An American Summary

Looks as if I've been pretty lazy when it comes to keeping a blog lately. Fact is that I've been keeping note of what's going on around me via pen and paper. We recently travelled to the USA - a fact that nobody who knows us escaped knowing about - and on that trip I carried a notepad that took the form of a journal.

We spent 3 nights New York City, followed by 2 full weeks in Orlando, Florida. I kept fully on top of my journal keeping in Orlando, jotting down a summary of each day's and each evening's anecdotes. I'm still to finish writing up what went down  New York as I quite frankly ran out of time in 'the city that never sleeps'. We filled our few days in Manhattan with probably as much as we got up to the whole two weeks in Orlando, as evidenced by the fact that we took as many photos in Manhattan as we did in Orlando. With seeing so much in so little time, we barely found time to sleep, let alone for me to get any writing done! My original plan had been to transfer the contents of the notebook onto this blog, however I hadn't anticipated the fact that I might actually fill almost the entire thing - both sides of the paper. Ain't no way I'm transcribing that whole thing when I'm not even done finishing it ('ain't no' - so there's still a chance, one day). If any of our friends or family ever to read the whole novel-length version of our holiday events, feel free to ask. Everyone else, here's a summary:

• Don't step past the line unless told to. Otherwise you get told off.
• Tam got upgraded to a suite overlooking Times Square while Stacey and I got upgraded to a handicapped room... it had a shower-room, so...
• Fringe is Off The Hinge... whatever that means.
• What I saw of Newsies on Broadway was excellent; jetlag is stupid.
• They have Kim Kardashian's sex tape on pay-per-view in the Hilton.
• The Muppets Took Manhattan... in the form of my socks.
• In a single day we cycled around Central Park, reached Top of the Rock, rode the Subway, saw the Statue of Liberty, felt the impact of 9/11 in both the museum and at the very touching and tasteful memorial fountains, and made like King Kong by climbing the Empire State Building.
• The NBC Studio Store has Chuck merchandise. Yes, I bought a Captain Awesome t-shirt.
• Nintendo World was a disappointment.
• Heartland Breweries!
• Wrestlemania at Metlife Stadium was incredible to experience... New Jersey Transit was not. Thank goodness for good company in Team Passey/Major and the dodgy bus that took us back to the city  for an undisclosed fee that would be the best fifteen bucks each of us ever spent.
• New York taxi drivers are awesome!
• One of the first things we saw in Orlando was a proper sons-of-anarchy type biker riding down the road and rockin' out to 'Girls just wanna have fun'.
• Macaroni cheese... on a pizza.
• Walt Disney World is 48 square miles and runs the third largest bus company in the whole of the US... so yeah, it's pretty big.
• There are also awesome taxi drivers in Orlando; they just happen to be from New York.
• Overall I'd say that Universal Studios is better than Islands of Adventure, but Islands of Adventure has Harry Potter World and Marvel so if I had to choose my favourite park, I'd count the whole Universal area as one.
• We went to Busch Gardens and fed giraffes and it was awesome!
• IHOP does a pretty good breakfast, Denny's meh.
• I won a shot by guessing that a quote was from Tropic Thunder in Senor Frog's
• A Rogue Dead Guy tastes amazing - one of the best ales I've ever had, served at Miller's Ale House where they even had a whole Vegetarian Menu to make Stacey's day!
• A slice of NBA City's Three-Point Carrot Cake defeated me.
• We still had to go shopping, but it was kinda worth it for the Batman Converse.
• Going home sucks, especially when you find yourself on a night flight with screaming brats.

I could summarise further by just saying that we ate in the world's largest Appleby's, the world's largest Hard Rock Cafe, the world's largest Planet Hollywood, the world's largest Rainforest Cafe and the world's largest 'entertainment McDonald's'. Oh and Bubba Gumps which I'm so happy to know is a real thing in the world.

New Year's Revolution

Happy New Year!

