merry christmas from Londontown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZNkGK55ak

belgium

After heading to the dentist on Friday morning and getting 3 fillings I vowed no more sweet things or anything bad ever again! However that was impossible to do Belguim! The weekend just been was about enjoying the good things in life. Beer, chocolates, waffles, christmas, good company, no fuss, just laid back goodtimes...

I meet Jo, Richie and Mel at Kings Cross station and after purchasing papers, and mags and food for the journey we went through customs and boarded the train at about 3pm. The train ride was pretty uneventlful although it was quite beauitful as the moon was 14x its normal size (some weird scientific reason I cant remember why). We arrived into Brussels then had a sweet easy connection to Bruge. Rolled into town about 7.30ish and caught the bus (with an extreamly enthusastic driver) to snuffle backpackers. The backpackers was basic but warm, and after minor confusion with our booking we dropped our stuff in our room and added an extra layer. belgium was noticably colder than london. We were on a food mission and stopped at a little posh place that looked very hansel and gretel. After de-layering we tried to order a couple of muscle pots with beers, but unfortunatly we were told that you had to order a main each... at 30 Euro a pop, we didnt really want to do that... so throwing everything back on, we shuffled out of the fancy place and found a resturant much more like us down the road. We indulged. Had a large feed of musscels (although the muscles were tiny, they wouldnt even be a legal size back home!) waffles and a few too many Bruge Zot (the local beer). We tried our luck in a few other pubs, altough you can still smoke inside which made us turn around quickly in a couple of them! Danced and drunk friday night away, numbed the pain of my teeth, thank goodness.

Saturday we were up earlish and after a solid breaky in the backpackers we took too the markets. Bruges really is a magically little city. And the medievil architecture is enhanced by the delightfulness of the Christmas markets, ice rink, and horse and carts wandering past. After shopping around a bit, we found our way to the local brewry and did a tour, was established about 1850 and is still in use today. Quite an interesting, complicated proccess goes into making beer which gave me a new found appreciation! After the tour we had our complimentary beers... which gave us a nice warm glow... we went back outside and wandered around the city once again, however it was freezing, so low-in-behold we found ourselves another cosy pub with an open fire and beer to warm the belly. Not too sure where the time went but the sun went down, and we were still sitting there. We got a call from a friend who was also in Bruges so we went to meet them in a place with 400 different sorts of belgium beer. Need I say more... Chocolate beer, banana beer, strawberry beers... more chocolates, and a great night...

Sunday we packed up, had brekky and went back into town, this time to climb the bell tower. It had an amazing view of the city, and the bells chimed for what felt like ages when we were up there. I found myself a couple of prints and richie found a few pins. We caught the train into Brussels about mid day and spent the avo looking around the central place. There were so many people it was almost a bit much. When the sun went down we stood with the masses of others and watched a light display on one of the old medieval buildings. It was truly like nothing Ive ever seen before. Christmas just feels so different over here, so magical and I feel like a child would love to share it with everyone so heres some piccies...

Kings of Leon

These guys are absolute Rock Stars. Take a packed o2 Arena, freaking good music, good company = GOODTIMES!

The concert had no bells or whistles, no fancy pants light display, just a set full of music that rocked the socks off everyone. I'm getting tickets for June it was that good!

flying!

Last Saturday I was sitting down with a friend eating porridge after a bright and early 10km run. Her boyfriend - who is a hobby pilot asked if I wanted to go flying with them in the afternoon as he had hired a plane and the weather was mint in london. I jumped on the opportunity! After dashing home for a quick shower and wiping up some scones we went out to the airbase by Woking and took off. It was as if every other pilot in London had the same idea and was out that day and maximising the sun! The airspace was supremely busy, but it was a great chance to see the city and country-side from another angle. We flew down to Brighton on the coast and it was cool to have the head set on and listen to all the flying jargon from other air users! No rest as it was out for dinner and wines that night to a little Asian restaurant in Putney with the flatties plus extras. Sunday was not as eventful just catchups with friends and sifting around hammersmith.

Buon Giorno Italy!

