So today I did something new, I ate fish! I have good reason to.
Alan and I did stuff, and finished off with breakfast burgers while driving across town to meet a man with a boat.
This man with a boat is known as duck, strange, but true. Duck took us on this boat out towards Cuba, until we couldn’t see land any longer.
We went out into the deep blue to fish, deep sea fish. I think we were inspired by the large photograph that grandpa has hung in his house of him stood by a very large marlin, or sail fish I’m not sure, that he caught down here in key west.
We sun creamed up, and from the red patch on my back, I can’t quite reach my whole back, oops! For it was a glorious sunny day, and then we went in search of birds and sea grass. The birds tend to hover around fish activity which they can see much better and from much further then we on the surface can. And the grass makes for a good hiding place for small fish trying to avoid predation.
Six hours at sea went by in very little time. We dragged lines, searching for tuna and dolphin. The dolphin are not the mammels that we all know, but a fish which goes by the same name. And bites we got, catching a couple of dolphin.
This didn’t last long, and so we motored off further toward the horizon. And before long, by aid of the birds, we found more activity. But now this school of fish was hungry and excited. So we used some more classic rods, making for harder work, but more fun. We caught 8 dolphin so far, lost a couple, threw one back as it was too small. Fish polulations need to be maintained.
Time running out we head back to land. But following sone birds we came across commotion, tuna. However there were dolphins, the mammels, chasing them around, so we started the chase. You have to get ahead of them, so as not too spook them by getting too close. Yet to no avail, we caught no tuna.
No matter as we were lucky enough to see some great turtles, who watch us then dive into the blue below. And even more beautiful we were entertained by the dolphins to a dance, some flipping in the sunset!
Alan and I got set up in the supermarket with some olive oil and Ginger sauce, and I made a salad. So the moment came, and it must have been maybe 8 years since I ate fish, but I did, and enjoyed it, but don’t think that I’ll be making a habit of it. Well that’s pretty extreme for me.
The other guys here commended us on our great fish, so yeh, a great day and successful. ![]()
What next but to watch ‘into the wild’ and chat about life and loss. It seems that most of us here out of 7 have lost a sibling within the last year, strange, connection, but most of all the realisation that we all go through these strugles and surprises that come at us as we go through life.
So the film has been done beautifully, not to the book, but based upon real life, it is beautiful while sad, but paints well the picture of his life and the effect he left upon the world after death.
And with that it’s that. Another day in America, doing the American thing!
Tag: ‘burn’
Changing habits
Friday, October 16th, 2009Toasted
Friday, July 3rd, 2009We worked hard in the morning, until the afternoon and it was too hot to work.
Then a long sweaty chill and I washed my car and got driving.
So now I’m at dads near cambridge, to get some stuff and sleep tonight, use a bed, use the net, so some washing, but most importantly have a shower.
Refusal
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009Monday courtney had her first drive. So it’s cool, she’s a bit jerky in first, but now we all get to drive a little less.
And she got us to bucarest.
So now it’s almost June, and we had some difficulty finding a hostel. From fully booked, to shut down, to plain abandoned, finally just as the sun was setting, we found a nice pension.
A local meal and few beers in town and we were done for the day.
Romania isn’t anywhere so crazy as I remember from when I was a kid. I can’t judge bucarest based upon a few beers on a Monday night, but friendly people, cheap food, drink and accomodation along with a pinch of character make it a cook destination.
So early rise yeasterday, Tuesday, a I take to the driving seat, destination Belgrade. We’ve heard great things from other travellers.
After an hour on the nice highway, we veer off towards criova. I was following a navy passat, and suddenly a young police lady pull both of us over. At first it seemed that she was pulling over several cars as a routine check. But she came over to my window and said, well I hadve no idea because I don’t speak Romanian. So I ask if as speaks English, and unfortunately she says yes. No doubt my faces slumps. So supposedly I was clocked doing 93kmh in a town, 50kmh limit. What with her pulling so many more people over, writing tickets, we wait for a long 20 minutes. All the while she has my documents, and the car documents, and I’m a little worried about the possibly outcome. But she comes over with a report, and asks me if I have any objections. What can I say but “no”. So she tells me to write ‘I have no objections’ gets me to sign and she says “I am nice, no?” so I tell her she is lovely. And we are free once more.