As always the festive period disappeared way too quickly for my liking. Usually at this time I'd be looking straight ahead to that time of year when I can comfortably get away with wearing three-quarter length shorts and a t-shirt with no socks and can go out on bike rides in the evenings after work. Summertime! This year however, I'm looking to a time a little nearer. Our America trip is fast approaching; it was eleven months away when we booked it and we've now only got two and a half months to go.

In the Meantime...

Life's going pretty well and I can't particularly complain. I'm doing well at work (at least I think I am) and having been there over a year now have hit my stride. To kick-off the year, we were all dragged up to London last Friday for our 2013 'Kick-Off Conference'. Most of the day was all about business and the like, spruced up by the appearance of a magician in the bar area while we were waiting to enter the auditorium for the day - he made a coin appear in my closed fist; I tried to play it cool as if I were only mildly impressed, but who am I kidding? It was freaking awesome! - and a prank on everyone to kick start the day which we were told was confidential, although that may have been part of the prank... whatever.

After a day of learning about how we all did in the year just gone, a couple of awards given out to a few of my colleagues and a look ahead to what we can expect in 2013, we were treated to the biggest surprise of all. It was about seven in the evening, it was a Friday night and everybody was restless. Why were they keeping us here on a Friday night? The answer was given as the curtain that marked the back of the stage we'd all been staring at for the past nine hours parted and revealed that the stage in fact went back much further. And to top it off, it had been filled by a fully-fledged carnival complete with candyfloss, popcorn and booze as well as funfair games (You can bet I hit the bell with the oversized hammer), a bucking bronco and another stage, on the stage, with a live band for the night. It was great and I think it's safe to say that all involved had a tremendous night.

The next night, my little sis turned a decade old and I learnt that when I have a kids one day - one very distant day - I really don't want to have girls. They're a nightmare. Stacey and I were dragged out, although treated to a nice Mexican meal, to assist the parents in the party. Little girls it turns out are very loud and spill a lot of drinks. I'm sighing just thinking of it.

Happy Birthday, Pops!

Knees 2 Faces

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get back in shape and to start some sort of new exercise. I've chosen kickboxing and the first lesson pretty much killed me. The sessions are two hours long and my body just wasn't used to that level of activity. It probably has something to do with sitting in front of a desk for nine hours a day, five days a week. I ached for about half a week. Stacey had come with me to the first lesson and didn't go back. I returned this week though and although I had to try and break out some sit-ups (Seriously?), I felt nowhere near as achy as in the previous week. Those muscles that I didn't even know existed must have limbered up already! Now I just need to keep it up and make sure to get some more exercise in during the week so as not to lose any momentum.

My other New Year's Resolutions are literary based in that I want to try and read more and I want to finish the novel I've been typing away at for the last year and a bit. Whether it'll wind up being any good is a whole different story, but I at least want to be able to close out the next twelve months knowing that I made and reached that finish line. As for the reading of more, I've already read the whole of Life of Pi for which I will say that the hype is real. I'm now reading the Great American Novel The Great Gatsby. I don't know much about Gatsby himself just yet, but I already want to be him - I now really hope he doesn't turn out to be something sinister having said that.

Blockbusted

The thing that's inspired me most to write a little something this evening is news that emerged this afternoon about Blockbuster joining the ranks of so many high street chains by going into administration. My first job (not including my paper-round back in the day) was with Woolworths, who of course became one of the first major casualties of the recession. Fortunately for me, I never had to endure redundancy myself having left to work at Blockbuster just a couple of months before Woolies closed their doors for good. 

I enjoyed a good few years at Blockbuster and just as with 'Team Woolworths', made some friends that I'll stay in touch with for the long run. My thoughts were immediately with my former colleagues when I read the news this afternoon. They'll all be fine no matter what happens, I'm sure of it, but the situation still sucks. From what I've heard in some of the changes that were brought in since I left and from the fact that the business was unable to adapt in this ever-changing fast-paced technologically-led world, it's not too much of a surprise. The way it went down reeks of Woolies though. Rash decisions being made from above and inflicted unfairly on staff at store level. And the fact that most staff will have only heard about the possibility of looming redundancy via the media along with the rest of the general public; it's given me a real sense of deja vu. I remember finding out that the Woolworths ship was sinking just over four years ago on the BBC 6 o' clock news.

