The words Nurburgring and Nordschleife will set the blood of any proper car enthusiast flowing. This place is motor sport Mecca and I had the pleasure of taking my first petrol head pilgrimage to the place with Niki and a whole load of his Lotus chums. I received an email from him in June asking if I’d be interested in joining him for a long weekend in August. I didn’t have to think twice about that one, even though I knew it would only be as a passenger. Once I´d got the OK from both bosses I was set to…
Well, I said I’d do it, and despite numerous people telling me that I was crazy, I did. After four or five days in Madrid catching up with people (including this unlikely rif raf pictured below), playing far too much GTA IV on Jon’s PS3 and stocking up on Maps at the wonderful Tienda Verde, I set off in the general direction of Valencia. Day 1: Arganda del Rey to Algarga Distance: 59km Highest Point: 760m Lowest Point: 550m I had no maps for the first part of the journey as I’d found much talk on t’interweb of this Via…
Having worked pretty hard over the spring and summer, the time has come for a well earned holiday. An opportunity to find some Sun and forget about the abysmal summer we had in the UK. Originally I planned for Espe and I to take a road trip around Belgium, Holland, Germany, France and Spain visiting as many friends as possible. The plan was to be in Valencia for a wedding two weeks into the trip. I had a long list of people and places to visit but due to the lack of money and, more importantly, the lack of a…
Shortly after moving to Bristol, Espe suggested that we take part in the Ashton Court Cancer Research 10k Run. Although I did a fair bit of cross country running at school, I’ve not done any since and never done anything as long as 10km. It may not sound like much, and is positively short compared to the half and full marathons but having completed it, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Along with our race numbers, the bods at Cancer Research gave out dedication banners to be pinned to the t-shirts with the message “I’m running for” and space…
A good friend from childhood coffee mornings / Halfords / faffing about with cars came over to visit me in Bristol the weekend before last. As someone who was always into mountain biking we jumped onto the bikes and headed up into Ashton Court and Leigh Woods to have a go on the purpose built trails. Halfway up the hill to Ashton Court I realised that I’d forgotten my helmet and my gloves and I remember thinking, today will typically be the day I need them. We were blessed with beautiful weather and the trails were the driest I’ve seen…
Well, perhaps that is a bit strong, but recently I’ve considerably increased the amount of exercise I’m getting. Add to that my improved diet due to Espe’s new role as a nutritionist and I’m feeling pretty healthy. I’m riding 10km to work and back each day, swimming once a week, running once a week and playing tennis again. I’ve also finally got my hand on my new mountain bike. A Cube Attention which I’ve bought through this Government Ride to Work scheme getting me some 40% off the list price. She’s a beauty and together we are discovering the joys…
I had the pleasure at the beginning of the month of visiting one of my best friends from my time in Madrid. I’d booked a long weekend to visit Philippe in Brussels and was very much looking forward to seeing him for the first time in almost a year and half. In that time, we’ve both had some incredible experiences and returned to our respective home countries. Naturally we had a lot to catch up on. It was a fantastic weekend despite the mother of all hangovers (sat, sun & mon). No plans, just catching up and taking in another…
It really feels like I haven’t stopped lately… (another excuse for the irregular posts). Despite living in Bristol, I spent every weekend of May in London. Throw in a week in Milan in the middle and that is not a lot of time at home. I was out in Milan on a work trip trying to organise the Milan launch for this year’s Mongol Rally. It typical Adventurists style, I didn’t find out I was going until about two day’s before hand. Thankfully, Espe came along too, as she has been doing all the correspondence with the Italian teams. Through…