Day 159 - 31st August 2007

I’d been looking forward to going out into Spain on my own yesterday and as I set off this morning I was no less excited. Spain, however, didn’t come easily. First of all the tunnel to cross the border was closed to let a police convoy through, so I had to wait half an hour for that to open; then, once in Spain, I got stopped four times at police roadblocks, they were obviously on the hunt for someone who looked like me!

My plans to go to Pamplona were then thwarted because the police had shut off the road for three hours, so instead of waiting I turned off into the mountains. Needless to say that I didn’t at all regret it; I had never realised how great the Spanish Pyrenees are until today, where I just wandered about them for hours.

I stopped at endless tiny pretty villages, went through huge valleys and climbed great mountains; all the roads were empty, I was living the dream! What’s more is that I’ve never been to a place where everybody is so welcoming. The place where I took the picture is a great example, I got out of the car and immediately somebody said hello and started chatting. Admittedly, the place looked like no one had been in for about thirty five years; people were just sat on chairs outside their houses waiting for something good to happen, like someone to drive in.
Coming home I was faced by more police check points and, sod’s law, the tunnel was closed again; the convoy was coming back the other way this time! To cap the day off I had a great meal at my friends’ house this evening, I won’t go through the menu; suffice to say that there was, as ever, way too much to eat and we all need to go to bed. Incidentally, that’s where I’m headed so it’s goodnight from me; goodnight (Paxman eat your heart out).

Day 158 - 28th August 2007

Spending the day watching “Flog It” and “Kitchen Criminals” may seem like a waste but today there really was nothing else on TV; of course I’m only joking, I meant to say that there really was nothing else to do, which there wasn’t.

The weather was stormy and overcast, we are leaving on Sunday so we haven’t got time to do any work on the house and anything else I do gets questioned and usually mocked by my dad; such as writing my film script which unsurprisingly only really makes true progress when I am in Britain.
Tomorrow I’m going to visit Pamplona which should be nice, I’ve only been in the house with my dad for 24 hours and I’m already wishing for change; so this will be just what I want, a change of scene. Actually, maybe I just want to be alone…

Day 157 - 29th August 2007

Being as far out to the west of Spain as humanly possible on the continent, we decided we would give ourselves a couple of days to get back home. Going from the hotel, up through Coruna, down back through Lugo (on the motorway this time though) and out of Galicia, we headed for Leon where we changed direction and drove to the east, right across Leon & Castilla; stopping in a charming village of which I’ve already forgotten the name to have some lunch. Our intention was to visit Burgos, a large-ish city directly south of Santander.

I didn’t know much about the place and, yet again, it was really nice. My dad is such a philistine at times, especially when it comes to visiting places; all he wanted to do was look at the cathedral and go, whereas I wanted to get more of a feel for what the place was actually like. I started to look around the place and he was drifting towards the car park, so I stopped to take a picture and whoops, he wasn’t there anymore. I had a great look around alone, it’s so colourful here; all the buildings on the square are painted differently. In fact, there are a few squares dotted around, and the place actually has some interesting shops; such a rare occurrence these days!

I stopped at a bar for a drink and headed for the car, feeling as though I knew how nice Burgos is, instead of just knowing how nice its cathedral is. The picture of the cathedral is what I chose because my other pictures didn’t really capture the essence of the place, you have to be there to truly appreciate it.
Psychologically, we were close to home, in reality we were about four hours away, but it was still only about three o’clock when we left Burgos so we were sure of making it back with good time. Sure enough, I’m now writing this in France, about to get a good night’s sleep in my own bed. We have travelled 1400 miles in three days, but I haven’t regretted one single bit of it.

Day 156 - 28th August 2007

My weather predictions were correct, I only got a D in geography but even I could tell it was going to shit it down last night. Somehow, maybe because of our extremely holy final destination, or maybe because we put up the tent quite well; not a drop of water entered our flimsy canvas shelter despite others getting quite wet. This meant that we could pack up and off we go; once we waited for the 0930 am breakfast time so that someone could let us out, typical Spanish timing!

