The luck of the Irish

Well a couple of things have been going on since my last post, but nothing of great importance.
Thursday 9th November was the return of the great Springbok Nude Girls(SNG) at the Shepard's Bush Empire, they were supported by The Parlatones and then Prime Circle. All in all it was a great concert. Bubblegum on my boots started and a fair section of the crowd started expending their energy in the form of a mosh pit, which caused something in Mr Burden's head to snap, attempt to grab me... missed... and dragged an unsuspecting Mr Shuttleworth into the belly of this monster. Seeing Brad disappear reminded me of the movies when some creature drags their unsuspecting victim into the river/lake/ocean etc, the same wide eyed look of surprise and arms grabbing at fresh air to stop this... and with that the dissolved into the mass of bouncing people. Rearranging my bag so things couldn't fall out I followed suit. Perhaps not a great idea for someone my size. But it was fun nonetheless. Getting home at about 1am it was packing the last of the bags and getting some shut eye before the cab came to fetch us for the start of our Dublin trip.

Timeline

3:00 - wake up, get dressed, wake Kev, get back into bed
3:25 - cab calls, he's outside, wake Kev again.... stumble outside
3:50 - arrive at Liverpool street station in the freezing cold
4:00 - station opens
4:15 - can smell bacon and eggs, just can't find them
4:30 - catch Stanstead Express to airport
4:40 - sleep
5:15 - arrive at airport and try to check in (Ryanair is less than helpful)
5:30 - finally get checked in and move to a) find food b) find boarding gate
6:00 - board plane, sleep
6:20 - plane takes off
8:30 - land in Dublin

On arriving in Dublin we caught a bus into the city center and tried to find out hostel. We got there and booked in, and were told that we could only get into the room at 3ish... now being 10:30 and both of us desperately needing sleep you may as well have told us we could check in next week. So it was off to find McD's breakfast and something to occupy our time. We took a bit of a walk around and Kev showed me Trinity College which is really beautiful, then we headed out and caught a bus tour of Dublin, stopping at Dublin Castle which we got off to have a look at, the Guinness Brewery, which is huge and very interesting. Then back to temple bar and home for a nap.

A while later it was off to meet Mr O'Connor for a couple of drinks... unsurprisingly this led to us getting back to said hostel at about 4am. I'll have to ask Tim what the second place was that we went to but it looked like something out of a fairytale. It really was an amazing place... with the prices to match.

Saturday morning was spent wandering around temple bar before heading off to Lansdowne Road to watch the Boks take on the Irish. Being that it was only apparently about 15-20 minute walk away we decided to walk. It turns out that the distance between our hostel and Lansdowne Road as the crow flies is only about 3-4 miles. However when you have to take into account the round about route you have to take to get there you end up doing closer to 7miles, which takes just over an hour. We made our way into an Irish pub called Paddy Cullens for a couple of drinks and to watch the English lose to Argentina... :-)
Anyway, the match was okay. Seeing our guys get flattened by the Irish wasn't great, but the atmosphere was good.
A quiet night followed the rugby with trying to find somewhere to eat in Temple bar, but with half of dublin there it proved to be tricky. We found a little quiet Italian place which was nice enough but when things went wrong there they went wrong...(but that's another post altogether)
Sunday rolled around and we did some more walking, going to see the Book of Kells, at Trinity College, but the queue was mad so we left if for another time. Then searching for hot chocolate for Kev proved unsuccessful we headed back to the hostel to warm up before heading out to the Jameson Distillery which was very interesting to see (I'll load some pics at some point)

Then Monday and we eventually went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College which was quite interesting. And then it was time to head back to London after a very good weekend.
Hopefully the Boks will remember how to play rugby sometime before 2007.

Thanks Hawk

You Are a Lime Margarita

Realistic and grounded, you have the energy to tackle any obstacle that stands in your way. Hyper and driven, you despise lazy behavior of all kinds... especially lazy drunks too tired to dance!

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

Soundtrack to life

It's something that's been floating around in my head for a while now and I know it's something that will constantly pass throught my mind. But what is the song that defines now... I don't think I can ever really say what my favourite song is, because it'll keep changing, much like life. Nothing is constant or dependable, except for dead and taxes as the old saying goes. So my song for the moment is AAR - Move along.

Even though it's Sunday night and another week starts at sunrise I don't think I'm actually not looking forward to it. It's a monotony that repeats itself week by week. But it's a distraction from being in my head.

The cobbled paving on memory lane

Ever had that feeling where you have one of those fantastic day dreams that takes you back over the good times of the past?
I've finished my last book that I was reading so I haven't had anything to read on the morning commute into the office which takes about half an hour so my mind has been drifting back in time to old times. Please note that this is just my mind rambling and is not intended to be informative or interesting to anyone else.... but hey, it's my blog and I'll blog what i want to :-)


Here are a few of the memories that have been swirling around in my head lately.

1. Arriving in Stellies for the first time, not knowing anyone and taking a drive around campus at night and getting horribly lost... for those of you who know stellies knows that getting lost there isn't easy. Seeing my res for the first time and looking around and being surrounded by mountains which were covered with bright green trees and the smell of rain in the air. Moving into res and the first morning trying to find my way to classes with only the building abbreviations, if you don't know where the BJ is it's pretty hard to find... since it doesn't actually say BJ anywhere on the building. Sitting through my first philosophy lecture in afrikaans and trying hard to follow. Then going to Inligtingsvardighede (insert 3 numbers here) and even being a month late for the start of term having my first lesson be how to change the font size of a document and then saving it...... needless to say... apart from tests that's the last I saw of that class.

2. Meeting some interesting people in my first couple of weeks and enjoying the vibe around karnaval.... somehow I don't remember vensters much, there may have been mitigating factors with that...

3. Meeting Retha and Sam and going to Cape Town for the first time in nearly 10 years... perfect autumn days and sitting on Clifton 4 with a bottle of wine and candles watching the sunset and the ocean lazily wash onto the beach... everything seemed so chilled and laid back there. And after that discovering La Med for the first time and their amazing pizzas and cocktails.

4 The breakfast run.... unbeknownst to me at that stage if you're walking back to res and the sun is already up it's customary to run from tree to tree and avoid being seen.... and then getting told off by my HK, who has actually only walked into res about 5 minutes before me.

