The real thieves of Naples...

When I said I was going to Naples, I had a number of warnings about being careful to avoid getting mugged, robbed or pickpocketed while I was there. I am happy to announce that none of these things happened to me during my stay...that's not to say I didn't leave with a bit of a dent in my pocket. It wasn't through being robbed, it was through willingly handing my money over the counter to the numerous 'tourist' activities. Almost everything has a price attached to it which is understandable but when the average entrance price is €10, the amounts soon add up.

I think the biggest money earner of them all is travelling to the top of Mount Vesuvius, you get charged €10 to get taken to the car park then a further €10 to walk from the car park to the top. Although, I think I got my money's worth out of the trip just through entertainment value alone. It all started with what was probably a very stupid decision but it worked out in the end so that's all that matters...right? Anyway I had just visited the remains of the City of Ercolane, also known as Heculaneum with four other people from my hostel and we were walking up to the top of the hill to get the Vesuvio Express, the company recommended to us by our hostel owner. On the way we get stopped by a man called Salvatore, he was a taxi driver who said he would take us to the top of the mountain, well the car park, wait for us then bring us back down to the bottom again. We should have said no straight away but there was something about him that made us think this would be a good idea to go with him. It was the energy he had that was drawing me to say yes, the other part that drew me to say yes was the fact he would be leaving when we wanted and the other thing that was drawing me to say yes was he was offering a good price. Whatever the eventual reason was, we said yes and we all climbed into his taxi, it was a big white people carrier that had about 10 seats and no seat belts...a good start I would say. Within seconds of us getting into his car Salvatore demonstrated what his horn for going around the corners would be. It was the tune of 'Just One Cornetto' and this basically set up the basis for the rest of the journey. He talked non-stop, again showing off the energy that drew me to say yes and when we were about ten minutes into the journey he says do you like music? We all said yes and what a good decision that was...well it wasn't good for our ear drums as it was being played at full volume but it was great for entertainment. It was a mixture of Italian pop, drum & bass, house and a couple of songs by Psy so it was a real mixture. Salvatore's dance moves didn't change however, it was always the same; one hand on the wheel (most of the time) and the other hand moving to the beat either pointing out of the window or rocking from left to right at shoulder height. I'm fairly sure he was trying to get the whole taxi doing his dance moves and as I was sat in the front right next to him, I thought 'what the hey' so there was me and Salvatore dancing along to the music that was blarring out of the taxi as we're going round the tight corners up the mountain. The music was occasionally interspersed with 'Just One Cornetto' as we came to the very tight corners but that just added to the crazy situation that I was in, it was when he took his eyes off the road and hands off the wheel that it became a bit hairy but all in all it was a very fun journey. When we got to the car park he dropped us off and gave us a time to be return to him so we trudged up the mountain, paid our extra €10 to walk to the top, looked around then trudged back down the mountain. I was quite surprised we didn't get charged again to walk down but that part was free and when we got back to Salvatore it was time for another journey similar to the one on the way up. The only slight difference was that he gave us each a postcard from Napoli/Vesuvius as a thank you for choosing him. The way down started with music and at every restaurant or shop we passed he would beep the horn to try and get them dancing too. A couple of them joined in although the majority of people just looked in utter confusion at this sight of a big white people carrier literally rocking with music and absolutely awful dance moves...and lets not forget 'Just One Cornetto'. All in all, what was probably a ridiculously idiotic decision to go with Salvatore turned out to be one of the highlights of the day and the trip so far. We paid Salvatore and said bye to him before going to get what was probably the worst meal I've ever eaten, I didn't think the Italians could get Spaghetti Carbonara wrong but when its presented on a plastic plate swimming in butter with chunks of un beaten egg in the middle, they can get it pretty hideously wrong.