Santiago was a long time in coming and we stopped off in a place named Lugo on the way, having crossed into Galicia from the campsite this morning. This area covers the whole north-west corner of Spain, from well beyond A Coruna all the way down the northern Portuguese border; to our peril we’ve noticed that they don’t speak much Spanish around here and most of the words have X’s in them, never a good thing.

Anyway, Lugo was nice, quite big and vibrant with a great mix of old and modern architecture. We visited the museum inside the cathedral and it was a coin collection; its main let down being the lack of coins. Why would anyone want to go and see a collection which included a £10 note from last year and a rusty 1p piece classed as being from Uzbekistan? I’m not sure anyone does, but we walked into it and you can’t really say no to a priest, especially when he’s charging you bugger all to get in; he’d have probably been happier with me giving him a pound coin and telling him that I’m not from central Asia!

Santiago was a long time in coming after Lugo, that’s because it was a long way; getting there was worth it though. This place is, after Lourdes, the top destination for pilgrims to visit; all along our journey we saw the path marked out (though there are many different paths to choose from, this is the length of just one of them), stretching for well over 1000 miles! The final stop of all the pilgrim’s paths contains one of the most grand, intricate and ornate cathedral facades I have ever seen. I found it very impressive on first sight, although there is so much detail to look at you can’t help walking away feeling you haven’t taken it all in and that the work is wasted on you.

The city was packed with people and parking, which, rather ironically for a shrine, was sheer hell. Despite all of this if you are in the area you will really regret not having seen this, even if you never go again. Aside from the centrepiece, Santiago is a huge place, but is actually very nice indeed; if you can cope with crowds then it’s worth actually staying here.

Sadly, we didn’t have it in us to deal with the noise, so off we headed to the west coast to find a campsite. Here, the clouds started to draw in on us again and this time storms actually broke out above our heads; the tent’s outer sheet needed to dry out so we stopped and an old port called Muros and found a hotel room. This is yet another great place we had the fortune to come across, but I’ve already written far too much; it’s one in the morning and we can’t sleep because the Spaniards stay up so late, the rain has stopped so I think I’ll go out and maybe have a drink or two, wait for people to go home and the noise to die down.

Day 155 - 27th August 2007

My father and I had settled on a day to leave and go away to Spain for a few days, and that day happens to be today; which means that I am here already as I write. We have decided to head out west towards Santiago de la Compostela; the pilgrim hotspot. Having headed towards the French coast and then dropped down into Spain, we stopped for lunch by the sea and went on past our old stomping grounds of Bilbao in the Basque country, Santander in Cantabria and Oviedo in Asturias; beyond that is unknown territory to us.
About an hour away from Oviedo we decided to pitch up for the night and found the campsite from where I am writing now; and from where this picture was taken, this is the view from the tent. It is said that Spaniards come to this coast for the rain, and it’s not looking good for tonight; a mist has formed over everything (even more that since when the picture was taken now) and the first few drops of rain are forming above us. Tonight could get rather more interesting than we had bargained for…

Day 154 - 26th August 2007

Never before have I witnessed such a sudden change in climate such as the one that happened today. To think that yesterday it was 17 degrees at the peak of sunlight, whereas today temperatures rose up to 35 degrees! It’s very odd, typical that the weather perks up the day before we go to Spain! Mind you it’s just as likely to change right back again so I’m not too bothered about it.

The picture is from the village where I go to get onto the internet, and today I only had my DS with me so I went in and bought a coffee; besides, it was too hot to sit in the car with a burning laptop, I’d have stared to roast!

So yes, off we go tomorrow for a few days into Spain; we’re not sure where yet, but I think we might try to go further along the northern coast towards Portugal. I won’t have my computer with me so I’ll have to do this, horror of horrors, by hand.

