(My) Life.Is.Stag.

It's been a while guys- a thousand apologies.

STAG LIFE

However, my extracurricular life has been quite inundated with banter organising since my last post. You see, I have had the privelege of helping to organise not just 1 but 3 stags which all coincided within 6 weeks of each other, the last of which is this upcoming weekend.

Now I'm sure that there are many of you who are thinking:

"But what's the big deal...it's just a stag".

Well I'm sorry, but if that's how you feel...GET OFF MY FUCKING SITE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK.

For you see, in my opinion, and in fact the opinion of my nearest and dearest, a stag party is more than an opportunity to throw a nice send off for the groom to be...it's an experience, a rite of passage that should live in the groom's memory forever.

The blueprint for such an experience is pretty simple. There are 3 ingredients:

Stag prank: rinsed.

1. The pre stag: a general gathering. Get some of the stag's closest friends and family together a month or so after the announced engagement. This will either be held

a) at someone's house- including a meal of sorts, lots of booze, dares for the stag (i.e. my brother had to regurgitate a goldfish), as well as one or two ladies of the night.

b) a night on the town- starting at a strip pub, moving to a nightclub and ending at a strip club. Stag in appropriate fancy dress (obviously).

c) at an airport/train station because you've tricked the stag into thinking you are going away that day...when you aren't

Just a casual black tie stag dinner...whatevs

2. The stag trip: a weekend away. Themed (of course), with personalised fancy dress for all involved, rules for stag members to follow at all times, an 'active' activity (i.e. surfing/paintballing), an extremely unnecessarily over the top meal for dinner (i.e. lamb on a spit of a 3 course catered feast), a surprise for the stag (i.e. make him think you are tying him down for a stripper when you are actually doing this so you can veet the hair off of his entire body), a highly elaborate video drinking game (i.e. usually entailing family members and the wife to be, manipulating questions and highlighting inappropriate behaviour when you were filming them on camera), an official stag song and soundtrack (only really works if you are or a superstar music producer happen to have one as a close friend), copious amounts of drink, a megaphone, an unusual second activity (i.e. body zorbing football/ sumo rugby), and of course, a huge night out on the town.



3. The post stag: a night in. Having taken lots of photos and videos of the weekend, make a 30 minute movie, invite all the stag attendees round and laugh at how stupidly good it was when you forced the stag to do things to his body he just shouldn't ever have to.

As I'm sure you can guess, to execute this let alone execute it well takes a helluva lot of planning, and of course, the great debate will be:

"Is it really worth the effort?"

Well, don't get me wrong there are times when I also ask this question...However, when I look across a room and see 20 grown men in black tie suits, having just finished a three course gala feast, jumping on their chairs and crying with laughter because the stag has just eaten a deep fried pigs eye, my questions is usually answered with an "abso-fucking-lutely".

Was it worth it...Eye think so.

This weekend sees the final chapter in a trilogy of quite legendary weekends away with some truly remarkable human beings.

And so, over the next few weeks I will be posting all the hilarious things we have done that will hopefully give you all some great inspiration for any times this summer when you are bored and fancy doing something a bit different!

It's been a long time coming- but ishouldtrythatout is back, and I have much to tell you all!

1luv,

Finey

x

The (not so) Secret Garden Party

Can you believe we're now in March? Madness. For me, March is always the month when summer planning gets cranked up another gear. This summer's main excursion (or should I say, potential life changing experience) is at the end of August, when Teapot, myself and two fellow "Playa Virgins" Goateenie and Twerky venture across the pond to the Burning Man festival.

However, before then I have to weigh up whether my metaphorical festival vagina can take a separate pounding from Cambridgeshire's hottest adventure...The Secret Garden Party.

The sculpture last year:mental.

Now don't get me wrong, for the last two years in a row SGP has teased me with it's breathtaking scenary (the festival centres around a lake with a huge sculpture in the middle), thrust itself deep into me with it's outrageous atmosphere, before making me orgasm on multiple occasions with its ridiculous activities. 




However, can I justify parting with between £170-£190 of my hard earned money to attend this year or should I save up to go towards my other trip? Just how much MORE could the organisers possibly plan to ensure the 2013 Gardeners leave as impressed as we did in 2012? 

