that I hadn't really had much time to organise anything for us to do and with me taking all of my available time off already I wanted to make sure that they had plenty to do, I needn't of worried as it seemed like the easiest solution was to point them in the direction of the nearest mall and set them on their way. I've never been one to really drink around my parents, but that changed last year when they first arrived in Montreal, so they were well aware of my habits the second time around, and after the first couple of nights of them being here, even though I was working I started to feel as though I was on a holiday too.

Karen seemed to be having alot of the same reactions I originally had when arriving here, and being an artist herself she was looking at every opportunity to take pictures, albeit mainly of wildlife... I had no idea she enjoyed bird watching so much.

The weather was perfect, not humid, not too windy but as Goldie locks once said "It was juuuust right" Mum was looking tanned as usual, and even Karen had caught the sun a little, and for Zadziuk's thats quite impressive.

One of the main things to do in Montreal is eat, and that we did, went to some great resturants, took them on a tour of my Montreal, and stayed away from downtown when possible that didn't need me around.

We had tried and failed to get Cirque tickets, turned out that they were sold out early April, and didn't fancy coughing up $200 - $300 for the 'cheap seats', so we decided that there was plenty of other entertainment, of course I've already mentioned the Comedy club, which still gives me shivers, there is a boat that leaves from the Old Port in the evenings called the Bateau Mouche, only in the Summer, but on this boat you get the 5 star VIP treatment, for $85 dollars a head (which is a really good deal considering) you get a 3 and a half hour cruise around the St.Lawrence, and a 5 course meal with one of Montreals top chef's. He is the same Chef that works at the hotel that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their "Love In", maybe not at the same time, but you understand that this guy is pretty good.

Anyway, the food was amazing, the sort of meal that even when you've had enough you could quite easily have some more, just because it's THAT good. Ordered a really good bottle of wine thanks to the knowledge of wine tasting stolen from Andy and Sharon, this was one of those nights when you look at the city you live in, in a completely different light. Montreal really is beautiful, I've always known this but it's only really now that I've started to appreciate it for what it really is. Here are some of the photographs from their time here.

Having Mum and Karen out here was great, I'm pretty sure they had a good time as well, now it's on with my move and back to work... But it's alright, it's Canada day holiday next weekend, so thats a short week for me then.

Karen's first comedy club

2007-06-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

The Just for Laugh's festival is warming up here and thought that it would be a good idea to take them to a comedy club, somewhere a little different. In the paper, Saima style we found a place right next door to an Irish Pub which instantly boded well for the type of comedy we were looking for. A little place called the Comedyworks on Bishop, they had 4 acts on that night and a compare, and for only $10 a head you couldn't really go far wrong. So in we go, and even my tee total mum decided to have a glass of wine to loosen up. I only just found out that Karen had never been to a comedy club before, so it was time to get some of those Zadziuk laughter lines on her face and break her comedy cherry. The first act comes on and it's an Improv Act, and who happened to be sitting not too far from the front... Yep that would be me and a random Irish guy on holiday in Montreal, Brilliant...

So up we get, our roles would require us to jump in during the story told by the comedian's and suggest the next part of the subject, innocent enough you would think. Yeah so did I, but bare in mind that I had had about 3 pints and not eaten at this point. So; I'm sat on a high stool on one side and the Irish guy is on the other, now at this point the compare had already noticed that I was English and the Irish guy was sat at the front, so we were already the but of several Quebec jokes laying into the Brits. The story starts and the Irish guy is tapped on the shoulder the end of the comedian's sentance is "Great to see you we should..." to which the Irish guy replies, "Go for a pint". Typically Irish and exactly what they wanted, I stick my hand up and explain that my mother is in the crowd and please go easy on me, which seems to get a laugh, but I was being serious.

The story gets to me and the sentance goes "Yeah it would be great to go for a pint as I can..." to which for some bizzare reason out comes "Give you back that used condom..." WHAT AM I THINKING!!!! I was trying to think of something funny and for some reason I lowered it to sex jokes, and the most comedy thing that came into my head was used condom. I'm moritfied! why couldn't it of been something else, but because I was thinking so hard against smut the first thing that came out of my mouth was that!!!! At this point I look over and see my mum and sister crying with laughter and the rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy it as well, this seemed to set the comedians up no end and sent us back to our seats with my face bright red. But at least I had my 15 seconds of fame, just never thought it would be like that.

10 Year's in Quebec

2007-06-16T00:19:00.000-04:00

The entrance to the party with Can-Can dancers.

Ubisoft Montreal has now been here for 10 years, fair enough I've only been here for 2 of them, but since we had our AGM today, they found that the best way to ensure that every employee attends was to give them lots of free alcohol and a big party afterward. No complaints from this guy.

The CEO of the company joining in, can you guess which one he is?

The 20 year bash last year, was amazing at the Cirque du Soleil school last year, and that was after the AGM, and with this year being a celebration of the Montreal Studio alone, we had high hopes for this one. The bar had been raised.

So straight after the AGM, I grabbed a beer, met up with Blake, Paul and Kris and headed down to the old port, could wait for the bus... Nah! It's a really nice sunny day, I'll walk down, beer in hand and beat the rush to the bar. Beat the rush we did, we ended up being some of the first there. But that meant we got the pick of the good spots.

Upon entering, we are greated by a guy playing electric guitar, nothing unusual about that you might say, but then when I tell you that he was doing backflips whilst playing it puts it into perspective a little. Random acrobats hanging from the ceiling, free runners playing on the scafolding, an arcade and of course the main ingredient to pull it all together and keep the party lubricated. Free bar!

The Can-Can dancers 'working' the room

It was great to have everyone in one place, work has been really hard recently so it was great to unwind, and never one to do things by halves, unwind I did.

I've uploaded some of the photo's onto my gallery, along with some I've found and been sent from various people, not sure when the next party will be, but this one certainly was alot of fun and should keep me going for a while at least.

Nic and Dean sharing a moment.

Blogger V's Facebook

2007-06-13T22:56:00.000-04:00

Ok so my blog hasn't been updated much of late, that's party to do with being really busy in work, not too much blog worthy happening and.... Facebook, some say it's evil, I've long been saying that it's stalking with permission.

I'm just waiting for the first case of harassment of a facebook stalker, for those of you that don't know what facebook is, it's basically an easier version of Myspace... If you don't know what Myspace is, well it's basically a diary, like this blog. Yes it's all completely futile, but finding that with living here a lot of old and familiar faces are coming out the wood work, old school friends, people I used to play basketball with in secondary school, even some people that I'd completely forgotten about until they gave me a 'poke' (that's how the facebookers get your attention)

The thing I like and dislike with equal feeling is the fact that you can go through someones list of 'friends' and find people you used to know, and vice versa. Now I do like this idea, but it does feel some what like you are compromising your friends privacy sometimes. I actually have my facebook connected to this blog, which in turn appears in facebook a couple of days/hours after I write this, as you all know my blog is connected to my website, which is in turn connected to my linkedin account which for those that don't know is my professional connections.

So yes it's my own fault for connecting all of these together, and will get to the point where instead of giving me a call people start communicating with facebook. I found it funny the other day when Brian said that he had contacted someone and left them a message though facebook instead of just calling, or talking to someone in the old skool way. It IS a great way of tracking down old friends, but I can see it becoming competitive. Now this post, on my blog will be in facebook soon, thus continues the circle of information.

Personally I feel like facebook is for fun, and this blog is informative (well at least I think so), I remember when you had to remember telephone numbers before mobile phones, that went, now you don't even have to ask for someones number you can probably track them down spy style via someone else's connections, and virtually follow them, I tell you it'll all end in tears. I've already experienced albeit semi accidentally the virtual snub on facebook, and I can tell you it's a strange feeling, do I get annoyed, do I get angry, did they even realise what they did, maybe it was a mistake?

Anyway it all ended up being sorted, but that's just an example of the power of the facebook, virtual slapping... It's a lot less painful than a real slap but stings just as much. Anyway, if you haven't joined the revolution it might be worth depending on what you are looking for, for those that haven't I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before something comes along to replace facebook.

2 Years Today.

2007-06-11T23:46:00.000-04:00

So today I have offically been in Montreal for 2 years, so much has happened met a bunch of amazing people and done some really fun and interesting things, most involving alcohol at some point. This second year has gone so much faster than the first, suppose the old saying of "Time fly's when you having fun" is true. Although that twinge for missing home has never really gone, but being here has made me realise what I really want, and what I need to do. Sure you'll all find out soon.

If you want to see some of the stuff that I've been upto over the past year you can always check the archieves on the right of this post or just skip back to last June, and go from there.

Ubisoft Basketball gets real.

2007-06-07T00:31:00.000-04:00

Giving a team talk during a time out

As some of you might know, I play a bit of basketball every now and again, alright to say that it’s more of an obsession is closer to the truth, but with that said I still haven’t played that much Basketball whilst I’ve been here.

