27.02.06
Posted in
Poland
at
12:45 pm
by
Andy
On this, my third ‘business’ trip to Poland I decided to make the journey from Krakow to the peaceful mountain resort of Zakopane.
Just finding my own way to the bus station and getting to Zakopane off my own back was so exhilarating. Wandering around the village looking for my hotel brought back great memories of traveling and a huge smile to my face.
I spent Sunday on the slopes, gradually improving my limited abilities on a snow board. The was my first experience of really soft deep snow, much better for falling over, but a different technique required.
I returned that night to Krakow for another week’s mentoring of the Cap Gemini engineers. As always good, but a much quieter week than in the past. I guess they are getting fed up of random English engineers turning up every week.
That said I did finally found a club to my taste. We walked past it to hear a rolling bass line emanating from the cellar but I decided in my present company that probably wasn’t suitable.
Later speaking to Wojtek, or volcheck as we call him, I mentioned the Rotogen Club and he said that it was not a good, “Just electronic music and loads of people taking drugs”. Needless to say, I had to go back and check it out.
Unfortunately, they’d moved on from Drum & Bass by the time I got there, but the DJ was playing some excellent… erm music (can’t really define it, somewhere between breaks and electro) and really messing about with the vinyl. Its been a long time since I’ve seen a DJ be so creative (the last time was undoubtably Andy C). Ok, he wasn’t technically perfect, but he was doing an excellent job, and entertaining at the same time.
Unfortunately I missed Shrove Tuesday and the associated pancakes, but the Polish have an equivalent Thursday. Instead of pancakes, its donuts. I was presented with lucious jam donuts when I got into the office and several bars and clubs were dishing them out as well. Not the best complement to beer, but no complaints from me.
13.02.06
Posted in
England
at
5:41 pm
by
Andy
Off to Cambridge for the eagerly awaited First Meeting of the People of the Rickshaw Run. We arrived in England to be greeted by a 35 minute queue to get through customs. Things got worse when our luggage turned up damaged… We then had to wait 25 minutes for someone to turn up at the baggage claims desk.
We got to the hire car center an hour late to find the staff running around in a panic as they had run out of cars… This wasn’t as bad as it sounded as I was given an upgrade from a Mongol Rally worthy Daewoo Matiz to a brand new, 16 miles on the clock, VW Golf Turbo Diesel.
We finally left the airport at 1am, two hours after arriving, just in time to tune into Fabio on Radio 1. This combined with the car upgrade instantly put a smile on my face (Thankfully it was Fabio and not Grooverider who over the last couple of years has just started shouting rubbish on the radio, detracting from the Music).
The journey home was made a little more interesting by helping a lost Ukrainian Tesco truck driver find Tescos…
On Saturday we had an early start to get up to Cambridge and then find the Orchard in the stereotypical old English village of Grantchester.
We were a little late and met Justin of Mongolia or Bust as we arrived in the car park. We entered the orchard to find a huge turn out for the meeting. Some 25-30 people had turned up. I think Tom was expecting less than 10…
Cream Teas and much banter about the route, charity and dates ensued. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Leo and Liz had also made the trip over from Madrid for the meeting, and also took the opportunity to speak with David Johnstone who I’d not seen since I was in Kyrgyzstan!
We later moved onto a pub in Cambridge where the discussion switched onto all things Mongol Rally. Mainly due to the fact that the people who remained were Rally ‘veterans’ (most of whom I’d never met before) or people planning on doing the rally this year or next.
That evening we headed out of the city to Swaffham to visit my uncle and family, who as ever were wonderfully receptive. I spent the evening explaining the wonders of the Rickshaw Run to Malcolm, being beaten and a memory game by my 6 year old cousin Philippe, and talking to the respective pets of Emma and Chantal. This was all complemented by my uncle’s usual excellent cooking (gonna have to learn how he made that salad).
After a hearty English Breakfast we spent Sunday wandering about Cambridge and then met with Tom & Jenny for afternoon Tea. What a wonderful city Cambridge is. So beautiful and peaceful (I didn’t hear a single reversing bleep all weekend), small yet full of history and great architecture, if only we could have had a couple more days there.
They seemed to have nailed the traffic problems associated with most cities as well with pedestrians zones, park and rides and cyclists everywhere. In fact, in two days I think I saw more cyclists in Cambridge than I’ve ever seen in Madrid.
All in all an excellent weekend, marred only by the weather on Sunday and Espe’s ongoing tooth pain.
Now I’m back, time to get on with finding a flat, planning the Rickshaw Run and translating the Mongol Rally site into Spanish.
10.02.06
Posted in
General
at
9:44 am
by
Andy
It seems everyone is moving to, visiting or wants to go to Australia. With both Gareth and Dan migrating there over Christmas, Philippe talking of moving there if Ana gets a scholarship and Marc taking a three week holiday in preparation for moving there in a years time.
Anyway, I checked my mail this morning to find that Marc had been kind enough to send me one of his holiday snaps…
As for myself, I’ve been having far much less fun. The road works continue. The devils drill (imaging a 5 story high black and decker drill) has returned and we continue to struggle to find a flat. Part of the problem is I’m to indecisive on what to do, and secondly we’re too fussy with regards to what we want. Will have to make a concerted effort to get out of the flat before March.
Its not all bad though. Between now and the end of March I only have one free weekend. We’re off to Cambridge this weekend for the First Meeting of the People of the Rickshaw Run. We plan to take a good look around the city and visit my Uncle and family while there.
The weekend after that I’m off to Poland. Onto March and we’ve got a long weekend in Berlin (the joys of Easyjet), Las Fallas festival in Valencia and then a weekend’s skiing / boarding in the Pyrenees courtesy of Sun Microsystems… bring it on!
01.02.06
Posted in
General
at
12:11 pm
by
Andy
Yes, it’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally finished writing the gallery for this site (there are plenty of ready made galleries out there, but I much prefer to write my own, tailoring it to my needs and keeping active with php programming).
At the moment there are not many photos up. In fact there is only one gallery, and that is from Christmas Eve 2004. Yup, the pics are over a year old, but Berry, Natash and Phil were harrasing me for these.
The gallery will grow in the forth coming months. I aim to include photos of events, nights out, trips etc as well as a selection of my favorite photos.
Watch this space…
