Festival of Speed

I've always wanted to get a pair of gumboots, but there have only been two occasions in my life where I actually needed a pair. The first was at the mud fest which was the Fuji Rock Concert last year. The second was last week at the Festival of Speed.

The Festival of Speed was held at Goodwood, some guy's "country house" about an hour and a half drive out of London. We hired a Mini Cooper S for the occasion. According to Mike, the Festival of Speed is a motor show (from classics to the latest) and track day all thrown into one. Here's the link to our pics.

Ola Barcelona!

Spent 5 days in sunny Barcelona last week with Sof and Jackie, where we ate, shopped and ate some more. Here's a link to our pics:



So we had made a lunch booking at El Cellar de Can Roca, a restaurant "to visit at all costs" according to the LV guide. Since El Cellar was in Girona, a town about 1 1/2 hours away from Barcelona, we thought it would be fun to hire a car and drive out. On discovering that apart from having to drive on the other side of the road, the car that we had hired was manual, had no petrol, and no map, it did not seem like such a good idea after all...

S: So the pedals, are they the same? Like clutch on the left, then the brake?
Very worried looking man: Errmmm... there are actually 3 pedals...

The poor man ended up driving us to get petrol, then back to his office to get a map, before sending us on our way, probably expecting never to see his car again...

Wall art at Hotel M&S

Since my parents have been bugging me for photos of Hotel M&S, I thought I'd give an example of the priceless artworks we have here hanging on the wall. This one is entitled "T-Shirt" which has been skilfully matched by our leading curator with a deep blue plastic covered wire clothes hanger:

I love medication...

One week after getting sick in this country, I finally have some antibiotics in my hot little hands. All it took was 50 phone calls and 3 separate visits to the neighbourhood clinic:

S: I've had this cold and cough for a whole week.
D: [Checks]. Well it's not a bacterial infection.
S: Are you sure? It doesn't seem to be going away, and I had the same thing when I first arrived in London.
D: I don't want to prescribe you with any antibiotics, it's just not necessary in this case.
S: Oh but I really need them, if I don't take any, I'll get the same thing again later. I just want to make sure the bug's gone for good.
D: Antibiotics won't help you get better. All you need to do is rest.
S: Oooh..... are you sure? How about something for my cough?
D: Look you just need to get some rest and lots of sleep. It takes about 4 weeks to really get over a cold.
S: 4 weeks! But I'm going away this weekend... [look completely helpless.]
D: Oh... now I feel really bad. Do you really have to go away this weekend? You need your rest.
S: It's already booked [throw in another helpless look].
D: Hmmm... okok. I'll write you a prescription, just in case you don't get better by Sunday. But you really shouldn't take them at all. Antibiotics are so overprescribed in this country.
S: Oh I promise I won't. Only if I don't get better by Sunday. [Woohoo!!!!]

Our first month in London...

Yes I'm on a roll today since I'm sick and stuck at home.

Mr Zero made me post these photos:


and his new car:


Borough Market and the heavenly chirozo burgers - I am going to take every single guest of Hotel M&S here: