Snippits October style

Before the next 5 on the fifth blog entry (see last posting), here are a few random thoughts...

FlashForward has started showing in the UK and from what I see so far, I think it's pretty cool. It's a shame that nobody watches Channel 5. It's from the guys who made Lost, so nothing will make sense and I don't expect it to!

For the TV record... The Sky+ box now records daily Frasier and King of the Hill with weekly recordings of Derren Brown, Peep Show, Futurama. Pete tapes True Blood and errrm... Ugly Betty. No accounting for taste.

For rugby fans everywhere, gay friendly bear Ben Cohen is on the front of Attitude this month. I don't buy it as it's trash, but will enjoy looking at the cover. On the rugby-ish topic, the posh England player Olly Barkley is a tease in a new calendar.

Great to see that Rio will be hosting the 2016 Olympic games. It's strange that no country in South America has never hosted a games. London will be fantastic in 2012 and I have already (mentally) booked a weeks holiday to see lots of sports. I think that the USA needs to stop bidding at every opportunity - the games need to travel a bit.

There was a strange coincidence when we were in The Netherlands that I forgot to mention. One of my brothers is a cabinet maker, but does other work if it comes up - well, he had been asked (with his friend) to make handmade wooden windows for an old manor house (when I say old, we are talking 600+ years old). When he turned up at the house, he recognised is as once being the home of the friend I was visiting in The Netherlands about 15 years ago! What was very strange however, my friend and I had "decorated" his bedroom walls with some hand drawn album covers and a funky black, red and grey line across the wall and ceiling... they are still there and it's amazing as we did this twenty years ago!

I don't usually like the questioning of someones sexuality, but... I had always assumed that Russell Howard (star of Mock the week) was gay for some reason - then he mentions a girlfriend. Is my gaydar in need of a finetune?

I have ordered a new company car, after being forced to drive around for nearly two years in a car I don't like! Assuming I am still employed, I will pick the car up in December. It's a BMW like this and it should save me loads in tax.

Next week will be interested as I am presenting in 2 training days. Public speaking was something I used to really loath, but now I enjoy it and actually get a buzz from ad libbing.

Please take part in "5 on the fifth" on Monday. Tell your friends!

Assen and beyond

Pete and I have just spent a week just outside of Assen in The Netherlands. We stayed in a log cabin in the woods owned by a friend of mine. We were near a small town called Zuidlaren, which is a beautiful town and a lovely place to spend a few days - it has plenty of shops, bars and restaurants.

We travelled on the Friday overnight Ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland. This is a relaxing way to travel - fall asleep in England and wake up as you arrive in The Netherlands. We did a similar journey back in May.

We had plans to fill the week, travelling around the region and were very lucky to have sunny weather every day, which meant we could use the bikes as there are cycle paths everywhere. We started on Saturday with dinner with my friend and his family and on Sunday went for a long ride ending in Zuidlaren where a market was taking place. We had a fantastic pizza in the evening.

On Monday we travelled to Schiermonnikoog (yeah, try and pronounce it correctly!), the most northerly island in the country. It has hardly any cars and as there are cycle paths throughout, we spent several hours exploring with a couple of coffee and beers stops. After that we went to a sanctuary that is well known in Europe - so we were told. They do great work and the seals are so clever and inquisitive - I took this picture through a viewing hole and the seal appeared to love the attention.

On Tuesday we attended a massive market and horse sale in Roden then cycled into Grogingen - the biggest town in the area. We took a wrong turn and found the red light district - basically a street full of houses with big front windows. I wondered if it was a right of passage for a Dutch teenage boy to visit a prostitute?

On Wednesday we traveled to a small village called Bourtange near the German border which has been rebuilt as it was hundreds of years ago with an amazing moat with 10 metre high walls. This image was taken from the tourist site and shows the clear star design that makes up the moats around the medieval village. After that we went into Germany for lunch (because my friend Dominic insists that German sausages are the best) and then to a huge forest for a walk in the sunshine.

In between the trips out, we spent time with my mate and ate and drank beer. Pete managed (and I also was partly guilty) in having coffee and apple cake every day. What a brilliant tradition these Dutch have... order some coffee and get cake for only a few pennies more!

The journey home was also eventful. We drove to the port the long way round, over the Afsluitdijk - the longest dike in the Country. It's very strange driving 20 miles along a huge dam - it's an impressive piece of engineering. We took a detour to Scheveningen (another fun one to try and pronounce) as I had been there when I was 17 and had fond memories of the place.

Back to work tomorrow - boo!

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Going Dutch

Pete, my friend Sonny and I travelled to Holland on Thursday night for a long weekend. We visited my friend Jan (pronounced Yarn) in Assen in the north of the country - it was he 40th birthday party.

We travelled on the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hook Of Holland - which was a much better experience than I had been expecting and then drove through the country to Assen in the morning (what did we do before Sat Navs?!). We arrived around midday on Friday and after a quick pee break and coffee we headed off to the Assen TT circuit to watch some practice and qualifying sessions for a number of races of various car types plus racing trucks. Here is a stunning short film I made at the track:


The hotel was in the middle of town, which was pumping at 3am - just what I needed. Assen is a clean and compact town, with loads of shops. We had a walk around on Saturday morning including cake stops for Pete. He likes the Dutch tradition of having coffee and cake.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a barbecue and plenty of beer and/or wine. While we were there, we reenacted a photograph that was taken about 20 years ago - a depressing thought, but we thought we would do it again in 20 years - before and after...

On Sunday we took it pretty easy and after seeing Jan's impressive summer house in the woods, we drove to Leiden which is south of Amsterdam. It's a really pretty town with canals everywhere. We stayed there overnight before getting the 2.30pm ferry on Monday afternoon - 7 hours later we were back in Harwich.

The Dutch people are so welcoming and the lifestyle is far more laid back than the UK. They seem to have the balance about right between work and play - few people commute by the sounds of it, a source of stress for so many people I know.

It was a fun, costly and tiring weekend - but well worth the effort.