2 hours of driving through the interesting Romanian countryside, strewn with Roma camps, giant industrial cities in decay, and green rolling hills, and we make of to the border crossing over a massive dam.
As i drive to the passport control, an old man starts screaming at us, so I pull aside. He asks for “Romanian tax? Vignette?”, to which I tell him that we were never sold such items upon entry. These first two questions were the bulk of his English vocabulary. With much arguing over the cost, mainly due to the fact that we were staying in Romania for just 20m longer, we agree to pay. What choice have we? The whole form process takes almost an hour. Then we have to wait while somebody is found to convert our euros, as she had no more lei, leaving the country.
So we follow some Dutch in an audi to the eu passport control line (did I mention that we have not been anywhere on our roadtrip and not found Dutch people???). So I present the four passports, and upon request car documents. All well apart from my passport. After 15 minutes looking at my picture, (I felt like a westerner trying to leave berlin before the wall came down) and he disappears off with all passorts. We have a friendly guard chatting to us in french putting us at ease for a few minutes, but things didn’t look too good. Then left alone at the border, stuck in place by a big gate, we make jokes to ease the situation. Maybe 30 minutes later every boarder guard come out and we are told to get out and empty the van. We don’t know whether they were making calls or just eating lunch. But the even checks inside the engine. Out came a sniffer dog and alex says, “let’s hope me or my dad never lost any hash in the van” great way to relieve the stress! So nothing found and finally we can drive away, across this enormous dam.
So at the Serbian border there are a couple of friendly guards. All passports fine, no need for visas, and we show the car documents. So a few countries back we had found out that the green card that alex’s dad left in the van was for the old set of plates, causing us trouble at borders, resulting in having to pay for locals insurance for entry into countries. Alex’s dad had emailed a black and White scan. So they say “this is not original document” to which we plead that we have original in France, and will only stay one day. But stubborn as vomit on a White wall, we were refused entry to Serbia. No Belgrade, no bragging about visiting Serbia today, and no acdc concert!
Back to the Romanian border, I am thinking about what if we don’t get back into Romania? Call the British embassy?
They look at us and say “why are you back?” an lost for a new excuse we tell them the truth. Well that worked, not!, and they say that we can’t enter into Romania on those documents. So now what? I guess they dicided that we can’t be left in ‘no man’s land’, we promise to drive straight to Hungary, no stops, no collecting 200 lei.
Free at last ![]()
We ended up stopping here in timisoara, ‘little Vienna’. It’s nice, cheap, camping, cute town, and girls to match.
I’m sat in the sun, one arm covered up due to getting burned on my left arm, driving yesterday, waiting for the others to wake up.
We hope to gain entry to Hungary today, and get to lake balaton. Fingers crossed!
What is that sound?
Friday, May 22nd, 2009So maria and john took us to Athens. It was sunny and we were great tourists. We hit the acropolis, which is a building site due to it being rebuilt. We all started getting heat stroke, so went shopping. We bought some books. Reminder to self, check out magnum photographers. Then to a posh cafe, it was a nice chilled day.
Taking a 12 hour boat to Rhodes seeemed a bit excessive, so upon the advice of john, today, we drove down to the southern most point in Greece, near neapolis.
We picked up supplies, and I drove us 5km down a dirt track, to this beach. It’s beautiful. The swimming is great, we even walked up the hill to some caves, risking life and limb with the creepy crawlies.
Our first chance to make a camp fire, and it is great. Cheap vinager for wine, an I’ve been stung by an unknown bug inside a piece of wood, unfortunatly it’s crisper now, my self preservation isnstict a put him in the fire.
So now I’m the only one awake, laying under the stars, seeing them fall all around the beach, listening to lamb, and the waves, could life be any better?
Broken down may 11
Monday, May 11th, 2009So we went to the town of pula for breakfast, see the coliseum, and use the net cafe.
