28,000 Days To Live

One of my childhood favourite cars, i mean one that i used to obsess over, was the Mustang. Add to that the Mini (the proper British Leyland one, not the huge BMW one), Subaru Impreza (again, the older version, the WRX STI), the Aston Martin DB9, the Aston Martin DB5 and you pretty much have my dream garage. Recently i was given the opportunity to take a spin in a Mustang and it drove exactly how i had hoped! Acceleration - Jumpy, growly, sputtering - like an excited and drunk alsatian! Handling - Just keep turning... the steering column is connected...promise! Braking - Oh you want to brake in a STRAIGHT line...nah sorry bro. Interior Comfort - Imagine a metal shell with a stonking great engine lumped at the front, it even had a switch for the horn, not a button and certainly not on the steering wheel...that would be too easy. Number of Fs given - Zero! Such a ludicrously fun car that its impracticalities melt away as soon as you touch the go peddle. A truly charmingly, ment

I went to this with a good friend and fellow gin connoisseur - a small underground gin bar and distillery near to St Pauls. They greeted us with a gin and tonic (of course) made with their signature London dry gin. They then took us around the back to the stills and explained the history of gin, the word coming from Jenever, a juniper based liquor that was the first traceable version of gin. Apparently, going back to the 1600s, soldiers were allowed certain rations of alcohol per day: English, a gallon of beer, dutch a litre of jenever etc. As the Dutch were allowed a  whole litre of highly alcoholic Jenever, the English marveled at their bravery in battle, which is where the term "Dutch Courage" originates from - Who knew? After the history lesson we tried another 2 london drys, an Old Tom (Sweetened Gin, goes into Tom Collins) and Sloe Gin. Made me remember why i love Sloe Gin so much!

Not a life list one but still awesome! This was when we went to Hamburg for my company's Betriebsfest to celebrate 425 years in business.

On at the same time as a Munich conference at work - we took a couple of extra days to enjoy the local culture, wearing lederhosen, drinking beer and taking some really terrible photos...

2:1 in Mathematics from University of Bath I was 0.1% away from that first....but then again i also got to enjoy my final year!

Treat from my sister - Here's us two enjoying our first sip of butter beer

I haven't got a photo annoyingly but i have been zorbing. There were two options - one in the dry, one in the wet (They ill the inside of the zorb with water before rolling you down the hill). We had paid for the dry one, although, going on a chilly day, and hearing the girlish screams of the men before us who chose the wet option, i think we made the right decision. We (not so elegantly) had to jump / slide into the zorb and strap ourselves into the harnesses on the inside walls. They then kicked us off, down a large hill spinning Alex and I around and around. Good fun - wish we could have done it more than once!

I do have more photos but unfortunately with safari it's a lot of photos of animal tails and with whale watching, its a lot of photos of tails or puffs as the whale comes up to for air. It also didn't help when trying to spot the jaguar that there were 10 other jeeps rumbling around trying to get a glimpse too!

I really like them! I've seen Les Mis, Cats, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, Book of Mormon, Billy Elliot (Very funny hearing little children swearing in northern accents), Lion King (in Paris, in french), Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and i'm set to see Jersey Boys with Mum and Em soon too!

Unfortunately i don't have any photos, but this was a truly incredible experience - seeing the best of the best dance so elegantly and passionately - they also allow the audience to dance in the interval so YAY i've danced in the Royal Albert Hall!!!

IT'S CALLED THE MILLENIUM DOME!!!! .... only thing i have to say about this was...actually pretty bouncy

A nice father-son activity for all here - spend a day driving a tank, or an hour at least... There's no better way to blow away the stress of working in the city than escaping to the country and driving a tank around a field full of cows....who, by the way seem to think that in a fight, they could beat the armoured, cannon laden beasts that we were driving. We had to stop for a cow as it it merrily walked in front of us... no fear. ...oh and yes... i have been told - smart brown shoes are not what you wear to drive a tank...

Life goal - Get rich enough to afford a falcon called Horace It's sad i know but then again....I don't care! Here i am, summoning birds of prey in my fathers rather horrible coat...

Another heights one - 2 scary bits in this: 1 where they strap you in, lying on your front and tell you to lean forward over the edge ...NOPENOPENOPE... and then when you are coming into to land..stop...to the end and you are about 1 metre away from the gravel still travelling at c80mph and you feel like the only logical brake is your face...

A few items on the list are about conquering my fear of heights so i thought i would give this a go - the worst bit by far is climbing the ladder up to the obstacle course to start and also the part where you essentially have to make the leap of faith.

Apparently i had very good lowing technique...stay back ladies,,, I also have two self made whiskey tumblers which are only slightly wonky from doing this!

This is the time we went punting in final year - one boat dressed up as pirates and bought waterguns while the rest of us resorted to using the oars to splash the others. At the end, Hayley seemed far too dry so i picked her up, walking towards the canal, shouting "I baptise thee in the name of the father, the soin and the holy ghost" and then jumped in with her in my arms.... luckily she has a very good sense of humour

This is me and my friend from university, Bex, holding up a Finnish flag, after we had "Finnished" our exams....yes, i know it's painful, however this was one of the most joyous pun discoveries i think i will ever have in my life. We were sitting by the lake at uni and we saw a group of people sitting with a load of swedish flags dotted around them. I mistook them for finnish flags and asked Bex what she supposed was going on? She proposed perhaps some sort of Finnish social and then i said perhaps they had "Finnish"ed their exams....and then we laughed far too hard for far too long about it! Subsequently i decided to surprise bex after her final exam with a finnish flag and a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate the end of university, our wonderfully corny joke and our friendship - Good times!

13 April 2014 Not certain on the date, but this is when i posted the video to youtube. This is my, at first dead pan and squinting, face, driving a lambo - just as I hit 100mph for the first time I crack a smile and then i lighten up a little,., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4TkggTzB-E I've also driven an Aston Martin DB9, Lamborghini Murcielago LP360 and a Ferrari.

23 November 2013 Glad that i took part in this but, like many parts of my life, looking back, the cringe-factor is strong with this one... We had to clear the space with some very (very!) basic ballroom dancing before these little kids came in and completely showed us up! We then came in at the end...and at the back...for the gangnam style sequence - that's me and Johnny high fiving and standing up too soon at the end....well done...well done... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDV7kpHZ5cU&feature=youtu.be