Although, I did start the Ubisoft team, which evolved from pick up games and then turned into something pretty competitive, ok so very competitive, in fact probably a little too competitive for something that was started as a bit of fun, but then when you get Ubisoft Montreal against EA Montreal the other rival game company in Montreal playing against each other you can imagine the testosterone going through the building.

One of the EA players taking it to the basket against Sam, with me looking on.

So they challenged us to a series, best of 5, with a couple of pre season games. Well they thought they had a good team, we thought we had a good team, and we had a couple of referee’s just to make it a little more balanced. This was both a blessing and a curse as the series wore on. Ok so we won the pre season games convincingly, and then took the first game of the official series to put us up 1 – 0. But then EA won game 2 to even it up at 1 – 1. Then the unthinkable… EA took game 3 and led the series 2 – 1, these games had all been tight, with game 3 seeing us loose in overtime. Game 4 we had a full team back and were at full strength and it showed as we blew them out by 16 to even everything again at 2 – 2.

Taking it to the basket, around Suresh's pick.

Then comes the final game, by this time we are wanting to wrap it up and just start playing for fun again, EA had a tendency to foul as fouls weren’t being counted, this meant that they could nail us whenever we had the ball and it would stop us dead in our tracks, not being able to score. With team fouls not being counted, it meant that instead of us shooting foul shots after the 5th foul all that would happen would be that we would get the ball on the side line for another try; this would become the difference between the 2 teams.

Anyway, enough with the excuses, at the end of the day we both wanted to win and it ultimately came down to the scripted ending that of course I think we all knew would happen… OVERTIME, not just overtime, but the final shot with the score tied in overtime, with the score tied 72 – 72, EA has the ball with 3 seconds left and wouldn’t you know it, they get the ball inbounds and heave up a shot with no time left on the clock… Swish, EA win by 2… Gutted.

With the wind taken out of us I think that it’s easier to accept, the fact that it came down to the final shot of the series, we can hold our heads up as when a game is that close and you loose you can take comfort in that you took it down to the wire, sure I went over it in my head wondering if we could of done anything different, and being the captain of the team, of course I’m going to think that I could of done something else, but when it’s that close any 1 play could of changed the course of the game. So congratulations to EA, and I’m still proud of the team, we’ve come really far from nothing to what we are today. But would have been great to of beaten them DAMN IT!!!!

Assassin's Creed Ubiday's Trailer...

2007-05-22T21:35:00.000-04:00

OK everyone, as many of you know I have been putting in a lot of extra hours into work, the reasons besides the project coming to a close can now be revealed. I have been one of the people helping out on this trailer.

The trailer, has been worked on by the team, and I know that their intention was to show just how beautiful the game can be.

This is just a small taste of what will be in the finished product we thought about showing some more, but thought that it would be best to leave people hanging, besides plenty more will be seen at a later date.

You all know what I do so you should be able to work out which bits have been worked on by me, I've been told that apparently I can't say exactly which parts I've worked on, although I'm not so sure about this, but best to be on the safe side. As you can imagine I'm excited that this is now out in the public and I'm sure that there will be plenty more about the game in the coming weeks and months leading up to the release, and can't wait until more can be said about this game.

But for now I hope you enjoy the trailer...

Assassin's Creed Ubidays HD trailer hosted on Gametrailers

Long Weekend with the Purdy’s.

2007-05-22T00:11:00.000-04:00

The Purdy’s (Darryl and Stacey) extended their hospitality to Paul, Jolyne and I for the long weekend, I was late for the train as usual so I didn’t have time to buy a ticket so I managed to run and just catch it thinking that I would buy a ticket when the guy came by to check them, so the entire train journey was spent with me anxiously checking the door waiting for the inspector, lucky for me we got to Pointe-Claire without me getting checked.

The weather was perfect BBQ weather, the beers were chilled and the kids, Shamus and Breagha were ready to pull out every book they owned to show us.

Work has been it’s usual hectic self, with some interesting developments that will be revealed in due course, so I welcomed the relaxing time we would be spending on the West Island, and to save us the hassle of traveling all the way back downtown, we were going to stay the night. I had every intention of leaving the drinking until much later on in the afternoon, but as Darryl said “It’s a long weekend, it would rude not too” so by 1 o’clock I was willingly nursing my first Corona of the day.

Like with most get-togethers everyone always gathers around the kitchen table. Stacey was wielding a knife whilst talking to us, and telling me about the time she was given a $100 fine for not having bought a train ticket, not so sure I would of risked the train journey had I known that, but to be honest I was so focused on her knife action that I was too scared to listen to what she was saying properly… well at least until I tentatively took it out of her hand.

So after the we all did exactly what Stacey wanted us to do, and Shamus had managed to get Darryl to read him 2 or 3 stories we headed out to Pointe-Claire village, with Paul trying to give Shamus the benefit of his ‘wisdom’, I like to think of them as Paulizum’s, but the best advice I could give you Shamus… Don’t listen to Paul…

We get to the village for ice cream and swings, bringing back childhood memories of chipping my teeth on a giant rocking horse, and jumping off the swings at their peak into the sand, it were Ace!!! To coin a phrase I used to use as a kid.

Time for BBQ, and the marinated chicken kebabs and hot dogs, I’d been looking forward to this all day, and now all the driving was done and Shamus and Breagha were safely tucked in bed, Stacey and Darryl could let their hair down and have proper drink, the beer and wine flowed, and out came all the sorts of embarrassing stories, maybe its something to do with having kids, but Darryl and Stacey really can tell a story and the more they drank the more the stories came out. The Goonie's gets put on in the background and Stacey continued to hit me, which according to Jolyne means she approves of me, but I have bruises on my right arm now. Darryl fills us in on some Goonie’s facts, and lets just say the film isn’t the same in my eyes, it’s childhood innocence has now disappeared and replaced a new found appreciation for 80’s film effects.

So thanks again for a really relaxing, very adult feeling weekend, it was exactly what I needed to prepare me for the weeks ahead, it was a great way of getting rid of the stress that I’ve felt building the past couple of weeks.

Just a side note, but my camera battery ran out, hence the lack of pictures, but everything I said happened is the truth, and you'll just have to believe me on that one.

Jeff has left the building.

2007-05-07T23:11:00.000-04:00

Jeff is the latest one to up sticks and move to what is quickly becoming Ubisoft South "Pandemic" in Brisbane, now Jeff was one of the first people I was introduced to when I arrived, with his bizzare Scotish, Canadian, English hybrid accent I could immediately tell that he didn't take himself too seriously (at least out of work, in work he was forever the professional.

So in the little under 2 years I have seen my original group of Ubisoft friends decemated, Jez, Stoof, Vic, Nick Oroc, Steve many of them enjoying a brief stint at A2M before heading off to new pastures. Leaving Paul, Blake and myself... Wow.

Jolyne mentioned I should do some sort of photo montage much the same as my birthday one back in November, so with a hangover and still gutted that Saima had just left, I thought it was a good time to go through all my photo's from my time here, and Jeff seems to of been prominant, he just looks so bizzare, and interesting to photograph as I'm sure my montage will show.

Take it easy Jeff, good luck in Oz... ya wierdo.

Don't believe me, just check 00:34 on the vid!

Saima's here too.

2007-05-05T01:04:00.000-04:00

For the eagle eyed amoung you, you will also notice in the previous post about Andy and Sha being here that sat in the middle of them was the lovely Dr Nawaz, she had also made the trip to Montreal as she just so happened to have some time off as well. No one comes for ages then everyone comes at once.

This was her second trip out, but this time the weather was a little warmer and there seemed to be a lot less snow than last time, she's also been working really hard and deserves a break more than anyone I know. So I wanted her trip to be a holiday as much for her as I wanted it to be for

It's always great to see her, and we don't see each other nearly as much as I'd like, but thats a whole different story not for public consumtion, it seemed like we crammed in so much over her week here, but the main goal was to just relax, chill and generally hangout, we always have a great time, and I was gutted to see her go, although I seem to be good at hiding it to her face, the trip back to my place always seems a little empty.

So much rest, made me realise how much I should value my none work time, and although I have loads to do before the end of Assassin's Creed I want to make sure that I stike as positive a balance between work and social life as possible enjoying the Montreal spring/summer whilst still working to a level that I feel will produce some of my best animation.

The Gordons in Montreal

2007-05-01T00:26:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been hectic as usual, so a welcome break of Andy and Sharon arriving in Montreal, they had always promised to come out so with them actually delivering, and coming out for 4 short days, I wanted to make sure that they had the best possible time.

I think they did??? But it seemed like they got the rough end of a lot of the Quebec hospitality, with them encountering a lot more rudeness from people than I had imagined they would get. But in true British style they seemed to find it quite funny that instead of kindly asking you to repeat a question with being anglophone but faced with a shreeking "WHAT!!!!" instead of a nice polite "Pardon"... But these were just minor blips on an otherwise great time, thanks for coming over guys and will be seeing you again soon.

