Category: Travel

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Inspiration for a Bicycle Ride

A few weeks ago I went to the 3rd birthday party evening for EscapeTheCity.org (the only organisation I’ve ever invested in). Some of it I didn’t connect with so much but all of it was interesting and inspirational. The adventuring part rang loudest for me: The idea of setting yourself a challenge and just doing something adventurous, even something small so that it’s affordable in time and money.Like Alistair Humphries walking around the M25, something that’s a little unknown, perhaps risky, challenging but actually quite doable. If only you just take the first steps, the next ones are bound to follow.

Well, I’ve been a little weary of my current contract for some time, and have wanted to ‘do something different’ (Escape’s strap line) for some time. So there and then it clicked that what with the old man having recently moved out to Seville, and me having a bit of time out coming up, there was the perfect window of opportunity for me to do something: Cycle down to see him. Then even better, complete the ride by making it down to the Costa and hopping over to Maroc. Berkshire to Africa somehow sounding better than Wargrave to Seville.

So on the 10th of December after saying goodbye to the girls before they leave for South Africa for Xmas, I will get on my bike, and cycle. It should be about c.1,300 miles and I’ve warned my father that there’s every chance I might not make it in time for Boxmas. 1300/14=93 miles a day for 2 weeks solid. That’s not a small ask of myself. If I’m up to a week late, that could be 1300/21=62 miles a day. So as I go, I know that I need to be aiming for about a ton a day.

I do however have this vision of finding myself stuck up a mountain in Spain on Christmas eve, dark, cold, lonely as a cloud, blizzard incoming, rear puncture being repaired, drivers covering me in slush, half my kit having been stolen or fallen off along the way. But that’s just not going to happen, is it.

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FCO Project Travel Log

It’s been a while since I finished contracting for the FCO on a worldwide deployment project. Great whilst it lasted. Being sent around the world, flying and staying non-economy. I’m not smug, I’m just saying that I really appreciated it.

For the record

Contract length: September 2008 – May 2009, 20 months, cities/countries: 11 (+2 bonus), flights: 24, continents: 5

  • Airlines, hotels, cities, countries…
  • BA to the The Grand Hotel, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • BA to the Hyatt Regency, Belgrade, Serbia
  • Virgin Atlantic to the Hyatt, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
  • BA, Hotel Normandie, Bordeaux, France
  • Virgin Atlantic to the Auberge Seraphine, Castries,St.Lucia; (Barbados)
  • BA to the Crowne Plaza, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Continental to the Hyatt, Houston, USA
  • TAM to George V, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • BMI to the Four Seasons, Amman, Jordan; (Israel)
  • BA to the Taj Lands End, Mumbai, India
  • Virgin Atlantic to the Royal Palm Umhlanga, Durban, South Africa, Emirates return

Highlights: jetskiing and snorkelling off Tobago; the Astros’ baseball at the Minute Maid Stadium in Houston; walking around Petra and Wadi Rum; floating in the Dead Sea; returning to India, the bar at the back of an A380. and as strange as it may seem – working hard – putting in silly hours to get the job done.

Lows: Being away from the family.

Offers for contracts of a similar nature are welcomed.

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Mumbai

Gone and done it again. Think that was my…

  1. Stop over in New Delhi aged 7, 1983
  2. Landed back in New Delhi, November 1996 on a round-the-world trip aged 19 for 2 months
  3. Back to Goa, Calcutta and up to Darjeeling in 1997
  4. Drove from through India on the London to Kathmandu 608 tour, 2000
  5. Holiday in Kerala, 2005
  6. Working for the FCO in Mumbai

…6th trip to India.

Got to catch up with me old mucker Paddy out there and also had the new experience of working whilst crawling around amongst rat shit. It’s all good really.

I love this country. Always have done, always will.

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10 Things About Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo’s a cool place. I expected a dirty, rough sprawl. What I got was a friendly, wealthy, tres moderne high-rise bustling metropolis. Go.