We had a nice drive up past Rijeka, on the way down direction Dubrovnik, but now we are sat getting sun burned by a fuel station because the van has all but died.
We, been waiting around an hour for a mechanic to turn up, for a diagnosis. First guess is dirt or air bubbles in the fuel line.
On top of that ian is now I’ll in the digestive system.
Fun fun!!!
it’s crazy
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008when you touch your skin afte cuttin up chillis, the senstion is wooooh!
boom! ! !
Monday, July 28th, 2008today has involved many explosions, some pleasant,a nd some not.
at lunch time i hurt myself a lot! i made soup and the bowl i poured it into exploded, couldn’t handle the tastey mushroomy godness soup! or the heat.my heeart is racing, argh! got cuts on my feet and burned thumbs and shins. eeeeeeeeep owch!
so as a result i didn’t feel much like going out. there isn’t much to do on sunday, just lazing on the beach.
so i’ve started watching batman. i’ve been beaten up by marta’s rabbit. and i let it out of teh cage twice, evil evil girl! i’ve uploaded some more photos:




damn alignment!!!!!
and lastly i watched the fireworks. so ow the Mataro party is almost over for the year.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Liteiz it cuz i’z inglish?
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008so i’m sun burned.
this morning when i walked past the mirror i notice how white my legs are compared to the rest of my body, well my thighs and arse are white as snow. i even took photos, for my 365 days.
so yeh my legs are tingly, serves me right for thinking my legs were so white that they’d reflect the sun!!!! i also have photos i just took, to show the after. these will all be online at a later date for all to laugh at!
no luck with a job yet.
excitment adventure:
i like to explore, i walk when possible because i like walking and exploring. i don’t fear getting lost, i don’t fear getting attacked, so it is rare than i feel the need to move a little quicker.
today i felt the need to move a little faster.
i walked to vilassa de mar to catch the train, 6km. took a short cut by a supermarket hoping to get to the beach. there is a stretch of 2km here where there is no beach, just rocks, and people don’t usually walk there. but i could at least see a road beyond this field. since there were cars and people at the other end i assumed that it was a well used short cut.
however when i got to the other end of the field i found it was all men, and they weren’t going anywhere. i could see that the road was 10m away from me by now, but up a steep slope and past a fence, but when i realised that all of these men were walking around in the trees and in this tunnel, all of whom were part naked or fully naked, i realised it wasn’t where i wanted to be, and rushed up this slope and to the road.
i finally got to a tunnel to the beginning of the next section of beach to see that the tunnel they were going down went to nothing but sea. no nudist beach!
so on my way back i went a slightly different route, but still cut by teh opposite side of the field, i felt it was safe as a cyclist was doing the same. but as i was a 1/4 through the field there was a tree with 2 men under, both naked and one masterbating.
i came across this once in london on walthamstow marsh while i was exploring.
eeep is all i can say! hehe.
this photo i took way back in may in berlin, i love it. so much so that it’s been my comuter background since:
Start Slide Show with PicLens Litecoming to an end
Saturday, April 26th, 2008so in the last week I’ve done things far and wide.
i shopped in Martigny, and so now i have bought three items of clothing since leaving London, which is record, and each of those items is small, a pair of underwear, belt and bandanna, though it’s called something else.
i then started clearing myself out, well my room, and managed to chuck a whole 2 black bags of stuff, to lighten my load as i continue to travel.
i managed to fit a lot of stuff in my snowboard bag, to take back to england, to lighten the car. the guy in the airport only charged me for 2 extra kg, even though i was nearer 10Kg over, so a charge of 50Sfr which wasn’t bad, my snowboard bag came to 26Kg, so my car will be much happier!
the flight with swiss air was niceish, the seats were much roomier than easyjet for sure! but i was tired and wanted to sleep, and there were 4 crying babies strategically placed around me! so no sleep.