5. Huis dans was always a great time, finding a date, the hair, the dress, ah the joys of being female. But for the life of me I can't remember the venue of my first one.. probably still have the invite at home somewhere.

6. Going to my first debate... :-)
I thought most of the people there were weird... not that I'm far wrong on that actually, but I found them incredibly interesting so I ended up staying. Admittedly for the first while I did my utmost to avoid the more outspoken members of the society... hey, some of you were pretty scary to a at that stage (don't laugh now) shy free state girl.

So a year went past and getting settled was easier than I thought it would be... meeting some of the amazing people I know now and discovering a whole new world that I never knew existed.

I guess I've got a lot more things going through my head than I thought I did... so let's call this a work in process

The spaces between

I realise that I've sort of let this fall between the cracks, but that's unavoidable at the moment. So this is a sort of apology/ don't really know. I'm probably going to be neglecting my blog for the next bit due to a whole heap of things... but promise when I come back i'll bring pictures with me.... and if things go right perhaps of a nice weekend in Amsterdam.... Till then... ciao

What if?

Not mine, belongs to Mr Kipling, but I really like it and thought I would share

The first paragraph .... well, i feel a bit like that today... okay, and the second

If
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Anthony Kiedis and Flea.... ring any bells?

Tuesday night saw about 10 000 people heading out to Earls Court Areana to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Usually you're expecting someone like the peppers to have a fairly well known support act. For our night it was !!! Google's archnemisis...
Standing around having a beer and waiting for the show to start.... and then the lights went out and the cheering started. Heading back inside we saw the support act had taken to the stage... 9 of them... 2 lead singers, 4 people on the drums, 2 guitarists and one random rolling around on the floor... Honestly if you ever get the chance to see !!! otherwise known as pitchfork... RUN... it's probably the worst act i've seen in years... nothing but pure noise.... voted chav band of the year.

And then came the peppers. The stage didn't look like much and we were trying to find monitors but then they started and the stage lit up

















Unfortunately my little camera on my phone isn't brilliant, but you get the basic idea.
It was an amazing concert, the played just about everything that I was hoping for... except for Soul to Squeeze. I would definately recommend going to see them if you ever get the chance.

On leaving it was clear that there was going to be a shortage of train space for all of the people.... we walked out the front doors and the tube station is directly over the road... you just saw people running at full tilt trying to get to the tubes and the police standing by not really being able to do anything... luckily for us we could head to West Brom station and catch the overland from there... not quite as crowded

All that's left for this year are the Rolling Stones... i don't think we've done too badly... would have liked to see Dave Matthews band... but that'll have to wait till next time he's here.

Doggie biscuits

A fond farewell to a long time friend....

I figure this is as good a place as any... instead of breaking down at the office I think I'll just say my little bit here.

A faithful friend of many years has gone to doggie heaven this morning. Tequila, I hope you are chasing waves in the sky boy.

Almal wil 'n huisie by die see he

But most of us will just settle for a house.

After about 2 months of looking for a place to live... we struck gold. Finding a nice place to live around here is sort of like squeezing blood from a stone. First you have to decide where you would like to hang your hat... then comes the ex-council, or ex-local authority... which no matter how hard you try to avoid them... some of these delightful agents still insist on showing you... then comes the matter of council tax... i guess it's like rates and taxes and then some... So on top of the cost of the house you have that, which on average is about "£1200 - £1800 per year, depending on where you live.

So we're now going to be living near clapham south tube station. Which is a nice area, cool shops, little common (park) over the road, 4 bedroom house, 3 bathrooms, huge kitchen, study, 2 lounges and lo and behold... a little piece of grass outside that we can put a weber on...

Now that we're signed up we're moving all our bills (internet and sky tv) over to the new address... something that you think they would make fairly easy for you... not quite so easy.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the london bombings, so as you can imagine the city is on high alert, the company is making us wear security tags that are visible at all times etc etc... At least the tubes will be quiet tomorrow morning.. I wonder how many people are actually going to walk to work. We'll see.

So that's just a little bit of info from this side of the world. I have somewhere nice to live with Kev, Grant, Lauren and Brad... which we've all decided is going a horrible idea, but it'll work for now.

Pics coming shortly, promise :-)

Homeland

Within my soul, within my mind,
There lies a place I cannot find.
Home of my heart. Land of my birth.
Smoke-coloured stone and flame-coloured earth.
Electric skies. Shivering heat.
Blood-red clay beneath my feet.

At night when finally alone,
I close my eyes - and I am home.
I kneel and thought the blood-warm sand
And feel the pulse beneath my hand
Of ancient life too old to name,
In ancient land too wild to tame.

How can I show you what I feel?
How can I make this essence real?
I search for words in dumb frustration
to try and form some explanation,
but how can heart and soul be caught
in one-dimensional written thought?

If love and longing are a "fire"
and man "consumed" by his desire,
then this love is no simple flame
that mortal thought can hold or tame.
As deep within the earth's own core
the love of home burns evermore.

But what is home? I hear them say,
this never was yours anyway.
You have no birthright to this place,
descendant from another race.
An immigrant? A pioneer?
You are no longer welcome here.

Whoever said that love made sense?
"I love" is an "imperfect" tense.
To love in vain has been man's fate
From history to present date.
I have no grounds for dispensation,
I know I have no home or nation.

For just one moment in the night
I am complete, my soul takes flight.
For just one moment.... then it's gone
and I am once again undone.
Never completes. Never whole
White skin and an African soul

For the Birds

One of my favourite bits ever

Friday night and Foo Fighters

Once again KEV GOT HIS VISA... which makes all of us over here most happy.... what would london be like without his morning hangover grumble :-)

So conspiring ran riot between myself, Brad, Grant, Lauren, Eric..... and the list keeps going. Tonight we were going to get him sozzeled....

Jacques and Maresa joined us at the Village for a couple of celebratory drinks..... Eric and Grant concoted a special "straf dop" which after a while seemed to be doing it's job.... you always know it's working when the drinker decides that it actually tastes nice.... even though there are some 6 different shots in it.

So things went pear shaped, sideways and all to thistle....

