Incidents in South Africa

I went down a local on Saturday to watch the big six nations match - England vs Ireland. Obviously the predictable happened and Ireland won, yes I was surprised by the margin, but that just provides more of an opportunity to hassle the English so its a double tick in my book.

I ended up watching the game with a few of the lads and my friend Jo. After the game I got to chatting with her and she suddenly drops the bombshell of the evening (like I said the game was fairly predictable). Basically, she says, our friend, my old flatmate, C, had broken his back last week after falling off a balcony while drunk, and the last thing she heard was that there was a fairly high chance that he wouldn't be able to walk again.

Damn.

Now the history here is that C, being South African, is a bit of a, how do you say ... a nutter. He's a slight piss head and occasionally he does dumb drunken things, but overall, like all of my friends, he's alright. In fact I recall him breaking an elbow once when he convinced everyone he was a master of the skateboard - he does that sort of stupid thing. That said, I'm still completely in shock.

The one thing that I fear more than death is a life being incapacitated in some form or another and maybe being confined to a wheelchair. I enjoy my freedom, I enjoy my travel, my outdoor activities, my simple ability to get up the four steps to my flat in a single bound. Its hard to conceptualise that being taken away all because of a dumb drunken incident by myself or someone else. Its made me stop and think.

Sometimes if nothing seriously bad happens to me for a while I get this sense of indestructibility and I take risks. If there is one positive thing to be taken out of this its that moments like these help ground me and remind me how quickly things can change. I am now aware of my own mortality again.

So there's been a few texts back and forwards between South Africa and England in the past couple of days. Good news is he's out of hospital and he can walk (kinda) although he is confined to a brace for the next couple of months. That being said, that's great news, and I'm sure he's thinking exactly the same thing.

C mate, I hope you get better and you make a full recovery, and piece of advice - don't do that again.

Times they are a changing

Last week I signed up for the British 10km run on 1 July.

Completely out of character for me, but I was challenged by Ken that if we both did it he would beat me. Dammit I can't say no to a challenge - I signed up.

My flattie Julian was bugging me about joining his gym where he's just signed up. Basically he wanted a gym buddy. I hate gyms so I've been avoiding him on the subject. Tonight however I did accompany him to the swimming pool.

Swimming is part of my training plan for the 10km run. It is a loose plan as I can't swim. As a kiwi its quite embarrassing. Okay maybe not as bad as 2trees story, but almost as embarrassing. Julian said he'd train me. We're doing to Rocky thing, except he doesn't run and I don't do gyms. Could be amusing.

Tomorrow I start my running program. I hope my kness survive.

My plan this year is to get fit again. Too much beer and not enough exercise does not a happy man make.

K8 and I looked at flights to NZ on the weekend. We should have booked and paid by the end of the week. We're looking to go to Dubai on the way back. Cost is only slightly more expensive than direct through the US but then what's a bit more when you're paying £1200 anyway! I mean £1200 (and that's the cheapest) - where does any airline get away charging so much for a flight!?

I remember the days when you could go to a shop and get 10 sweets for 10cents. £1200 is 335,000 sweets at current exchange rates. If you were to line those 335,000 sweets up in a line, it would circumnavigate the globe more that once. If you were to convert those sweets to energy there would be more than enough to fly that plane twice around the globe!

If it weren't for the fact that that much sugar is bad for you, and I haven't seen family and friends for several years, and the fact I'm not a sugar person then I would definitely go for the sweets as they're way better value.

Anyway, if you can't already tell, I'm getting rather excited about going back to home.

Details will follow.

BTW, I take no responsibility for any dodgy maths used in the post.

Welcome to the Hotel Barcelona

Barcelona - love it.

I just got back on Sunday night/Monday morning from what only can be described as another great experience in Barcelona. I didn't do anything really new because from my last time there I had done 50% of what I wanted, and this time I was with K who hadn't been there before so I picked the two or three things I knew were good and marketed them to her.

