England vs Spain

A group of 5 of us took a day off mid week and made the long journey to Manchester to watch England play Spain in a friendly. James and Hamish (who kindly organised everything) were prepared to pay up to £200 to go to the game - imagine their delight when they got 5 tickets for half that price!

We hired a car and Hamish drove all the way there and back. He is getting well used to driving long journeys late at night. It took ages to get out of London and by the time we made it to Rugby we were starving. We called in for lunch, a quick wander round the town which included losing our tennis ball in the headmaster's garden and a couple of snaps of William Webb Ellis.



After a quick look around Manchester, which seemed like quite a student orientated city, we were off out to Old Trafford to find a park, have some dinner and find our seats. Gus and I sat high in the stands, just off half way but as you will see from the photos, we almost had a bird's eye view of the game.









Spain won the game 1 - nil and I was pretty happy to see a goal so clapped and cheered when it went in but realised very quickly that I should not be doing that as everyone else sat in silence. The English fans are a pretty negative lot and do a lot of booing, and to be fair they had a right to be upset after England controlled most of the possession.

The next day we woke up to snow on the ground back in London which started falling just after we got back at 2:30am. Needless to say, it was a pretty unproductive day at work.

Chelsea vs Wigan

When Hamish found tickets to a Chelsea game vs mid table Wigan we decided we'd take the opportunity to visit Stamford Bridge. The Chesea team is a pretty impressive line up and the may short work of Wigan, 4 - nil. To be honest, we were a bit disappointed with the lucklustre crowd and their unimaginative chanting, but it was still great stadium and good to see some very impressive players in action.

Ski Avoriaz

After much anticipation it was finally time for our ski holiday in the French Alps. The resort was called Avoriaz and although it didn't quite look as it does on that link, it was still pretty amazing.

We flew into Geneva in Switzerland and bused for about an hour and a half up to Avoriaz. The drive was a little disappointing given the lack of snow but given that it was my first time in Europe, it was quite interesting.

The border crossing was a complete non event, we just drove straight accross. In fact, I only got one stamp on my passport for the whole trip - when we returned to London!

We were blessed with outstanding weather the whole trip, but this didn't help the snow situation. Nonetheless, we were able to ski all week, and even though it was quite icy, it was still a lot of fun.

I skied by myself for the whole week and packed in a good 6 - 7 hours each day (apart from Christmas day where I had pressing duties as Santa Claus). I got over all of the runs that were open and managed to take the camera out as well.

On Christmas Eve we were treated to a huge fireworks display, one of the best I've ever seen.





Santa visited on Christmas Day as we took time out for Christmas dinner and a few drinks. I had skied in the Santa suit all morning (which is why I am missing my belt after a spill when I had attempted a jump) and got some great comments (most of which were in French) and my photo taken a few times.



A couple of drinks in the main 'street'.



Avoriaz was car free so methods of transport were limited to snow mobiles or horse drawn sleighs, complete with jingling bells.



A few snaps of the slopes, the first being the view from our back door onto the beginners slopes.



Looking back to the resort from the slopes....



...and from the chair lft coming back from a run down the valley



A much needing snow maker in action, somewhat misdirected.



On the slopes.





Anyone order a lift?



Frozen waterfall.



Poor Sarah had a rough week, a strained ankle after a friendly Frenchman couldn't understand that he was causing more pain when helping her up, and getting hit by a horse after it was spooked by a helicopter. This couldn't keep her down though and she skied every day and improved out of sight.



Chris attacking the intermediate slopes on the last day. Brilliant afternoon for those of us who find it funny when watching friends fall over.



Me flying down the slopes, going so fast that Chris didn't have time to use the zoom....



Ice skating - this was about as active as Chris got on the ice...



Me trying to recapture the skills I had when I was 12.



Sunset on the last night.

Fulham v Arsenal

It was time to head along to my first football match and the choice of venue was Craven Cottage, the home of the mighty Fulham Football Club ('FFC'). My friend Chris is a member of FFC and had managed to get hold of some tickets to a mid week Premiership game vs Arsenal over the internet. A group of four of us went, Chris and his brother Dave, Andrew Bull and myself. Andrew and Dave are both Arsenal fans and Chris and I were proudly displaying our FFC membership pins (mine was borrowed but I may have to get hold of my own).

The game was absolutely fantastic. No other live sport that I have been to is quite the same. With 10 minutes to go to kick-off the ground was practically empty but within 20 seconds of kick-off there was a sell out crowd of 24,500 (Craven Cottage isn't very big) and the chanting started and did not let up for the entire game. We didn't know any of the chants, but managed to pick a few up. Some of the classics were:

- Same old Arsenal, always cheating
- We are Fulham, super Fulham, we are Fulham FFC. We are Fulham, super Fulham, we are Fulham, f%&k Chelsea
- If you hate Chelsea, stand up.

It appears every club has its arch rival and for Fulham it was neighbouring Chelsea. Mind you, I have discovered that everyone hates Chelsea.



