Foto Friday

Well, it's photo time again.

Another Christmas photo, just to keep you all in the spirit for a little longer. Next week I promise something more exciting.

This is me, at work on Christmas Day, in my pub!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Almost Christmas

Not long to go now. Today was really quiet at work. I also took a walk up to Portobello Road (to get some beer for Christmas Day), and even the market was dead. Well, after yesterday's chaotic day at work, I'm not surprised. We were crazy busy!

Anyway, I guess that this is it until after Christmas, so to all my friends, family and regular readers:



Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

Photo Friday is back!

I took this in Trafalgar Square in central London two nights ago. The Christmas tree on the right is donated to the UK by the Norwegian government every year as a thank you for helping them during WWII. On the left is Nelson's Column with a fountain in the foreground.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Blog-a-thon

After finally getting my internet back, I decided to catch up on some blog reading. Last night I spent a few hours reading blogs and writing comments. It was good to see what everyone was up to, how they were feeling and what they were getting worked up about.

Congrats to Buddess for becoming a double-aunt again! Wow! Good luck to Chitty and his hellish Christmas shopping and to Terri, with the new bike (awaiting the photos cuz!). Katt, keep on smiling. And if you have a bad day, blog about it. We do still read even if we don't always leave comments. Greg, enjoy the home-grown tipple. You may not find it next year when you eventually take the World Cup home with you again.

And to Kyknoord: I hope Santa brings you better presents than you are planning for your friends!

And to those that I haven't mentioned, I promise to get around to reading your blogs soon. I have a day off today, but the weather is perfect (cold and clear, 2 degrees) so I may get out there into the fresh air and do something.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Rugby - SA v Ireland, Dublin, November 2006

At last, some photos of the rugby in Dublin. OK, so we lost the game. But we're building for the World Cup next year. Isn't that right Jake?







Chat soon,
DelBoy

Return from purgatory with a bang!

Well, that's what it feels like anyway. Without an internet connection for almost 4 weeks! But now I am happy again - with 8Mb broadband!! And a new look blog.

Where to start!?

Christmas is on our doorstep again. Last Saturday night we had our Christmas party with some of our friends. It is one of those nights where we try to get all of our group of friends together again. This year, two were missing.

We had great fun. Food was OK, but the service was great. At around 11pm we stumbled home and then Cheese & I hit the bourbon. At around 6.30am and a bottle and a half later, we decided that it was probably time for some sleep. Only Deb & Sim were still around keeping us company. The rest had faded.

More news to follow.




Chat soon,
DelBoy

Helpless

I'm internetless... what is the world coming to! I feel lost. Helpless. Lonely!

Well, not really, but it's pretty frustrating not being able to log on and check email or bank balance or blog!

At least the coffee shop I'm sitting in right now does great hot chocolate!

Chat soon,
Del

Melbourne - Day 14

It's all over! Today is our last day in this beautiful city! Only 11 more hours to go before we take off and head north to Hong Kong en route to London. Another 24 hour flight before we arrive in the freezing cold UK weather to sit out the miserable winter.

Never mind; in six weeks time I'll be sunning myself on the beach again. SOUTH AFRICA here we come!!!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

Thought I'd sneak in a quick photo for Photo Friday as I missed last week's.

This week's pic was taken here in Melbourne. It is one of Melbourne's famous trams. It was taken in Wednesday.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Melbourne - Day 10

So things are much better now! We've all recovered from 'the bug'
(not before passing it on to 4 more people though!) and have had a wonderful week.

Sunday we had a spit (BBQ) and spent the day around the pool catching up with old friends and drinking too much beer and bourbon. It was about 36 degrees and the kids spent most of the day in the pool.

Tuesday we drove down the coast to Sorrento and spent most of the day at the beach. Photos to follow...

Wednesday we went into the city. We did some sight-seeing before having lunch with our friend, Colin, at a really nice restaurant. In the afternoon we went to the Melbourne Observation Deck on the top of the Rialto from where you could see the whole city and all the way down to the coast. After that, we caught the City Circle Tram and saw some more sights before heading home.

Today was spent at Melbourne Zoo. Definitely the best zoo I have ever visited! We spent the whole day there and then went out for dinner 'cos it was Deb's birthday. The girls got a little tipsy while the guys did some gambling in the casino (and we won!)

Only 5 more days here then back to cold old London! Not looking forward to it...

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Melbourne - Day 3

After a hectic weekend jetting to Dublin for the day to watch the Boks get a well-deserved beating from the Irish in the rugby, we flew out to Australia on Sunday morning. No, I'm not going to dwell on the rugby...

Anyway, we arrived late on Monday night and hit the sack. And it has gone downhill since then.

