Hello, this will probably be the last blog post of 2011. I would like to wish you all a Happy New year in advance 
and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Bring on 2012 and hopefully more blog posts and content!
Happy Holidays!!
Written by admin on December 27th, 2011The holiday was amazing
Written by admin on October 11th, 2011Well it doesn’t seem long ago that I was in Holland. It was a truly amazing experience. On Friday (16th September) we got there and had a few beers and just walked around the area of Rotterdam. It was good to be back. In the evening we went to meet up with my friend and her sister and also my tent mate that I lived with in Italy. It was great to see them all again! We just chilled out by the harbour in Rotterdam. Then on Saturday we went to the Market and looked around all of the shops. We met up with my friends again and just generally enjoyed the evening. It was nice to have a catch up and to see everyone again.
(the area near our hostel)
On the Sunday we went to Gouda which is only about 20minutes or so away. Gouda is very famous for it’s cheese. But I also know someone that lives there from my working times in Holland. We went to meet him in Gouda centraal. Before this we both got a bit lost and found a nice port. The heavens did open! Thunder started to rumble and hail started to fall but this was probably the worst day with weather in terms of all the holiday. Strangely I met my friend in a kebab shop. I hadn’t eaten anything all day and was getting rather hungry. He was with his dutch friend as well and he seemed like a cool guy. They showed us around Gouda (hiding from the hail storms while we could) and generally had a good day. One of my favourite parts was that they managed to show us some locals they knew. It was really cool to see some old fashioned dutch streets (as Rotterdam is mostly modern). We had a joke and a laugh and it really felt like we had a nice chat with the locals. Also one bizarre scene we come across was a “British motor bike club”. There were probably about 50 “Harley Davidson type motorbikes”. They had all come to try the cheese, a long bike journey! I think maybe they go to other places as well but it was strange to see a British club there. In the evening we went back to Rotterdam Central mostly because we were waiting for our friend from Canada to appear. In the evening he did eventually arrive from his connecting flight from London. It was a pleasure to see him again.
(Gouda Cheese)
Monday was great we went to Amsterdam for the day. Did the usual tourist stuff and walked around the city. It was cool in the evening to also see the city by boat. Something that I did last time I was there. Even just sitting down in the main square for most of the day was great fun and watching the Amsterdam world go by.
(Amsterdam square)
Tuesday was a day I was looking forward to most. We went back to Wassenaar. The place I used to live. We walked around the tiny village and it felt just the same (sure a few shops had changed) but the general village community was friendly and welcoming, a nice little village that I like a lot. We even went past “Bagell Alley” and this was strange since this was the place that a lot of the previous blog posts on here were posted from and the photos.
(The supermarket C1000 I used to go to once a week and the Internet café that I used to go practically everyday)
We then proceeded into the camping and bought a day ticket and this was about 19 Euros. I immediately went to the reception I used to work at. Spoke to the girl there a bit saying “I used to work here etc..” and then started to ask if people I know might still be here. This was unexpected, found out two people I know were on the camping still working. After going round the tikipad (famous in Holland) and theme park we met up with them and had a few drinks. It was cool to see them again and go in a “traditional” dutch pub. Unfortunately the “Tappery Plain 14″ (often refereed to as the “tap”) that I spent many of drunkly nights in 2009 had turned into some sort of wine/posh bar. So posh I didn’t dare to go in with the bank balance slowly going down hill. However it was great to see it all again. In the evening we got back to Rotterdam and went to a Jazz bar and I met up with my tent mate again. When we said goodbye I also met his Dad, his Dad was ace good to meet him!
(The Live area entrance and my home used to be down this pathway and a picture of some of the accommodation I used to work on)
Wednesday our last day, we went to the Rotterdam famous bridge. It’s pretty amazing. I will end the holiday with a photo of the bridge. Certainly worth a look at in real life if you ever get the chance to stop by Rotterdam.
(The famous Rotterdam Bridge)
I’m now on another holiday from work and just relaxing this time. I can’t really afford to go any other country. But I have some stuff planned and have done a lot already and will save this for another blog post.
Holland imminent
Written by admin on September 3rd, 2011So early in September I will be flying to Holland ~ Schiphol and from there on to Rotterdam. I really can’t wait! I will be going with two very good pals and hope to meet some friends who I used to work and live with in my times abroad. It’s going to be an ace 6 days and I’m just really excited about it. So my second holiday abroad this year (Rome earlier in the year was fun fun). I’m really excited about the prospects of going to the little village I used to live in for the day. It’s going to be strange being back there. I keep dreaming about it…thinking about it. So it will be nice. I call it my second home because I lived around 4months there in a little village area near Den Haag. It was just amazing fun but it was two years ago! Doesn’t time fly!
About the blog, a new theme is in development but I’ve only programmed one php page (index.php). I have a long way to go. I’m just really really tired recently from work and the cycling. Also my graphics card just died so that has annoyed me (but it was a 4year old 8800GTS). I’m on my 2nd PC now so will have to transfer some data over. When I get time. But at least I have managed to start work on the theme. It’s fun just diving into notepad++ after work chilling and writing some code because it’s all finally starting to come back to me.
