Bad Girls the Musical

Went to see Bad Girls The Musical in London's West End today. It was fun. Took a bit of getting used to the new actors but there were some familiar faces; one of which was Sylvia Hollamby.

Egypt

Just visited Egypt. It was a new country for me (and I actually acquired some stamps in my passport!) The weather was brilliant. The resort was really good, full board meant free everything!

We had plenty of snorkeling fun, one time we went out to a coral. It was a great opportunity to play some more with my new camera along with its underwater case.

Also, we went quad-biking through the nearby mountains.

One of the days was spent on a trip over the border into Israel. The border it self was interesting; it is amazing how more secure Israel seems than Egypt. In Israel we saw some dolphins and did some shopping.

France

A recent vacation took me to France with some friends from university and some new faces. We rented a villa on the outskirts of Bar sur Loup, near Grasse, near Nice.

The villa was fantastic: Our own private pool, a big garden, sun loungers, pool table, table football, kitchen, everything...

Highlights included a trip to Cannes for a look round and swim in the sea, Monaco to admire boats and big cars and visit a cool cocktail bar (as featured in Around the World in 80 Bars) and climbing a lot of steps in Grasse.

Easter weekend

Caz and I visited Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight over Easter weekend. We went up the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. The view was good, unfortunately they don't have a panoramic lift (it hasn't worked since day one) and the top is totally sealed with glass so there is no "wind in your face effect". It slots into a number two position on my top 3 tall structures list (the Eiffel Tower being number one and the Empire State Building number three). When we went to the Isle of Wight we took my car on the ferry which was a fun adventure.

Alton Towers

Caz and I went to Alton Towers yesterday. It was great fun being able to act like a kid all day! The most exciting ride was the drive over there but the likes of Nemesis and Air were also pretty exciting. Rita was shut for the day though so I still haven't been on it, maybe next time...

Sheffield

Last week I spent a few days in Sheffield. My sister recently moved there to start a new job so I went to stay for a few days. We went out for drinks, rode the tram, drove around town a bit, went shopping, went to the cinema, went swimming in a cool pool with slides and a wave machine and of course I checked out a couple of the local Starbucks.

Southampton

I did some real motorway driving this weekend and went down to Southampton to see my friend Matt... great fun! Next stop Sheffield (I am making good use of my sat nav).

Newcastle

In what is possibly the furthest North I have ever been, Laura and I spent the last few days in Newcastle visiting our friend Nick. We had the opportunity to experience night-life in the quiet Ponteland as well as in Newcastle itself. We went ice skating in Whitney Bay; this resulted in some minor injuries when I tried to some more special moves without correct tuition, but it's nothing that wont heal! We also admired some of the bridges in Newcastle (engineers!)

Bath

The latest stop on my Oxford people tour was Bath to spend a weekend with my friend Laura. Involving a night out with some engineering people, the tour of Bath, a visit to the cinema (The Breakup - I quite liked it) and a day trip to Weston-Super-Mare (I optimistically wore my swimming shorts but the sea was miles out) this was a fun weekend.

Germany Visit

I spent the last five days in Germany visiting my friend Moritz who lives in Baden-Baden.

We spent the first evening in the Casino and lost a small amount of money playing Roulette. The next day was the tour of Baden-Baden which involved a stop at a very nice restaurant where I ate a meal based on my German favorite: Spätzle. We also visited Frankfurt (where I went up the 200m Main Tower and got a few Starbucks fixes, drove over the border into France and then straight back again (where we played some crazy golf and I won by 1 point!), had some 125mph trips down the Autobahn listening to a now favorite band of mine: Silbermond and went to a theme park: Europa Park.

I had a great time.