It's sooooo hot - part II

Well, after the Wheel barrow race getting up was a bit of a problem! Not to worry, James was on hand to help Nishi up from the ground after all that excersion.

But there was more to come! There was the joys of the Three Legged race with Nishi and James being tied together and being forced to run a long, long distance - again - it's the taking part that counts. Not the winning! Which is just as well, cause at this rate with zero wins so far........ hehehe

And finally, the sack race. By this point James was close to collapsing - he should have known better than to get one over on Nishi!

Again, winning isn't everything!

After all of that excersion, a well deserved drink or three was required to replenish lost fluids after sitting in the sun all day long drinking Pimms and yelling at the teams taking part.

Eventually caught the train back to Waterloo, and headed to a tapas bar (yeah! Finally got my tapas!!!) in Waterloo called Meson Don Felipe; http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/6325.html as usual ordered way to much, but it was soooooo delicious!

Got home late, and I could swear that it was actually getting hotter! I kept my window open and tried to get some sleep but it was just way too hot and humid. Spent the night tossing and turning in by bed, throwing all the covers off, trying to keep cool - but to no avail. Thunder and lighting in the small hours of the morning, but it never really did anything and the heat and humidty just keep on building......

Today
Woke up yet again feeling all hot and sticky from the heat. Am having a quite day to day, putting the washing on, sorting out my Ipod, updating my Blog. If I'm feeling up for it, I may treat myself to a Pizza from my favourite pizza place 'La Barca' later on.

I know, I know, it's the weekend, why am I being boring and staying in the house? Because;
1. It's too damm hot. I can't be bothered going out.
2. I'm knackered from this week's activities!
3. Tomorrow I'm going to the Stella Artois Film Festival http://www.studioartois.co.uk/main.html in Greenwich with Teresa & Felicity. So I'm resting today and charging up my batteries for tomorrow.
4. It's too damm hot!

Cheerio of now!

-S

It's sooooo hot - part I

Hello out there.

Yes it's hot. It's very hot. Even a cold shower, doesn't work because as soon as you step out of the shower you start sweating almost instantly. I just don't think that I am designed to deal with the heat - damm celtic genes.

So, what have I been up to since my last post on Tuesday? It's been a busy few days, so here we go.

Wednesday
The hottest day of the year, and where was I? Stuck in the office with 'natural air-conditioning'. i.e. open a window. Unfortunately for me, the only window I have faces onto the break-out area which happens to be a swealtering sun trap that saps your very will to live.

Let's just say, that once it hit 4pm, it got to the point where I could stand it no longer. Solution? Go to the pub and sit in the shade in a beer garden (okay it's a concrete back yard, but around Victoria it's the only decent 'beer' garden that can be found!) http://www.londontaxitour.com/london-taxi-tour-eating-and-drinking-pubs-the-colonies.htm

I met up with Kate & Andy down there and enjoyed not 1, not 2, but 3 grapefruit and lemonades (yes, the no beer on a weekday rule still applies), followed by a bitter lemon. Of course, Kate and Andy are still revelling in this and sit their with their glasses of wine with big grins on their faces......

I ended up heading up to Charlotte Street with the intention of finding a tapas bar as I was in a tapas mood, via Sound Control which is the large Virgin Megastore on Tottenham Court Road to have a bash about on their electronic drums - okay, I'm not a big fan of 'synth' drums, but I have to say I was kind of impressed - although I didn't think much of the hi-hats & snare - maybe it was to do with the set up? But over all - not as bad as I thought it would be.

So after that little diversion, it was onward bounds to Charlotte Street to find some tapas.

My god. How hoaching was Charlotte Street? ?http://www.londontown.com/LondonStreets/charlotte_street_ecb.html

We found the tapas place but it was fully booked! Hmmm... so what next? Tim favoured going back down to Charlotte Street - but I was thinking no way! It's all packed. So, off we went just wandering up the road, stumbling onto Whitfield street where we found this tiny wee Brazlian/Spanaish Bar called 'Bar Andalucia'. http://www.salsapower.com/cities/uk_london.htm

Woohoo tapas at last! Well, no. Their kitchen was shut that night, but it was a funky wee bar that has regular salsa lessons if anyone is interested in going. At this point hunger was kicking in, and with no tapas in sight, what to do? Easy really, if stuck in this situation you can always count on finding an indian restaraunt to hand.