Saturday morning rolls in along with one exceptionally hungover Mr Burden and followed closely by the rest of us. Who were mostly woken rudely by the sounds of a vacuum cleaner. We subsequently had a munch and meandered down to the bar where Grant and Lauren were having breakfast... okay, it was 12ish, make that brunch. We made our way in the sharp sun to the bus stop and attempted to wait out the heat... in the end Grant hailed a cab and we were all grateful for the aircon.... (seperate note... I must be acclimatising to this place... 24 degrees now seems pretty hot) We arrived at Victoria to visit the whole in the wall and found out that most of london was in the station. On coming out there were a couple of planes doing a fly by... some "THundercats"?????? guys help me out here.... or tomcats, or something sounding similar. We made our way to Hyde Park to enjoy a day in the sun with too much beer and good music.
The cordoned off area for the concert was huge. It must have easily taken up half the park. We stood in line and were luckily right at the front of the queue. We went in, got our cold beers and waters respectively and found a spot to sit. Right in front with a huge screen just off to our right. As Grant put it most aptly... everyone was sitting there getting merrily plastered. But since warm beer tastes terrible we were intermixing it with good old H2O.

The first band out was at about 4ish, (we'd been there since 1ish) and it was Juliette lewis and the licks.... I actually think I prefer seeing her on TV.. she's just annoying live and her newest songs are just a bit too strange. Next up was a new band called Angels and Airwaves... who's lead singer was the lead for Blink 182, who were followed by Queens of the Stone Age, who were AMAZING and then Motorhead.... after a bit of a break and waking around to stretch legs I managed to get myself caught at the edge of a mosh pit heading my way at speed... HELP!!!
I was also thinking... looking at all the different types of people you get at these concerts it must be really hot being a goth... and I mean temperature wise... You're standing in the sun for about 6 hours, wearing black jeans and about 3 layers of tops with your hair draped across your face... I wouldn't be able to do it... we were dying of the heat in bikini tops and shorts.

Tasteless joke for the day... The Institute for Science is trying to splice the genes of a goth with Grass. They want to find a culutivar of grass that will cut itself.... ba doom doom che.. I'll be here all day

OH.... THERE ARE HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE TODAY???????? 85 000!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a lot of people, it somehow seemed like more. Maybe that's how many were in the cheap seats

Anyway, back to the concert... The Foo Fighters came on stage and the crowd went absolutely wild which meant that any space you had around you was now filled with drunken pimply brits (no I don't like most of them much) But apart from getting bounced and pushed around the music was great. For their encore they brought out Roger Taylor and Brian May to play with them as they did a Freddy Mercury tribute.... for the uninitiated... the above mentioned were in Queen ( the band).

So a great end to a fantastic day. Perhaps next time I go to see a concert I'll wait till they play in a venue ... a small venue.

Sunday comprised of doing nothing and watching old episodes of Star Trek... somehow I don't remember it being so bad... the acting is terrible and the special effects are non existent... I've heard there is a digitally remastered one... maybe that'll be better.
Monday morning it's off to a 6am gym session with Kev and Brad, so we'll see how that goes... i'm not a morning person.

At risk of stealing Kate's blog title

Kev got his visa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that was all she wrote

Oh that was a bad idea

Yip, that pretty much sums up most of my weekend.... The skating with the work guys was fun... I did a full 5km and at quite a pace. Then it was the start of the World Cup and things at the office sort of came to a grinding halt. Our office has live streaming of all the games on the intranet... quite clever i thought... except you'll get people staring at their computer screens for 2 hours but not getting any work done. I suppose it beats them coming back from watching it in a pub and having a couple of pints.

After work it was a mad rush to get home to change for the Friday Night Skate... we thought we were late so resigned ourselves to skating idly around hyde park for a while....yes, well.... at that moment some 200 or so people on skates came tearing past us... so we joined it... NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. The pace was really quick and you've got hundreds of people on skates taking up one lane and trying not to kill each other... I was used as brakes a number of times. And returned the favour a few times down the line. May need to take some stopping lessons before I try that again... stopping in itself is easy enough, but when you are heading down hill at full kilter and have about 3meters to stop in, it's another story.... So we'll wait a while before doing that again.
After that it was off home on the tube and relaxing on the couch to watch "The Big Yin" (Billy Connelly for those who don't know the name)

Saturday rolls around and the guys are up early to watch the rugby, I take the extra cat nap and sleep in a bit. It's nearly time for qualifying and we're off to Zulu's in Fulham... they've decided to show both the rugby and the football... being muppets they've allocated a huge area for the soccer, and the smaller one for the rugby... needless to say (in an SA pub) the rugby area had people hanging from the rafters, and the soccer side had about 20 people in it. Perhaps they'll learn for next time. So the hunters and the Windhoek were flowing and we organised ourselves some boerie rolls (yum) Sitting outside in the warm sun, laughing and drinking beer was a great idea.

Needless to say.... beer in the sun things went sideways pretty quickly....

We were chased inside where we started dancing to some particularly strange music.








Brad and Kev at the top of their game decided to do some pole dancing...












So I guess sideways, pear shaped.. give it whatever name you will... I'm not saying anymore I'll never drink that much again.... more like I'm sure I can't drink as much as I used to.

I'm sorry that's already gone!!!

5 words that I've heard at least 10 times a day while trying to be pleasant to the estate agents in this place. The landlords here try to squeeze you for every last penny and every last pound... nevermind that I'm paying the equivalent of 2 months rent for a whole flat back home and getting a Harry Potter like cupboard cupboard over here. But I suppose that's the way it works over here. For those who aren't following i'm looking for a new 4/5 bedroom flat for Kev, me, Bradley, Grant and Lauren. If you're ever interested in having a look, go to www.ononemap.com specify london for location and then 4/5 bedroom for £2500 a month and see what you get... not much. Well, not much that's worth looking at anyway. There are some very nice places in Chelsea for about £1500 a week... but that's a bit out of budget.

Summer is here... finally and with it the unbearably hot tube trips to work and back. But also lazy weekends lying in the parks and catching up on some much needed exercise, which for me comes in the way of roller blading. Or trying to kick a ruby ball around in the park with the guys... which i'm not very good at although the guys are very nice.. and they don't give me too much stick. Tonight being a friday means that all the mad people who own blades or skates all get together to take over some london road. The Friday Night Skate is a weekly event where they pick a route, get a sound system and you just blade through london. Tonight looks like we're going to do it.. the route for tonight http://www.thefns.com/next_route.htm
We'll probably only do the first half of the skate, don't think i'm fit enough to do a full 13 miles yet.