Day 153 - 25th August 2007

This picture does not fill its requirements in any way imaginable, apart from being something to look at. First of all, it’s meant to show my brother leaving very early this morning; can you see a car? I certainly can’t, it’s too far away at this point to be able to see. That brings me on to my next point, it’s very early in the morning; so why is it so light? I’m not sure why it’s light, it was really quite dark at the time; you can see that the street lights are on, so it doesn’t show what time of day it is at all. Finally, it’s pretty much the same shot as the other day; not a good day for pictures then.

Aside from my complete failure at being the next David Bailey, I fitted a cupboard door and watched some rugby. On Monday we’ll go off to Spain for a few days so I’ll get onto the internet one last time tomorrow; things will liven up after then, for sure!

Day 152 - 24th August 2007

Due to much faffing about this morning, my uncle and brother did not leave the house as planned and they shall be leaving tomorrow morning instead. To fill up the extra day my two elders decided to fit a cupboard door; success took a long time in coming, but now opens and shuts as proudly as any other cupboard door does.
I, being the kind of person who just gets in the way during this kind of operation, went along to another village with my brother and we pilfered ourselves some more internet access. It’s amazing how much passes you by when you’re not online; my dependence on the net is becoming scary! Ironically, as we were sitting outside in the car park of a bar with our laptops on in the car, the first message that I saw on the BBC website was: “Stealing the internet; is it legal?” I think somebody’s watching me…

Day 151 - 23rd August 2007

It’s amazing how many old people are so stuck in their ways that there is not a chance in the world that they could ever change; even if it’s for the better. I went to lunch today at some friends of ours, I think I took a picture of them at Easter actually, and the guy there, as nice as he may be, is insanely racist. We all, including his wife, tried to explain to him that people who are black can also be French but he wouldn’t have any of it!

The picture just about sums up the meal really; the old man sitting down is giving some dubious ‘advice’ to my brother whilst shaking his hand, my brother is wondering about how to look interested and when he’s going to let go, my dad looks like he doesn’t want to be there which can be funny but it’s usually downright rude and my uncle is there putting on the best granny pose ever whilst politely acknowledging yet secretly despising what the old guy is telling my brother about his love of liberal shagging.

That pretty much sums up the day; my brother leaves with my uncle tomorrow because of his school term starting soon and my brother goes back to school soon after that. Oh come on, it’s not the world’s best joke but it’s not that bad! If you didn’t spot a joke there at all then yes, I’ll admit it was quite bad then…

Day 150 - 22nd August 2007

The room I always stay in here has been taken by our old friend Peggy for the last few days, and it feels good to get back to a double bed again; mind you, that’s not what I’ve got at home!

Talking of home, more precisely Wembley; England lost 1-2 to Germany in a friendly today. We were quite unlucky really, having dominated throughout the whole game our keeper cocked up and let one in; then they scored a wonder-goal. I think we need strikers; Rooney’s injured and Owen isn’t match fit yet, we just couldn’t finish off all the chances we had.

The German goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann, was crap too but he got away with it by the skin of his teeth. Paul Robinson didn’t so he got subbed off at half time for David ‘Calamity’ James; they must have been desperate. Anyway, we played OK but it’s going to have to get better to beat the Israelis in the Euro qualifier next week.
Personally I didn’t get up to anything of any note today, apart from buying a door. With regard to the picture, I realise how effeminate my room is, but I went for comfort over camp and I think it’s the right choice; at least I’m getting a god night’s sleep. It was my grandmother’s old room which explains the choice decoration; I think I might redecorate if I can be arsed. Right now though, I’m off to bed; flowery as it may be!

Day 149 - 21st August 2007

Britain has always had a pretty good share of rain over the years, and it appears the Pyrenees have the same condition. It rained all day today, and the picture I took was during a good point, in some places it got so that you couldn’t see out of the window because of the wall of water coming down.

