Hello, well, since my last blog things have gotten a little better for me. No, Andy hasn’t changed his mind and I’m not living in hope that he will. At the end of the day I just have to accept it and move on.
Anyway, so, after I posted my blog I decided that I needed a holiday. I had been saving up to go away with Andy to Australia, but since that wasn’t going to happen and I was feeling down I decided there’s no time like the present. So I started looking around to see what I fancied. I went through lots of different ideas (I won’t bore you with all the different iterations) but eventually decided I wanted a driving holiday around Europe. For years I’ve always wanted to visit the different motor museums in Germany (did I tell you I was a car geek?) so now I had the money, the time and a pretty fast car to shuttle me around Germany. So this is the plan for the holiday -
Week 1
Drive to Wolfsburg and visit the VW AutoStadt
Then move on to Stuttgart and visit the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums
Visit the Audi museum in Ingolstadt and then on to Munich and visit the BMW Welt
Finally drive up to Davos and then do the “best driving roads in Europe” as recommended by Top Gear, on my way to a villa in Tuscany where I’ll lie around a pool for a week.
Week 2
Stay at the villa, just outside Florence, and bake for a week. Maybe go and do a day or two’s sightseeing, but mainly lie by the pool, eat food and drink wine.
It sounded a good plan to me so I book the train (Eurotunnel), the hotels and the villa and here I am, day 2 of my holidays!
It’s been interesting so far.
Drove over on yesterday (Saturday), which was an 8 hour drive altogether. Only just made the train (literally, by two minutes) but when I got through the other end all was good, just drove off and drove on to Wolfsburg. Only stopped twice which was good going for me. What made me laugh was filling up with fuel. All the way from home, through France, Belgium and the Netherlands I was pretty much averaging about 80mph and because of that I got about 360 miles to a tank of petrol. As soon as I got into Germany I filled up with fuel (it’s cheaper to fill up there than in the Netherlands) and hoofed it across a lot of the country. And when I say hoofed, probably about 120mph was my average (excluding roadwork sections), although I did get Big Tom (my Golf GTI) up to 158mph at one point. And no, before you start asking, I wasn’t going down hill at the time. Anyway, because of the speed I was doing I got 205 miles out of a tank. So, the moral of the story there is, if you drive fast you spend more money.
One thing I found annoying about the Germany leg on was the amount of roadworks. I’m assuming there’s so many because the German govt brought forward a lot of infrastructure projects to keep the economy stimulated, but it’s ruddy annoying. And on top of that there are now so many sections of the Autobahns that are restricted to 120 kph it gets very boring very quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the sections where it was unlimited and I could play chase with the big BMW’s and Porsches, but hit a 120 kph zone and the Germans turn into driving wankers. They all stick to the speed limit and sit in the fast lane so no one who wants to risk their license can go faster.
I got to the hotel quite late, about 9.20 and had to order in a pizza because the kitchens had shut. I wasn’t impressed. Then I found out I had no a/c and it was hot last night. Went to go for a swim this morning and I was told I had to pay to use the pool, so that idea went out the window.
I’ll do a separate blog about all the hotels, but suffice to say I wasn’t a happy bunny and will be making my feelings felt on Hotels.com
Today was mainly a day at the AutoStadt. Very interesting place, although not as many old cars as I was hoping for. They have a building for each brand, plus the museum for the old cars and explaining how VW have changed over the years. The brand buildings were nothing more than glorified showrooms, except the VW one which had no cars in it, but rather a cinema screen on the ceiling of an orb. You sat in chairs that leaned back 45 degrees and watched the mini movies. All a bit rubbish, but an experience, non-the-less. I suppose if they were refitting now they’d throw in 3D cinematography instead.
I had a bit of a drive Wolfsburg afterwards, but it’s nothing special. It’s like any other small town in Germany, just with a HUGE VW plant in the centre.
Right, time for dinner. I’m going to brave the hotel restaurant tonight. Will let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Oh well...
So, it's Sunday evening and I've got to say it's been a pretty crappy ending to a fairly rubbish week.