After all, despite having to drag myself (and Teapot) through literal mud fields for an entire weekend, I came away genuinely depressed that another SGP weekend was over. 

And that's really because SGP is much more than a line up of quality bands, DJs and entertainers. Its a line up of sensational artwork, outrageous activities and surprising discoveries hidden behind every corner of the festival. 

For instance, a typical day could consist of the following:

Mud wrestling at the temple of boom is quite a sight

Wake up, head to Soulfire restaurant (that's right an actual restaurant) for a relatively well priced and delicious Eggs Benedict and Bloody Mary (cost circa £7). Then spend the day speaking with Aliens in the Culture Lab, listening to experimental beatboxers in the golf ball tent or crying with laughter at the mud wrestling tournament in the Temple of Boom...

An afternoon game of crazy golf or lounging around in a canoe on the lake will then inevitably be followed by a nap...

There's nothing quite like the pagoda during sunset

At around 7.30pm, get dressed up in some ridiculous fancy dress wear and head to the Pagoda (a wooden platform on the lake) to celebrate the sun setting and official start to the nightlife with a few hundred of your new found friends. 

Nightime at SGP- when the festival comes alive

Next, leave the pagoda and simply walk and discover...Get stuck in a video-game dance off  before talking to a couple of pixies under the fairy lights of a willow tree. Discover a secret Jazz/Soul tent deep in a hidden forest and then have a bit of a folk dance in a circus. Finally, after heading to a 1950's tea and cake restaurant to chat to some method actors about the war, finish the night off on a ferris wheel to see the sun rise.


SGP 2013 is already well under way. The top two tiers of tickets have already sold out. So whether you go really boils down to your faith that a year on year track record of pushing the festival boundaries means the organisers know what they're doing.

Shit...think I've just convinced myself to book a ticket for this year


If you want to as well, just go to:

http://www.secretgardenparty.com/#!/information/theme-2013/

1luv

Finey

x

The Future of Cinema

There we were, four friends getting slung into a prison cell on a Saturday night whilst being told to 'shut the f**k up' by the incredibly intimidating prison guards. I stood there, shocked at how scared I was. After all, this isn't a situation a boy like me is used to finding himself in.

Fortunately, I wasn't being locked down in a real life prison cell...I was in the middle of one of Future Cinema's simply legendary productions, which a group of us decided to partake in at the weekend.

With Secret Cinema and Future Shorts as well, Future Cinema is gaining cult following

For those of you who haven't heard of Future Cinema, they are an Experiential Events Company who put on live and interactive productions of popular films, which you (the audience) participate in, before finishing the evening off with a cinematic viewing of the chosen project.

They are well known for their Secret Cinema events, as well as their Future Cinema productions (the only difference being you don't know which film you are going to experience with the former). 

        Not quite how I felt when we left our Shawshank prison...

In our case, we knew what it was going to be...IMDB's number 1 film of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. So the pressure for the company to transport you back into the  scary world of Shawshank prison, without scaring you so much that you couldn't enjoy yourself must have been immense.


Nonetheless, I have to say the team behind the event came up trumps. Without wanting to give too much away, the night kicked off with a court hearing, followed by a 1940s bus ride to our converted prison adventure. With hundreds of method actors playing fellow prisoners and prison guards, and so many things to do and see, the following few hours of your 'life' in prison was completely unique from the other guests of the event.

The prison guards weren't the friendliest of people

At the end of the evening, all prisoners were marched into the auditorium in single file, where we watched the iconic film (with impressively crystal clear sound and picture quality) our evening was based around.

Its not cheap at c£45pp, but every single one of us came out thinking we had received serious value for money.

The next Future Cinema event (Casablanca) will be completely different but presumably equally epic.

I've already bought my ticket...if you want to join the cinematic revolution, you can get yours at:

http://futurecinema.co.uk/tickets.html

1luv,

Finey

x

A Ginger in a Line

It was my special lady's birthday (otherwise known as Teapot) and I knew a trip down to the local curry house wouldn't quite cut it. 

