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Posts from the ‘Travelogue’ Category

Aug 14

Rio 2016 – Day 5 Water Polo

A cross between basketball and rugby but played on water, I saw a little bit of water polo when I was younger as I had a good mate who played to national standard and I used to go and watch him occasionally. Water polo is a tough sport and it is plenty physical and what goes on under the water is best not seen!

There are 4 periods of 8 minutes with time outs and sin bins used to stop serial eye gouging. The Olympic men’s water polo is still in the group stage and we saw three games today at the Aquatic Centre, where the night before Michael Phelps signed off with his 23rd gold medal.
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Aug 13

Rio 2016 – Day 4 Beach Volleyball

I got a lot of grief indoors for getting Beach Volleyball tickets and I have had all the jokes about budgie smugglers and only going for the thongs. Well, let me tell you thongs were very much on show, but the blokes, thankfully, took to the sand pit dressed like they were going for a paddle at Margate .

We lucked out that our session’s first game today at the very impressive temporary Copacabana Beach Arena was Brazil’s men against Spain’s men. World v European champions, and a very, very partisan 10,000 crowd made the day such a memorable experience. The atmosphere was a cross between a hyped up NBA play-off game with added DJ help and dance routines and a high energy Brazilian football match at the Maracana.
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Aug 12

Rio 2016 – Day 3 Gymnastics 

I’m not sure jumping up and down on a trampoline is the most artistic of all gymnastic events but it is a pretty serene sight seeing lithe women fly through the air, throwing all kinds of shapes at high altitude before bouncing back up again like an astronaut in a space station. 

We were at the Rio Olympic Arena today for a little gymnastics action and I wouldn’t say I learnt anything apart from falling out of the trampoline badly affects your score. Otherwise the scoring, and at least the docking of points for defections was hard to fathom, but it was enjoyable nevertheless and excitedly we got to see Great Britain pick up a medal.
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Aug 11

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Rio 2016 – Day 2 Tennis

We are staying in Barra da Tijuca and purposely picked an apartment close to the new BRT station, Jardim Oceanico. And today for our first day of Olympic action we made our way a couple of minutes around the corner to the station so new that the  paint was wet, and the whole journey was easy. 20 minutes most on a brand spanking new bus that floated past traffic in an express lane to get us to Barra’s Parque Olimpico, home to nine different venues including the Tennis Centre, built brand new for the Olympics with an impressive centre court and 15 outside courts, which I would hazard a guess we’re temporary structures.

Barra Olympic Park was previously a Formula One race track and was home to the Brazilian Grand Prix. It was demolished in 2012 to make way for one of the key Rio 2016 centres and will, hopefully, leave the largest sporting legacy to the country once the Olympics has packed it’s rings and moved the circus on.
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Aug 10

Rio 2016 – Day 1 First impressions 

We landed in Rio this morning and my first thoughts were as to whether I had brought enough warm and water proof clothes. It has pretty much drizzled the entire day and fog has shrouded the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that looks down over the XXXI Olympic city and dark skies have hung over us all day.

The airport, vastly improved by all accounts, was impressive. Clean, efficient and organized with hundreds of Rio 2016 volunteers and camera crews everywhere, it gave us a real sense of occasion when we got off the plane this morning, agreeably still in the same time zone as Bermuda. There is a lot to be said for doing an 9-hour overnight flight but not sending your body clock into a spin.
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Aug 7

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Miami’s Stiltsville

We are using Miami as a staging point for our onward journey to Rio, where we fly to late on Tuesday night for the Olympics. I am a big Miami fan and know the city and it’s assorted environs pretty well. Today however we saw Miami from a different vantage point. From the water.  

We booked a morning boat tour with Ocean Force Adventures, and a 30 ft rigid inflatable boat, or RIB, with our own captain, who doubled as a very knowledgable guide. He took us on a two and half hour tour of Miami’s waters getting up close to the celebrity mansions of Star Island, Palm Island and Fisher Island, the enormous Port of Miami and busy cruise ship terminal (1 in every 7 passenger cruise ships in the world departs from here), Key Biscayne, Biscayne National Park, Cape Florida Lighthouse, the historic Miami River and some mouthwatering views of the downtown Miami, Brickell and South Beach skylines. 
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Apr 8

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Augusta

After a crazy work end of the first quarter, this week with the family I escaped to Florida and the unusually hip and arty city of Sarasota (photo), situated on the gulf coast just south of Tampa and St Petersburg. There are more museums, galleries and top rated restaurants than anywhere else in Florida and this part of the United States is also renowned for its tennis. World class academies attract the best talent and as such we watched a couple of excellent women’s finals on Sunday at the Wilde Lexus USTA finals in Osprey. 60th world ranked Madison Brengle won the singles.

