Meribel/Belgium

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Greetings all,

I know it has been a long time between drinks and the emails have been few and far between but i have written a bumper edition which will sure to have you working overtime to read the entire thing...

I will start by saying that my health has improved 100% and there have been no further ‘incidents’ with my soup bowl and have done plenty of travel in and out of London...

The last month or so has been very hectic at work and I had been continuously under the pump with report writing. Our manager is very similar to PB in terms of achieveing monthly stats, especially within the required time frames. Gee I thought i had escaped that. This is resulting in extremely long work weeks. Whilst this is not a bad thing in terms of cash, it is taking its toll on me and I am forever arriving home in a bad, stressed out mood. This is not how a working holiday is meant to be is it? Never mind, a kiwi philosopher once said ‘when the chips are down, the grilled fish is sure to follow’. Not sure where i am going with that, but the bottom line is that my contract is due to expire in a few weeks, and although Newham will offer to extend it and may be forced to look elsewhere. I‘m not being cocky, but it’s the same old storey over here - planners are like diamonds, precious but rare. I will talk to my agent and see what else he's got in the pipeline.

My brother-in-law, being a fanatical Rugby supporter, arranged tickets for all us guys to attend the Powergen Cup Final a month or so ago at Twickenham - The home of Rugby (This is apparently the equivalent of the FA Cup Final in Soccer). The match was between the London Wasps and the Llanelli Scarletts. The final began in nightmare fashion for Wasps, because one bloke was stretchered off within the first minute and two others followed in close succession. Besides the fact that it rained for the majority of the day, it was a great atmosphere and there were some bone crunching tackles.

The week after that was spent at Upton Park where saw the Hammers play off against Charlton in the Premiership. This was everyone else’s first visit to the stadium except me. I had visited the ground on numerous occasions during the past few months as it is only around the corner from work and I had stopped by there often whilst on ‘site visits’. The match ended nil all and pi$$ed down at the start of the game. There seems to be a general trend with weekend sport and English weather. Not ideal.

The Hammers played off in the FA Cup final against Liverpool last weekend and the area of Newham (amalgamation of West Ham and East Ham) was buzzing (prior to the match being decided). Every pub had a West Ham flag hanging from the windows and there were illefitaimate stalls set up all over the streets selling Hammers gear. An email went around work earlier last week advising that there is a street parade organised on the Monday if the Hammers won, and that alternative arrangements should be made by staff to work from home if it goes ahead. They were expecting 120,000 people to turn up. However, if I stayed at work I would have had a pretty good view as they would have marched straight past my window. Unfortunately the Hammers lost a thrilling game and none of the hype ever eventuated. How good is Steven Gerrard? Hope he continues the form for England in the World Cup. Speaking of which - did i mention that the Country almost came to a stop when Wayne Rooney broke his foot in the last week of the Premiership League. The back page of the newspapers are forever filled with 'Will Wayne Rooney be fit in time for the World Cup?" or "Was it the right decision to select Theo Walcott" - a 17 year old who hasn't even played a First Grade Game for his club, Arsenal yet has been selected for the World Cup. But i'm sure that has made news back home?

Fortunately day light savings has begun and the weather is gradually improving. Last week was an absolute ripper - 21, 23 and 26 degrees! I've done the hard yards through the cold winter days and now it is time to cash in and enjoy all that Spring time in London (and Europe) has to offer.

