Day one:
i wake at 5am ready to leave for my drive 2 hour drive to birmingham which is nothing compared to the amount of driving im gonna be doing over the next week. i say my farewells to my brother and hit the road. im full of exitment at what the next week is gonna bring on the gumball and my mind is racing as im driving to nibbles’s house.
i arrive at his and have a bacon and egg sarnie and we jump into the taxi to birmingham airport. we check inn and and have our first scare of the trip. nibbsys passport has been through the wash and they are umming and arring at weather to let him board to to the state of his documents. you should have seen his face, it dropped like a sack of spuds and went white as a ghost. luckely the dude ok’d it and we went and sat at the pub for a few pints before we boarded. considering i hate flying i had a shock when i saw how small the plane was for our short hop to paris where we would change for LA. the flight was ok and we checked through paris charles de gaul airport and had a mission trying to find our new gate. as we go through security i see the actor from beverly hills 90210 and she commented on my tattoo’s saying she loved them haha “thanks very much love”. we sat and had another beer and boarded our 11 hour flight to LA. it started off really well and then after 2 hours boredom settled inn and it didnt help knowing in a few hours time i’d be living it up at the gumball party. i couldnt wait to get off the fucking plane and party and 2 hours before landing i order 3 bottles of red wine to the look of horror from the hosstes. i slam them down and get oiled up ready for party time then it took and hour to go through fucking security.
we jump into a taxi “viceroy hotel please drive”. we turned up and was greeted with a hoard of super cars worth millions of pounds and maxamillion cooper (owner of gumball) was there to greet us. im fucking smilling like a cheshire cat and cant belive where i am especially after many a failed year of trying to get on this rally only to be knocked back because of too much work but this time im here then all of a sudden caprice (model) walks past me haha.
we go to our rooms like exited school kids and shower, shit shave as quick as we can so we can get to the bar and PARTY.
i phoned jamie from the lost prophets and him, mike and lee turn up to meet us at the hotel. i havent seen these boys in a long time and it was good to see them and have a good ol welsh knees up. i used to skate with these boys back in cardiff many years ago so we shared some skate stories and got pissed. talking of skateboarding i turn around and see one of my idols tony hawk and introduced myself and too my shock he knew who i was (tony fucking hawk knew me hahaha no way) and we had a little chat and possed for a photo.
the FUEL girls are here and all dressed up to the nines as per usuall along with many other people, after all it is the opening party for the gumball and everyone is dressed to impress. the money here is just disgusting to tell you the truth, i speak to a few people and ask what they do and most are successfull business owners along with people who have sold their companys for 500 million+ maddness. considering their worth so much money i notice there’s no snobbery or any of that ‘im better than you’ attitude and everyone seem very friendly.
the party’s in full swing and mike from the prophets along with jamie are getting very batterd wich is quite funny as by the end of the night mike is all over the shop. he has been off the booze and totally sober for 11 years and it tells hahaha. good boys and it was good to see them again and have a drink. good luck with your new album boys and going it alone, good work.
saying all that im quite pissed mind and decide to sit in a $1000,7000 bugati veryon with the look of fear from the owner, it’s such a lovely car and something i could only dream of owning. the whole car park is just full of super cars and their all be ready to race the following day. we go to our room to get our heads down for the drive to vegas the next day.
day 2 :
i wake at 4am fully awake and realise i’ve got jet lag big time, FUCK. i manage to get to sleep again only to wake and find buttsy hugging me hahahaha the big gay irish man that he is haha well, there were 3 of us sharing a bed after all.
i finaly wake get a shower and head downstairs to see whats going on and our 500 brake nissan skyline turned up with richy warren behind the wheel driffting across the highway and parked up picking us up and taking us for our first spin in the car and i wasnt let down. he put his foot down and i couldnt belive the power on the thing. before i could say cheese on toast we were doing 110mph with my head stuck to the headboard YES. we chill around for most of the morning then went to the drivers meeting for our briefing on the rally. the mayor of santa monica gave a speach along with maxamillion cooper and his wife more or less telling everyone to drive with care and to enjoy themselfs. we went down to the starting line and all the cars are reving their engine’s tooting their horns and spectators everywhere watching the specticle that is “THE GUMBALL’. we all set off the highway being closed to a police escort for all of us to make our way to our first stop the anahime stadium where we will all parade our cars in front of 3,000 spectators. we turned up last while the other cars were finishing showing their cars off and we came speeding inn drifting and burning the tyres with smoke everywhere and the crowd going fucking nuts so i jumped out and butsy did doughnuts around me while i stood there then he just went fucking nuts screaming round the track at high speed then the tyre went ripped to shreds. my adrenaling was pumping and i was loving every min of it. we chilled for a bit then we had to drive to a garage at snail pace to get new tyres for the back of the car. $500 later we had new tyres and we were back on the road destination LAS VEGAS. this will be my 6th time in vegas and i know exactly what to expect and i was exited. nibbles had organized a table for us at the palms hotel for paul oakenfolds night but first we had to check into our hotel hard rock cafe so we can clean up. we waited for ages to get our room key well, it seemed like ages anyway. you know what it’s like when you cant wait to get out everything just seems to take a long time.