Overall my time in Naples was a very successful one, especially looking at the warnings I was given before I went. Although one thing I will say is to be careful about where you eat, go to the right place and its stunning, go to the wrong place and you'll be paying over the odds for pasta swimming in butter or a panini that's eitherburnt or raw. Pizza is good though, they know how to do good pizza. The title of this piece refers not to the muggers, robbers and pickpockets but to the restaurants that charge stupid amounts for quite simply awful food with worse service and to the countless of museums that charge a high entrance fee to only supply one or two rooms filled with a couple of fairly ropey pictures and sculptures. I would definitely recommend going to Naples but I would advise you to check out the restaurants or museums before you go in...also be wary about your personal safety, just because it didn't happen to me might just be because I had some pure dumb luck...I definitely did on the way up to Mount Vesuvius.

Anything is possible...

From my month of travelling, I've learnt how to survive in social situations on my own; I've learnt how to navigate foreign public transport systems, some of them far more complicated than they need to be and I've also learnt how to adapt to whatever situation is put in front of me. The occasion I'm referring to relates to my time in Innsbruck. On arrival I was told there was a fully working kitchen and when I'd passed through the kitchen, I saw there was some electric hobs. On seeing the hobs, I just guessed there would be a main oven as well...a guess that would prove to be incorrect but by the time I found this out, I had already bought a 'cook at home' pizza. I know the meal wasn't very Austrian but I had had Weiner Snitzel on three occasions and I wanted some cheap and easy food. So I buy my pizza, take it back to the hostel, go into the kitchen and see no main oven; I went to reception and asked if there was anywhere else in the hostel that would have a main oven. Their response was predictable but disappointing, basically they said all they had were the hobs so I now have a pizza I can't cook and no way of buying more food as the nearest supermarket was at least a half hour walk away. I weigh up my options and think I could head out for food but again this would be a half hour walk or I could try and make do with what I have, so that's exactly what I did. I had an uncooked pizza, an electric hob and a combination of saucepans and frying pans. I decide my best option is to try frying the pizza because I think it will be easier to use than a saucepan because of the low sides. The result was surprisingly successful. I wasn't expecting much, to say the least, and what I had as a result was a tasty and nicely cooked, to a point, pizza. The way I did it was to cut the pizza into quarters and put two of the pieces into the pan base down. I felt there was no need for oil or anything like that because the bread shouldn't stick...and it didn't. I left it cooking base down on the highest temperature until the cheese started to melt on top...actually it was as the base started to smoke that I thought it would be done, a quick tap of the base confirmed it was crispy. I quickly flip the pizza over for literally 5-10 seconds then onto the plate. The flip gave the toppings a quick blast although the downside was using a spoon to collect the toppings from the frying pan again but if you do it quick enough they come away easily enough. I do the same with the other quarter in the pan, eat those two pieces then cook and eat the other half of the pizza and pleased with my efforts I go to wash up the pan and utensils I'd used. While I'm washing I hear a strange ticking sound somewhere above the hobs, I look to where the ticking is coming from and I find a mini microwave oven that has settings for standard, non microwave cooking. I stood looking in shock for a couple of seconds and can only laugh that I'd gone through the hassle of frying my pizza when a closer inspection of the kitchen would have shown me an easy and productive way of cooking my dinner. Although had I done the easy way, I wouldn't have found out how easy it is to fry a pizza. I'm not saying I will adopt the method for all of my pizzas but it is always good to know.

The other thing I've found out while travelling is how easy it is to have a conversation or even spend the best part of two days with a person without knowing their name. When meeting someone travelling, the first question isn't 'Hi, what's your name?' It is usually 'Hi, how long have you been *insert place name*, how long have you been travelling? Where are you going next? etc.' It is easy to forget such trivialities as names when you're heading out of the room to find some food with a person when you're hungry after travelling. The name part usually comes as part of a slightly embarrassed conversation from either side or if you're able to overhear it. Other than that you're left with generalisations such as mate or just accepting the fact that you may never know this person's name...that is unless you become facebook friends, in which case you hand over your phone, tell them to write their name in and voila, one name and one new friend request waiting on your account. Everyone wins! Although chances are you may never speak to that person again and eventually you'll end up deleting them but for the short term: Everybody wins!

And its Goodnight Vienna...