The horrible weather wasn’t enough to stop me though, and in true British fashion I went out anyway. I wanted to go and find out where this illustrious wireless internet connection that people have been banging on about is located; I thought that it would be an idea to get through some e-mails before the end of the holidays (I usually have about 3 million waiting for me at home!). After some searching I found it, but just as I was about to start going through my inbox my battery gave out! Anyway, I’ll be back; it’s in a bar but you can get it free if you park in the car park! Maybe I should do the decent thing and buy something though; I’ll see how I feel.

England play Germany tomorrow, half the team are injured so it could be a let down; looks like Beckham’s there though, let’s hope he makes the difference again this time!

It sounds like an odd thing to say but some Spaniards are keeping me from sleeping right now. The people across the road from us have recently bought the house as a holiday home to get away from the dryness of Spain every now and again; as it happens they are really nice people, and extremely hard working. Therein lies the problem; the guy works through the day on his garden, and right now at midnight he’s using an angle grinder with the garage door open! There’s a non-stop stream of sparks flying past my window and a disturbing buzzing noise going on as I type!

Day 148 - 20th August 2007

There is such a thing as boomerang addiction; I found myself buying one to replace the one we broke yesterday. I nearly decapitated myself with this particular model; I’ll be an Aborigine in no time!

Otherwise I went for a drink to a friends’ house today and it turned more into a meal really, then nothing much else happened apart from a few visits to elderly relatives in the area. Until tomorrow then…

Day 147 - 19th August 2007

Have you ever met Ned Flanders? I reckon that my uncle is becoming more and more like him every year! I don’t want to go into any cruel details but I took that picture in a restaurant and we were having a pretty dull time.

We left early to watch Man U play Man City, and lose 1-0; they dominated but were unable to score and Man City got one shot and scored! Goodness knows where they are in the table but who cares about them when we really should be celebrating yet another fantastic victory from the mighty potters!

That’s right, we beat Charlton 2-1; they don’t call us the gods of football for nothing! Let’s hope this string of two wins can carry on!
My brother and I found a boomerang and managed to make it come back! Sadly we broke it pretty soon after so that was the end of that…

Day 146 - 18th August 2007

It’s my uncle’s birthday today, and he’s around 53 years old; like every other year. This is one of those things that happen each time I come here, the usual rigmarole of him making his own birthday cake, my brother making the sauce and a bottle of Champagne. This is all so etched into my brain that I see it no differently than comic relief, children in need or Eurovision; it’s one of those things that just comes around quicker than you imagine and makes you wonder where the time went. That’s why I even surprised myself when I completely forgot about it this morning.
Apart from that howler I’m glad to be in the mountains again with not a worry in the world, for once no sodding exams to worry about!

Day 145 - 17th August 2007

I’m back in France writing again now; although the start of the day seems like three weeks ago. Only this morning I was in Manchester, where I took the picture, waiting for the plane for a few hours. It was nice there, the weather wasn’t though! Then it was time to get on the plane and at the other end in Paris I had to change airports which cost me £12.50! The airports in Paris are a unique take on hell on earth. Anyway, I had a meal there and got the plane to Pau, which meant I got home at about 12.30 at night. The tiredness is starting to set in; but it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to go to bed in a hurry which is annoying.

What is it about travelling that means I drink loads of coffee? I have a mug a week at home, but today I’ve already had five! I’m a bit worried since I heard about this girl who had a coffee overdose the other day, mind you she did have fourteen…

Day 144 - 16th August 2007

Results day has come, and somehow after doing pretty crap in all but Spanish, I still got into Lancaster; my first choice university so I'm over the moon. I'm holding the results in hand in the picture, but instead of a smile I thought I'd go for the slightly crazed murderer look; quite successfully I think.

After this great news, I'm zipping straight back to France tomorrow which means that I won't be online for quite a long time; but I'll still be writing this, I'll just have to post it all at once when I get to an internet connection.

