Blogs from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Nicola and I endured major train delays when travelling back from Edinburgh after New Years. It sucked at that time but we were chuffed when virgin trains as an apology emailed us free tickets. They were great because they were return tickets to anywhere in the UK and were first class. The only condition was that you couldn't travel at easter so we decided to head up to Barrow the following week. Nic's brother Ryan was about to head off on his overseas trip to Thailand, Aussie and NZ so was our last chance to say sayonara. It was also the last time I'd be in Barrow before I left for Canada so Wilco helped me gather up the troops at the cricket club for a shindig. It was a good turn out and I caught ... read more

Hi Guys. Having repaired my gear cable I set off from Chester along the Wirral Peninsula towards Liverpool. Again I was amazed at how beautiful some of the locations are in and around the city. In particular on the Wirral one becomes instantly aware why so many footballers live there. The best thing about crossing the Mersey is that the Ferry plays "Ferry across the Mersey" when you disembark. Superb. A brief stop in Blackpool I just simply had to ride the "Big One". It is the biggest and fastest roller coaster in Europe and it certainly deserves that reputation. Wicked. Blackpool whilst a typical British Seaside resort has a certain charm to it with trams travellling up and down the High Street and Blackpool Tower of course. The illuminations no doubt have an impact on ... read more

(To see the new website for Stylecrete go to www.stylecretecumbria.com) As my Dad will vouch I barely know which end of a shovel to hold. Well that was until I started working for a concreting company. Now I know which end to hold, how to saw wood, wheel wheelbarrows, float concrete, pull my pants down so you can see the top of my crack and various other trade secrets. Anyway I thought I’d give you some background on the company and what we do. Firstly there are four of us: - Jock who started the company 17 odd years ago and is supposed to be retired now that he is 66 but probably works harder than any of us. - Andy who is Jock’s son and has now taken over the company. He has said that ... read more

A group of the lads from cricket decided that seeing as we couldn’t go to the races on the weekend due to having to play twice that we would go on the Wednesday. We met early at a pub in town and sunk our first of the day before catching the train. We arrived into the races resplendent in our red barrow tracksuits with plenty of time before the first race. To kill some time Heff tried to kill Walker in a boxing match (see video above). We also watched a young brother and sister fighting. It was hilarious, both kids looked like they didn’t want to do it, while their mum cheered them on. Eventually the boy decided to land a few blows. The girl got off crying. It doesn’t sound that funny, but if ... read more

My brother Todd trained up from Wigan for a few days, I was working Monday so Nicola met him at the station and gave him a mini tour of Barrow. The maxi tour would take about 5 minutes longer. In the evening Todd and I decided we would try some foods we hadn’t had before - Black pudding and a drink called Irn-Bru. They were both heinous. Especially because I ate a massive chuck of the black pudding and then realized that on the back of the pack was a warning “This product must be eaten cooked”. YUCK. Tuesday I took Todd along to practice to meet some of my team mates. Everyone tries extra hard against the pros, but Todd had most of them worked out with his leg spinners. Not me of course, ... read more