Vienna ... I'd heard so many things about it before I went there. I heard it was the City of romance, the City of elegance, art, sophistication ... something I wasn't told was how boring it would be! Truth be told, visiting Vienna probably came at the wrong time of my trip. I am now one month into my travels and for that entire time I've pretty much jumped from mainland European City to mainland European City and after a while they all end up merging into one and trying to distinguish between them can be very tricky. Don't get me wrong, each City has it's own nuances and each is unique in it's own way but all of the places I've been to so far have an Old Town that was bombed in the war and then reconstructed in one way or another, tall buildings and lots of history that dates back hundreds of years. Finding out about the history of a place is fascinating but when its your eleventh City without a break, it gets a bit tiresome. Had Vienna come at the start of my trip, I probably would have loved it and thought it was great but it came just after I'd been to two excellent cities in Prague and Budapest. The latter being the place of the trip so far. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which I will come onto later. One thing that Vienna did allow me to do was it showed me that I am bored of mainland European cities, I need a change and that change has started with my trip to Salzburg, where I am now. Instead of there being high rise buildings all around me, there are mountains and trees and grass. I've been here for two days now and I haven't once felt the need to go into the City centre aka the Old Town. It is far more fun to climb the hills and enjoy the views over the top of the City.

As I said, my trip to Vienna came just after I'd been to Prague which is very picturesque and beautiful, although it claims to have a Castle that isn't a Castle...its more a cathedral surrounded by lots of building. It's very nice to visit and to look at but it isn't a Castle from what I could see. I'd also just been to Budapest which for me is a stunning City, nice surroundings, nice people and a very good atmosphere although the latter might have been the people I was with, something else I've found out is a place is made by the people you're with. Also in Budapest I found a hidden gem of a place called Cafe Jubilee. It is a Pub/Restaurant just down the road from Budapest Nygati Train Station and is part of a chain that can also be found in Malta. I spent most of my time in Cafe Jubilee with the friends I met on the train from Prague to Budapest and we had a great time. The place is run by Aldo Mercieca, an enterprising man who currently oversees the running of 8 Pubs, a newly renovated Holiday home in Gozo and is planning to have 5 properties under his belt over the next two years. Aldo and his staff worked around the clock to ensure all of the guests to their establishment were treated like royalty as they were served some of the best food and drinks I've ever had. On one of the nights there I was even invited to join the staff for their midsummer party which was a fantastic experience and one I would hope to have again. I would recomend Cafe Jubilee to anyone and if ever you're in Budapest then I suggest you seek it out because you won't be disappointed.

Great customer service isn't something I've been treated to everywhere though, there was one awkward incident when I stayed in Krakow that left a lot to be desired in terms of quality. I arrived at my hostel and checked in, the receptionist at the time didn't seem to know what she was doing but she just about bumbled through and showed me to my room. Anna was already in the room and she had just been checked in by the same receptionist and we agreed she had no idea. Anyway, we had both booked to stay three nights in this hostel, whereas most of the other people in the room were leaving after two nights. After the second night most of the beds were empty once again because everyone else had checked out and Anna and I decided to head into the centre of Krakow to explore the city. We were out of the hostel for a good few hours and returned some time in the afternoon. What greeted us was a bit of a shock, we went into our room and noticed that all of our stuff had gone. There wasn't a trace of anything, no bags, no bed linen, no towels, everything that we had in the room had been taken. We instantly went up to the reception and demanded an explanation as to where our stuff was; we were told we were supposed to check out earlier in the day. We argued that we had booked for three nights and when they re-checked the system, they realised they had made a mistake and tried to cover it by saying we just needed to change rooms. Something they said we should have been told at check in. Whether it was the truth or not, we weren't told and we were still in a position of having no stuff. We were assured that all of our stuff was safe and waiting in the staff area but when asked the question how they knew what was and wasn't our stuff, they went a bit sheepish. Their only attempt at compensation was to offer us a 6 Person dorm instead of an 8 Person dorm, a difference of about two pound fifty. Hardly compensation, especially when the day after this incident my backpack broke and I had to buy a new one. I'm not saying the staff at the hostel did anything to damage my bag but it is a bit of a coincidence that a day after my bag is moved without my permission, it breaks. I can only hope that for the rest of my trip I'm treated to the type of customer service I received at Cafe Jubilee in Budapest and less like the customer service at the hostel in Krakow. Unfortunately I have a feeling the Cafe Jubilee and it's customer service skills might be a rarity, one thing I've found on my trip so far is that travellers are treated with a similar disdain at times to that of students...the only difference being, you don't get any discounts for being a traveller!