So there we are; Lancaster here I come!

Day 143 - 15th August 2007

My visit to East Anglia was mercifully short and after getting the train to Birmingham this morning I stopped off there for a while instead of changing trains.

I don't want to go on too much about the visit as anything I say about the fens will only be deemed rude and unnecessary; as if that hasn't happened already!

Birmingham, however, was as great as ever; it's a place that I really enjoy visiting these days and today was no exception, even in the intermittent pissing rain. I got a picture of Selfridges, I did some shopping, I ate some food, drank some coffee and went to the BBC at the mailbox centre; Bob Harris was recording his Radio 2 country show. I loved it all, but it's not that interesting to talk about. There was one thing however...

I was standing in the open air part of the bullring shopping centre, when suddenly I see a guy running away, being chased closely by a police officer. That's a normal thing in Birmingham, but this copper was on a push bike! What's best is that when they went down to the street level near the church, we could all watch it from above. The policeman actually went down the stairs on his bike and outdid the robber who got truncheoned; there was a huge round of applause afterwards, the guy had literally nicked the moves off James Bond! How could he possibly have beaten a guy on some stairs on a bicycle? The guy's a real action man!

It's results day tomorrow and that mark what will almost certainly be the last time I ever set foot at school again. If I pass, then that's great, if I fail then I will not hesitate to go through clearing; I don't want to spend yet another year in college, I'll just be wasting my life away.

Day 142 - 14th August 2007

The fens has always been an area best avoided by most sane people and today was no exception. I got on the train to go and it emptied at Peterborough! My comments yesterday about trains being reluctant to go were apparently harsh, but I was not proved wrong today once again.

This morning I took the train down to Birmingham then I changed to go to Ely, simple. When I got on the Ely train we noticed that the lights went out and the engines came off, we couldn't open the electric doors either and we were already half an hour late. What was all this down to? No driver! Even the drivers didn't want to go!

How can these people call themselves a train company with no driver? This, I was told, happens quite frequently on the line which, incidentally, terminates at Stansted airport; the last place you want to be late arriving at! Anyway, we got underway, I got to Haddenham OK and I spent a predictably dull evening out with the grandparents and some relatives. That's after having spent the afternoon talking about university, great, it's a topic that I'm not at all fed up of nowadays.

Anyway, I could go on about how weird it all is but I won't; go and see for yourself if you can ever get there!

Day 141 - 13th August 2007

Upon waking up at around 10 o'clock this morning I realised that my previously planned trip to London had been cancelled, due to ill health on my Mother's part. She stayed in and worked from home instead and what did I do? Nothing.

It wasn't nothing as in I just sat around not moving, just nothing of any interest. For example I listened to a load of CD's I'd ordered cheap over the holidays that had arrived. I bought a load of stuff for university, like pots and pans and I even booked a train ticket.

It's Monday, so it's no surprise that it was so mundane I suppose. Tomorrow I'm off on the train to go and see my grandparents in East Anglia; I realised that it is a necessary trip, I don't think I've seen them even since I started this blog, which was back in March! So I'll be off, I took a picture as I packed only for one night; that's all you need in the fens though. There's only so much carrot munching and inbreeding one can put up with! I'd love to apologise to those who live in the fens, but let's face it; if you do you'll know what I'm talking about!

Yes, the grandparents seem to live in an almost permanent state of misery and paranoia, and yes I do hate sitting through periods of silence up to half an hour long; but what really gets to me is the area. Never have I been to such a place that can match the fens for boredom, blandness and misery; if sitting in an empty airport for a day meant I didn't have to go to that wretched place then I would happily do it. Even the trains are reluctant to go there; it takes just under five hours to get there by rail compared to one and a half in the car.

