There are some things in life you just not say no to.  There I was at work beavering away when I got an email from Rob asking what I’m doing the following Thursday.  Just a monthly meeting at the School project I’m doing as it happens.  And what was the offer?  Well his boyfriend Graeme works for a classic car magazine and Ferrari UK had given him an F430 Spider to drive from London to Milan for a Ferrari show there that had to be covered by the magazine.  Rob was able to get out of work for a few days to do this but he could not get out of two meetings on the Thursday.  So either Graeme was going to be in the Ferrari on his own through all of Switzerland or someone could fly in to take the passenger seat…  And that is where I came in.

Quick chat to my boss to get out of the Thursday meeting and take leave and next thing I booked my tickets to Basel and back from Geneva.  I flew in around lunchtime into Basel so I could explore a bit at least.  Graeme and Rob where at this point driving through France via the Autobahns in Germany to Basel and I was to meet them at their hotel that night.

Basel is a small city of which not much else can be said…  The old town is nice and there is a lovely cathedral but that is about it.

A beautiful building in the old town

Part of the cathedral

View from cathedral (Our hotel just right of the bridge on the water)

But I was not there to see Basel.  The next morning and day was what I was there for and we had these (ugly Fiat Punto) keys: 

And yes it REALLY is from a previous generation Fiat Punto

What a sound it makes!!!  Hotel staff came down to the basement car park and sat there to listen until we left.  Amazing.  Graeme lowered the roof in the car park and it was not raised the rest of the day!  It was about 9 degrees outside and cloudy and grey that morning but thankfully the sun came out later and we had an amazing afternoon.

My first view from the passenger seat: the buildings on the opposite side of the river 

Here are some of the car’s details.  Very utilitarian inside to be honest.  But still very nice.  A full leather dashboard with contrasting (and very pink to my eyes) stitching.  But again some cheap Fiat stalks and minor buttons!  Click on the albums at the bottom to look at the full size pictures.

At first we thought we’d try to just take back roads all the way to Interlaken but the sat nav kept taking us down so terrible industrial (and slow) back roads.  So we set it back to motorway and on joining the motorway the first thing we saw was a loooooonnnggg tunnel ahead!!!  Oh bliss!  I still get goose pimples thinking of the sound that car made.  It is a normal sound below 3000rpm or so and then something opens and it just starts to scream.  And gear down a few cogs with the steering wheel paddles and it really wails at you.  So intoxicating.  Listen to it on this video:

Click here to see the video (5MB) of the first tunnel.  Listen especially at the sound at the end of the tunnel.  (I will upload this later sorry)

What a drive!  Plenty of tunnels, lovely scenery on winding roads and we were not cold either.  Party due to the Ferrari’s heating system but also because we were dressed like this:

Scarves, hats, coats… 9 degrees? Pah!

Here’s a picture of me on the lake just outside Interlaken next to the beast:

Not sure why the personalised plate reads Electricite de France but there you go…

The rest of the day was spending winding up and down the most amazing mountain passes in Switzerland.  Tunnels, ravines, trees and even snow.  I only later learnt from George that the Furka pass through which we drove to reach Brig is closed about 10 months of the year due to snow!  Yet we drove over it in a Ferrari!  hehehe

2438m above sea level.

Late that evening Graeme dropped me off in Brig so I could take the fast train through Lausanne to Geneva where I was staying the night with George and Thierry.  That it was dark and I could see nothing out the train’s windows did not matter.  The day I had just spent in the Swiss sun was just amazing.  Absolute highlight ever for me in terms of cars.  Now where can i find an extra £168000 to buy this car (yip it had PLENTY of very expensive options over and above the £131000 list price).

Saying bye to Graeme (and the Ferrari) outside Brig station

My flight out of Geneva was only at 22:00.  So I had the whole day to spend there.  I’ve been so many times for the motor show in March that I don’t really want to see more.  I met George in the bohemian place in the harbour again for a splendid lunch and then, for the first time, went to the sauna and hammam next door.  Amazing!  Why I have never been before I just do not know.   

