My Favourite Place - Guernsey

In my job I am lucky enough to travel the world, and I do make a point to try and actually see each city, I have done most of the Open Top Bus Tours around european cities I have visited and most hotels can arrange tours elsewhere.

But at least once a year i like to go to my favourite place - Guernsey. I suppose it doesn't sound as exciting as the other places I have been in the last 12 months (Singapore, San Francisco, Denver, Finland, Sweden, New York, New Orleans, Paris, Munich) but what Guernsey has to offer is friends and relaxation.

So why is being with friends such fun, well friends don't let you down, it doesn't matter about the weather we can still have fun. I met my friend L many years ago when we worked together in Berlin and that was before we had our daughters who are now 20! L is from Guernsey and over the years her family have adopted me, seen me through highs and lows and are always there for me. I have been included in her circle of friends who I now call my own. They have come to me in Ireland (for Robbie Williams concerts, great at Landsdowne Road, not so good the following time), we all went for tattoos when we needed (except L the coward :) ) to prove we weren't old, and have partied over and over again.




This year I have been to see Mamma Mia again, although their enormous cinema only seats 75!, 6 ladies of culture, who were later chastised for the noise in the restaurant, we thought our singing was in tune. I have managed only one swim in the sea, the weather is not at its best but chilled out in Herm ( a tiny island where we once lost our children, that includes mine you have previously read about, home next week).



Today L and I went around the coast in a Rib, I am a bit of a 'wince' and held on for dear life but it was fun, and we enjoyed it. I love water and especially light houses. We had to wear all the gear and it was like being in your own personal 'hug'.

2012 Olympics Aquatic Centre

When ever a country hosts the olympics there is always a massive rush to get the building finished in time and within budget.

It is fantastic that London is hosting the 2012 Olympics and we have done so well in the Beijing Olympics it will be a great event, but there is talk of our aquatic centre, how much is rumoured to cost and will it be finished on time?

Well here in Belfast we have the answer - we have spent our £102 million pounds on our aqautic centre and it can be filled with 22 million gallons of water in just minutes.


Although I actually lie, this is the main Belfast to Dublin road as it runs through Belfast, a brand new underpass, that simply filled with water when it rained.

The Siege of Ballynure

I live in a very small village in Northern Ireland called Ballynure which means ‘Farmstead of the Yew Tree’. The 2001 census put the population at under 700.

Now don’t muddle us with Ballynure Jamaica which is a little bigger and possibly a little warmer.

The village is split in two by the main Road from Belfast to Larne and I live on the west side. On the East side is my Church Ballynure Methodist and the shops, we have 3! But one of the shops is Jackson’s the best butcher in the UK, and that is not me being biased as it was voted best in 2007. People come to this butcher’s from all over and so on a Saturday morning it is actually a very busy place.

So what I want to tell you about is the road works, they are resurfacing this main road through our village, which first I don’t understand as it wasn’t that long ago it was done before, but anyway they started in June and it is meant to take 10 weeks. It seems to have gone smoothly except for the two weeks they went on holiday and left all their cones as a reminder. But today was a disaster.

I arrived at the main road and want to drive to the West side so I have to turn right and then left, and, for those of you who do not live in the UK we drive on the right so turning right onto a main road full of lorries travelling to and from our port at Larne you need a little patience.

The before mentioned butchers means that despite our modest population Saturday is a very busy day for the village and I was one of them. And today they are laying tarmac on the main road with men in yellow jackets and orange ‘babygrows’ directing traffic and it is chaotic! Most places have temporary traffic lights but we have men with lollypops, who cant hold them still let alone co-ordinate between themselves. So I finally get told to go and as I weave between the cones and tarmac layers there are cars coming towards me and another sign holder with his hands in the air, he has simply given up!!



When I left the butchers I decided to drive on to the ‘town’ of Ballyclare although my daughter would tell you it doesn’t really count as a town, anyway on the roundabout there is a new monument, some sort of topiary in honour of Wallace and Gromit . Made me laugh.

When's our Flight?

So if you are following the adventures of a scatterbrained teenager, you may have been disappointed there was no episode last week. Well I had a good excuse; I was busy getting her off to Europe for the great interrail trip.

So, this trip should be quite easy, Brooke and her friend Amy bought their tickets a while ago and had booked their flights to Prague. (2nd attempt at the flight tickets originally they had the wrong date, but that was along time ago so I’ll not dwell on it).


In theory all they need is the tickets, their passports and money, plus the obligatory credit card.

The intention is to see Eastern Europe, they don’t have a final itinerary as they want to be spontaneous and also if they tell parents where they are going we will probably interfere so we don’t know where they are going. The intention is to book the train and hostels for the next destination just a few days in advance.