Tragically, some things simply cannot be avoided so tomorrow I'll be on that train, as usual bearing gifts of American hard gums and ginger biscuits; looking out of the window with a sense of dread. It's not that bad really, but when I see the ground start to flatten and I smell the pungent aroma of pigs and cabbages I do sometimes wonder how easy it might be to change trains quickly, turn around, maybe even catch a plane or fake my own death; anything to get away.

Day 140 - 12th August 2007

Is it legal to take pictures on an airfield when you're boarding the plane? At the time, I couldn't see why not but when I got my camera out I suddenly thought of those tourists in Greece that got arrested for taking pictures; I think it was military stuff though.

Anyway, I took the picture but covertly which explains why it's skew-whiff. The flight home was crap, as I expected. Ryanair really are best avoided; the amount of queueing was just unbelievable. We did land half an hour early though, to my great surprise. This gave us no advantage, it just meant that we were out past the passport control and everything at the time we were due to land; instead of the customary half hour later.

I could go on but I'm really quite tired. I'm off to London tomorrow for the day, which will be nice; I might get a good picture to put up. If I don't then what more do I have to do to find an interesting photo?

Day 139 - 11th August 2007

There she is; my friend Peggy who I went to pick up at the airport. It's nice to meet up again, but there is a weird language thing going on between me who speaks both French and English, her who speaks English but used to be a French teacher and my dad who speaks French and a bit of English.

Nobody is sure what to do or say; I bet we sounded bloody weird at the restaurant today! I'm off tomorrow so I won't be in this quandary for long.

The premier league started up again today, the first match was 0-0; good start. Next up Bolton lost to Newcastle 1-3 so it all picked up again. It's good being able to watch some good games, the French scores are all 0-0 and 1-0; really dull!

How dare we even start to think about forgetting the main news of the day; the victory for the, dare I say, godly Stoke City. We beat Cardiff, in Cardiff; 0-1! I haven't seen any footage but I hear reports of a spectacular penalty save on Stoke's behalf! This is a great start to the season, let's aim for the playoffs this time boys!

Day 138 - 10th August 2007

I didn't have access to the car today, which made the day drag on; it was very dull. I suppose that's why at some point in the day I took a picture of the inside of a bottle, it was boredom taking over.

Tomorrow, the Premier League starts again; they show more games here in France than they do in England! I'll probably watch a couple of the big sides... More importantly, the mighty potters face Cardiff as the championship also gets underway. I'm not expecting anything special, Cardiff are a good side; especially when in Wales.

I'm off home on Sunday for results day, but before that I'm picking up my old friend Peggy at the airport tomorrow, she's coming over on holiday. She's great, but does have a tendency to talk a lot; I think I'll be glad for the week back at home! It's only a week because I go straight back to France on the Friday, that's the day after results day; I'm flying straight to the Pyrenees this time though.

Why on earth am I writing this tripe? Nobody cares about my flying arrangements, I'll talk about it all on the day anyway! I'm just writing to fill a space; gosh today must have been really boring! Roll on tomorrow!

Day 137 - 9th August 2007

Maybe the picture is similar to yesterday's photo; but like this one better. Budding detectives will notice that I went back to the same place again that I found, except this time I went on a bit more of a walk.

The coast was lovely, there was a wind blowing and I could have stayed all day. That's if it wasn't for this one massive lump of rock jutting out into the sea. It's hard to understand why, but it annoyed me; you see, I had covered miles and miles of coastline and this tiny bit of it was inaccessible.

It was no use, I simply had to get onto it, to 'conquer' it; the view must be so good up there... So out I went, I hopped across a few rock and climbed the boulder. In no time at all I was up there; higher than anything in sight and I took today's picture from there. The view wasn't that great, it wasn't a good as it looked really; especially when I realised I might just struggle to get down.

I'm lucky that there are no real tides in the Mediterranean, else I would really have been stuck. I'd like to say I had to call for help or whatever, but I tried going down on my arse instead. This wasn't going to well so I started again; it had started to dawn on me that because this was such a big prominent rock, sticking out into the sea, everybody on about three beaches was watching me trying to get down!