So, we settled on an Indian instead of tapas. Finding the 'Agra' resturant which just so happens to be one of the oldest tandoori house in London! http://www.london-eating.co.uk/537.htm We sat outside, as at 10pm it was still swealtering! We had a good meal of, poppadoms, onion baji, chicken livers, prawn dopiaza, some other prawn dish, rice, paratha and again, washed down with a bottle of sparkling water - still that no beer on a weekday rule!

After that, it was close to midnight and time to go home! Fully stuffed and knackered.

Thursday
It's still hot. It's still so bloody hot. Back in the office, lethargic with the heat, stuggling to get anywork done. Sitting with a lovely collection of empty water bottles on my desk thinking that perhaps at some point I should put them into the recycling.......

In an effort to try and focus on work - give myself a goal to look forward to I decide to head down to the South Bank afterwork and wander on down to the National Theatre and see what free event they have on. I quite fancy sitting outside with a cool drink and taking on some culture!

Or so I thought..... I head down to the South Bank with Vicki from work, grab a seat and an orange juice to watch on of the most bizarre performance art I have ever seen. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=19103

It was weird. Very weird. And involved a caravan, a tarzan outfit and a palm tree. Enough said. James, turned up just at the very end of the performance - typical! We all wandered along the South Bank, popping into Gabriels Wharf, which was hoaching as everyone else had the same idea of being on the South Bank on a hot Summer's evening!

Vicky left us at that point, and James and I continued wandering along the South Bank. Of course, with it being hot we found the nearest watering hole. Now, this is where it get's interesting.

We head up to the bar, I ask James to get me an orange juice - but it doesn't quite work out that way, as he's pissing himself laughing and refuses to go up to the bar and order a juice! So, that order then turns into a Leffe Blonde. Now, going by the logic that I was going to have a beer on Friday at the DfT Sports day (as Friday is technically the weekend.... and sports day being a special event.....), we eventually decide that as it's Thursday night, and Friday is only a few hours away it's really nearly the weekend.....

Of course, that leads into another Leffe, and another and another. We then leave to walk further along the South Bank and find that we need to find another toliet stop! Of course, we find the Founder's Arms; http://www.riverthames.co.uk/eatandrink/pub/bankside.htm
to pop into for a quick one and use their facilities.

Walking onwards towards London Bridge, we find another watering hole The Anchor Inn; http://britannia.com/travel/london/cockney/anchor.html which we of course have to stop and use the facilities and polish off 2 bottles of cold white wine whilst sitting outside admiring the view of the Thames & St Paul's catherdral.

Stumble home and fall into a drunken restless slumber in the sweaty, humid heat.

Friday
Well.

What can I say?

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Head hurts. Mouth is dry. It's 8:30am and I'm already drenched in sweat from the heat.

All sticky and hurty.... Can of coke, nurophen, 4head stick (brilliant wee thing that also helps headaches http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/medicines/medicines/f/4head/4head.htm ), open windows further, lie back in bed and die slowly.

Texted Dorian & Joanne at work to say, that I was just going to head straight to Sports Day at Chiswick ( http://www.cssc-london.co.uk/chiswick/index.htm). As I lie in bed waiting for the painkillers to kick in I turn on the telly and the joys of ITV3 in the morning! Quicny, LA Law, Quantum Leap - Student paradise! Armed with bad TV and painkillers I begin to feel slightly more human!

I jump into the shower (cold) and begin to feel sensation returning back to various parts of the body. So, armed with another dose of nurophen, a bottle of Sprite I walk up to the bus stop and wait for the 73 to take me down to Kings Cross. And I wait. And wait...... For those of you who don't know about my daily trials and tribulations with the No. 73, i direct you to my favourite blog http://73omnibus.blogspot.com/ - I just don't have the energy to go into this all over again, when this bloke does it so well!

After finally getting to Vauxhall and meeting up with Nishi & Kate, we head down to Barnes Bridge in a fantastic air conditioned train! And why can't they have air conditioning on buses?? Again, soooo not going there. Read the 73 blog!