Tomorrow is the SA vs Scotland game and since it's also world cup fever over here we're having to resort to going to Zulu's to watch the rugby... I suppose I could do with a hunters dry and a boerie roll just about now. Even though I've now been here over a year and a half there's still so much I miss from back home. Yeah, okay, I'll admit it openly.. I'm really homesick... so to solve that, everyone I know must move to London... pipe dreams granted, but what is life without dreams.

I'm off blading now with the guys I work with... they do 5km in 17 minutes... I think I might take a short cut.

Would love to hear from friends back home, you've all got my email address.

It's just a jump to the left.....

They were how do you say.... "executive transvestites"

Kev and Brad get close

It was all in all a fantastic show.... audience partici......... pation.. was on top form.

Do you really want to know?

What are the boys up to?????

Dress rehersal for the Rocky Horror picture show...

More pics to follow after the show

Stuck somewhere inbetween twentysomething

Have you ever realised that the the age between 21 and 25 is probably one of the most awkward and frustrating times of your life.
I've been finding that a lot lately. People regularly say don't wish your youth away... fine, point taken, but I wish 2 years away.
Take where I am at the moment. Old enough to be responsible and have a job and pay bills... but no matter how competent you are there are always people who will look at you like you are still too young to know what is going on.
1 example... i've had a drivers licence now for over 6 years, but they still want to charge me an excess to rent a car... and at between £7 and £11 a day... it sort of makes it out of budget.
At work a good idea will be passed over because you don't have enough experience in the industry and you obviously don't have enough insight into what is needed..... that's great but the proposed change has nothing to do with industry experience....IT'S JUST COMMON SENSE.

I've never before had a problem with people trying to walk over me... maybe i've just gone soft.

Sometimes age is just a number and you don't even notice it... but then sometimes some people just rub it in your face... no matter what you do you'll always be one step behind everyone else. I may not know all about the in's and out's of the world but i'm learning.... Linkin Park - Faint puts the way i feel perfectly....

I can't feel the way i did before
Don't turn your back on me
I won't be ignored

Small fish in a big pond... but i'm not going to let my peers make me doubt my ability....

So even if I still want to put on my ruby slippers and click my heels together and make 2 years disappear so that perhaps someone will take me seriously. I will be the strongest in the race.

That is my dilemma for the month. Stuck in the abyss that is the twenty somethings

Just another manic monday

I think everyone has weeks like this, you finish all your work on friday but come monday 10am and the whole world seems to want a piece of you. Luckily it doesn't last all week. It's been great having Bradley over here. He arrived on Sunday and since then my liver has been threatening to resign. He's taken over Jak's blades and we were off to Battersea park to play around a bit. It's such a pleasure blading these days. I think we got in 3 skates this week. Friday is a 7 or 13 mile skate what we were planning on doing until the weather decided against it and turned dark and wet. So instead we went into central looking for some entertainment. Kev has been looking everywhere since he arrived for a club which plays good old rock/indie etc... sort of like the stuff kerrang plays (music video channel over here). So we ended up going to Metro bar bed rock in Tottenham Court Road... the club opens at 11 and closes at 4, so we were all in for quite a party.... unfortunately the second dj was playing some particularly strange music that most of us didn't know. So we hung around drinking vodka and coke at £1.50 a pop, which is quite cheap by london standards... however it comes in the tiniest cup, which is about 4 sips worth... So we called it a night there... raided the McDonalds for the last 6 quarter pounders and hailed a cab to take us home. Not quite realising that the ethanol they were feeding us instead of vodka had had more effect that we thought.... a trolley was found in the road on the way home, and that was the end of that.... Hey, trolley races at 2 am always seems like a good idea...
The notion of going to our place and finishing a bottle of scotch soon flew out the window and we sat around and chatted quietly till the sun came up.

Saturday we crawled out of bed and watched qualifying and then Lauren and Grant joined us to go and buy them some blades... while we had to wait for grants blades to be moulded Lauren and myself headed to KFC to pick up supper and then joined the guys in Hyde park for a picnic. Then we messed around a bit on blades and headed home... unfortunately having never been through Chelsea (read very expensive area) before we got a bit lost... kind of like 180 degrees lost.. and then it started to rain on us... so a bus was the way forward there.

Once back on terra firma without wheels we headed to the woodman for a drink and then back to our place to what "The Legend of Zorro" which really was terrible.
Sunday brought around the grand prix and after that we headed out to Waxy O'Connors to meet up with Dave Matthews who we haven't seen in a while.
Then home....

Summer is being a bit tempremental still, but hopefully it'll clear up and i'll be able to trade my pale white skin for something with a bit more colour.

For those of you who haven't noticed. I've started putting all our pub quiz questions up on one of my links, so if you are that way inclined, have a look and get that brain working.

It's now off to the fancy dress hire place to choose some drag outfits for the boys for Friday night for the Rocky Horror picture show... i'll put up pics for that in the next post.

Parks and Castles

Another long weekend... i could start getting used to these. Grant and Lauren are playing host to Grant's uncle, James, this weekend. So as per usual you take the newcomers to see the sights. Although walking from Waterloo to Buckingham Palace does seem a bit extreme to me. While they were doing the tourist thing Kev and I went in search of exercise equipment, namely Saloman Rollerblades. The last set of blade I bought was close on 11 years ago... I know it doesn't seem possible but I've just taken 10 minutes doing the maths on that one. So they were slow, with cheap plastic wheels and not much else. Blading with kev in stellies was always a lot of exercise, I had to blade 3 times harder than him to go the same distance.
So now we're looking at a range of blades which are priced somewhere between £30 and £245. A bit excessive for me, but I suppose some people want their blades to be able to do 80km/h and have shock absorbers.

I tried on a couple of pair but the one's I eventually bought were like iceskating they are so smooth, if I'd known you got blades like this I would have bought them years ago.
So my blades now have ABEC 5 bearings ( if you don't speak rollerblade don't worry, neither did I) it basically means that 1 being slowest and 8 being fastest, i'm just above the middle. Also bought a pair of wrist/hand guardes for those times when gravity wins.