8 Cities, 4 Countries, 2 Weeks and 1 Unfortunate Incident With A German Flag

So, as the title suggests, this is the first of hopefully many travel blogs to document my time on the road. I started two weeks ago today on Tuesday 10th June and since then all manner of things have been happening. The most recent of which happened in Germany and involved a German flag...I'll come to this later on in the post.

First I need to go back to my first couple of days, I think it was my first full day in Bruges and I was walking around in the sunshine when I entered a small arcade of shops. It was quite a narrow arcade so when a man stood in my way, I wasn't able to get past him. This was the first part of his sales technique because he was, of course, a shop owner who was trying to get me to enter his shop to buy things inside...at least that was what I thought would be the case. This man was not a normal man, not that I'm saying he was abnormal but for starters he was dressed in a full cavalier outfit making him look like the lost musketeer. Instantly he knew I was English before I spoke, I guess the shorts, t shirt and sunglasses inside was a bit of a give away...or it might have been the pasty white legs but either way he knew. He asked where I was from and when I said Cambridgeshire he stood staring at me blank for 5 seconds, it was as if he hadn't understood what I said. Then all of a sudden he burst into life again but started reeling off various facts about Cambridgeshire saying it was part of East Anglia and was bordered by Suffolk and Norfolk and that one of the big cities was called Ely. While I was confirming what he said to be true he was gesturing into his shop and said that he had postcards from all around the world in his shop and pointed out ones from different places from the UK, I guess because he thought I would be impressed to hear places I knew...I wasn't but anyway he then asked what football team I support and so I replied Newcastle United. As before he stood staring blank for 5 seconds, I thought he hadn't understood me so I repeated myself but then he sprang into life once again. He was throwing various facts about the team and the city, it was at this point I realised he had some form of photographic memory and could probably reel off facts about almost every city in the world. A very clever sales trick to have, I thought. Once he finished talking about Newcastle he started telling me he was an artist and this was when I realised there was a patch of wall without any postcards on it, an area he told me to stand in front of but only after I took my bag and sunglasses off. He kept repeating the phrase 'I am an artist' as he shut the door to his box room of a shop and while he put a piece of white cloth across my chest. He then told me to smile and relax as he pointed what can only be described as a make shift camera in my direction. I felt like I was being prepared for the firing squad, that it was only a matter of time before the white cloth across my chest was put over my eyes. Well in a way he did 'shoot' me but with the camera instead of a gun. In the picture he took, I had the most uncomfortable smile, I really don't have a good poker face! He brought the image up on a computer that was so old, the pixels had started to run because there was brown strips coming out of my face on the screen. Then he pressed print, alarms bells were really starting to ring now. He printed off two A3 sheets of paper, the first contained a historic picture of Bruges and had a calender on it, the second was my uncomfortable looking face, this time without the brown lines. When he started to roll it up I was waiting for the price he was going to charge me, I had no intention of buying this thing off him but he wasn't listening to anything I was saying. He charged 7euro50 to which I gave a resounding no to, he tried to drop the price to 5euro but again I declined telling him that 5euro could buy my dinner for that evening. With that he let me go but it got me thinking about how good his act was, at every stage he acted with confidence and was able to talk his way through most things...well, dressed in a cavalier outfit in the middle of Bruges and I guess you have to have some confidence.