So, what can I say about sports day? It was fantastic. Not that I actually participated in any of the events (going by my injury rate at previous events I thought it best to just observe this one). I watched my old work collegues from DfT in the football and softball and of course did the ritual heckling. This had to be one of the funiest Sports days I had been to in a long time.

James eventually turned up, hungover like hell and blaming me for his delicate state! Me? Little old innocent me? As I recalled, it was him that started the whole thing off.

Watching Nishi in the Egg & Spoon race, James & Andrew in the Egg and Spoon race. Don't worry, I don't think any records were broken at this event....

To be fair, Nishi hadn't actually entered into the Egg & Spoon race, un-beknown to her, James had been increadibly evil and entered Nishi into the three legged race and wheelbarrow race. Nishi got her own back by entering James into the Sack race

Which left, the following events to observe:

• Welly Wanging
• 3-legged race
• Wheel Barrow
• Sack race

Now, afterwatching the Egg & Spoon and having cleared the tears of laughter away from my eyes I was waiting with baited anticipation to the next events.

Welly Wanging was just hilarious, especially with Andrew's attemp at throwing the welly flying way off course, sending the spectators running for their lives! He will never live that one down.

The Wheel barrow race was just magnificant to watch. My sides are still sore from all the laughing. Nishi and James didn't win that race either.

Day 2 of no beer

Well,

it's hot, it's sweaty on the bus, on the tube, in work, walking down to the pub. Uhm.... did I say pub? Yes I did, go down to the pub, to meet up with Kate and Nishi and sat there with a sparkling water!

So, it was a fairly usual day at work although it was half empty as the majority of them are at the Treasury Sports day. I've avoided that one, but will be going to the DfT/DCLG sports day on Friday.

I met up with Felicity later and we went to 56 on Newington Green for a lovely wee meal, washed down with a couple of bottles of sparkling water, l before wandering back down the road fully stuffed!

It's time to go to bed, and try and get some sleep inbetween sweating like hell in this unforgiven heat, and listening to some nutter going up and down the street outside on his god damm scooter.

Grrrrr

Day 1

So,

1st day back at work after nearly three weeks off of work. Oh joy of joys. It's over 30 degrees, traveling on the tube & bus is just sooooooooo yuk. I'd went out the night before with a couple of mates for some beers up on Church Street..... hmmm, a few beers in the Old Lion, then onwards to a restuarant for some much needed food which was washed down with a couple of bottles of wine, before moving onto the Auld Shillelagh - a fantastic wee irish pub that doesn't half pour a decent pint of guinness

Result? = hangover

Just what you need on one of the hottest days of the year and you've got to spend the next hour on the over crowded bus and tube! So, with emergency supplies of nurophen & water off I went.
I log onto my PC at work to find that I've only got 159 e-mails to go through before yet another week of meetings. *sigh*

Some how in all of this I make the irrational decision that perhaps now being 30 and have spent the last 10 years living it up big Student style with the beers - that maybe I should calm it down! So, I've come to the decision that beer should only be consumed at the weekend... Friday/Saturday/Sunday - which leaves Monday to Thursday as beer free days, of course with beer being permitted on special occasions.

Plus in a vain attempt to at least try to be a bit healthier I'm also thinking that I should also cut out fizzy drinks - does sparkling water count?

Interesting experiment I dare say. Let's see how it goes.

After finishing work today, I met up with Kate down in the cruddy bar in the soaring heat. Kate's got a nice cold pint of lager sitting there, with the condensation running down the side of the pint glass, the little lager bubbles floating to the top of the pint with it's smooth creamy head..... well my friends, that was tough. I walked up to the bar and ordered a nice cold fresh orange with lemonade.
What was even tougher was sitting down with the juice next to Kate as she was pissing herself laughing! So there's the proof. And no, there was no vodka or gin in the juice - this was pure un-adultarated alcohol free liquid.

So, here's to hopefully a slightly healthier me... although after finally getting off the bus, wilting in the heat and dying from starvation from the crummy beef and mustard sandwich that I had 8hrs before, I treated myself to a nice Chicken Shish kebab with garlic mayo - well it's grilled chicken, and its got salad - healthy right? and it was washed down with a bottle of water - not a fizzy drink - that's gotta be healthy!!