I also did some bike maintenance and have a new back wheel and seven speed cassette cog. It’s much more smoother now cycling to work. And changing gear doesn’t feel like a tank starting up.
DNS Change
Written by admin on July 27th, 2011Just an update regarding the blog. I’ve recently pointed the DNS to point at the host rather than be a forward. You may have experienced some downtime during the last 48hours while it propagated throughout the Internet. But it should be fine now and hopefully faster. My email was down for a day as well because of this so if you did contact me please send again. Some changes will be coming to this blog soon.
I’m trying if I can find the time to upload my University work and favourite selections of my photography. I just haven’t had time to do this recently. I plan to create a new sub domain for this area and will create a post so you can go to this link. And it will also make it easier for me to show people the stuff I have made rather than hunting around the blog. So I will keep you all posted on how the changes are going . I’m tempted to develop my own theme rather than customize a ready made one as well. But I’m still deciding this! If time pro-veils.
Regarding the last post & holiday booked!
Written by admin on July 10th, 2011So my last post was a big rant. Well turned out I was right! 
Landlord gave me about 3weeks refund in electricity and lowered the cost to a more representative costs. I haven’t worked it out yet but it’s not using as nearly as much. And she even gave written notice this time! Think she gave in to my demand that written notice should be done every time!
So with the refund I’ve been going a bit crazy cooking some really nice meals and just generally enjoying having free electricity! .
Also I’ve booked another holiday! Rotterdam on September 16th, going with my mate Tim who I know from Uni and plan to meet 4~5 people there who I know from my various previous travels. It was about £310 all in, absolute bargain for 6 days! Really can’t wait. And I love it how my insurance cost me £8. Is it me or is holiday insurance cheap and really easy to just buy it at the end of ordering your flight? It really does save time.
Don’t have much else planned but someone I know in Northampton wants to have a catchup, should be interesting for a weekend soon!
If you live in a flat……
Written by admin on June 20th, 2011[rant]
So my landlord decided to increase my electric bill to £30 a month from £8 a month without giving me written notice. She told me but I forgot and it came to bit of a shock. I’ve been lucky though for 6 months I managed to live on a electric bill that was 3 years old so although it was a shock when she increased it to £30 a month I was basically living on the cheap for 6months. It’s completely her fault though apparently she was turning the £1 meter handle the wrong way…lol!
The wonders of having a £1 meter in your flat. That’s a life long lesson learnt, make sureyou ask the landlord who the electricity provider is so you can compare rates if you are on a pay and go meter. It doesn’t bother me I can afford it but if I move to a bigger flat it will be the first thing I check and ask about now I don’t want to be stung like that, for electricity I have to pay a £1 a day! Good job I turn off absolutely everything when I go to work!
[/rant]
Italy
Written by admin on May 30th, 2011So I went to Santerno in Italy (Tuscany) for 6days last week. I had really good fun and it was an awesome holiday. It was 33C all week and it was gorgeous being up in the mountains. I also passed through Rome on the way. I met lots of people all week and it was great fun!
Here are some pictures for you all to see. I will upload some more when I get more time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13756921@N04/sets/72157626719239771/
Rome!
Written by admin on May 2nd, 2011Hi all,
Just a quick update. I’ve booked a holiday to Rome! I’m going to see my friend for 6days at a camp site. And be a customer at Eurocamp! OMG, it’s who I used to work for last year in Italy. It’s going to be strange going as a customer and not working, when you have seen how it all works behind the scenes! I will be staying in a tent (kinda like the ones I used to live in abroad). So should be fun and warm. I will certainly be uploading photos to this blog when I can!
Also last weekend I went to i42 http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/i42/, see some pictures here!
I will upload some more photos when I get some time but it was awesome, had lots of BBQ’s, Beer and fun Lanage! I also watched the movie thaw last night. It’s a pretty interesting film and lots of sci-fi stuff, really recommend it!
Glasgow & Flat
Written by admin on January 30th, 2011Well It’s been a busy few months. For New Years Eve I went to Scotland for a few days, it was excellent fun. I went to see some friends and we went to the beach, went around Irvine and also of course had a look in the Glasgow Centre. It was a good holiday and it was just nice to just relax for a few days and just chill out.
The past few weeks I have been moving! YAY I’m now living in Leicester city centre. It’s 15 minutes from work (a nice cycle ride). And I have a studio flat, so I get my kitchen/shower etc all included. It’s a great little cosy place, I love it.
This will make my travels easier now, been able to get to the Airport and Train station is so much easier. And of course easier for people to see me. It’s already made life much more interesting. So this is why I haven’t been updating my blog, haven’t had a chance to keep up to date with things. Hopefully blog posts will be more up to date now .
I’m still here!
Written by admin on September 14th, 2010Just an update all is going well. Not much to say apart from that I went to Redditch not long ago for an awesome party. Really enjoyed the BBQ. I also went to see a few films, Inception, ToyStory 3D and Scott Pilgrim VS the World. They were very good films and it was nice to watch ToyStory in 3D!