For all my former Blockbuster brothers (and sisters), one thing's for sure: we'll all have to go out on the lash at some point real soon! What has it been, like a year since we all went out for a good, proper drinking sesh?

See you soon, guys.

All of the Lights...

...and a shit on the floor!

Everyone who know me well - or knows me at all - will also know how I feel about this time of year. It's quite obvious that I still get overly excited about Christmas and anything and everything to do with it. As far as the festive period goes, I won't ever grow up; and why should I?

This is the first proper Christmas at my work and I think that the full extent of my Christmas lunacy kicked in for everyone there at about the beginning of November when I started counting down to the 'Big Day'. We've got our Christmas do coming up this Wednesday and this year I won't feel the need to hold back so much, as last year's Christmas party was held on my third or fourth day on the job, so I was understandably a little withdrawn. This year, I'm going for it! We're also going to be holding a Secret Santa, for which I put together a big, Christmas wrapping paper covered box for everyone to drop their secret presents into. I named that part of the office our 'Present Point'.

Out of work, festivities have already gotten underway. Stacey and I have already watched a few Christmas movies; the first two Santa Clause movies with Mr. Xmas himself, Tim Allen and The Holiday which didn't seem like the most Christmassy of films, but nevertheless was a great watch. And now that it's actually December and the first couple of doors of my Spiderman advent calendar have been opened, it's free reign to watch as many Christmas movies as possible.Oh! Oh! And I've also been reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on my Kindle. I think it's safe to say that I'm 95% in the Christmas spirit - all that's left is to put up our tree (happening later on this very day) and we're set.

All of the Lights, All of the Lights!

The true kick-off event for Christmas in my little world is the switching on of the lights in my little town. It's become a kind of tradition over the last few years that the last weekend of November is the town's Christmas festival, where one of the car parks in the centre of town becomes a funfair for the entire weekend; Friday night thru Sunday, ending with the switching on of the lights down the High Street and a decent fireworks display. 

The funfair this year had been moved to a bigger car park which meant more rides. We had Waltzers and a Vortex (like the one in Thorpe Park) and a mammoth catapult type ride named Oxygen. A few friends went on Oxygen (which doesn't actually catapult you) and with Stacey and little sister Popster rode on the several rides including the Waltzers. The final ride of my Friday night was a nasty little thing called Extreme which I can only describe as a smaller version of the Samurai ride at Thorpe Park... Smaller, but a lot faster and much more violent! I have never been made to feel sick from a ride, until Extreme. It was a bit horrid, although I did enjoy it while we were in flight as it threw you and span you around so much that you really had no idea where you were. In a morbid way, I quite enjoyed experiencing what some wimps out there must feel like after going on regular theme park rides.

On the 'Frog Jump' Ride

The Sunday light-switching on ceremony (for lack of a tackier word) was a bit drawn out due to the fact that a Take That tribute band were shoved on the crowds, repeatedly. That's right, we didn't even get a Z-list celebrity, but a bloody tribute act. Not only did they play an hour-long set to kick things off (an hour in the pub for me), but after the lights were turned on, they came back on for another forty-five minute set before the fireworks display. At least there were no real issues with the lights this year as for probably the first time ever, they all came on exactly when they were meant to! I just don't understand why our council tax was spent on subjecting us to the torture that is Fake That.

Hard Rockin' in a Winter Wonderland

Last night we celebrated Stacey's upcoming Silver Birthday. That's right, my girl is getting old. She'll be a quarter of a century old! Back in August I booked a table for eighteen - which would eventually get bumped up to nineteen - at London's Hard Rock Cafe near Hyde Park. Due to the location, a few of us went up during the afternoon and had a wander through the intense crowding of Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland.

We all had ourselves a warm, festive and alcoholic drink, be that mulled wine or an amaretto latte and Jason and Nick managed to pack away a foot-long hotdog each just hours before our mega three-course meal at Hard Rock. The Winter Wonderland was pretty awesome and could only have been better if it was just a  little less crowded. I'm not trying to sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but the amount of people was ridiculous. It was like being herded like cattle. 

