Arnold

This is ridiculous. Some of these things may not apply to everyone. I'm not Arnold (obviously!) haha. We don't all have the same mind as Arnold Schwarzenegger but there is a HUGE amount of inspiration and admiration to be taken from some of the things he says here. I have never looked into Arnie's life all that much, but discovered this a few days ago. I am mind blown and have done my best to break down what his rules mean to me! I am more writing this to figure it out than trying to teach anyone a lesson pretending to be a wise man of the world who knows everything ;). I'll leave that to Arnie and just throw in my 2cents.

Trust Yourself / Something I think millions, even billions struggle with. To go into something with 100% faith in yourself is in itself an achievement I'd say!
Break Some Rules / I think really he means break the conventions, get outside the box and bring something new to the table. Push the limits of the norm. This makes people stand out. I suppose he could literally mean break rules, after all he did pump himself with steroids haha.
Don't Be Afraid to Fail / I have heard many great and successful men and women talk about how they have failed hundreds of times. What makes them great is the ability to view that failure as a lesson learned and point themselves in the right direction after. This is an incredible quality. Too often a simple slip in progress in anything can cause giving up completely!!
Ignore The Naysayers / Really ties in with number 1 I think. If you have blind faith in what you do, and know in your heart and mind what you are doing will take you where you want to go, ignore what others say!!
"Work Your Butt Off" / Explains itself. Want something? Go get it.
Give Something Back / Probably my personal favourite! The fact he wants to do all those things above to better himself and become number one AND do good for others really shows off what he is as a person. Lad.





G'night

Lump in my throat

All day today I have had a lump in my throat. All the ibuprofen and soothers in the world haven't been able to make it go away.

My plan was to do a video blog today, something I haven't done before. Typical that today would be the day I start to lose my voice!! Not cool. Especially since I was properly ill when I first started this blog back on 1/2/3 January. Is this a sickness blog?


Today is the start of lent. I haven't decided if or what to give up. The problem is I do a lot of "giving up" type challenges. In fact I challenge myself a lot. There are various positives in setting challenges but I'm not sure if there's another one I want to do right now! Especially as I'm not a religious man and have just done Dryathlon.

Maybe I should give up being ill...

Maybe I should try do something new for the next 40 days?? That could be a ridiculous but amazing challenge. 40 new things in 40 days.

Have you got any ideas? I'd bloody love to hear them. Either giving up or trying new!! Drop me a line on the email listed on this sites "get involved" page?

I'm gonna go to sleep now. Early. Love.

(Here's a picture of a pancake I made yesterday... From scratch of course)

It's back!!

Lunch

Today I decided to do something a little different and share a video. I have just under 4 weeks left in my temp job and decided to be a little bit creative on my lunch break!

Although it's nothing special I enjoyed making it and bits of it make me laugh. Hopefully this will be shared with you!! Let me know if you enjoy it! 

I shot this on my iPhone 5, however it's a little wobbly as it was shot with one hand! 

Hope you all had a good start to your week and found something that pleased you in today!

Yesterday

I drove a total of 380 miles. It took over 9 hours due to snow and rain. I got home and passed out. I didn't blog. I failed. But the cogs do not stop turning. One day shall not stop me... BRB

Wedding Day!

Today is my first ever friend wedding. My friend Tom who I have known all my life is getting married today. I just drove from Salisbury to Bolton in a nice hire car in the snow.

I am going to be an usher at the church too! Not much time to post, gotta get ready and get sexy:

There's Nothing

Quite like catching up with 10 old friends all at once. Tonight was perfect.

Chill Brains

I'm an honest guy.

Honestly, tonight my mind is f***ed.

I think I have become a victim of myself. It's great setting goals, having aims and plans. It's not great beating yourself up about setbacks or doubts. I have had a sudden change of pace in my life with this 5 week temporary job. My focus has been drawn away from certain goals, thoughts, etc. and onto new things. This is not a problem, and I'm really enjoying the job. But I have to accept the change of pace. Stop trying to achieve 10 things at once.

I am lucky. I have the chance to enjoy a job for 5 weeks, and then move back onto other focuses. Some people have jobs they hate, day in day out, forever. So far that has never happened to me. I am extremely lucky I even get the time to set my own personal goals and work towards them. In 4 weeks music and band can once again take center stage. Other things in that lifestyle will return. I can get back on target with other goals.

I have forgotten how I normally live...

Chill out, Brains. Give me a break. All will be back to normal soon. Just enjoy it.

Scrooby Dooby Doo

Have any of you ever heard of Scroobius Pip?

