Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur what can I say? I didn't hate you but I won't be back. Best thing was the Malaysia Airlines check in at the train station in the city centre. OK I'm sure there was more than that but it just didn't grab me like any of the other places I've visited this year. Photo below might be lying!

Girls day out at the paralympics

I spent my last day in England at the Paralympics with my mum, sister and niece. As Bonnie rightly pointed out we were having a girls day (but she did miss Theo). After becoming quite obsessed with the Olympics and Paralympics I was more than a little excited about our trip. The tickets were booked last year when I was in Nigeria which seems an absolute age ago now, I had no idea then just how excited I would be about going.

The park is a triumph, each venue iconic and the atmosphere inside was euphoric. Random strangers striking up conversation left right and centre. It felt a bit like the Toon to be honest!

We were lucky enough to have tickets for the athletics and scored great seats by the finish line with prime viewing of the victory ceremonies. Oscar (beautiful but narked) and Weir (emotional and smiley) were the highlights. We saw Weir compete too and David Devine, so nice to know they went on to get more GB medals. There was also wheelchair basketball, torch holding and the orbit. It finished with a tearful goodbye to Rachel and Bonnie. Bonnie not so tearful because she was off to the disney shop. All in all an amazing day and one I will never forget.

Happy and Glorious

During last night's Olympics closing ceremony Count Rogge the chief dude of the IOC described the games as 'happy and glorious', perhaps in a nod to our national anthem or perhaps just because they really were. I have loved the last 17 days (if we ignore large parts of the closing ceremony), at times I wanted to beat my chest gorilla style with the pride I felt for Team GB and the games themselves.

Last year I left on the first part of my adventures to do VSO in Nigeria. I was disillusioned with this country and couldn't wait to leave. It was an interesting and challenging few months where I came to appreciate life at home in a way I never had before (see blog here). Then I came home briefly, initially loved it but very soon I found myself wanting to leave again, cue the start of this blog, me on my travels around SE Asia. The doom and gloom in the UK in January was too much for me and I'm not just talking about the weather. So when I came back this summer I wasn't expecting much in terms of joy. Awful weather aside it seems to have been a wonderfully happy and glorious British summer, thanks in the most part to London 2012 and the way it has lifted the spirits here in Blighty.

The games started in the best possible way with an opening ceremony that had it all, what followed was two weeks of drama, emotional displays, the mobot, the comedy of horse dancing, and the creation of memories to cherish for a lifetime, inspire a generation indeed. Alas I cannot lie the closing ceremony did not hit all the right notes for me. The opening segment was noisy and confusing culminating in Timothy Spall AKA Churchill bellowing 'STOP'. Stop indeed before this gets any worse. Highlights were Elbow, Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran all giving great vocals. Fat Boy Slim and the giant Octopus another winner. I found myself strangely emotional with the video screens of Freddie Mercury at the start of the Queen song and Russell Brand, bonkers but I liked it. All in all though it was too bitty, it didn't flow well and every time it seemed to get going the next act was a let down, sing something we know George Michael!

The Brazilian segment giving us a glimpse at what we can expect in 2016 was much in the same vane, the samba was fun but it all seemed a bit haphazard and random. Then the extinguishing of the flame with fire represented through the medium of dance was all a bit special for me, it tainted that beautiful cauldron. Finishing with the awesome rockness of The Who and not Paul McICantneysinganymore was a major blessing however. It didn't diminsh from what was an amazing games and watching the athletes have fun was great, I bet there were a few hangovers this morning.

Now what am I going to do with myseld until the Paralympics?

Pic of the games - Lovely Mo and Lick me please Usain Bolt.

BEST CAULDRON EVER!

This was what I exclaimed during the unbelievable and amazing opening ceremony for the Olympics. It isn't a phrase you get to use that often unless you do magic of course. It is the best cauldron ever though.

Having been out of the country in the lead up to the Olympics I wasn't getting all the hype, possibly a good thing as I also wasn't sick of hearing about it as some people seem to have been. I wasn't really that fussed about it until I got back and started hearing about the torch relay, did anyone see the documentary on it? I wept like a goodun, don't know what's wrong with me!

For anyone who follows me on twitter or facebook you will have seen a large number of posts from me over the last week or so. I literally cannot get enough of Team GB and the Olympics in general. When else would you see the Queen parachute with 007, gasp as man shoots at clay pigeons, shout "SWIM SWIM SWIM" very loudly at the TV, or get to enjoy the slo-mo lunchbox cam during the 100m men's heats all in the space of a week? I've learnt more than I ever needed to know about some sports and feel quite the expert, I definitely had more idea what was going during the cycling road race than the commentators who couldn't even distinguish the race leaders from the peleton. It's even been suggested I could commentate from the pool in my scuba gear, although you'd mostly just see lots of bubbles as I tried to tell everyone that one in the middle is very fast and has a lovely bum.

