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

Hong Kong 7s

Hello again one and all!! And again i have to apologise for being quiet for so long.... so much to see, not enough time to blog, the world truely is cruel....oh and also i have to apologise for the state of the crocs in the picture, they did take a bit of a hammering over their time in Hong Kong!

So Hong Kong - a place i've been to only once before on the way to the 2001 Lions, where i spent 12 drunken hours before staggering back onto a plane to Sydney.... this time is was 4 days before staggering back onto a plane to London and my what a 4 days it was.....

Firstly, i've worked out why they call it the Hong Kong 7s.... its got nothing to do with the number of players in a 7s rugby team, but a reference to how many livers you need to get through the weekend. I think i can hold my head up high to say that i can sink an ale or two, but this really was something else. I arrived bright eyed and brushy tailed at 5.30 in the afternoon on the Friday ready for something to quench my thirst. As luck would have it my friend and guide for the weekend had been on an all day lunch and so i hottailed it to WangChai (i know that has to be spelt wrong) to go and join him and his lunch guests for a late afternoon beer. Beer, wine, more beer, we were then saved as his wife came to join us for a quick drink and to take us to dinner....Food was definitely a good idea as it didnt really feature again properly until the following evening (the late night kebabs in HK really arent as good as the real deal in Gizel on Clapham High St!) Dinner was a very grown up affair in a Chinese place not far from Lang Quai Fong (again i know this is the wrong spelling), all rather underground and red lighting, unusual but great (spicy pork in cabbage leaves... a must for any traveller from the UK!)

It was after dinner that things really hotted up on the drinking front... firstly a place called Waygu where we hooked up with a big old bunch of people before heading out into the night. I even bumped into some colleagues from MF which was an unexpected surprise, but it came in handy to know we had a box at the 7s that i could visit throughout the weekend. After some lemon drops (basically lemon vodka with a few other added ingredients just to spice it up) some expresso martinis (surely these need no explanation) and some vodka and ginger beers (a popular local tipple in HK) we then headed to the carnage that was the Fong proper. If youve never seen it its a steeply sloping road lined with bars and packed with drunken revellers. Infact it was so packed that you really couldnt move. (i'm told its like this alot of the time, not just when the 7s are on) Its was a bit like being in the middle of a rugby carnival, every single nation was there, everyone was exceptionally merry and there wasnt even a hint of trouble. Vodka ginger beer, vodka tonics, damn we even had our fill of vodka jelly (a bar called Als Dinner does a great line in vodka jelly so we felt it churlish not to have a few) Our ragtag and bobtail crew merrily squeezed its way up and down the Fong, until around 3am we then felt a) kebabs were required and b) we should go drinking somewhere else. I have to admit its around this time that i really did lose my bearings (being very much the worse for wear) and so i cant really tell you where we ended up, all that i can say it involved another heaving bar and yet more vodka..... Home time seemed to come around 4ish (or was it 5ish) where we staggered back to Repluse Bay and promptly woke up Alex's wife and 16 month old daughter (surely she wanted to cuddle Daddy stinking of booze at 5am??!!) - i dont think we were that popular to be honest.....

What seemed like a blink of an eye later i was being told that i had to be up as we had to be at the Stadium asap. Its was 7am, i had been in bed barely an hour or so. And was still rather drunk, and now even a little jet lagged... not a great combination, but when in Rome... i was up and at it. We were in the South Stand at 7.55. Now those that have been to the HK 7s before know all about the South Stand. A legendary place where one has their drinking skills tested to a new level. I have to say i did protest a little being given my first litre of beer at 8am in what seemed to be an exceptionally empty stand. This was so we could get in and get decent seats i was told... but theres no one here (except for a group dressed as Superheros and a couple of buxom wenches who really were grabbing a bit of attention and rightly so!!) Our new drinking posse for the day also promptly arrived, dressed as Frenchmen and as luck would have it a Frenchman outfit for me aswell. So i was going to be a Frenchman for the day... not a great thing in the South Stand where the chant "stand up if you hate the French" rings out all day. And it was at this moment that it dawned on me that the South Stand was now virtually full... every single fancy dress outfit in the world was there..... 12,000 drunken revellers, still reeling from the night before and all with beers in hand (or Pimms if you were being grown up) revved up and raring for Saturday at the 7s. It was 8.45. And thats how things progressed for the next 6-7 hours - beer, singing, throwing beer, getting told off for throwing beer, more singing, wondering who was playing rugby on the pitch but not really caring too much (all the real rugby action is on the Sunday) Behind our little enclave of Frenchmen some real Frenchmen had appeared. 40 of them. Dressed as Gendarmes (and also some rather delightful Gendarmettes) who were also drinking beer, singing (in French) and eating cheese. Lots of it, which as we were now French for the day they merrily shared with us. It really was a very enjoyable experience. Singing "Ou est le papier" and being drowned out by the real lyrics to the Marseilles and eating brie. Around 3pm i thought i would escape for an hour or so and head to the MF box. Welcome relief from the carnage of the South Stand (Caroline, Matt and Peter many thanks for letting me stumble in in my very descheveled state...) I quaffed a few more beers, some vodka redbull (as now was feeling rather tired) when the Lord smiled on me and i received a text from my friend and guide saying he'd been thrown out of the 7s. Thank you Jesus - it meant i could leave and try and put myself back together. Back at Repulse Bay and it was only 6pm so i could get a bit of kip before yet more drinking. I passed out, woke at 8pm to be told we were having a night in with pizza and some of my hosts friends. Thank God. Pizza, red wine, some good chat and was in bed at 2.30am (later than i would have liked but at last i could sleep and sober up) - perfect.