Kev upgraded his blades and now has a really nice set, with porn star orange bearings which are ABEC 8... trust him to want the best.
So being responsible and stuff we went home and looked at the blades. I'd intended to go and blade up and down the corridor outside our flat like a kid with new toys, instead we ended up doing about a 6 mile circuit around Battersea park. Gravity did win once, but strangely enough it was when I was standing still waiting for traffic to pass.

After rollerblading it was off to meet up with Grant, Lauren and James for drinks at the Castle. Unfortunately for us the bars in this place still close too early for our liking and it was off to another place with a later licence. It didn't end up being a horribly late night. Sunday we were off to play golf in soho....pause and wait for confusion to set in..... well, not a full golf course, one which you hit a ball against a screen and using hawkeye technology this thing tells you where on the course your ball landed. Now I've never played golf before in my life, so this is going quite slow, after the second hole i'm getting the hang of it and on the 5th i manage a birdie.. of course everything goes pearshaped after that... it's definately something that I could get into. So after some deliberation over what is for supper we head to a chinese take away shop and walk out with enough food to feed 8 people. Another quiet night with a couple of drinks at the castle discussing sport, politics and at some point guys in drag. Turns out James played Frank in a production of the Rocky Horror Show.

Monday our last day to sleep in late.... or so we thought, Stephan called to wake us at 9am and was with us 30 minutes later. We headed out to visit Jacques and Maresa at their new place which is absolutely lovely. Then off to lunch in soho at our usual little mediterranean restaurant Bistro 1 on Great Pultney street, which is actually in the same street as the golf. After this we headed home for a bit of a nap before our weekly pub quiz... which we did pretty well in considering none of us knew who played Jack in Eastenders, 5 questions on british tv and we didn't get one.... we didn't even guess because there was no hope, a couple of stupid mistakes from everyone... not knowing who Leonardo de Caprio played in Titanic..... Jack Dawson if anyone was wondering... and Grant saying that the ming dynasty was in the 1500 BC.. no one picked up on the BC.
The 3 rounds in the pub quiz that cause the most chaos are the Beer rounds.... here you are given 3 questions and something in their answers links.... so lets give it a try

1. What colours are in the french tri colour?
2. What song was sung by both UB40 and Elvis Presley and included the lyrics " Like a river flows, surely to the sea.Darling so it goes, somethings are meant to be."
3. In the weapons in cluedo which are missing? Rope, Leadpipe, Wrench, Dagger....

Right, so now you get the answers

1. Red, White, Blue
2. Can't help falling in love
3. Candlestick and Revolver

So who of you can tell me what the link is between those? Post a comment if you are curious or think you have the answer and i'll let you know.

Another week ahead, a short one at least and looking forward to golf again on saturday.

but till then, knees bent, arms straight, lock hands and don't take your eye off the ball... i may get the hang of this golf thing some day.

Rabbits, Muppets and Phantoms

Here in the UK you don't really get many mid week public holidays... well, you don't get any infact. Bank holidays always fall on a monday. So Easter is a nice long weekend. The Thursday before is lazy and particularly unproductive with most people heading out to the local pub over lunch and just forgetting to go back to the office. That thursday night was an opportunity to start catching up on sleep lost over the last 4 months, and I enjoyed just lying on the couch growing moss.... sloth like you could say.

Saturday was much more eventful, Grant arrived on his blades to watch the GP qualifying, afterwards him and Kev decided to go blading, Kev still using Jak's old blades. We suggested that they head up to clapham junction and buy a rugby ball for us to kick around in the park. The guys arrived about an hour later having eventually found a ball. They were so tired that the rollerblades were soon forgotten. We were throwing and kicking the ball around for about an hour or so. And laughing watching our perfectly placed kicks take a 90 degree turn once they hit the ground right away from the person catching them. Lots of good exercise.

Heading home for a shower and then out to Strawberry Moons in Oxford Circus for birthday drinks for Jane. A nice place but a bit rich for our blood. The music was terrible when we arrived but slowly found its way back to the stones and aerosmith and suchlike.

Sunday was lazy and included watching the Grand Prix with bated breath and then heading home for a nap.

So a fairly lazy weekend ended in a braai with Dale and Claire ( debating people will remember them from worlds)on the Monday, a lovely day, until it started being typically england and started raining on us. Heading home we enjoyed the rest of the long weekend catching up on our movies.

Back at work on the Tuesday with deadlines for year end were looming which meant tensions were running high. So a usually quiet office turned into what could better be described as a morgue... drop a pencil and 3 people around you were giving you the evil eye. But i'm sure things will perk up once the pressure is off.

Thursday rolls around and it's off with Kev, Kath and Lauren to watch Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre. I've always enjoyed the music, but hearing an orchestra playing it was amazing. It's a brilliant production, the set is fantastic the actors had the most sublime voices and everything just worked perfectly. I wouldn't say no to seeing it again... but a decision has been reached between myself and Mr Burden and the Penroses (give it time and it will be so) that since we are in london perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to go and see some more of the cultural night life than we have been seeing recently. Mama Mia, The Producers, We will rock you, Les Miserable and a few others are on our one show a month calender.. This month is The rocky horror picture show... not quite in the same league, but the guys have agreed to dress up as Frank which will be a sight to see ( stay tuned for pictures later). So inbetween the music concerts we are booked to see there are all these stage shows.... should be an interesting next couple of months.

But apart from the usual day to day it's been a pretty uneventlful couple of weeks.