They convert part of the piers there into a winter sauna with a lovely hammam, showers, rest rooms and two saunas with different temperatures.  And your view out of the sauna is this:

Breathtaking

I met a few guys in there and we chatted and sat outside in the setting sun (even though it was still only about 9 degrees).  AND they convinced me to jump into the lake!!!  Naked as the day I was born I went from the steam room and jumped into the freezing water of Lake Geneva.  The tingling is just fantastic!  And all this in full view of all the passing boats.  How different the Europeans view nudity to the British…

Marcel, OJ and Simon on the deck outside the sauna rooms

I stayed here so late that the only way I could get to the airport on time was for Simon to take me to George and Thierry’s on his motorbike!  Hehehe.  That was fun in those temperatures I have to say! He took me half the way and then I walked to the main station and took this picture on the way of Geneva’s famous water fountain:

Geneva’s fountain

What a fantastic trip.  Thank you so much again Graeme and Rob!!!  It was AMAZING.  Thanks George for letting me stay over and to the other boys for dragging me into the water!  It all made it an amazing trip. 

Click here to see the first 60 photos I took and here to see the last 46 photos.

I had had my birthday party as part of our House warming party this weekend.  In hindsight I think it was a bit unfair on John as if it had only been a house warming we should have had an equally share of responsibility during the night…  I did my bits believe me, but hell nothing would have happened if it was not for him making all that food and keeping his finger on the pulse in the kitchen.

Thanks John!!!

We have been having the worst summer in memory.  And that is not just my ten year old UK memory, that is the memory of people a LOT older.  Grey, rain, grey, more rain and then more grey…  Most galling thing about it is that the weathermen predicted that this would be the warmest summer on record.  But that was just after our lovely freaky April weather.  Seems that April sucked it all up and left us with nothing for the rest of the year.  Until this past Bank Holiday weekend that is.  Lovely weather hit the south east of the UK.  (From the midlands up it was the usual story as some poor friends that went to Manchester Pride can attest.  It was COLD there apparently!)

Crossing the ferry from Sandbanks to Studland 

I had planned for a long time to go to Studland in Dorset over this weekend and had taken the Friday off ages ago.  My friends Rob and Graeme cancelled on me and thus I had to find someone else quick!  Robert came to the rescue thankfully.  So lunchtime Friday we set off for Studland. I had wanted to stay in Burnbake as this is closest to the beach but due to the lateness in getting everything sorted it was fully booked.  So we had to stay in Herston.  It is only 3 miles away so not far at all.  It is a great site.  Lovely showers (in the new upper block, the lower ones are not so nice), a shop, live entertainment at night and all in all very good.  Very busy too due to it being Bank Holiday, but that would have been the case everywhere.

Our space on arrival…  note the space around us… 

The second night a whole group of Polish people arrived in our absence and pitched their tents right up to ours and did not even leave space for my car to get close!  And they were quite snotty when I pointed this out saying “what, that little tent is yours?!!!”  I mean really.  So what.  It is small but common sense will still tell you someone is staying there…  Thankfully the husband appeared and calm prevailed.

The after with Poland behind and another tent on the right!!!  And Rob contemplating murder…

But we came for the weather.  And even though the forecast had predicted fog in the morning this was the view we got from the tent on the Saturday morning:

TONS of sunshine!!!  Yihay

We showered, made a lovely breakfast and headed for the beach.

The beach is a good 15 minutes walk from the road and as we were quite early on Saturday we did not park too far from this path.  About 10 minutes walk from the car to the path. 

Lovely white sand dunes with little hidey holes in the tall grass

Me basking in the sun!

Sunday morning Rob had to eclipse me on the breakfast front!  Scrambled eggs with spring onion, mushrooms with a creamy sauce, the works! It was very filling and very yummy.