we hit the casino floor and go in search for the party before we went to the palms so we ended up at the monster energy party by the pool. on our way inn we saw captain phill from the discovery show deadliest catch. I love that show so i asked if i could have a photo with him which we did and he seemed like a top bloke. we went to the bar and started boozing then after about an hour there we went to get into ‘BODY ENGLISH’ which is a club inside the hardrock and got told i couldnt get inn due to wearing shorts. so i go and get some jeans on and try again only to be told i cant go in with a sleevless t’shirt aaaaaargh. we told them to fuck off and headed to the palms hotel for oakenfolds night. the dude who owns the bugati veryon joined us and we jumped into a taxi and got our arses in there. we met up with a guy called sol shaffer who used to work over there for godskitchen and he sorted us out. because nibbles works for godskitchen he knows sol so between the 2 of them we were looked after for the night plus nibbles is good friends with oakenfold so it’s PARTY on. this place is nuts and is fucking massive and packed with 4,000 ravers. the show was spectacular too and had fire coming out of the celings along with acrobats hanging from ropes from the roof swinging all over the place. i’ve never seen anything like it i was blown away, it was similar to ibiza but the only thing that let it down was the crowd. in ibiza everyone goes bananas and the atmosphere is something else, if you put the ibiza crowd in there it would lead to an unbeatable party. we had a few drinks then oakenfold invited us back stage which we stayed for the rest of the night. the booze was flowing and free and i got fucking proper smashed to the point where i fell off the stage which was at least 6ft high straight onto my back hahaha. the club had closed and we were having a chat the next thing i know im lying on my back to the boys amusment. we headed back to the hardrock to see if anything was still going on there and ended up on the black jack table with buttsy. he’s never gambled before and he won his first hand and left hahaha dick head here on the othe hand lost $100 but i’ve done far worse in recent years. it’s 7.30am and im fucked and we have a long drive to sidona tomorrow so we put our heads down as we have to leave at 11am.
day 3 :
i wake up on the floor freezing cold in my hotel room???????? what am i doing on the fucking floor???? i must have fallen out of bed. it’s 10.30am and im still pissed but we have to get out of our rooms so we shower and get to our car and realise almost everyone has left without us apart from about 10 cars, you can easily tell by the look of the car park which gumballers partied hard the night before. we fill the car up and head to the hoover damn and get stuck in a huge traffic jam of everyone heading home from their weekends in vegas. it took us and hour and a half just to get onto the hoover damn. it would have taken us longer if buttsy didnt go screaming down the hard shoulder under taking everyone. as soon as we pass the damn it’s clear and we put our foot down hitting speeds of up to 150mph then we come round a bend and a copper caught us, we pulled over and expected the worse as when you get caught doing those speeds over here it’s jail but because the copper was irish and so was buttsy he let us off with a $250 fine. he was the nicest copper i’ve ever met, talkative and non of this i’ve got POWER attitude. we liked him that much we gave him a pair of our S.W.Y.D boxer shorts. some gumballers on the other hand didnt get away it quite so easily as we saw many pulled over and even one getting put into hand cuffs, knarly.
it’s fucking 100 deg and so hot and what with our terrible hangovers the mix didnt help. we stopped off for some more junk food as we were so hungry so a subway sandwich went down a treat. if you’ve never been to america before just top let you know that there are burger houses almost on every corner and their services are the same, no wonder over half their population are over weight.
buttsy’s knackered so richy takes over the driving and buttsy went in the winabago full of lesbians in the hope of some sleep but i’ve just found out he’s drank beer with them all the way to the hotel hahaha. we arrive in sidona and the area is fucking knockout. the scenery, the views are stunning and looks like something off a film. we arrive at a lovely spa resort and check inn for our rooms. they’ve organised dinner under the stars tonight with some beers round a huge camp fire but i decide to stay in my room and do some work and write my blog so i can wake early tomorrow and enjoy the spa retreat. the cameras are spending the day with us in our car tomorrow for the up and coming tv show plus there’s a big party tomorrow night. i think we’ll be leaving at 11am tomorrow destenation grand canyon and santa fe whilst stopping off at a world famous steak house.
so far everyone im having a bloody ball and a gumball at that. it really is a special rally and everyone on it’s really friendly. it’s almost like one big family and everyone always looks out for one another. if it’s this good 3 days inn i cant wait for the next 5 as there’s so much planned and the party’s are only gonna get better. we all keep in touch via twitter, text, phone etc as soon as someone see’s police they let everyone know where they are so were just a little ahead of the POWER.
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