Sunday and up at a reasonable hour (10) and straight out for brunch. I always think youve got a good day in store when your first drink is a berroca and your second a G+T! Steak and eggs HK style and then straight back to the Stadium. We arrived just in time to see England knocked out in the quarter finals by Fiji. And instead of the South Stand, the MF box (thanks again for letting me and my chums in) - this didnt however mean less drinking, if anything probably more drinking, but in a more refined environment. Jugs of red wine and vodka and tonics were the order of the afternoon and we sat and saw some stunning rugby. Fiji deserved winners beating South Africa in the final. The afternoon drifted into evening and as the winners medals were handed out we ambled to the restaurant we were having dinner in, a mere 30 minute stroll from the ground. We hooked up with the rest of the crew and had a stunning roast, well needed after an afternoon of ales. A few bottles of red and a few amerettos and we made the decision that another night out on the tiles was the way forward. Arriving back in the Fong it became obvious that we were by far the most sober people in the rugby carnival that was now in full swing. Nothing 4 shots of lemon vodka wouldnt sort out. Back on the horse as one says! Another huge evening ensued, the highlight for me had to be stopping one of the England rugby 7s side getting into a fracar with some rather drunk and obnoxious fans. (same old Leicester, always fighting!)The evening passed by in another alcoholic daze and around 5am, kebab in hand i was on the phone to people in the UK telling them what an amazing place HK was. Not that i really remember. Bed at 6am again... funny how that happens over there.

Monday morning i awoke really feeling the side effects of 2 and a half days on the lash. Thankfully i didnt really have anything to do so at least i could recover. We spent most of the day walking the lovely Georgia (the 16 month old daughter) along the beach and chilling (and rehydrating!) returning to the flat for bbqed steaks and sweet potatos late afternoon. Heaven. I must say a huge thank you to Alex and Kate (and of course Georgia) for putting up with me for my time in HK - amazing hospitality, thank you very much. After packing and goodbyes i was back off to the airport for the long flight home. And i have to say i slept almost the entire 13 hours which must say something about what state i was in!

So now Miami and then onto Belize before Central America.... this trip just gets better and better... i just hope the crocs are upto it as even after a good scrub they still look a little worse for wear. Heaven knows what theyre going to look like in 2 months time!

Catch you all later

B

A few croc piccies and bits and pieces....

I realsied that i had a few croc piccies that due to my lack of blogging technical expertise i couldnt insert into other blog posts.

The first pic here is of the snow gnome that lives in St Jean D'Aulps - he really did look exceptionally fetching in the crocs i think you'll agree and it was quite a job wrestling them from him in order to take them back to blightly!!

The second pic in a Mothers Day croc pic.... a glass of fizz, some sunshine, a nice roast lunch - what more can one ask for!! Great to see you at the weekend Mum and i promise i wont get into too much trouble in HK (have to say that really dont i...!!) :-))

Catch you all next week with tales from the 7s.....

B

Back from the Snow.......

Hello All!!

So as you can see the crocs have made it to the snow.... and lived to tell the tale!

Many apologies for the length of time between blogs, but have been running (and attempting to snowboard!!) all over the place. This sabbatical lark is alot busier than even i thought it would be!

The Alps - further away than you think (especially when driving there) having one of the best snow seasons in the last decade and a place that is full of gossip, scandal and sculduggery (some of that later!)