I just took a 15 minute walk home. The streets were practically dead and the sky almost pitch black. On a high after watching England beat Brazil my mind was buzzing and open. Popped in my headphones and pressed shuffle. This song came on:

Back in 2008 I discovered this duo with my pal Ed. I can't remember how we stumbled onto the two of them but we both purchased their debut album the very same day. We drove a 100 mile journey and listened to it from start to finish. I only ever had such an immediate passion for an artist a couple times before and this was not a phase. This track along with a huge chunk of their other stuff has been on my top played ever since.

The thing I love about Scroobius Pip specifically is his lyrical content. Every song is an incredible story, a journey, a message. There is not one song I listen to and think "you've just pieced together some vague rhymes" or anything to that effect. I have huge respect for his talents and the epic journeys he takes me on with his words. The song above is no different.

And so I return to my walk earlier. This song, although a completely opposite mood to the one I was feeling after the football, took me on a journey. I felt the stresses and strains of a relationship. I thought of memories past and hopes for the future. I remembered things I miss alongside people I never want to deal with again. All in the space of three and a half minutes.

That's a talent that I respect and admire.

A talent I long for!

Check out Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's two albums. I have been lucky enough to share the stage with these guys and watch them a few times. Their solo stuff is epic too.

Thanks for reading if you're sticking with me :)

Love x

Fly Like An Eagle

...A Bald Eagle...

There can only really be one thing that I mention today, and that is the Red Nose Day plan I have come up with!

Sometime in the week leading up to Red Nose Day I plan to:

-Wax my legs
-Shave and/or wax my arms
-Shave and/or wax body hair
-Shave my armpits
-Clean shave my face
and...
-Completely clean shave my head. Bald. Like this guy:

I have enlisted the help of a few of my good friends to wax and shave and film this event.

The more money I raise the more pain I will inflict upon myself in waxing body parts over shaving body parts. Simples. Therefore the more money I raise the funnier the video will be. The more money WE raise together I should say. As I will be helped and you will be donating!

I understand a lot of you donated to my Dryathlon which is fantastic and thank you each and every one of you. However this is a new month, a new charity, a new plan and new peoples lives to change with the money we raise. So if you can, dig deep, ask parents and friends, whatever. Let's do this!

The link to my page is:

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/benjamineverest share it and get involved!

Lots of Love!

A Challenge Changer

I have written here before about my temporary stay back in my hometown of Salisbury. What I haven't mentioned is how boringly sensible (in a way) I've been and got myself a temporary job for the time I'm here! And today I started that job! As we can keep any important band stuff to weekends during the time we are all apart I thought I'd save myself a sweet chunk of extra dough. I'm gonna be slightly wealthier upon my return to London!

I have a job working in an outpatients department back at the hospital I worked at from 2008-2011 before moving into the old Dive Bella Dive house. This is a good thing, and I'm grateful to them for giving me a job on such short notice on a temporary basis. My Mum also works there which helped my case slightly!

So the daily routine swings massively. I will be regularly waking at 7am. Something I haven't had to do on a regular basis for over 18 months! I will be spending 9/10 hours away from my house and therefore have a new challenge with this blog. My new challenge is to bring and keep creativity, creative thought processes and ideas flowing throughout my new daily life - without compromising my work obviously! I may find that through my job, the countless different people I meet and the new situations I deal with bring all sorts of new vibes into my life. I may find the opposite, and find myself struggling for ideas on a daily basis. Only time will tell. But this blog will show either way! I hope for the best and hope to share many things over the next 5 weeks.

For today, all you need to know is I wore these shoes all day, and they made me feel very important. They sound important. An important click each step I take. They also make me slightly taller. Win? I think so. Sweet trousers too.

Cramming It All In

I love twitter and the internet in general for bringing up gems like this article. I like that I can stumble onto fantastic, weird, wonderful, happy, terrifying, disgusting articles or photos daily without even having to look hard.

This particular story is an inspiring story of a young guy who has terminal cancer, the way he deals with it and what he plans to do with his remaining time. It may look like a big chunk of text but believe me it's worth a read. It really puts things into perspective. Basically it's bangin' and you should read it :)

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/lifestyle/health/inspiring-burntwood-teenager-draws-up-1288871

WIKKID x

Tilt Shift

Watching TV today I spotted a brief piece of tilt-shift photography. Tilt shift uses real photography but creates the impression of a miniature version of whatever you are capturing. A lot of people refer to the images as "toy" versions of real life.