The family go home today but I am travelling to Atlanta this afternoon and then after a night in Buckhead, 8 of us drive out to Augusta, the home of the iconic Masters. I am fortunate to be an invited guest for Saturday’s round and we stay overnight in our house close to the course no doubt wind swept and thirsty before an early return to Atlanta, which is a good couple of hours from Augusta, before flying home to Bermuda.

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Mar 20

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Travelogue – Tikal, Guatemala

Guatemala is just a few miles from the where we stayed in the Cayo district of Belize during last summer and as soon as we realized that it was just a border crossing away Guatemala was instantly on our list to visit.

Tikal is universally recognized as one of the most impressive of all Mayan sites sharing a top three spot with Machu Picchu and Angkot Wat, and our hotel organized for us a day trip for us to visit.
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Dec 18

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Christmas spirit

Christmas begins in the Chicago Addick family later today when we fly to Atlanta for what has become our little traditional festive jaunt. We base ourselves in Buckhead and will get out to see the awesome Botanical Gardens Christmas Lights and Stone Mountain Park as well as have tea with Santa and his missus. There will also be time for some last minute shopping and this year we have tickets for the Cirque Musica at Phillips Arena.
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Nov 20

Travelogue – Belize

The only English speaking nation in Central and South America, Belize was known as British Honduras from 1862 to 1973 but in anticipation of independence became Belize, named after the countries biggest city. Independence took until 1981 mostly due to neighbours Guatemala’s asserted claims to Belize.

Post 1981 Britain retained a military presence in Belize until only four years ago when the last of the British forces left the colony.

Archaeologists estimate that at their peak, 1 to 2 million Mayans lived within the borders of present day Belize. Christopher Columbus sailed along the coast of Central America in 1502, and named the area the Bay of Honduras but Columbus never stayed and the first settlers were English Puritans, setting up trading posts along the coast.

Ship-wrecked sailors, buccaneers, and pirates came and went and the Spanish continually attempted to expel the British buccaneers but finally signed treaties in 1763 and 1786 allowing the British to continue to harvest timber in exchange for protection against pirates preying on the Spanish galleons.
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Oct 25

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Vegas baby

Just as my body clock resets itself I am back on a plane and will be taking my heavy Charlton heart out west again later today.

Las Vegas is our destination and it is half-term, and my daughter’s 6th birthday so we thought why not. Not the usual holiday spot for a 6 year old but there is plenty to do in daylight hours for young kids and the week is all about her except for a small window on Tuesday night when the other half and I have got tickets to see Elton John and will grab a nice meal afterwards.
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Oct 16

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Time for wine

The last day of an exhausting, busy but fun week on America’s west coast. The work trip began in Los Angeles on Sunday in 90-degree heat. There were meetings Monday morning downtown, the afternoon seeing a client in Santa Monica and the evening in Newport Beach. It was a long day and sleep-wise one I never recovered from struggling with the time difference, only last night sleeping for more than five hours, our final night, just in time to leave for home. Of course.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the great city of San Francisco, comfortably in my Top Five of American cities. Meetings started early were back to back and ended with great dinners and too much to eat and drink. We wrapped up the trip yesterday with a day in Napa Valley, 17 of us travelling out over the Golden Gate Bridge on the Gillig Bus, to St Helena for our first tasting stop, the beers on the bus serving as a base. 
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Oct 10

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West Coast

Tomorrow a group of us fly out to Los Angeles mirroring a work trip we did last year. The group is slightly different, as is the schedule but the purpose is the same.

We get to LA on Sunday night, hopefully with my luggage unlike last year, then Monday is busy running around downtown, then out to Santa Monica for meetings before driving down to Newport Beach, about 45 miles down the coast from LA. There we’ll have dinner, and will crash before flying early Tuesday to San Francisco.
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Sep 21

Trains, Pope Francis and Ed Sheeran

I leave for Washington DC this morning for a conference in the nation’s capital and Pope Francis is coming too. No, I haven’t had a career change it’s just that his Papelness is making his first visit to the United States and starts his tour in DC tomorrow. He is also visiting Philadelphia and after DC, like me, he is heading to New York. I am sure we will bump into each other!