The main reason i decided to drive there with my very good friend Sharky was a) i was staying in his converted barn come chalet and knew that i didnt stand a chance of finding it unless i roped him in for the drive and b) to take my decks out there so i could spin a few tunes to the masses (the Bodigy hits the Alps). The drive was largely uneventful if a little long, around 10 hours from my starting point in Kent (many thanks Wooly and Jacs for putting me up the night before) to our final destination, a small village on the outskirts of Morzine called St Jean D'Aulps (i really hope i've spealt that right!) It didnt help that it chucked it down with rain the whole way and luckily the snow managed to hold off until we'd made it up the mountain (i thought that the X5 was a plucky little contender in the off road/4x4 stakes, i was sadly wrong...) What people here dont realise is that all the locals that live in the mountains have their cars fitted with snow tyres around the beginning of November before the first big dumps arrive. Not matter how big and heavy your car is, summer tyres render it pretty much unless when you hit the white stuff. By the time we arrived the roads were clear as there hadnt really been any snow for a week or so. That dramatically changed with around 4 feet of fresh powder in the space of about 48 hours.... comedy.

There was a huge upside to all this snow though and that was it would hugely aid my attempts to learn how to snowboard over the next few days. For those that dont know me that well i have a completely knackered right knee, results of rugby, skiing and drinking injuries over the years (and having a slightly larger frame, apparently this doesnt help as my knee surgeon told me in no uncertain terms last week!!) However, according to my learned mountain friends snowboarding is much better on your knees than skiing..... i can say that this is vaguely true. What they dont tell you is that the first 4 days on a snowboard is a bit like being sent to some sort of torture camp. You spend the whole time either on your face or your arse, obviously have nothing to aid you in getting up like you do in skiing ( i had a very kind snowboard instructor who spent lots of time leaping around like a mountain goat and pulling me up the numerous times i found myself lying back on the piste!) The learning curve is a hell of alot steeper though so by then end of day 2 on a board i had just about managed to get it all together, linking a few turns and not face planting even 50 yards down the slope. For those that are thinking of giving it a go (i know the whole gay on a tray thing is a big problem for those that ski) - it really is excellent when you get the hang of it. You really seem to float across the piste and not that i managed any decent off piste action on my lovely Burton (the 100 yards i did traverse between pistes scared the bejeesus out of me at the time) i can only imagine on a big powder day that a board really must be the way forward. Even my new mountain buddies were impressed with my progress, so it greatly saddens me to tell you that my dodgy right knee let me down again. The clunking, clicking and general grinding noises that now emit form it, although not life threatening, are nonetheless not good and so an MRI and probably further surgery beckon (not until i've got this sabbatical out of the way though..... its not that bad!)

Life in the Alps is a very relaxing affair i have to say and i quickly settled into the getting up not quite as early as maybe i should, quaffing a coffee, helping Sharks with a few chores here and there and generally bumming around (i can now see where the expression ski-bum comes from) The other two big events whilst staying over there were my gigs.....

Round 1 - the National..... The best pub in St Jean D'Aulps (i would say the only pub in St Jean D'Aulps but apparently i would be wrong.....) Set up for my gig on the Thursday afternoon and returned for what can really only be described as a night of complete mayhem.... (only trumped by the afternoon we watched England beat France there which really did get a little out of hand... and understandably so!!) It was really quite comedy as you'd think the locals of The National really had never seen a live DJ before (and i know that this really isnt the case) - but throw in a girls birthday, a few too many Jaeger Bombs ( a charming little number consisting of a double shot of jaegermeister dropped into a glass of redbull and promptly dispatched in one... lovely!) and a Bodigy mix of some old school tunes and a few Ibiza classics.... well the rest is history! We had people leaping around like mad things (i didnt know that robotics was making a comeback but apparently it is!), nakedness, love, tears.... all the things that you expect from a Bod Griffiths classic gig.... by the time i was given a lift home in the early hours of that morning i had made a whole bunch of new friends and had the most fun night i've had in a long time.... thank you, you mad St Jean D'Aulps crew....!!