the idea behind flying to London city airport was partly for convenience. after stepping off the plane, i managed to exit the airport in under 15 minutes. but then i found the DLR was closed for the weekend. no problem i didn’t mind taking a rail replacement bus, it would save me money, and mean i wouldn’t have to carry my Heavy bags around. but just near canary wharf, some idiot cut the bus up, going from the inside lane of the roundabout and turning off, so we had a crash, so that took 15 minutes to settle. then the bus finally came to it’s end, almost 10 minutes walk from bank station, so it half killed me walking to the station with my gear. the remainder of the journey wasn’t too bad, except that all of the walking, the snowboard bag knocked my glasses out of my pocket, so now i have lost them
so a wonderful welcome back to grey wet London!!!!!
it was ecstasy to take the snowboard bag and leave it with Zoey and Anne at their flat.
i got to see a very hungover Zoey. then went to Camden to pick Izzi from work. Izzi n i went to her nice new flat in Brixton. i later went to Ben and Harry’s where Anne n Ben’s sister were drinking wine and talking of scary movies. and stayed at Anne’s.
Sunday i woke up, went hunting around Palmers Green and managed to find the Yasar Halim supermarket, so i got me some ace humous
. walked to wood green, accidentally bought some shoes, but they can replace my tatty old trainers. went to orange, and found that the sim card i had, and couldn’t work out why my phone didn’t work, was not even my sim, go figure, how did i lose my sim and end up with another? so went to Camden, and had lunch with Izzi, then to Sebastien’s. later met Anne, and chilled in the evening.
Monday morning I caught the train to Grantham, met with dad, Allison and Nam, and off to grandpa’s.
grandpa and i mowed his lawn while the others went shopping. we all went out for dinner, which was interesting, all of the remains of our family round a small table.
next day up early, though the funeral wasn’t so early. many many people, and in dad’s speech he made a point to the whole chapel, of me ‘the one with the funny hair’! hehe. it was odd having a vicar for the funeral when granny wouldn’t car for such things. so outside while we left first and then everybody came out, I did not know a person there except those who i had dinner with the night before! they all seemed to know what i had been doing, and were asking about Verbier and the snow?
food afterwards in a country house was cool. after the bulk of the people left, there were just Cowley’s and there were more Cowley’s in there that I didn’t know, than I had ever known. Most up to the same sort of things, running various businesses. one interesting one, Looby Cowley. so they’ve all arranged a family gathering sometime in May or June, but it’s quite unlikely I will be in England.
back to London, had a nice meal in Henry’s in Covent Garden with Anne. we stayed up and watched black sheep, because it’s out on DVD in England. my favourite film for years. the DVD has a whole load more included than the copy i saw on the airplane from LA, or the downloads I got last year.
we headed to City airport in the morning, with plenty of time. had breakfast with Anne, and then I waited in the lounge. I had expected them to announce the plane being ready for boarding, so i waited and waited. and by the time I started wondering what was going on, the board said that boarding had closed. I had listened intently to every broadcast on the speakers, but the guy didn’t speak English, so i couldn’t understand a thing. as i was at the information desk, i saw my plane heading off to the runway, great :@ ! i was forced to buy a new ticket and wait 3 hours. it could be worse, the hardest bit staying awake until the next flight, not wanting to miss another!
I’ve been chilling out back here in Verbier.
Thursday, I went to a meeting at my work place, to help make sure that the web developers are on course and the new website for the company will do everything necessary, and we all went for dinner. a repeated comment was that i need to be there next winter to get the office running.
yesterday Nic and I went for a walk, which was nice, she was hoping to get a sun tan. we sat at the top of a cliff for 2-3 hours and had a pic-nic. so i ended up sun burnt, which became more and more apparent into the evening. Nic picked me up after work, and we went to Jo/Nini/Abdu/Luis’s for dinner. it still amazes me how late they eat, rarely before midnight!
I ordered a GPS for the car online, it’s wonderful how you can order things online in Switzerland and pay upon delivery! I have been moving money between my accounts and can’t pay until then! I think it would be wise to have GPS help to travel around Europe on my own, it will save map reading while driving! I went for the Garmin 250W, I hope it’s good! reviews say better than Tomtom.
so today is partying on the slopes. i don’t have my board as it’s now in London, so i am going to give skiing a go, though it has been art least 6 years, so this could be interesting!!!
so this turned out a bit long, maybe I should update more often!
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