Blogs from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Today I've been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes, optimistically labelled the 'Best City in Britain' by BBCs Newsnight... even though it still isn't technically a city. Milton Keynes is known for it's 'iconic' concrete cows, roundabouts and grid plan. Milton Keynians (Miltonians? Keynese? Miltish Keynites?) have been celebrating with birthday cakes and parties, the BBC have dug into their archive to bring us videos of the very beginning when the city was designed to be the first of many to relieve the housing pressures on London. The modernist, fairly brutal architecture, was purposefully placed between London, Birmingham, Oxford, Leicester and Cambridge to allow for endless business opportunities. Two of my friends hail from the city and have differing opinions on the 'city'. When I asked how I should celebrate, one suggested drinking a beer ... read more

Well, tonight is my last night in the UK before I head to Belgium for a few days. This trip was a spur of the moment thing as I got such an amazing deal on travel! However, it does have its downside. The downside is that I will be stuck on a coach for some time! I have my bags of sweets, a packed lunch, a resealable can of energy drink and lastly my iPad, preloaded with Zombieland, World War Z and the last half if season 4 of Dexter. Oh, not forgetting my MP3 player!I'm sure that will be plenty to keep me going! And the price of this I hear you ask? It was a measly £2.50 return! (50p of that is a booking fee) Kudos to hotukdeals.com for bringing this to my attention ... read more

Went shopping today in Milton Keynes, it was cool. Also went to this school (which apparently has a pretty rough reputation) with my uncle and had to join in his presentation about careers and jobs and interviews, which was scary but also cool. (Weird being back in a school too, some of those kids were so tiny). Then this evening walked to the local Tesco to attend a rally about the 'Living Wage' and actually came quite close to getting in trouble with the cops without realising. All in all it has been good :) Quite enjoying the city after spending the last wee while in the English countryside. Activities included drinks at the pub, picnics on hills, church fairs, tennis games, playing Risk, rain, watching Bambi with my little cousin (twice!) and eating lots of ... read more

Ta-Daaaaa Right, hopefully I should be able to keep roughly up to date with anyone back home who's interested. 9 days until take off still though. Anyway thats enough for now, I'm supposed to be packing my junk up. Procrastination is so easy online... ^_^... read more

Dom and I were today destined for Spa-Francorchamps for the epic 24 Hour endurance race. While our plans have slightly changed and we're instead heading off in the early hours of Saturday morning (for a lunchtime arrival, with the race starting at 04:00pm), the excitement to see the famous circuit in the flesh hasn't. I've also been told by many, many people of the need to sample to iconic Belgian waffles and local beer while I'm there. I've had a solid week of fitness training, so why not! I hope to catch up with Stephane Ortelli - who is competing in a Porsche RSR at the race - who I haven't seen since 1996 when we lived together in the UK for a few months. My sister Chelsea and I (despite being 3 and 6 respectively) ... read more