Well it's been a year- and what a year! Thanks to everybody who either came to visit or made living in London such a blast over the past 12 months... and if you haven't made it over yet, what are you waiting for? And if you already come once...

COME BACK!!!

The Tour of Britain

Today I was able to take in the final stage of the Tour of Britain- much like the tour de france just without the doping allegations. Because the final stage route crossed London I was able to catch the race in several spots. First in front of St Paul's Cathedral- they went by so fast it would have been a huge let down if I didn't go to the finish area where the race concluded with 23 laps around St James Park. This was very cool because for about an hour and a half I was able to see the race from a bunch of different perspectives.

I had no idea how intense it gets- Alex I feel you brother. I've loaded all of the pics I took -click here, but I can only think of 3, maybe 4, people who'd want to see them all.

I've never been one to think things all the way through before I go off. Some of you out there might know what I'm talking about if you've ever been talked into one of my half-brained adventures... last weekend I decided to fly solo and go exploring, Norway sounded like a country worth conquering...

I flew into Torp, Norway early Saturday morning (I still can't find it on a map , all I know is it's near Oslo). On a suggestion from Rhino I decide to cross the country and head for a town called Bergen. A few months in Europe and you start to realise that most of the counties aren't very big and would be quite easy to cross. Well, Norway's a different story- it's big and it sure isn't easy.

I'm not sure when I realised I wasn't going to make it to Bergen- maybe it was after 4 hours on the road and the rivers were still running to the east; maybe it was when Elton John's CD looped around and Sacrifice played for the third time; maybe it's when I realised that Norwegian highways are glorified country roads without a center line (see below); or maybe it was when the sun set.
Either way 485 kilometers and 7 hours later I conceded victory for day one and bunked down in a small fishing town that started with an 'H' and was pronounced like a cough. And for those of you who are curious- despite my big talk, I didn't sleep in the car. Instead I opted for a ridiculously overpriced hotel (more on that in a minute).

Sunday morning I was up early like a good catholic and on the road- Bergen or bust! The rain started on early in the morning but I've got to be honest, it didn't dampen things to much, the west coast of Norway is incredible scenic- perfectly fitting with a little rain.

Part of the reason it takes so long to get around Norway is because there's so much water. The west coast is like a jagged saw blade- nothing but fjords, rivers, and mountains. It was only 120 km for the H-town to Bergen but it took all morning to reach because around every corner was another ferry crossing...

...after one ferry crossing it was looking more like 'bust' than Bergen. I had a little spin-out on the road because of not one, two, or three but four nealy flat tires (no idea, but probably terrorists, right George?). Disaster averted and crappy gas mileage explained- I rolled into Bergen triumphantly! Boo-yah.

Bergen was awesome- great town, great hiking, great beer! Interesting side note- when I landed in Torp I was surprised to see that Norway wasn't on the Euro. I hadnt done my homework and just assumed it was. I decided to play a little game. I spent the weekend without knowing the exchange rate from British pounds to Norwegian krones. I wanted to see if after a weekend I could guess what it was from the stuff I purchased. Long story short, I was WAY off. Norway's freekin' expensive. You're looking at a 6 pound (or $11) beer below my friends.Monday morning I woke up and headed back across Norway. The drive was unreal... I'll let some of the pictures speak for themselves.

That's a long way down... no guard rail!

That's a 3 story building there on the cliff's edge!1030 kilometers in a grand total of 52 hours in Norway. Not bad.

Look out Tony Meola...

Two weeks ago I got recruited to play in a football tournament with some of my work friends. Co-ed, 5-a-side sounds great- plus I love tackling girls. I told our skipper that I'd prefer defense and he said perfect, how about goalie. What just a damn minute- sure it's been a while since I've seen a game, but I'm pretty sure the only goals I've ever heard of played either hockey or soccer.

Perhaps we might have done a little bit better in the first game if somebody had told the goalie where to stand...















After a 5-1 loss, a pulled hamstring, and a broken thumb it was time to rethink our strategy and focus on the second game.
















After we regrouped things began to flow a little bit better- I think we scored here!

Long story short- we lost a four games we played and didn't make it out of the group stage- our goalie was bloody awful! Although the last game showed signs of improvement- a 3-3 tie (the other team got the advantage in the end because they played with more girls- cheaters).

With the long day of football over, it was time to find out if Nottingham had any redeeming qualities (besides Maid Marian and a really mean sheriff of course). The short answer is no. But after a nice dinner and a few drinks all that exercise nonsense was forgotten and the team really started to play well together...

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.Good times, but I think I had it right when I left the game and retired from U-10 soccer in 1989...

Hello Friends,

Not a whole lot going on, just getting into a bit of a routine. I've been meaning to put some pics up of a football tournament I played in last weekend with the work folks (let you put some faces with names) but I need to get the pics from my buddy.

Today I did something that I think Alex would be very proud of... I've been getting a little sick of having a bike and never ridding it (London is a scary place to bike- I swear I think the drivers aim for cyclists. I say a dude get hit once and the car didn't even stop) so today I took a train out of the city and went for a ride in the country- realising two things: (1) I'm out of shape, badly out of shape; (2) England is not as flat as it looks like from a plane. I did get to see some cool stuff though...

Stonehedge baby!

Because I felt like my legs were going to fall off and was ready to pass-out from exhaustion, I took a break in a very cool little town along my route, Salisbury. I'd never heard of it. But wow! It was very picturesque!
And at the very end, guess who was waiting at home...

Just kidding that was about a month ago, but I wanted to give a shout-out to Gugi and say, 'man that was an awesome night!'

My new home...

About a week ago I packed up at the Hope Villa and moved about 2 miles south into a new flat... anybody want a tour?

View for the street... The reception lobby...
Inside the flat...

The view from my bedroom (its been a hot summer look at the grass!)

Looking back from the garden (my room the forth from the left on the 2nd floor).

The new set-up is pretty sweet, the building itself is a converted water treatment facility and office building with a lot of history (click here). Down in the basement you can go inside the old water tanks (not sure if you're 'supposed to' but there wasn't a lock).