At Home with John and Debbie

Well, I have been busy, and as a result, Paul observed that I haven’t blogged for several weeks. So, to compensate, here’s a quick rundown of what’s been keeping me busy:

For a start, work decided to start using me for something, which not only means that there’s less time for idle web browsing and blogging in the office, but also means that they’ve sent me to Tampa, Florida twice in the last month. I don’t think I’ve got to see the best of Tampa — having lived a life of sleep, work, eat with team members, repeat — although the office location is pleasant and the various restaurants and bars have been very satisfactory. I’ve certainly become adept at long haul flights.

Along with that, I’ve been on two stag weekends.

JV’s took us to South Wales for a day “canyoning” down the river Mellte in the Brecon Beacons, an activity described as “white water rafting without the raft”. It was terrific fun, involving getting dragged down rapids by the water, and leaping from great heights into the pools below waterfalls. In the evening we enjoyed the pubs of Swansea, ending up in Jumpin’ Jack’s nightclub, which PFH now describes as “hell on earth”. He made a convincing pretence of enjoying it at the time. I sang my little heart out on the dancefloor.

In addition, we got to experience a Friday night in Ystradgynlais, which included harpies dressed as Robin Hood Peter Pan, and a family dispute at a one-year-old’s birthday party deteriorating into glasses being smashed over heads, and police intervention. Good of them to lay on entertainment.

The second stag weekend was Tom A’s, and we went to Bratislava. That’s in Slovakia. Don’t worry, I had to look it up too. The worst part of the trip was queueing for Ryanair check-in at Stansted Airport.  After that, the whole thing was pretty smashing. We were greeted at Bratislava airport by Martina, our professional stag guide for the weekend, who took us to our botel (it’s a boat, and it’s a hotel. It’s a botel.) on the Danube. Once we’d settled, she led us to some bars, then to a hole in the wall that sold sausages, then to a club, where she left us to play on the slide.

We crammed a lot into the weekend, although some of my companions allowed the drink to defeat them somewhat. Perhaps the absinthe took things too far. Still: buggying, bowling, riding in a Czech tank, attempted wedding crashing, listening to Michael Jackson with our tops off, a relaxing spa pamper (!) and water slides all added up to a great weekend.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 14:14 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.