It's Been A While.........

O.K. so its been a while since I updated the blog and a lots happened since the last post so I thought it was time to get typing.

"I'm back working with AAA" :-) After almost 4 months off work doing pretty much as I please its back to the grind. I've rejoined as Country Service Manager this time and I'm based in Bratislava, Slovakia. As usual lots to do and targets to be met but its kind of nice getting back into the middle of it.

I've been back almost a month now and I've been staying at the Residence Harlequin Hotel in Bratislava but I'm glad to say I should be getting the keys to my new apartment tomorrow :-)
The harlequin is OK, and its basically a fully equipped one bedroom apartment but its still a hotel at the end of the day and most of you know my feelings on them. The place I'm moving into is a 1 bedroom apartment but it will be a lot better because I can settle down there knowing I don't have to move again.

I'm on my as Macky & Daniel are not with me this time, its really hard leaving them to come to work but I'll be seeing them regularly when I get home every 2 or 3 weeks for weekend breaks and I'm sure they will be out here for the school holidays. The first 2 weeks I was here I couldn't get on the net and it drove me nuts and cost me a fortune in SMS messages but that's all sorted now.

We have finally bought our own place in the UK :-) Most of you know that this is the first house we have had that we can make truly ours as we have moved 8 times in the past 8 years. It was time for us to have a base and a place we could call our own.

The last 2 weeks I was in the UK were hectic to say the least. We got the keys to the house on Friday 12th September and by Saturday afternoon the next day the carpets were all removed and the decorating had been done!!! although its not a nice experience getting up at 4 am to start painting :-(

We spent Saturday evening and Sunday shopping because I had to fly to Bratislava on the Monday morning but by Thursday of the following week the new carpets were fitted and Macky was backwards and forwards to the house receiving the furniture deliveries.

We did a trip to Ikea whilst I was still there and bought all of the essentials such as kitchenware's blankets towels etc because all of our stuff was still in storage in Prague :-( as it turned out Kat helped me out with a courier that was next to the storage place and it all got sent on Wednesday 24th by truck. I flew to the UK for the weekend on the Friday and it all arrived Friday evening!!! We ended up unpacking as much as we could and I was assembling furniture for 2 days but it meant we could actually move in :-) we now have enough crockery and cutlery for a 24 seat dinner party and still not need to do the dishes.

Macky's done a great job of putting the house together and it looks really good now, she has been very busy over the past 2 weeks:-)

Daniel is still going to the same school even though we've moved area but we are only 10 minutes away so it made no sense to move him. Macky now has to get up earlier though to drive him there instead of a 1 minute walk. He's happy to have his own bedroom all to himself again and needless to say there are toys everywhere but he's happy.

Macky is driving around on her own now and she is doing really well considering she didn't really have much driving experience since passing her test, and she's never driven right hand drive or driven in the UK before. We ended up getting a Ford Focus Zetec 3 door, its a great car that's not too small but not too big, if you know what I mean.......... it looks good too but she still wants a convertible... hmm.... maybe next year.

Anyway that's about it for now, its Sunday but still got work to do :-( at least it keeps me busy.

next post soon, ish

Todays Adventure....... "On Yer Bike"!!

The weather here today was fantastic (for a change) so off we went to New Brighton to see the Wirral show which was on all weekend. I was expecting a lot more than there actually was so I was a little bit disappointed, until I saw these guys......Basically 3 nutcases doing bike stunts, they had a ramp set up for take off and a landing ramp which was on the top of a truck!! They obviously had their brains removed before fitting their helmets (Sounds like me when I had my bike :-))

The first 2 pictures don't really show the scale of what these guys were doing because I wanted reasonably detailed close-ups but here's one that kind of puts things into perspective
This guy is still on the way UP!! they at this point added a car on top of the truck landing ramp which you can just see the edge of on the right, these guys got some serious height on these jumps.

Other than these guys and hot dogs with onions there wasn't really a lot that turned me on BUT for the big kids there was a funfair, step up Daredevil Macky and cue Mission Impossible theme tune...

