Travelogue | Chicago Addick

Dec 11

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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Oct 23

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Bahama Mama

We are spoiling ourselves tomorrow and flying down to the Bahamas for a long weekend. It is our daughter’s 4th birthday on Saturday and after much debate on parties and cake, we somehow convinced ourselves that going away would be less hassle and more cost efficient. No, I don’t know how we came to that conclusion either.

Anyway, Nassau from Miami is a short hop and we can get there from here in half a day. So tomorrow lunchtime I should be sat by a pool with a bowl of conch chowder and a tall glass of Bahama Mama!
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Oct 13

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Ground zero

I was in New York last week and I spent a lot of time walking Lower Manhattan’s streets which always wakens the senses. This part of NYC is the oldest part of the original colony of New Amsterdam that evenutally became New York City and is a maze of history and a myriad of architecture.

Wednesday night I was in Chinatown, the largest of its type in the west. A few pints in the Whiskey Tavern and we asked for a recommendation of a non-touristy Chinese restaurant with the only insistence being that it was licensed! The barman suggested Hop Kee, and we proceeded to eat ourselves into a MSG coma. You simply cannot get good or even average Chinese food in Bermuda and it was a big treat as we all live on the island.
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Oct 8

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Travelogue: Nicaragua

Nicaragua has had to endure a very sad history, and the smiles on the faces of every Nicaraguan we had the pleasure to meet suggested that there is a much brighter future ahead for this beautiful land.

Many of the locals we met had returned to the country because they wanted to help rebuild it after decades of adversity. You name it, and the Nica’s have seen it. Wars, military dictatorships, meddling Americans, natural disasters, contras and bent governments.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere yet it’s people talked in absolutely perfect English affectionately and emotionally about their country with real enthusiasm of a better future. It was a very sobering experience.

Despite all of the tales of destruction and strife what no one could ever destroy was Nicaragua’s natural beauty. Part of a biologocal corridor that for a million years has allowed plant and animal species from two continents to mingle, and thus it boasts extraordinary geographical beauty and wildlife.
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Sep 12

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From peaks to troughs

There are many higher places to travel to than Banff, but believe me it feels very close to heaven here. The mountains that surround Banff on all sides are breathtaking with dark evergreen trees layering them like a blanket. It is a beautiful little place, one of the most picturesque I have seen in North America.
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Sep 10

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Onto Banff

I had a little wander around the downtown streets of Calgary last night. The streets were affluent, clean and modern although not unsurprisingly on a Monday they were pretty tranquil, and it would have been hard to find any trouble, so I settled at the hotel bar for a couple of pints with the other travelling salesmen.

I leave for Banff shortly and have taken a look at what to expect. The town is actually within the National Park and began as the park’s headquarters.
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Sep 9

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Oh Canada

I am sat at the airport in Bermuda for the start of a 10-day work trip and I have a long day ahead of me. I’m flying to Calgary, which is not simple from here. The journey will send me to New York, where I have to switch airports, although I will make good use of the long stopover by meeting a couple of friends for lunch in midtown.

Then later from Newark I take a WestJet flight to Calgary, which doesn’t get me there until later tonight.
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Aug 7

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Trumped

We flew to Panama City this afternoon, around about a 70-minute flight from Managua for the next part of our holiday.

After the remoteness and quiet that one feels in Nicaragua, the 2nd poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, we now find ourselves in Panama City, the most cosmopolitan city in Central America, which isn’t a real surprise given it’s rich diversity given to it by the famed, almost century old Canal plus it’s reputation as an international banking centre.
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Jul 31

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Nicaragua and Panama

Tomorrow we head off for our summer holiday. We will spend tomorrow night in Coral Gables, a spit away from Miami Airport, and then Friday fly to Managua in Nicaragua.

Last year we holidayed this same time of year in Costa Rica – the howler monkey that flies across the top of this blog will tell you how much we adored it. My other half has little or no flexibility on her work holiday allocation, unlike me, which may not come as a total surprise to you, so our desire to see a lot of Latin America is hindered by these two weeks being the optimum time to getaway. Hindered because the further south in the Americas one goes it is winter and many countries in Central America are as hot as hades this time of year.
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Jun 16

Castle Harbour

Happy Father’s Day Dads.

Whilst we have to celebrate two different Mother’s Days, because it falls on a completely different day here and in the U.S., I only get to revel in one. Once actually we were in Mexico and we had to get wrapped up in their Mother’s Day celebrations too as that was also incommensurable. Bloody expensive that year.