Round 2 - The Cavern Morzine.....Defintely not the only Club in Morzine, but the only one that would take a chance on me and let me liven it up! It didnt help that i broke DJ rule number one beforehand, namely dont go to a gig completely lashed, but somehow a few large G+Ts and a top notch meal with gallons on wine in one of Morzine finer eateries, saw me arrive feeling slightly worse for wear! Then my only two fans decided to amble home (Sharky was blaming the G+Ts, a likely excuse) so i was on my own..... and again a huge night it turned into. The place was rocking, old school and a bit of R n B (i know, i'm not a fan either but whatever keeps them on the floor!) seemed to be the order of the night and other than a touring rugby team getting thrown off stage for a little too much public nakedness (how else are you going to pull the die hard ski chicks??!!) the evening was fantastic. I did have a comedy journey home - my pre booked taxi lady was very much tucked up in bed when i phoned her at 2.30am so i spent 1/2 hour watching a bit of drunken brawling (could have been downtown Yeovil!), sitting in the freezing cold working out who on earth i knew around the world that would be up... (thankfully its the middle of the day in Asia so some people got some rather unexpected calls!!) The taxi lady did eventually arrive thank God or else i really would have been very stuck!

So thats around it really..... i did also spend a few nights downtown Chamonix checking up on my little pad there and catching up with some friends and work colleagues who were staying (thank you for feeding and watering me everyone... its not easy being on the rock and roll!!)

I also have to say that i really have learnt a hell of alot living in a small community up in the mountains with all the ups and downs that that has..... abit like living in a mountain episode of Neighbours crossed with Desparate Housewives (a programme that i was subjected to hugely against my will and bizarrely found myself really quite liking it....!) I grealy look forward to returning at some stage in the summer just so i can catch up on all the gossip!

So next stop Hong Kong for the 7s - i fly in a few hours actually and have had enough of a quiet week for my liver to be upto it i think..... the only thing i am worried about is that i have to find some sort of fancy dress outfit to take with me or else face the wrath of the South Stand....bring on the beers and some champagne rugby.... and no doubt a few tales to tell on my return!!

B

Trip to the Emerald Isle

Ahhhh, hello there, begora, bejesus, gooan, ya will and all other Irish greetings to you all (to be sure!!)

So a quick blog update now that i've recovered from my birthday trip to sunny (well not really...) Dublin! Its been a while since i've paid a trip to the Emerald Isle and much as alot of it has changed dramatically, such as the hour long taxi ride from the airport into town (i'm sure there never really used to be any traffic over there), building developments everywhere, the general expense of being somewhere that isnt Blighty, most of it is as i remember.... just like the good old days......especially the guiness.

I hooked up with a ragtag and bobtail crew at the airport on Friday night and after a few pints of the black stuff we set off to check into our exceptionally celubrious accomadation, Barnacles Hostal in Temple Bar.... who says the credit crunch is affecting us sabbatical city folk. Now i know its been a while since i left school, but 6 large, hairy chaps in a room the size of my downstairs toilet at home, well it was always going to be an interesting few days! 6 men, 3 bunks and 1 toilet... surely the makings for an excellent new reality TV show?! At least my snoring wasnt that bad (apparently... first time for everything), but the aroma of the room by the time we left Sunday certainly wasnt great. Just a quick piece of advice, never pick the top bunk (as i obviously had) as what you gain in extra head room, you seem to lose through the results of hot air rising.... and my, a diet of guiness, bulmers, kebab and chips and the obligitory fry up seems to produce a fair amount of hot air....!!

Our first night really passed us by without any real events (i know i have to adhere to the "what goes on tour stays on tour" rule aswell, dont worry i wont be naming names). A great game of rugby (France really did deserve to beat Wales), 12 pints of guiness (i have to admit i was chewing them down by the end of the evening), a lovely kebab and then the stroll home through the rather rowdy and racous area that is Temple Bar. Merrily tucked up in bed by 2am. Happy days, until the ones that had turned in early were woken by the late night stragglers around 3.30... all part of the fun.

Saturday morning, my birthday, 39, and i wake up feeling only as one should, pretty rubbish. Nothing a full Irish breakfast couldnt sort out, followed by a stroll to yet another Pub (we hadnt been in this one yet tho i dont think) and a fantastic game of no emotion spoof with bulmers as the forfeit. (as a quick aside, i think that we're becoming rather soft in our old age as the no emtion part of the spoof certainly wasnt enforced as strictly as it used to be in the good old days). It was at this stage that certain events happened that would change the rest of the day. Namely, we bought some tickets for Engaland vs Ireland at Croke Park off a tout whilst rather lashed up outside the pub. Our great crew of 8 (2 were not staying in our lovely dorm btw... v poor form!) only had 5 tickets between us, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to buy 3 face price tickets from our happy go lucky tout, what a kind chap he was..... It was only later, after a very charming Korean lunch (didnt know that Dublin was big on Korean restaurants i have to say) and a stroll through the bantering crowd to the gates of Croke Park that myself and my 2 other tout ticket holders realised the error of our ways.... obviously the tickets were fake, along with about 4997 others (that was the estimate from the policeman that took them off us.) Bugger. What a pain. But given we're not the quibbling type we did what any English rugby supporter would have done and headed to the nearest pub.