Going Gatwick

Being sneaky and plotting are not really 2 of my strong points, but with help from many many friends I managed to get it right... Conspiring with Grant, O'Connor and Macleod particularly I planned to take Kev to Ireland for his birthday... But how.... so a link of misinformation and cloaks and daggers were set up... relaying the whole story would take the better part of 10 pages.. so this is a brief version... How do you get Kev to Gatwick without him suspecting anything? You get his boss in as a co conspiritor, he sends him to Gatwick on business purposes and there you have it.... one Mr Burden at Gatwick... a bit confused at seeing me there, but there all the same.
So after a beer and quiet a bit of explaining it was off to check in and then on to boarding... where there came the inevitable spanner in the works.... 5 boarding desks all feeding into 1 security desk (where they scan your luggage etc) starting to panic we asked people if they would mind if we cut in otherwise we would miss our flight. Running through security amidst some people mumbling and grumbling in the corners. We took off towards the boarding gates which due to our usual luck were located on the other side of the airport. When we got there we were told not to worry, there were still 8 people behind us that still had to board. Finding seats and turning the air fully on us we regained our breath and decided to have a nap. The other 8 people never made it onto the plane, i'm guessing they were some of the people that we rushed passed at security.

Landing in Cork we were met by everyones favourite Irishman, Mr O'Connor and his lovely lady Trace. We headed off to his place to drop bags and allow Kev to change out of his monkey suit.

Tim now lives a way out of Cork itself on a lovely old farm in the stables which have now been converted into little 2 bedroom apartments. After a bit of a rest we headed into the nearby town and had supper at a lovely Thai restaurant, where we caught up on the latest news and sank right back into the usual banter that happens when debaters/adjudicators are put into the same room together.
A fairly quiet night and off to bed. The next morning it was early to rise and just our luck, the sun was shining. I headed outside to take some pics of the surroundings

This is a through shot of Tim's block so to speak, his place is just around the corner on the right.

The sign is for the old stable yard

So off we went to Kinsale for a walk around and to have some lunch at a very popular restaurant called the Fishy Fishy. It's a magnificent place, all very quaint with the little narrow streets that would give most of SA drivers an attack of nerves to have to drive through. It's an interesting place with lots of different shops that you wouldn't normally find in big cities. This restaurant was so popular that even though we arrived before it opened we still had to settle for a table outside. Luckily most places do have those gas heaters outside.

Inside the Fishy Fishy cafe you will find the most divine selection of fresh fish. Lobster and Crayfish that are huge. You can go in and check out what kind of fish you want. The fish itself is very well presented and tasty, Tim went for the Bream, Trace took the avo ritz and Kev went for the Monk Fish, and I took the calamari.. all very tasty... we even got a warm salad for the table, which was the most fantastic colours.

After the lunch and the rain having stopped we took a little walk around trying to find the Wine Museum. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck there, mainly just found some more small streets with brightly coloured buildings, along with the Kinsale Brewery. Which was closed. (insert pic)

We drove along the coast road to get in some of the lovely scenery and wound up going past Gourtmacsherry where we got out to have a look at the mad people who were trying to surf.... anyone who has heard the Billy Connolly skit about the Irish Sea, no one in their right mind would think surfing in it was a good idea... and judging by the looks on their faces, as Kev put it so well they were "surfing under duress".

Pictured above are the poor souls who decided surfing was a good idea, the fast closing storm clouds that were heading our way, and the hotel/spa which is set looking out over this lovely view.

Perhaps wisely opting not to go into the cold water what else is there to do on a cold beach? Of course... there is the national sport of stone skipping. Kev here was caught for the action shot. Final score was tied, max 8 skips each. It was a close competition (grin)

Heading back to the car trying to beat the rain we then moved on to Clonakilty, which is the original home of the best made black and white pudding in Ireland... Those of you who don't know what it is... google for it. Another lovely little town with the most gorgeous bar I think I've seen ever, it's a mix between a De Akker and a jungle rain forest, unfortunately we were just passing through so I don't have any pics. And on and on went our travels, eventually ending up back in Carrigaline where we were staying for a nap before we headed out for the evening.

Saturday night started with a quiet dinner at a Italian restaurant, where pizza isn't quite what you expected. It's more the European gourmet style of eating. And then off we headed to Bodega, which is a restaurant by day and a huge club by night, A couple of drinks there and a good laugh at the hen party that was going on behind us and it was then off the the nightclub..... Club Classic, this club spared no expense on the decor and was really well set out... after a beer Kev and I joined Tim and Trace on the dancefloor for a couple but realised that it wasn't really our scene after all and retreated to the bar area.

Sunday was a late start where we found ourselves back at Bodega for breakfast, it was something like the usual Full English, but this was a full Irish, complete with Black and White pudding. Which i did eat. We sat there for a while reading the newspapers and just relaxing before we headed off for the main street just to have a look at Cork itself... the cold weather being what it was sent us running for the car and headed out to Cobh (pronounced Cove) for a look around, it's another one of those beautiful little places, it even has a view of the abandoned prison on Spike Island and the steel docks.

Tim and Kev were sharing a laugh at the ice cream eating dog that was running around between the kids hoping that they would drop something. Cobh is a very colourful place, each building is painted a different colour, from vibrant blue to another one right next door in apricot orange.

As Tim pointed out if you live in grey all year round you would want something in your life to be colourful even if it is the outside of your house.

Off home after getting some fresh air on the sea side, and time to start packing to head back to London. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you're having fun. At least it's a quiet weekend that'll recharge the batteries.

Once at Cork airport we said fairwell to Tim and Trace and have a promise from them that they'll be coming to visit the london crowd soon enough. Having learnt from our last experience of nearly missing the flight we were there very early... going through security was one of the more amusing things in the weekend for me.... Ever heard of having to take off your boots to go through the metal detector? Well, that was just Kev's luck... aparently the buckles were just a bit to big to happily pass through.

We got home fairly late and just crashed.... so that was that for the weekend, pity it was such a short one, but I think in the future a weekend break every now and then is just what you need. Leave the rat race for a bit.....

So till the next time something interesting happens... catch you later

In between

The week before

After the massive party of last weekend it was time for a quiet week, the usual monday night quiz left most of us feeling pretty stupid.... again..... For those of you who claim to be quiz buffs, here is one for you... What was the original capital of the Orange Free State? No googling now... although granted it did take us about 30 minutes of trawling google to find the answer.... see end of post for answer. Some of the british questions still get us, but on the whole we're not doing too badly and improving on a weekly basis.
Saturday morning rolls around and it's off to Wimbledon Village Stables for the first installment of my fantastic birthday present from Kev.... Outrides... yes, they are on horseback. A beautiful sunny morning with little wind and cantering alongside a golf course... few things are as pretty. Although i'm probably going to be as stiff as a plank on Monday it was worth it.
After a warm shower it's off to watch the GP qualifying at Grant's place and afterwards looking at funny internet sites and putting away a few beers.... a fairly early night considering and then another early morning accompanied by toasted sandwiched and much coke. GP started and it looked somewhat like amatuer hour on the track with most of the big names sticking themselves into walls or just blowing an engine.
Another pub quiz monday night where we will be missing one from the team as Kate heads home for grad and a bit of sun.... hopefully we'll do well

(answer: Windburg was the original capital of the OFS.... how many of you got that?)

