Mar 30
This week coming is the 6th consecutive week I have travelled with work. It has been quite the shift and other than never knowing what day it is or which city I’m waking up in, I could also do with a couple of really good nights sleep.
The good news is that tomorrow I will wake up at Gatwick Airport after an overnight flight from Tampa.
Please click for moreMy trip is on its 10th day and the weather has been spectacular thus far, although drizzle is expected today down here near Eastbourne where I currently am.
The weather was spectacular last week in London and similarly in Zurich and Munich. However, back home in Florida a booming large hurricane is sailing up the coast.
Please click for moreThe sun peeped from behind the grey clouds yesterday in Eastbourne, known as the Sunshine Coast due to an over 100-year record of the town having the most sunshine hours in a month ever recorded.
It almost required sunglasses for the five minutes the sun made an appearance as we walked around the Meads end of the town.
Please click for moreI landed in a steamy London Town this morning. The first time I have taken the BA flight from Tampa to Gatwick, roughly about eight and half hours.
What happened to the weather? Is it because the kids went back to school? I was hoping to wear a couple of pullovers this week.
Please click for moreI’m on my way home to Bermuda after almost a week back at, er, home in the UK seeing family, mates and those Addicks.
I have been in Eastbourne most of the trip, my parents live just outside the town, and although it has been bloody freezing, Eastbourne did live up to it’s billing of the Sunshine Coast.
Please click for moreWhilst in East Sussex last week I wanted to take my parents somewhere a little different, and I found an absolute treasure trove of a place just 10 minutes from their home.
To say the Rathfinny Wine Estate is tucked away is hardly legitimate when it occupies 600 acres, with flawless rows of vines growing on the south facing hills of the South Downs. Yet the entrance gates to the estate are located just beyond the chocolate box village of Alfriston near the Deans Place Hotel and one could easily drive past them.
please click for moreI fly to the UK tonight deciding to go around the houses to get to Heathrow to avoid, at the time, striking BA staff and the seemingly unavoidable crazy cost of airline fares.
The cost of airline travel due to fuel rises and returning post pandemic demand is off the charts at the moment, and in Bermuda where BA monopolize the transatlantic route and we are still not back to a complete schedule, the cost of flights are rapacious.
Please click for moreI got an unexpected sunny welcome landing at Heathrow Airport this morning. Fast forward ten hours and I’m sat in my parents conservatory looking out at the South Downs which are quickly becoming shrouded in November darkness.
Please click for moreBermuda went green on the fabled traffic light list this week, so I will take this window of opportunity to fly home tonight to see my family for the first time in two years.
Please click for moreWhilst Americans are up early switching on ovens, plucking turkeys, shelling pecans and peeling pumpkins, I’ve arrived at my parents in East Sussex ready for a cup tea and a bourbon.
My company is of American descent, not quite as far back as the Pilgrims, but therefore we close the office tomorrow and today the place is as a quiet as a church full of mouses. So I’ve flown to London for a couple of days for a whirlwind whizz around to see family and mates. Maybe, perhaps, I might pop by SE7 on Saturday.
For the first time this season I will be at The Valley tomorrow to cheer on Lee Bowyer’s boys. My first Charlton game of the season. I’m shocked by that sentence.
Anyway I felt it was time to get behind the Addicks as we go in search of a play-off place and what was an ever increase improbable promotion when Karl Robinson was in the managerial seat. We’d won one game of the previous 8 under Robinson and I shake my head at how we are still in with a shout.
Last on my short agenda of Top Five’s is Places. My list for 2017 is a mix of old and new. I was lucky to get to some familiar places again last year such as Barcelona, North Fork, Beaver Creek and San Francisco, all of which I love but although they didn’t make my favourite five, a couple of my old tried-and-true did.
So here are my Top Five Favourite Places that I visited in 2017:
A week back in a combination of East Sussex, Chislehurst and London Town, all now surrogate homes to me, and now I’m back to reality, if Bermuda is actually reality, with an imminent general election which the media is full off. It’s the week after next and if I can bring myself to, I’ll put a few words together on it soon.
I do a lot of travelling but generally as a rule I don’t like being away for as long as a week on my own, and I was ready to get out of dodge yesterday. As is usual I did a lot of running around, and caught up with a lot of people including old mates on Friday for 50th birthday celebrations. That was a long but funny day.
As the Americas Cup in Bermuda finishes and the super yachts make their way out into the Atlantic to find the next nautical shindig, I myself thought I would do a runner for a week and have headed back to the U.K. and home. I arrived back this morning and drove down to my parents in the East Sussex countryside. I’m here for a couple of relaxing days to catch up on some sleep, update myself on the family gossip and drink my Dad’s red wine.