From Bruges I headed to the Netherlands and during my time there I had a 100m race against a walking tour guide and I won (for anyone who knows my sporting prowess will know how unlikely that is!!). I was also witness to an emergency situation in the house next to my hostel. It was 2:30 in the morning and we were about to play our last hand of cards when we saw flashing lights stop just outside from two fire engines and an ambulance. When we went outside it appeared somebody had collapsed on the first floor of a house and the only way to get them to the ambulance was to use the cherry picker of the fire engine, the speed of everything was the most impressive thing because I know how vital speed is in those situations. Also during my time in the Netherlands I was able to watch some beach volley ball as two courts were set up in the middle of Amsterdam.

After the Netherlands, Germany was next port of call and this is where the unfortunate incident involving the German flag comes into things. I have been in three German cities over the past week, all very different but the one thing they all had in common was how patriotic everyone seemed to be, although this might have had something to do with the World Cup being on. Almost everywhere you turned in Germany you could find a television playing the world cup or a re-run of one of the matches or you would find a German flag. Basically the whole country (well the cities I was in) seemed to have gone football crazy especially when it came to Germany playing.

So, I was in Berlin, in the middle of the Hyundai Fan Park, which is basically a long road that leads down from the Brandenburg gate and is full of massive TV screens and various eating outlets set up just for the World Cup. It is quite an impressive sight even if it is full of mass commercialisation. Anyway, I was quite hungry so I decided to get some bratwurst and chips, the vendor didn't seem too impressed with having to cook chips because all of the bratwurst was ready to go but he did it anyway. After a few minutes it was ready and the question was put to me 'Do you want mayo?' Now I should have answered no simply because I wouldn't have said I'm overly clumsy but I have my moments...this was no different. I get my food and stand next to the stall and put my food on the little stand off the side. Before I know it the wind picks up and starts blowing a flag that was tied to the bottom of this stand about; it goes near my chips but I manage to block it...on the first time. The second time it happens the flag completely covered my chips and subsequently the massive dollop of mayonnaise that was proudly protruding off the top. By the time I'd managed to wrestle the flag off the chips (the wind was very strong...honest), the red part of the flag was fairly covered in a massive white mayonnaise stain. At that point I quickly picked up my food and walked away as fast as I could without looking back, I thought that if the vendor was grumpy about cooking the chips he would be absolutely livid by the state of his once pristine flag.

That is pretty much it for now, I'm in Poland for the next few days, although the train ride from Berlin was quite interesting when the brakes under my carriage started to smoke and burn but after twenty minutes of men looking and poking the side of a train with a walkie talkie we got on our way again and here I am. I head to Krakow tomorrow and then to Prague on Saturday. I'm sure they'll be just as full of stories as the last two weeks have been, hopefully I won't be disgracing too many other national flags...

Now just wait your turn!

So I work in a shop, a petrol station to be precise, and within that shop we sell pretty much everything under the sun and that includes newspapers, as you would expect from a convenience shop. Now I have spoken about these papers, or more the customers who refuse to take the top copy, before and once again they are the basis of this blog post and once again it is the customers who annoy me. I'll set the scene, it's early in the morning, still dark outside, I am serving a customer with fuel, shop goods, whatever they're coming in to buy and I'm probably half way through the transaction when I see him. He's a queue jumper but one of those that is so blatantly obvious that other customers will get annoyed. He'll come in, pick up his paper and because he does this every morning he has the correct change and for some reason he thinks this grants him permission to leave the money on the counter and walk out of the shop. This would be fine if he was at the front of the queue but he isn't, I'm already serving a customer, a transaction that if left to it's own devices would be over within a matter of seconds. It's the same if a customer has put in say £10 worth of fuel, they think that having the correct money in their hand constitutes them the right to jump to the front of the queue and these people are more daring; they'll normally do it two maybe three people in a queue already. And more often than not they've gone over by a penny, so not only do they think they have the right to jump the queue but they think they can short change me, I don't think this is very on but of course I won't say anything in the actual situation because it's just easier to let it go. But do not despair, I've worked out a solution to this problem and so far it seems to be working, it is very simple really, you just don't look at them. For some reason by not looking at the person, this queue jumping correct changer, they don't feel as though they can just jump the queue. Almost as if looking at them is an acknowledgement from me that I'm condoning their actions and wanting them to do it. I can see them there hovering, correct change in one hand, paper in the other (held in such a way they think they're helping by thrusting the price in my face) and at times quite literally shifting their weight from one foot to the other. Well once my peripheral vision picks this up, that's when I start to get some payback, this is when I slow down, especially if I have to fill a bag with shopping. If they want to be ignorant and rude to the other customers and quite frankly to me then when I have a bit of power they will have to wait longer. Now I know what you're probably thinking, why have I just wasted about a minute of your day where you could have been doing other things, reading a proper news story for example, and they only answer I have for you is that I wanted to get this off my chest. It was also an opportunity to get back into blogging, for too long this page has been dormant and some of you may be thinking that is a good thing especially if they only thing I'm entreating you to is a small story (essay) about getting annoyed by customers who let's face it are just trying to spend as little time in the petrol station as possible. But my argument to that is this, I have to be there so you're just gonna have to wait there too, even if it is just for twenty seconds longer than you originally intended.