Anyway, I had a lovely day today as the three of us hired a little motor boat and cruised around the very scenic Castle Harbour at the north-east end of the island.
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Jun 14

Sun shines on the righteous

We lucked out massively yesterday at the Merion Golf Club. The forecasters were predicting all kinds of doomsday scenarios – thunder, lightning, tornadoes, flash flooding, 75 mph winds – neither of which happened in the leafy Philadelphia suburb of Haverford, named incidentally from the Welsh town of Haverfordwest after this little corner of Pennsylvania was founded by the Welsh Quakers in 1681.
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Apr 5

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The best beaches in the World

Recently Trip Advisor listed Bermuda’s Horseshoe Bay as the 8th best beach in the world. I am not really a beach person, even though there is one at the foot of our garden, but I think in years to come one of the abiding memories of having lived here will be Horseshoe Bay.

The beach is the most well known on the island although there are many hidden coves that are equally beautiful, but it is at Horseshoe that the island’s famous pink sand and clear coral filled sea is like no other.
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Feb 24

The 2012 Shower Gellies™

There is some awards show going on in Hollywood tonight for the 85th time apparently but more importantly going on in my whimsical mind are the 7th Annual Chicago Addick Shower Gellies™. If you have just clicked on this post, then unfortunately you have missed the red carpet, but if you read on then you will find out which auspicious establishment will be presented with one of my much sought after, or not, Gellies™.

Since last February I have kipped in 31 hotels, and I believe mostly showered in all of them as well. I can’t tell you how pissed off I get when hotels charge the weekly wage of a journeyman League One footballer have beds that are like sleeping on big white fluffy clouds with 46 pillows and showers that are glass encased tardises yet expect you to bathe with a thimble of watery liquid, that’s if you are lucky.
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Feb 15

School day memories

Back from a great but knackering week in Florida with work. I spent the last night of the trip with a client that owns the imposing Westin Diplomat in Hollywood north of Miami. They were very accomodating and it was a restful way to end the trip, which started in similar fashion last Sunday with a few beers with New York Addick on Ocean Drive in South Beach.

A weekend of not doing an awful lot is on the radar, although the weather here doesn’t appear to encourage doing much outside. Hopefully I can catch some of the FA Cup games on the telly, although the one I’d like to see doesn’t appear to be on.
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Feb 7

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Travelogue – Costa Rica

We spent a week in Costa Rica last August. For a small country (19,000 sq. miles) Costa Rica is overloaded with choices but it was the quiet isolation of the crooked finger shaped Papagayo Peninsula that we chose as our destination.

Costa Rica is an earthy jewel like no other, a string of volcanoes and the Andes-Sierra Madre range carve a rugged backbone between the Pacific and Caribbean shores. More than a quarter of the country is protected and Costa Rica has long led the way in ecological sensitivity.

Did you know that for a place that represents only 0.01% of the world’s landmass, is home to 5% of it’s wildlife? You do now.
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Jan 31

Nice Beaver

Our last day in the snowy utopia of Beaver Creek. It has been a skiers paradise here with a daily dosing of fresh fluffy snow giving away at daybreak to alpine blue skies.

The company that invited us here have done a super job of looking after us, and we hope that this was not a one-off. There were some late nights and some very early mornings and the altitude, which can be as high as 11,000 feet, has caused most of us problems, but although as a consequence of my knee operation, I’m not much of a daredevil these days, actually who am I kidding, I never was, this part of the country is stunningly beautiful and distinctly different to the Alps.
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Jan 25

Up the Creek

We flew to Miami this morning and have had a stop-over day in nearby Coral Gables before we set off for a week’s skiing in Colorado tomorrow morning.

We are staying in Beaver Creek, near Vail, our 3rd time at the same hotel. We had decided that a skiing holiday wasn’t going to happen this year for one way or another so a corporate invite a couple of months ago was a very welcome surprise, especially to a hotel we love and a village that has a welcome sign up exclaiming: “Not exactly roughing it!”
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Jan 22

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Brrrrrr

It’s my turn to witness some minus temperatures today when I fly to New York with work. Winter is upon us in Bermuda, but the temperature remains in the late 60’s (18°C), but you’ll be pleased to hear that it did rain on Sunday!

New York has a low of -9°C today and I have had to grab some gloves and a scarf from the pile of clothes we have ready for skiing next week when we are off to Colorado.
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Dec 3

Christmas comes early

We’ve been in Atlanta for a little Christmas appetiser since Friday evening and have been retracing our steps from a year ago, when we did the same trip.

