Just arrived back from France and we are pretty psyched about buying some land over there and building a small weekend nest. It’s amazing how close Calais is to London. One hour on the train and you’re there. Another hour and you’re at the area we are looking at. Very doable for a weekend away.

I live in London, on Oxford Street. You can’t really live in a more urban environment than that. Last weekend Helen and I got out of London to the North Downs to go hiking. For me, this is the ideal lifestyle; live in the city in an exciting, stimulating environment. When you feel like “getting back to nature” - pick the environment you want, and go there for the weekend. The countryside is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!

We’re baaack! 1.5 hours of yoga in the morning with the Eiger towering above us. Another hour of yoga in the evening after a full days skiing, and we’re back after 7 days at Wengen, Switzerland with barely an ache. Our hotel was very confortable, and had an incredible view of mountains, snow and valley. There might have also been drunken yodellers as well. Here is the view out the window:

Helen entertained the locals at Karoke one night in the local pub, doing her best Kate Bush impression (to a standing ovation). I wimped out decided not to sing because of the avalanche risk. I don’t think our insurance covers me singing (more terrorism that natural disaster I guess).

Our hosts for the trip were Michael and Michelle of YogaTraveller, and they really looked after us! I think we’ll book in for the Tanzania safari later in the year.

To kick off Helly’s birthday week, I took her to Coombe Abbey in Coventry. It was originally a 12th Century Cistercian Abbey, that has been restored and turned into a hotel. It was great arriving at the Abbey at night, and walking into the foyer of the hotel which looks like something out of “The Name of the Rose”. Our room, which was apparently one of the old rooms in the Abbey, had a view stretching out over the sculptured gardens. We spent many hours exploring the grounds - 500 acres of gardens, woodlands, lakes and marshes.

Last weekend was spent back in Amsterdam. The highlight was probably Tony’s Lame SuperHero Birthday Party. Helen has more photos on her blog. Tony messaged to say that everyone was meeting in Dam Square, and when we arrived there was a crowd of superheroes standing around - capes billowing. Tourists were coming over and asking to have their photos taken with the group. It was all too funny. I went as Pi Man, a super hero who’s special power is the ability to recite Pi to 2 decimal places. I also had the lamest costume.

Helen and I arrived back from New York to utter chaos at Heathrow. The British had arrested a bunch of people planning to blow up flights en route to the US, and as a consequence airports across the country were on high alert. People trying to fly out of Heathrow had been let through to the departure lounge after checking in all their carry-on luggage. Most of the outgoing flights were subsequently cancelled, so everyone was forced to go back out through immigration again. Consequently the queue at immigration snaked across most of the airport. I was quite surprised that it only took us an hour and a half or so to clear immigration. This was despite flying on emergency passports, as I had lost our passports in New York, along with my new MacBook, my video ipod, and my PSP *sigh* Oh well, all technology should be disposable, neh?

So I’m back to using my old 17″ powerbook again, and my old iPod. I’ve tried to cheer myself up by buying an external La Clie 1Terabyte drive… you know what? It worked!

We had a fantastic time in New York. It’s been 10 years since we lived in an apartment on West 60th and the city has changed quite a bit, besides the obvious lack of the twin towers. For some reason it didn’t seem quite as high octane as I remember it. Maybe that’s because I live in London now, so my standards for intensity has gone up quite a bit. I love all the high buildings littering the place. Central Park is also a wonderful thing to have plonked in the middle of your city. I also remember New Yorkers as being a lot ruder. Everyone we met was very nice and polite.

We’ve just come back from Berlin, where we saw Ukraine versus Tunisia battle it out in a World Cup football match. The atmosphere, the crowds, the feeling of celebration was everywhere! I’ve created a video podcast of our trip that you can download here (mp4). I’ve also uploaded a Quicktime that might be easier to view if you don’t have iTunes installed

We spent the four days of Easter drowning in sunshine, great food and fine wine - toasting Alan’s imminent decrepitude. Helen, Katie, Lydia, Alan, Dina, Todd and I were in sunny Provence, France. Specifically Les Baux-de-Povence; a very pretty, fortified town that lords over the surrounding landscape. Lydia’s parents live in a beautiful house near the town, and were kind enough to act as our local guides, showing us the ruined castle, their wonderful garden, and taking us hiking through the neighbouring hills. They even posted my wallet back to the UK for me after it was stolen from our hotel room - thank you Morris and Mila!
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Helen and I have just finishing up a two-week trip to Australia. Unfortunately we couldn’t see all the people we wanted to see because it was such a whirlwind trip. We stopped off in Tokyo for a night and went out with our friends for dinner. Tim and Anna showed us a current phenomenon in Tokyo at the tiny expat bars, which is loud 80’s music, photos of posing expats plastered over the walls, and lots of very drunk expats boisterously working their way to horizontal in the bar itself. We adjourned for some very tasty mojito cocktails at the Grand Hyatt in Rapongi. This was actually where we were staying, and very nice it was too! The room had one of those deep Japanese-style baths, and two showers. We certainly felt squeaky clean when we explored Tokyo.

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Last weekend Helen and I, with our friends Mike and Alecia, and Glen and Claire went to Paris. The Eurostar is so quick and convenient… it’s pretty much 2.5 hours door to door. Claire and Glen have an apartment in Paris. It’s near the St Germaine area, which is a very funky part of town. Because they had lived in Paris for 4 years, we got taken to some very cool bars and clubs. Now Helen and I want to get a place over there!