That’s all very nice but it does mean that New York and particularly Washington DC is going to be in a security meltdown for the entire week and getting around the capital is going to be nothing short of a nightmare, and to make matters worse, they have even banned selfie sticks. Disaster.
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Sep 14

Travelogue – Brussels

My only ever visit to Belgium had been a day trip to Ostende to break up a drunken boys weekend in Ramsgate many moons ago. My Mum’s bucket list had for the longest time had a trip on the Eurostar listed on it, so I decided this was one she should tick off and my son and I took her to Brussels in August for an overnight trip.

The only way to get the Eurostar from their home near Eastbourne was to get up at the crack of dawn and drive the country roads to Ashford International. The one Brussels train of the day departed at 7.28am, but we hardly saw another car and took our window seats and were soon in the tunnel and on our way to Calais.

Noticeably in both directions the train was 15 minutes late arriving as it slowed through Calais due we suspected to the illegal immigration problems at the French side of the tunnel, but despite bouncing forward an hour we were in Brussels at just after 10am.
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Aug 23

Where dreams come true

After a fantastic week in Belize and Guatemala we are now in Orlando, kicking ourselves that we didn’t do this part of the holiday first as suddenly my daughter has forgotten all about riding horses, Mayan temples, tubing on lakes, feeding tapirs, watching toucans, being licked by a jaguar and listening to howler monkeys and is now all wrapped up in Mickey and Minnie!

The difference between reality and fantasy at her age is hard to dispel, but attempting to instill an appreciation of a broad range of experiences is something we are both keen, and mostly lucky to be able, to do.
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Aug 22

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The search for Andy Hunt

Andy Hunt scored 35 goals for Charlton between 1998 and 2000, but was cut down by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a little known medical condition at that time. Hunt originally fell ill with glandular fever but after months of feeling exhausted after training and games during his last season with us, the ex-West Brom striker was finally diagnosed with CFS. After disappearing from the game in 2001, aged just 30, Hunt did make a return under Curbs in 2003, but after playing in a couple of reserve games decided to call it quits.

A year later Andy and his Dutch wife Simone Angel, who was a MTV presenter upped sticks and moved from Greenwich to Belize and bought a large house with a domed roof in the Belizian jungle close to the capital Belomopan.

Following Andy and Simone was quite easy in those early days as they both wrote personal blogs, Andy’s being followed by a host of Charlton fans and bloggers including me, and they also regularly updated their Belize Adventure blog as well.
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Aug 19

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Nottingham Forest 0 Charlton Athletic 0

Belize internet is not being kind to me here, and it was my ever thoughtful Mum’s text last night that told me of yesterday’s result. 5 points from those first three games I would have happily taken when the fixtures came out, but what the reports I have belatedly read tell me is that we are maybe only a fit and Championship-ready Igor or another striker away from a play-off push.

15-18 goal strikers cost more money than Roly is prepared to pay, and fair enough when you see what Bristol City have offered for Andre Gray.
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Aug 17

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Miami nice

After a couple of days in Miami we have moved our holiday onto the relatively undeveloped Belize jungle, which brings something of interest to no one but myself and my mobile phone provider, but means I will follow Charlton’s game in Nottingham on Tuesday night from another country, the 4th different one for each of the 4 games played so far…. The Valley SE7, Bermuda, Florida USA and Belize.

Anyway Miami as always was fun packed, an effervescent oasis marooned amongst the rest of Florida that Dave rediscovered recently.
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Aug 13

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Belize

We leave for our summer holidays tomorrow beginning in one of our favourite weekend spots of Miami, before flying two hours to Belize on Monday morning for a week. We then return to Florida and will head to Orlando for our second week, but plan also to spend a bit of time out on the Gulf Coast while we are in the sunshine state.

Living in Bermuda allows pretty quick access to Central America via Miami and we have already had some great holidays in Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama whilst living here. Belize has been on my list since when I was dying to drive down from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to see it’s incredible barrier reef, but scorching hot weather and a young baby made us the see the error of our ways.
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May 24

Travelogue: Amelia Island, Florida

Described as a southern jewel in the Atlantic Ocean chain of Sea Islands, Amelia Island has 13 miles of dune protected beaches, 17 golf courses, maritime forests and marshlands, and, er pirates.

Named for Princess Amelia, daughter of George II of Great Britain, the island has changed hands between colonial powers a number of times. It claims that the French, Spanish, British, Patriot, Green Cross, Mexican, Confederate, and United States flag have all flown over it at some point.

Long before all of that the Timucua people lived on what they called Napoyca. They lived quite happily for centuries until they finally disappeared under constant warfare from the English colonists and native allies after the turn of the 19th century.