Cheerio for now!

-S

In Recovery - part II

After saying goodbye to the guys as they headed back down South to the big smoke, I was staying up in Dundee for a wee while longer.

As there was my friend Susan's 30th birthday and her boyfriends Alan's 50th birthday celebrations to be had. Much beerage happened over that week with parties, pubs, clubs and meals. Hanging out and catching up with friends - it was nice to just chill out, being back home in Dundee and not have the hassel of the daily commute between work and home in London!


Another reason for staying in Dundee for another week was my wee Brother's Graduation from Abertay University with a Degree in Web Design & Technology. We are all proud of William 'Kzooie' Baskerville getting his degree! That's him now finished with University for now, and after he's had his wee holiday in the Algarve with Mum and Dad it's time to enter that big bad place called 'Working Life'!

After all of that, I headed back down South to London with Richard & Kirsty who were going to stay over at my house for 4 days to see London. I was still lucky enough to be on annual leave so I could act as Richard & Kirsty's 'unoffical' tour guide during their stay. Yes we did some touristy stuff, caught the boat to Greenwich, did the London Eye, Imperial War Museum, shopping on Oxford Street and Harrods - I also took them round Angel, HM Treasury, Stoke Newington - it was a very jam packed 4 days! And very knackering especially for Richard & Kirsty who aren't used to the typical London Commute! Here's a photo of them on their 1st day of sightseeing, falling asleep on the boat back to Westminster.

So, here's my finally got up to speed with everything that has been happening over the last few weeks. Now you may be confused as to why this post is entitled 'In Recovery'. It's very simple really, I'm knackered!!!!

Richard & Kirsty went back up to Dundee on Friday afternoon, I was out for beers Friday night as Jonathan, an old work collegue was back over from New Zealand = hangover Saturday Morning. Yesterday I went up to Camden to celebrate my flatmate Felicity's half birthday (it's her birthday on the 1st of January, and none of us are around at that time as we've all buggered off to our respective family homes, so we celebrate Felicity's half birthday in July!). Again much beerage happened last night! Thus the resulting hangover today.

I still haven't even unpacked my suitcase from when I got back from Dundee on Monday! I've got a huge pile of snail & e-mail to go through, I really need to do a washing otherwise turning up to work tomorrow will be rather interesting.......

There just aren't enough hours in the day, week, month.....

In Recovery - part I

Och ma heid!

It's been a hectic few weeks for me. I've been to Wimbledon, which was fantastic - although god knows what they treat their grass with as my hay fever was killing me whenever I sat near the courtside. I had the pleasure of sitting on 'Henman Hill', watching him being knocked out by the tennis legend Federar.

But all and all, it was a brilliant day out, even though 3hr wait in the queue was a bit tedious. And of course, when at Wimbledon you certainly have to sample the Pimms and strawberries and cream. It would be rude not to!

After a day at Wimbledon, I then travelled up to Dundee with Tim, Nishi & Andy for the 12th Dundee Blues Festival weekend. For those of you who don't know what this, check out www.dundeebluesbonanza.co.uk - it's a completely free blues music festival with over 100 acts across all the city centre pubs in Dundee. A fantastic time was had by all, even if Engurland did end up getting kicked out of the World Cup and Tim & Andy nearly got killed for supporting England in the Westie.

We saw some fantastic acts;

• Little Jimmy Reed http://www.liljimmyreed.com/
• Sam Payne http://www.sampayne.co.uk/
• Gerry Jablonski http://www.gerryjablonski.com

to name but a few..... the quality of music was just magnificant, and very varied with acts coming from all over the world.

When we weren't busy taking in the blues, there was also the oppertunity to take the guys on a bit of sight seeing around Scotland and Dundee, courtesy of my Dad driving us around Scotland! We went to Killin, the Trossachs, Loch Katrine - I think Nishi wanted to buy a castle or two along the way, but alas I just don't think that we earn enough! What was amusing, was Nishi, Andy and Tim's reaction to the 'lack' of traffic up in Scotland - these guys are way too used to London life!