It all started last Monday when what had just been a tickley cough erupted into a mild chest infection. Along with that, me and the OH weren't on great terms because of something that happened at the weekend.
As the week went on it was nice to have time off work as I really do hate my job, but I was bored and sick of being stuck inside. I also had no motivation to do anything and my chest seemed to actually get worse, not better.
On Tuesday my OH came over after work and we sat down and had a three-hour chat about everything and we seemed to clear the air. I also got him nailed down on a few of our 'planned' holidays and this wasn't so good as he decided he didn't want to go to Australia in September for 3.5 weeks, but could only afford to take a week off because of work. Just to explain, we're both freelancers, however whereas I have contracts for 3-12 months, he has them almost on a day-to-day scenario. I was a little annoyed about the Australia holiday falling through as I haven't had any long period off since November last year because I thought we were going away, however what got me a little more vexed was that fact we were now only going to do a week somewhere in Europe. But, I understood and accepted that if he hasn't got the money/time then there isn't much I can do about it.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. I tried to get some photos made up into prints for some large photo frames for my walls (about 3ft by 2ft) but the only place that could do it on the high street wanted £40 a picture, which I wasn't willing to pay. There is another service offering the same quality print for £8 but they take 7 days and I wanted it in time for a party on Saturday, so that went to pot, slightly.
Saturday came and this was the really big roller coaster day for me. Spent most of the morning running around like an idiot, tidying up, hoovering, cleaning the bathroom etc, in preparation for a party I was holding in the afternoon/evening. I knew the OH was having a lie in as he's been getting up for work at 3.30 every morning for a couple of weeks now, but when I hadn't heard from him by 12 I thought I best text him. This should have been a warning to me really. Oh, I best explain, my OH has his own place.
I ask him to come over about 2.30 and to bring a few things. He was meant to be cooking some pizzas for the party (he's a chef by trade) and helping me host. Well he arrived about 2ish brought in the things I asked him to pick up, took out some rubbish and said that he'd need to move his car as he was parked on double-yellows. He goes out the door and about 10 minutes later I realise he hasn't knocked on the door to be let in (he forgot to take the keys) and as I go to pick up my mobile I get a text from him saying he's gone home as he's not in the mood for a party and didn't want to spoil the day for me. Too late! He did admit it was pretty shitty and said he was a cunt for doing it, but he wasn't in the mood. Well this floored me. Just when I thought things were improving after 2 months of him being distant, cold and not seeming to care he does this. I'm happy to say I blubbered for a bit, but then bit my bottom lip and carried on tidying and cooking, preparing for my guests. I sent a text back saying I was foaming with him but wasn't going to have it out as I'd probably say something I'd regret but he needed to sort himself out as I only have a finite amount of patients. If I'm honest and this had happened at about 11 AM, I'd have jumped in my car and went over to his straight away to have it out with him there and then, however with only 30 mins until I was expecting guests I couldn't do it.
So, the only good part of my week was actually the party. Not many people turned up, but then I didn't expect many to as I now no longer live in London and it's holiday season, not many people wanted to come or were able to come. But I had some good friends come round and enjoy what I had cooked for them. We had Pimms, beer, wine, good music, interesting conversation and a pretty good time overall, to such an extent that I nearly forgot what happened earlier on in the day. However, as soon as they left I was down again and left with my own thoughts. Now these thoughts aren't bad thoughts, I know I'm a good, giving person and probably the worst thing I had done was snore, but you know what it's like, you do start to question yourself a bit. And lying there, in bed, things just went round in my mind. I hardly slept at all, which is never good.
I get up today with a slightly more positive note. No longer wallowing in self-pity but planning my immediate future as I sort of had a bad feeling about what might happen today. I was browsing the Internet, looking at holiday ideas, seeing where in the world I wanted to go. I came up with some ideas as well as coming up with some longer-term plans (that is for a blog on another day) and felt happy about what I came up with. I got up, had breakfast, watch TV, had a shower and waited in as I hoped that the OH might actually turn up after work today and apologise properly. Well I sat here until 6 PM (he finishes at 3, but then has a bit of a drive depending on traffic) and then realised he wasn't coming so jumped in my car and went to his house.