The weather has been shocking! Rain, cold and wet. It snowed 20cm locally yesterday and was the coldest day in over 50 years! They are dubbing it 'Snovember'! And to top it all, the whole family has picked up a stomach bug. I spent most of last night in the toilet and today I weighed 2 kilos lighter! No lies! Unfortunately, we have passed the bug on to the rest of the family - sister-in-law, mother-in-law and grandma!

I feel a lot better this evening. Which is a good thing 'cos I am off to the Pearl Jam concert in a couple of hours!

Tomorrow I will attempt to post my photo Friday, but if I can't, don't hold it against me.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

It's Friday again and that means photo time.

This weeks pic: Sailing on the Thames. I took it last Sunday while I was out riding my mountain bike. As you can see, not a breathe of wind!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Halloween photos

As promised! Photos from our Halloween staff party. Photos of the 'Sparkled' pub to follow!

Chat soon,
Del

Chat soon,
DelBoy

On the road again

Yep, starting Saturday, I'm on holiday again!

I am going to Dublin for the day to catch up with my Cuz & her hubby and then we're going to Lansdowne Road to watch the Boks kick some Irish butt in the rugby. (OK, so maybe the second bit is a little optimistic!)

After getting back to London at around 11pm on Saturday night, I will get a few hours sleep before the long-haul flight to Melbourne, Australia where I plan to spend 2 weeks doing nothing or as little as possible.

While in Melbourne, we have tickets to catch 'Pearl Jam' in concert. This will almost be better than watching the Boks annihilate Ireland as I have twice missed seeing them before - once in London and once in Verona!

The plan is to spend the rest of the 2 weeks at the beach, catching up with long-lost friends and trying some of the fantastic wines from the Yarra Valley.

I will let you all know how it pans out...

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Sparkle

OK, so I've been a little quiet lately. The reason, as usual, is work.

Last week the pub was shut for three and a half days while we did a quick refurb. Of course, being really tight, the company doesn't pay for a project manager, so I had to do that job. Which meant starting work anytime between 6.30am and 8am and finishing between 7pm and 8pm.

It also meant dealing with the laziest, most laid-back foreman in the world! Hand-over was supposed to be at midday last Thursday. By 5.30pm (we were supposed to be opening at 6pm), there was no sign of the job being finished. My boss had turned up and he was fuming! If he could have, I'm sure he would have grabbed him by the throat and flushed his head in the (newly redecorated) urinals!

Needless to say, we eventually opened at 6.45pm. The 250 invitations that had gone out drew in a massive crowd and the evening was a magnificent success! I had a couple of glasses of wine with the boss and when he left, I started to drink with my friends. Even my staff starting buying me drinks - my fav too, Sambuca! By 1am and 2 bottles of French Champagne later, I crawled into bed with the world spinning around me.

Friday was a very long day at work. And I was surrounded by builders who were still trying to catch up!

Chat soon,
Del

PS: Monday night we held a staff party at The Marlborough Head off Oxford Street. As it was Halloween, we all dressed up. The beer, vodka and Sambuca flowed freely! And the cab drivers were pleasantly surprised when they had to take home the ghost of Davey Jones. Photos to follow...

Foto Friday

It's photo time again.

This week's photo was taken last year November while my dad was on holiday in London from South Africa. We spent the day seeing the sights and ended up with a hot chocolate at the Tower of London. The view takes in Tower Bridge, London's City Hall and HMS Belfast, a WW2 battleship which is now a museum.

I took this panorama with my dad's new camera. The colour says it all - it was a regular London day; miserable, dreary weather.

Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday (on Sunday)

Hi all,

A little late this week, but I was waiting to download my photos from my digital camera.

The pic is 'fresh'; it was taken on Friday night while out 10-pin bowling with friends. The 'King' won the first game and I won the second with a score of 118 (I think).

Chat soon,
Del

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Holiday Heaven II

Continuing on from Holiday Heaven, at the end of last week we went down to Wiltshire to spend the weekend with some friends in a little village called Collingbourne Kingston. Nice place - about 12 houses and a pub!

We were spoilt rotten - 3 courses with every meal including a fantastic homemade apple pie!

We also visited Salisbury with her magnificent cathedral and quaint shops and cobblestone streets. On Sunday, we drove down to the coast to visit Hengistbury Head, the site of ancient ruins dating back 10 000 years to the Stone Age. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely terrible so we couldn't do the walk out to the tip of the headland so we snuggled up in the local caff for hot chocolate and a quick sandwich!

I was optomistic and took my bike with me this weekend, but being a fair-weather biker, I never even took it out of the shed! Shame on me!

