Barbados Diary: Day 0

Swimsuits? Check.
Sun lotion? Check.
Summarized and categorised list of all places to visit, eat at and what to do, nicely assimilated from multiple reliable sources on the internet and typed up onto crisp new sheets of A4 paper? Check.

We were ready for our holiday!

Having arrived at Gatwick Airport with plenty of time, we had a look around the shops, grabbed a bite to eat and sat in the main area reading whilst awaiting the gate announcement.

This duly came, and we made our way (after leaving the finished magazines on a chair so someone else could enjoy them before they get recycled) towards the appropriate gate feeling quite smug.

You see, normally when we travel somewhere else we feel envious at each gate we pass which states a better destination than our own. This time it was our time to be the enviable, no gate could match ours, and we watched the other people going past it saying to themselves "I wish I was going there".

 

 

No, that's not me in the background...

The waiting area filled up, people came by in their posh frocks - too many to all be in first class. Lucky for us we weren't too shabby either, as the dress code was one of the many aspects read up on in advance.

Time for boarding. Goodbye surprisingly sunny London, you'll feel a lot colder when we return.

The flight was like most transatlantic flights, although our first with BA. The TV screens in the chairs seemed smaller than those of Delta, and didn't have any games on offer for inflight entertainment. However they did have the films.

We needn't have worried about the flight being full, as ever other row seemed to be empty, so plenty of space to spread out if you so wished (right, Olga?).

Four films finished, and we came into Bridgetown Airport just after sunset, so we saw the lights on the island, but alas not the coastline. That would have to wait until the following day.

Oh yes !

Getting off the plane brought back memories of the Barranquilla climate (being roughly the same latitude this isn't surprising), however, even Olga had to admit it - this was Barranquilla, but comfortable :)

Queuing for the immigration desks there were some lovely colourful posters along the walls, next to signs saying "no photography". I duly acted like an ignorant tourist, and got the following shot:

Ignorance is bliss

Leaving the airport we needed a taxi to our hotel, and so what did we do? You got it, joined another queue. This is all quite the norm for us English folk, but seemed to be beyond the people of a more continental / merkelesque origin, who couldn't believe you couldn't get in the first cab if you pushed hard enough. Luckily there was security on hand, and the queue moved forward in it's defined manner. Oh, colonial remnants :)

Getting to the hotel took about 20 minutes going through roads with palm trees all over the place, the hint of rum in the air, and always smiling faces.

Coconut Court, Hastings, Barbados. Our home for the next week.

After checking out the very comfortable room and unpacking our things, we then started to plan the next day. Except, where did all those meticulously researched and typed up notes go?

If anyone reading a What Digital Camera magazine found on a chair at Gatwick is planning to go to Barbados, I highly recommend you take out the collection of A4 pages used as a page marker and keep them safely with you on your trip.

We finally relaxed to sleep to the sound of the sea lapping up against the shore 30 foot below us, and the roof fan slowly turning around.

Barbados Diary: Introduction

It's been a very long time, and excuses have grown thin (how do they do that? Can I copy that idea and patent it?) but here's a bit of expansion into the diary genre.

A well-deserved holiday was in order to finally relax and disconnect, and after a bit of deal-searching, link-foraging and bargain bashing, we found a great offer to Barbados.

As such (and in case I forget in a couple of month's time) I decided to put up a day by day account to look back on when you're stuck at home surrounded by snow and getting the winter blues.

Enjoy!

Having a feast with Jamie

Last weekend saw Jamie Oliver get together with other chefs, plus a selection of bands and musicians to deliver The Big Feastival, in Kingham, Oxfordshire.

Live music, food stalls, cookery classes - what was there not to like?

It was a lovely sunny day, a few clouds in the sky, and a bit of a breeze, perfect for being outside all afternoon/evening.

The only downside of this being on a farm, was that as it had rained the previous day, there were still patches of mud around - not much good when you're wearing sandals. D'oh!

The food stalls ranged from Brindian, to a paelleria, churros, BBQ, vegetarian, goat's milk ice-cream, pizzas, fishdogs - basically anything you could think of. And all cooked to the standards of the restaurants most of the top chefs work for/own.