Saturday morning we were at the Atlanta Christmas Parade, which was 90 minutes of large inflatables, local b-celebs, llamas, dressed up dogs, school marching bands, an insight into child obesity and Mr & Mrs Claus.
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Nov 21

Giving thanks

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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Nov 15

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Boston weekend

I enjoyed my little saunter to Boston this past weekend. The weather was glorious despite snow being on the ground from the Nor’easter storm earlier last week, though why they insist on spelling this kind of weather pattern wrong is beyond me. Anyway sat outside for four hours watching the New England Patriots beat Buffalo Bills on Sunday could have and should have been a very cold experience but instead the stadium was basked in beautiful sunshine.

Boston is one of that small band of American cities that relies on people walking it, supplemented by an excellent underground train network. The city is a cluster of neighbourhoods stretching south-west from the airport and we stayed in the North End, which is only a spit away from the airport across the Boston Harbour.
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Nov 10

Patriot Sunday

Off to Boston this morning which has made me not too popular at home as both my girls, young and not so young, have spent the whole week sick.

I have been invited to the attend the New England Patriots v Buffalo Bills game on Sunday. It starts at 1pm and the way the flights work make it a ‘necessity’ for me to leave here this morning, which conveniently allows for a night in Boston and then a lie in followed by going to the Patriots stadium in Foxborough, about 20 miles south-west of the city
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Oct 29

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Sandy extends our weekend

As I anticipated we never made it back to Bermuda tonight as our flight was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy passing Bermuda at it’s closest point around about our expected arrival time and American Airlines unsurprisingly were not prepared to run the gauntlet.

The ~~good~~ bad news is that the solitary daily flight from Miami to Bermuda tomorrow (if it goes) and Tuesday are fully booked, so we will have to slum it here in Palm Beach for another 3 days. I am having great difficulty convincing my 3-year old daughter that not every birthday entails a week in Florida!
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Oct 25

Cup cake

A crafty weekend off island starting today. We fly to Miami soon and will then drive the hour and a half north up the I95 to Palm Beach where we will eat, drink and shop for a few days with our daughter’s 3rd birthday being the centrepiece of the weekend.

Her only wish is a cupcake, which I think we can manage but the weekend coincides conveniently with Halloween, which we know the Americans are nuts for, and on Saturday we will be at nearby Spookyville to be scared witless, well a teeny bit anyway.
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Oct 11

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Charm City

Despite being stranded in the Atlantic Ocean little ol’ Bermuda is pretty easy to get in and out off. There is a daily Gatwick flight, three flights in and out of New York, two to Boston and each day Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami and Toronto are all 90 to 120 minutes away. Plus there are seasonally a handful of other flights to North American east coast cities such as DC, Charlotte and even Nova Scotia.

The most recent daily service to Bermuda is airTran’s to Baltimore, which I am getting this afternoon just to go to a dinner. Then tomorrow morning after waking up I will re-pack my pyjamas and then fly back to Bermuda arriving here around 2pm. Simples.
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Sep 17

Train spotting

I’m in Chicago the whole of this week and in true Charlton traditions I am attending a Rail Conference, which will include a visit to America’s largest inland intermodal in Joliet, south-west of the city. Oh, I see that you have logged off….

Anyways, I will also have the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and work colleagues, and plan to be as near as I can to updates as the Addicks attempt to redeem themselves at Derby on Tuesday night.
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Aug 13

Palm Beach and the other side of the tracks

Back from a couple of days in Palm Beach, Florida to round off our summer holiday. An interesting place is Palm Beach, not to be confused with West Palm Beach. Both are in the same Florida county but are separated by an Intercoastal Waterway and three bridges.

On one side of the water multi, multi million dollar homes owned by a cast of rich people and shops with items in the window that don’t have a price tag (“if you need to ask the price, then you can’t afford it sir”), and on the other side a rather run down looking neighbourhood with more Dollar Stores and Pawn Shops than I think I have ever seen in one place.
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Aug 8

Wrench

It will be a wrench to leave Costa Rica today. We’ve been really taken with this friendly and provocative country, at least the bits we have seen in the north west province of Guanacaste. The area is splendidly unblemished with a pixar movie full of great characters such as howler and white-faced monkeys, coyotes, anteaters, crocodiles, iguanas and sloths, all in their natural habitat.
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Jul 31

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Costa Rica

Back from Chicago, a change of clothes and back to the airport on Thursday for a trip to Costa Rica. Never been before and we have been looking forward to this since we booked it a couple of months back.