When I first discovered this stuff I spent a long time clicking from one to another finding as many as I could, but that was years ago! Today I have had another day of discovery! There are tons and tons of cool videos if you hit up vimeo or youtube and simply search tilt shift. Here are a few specific ones I've discovered today. I went down the route of looking for places I'd been to!

There are some scenes of London in this which are just rad! But the absolute best of the ones I found today has to be this next one of New York. The photography is so good that nothing looks real, it looks like a miniature village version of NY. Love it!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Have a bangin' Saturday and thanks for reading as always xo

Did Anyone Notice

That I missed yesterday's post? I sat in a tattoo parlour pretty much from open until close and then met my family for dinner. The day was gone before I was even aware of it and tattoo aftercare overtook all my other priorities!

To be honest if I had posted yesterday it probably would have basically that short paragraph above. Maybe with a picture of some blood running down my arm or something. I will make it up to myself and any of you who noticed with another post later on today.

So let's just pretend it's still Friday? Ta.

Gonna have my breakfast now. And think of something EPIC to write later. Hopefully.

Caine's Arcade

One of the sweetest and most heartwarming videos I've ever seen. My friend Ed showed me this a while back and I forgot about it. Just stumbled across it again today. To be honest I had something else planned for today's blog but my wifi failed me. However this is a fantastic alternative. I love finding short films like this on vimeo through friends and filmmakers.

Anyway check it out it'll bring a smile to your face if you watch the whole thing. It's a beautifully shot film with a lovely story.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Lots of Love!

You can also watch on vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/40000072

30 Days In...

I made 5 new years resolutions this year. I wrote them down in my reminders app on my phone so whenever I open it I see them. I have a fitness resolution, some creative ones and another personal couple. All of which I'm still doing, or planning to do. So far so good.

The top resolution simply says "Blog". I have kept this blog up for 30 days now, nearly the whole first month of January. I am proud, and a little surprised! Honestly, I was scared to share this with anyone. I thought that I would share it on day one, then forget to post or get frustrated with the idea and look silly in front of everyone who I had shared it with. Partly I think this is why it has become almost 2nd nature already to get thinking about my blog from the minute I wake up!

I am also very grateful to everyone who has had a read so far. Almost over 2,500 views already in 30 days, way more than I imagined. Thank you for that.

Part of my idea for this blog was to make it a creative collective, where people could send me little ideas or responses and deepen my thought on topics I have posted, or create completely new chains of thought. So far this hasn't happened, however I haven't really pushed the idea yet!

So here's my first attempt...


We are nearing the end of the first month of 2013. A year which I feel very positive about. So, this will be the last time I mention "New Years Resolutions" as such. Well, maybe not quite, because I want to know yours! I want to hear from you about if you had any resolutions. What were they? How have you done? Are they really personal, long-term, already completed or completely failed? If I get enough responses, I'll do a little follow up post discussing and sharing other people's progress etc!

If you feel like sharing please do! Email 3652013blog@gmail.com and sharesies! Attach any photos or links or anything you want! Hopefully hear from some of you soon.

You can also contact with anything else you wanna share! So hit me up! Let's talk!

Love.

Song For A Friend

Just sharing this because of my absolute love for it. It has been on repeat recently, though I have skipped the middle bit a few times. Jason Mraz is a massive inspiration for me in his creative ways, passion for life and the earth, health, fitness and spirituality. He writes powerful and thought provoking blogs at jasonmraz.com and obviously writes songs I love. I was lucky enough to watch Jason at the O2 in December for my birthday and I was stunned. The best, tightest and most professional yet entertaining live show I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Well you're magic he said
But don't let it all go to your head
Cuz I bet if you all had it all figured out
Then you'd never get out of bed
No doubt
Of all the thing's that I've read what he wrote me
Is now sounding like the man I was hoping
To be
I Keep on keeping it real
Cause it keeps getting easier, he'll see
He's the reason that I'm laughing
Even if there's no one else
He said, you've got to love yourself

You say, you shouldn't mumble when you speak
But keep your tongue up in your cheek
And if you stumble onto something better remember that it's humble that you seek
You got all the skill you need,
Individuality
You got something
You call it gumption
You call it anything you want
Because when you play the fool now
You're only fooling everyone else
You're learning to love yourself

Yes you are

There's no price to pay
When you give and what you take,
That's why it's easy to thank you
You...

