18 April 2012

Disney 2

I have had an hour of looking for hotels. Budget of course!

On Tesco's Clubcard site there is a link where I can turn £25 of vouchers into £75 of travel money.  The Shuttle for a car is in the region of £95 for a five-day crossing.  So ontop of the vouchers it will be about £20 in real hard earned money.

Next stop, booking.com to look at hotels to fit in to the plan.  Sunday night in a Premiere Classe in Torcy.  Average reviews but the idea is it is somewhere to sleep the night before a day of queuing for rides (glass half empty view) or a day of excitement on the rides (glass half full view). 

Two nights in Epernay so we can visit a few champagne houses and then home from our mini-break. The hotel has parking on-site, is a few minutes from Moet & Chandon and has free wifi to record all the details!

Attached map gives a rough idea of the trip.


Disneyland Paris

"We are delighted to confirm you have successfully booked your 2 free park tickets to Disneyland Paris for Monday 20 August 2012, exclusively from Sky Rewards."

I had an email from Sky about the offer of two free tickets for Disneyland Paris so why not?  We spend a while in France as it is and this might be a good day out. I have never been that great a fan of theme parks, mostly as I can't be bothered queuing but let's give it a chance. 


17 April 2012

Away we go....

Okay, don't laugh at once.  Yes. We are going to Torremolinos for our wedding anniversary week away. It's cheap and the resort we are going to is in a quieter part and gets good reviews.

Like Benidorm on the Costa Blanca, Torre was one of the first resorts developed for mass tourism and has attracted millions of Britons and other northern European tourists looking for sun when it is dark and dank in the north.


With holidays there is always an element of snobbishness.  Yes, we'd love to fly to Bali or other exotic places, but it's not currently within our budget. 


Over the years we have been going to the Costa del Sol we have been to Torre once for a few hours when we had time to kill before the flight home. 


Let's see how this all works. We are looking at it positively.

The resort is within walking distance of the La Colina train station on the Cercanias C1 line and only four stops from the airport.  Choosing this place means we don't need to have a hire car and that's another pile of dosh we can save. It also means when we go for dinner, I don't have to drive and I can have a drink with my meal.

16 April 2012

15 April 2012

Blackbird's nest

I saw the female flying back and forth from the garage gutter with mud and leaves and this is the result.

Hidden away in the prickly pyracantha bush but sadly looks abandoned already. It should be safe but perhaps the local cats are too close for comfort.

From the past...

A friend posted this on Facebook asking for info on when it might have been taken. It's in the 90's most definitely and the bearded guy if Dave Gearhart, part time resident of Fresno, on one of his summer trips from the US.

I'm centre stage.

I guess it was either 91 or 93 according to Dave. However! I have no real idea, although in summer 93 I left UK for a year in the Czech Republic.

13 April 2012

Sun and Showers

Had thought about a day trip to Brighton on the train tomorrow. Weather needs to be good!!

Torremolinos!

Okay, don't laugh at once.  Yes. I am going to Torremolinos for my October week away. It's cheap and the resort we are going to is in a quieter part and gets good reviews.

Like Benidorm on the Costa Blanca, Torre was one of the first resorts developed for mass tourism and and attracted millions of Britons and other northern European tourist looking for sun when it is dark and dank in the north. With holidays there is always an element of snobbishness.  Yes, I'd love to fly to Bali but it's not currently with my budget. 

Over the years I have been to the Costa del Sol I have been to Torre once for a few hours when I had time to kill before the flight home.  Let's see how this all works!!!


http://www.rci.com/RCI/rdg/rdDetails.do?resortCode=2221&language=en&country=UK

11 April 2012

Train essentials... Coffee and a paper

A free copy of the Sun. What better pick me up in the morning?

Where else could you see Beyonce and husband on the beach? Rihanna's arse in its full glory? Read about celebs... Cheryl dropping Cole from her name?

Only in a British tabloid.

Who needs news?

9 April 2012

Executive Day @ Crystal Palace

Had a great day care of GAC Logistics at Selhurst Park.

They are the club's main sponsor and have a double executive box over one of the goals.

The hospitality is pretty good with all food and drink laid on before kick off and at half time.

As I was driving I had to have mostly soft drinks.

Before the game they fly an eagle and I tried to get a photo but needed a long lens.

The opposition were top of the league Southampton. The result was 2-0 to the visitors.

Hopefully GAC will invite us again and I'll borrow a decent lens and take the Canon.

8 April 2012

Supporting Arsenal


Supporting Arsenal, originally uploaded by InvictaMoto.

Sometimes it is a labour of love. Often unrequited but sometimes there are days when it all comes together.

Days when on paper things might not go to your plan. Today could have been that day.

The deck was stacked against us. The worst referee possible in Atkinson. The opposition, Manchester City, "shit club no history", the highly priced assembly of rent-boys owned by yet another Arab billionaire.

Money doesn't buy class but it does seem to buy limited success. Rather than mid table mediocrity or being merely bottom feeders, City are pressing, or were pressing until recently, for their first league championship since something like 1968 or 69.

Sheikh Wotsit has spent £210m (at least) and has some of the finest players available.

Arsenal, my Arsenal, haven't spent that much in 20 years let alone 2!!

But we had heart. We had bollocks. We had most of everything. More possession, more shots on target. The posts saved City twice before a £10m midfielder stepped up to smash a shot a full 25 yards into the City net. Mikel Arteta we love you.

Their response? More petulance, more diving, more cheating.

Manchester City - no amount of money can buy class.

Typical!!

First weekend of British Superbikes and it is pouring with rain. Forecast no better for tomorrow's main race day.

I have no train season ticket so thought I'd ride up to football. Freezing and wet. Looks like train is going to win.

7 April 2012

Cambridge win The Boat Race

One of the spring traditions is the University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities

Despite hardly any of us ever having known anyone that has been to one of these piles, the country is polarised. Light blue or Dark blue!

Today has been a strange one, firstly a lunatic in the water that has caused a restart.

Then on the restart, the Oxford boat appeared to track to the left and crunch into the Cambridge boat and an oar went phut!

The umpire called it to continue and Cambridge won by a long distance.

One sad thing for me was the comments from one of the BBC commentators, very unsporting to suggest that Oxford should have stopped to force a "no result". Disgraceful.

Sportsmanship prevailed and Oxford rowed on.

Happy Easter Everyone

Circuit de Sheppey

Yesterday we wanted to go out as it was the Good Friday holiday.

We decided on a trip to Sheppey with maybe a look at the fallen Sound Mirror at Warden Bay. Armed with just a TomTom we never found the place and apart from Leysdown much of it looked dead.

In the end we had a drive round and went home via Sainsbury's.

No hot water!

It's Day 2 of the boiler not working. Cold and the hot water's run out.

The British Gas engineer has arrived and fingers crossed it is just the fan.