holiday

Hong Kong Treadmill 5k

| Richard

The Garmin Forerunner 410 I use is still hopelessly under-reading from my footpod, so I’ll be recalibrating it back to 1000 and trying again. In the meantime, these readings are from the treadmill itself:

The Trouble With Fuerteventura…

| Richard

…is that it gets to you. To the extent that yes, I was back there yet again for a week over Easter with my grown-up kids.

I’d hired my usual premier garden villa at Bahiazul – a three bedroomed villa with its own heated pool, rooftop BBQ area and heated jacuzzi under the stars – for the week and so we set off after an overnight stay at Gatwick.

On arrival on the Wednesday, we checked in and I changed and headed off for a daily 5km run. I did that every day, apart from the second day – the Thursday – when I apparently broke my toe! After that, 600mg Ibuprofen tablets were my friend.

Each day was more or less the same: a large breakfast in the restaurant; a morning around the pool; a midday 5k; afternoon around the pool or the beach; evening at one of the nicer restaurants or my favourite tapas bar (most of them in Corralejo now know me and greet me as an old friend); and then the night at the awesome Rock Island Bar owned by the lovely Mandy and Gary listening to the live acoustic rock being played by mates.

Good times!

Of course, the lovely sun and warmth made such a difference especially given the snow we’d left behind in London.

Tapas … Part One
Tapas … Part Two
Deep Fried Goats’ Cheese Starter
One of the slugs tried to escape…
Looks nice eh?
Shaun Dabrai at RiB
Light Dinner
Desserts
Standard Sky
Put My Foot In It
Tapas!
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay

Sadly, it was soon back to London, dropping Amy off at Egham and then, the following day, Jack at Stratford for his train up to Norfolk before greeting GT with a home-cooked vegetarian chilli as we were off to Paris the next day…

Live Out Loud!

| Richard

Well since I last updated this blog, a lot has happened. Obviously the main event was my trip along Route 66 on an Electra Glide (posts syndicated below and on my Big Trip Blog). Breathtaking!

A week back in the UK – missing the States a lot – and I was off to Paris for a couple of days again with one of our Clients.

Back in London and the weather was wonderful at last, making walking home from work lovely if challenging – trying to avoid pubs!

Silhouette
Silhouette

Paralympics were on, bringing with it the Mayor’s fun: a big screen on Potters Field between County Hall and Tower Bridge with stalls selling all sorts of food and a bar. Made walking home and indeed lunchtimes different and bringing out the crowds.

Tower Bridge Adornment
Tower Bridge Adornment

GT got us tickets for the weekend’s Paralympics so off we went for a look around and to be awestruck.

Coca-Cola "Bubbles"
Coca-Cola “Bubbles”

I think GT’s favourite part of the Olympic Park was probably the champagne and seafood restaurant where we spent a pleasant hour or two!

Then the following week, it was my daughter’s 21st birthday, so she came down to stay at mine for the weekend, with a trip to the West End shops for a dress and a champagne afternoon tea at Harrods’ Georgian Restaurant (after we’d had the Best Milkshakes Ever!).

Shake It Baby!
Shake It Baby!
'Arrods
‘Arrods

My 21st birthday present to her was a vanity plate for her car: 1991 AM (her birth year and initials). This was the end of the weekend that I’d spent with GT shopping in Kingston for an LBD for a do coming up with a lovely vegetarian meal on the Thames.

The following week saw more meals out plus a trip and stay in the Midlands to train a client’s staff. Great fun as always, but hard work.

Last week was fun: GT came with me to a champagne drinks reception at the Spencer House in St James Place, hence the new Karen Millen dress and Jimmy Choo killer heels! Driving in the back of a cab over Waterloo Bridge, we saw a huge ride at the Southbank that we decided we had to go on, so plans were hatched for coming back last weekend to ride on Priceless London Wonderground’s high-spinning swing ride, the Star Flyer, the tallest travelling ride in the country at 60m tall, with amazing views of London (especially when we went back later, after dark.

That was a weekend of film too, seeing “Killing Them Softly” (slow-paced but well done) on the Friday night and “The Sweeney” (which was an enjoyable romp if paying only lip service to the original series) on the wet Sunday afternoon.

Quite pleased too, recently, with the release of iOS6 and the iPhone 5 which is a lovely shiny thing!

And finally, Esther, I’ll leave you with my favourite track during this period which sums up a lot of things (more of which later):