To break the trip up and because of flight connections we are sandwiching Costa Rica between two stops in Florida’s sweltering heat. Coral Gables for a day going out and three nights further up the coast in Palm Beach on the way back.

Costa Rica is a small country in Central America but it packs a big punch with it’s rugged backbone of volcanoes, 800 miles of coastline, many national parks and rich variety of wildlife.
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Jul 29

An alien in New York

A fantastic wedding weekend in Chicago has been extended by one night as we are holed up in the Hilton at JFK. Due to supposed bad weather, I am guessing somewhere in the world because it was not obvious, our flight from Chicago to New York this afternoon left late and sure enough we missed our connection back to Bermuda.
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Jul 18

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Olympic woe

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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Jul 11

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Home town

Chicago, my kind of town.

My third day here and sadly I have to leave tomorrow, although happily I will be back in a few weeks. Fortunately the 100 degree heatwave is over and the weather has been beautiful these last couple of days encouraging late night strolling around familiar streets and sights.
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May 22

Wedding bells

No, not mine but me and the family are flying back to London tonight for my mates wedding, the one in which I am one of two best men, the speech is coming along nicely, although I’m finding it hard to keep it below two hours.

The wedding is Friday but before then we are doing a mini tour of Oxfordshire and Essex catching up with friends. This after a late dinner last night with a client and then home to pack in the early hours before getting up silly early this morning to come to work. I can sleep when I’m older.
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May 14

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Non-stop

A couple of days travelling with work beginning this morning. I’m on a flight to Miami in an hour or so then I go to Atlanta tomorrow and back to the rock on Wednesday on the same flight as a friend of mine who is staying with us Thursday night.

I am then desperate for a quiet weekend because next week we fly back to the UK for my best mate’s wedding. That is in Kent on the Friday but we are in Oxfordshire and Essex prior to that. I have the role of deputy best man for the day, or some such, which unenviably includes giving a speech, which I’ve yet to write. Maybe the next few days stuck on a few planes will give me some time and inspiration.
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Apr 23

From Barça with love

It was 21 hours from the time the alarm went yesterday morning at 4.30am (after getting in bed at 1.30am), until I got home last night. Today I am shall we say, a little bit fuddled.

But it was all worth it to spend a weekend with a great set of lads and the groom, to whom I am deputy best man, a role I have yet to fully understand except I do have the (dis)pleasure of making a speech at the wedding in a months time.

I left Barcelona with a real positive feel about the Catalonian city. I didn’t get to see anywhere as much of the city as I would have liked, stag weekenders strangely are not always about flying around monuments and museums taking photographs, but those of us that did so on Saturday were joyfully rewarded by a city with spectacular architecture and a bewitching personality.
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Apr 17

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To Barca

For this Addick, it is not to SE7 on Saturday to party but to Barcelona.

Some while ago my mate, a fellow Addick, was planning his stag weekend. The dates bounced about a bit and every time he proposed a weekend I would take a quick glance, as I am sure he did, at the fixture list.

Blackpool was toyed with to coincide with the Preston game, I seriously proposed a good old knees up in Blackheath for this weekend and varying other European destinations were deliberated. Football was central to the outcome so Lisbon, Belgrade, Rome and even Dortmund were considered.
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Apr 5

Mountain dry

This photo was taken this morning and shows how little, if any, snow remains in the upper Colorado mountains. It has been a poor season snow wise in Colorado, with the state’s snowpack being half of the 30-year average. March, traditionally the biggest snowfall month, had snow for less than 10 days and the snow inches was a third of what it should be.

It was 60oF yesterday, higher today, which justified my decision not to bring a proper ski-coat. About half of the runs are still open nevertheless and the groomers have done a terrific job of managing the runs.
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Apr 1

Miami heat

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray produced an excellent final of the Sony Ericsson Open here in Miami this afternoon. In searing heat and high humidity the Serb and the Scot slogged it out for almost two and a half hours producing rally after rally.
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Mar 30

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A week away

After a manic, and an often wearing March at work we leave Bermuda tomorrow for a week away spending the first weekend in Coral Gables, near Miami and then next week in Colorado followed by the majority of the next weekend making our way back from the mountains to Bermuda, not something the airlines allow us to do simply.