So, having read a review about a new, up and coming secret dinner party called 'Gingerline', I booked two tickets, praying that I hadn't made the wrong decision.

A couple weeks later on a cold Thursday evening, Teapot and I set off, excited and nervous about the fact that we literally had NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves in for (even though we'd read up about previous parties Gingerline parties are renowned to constantly reinvent themselves so you never know which one you are going to)


So, getting off at the appropriate station, we followed some mysterious illuminous markings on the floor and reached our destination for the evening. 

When we arrived, the nerves once again kicked in...after all, I was meant to be taking out my darling Teapot to a what I believed would be a Birthday extravoganza. However, at that point we found ourselves standing with about 20 or so fellow 'Gingerliners' down a dark back street, behind a row of random shops in the middle of nowhere.

Thankfully, this was the last time that I felt so concerned...

Soon enough, a door opened and we were guided through a candle lit underground tunnel into some kind of 1970's Burlesque French Casino completely covered from top to bottom in gold...

We were handed a delicious cocktail, and once everyone was seated, officially greeted by our eccentric hostess for the evening (right). 

Add caption

A load of cocktails, intro's to our fellow diners, 4 glorious courses, and a load of hilarious Casino style dinner party games later (including spin the wheel of fortune, and a serenade from an erotic waiter/waitress), and Teapot and I found ourselves bang smack in the middle of what Time Out calls "the most riotous, otherworldy experience you have ever had the good luck to attend".

This was surely highlighted no greater than during my toilet visit...which turned out to be a journey into some kind of neon painted porn shop that was falling into the Abyss.

The toilets: serious WTF factor

So, would I recommend Gingerline? Absolutely. However, unless you are particularly keen to meet new people, I would strongly suggest going with a group of mates. Nothing at all against the really lovely girls we spent our evening with, but being forced to introduce yourself to a bunch of strangers when you are sobre is always a bit awkward ...especially when you're doing it in an underground Burlesque French Casino in the middle of London suburbia.

Check out the website on:

http://www.gingerline.info/index.html

1luv,

Finey

x

Finey in Wonderland

We heard about it through the grapevine...apparently there was a non profit fancy dress party under London Bridge called Wonderland, whereby all money raised would contribute towards rebuilding Gambian schools for underprivileged kids...

So basically, for next to nothing (tickets were £8 each) not only was I going to an Alice in Wonderland themed party, but

1. I was allowed to look like a tit in fancy dress
2. I was ordered to do so in the name of charity

Nice.

I went with a few mates, and we all decided it would be fitting to glitter our entire faces and where farm animal noses (a duck, chicken, rabbit and pig to me more specific) so that we could fit in... 

The party was being held in a huge orange bricked building you would never know existed because it was underneath some train tracks, 200 yard down the road from Cable Nightclub. 

As we entered, it felt like we had fallen down the rabbit hole (apologies)...Brushing past human sized panda's and fairies we walked down a green lit corridor before entering the first room (the smaller of the two)...

It was some kind of fantastical hippy influenced tent...we had to crouch down and avoid the hanging dolls, tie died sheets, and army camoflage covering to reach the bar, had a couple shots and then enclosed ourselves in some kind of spider mesh whilst Reeps One (UK Beatboxing Champion) proceeded to 'spit' some beats on top of some crazy Hip Hop mixes.

Reeps One at work

Festivally jolly, we then walked into the main dance room, where there were two things that struck me...the first was a lady who had covered herself in fairy lights and was doing the robot dance on a pedastool on her own...the other, which was by far the showcase piece of the event, was the DJ booth, which as you can see from the picture below, was FUCKING MENTAL.

The DJ Booth=Immense

Another couple drinks later and we were on the dance floor raving to all sorts of hilarious dubstep remixes of classic pop songs like Britney Spears 'Crazy' and the Nolans 'In the Mood for Dancing'.

After speaking to some people there, this Wonderland gig wasn't even one of their better ones...which speaks volumes as we still had an outrageous night.

If you like the sound of it, check out their website on:

http://www.wonderlandfestival.co.uk/index.php?page=home 


1luv,

finey

x