What is wrong with the top copy...

So while I was at work on Sunday just after we'd opened up and I'd spent the last hour filling all the Sunday papers with all their magazines (that's right, if you buy a Sunday paper with a shed load of magazines then some poor sod has had to fill each and everyone of them...in this case me) and left them looking very presentable I was slightly perplexed and annoyed when customer came and messed up my display. This may seem petty to you and it probably is but this was 8am on a Sunday morning so I was still in sleep/grumpy mode but I was getting quite annoyed at the apparent disregard for all my hard work. It wasn't the fact they were buying the papers, I mean that's what they're there for, it's why I spend so much time filling them; so they can be bought. No the thing that was really grating on me was the way in which they were being ruined. I make sure that when I put the papers out I put the crumpled copy (there's generally always one misfit in the bunch) towards the back of the pile so you only get that one if you're late in the day or more often than not so it doesn't get bought at all. Basically so if you're an early riser and you come for your morning paper there's a nice uncrumpled copy for you to choose from so I don't expect customers to rifle through the papers and pull out one from the middle of the pile or five back. Or if you are going to do that then I definitely don't expect you to leave them looking shoddy. I mean what is wrong with the top copy...why do so many people choose to ignore that top copy, it's not going to bite them, it's exactly the same as the half crushed one they are so adamant to have. Someone hasn't come along and urinated all over the first copy of every paper, it's exactly the same. Surely common sense suggests it's easier and less effort to just take the top copy? Surely? I can understand it to an extent if you were buying something like milk and you wanted the longest date possible, fine there I will accept if you're going to get the milk right at the back (unless someone has failed to rotate the stock properly in which case the joke is on those riflers who will go to all that effort for the lesser date) but this isn't milk, these are newspapers we are talking about. Something that is exactly the same no matter where and when during the day you buy it...apart of course from that one copy I found that had a different back page to the others. It was the Sunday morning after the David Hay/Dereck Chisora fight and every page back of this particular paper was covering that apart from the last copy which ran with a story about the Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini which was obviously the back up story in case the fight the night before was either a damp squib or ran too late into the night for the presses to run with it. As it happened I took that paper home with me because I was far more interested in the football story than the fight but anyway in normal circumstances every paper will be the same as the last one. So I go back to my original point; what on earth is wrong with the top copy? I was even tempted to leave a note in the top copy for that brave soul who took one for the team and took that dreaded top copy...but by this point I had woken up a bit and my sleep/grumpy attitude had been shrugged off slightly and doing that seemed far too much effort for something so trivial.

This is an issue that I'm sure will have puzzled newspaper retailers for years and may be one of those unanswerable questions (primarily because nobody actually cares) and I am happy for those people to take which ever paper they wish...as long as they leave my display looking nice and tidy...otherwise they will get a glare and maybe...just maybe even a tut. You have been warned!