Basically I arrived late Friday night and went straight to the hotel. K had flown in from Germany so I met her there as she had already checked in. Saturday we went shopping where I bought a couple of well priced items (I'm still not a big fan of London shopping) and then proceeded to do a walking tour for three hours around the Gothic quarter and up the far reaches of La Rambla. Definitely worth the effort for the walking tour as I did get an appreciation of the design and history of Barcelona that I hadn't had before. I now know what Indianas are - and funnily it has nothing to do with a Temple of Doom. I also know why 1898 is an important year to Spaniards.

We ended up getting back to our hotel so late on Saturday that we challenged even the Spanish for the late dinner thing - setting off as we did at around 10:30 for dinner to Quatrocats (or 4 Cats) restaurant. Basically the place is one of those historical places, built in the early 1800s to resemble a mansion in the middle of the city. We had passed the place earlier in the day, then later in the day with the walking tour. When we asked at the hotel for a recommendation they gave us this place - funnily we couldn't then go and say - nah we'll have Burger King. Definitely a place with character, definitely worth the effort, but book in advance.

Sunday was the more traditional Gaudi tour, visiting the Sagrada Familiar and Park Gruell before taking in the waterfront. From last time, I think it was 2003, the Sagrada Familiar had definitely moved along a lot. I remember it being open on one face and a lot of the structural work nowhere near complete - I think only two or three of the main five transepts were completed back then.

For those who don't know, this is Gaudi's only unfinished work. An absolute awe inspiring megalith of a cathedral which has been through so much and has been a work in progress since the 1850s - that's right, the 1850s! Amazing to look at and all the better to see it in progress and to consider what they're doing, how they're doing it and the detail and majesty of what it is. I highly recommend going before the completion date (somewhere in 2009) just to see it in progress.

So yeah, Barcelona, my number one foreign city in the world so far. Love the people, love the culture, love the buildings. I didn't do so much with the people this time, but trust me if you haven't been then you'll love it.

By the way, if you substitute Barcelona for Califorina in the Eagles song "Hotel Califorina" then it fits and you can really annoy someone. I made this mistake while standing in Catalunya square and couldn't get it out of my head (I'm not going to break into Kylie) for the entire weekend and so obviously had to sing it to myself constantly.

Kilimanjaro
I know this is a diversion but I felt it had to be mentioned.

In my trip around Africa I met a couple who were basically on a 6 month honeymoon. She is Slovakian, and he is Spanish (see the connection). I almost didn't leave Africa in Jan as C, the Spanish guy, was making a quick trip to Kenya to climb said mountain. I almost joined him, but knowing that it would take a couple of more weeks, and knowing that i didn't have a job, didn't have the equipment and hadn't correctly budgeted for an expensive aside (and in all truth after the money problems in Zim) I didn't do it.

I just got an email from him. It had a picture. I now regret my decision. I will be going back to Africa, and when I do I will be including this on my itinerary. Given that I will most likely be going back to Kenya, this shouldn't be a problem - its just knowing that I could have done it but didn't... Yes it would've cost me a bomb in rearranged flights, new equipment and time out, but I hate regrets and experiences mean more than money - of that I'm 100% sure.

Valentines Day
Because that's today. Usual rant. I hate Valentines Day because you're forced to do things that you would happily do any other time of the year, but you get chastised by everyone if you don't do them today. Shows the weakness of the human spirit that it is completely mind washed by capitalism and consumerism. And you wonder why the world is in such a bad state. Rant over.

Anyway, I celebrated St Dwywens day this year. Welsh patron saint of love. January 25th. Remember it. I liked it because it fell on date night (Thursday) and because in London the sales were still on so I managed to get to a fancy restaurant in London with 50% off the food bill (not including the more expensive drinks obviously). Given my unemployed status the discount was welcome. Given the commercial nature of Valentines day I feel like I've given a whole heap of companies the big finger. Given that K is in Spain today I get brownie points for having foresight and originality. K (who also agrees with my hatred of today) also gets to say her day was more special as it was designed only for her and several hundred thousand Welsh people (as compared to several hundred million "other" people). Helps that it occurs before Valentines day as well.