Some more photos of their visit can be found here.

Karine's Birthday

2007-04-22T23:25:00.000-04:00

Been busy a lot recently, been trying to get as much done, whilst the snow has been outside and I've had the time before Saima, Andy and Sha get here next week, so as far as events go it's been pretty quiet.

It's Karine's turn for birthday celebrations, so with Jeff leaving soon, the girls wanted to take advantage of his cooking skills maybe for the last time. As usual Jeff's cooking was faultless, or maybe my pallet is just very easy to please, but don't think that, that's the case.

I think Karine had an idea what was going on, well at least I think she seemed quite happy that we weren't going out for a meal. Of course there was the guitar playing, excessive drinking shenanigans going on, but that doesn't really need to be pointed out as it's the norm now. Afterwards it was off to an 80's night at La Tulipe, the same place we went for my birthday last November. I really don't know why we haven't been back here more often, and maybe it's the fact I'm a child of the 80's but I had a great time here, 80's tunes seem to be more of a thing for me now, then when I heard them first time around. Plenty of screaming at the top of our voices (Jolyne had a really croaky voice this morning), glow sticks and sweaty dancing later, we all headed home with ringing ears. Luckily though the nights are now finally warm which means having that the hanging around outside waiting for a cab isn't too big of a deal.

Happy Birthday Karine... More photos of Saturday night can be seen in the link.

New York for Easter Weekend

2007-04-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

With Easter weekend upon us, Jeff, Jolyne, Julie, Karine, Denis and I had decided to go to New York, you may remember me mentioning a few weeks back about wanting to go but was worried about how much it was going to cost, well I for one am glad that I decided to go, as if I'd missed out on this I would of been extremely annoyed with myself.

So Julie picks the Mini Van up and hands over the keys to me, quickly finding out that it had a DVD player, not that big a deal but hey it impressed me, although I would be sharing driving with Denis so didn't think that I would be getting the chance to see anything. Okay so we get the road trip CD's on and race towards the states and arrive at the Canadian border, where we hand over our passports, and then I get asked 20 questions about my relationship to everyone in the car in way more detail than I was ready for, suggesting that I had something to hide. The smug way the guy at border control was asking didn't exactly help, I had to keep reminding myself not to laugh. Anyway, we get through and continue on to NYC.

We end up getting to New York with hardly any fuss, the hardest part seemed to be the short drive into the City, with the taxi's swarming us like flies and the hotel being right in the center of town incidentally inbetween Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building, upon checking in the girls worked their magic and somehow we ended up with a suite on the 17th floor, and here was us thinking that we were only going to get 2 triple rooms and we would be rotating a sofa bed, time for a drink...

Saturday saw us starting with breakfast, and then us all spliting up to do our own thing, we all had a couple of things we either wanted to see or do, and only a couple of days to do it. I seemed to have an increasing obsession with finding the Ghostbusters Building or at least various scenes from the Bill Murray classic, but that was secondary. Of course I wanted to see the Empire State building, and yes I wanted to see Ground Zero, out of interest than anything else, but with New York being so dence we would end up passing plenty of sights that everyone wanted to see sooner or later.

I always find the best ways of finding some good bars and resturants is to ask bar staff, and get a general feel for where to go, we had had a couple of drinks in a cool little modern Irish bar near the hotel and got talking to the bar staff about where to go and it seemed that more than a few people were recommending the Village, so we didn't need anymore convincing that this was the direction that we needed to head. So after a quick rest we headed out in search of beer, dancing and a great New York night out.

So down in the Village, we grab a quick slice or two of Pizza, and then on to a dive bar for a quick drink and to sort out where to go, a couple of shots and Jeff's cheap can of beer later we are heading to a bar with a wide range of musical tastes and a wider range of drinks, and so the dancing starts, time to hit another bar for some more dancing, out comes the jelly shots, the new jersey bad boys hitting on the girls, and more 80's music than you can shake a cheerleaders pom pom at. Fun night, led to us all heading back to the hotel at 3 with Jeff running full speed into the Suite door, rebounding off of it a good 6ft into my path, which for some reason I was also following him at full speed. Which resulted in me falling over him hitting the door full on and landing on the floor in a fit of laughter for a good 20 minutes...

Sunday was as lazy as a short weekend getaway to NYC would let us, hangovers included, time for some Central Park action or none action as it were. Wandered down to the Park via Broadway, and then back up to the Hotel via 5th Street, which took us past Tiffany & Co, Cartier, the Plaza and of course the NBA Store, so I was happy, a quick bite to eat and before we knew it, it was 5pm and time to head back to Montreal, tired, but good tired. Time to try out that DVD player in the back of the car, and roll back into Canada around 1 in the morning and the girls and I had to work this morning, I was tired so I know they will be.

Fantastic City, will definately be back there again someday soon. Loads more pictures of the weekend can be found here: New York Weekender Pictures, enjoy.

Aussie Kris' Birthday Beerfest

2007-04-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Behold the bath of beer, cold beverages from around the globe.

Aussie Kris' birthday is today, and of course this would mean plenty of alcohol, but Kris decided that it would be a little more than just alcohol, so off he went to Ottawa to collect some of the world's finest, all the way through the alphabet.

Kris also provided us with the customary beer coolers, to enhance the crisp, clean taste. His place is overlooking Parc LaFontaine, and he has his own little terrace, a nightmare in Winter but the perfect party venue in the Spring/Summer, unless you are like me and scared of heights, and you have problems going anywhere near the edge. Once you've travelled up his medieval staircase, you already feel you've earnt yourself a drink.

You can see some more of the pictures from Saturday night here.

A crowd favourite seemed to be the Smokey German beer, which on first taste feels like you are drinking straight from a BBQ, definately an aquired taste but was interesting none the less. I forget the name of it though.

Think the mixture of all the different beers got a little too much for Paul, Jeff and Blake.

Kris had rented a tux for that elegant feel, it's getting to the point here where I think I'm acting more like a student, than when I was actually a student, everything seems to revolve around a beverage of some sort. Meh... Hangovers are for the weak!

Kids Day out

2007-04-01T15:24:00.000-04:00

Did my bit to help some of the less fortunate of Montreal, by taking these three children (mental age of 5) to a grown up house party. I had them wash, changed and ready for bed before their curfew.

But I don't think that they are allowed to touch alcohol again.

*Not normally my style to post a photoshoped pic, but come on it was too hard to resist.

Julie 2's Birthday

2007-03-25T17:16:00.000-04:00

Last night Jeff, Paul and I were invited to Julie's birthday, she works part-time as one of the waitresses in a bar on Mont Royal that we have been going to recently, and got to know her after a discussion about quality Rum's and Whiskey's. She's really cool, and a complete party warrior so when we were invited out to a resturant in Eastern Montreal called Jardin Tiki, we had to check it out. First a little background...

Jardin Tiki, is a Tiki bar/buffet resturant that has a distinct holiday camp vibe going on, if anyone has ever been to Pontins/Butlins or on a Package holiday you'll know what this place is like, there is one choice on the menu (buffet) and the price depends on your age bracket. The whole night was tongue in cheek, as the idea was for everything to be as cheesy as possible, so if you're prepared for that you'll be alright. The music was of the lounge room variety with the same band apparently playing there for over 20 years. You could feel that their enthusiasm and dreams of pop stardom had died along time ago.

Conga lines were led by Julie around the bar area, with grannies and children alike joining in, the service was terrible and considering all they had to do was bring us drinks as the food was self service it shouldn't of been too hard, but obviously not.

But it wasn't about quality hence the $15 price tag, infact that just enhanced the night, we only really knew Julie and a couple of her friends so the 3 of us felt a little awkward and the lack of alcohol didn't help us loosen up, but we all had that in common.

After Jardin Tiki, it was decided that we should find somewhere to continue the fun, and to carry on the theme of quality establishment we ended up at a tiny karaoke bar which turns out is 3 minutes from my doorstep, but I never knew existed, Jeff belted out "Birthday" by the Beatles for Julie and we planned a duet, but think that Julie's rendition of "Final Countdown" by Europe cleared the bar of the quality singers, except for one guy that sang an uncannyly impressive version of a Genisis classic, complete with extras.

Anyway... depite the theme of lack of quality, we had a laugh. More pictures can be seen in my album, so check them out.

Sorting stuff out...

2007-03-20T22:51:00.000-04:00

So work has been a little hectic lately, got to keep reminding myself that I need to switch off. I think I've always found that hard, I have found myself not being myself recently, been a bit quiet, a little snappy at times. But I'm chalking that up to me being over tired, but hey... When am I not, I've always found it hard to get to sleep.

So much to do, and so little time to do it, I find my self procrastinating all the time, not in work, if anything that is how I distract myself. Small things like going to the gym on a regular basis always seems to get delayed, filling out my tax return (still not sure what I need to do for that), even paying bills always seems to get put back until next payday.

