Interesting Facts about Gardening...

In Cricketing Heaven (Devon)...

As I wearily finished up a week-long and rather complex session on [insert complex insurance concept here], my mind wandered to the coming weekend – the sites, sounds and smells of leather on wood await! 30 minutes to go.

I droned on, my clients struggling to stay conscious as their mind wandered to their own version of the perfect and now rapidly approaching weekend. 15 minutes to go.

As I wrapped up, the obligatory thank yous’ and handshakes were gratefully interrupted by the horn of the waiting taxi.

“Well that’s me, best of luck!”

“Thanks”

“Don’t worry, you won’t need it”

*cordial polite laughs*

The train grumbled out of Bristol parkway station, the aisles brimming with passengers like me unable to find a seat on the overcrowded train. Yet spirits were high, conversations jovial, it was the weekend! It wasn’t just any old weekend; in fact I was on my way to Exeter, to me an unheard of town on the south coast of England for my cricket club’s end of season tour.

Blessed with fantastic weather on the Saturday we trounced an under-strength Axminster Town CC, and in the gloom of the Sunday we bulldozed our way to victory over the hapless Farley CC.

As we downed our celebratory beers in the van back to London, our labours were amplified, and our journey grew epic, we had vanquished our enemies and returned home triumphant.

All photos can be found here:

Yoda

Warszawa!!

I set off in search of a chilled out holiday, I found myself returning to Warwsaw, Poland...

This time I was in a five star hotel and this time I met up with the lovely Basia - she likes beer, this is a good thing.

See the Warsaw photos here:

Read what happened last time I was in Warsaw here:

And see the Warsaw pictures from two years ago here:

I went to Madrid and ate some seafood...

Discovering Stockholm (Syndrome)...

As light snow started to fall I began to doubt the wisdom of Shay’s choice of city for our Easter break. Why couldn’t we go somewhere sunny and warm?

My fears were quickly put to rest the moment we found ourselves tucked up and warm inside everyone’s home away from home, i.e. a bar! Shay, Rony Vamsee, and I had come to Stockholm in search of many things, however what we found consisted of equal measures of beer and eye candy, and this was good enough for me!

What followed was basically a three day booze bender, and as such the memory is a little hazy but I’ll try to outline the highlights which included:

• Seeing Rony (who is the owner of the worlds most dodgy Bangladeshi passport) try to explain to the border control guy that he only wanted to enter Denmark because he was hungry.
• Vamsee spending 40 minutes picking up some Greek women in a museum.
• A visit to a club called the ‘Spy Bar’ where the boys finally got a dose of the hip-hop music they were craving, and Vamsee despite his best effort failed to pick up the young woman manning the blackjack table, though in retrospect he seemed happy enough to just win lots of cash.
• Me losing Rony at the most pivotal moment in the Spy Bar.
• No one and I mean no one, understanding what the hell Rony was saying. ‘Nuf said.
• Using the worlds worst pasta sauce to cook dinner and in the end stealing someone else’s from the fridge in the hostel just to make it edible.
• Rony travelling to Stockholm in winter without a jacket.
• Me farting loudly as an Italian woman walked past in the hostel.
• The next ten minutes wondering why the Italian woman and her friends were looking at us and talking disapprovingly in Italian.
• The numerous jokes at Rony and Shay’s expense at the time it took them to do anything.
• The frequent misunderstanding of Rony, in fact to this day I’m still confused as to what I can get when I mix a fat chick and £2
• Rony’s reaction to being in a gay bar.
• Rony’s reaction to seeing two guys kissing in a gay bar.
• And finally, Rony’s reaction to getting his photo taken with two guys kissing in a gay bar.

Until next time fellow travellers... photos here:

Principat d'Andorra…

Glancing at the time while opening the curtains to a dark and chilly December morning, I smiled, it was 5.30am and it dawned on me that I was finally on Holiday. My smile broadened to its maximum as the plane took off because with every meter gained in altitude a little bit more of the frantic and demanding pace of London was left behind.

And then it was PAIN.

As it turned out I wasn’t exactly as fit as I once was and attempting to take on 7 days of Snowboarding straight was, well downright silly! Come day three, making generous use of what little youth I have left, I was able to handle the jandal as they say, just fine. I’d like to make a shout-out to my close personal friend muscle memory.

Waking every morning to the sound of the icy stream below the hotel window we were met with hangovers, croissants, and crisp clear blue skies – the perfect combination for Snowboarding.

Alas all too soon we trudged back to London our luggage lighter on our backs, and our smiles wider on our faces. The flight of fancy we departed on had landed firmly back on earth.

Photos here: