21.12.05

Home from Spain, anyone for tapas?

Posted in General at 9:52 pm by Andy

Nice to be back in the UK. Welcomed by clear sunny winter days, Espe and I have had a busy extended weekend. Tarnished only by persistent colds and coughs for the pair of us.

Saturday saw us off to Clapham North for the Annual Christmas Tapas meal, this time combined with Dan & Holly’s leaving do. Heading off to Australia on Boxing day they were graced by the company of 70 friends and colleagues. An excellent afternoon had by all, and I must say, a considerably less messy evening than the last two years.

It was great to see so many people again, especially Jon who only got back from China on Thursday. We were quizzed loads on the rally, and it was a pleasure to hear how many people had been following our progress on our website.

The following day Espe and I jumped on a coach to Bristol to visit Adam, Mandy and the 6 month old Jenna. We went with MegaBus, which had to be the cheapest possible way to get to Bristol. £6 return for the pair of us!

It was great to be able to see Ads and Mandy again, albeit for such a short time. Jenna, their child, was a constant sourced of entertainment, although I don’t envy the sleep patterns inflicted on her parents.

The most striking change for me was in Mandy who seems to have risen to the challenge of motherhood amazingly quickly. As Espe pointed out, she seemed like a second or third child veteran, not a first time mother.

We spent last night over at Luke’s stunning flat, enjoying a wonderful roast chicken dinner. Another opportunity to catch up with Luke and Jon and talk all things Mongol Rally.

Comments?

16.12.05

Stuff

Posted in General at 7:55 pm by Andy

Once again a long time since my last update, but there’s quite a few things I want to cover. Firstly, a film: Koyaanisqatsi… Go watch it. Made by the same group of people that made Baraka (one of my favorite films) from the 80’s its an excellent display of cinematography with a matching sound track that should certainly get you thinking. Check out the koyaanisqatsi website.

My work has taken a big change. There’s been a large re-org so I now belong to a different group. Initially no-one knew I was there and I wasn’t even welcomed into the group or told what I was supposed to be doing. That has all been sorted now and its been very busy this week. A much higher case average than normal, but all on products I apparently specialise in. Its nice to be appreciated as no-one else in the group knows those products.

We had a bit of a disappointment earlier in the week when we finally decided not to take the flat we wanted. Financially it was just getting ridiculous. The landlady wanted an advance for her to guarantee the flat for us, then two months rent as deposit, and on top of that an Aval Bancario. This is a bizarre lets-screw-over-the-tenant arrangement where one has to put 6 months or a years worth of rent into a special bank account as a guarantee for the landlord should we fail to pay. On top of having to put large sums away unavailable and without interest, the banks charge for the privilege. Although the flat was excellent, we would have to had put down nine months worth of rent before we could have even moved in. To have that sort of cash to spare, especially around Christmas was just not on.

No post here would be complete without mention of the road works outside the flat (the whole reason we are looking to move anyway). For once its not a winge though. Espe received a call from the Police with reference to her complaint. They asked if the situation had improved and if they had worked through the night recently. They went on to inform her that the Police had been in contact with the chief of the works, who in turn had promised not to start using the pneumatic drills before 9am and to stop by 9pm every night. Lets just see if he keeps his promise. Espe, of course, took the opportunity to complain about the fact that they have stolen the neighborhood dustbins (with video evidence) so we now have nowhere to put our rubbish. Hopefully something positive will come of that too.

We went out for Gareth’s leaving do on Wednesday. He will be moving to Australia before the new year. A true character, and there’s a lot more to him than the beer drinking animal he sometimes appears. He will be truly missed by a lot of us in Madrid.

So what next. We’re off to London tonight. I’m going home for a full two weeks and Espe is joining me for 5 days. I’m really looking forward to it as there are so many people to catch up with. Tomorrow should be excellent as we’re going down to Clapham for the annual Christmas tapas dinner, which this year is also to say goodbye to Dan, who will also be leaving us for Aus (what’s wrong with this hemisphere anyway?). There will be a lot of faces that I’ve not seen for a while, and on top of that, Jon got back from China today. Most of his friends have not seen him since July. I am lucky, I last saw him in Mongolia.

Comments?

06.12.05

Fraggle Rock!

Posted in General at 7:38 pm by Andy

Back to Spain. Welcomed by a broken lock, a non functional lift and of course the roadworks… Still its not all bad. I have Esperanza and Fraggle Rock to keep me calm.

Why fraggle rock? Well a few weeks ago one of the pub quiz questions was “what was the name of the dog in Fraggle Rock?”

This inspired me to search for some episodes for memories sake. What did surprise me was how when Nico, Klaar, Espe and I sat down to watch it, we all sang along to the theme tune… each in our own language. It seems like Fraggle Rock made it all over europe. And here, for your pleasure, I present the lyrics:

Oh, in case you were still wondering, the dog was called Sprocket.

Comments?

02.12.05

Last Night in Krakow

Posted in Poland at 12:50 pm by Andy

With my 2nd two weeks in Krakow drawing to a close, we managed to round a whole collection of engineers and hit the town for some beers.

We started off in CK Brewer again, great food and large beer taps on the table. After that we moved onto Rdza. One of the many underground (literaly) clubs in Krakow. My third visit here, probably because Magda loves the place.

Magda is the quietest person in the office, but after a couple of beers and some music, the difference is incredible. She will strut her stuff wth anyone (particularly the French), but she even managed to get Ruud and Uncle Joe onto the dance floor.

She almost got me into trouble, when she stole some random guys scarf using it to dance with Stephane then me. The guy spotted this, grabbed his scarf and started to try and give me a hard time. Thankfully Michal, who is huge, stepped in and sorted things out.

The music was pretty good. Some hard house, verging onto techo, but just after 2 o clock the DJ changed and we got a selection of filthy, filthy breaks (thats a good thing).

An excellent night out and great way to finish my trip.

Comments?

01.12.05

Go Karting

Posted in Poland at 7:56 pm by Andy

Yesterday evening 12 of us went of to a go karting track in Krakow. One of the Cap engineers organised this and with 14 of us in attendence it was a good crack. (Nik: 25:05 is the time to beat!)

Some more photos can be seen here

We followed this up with a few beers and dinner. This, much like every night here, turned into a lot of beers and a club. Got to bed at 3:30, but thankfully I was on lates today. Seriously flagging right now though. Need to perk up as tonight is my last night here, and most of the engineers are coming out…

1 Comment