Basically I'm saying out loud that I need to get my head together and start making sure I get my priorities organized. The project is important to me, but not so important that I need to neglect everything else. I'm a loyal, hard worker I always have been, I'm one of those strange types that enjoys my work. Sure it has its dull parts but mainly it's good times, but I need to leave the office at the office from time to time, and enjoy my time in Montreal.

Starting with a trip to New York with Jeff, probably Denis, and the girls... I had been worried about the cost, but after walking home (my thinking time), I decided that what ever the cost, it's probably going to be one of the only chances I will get to go to NYC with them, and for the price we are talking, I'm sure I can cover it. Besides... ROAD TRIP, I'll probably drive if we get lost, Meh... Still funny, just a bit out our way. The girls work in the travel industry and they think that they can get some discounts somewhere, so I think that I have justified it to myself enough...

I want to really enjoy my time over in Canada, and as long as work doesn't jump in on my social life too much I'm sure I will, maybe it's more than just my apartment that needs a spring clean...

St Patricks Day

2007-03-19T01:39:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again, spring is nearly upon us, at least it should be soon. It's also time for all the Irish wannabee to show their faces, where everyone thinks that they have a little bit of Irish in them. This year was a subdued affair with all of us welcoming back Jolyne from her time in South Africa, at Tayna's place. Where instead of risking life and limb running around the various Irish bars Montreal has to offer we decided to stay in, eat Pizza, drink and play Pictionary???

I must be getting old now...

Anyway, Sunday instead of braving the mayhem of downtown, I actually went into work (I know... On a weekend as well...) but for a couple of hours inbetween, I joined everyone at McCleans for some Irish Stew and Guinness, although $23 for a pint and some stew is a little excessive, even if it was pretty darn good stew, what happened to cheap and cheerful?

Boarding at St Sauveur

2007-03-12T09:12:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to go boarding again before the end of the season, as not sure when I'll get the chance again, so when Jez started pestering me at the start of the week to rent a car, I didn't take a massive amount of pursuding. So it seemed like there was going to be a few of us, so went for the full size bad boy Impala, thinking that, that would fit a few boards, equipment and 3-4 people comfortablly... Of course it will.

So I pick up the car, have a little drive around to get used to it, and it's not long before I'm on the freeway (still want to call it Motorway!), opening it up hitting 150 kph without even thinking, of course I was in full control, I was just getting it out of my system.

I think the reason the car was so fast might of had something to do with how light it was because of LACK OF PEOPLE in the back. Jez, the guy that had been on my case all week to come boarding, not to mention on Friday night during cocktails, decided he would follow along later and not travel with us, not only that but the O-ROC (Nick), had kindly brought along a load of stuff for Jeff and I to borrow and didn't need the space in my tank. So it felt like I was trying to prove something, you know what they say about men and the size of their cars...

SO... Off we go at 7.30am needlessly poluting the enviroment in a tank that didn't need to be so big, you can kind of understand my reason to take advantage of the speed now.

We get to St Sauveur, Jeff fighting the need to sleep and keeping me entertained with his road trip CD, pick up some boots and a day pass for both mountains, St Sauveur and Avila, that had a variety of runs for the beginner, intermediate and expert. As well as a park for Nick to play in, with him pulling off some impressive tricks on the way down, maybe I'll try that next time.

Ok Nick and Jeff take me up to the intermediate runs, as they keep telling me that the beginner slopes don't help when you are learning. Fair enough I still fall over, but it's getting easier, got my falling leaf technique down now, even getting down one complete run without falling over until the very end and to be honest that was probably because I couldn't believe I had actually done it. Worked out that I am definately a regular boarder, as Nick thought I might be goofy (right foot forward), but turned out I felt a lot more comfortable the regular way.

Again Nick was great helping me out, taking time out from his fun to help me, but after a couple of runs, I was quite happy to do my own thing and work it out myself, him and Jeff had given me all the tool's I needed to teach myself now. I need to trust my instincts a bit more as everytime I started picking up any decent amount of speed I'd slow down. But as Nick said I just need to find a speed I'm comfortable with, not as comfortable on my towside turns yet, but managed it a few times so I'm confident that once my backside has healed I'll be ready to go again.

Jeff fell asleep at the table a couple of times, but will let him off as he hadn't slept, that 4 nights of drinking and the clocks going forward didn't help. The conditions where postcardable, and on the few times I've been boarding this was by far the most amazing, the blue sky's and sun at the top of the mountain had to be seen to be believed.

You can see more of the pictures from Sunday here, not that many, as kept forgetting to take them. Was having too much fun, but think I'll be paying for that in the morning

Blizzards in the MTL

2007-03-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

Again slow with the posts, but trying to catch up, a couple of Friday's back we had what I hope is the final snow of the season, well at least at the rate this snow fell, surely we don't need any more for a while.

But thought that I would share just how efficient Montreal is at clearing it up. The Quebec government, sends out their fleet of trucks literally before the snow has finished falling. So important is clearing the streets that these signs pop up everywhere, closing a side of the street so that the clearing crew can get involved.

You have to move your car, otherwise it'll get towed away, never to be seen again (or to the pound, where ever that is???). As you can see from the picture below, it snowed quite heavily, the clearing can happen anytime after 7 pm, so you get plenty of warning. But if you see one of these on your street good luck sleeping through it, as they will likely clear your street at 2 in the morning, very loudly.

But I still find it impressive how quickly they jump into action, first the little pavement clearing cat moves everything to the side of the road, then the daddy cat moves that and more towards the middle of the road then comes the huge empty truck and snowplough that churns up everything in site and spits it into the back of the empty truck, but where does the snow go? Back into the St-Laurent.

Just thought you might like to know.

Les Denis in Montreal???

2007-02-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

I was walking down St-Cathrine on Saturday night to meet Jeff and Jolyne for dinner, and to my suprise what do I see? Les Denis here in Montreal. Wow, maybe he's here for Just for Laughs I thought, maybe this is part of his comeback, after his triumphant stint in Extras. Or was he going to give us all a lecture on how to deal with depression, or was he here for a pantomime.

Then I got closer to the sign and saw that there was more, it was the angle I was walking up St-Cathrines, turns out it's a singer/band called Les Denis Drolet, not the legend that is Les Denis. Gutted!

Where have I been?

2007-02-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Where have I been for the past 2 weeks? It's been a while since my last update, the answer is simple... Nothing much.

Ok so there was Jolyne's suprise birthday last Saturday, which was fun, as she's off to South Africa for a few weeks to attend a wedding. Then there has been a few (alright lot's) of drinking, a little more than we should of maybe. But no harm done. Assassin's is coming to a head which is where the majority of my time has been spent, things are going well and I'm looking forward to the end product. Should be interesting to see the reaction once it's finally out the door.

Want to my first festival of the season the Montreal Highlights Festival, which was a suprising night out, which involved trampolining, roasted sausages on the bonfire, dancing and of course beer. Oh and I bought Crackdown for my 360, and been hammering that. Guns, High Jumping, and Explosions!!!! BRING IT!!!!

That actually sounds a lot more when written down. But thats about it, we have our first competative basketball game against EA montreal next week.

Go Hab's, Go!!!

2007-02-11T11:46:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night, saw me attend my first Montreal Canadiens game, or "Habs" as they are called here, ironically this was the same day that the owner of the Canadiens bought Liverpool FC as well in a deal reportedlly worth over $600 million, so technically I was helping my beloved LFC by attending this game.

The atmosphere was electric, were as the atmosphere at the Maple Leafs game was good, the Habs took it to a different level, I've never seen anything like it, again like with all other north american sports there was plenty of over the top presentation, and loads of stuff for the kids. But I have to admit I love it, not sure if it would fit with some of the Premiership clubs, but still they do know how to put on an event. I resisted the temptation of $10 beers, and opted for a Timmy's coffee with timbits. Alot more reasonable.

Unfortunately the Habs ended up on the wrong side of a 2 - 1 scoreline, but... I saw my first fight on the ice... awesome, love the fact that it's legal to fight during the game (albeit a 5 minute penalty), but with 22,000 habs fans screaming it's hard not to get excited.

Pandora's Box

2007-02-04T14:52:00.000-05:00

Being able to listen to music at work is great, and having 1600 other people to 'leech' off is also pretty useful, but there is only so much music on the network.

I have been pointed in the direction of this site which is completely legal and acts like a radio station. Maybe everyone already knows about it and I'm just behind the times, eitherway it's definately worth a look.

It works by asking you for either an artist or song and then the site will find songs of a similar style and create an entire radio channel of them, it plays the entire song and not just a taster, the more you listen the more the site recognises your musical tastes and starts suggesting songs and bands you might like. It seems like a really easy way of listening to new music, and if you like certain songs, you can buy them and play them in your iTunes.

The pressure just keeps building

2007-01-31T23:53:00.000-05:00

So Game Trailers released their 'most anticipated' for computer games to be released in 2007, and Assassin's Creed is on there, not sure who puts the list together and how valid it is. But it's interesting to see the sorts of games we are up against.