Next week I'll be on another 'break' as the pub will be shut for 4 days for a Sparkle: a lick of paint and some new furniture and plants to freshen the place up a little! I'll be sanding tables and painting, but you know what they say "A change is as good as a holiday"!

BTW, you are all invited to our re-opening party on Thursday evening from 6pm!!

Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday

It's Friday again and time for another photo.

This week I thought I would share one of my favourites of my son.

Hope it makes you smile. Have a great weekend.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Holiday Heaven

So I'm on holiday again! Only this time, I haven't really gone travelling!

Monday I relaxed at home (ended up doing some work!!) all day. Went for a 30km bike ride in the morning to shake those cobwebs out of my joints (and try out my new toy)! It felt great. I'd been for a ride last Friday evening after work and ended up with cramps in both my calves!

Tuesday we drove up to Suffolk on England's east coast to visit a friend of ours who runs a beautiful little hotel in a village over there. We relaxed and did nothing but eat great food and drink some delicious wines for 2 days! We drove back today (and spent an hour standing still on the motorway 'cos some idiot managed to roll his/her car in the rain!) to rest at home tonight before driving down to Wiltshire tomorrow where we will spend the weekend with more friends.

I plan to take my mountain bike and toy with me and do some riding in Savernake Forest if the weather holds!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

OK, so you had to wait till Sunday for Friday's photo. Been very busy at work this past week. Nevermind, I'm on holiday next week!

This week's photo is from Manchester and was taken a few weeks ago. It is of the Urbis building in the heart of the city. It is an exhibition centre which focuses on city life.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

This week's photo is for those of you who have never been to London, or who love her as much as I do!

This is St Paul's Cathedral, the world's second largest cathedral. Built in 1673 by Sir Christopher Wren in a magnificent Baroque style, it is the 4th cathedral to occupy this site. It's predecessor burnt down in the Great Fire of London.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Detox & Dinner

So after about 8 weeks of detoxing, the wheels came off last night (again!). My better half and I went out for our first real date since we met.

This may sound a little strange considering that we have been together for 4 years and have a son, but it's true; we've never actually been on a proper date!

So, last night we organised a baby sitter for baby Josh (thanks Isi), dressed to impress and headed for High Street Kensington to a restaurant owned by Richard Branson called Babylon. The restaurant is on the 7th floor of a building which boasts a roof-top garden on the 6th floor. And what a view (see pic)!

Needless to say, it wasn't cheap, but it was definitely worth every penny. The roasted red pepper and goats cheese souffle starter was light and tasty and the duck main course was the best duck I've ever tasted. And it was all washed down with a bottle of Argentinean Malbec.

After cheese and biscuits for dessert we managed to stumble into a cab and head home to relieve the sitters before hitting the hay.

What a great first date! No awkward moments of silence, no nervous sweating and no wondering about the kiss goodnight.

And for those of you that even care, I have lost 5kg and 7cm around my waist since I started detoxing. And that includes a week of beer and pizza in Malta!!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

A late arrival today. Sorry, been busy at work since 6.30am this morning...

This week's photo was taken in Pamplona last year. It is from the opening ceremony of the Running of the Bulls or Festival of San Fermin as it is officially called.

The opening ceremony takes place in the main square and is a claustrophobic's worst nightmare. There are so many people that you can lift your feet off the ground and just hang in mid-air. It also gets very messy with people squirting bubbly everywhere and throwing flour once the midday gun fires to officially open the fiesta!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Malta holiday pics

I thought I'd try something new. Below are some of my holiday photos from Malta. To view them a little bigger, just click on them.

Let me know what you think.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

Photo Friday time again! This week is a dive photo from my holiday. Yes, I finally got them back from the lab today!

The photo is of a lobster hiding in under a rock. Can you see it?

Chat soon,
DelBoy

DelBoy on...

OK, so it's been a while since my last post (about 2 weeks!). Time for a little catch-up!

DelBoy on work: I'll start with the boring stuff. Work has been really busy since coming back from my holidays. I'm running two pubs at the moment. The second pub is a gastro pub in Holland Park - very posh! It's fun, 'cos its something very different. They do double the sales that my other pub does and they do as much food in a day as what my pub sells in a week! It's only short-term until they find another manager, but apparently I'm there for at least another 4 weeks!

DelBoy on Carnival: I had a great Carnival this year. Not the working bit or the money we made, but the after-party I had with my staff. We drank steins (1 litre) of Margarita and shots of vodka until 3am. The neighbours were having a wicked party on their balcony which we joined. The next morning I felt it though!

