Milan and Lake Como

Myself and some friends from work had a relaxing few days in Italy - firstly in Milan for one night (which was enough time as there's not much to do there) then we had three nights in Lake Como.  We had our own apartment in Como and that worked out well as in the evenings we sat outside drinking prosecco and eating cold meats and cheeses. The lake was beautiful with old villages dotted along the lake front.  We even did a very scenic, but hot!, 10km walk among some of the villages passing by some luxurious villas and good swimming spots.  

Snowdonia

Pretty unbelievably I organised a weekend away to walk Mt Snowdon.  If you know me well you will know I hate walking (especially uphill) so this idea to walk Snowdon came out of nowhere.  Kat and Sam were silly enough to come along too.  I did pre-warn them I would moan and grump all the way up.  Turns out I was more grumpy walking down.  The scenery was beautiful and blew my socks off.

 

The next day we very gingerly walked down the stairs of the B&B and went exploring castles and other villages dotted around Snowdonia and Anglesey. The castles were huge and the villages very picturesque.  We visited Conway and Caernarfon castles, and had the most amazing roast lunch/dinner in a pub in Llangollen.

Wimbledon

 

Our Tuesday staff meeting after school was cancelled so a group of us decided a casual trip to Wimbledon was on the cards.  As it was into the second week of play we didn't rate our chances of getting into the ground........let alone centre court! We got centre court tickets to watch the women's quarter finals, and eventual winner, Petra Kvitova play.  It was an excellent evening with the added bonus of centre court action. 

Power Ballads

I had the best night of my life at Ultimate Power Ballads with Anna a couple of years ago and I wanted to relive the magic.  I organised a group of friends from work to come along with me and we blasted the night away.  The night is best described by the photos below ................

 

 

 

Gyros for lunch in Kos

With excitement we embarked on a another holiday to Greece. We both loved Greece from our first holiday there and we wanted to explore it again.  This time we went to Kos, which is really close to the Turkish mainland.  We had to be up at 2:30am to catch out flight.  This is definitely the earliest we have had to be up to catch a flight.  Never again! Luckily we managed some sleep on the flight.  It was pretty neat leaving a rainy London knowing we were going to sunshine.

On arrival we checked into our hotel and then changed into swim wear and headed for: 1) somewhere to swim and 2) somewhere to get gyros for lunch (but not in that order). Our mission was successful and we even managed to book a boat trip to Bodrum for the very next day.

Another early start - so much for a relaxing holiday.  Bodrum was lovely to walk around and I had fun bartering for goods in the markets. We shopped in the morning and in the afternoon we had a swim so on my third trip to Turkey I can now say I've swum in Turkish waters.  

 

The next day we hired a little 4 wheel drive jeep to explore Kos Island.  This was my favourite day of activities. We saw loads of little villages, visited Roman ruins at the asclepion, and walked up a big hill to see some castle ruins and eat a restaurant recommended by lonely planet.  It was worth the hike up just for the views.  To end the day of exploring we went off road to get to 'paradise beach'.  The beach was fairly deserted and we had wine served in Styrofoam cups - very classy.

 

 

The most disappointing day was out 3 Island boat trip.  The boat was pretty full and it was hard finding space to sunbath.  Two of the stops were ok - I especially liked the sponge island of Kalymnos.  The 3rd stop was just a swim stop by jumping off the boat and the water was freezing so I didn't swim. So we didn't visit 3 islands at all. 

 

We spent a day exploring Kos town.  It was a lot bigger than I thought.  We went to castle ruins and a mini amphitheatre.  In the afternoon we found a great restaurant on the beach that served us ice cold beers on the sun loungers.  When we ordered food they told us to stay on the loungers and they will come and get us when the food is ready - was lovely food and such a relaxing afternoon.

 

On the last day we didn't venture too far from Kos.  We took a bus trip to the thermal beach where hot water comes up from underground.  We visited our favourite bar/restaurant for our last €2 beers and we had a mad dash back to the hotel to catch our airport transfer.  We made it with 2 minutes to spare!  It was a lovely holiday, but tinged with sadness as this was our last European holiday.  Its time to move back home and 'settle down'.

 

 

Arctic Monkeys - Finsbury Park

Arctic Monkeys is one of the biggest English bands around at the moment.  They were playing in North London and I went with some of my work mates to see them play.  It was a really cool gig, with my first experience of an almost music festival.  There was a little rain in the morning and I had no idea how muddy that would make the park.  Amateur.  I had wellies (gumboots) at home that I would have worn had I known how muddy it would be! I can tell I'm getting old because when I saw a guy pee into his cup and then throw it on the ground I thought it was bad taste - a few years ago I would have been amused by that.