You get to see some of my animation when the assassin is fighting, I'm the violence guy you see. It can actually very satisfying. Can you guess where we are?

Random pictures of the white stuff

2007-01-27T23:12:00.000-05:00

Just after the snow fell the other week

View from my balcony the day after the snow.

Yep... more snow, you can see how deep it was.

Snoooooooooooowww

Mo-cap exposed

2007-01-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

Helped out another team with some motion capture on Thursday, unfortunately this involved a fake kiss, I was TOLD that it was needed, and of course being the perfectionist I am, we had to make sure that we captured it properly. My motivation was that I was being taken by surprise, we'll probably add some passion when we get the data back. But what you don't see is the little leg bend I threw in for effect.

One of the team members decided to add some music and a slow motion replay, and thought it was funny so might as well share it with you, I'm comfortable with my own sexuality.

Movin' to Australia

2007-01-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

So Steve and Cari are leaving for Brisbane in the morning, and we all went around to Darryl and Stacy's place to see them off, yeah of course we were going to try and break them... Paul and Jeff devised a song, using the backing of "Back in the USSR" by the Beatles, hopefully that comes across in the video.

Movin' To Australia

Flew into Australia beach B.O.A.C
Had to leave the dog last night
Dream about Vic sittin' on my knee
Man I had a dreadful fright

Movin' to Australia
Don't know how lucky you are... Steve 'n' Cari
Movin' to Australia

Been here 20 minutes hardly know the place
Man it's nice to feel the sun
Kangaroo's are jumpin' all in my face
Boy I need to get things done...

Livin' in Australia
Don't know how lucky we are... Steve 'n' Cari
Livin' in... Livin' in... Livin' in Australia

Well the Bondi beach guys are a funny lot
They only like Cari's buns...
But I like patty's with my bread
I guess thats why they call me, Th, th, th, th, thumbs

Livin' in Australia
Don't to how lucky you are... Steve 'n' Cari
Livin' in Australia

Show us round the deserts full of crooks and theives
Can we feel your digiridoo
Cari mixes drinks with some help from Steve
Can we do your Barbarque

Livin' in Australia
Don't to how lucky you are... Steve 'n' Cari
Livin' in Australia

Snap

2007-01-17T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ok so weather posts usually mean you've got nothing to say, but no less than 10 days ago it was +7, and today as I write this....

*COLD SNAP*

-21, but -30 air temp. I don't care what anyone here says. THAT'S COLD!!!

My 1st Photo Album by Kristjan S Zadziuk aged 29 and ¼

2007-01-16T12:54:00.000-05:00

Added a public gallery, after cries from several people that I was only showing a few select pictures, it's not that I'm being select. It's the fact that a lot of the pictures I take are rubbish, but it seems the demand for my itchy camera finger is higher than I first imagined.

So I give to the unveiling of my photo gallery. Only put a few albums up so far, will be adding to them as time goes on. So for now, enjoy.

Steve is off, lets have a drink.

2007-01-14T13:30:00.000-05:00

Steve is leaving to go to Austrailia with Cari next week, so it was all the excuse we needed to go out for some drinks.

Here are some of the pictures from the lads night out, Blake texted me the next morning saying that he had some mysterious bruising and 2 bottles of tomato sause in his fridge... Why did he need 2???

Open letter to BA Baggage Services

2007-01-07T12:45:00.000-05:00

Kristjan Zadziuk
Montreal
Quebec
CANADA

British Airways
Baggage Services
P.O. Box 10
Toronto, A.M.F.
L5P 1A2

7th January 2007

To Whom it May Concern

Re: My Baggage

I am writing to you concerning my lost luggage, now I'm sure that you are extremely busy thinking up ways to ignore your customers, or to send them on a merry-go-round so that you never actually have to face anyone. But with you being the biggest airline in the world I would of thought that you wouldn't have any problems sending people bags to their destinations, I mean you do this supposedly thousands of times a day, every day of the week, right?

I appreciate the problems you had the week leading up to Christmas because of the fog, but you successfully delivered my bag to me at the airport then, so why oh why have you had problems sending my bag to me when everything is supposedly back to normal? My bag obviously is in your hands somewhere along the line, surely that little tag that gets put on a suitcase at check-in means something? It's been 3 days now, you must of come across it at somepoint, if passengers cannot trust you to look after our bags why should they travel with you? Yes you give us a couple of free drinks on the flight, and I have to admit that your selection of films especially returning to Canada is extremely good, but that is all academic if I don't receive my bag when I arrive.

We don't know what happens once the bag leaves on that little belt, do the baggage pixies take it to the plane them selves or is it just put on a random flight and it's pot luck if it arrives. You say that you aren't responsible for the contents, but that now seems like a lame excuse that's why I pay you the money I do for my flight, if I didn't care, I'd fly a lesser known airline, surely that's why people fly BA, because you're trusted? Especially at this time of year, you must have a lot of customers traveling back to places with their Christmas presents, how can we ensure that they are on our travel insurance, infact why should we? You are not supposed to expect your luggage to go missing, has your baggage handling got THAT bad?

Apparently 50% of all missing luggage going via Heathrow is from BA flights, your not the only airline flying in and out of there, why are your figures so bad. I actually feel like I've just given you my luggage in some giant con, the fact that you don't seem to follow up even after 3 days without even an update as to it's location is unbelievable.

I look forward to hearing from you (Ha ha ha) Mr/Ms BA Baggage Service guy/girl, as you continue your seemingly fruitless search for my bag.

Your's hanging on the phone,

Kristjan Zadziuk

PS If you haven't seen this yet, I'm not the only one. Sort it out BA, in the mean time I'll be following the BBC's advice on Lost Luggage, apropriately called the Montreal Convention.

New Year in Manchester

2006-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Saima and I out in Manchester

Me and 5 girls... awesome.

Blue steak, how it should be.

New Year is usually a last minute thing, in fact every year apart from maybe a couple have been arranged on the actual day. So it was great that this year Saima had arranged new year well ahead of time... By November in fact.

We were going to be in Manchester, hotel was booked, as was a meal and the club that would take us on to Midnight. Being cynical I was expecting something to go wrong, and the only hint of any trouble was the barman in the club at the end of the night getting our drinks order confused. But even this worked out in our favor as we got a free round of drinks as he couldn't remember where he had put the credit card machine. Ah well, it's new year hard luck for you matey!

I was out with Saima and her friends this year, as I wasn't about to go down south to either Bristol or London and everyone in the North was doing their own thing, so I spent it with 5 women, no complaints from me. The funny thing was that I felt like the most underqualifed of all of them, with everyone either being pretty much doctors or lawyers. It was also a chance to meet some of Saima's friends.

The lack of countdown towards midnight was a bit of a letdown, and in retrospect a bit of an anti-climax as before we knew it, midnight had come and gone. But I still had a great night, plenty of alcohol, and some cocktail called a pornstar martini had me pretty drunk. But isn't that part of the fun of New Year?

Boxing Night Drinkie's

2006-12-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

Saima, Karen, Nick and Mag's

Karen with her $1,000,000 smile.

Karen nicked me tie...

Not really sure what Mag's is doing???

There have been plenty of pictures of me drinking in Montreal. So it’s time for me to give you some pictures of the bars Southport has to offer, needless to say Boxing night would bring out the class.

Karen has mentioned to me as one of my oldest friends that she was disappointed not to be on the blog, she wanted to be on. So not one to want to disappoint her I brought my camera out. Saima and I met up with everyone in a generic bar on Lord Street (the main street in Southport), where Nick had said that he was going to join us, since I hadn’t seen him since London in the summer.

From there the 2 Sarah’s wanted to pass through Maloney’s so that that could see the barmen (They like to throw their bottles around), but the rest of us fancied going to Sugar near where I used to work, to show how much class this place has, it had a pole installed, of course the girls love it, and admittedly so do the boys. Personally I like to see how bad some of the so called ‘pole dancing’ is, which is usually just girls generically gyrating against the pole, trying to impress the fellas… Doesn’t really do it for me it has to be said, but its comedy all the same.

Girls if you going to do it at all, at least make an effort, up step Sarah, who schools all comers.

Zadziuk Family Christmas

2006-12-25T10:47:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Zadziuk's

carrotts...

A close up of the little men that lived on my mums christmas setup.

Gratutious nan kissing me shot.

The table, mum was proud and you have to admit it is pretty good

Front room on christmas morning

Christmas in my family has always been a pretty big deal, this year wasn’t going to be any different. Last year I spent it away from home, as did my dad due to his job. But this year we were both back in the country and Mum was going to pull out all the stops to make sure that we all had a great time.

From the picture above it may appear that we go a little overboard, I want to let it be known that a lot of these presents will more than likely be Pringles, Chocolate wrapped up in various different ways and little trinkets for each of our homes, be in Bolton, Southport or Montreal.