Let's say take a break from the day
And get back to the old garage
Because life's too short anyway
But at least it's better then average
As long as you got me
And I got you
You know we'll got a lot to go around
I'll be your friend
Your other brother
Another love to come and comfort you
And I'll keep reminding
If it's the only thing I ever do
I will always love
I will always love you
Yes you
I will always, always, always, always love
I will always, always love
I will always, always love, love

Climb up over the top.
Survey the state of the soul.
You've got to find out for yourself whether or not you're truly trying.
Why not give it a shot?
Shake it. Take control and inevitably wind up
Find out for yourself all the strengths you have inside of you.

Make It Happen

Today is the first day of 6 weeks back in my home town, Salisbury. At the end of these 6 weeks I'll be moving back to London in a new place! Pretty excited.

I don't intend on wasting these 6 weeks. If you have read this blog before you may have read this post in which I discuss my brother's self motivation techniques. Well, I've finally got round to joining in. Today I made this:

So I chose my phrase. I chose "make it happen" because it implies 'it' WILL happen. There's no 'try' there's no 'maybe'. It's a definite phrase. The only variable in there is that I have to MAKE it happen myself. I got a little creative with the sign, mainly because I found a pack of 4 different colour sharpies and a fresh sketchbook and I really wanted to use both.

I've also given myself a time limit, something to aim for. 40 days. Which is just under 6 weeks. 40 days to achieve my goal, or at least make huge steps in the right direction! I placed the note on my mirror. It's in the corner of my room, by the door. Basically impossible for it to be out of sight wherever I am in my room, and on my way in and out.

I hope this helps, I really think it will. And if all goes well I assume I will be doing a post on or around the 7th March explaining how it went! I guess you'll know either way ;).








In other news I've been listening to Take That all day.

BYE!

Gherkin

Busy day today moving house. But nice and positive day! Hope you are all having a good end to your weekend and looking forward to the week ahead.

Just a quick one today, here's a photo I snapped up on my way to Liverpool Street Station in east London. I really liked how the old buildings looked so unreal, even fake, in front of the Gherkin. Looked like a painting when I was there hopefully the picture captures it.

More DBD History

The last night for me in the mansion. My last night in London for 6 weeks. Here are a bunch of photos I scraped together from my old iPhone from the last 18 months. Really hard to find decent pics of the festivals etc. because well, I was usually on the other side of the camera...

First ever practice!

Summer was fun
 

Picking up the van!

Notting Hill Carnival 2011

Carnvial 2!

The night barnaby split my lip dancing.

First ever gig. Gloucester Guildhall 24/9/11.

Paris with Red One Nov '11

Chill

Paris studio December 15 2012

Recording a music video with Ant Brant and Carrie Fletcher

Dean moves in to his tiny room...

McFly tour again!

Download wristbands!

Wakestock festival 2012 CREW

The House Of Dreams?

As I draw ever nearer to my last 24 hours in chez Dive Bella Dive, I find myself reminiscing about some of the epic (and not so epic) things that have happened during my short 19 months here. Focusing mainly on the epic!

In the first week that I stayed here back in June 2011, I had just finished an arena tour and summer festival shows with City Stereo supporting McFly. The very first night we went to a club in Mayfair. To be honest none of us slotted in particularly well but we got to know each other over a few drinks and a kebab! Somehow, I really don't remember how, the second night was insane. We went to "Miss Asian Model 2011" in an underground club I have never even seen since. No idea where. We then went to the Kerrang! awards after party. Saw some friends there, met a ton of ridiculously awesome people. Played singstar with Barnaby & Oli Sykes for example. Mental.

Barnaby in Mayfair

Me, Max of youmeatsix and Barnaby at the Kerrang Awards

Life wasn't always as crazy as those first two nights though. After that first week together I went back home to continue touring with City Stereo. I then moved in for real in July. Since then we have done so many things that I have loved and I'm gonna throw a bunch of memories here...

The first time I took the guys to Salisbury. (via bournemouth beach!)
This was the first weekend we got the van!

Christmas Time Dean!

Recording Studio - Paris

Camden Barfly w/Dolly Rockers

Mine and Dan's top floor hotel room in Paris

In the studio with Red One, Paris

Sheffield, McFly tour 2012

Spend The Night video shoot!

Leeds O2 - McFly tour 2012

To be honest there's so many many more good times in this house. These are all in one folder on my computer so it made it easy for me!

Here's to the next chapter of our lives living separately. See what the next 18 months brings us! I'm excited.

Holy Cheat Day

Today is the first day of 2013 where this blog nearly passed me by! I nearly completely forgot about it. That's bad, right?

I have spent about 6 hours doing this:

Not really the ideal "get your creative juices flowing" activity. Though I did see some improvement in my game... briefly.