The music was good, but it was the food we were there for. And the pinnacle of the day was of course the final cookery demonstration done by Jamie and his teacher: Gennaro Contaldo.

The 'show' was superb. Funny all the way through (they had been behind the scenes drinking for most of the day), the food smelled amazing, and everyone learned something from it.

Of course there was a downside to the day. Walking home from the train station saw Olga twist her ankle. Although she could walk back home without any pain, at about 3.30am it really started hurting, which meant that after an ibuprofin and an ice-pack, we set off to the JR Hospital A&E.

 Despite the 4 hour expected wait time, we were actually in and out (after having x-rays and bandages done) within two hours, so well done nurses (who were also in pretty good moods considering the time of the Sunday morning). Olga was of course happy it was just a sprain (and I think the drugs had started to kick in by then too).

To see all the photos from the festival click here.

Life's a beach

On the back of the Olympic success story, we finally managed to find time to visit a place we've neglected for quite a while. Yes, that's right, the Guiri was going back to Valencia!

Apparently Valencia was the most popular place to be at this time, as flights were nearly non-existent (or 5 times the normal price), which meant we took an alternative route, flying from Birmingham to Alicante.

 

Arriving in Alicante in the evening with 30 degrees Celsius was a pleasant change from the British weather we had just been experiencing. Dropping off the bags, we headed out for a dinner of tapas and a stroll along the waterfront.

The next day saw the thermometer go up and up whilst we tried to cool down on the beach (or rather, in the sea). There's nothing quite like it, and we only got out of the water when we saw how wrinkled our fingers had become.

Lunch saw the first paella of the trip, with gazpacho for starters and flan for dessert. Just enough to whet the appetite for Valencia, which is where we headed on the train.

In Valencia we invaded the apartment of Sylvia who was kind to us throughout our stay. Just a stone's throw away from the centre, this was great for meeting up with friends plus going to the beach.

Of course the beach was also visited here, but alas we couldn't venture further afield due to the shortness of our trip and the amount of things we wanted to do.

So, in no order whatsoever, here are the great friends we were able to meet up with again: Silvie, Gloria (& Abdon), Pepe, Ana, Miquel, Martha, Jordi, Gema (& Victor, Alejandra, Claudia), Fernando, Valeria (& Iker), Bruno, and Albakra (& Sofia, Albert, Alicia).

We had an amazing arroz negro made by Gloria, paella de mariscos, paelle con costilla, all sorts of amazing montaditos, pumpkin ice-cream and much much more (and could still fit into our swimming attire).

But all good things must come to an end, and as such, a week after our arrival we headed off by train to Barcelona to catch our plane back home.

So was it worth it? Of course it was! It brought back many good memories, we caught up with news from all the people we met, did some shopping, beach and sea, and of course enjoyed the sun. Next time we will have to try and meet up with those who weren't available.

To see the full album of photos, click here.

Hasta luego !

Olgui's Pink Birthday

That time of the year has come around again. Yes, it was celebrations all round as Olgui celebrated another candle appearing on her cake.

This year we met up in All Bar One with friends for a pink-themed party. Some people went all out, others had to search high and low for anything in this colour.

With Elena, Clea, Monika, Gianina, Eva, Andreia and Mar, the place got pretty busy (and lively).

We actually only noticed the torrential downpour at midnight when we left to go our separate ways, but nothing a quick run couldn't fix.

 

Here's to another year of a wiser and more mature (like the wine, not the cheese) Olgui :)

Ali, Marilyn, and Cryptic Tea

Before the end of the first quarter of 2012, the delightful Ali decided to pay us another visit. Although we couldn't guarantee the weather, it actually turned out okay in the end.

Friday night saw us visit Pierre Victoire's restaurant and have an amazing French meal. This was followed by a meet up with the girls (it was actually 3 guys to about 20 girls, so we weren't complaining).