Christmas eve is usually spent with Karen Roberts and friends having a few cheeky drinks, but this year I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t a slobbering mess at the dinner table which I have to admit I have been close to a couple of times. Especially with my nan coming round I’d have to be on top form. She seemed to have a great time and was at the Warnicks within minutes of walking in the door.

Presents covered the front room and with the family getting bigger seemingly each year it was getting difficult to know where to put everything, throwing the paper into the middle of the room for the dog to plough through is always fun, except this year, Karen (my sister) decided to test her attack alarm, which lets out a high pitched shreek when you press it. Anyone that has a dog knows that they aren’t a big fan of high pitched noises and I think that we found the much fabled yellow version of the brown note, which saw her letting herself go… albeit on all the newspaper and wrapping paper thrown into the middle of the room.

Plenty of baileys, stella, and various other alcoholic beverages later, we had finished unwrapping presents, fingers covered in newsprint, floor covered in paper and a pile of empty disgusing boxes on the sofa. A load of effort from my mum, my dad spending hours perfecting his wrapping technique, Emma (older, younger sister) making sure every one of her presents matched and worked together, and me after flying in on the 21st wrapping my presents to family at the last minute. This year was a truly fun Christmas.

Enjoy the pictures, hopefully will give you a flavour of what we’re about.

Liverpool v Watford: Trip to Anfield

2006-12-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

The view from our seats in Anfield, the opposite end to the Kop.

The red's have been flying of late, and I mentioned to my Dad about going to a match, as we aren't generally in the same country at the same time, I thought that it would be a good idea that we both went to Anfield to see Liverpool take on Watford. Dad, I and Saima are all avid red's fans but have only see a handful of games together, with me actually not seeing any with Saima, we would usually be texting each other from different bars, the most memorable one being the Champions League Final in 2005 and the last being the FA Cup Final this year against West Ham, which has now become known as "The Gerrard Final".

As you can see from the above picture we had seats right behind the goal, which as luck would have it was the end that Liverpool scored both times in the second half to secure a 2 - 0 win. With Craig "No neck" Bellamy and Xabi Alonso scoring. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the Kop was in full voice (mainly during the second half). I actually missed the first goal as I didn't stand up quick enough and everyone in front jumped out of their seats obscurring my view, but I made sure that I caught the second goal, and was in a great mood after seeing my first Anfield win, putting us solidly in third place and that all important Champions League spot.

Me outside the Kop stood next to the Bill Shankly statue.

No explanation needed.

The Hillsbourgh memorial by Shankly gates.

You can't visit Anfield without paying your respects to the memorial near Shankly Gates, this is to remember the people lost whilst Liverpool played an FA Cup semi-final in 1989, and saw many Liverpool fans crushed after the stadium was overcrowded and couldn't escape past the barriers surrounding the pitch. These barriers no longer exist in Football around England.

The Wonder of Christmas: Airport edition

2006-12-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

So I’m writing this from the airport in Montreal, I’m sat here waiting to catch my flight to Heathrow, the original plan was fly into London and then jump on another flight to Manchester where I would meet Mum and Dad (who just so happens to be flying back from the Congo at the same time I get in). All would be well and Christmas would get under way with me meeting Saima for her birthday…

But wait what’s this? Bird in the engine? Missed connection because of lateness? How’s about de-icing of the plane in Montreal because the cold weather decided to come back?

None of that malarkey, it’s as simple as too much fog in the South of England, I love the fact that we are in 2007, there is all this technology and in this day and age Mother nature still finds a way of throwing a spanner in the works. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not angry, in fact far from it. I actually find this amusing, my flight could or could not be cancelled in London, but hey, I’m not the fussed. I’ll rent a car and make BA pay, I’ll get a train, and I’ll hitch-hike if I have to. Either way I’m home for Christmas, it could be plenty worse; at least I’ll be in the same country. I’ll only have 200 miles to go to get to Southport… That last 10% is always the hardest right?

Ubisoft Christmas Party 2006: Acrobat

2006-12-17T23:57:00.000-05:00

Ubisoft didn't go to the level it went last year with the cinema, free pop corn, candy floss, semi-naked dancers, free bar and other random events, but they did lash out the acrobats again, which was pretty cool. Here you can catch the end of the performance.

The girls came with us this year, there was plenty of dancing, was good to see people from work outside of work, one of the highlights of the night was the candy room which someone had to point out to me, but as soon as it was I was on a mission promoting it, everyone had to know about the magical CANDYLAND!!!!! CAN-DY everywhere, I mean bowls full of jelly beans, some sort of sugar bacon looking thing, as Jez pointed out they were missing some essentials, fruit salads and black jacks being a notable omission. But hey, there was still loads of candy....

Ubisoft Christmas Party 2006: Pics

2006-12-17T15:24:00.000-05:00

Jeff with one of his masks

Jez was the only one to see the massive wrecking ball heading towards us

Did I dance?... What do you think.

All ready to drink the free bar dry.

This is how to wear your masks...

Not sure if the nose fell off of the glasses here... I think it did but can't tell.

These two enter the room and 1000 games developers don't stand a chance.

Karine and Julie, no comment... Just like the picture.

Danny from the basketball team, I'm actually standing on a box to take this.

Ubisoft V EA Montreal Basketball Game

2006-12-16T00:48:00.000-05:00

The victorious Ubisoft Montreal team

A while back I started organising some casual pickup basketball games, it was born out of my need to play, and I was having trouble finding a good place to play, we've had a really good turn out over the past year and have gotten a regular set a players. Anyway word got around to EA Montreal that we had a team and they challenged us to a game, hopefully this will turn into a series between us, them and any other games companies in Montreal.

So we played them on Wednesday in a semi-casual pride only game... But that doesn't mean that it wasn't competetive. Anyway that knows me or has seen me play will know what I'm like when I'm playing basketball however serious the game is. Fair enough the game was a little scrappy but we came out of it the eventual victors. We played well as a team and our experience together showed, especially when we played the second half and were more comfortable.

Next year should be fun as we'll be playing for more than pride.

Snows here, so is the Christmas spirit.

2006-12-03T18:40:00.000-05:00

It's about time... Here comes the snow.

Weekend of ups and downs:

Downers

Lost my wallet in a bar.
It's snowing and cold
Hungover on Saturday morning

Uppers

Lisbon's back, about double the size. Where's he been?
Won a my fair share of pool games, think I'm getting better.
Watched An evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (Very funny)
Restored my faith in humanity when my wallet appeared in my post box*
Chilled and caught up on some much needed sleep.

* So here's the story, not that exciting but I thought that I'd share this with you. So a bunch of us were out for Harry's leaving do, he's off to California in a couple of weeks. Things got a little messy, which isn't unusual. But somewhere along the line I lost my wallet, the annoying thing is I kinda had a good idea where it was but it was nowhere to be found. Gutted.

So the harsh reality of everything in there kicks in, I realized that I was going to have to get new versions of pretty much all of my I.D. But there is nothing that can be done about it until Monday, so no point in worrying and just get on with it, something was telling me that there was no need to. Because I meet Jolyne, Paul and Jeff for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then as I'm walking back, I start to have a feeling that it'll turn up somewhere really stupid, or I'll see it on the floor on my walk back to my place.

I get back and something tells me to check my post box on a Sunday, and lo and behold, theres my wallet staring back at me, I open it thinking that stuff will be missing, not only was nothing missing, but my coffee card was still in there and even my stamps. Everything... (I would returned the wallet but would of at least taken the stamps), but I think that that says more about me than anything else.

Anyway if by some bizzare reason if that person reads this, cheers fella. Much appreciated.

AC on my wall

2006-12-03T00:25:00.000-05:00

A while ago all of us on Assassin's Creed were given posters of the game, they look like film posters and I thought that it would be pretty cool to get a load of the animators and programmers to sign it for future posterity, then I'd mount it on my wall.

Yeah it's a little sad... So what... Wanna fight about it?

Christmas lights on my street

2006-12-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

December is here again and the people on my street are putting their christmas lights up, since we had the turkey post last week, I thought that it would be fun to show you the levels some people go to, these 2 houses stood out. These have been up since the end of November, and they really did get the jump on everyone else.

Up until 3 days ago we were having temparatures around the 17 degree mark, and this was in November! Then out of no where comes ice and a slight smattering of snow (thats a word that needs more use... smattering), and -9 with wind chill. With those tempuratues you get the inevatable powercuts, the last hour of work on Friday saw us have 3. That was enough to send Jeff, Blake and I to the pub in disgust, but any excuse to get off work early on a payday friday.

Oh and to top it all off, I lost my entire wallet for the first time in ages on Friday, had to cancel all my cards, Canadian and English. Thats not the annoying part, the annoying part is that I had my drivers licences from both countries as well as a few other forms of I.D. Really could of done with one of these little gadgets. As I'm forever mis-placing my keys, phone and cards.

