Mid year review

Hard to believe its more than halfway through the year. Its around this the time of the year where I tend to reflect how the year is going and ask myself...

"What the @#$@#! have I been doing with my life?"

Let's rewind to some of the goals I set in January.

• Golf - yeah right. Clubs are here. Collecting dust. I think my main excuse for this is that I don't have a car. It also doesn't help that I don't have any golf buddies.
  


• Ride my bike - This is actually going okay. I spent one of the weekends last month riding all the way to Angel and even to Greenwich. If the weather was more consistent I'd probably ride more. But since the British summer is pretty much crap, I'll blame it on that. I was considering riding to work, instead of riding the tube, but I've found a nice bus route to work which is more relaxing. Which leads me to my next one...


• Reading more? Not. I've completed 3 books this year. And its already July! I really should spend more time reading instead of spending all this time on the Internet. And I'm not even blogging as much! To my credit, I'm reading two books at the same time, so hopefully that will bump up my average. I reckon sitting down in the bus to work and back will help with this. Its hard to read in the tube when your face is smashed into someone's armpit. The perks of being short. The list just never ends...


• Pick up a new skill. Hmm... This is still in the works. I've signed up for French classes in September. I'm considering taking up acting again as well in the fall. But I can't really say I've accomplished anything on this goal.. yet.

That said, traveling is still going well. Still hitting the average of a city a month.. believe I'm at about 8 cities/destinations this year, with a few already in the pipeline. Working out has its ups and downs. I've picked it up again. Improv has fallen out of the picture, but some kind of creative art may be picked up in the fall as its replacement.

Other than that I think I've been concentrating on enjoying the summer. I've got a long TODO list of things to see and do and currently working on that!

New goals? I'm working on a few things currently that I'd prefer to discuss in person, rather than broadcast it in the blogosphere! Send me a mail and I'll fill you in!

In other news...

I keep telling myself to get better at keeping this up to date, but here a quick roundup of TISGOMB points..

• Never try to keep up with a couple of french guys when drinking Champagne. It just doesn't work. Its almost the same as drinking pints with the English. I'm so out of my element.


• Most if not all public parks in London ban the use of using a BBQ grill. How lame is that. The search continues where we can throw a proper BBQ picnic at a park... if only we can pick a weekend where the weather isn't crap.


• Speaking of BBQ's.. I went to one where most of the people were of the "creative" type. What an interesting experience. We were surrounded by directors, actors, writers, musicians.. I tell ya, creative people tend to be more outgoing and very interesting to talk to. And also very encouraging!


• I've never seen anyone use ketchup as dressing for a salad. Until last week. I love ketchup. But with my fries, not with my rocket leaves.


• Americans as I've learned during the 4th of July, are also referred to as: "Septics." Why? Go find out yourself. =)

Time to enjoy the rest of the week.. of rain.

Bournemouth, what a surprise!

After living the daily grind of London, week after week, its always nice to get away. But sometimes, you don't want the hassle of airports, immigration, and long waiting times before departures to leave the city. Sometimes you just want to jump on a train. No security. No 2 hour wait before departure. Just grab a backpack for a weekend, and just get out!

This weekend's destination was Bournemouth. What a pleasant surprise! Bournemouth is on the southwest coast of the UK. Its main attraction? The 7 mile sandy beach. What? Sand??? The only beach in the UK that I've been to was in Brighton, and the beach was filled with small pebbles. Not something you want to bury your feet into or place your back against to catch some rays.

Going into the weekend, the weather didn't sound promising. It was going to be a high of 16-18C (60-65F) and overcast. Maybe even a chance of light rain! But as I've grown accustomed to in the UK, you can never trust the weather forecasts!

It ended up being a lot warmer, with a lot of sun! We even had to buy beach towels just so we can lay out in the sun properly! We also bought a nice picnic bag and enjoyed a beach picnic both days!