I knocked and got no reply, but his car was outside his door so I knew he was in. I knocked again and then he came to the door. He acted very casual and said I should have let him know I was coming over. Without going into too much detail we had it out, not in a big argument stylee, but just a calm conversation about what happened yesterday and essentially he's decided that this relationship was turning into something much bigger than he expected and 'could handle right now'. So, while trying and failing to hold back the tears, I left quite rapidly and drove home. As soon as I got out the front door and shut it behind me I just let go and the tears streamed from me and I started to hyperventilate slightly. I have to say it's the first time I've experienced hyperventilation and it wasn't nice, especially as I was trying to drive a car.
So that's the story of my past week. I end it on a very down note where I'm now single. Not a great ending but hey ho, tomorrow is another week.
Right, it's time for my bed as I have an interview tomorrow. Night night xx
It all started last Monday when what had just been a tickley cough erupted into a mild chest infection. Along with that, me and the OH weren't on great terms because of something that happened at the weekend.
As the week went on it was nice to have time off work as I really do hate my job, but I was bored and sick of being stuck inside. I also had no motivation to do anything and my chest seemed to actually get worse, not better.
On Tuesday my OH came over after work and we sat down and had a three-hour chat about everything and we seemed to clear the air. I also got him nailed down on a few of our 'planned' holidays and this wasn't so good as he decided he didn't want to go to Australia in September for 3.5 weeks, but could only afford to take a week off because of work. Just to explain, we're both freelancers, however whereas I have contracts for 3-12 months, he has them almost on a day-to-day scenario. I was a little annoyed about the Australia holiday falling through as I haven't had any long period off since November last year because I thought we were going away, however what got me a little more vexed was that fact we were now only going to do a week somewhere in Europe. But, I understood and accepted that if he hasn't got the money/time then there isn't much I can do about it.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. I tried to get some photos made up into prints for some large photo frames for my walls (about 3ft by 2ft) but the only place that could do it on the high street wanted £40 a picture, which I wasn't willing to pay. There is another service offering the same quality print for £8 but they take 7 days and I wanted it in time for a party on Saturday, so that went to pot, slightly.
Saturday came and this was the really big roller coaster day for me. Spent most of the morning running around like an idiot, tidying up, hoovering, cleaning the bathroom etc, in preparation for a party I was holding in the afternoon/evening. I knew the OH was having a lie in as he's been getting up for work at 3.30 every morning for a couple of weeks now, but when I hadn't heard from him by 12 I thought I best text him. This should have been a warning to me really. Oh, I best explain, my OH has his own place.
I ask him to come over about 2.30 and to bring a few things. He was meant to be cooking some pizzas for the party (he's a chef by trade) and helping me host. Well he arrived about 2ish brought in the things I asked him to pick up, took out some rubbish and said that he'd need to move his car as he was parked on double-yellows. He goes out the door and about 10 minutes later I realise he hasn't knocked on the door to be let in (he forgot to take the keys) and as I go to pick up my mobile I get a text from him saying he's gone home as he's not in the mood for a party and didn't want to spoil the day for me. Too late! He did admit it was pretty shitty and said he was a cunt for doing it, but he wasn't in the mood. Well this floored me. Just when I thought things were improving after 2 months of him being distant, cold and not seeming to care he does this. I'm happy to say I blubbered for a bit, but then bit my bottom lip and carried on tidying and cooking, preparing for my guests. I sent a text back saying I was foaming with him but wasn't going to have it out as I'd probably say something I'd regret but he needed to sort himself out as I only have a finite amount of patients. If I'm honest and this had happened at about 11 AM, I'd have jumped in my car and went over to his straight away to have it out with him there and then, however with only 30 mins until I was expecting guests I couldn't do it.
So, the only good part of my week was actually the party. Not many people turned up, but then I didn't expect many to as I now no longer live in London and it's holiday season, not many people wanted to come or were able to come. But I had some good friends come round and enjoy what I had cooked for them. We had Pimms, beer, wine, good music, interesting conversation and a pretty good time overall, to such an extent that I nearly forgot what happened earlier on in the day. However, as soon as they left I was down again and left with my own thoughts. Now these thoughts aren't bad thoughts, I know I'm a good, giving person and probably the worst thing I had done was snore, but you know what it's like, you do start to question yourself a bit. And lying there, in bed, things just went round in my mind. I hardly slept at all, which is never good.