Not happy....

It's the Fuzz!

2006-12-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

click the picture for the trailer

Not really much to do with Montreal as such, but when I saw this I got so excited, from the same team that brought you "Shaun of the Dead".

"Hot Fuzz" is due for release early next year, I love these guys this team are one of the few comedy double acts that will actually make me laugh out loud in public places. I love em.

Thanksgiving is for the kids.... right?

2006-11-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

The magic man has got the attention of Shamus.

Darryl and Stacey invited us round for the American thanksgiving weekend for dinner, turkey and mashed potatoes, the first of I'm sure many turkey dinners. The great thing about Darryl and Stacey's place besides that they are great hosts is that the kids are there, and they seem to love all the attention. Jeff and I were trying to teach Shamus to knuckle up. In the above picture though he seemed to like my impression of the magic man for Talledega Nights.

Fair play to Darryl and Stacey though for entertaining and cooking for all of us, that is no easy task, but they seemed to do it effortlessly. Unfortunately the batteries on my camera ran out before The Wii was set up. But if you're interested take a look over on Steve and Cari's blog for some more pictures.

Mr November? Or is Paul getting ready for a political career?

"Darryl... Where do you want me to put this?"

Tanya's Birthday and Jeff does Shatner

2006-11-26T12:11:00.000-05:00

Tanya gets serinaded by the Mariachi's

Birthday season comes to a close for 2006 with Blakes girlfriend Tanya's birthday, where else to go on a cold November night but a Mexican resturant in the old port, complete with Mariachi's, and the textbook shots of tequila. Happy Birthday Tanya.

Is it my turn now?

Realising I still hate doing shots of tequila.

After dinner it was off to a Karaoke bar downtown, I have to admit that when we arrived outside and even once we walked inside it was still hard to work out where we were. It appeared to be hosted in a seedy backroom, so as you can imagine we were all a little dubious. You could say I'm not the biggest fan of Karaoke, but that might have something to do with most bars, you are in front of a crowd of people all trying to live out their pop star fantasies.

But we were shown into a small room in the back of a cafe where we would have the Karaoke machine to ourselves without worrying about being booed off too much. Tanya started things off, and once everyone had loosened up a little the songs began spilling out. I sang Wild Thing, and of course Wonderwall (badly), what ever happened to my angelic voice from my primary school days? (puberty), Blake showed us why white men shouldn't rap by doing his best Vanilla Ice impression. But as soon as Jeff unleashed his Shatner it was all over.

Jeff letting his inner Shatner out, singing Lucy in the Sky

Gordon Wedding: Justin's dance

2006-11-19T03:00:00.000-05:00

Justin you really are the lord of the dance, this happened at the end of the night, and was close to legendary, I didn't catch the end, but trust me when I tell you that he completed a knee slide across the length of the floor.

Look at his poise, interesting curves and artistic movement, he had everyone in the room clapping together at one point, it truly was amazing.

I give you... Justin.

Gordon Wedding: The Party

2006-11-18T18:40:00.000-05:00

Saima dancing, not sure who this guy is though.

After all the ceremony and dinner, it was time to celebrate the Gordon's union, with a good ole party, I loved how the whole day saw us going between the 2 main rooms, it was a really good way of meeting mingling, as whilst we would be in the second room having a drink and talking, our hosts would magically transform the main room for the next stage of the day.

Kate and Ben, he said she tasted of strawberries.

So the bride and groom had their first dance, I apologise as I can't remember what it was, Andy's brothers kid was dancing with his brother, in try Peter Kay style, doing knee slides. Whilst the rest of us were laughing a joking around. The drink was flowing and again Ben and Huw had me in stitches, the great thing about today was that it felt like we were back at university.

I'm lucky to have such good friends, the ironic thing is that James and Andy were the 2 first people I met at university, when I say the first people I literally mean as soon as I had arrived and went straight down to the freshers party, James was the first person I was introduced too, the second... Andy. The rest is history, which ultimately led to today, turns out I actually met Justin as well that night, but it wasn't until he moved in with us after a drunken coversation in the old nightclub I used to work in, that we met the Justin we all know now. After 9 years we're all still great friends and I was really glad to be with them all today.

Sharon, a friend of ours from Bristol, was on our table.

Justin with what appears to be a fireball in his hand.

Gordon Wedding: The Ceremony

2006-11-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Just Married, the Gordon's sign the register.

Cutting the cake.

Obviously no pictures of the ceremony as thats a little rude, Sharon of course looked stunning, Andy and James seemed hide any nerves well, Bens poem was flawless and everything went smoothly. It was great to be here, especially since I was there at the start of their relationship.

Me with some of the lads.

James, The Gordon's and I in the bar afterwards.

Saima looking fantastic and me smiling too much

Chepstow: Hotel

2006-11-17T23:34:00.000-05:00

The Groom and Bestman, Andy's been working on his posing for Photograph's.

With Andy and Sha getting married on the Saturday, and with me knowing what I'm like with time keeping, we headed down to Chepstow on the Friday evening to the venue.

The whole wedding was taking place at a country house so everything was going to be on site. With all the uni lot also there I knew that we would have fun. Even though I saw everyone the last time I was back we still had plenty to talk about, and with me being the last to arrive everyone was already there to great me. Even the Bride had popped down for a quick one (drink) before the big day.

Ben as usual had me in fits, think that I'm an easy target, as is the norm there were plenty of stories about the houses we all used to live in, and plenty of embarrasing stories and insight for Saima into my uni life. Ben attempted to explain his theory on picking the hidden glass, something to do with 75% of the time you'll be right if you swap your first answer... I didn't really get it, it was funny at the time though. But that might of also had something to do with the amount of alcohol that had already been consumed. The picture below was taken whilst Ben was placing the glass (he asked me to look away btw).

Ben trying to explain his swapping theory to me, after a few drinks

James about to reveal the time capsule tin.

In our last year in the house in Newport James took a load of stuff we had lying around and put it in a tin marking in do not open until 2020. Well we couldn't wait, and with all of us being in the same place it seemed like a good enough time, fair enough it had only been 6 years, it was still interesting to see what was in there.

We opened it up and discoved plenty of picture of Andy's face on page 3 girls, basically Andy's face on everything. Some Hypervalue (a cheaper poundstretcher/dollarstore) party leftovers, and some pictures of me with a shaved head, and underwear over my trousers.

Anyway, we all arranged to meet up for a swim and golf the next morning, after all of those drinks, that seemed like a bit of a stretch.

Flying Visit back to England

2006-11-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

Panoramic view of Bristol from the hotel.

So I'm back in England again, seems like I'm being spoilt now, but with Andy and Sharon’s wedding happening on the weekend, and with me already missing a lot of my university friends' weddings seeming like they all decided to get married as soon as I left for Montreal. But this time I was going to make sure I was in attendance, after one of the easiest flights back from Montreal I've ever had, I was refreshed and ready to go.

Saima met me from the airport and decided that she was taking me to Bristol. I was only going to be there for a night before heading to Chepstow so I want to say sorry to those of you that I didn't see. I just didn't have the time.

Some more pictures from Saturday.

2006-11-09T00:22:00.000-05:00

Me looking a little drunk...

... And this is how I saw most of the night.

A little look at the decor, keeping the Ali Baba theme firmly in your mind.

Just after I was hit in the face, I found it funny... Afterwards.

Thought that I'd give you a little more from Saturday, first up if anyone is in Montreal and fancies a night of Belly Dancing and glkjfalds food, then head on over to the resturant we went to it's called La Couscoussiere d Ali Baba, yes I thought it translated as "The Scouser" as well. The atmosphere is really fun and the prices are reasonable as well although everyone paid for my dinner, but I was told that the price was reasonable at least.

Diary of a Birthday: Pt2 (After)

2006-11-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

So I was kept in the dark right up until the moment I walked up to the resturant, Jeff and I had to kill some time, so whilst in the village we ended up in a bar, and when 2 blokes are in the village holding bottles of wine... well you know how it looks.

Once we'd finished our game of pool and our extremely hetrosexual pints, we headed on over to the resturant, with me still not knowing where we were supposed to be heading, until we get outside a small belly dancing resturant, I'm hoping that the video below will give you a flavour of the night, as I've put together a little montage with a special soundtrack, the night involved plenty of alcohol, plenty of comedy antics and plenty of food. Yeah the service took ages, but it was more about the entertainment than anything else, I mean how many times are you going to get the chance to go to a belly dancing resturant?

I really appreciated everyone turning up, and it made for a really fun atmosphere, could of sworn someone brought blue nun, but I just stuck to my red. Thanks to Paul for my presents, and everyone else for the Habs jersey, which is awesome. Then we were off to the second part of the night. 80's night.

La Tulipe, the same place we went to see Kasabian has an 80's night and it seemed like a good idea, so we get in neck a couple of shots of Jaggermeister, and hit the dancefloor, glowstick and sweatbands. I always said that I wouldn't been seen dead holding a glowstick, but it seemed appropriate tonight. Can't remember much more of the night, but I do know that I had a great time. Not a bad way to spend the last of birthday of your 20's.