Our Italy adventure began on Friday night. Sarahkay, Tom and I managed to get off work a bit earlier and train out to Stanstead Airport (North from London, a bit of long haul but relatively straight forward). Our flight departed at 20:30 and we arrived 23:45 (Italy time). It was an ‘interesting experience’ flying Ryan air. The bus off the plane only travelled 10 meters, not sure why we couldn’t have walked, mamma mia! We were reveling in the fact that tom had made us (priority) for our flight booking, although, it didn’t really count for much when we were the last people to come through customs. Italian was a lot less troublesome than German (mainly because it was pretty similar to Spanish). We caught a 10 euro ride to Pisa central (train station) from where we thought we could find our hostel pretty easily. Pisa was a ghost town at this time of night. To find our hostel we had to ask for directions which led us to the other side of the train station to a random residential house. After ringing the hostel number a nice lady came out the front and she told us she would drive us to the hostel, which was right where we started at Pisa central, mamma mia! Our room was nice, with a large double bed. The lady kindly offered tom a free bottle of wine to drink after our race. Next morning we had a wee bit of a sleep-in then headed into Pisa over the river to the Leaning Tower, stopping at a café for breakfast on the way. Italian cities can be characterized by their narrow cobbled streets, distinctive fresco architecture, grafitti on every surface, amazing churches, buildings and statues, and friendly people who always think you are Italian! The Leaning tower and surrounding buildings were very impressive and we did the obligatory leaning and pushing photo poses. Wandering a different way back through the city we picked up some fruit, bread and pins for SK’s collection. Back at the train station we caught the first train to Florence (Firenze). We spent the 1:10 train trip reading up on the history of Florence and decided which sights to try and squeeze into an afternoon………….
Florence, whilst larger and busier than pisa, has been described as an architectural master piece, the prize jewel in Europe’s crown, a point I would hesitate to argue with. We decided to find our hostel and drop our gear off. Wandering through the city I remember noticing the number of Italians who smoked, and how fashion-conscious they came across. Needless to say the number of people wearing running shoes and jeans brought the fashion peg down a few notches, but I ‘think’ that had something to do with Marathon! Our hostel again wasn’t exactly obvious but location was great when we did find it. Our host was friendly and did her best with her English. Now to the sites of Florence, first we went to the Ponto Vechio, basically a famous bridge with lots of jewellery shops on it. Next we had to recharge at a café where we had a quick bite to eat and a drink. From there we went to Piazza del signoria, an impressive square with lots of statues. Next we went to the cupola Duomo, a massive cathedral (I think one of the largest in the world) characterized by its large 42 meter wide dome and huge fresco painting depicting scenes on hell, earth and heaven, truly amazing! We climbed what seemed like an endless narrow staircase to the top of the cathedral where we got panoramic views of the red roofs of Florence and the surrounding city in the hills. Next the team split up, Tom and I caught a bus over to the town’s stadium to pick up our race packs. Sarah did some more sight seeing around town, Re-learning all about the Medici family and their influence in Florence during the renassiance. We rendezvoused at 6 and went back to the hostel, where we tried on a newly purchased (extremely tight Florence running singlets), I also had a home-style haircut, with clippers which we borrowed from the lady at the hostel. (Saved myself 25 euro there) The mo went by the way side as well and now I felt streamlined for tomorrow’s big race! We went out for tea, to a nice Italiano restoriante. We carbo loaded on pasta, Mace somehow managed to pick out another cheesy dish while trying his best not to, fearing all the cheese might adversely affect his marathon. Race day! 10 weeks training had led us to this day, our first marathon! Woke up got some food and fluid down us, then we kitted and greased ourselves up. I was number 8442. We joined the other runners and caught the bus up to the start line. We went for a bit of a warm up and stretch. Meanwhile the weather was closing in. We assembled in the starting box. Somehow the colour of my bib meant that I was to line up right at the back of the field, but I managed to jump over a couple of fences and edge nearer the front of the field with mace. The excitement was building and you could feel the nervous energy of the runners all huddled in a bunch, despite the worsening weather. It was wet and cold when the starting gun went, everyone threw off their top clothes (mostly pink plastic bags) and we were off. It was down hill for the first 5 k, and with the adrenaline coursing through our veins, we were running quite fast, back on the flat I managed to slow it down, reminding myself that there was a long way to go! I ran pretty consistently about 4:10 min km’s. 1:28:00 at the half way mark. The last couple of k’s were so hard but I managed to empty the tank and guts it for a time of 2:57:47. Stoked! Under my goal time of 3 hours! It was great running with the crowds cheering you on, even though I didn’t know what they were saying half the time! Mostly they yelled out “Bravi, Bravi”. The course scenery was pretty spectacular as well. On the verge of cramping in my legs I managed to make it back to the hostel where we showered changed and packed up. Mace ran a great race as well 3:08:00. We had a few photos in our jackets with our medals on the way back to the train station. Long trip home, but we were all buzzing and reliving the race. The only low light was Mace’s bottle of wine being confiscated by customs! No victory drink ☹! Great weekend, one of the best of the year.