There were some pretty good rides there, some of which had been in town the weekend before, such as versions of Oxygen and Vortex. Stacey and I rode on the Vortex ride in Hyde Park and boy was it a much more extreme version of Thorpe Parks. It was a lot smaller than the ride at the theme park, as the circle of seat was a lot tighter. However, this went much higher in that it damn near swung all the way round and upside down. It also spun a lot more than the one at Thorpe Park does. And to cap it off, just as it slowed down to a finish, a countdown begun at the end of which we were sent flying into the air yet again! I loved it!

I'd like to go back to the Wonderland, preferably when it's less busy (if that is ever the case) as it was extremely festive and is what I imagine somewhere like Canada to be like with these little cabin-like pubs and all-round Winter fun. There was also a 'Maggie's Farm Burgers' stall which is funny only due to the fact that our friend Chris inexplicably calls Stacey 'Maggie'. It's something to do with the Lizzie McGuire film coming out when we all worked at Woolworths together and... to be honest I have no idea.

As we walked out of the park and started heading across to the Hard Rock Cafe, we had to go down into a subway to cross one of the roads. This was definitely the low-point of the day as when we were climbing down the staircase, the stairs switched direction and in the corner of the stairwell was a shit. I'm not talking a solid dog poo. No, this was a human shit. All sludgy and, gees even the thought of it... it was proper gag-worthy! Of course I spent the rest of night paranoid that I might have trodden in a  bit of it. It was extremely gross and the whole of the subway tunnel absolutely reeked of it. All of us were retching except for the Birthday Girl who hadn't smelt a thing and hadn't seen it either. I wonder what that says about her?

THERE  WAS A SHIT ON THE FLOOR - I still can't stop moaning on about it! I mean, it was a shit... and it was on the floor! A shit on the floor!

As if the shit on the floor hadn't stressed me out enough (I do have a sort of OCD when it comes to cleanliness after all), the stress of making sure everything went to plan caused me to go a little grey. There were to be nineteen of us in all and the Hard Rock wouldn't seat us until everyone was there as the queue for people just turning up out of the blue for a meal was over two hours long, so they need to make sure they're using all tables and seats at all times. A couple of people were running late, understandably with trains and such, but it did get to me a little. I got a little worried that they might cancel our table and all sorts. Eventually we managed to get seated and everything was fine. Things always have a way of working out in the end; I just need to remember that. 

The food in Hard Rock was great and we were sat near some memorabilia of Big Audio Dynamite who I'd never heard of, but were fronted by Mick Jones of The Clash. The coolest thing that I saw in the restaurant though was the famous guitar of Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Zakk Wylde.

That's Nick and John trying to rock out just below shot

We had specially made menu's with our food options and the name of the event at the top 'Stacey's 25th Birthday celebration' which was pretty cool. We all took a menu home as a memento of the evening. After three courses and several drinks had been put away by all (Jason also managed to pack in two hot fudge sundaes on top of his dinner and the aforementioned foot-long hotdog), we moved on across the road to the Hard Rock Shop and as we'd been a big party booking, got to have access the Rock Vault for free. The Rock Vault was incredible as it contained all kinds of rare rock treats. We had a couple of guides down with us, telling us about all of the artifacts and a few Hard Rock stories. It was interesting to hear that despite all of the famous instruments and clothing in the vault, the most expensive thing in the room was a scrap of paper. It wasn't any old scrap of paper though as it was the very piece of former-tree that John Lennon had written the lyrics to Imagine on. It was worth over £400,000!

I also mentioned to one of the guides about how I loved getting to see Zakk Wylde's guitar up in the restaurant, to which he told me a story about how earlier in the year Zakk had come in to the restaurant very drunk and had tried to take his guitar back. He had been escorted out the restaurant (no messin'!) and that is why that particular guitar is now encased in glass, whereas every other guitar in the place is out on clear - and reachable - display.