  1. In the main, Sao Paulo is not a cheap city
  2. For all I know I could have been flown to any southern European city
  3. Us locals refer to Sao Paulo as Sampa
  4. Sao Paulo lies just on the Tropic of Capricorn. That’s actually quite far south
  5. c.1.4 million Japanese live in the state of Sao Paulo, the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan
  6. I have never had as much sushi as I had in my 3 weeks in Sao Paulo. Eat as much as you like for c.£10
  7. If you’re served a thimble-full of weak beer with more than half the vessel containing froth, it’s probably Chopp, it may be refreshing on a hot day but really, the stuff is piss
  8. Hippest place I visited: the Sky bar atop the equally cool Unique (oo-nee-key) hotel. Have some Caiparinhas up there and enjoy that view. Best cityscape I’ve ever seen
  9. People from Sampa are known as Paulistanos, people from the wider state are called Paulistas
  10. Couples regularly CANOODLE in the STREET. I mean they really go for it!

Obrigado

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Lone Star State

Two weeks in Houston.

These guys (yes, all Americans) have security issues. Walking into the airport we were warned over the tannoy that “Any inappropriate remarks or jokes at security may result in your arrest.” I love a red rag more than the next man so waited behind the yellow line, acting as sensibly as ever. The border security officer nodded for me to step forward. I did so, handed over my passport and glared at him like I meant business. He glared back. He meant business too. I glared harder. He glared harder. We both glared harder still. “What is your purpose in this country?” he said cooly whilst removing his Rayban Aviators. “What is your purpose in this country?” I said cooly whilst removing my symmetrically appropriate Rayban Aviators. “You messin’ with me?” he said, clearly agitated. “You messin’ wid me?” I retorted in my best Brooklyn. He nodded to his compatriate, the one with a side-arm hanging off his waist, who swaggered over and without saying a word, cuffed me and led me away. I’ll stop there as none of that is true apart from the line over the tannoy. The jumped up little fascists.

Anyway… Had the first Sunday off so hired a car and drove over to the Johnson Space Center – worth a visit. Drove on down to Galveston (oh Galveston), not worth a visit since it got hit by Ike, the storm which you heard about but not a lot maybe since Lehman Bros collapse and news of the world’s financial mess around that time. After stuffing our faces on the largest crab legs I’ve ever seen at Joe’s Crab Shack in a nice little coastal town called Kemah we drove on back to Houston. Only when we were nearing Houston we realized we’d been driving adjacent to one or two mothers of an oil field/refinery for a majority of the 40 odd miles from the coast. About 40 miles long I said. These people know how to consume.

Went to see the ball game one midweek evening at the Minute Maid stadium, Houston Astros vs Philadelphia Pirates. Great stuff. Very crowd-centric, although the TV commercial ad breaks were a tad lame. Since I’ve been back home I’ve been receiving NRA spam that just won’t quit. I think it must be due to a form I filled in at the baseball game so that I could get me a free Astros teatowel. Sons of guns.

A few things Texas has got right:

  • Jalapenos with most meals
  • Buffalo wings
  • ‘The Flying Saucer’ pub on Main Street, downtown Houston. Loads of bitters, IPAs and porters from around the world

A few things they’ve got wrong:

  • Consumption
  • Comparing healthcare reform to some form of socialism
  • And their clinical fear of communism

At the airport before my flight home:

Waiter: What can I get you?
Me: Could I have the Buffalo shrimp please.
Waiter: Awesome.
Me: Really? I mean was what I just ordered actually genuinely awesome, was it?

I didn’t say any of that last bit either, but I definitely thought it.

Best bumper sticker: “I love concrete”.

But otherwise it was hotel-work-hotel-work. Houston’s a big old town though, 4th biggest in the states. Looking down from the hotel window, I was thinking how we’re all just ants. Drones going about our business. This country in particular though seems to have it fairly well operational. I know you know but the place really is a powerhouse. So I left the Hyatt in downtown Houston where a Corrosion Conference was in full swing, picked up some cowboy paraphernalia on the way to the airport and flew home to my girls.

Next up: Sao Paulo