Tales of 34 C temperatures looked a little fabled this morning driving down the M23 in grey rainy skies. I might not have packed appropriately.
Driving around this picturesque part of East Sussex these last couple of days one can’t help but notice the hundreds of scarecrows that adorn front gardens, and pavements.
I remember being here last year, albeit a bit later in the summer, and seeing a few weathered scarecrows scattered around villages, and I found out then it was due to the first ever Pevensey Villages Scarecrow Festival. Well it is back better and bigger this year to coincide with the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.
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The first of my 2015 Top Fives, and an annual look back at the stuff that sticks out in my memory as something a bit special.
I’ve done this for many years now and always welcome your comments. Some Top Fives are regular features, some others I mix up a little bit, but one list I always compile is the Favourite Places I found myself in during the past year.
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My son and I fly back to the UK tonight to spend a week with my parents down on the sunny East Sussex coast, which culminates next Saturday with a trip up to The Valley for the Addicks’ first game of the new season.
My Mum for the longest time has had on her ‘bucket list’ a trip on the Eurostar, so in the middle of the week my son and I are taking her to Brussels for a couple of days. I think, hope, that the crazy stuff going on at the moment is restricted to the freight trains and not passenger. Certainly trains seem to be getting through unhindered.
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My body is normally a temple, as those that know me will attest! But this morning it is questioning how it ever got mixed up with me in the first place. The last four Sunday’s I have been in Bermuda, Los Angeles, Miami and Eastbourne. Not quite Del Boy’s van, but in the same condition.
This morning we are off to meet an old mate of mine from Chicago and his beautiful new fiancé for breakfast in Bills. Just what I need, another pile of bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom, but I am looking forward to seeing them all the same.
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Great to hear that the Eastbourne Pier will re-open this weekend just two months after a fire ravaged the front part of it. My parents, who live very close to the town, texted me on that fateful night in July distraught, not because they will miss the penny slots, but because the pier is the centrepiece of the seafront where they spend many an hour.
The photos did not paint a good picture but thanks to the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, insurance recovery and fundrasing by the Pier Benelvolent Fund the pier will be back open for business on Saturday.
Visitors will be able to access two-thirds of the Grade II listed building after walkways were constructed to make is safe. Access will be from the front of the pier which will take people around to the parts that were saved from the fire including cafe’s, the fishing platform, shops and the Atlantis Nightclub.
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The East Sussex Chicago Addick family household burst into life at eleven minutes past three this afternoon as Jeff Stelling announced a Yann Kermorgant lead at The Reebok. Fully deserved said the reporter perched up in the stand after Yann finished a delightful Wiggins run to put us ahead after dominating the early stages.
Sadly just before the half-time whistle the teleprinter told of a Bolton equaliser by Kevin McNaughton, although by then we perhaps should have been further ahead.
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From East Sussex to the The Royal County of Berkshire today to see two really old friends of mine. Really looking forward to seeing them and another change of scene (and bed) before we head back to Bermuda on New Years Day.
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Back in the car and driving down to the East Sussex countryside this morning to see my parents, who live in the tiny village of Wannock which sits in the shadows of the South Downs.
Wannock is mentioned in the Domesday Book but is a sleepy little place that sadly lacks a pub, although there are plenty in neighbouring Polegate and better ones in nearby Jevington and Willingdon. My old man no doubt will be ready and waiting with the corkscrew and a hardy bottle of Syrah as well as Soccer Saturday on the box so the family of Addicks can follow Charlton’s fortunes at The Valley this afternoon, a game I was hoping to get to, but was outwitted by our Christmas scheduling.
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Thanks to the American populate busily giving thanks, eating turkey and throwing lite beers down their necks, our office takes the opportunity to put our feet up tomorrow and Friday. So, I thought it a great time to fly home and see my Mum, who is recovering from a major heart operation, and also hopefully to see the Addicks at The Valley on Saturday.
My Mum doesn’t smoke, drinks about a glass of Lambrusco a week, and is as fit as a fiddle, but the doctor reminded her that she has been a Charlton fan for 35 years! The operation was 3 weeks ago, but she is recovering well and I am looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.
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Ensconced at my parents home with the south downs glimmering in the blue sky out of the conservatory window, I’m on my third coffee while my son sleeps on the sofa following our return from Bermuda overnight.