Europeans had first settled here in the 1500’s, and by the early 1800’s it had become what President James Monroe called a “festering fleshpot” filled with pirates, smugglers and illegal slave traders.
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May 10

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Travelogue: Calgary and Banff, Canada

I was in Banff sometime ago, 18 months to be precise but I never got around to writing up my Travelogue of my experiences, and the beauty of the place fully deserves my recognition.

I was there for a work event and had flown into Calgary International Airport and spent the night at a downtown hotel. The next day I got myself out of bed early, aided by jet lag, to whiz around and see a bit of this city situated at the foot of the Canadian Rockies.

The downtown area is dominated by the 626-foot scepter shaped Calgary Tower. There is a restaurant on top as well as a ‘torch’ which is lit for special occasions, but alas not for my morning walk.

I walked through Olympic Plaza, a park containing a skating rink. It served as the medal ceremony arena for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Not far away was another park called Devonian Gardens, which had not long been re-opened on my visit. The difference with this park is that it is all indoors occupying two and a half acres of a shopping mall.

Back nearer towards my hotel was the cool area of Eau Claire, a hub of pedestrian walkways, shops and restaurants plus a market backing onto the Bow River, which runs for 365 miles through the province of Alberta.
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Apr 7

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Bunny, bunny, bunny

Back to the work grind this morning after a laid back Easter weekend on the barrier island of Amelia Island, which lies just south of the Georgia and Florida state border.

This charming, leafy and pedestrian oceanside refuge hit all the right notes for a lovely break. The hotel was a kid’s paradise and it went to town with the Easter bunny, who even paid us a visit to our room one night bringing milk and cookies.

12,000 eggs were laid out for the Sunday morning Easter egg hunt, which about 150 kids swept up into baskets ranging from supermarket plastic bags to elaborate picnic hampers in about five minutes flat. Our little ‘un took my tactical advice and ignored the kids stopping at the first sign of them, and ran to the back to make out like a bandit until the other kids cottoned on.
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Apr 3

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Millwall 2 Charlton Athletic 1

For the entirety of the today’s game I was fortunate enough to be out on a boat off Amelia Island in Florida the captain navigating his craft through the islands of the inland waterway moving frequently across the Georgia and Florida stateline.

For almost the entirety of the game I had absolutely no signal on my phone. Disconcerting and liberating in equal measures.

My Livescore app found an ounce of satellite just as Diarra had given us a lead. The signal disappeared as quick as it had came until the game was in injury time. Typically my football club had capitulated for the umpteenth time to that lot. I banged out a text to my brother: “Every f—— time.” The reply was less polite.
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Apr 1

Easter charms

We are spending Easter weekend in Florida, at the very north east of the state close to the Georgia border at a place called Amelia Island, named after Princess Amelia the daughter of George II.

According to my research Amelia Island is known for it’s shrimp festival, one of America’s most important petanque tournaments and is listed on Travel & Leisure as one of the USA’s most quirkiest towns!
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Mar 15

Travelogue – Punta Mita, Mexico

Last summer after our couple of days in Mexico City, we travelled right across the country to visit Punta Mita on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, a quaint fisherman’s town located 40 minutes north of much more developed Puerto Vallarta.

Once an important and sacred Indian meeting site, Punta Mita is a jagged finger of land that juts out into the open ocean straddling the Pacific and Banderas Bay. The beaches are magnificent, although Bermuda’s are better, with rocky coves and plenty of water sport activities. Our daughter had a wind surfing lesson whilst we were there. I have no idea where she gets her sense of adventure from!

Punta Mita is dominated by two large upscale hotels, the St Regis and the Four Seasons, and I imagine a decade or so ago developers offered the village fishermen money they could only dream off to move them a bit further away up the coast.
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Mar 13

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Travelogue – Mexico City

Based on our visit last August to Mexico City, an ancient city once the largest in the Western Hemisphere has seen all number of iterations and occupants in its long history.

From the cultural and commercial centre of the Mesoamerica’s around AD 650, to the arrival of the Aztecs from the north in the late 1300’s and the Spanish Conquest in 1521. Mexican Independence came in 1824 but was soon crushed by the American invasion in 1847.

The French had their time in the 1860’s before they were ousted, although not before Emperor Maximilian I created key parts to how the city looks today. The Mexican revolution of 1872 followed which led the country to flourish as the capital grew exponentially.

