Lifelong Learning

Thought I'd get in a quick post tonight while I wait for Sarah to get in from work.

She's busy writing the critical analysis component of her final APC submission and is entering the final furlong of the graduate scheme she's been on since September 2008.

It's been so far so good because she's already passed the Postgraduate Diploma in Real Estate that she went to South bank Uni once a week to study and received welcome pay rise.  Fingers crossed there will be more to come come the end of October.

I've often thought that I'd like to get back into education.  I'm going to keep on with the Spanish and sign up again for another year in September, but sometimes I wonder if I should jack in the job and do a GIS masters.  Birkbeck Uni offer a part-time course which is an option but I don't know if I'd be able to handle working and then having to study in the evening.  It's hard enough trying to motivate myself to do a few pages Spanish homework and I've got a verb drill book that I haven't opened in 18 months!!

Then there is the cost.  Sarah's course has been paid for by her work as part of the graduate scheme she's on, are there employers out there that would pay for a 32 year old to go back to Uni for two years?  Maybe there are and I've just not been looking hard enough, it's tough to find the motivation after 10 years at the same company!

Anyway, enough of all that.  We've started to look for somewhere head off to for our winter long weekend away.  At the moment Prague looks to be the favourite and we might even be able to drag my best mate Dan and his wife along with us.



Last year we went to Montreal and we've been to Iceland and Cologne in previous years.  Sarah did have an eye on New York but I seem to have been able to fend off that idea ;)

I like to make it to one new country a year and I've not been to the Czech Republic before so Prague will tick off another country.  Saying that we did fly into and out of Geneva when we went skiing but I don't think I can really count a couple of hours in an airport as 'doing' Switzerland!

If we do book the trip with Dan and Jen Prague it's bound to be a great weekend away.  When they come down to London or we head up their way we always have decent weekends.  Beers, wine and good food are always top of the agenda and now that there's a Jamie's Italian in Westfield we can even have a rivalry with their nearest branch in Oxford!

On the subject of Westfield I've just seen an item on BBC London about the possibility of courts opening up in empty premises in said shopping centre and others around the country.  Is it a coincidence that this has been proposed the day Brentford's #1 blogger rocks up there with his accomplice, Robin Hood, in tow?  Rob from the rich and give to the poor wasn't it?!?

Only joking lads ;)

It's All Kicking Off Again

For the 72 teams of the Football League, the football season kicked-off last Saturday. The tarts in the Premiership start their season this weekend.

For the second season in a row Brentford started with an away game at Brunton Park.  Sadly there was no repeat of last season's 3-1 win with the Bees going down 2-0 in a dismal performance.

 Tonight attention has turned to the League Cup and we're playing at GP against Cheltenham Town.  It's 2-1 at the moment and I'm listening to the Bees World commentary.  It's been pretty crap since half time with the Robins having got a goal back and seemingly bossing the play.  After such a dominant first half performance it's looks like were going to be holding on for the last quarter of an hour!

After England's piss-poor showing at the World Cup (there's even a crap friendly tomorrow night!) and the inevitable slating of the apparent 'cream' of English football it's great to have the Bees back playing week in week out.  Last season we finished 9th, a great showing in our first season back in League One after a couple in the basement, and this season we look well equipped to make a decent push for the play-offs.  Not that Bees fans will be looking forward to that, we've got a dismal record in the end of season lottery!

It's Walsall at GP on Saturday and I can't wait to get back amongst the usual faces.  There's even a new Bees fan, Paul and Lynda had a baby boy just over a month ago and he's already looking good in his Brentford romper suit :)

My last blog post was about the Brits at the European Athletics in Barcelona.  Turned out to be a very good championships with plenty of great British performances :)  Mo Farah did the 5,000m 10,000m double, super Jess won her heptathlon gold (although it was closer than a lot of people expected), Andy Turner took gold in the 110m high hurdles and Phillips Idowu won long jump gold.  We even managed to dominate a couple of events with two British 1-2's.  Chris Thompson took silver behind Mo in the 10,000m with Dai Greene and Rhys Williams taking the top two podium places in the 400m hurdles.

To many people's surprise, Sarah said he didn't even deserve to be in the final, Mark Lewis-Francis took silver in the 100m and there were plenty of other good performances which the BBC have done a good job of summing up here and in Tom Fordyce's blog here.  The two 4x100m relay disasters didn't happen, right ;)

Last week myself and Sarah were in Rhodes for leisurely weeks holiday so she missed the final two days of competition.  The V+ box came to the rescue again and she was straight into the living room to watch the recorded coverage as soon as we got back to the flat on Sunday at 06:45!  If this isn't the behaviour of a total athletics geek I don't know what is!  I had a few hours kip like any normal person would!

The temperature was around 40°C for the whole week so we didn't do much during the day.  We had a self catering apartment in the chilled out and very well run Cosmos Maris complex close to Lardos Beach so stayed around there during the day and then headed out for dinner in the evening.

Lardos was the nearest town, about a 25 minute walk away, so we went there most nights.  We did have a night in Pefkos and also one in Lindos but Lardos was much more convenient and a lot better value.