DelBoy on Josh: The weekend before Notting Hill Carnival, we had an incident with Josh. We rushed him to hospital, but he is 100% now. As a matter of fact, they found nothing wrong with him at all!! They can only guess at what happened, but I tell you what, IT WAS F#$£!^G SCARY!! He is great now except that he went for his injections this week which he was not too keen on.

DelBoy on holidays: Malta is great! If any of you get the chance, just do it! Its quite cheap too (well if you come from London it is). The weather was magnificent all week - minimum temperature around 26 degrees C! The food on the island is delicious and very cheap - 3 course meal for 2 people plus bottle of wine for around GBP£15. Not only are there some fantastic beaches, but there is also a lot of history on the isalnds (5 of them) if you are interested in that kind of thing. I managed to do 6 scuba dives whilst there too, including a night dive.

DelBoy on diving: Although the water temperature averaged around 26 degrees C, I was a little disappointed in what I saw under the water. The fishlife wasn't very colourful - a bit like diving in Cape Town. The plantlife was a little better. The night dive was magnificent though 'cos there were loads more fish about. The 2 wreck dives were great too 'cos the wrecks have only been down there since 23 August 2006 and they are still very intact. I would love to go back next year just to see how things have changed! The dive in Comino Caves was also beautiful if only for the magnificent colours!

That's me for now. I will post some holiday snaps soon.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

PS: DelBoy on rugby: Despite getting the wooden spoon in this year's Tri-Nations, I would just like to re-iterate my favourite saying, "You're only as good as your last game". And yes, we beat the Kiwis by one point and then the Aussies by 24 - 16!

Foto Friday

This week's photo was taken in Cambridge a few years ago. It is the 'Mathematical Bridge'. It was originally designed and built in 1749. As myth would have it, this bridge was originally built without nails or screws and was held together only by its various joints. The story goes that it was disassembled by the Fellows of Queens College who then couldn't put it back together again without the use of nuts and bolts! For more info, see the Queens College website.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

Photo time again. Let's see what I can dig up for you this time...

How about this one? It was taken in November last year. We went to watch the rugby (we lost btw). Can anyone guess the city? Easy!!!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Composure

Patience definitely is a virtue!

Today I had to go to the Home Office to pick up my and Josh's passports. This, in itself, is a nightmare 'cos it usually means waiting around for about 4 hours in a sterile government building with no music, heating (at least it's still warm over here) or smiling, just the occasional "ticket number A154 to counter number 29 please"!

But today was worse! I left home around 9.20am. Catching the tube was fine. I got to Victoria Station only to discover a 45 - 55 minute delay on all trains due to a thoughtless jumper at Clapham Junction. Why do people jump in front of high-speed trains at peak times? Can't they be more thoughtful to the rest of the world and do it in the middle of the night or something? After all, the Gatwick Express runs almost 24 hours a day!

Anyway, we pull out of the station 45 minutes later than expected on what should have been a 16 minute train ride to East Croydon (where the aforementioned Home Office is situated) only to stop just outside Clapham Junction station.

At first I assumed that it something to do with the insensitive jumper, but when the driver announced that we had to disembark, I started to get a little suspicious. The front 2 coaches were unloaded onto the platform first, then the back 2 (where I was sitting) were told to get off onto the tracks once the power was cut. When they told us to leave all bags on the train, I knew that something definitely was wrong! We started to make our way to the rear of the train and when I was about 6 feet from the door, the driver announced the all clear!

We then waited for them to power up the tracks and train again, move fully into the station and get everyone back onto the train before setting off once again.

Apparently some (even more inconsiderate, thoughtless, selfish) plank had climbed onto the train at Victoria with his suitcase and then got off again, forgetting the case on the train. This was duly reported to the driver who called ahead for the bomb squad!

An hour and a half later, I arrived in Croydon. Luckily I am a very patient person because another two and a half hour wait lay ahead for me at the Home Office!

I finally got back to London at 4pm, passports in hand!

I can't wait for my holiday next week...

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

In honour of this weekend's Notting Hill Carnival, I thought I would post a photo from my first ever Carnival experience - August 1993!

If any of you are interested, I will have my webcam on for this year's Carnival. The cam will run on Sunday and Monday from midday until whatever time (GMT of course!).

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Detox

Well, 7 days into the detox programme and I'm still in one piece. The headaches are gone and so is some of the weight. I'm very proud to say that I lost 2.5kg and 2cm off the waist just by cutting out the junk food!

The 'detox'/diet food that we ate this past week would have filled an elephant there was so much! I loved the cabbage rolls (sorta like lasagne) and I even got to eat a lamb steak and drink most of a bottle of red on Friday night!

Must clearly state though that I didn't care much for the tofu pasta on Sunday. That went straight out the window!!