The city centre is also quite nice, with a very nice park separating the beach and the town. The night life isn't that bad either! Very good hip hop at a place called Klute which also doubles up as a sushi restaurant called Funky Sushi (Sushi wasn't bad, not the best, but decent) The DJ was playing ol' school hip hop and the crowd didn't seem as pretentious as the crowds in London. Lots of locals!

All in all, it was a brilliant weekend away, only a 1:45 min train ride for less than 35 quid! Can't beat that, especially for a beach getaway from the fast-paced, polluted ol' city of London!

Silent Disco Rocks.

Have you heard of it?

I haven't. Until 2 weeks ago. We were walking past our favourite area in London, South Bank, when we came across an interesting dance party. A bunch of people wearing headphones in a club-like atmosphere, singing to the music. Thing is, it wasn't as loud as you would think. No deep bass, no screaming into each other ears. It was something we had to try.

Fast forward to this past Saturday. We luckily scored the last few tickets to this brand new experience.

We walk in. And our instructed how to use the wireless headphones.

Volume control on the left. 2 channels to choose from on the right. Virtual dj rooms if you will. We line up to grab a tasty beverage, but instead of yelling into each other ears with drink orders, we simply use our normal tone of voice. Why? Because the music is played via headphones!!

Imagine a club without loud music, but people continuing to party and dance? Its the strangest experience because even when a sing-a-long tune comes on, all you hear are people's voice singing along loudly, without any music in the background!! Why? Because the music is played via headphones!!

Imagine a crowd of people dancing together, in complete silence! 2 people could also be dancing to two different tunes! Why? Because you can choose what music you can listen to via headphones!!

I think the best part was removing my headphones, and just sitting there, appreciating all these people dancing and singing along, with their headphones on. Its pretty hilarious and fun to watch.

All and all, a truly amazing and unique experience and one I definitely recommend!

What a month!

Can't believe June is just around the corner... amazing how time flies...

I have much to update on this blog.. so I will try my best in the next few weeks to work on a few entries.

First things first, 11 days off and 2 bank holiday weekends later, the city hopping has finally finished!

I completed my final 2 city hops this weekend, hitting up Sofia and Plovdiv Bulgaria. This completed my 6 city tour in a month! So many different stories I have to sort it out in my head before I can type it all up!

But here are the high level highlights:

• Florence - Amazing city. A must visit for anyone. Most memorable experience - Bike Tour of Tuscany and meeting 3 doctors from Chicago!
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• Palma, Mallorca - Upgraded suite and doing absolutely nothing


• Paris, France - Uncle and Dad pretending to be Japanese tour guides


• Barcelona, Spain - Sangria and Flamenco with the Family


• Sofia, Bulgaria - No ATM at the airport!


• Plovdiv, Bulgaria - No means yes, and yes means no, '89 Bulgarian Wine, cubans, and of course the wedding!

And of course, robots galore... I think I have like 10-12 videos to upload still, but mission accomplished. The collection keeps growing! Some good, some bad.. I thinking I have to be a bit more creative with them!

I hope to update this blog with some detail to each of the above bullet points. Its fun reading back at it in the future, so I'm going to try and stick to my guns this time and actually update it. I regret posting each of my unique experiences on each city I visit... especially the one in Istanbul when I had to use the public toilet... now that's a story, but probably reserved over a pint in the pub!

City hopping..

Hard to believe its almost a year since Cinque Terra and 9 people staying in my flat... but its that time of the year where I'm off for over 2 weeks city hopping! In this year's agenda we have: Florence, the island of Mallorca, Paris, and Barcelona!

Its quite exciting since it will be the first time my whole family will be here together! But before the madness starts, I'm off to explore on my own in the beautiful city of Florence. It should be an amazing time and very interesting since I will be traveling alone! Its nice traveling alone sometimes... it presents a new experience and forces you to meet new people!

I just keep wondering how I'm going to be able to convince someone to videotape me doing the robot - a routine I normally do in every new city I visit....