For our Easter weekend, we were fortunate enough to book our flights and accommodation early for a snowboarding trip up to Meribel which is in the French Alps. Although it was getting toward the end of the snow season, the conditions bettered any I had experienced in Oz and were similar to that of Canada a few months back. There was still 210cm at the top of the mountain, and with all the slopes freshly groomed these fantastic conditions lasted the whole weekend. We had days of blue sky and sunshine and also strong wind and downpours of snow on other days, but that was not about to dampen the mood. The Chalet we stayed in also offered us complimentary dinner each night. I wasn't expecting a lot from this, but these 4 course meals where up there with the best of them. The menus included, Smoked Salmon, Roasted Duck, Guinea Foul (I was just waiting for the garlic snails and frogs legs). All these meals served with soup for entrees and finished with mouth watering deserts. Great stuff. The only downer of the trip was that we had a 4 hour delay on the way home flying with Ryanair. But I guess you come to expect that from a budget airline. We have sent through compensation requests which we are entitled to however they declined our first letter. A follow up letter has been sent and I am awaiting a reply. I will be going back to France later in the year to watch the conclusion of the Tour De France. Anyone would think I like that place, given that will be my third visit there.

The second of our long weekends was spent in Belgium. Spent the first night in Brussels and looked around the city centre. The most popular part of Brussels seemed to be the Manneken Pis, which is a statue which stands about two feet tall. You would walk right past it if it wasn't surrounded by tourists... When we went he was not dressed up, but he has hundreds of costumes, and is dressed in a particular one at certain times of the year. i.e. soccer uniform for the world cup, santa for Christmas etc etc… We visited the museum where they have all his costumes displayed. They included Elvis Pis, Hawaiian Pis, English Soldier Pis. Gee Mattel would have a field day marketing that statue. The best known legend regarding the reason for the statue was that a rich burgher had lost his only son. After five days looking for him, the father found him urinating on the corner of the rue de l'Etuve. This discovery led him to finance the building of this fountain. Another myth has it that Mannequin Pis saved the city from a fire by urinating on the flames. What ever the legend is, the statue seems to attract vast amounts of tourists. We actually got there first thing in the morning and no one else was there but after about 5 minutes I saw a bus load of Japs walking down the street and once one of the sited the statue, they swarmed on it like flock of seagulls on a chip, and didn't care about anyone else taking photos, they just barged their way in. How rude!

We then caught the train to Bruges. Now Bruges is a fantastic city. It is surrounded by waterways and has a plethora of medieval architecture including the famous Belfry - Bell Tower. We hiked up the 366 steps to enjoy a fabulous view of the city. The city still employs a full-time bell ringer, who puts on regular free concerts. When we were there it chimed out that song you always hear at the baseball, I think its called the Baby Elephant Dance or something like that. For dinner I had mussels (and beer). Mussels are apparently their traditional meal along with Frits (Chips with Mayo). Then there are the Belgium chocolates! There is a fabulous selection in shops all over the place serving to tempt the weak-willed (like myself). You can hardly justify a visit to Bruges without sampling their chocolate. And just for the record, they are as good as they say they are!

After visiting the rest of the sites and surrounds including the Markt square, which have a multitude of cafes and restaurants, (around which city life revolves), Belfry and Cloth Hall, Grand Place, The Chocolate Story Museum and taking a cruise around the canals, I decided I had had enough of architecture and decided to break away on my own. I had been told about this legend (looked it up on Google) of a place which served 300 different Belgium beers and decided that I had to devote an afternoon to this place. This was to be the pinnacle of my stay in Bruges. It was called the 't Brugs Beertje (The Little Bear). It was a hidden treasure on the back streets of Bruges. There are hundreds of other pubs over there but the experience I had at this beer bar is forever cemented in my mind. It is a very small pub. There are maybe 5 or 6 seats at the bar, where I set up camp, and a dozen or so tables. When I had a look at the menu I thought I was holding the Casey Planning Scheme. They have in excess of 300 beers on offer and I would endeavour to get through as many as I could before closing time. 4 hours later, after tasting everything from Blondes to Lagers, from Cherry and Banana Beer to Chocolate Beer and everything in between, I stumbled out and made my way home for a well earned kip. Oh and each beer has its own personalised beer glass? If I was sober enough, I would have remembered to keep one as a souvenir, but regretfully let this opportunity pass. This place was truly amazing. I would encourage every beer loving person, in this case - every man, to make an effort to get to Belgium and sample the amber nectar.