I get up today with a slightly more positive note. No longer wallowing in self-pity but planning my immediate future as I sort of had a bad feeling about what might happen today. I was browsing the Internet, looking at holiday ideas, seeing where in the world I wanted to go. I came up with some ideas as well as coming up with some longer-term plans (that is for a blog on another day) and felt happy about what I came up with. I got up, had breakfast, watch TV, had a shower and waited in as I hoped that the OH might actually turn up after work today and apologise properly. Well I sat here until 6 PM (he finishes at 3, but then has a bit of a drive depending on traffic) and then realised he wasn't coming so jumped in my car and went to his house.
I knocked and got no reply, but his car was outside his door so I knew he was in. I knocked again and then he came to the door. He acted very casual and said I should have let him know I was coming over. Without going into too much detail we had it out, not in a big argument stylee, but just a calm conversation about what happened yesterday and essentially he's decided that this relationship was turning into something much bigger than he expected and 'could handle right now'. So, while trying and failing to hold back the tears, I left quite rapidly and drove home. As soon as I got out the front door and shut it behind me I just let go and the tears streamed from me and I started to hyperventilate slightly. I have to say it's the first time I've experienced hyperventilation and it wasn't nice, especially as I was trying to drive a car.
So that's the story of my past week. I end it on a very down note where I'm now single. Not a great ending but hey ho, tomorrow is another week.
Right, it's time for my bed as I have an interview tomorrow. Night night xx
Friday, 6 August 2010
Travel Bucket List...
Well hello!
Sorry it's been a while since I last blogged (is two years a while or just me forgetting about it?) but I hope you're all okay out there (assuming people actually ever read this).
I suppose if you're one of my friends on Facebook (FB) or Twitter you probably haven't missed much in those two years as I've pretty much lived my life through the two mediums, more-so Twitter in the last six months or so.
If you didn't follow me on either and just randomly found me on the net, then I apologise with as much vigor as I can muster at 8 AM on a Friday morning.
Anyway, the reason for my blog this morning is that I got into the office and was looking for a file on my memory stick. It wasn't in the most obvious places I looked so I started looking in random files and found an old Travel folder. Now, when I say old, it probably hasn't been updated since I went to the US in 2008. At the time I had just broken up with someone and decided it was time to "sort my life out", not that there was anything terribly wrong with my life, but I felt I'd been lagging on a few things and been putting other things off. So I created an action list and one of the items was to travel more, which lead me to create a sort of travel bucket list.
Now, for all of you who don't know what a bucket list is, it's a list of things you want to do before you die. Now, just for the record (and as far as I'm aware) I'm not dying anytime soon, but I think it's good to make a list like this. You put down all the things you want to do, things you want to see, places you want to visit and then as you go through life you can check them off. I suppose it's like a Life To-Do list. And it's not meant to be a finite list, you can keep adding to it as life goes along and you hear of new or exciting things. And the best thing about it is, it doesn't have to be big, life-changing things like climbing Mount Everest or running a marathon. It could just be lying under the stars on a summers evening and looking at constellations or going for a walk in Hyde Park (I lived in London nearly three years and never once got to Hyde Park). You make the list what you want it to be. After all, for once, it's meant to be all about you.
Anyway, I put together a list of places I'd like to visit. Now there is no order to the list except me looking at google maps and going 'oh, yeah, I'd like to go there'. A lot of my list is European cities, but that's because I visited many places in the Far East when I lived over there, whereas Europe is still pretty new to me in terms of travelling. So, below is my Travel Bucket List from 2008
Okay, so for some reason I'm not allowed to copy-and-paste into here from Word. Urgh, how annoying. So I'll just have to type it in...