We finally ventured out last Friday (ooooh, just realised this Friday is Friday 13th!!), to the large waterpark near Faliraki ;)  I'd not been to one since a school trip to the Ardèche in my second year at St. Mark's and I wasn't all that keen to go.  To tell the truth I was a bit nervous.

After a gentle introduction on a few of the tamest slides we started to move on to the more daunting attractions.  I actually think we went on the worst ride quite early in the day.

The 'Sting Ray' has a really steep drop-in which only becomes apparent once you've sat down on the ring and given yourself the heave-ho on the railings and by that time it's way too late anyway.  I've found this on YouTube:



It probably doesn't do the drop-in justice but it is pretty scary the first time.

I'd also never been on the steep slides before but after a bit of persuasion from Sarah I took the plunge.

From left to right are the Turbo Slide, Kamikaze and Free-fall.  Your brain tells you that Free-fall is the worst because it is a steep, straight drop but I thought the Turbo Slide was the worst.

After going  over two humps in quick succession you end up airborne for a split second before going into a tight curve.

The Kamikaze has just one hump which again sends you airborne for a short while but you're soon down the steep part of the slide and heading horizontally to the plunge pool at the bottom.

Although it doesn't look it, the Free-fall slide is the easiest ride.  Like the Sring-Ray it's the view from the top that is daunting and after that it's just straight down to the horizontal final few metres.

My advice, don't look down...

If you've made it this far you'll no doubt be glad to hear that Brentford held on to their 2-1 lead to book their first appearance in the second round of the League Cup for three seasons.

Here's hoping for a decent draw when it's made.

Les Gets West London Buzzing

Today Brentford played away at Elland Road.  Did I go?  Of course I did, always good to get another ground ticked off.  Got back to the Bush at just after 21:00.

Travelled up with two of the usual Griffin Park crowd.  I was meant to meet the lads in Northfields but I didn't account for the Piccadilly Line being shut this weekend between Hammersmith and Northfields!

In the end Paul picked me up from here at around 11:00 and we were in Leeds for 14:00.  Three hours there, three hours back, not bad going at all.  The things people do for 90 minutes of football!

The match ended 1-1, a result surely all Bees fans would have taken before the game.  I reckon we deserved the point and having taken the lead there is even a tinge of disappointment that we didn't take one of the chances we had to go two up.  Let's not get too greedy though eh!

Well over 2,200 Bees fans made the trip and for many, me included, it was a first trip to Elland Road.  Not suprising as we last played a league match there in 1953/54 season!! Chant of the day was 'is there a fire drill' to the Leeds fans streaming out of the ground early ;)

Changing the subject, I'm sure you're all wondering where I've been seeing as my last post was a couple of weeks ago.  Say that again SB, what do you mean nobody reads this shit?!?

SB and I (ooooooh, get me!) were in France riding ski lifts up mountains and then sliding down them on, no not our bottoms, thin strips of plastic!  We went with five others to Les Gets which is a small town in the Haute-Savoie department.

We stayed in a chalet called Ysopes which we shared with two married couples.  They had been to Les Gets many times, at least 15 they told us.  In fact they used to own a chalet between them, nice!!  The week passed without incident and we were even treated to a homecoming party for Déborah Anthonioz who hails from Les Gets and won a silver medal in the snowboard cross.

BRAVO DEBO!

Reus, Paris, Londres

El fin de las semana pasada fui a Catalunya con (or maybe that should be 'amb') mi novia.

An early flight (7am!!) on Friday from Gatwick meant we were on the N148 to Victoria at 3.20am to catch the 4am train to one of the many airports that have attached themselves to London!

SB met a girl from Reus while she was at Uni and I get to reap the benefits with a lovely trip to the Autonomous Community of Catalunya :)

We buzzed around Barcelona using our finely tuned city-break whistle stop tour on Friday morning and afternoon before catching the RENFE along the coast to our base for the weekend, Mireia's flat :)

We had a couple of Cañas before a lovely meal in a restaurant called Vinatxo. In Catalan an 'x' makes a 'sh' sound. Just in case you were wondering!

We were pretty bushwhacked after the early start, actually Thursday jut didn't end, so we strolled home and went to bed at about 1am. No crazy fiesta for us.

On Saturday we were chauffeured along the cost to the Ebro Delta, or if you're feeling brave, Delta del Ebro. We took a boat trip out to the mouth of the river, passing by the fields that provide Spain with the essential paella ingredient, rice. We made our way back to Reus via one of the Deltadelebre transbordadors (not my video!!!) and the seaside town of Cambrils, before going for a lovely meal at Mireia's parents' house.

On Sunday we followed the Ruta Modernista around Reus city centre before heading to Tarragona. After a stroll around this old Roman city and some lunch we were dropped of at Tarragona station to start the journey home :(

The hectic weekend came to a close after a final journey on the 295 at 2am this morning took us from Clapham Junction back to W12. Head hit the pillow at 3am. Zzzzzzzzz.