Getting older

It's that time of year again, where you count the extra wrinkles and wonder how the last year went past without really realising it.
So this year I decided it was time for a big party, the invites went out and finally we all ended up in Tiger Tiger on haymarket street, Piccadilly Circus. Knowing London clubs it's always wise to book a area for yourselves otherwise you may end up scrunched up against all the other folk. So we had a nice big area with comfy leather couches to spread out on. Cocktails were flowing and the music was making many people shake their money makers.... But initially it started out very civilised.
Pictured are Kath and Deon having a quiet drink before the rush started.

The theme for the evening was black/white and something fluffy. The black/white was pretty easy so then came the tricky bit. Most of the guys opted for not shaving and hence became fluffy.





Kate Thompson arrived with a lovely mafia style hat that made it's rounds that evening.
Kev goes for the tough guy look.

As the evening progressed the beer and cocktails flowed freely and the party got into full swing.
On the dancefloor we all joined in the party, left to right...Carla, Katherine, Myself, Kev and Eric. Unfortunately for us we didn't realise that it was that time of year again... The time when all the clocks go haywire and you lose an hour... or gain an hour.. i'm not too sure how it works... I think that night we lost an hour... so instead for the club closing at 3am, it closed at 2am, but we still managed to get home at 5 and then make our way down to the 24/7 chicken house for the usual late night burgers and nuggets.

Housemates new and old

Eric and Raymond

So it's not a long post and I realise I have to work on my formatting skills, but all the same I've finally been able to insert pictures.

So have a good week and hope you enjoyed the pics

Catching up

This isn't quite going like i planned. As you may have noticed things are pretty hectic... hence no posts for quite a while. But i'm going to now catch up in one fell swoop.

The rest of the holiday was really amazing, and it was great seeing everyone again... it actually didn't seem like i'd been away that long. Funny that however much things change they always seem to stay the same.

Landing back in London was cold and rainy, and finally stepping out into the open air made me wonder for the hundredth time "what am i doing here?" With heavy bags I opted out of catching the bus and caught a cab back to the flat, where i could barely lift my bag.... finally inside we all fell asleep for a good couple of hours. Then tried to unpack our bags, i think it took me the better part of 2 days to get everything in its place again. The change from the hot sunny weather to the rainy cold played havoc with our immune systems. Kev was the first to come down with the flu, followed about a week later by me.... luckily i didn't catch it as badly as he did, and it was gone in about a week. Record time by UK standards.
Going a bit further into January we have Seth's birthday. After taking a good half hour to find the place we settled down with a couple of friends for drinks. That was the first time we saw Miss Thompson in London.

February proved to be a quiet month, with not a lot happening for the first bit... Valentines day had me getting hit in the face as hundreds of people were crowding onto the trains laden with flowers and chocolates..... Amusing for the first couple of stops until the hayfever set in. Apart from that the monday night pub quiz was progressing well, we were climbing in the ranks along with a little help every now and then from the quizmaster.

VIOLENT FEMMES

A sunday night is probably not the best time to go to a bounce around concert... but it was the femmes... nobody could resist. They were playing at Shepards Bush Empire which is a nice small venue.... so Kev, Grant, Lauren, Deon, Doc and myself headed off to get there early. The opening act was a brit group called Milk Kan. I'm not too sure exactly what they were playing as they had very strong accents... anyone who is curious can go to www.milkkan.com where they have their hit single "bling bling baby" - It was quite a laugh. Especially "Without you".

The following week ran the same as most others, chasing foreign people for excel documents and booking travel for my boss who travels nearly every day.

ST PATRICKS DAY WEEKEND

Friday... always good because I can go to work in jeans, but today being St Patricks Day, i was wearing Kev's green irish rugby shirt and a fluffy top hat.

After work it was off to Aardvark bar in Canada Water to meet up with Jacques and Maresa Kriel for drinks. We arrived at a bar full of saffas drinking guinness and falling over. It was a very festive vibe. The group grew and grew with Grant, Lauren, Nicole, Doc, Eric and Deon joining the party. After we'd all had enough it was off home, the only problem being that the tubes had stopped running ages ago, and none of us knew the bus routes. So 2 cabs it was. Being a PA has it's advantages... one being that I have the numbers of a couple of cab companies on my cell. The first cab arrived and we sent the first group off and waited for the second one..... which arrived about an hour later.... I have decided that in future.... i'm taking the first cab, particularly if it's in the middle of winter.
The Saturday we met up with Kate, Tanya, Seth and Stuart at Chez Gerrard's Zinc Bar in Covent Garden for a couple of drinks. But the place closed far to early for our taste. And we spent the next hour walking around trying to find somewhere that was open, and didn't have a 20 minute queue outside. We eventually gave up and went to the queen mary for a drink and then headed home.

Another quiet week followed, with our usual Monday pub quiz seeing us take second place. Which was cause for huge celebration. But on to next week and birthdays and stuff

Cape Town again - pictures to be added

So after a stint with Tom and Amber we headed back to Cape Town for New Years. On the 31st we were at Rhonwyn's place where we started out by making Yakka (evil stuff) and then lying beside the pool for the rest of the day. Of course because we weren't thinking we had forgotten to get drinks for the evening and it was a mad rush to find some... eventually we found a shebeen in Diep Rivier where we got the necessary supplies. Back at the house the rest of the hordes had started arriving.... lots of people who I hadn't seen since the previous December.