As I posted last weekend we have tickets for the Sony Ericsson Open tennis men’s final on Sunday afternoon. In today’s semi’s Rafa Nadal plays Andy Murray and number one seed Novak Djokovic is paired with the 21st seed Argentinian Juan Monaco.
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Mar 25

Sony Ericsson Open

Currently taking place in Key Biscayne, Miami is the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament, one of the ATP World Tour Masters events. All of the world’s best players are in Miami and we have tickets for the men’s final next Sunday.

The event takes place at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park, which is itself a large urban park occupying the northern part of Key Biscayne which is connected to mainland Miami by bridge.
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Mar 4

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AFC Bournemouth 0 Charlton Athletic 1

Back from a great weekend in Bournemouth where the match, if not the end result and pre and post game, has been consigned to memory.

It was a pretty dismal affair if I’m honest with Bournemouth edging it but a goalless draw probably the right result. This Charlton team however does not know when it is over.

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Feb 26

The 2011 Shower Gellies™

The Academy Awards are tonight, and as is traditional I will guide you through my annual Chicago Addick Shower Gellies™. If you have just tuned in, then unfortunately you have missed the red carpet.

Now don’t log off, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. I stayed in 25 hotels in 2011, that is one every other week, and I can’t tell you how pissed off I get when hotels charge the weekly wage of a journeyman League One footballer have beds that are like sleeping on big white fluffy clouds with 46 pillows and showers that are glass encased tardises yet expect you to bathe with a thimble of watery liquid, that’s if you are lucky.
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Feb 16

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Travelogue: Vancouver

I know my Canadian readers have been waiting for this! I was in Vancouver last May and it has taken me until now to finish my Travelogue post of this radiant city.

At just 125 years old Vancouver is a baby. Naturally Aboriginal’s trawled this part of the north-western coastline 8,000 years ago breathing in the fresh air, but it wasn’t until the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858 that folk showed any interest in the area when 25,000 men showed up with spades and swag bags. A few stayed and set up home and began Vancouver’s long history of logging. One man in particular called ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton established a ramshackle tavern around the inner harbour of Burrard.

A steamship operator from Hull, Gassy Jack was quite a character and loved by the locals the area around his boozer was quickly named Gastown, as it is still today.
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Feb 12

Winter Park

Bermuda’s winter is finally looking like it’s arrived. Rain is lashing sideways at the kitchen window as I look outside and the ocean is full of large frothy white capped waves like a sea of cups of cappuccino.

A Bermuda winter normally consists of a lot of driving rain, with intermittent drizzle and dampness accompanied by strong winds during the months of January and February, with March changeable. I can see a number of your hearts bleeding, so I will tell you that despite the rain today the temperature is still to 66°F!

Last week’s work event in Miami Beach – it rained every day like it always does when we are there – was bloody exhausting. Early starts, long days, late nights. I actually love it but I was glad to get home.
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Feb 3

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Superbowl XLVI

Hot dogs, buckets of Bud, half-time shows, wardrobe malfunctions, pizza, multi million dollar TV adverts, chips and sickly cheese, an out of tune national anthem, chicken wings, gallons of cough mixture coloured Gatorade thrown over the winning coach, oh and a game of American Football.

The Superbowl, the biggest day in the American sporting calendar.
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Feb 2

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Oh boy!

Up until 2 years ago I used to join a collection of mates from both sides of the Atlantic for Superbowl weekend in a chosen city, but then baby came along and some of the finer things in my life had to be ended or put on hold.

Fortunately the Superbowl weekend was only on a temporary hold and tomorrow morning I fly to Orlando to meet up with some of the lads to play, explore downtown Orlando (I’ve been before and there’s not much to see, unless it is a mouse called Mickey) and then spend the whole of Sunday in a pub somewhere watching men in tight pants run into each other while chasing after an oval ball on a gigantic television screen whilst drinking a few lagers.
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Jan 5

Zooropa

Amongst bundles of discarded wrapping paper, turkey leftovers and bags under the eyes during our trip home I also made my first ever visit to Colchester Zoo, re-discovered some old London stomping grounds and had a couple of cracking pub lunches.

Colchester Zoo was much bigger than I imagined. Our friends had suggested a 4-hour visit and as we drove up there in the drizzly rain I truly wondered what an earth we were going to do for 3 of those hours.

But I should have feared not as we comfortably strolled it’s 60 acres during 3 hours and still left some for another day, although there were a fair amount of exhibits that had migrated for the winter. There are apparently over 260 different species and they are laid out in numerous zones where you can get pretty close to the animals.
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Jan 4

2011 Top 5 Favourite Places

Ok, time for a bit of naval gazing. It’s January and therefore it is time for some Chicago Addick Top 5’s. I’ll start of with some of the places I found myself in in 2011.