If I was reporting from the Olympics I think I would be more sympathetic than some of the interviewers. I am so proud of our athletes and get very angry when they ask stupid questions like "You must be disappointed with a bronze?". That means that person is the third best in the WORLD at what they do. To even be competing in these games makes each and every athlete here amazing in my eyes, they are doing things that most of us can only dream of.

However I don't have much chance of reporting from the Olympics when I'm tweeting about admiring the strength of the girl stood behind Usain Bolt on the start line for not licking him. I am definitely on a high security watch list somewhere. But you would though wouldn't you?

Lick him!!!

Golf Dressed Fancy

I have recently returned from a final visit to Newcastle before I head off to New Zealand. It was all a bit last minute and totally unplanned but turned out lovely. I got to play golf dressed fancy, see all my lovely friends(thanks Pippa for putting me up) for a last ta ra and start my obsession with the Olympics (more about that in the next post).

So golf dressed fancy. Well it was Stanley Karen Marshall's Birthday and as tradition dictates we normally play crazy golf (or mini golf) in fancy dress of the same theme. The first year was Pirate crazy golf dressed as pirates, aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! The second year, alas a washout was Dinosaur crazy golf dressed as you guessed it, dinosaurs. Poor Tom's papier-mache triceratops didn't like the rain at all. The year after that was probably my favourite, where we played American style mini golf dressed as inappropriate Americans following the Tiger Woods scandal. The costumes were amazing, we had Tiger himself, OJ Simpson, Sarah Palin, Don King, Paris Hilton, Cher, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (I think Katie was chained to Tom at the ankle) and I went as Monica Lewinsky. The other golfers were frankly alarmed.

Last year there was a break in the golfing activities and I wonder if we have matured in that year as this year it was decided that we not partake of fancy dress but instead dress fancy. See below.....

Golf, dressed fancy

Not quite so many people pointing and staring this year, we were asked if we had been at a wedding though. After a tricky start on the first hole, I think most of us ended up in the bushes or behind trees, I managed a podium place and quite surprisingly came third. Very happy with bronze.

 

First hole difficulties

The rest of that day became a haze of pimms, jager bombs, cocktails and crazy dancing. So a normal night out in Newcastle really. I do love the Toon.It was of course a teary goodbye, I still have my flat there but something tells me that I wont be back one way or another. Of course there'll be visits and no doubt more golf, dressed fancy or fancy dress we enjoy both.

Home and Howay

I'm staying at my mum and stepdad's this summer as my flat in the toon is rented out whilst I'm enjoying myself in various locations around the world. This meant I had to call upon some lovely friends to put me up for my recent visit to Newcastle for another friend's wedding. It's strange being a visitor there after having lived very happily on Tyneside for seven years. Apart from the biblical floods on the Thursday night followed by a monster hangover after accidentally enjoying 2-4-1 bottles of wine whilst sheltering from said biblical floods I had a lovely time. The wedding was beautiful, congratulations to Mr and Mrs Munn.

Wedding ladies

I've also been lucky enough to have a few days in beautiful Madrid with my mum. It was my belated 30th birthday present and it was a great way to escape the rain! The little dude from the hotel who picked us up at the airport confidently told us it wont rain until September in Madrid. Nice!

We had a grand old time, enjoying tapas, flamenco and sangria. Ole and all that. There was some cultural stuff and shopping too. Madrid is a fantastic city, yet another place in the world that I could happily live in. We especially liked the dedication to Ham spotting numerous 'ham museums' around the city streets. They are of course a chain of shops (disappointing) selling an impressive array of you guessed it, ham.

A lovely food market

It's not Buckingham Palace but it is pretty good

Very fierce flamenco ladies

Shiny red shoes!

Rain delay

I'm blaming my serious laziness in the blogging department since I've been back on the excessive rain. I can't believe how miserable the weather has been since I got home. Alas there isn't the option of closing the roof here so that play can resume, so we're just bumbling along in the soggy surroundings regardless. Ho hum, Summer will arrive at some point, right?

Thinking back to the last few days of my trip around SE Asia I was gifted with heat and sunshine in Bangkok, there were showers too to be fair. This is third time I've been to Bangkok so I didn't feel the need to see all the sights as I'd basically been there, seen that and got the t-shirt. I did however feel the need to fill every possible nook and cranny of my luggage with additional shopping.

Of course a visit to the MBK centre was necessary but sadly the night market is no more so I made up for it by having repeated visits to Terminal 21, possibly the coolest shopping mall in the world. Every floor is a different city from around the world and the designers have gone all out, on the London level they've used double decker buses and tube trains to hold small boutique shops and there's a smaller version of the Golden Gate Bridge up on the top level that is a popular photo spot. There's also a cinema there where I went to see Prometheus, primarily to enjoy Idris Elba of course. I was caught out at the start when the entire audience had to stand in honour on the King whilst a film of him shown doing various Kingly things like walking around, getting off a plane and waving. Can't imagine that taking off here at the multiplex.

So after a few days of shopping I was homeward bound again, partly sad the adventures were over but also looking forward to seeing everyone. Mistakenly I thought this year I was following Summer around the world, I just hope New Zealand doesn't let me down.