Brussels

One and a half days spent in Brussels, following arrival by Eurostar Thursday lunchtime. I had not been to Brussels since i was a child, but to be honest i dont think it will have changed a great deal. Fairly compact it was easy to walk around helped by bright but chilly autumn weather.

Photos can be seen at picasa site. Now i am off to Amsterdam, another place that i have not visited since childhood. Last time i remember at some stage being told by my parents to "just look forward or look at the ground - don't look at the windows!" i wonder what the view will be like now.

Stats:
Hotel - NH du Grand Sablon, comfortable but lacked a bit of character. Well located in Sablon area which seemed to be the antiques area.

Food - found a good french restuarant "L'Estrille"and a Thai "Lotus Bar"

Books - finished "The girl who played with fire" on train to Amsterdam, so that leaves me with one part of the trilogy to go.

Not long until the Ashes

Just wondering whether Marston's are going to launch a new set of adverts for the Ashes or whether Fosters are going to try and hit back. When Australia toured in 2009 they were greeted with the images above.

Europe Tour Dates

Perhaps not as widely anticipated as U2's latest world tours but the final rail journey plans are:

28th Oct - London to Brussels
30th Oct - Brussels to Amsterdam
1st Nov - Amsterdam to Berlin
4th Nov - Berlin to Prague
6th Nov - Prague to Cologne
9th Nov - Cologne to Paris
11th Nov - Paris to London

Final thoughts on Philidelphia

So arrived back in London 6am Monday morning.

The bridge finished for us on Saturday evening. After the main event we played a long Imp Pairs competition (two days qualifier/two and a half day final) ending up 30th in 72 pair final. But for one poor session in final we would have ended up a more reasonable top ten finish and with more momentum might have had a chance. We then endured the closing ceremony that was not the greatest advert for a game looking to widen its appeal to the young and the poker fraternity

Brief thoughts on Phili:

Good vibe helped by the fact that the home team was in the baseball play-offs which created exciting atmosphere.

Well laid out. Traditional numbers by names (mostly trees) road layout. The city had been influenced by planners that had spent time in Paris and so the large museum/cultural area had large boulevards and lots of open space.

Friendly people. Most of the time in the states that you hear "you guys have such a great accent" you smile politely and walk away but for some reason it did not seem so cheesy there.

Good weather - mids 70's in October seems a lot more acceptable than the cold that greeted me at Heathrow

Stats :
Books read : 1 "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"(ok i know its been out for a long time but i only really get to read novels on holiday)
I Pod Tunes of Choice : mainly on shuffle
Quality of Flights: BA might be the "World's favourite airline" but it would not be in my top ten. Nothing in particular to complain about but the general atmosphere is wrong and they still seem to struggle with the concept that the customer is more important than the crew.
Blackberry: still untouched

Philadelphia

So Saturday brings the first day off from Bridge since arrival last weekend.

Paul's blog provides details of our performance to date but in summary:

- Random stuff warming up in the Regional;

- Did well to qualify from tough group in the main qualifying for Rosenblum. No mega stars but a solid group which was close from the outset. I think most of the team did travel with hope rather than expectation that we would qualify but i only found out later that my 33% chance of qualifying was possibly at the upper end of expectations!

- Drawn against Irish in round of 64. Certainly had chances, leading after first quarter, close going into last set but lost a few more on the way out.

- The rest of the team now move to the Open Pairs, with Paul and I having a few days off before the start of the Imp Pairs.

To try and get my bearings i took one of those city centre tourist bus trips. These can vary from extremely poor to being a great way of seeing the city. This was certainly at the better end and had the advantage of being able to jump off/on at different places, with another bus coming 20 mins later. As well as being able to spend some time at different places of interest (trip was more of a chance to decide where to visit later in the week) it enabled you to change your tour host when their "wit" / "enthusiasm" became too much to bear. To see the photos of the tour go to my Picasa site . Main point of interest was the Eastern State Penitentiary which was the first of its kind in the world and was replicated in many places.

Day one

So finished work Thursday for three months. With flight to Phili tomorrow lunchtime day one consisted of last part of packing - ok so that means moving from the planning (" i know the suitcase is somewhere") to action/panic stage.

Blackberry has gone into the drawer to hibernate for three months and so far i have not really felt the desire to just double check whats going on in the real world of work.

With Ryder Cup badly effected by rain, day one has also consisted of stopping myself from sampling the delights of daytime TV. Jeremy Kyle, Loose Women etc... are likely to prompt me to come back to work early.

ps the dna test proved the baby was his, and she has agreed to have him back. Oh what a wonderful world we live in

pps if i make another reference to Jeremy Kyle on this blog over the next three months, then everyone has the official excuse to shoot me on sight.