In fact, I haven't really had much of a day in the way of achievements. I have struggled to get myself in gear today and in fact, been quite the little grumpus this evening. I didn't make it to the gym for the first day in a long time either.

I guess today is my "cheat day". I haven't really done anything of note but I've had a good day anyway. And I think that's okay every now and then right? A cheat day. I like that idea. As long as I don't cheat every day then I'm still winning. I reckon.

One Of Those Days

"Too much to do and too little time" = today.

I have a blessed life. I get to do the job I've always wanted, with people I love and a large portion of the time I'm not very busy at all. Sure studio time and touring etc takes it out of you, but for the most part I'm lucky as hell and get to be free as a bird! As you have seen in this blog I'm lucky enough to get to spend some days just wondering the streets taking photos, or spend time surfing the web, reading, writing... No complaints here.

Today is a busy day though, for personal reasons rather than to do with "work". Today my list looked something like this:

1-Wake up at 9 [failed, 10:55]
2-Gym
3-Shower
4-Find iPhone 4
5-Find packaging for iPhone 4
6-Post iPhone 4
7-Help Joe move stuff to sisters house
8-Food Shopping
9-Start packing to move house
10-Pack old clothes for charity shop
11-Write blog
12-Organise ~20 people to get to a party tonight in Camden
13-Get to party on time

Somewhere in there I have already fit in 3 meals and am expecting my friend Russell to arrive any second. I haven't anywhere near prepared for moving. Fortunately I have 3 more days to do so. If you saw my photo yesterday of my cupboards, those are now empty. There's a whole load of stuff on the floor now though...

So as you see writing in this blog slipped right down to number 11 in my plans today. Some days it's one of only 2 or 3 things and the ideas flow all day about what to write. Today nothing came to me other than structuring my day, kicking ass and taking names. So that's what I'm sharing with you today. The incredible story of how I kicked Wednesday's ass, and ALMOST got all that stuff up there done between 11am and 5pm.

Not too bad for a lazy drummer.

So tonight I'm off to a Made In Chelsea party in Camden. That's right. You heard it here first. I am that cool.

Peas.



Edit: The title of this blog suggests so much negativity. There is no negativity here, not one bit. I had a great day. It's nice to feel like you've crammed a lot in and got shit done! I hope the rest of you get some sense of accomplishment in your today, it's a bitchin feeling. Good bye and good night!

Out With The Old

So this Sunday I am moving home to my mother's house for 6 weeks, before moving back up to a new flat in London. Until now I have put off even thinking about packing but to be honest, I had better start soon or I'm gonna be in trouble! There is a fair amount to sort...

Just one corner of the stuff I need to sort...

I have accumulated quite a lot of random objects whilst living with the band... I have a collection of citrus fruits from bars and gigs for example. A collection of citrus fruits that probably aren't worth transporting! Each drawer and section of cupboard space is full of old clothes and other random bits. Luckily, my room is one of the smallest in the house so I haven't had the opportunity to fill up a giant room like Barnaby, Sam and Dan have.

I quite like the thought of moving! Looking forward to the prospect of the new place, living in a new part of London and having a new clean slate of a bedroom to start again. Those are exciting things for me! I'm never afraid of a bit of a change, a new challenge and new daily routine in life! Plus, I get to go home, get my shit together and save a bit of money! Winner?

My half-finished photo wall will never be finished!

So, it's time to be ruthless with what items get to continue their existence in my life. Tomorrow I hope to throw away more than I save, for a really effective move and new start in a new pad! However, I have been known to keep things lying around for quite some time so I need to be strict with myself in what stays and what goes. The room I'm moving in to is slightly smaller than this one as well so the last thing I need is a cluttered room!

Wish me luck...

Snow Daze

About time I jumped on the bandwagon, right? I have been pretty snap happy during the last few days of snow to be honest! I have been all over various parts of London so there's quite a selection. Enjoy!

Kingston, 20/1

Ealing 20/1

People making a snowman! Kingston, 20/1

Crystal Palace vs Bolton Wanderers, 19/1

View from my window, 21/1 early morning

Snow runway 21/1

Sam Bartl drift triking! 18/1
 

Ed and his mannequin friend 18/1

Shooting in the snow, Ed, 18/1

Kennington, 18/1

My back garden, 19/1

Joe's a tall white mocha, I'm a short flat white. 18/1

Joe in Ealing, 18/1

DBD Van, 18/1

Ealing, 18/1

The coldest part of this whole weekend was that football game, SO cold. Hope whoever's had snow has enjoyed it!