"I want to go on that one"!! "The one that throws you around in the air upside down whilst doing 360 degree spins at 100 miles per hour, 150feet off the ground " "I'll get in the Q" :-)

Now those of you that know me or have read past posts know that there is no power on earth that's going to get me on that thing so guess who's going it alone....
This is a closeup of Macky hurtling toward the ground at light speed about to be turned upside down (That reminds me, I must get her life insurance sorted). The Strange girl next to her looks about to throw up.......

So she finally gets off the ride from hell and her first comment? "Lets do that again" :-)

I think not! move along, until, "I want to go on that one" "That one that spins you round on every imaginable axis until you vomit" Here we go again......

This one actually looks like a giant blender gone wrong, The person who designed this ride must have strange dreams but "Off We Go"

On a good note, it seems Daniel has inherited my dislike of heights :-) a very undervalued characteristic in my opinion which will hopefully keep him out of danger in the future. He did tackle the aeroplane flight and the Ski Jump though......

And that was the story of the day, not too exiting but hey, what else are you gonna do on a Sunday :-)

The Woodvale Rally is coming up soon and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a show of classic and modern cars & motorbikes, all manner of military vehicles, an air show with the Royal Air Force and Navy and also model plane exhibitions, plus all the usual stalls and stands, should be great fun :-) Of course I'll be taking my camera.

Viva Espana

Three days later and I've finally recovered from the trip to Spain...... (Crappy flight times).

We had a really good week in Alicante (Benidorm) we managed to get a last minute break for a week and Daniel stayed at my sisters so it was just Macky & I going away.

Benidorm isn't really my idea of the ideal holiday with about 99.9% of it being English or English geared anyway, I would have preferred something a bit more traditional, or less commercialised at least. Anyway, you cant expect too much choice when you want to go the following week.

For anyone who does like Benidorm, I would recommend this place though

This is the Levante Club Hotel, its a four star place that looks like its just been refurbished but the service was really good, the pool area was immaculate and the pool bar was open very late.

The food was a bit different though.......

One of the places I wouldn't recommend unless you have a long afternoon nap first is the notorious bar strip (Yes Bar Strip not Strip Bar) in the town, full of good humoured fun and conversation and lots of special offers to entice unsuspecting holidaymakers to stay up til the very early hours of the morning.

We couldn't believe that it was so lively at 5am in the morning, we had to go back several times to make sure we hadn't made a mistake :-)

That was the other good thing about the hotel, the maid just came and went in the morning and if you were still in bed she just came back later in the afternoon. God only knows what she saw when she walked into our room at 10am :-)
Another good thing about going on holiday is that I no longer have grey hair!! it's now called "Sun bleached" I think it's time to give Andrew a call for some advice :-)
On the couple of nights that we did make it back to the hotel early they had shows which were followed by late night Bingo. The first night that Macky played she won 2 tickets to the spa which we used on our last day there (Very nice & very relaxing) the next evening she played again, and won again to the utter disgust of the other hotel guests who probably thought it was a fix :-) this time she opted for the bottle of Champagne as it was our last night.
Here she is showing off, the Chikki Chikki Bingo Mama (Too long a story to go into here...)
Anyway, we both enjoyed it thoroughly and it was a great break, I think Daniel probably enjoyed his break from us as well and got away with all sorts out of sight of Mum & Dad although Sue says he was a little Angel, hmmmm....

Yorkshire & Back to Black.....

Ok, I havent updated the blog for a while because.... well there's been nothing to update it with until now :-)

I've been pretty much sitting on my arse doing nothing and enjoying the break since I left Prague but as I said we would, Macky, Daniel and I went across to Yorkshireville to catch up with Andrew Cave his wife Jayne and daughter Chloe.

All in all a good trip and we stayed over at their place on Saturday night for a session on the pop and a chinese :-)

Now I have to get this next bit out of the way, take a look at this picture..................

A fairly innocent picture of Andy & Mandy having a brew in the garden, I hear you say.............