We got up early on Saturday to get the train down to London (or is that up?) where we headed towards Oxford Street. Not for any shopping, mind, but rather to visit the Getty Images exhibition of Marilyn Monroe. There were photos of her during filming, plus private photos shopping, visiting London and relaxing. Also on show were the costumes from some of her plays, photos of which you will see below.

After the exhibition, we went down Regent Street so the girls could do some shopping in the big stores. After a light snack for lunch, it was off to the theatre to see Absent Friends, which was very enjoyable.

Of course the hunger came back after we  came out of the theatre, so we went to St Martin on the Fields for a spot of afternoon tea in the crypt which was very atmospheric (and quite tasty too).

On returning home we unwound on the sofa watching the latest episode of Inspector Montalbano. What a full day !

Sunday was not quite so early, but as the sun came out we headed off to Witney where after walking around for a bit we returned to the Hollybush for our Sunday Lunch. What a meal it was! This place is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in Witney one day.

After all that, it was time to say goodbye to Ali as on Monday morning she left for Mainz again. I'm sure it won't be her last visit though, so better get planning already...

You can see the rest of the photos here...

Oxfordshire Cycle Trip #2

Yesterday afternoon the sun was out, and after a light shower had gone away, it was perfect timing for getting out on the bike again and enjoying the fresh air.

Unfortunately this time the internet had just stopped working at home, so I was not able to plan any routes. Instead I just head off towards Islip and from there took any roads that looked interesting. Of course there were some hills along the way, yet again I was caught out by a long slow climbing hill, which once around a corner, turned into a very steep hill.

This time though, the only moments needed to stop were to check where I was (although this doesn't help when the phone signal is also lower than one bar). After passing some nice villages with funny names like Noke, and woodland on both sides of the road, I decided it might be time to head back towards home before I get too lost (and didn't really fancy going back up some of those hills I had just descended).

At this point I realised that I was in fact pretty close to Headington, so the return route was going down the Headington Hill, passing the mosque, and then through St. Clements and between the university buildings until hitting the usual Oxford Road back to Kidlington.

So here's the map for those interested:

View Larger Map

After a relaxing shower a siesta of a couple of hours was in order, and I awoke nice and fresh in time for a Madras and an Old Crafty Hen whilst watching the latest installment of Inspector Montalbano.

Now it's just started snowing...c'est la vie...

It's all about the double drop

On Sunday we set off towards Witney in order to claim the spoils of the Oxford Ale Trail (see earlier post).

The day started out lovely and sunny, and it really was a nice day to go out on a local trip. After meeting up with Diego, Hannah and Francesco, we caught the bus across the Oxfordshire fields, passing through some really typical little villages, and arrived at our destination in good time.

 

The Wychwood brewery was a little difficult to find (we should have followed our noses) but we made it in time for the grand tour. This consisted of being given a swift half before entering the premises (point to not - we didn't pay for the half, so I remain free from having ever bought a half pint). We were then shown around the different areas of the brewery, explained how the process takes place, what (and why) ingredients are used, and what the difference is between the various hops. We were then explained about the famous "double-drop" method, used by Brakspeare, before being taken back to the tasting room.

 

We tried the draught Hobgoblin first, then the bottled version (which tasted much fizzier and stronger in comparison). We then tried the draught version again, this time noticing that it seemed to taste like water. This is the reason why if you start on the bottles, you have to keep doing them for the rest of the night. Next up was a paler ale, which was quite refreshing. We then went on to the 6.75% ABV bitter, which was surprisingly very tasty (but I wouldn't want to have to drink a pint of it). In order to take away this taste so that we could go back to some of the more 'normal' ales, we had a mouthful of the Ginger Beer, which was very tasty indeed.

  

We then continued to finish up the bottles and pitchers that were started for our tasting, until we were called away by the ladyfolk for dinner. This was taken at the Hollybush, which was recommended by a local couple who were also on the tour. We had a delicious meal, with extremely friendly staff and good ambiance. Definitely a place to come back to!

If you are wondering where the photos from the brewery are - there are none. I had my hands full with all that beer...

Cheers !

Science and Technology Roundup

After the fallen snow of recent times (I kept on saying we would get the proper winter in February...) one ends up reading a bit more of the news. This has actually led to me being impressed by a few things I've found recently.