I had also bought a wind break from the National Trust shop on the beach on the Saturday.  This works wonders to shield of other countries and give you a lovely (sort of) private space.

It makes for a nice photo backdrop too!  LOL

Rob smiling

Late Sunday we went with some of Rob’s friends to the bar next to the ferry and had some BBQ burgers there and something to drink.

Saw a most amazing sunset too:

We then took the ferry into Sandbanks for drinks at a bar there.  Look at this view from Sandbanks out over the water:

That morning we had been a bit late and had to park quite far from the path.  Then we walked to the bar and then into Sandbanks via the ferry.  So come the last ferry back at 23:00 we had a 30 minute walk ahead to get to the car!  At least the moon was about 90% full so no worries that we had only beach gear on us and no jumpers or flashlights!

Monday the weather was a bit cooler (about 23 vs the 27 degrees my car showed on Saturday).  The early morning clouds burnt off thankfully and we had another lovely day in the sun on the beach.  But then we had to do the trek back to London.  With the entire rest of the world.  Stopped at a little public loo in Studland and managed to lock myself in the single loo!!!  Stupid thumbturn lock just turned round and round.  Thankfully Rob was not too far and heard me whistle!  So he came to the rescue.  I promptly took the three bits of broken “lock” and threw them as far as I could into the bushes so no-one else will get locked in there.

The first part was hell.  Traffic everywhere and not much motorway.  But as soon as we left Southampton behind and veered off on the A3 all was well and we got home safe and well. 

Click here to see all the other pictures I took.

At 9:24 on the 20th of August 2007 I finally succumbed to so many of your wishes and got myself a facebook profile.  I was fighting against joining the hordes for ages now but more and more of you tried to convince me and Alex was the final one to do so.

And hell is it easy!  It automatically checks your main email address Contact list for matches with emails already registered and then you can import more from hotmail and such like and even .csv files from humble old desktop based Outlook!  So within minutes I had had 5 friends and a day later I’m standing at a fair few more.  Furthermore it seamlessly imports this blog into the notes section of my facebook home page as well.  Very neat.  I love how you can tag people’s pictures and how you get cross referenced via photos or all sorts of other means.  Seeing how many of my friends I share with other people is also very interesting.  Even clicking on a random stranger can result in you seeing a mutual friend.

I’ll try my best not to get (too) hooked!

After nearly ten years of living in London I went on a tube line yesterday for the first time EVER!  The Waterloo and City line.  It only goes between two stops from Waterloo to Bank so I hardly have a use for it, but yesterday I was in Waterloo after having a drink with Ousmane and needed to get home.  You can just go north on the Northern Line and use the Central Line.  Or i could have gone east on the Jubilee and go back one stop west from Stratford.  But the last time I did that I realised you have to come out of the Jubilee Line station to get back on the Central Line and that means using your Oyster and this is a zone 3 station.  So it costs money as I only have a zone 1 and 2 Oyster card.

So I took The Drain.  Nothing spectacular.  They use standard Central Line stock but with different seat covers of course. 

But I wonder what a train driver had done wrong to have to do this route!!!  Back and forth the whole day!

I thought the same the other day of the poor District Line drivers that have to do the Olympia to High Street Kensington branch with only Earl’s Court as a stop inbetween…  Maybe they are the drivers that go over red signals too often so they get banished to these lines?  Who knows!

(The Photos above were not taken by me, they are by stephenk1977 that I found on Flickr) 

Two years ago I did a blog post about how chuffed I was with my M&S brolley lasting 6 years.  Well they don’t make them like they used to that is for sure.  The brolley has a very satisfying mechanism that with one click on the handle extends both the central shaft and opens the brolley.  On closing you press the same button and it colapses the fabric and you close the shaft with a push.  The last time I used it it refused to collapse the fabric.  So I just tied it together with the Velcro strap.  But this morning I opened it and walked from home to the station and it semi-worked again like the last time.

