Boat travels!

Back from Egypt, into the routine of working husband and housewife! I'd been studying a lot, and Sean was working hard, when one Monday, Justin pops up on my Skype, saying he's in Barcelona Port Vell! Fantastic surprise! Well, obviously, i went down there to see him! And Sean joined us after work. Had many drinks and talked lots of crap with Justin and Riaan, and a couple of the other crew that we met! Such fun! The next day, Justin asks if we are going to join him in taking the boat to San Remo? Not too much of thought before we gave him an answer! Sean took Thursday and Friday off work, Monday and Tuesday were a holiday anyway, packed our bags and stayed on the boat Wednesday night, ready for departure on Thursday morning! Not quite the same as a sailboat, as it only took us 17 hours to get there! Was great to be on the water again.

Friday we spent walking around the town of San Remo. Lovely place. Saturday, Justin drove us into Monaco to visit Lance, we had a few drinks and walked around a bit, then had some more drinks! So good to see Lance again, it's been a while!

 Justin, luckily for us, stayed sober to drive us all back to Italy along the winding roads!
Sunday, we went into the mountains into a town called Limone Piemonte, which is a ski town in the winter. In the beginning of October though, there was no snow, it was just cold! Beautiful quaint village. We had a lovely lunch before heading back to the boat!

We got back to the boat, and after a great meal and lots of wine, Sean and I packed our bags as we were heading back to Barcelona on the Monday. Just in time for me to wash some clothes for my trip to SA to write exams. I left on the Tuesday morning, 12 October. It was all worth it though! I had a great time in SA. Missed Sean a lot, but saw a lot of friends and family in between writing exams. Got home a month later.

Egypt

We arrived home just in time to wash some of our clothes, pack a bag and head off back to the airport, diving gear in tow! We hopped on a plane for Cairo, where we had booked into a hotel for 2 nights . We had one full day in Cairo, which we used to do the tourist things! Booked ourselves a guide, and went to the pyramids!

We rushed into the museum for a quick look before they closed the doors, and then enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the nile. Had an early start the next morning, meeting the rest of the live-aboard travellers. We met them at Cairo airport and all flew to Hurghada, where we were met by our dive master for the week. Got taken to the boat and shown to our cabins!!! After the lost bags were retrieved and on board, we started out! After about an hour, we stoped for our first dive!

 After the dive, we were fed. a few more hours, and we stopped for a night dive. Fed again, then off to bed. Early start, 6.30, first dive at 7. Breakfast, rest, dive, lunch, rest, dive, snack, rest, night dive, weather permitting! And so it carried on for 6 days! What bliss!

We spent our last night in a hotel in Marsa Alam, before heading back to Barcelona! Well rested and ready for anything!

Cape Town, July 2010

I arrived in Cape Town the day before the Soccer World Cup Final. Josie had arrived a week earlier, so it was great to see her again. We started the day with breakfast, beer and rugby at the Sharp’s. At least the breakfast and the beer didn’t leave a bad taste in one’s mouth!

On the Sunday of the SWC Final, we took a train into Cape Town City Centre to walk the fan-walk. Let’s just say: The train ride was something to remember – sardines would have objected to being packed so tightly! Although nothing much was happening on the fan-walk itself, the City was certainly alive and a vibe could be felt everywhere we went. Spain won the final – talk about being in the wrong place at the time!

The next week was spent running around trying to sort out everything that we hadn’t gotten a chance to do before we left Cape Town in January.

We were then off to Cape St. Francis for a week of relaxation and Josie’s Dad’s 60th Bergie Birthday party. What a blast that was! Nearly the whole of the Godfrey clan was there! It was definitely a party to remember! (or not, as the case may be!)

The rest of the week was really awesome. Relaxing at the house, swimming in the sea, not doing very much. Just what we needed!








Then, back to Cape Town for a week. Saw a lot of friends and family, and it was really nice to catch up! Then on Saturday saw us on a plane again. Back to the place where not much English is spoken!

A long time coming........

So, I checked our blog the other day, only to find that it’s been almost five months since the last post – damn that’s shocking!

In those five months we’ve been seeing some places and having a load of fun: Cape Town (Josie’s been twice), Egypt and The Red Sea, San-Remo - Italy, Monaco and finally Andorra. Shit, I can’t believe I found time to do any work!!! Oh, talking about work, I ended up going to the UK three times in between as well!

In those five months Spain has won the Soccer World Cup, Summer has turned to Autumn, The Boks look a shadow of the side of 2007, and now it is Winter already. Time sure does fly.

So here goes it with the Blogs…….

A quick trip to the Emerald Isle...and Spain in the Final!

What a busy week! In between packing my bags for my holiday to Africa (okay, Cape Town - but Africa sounds more adventurous) and finishing off a heap of work, I was asked to travel to Dublin for meetings with our production facility in Ireland.

On Tuesday morning I boarded a plane and set off on my travels. The afternoon's meeting went well and we finally retired to the hotel bar to watch the semi-final of the Soccer World Cup between The Uruguay "Cheats" and the much fancied Kaas-Koppe (Netherlands). One of my colleagues, who was also attending the meetings in Dublin, is from Weert in the Nether-regions. So this was an important match for him. As the goals were scored, the Guinness was poured! Damn, the Guinness in Dublin is tasty! As we celebrated a the Dutch win we eventually found ourselves sampling the Irish whiskey and having deep meaningful discussions about the meaning of life and and the effects of the cosmos on the solar system and it's influence on global warming. Okay, we spoke a lot shit and I can't quite remember much of the discussion!

Wednesday was a long day with a high caffeine intake required. At the end of the day it was a successful series of meetings that will hopefully help drive down costs, reduce SKUs, blah, blah, blah!

But, the reason for today's blog was this...........

.....Fame at last! I need to complain to Air Lingus about the spelling though.

The only down side to my return flight was that I boarded the plane 10 minutes before the Spain vs. Germany kick-off, and landed 5 minutes from the final whistle. I ended up missing the entire game, but it was clear that Spain had made it to the final.

This was the scene at Ramblas near Plaça Catalunya where thousands of fans had gathered for the match. The atmosphere was absolutely electric.

Looking forward to watching the final on Sunday in Cape Town.