Paris
Prague
Berlin
Munich
Amsterdam
Oslo
Stockholm
Copenhagen
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Vienna
Rome
Madrid
Dublin
Naples
Lisbon
Marseilles
Cannes
Monaco
Turin
Casablanca
Helsinki
Budapest
Istanbul
San Marino
Nuremberg
Zurich
Milan
Florence
Pompeii
Sicily
Barcelona
Seville
Grenada
Bordeaux
Toulouse
Lyon
Le Mans
Gothenburg
Tokyo
Hiroshima
Bali
New York
San Francisco
New Orleans
Easter Island
Cook Islands
Sydney
Melbourne
New Zealand
Alto Plano (South America)
Actually, as I started going through this list I realised it couldn't have been from 2008 as by that point I had been to a couple of these places. So, checked the file properties and it was actually from May 2007!
Since creating this list I've been to a few of these places and added a few more too. As I said, it's a fluid list and will be ever-changing. I now just need to get my ass into gear and start doing a few more trips a year to see all these lovely places.
Sorry it's been a while since I last blogged (is two years a while or just me forgetting about it?) but I hope you're all okay out there (assuming people actually ever read this).
I suppose if you're one of my friends on Facebook (FB) or Twitter you probably haven't missed much in those two years as I've pretty much lived my life through the two mediums, more-so Twitter in the last six months or so.
If you didn't follow me on either and just randomly found me on the net, then I apologise with as much vigor as I can muster at 8 AM on a Friday morning.
Anyway, the reason for my blog this morning is that I got into the office and was looking for a file on my memory stick. It wasn't in the most obvious places I looked so I started looking in random files and found an old Travel folder. Now, when I say old, it probably hasn't been updated since I went to the US in 2008. At the time I had just broken up with someone and decided it was time to "sort my life out", not that there was anything terribly wrong with my life, but I felt I'd been lagging on a few things and been putting other things off. So I created an action list and one of the items was to travel more, which lead me to create a sort of travel bucket list.
Now, for all of you who don't know what a bucket list is, it's a list of things you want to do before you die. Now, just for the record (and as far as I'm aware) I'm not dying anytime soon, but I think it's good to make a list like this. You put down all the things you want to do, things you want to see, places you want to visit and then as you go through life you can check them off. I suppose it's like a Life To-Do list. And it's not meant to be a finite list, you can keep adding to it as life goes along and you hear of new or exciting things. And the best thing about it is, it doesn't have to be big, life-changing things like climbing Mount Everest or running a marathon. It could just be lying under the stars on a summers evening and looking at constellations or going for a walk in Hyde Park (I lived in London nearly three years and never once got to Hyde Park). You make the list what you want it to be. After all, for once, it's meant to be all about you.
Anyway, I put together a list of places I'd like to visit. Now there is no order to the list except me looking at google maps and going 'oh, yeah, I'd like to go there'. A lot of my list is European cities, but that's because I visited many places in the Far East when I lived over there, whereas Europe is still pretty new to me in terms of travelling. So, below is my Travel Bucket List from 2008
Okay, so for some reason I'm not allowed to copy-and-paste into here from Word. Urgh, how annoying. So I'll just have to type it in...
Paris
Prague
Berlin
Munich
Amsterdam
Oslo
Stockholm
Copenhagen
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Vienna
Rome
Madrid
Dublin
Naples
Lisbon
Marseilles
Cannes
Monaco
Turin
Casablanca
Helsinki
Budapest
Istanbul
San Marino
Nuremberg
Zurich
Milan
Florence
Pompeii
Sicily
Barcelona
Seville
Grenada
Bordeaux
Toulouse
Lyon
Le Mans
Gothenburg
Tokyo
Hiroshima
Bali
New York
San Francisco
New Orleans
Easter Island
Cook Islands
Sydney
Melbourne
New Zealand
Alto Plano (South America)
Actually, as I started going through this list I realised it couldn't have been from 2008 as by that point I had been to a couple of these places. So, checked the file properties and it was actually from May 2007!
Since creating this list I've been to a few of these places and added a few more too. As I said, it's a fluid list and will be ever-changing. I now just need to get my ass into gear and start doing a few more trips a year to see all these lovely places.
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