I'm don't really go to many music events, but last month I went to two. It's been two years since I saw Massive Attack in Birmingham and as they are releasing a new album soon, it was a good opportunity to hear some of the new material played live.Coincidentally, I'd discovered that ZZ Top were playing just 2 venues in the UK, they had not played here for 10 years, and we'd never seen them live. We managed to get seats at Wembley Arena, oh the luxury!Massive Attack, played Swindon Oasis, whic... Read Full Story
Today I learned the meaning of situational irony. I drove to see my ski bootfitter, to so he could adjust the fit on my wonderful new ski boots. I'd been experiencing some heel pain, and he was aiming to adjust the shells to remove a pressure point.By the end of my appointment my Zipfit liners were being refunded, and I was back in the manufacturers stock liners. I was upset, so was my fitter, but hey, it's a really bad month for bills and I was now £190 up on expectations.15 minutes later, a... Read Full Story
I'd decided that my skiing technique needed some attention, so booked onto a 1 day course at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. The event was run by Chris Fecher and Will Roberts. http://skiclinic.wordpress.com/With 2 coaches and 5 students it was a pretty full on day, with little time for a rest and nowhere to hide! I'd never considered that skiing for a day on an indoor slope could possibly be tiring. Occasionally we were gathered round for a briefing, to find out what we would be doing ne... Read Full Story
While we were in Wales, we took the opportunity to go and visit the village of Portmeirion, which was the setting for the TV series The Prisoner back in the 1960's. The series starred Patrick McGoohan and there is still a cult following for the programme.The village was designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis, with rescued architectural follies, which makes for a real jumble of styles. It's a private village, but is open to the public for a fee.We were both surprised at how compact the vi... Read Full Story
We had never hiked Snowdon, and with settled weather on the forecast we made an early start in anticipation of a few crowds on the routes and especially at the summit. We chose the Rhyd Ddu route and the sun was trying to break through as we set off.We found we'd been a little optimistic with our weather forecast, as we were soon in cloud. At least it wasn't raining, or cold. Apparently we were hiking up an exposed ridge at this point!We broke through the cloud layer to see beautiful sunshin... Read Full Story
This week, I have read that Valencia had it's third hottest summer on record this year. The sunshine brought record numbers of tourists to the beaches, and Peniscola was declared Spain's 4th most popular resort. May was not especially warm, and we had rain, but I can confirm that July was a scorcher.The tourists utilised every possible place to park, including traffic islands and roundabouts, and the town, opened South Beach for parking. I imagine that this tourist did not arrive on Ryanair.H... Read Full Story
We were quite surprised to find our favourite Chimay beer in a supermarket 2 towns away. We made the decision to check out the flavour with the Med as a backdrop instead of the usual Swiss mountain. As it's 9.0% vol, it's potent stuff.The next day our nearest Spanish neighbours called round and surprised us by presenting us with a case of a specialist Spanish beer called Ambar 1900, plus 4 Spanish wines.These two beers were vastly different. The Chimay is a dark heavy beer, incredibly tangy a... Read Full Story
The town has quite a few festivals throughout the year. We'd missed a Jazz Festival by one day on our arrival and I was around, for the series of concerts of Baroque Classical Music taking place in the castle each evening, at 10.30pm. Each night a large brazier was lit on the roof of the castle at the start of each concert.To announce the start of the concerts, a large Firework Display was set to music, organised by the local experts Pirotecnia Tomas. I'd seen the guys setting up the firework... Read Full Story