Google's search algorithm has been used for a much better purpose - to find molecular links that would work better for medicine. This seems such an amazing use of an until now controversial bit of maths, and if you think more along these lines, you should be able to do a lot more investigation in a chemical model. In fact, think a bit further, and you can probably use it for physics too.

3D printers. I never thought much of them. If someone had invented a printer that could produce any object, then surely it would change the whole world around. Well, they do exist, and they have been recently used to do something miraculous. Instead of having to go through a lot of microsurgical reconstruction, not being able to talk or swallow for a good few days, a new jaw was printed for this 83 year old, and she was using it just like normal within a day. Think about this a moment. Something printed, from your computer, and replacing a part of your body you use for many daily tasks...very impressive!

Sometimes technology can also go wrong. We all know what bad things can happen when you end up losing control of vehicles and other potentially dangerous objects. This time it was a lot less damaging. Those captions that appear at the bottom of the screen when someone is being interviewed. When these system get things wrong, they can also cause a few chuckles, like here, where a young girl was labelled as a recovering alcoholic...

And to leave you with an interesting link. Ever feel like your eyes are tired and hurting, and the screen too bright in the evenings? Well, that's because the ambient light changes in tone through the day and especially at night, when it's all artificial. Try this program on your computer to change your display to be more natural to the surrounding light. Great idea !

Here's hoping for many more good scientific advancements...

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Last Sunday marked the end of Chinese New Year celebrations in London for the year of the dragon. Tens of thousands of people descended on London (well, those that didn't already live there) to see the festivities around Chinatown, Shaftesbury Avenue and Trafalgar Square.

The procession went around Chinatown, with the streets packed with crowds vying for a spot to see the dancers and musicians go by. Once they finished the route, people headed off towards Trafalgar Square to see the main stage for the firecrackers, dragon dances and other shows.

The main event was scheduled to start at 12 o'clock (midday), but as people started arriving from Chinatown, it was obvious that if you hadn't got there by 11.40, you weren't going to get a spot where you could see anything.

Luckily we managed to get spots on the stairs, which were elevated from the main floor and the many heads. It must be said that the weather was freezing, definitely below zero, and felt like about -5. Everyone tried to keep themselves warm and busy whilst waiting for the clock to strike 12, and on the dot the presenters came onto the stage.

They then started to introduce the festival committee, which consisted of about 15 people from the UK and China, each with relatively long titles. As each one was introduced, they came to the front of the stage and started to thank every one of the others standing up there with them ,never missing their titles as well.

Once everyone realised that we were in for a long wait before we would actually see anything, people started to leave the area. Not only had they introduced themselves, but then they had to do the painting of the dragon eyes, each minister at a time...

By the time the dragon dances started ,people had been waiting in the freezing cold for over an hour. As you can imagine, they weren't too pleased (those that had stayed - many had already left by now).

The dragon dances were very colourful and skilled, and were great to watch, it was just a pity that the day was let down by the amount of waiting before seeing anything. Next time maybe they will do an introduction between each show, so that at least people can see something before they got frozen and had to leave for home.

Spam, Burns and Retirement

We all hate those emails that arrive in our inboxes selling various pills and financial services. The fact that around 90% of all email is now spam, doesn't help matters.

However, this is not what I am wanting to talk about today. No, this is a much more favourable topic, namely SPAMALOT. Yes, we went and saw this theatre production last week (specially discounted tickets made it well worth it).
Based on Monty Python sketches, this production had us in fits of laughter many a time. A musical production, it still managed to keep non-musical lovers content by the sense of humour that MP brought to the world. As such, young children, OAPs, and everyone in between were in the audience enjoying this show.
Heartily recommended!

The 25th of January is celebrated throughout Scotland, but not many people outside of this area actually know the history of Burn's Night, so click on that link to find out more. South of Hadrian's Wall we don't normally celebrate this day, but you do see some related changes around you. For instance, at the local Cornish Pasty shop, they were offering Pasties with Haggis in them. Now this is a weird combination, being a mix of the far north and far south, but it worked surprisingly well.