Cue 2nd event that would change, well not necessarily the day, but certainly watching a game of rugby. I have a very good friend who is Irish and from Dublin. Having bumped into him on Friday night he gave me one piece of advice that i promptly ignored. This was dont go into any of the pubs that are near Croke Park. It really isnt in the best part of town, there seems to be a bit (huge understatement) of a drugs problem and the locals really arent that keen on us English folk. Having been in the pub a matter of minutes and sitting down behind a rather large group of what can only be described as pikeys, the insults started to fly. I cant really print what we were called throughout the game as i know my mum will read the blog, but general atmosphere really wasnt that good. In a bizarre way i'm glad England didnt nick the game with a late drop goal (as i hoped would happen when sitting on my barstool in a rather annoyed drunken haze) as i'm not fully sure we would have escaped from the pub alive.... but as a good friend always tells me, its all part of life's rich tapestry. That's true, as long as you stay alive that is.....!! We left the pub rather promptly at the end, being jeered by a big group of girls that had amassed at the pub during the game.... all rather bizarre.

The rest of the evening again followed without any other life altering events (other than 2 of our party falling asleep in various Public houses and having to be red carded home) The highlight for me was singing 2 little boys to an applauding crowd in one of the pubs as the Irish said the English couldnt sing... how wrong they were!! (those of you that know me well know that i will always sing 2 little boys at the drop of a hat, so to a packed Irish bar... perfect!!)

Another 2am finish, another hangover, another fry up. How simple life can be sometimes. I spent Sunday stumbling around Dublin with the other people that were on later flights, had a charming lunch with an old work colleague and headed to the airport feeling very much the worse for wear. Mental note to self always get the earlier flight. On arriving home i have to admit i went straight to bed and slept for about 10 hours. That just about sorted me out...

So now i'm in the rather snowy Alps (its dumping as i type) just up the valley from Morzine, staying in a friends chalet in St Jean D'Alups (i'm pretty sure thats how its spealt). I've helped shift 3 tonnes of logs (earning my keep!) got a snowboard for my 2 hour lesson tomorrow (going to be v painful i'm told) and am about to head to the local bar to set up my decks for my gig this evening..... whoever told me that taking some time off to go and enjoy life was just so right!!

I'll update you all from the snow shortly. Until next time.... have fun out there....

B

Viva Espana

Hola!!!


Just wanted to say a quick hello to one and all and give you a quick update on travels post Egypt (not that theres been that much to report really....) The good thing is that the nasty case of Egypt belly i've had has at long last disappeared. It would appear the only cure was a round of golf, some Spanish Sun and a steak! (bizarre cure i know but it seems to have worked!)


So a few days galavanting in London catching up with the young folk and then a trip to sunny Bath to watch my beloved rugby team throw away a 17-0 lead at half time vs London Irish, somehow turning it into a 20-20 draw. And we were lucky to get that to be honest!! I mean really, would never have happened when i was playing (cue story of Rendcombs' great victory over Dean Close circa 1987.... maybe another time !!)Bath is such a wonderful place, but i need to warn you that its streets are maybe not as safe as they once were.....this is because my lovely black shiny sports car has gone on its hols there for the next few months. MPH, aka Stig2, will no doubt be tearing around the roads of Northern Somerset putting it through its paces......you have been warned!!!

All of this was followed by a few very pleasant days down in sunny Spain sorting out the enormous building site that at some stage will be CB3. I'm reliably informed it will be finished for me to return to post Central America (sometime around the beginning of June) - i am however rather skeptical, but fingers crossed..... Given my rant about Monarch Airlines in the last blog i have to say that flying other low fare carriers is now an absolute joy. Maybe Monarch have in a bizarre way done me a big favour, but the flight to Gib on Easyjet was alot better than i ever remembered (all relative i suppose.... and i was in the emergency exit row so my knees werent round my ears throughout the flight.....!!)