The revolution ended when Alvaro Obregon took control in 1920 and from then until the turn of the century Mexico rode many economic ups and downs with great wealth disparity, particularly witnessed in the countries capital.
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Feb 14

Hearts of Palm

Home after a week in Florida, the majority of which was at a crazed work event in South Beach, where having a pee, let alone sleep, was at a premium. I had the two girls with me, so we schlepped it up to Palm Beach on Thursday morning to get a couple of days of family time, and sleep, which was great.

I do like Palm Beach, kind of like Eastbourne, but with high hair and false boobs. The place is dripping in money and a cooler, swankier street than Worth Avenue is hard to find.
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Feb 14

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Charlton Athletic 3 Brentford 0

A first win since November 8th, and a long awaited burst of pride. Charlton fans deserve their smiles on their faces tonight.

Not for the first time in recent years Addicks’ fans backed the shirt and not the regime today and they got their rewards with not only the biggest win of the season, but also a performance from the players befitting of wearing the famous shirt.

Credit to Luzon, he had them fired up, organized and put round pegs in round holes. I said before the game that he picked the best team possible, even with the inclusion of Bulot, who by all accounts had a very good game on the left side of midfield.
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Feb 4

Travelogue – Lake Tahoe, California

Lake Tahoe is an unfair representation of my experience last week in that I only witnessed the massive freshwater lake from afar halfway up a mountain and then close up at it’s edge, but in the absolute dead of night.

We actually stayed about about 40 minutes from the lake near a historic railroad town called Truckee, about 1,000 feet further up the mountain at the quite recently opened Ritz Carlton Highlands resort.

The Ritz Carlton sits at the base of a mountain ski village called Northstar, at an elevation of 6,900 feet and is an imposing castle-like property that has its very own gondola ride that navigates 1,000 feet down the mountain to the Northstar village, a relatively new pedestrian complex that is dominated by an ice skating rink and has plenty of winter sport shops to wander plus the obligatory Starbucks.
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Jan 30

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Give us a goal

I am Coral Gables today. Just a short run from Miami airport, where I got in late last night from Lake Tahoe. I fly back to Bermuda later after I catch up on some work and have a walk around the charming streets of Coral Gables and get some lunch.

As expected George Țucudean said farewell today to Charlton and has moved on a 18-month loan to Steau Bucharest to “win trophies,” which to be fair he has more likelihood in doing bearing in mind Steau have won the league 25 times and the cup 21 times.
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Jan 26

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Lake Tahoe

Late last night I arrived in Lake Tahoe in California after a long day of travelling. I am here until Thursday, er working…. it says here.

The week consists of early morning advisory boards and late afternoon breakout sessions, but in between times is reserved for winter sport activities, but Lake Tahoe hasn’t seen snow since the end of December and I think I am going to get more use out of sun lotion than snow boots.
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Dec 18

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Just peachy

Feeling a little bit Christmas partied out this morning. Some people may call it a hangover.

Partying Work does come to an end tomorrow afternoon as the family head to Atlanta for a few days to have what has become traditional our pre-Christmas weekend, although we are later than in recent years.

Atlanta is a strange place. No boundaries, no oceans, no mountains so it just grows and grows, meaning sadly it lacks a real heart, but we stay in Buckhead which is a little pocket of refined and cultured (a little like me last night) and stay at the fantastic St Regis. So fantastic that Santa Claus comes to visit you, for a small fee of course.
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Dec 16

2014 Top 5 Favourite Places

Admit it, the posts you have been waiting for. Chicago Addick’s Top 5 Favourite’s of the past year.

I am going to begin this year’s Top 5’s with Places. I got to some fascinating spots in 2014 and these were my Top 5 Favourite Places, with one in particular surprising me.

1) Mexico City
Some people were aghast that we’d take ourselves and our daughter to Mexico City, but I am a huge sucker for cities and will give anywhere the benefit of the doubt and sure enough with five centuries of history there were gems and awe-inspiring moments aplenty, none other than the area known as Zocalo (photo), the vibrant heart of the Centro Historical where a compact grid of streets poured fervour and ceremony out of every street corner.

Gritty, overcrowded, smelly, polluted, busy and dangerous are all words associated with Mexico City, but beneath the warnings we saw some terrific architecture, proud monuments, a lot of green and pleasant land and happy people.
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Nov 27

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Weekend warrior

I am making the most of having Thanksgiving Friday off work and fly back to Gatwick overnight for the weekend, literally until Sunday when I will fly back.