Just as a side note, the publishing of this blog was delayed slightly due to the phone ringing and it being another bloody cold call causing the internet to be lost momentarily.

So that's it...

It's all over, just over two weeks ago we were all nervous (yes I'm including everyone in this no matter how much you disliked the Olympics) as to how London and Britain would cope with the pressure of hosting the Olympic games. All in all I think it was a rousing success from almost every stand point, the organisation as far I'm aware was well dealt with, the crowds were all enthusiastic especially for the ones who didn't win (although not surprising as we are usually the ones in that position) and the athletes themselves all did very well for Britain.

Right from the word go we marked our intent for these games with the opening ceremony that was brilliantly British right from the way it was performed to the message it sent out to the rest of the world. It basically stuck two fingers up to other opening ceremonies and said this is Britain, if you know our culture you'll understand this, if not then tough to you. Then came the start of the events and we were all talking about certain athletes performing well and then being disappointed when they weren't able to deliver and the obvious shocks and surprises when those who weren't expected to, did deliver. Now I'm fine with the athletes who were expected to win but didn't they obviously tried their hardest but on the day it just wasn't good enough or someone else just performed better but what did annoy me was the amount of times I heard 'Well they've had a disrupted training regime what with the injury they had.' I'm sorry but what athlete hasn't incurred an injury at some point or other, it seemed to be the bog standard excuse for why we didn't win. Sometimes you just have to take your hat off to the opponent and say well done not oh well I would have won but I twisted my ankle three years ago and I missed three days of training which meant you won instead. I'm not blaming this one on the athletes in the slightest this one is aimed at the commentators who couldn't avoid saying it if we didn't win. Yes I'm sure most of them did have an injury that hampered their training but it won't have been the excuse for all of them. Thankfully we did far better than anyone expected us to so this wasn't used half as much as it could have been.

That really is my only grumble at what has been a great couple of weeks for me being able to watch the Olympics from nine in the morning until about midnight and of course within this time slot came the brilliant little show called 'Olympics Tonight' with Gabby Logan. I dunno why but this programme had me hooked from one of the first times it was on. It wasn't the fact that it primarily celebrated British success, it was more the live nature of it and the cheesy links to different features of the show. Even the way they introduced the guests was fantastic, using the old Superstars start theme...you just knew it was going to be a show you didn't want to miss. Then came the interviews with the winning athletes from the day and the delay from the questions to the answer, it was like the interview from Mike Bassett when he's in Rio funnily enough when Gabby was interviewing him...maybe it's just her interviewing technique? Whatever it was about this programme I never wanted to miss is and I think whoever came up with the idea was a genius especially if they suggested to do everything live.

Over the last two weeks there have been highs and there have been lows and unfortunately one of the lows for me was the closing ceremony, maybe we'd set the bar too high but for me and I might be alone in thinking this but it just didn't live up to the success of the rest of the games. It definitely had it's moments of quality but they were just too few and far between. It was as if we'd spent our budget on the three main acts then panicked realising they would take up at most fifteen minutes between them. There are two moments from the closing ceremony that really did make me laugh and neither of them were planned. First was Boris, the illustrious Mayor of London, really jigging away to the Spice Girls and second was probably the best and most unexpected moment. It was during the marathon medal ceremony when Lamine Diack had been tasked with handing out the flowers or posies as one commentator quite rightly named them. Everyone else who has had this job has delicately picked them up by their stems and graciously handed them over but this wasn't the way Lamine was going to do it, oh no. He picked them up like a football or a potato or something, he grabbed them by their heads and practically threw them at the athletes basically saying what we're all thinking: what is the point in this things? When he was told he'd be involved in the medal ceremony I bet his heart jumped at the chance to hand over the medals then this would have been shattered when he was told no you're handing over the flowers. Well he definitely made his feelings very clear about what he thought of that job much to my and sure a lot of other people's amusement.

I'm going to leave you merry people now as I'm sure I've taken up far too much of your time through you reading this but I just couldn't avoid writing at least one blog about the Olympics in London...I mean as so many people have said 'It's a once in a lifetime experience.'