After one dodgy attempt at sliding down, I thought I might spare the embarrassment of poking my arse out into the crowds; so I went for the jump. Yes, it hurt but I was fine and quickly out of sight. When I walked back to the car, I could see just how stupid I must have looked; it looks like its all flat from the shore! I suppose it made a good disappearing act at the end though!

I got my picture, and I was too far away to be recognised by anyone so I'm not too worried! I don't really think that many were watching, it was more of a psychological thing really; whatever it was, it made me jump off!

Day 136 - 8th August 2007

If you're driving around on holiday and you make a wrong turn, don't head back; follow the road and you might find a little paradise just like I did today, what a great place! There's a beach, a cliff, sand and rocks; I'll be going back tomorrow no doubt.

That's if the weather holds out which it didn't this morning; thankfully in the afternoon the strong mistral winds blew away the rainclouds.

Otherwise, there's not much to talk about so I'm gonna wait and see what tomorrow brings, it's my step-father's birthday and I sent him a present via Amazon; hopefully it got there on time!

Day 135 - 7th August 2007

I've never smoked a pipe before and I probably never will; so the reason for me having one in this picture is a mystery, even to me. I did write a couple of songs though, and the piano came in handy for that; not that I can play to any great degree.

Weather wise it was another hot, sticky yet dull day really so I didn't get up to much. Back home I understand that there have been two outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Surrey all within spitting distance of a lab which works with the disease.

First the flooding and now this, it's not been a good summer for Britain this year.

Day 134 - 6th August 2007

On the TV there is an advert that asks: 'When was the last time you just went for a drive?' Being the gullible media message fodder that I am, that's exactly what I did this afternoon.

Tragically, it was not the nicest day to pick; it was very hot but I didn't see the sun all day. Later on, I went to the supermarket and I wondered what would happen if i tried to haggle stuff down. I managed to buy a Nintendo DS Lite with Sim City for 100 euros, that's about £68! It took me half an hour though, I think the guy just got annoyed into doing it.

Anyway, I could have taken a picture of that but you can find that anywhere; I took one of the seaside instead. I stopped at some village to get some lunch and there was a lorry parked there with a Circus, written on the side were the words 'the small white mouse circus: still alive!' Who knows what that meant, it could be that the mice usually get killed or it could be a dyslexic house circus. If someone out there has trained a mouse to do circus tricks, like riding a bike on a tightrope, then I need to see it now; unfortunately I think that today's sideshow was probably just mice running around in little suits.

Day 133 - 5th August 2007

Have you ever tried a spot of hedge trimming? I did it for the first time today and it was quite a relaxing thing to do really. It takes precision, time and patience but that didn't bother me; I was really pleased with my work too, nice and square.

After that I went to my Uncle's house for some lunch, we managed to somehow barbecue a whole shoulder of lamb! During my time at the house I heard a plane fly over, I looked up to see it was towing an advert! Well, I've never seen such a thing before so there would have to had been something incredibly impressive happen to beat it to picture of the day.

Anyway, from the skies to the ground, or more precisely the race track. It was the Hungarian grand prix today and yes, Lewis 'Hotstuff' Hamilton won for the third time! It's so cool to have a British driver winning again since Damon Hill, what's more; Lewis is still so young! The victory did not come without controversy though, Alonso was pole after yesterday's qualifying but the FIA later ruled that he blocked Hamilton in the pits thus preventing him from going out on an extra hot lap.

It did look a bit that way, but who knows what really happened out there; Alonso was demoted to 6th place late last night, putting Hamilton on the pole position for the race, Lewis held off Raikkonen to win the race. Whilst the UK rejoices, things are clearly not so rosy at the McLaren team between Alonso and Hamilton; the Spaniard feels as though he is being treated as second driver and he has 'cast doubts' over his future at McLaren. Team boss Ron Dennis has admitted that the relationship between the two drivers had reached 'a low'.