After leaving Hard Rock, we took a nighttime stroll through Green park and then down The Mall. Unfortunately we weren't invited into Buckingham Palace for night-cap, but made our way over to Leicester Square. We stopped in All Bar One, it was rather busy and so we did the usual thing we all seem to do in big groups and thought we'd move on to find somewhere less busy. It's London on a Saturday night, let's face it there would've been nowhere less busy, but still we trudged along, looked in a few places and... wound up back in All Bar One. We got ourselves a drink each and sat at a couple of tables outside on an early December night in Leicester Square telling stories and having a laugh. I enjoyed and hope that everyone else (especially my birthday girl) did too; even if it was a wee bit nippy.

It was then time to head home as we were freezing our bits off and of course the night wouldn't have been complete without a train cancellation due to 'irreparable damage' - thanks South Eastern, as always thank you very much!

And I would like to finish with a sincere thanks to all of you that spent your time and money on coming up to London with us. Thanks a million, I hope you enjoyed it as much as Stacey did.

27/10

The twenty-seventh of October is always a special date in my calendar. It's our anniversary. And yesterday, we reached seven. Five years ago on this weekend, the twenty-seventh fell on a Saturday as it did this year. I remember the 2007 version fondly as rather than celebrate privately, we had a big Woolworths party to celebrate the store doing so well at them time - if only we'd known then what Woolies was in for just a year later! That party is still something I think back on regularly as the whole weekend was pretty epic. Not only were Stacey and I celebrating two years of togetherness by staying at a swanky hotel, but we got to be a part of a kick-as party with some of our greatest friends. Then the following day, I got to go to the first in the NFL's International Series at Wembley, where I saw my team - The New York GIANTS - defeat my Dad's team, the Dolphins.

Fast forward half a decade and two leap years and the twenty seventh has fallen on a Saturday again. I'll rewind to Friday first of all though as I thoroughly enjoyed my last day of the working week. It was Germany Day or something along those lines at work. For those of you wondering it basically meant that we got beer and pretzels and Kinder chocolate while we worked. Oh, and silly/awesome hats! As good as work was, it was still work and I had a couple of reasons to look forward to my Friday night, the first of which was four years in the making...

Bond is back (in case you hadn't heard)! Stacey and I had the tickets booked a month ago to go and see the new film on opening night and following all of the hype and four whole years of waiting, it effing delivered, bigtime. In fact it was so good that the other film that came out this year that had been four years in the making - The Avengers - has been knocked off of its spot of my film of the year. I won't give anything away, but after a disappointing Quantum of Solace in '08, studio finance problems and a long wait, Skyfall proved worth the wait. I won't give anything away, I'll just suggest that everyone go an see it in the cinema!

After the film, we headed into town join a night-out-in-progress as our chum, my brother from another mother (and father) was celebrating his birthday. We had a couple of drinks on what was a cold, late night; the highlight being running into my very drunken colleague Aaron (who remember, would have been drinking all day due to Germany day) who did his wasted best to hit on our friend Sarah.

Saturday was the big one though. Five years on from the Woolies party and Stacey and I spent our anniversary at another party; this one being for my Dad's fiftieth birthday. The party was a surprise that my Mum had been planning for a while. It was a surprise party that wasn't exactly handled in the traditional jump out and shout 'Surprise!' kind of way. Instead, Mum told Dad that just four of their friends were coming over for a couple of drinks. Then, others would just pop by  to drop off cards, etc. until a party broke out. My Dad had a great time and hadn't suspected a thing, not even before anyone got there when Mum was clearly putting out way too much food and drink for just six people! It was a great idea that actually worked, despite being a little backwards.

Needless to say today was the fallout - or rather the clear-up. I did my part by getting little sis out of the way. I then returned to the parents' house to watch this year's NFL Wembley game. I love a bit of American football and the only thing that could have made the weekend any better than it was was if I'd been at Wembley to boo the Patriots in person! I'm happy with the news that there will be two games in London next year though as the NFL continue their path to eventually have a team in London.

That'll do it for me as it's getting on a bit and being Sunday night, it's a school-night - unless you actually work at a school in which case, think of me while you're off for half term!

Happy Anniversary, Stacey.

