Months are flying past, here are some shots from September..
-Gary
9月
Category Archives: bikes
2017. In photos…
This year went by a little slower than normal, and I’m okay with that! So I sat down last night to sort through some pictures to post, and it’s been difficult to narrow several thousand pictures to a few dozen, but I decided I would make a small post, and then go back and post separately about the different places I have been throughout 2017. I also realised that I lived in 5 countries this year and visited 8, so here goes…
I spent a year and a half in London, working for McLaren in Surrey but I decided that it wasn’t for me, and I walked away earlier this year, so I haven’t got many photographs from London in 2017, but one of the highlights was meeting the guys at Ozone Coffee Roasters in Shoreditch, Ben and Anson have been brilliant to me this past year! I was just a nobody who emailed them with some questions about the coffee industry and told them of my ideas, and the guys invested a lot of time and effort in me, and for that, I am eternally grateful! They also sent me some of the best coffee I have ever had! Seriously!! (http://ozonecoffee.co.uk/?v=6cc98ba2045f)
I have a friend called James, He works for British Airways, and I met him on a beach in Japan a number of years ago. Another friend of mine named Andrew introduced us, James was stationed in Tokyo for a year and we would usually have a few drinks friday nights at James’ place, listen to BBC Radio 1 essential Mix and then head out to clubs in Tokyo, seriously good times..
Long story short, When I was offered the job at McLaren, James was living back near London so I moved in with him. James turned out to be one of my best friends, and I miss our time in London a lot! So in January, BA had a sale on and we got a super cheap weekend deal with flights and (a ghetto) Hotel in Lisbon…
I had been to Portugal as a teenager with my friend John and his family, but that was about 15 years ago and I don’t remember a lot about it, apart from some sea sickness on a fishing boat and briefly losing John’s 10 year old nephew!
Anyway, this time was one of the best holidays I’ve had, Lisbon is wonderful! The weather was perfect(for January), the old city is beautiful! Wine costs €2 q glass, and we found an old bar full of 80 year olds to watch Benfica play which was an experience in itself! I’ll make a separate post on Lisbon over the New Year 🙂
I got to head back to Dublin for a few weeks when I left the UK, and here’s a picture of Ferdinand in a bin..
At the beginning of summer, my wife and I decided to head to California for a few months..
Shortly after this photo was taken, we walked through SkidRow, and I mean, THROUGH SkidRow! Never felt so scared in my life! 
Our home for 3 months, Santa Monica.
Met up with an old friend, Mr John Benton and his wonderful crew. Always love spending time at his shop, their work is second to none and I always appreciate our time together. (http://www.bentonperformance.com)
My brother was out in LA for a bit, and he met my wife and I for coffee on Abbot Kinney Blvd.
My favourite photo of the year! Paul Smith – Melrose Ave.
Salvation Mountain was an experience I will not forget! The drive was long, the weather was insane, the place is super weird but Saya loved it haha.
Luftgekühlt was ridiculous!! I had seen the photos of the first few online and the events looked unreal, so it was an honour to finally make it to one of them! First off, the cars were stupidly good, but I also got to meet some people I have known through Instagram and my time with RWB over the years, so it turned out to be one of the best days I had in LA overall..
This was ridiculous, random 300SL parked on the street during a 6am walk with the wife.
Took the Prius up to San Fram for the weekend, and started hunting for decent coffee! First stop was Sightglass in the Mission District. 
Saya actually sprinted up this hill, I was wearing skinny jeans so I slowly followed 🙂
SF is great, was my second time there and I actually enjoyed it more the second time. It’s super windy, hot one minute and cold the next, there’s homeless people everywhere and the hills are a cunt, but I can’t help but love it!
Friend of a friends 300SL(different one to the previous red one).
My favourite coffee shop in the world, hands down! Giorgiporgi, hidden in Downtown LA. Amazing place. Huge thanks to my wife for finding it!!
Spent a few great day in Vancouver with my good friend Alex and his buddies, they took a few days off and showed me around. Van is really cool, nice city, good coffee, great food and the people rock! (Alex is the owner of Circuit Soul – http://store.circuitsoul.com
Got back to LA and stayed Downtown with my mate Alex. Downtown is a crazy place, seriously fucking crazy! But I love it 🙂
Met one of my favourite people to work on his race bike, then headed back Downtown for some Ramen and a beer. Above is his (G)rape van that he’s very proud of. I met Lindz in Japan years ago, and he’s seriously one of the best dudes I have ever met! He was a car designer at Honda in Tokyo but now builds super rad Motorcycles and designs some seriously cool stuff, check his work out here – http://www.pistadesign.com
Met Lindz, Robbie and a few others for Pizza and beer downtown, but couldn’t help taking a detour to get a shot of the M3 at one of DTLA’s famous Art walls.
Helping Robbie out on some old Germans, in South Central LA 🙂
Back in Japan for a bit, and spend a few days in Kyushu with Saya’s family. It was so hot and humid, but I had a wonderful time. Kyushu is a place I want to visit again for sure.
I was honestly super surprised with the quality of the specialty coffee in Bali, has a lot to do with the amount of Australians that visit there I’m sure, but well done Bali! I will post separately as there was a number of great cafes we visited during our time there.
Chef Maduna’s cooking class was wonderful, super nice people, one of the best meals I can remember! (http://www.cookingclasssanur.com/p/chef-mudana-sanur-cooking-class.html)
Sunset by the pool in Padang Padang, Bali
Suprise dinner in a cave by the beach, Samabe resort, Nusa Dua, Bali
These were both taken on our first night in Hawaii, one of the best sunsets I have ever seen!
Reunited with my good friends Phil and Ciara from back home, on a beach in Dee Why, NSW.
Newtown, new home 🙂
A year after we got married in Tokyo, my wife and I had a wedding on private beach on Oahu, Hawaii. An it was one of the best days of my life.
I have had an amazing year, it has been tough at times, and at times I have felt like I was depressed, sad and lonely, but I know how lucky I am and I try not take things for granted. Before posting this, I looked back over the posts I wrote bout the last few years, and I feel blessed. I have a wonderful family and a bunch of friends who love me for who I am.
I don’t know if anyone will read this, but if you do, just know that your life can always be way worse, stop complaining, let the people who are important to you know that you love them, and be nicer to the people around you!
Love yas,
Gary 🙂
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Deus Ex Machina – Canggu, Bali 🇮🇩
Just got to Bali, had to check out Deus after dinner, the place is HUGE!
garypatrickmannion 