Day of rest? Bollocks.
It's been some time since I last published an update which is primarily due to laziness and not inactivity. I've actually been exceedingly busy over the last month or so with several bits of news to relate. So many in fact that I'm going to revert to (semi) point form in order to A) not bore everyone and B) make my job easier.*
- Motorbike
- About a two months ago I bought a dark blue 2004 Honda VFR 800. It is fun and in spit of the incredible number of speed cameras on the road here I'm yet to have been issued a speeding fine.
- Brussels (12-13 July)
- Had a quick weekend in Brussels to catchup with Chi-Chi as it had been a while since I'd last caught up with her AND I was going a bit stir crazy in London.
- During the course of the weekend we went to Bruge which was lovely but a bit over-rated in my book. The entire town is based on tourism which means the only retail shops are restaraunts, bars, clothing stores or chocolate shops. On the up side we did find a chocolate shop selling chocolate penises and also rather detailed kama-sutra-esk chocolates. Disturbing but funny.
- Also met a rather nice French lass called Brigitte whilst in Brussels but more on that later.
- Lovebox (19 July)
- In normal fashion I was under-prepared (read: unprepared) for this event. Several of my friends had tickets months in advance and by the time I got around to trying to get myself a ticket they had sold out. This meant having to rely on scalpers at the gate; never an exact science and certainly never a cheap one. After some time trying to find a ticket and then a few tense moments at the gate I did finally get in and had a great time. Got VERY drunk over the course of the day and saw some very good acts. After, it was back to Ali's for more drinks then out clubbing in Kings Cross.
- JT and I had intended to do the London-Southend bike ride on the Sunday but as I didn't get home until 7AM still liquored-up this fell though. We did get in a 30Km ride that arvo though around SW London which was fun.
- Paris (26-27 July)
- This one was a bit out of left field but last minute I organised to meet a 'friend' in Paris for the weekend to do some sight-seeing and catch up. We had a lovely time with the following activities included:
- Eiffel Tower
- Catacombs
- River site seeing tour
- Met Luke for dinner
- Montmartre
- Ibiza (1-6 August)
- Organised several months ago, this was a group holiday with largely the same group I went skiing with in February. Different climate, same disdainful attitude toward sobriety. It all started badly when my plane shat itself on the ground at Gatwick (everyone else was on a different flight). This meant I got there about 4 hours after everyone else and missed the first club night. We all flew out late Friday night and didn't take custody of our Villa until Saturday morning so we had to stay up all night drinking.
- Over the whole period of the trip I only actually went clubbing once (to Space) which I actually though well over-rated. It was outrageously expensive, the music wasn't great and the venue wasn't anything extraordinary either. Most of us went home at about 4AM but 3 people kicked on and apparently had a great night. Just goes to show that quitting never pays.
- Had a cracking holiday all told with much good chat, cheap wine, (topless) beach visit and lots of pool action. The villa was plush as was the company. Sun burn was the only downside.
- Chia Birthday(9-10 August)
- By this stage I've been busy (read: drunk) every weekend for almost a month and was beginning to struggle. Chia was over in London for her birthday as was young Brigitte and we all celebrated in a very civilized fashion with lunch and dinner with Chia's friends and some Mighty Boosh thrown in also.
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIA!!!!
- V Festival (16-17 August)
- Sarah is currently re-enacting Lampoons European vacation and for her London leg of the trip she decided to hang out with me for a few days and do some sightseeing. It was a fairly low key (brow) affair and we did the following: rode around Richmond park, saw the Lion King musical, did an open top sight-seeing bus tour, watched season 5 of Peep Show.
- On the following day we all set off to Chelmsford for the V festival. It was all a bit unorganised but we eventually all got there and met Phoebe and James for lunch. We gradually met up with a much larger extended group of friends and had a cracking couple of days and watched some good music.
- Sunday night was somewhat less memorable. Literally. I got a bit drunk and wandered off from everyone late in the night. Fell asleep several times trying to get back to the hotel and ended up having to get a cab as I passed out on the train and missed my stop. Finally got back and got up early to get to work Monday morning.
- London - Paris bike ride (19-21)
- JT and I had been talking about doing the London - Paris bike ride for a while as there are several charity organisations that do it. The minimum sponsorship you need to raise however is about 1500 quid. This seemed excessive (not to mention unobtainable) so we considered just doing it ourselves. 3 of us decided it was doable and after booking a hotel in New Haven, a ferry from New Haven to Dieppe and another hotel in Gornay en Bray about a month ago we proceeded to do no more preparation or organisation. The morning we were due to depart JT and I were still fitting our new panniers and giving our bikes a once over. I also had to dash into work to print out a route map I had found the night before on the internet. On top of this I had basically stopped riding my bike since I got my motorbike so my bike fitness was poor. All in all not the best preparation in the world.
- The first day we didn't get underway until 11AM and had no idea where we were going. Both JT and Luke had very little bike fitness and our route took in mostly B and C roads which, whilst very scenic, meandered around a lot and had lots of climbs.
- With still 25km to go it was almost dark and we still hadn't gone through Brighton. Luke was struggling but we had to push on. Luckily once we'd cleared Brighton we were on the cost road which was beautiful and had the added benefit of having a strong coastal breeze directly behind us. We made the last 20Km in great time and, after a quick curry, all passed out for the next 5 hours before having to wake up at 5AM to catch our ferry. In total we did 110Km the first day.
- We all passed out on the ferry for the 4 hour crossing and arrived in Dieppe at 12PM. We then had 80km to travel the remainder of the day and we were in luck as for about 50 of those kms we were on a converted railway track which was recently surfaced and very flat so we made great time through some glorious French country side. JT this time was having some tummy trouble so we had to have an extended lunch stop to try and give him a chance to get himself right. He pressed on and again the countryside was very rewarding as we rode into Garnay en Bray for our evenings stop.
- The last day we started at 10AM and had 130km to cover. It was a big ask but for the first 4 hours we made great time. Everyone was in good form and the route was pretty clear. Although the route was undulating we all climbed well and everyone was holding up swimmingly. We had some delays with puncures, route corrections and general lethargy after lunch though and getting to Paris at a reasonable time was looking doubtful. We pushed on though this period and had some great downhill sections leading down to the Seine which helped make up some time. It was then through lots of forests and woods on our approach to Paris to avoid main roads and at about 8:30PM finally spotted the Eiffel tower and by 9PM were seated in front with handshakes all round. It was 12 hours in the saddle that day by the time we got to Luke's pad and we'd covered 130km but we had done it and were all still in one piece.
- Paris II (22-24 August)
- Thought I'd make the most of being in Paris and spend the weekend. I met up with Brigitte for the weekend and had another lovely weekend in Paris.
- Friday night we went to a little cinema where we saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were actors who hosted the night and there was much water and rice throwing and general good fun. We then went to a delightfully French little bar with a guy playing piano and a girl singing Grease and Beatles tunes. We had a lovely sing along.
- Saturday we belatedly made it to Versailles and had a look in the principal Palace rooms and around the gardens. In summer they have a festival called something like"The Grand Water Night". It was really beautiful and well done even though there were a gazillion people there.
- Sunday we had a quick look at the Louvre and the Arc de Triumph before back on the Eurostar and home.
In closing, happy birthday Chia, thanks to Brigitte for some lovely weekends, congratulations to Mahney on his new baby and thanks to JT and Luke for a great ride.
* By this logic ALL texts should be written in point form. Not a bad idea actually; War and Peace would be a whole lot more readable.
