Miami - Ami- Ami

Hello All!!


I know this is all rather quick in blog update terms but thought i need to let you know how i'm getting on.....


As you can see from the pic, the crocs have found themselves sky high overlooking Miami, what jet setting crocs they are!


Now, i did expect to be laid low with illness at some stage on my sabbatical travels, but in Miami?? No, surely not.... After returning from HK and having literally 72 hours back in Blightly to pack up my old kitbag for 2 months in Central America i foolishly decided that my last night should be spent, well in Bath. Of course, Bath vs Wasps on a Wednesday night, it would have been stupid not to go down and see the mighty Bath put Wasps to the sword and see them off in classic champagne rugby style (shame they lost to Quins at the weekend but then i wasnt cheering from the stands so what do you expect!!) Maybe it was the Old Speckled Hen, maybe the Gem bitter, maybe i caught the bug that MPH's boys had had the previous week, or maybe it was the British Rail bacon roll i had as my dinner around 11pm on the way back to London... any of these things could have been the cause. But one thing i do know is that when i boarded my flight to Miami early doors Thursday morning i really wasnt feeling my best.... i tried my hardest to put it to the back of my mind.... a few G+Ts didnt help.... i watched the most awesome film (The Curious case of Benjamin Button - you have to see it, not often that Brad Pitt gets nominated for an Oscar but i can see why he was) and then tried to get some kip... none of this worked. (and if you are the Frenchman that was sitting next to me in 60J i can only apologise profusely for what happened mid flight.... i really cant go into that here i'm afraid...!!)



On arriving in the good old US of A i was feeling dreadful, and the last thing one needs when all you really want is to be next to a toilet is to spend 2 hours queuing to get through immigration. Oh dear - thankfully i survived and promptly jumped in a cab to join a select assembled posse in the Shore Club. A fantastic hotel i have to say (especially if you manage to blag a corporate rate - thank you very much chaps) but it did nothing to raise my rather ill spirits. Having donned my trunks and strolled down to the pool i thought a gentle swim and a refreshing ale would sort me out. Unfortunately not. As a quick aside, i have never seen so much plastic surgery on such a young group of people around that pool in my life. Not that i'm complaining, i mean i appreciate some surgical enhancement as much as the next guy (some would argue maybe a bit more) - but i was truely amazed.... it was all offset but an enormous lady from the North of England in some wholly inappropriate swimwear, which actually made me feel a bit better about myself (it would appear that gentleman of a larger frame dont hang out around the Shore Club pool.... sod 'em thats what i say!!) I went to freshen up as we were having dinner at Nobu (which conveniently happens to be in the Shore Club) and to highlight how ill i actually felt i had to go to bed midway through the starters (anyone who knows how much i love a bit of sushi will realise how ill i must have been feeling) In bed at 10pm... up at 11 and 12 and 1 and 2..... you get the picture.


The next morning i really wasnt feeling much better but went for a swim and a stroll along the beach to try and make myself feel better. I figured i should eat some breccie which sort of went down ok, but it wasnt long before i was back in my bathroom. Midday a fellow Bath supporter who has a glorious pad in Miami invited me round to check out the other end of South Beach. Chilling around a must quieter and much less surgically enhanced pool i thought i might have turned the corner. But no - after returning to the hotel and having another stroll along the beach i realised i needed to be back within a safe distance of a loo exceptionally quickly and had a rather anxious dart back along the beach with both teeth and buttocks firmly clenched.... not good at all.

That evening we were going out for a friends birthday in the swanky restaurant that's in Hotel Victor. Being well behind the alcohol curve (a few 0f the boys had been drinking all day) and still feeling decidedly rubbish i managed to make it through the meal but had to retire hurt straight afterwards feeling very guilty for letting the side down. It was also at this time i realised that i was obviously allergic to the antibiotics i'd taken late afternoon as a last ditched attempt to get rid of whatever lurgy i had. My face had come up in what can only said to be some Quasimodo type hives that really didnt look good. Thankfully a gallon of water seemed to stop the swelling but i have to admit that even now i still have some rather odd looking lumps dotted around my face, something that none of the fisher/divers i'm here in Belize with have mentioned (they must think i was born with some awful disfiguring disease and are just being polite!!)

So that was Miami - i woke up on Saturday morning after 10 hours sleep feeling a million times better, jumped in a cab to the airport and flew to Belize, which is where i am presently in a fantastic resort called Turneffe Flats. I will update you on Turneffe in my next blog, but i have to say that i could happily stay here for a very long time (if only the wind would drop a little so that i could improve my casting and catch more than 3 fish a day!!) I dive the Blue Hole in 2 days time which i'm told will be amazing and with a bit of luck might even catch a Permit (the hardest saltwater species to catch on a fly, and i hooked and lost one yesterday... bugger!!)

So i leave you kicking back, flyrod in one hand, Cuba Libre in the other, the crocs resting at the bottom of a palm tree in the sand.... life really doesnt get that much better does it..??!!

B