Well its actually a lot more sinister than that,,, just after this photo was taken I was speaking to Jayne about how remarkable it was that Andrew showed no signs of going grey whilst I the very much, much younger of the two of us exhibited slight highlights, "it must be the stress" I said "Oh No" says Jayne "Thats because Andrew colours his hair" Well @*&$ Me!! for 4 years he's been denying it and here he is shopped by his wife :-)

Anyway, the evening progressed and before Andrew & I excused ourselves to the pub we opened the last 2 remaining beers that Andrew had brought with him from the Czech Republic.

Can you tell what they are? they went down very well :-)

The girls had a good time and I think they were glad to get rid of us to the pub for an hour (or 2) I actually wanted to go back to their place after the first pub but Andrew insisted on me visiting every pub in the village (All 2 of them). He said it was like a welcoming ritual in Yorkshire but I actually think that he wanted everyone in the village to know that he wasn't lying at all and he did indeed have a freind :-)

Here's the girls a couple of glasses into the night

The following morning, Jayne suggested the six of us take a trip to York which is only half an hour from where they live. York is a really nice historic city and there is loads to see, unfortunately the great British weather wasn't on our side so we only stayed a couple of hours and had lunch but here's a couple of the pics.

Macky & Daniel doing the tourist bit...

Constantine the great who I think founded York City? I could be wrong...
The very famous York Minster
It really was a shame about the weather because I wanted to get some good photos of the kids but as I said, still a very enjoyable couple of days catching up and having fun, hopefully we can do it again soon. Our thanks to both of them for the invitation :-)

The Holidays Are Over....For Some

Daniels holiday has come to an abrupt end with today being his first day in school in the U.K.


I thought it would be quite a shock for him but he seems to have adapted quite well and his teacher says he had calmed down by the end of the day, he really seems to like wearing the tie though, even after finishing for the day and getting changed he wouldn't let go of it, but he does clean up well (just like his Dad :-)

Luckily his cousin Jack has been at the same school for some time and knows the ropes so he's looking after Daniel at lunch and playtime's as they are not in the same class (Jack's 1 year older)

And here they are, Jack Daniel.........


No doubt if we stick around here these two will become inseparable, surprisingly they are getting on really well this time and playing together like a couple of angel's (Calm before the storm??)

On a side note, my brother in law Nigel has just landed himself a job as a welder whilst he waits for contracts to come in inspecting coatings somewhere in the world. He starts tomorrow morning so that just leaves me being unemployed at home. Not sure I like the idea of being at home all day with Nigel at work, the boys in school and me stuck here with just Macky and Sue, if you dont hear from me for a while you know I've gone mad !*%£

UK Living....

What do unemployed people actually do all day?? Ive been unemployed for exactly 4 days now and I'm bored stiff having nothing to do but relax and eat :-).

Anyway, today we visited Southport for the first time in 3 years and the place has changed in a big way. Theres a lot of construction work going on down at the coast and they're putting in a lot of new buildings making it all look a lot more modern.

I wont bore you with loads of pictures but heres the New Marine Way bridge thats gone up linking the beach to the top of Lord Street, still has a lot to do to it but it looks good.

And heres a slighly more stereoptypical but "Arty View"

One thing that hasnt changed is the old bowling club thats been next to the marina for about 1000 years (I think some of the players today were the founding members) but its nice to see a bit of tradition being carried on, the most energetic thing I've done since I got back is eating a very hot Donner kebab.

Speaking of tradition, I'm staying at my sisters again and being bullied as usual by the brother in law Nigel. He has just passed his BGAS qualification to be a Site Coatings Inspector (he makes it sound really technical but I think he watches paint dry...). Anyway he has been making me break my promise to myself since I came back and has been forcing me to drink large amounts of alcohol each evening.....

Heres the bully in action, everytime he gets me into trouble I get the blame, it's just not a fair life...

More Soon...........

Waving Bye Bye & Flying the Flag

I'm Unemployed!!! finally :-)

Just got to call in on Monday and drop off the car etc and we are done, I'm really looking forward to getting back to the UK for a break now.