Despite the disorientating nature of it, I love these quick weekenders back at home. I cram in as much as possible, travel light and the body doesn’t get time to adjust, at least that is what I tell myself anyway.
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Nov 12

Bermuda’s convicts

Yesterday I took the family around the Royal Naval Cemetery as planned although my daughter’s curiousness as to “who am I walking on Daddy” meant she soon disappeared with her mother to dip their toes in the ocean, a sensible decision with the humidity in Bermuda yesterday at 98%.

However, it did leave me to explore this fascinating burial site for British military families who lived in Bermuda in the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Oct 29

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Disney

We have been in Walt Disney World, Orlando since Sunday, an idea conceived behind my back when I was travelling with work recently.

I thought we were going for a few days of school half-term to New Orleans. Think jazz, beignets and hangovers, but my two girls decided that we finally dispel any notions that I expel that Disney doesn’t exist and come and visit Mickey & Minnie. Think Elsa, hot dogs and aching legs!
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Oct 21

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Weary

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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Oct 7

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Streets of San Francisco

After collecting my lost suitcase just an hour before I left my Los Angeles hotel, I flew north this morning to San Francisco where I will be until Friday.
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Oct 6

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An open and shut case

What’s your worst nightmare?

I’ll tell you mine.

It is landing in Los Angeles airport late on a Sunday evening after 16 hours of travel and to find out that your suitcase has not arrived with you, and in fact according to American Airlines it decided to see Mickey in Orlando instead of coming to LA with me to work.
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Sep 14

Travelogue – Kansas City, Missouri

Let me tell you the other night I ate the best barbecue food I have possibly ever tasted. The renowned Jack Stacks catered an event I was at on the final night of the conference held in the 95 ft high Grand Hall at Union Station, and it was truly finger lickin’ good.

Kansas City strikes me as a collection of neighbourhoods joined together to form a city, not unlike many in America. There was no obvious heartbeat to the city, although the Power and Light district is the beginnings of much revamping of the downtown area.

So called because of the close by Art Deco building of the same name, we ventured to a few of the bars there last night, although there appeared to be more bars than people. Although saying that when the circus turned out at the huge Spirit Center across the street the area was descended upon by thousands of excitable kids all with balloons.
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Sep 8

Finger lickin’ good

Breakfast in Bermuda, New York for lunch, Chicago for dinner, Kansas City tomorrow for lunch. That is the itinerary and then stay a few days in the home of the barbeque, before Dallas and Miami next Friday night.

A week of work travel mostly at a conference in Kansas City, which is arguably the hardest place to get to in the world from Bermuda. Six airports, hopefully a bucket load of barbecue ribs and I have even got an invite to the speedway.
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Aug 26

Attack on the senses

A couple of very enjoyable days in Mexico City are over and we flew today onto the beachy Pacific Coast and Punta Mita.

First impressions of the Mexican capital are not kind. Journeying in from the airport in the west, once on the outskirts but now swallowed by this megalopolis, the overwhelming welcome is of noise, fumes, and of overcrowding.

We stayed near the huge Bosque de Chapultepec, one of the largest public parks in the Western Hemisphere and an area dotted with hotels, offices and signs of investment in half completed tower blocks, yet re-gentrification of this part town is far from complete and a walk from our hotel to the park was an ugly attack on the senses.
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Aug 23

Huddersfield Town 1 Charlton Athletic 1

An injury time equaliser from Igor! Igor! Igor! kept the Addicks’ unbeaten run going this afternoon up at Huddersfield.

After the euphoria of being at The Valley on Tuesday I was left to follow the game on Twitter at Miami Airport where we were waiting for our connecting flight to Mexico City and I had all but accepted defeat until a very late and very welcome GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL tweet came through from the OS.
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Aug 22

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Hasta la vista

Instead of being sat in the Chadwick Lawrence Stand tomorrow I will be swapping bitter for tequila and heading off to Mexico on holiday.

By Tuesday afternoon we’ll be out on the Pacific west coast at Punta Mita, a small beachy peninsula town 45 minutes north of the much larger Puerto Vallarta. The area is dominated by a couple of large hotels, one of which we will make our home for almost a week. The plan is to pretty much do nothing except test the water and experience the local cuisine and selection of beverages.
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Jul 31

MIA

Thursday and Friday in Bermuda are national holidays, officially known as Emancipation Day and Somers Day, but more widely known as Cup Match, when the two end’s of the island take each other on at cricket.