Last Saturday they sat in my living room, searching for all the hostels in Prague and booking for the first 3 days, finally got that sorted and off Amy went both excited that the next day they were off on the adventure.

So no last minute disasters or forgetfulness…………..not a chance. A few hours later, Amy rings up and says ‘Brooke we are not going tomorrow, our flight isn’t till Monday’, well at least they were a day early and not a day late. Look out Europe they are your problem now.

Great Service

We are all quick to complain when we get bad service so it is only fair to speak up when you have great service.

When Brooke went off to University in January the list of kit she needed was long, very long. Off she went to Buxton with everything on the list and most of it has been used now except her day sac, a 40 litre rucksack had only been used a few times for just a few hours each time. So the trip to Morroco was the first real test. Unfortunatley it failed, the drawstring collar came away from the main bag. Having looked at it the collar was only just inside the sewing line. It happens.

So we have a failed rucksack, 7 months old and no receipt. I know this counts as 'unfit for purpose' and technically the supplier or shop is liable but it can be a difficult thing to prove. Still off I went to Mountain Warehouse in Antrim, who also sell a nice line in 'wick tees', and showed the rucksack to the staff. No problem what so ever, no issue that I had no receipt, no 'did you misuse it', no 'it was too long ago', simply 'we are very sorry' and an instant replacement.

Good service, well done and thank you.

Where are my wellies

So she came back from Morocco on Monday with a bag of dirty clothes and the smelliest feet I have ever come across! But hot water sorted out both.

She has a brilliant sense of achievement and wants to go again; she didn’t find the mountain too difficult but explained that if you climb too quickly you end up with altitude problems.

It is great to have her home, but then I had to go to London. She did ring me on Wednesday but only to ask when I was home, ah she misses me, no; she wanted to know when she had to tidy up by… Not sure why she bothered as when I got home Thursday evening the downstairs was well on its way to matching the upstairs, typical teenage tidiness. Still you have to love them.

She was back at work this week in the leisure centre, not very busy this week as they were filming The Cherrybomb there with Jimmy Nesbitt and Rupert Grint , Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. It actually turned her off any idea of a career in the movies as she found it incredibly boring going over and over the same scene all day.

Today was the start of the next trip she is going horse riding with the Royal Artillery, everything should have been fine we checked on all the kit when we were getting ready for the Morocco trip, so no last minute panics, of course not, ‘where are my wellies’ she shouts 10 minutes before she leaves. No joy, so she flew to Southampton and had to go to the shops before she caught the train. Oh the joys of parenthood…

Teenagers!

Teenagers are put on this earth to bring parents a range of totally unexpected challenges…

My 19 year old daughter is also a great friend, however opening the door to her bedroom does put risk on the relationship – how can you live like that?

Anyway, she finished university for the summer on 3rd May and then set out to have a brilliant summer.

• Trip to London to get her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award at St James Palace
• Accompany me to the OUGF conference sailing between Helsinki and Stockholm
• Renew her Lifesaving qualifications
• Summer Break in Newquay – when students all go to Cornwall and everyone living in Cornwall goes away!
• Trip to South Africa (second trip of a lifetime in 8 months)
• Mountain Climbing in the Atlas Mountains – Morocco
• Horse Riding in Wiltshire with the Royal Artillery
• Inter-rail around Eastern Europe

Between each trip she comes home for a few days to work as a lifeguard at our local swimming pool to top up the bank account.

Had I have known university was this much fun I may have stayed at school and gone myself.

I have to say she is very good with her money, I have donated airmiles but everything else she has funded, and I thought students were meant to be constantly poor.

Anyway back to the challenge, she is currently in Morocco having successfully achieved her mountain climb, and is home tomorrow, but before she went there was the kit list to pack. It included a tent and down jacket which needed to be good quality and fit for purpose not just what is on offer in the local store suitable just for music festivals. So out we went for the day and eventually tracked down specialist shops in Belfast, spent a fortune and came home. Job done? Not quite…

Day before she goes I am helping her to pack and the packing list says two ‘wick tees’, “what is a wick tee?” I ask, (I have no idea about mountain climbing or the equipment needed – except it all seems to be expensive). Brooke says she doesn’t know either so it can’t be important so she will manage without!

A bit like a DBA not understanding Oracle instructions about a patch at install and just ignoring it (hang on I have met some like that).

So mum googles ‘wick tees’discovers that they are very important t shirts that are to keep you dry and draw out sweat from the body. So quick rush out to another shop – did I mention we live half an hour each way from a town with shops!

It probably doesn’t sound too bad to you does it? But on the way to South Africa she rang me in a panic and ended up having to buy a new memory card for her camera as she couldn’t find the cable to download the last set of photos. Probably somewhere in that bedroom!

Home tomorrow, horse riding the following week – now what will the challenge be then?

Still you have to love them and I am so proud of her.