In between catching up on the family news and reading the local paper, I, like most other football fans, am keeping a close eye on transfer deadline day. I have yet to throw myself at the feet of the hysterical Sky Sports News but I would think it is only a matter of time.
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My son accompanied by me leave Bermuda for Gatwick later today. It has been a busy and enjoyable two weeks with him staying with us, and it makes me specially happy to see him and our daughter get on so well together.
Hopefully we can get some sleep on the plane, I’m pretty good on my own but not sure my son will co-operate as he insists on watching three films. My Blackberry at least will be pleased of the rest after I have abused it’s sorry arse all week with me feverishly searching for Charlton transfer news.
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A hop, skip and jump back to London tonight. This trip was originally planned for a couple of weeks with family to get ourselves fully absorbed into the Olympics. Not so.
Copious (more than three) attempts to purchase a range of tickets for a range of sports over a few week period ended up with zilch. No, I lie, I did get some Women’s Preliminary Round (non beach) Volleyball tickets for Earls Court. No disrespect to Earls Court but all of us slogging across London to watch Algeria v Japan just didn’t do it for me, so those tickets went back.
Thus I came incredibly frustrated with the whole Olympic ticket process and called it off as a bad job especially after a couple of very early mornings/late nights tapping away on the computer with millions of others. Don’t get me started on the 250,000 tickets unsold, including athletics, opening and closing ceremonies. LOCOG couldn’t have got the ticketing procedure more wrong.
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There are not many twins who have played alongside each other in the same team. However two recent football stories peaked my interest in this unusual phenomenon.
Firstly Blackburn signed Marcus Olsson on deadline day and he joined his twin brother, Martin, at Ewood Park. Sir Alex already has the exciting and identical Brazilian full backs Rafael and Fabio da Silva at Old Trafford. Going back sometime I remember Ron and Paul Futcher at Luton Town and a little more recently Rod and Ray Wallace at Southampton as well as David and Dean Holdsworth at Watford. Both incidentially are now managers at Lincoln City and Aldershot respectively.
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I long gave up taking shorts back home with me on my visits as they never made it out of my case, but on recommendation I threw a pair in this time and they got a good airing with the weather well into the 70’s on the East Sussex coast as I spent a few days, mostly outside, with my son and his grandparents.
The trip was rounded off with a few pints and a curry in Bexley Village with some old mates on Sunday night. We bumped into a certain Jimmy Bullard in the Kings Head who was stood at the bar supping on a pint. The £50k a week Hull City player ended the season on loan at Paul Jewell’s Ipswich where he shined alongside Lee Martin.
Bullard’s family are local and he actually owns the One Bell in Crayford.
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Jun 7
During my few days at my parents in East Sussex, my Dad suggested a ride along the coast to Hastings. I used to visit years ago as I had a mate who’s parents lived in nearby Fairlight. My Mum and Dad, as I learnt, used to visit regularly on their Lambretta in the 60’s.
We drove into Hastings from Eastbourne and along the sea front heading east making sure we had our doors locked. There was a thriving business in scaffolding, most of which was stopping buildings from collapsing and wooden boards, and little had changed it seemed since William Conqueror showed up with his bow and arrow looking for a ruck.
The burnt out pier remains but just last month a heritage lottery grant was approved for work to start on it’s restoration. We drove on past Warrior Square with it’s statue of Queen Victoria, who wouldn’t have been amused at it’s unkempt look.
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It’s half term back at home and I will join my son at my parents near Eastbourne early tomorrow morning for the rest of the week and the weekend returning on Monday. It’s a quick trip as I have to be in New York next Wednesday with work.
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Back in Bermuda after a short hop home for my son’s birthday and mascot exploits.
There was a lot of flying around, which is customary. I had a cracking night with my Hornchurch mates on Friday plus a very hot chicken madras in the Cinnamon Spice. We followed this up on Saturday after the game with another curry, this time in Brick Lane. We vowed not to be enticed into the first place we passed, but sure enough the offer of two rounds of drinks and a lively atmosphere was enough for us to eat at The Famous Curry Bazaar. It was very good and full of local hipsters and pre-clubbers at 8pm. Whatever happened to eating a curry after the pub shut?
The next morning my brother took us just up the street from where he lives to The Premises Cafe on Hackney Road. According to The Observer, one of the 50 coolest places to eat in the world! It’s attached to the renowned recording studios (with an impressive list of artists) and next door to the gigantic rabbit (which at the end of last year caused quite a stir) and our brunch was top-notch. The dinner menu looked good too, and at a tenner a head for two courses bloody good value.
Siesta Key, Florida