I then had a day with just about every tradesman you can imagine; architects, builders, gardeners, tile layers, curtain makers (turning my hand to a bit of interior design btw, just incase i dont have any gainful employment to return to post sabbatical!) it really is amazing how much goes into the building of a pad in southern Spain. I must thank both the project manager and my parents for slaving away down there continuously at the moment.... without them CB3 would surely still be a hole in the ground, rather than the jewel in the Bod Property crown that hopefully it will turn out to be..... Invites to some sort of grand opening party will follow i promise.....i see it as some sort of MTV affair with me spinning some tunes on the terrace while we watch the sun setting over the Rock Of Gibralter.... Happy Days!

It was after this day of decision making and toil that i decided to head to the golf course for a nice relaxing game of golf. Now i know i've never really been much of a golfer and i know ever year i say that i must play more to get my handicap down to a much less embarrassing number than it is now (which is somewhere between about 25 and 40) but it has become glaringly obvious that if you only play once every 6 months golf really is a nice walk spoiled! Other than my 50 foot (ok 30 foot...!) putt on the 17th to save a 9, there really wasnt much to be happy about with my game. A friend of mine that had joined me for the trip has just started having lessons and i have to admit his game was a) a damn sight better than mine and b) a damn sight better than i remembered it!! So if anyone fancies a few rounds while i have some time on my hands then please let me know. I potentially have two Ryder Cup stylie weekends down in Spain towards the end of the year so need to improve drastically before then.....

And so now the Emerald Isle beckons with gallons of black stuff to help me celebrate turning 39... If the England Rugby side can pull out an emphatic victory all the better, but given i've just been told kick off isnt til 5.30 on Saturday the chances of me remembering much of the game is pretty slim.....Swing Low etc etc.....

So until next weeek when i head off to the Alps.... chest deep powder and some banging choons...

Bod

Back to dry land.....

Aha m'hearties and all other pirating blurb!

So i'm back from the Red Sea after all sorts of aquatic and some not so aquatic adventures.....

First things first... getting to Sharm el Sheik - Monarch Airlines.... Now some of you did point out before i went that Monarch Airlines might not quite be what i was used to in an airline - never have things been so understated. I get to Gatwick at 6.20am for a 9.15am flight to be greeted with what only can be described as an anaconda of a queue. It stretched from the Monarch check in area half way around Gatwick Airport and i quickly realised (being at the very back of the 368 people trying to check onto MON 2865) that this was going to be a rather long morning. Eventually checked in at 8.40 - managed to barge through security as somehow Monarch had decided the flight was still going to leave on time and the board said it was last call, to be greeted with the same 368 people now queuing to get on the flight. Not good. Things really didnt improve from there. If anyone can tell me how many seats you can possibly squeeze into an Airbus A300 i would gratefully like to know, the only thing i can tell you is the answer isnt 368. I know being of a larger frame that things are often a little tight but this was ridiculous, it was cramped beyond belief and i still had a five and half hour flight infront of me before i could lever myself out of my chair and off the plane. The plane itself was general half term chaos - the great British public off on hols.... i can see why foreign nations frown upon us so much now. This wasnt Blighty's best advertisment (however the chap making the shirts for Manchester Untied or Chelsea would have been very pleased, as would anyone involved in the tattoo industry, it would appear that in these credit strapped times that these particular parts of the econmy are still doing very well.) Screaming kids, tired annoyed parents (i did actually move seats twice to accommodate families who had been spread all over the plane, who to be honest were well within their rights to be more than a little miffed) moody teenagers, 30 something city types on sabbaticals - i'm sure you can imagine the scene. After settling into my chair next to a very polite elderly couple who "Always go to Egypt at this time of year because its such great value" (not wrong there...) we had the option of paying £5 to "rent" a pair of headphones to watch the inflight movie. I obviously refused to do so given all the grief we'd had getting onto the flight, proving to be a mistake as it was rather bizarre watching Mamma Mia on silent, whilst the only screen sountrack i could remember was Grease! Quite comical (well you had to be there...!) The real only upside to all of this was that a very kind hostess decided to reward me with two bottles of the inflight wine for all the moving i'd had to do ( i must ask my vinter chum Marcus where in France Chateau Similia is, because it has fallen upon rather hard times it would appear..) but it did provide some welcome alcoholic relief my rather uncomfortable situation. The only other thing of note from the flight was falling asleep with my head on the chair infront of me and waking up with what can only be described as some sort of third degree burn on the top of my forehead. I still cant really work out what happened there, but thankfully the saltwater of the Red Sea seemed to sort it out so no harm done.