BUT on exiting Holland Park station I pressed the button to open it and it shot off from the handle like a SAM missile narrowly missing the lady in front of me putting her newspaper in the recycling bin!!!  The fright we both had!  And then I was standing there with only the handle in my hand and the missile (the shaft and fabric) on the ground next to her!  hehehe  We both laughed.  Don’t ask me why but I never carry a rain mac with me but this morning I put one in my bag…  Why did I do that I wonder?  Anyway it kept me dry walking through the park.  

So this brolley only lasted 2 years.  Hmmm.  Shall I go buy a third one over lunch?  I think so since I love the mechanism!  The third one will probably only last a year…  I’ll get back to this post in a year then!

London Pride was a total washout.  Rain Rain and pain (if you use T9 text you’ll know rain and pain are the same thing).  So with the only two days of the entire summer that the sun will be out forecasted for the Pride weekend you can imagine the amount of people that went.  It was apparently three times bigger than Brighton Pride of last year with over 150000 people attending! 

Steve and me 

I thought I would be woefully late for the parade after a leisurely start at mine and having to drop Bee off (see post below) but my timing could not have been better.  I parked my car at Steve and Jonathan’s and then walked the 15 minutes to try and find them.  The parade had not started yet and I found them easily thankfully.  And all of 10 minutes waiting later the parade started.  We had a great vantage point on the central reservation just across from The Pavilion (narrow enough so only two people can stand there.  So no one in your way and a clear view over the heads of the one row in front of you.)

But pictures speak a thousand words.  So I won’t say much more.  

Lovely colours… 

Hmmm…  (His hat read “The full monty”) 

My favourite costume!  There were two of them (see link at bottom) 

Look at me… Look at me! 

tra lah la 

No shame! 

In the UK the Union Jack is seen as racist.  BUT the pink Union Jack is now the gay people’s!  I love it! 

And fit boys EVERYWHERE!!!  Yum! 

After the parade everyone walks to Preston Park where there is free entertainment.  You just walk around and look at all the people.  Go on a ride, dance in a tent, sit in the sun.  Whatever.  Great!

Some of the 150000 people…

Luke with his free Gaydar fan he assures me he is using everyday now on the train! (kidding!) 

I think it is clear to see I had a great day.  Sunday was very relaxing with Steve, Jonathan and I just meandering the streets, having coffee, lunch and a stroll back home and me driving home BEFORE the main rush of beach people and Pride people started to head home. 

Click here to see all the (hundreds) of pictures. 

After the Roller Disco (see post below) Bee stayed over at mine and early this morning we drove to Crawley so I could drop her off.  I went on to Brighton for Brighton Pride.  More on that in the post above.  Halfway through the Pride festivities though I took a train back to Crawley to celebrate Bee’s birthday further.

Me and da wife! 

She chose the date well.  The taxi’s temprature gauge said 27 degrees!  But as I had already burn red in Brighton I had to beg some sun cream from Bee’s flatmate!  But had a great BBQ dinner and then trained back to Brighton for a last round of drinks with Steve and Jonathan there… 

Click here to see all the pics.

I mentioned the Roller Disco to Begonia and she was soooo excited that I just had to take her there for her birthday… So I booked as tickets for Vauxhall and sent a general invite to the masses. It happened to fall ON Mark’s birthday so he booked 10 tickets for his birthday. Only when we were discussing the when and where of meeting did we realise he booked his tickets at the Kings Cross venue! Disaster!!!

Patrick, Johann, Mark and Andrea 

In the end two of his friends got sick so Begonia and I went in their place to Kings Cross. As much as I enjoyed the Vauxhall venue it is not a patch on the Kings Cross one. KC has three floors with different music and in general has far better decoration and atmosphere. It just feels a lot classier and less like a school hall.

Johann and Bee 

We had great fun. Again. I did fall this time but only due to people bloody skating into me and then grabbing onto me and pulling me down as a result… Bee had a great night that is for sure. She is such a pro and can go backwards and all over.

Click here to see the pics (mine and Bee’s)