Last night was my leaving party and quite a few people turned up to help me celebrate :-) I unfortunately celebrated so much that I forgot to eat :-( shame really because the food at Lucky Lucianos is very good. After Lucky's we went of to a club in Prague suggested by Pepa's wife. really good club with a dance floor and great service but where the hell it was I have no idea (Red Bull gives you memory loss!!) I'm sure someone will enlighten me at some point.

If anybody else has any pictures from last night please send them to my email, I only took a few before completely forgetting that I had brought the camera, I'll put them on my flickr page at some point. All in all though a very good evening, at least the parts I remember, bloody Red Bull again!!

Highlight of the evening?? Well, Martin Z was told by the girls that he could only come if he agreed to be my new assistant so guess what..........

He turned up dressed for the part!! I have to say, if it wasn't for the hairy legs I would have given him the job :-) needless to say it gave everybody a good laugh and he had the good sense to bring a change of clothes. Actually, thinking about it, if he had walked around town like that then people would have just thought he was another English tourist on a stag party.

Here he is looking a bit more himself with a few of the crew

This next picture should be sub headed "The beginning & the end" Roman and Jarda otherwise known as Shrek & Donkey were there to see me off just as they were there to greet me when I arrived.

We also got chance to say goodbye to Bobikat who left the company today, she is off to pastures new and starts her next job on Monday, we wish her luck.

The guys in Brno came up with a new idea. Instead of doing the usual and boring stuff like buying me a goodbye card, they decided to borrow a AAA Auto flag and sign it :-). Obviously as you can see from the pictures it was an old one and no longer usable......... They also brought me a couple of bottles of what Pavel tells me is a very special red wine made & bottled by a friend of his, thanks guys :-)

Seemingly, Katka had a few too many Moravian white wines last night and got a little bit Briunk..... hmmm..........

A very big thanks to all who turned up, I hope we can do it again sometime in the future under different circumstaces.

Are they trying to tell me something......?

So the guys and girls in work decided to get me a leaving present a week before I board the plane, what did they decide on? a bottle of my favourite Jack Daniels :-) but not to do things in a small way, they decided that a 3 litre bottle would be the best route to follow.
Now most people know that I enjoy the occasional sip for social purposes but 3 litres and with only a week to go......... ? Great Idea!! might as well start now because there is no way the humorous airport security will accept it as necessary hand luggage or for personal medical use (pity)
Seriously, thanks to all who got dragged into donating towards my "social" evenings for the rest of my time here.

Andrew C Update

Ok, So Andrew has now started his new job back in the U.K. or should that be "Old New Job??"

After 3 years in Brno, Andrew has returned to his old company in his previous role (god help them :-)) as Service Manager Extra-ordinair of a Skoda dealers not far from where he lives.

I am sure he was welcomed back by the guys there after a slightly extended vacation overseas (they probably thought he popped out for milk) and I know he is glad to be back there with some familiar faces.

How do I know this?? Well, he sent me a postcard, he seems to be enjoying life being back in his home county.

Well, at least he's happy again,"Bin Lids anyone"??

Now, "where did that sheep go"??

One Step Closer

"BLOODY BUDGET AIRLINES"!!!!!

"Our new LOW LOW PRICES are starting at just £5.00 for a flight to anywhere in the world". Please press next to book this flight... Next..... "Would you like to have a seat during your flight?" prices start at £25.00 each?"............ "No thanks!!!" ............. "I'm sorry but under the new "B..O..L..L..O..K..S flight regulations all passengers must be seated during flight". Please press Next to continue.... Next....... "Would you like your seat to be inside the plane?" that will be an extra £45.00 per person or per seat........... please press Next to continue ......... Next.......... "Would you like to check any baggage?" .... Yes 3 please!.... "Right then, that will be an extra £12.00 per bag as long as they are lighter than air, a further charge of £25.oo per Kilo will be applied if they are not"...... Next......... "Would you like to take advantage of our totally free 1st class airport lounge with complimentary breakfast/lunch or dinner and all inclusive beverages? All items are served silver service at your table, or you may enjoy one of the delights of your choice from our Al-a-Carte menu and of course our totally free selection of worldwide coffes, teas, juices and cheeses" all with the compliments of your Captain"........ OH YESSSSS!! ...... "Ok then that will just be the £125.00 seating charge each (fake smiley)"

Its not that I'm tight but wasnt flying cheaper before 9/11???