So boys, if you're like me then note this for next year - Jan 25th. Ya can't go wrong.

However please note that my dislike only goes so far as the capitalist overtures that have been placed on the day. So I do wish you all a happy Valentines day.

It snowed

Snow
Not much to say today apart from it snowed. Must admit that it was fairly impressive snow, a good foot deep. Unfortunately I had a job interview this morning so I didn't get much of a chance to "frolic" and play snowball fights (I wouldn't have had anyone to play with anyway). I think that will be next time. All the same, it was fairly nice to take that train from Paddington to Maidenhead and see the countryside covered in white, with falling snow going on.

The travel delays didn't affect me, unlike the 2002/2003 snow where I was trapped in my car for five hours after leaving work. I hope its the same today. I still think about that time several years ago. Its crazy spending that much time stationary in a car.

BTW, I took a photo of the snow from my flat, but after downloading it, it turned out to be totally unacceptable. Hence no photo. I'm very tough on myself with photos.

Football aka Soccer
I went to the soccer on Waitangi Day. Yep, fairly pitiful effort I know, but for some reason my heart wasn't in Waitangi day this year. I didn't even do the circle line pub crawl like I did last year. I do feel bad about not really celebrating, but it was only after we had the tickets to the soccer that we realised it was Waitangi Day.

So I ended up watching Portugal beat Brazil in a friendly at the Emirates stadium (Arsenals new home ground). Wow, 59,738 people in the stadium. For the life of me I can't remember how many people Cardiff stadium holds, but this must come close or beat that.

Interestingly I think there were way too many English people there doing exactly what me and the lads were doing - going to see some amazing players play rather than supporting a team. Yeah, I guess it was amusing the booing every time Ronaldo got the ball. Do I feel sorry for him? Yes and no.

I feel sorry for him because it's unfriendly. Almost as bad as the pub that played music over the Brazilian national anthem in the Aussie vs Brazil game at the world cup. Aussie pub as it turned out much to my distress as I only really went out to Shoreditch because I thought it was a Brazilian hangout full with Brazilian woman (hey I'm a guy okay, and I wasn't supporting either team). Basically it's unsporting like. I could imagine the toffs at Lords saying "yes, jolly bad show old chap, it just ain't cricket". Also, what he did is part of the sport and I think the English just have to accept it.

I don't feel sorry for him because of what he did in the world cup. The fact he got away with it and that Rooney is Rooney is inconsequential. I feel for the English sometimes, especially when it comes to soccer. After the Brazil vs. Oz world cup game at that pub, I have lost all respect for the Oz soccer team completely, and it's got nothing to do with the players.

I definitely don't support England in rugby ... well kind of, depends on who they're playing.

Animations
I love animations, I have a few favourite sites I check out every so often. One had a link to this

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3280356279528968292&hl=en
I love it, very cute. For a second it made me home sick.

Weekend
This weekend I'm off to Barcelona. Going to spend a quality weekend/time with Kate. Funny how we never seem to spend much time together, things always get in the way. Doesn't help that she's away for business for two weeks (that's why I'm back to Barcelona). But it'll be nice, and she hasn't been there yet so I'll be able to take her around. Looking forward to it.

Travel Log
I've been updating my website recently. I have my entire Southern Africa trip in there. Okay I'm missing a few pieces, like the majority of the words, but it is there. I'm contemplating whether or not to link to it from here. The problem is that it was originally put together by Em solely to see who had travelled more of the world. As it turns out I won by 1%, but I've still kept it, I just need to add the words. Oh, and I'm still winning by the way. 35 countries and apparently 13% of the world.

I might hold a poll to see who wants to see it, or I might just keep chipping away trying to make it acceptable, kinda like this blog really.