So after five and half blissful hours we arrive at Sharm. More chaos (at least i was expecting this) - i particularly like the way that there were at least 10 people doing 1 persons job. Bloke to stamp your passport, another bloke to check that the first bloke had stamped your passport, another bloke to check that the 2nd bloke had checked that the first bloke had stamped your passport etc etc... but given we were off the plane it didnt seem to bad. It was at this point i was thrown together with the other 19 people i would spend the next week with on the boat, Typhoon. And here comes the answer to the question i set in the last blog, who goes diving in the Red Sea on a liveaboard in February. Well the answer is allsorts. A quick summary.....

a) My buddy for the week and cabin mate was the editor of a classical music magazine. Hadnt been diving long and was almost driven to violence in the first couple of days as he'd obviously never experienced a noise quite like my snoring. (not many people have...!) Did feel slightly sorry for him, but thankfully one of the other guests had brought earplugs, resulting in him being able to sleep through Bod's late night symphonies!

b) Hippy chick who was recording sounds of the ocean to use in her musical work... was also learning how to film underwater as was off to the galapagos to film sharks.

c) The Cornwalls. Group of proper die hard divers all on rebreathers (the things you see on underwater documentaries when people are at the bottom on the oceans filming creatures that have never been seen before) - at least a couple of thousand dives between them.

d) Mother and daughter on bonding exercise. Bit of an odd one as the daughter obviously didnt really like diving (she spent most of the time sunbathing), but really was a little stuck as there wasnt really much else to do...

e) Happy go lucky group of 3 divers from a diving club near london. Again lots of dives between them, one had the unusual habit of producing florescent orange snot at the end of every dive (and it really was very orange!) I have to thank this group for supplying earlier mentioned earplugs....

f) Pre wedding couple brushing up on diving skills before honeymoon

g) Famous (well apparently) diver tesing new equipment for various magazines. Had a very flashy new camera he was testing out (which took considerably better pictures than mine...!)

h) Norweigen couple who were used to diving in ice cold water looking for wrecks in the North Sea (takes all sorts...)

i) Family of 3 on diving holiday. (very nice they were too...)

It really was a very happy boat and as i've found before, if you throw a very random group of people together who really have very little option but to get on with each other then thats what happens. It did help that we had an ultra cool dive couple (are dive couples ever anything else?) that smoothed over any problems we had with dodgy kit, broken straps, ear ache and the other real killer on the boat, Egyptian Belly. I certainly cant blame the food, which given we were on a boat in the middle of nowhere was fantastic, or i dont think i can, but throughout the week we all came down with it, resulting in immodium being in very high demand (even writing this blog now, having been back 24 hours, i have to say i'm not altogether 100% in the stomach department) I personally blame the fact that you dont use toilet paper on a boat (something i dont really feel i should go into here, but if you want more details please drop me an email and i will elaborate...) which again is something you get used to far too quickly.


We quickly settled into the daily routine of up before sunrise, throw dive gear on, dive at whichever site we were at (many of them famous wrecks in the region) - back on the boat, eat breakfast, sleep, wake up at 10.30, thrown dive gear on, dive another site, lunch, sleep, wake up at 2.30, throw dive gear on.... i think you can guess the rest. Dive, eat, sleep quickly becomes a way of life and not a bad one either i have to say. The diving was simply awesome - wrecks such as the Carnatic and the Thistlegorm inparticular are really beyond description in a blog. I have posted some of my pics on facebook but they really dont do justice to all the things we saw. I have to mention Susie and Thomas our dive guides for being absolutely amazing (and for Susie getting me through my advanced Padi - even if its plainly obvious that i really cant navigate underwater and as for my neutral buoyancy test, well the pictures of me trying to hover crossed legs underwater, lets just hope they never find their way into the public domain...!)

The week passed far too quickly and before i knew it we were cruising back into Sharm with six fun packed days of diving behind me. I have to say that if you want to get some great diving in (i did 19 dives in my six days) that a liveaboard is definitely the way forward. And at this time of year it really is very cheap (you have to suffer the torture of Monarch, but with hindsight even that doesnt seem so bad now). Grab your BCD and get out there would be my advice (but then as lots of people keep on pointing out to me, i'm not actually at work which makes it all a little easier!!)

So now off to sunny Spain to survey the building site that will become CB3 and then back for my birthday drinkathon in Dublin (no forfeits please boys as i am getting rather old, but at least its still a year before the big one..;-)) ) Then the Alps where apparently the snow conditions are excellent which should help me in attempts to learn how to snowboard ( i'm going to spend alot of time on my arse i'm told) - the clubs or Morzine and Chamonix really wont know whats hit them - bring on the Bodigy.....

