Tuesday 22 October 2013

Portugal.

Sarah and iains Portugal place - from the road.

From the front
From the house looking to the ocean ( through the trees) 

Very cool house with a whole floor below ground that's a gym and games room .

Portugal is becoming a big surfing hub, not to mention a big cycling fraternity . It's was warmish whilst we were there but we all grabbed wet suits and went boogie boarding. There were groups of 12 to 20 people learning to surf , mid week and out of season. 

Couple of pictures of the kids. Tell u what - surely this is a better alternative to the iPad.


That bank (above) was quite steep in sections . The kids stood on the edge and the bank would collapse and they'd sand surf down to the water . We all had a go - I've actually played a lot worse games in my time . 



Here's the flat whites Sar's organized virtually out of thin air. Would it reflect poorly on me if I said it bought us closer together?


You may recall from an earlier picture I mentioned Harry's nearly taller than Joey.


I spoke to my mother in nz yesterday and she was asking about the trip and photos etc. I directed her to this site which she was following when we were in Cambodia. She's having problems with her computer. I'm not saying her 386 is a little long in the tooth but it is insured for fire, theft and Viking raids. 
 
There was a few days and activities in London after we got back from Portugal that have snaps which may warrant one more European vacation post to follow. 

Try this - it's nice


Before I sign off for the evening some of you are probably wondering how Brends going on his bike ? He's signed up for the Taupo ride on the 30 th November. It's a fairly hilly 160k and the 7th biggest organized ride in the world annually with between 12,000 and 13,000 folk doing it.

 Brend took that bit of long slow stuff he did with me as a base, catapulted himself into some interval training and is absolutely SMASHING it right now. He's down to 93.0 kegs in his cycling themed pj's which translates into under 93 kegs in the nuddy. Still big for a hilly ride but I suspect he's going to turn some heads in NZ.

My brother Michael is going to do it as well. He and his cycling mates are also doing K2 the weekend after next which is a hilly 200 k ride. Jesus , Mary and Joseph.!

Anyway, I've sidetracked myself. C u shortly.






Friday 18 October 2013

London

Back in London to Sarah and Iain’s. 


 

Joey and I lived in Wimbledon in 1992 and 1993 .We had a great time and made some friends we have kept in touch with as best as we are capable of. We caught up in Wimbledon on this trip.


Matt Bell. (Belly) was in the firsts when we left in. '1993 and had a game for them last year . Unbelievable.! Other than a couple of grey hairs at the temples he hasn't changed much at all.


Ben to the left and Belly , not to the left.


Speaking of unchanged – Ben’s missus Caroline (Caz) recently did a half marathon pb  and picked up the "time has stood still award" , narrowly edging Belly out. That's her in the middle below.



Debsy and Andy and Rob and Lisa Tudor ( see Wentworth post) came out to stay with us in Perth in 1994/5.
We had one of the greatest day ever in the surf at Yallingup. 

Most of the girls including Debs below.




Ben, see photo sbove with Belly, and I used to play 18 actual holes of golf then fire up the Sega mega drive for a full 72 hole tournament fuelled by a mid strength or two and a couple of kilo’s of onion bhaji’s. Bens mum used to also get in the industrial  sized packets of some round chip things in various flavours that we found were surprisingly  good for us. He was nigh on unbeatable and I eventually gave up after two and a half years. Looking back we probably could have given a little more to our careers in those days.

 

To everyone who came on that Thursday night that is reading this it was a huge highlight of the  trip.Thx again for coming out and staying out. 


Ben, Broshy, Belly, Sean, Farry and Craig, geez didn’t we solve some problems.

 

At midnight Ben rang one of the curry places we used to go to - who told us they were shutting up and suggested we should do the same. The second place Ben rang actually hung up on him. Surprised me as I was involved in the discussions by then.Fortunately that second place wasn’t too far away and we took from the dial tone that they were more comfortable talking about dining opportunities face to face so we wandered down to talk over old times.

 

2.30 we left there with barely an unsolved problem amongst the entire group.


We are off to Portugal tomorrow where my sister successfully secured two hot weak flat whites from the most unlikely of beachside cafés. See you then.