The ball has been set slowly rolling on the British football season too with today's charity shield game between Manchester United and Chelsea. It was predictably dull, the real games start next Saturday so the sides tried to preserve players; it was 1-1 and Man U won on penalties, Van Der Sar managed to save every single one of them and Chelsea didn't score any!

Day 132 - 4th August 2007

Most of today was spent helping my uncle perform some inane task involving trips back and forth to the tip. This put my brother in a mood, as pictured; even I failed to see the point of it, we were chucking out branches and stuff that weren't in the way, doesn't all that just decompose?

When I got back I went and did some food shopping then I watched the rugby; for the record England kicked some Welsh backsides, 62-5 was the final score, promising for the world cup.

Grand Prix qualifying in Hungary also took place today, Hamilton is second behind his teammate Alonso; looks like another great race is on the cards tomorrow.

Day 131 - 3rd August 2007

I think it would be safe to describe today as 'pretty dull'. I woke up, I ate, I ate more, I played stuff and checked E-Mails then I ate and went to bed.

As for the picture, there was some thing worth taking. Unfortunately the problem with my camera's on/off switch decided to kick off again, and I missed the sole event of the day.

The plane in the picture is not just any old plane, it's one that is designed to dump water everywhere which means the forest fires have started again. This is never a good thing, but it would be quite spectacular if I got a picture of one putting out a fire; maybe in the future...

Otherwise, I hear that after the flooding has ceased at home, there has been a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm in Surrey. I hope it doesn't spread this time, I remember the chaos it caused in 2001; we can't let that happen again.

Day 130 - 2nd August 2007

In contrast to the excitement of yesterday's cowboy adventure, I didn't get up to much at all today. I went for a drive to test out my MP3 car adapter thing and it worked, so I took a picture (that was about as good as the day got really!).

The weather was too dull to stop at the beach and it rained for a while; this did nothing to stop the intense heat which I am growing to hate. Sitting here right now on the desk are 35 empty bottles of water, just from the last two days. I am reluctant to throw them away because I think I may be able to make a raft from them to go in the sea with; this may not be a good idea but it might well happen, who knows...

So we sat under the clouds sweating away all day. My camera has developed a problem with the on/off switch, when I switch it on it seems to come right off again unless I squeeze it in a certain way; I might go and get it fixed. I just watched 'Terminal' with Tom Hanks in, directed by Steven Spielberg; it's really good. Anyway, I didn't see any Pussy today, so maybe tomorrow.

Day 129 - 1st August 2007

So I went to a theme park today, and unlike some theme parks it did actually have a theme to it; cowboys. I took a picture off the top of one of those horrible swingy pirate ship things, oh sorry, I mean giant Indian kayak.

It was quite nice, there was a lot of cheesy stuff obviously and they seemed to get the places confused somewhat. The park was called 'OK Corral', so that's one place already but throughout the place there is Mexican stuff all over, and then a sign that said Las Vegas!

The rides were good, there wasn't just crap like in some places; one rather odd thing about them is that they close for lunch. This isn't just any old half hour break, it starts at midday and finishes at 1.30pm! What on earth are you meant to do in a theme park for one and a half hours with no rides to go on! Typical France I suppose, I even had a flight delayed once because of lunch.

We (I was with my brother) had a great time here and didn't regret going at all however it is also worth noting that the park houses the worst ghost train in Europe. What made the makers of this ride think that a hairdryer blowing in my face was ever going to scare me? I was squeezed into a crappy train thing going at less than one mile an hour having to stare at a torch being shined on and off onto a figurine with some ketchup on it.

Finally, I think I ought to mention that I saw some more pussy lollies. I took a picture of the sign yesterday that said 'Pussy' however today's sign read 'Giant Pussy'. I was so lose to putting it up, but I thought that one of the park would be better really, we've all had the chance to see some pussy yesterday.