The final day we travelled back to Brussels and visited Waterloo which is the site where the Battle of Waterloo was fought and most notably where Napoleon was defeated. There is a memorial in the form of a statue of a lion (looking towards France) on a hill. But this day will only be remembered for the persistent rain and wind. There is nothing worse than walking around in wet jeans for a whole day! We tried to catch the early train home but being a long weekend, our chances were buckleys and none. Unfortunately our Eurostar tickets were non exchangeable which meant that the rest of the arvo was spent drinking - Oh well.

Back in London - I had planned on joining a cricket team while over here and have had a couple of offers from friends to play but that just hasn’t worked out. There is too much to do on the weekends. Instead we have formed a touch rugby team and play on Wednesday nights. Having never played this sport, in any tactical form, not one of us could say we knew what we were doing, let alone understand the modified rules that apply to touch rugby. Game 1 - We lost 13 tries to 1. Game 2 - We didn’t bother to check the score but it was worse than the first week. We were calling for the mercy rule at half time. We have recruited a Saffa, Kiwi and Aussie to fill the numbers and possibly strengthen our line up. These guys have played or are still currently playing the game, but I guess if there is a weak link in the chain (or 5 weak links) success is gonna be well out of reach for a while.

This week I took Thursday and Friday off so I could work at the Test Match at Lord’s. I had to be at the ground by 7am so that meant being up at the crack of dawn and working til 7:30pm. They are very long days and my legs were aching by the end of each days play. Anyway, I had been assigned my post in the lower tier of the Edrich Stand for the first 3 days and the media box the remaining day. Controlling access to the media centre meant that I would have passing conversations (“How's it going”) with the likes of Michael Holding, Athers, Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain and Aravinda De Silva. I also had a chance to meet the players such as Freddie Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick as well as the other members of the team prior to their warm ups. But who cares about that… As much as I love my cricket and more particularly the Poms, I had found a new interest at Lords… the NPOWER promotion girls. The talent on show was second to none and their dress (or lack of it) could cause a real distraction for any batsmen at the crease. Unfortunately the longer the test went, the cooler the weather got.

The first two days of the test went to plan for the Poms with Trescothick earning his place on the dressing room honours board by making a 100 on day 1 and KP’s blistering innings of 150 continued on day 2, also earning him his place on the on the prestigious honour board. Poms declared on 6/550 and in reply the Lankans are stumbled to 191. I couldn’t have picked a better first few days to watch, I mean work. Haha. The work itself is quite basic, just health and safety, as well as customer service. This is a piece of cake compared to pricks I’ve had to deal with back home, but like I said earlier, they are very long days given that you are standing up the entire day. All up I ended up working 77 hours this week. Ouch! Must be time for another trip away… Prague in a week and half. I can’t wait.

Will tell you about that next time, but until then, take care and expect to hear from everyone…

PS. I have attached some photos of my recent expeditions
PPS. CT and P.Pol - I am expecting those Coopers upon my return… Go Blues!

Nick

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Photos

I believe i can fly
Finally managed to build up the courage to hit the bumps hard and fast. Luckily no photos were taken 5 seconds later...

The boys
Us boys don't mind hitting slopes. There is already talk of a trip to New Zealand when we all eventually get back home

Man down
I couldn't help but become a japanese photographer after seeing this stack.

Ha Ha
Apparently he wasn't too happy about it

Just Cruising
Just getting a feel for the board again before hitting the black runs

Getting the hang of it
By the third day my confidence was sky high, that came shooting back down to earth a number of times

Manakin Pis
What's all the fuss about?

Mussels in Brussels
Trying the local specialty

Battle of Waterloo
This is thw site where Napoleon was defeated

Hoegaarden
I couln't help but have my photo taken here.

Freddie Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff (MBE), managed to crck a smile for this shot after England's warm up net session

KP
KP earning his name on the Lords Honour Board.

Athers
Me and Athers after a hard days work