1. Aspen
We were in Aspen in April and it has a certain finesse and poise to it. The once gold rush town in Colorado is a year round resort but to not go in the winter to see the majestic snow capped mountains would be a bucket list tick missed. My Travelogue
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Dec 6

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A peach of a weekend

The temperatures weren’t much different in the peach-tree state to those we left behind in Bermuda but we had a lot of festive fun in Atlanta and as always crammed a lot into our long weekend.

Saturday morning we had front row seats for the Christmas Parade downtown (photo). I’m normally from the school of ‘once you’ve seen one parade you’ve seen them all’ but this was particularly good and for two hours various giant inflatables, dancing dogs, dancing humans, school bands and dressed up horses held our 2-year old’s steely glaze and smiling face.
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Dec 1

Santa in Atlanta

A weekend in Atlanta is in store for me, the other half and little ‘un as we travel tomorrow afternoon from Bermuda to the furthest west a direct flight will take us. Flight time to Atlanta from here is 3 hrs, 35 mins.

For such a remote island, daily you can fly from Bermuda to New York, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto in North America and these are added to in the summer months with a seasonal service to Baltimore, Halifax, Charlotte and Washington DC. Ten different airlines fly in and out of Bermuda including British Airways and the basket case that is becoming American Airlines.
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Nov 17

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Houston calling

Funny place Houston. Not an oil refinery or stetson in sight. In fact the Galleria area where I spent the whole time could have been lifted from most other places in the States.

It was a quick fire but worthwhile work trip although our three hour delay in getting there on Tuesday evening made me realise that we should have planned to stay an extra day to squeeze a little more out of the trip.

Meals were generally restricted to grabbing a glass of wine and some bar food but we did eat lunch at what was described to me as an ‘interior Mexican’ restaurant. The menu was interesting and took a bit if studying without a nacho to be seen.
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Nov 15

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Oilers

Right three weeks on this here rock and I’m off again, this time to Houston, Texas on a work trip until Thursday night. I visited Houston once before in 2008 to visit some friends who were living there at the time. As I alluded to then, Houston is such a huge sprawling city it is hard to get any sense for the place unless you spent a lot of time there, so a three-day work trip (including two days of travel) will not give me a lot more insight into the 600 sq. mile metropolis.
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Sep 26

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Travelogue: Magaluf, Mallorca

A few people asked me why we picked Magaluf as a venue for a boys weekend, the fact is that it picked itself. It was in Magaluf that 25-years ago me and 12 of my closest mates had our first ever foreign holiday. Most of us are still in touch and we were all at secondary school together albeit spread over three different years. In fact one of the lads I went to nursery school with (42 years ago) and he still harangues me about never letting him have a go on the plastic tricycle!

We travelled in style. Six of us in my mate´s London cab to Stansted (where we met the rest of our group), Easy Jet to Palma for around 100 quid, and then our own mini-bus to the 3 star hotel that we´d booked bang in the middle of it all and next door to the monstrous BCM nightclub, which unsurprisingly smelt like a cocktail of puke, Red Bull and bleach. Despite the fact the Island’s largest nightclub was next door, our hotel was pretty quiet save for the obligatory banging on doors in the middle of the night and loud British voices.
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Sep 17

Leaving Las Vegas

Three prophesied days of fun and frolics in Las Vegas then. Eating, drinking, gambling, a Cirque du Soleil show, shopping and I even managed to throw in a work’s conference as well. The next stop is Chicago, a city that I hold very dear in my heart.

I do like Vegas and if you have never been, it really is somewhere that should appear on your bucket list. A few nights is enough though, for me anyway, because sleeping doesn’t appear high up on the list of things to do and my candle is severely charred at both ends!
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Sep 14

In spirit if not body

My body doesn’t like me too much at the moment. After a weekend on the toot in Magaluf pretending to be 25-years younger than I really am, I then flew myself 9 hours back in time to Sin City, Las Vegas which included a sprint through Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 to make my final connection.

When my alarm went off on Monday night when I was in a cab taking me from the airport in Las Vegas to the hotel, it signalled that I had been up for 24 hours.
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Sep 12

Charlton Athletic 2 Exeter City 0

The two-man Addick contingent in our party followed proceedings in a Magaluf bar on Saturday afternoon courtesy of Soccer Saturday and Twitter. It sounded like we made a little hard work of the victory but playing against ten men and probably a referee intent on levelling things up after an obvious balls-up (photo) is never easy.
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