My Olympic Story

I've been meaning to share my stories of the London 2012 Games for a while now (it's almost been a month since I attended on the closing day) and with today's parade fully wrapping the whole thing up, I thought I'd best get to it.

The Paralytic Games

Many of you reading this may already know this story. If I haven't told you the following story, please know in advance that it's not something I'm entirely proud of, even if in hindsight it is pretty funny.

It was the night of the Opening Ceremony. I was missing the festivities on TV as I was out for drinks with work, which can prove dangerous due to the fact that our drinks are often paid for on the company. On this particular night, I didn't know when to refuse a beverage and spent the night on Leffe which is pretty strong stuff. Needless to say, I wound up not remembering much of the night and apparently just wandered off to get a train home by myself. I apparently also still possessed the sense to phone ahead to Stacey to let her know that I was on my way home.

Stacey could hear the slur in my voice down the end of the phone and decided to drive up to the station to pick me up when my train got in. After several minutes of waiting in the car, she decided to wait inside the station where she overheard a conversation over the walkie-talkie of one of the station staff. The conversation was concerning a chap who had had too much to drink, been sick on a train and collapsed on the platform. That chap was moi! Rather than turn and run, Stacey to her credit owned up and claimed me from the station staff. I'm told that two of the men that worked there carried me up the length of the platform, up the steps, and out to the car - even doing up my seatbelt for me.

The wonderful Stacey then somehow managed to get my carcass up to our flat and into the bathroom where I spent the night sleeping on the floor. She slapped me about a bit to try and wake me (a fruitless effort I'm told) and stayed up most of the night to make sure I didn't swallow my tongue or drown in my own spew. Finally, at 5pm, she managed to wake me, get me showered and properly to bed. I've already said it to her, but feel I should once again say: Thank You.

Unfortunately for me, I was meant to be going to the first round of Women's Volleyball the next day. Due to my condition, I couldn't make it. So while Stacey and her Nan (who was taking my place) went up to watch two excellent matches, I spent the afternoon and evening being looked after by my Mum and Sister. I did feel better after my Mum's tried and true hangover cure of alca-seltzer and scrambled egg on toast.

I'm hoping I've now learnt my lesson and will be trying to pace myself a little better from now on.

The Finals

On the closing day of the games, Stacey and me went up to the ExCel to see the Freestyle Wrestling finals in both the Middleweight and Heavyweight categories. We were some of the only Brits in attendance with the only others I saw being the woman and her young son sitting next to us. The kid acted like a proper brat and forced his Mum to drag him out halfway through, leaving us with a mix of Americans, Japanese, Indians, Georgians and more. The atmosphere was incredible, as we saw Japan take the Middleweight Gold and the USA take the Heavyweight. We would later find out that there was some controversy with the Japanese winner as apparently in an earlier round he's bitten an opponent without the referees seeing (it was just like WWE-type shenanigans)! 

Our View of the Wrestling Mats

Another highlight of that final day of the Games at the Excel was the fact that we also managed to get our hands on an Olympic torch. The temptation to just go for a run with it was huge, but I doubt I'd have made it out alive...

Today...

...Well, technically yesterday now as it's 01:11am at the present time of writing this very sentence, but I still count it as earlier today as I'm still up. It was of course the big parade to celebrate Team GB and the GB Paralympic team. As Stacey and I are currently off of work for a couple of weeks, we headed up to watch it go pass. 

Mo Farrah... kept doing his pose until we wanted a photo!

We got there early enough that we were right up front near St. Paul's cathedral. The crowd soon grew and I became majorly claustrophobic. It was great though, as once again we were in a crowd that created an electric atmosphere. As well as spotting Mo, we also saw Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and more. Becky Addlington did seem a little more interested in her phone than the crowd (maybe she was trying to catch a snapshot of me?) and Tom Daley was waving our way until Stacey pressed the button to take a photo, at which point he turned his back to us!