Also a local pub was offering the traditional Haggis with neeps and tatties, which we just had to try yesterday (didn't we Diego?).
We didn't go the whole hog, however, and left the whisky on the side and opted for a more refreshing pint of Scottish ale. After eating we were accompanied by Eva, Kyle, Elena, Clea (+1), Gaia, Simon, and Irina, filling up the Swan and Castle (ok, just one area of it) and being able to say goodbye to Diego in style before he leaves these shores for those of a French nature.
See you soon !

For those of you who read my last post, went and watched The Artist, and loved it, you will be sad to hear that the dog (Uggie) is set to retire. Yes, after the tiring life of a movie star, he has decided to go off to Florida and spend his days relaxing on the beach, apparently :)
Rumours that he might come out of retirement for a sequel are unfounded, as he has not been offered the amount of dog food that he is demanding.

Bogota reached the news spectacularly the other day, as it was amongst the top 15 cities for business according to Fortune Magazine. Some positive publicity like this definitely does wonders for th country's image, so lets hope things keep on going this way. Well, celebrations tomorrow in London for the Chinese New Year, so hopefully have some great photos to put up soon.

Always look on the bright side of life !

Now for something different

Sometimes it's difficult to find the time and possibility to get out of the run-of-the-mill day. Over the past week we made the effort, and had the luck of having interesting opportunities turn up on our door.

We saw The Artist the other day, which although I believe it's a great film, well thought through, and interesting throughout, I don't think we're going to see an emergence of lots more silent black and white films in the future, there's too many people brought up on just computer generated films that they won't be seeing this film, unless it's shown at school. But for the rest of you - go and see it, well worth the visit, even if you haven't liked silent or black and white films in the past.

 

Last Sunday we headed off to London with a short list of things we would try to do. We wanted to see if we could get in to see the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, get discounted tickets for an afternoon performance of Cirque du Soleil's Totem, and depending on the weather, go around some of the famous sights taking pictures with my new camera (see previous post "Oxford Shooting").

 

The weather couldn't have been any better. Slightly fresh, but very sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We got on our early train to find that it's heating system wasn't working, so spent the whole journey (luckily only an hour) with hat, coat and gloves on. Arriving at the National Gallery at 10.30am we went to the ticket desk to ask about tickets to the Leonardo exhibition. The lady was a bit surprised that we would ask such a question at this time of the day (the box office had only been open 30 mins). Apparently people had been queuing since 5.30am to get a ticket for later in the same day. Pleased that we didn't freeze for four and a half hours outside to see pictures on tiptoes in a huge crowd of people, we set off to some of the other works in the gallery, which were also quite nice.

 

Exiting the building onto Trafalgar Square, it was the perfect moment to start taking some photos of such landmarks as Nelson's Column, Westminster, and the fountains around the square. We also happened across a gentleman that had a bird of prey he was showing off flying above us, hopefully scaring some of those pigeons away.

 

Working our way down towards Westminster, crossing the river and then taking a bus from the South Bank also gave some picturesque opportunities to try to capture. Arriving at Covent Garden we had a warming snack of a Ben's Cookie and Hot Chocolate drink whilst walking around the market stalls and shops.

 

We then set off to Leicester Square and after not finding any tickets for Cirque below 70 pounds per person, decided to pop into the Prince Charles Cinema where they were just about to show Melonchia. This is not a Hollywood film, so can be considered a bit weird, but sitting back in those leather chairs, we enjoyed it all the same.

 

With hunger starting to set in we headed off to Chinatown where we sat down and had dumplings, duck with pancakes and lemon and chili chicken. A quick walk to help digest, and then we caught the train (this time with the heating working) back to Oxford.

Later in the week we went to the Oxford Playhouse to see "Flamenco - Rafael and Friends". This was a great mix of Rafael on the guitar, with different types of drums / bongos, and lots of tap dancing (sitting down as well as standing up). The speed of those feet, and the mixes of voice, music and tapping really made for a great night.


What a great set of experiences to have enjoyed...

(more photos can be found here)