British Summer Time

One of the places in Bristol I always seem to end up in during summer is the lovely Avon Gorge Hotel whereby you can just relax on a massive balcony looking over the Bristol Suspension Bridge with a continental lager in hand. This has now become a bit of a ritual at every opportune moment!

Parisian voyage

The intrepid explorer set sail again earlier this week on an important voyage. Paris was the destination.

However, this was no travelling expedition. It was unchartered territory. This was work.

Believe it or not, this is Bristol!!! Check out the Bristol Suspension bridge which you can almost see in the bottom right hand corner of the photo. I live just around the corner in the exquisite Clifton Village!

At Charles de Gaulle airport arriving from Bristol airport

The lovely hotel, Le 123 Hotel.

The Paris office

A gorgeous sunset over the English channel on the way back.

March Lifeshot

Matt's 21st Birthday

Snowfall

Hockey debut!

Late on Friday evening my old buddy Nick and his girlfriend Kate came down to visit my new place in Bristol for a nice catch up and one or two drinks. Just before we headed up to Oxfordshire on Saturday morning, we managed to fit in a rather gorgeous mocha at the lovely Bar Chocolat in Clifton Village! Utterly irresistable!

We watched Nick and his brother play hockey before we ended up in Oxford on Saturday night for our school buddy Tom's birthday at Po Na Na and like last year, this was again a great night out!

On Sunday I was expecting to watch the second hockey game of the weekend with Nick and his girlfriend turning out for his sister's hockey team, when having only ten players meant that my rather limited hockey skills were needed!

So after many years plying my trade as a footballer, arguably unsuccessfully(!), I finally checked out the game of hockey and of all places, in goal!

I have to say that although initially I wasn't that enthusiastic about having quite hard hockey balls being smacked towards me, I rather enjoyed it!



In fact, after a few epic saves I was asked if I could come back the weekend after!!

New flat in Clifton Village

I have just moved to an awesome pad in one of the best spots in Bristol, the delightful Clifton Village!!

Skiing trip in the Alps

Late last night I returned from an epic skiing trip to La Plagne in the Alps, it was awesome!



I went down with my old buddy Nick to stay in his girlfriend's chalet in Champany along with his brother Alex and our old school friend Jess.



We headed down overnight on Boxing Day and managed to fit five days of brilliant skiing in and luckily we had just enough snow, so we were pretty lucky!



It was my first time out on the snow and it was a little tricky. But after a bit of guidance and a private lesson I was going just as fast as everyone else, albeit slightly out of control, sometimes! Luckily, I lived to tell the tale!



Spending new year's eve in a lovely log cabin on the mountain side was fantastic and a great way to end 2006!



Happy new year everyone!

Christmas!

Dyson Christmas Party

It has been a little while since I have been at a Christmas work party, but it was great fun! The venue was hidden away in the Wiltshire countryside in a old aeroplane hanger which is normally empty but for this party it was completely decked out for the party!



The theme was wind, fire, earth and water. In which case, I was windswept!

Life shots

Park Street Christmas party

Back home in the shire

Last weekend I headed back to the shire, to revisit my childhood town Chipping Norton in the heart of the Cotswolds. It was great to catch up with old friends in the classic country pub where we had been so many times before sampling the country ales next to a lovely warm log fire!



We had a couple of fantastic walks through the countryside near my friend's house and it was great to taste the crisp country air, so much so that I think I had too much. It might have been the night out in Oxford but I also don't think that I am used to so much fresh air!!



At my friend's Nick's house we dug up a Christmas tree each from his parent's garden for our flats! This was the real McCoy, not a fake plastic tree and it began to feel like Christmas all of a sudden.

A year on

A whole year has passed since I returned from my epic trip around the world. It seems like a distant memory now but a fond one at that!



Nearly everyday I recount the tales of some of my adventures, and I do long to do something similar again and relive the adventures of the intrepid explorer!



One day in the near future hopefully, it has to be done!



Luckily I have some photos to prove it as it all seems pretty unbelievable sometimes when I am sat at my desk faced with reality!

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

So here it is, the classic Bernabeu stadium which has graced some of the best football players in the world. It is a truly magnificent stadium and very steep so that you feel that you are right above the pitch!



The tour around the stadium only cost around £5 which is brilliant as we were able to check out the stadium, museum, changing rooms and even sit in the manager's chair!!



I did try and get some of the hallowed grass while we were walking alongside the pitch! I couldn't resist! Unfortunately the security guard caught me with a clump of fresh grass in my hand and confronted with such evidence he didn't look too happy!!



I had to open my hand and simply watch the dead grass slip away in the wind hoping that somehow it made up for my heinous crime!

Obviously not!