Far East Holiday Autumn 2008

Unlike last year, when I waited until the last minute - OK three weeks before - to book the hotel in the vain hope that there would be a "special" that would get me a great room (and view) at a discount rate, then ended up having less choice and paying exactly the same as if I'd booked at the same time as I booked the flights 9 months before, I've now completed booking hotels for my trip to Hong Kong and the F1 GP in Singapore... Lets see if I luck out again and get a nice upgrade to a suite - as long as the view of Hong Kong harbour is as good as the reviews and pictures I don't really mind.... The hotel in Singapore on the other hand was one of the first things booked - immediately after the tickets to the Grand Prix - the "special rate" for that weekend is enough to make you think twice, luckily for the rest of the week in Singapore rates return to very reasonable levels for a 4 star hotel in a popular Far East destination. Now to start booking the day trips - already got tickets for the Singapore Flyer - the London Eye, but bigger and better. So the count down begins.... 112 days until a late night departure from Terminal 5 - lets hope they've sorted out the baggage handling by then....

Summer Eights - a trip down memory lane

It really doesn't seam like 16 years since I had the greatest, and possibly only sporting achievement of my life - Blades in Summer Eights - and on top of that we got the scalps of four II eights as Univ III. Looking back I was lucky to be at Univ during a golden period of rowing for the College - looking at the bumps charts, there have only been a few other crews to get Blades since.

So 16 years on I decided to spend a Friday out of London - it was a very pleasant break from the office and the built up nature of the city. Even if initially the weather was more suitable for the ducks! Not as much precipitation as during the London marathon ... and the sun did show up late in the afternoon.

From Summer Eights...

From Summer Eights...

From Summer Eights...