All was festive and we were all chatting and dancing and at some point swimming again. This carried on until about 4:30 where we all decided that it would be a good idea to catch some sleep.
But the early birds woke us at about 9 when the clean up started.. so being hung over, and dosed with red bull we cleaned the house and then retreated to the pool where we spent a lot of the day. Later in the afternoon the 30 seconds board was brought out and a competition started.... Sandy playing the floating player and answering any question she knew the answer to... this was the start of ducks and sweet and sour pork (for those of you not there.... DON'T ASK)
A couple of games later the hunger had set in and we were trying to find somewhere to eat. This got postponed after someone started a game of famous names that just went pear shaped. Eventually we decided on going to the Cape Town Fish Market at the Waterfront. We had a booking for 9 and since we arrived early we made our way down to Quay 4 for a drink... we hadn't counted on the music being so terrible.
After drinks it was back to the fish market to enjoy some sushi... and the experience was something that I will not soon forget.... the description of everything that went wrong would take quite a few pages, so let's just say that the waiter was putting very serious downward pressure on his tip. At the end of the evening Hawk, Rhon, Carl, Sam, Pete, Sandy, Kev and myself had had our fill of sushi and decided that retiring for the night would be a good idea.

2nd Jan - Andy's farewell. After a good nights sleep it was off to Camps Bay and Cafe del Mar to say goodbye to Andy, there we met up with the rest of the crowd and the party started all over again. Bacon, Feta and Avo pizza, not something you'll readily find in London... so I had one and it was divine.. as the crowd started to scatter we got ourselves a smaller table and started in on the cocktails... with a name something like sunset... which after a while James was describing as smoggy? Not too sure either. A beautiful sunset and we were off to Sushi Zone in obs for.... you guessed it... more sushi. I've now learnt to eat sashimi, which is the raw fish version of sushi and is actually quite nice. Kev asked the waiter for a bit more wasabi and was presented with enough to sink a small ship, but he made his way through most of it. A surprising thing was when a 2meter long tuna was carried through the front doors... well at least we knew that it was fresh.
Another tiring day was past and we headed back to Petes' place to catch a bit of shut eye and see what the next day would bring.

Cape Town, and beyond

I landed in Cape Town after a fairly bumpy Kulula flight and was met by Andres, who in true style hailed a golf cart to take us to his car... he later explained that this was the only way that we were going to get there without having to walk miles, as CT airport is under heavy construction. We got back to the house where we had the obligatory glass of red wine and started the phone calls to see where everyone was... Andy was the first we got hold of and after a while of trying to ascertain which Cubana he was at (because there are about 10) we met him at the Tableview one. I didn't realise at the time but he didn't know who he was on the phone to, and when he saw me was quite surprised, Pete was also there so we had a good party after which I drove him home... it was quite amusing because he couldn't remember exactly where he lived. Then we pickeled off home and chatted till early the following morning when Andres had to leave for Hermanus for work reasons.

The following evening we were meeting up at Shonga with Herman for a dinner and to do some catching up. It was a lovely evening chatting and laughing again like old times, with dinner only costing a fraction of what it would have in London... then it was off to bed because the next morning early it was off to George to see the folks.

Arriving in George was a surprise for mother as she thought I was only arriving in 2 days time. While there we watched soapies, went shopping, had coffee and lots of other things, but being that relaxed the exact time frame is a bit of a blur. But it was nice to see the folks again along with the animals. I managed to salvage some of the clothes that I had left behind and add a new suit to my wardrobe. But after 2 weeks there it was time to head back down to the cape for the traditional new years party.

Kevin fetched me on his way down from East London and we stopped over in Klein Brak to visit with Tom and Amber and their puppy wolfhound Hagrid.... who at 4 months is about as big as a normal alsation.

Week 47.1

So after taking 2H30 to get to the airport and then being told that I couldn't check in for another hour... in case they lost my luggage I was left wondering what to do, there isn't much to, especially this side of the boarding gates. So i sit and wait, have an overpriced airport coke and read my book, which at this stage is Terry Pratchets - Going Postal. Finally time comes for me to check in and I'm the first in the line.... "emergency exit seat if possible" I asked, to which the woman stood up from behind her counter and looked me up and down and said "but you're to small love"... Right... fine... i can handle that... then how about a window? All fully booked there too.... how could they be fully booked? I was the first one in line when they opened for check-in... anyway. Sulking I went through boarding where I got to the real side of International Departures... the area with all the shops. Having a good couple of hours to kill I mooched around the shops and then found myself a little corner couch where I could have a bite to eat and read my book undisturbed. Having sat in one position for the better part of 2 hours I made my way along the concourse towards my boarding gate where I came across massage chairs... they look something like a lazy boy.. and for £1 you get a 10 min massage... lovely. So once relaxed I made my way onto the plane and took my seat, in the middle. I had a lady on one side and a gent on the other. Unfortunately the gent had failed to shower for what must have been the better part of 2 weeks. Supper came around and it was fairly edible and there were some good movies on. So after watching 2 movies I decided to get some shut eye, which unfortunately was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The girl next to me must have thought in her sleepy state that I was her male companion and tried to snuggle against my shoulder, the gent next to me was hogging that arm rest... the little girl in front of me had put her bag of toys under her seat which effectively cut my leg room to zero and the guy behind me snored like a tractor... so with the idea of sleeping gone I watched another movie or 2 or 3. It's okay.... i'm landing soon.

I landed at JHB at about 6:30 in the morning where I collected my bags, changed from my snow suit into something a bit cooler and went outside to meet Mia, who I was staying with for the night before heading to Cape Town.

It was nice to drive in a car again. And within 30 minutes of being outside in the glorious SA sun I had managed to get a sun burn. We went and did a bit of shopping at Menlyn Park and had lunch, then it was back to her house where we relaxed for the rest of the day. Mia was off to Greece and London a couple of days later so I loaded her with an A-Z of London and a tube map, as well as some numbers to call in case of an emergency.

Then on to Cape Town....

Week 47 - to home

The time has finally come to try to fit all my summer clothes and christmas presents into one bag and still be under my weight limit for the flight.... how do they expect you to travel with only 25kg worth of luggage. So after packing and repacking and removing some things which aren't classified as essential ( like the 3rd pair of jeans) it's off to the airport.... I'm only flying at 6pm but I figure leaving at 2 is the safest option, since the tubes aren't the most reliable of things. It should only take around 1H30 to get to the airport, then I can find a nice pub to sit in and have a last beer before I fly.

Sunshine, here I come