Rolling into London after a quick train ride from Paris to London the weather was fairly predictably... SHIT! Luckily enough i had a familiar face to great me after a ride on the London tube and attached to that was a place to crash for a few days. Dogga was another great host but unfortunately due to work we were unable to meet up that much.
This meant that most of my time in London was spent doing the usual sights, with the highlight being a visit to Lord's. It was here that i realised how threatened the English feel about a take-over of 'their' game by the Asian teams. They still believe that it is in the best interest for a bunch of 60+ males who buy their way into the MCC to make the rules that govern the game that they are so shit at.
Anyway, getting out of London i headed for the west coast and the lovely town of Bristol. Met by a face that i hadn't seen in a while, Daryl, and a face that i can't seem to get away from at the moment in Balshaw. Had a good few meals at a couple of local pubs. Sunday roast went down a treat with the only downer in the form of a six year old singing literally in our ears repeatedly, "Spider Pig, Spider Pig, does what ever, Spider Pig does." I'm sure the Simpson's movie will be great when i see it but that moment will probably give me the irates due to a young boy in a pub on the other side of the world.
Again saw the sights including day trips to Bath and Cardiff. Cardiff was really cool place with a beautiful harbour and Castle.
After some complications in getting to the airport which included a taxi ride equivalent to about $80 Aussie dollars, i made the flight to Dublin for a nights stay before i made the long and painful bus trip to Galway the following day. Again, Halford was working for the week so most of the days were spent taking day trips to the Aran Islands, Connemara, and the Cliffs of Moher. Time was also spent a a couple of pubs trying out the fresh Guinness.
On the last weekend of August i headed with Halford to a Music Festival on the Eastern side of the Island called Electric Picnic. Drama's were had before we even got there with missing fuel for the stove, looking for stove fuel and the sorts, it ended up that we got there a bit later then expected, which was starting to get on my nerves as we didn't get to see a couple of acts on the first night that i would have liked to, but we still had a good time all the same and the tent stayed up no probs.
Saturday was a ripper of a night with a set by Architechture in Helsinki playing in the arvo with Gus calling out a cheerio to yours truly and rocking along in the forward pocket. This was followed up by some barn dancing which was great fun and then off to the big acts of the weekend, Beastie Boys and Chemical Brothers. While Beastie Boys were good, Chemicals Brothers went off and it was awesome. Then off to the Silent disco which i visited every night there - it incorporates two DJ's playing tunes on two channels that you listen to wirelessly through headphones. Great concept.
Sunday was similar to Saturday, said goodbye to Halford and then caught a bus to Dublin the next morning.
Tired and sore i spent my days in Dublin just strolling around, which included a visit of course to the Guinness factory. After two days there a flight was to follow early on the morning of the 5th.
Waking up still sort of in a daze i noticed that it seemed a little lighter then i should have been for the 3:30am alarm that i had set the night before. Raising the watch to my face a opening the bleary eyes my heart dropped as i noticed that it read 7:00am with my plane to Venice already left 40 minutes ago. Getting up quicker then i had down any other time on my trip got dressed and checked out. Getting into the Airport and searching for somehow to rectify the situation the best Solution came in the form of two more days spent in Dublin and another flight booked a little more expensive this time.
The last two days in Dublin were spent relaxing while taking in a few more sights that i hadn't got round to during the previous days.
The next time i caught the flight i decided to not take any chances and instead spent the night at the airport, making the plane easily this time.
So lessons have been learnt about flying, but looking back now I've been lucky to go this far in my travels and not have any major incident, and if this is the biggest hiccup then I'm pretty lucky in comparison to a lot of other travelers that I've met on the way.