Catch you all v soon

B

Off to the Ocean Wave.....

Afternoon All!

Last post before i head off to sunny Egypt. Crocs, fins, mask, dive computer all packed and raring to go (along with comedy hat and suntan lotion, am told it could be pretty warm out on the ocean wave...) Realised having not dived (diven, dove..?? what is the past tense of diving??) for 4 years that a) i have no idea how my dive computer works... b) look far too much like a large plankton eating mammal in my wetsuit (bloody great fishes etc etc)... and c) have dived much less than i thought i have increasing chances of vague/serious panic attack on first dive (bit like the one i had in Clapham pool Sunday evening!!) Sure my new dive buddies will understand (well at least hope they will.) Also, having never been on a liveaboard before really dont know what to expect with repsect to the other clientelle. Will they be back packing 20 year olds looking for adventure in the big oceans? 50 year old marine biologists out on a jolly looking for hammerheads (am told they go to the Red Sea to breed at this time of year... hammerheads that is not 50 year old marine biologists..) or late 30 something city sabbatical takers like myself.... Also who will i be buddied up with??? And what happens if we come across a Japanese Whaler - will i be safe?? ;-) I will endeavor to answer all of these questions in next blog (whenever that may be). With a bit of luck new underwater camera should be able to snap some excellent pics and not that i'm entirely sure i can download all my photos onto the blog, i'll stick a few up on facebook in anycase.

So off to the oceans and catch you all soon...

B

ps - why are pirates called pirates?? because they aaarrrggghhh...!!

Pre travel update......

So, only a few days before i leave the snow, rain and wind of Blightly behind for a week in Egypt on a liveaboard in the Red Sea. Spent 2 hours splashing around in Clapham pool last night trying to remember how to put together my BCD, clear a mask underwater (never particularly pleasant) and make myself neutrally buoyant (no mean feat for a chap my size....!!) Depart for Egypt this Thursday and with my new underwater digital camera hopefully will be able to upload some pretty stunning pics. (no prizes for todays pic by the way - the Crocs nestling in snow in my back garden earlier last week....)

Thought i'd put down my provisional travel plans incase anyone happens to be in any of the countries/towns when i'm there, if that's the case it would be good to hook up and grab a beer.

So here goes -
12th Feb- 19th Feb - Red Sea, Egypt
22nd-24th Feb - Sotogrande, Spain
27th Feb - 1st March - Dublin, Ireland (Birthday wend watching England hopefully regain some sort of rugby composure)
4th March - 24th March - Alps (venue TBC but most liking split between Morzine and Chamonix)
26th March - 31st March - Hong Kong (trip to the 7s, could be another messy rugby wend methinks....)
2nd April - 4th April - Miami, USA
4th April - 15th April - Belize (saltwater flyfishing and diving - paying a vist to the Bluehole...hammerheads beware)
15th April - 26th May - Central America. (a fair bit of time to be spent in Guatamala learning Spanish, rest of time, who knows...!)
27th May - 28th May - Miami, USA
1st June - 18th June - Sotogrande Spain and also Ibiza (first Ibiza gig on 7th, many thanks Spudly!)
20th June - Pitney Somerset (wedding Dj extraordinaire again...!)
1st July - back to work......

Thats it so far, some of it subject to change, but if any of it appeals or you think you'll be around and about please let me know and i'll make plans to get an ale in.... be good to see some friendly faces along the way.

Bod

And so it Begins.........

Well hello and welcome to Bods travel blog. Firstly i must thank my sister Lisa for setting this up for me, as i'm sure youre all well aware my technological skills are far from accomplished so without Lisa there probably wouldnt be a blog at all!!

So, 5 months... some argue not nearly enough time, others argue far too much. After 18 fun packed years in the city, 15 years of the at Man Financial (now MF global) i figured it was time to invest a little time in myself, basically chill out and do the travelling i never did either post school or University. Feb 1st til July 1st....5 months, at least 10 countires and a whole load of adventures to come!! Much to some of my friends annoyance i figured i should have a bit of a theme for my trip and so, after much consultation, i decided that my beloved Crocs should come on my trip with me and feature heavily in blog references and photos. They were bought in NYC, Columbus Avenue, Crocs superstore, August 2008. Theyre actually referred to as my posh crocs as i do have another pair... you can see them at the start of the blog.....!

First day off ....

And so it begins - my new adventure!