Week 2 continues...

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Mountain Bike Video

For those of you that are interested, I have put the helmet cam video of our ride last Tuesday onto the net. Fall and all!

The video is on my video blog or you can see it at Vimeo.com

Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday

It's Photo Friday time again.

This photo was taken in Wales in the town of Tenby. The 'island' is known as St Catherine's and is only an island at high tide. There is a fort on the island which was built to protect Wales from invasion by France. If you want to know more, click here.

The photo was taken in September 2002.

Chat soon,
Del

'New' Blogger

For those of you who don't read Blogger's own blog, our favourite Blogspot is getting a face-lift! It's still only in Beta, so you can't convert your 'old' blog just yet, but you can sign up for a new one (yeah right!).

Some of Blogger's new tricks include: adding labels to your posts and choosing who can and can't read your blog!

If you want to read more, check out the link Blogger Beta


Chat soon,
Del

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Detox & falls

Detox & falls

Today is day 3 of my detox - and it's going pretty well! No junk food, no beer, no added sugar! I feel great except that I keep getting headaches 'cos I've also given up caffeine! Anyway, I'm going to stick with it and see how we go. I'll keep you up to date right here!

I also went for a bike ride yesterday. I felt like a kid again, racing through the forest on my mountain bike. We were the oldest kids about on bikes (it's summer holidays over here), but the others were a lot more daring than us. They were launching themselves into orbit off the jumps that they had built. I, on the other hand, managed to fall after hitting a jump that was about 1 foot in height! Scraped my knee and tore my trouser leg! Even caught the fall on video (which I will post at a later date).

Boys will be boys...



Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday

It's been a long week without much happening in my world. I'm glad I'm not flying anywhere 'cos the airports over here are in absolute chaos!! Let's hope that everything settles down in the near future.

This Friday's photo was taken on Wednesday night. Three guesses who this is!! If you want to read more about what he's been up to, check out his blog.

Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday

It's photo time again...

This week's photo was taken in January in the south of France in a small fishing town called Sete. It was sunset and we were walking back to our car via the marina.

Chat soon,
Del

Slogging away

Today is my 4th double shift in a row. I've taken a few hours off this afternoon to catch up on some Zzzzzzzs before tonight's toil again.

It's not all bad though. Yesterday a mate of mine came to the pub so we sat outside in the sun for 4 hours, drank too much beer and caught a nice tan! These are my kind of shifts! Needless to say, I kept dozing off during the evening when I was meant to be doing my paperwork!!

Chat soon,
Del

PS: The London/UK heatwave continues! It was supposed to rain yesterday, but no sign of a cloud in the sky!

Foto Friday

This Friday's photo was taken on the 12th of this month during a day-trip to Brighton, South England. As you can see, the day was a stinker...

... and the sun continues to beat down on us! The average temperature this week has been around 29 degrees C with more of this heat to come in August apparently!

Chat soon,
Del

Cruising the fjords

I spent this last weekend cruising the Norwegian Fjords with friends. What an experience; the views were magnificent and the weather was beautiful!

Our little adventure started with a 3 hour train journey from London to Newcastle, where we boarded our ferry/cruise ship. From here we sailed overnight to Stavanger on the south-west coast of Norway. A short stop in Stavanger then we headed north, first to Haugesund and finally on to Bergen. By the time we got to Bergen, the sun was roasting after a foggy Friday night and Saturday morning.

We had two hours in Bergen, so we decided to ride the funicular to the top of Mount Floyen for a view of the fjord. It wasn't cheap, but was well worth the ride!

The return journey was the same in reverse. Back to Haugesund, then to Stavanger which we left at midnight arriving back in Newcastle at 6pm on Sunday.

Moments to remember: On-board BBQ while leaving Newcastle(!); getting tipsy on VERY expensive beer and listening to the terrible band in the bar; eye-popping scenery while sailing up the fjords between the hundreds of little islands; the orange-tainted sunset at 10.30pm on Saturday night; whipping 'The King' at his own game (more than once); sunning ourselves on the deck; a visit to the bridge and meeting the Captain; almost not getting our 3 month old son back into the UK because he has no visa (but that's a different story that I'll blog later)!

Below are some of the photos and panoramas that we took.







Chat soon,
Del

Foto Friday

OK, so it's not Friday, but I'm away this weekend and I'm not getting up at 4am just to post a photo before I leave! I'm not that dedicated a blogger!!

Today's photo was taken a very long time ago when I first came to the UK (1993). It is one of the University buildings in Cambridge. I was trying hard to capture some colour from the sunset too, but unsuccessfully.

Chat soon,
Del