So, I finally got round to booking the flights and its wheels up at 10:30 am on Tuesday 3rd June. This should give us one final weekend to pack the rest of our stuff off to storage and dump the rest that we dont want to keep. Anyhow its one step closer to the great beyond and a big leap closer to being back in the Rat Race :-). I really hope that my brother picks us up because I cant afford a taxi now (love you bruv, by the way:-)) I've already got that first Donner Kebab down my shirt now :-) NO Really!!

Sausages & Heights

I've been off work now for a week and I've got another 4 days to go before I'm back in the office.

Macky & I decided to take a walk around town today after dropping Daniel off at school and Macky was getting hungry.

I've been here for over 3 and a half years now and one of the only things I cannot get to grips with is the lack of choice in fast food, there's basically sausages with bread or buns & chicken gyros which is a piss poor excuse for a donner kebab, there is of course McDonalds and KFC but no Burger King or Pizza Hut (BOOOOOOH). I very rarely eat the gyros when I'm out and I've only ever tried the sausages once, one bite and it went in the bin!! but, Macky thinks they're great, grease packed sausage skins with a sprinkling of meat........ anyway, this is how the day started.

Ok, so after Macky had eaten the sausage and fed the bread to the pidgeons I decided to get brave (Stupid Idea!!) and I suggested we take a trip up to the Prague observation tower. Not many people know there is an observation tower even though its in plain view at the top of the hill that Prague Castle also sits on. Well most of you know that I have no head for hights and this tower has an open staircase to go up and down and has no elevator, but today I was determined to go up (we are leaving after all).

Here's the Tower

Up close it bears a striking resemblance to the Eiffel tower which I think it was modeled on. Just out of sight behind the trees in this picture is the lower level observation deck, which is as far as I got before my legs completely gave way and refused to carry me any higher up. Seriously it felt like I could reach out and touch the passing Boeing 747's :-) and I was shaking. The only other time I've ever been this scared is when I had dinner at The Globe in Riyadh (a similar tower of epic proportions) with some friends and they took me up to the observation deck there, I swear the floor moved under me (but it could have just been my knees going).

And here's the view from the deck looking down on the river and the series of Prague bridges.

Now we are back home thankfully, strange to say we live on the 5th floor but I have no problem leaning on the balcony railing looking down, Weird....

Macky has now introduced me to the finer side of being off work, "Afternoon nap time" so now I'm off to practice :-) before picking up Daniel from school. more soon.....

Action Prague

Ok, I just had to share this with you, take a look at this movie poster which I photographed in Prague today.


Looks really exiting yeah?, cops with their guns drawn looking mean & meaning business, more motorcycle cops pulling wheelies and looking fast. So I'm thinking for the past 4 months everytime I see this poster that I'll have to go and see the movie if it has English subtitles but I've never seen it listed at the cinema.
Well, I just found out why I havent seen it listed, its because it is not in fact a movie poster.............. its a recruitment poster for the Prague Police Department.
You have to wonder what kind of people and what particular attributes of personality they are going for :-)

Curtains Down On The Muppet Show

The end of an era has arrived.........

Andrew is now completing his last working week in Prague and the muppets are going their seperate ways. Its a sad time not only for him but also for the masses of mentally ill people that called him a freind.

Andrew will be back in the UK as of the end of this week with his feet up and a pint of yorkshire beer in his hand "Appen that'll be the Badger" (thats pretty much the same as he did here for 3 years but with Czech beer :-)) I'm sure it wont be a complete end to the exploits of the dynamic duo otherwise known as the "Andrews" as we will definatelly meet up to catch up at some point.

I'm sure he will pass on his email to all who ask for it but if you dont manage to catch up with him before he goes then email me and I'll pass on your contact details.