Diary of a Birthday: Pt1 (Before?)

2006-11-04T11:28:00.000-05:00

29 Today, last year of my 20's as my sister Karen had great pleasure in pointing out, as a kid I used to think that was old, but now I'm there I like to think I'm just getting in my prime... I remember when I was 20 and thinking things such as if I were in the NBA I'd be one of the youngest players in the league, and then thinking that there was still plenty of time to realise that. Or maybe I could of been one of the youngest Pixar animators. But neither of those things happened, but plenty of other stuff did and getting there was half the fun.

Ok so I'm not entirely sure whats going on tonight, I know that Jeff and possibly Jolyne have something planned, but he's refused to let me in on it. Thanks to Mum, Dad, and Family for the cards, and a big thanks to Saima for my Stevie Gerrard autobiography, which I opened whilst watching Liverpool play Reading on Sportsnet this morning (very fitting).

I'm off to town in a bit, since it was payday yesterday I'm going to go and spend some money, and probably get my suit dry cleaned for the wedding in a couple of weeks. So this is before as I wanted to post something on my birthday, and I'm sure that the next post will have pictures of whatever it is we do.

Halloween Dinner at Jeff's

2006-10-31T19:30:00.000-05:00

*Warning I say Pumpkin a lot in this post

Paul and Jeff... Lennon and McCartney?

Jolyne, Brian and Karine, yeah, she wore the hat most of the night.

Karine's hat was a little more abstract.

We all know how good a cook Jeff is, he knows it as well... Yeah he loves it, but we love it too, so if he wants to show off we are MORE than happy to let him. So tonight he decided to step it up a level, and went all Iron Chef on us. The ingredient for the night? Well it had to be Pumpkin.

With Pumpkin soup for starter, then a salad (with roasted pumpkin seeds), with a Pumpkin risotto for main and then Karine finished it off with a Pumpkin pie. You would think that, that would be Pumpkin overload, but no, we were all full without being completely sick of Pumpkin.

The intention was to have a pumpkin based evening, and it was, except for the pumpkin carving. Paul and Jeff started an impromptu jam session, and I even joined in, the Tesco song being a highlight.

The eyes are blue, but the nose is purple (broken)

Ottawa

2006-10-30T22:56:00.000-05:00

Not much has been happening on the blog front of late, that's mainly to do with work and the fact that I've been wanting to save some cash for my 2 trips back to England in 2 month's, which I'm really looking forward too, but I know is going to cost a fortune.

I had a free train ticket that I could use, so I decided to cash it in a take a trip to Ottawa, my friend Michelle had invited me down as she was there seeing family and some people from work, it turns out that her boss was the minister of HR for all of Canada, I didn't actually realise who she was until she told me that her name is Diane Finley, Michelle then explained that it's The Honourable Diane Finley, Cabinet Minister! Now I don't think that I would of mixed in those sort of circles in England.

Ottawa is only about 2 hours away from Montreal, so it's suprising that I haven't been there before, it's a shame that it was raining so much as the sight-seeing was kinda short lived, although . But still had a great time, and I'd definately go back.

Kasabian Gig

2006-10-08T17:03:00.000-04:00

This was a capture from my video camera (hence the grainy quality)

This post is a little late, but a we managed to get tickets to go and see Kasabian at a small venue not far from my place about a week and a half ago, this, like the Arctic Monkey's was one of those events that would either cost a fortune or wouldn't really happen anymore back home, considering how popular Kasabian are now. Unfortunatly the battery on my camera ran out.

I managed to get a few pictures but they are more of us than the actual band, even though we were only about 20 feet away.

Jolyne caught between someone's fingers?

Another grainy video captured image, but you can see how close we were.

Insight into Quebec living...

2006-10-04T12:23:00.000-04:00

A few of you have asked my when I came home, what Montreal and more importantly Quebec was like. Well first up let me say that although Quebec IS technically a provience of Canada it has a very european sensability. As far as I'm concerned that means you just get the best of both worlds.

But if you want the view of the Quebecoise of being Canadaian, you can't go far wrong with the following video. Note there is plenty of Quebecoise swearing, just makes me laugh every time I hear it. Enjoy!

Ubisoft's 20th Birthday in Montreal Pt:2

2006-09-30T13:04:00.000-04:00

With the party and of course the free bar, comes all sorts of dancing. We thought that it would be interesting to capture in video form some of it, and not one to shy away from poking fun at myself, I thought that I would add myself in here as well.

Just press the play button in the middle of each image.

Let the dance off begin. First up...

This guy was entertaining to say the least, and trust me he's serious about his art.

Second person to show their skills, Pat...

Pat was a little smoother

Last up, Me. I apologise mum, but everyone wanted the Robot, how could I not deliver.

I was trying to fit as many moves in as possible, I think that we all know who won.

Ubisoft's 20th Birthday in Montreal Pt:1

2006-09-30T12:24:00.000-04:00

Ubisoft turns 20 this year, and that of course means time to party, no one was quite sure what was going to happen, but the fact that the party was taking place at a circus school on the north of the island was a sign that this was likely to be an interesting night.

After the annual general meeting (which by the way was a vast improvement on last years tedious affair), we were wisked off to the venue for the party and welcomed in by a fanfare and cheerleaders screaming U..B..I..S..O..F..T, then greeted with various types of nibbles and most importantly a FREE BAR (until midnight), but considering that it was 6pm that's still 6 hours of solid drinking, Gratis!

Entering to a fanfare

Smoke on the dancefloor

Paul, Blake, Jeff, Jack... Realizing their first single soon.

These fella's were going round all night projecting onto wall, and people.

Gaelle getting involved in the music.

It was a really fun night, Ubisoft had been lacking a decent party, and we thought that they had dropped the ball, but all is forgiven, they redeemed themselves with last nights effort admirably, the christmas party should be a doozie.

X06: Yep it's 100% gameplay

2006-09-27T16:50:00.000-04:00

X06: Gameplay trailer

Now that we are officially announced for the 360 one of our first chances to show real gameplay footage of AC, and I can say with complete confidence that it's all real gameplay baby... No pre-rendered stuff thats all 100% percent controlable Assassin. How about them apples!

Jade was at the Microsoft event in Spain and the demo was played live in front of a studio audience. The play-through was flawless, no major glitches or anything.

New Metro stations.

2006-09-26T12:42:00.000-04:00

I was trying to find a decent map of all the metro stations, and found this map, most Montreal Subway maps you find online are either the official map showing only the stations without any street information or low resolution, difficult to read pdf files.

This map presents all the stations superimposed on an interactive street map of Montreal. There are links to the offical stations when you click on each link, the thing that suprised me the most was that there are already links set up to the new stations in Laval (Cartier, De La Concorde and Montmercy) just north of the island on the orange line. With pictures of the new stations from start to finish.

Autumn's here

2006-09-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

Been a while since I posted a weather post and Friday saw the end of summer, instead of this just being a date, and not really being able to feel the change in the weather there is a definate chill in the air. I also noticed this tree just outside my place, if that isn't an obvious sign of Autumn arriving, I don't know what is.

Jeff's Birthday

2006-09-24T01:09:00.000-04:00

Jeff's Birthday time, and with Jeff being a foodie, we had to find somewhere decent, McDonalds however good it is just wouldn't do.

So Jolyne and I found out about a nice little resturant in Little Italy just north of Ubisoft called La Fornarina we had heard nothing but good reviews about this place so it was worth a try. There is also a load more pictures over on Steve and Cari's blog if you fancy a look.

Darryl and I

Lots of this...

... I told you, LOTS of this.

Paul and Jolyne

Stacey and Cari

Jeff having a moment as the party goes on behind him

Steve's either smiling or being aggresive, I can't tell.

Steve and I, not sure why I'm looking so intense, think I was going for gangster, but just came across as angry.

Blake

Stacey and Jeff, admiring one of Paul's drawings TM

Comedy Update.

2006-09-21T13:01:00.000-04:00

Been watching a lot of Dane Cook recently on the Comedy Channel. Needed some cheering up as was feeling a little bored, so if you've got 20 minutes at lunch or you fancy a laugh, check this out.

Dane Cook on the Insomniac Tour

Memorial by the college.

2006-09-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

We were at Blakes for dinner on Sunday night and realised just how close to Dawson College his place was, for those of you that don't know, this is the College that was all over the the news last week.

The college amazingly reopened this afternoon after only 5 days, and apparently had professionals on hand if anyone needed to speak to them. As well as increased security. Also on the news this morning just north of montreal was the report of a 15 year old threatening his classmates in the same way, not suprisingly this guy was arrested this morning at 5am, just incase.

"Life is not a videogame. There is no 2nd level, no extra lives. You lost your reality."

- One of many signs around Dawson College