 

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Paris and Disneyland

We caught the Eurostar out of Paddington station. There's been a lot of infrastructure cash thrown at the station itself and its a very impressive facility. 

My sister Sarah and Erin had just been to Paris and the Eiffel tower a fortnight or so before with my other sister Jacinta and her daughter Annie - so they went straight on to Disneyworld. 

Joey, the H man and I jumped off at the tower. It's far busier than I remember but a must visit for Harry. What I didn't know from the last time we were there - pre Harry - was that the tower is still half owned by the state and half owned by the Eiffel family. I'd love to see their year end financials.

Joey and Harry at the top of the tower .He's  picked up that move from watching the WWF and no doubt The Girls of the Playboy Mansion. I've given up trying to get him to change the channel. I've explained they are reruns and there's no new material but it always seems to fall on deaf ears.


On the teacup ride below . I objected obviously , on the basis that that particular ride was arguably too feminine for Harry but it wasn't one of the one in twenty six occasions my suggestion gets acted upon. It's. "iconic" apparently .


This is a shot of Harry and his cousin Erin. I'd just asked him where Dad ranked out of Mum , Dad and his Aunty Sarah.


We'd used the last of our cash getting to Disneyworld so none left over for warm clothes for 8 year olds. That's my cycling vest Harry's wearing. 

Here you 'll see I'm giving the little man some tips on keeping it real.


This picture had to go in as it's probably the last trip we go on where Joeys still taller than Harry.


More than one person at Disneyland asked me when my sister Sarah is going to start growing up. That's ridiculous headgear she's wearing.! .... What's that ?...


Harry, Erin and Mickeys missus. 


Here's a picture of Harry taking a picture of Joey - always thinking , see how clever that is. Joeys generously minding Harry's Rose for him whilst he takes the picture .


Sar's and Erin scampered home from Disneyland but we stayed on in Paris for a bit to soak up some culture whilst the good folk of Paris soaked up the last of our meagre shekels. Joey had a good hard geek at some art stuff whilst the H man and I mainly sat around grizzling and getting regular updates around various departure times. 

By the time Disneyland was done we'd been gone almost a week with not one decent hot weak flat white on record. 

Between the train station and our hotel we came across a cafe and threw caution to the wind. One extra hot weak flat white thank you. Boom, there it was. 
Shut the gate - I'm staying. Before we had even left to get checked in at our hotel my closest friend in the world gave us our loyalty card which already qualified us for a free coffee. Stop it. How happy was I.

The next photo on my iPhone is back in London so that's as good a cue as any to shut this down now and pick it up again tomorrow. Woo hoo. 


The blog that can't die.

Harry, Joey and I got back from overseas  yesterday. We stayed with my sister Sarah , her husband Iain and their daughter Erin (7)  in Newbury , an hour west of London. 

From there we also took the two kids to Disneyland in Paris and also Portugal where Sarah and Iain have a holiday house - inconveniently located all of a couple of hundred meters from the beach. 

For anybody reading wondering how a cycling blog has morphed into a travel blog Sarah and Iain have stationary bikes at both of their houses.

I'm going to make some stuff up about the London activities. Paris and Disneyland and then lastly the Portugal trip. Believe it or not I had trouble getting a decent extra hot weak flat white in all three places. I'm currently doing a swot analysis and business plan for a cafe in London that only sells hot weak flat whites with a view to saving future travelers the heartache and turmoil I've just been through. 

Changing pace slightly, Iain and I played at Wentworth last Friday courtesy of Rob Tudor who's a member there. Pissed down with rain for the entire trip there -and home for that matter - but cleared up for the whole 18 holes! When does that happen.!

Here's the club house



I had a bit of trouble getting a hot weak flat white after  9 holes at the halfway hut but where dont you.? 

Heres Iain showing some textbook form. 
He badgered me for days to say that he absolutely crushed this drive.



Three posts to follow re the three places we went then I'm going to close this blog and get
my neighbour Jack to help me open a twitter account. He and his missus stayed at our house whilst we were away. That might be the subject of a fourth post.

See you tomorrow