Unlike Becky, Chris did actually wave and look happy to be there

The back of Tom Daley's head (honest)

It was a good little day out, which we added to with a catch-up with my West-End buddy James Drury and by purchasing tickets to Shrek The Musical. We opted for the cheapest tickets possible, located up in the nosebleed section - however, when we arrived for the show that evening we were told that the top balcony was closed and that we were receiving a free upgrade... to the second row of the stalls! Front and centre, baby! Our seats were amazing and it was all the sweeter for the fact that we'd paid a small fraction of the price. I loved the spectacle of how they pulled off some of the special effects. Apparently it's closing early next year, so if you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

And that's it, my Olympic stories. All finished. I'm not mourning though like I know Stacey is as the NFL is now back! Heck, I'm watching MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL as I type.

A lovely rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny day.

Two blogs in as many days? Blimey! - Having just spent a great day exploring the great outdoors I wanted to share some of it with the world. Stacey and I spent the Thursday of our week off with John and Nick as we headed off to Bedgebury forest and pinetum, stopping off for a Frankie and Benny's breakfast on the way (apart from Stacey who forgot the plan and got up and ate some cereal immediately - she still had some toast at F&B's... greedy-guts)!

I'd also like to mention that the title of this blog is plagiarised from John's Facebook status. It was indeed another schizophrenic day weather-wise as we were drenched in glorious sunshine one moment, only to be simply drenched the next. The back and forth weather only added to the day though, as it meant that we got to experience a bigger variety of sights and sounds.

We kick started our time there with some ice creams (thanks Nick!) and a wander around the lake where we made some new friends...

Nick, John and Stacey with our new friend, named Pingu

I mentioned in yesterday's entry about how I'd bought both flip-flops and wellies in the same day. Well the wellies accompanied me today, however for some reason (*cough*Nick*cough*) we all decided to leave our wellies in the car. This proved to be a slight mistake when we opted off of the proper course and wound up walking along a mud-road. Squelch!

We then got to see what 'Going Ape' would entail and Stacey did mention that she's even more against the idea of trying out the tree-top adventure having seen how high up you are when you do it. A few minutes later, she did admit that she did also want to conquer it... who knows, maybe one day I'll get to have a go. I sure got the chance to warm up for it today...

Flattering photos courtesy of 'BiroBoy' John Tresadern

Another highlight of the day was finding a real-life Glory Hole. Seriously, nature's full of all sorts...

Nature's Glory Hole - There's even a pleasant welcome sign...

All in all it was a great day well spent. It's easy to forget that there are some really beautiful scenes right near to where I live. We now aim to go back every season to see how it looks there as the climate changes; not that I see there being much of a change in the Autumn as at times it didn't exactly feel very summery.

Until next time, here's a few more of my photos:

Aussie Invasion

It's been a couple of months since I added a post to this thing and I was reminded today of the blog and decided to check-in. I've got a couple of Olympic related stories to write about, but they can wait a little while longer - possibly until later on this week. I was reminded of the blog today over a coffee at Starbucks today while a couple of girls managed to spend the best part of an hour (it may have been longer, I didn't actually keep track) in Hollister... I think they may have just been lost within the dark and scary maze of a clothing store.

The girls were Stacey and Tam, the person sat in Starbucks reminding me of my blog was Dan. Tam and Dan moved over to Australia at the beginning of the year and are over for a visit. Despite having travelled eight thousand, or possibly nine thousand miles to get to the UK, the couple have had plenty of road time while back. The main purpose for their visit at this specific time was for them to attend the wedding of Dan's sister which from the sounds of things involved them travelling up and and down the height of the country. With that behind them, they still managed to fit in a couple of days with Stacey and me who have had this week booked off of work (our first week off this year and I think it's safe to say 'a much needed rest').

They arrived at ours on Monday afternoon complete with gifts. I now have a genuine Australian boomerang! We caught up, although as with when anyone ever meets up for the first time in a long period of time, you find yourself racking your brains to think of what you've been up to. I was certainly starting to wonder whether the last eight months had been completely uneventful, but over the course of the following forty-eight hours, we managed to all catch-up properly. We wound Monday up with a nice meal at Kim and Peter's. Steak night to do it right!