It’s a fun time to be in Bermuda, but I’ve ticked that box a few times and it is hard to give up an opportunity to go away for a long weekend. Thus, we find ourselves at the airport on our way to Miami, a familiar retreat for us.
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May 11

Travelogue: Scottsdale, Arizona

In 1888 a United States Army Chaplain called Winfield Scott bought 640 acres of Sonoran Desert for $2,240. Now Scottsdale has some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

The area was named as Orangedale after the huge orange groves that were planted by Winfield and his brother George, who cultivated the land to great effect. The town was renamed Scottsdale after it’s founder in 1894.

The Old Town retains much of it’s 19th Century Wild West flair. It’s more than a little kitsch, with it’s tourist souvenir shops selling cowboy boots and indian jewellery. It is also the centre of much of Scottsdale’s nightlife with many bars and restaurants. The oldest saloon in Scottsdale, the Rusty Spur has to be worth a stopover for a pint.

One building with genuine history is the 1909 Little Red School House, now home of the Scottsdale Historical Museum. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is Arizona’s only permanent showcase to modern art and is very cutting edge. Also worth a closer look was the beautiful Adobe Mission Church. A white building made of 14,000 individual adobe blocks. Someone was inside willing to answer questions.
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May 10

Travelogue: Sonoran Desert

We hired Jesse, a self confessed cowboy with an off-road jeep for a tour of the northern part of the Sonoran Desert. Jesse strapped us all into his slightly battered and bruised open sided jeep and took off down the highway, and as the wind took our breath Jesse talked of indian reservations and bikers conventions and how in this part of the desert the valleys are narrower, the mountains are higher, the winters are colder and the summers are warmer, and we were going to see it all.

The Sonoran Desert covers the southwestern part of Arizona, part of California and the northern part of Mexico and is approximately 120,000 square miles in size.

Jesse drove us slowly away from the busy roads to a point where hundreds of mail boxes were bundled together on dirt, and the track moved from gravel to sand.

“This is as far as the mailman comes,” Jesse announced and then with a steep drop we were off.

What amazed me was for miles tucked away amongst the terrain of cactus, trees, flowers and nothing were houses, big houses. All with roof top gardens. No one is safe in there own garden Jesse told us, that land belongs to the snakes and scorpions, so people sit on the roof. Interesting I thought as I peered over the side of the jeep.
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Apr 10

Wild west

It was a little ways to go for a long weekend, but I really enjoyed our short trip to Scottsdale. There is a 4 hour time difference between Arizona and Bermuda and when we finally pulled into our hotel on Friday at midnight it had meant we’d been up for 22 hours, and one of us had woken with a raging hangover.

Then as always happens, the three of us were wide awake at 5am starving and ready to start the day, only to tire by evening time. Fortunately I’m out of the habit of all night clubbing, with the family anyway, so early nights followed by a couple of very enjoyable morning walks with coffee, blue skies and a just-perfect morning chill worked wonders.
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Apr 4

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Just deserts

When the other day my inqusitive-other-half asked me what we were doing for her birthday next Monday my quizzical look clearly did not portray mystery but worthlessness!

I’ve been out every night this week with clients, including Sunday and me and the other half have mostly been communicating by email plus the odd groan when staggering around the bedroom past midnight, I’ve taken the occasional tumble.

My other half sends me calendar invites on a regular basis so whatever she wants me or us to do it goes straight into my work calendar. Shall we say, I can be a hard man to get hold off. Although, if she bothered to read this Blog then she would have some kind of clue at least.
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Mar 13

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The Borough, SE1

I spent four days in the smoke the week before last.

I rarely get to spend that much time in the City these days, but I have in recent times taken to staying just sarf of the river and this time I decided on a small hotel near Borough Market and I was shocked by how much that area had changed.

Borough Market of course has been there for ever, 1014 apparently, but in recent years it has been polished like a diamond. There was a real aura to it, and the market is bordered by a whole range of cool cafes and restaurants.
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Feb 16

2013 Top 5 Favourite Places

I hadn’t gotten around to posting my final 2013 Top 5’s, so I am going to bombard you with the final ones in the next few minutes starting with the best places I got to see last year.
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Feb 2

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Contrasts

In a warm Miami this morning after a journey back from a very snowy Colorado yesterday evening.

In the last three days we were in Beaver Creek 36 inches of snow fell, the most at this time of many years. This had caused earlier airport issues with a bountiful of cancellations and the tiny Eagle airport near Vail was stretched to breaking point yesterday, as was my patience.

Our flight had a weight problem, so they had to throw a few fatties off and some luggage which caused a lot of consternation and an hour delay all the while after I had to push a wheelchair, carry 7 bags, and herd a 4-year old.
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Jan 21

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Snow go

I had another aborted attempt in trying to get to New York this morning. At least this time my flight was cancelled even before I had thought about packing last night. A fortnight ago I had to spend 3 hours at Bermuda airport where there is nothing to do except get progressively more annoyed at American Airlines’ incompetence.