After 6 minutes, and against the run of play, underdogs Fulham went up 1- nil from corner kick. 15 minutes later they slotted another from a break away much to the delight and surprise of the home crowd. They separate the fans so the other end of the stadium was a bit subdued by this stage. Arsenal pulled one back after 35 minutes from an amazing free kick and it was 2 - 1 to Fulham at half time.



The second half included two disallowed goals for off side, a penalty shot off the cross bar from Fulham, an Arsenal player sent off, a few more yellow cards and almost a fight. There must have been about a dozen yellow cards in the game.

Super Fulham hung on for a great win and we left vowing to get along to more games.

All Blacks vs Wales

Well, I've had to travel to the other side of the world to get to my first All Blacks game for as long as I can remember but it was well worth it. A group of 7 of us made the trek to Cardiff on Saturday morning, and after about 3 hours of driving we made it and finished up on the top floor of a parking building about a 5 minute walk from Millennium Stadium.

We were treated to a few cans of genuine imported Speights before the game as we made the most of the patches of good weather and lack of other people around in a relaxing build up to the test match.





The rental car provided great seating, both in and out of the car but things got a bit confusing as we tried to navigate the last few metres to the Stadium......



Once we were inside the Stadium, it didn't really matter what the weather was doing outside. With the roof closed it was quite comfortable and perfect conditions for some good rugby.



It was fair to say that the crowd was furious when the All Blacks failed to perform the haka for reasons still unknown to us, but after they started running in the tries this was all but forgotten and the crowd soon good into the game with a lot of noise, some brilliant singing and flag waving.



At the end of the game, the authorities clearly thought that the rugby hadn't cut up the field enough to justify paying the groundstaff so took drastic action to rectify the situation. This was all a bit confusing but apparently the turf is regularly replaced, and they were having the Wales Rally GB (formally the Lombard RAC - thanks Burt) there in the next few days anyway.



After visiting a couple of pubs after the game it was back to the car for the trip back. Hamish performed brilliantly as tour leader and driver and we were home safe and sound back in London by about 1am in time for some Ashes viewing and falling asleep on the couch - a fitting end to a great day.

Jersey

It was finally time for my first trip off the mainland and the choice of destination was Jersey. Jersey is one of the Channel Islands just off the coast of France. We (Hamish, Gabs and I) left work early on Friday to depart from Gatwick for the short 1 hr haul to Jersey. Things didn't start off too well with Hamish battling with his troubled digestive system but swiftly improved on arrival when we were upgraded to a brand new Ford Focus rental car and arrived at hour hotel after a 10 minute drive accross half the length of the island!

Saturday was spent surveying the Island, including the light house, a few beaches and a vineyard before the girls hit the tax free shops (with minimal success) and the guys hit the hotel facilities (with even less success).



Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, much to our relief. After a quick breakfast at the hotel (not too many prunes on the cereal this morning) it was off to find the start line. After not to much drama, most of it revolving around compulsory toilet stops for runners and supporter, we were off on the 21km (or 13.1miles as it is over here) journey around the one corner of the island we hadn't seen the day before.

Click here for a photo.

Following successful completion (Julia 3rd female, Hamish 86th overall and me 3rd) it was back to the hotel for a well earned shower and to Pizza Express for an eagerly anticipated lunch. Julia left early to fly back to Manchester, we went to the prizegiving to claim our winnings, wnt to the new James Bond movie and ended up in a mad dash to catch our flight back. Overall, super first weekend on semi - foriegn soil.

Lakes District

It was getting late enough in the year that it was a bit of a gamble to go camping but for Nikki, Julia, Kat and I it was a risk we were prepared to take. We scrambled into a train to Liverpool after work on Friday 13 October that was so packed we had to stand most of the way.

We set off from Liverpool early on Saturday morning for the Lakes District, with the aim of climbing the highest mountain in England, Scafell Pike which stands at 978m (so pretty pathetic by NZ standards). We made it to the campsite without too much drama but were disappointed to see that Scafell Pike was covered in mist so we got set up while we decided what to do. After much debate we decided to climb to a tarn and have a bit of a wander around the hills.


Julia, Nikki and I set off looking very underprepared compared to all the other walkers but flew up the hill to the tarn, then up the peak behind it, along the ridge and down again with only a few navigational problems (I still maintain that the map was wrong......). There was some pretty good scenery but nothing quite as impressive as home. The most impressive viewing over the whole trip were the rock fences which were everywhere. The paddocks were really small so there were a lot of these fences and to construct them must have taken years.




After a few drinks and a meal at the local, accompanied by some live music, it was off to bed for a good sleep before the half marathon which we planned to do the next day. On Sunday we packed up and got away in good time (or so we thought). A couple of hours later we were still on the road, a trip which we thought would only take an hour and a half. When we pulled into Cumbria (near the Scottish border) the leaders of the race were running past us so that was a bit disappointing. To make matter worse, we had a long drive to Liverpool which finished in another race against time to catch the train back to London, fortunately we just made it this time. Overall, we'd had a good weekend, seen a lot of country and had a great time camping.