We wish him luck, whatever he ends up doing...... even if he goes back to being a ladies hairdresser, watch this space for updates :-)

Frustrations in life

So it seems I'm on a bit of a roll with this blogging thing so I want to tell you about two of my interests at the moment Photography & Golf.

Ok, so the first thing to tell you (You'll already know this if your involved in either) is that they are both very simmilar. Yes I know that one involves hitting a ball with a stick and the other is creating photographs but........ they are also both the most challenging, frustrating, addictive, enjoyable, obsessive, expensive and rewarding hobbies ever invented :-).

About 9 years ago my brother introduced me to golf after years of me telling him what a boring game it looked. I was visiting him one day unexpectedly (for him) and he had already arranged to go to the golf driving range. After some persuasion, I agreed to join him (Just to watch him practice). Once there he gave me a basket of balls and a borrowed club (I couldn't use his, hes a lefty). Well, I promise you after a full basket of maybe 50 balls guess what..... I managed to hit one good shot (luck not judgement) and the rest as they say is history. The following day I went out and bought my first set of clubs and began the uphill battle of trying not to embarass myself on the fairways. I eventually joined Hoylake golf club and played regularly each week before moving to Saudi but since then I have only played one season in the Czech Republic with a freind of mine Ruskin who is now in Japan. Now once again I have sold my clubs rather than have another heavy item to ship to wherever we end up.

About four and a half years ago, another freind of mine John who I worked with in Riyadh introduced me to Photography by giving me the chance to shoot a few frames with his Nikon D200 (at the time one of the closest cameras to a pro set up you could get). What happened next.............? well I bought myself a camera.

I initially bought a Sony F828 (8 megapixel) with a fixed lens, I didn't fancy the investment in changeable lenses at the time, and my level of knowledge wouldnt have justified it either.

Four months ago I took the plunge and bought myself a Nikon D80 DSLR (still not up to John's level) thinking I had learned enough about appatures, shutter speeds, ISO and white balances and such like...... how wrong I was!!

I also think that all budding photographers should take note here, there is a disease in the photographic community that is transmitted immediately upon buying your first dslr, its called "Lens Lust" (yes John, you were right) and it doesnt just effect men either. Lens Lust is a gripping all consuming realization that you now have a camera with interchangeable lenses, therefore, you must have more lenses in your kit to change.... ok so far until you also realise, its bloody expensive!! (just like golf)

So the thoughts behind tonights blog...... Freinds & family introduce you to new hobbies, sports and other passtimes that of course you come to enjoy and love, but dont for one minute think its going to be easy :-) research, research, research & be ready for dissapointment & dissaster in equal measures.

I sometimes think that my brother Tony and my freind John wanted me to be just as frustrated as they are but they are two hobbies I will never stop trying to master.

I still swing a club like a crazed caveman but at least my photography is getting better. Heres a trio of my favourite shots.

Getting Ready To Go

So, its quite an exiting time for me right now, you've caught up with me just as I am preparing to leave Prague for the last time (for a while at least)

As Most of you who know me will know, I have been here for almost 4 years now after leaving a long stay in Saudi Arabia

I am due to leave at the end of May and for the first time in my life its off into the great unknown. I've resigned my Directors position here in Prague with AAA and decided to take a break between jobs for the first time ever.

Macky & Daniel are quite exited too as we will initially be returning to the UK for what we think will be a short stay before departing to countries and cultures new (who knows). Before I even start looking for a new job though its time for a well earned break and we are thinking about Spain for a couple of weeks, sitting round doing next to nothing, well nothing actually!!.

Macky doesnt really mind where we go this time although a return to the Middle East seems to be the running favourite at the moment :-) I'm sure Daniel will voice his opinion when he has to leave the UK but I know he's adaptable and will fit in anywhere.

Prague has been a good move for us overall and we have all enjoyed our time here, Daniel was still a baby when we arrived and adjusting had its ups and downs (another new language) but we overcame and made a lot of freinds who we will miss greatly but try to always keep in touch with.

So thats it for my first Post of this blog which will hopefully give a few people oportunity to keep up with the exploits, for now its back to packing and I'll try to post as often as I can.