While the cynic in me thinks American Airlines just didn’t want to fly a two-thirds empty flight and would rather save the fuel, the official reason was the weather, and to be fair the Big Apple is getting hit pretty hard this morning with a snowfall of upto 14 inches expected – bigger than the dump they got two weeks ago.
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Dec 22

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Travelogue: Everglades Safari Park, Miami

When we were recently in Miami, we took a drive out to the Everglades Safari Park to have a closer look at Florida’s rare eco-system with the hope that we would also see alligators in their natural environment.

The only way to do that was by airboat, which is a flat-bottomed boat with an engine and an aircraft propeller that flies across the surface of the water.

We chose a private tour because we didn’t want to have to queue as the rides are first come first served and it is a popular place for coach parties. The private tour was a little more expensive but we had more time out on the water and had our own personal airboat and guide.
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Dec 11

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Peachy

Back from Atlanta after another fun and tireless Christmas weekend in the ‘Big Peach’ with the family. We did everything we set out to do despite the weather being unusually uncooperative, the city witnessing overnight temperatures touching freezing and bang in the middle of nine consecutive days of rain.

We ended last night with a trip to the beautiful Botanical Gardens, just over a year to the night when me and the other half made our long relationship a bit more proper by me putting a ring on it.
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Dec 8

Travelogue: Gamboa, Panama

During our trip to Panama City did take a very early morning excursion out of the capital to Gamboa, a town on the banks of the Panama Canal half way across the isthmus.

Gamboa is surrounded by world-famous birding trails and the tropical rainforest of Soberanía National Park plus the powerful Rio Chagres that feeds the artificial Lago Gatun, via the monumental Gatun Dam, which is an integral part of the Panama Canal.
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Dec 6

Christmas expedition

We are taking what has become our annual weekend trip to Atlanta later today.

Tea with Santa, the Atlanta Christmas parade, a puppet show, the Christmas lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, the Aquarium and some Christmas shopping if we can fit it in are all on the agenda.
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Nov 24

Travelogue: Panama City, Panama

Panama City has for the longest time been a city that I wanted to visit. Maybe it was the canal, or it’s history or maybe just the hats. In August I convinced the family to visit this very cosmopolitan city surrounded by tropical rainforest.

We made the short hop from Nicaragua to Panama’s Tocumen airport which is just 15 miles from the heart of the city. It surprised me Panama City upon arrival, it was very cosmopolitan and densely packed with tower blocks almost leaning against one and another.

A lot of people come to Panama, tick the box that says Canal and then head out of this bustling metropolis to seek it’s natural treasures such as the national parks, mountains and unspoit beaches but I really wanted to explore the city and with only a few days to do it in, we spent the entire first day on an open top bus.
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Nov 5

Passport

After a busy weekend taking in a little football, a very enjoyable dinner at The Oak celebrating some good news, a couple of curries, one in Birmingham and one with some mates in Hornchurch plus a swift game of bowling in Maidstone, the most important reason for being home, allegedly, was that I needed to renew my passport.
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Oct 31

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Bahamas, Bermuda, Birmingham

Two days back in Bermuda and the next stop on the itinerary is St Andrews on Saturday.

I fly into Gatwick tomorrow, a short stop at my parents and then will whisk my son up to Birmingham, the scene of one of the greatest night’s in the Addicks’ history. Saturday may not be quite so important as that Friday night in May 1987, but I am still looking forward to seeing the Reds for just the second time this season.
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Oct 30

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Hotel fire

Saturday was an eventful day. My daughter on her birthday fed baby sharks and sting rays, swam and kissed and cuddled a dolphin, ate her way through an ice-cream mountain and then when fast asleep around 10pm dreaming of I would hope dolphins but probably ice-cream, she was awoken by a huge unannounced firework display a touch down the beach on Paradise Island from where we were staying.

Sleepy eyed she smiled and shuddered in turn at every splash of colour and large bang. It was a day to remember.

Two hours later just as we were about to call it a night after purposely watching again James Bond’s Casino Royale, because the hotel we were staying in plays a starring role, the sound of an alarm thundered around our room. This was followed by a recorded message that there was an incident that was being investigated but there was no need for alarm and to wait for further instructions.

Our daughter was awake again but was soon back to sleep. I opened the door of the hotel and peered into the night. Nothing going on.
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