Tuesday saw us off to Thorpe Park, meeting up with some of Stacey's family. Unfortunately it is still the school summer holidays and as such the queues were ridonkulously long - an hour and a half for Colossus anyone? Even if you don't think the ride lives up to its name, that line did! We did get to hit pretty much all of the rides that we wanted to though including the new for 2012 Swarm. For those of you that missed the ads on TV earlier this year, Swarm is a rollercoaster on which the seat are sticking out from the side of the track and wheels, so essentially you're sitting on a flying seat with nothing above you, nothing below you. The queue for this one was a whopper too and what's worse is that parts of it were hidden. I kind of expect them to do this, but at one point in the line, you pass the end of the queue which was a complete bastard of a tease, especially as we then found that we'd only made half way. The ride itself was fantastic though. Swarm glides smoother than any rollercoaster I've previously been on - the highlight of the ride being as you glide around a lake, water spraying up as you fly over it. It was incredible. Oh, and I should mention the safety bar/seatbelt/harness or whatever those things are on rides that clamp down over your shoulders to prevent you from being thrown to a bloody and messy death, as on Swarm they were extremely comfortable. I just can't wait until the day that you don't have to wait an age in the scorching sunlight to ride it.

On our ride home that night, we decided to phone ahead to a local curry house to order some food to collect on our way home as it was getting late. I found their number online thanks to the wonders of smart phones and made the call. I started making our order to the chap over the phone and then I lost signal. A couple of minutes later and I'm back on the phone to the guy finishing off the placing of our order with him.
'Brilliant, we're about five minutes away.' I tell him.
'OK we'll start getting it ready for you now. You say you're five minutes away?' asks the guy at the restaurant.
'That's right we're just coming up to Tudely now.' I once again inform him.
'Tudely?' the guy asks. 'This is Tumeric Gold in Swansea, do you have the right one?'
My response to the last question: 'Whoops, nope!'
We wound up arriving at the right restaurant a minute later and had to order there and then.

Yesterday I got sun-burnt, today I bought wellies

That takes us to today. The girls wanted to go shopping, with Tam needing some stuff to take back to Oz. While there I bought myself a new pair of flip-flops for my upcoming holiday, my old pair having broke last night while taking the rubbish from our Indian takeaway out to the dustbins. It didn't take too long for Stacey and Tam to find themselves in the newly expanded (oh joy!) Hollister. Dan and I attempted a search and rescue at one point and actually did get lost in there! For reals. Tam and Stacey seemed happy in the darkness, breathing in whatever fumes they pump out in that place. Dan and I therefore went and grabbed a coffee from neighbouring Starbucks. Thanks again for the coffee, Dan. We got chatting and I mentioned my writing which prompted my realising my neglect of this blog and in turn prompted this entry. When the girls managed to escape the clutches of the Hollister curse we discovered a new roller-disco (which we didn't have time to try out unfortunately) and ate a mega lunch at GBK. I couldn't actually finish mine as - still being on my meat-is-a-very-rare-treat diet - I had a goat's cheese burger assuming it'd be some kind of veggie burger with a sliver of goat's cheese in the bun. Nope, this was an actual burger of goat's cheese! Imagine the cod you get in a chippy, remove the cod and fill the batter with an extremely thick portion of goat's cheese and that's what you have here. Now I love me some goat's cheese, but this was way too rich and sickly. It was so sickly that I had to calm my tongue and insides down by washing it down with an Oreo milkshake!

As soon as we got back from shopping, we had time for a last cup of tea before Tam and Dan left us. Stacey and I both hope you guys enjoyed staying with us. After an extended goodbye thanks to a truck blocking them from driving away for a good few minutes, we set off into town despite the rain that poured down upon us. Still having two days off, tomorrow we're heading to the forest with friends Nick and John. With the weather suddenly being as wet and miserable as it is once again, I thought it best to buy myself a new pair of wellies as it's likely to be muddy tomorrow.

It's funny how life goes sometimes; one day I'm getting sun-burnt (the back of my neck particularly sore after Thorpe Park yesterday), the next I begin the day by buying flip-flops, only to finish it buying wellington boots due to the rain.

Winter is coming... unless you're Tam and/or Dan who will be soon entering the Aussie Summer.