July is here, so is the sun!

Sun, 1 July, 2007 – 6:37 pm

Wow, the first whole day of reasonable sunshine for quite a while. Typical eh!

It's been an interesting week this past week. Wimbledon's been on, so I've not been working as much as I should have. Couple of cracking tense games with Tim Henman playing. It's not about him playing, it's about the suspense of the match. The first one resulting in 5 sets with the final set going to 13-11. The second was almost an amazing comeback from 2 sets down. I admire anyone who keeps fighting until the end. Looking forward to the final though, presumably will be a Federer vs Nadal match and that could be an interesting one. I think it's been a while since Federer lost a set to be honest. Whilst he's a good player it doesn't make for exciting watching!

I've not really managed to get out into the garden this week. It's always raining or I've been watching the tennis! I do hope to later today but knowing my luck the minute I get changed into my old gear and get out there, no sooner does the rain start! I'll have nothing done before my parents get back!!

I cleaned up the Smart this week and took it up to a client's who's going to sell it for me on their website (Motorbike and Car dealer). Really good favour from them. They're covering the warranty and everything, and giving me a pretty good deal on it. Fingers crossed it'll sell soon as I need the cash! Tax is due next month and so is my credit card.

I took my first sightseeing tour around London on Friday (yes, never seen Buckingham Palace before then!). My tour guide, Martin, called around 8am to point out the bomb that had been found, but simply as we were going to go to Piccadilly circus and then walk up to china town to meet for lunch. I've spent my life putting up with the IRA threat, and decided it wasn't about to stop us having a good day. There's wasn't much going on anyhow, even when we did walk through Piccadilly. Plenty of people still out, tourists and locals. From what I've read since, the London bombs didn't have much of a chance to do much damage besides set the car on fire. Clearly someone missed their chemistry lessons.

Bombs aside, we had a great day. We met with Martin outside Big Ben (sorry, St. Stephen's Clock Tower, but I, like most, call it Big Ben ;)). We walked from there up past Whitehall and the MOD offices, past Downing street and up to Buckingham Palace via Trafalger Square. Gotta say, it didn't look as big as I expected! We then walked up to China Town and had some lunch plus a couple of bottles of wine (and then it went downhill!). We moved on to another bar and had a few more drinks. As you can tell the sightseeing started to suffer at this point! Then from there we walked down to Covent Garden looking for somewhere to have dinner and ended up in the most bizarre restaurant I've ever been in. I think it was meant to be Turkish or something. The interior was meant to give the air of a night at the Opera (I think). Velvet napkins, table clothes and wierd and wonderful wall and ceiling decorations! The food wasn't fantastic to be honest either, and not exactly cheap. Still, it kept us going before we parted ways to come home. Great day out however.

Today we took a drive out around where I grew up. We went down to the old RAF base that my Dad was stationed at, and to the house (what we called quarters) that I lived in from about 9 months to 5 years old. I've not seen it for years and years, and of course moved out around 25 years ago. I swear it was bigger than it was! I saw the top of the shed (attached to the house though, not wooden) that apparently I climbed up at the age of two and sat shouting at everyone who went by. Clearly a friendly child We went past my nursery school, and my 'first school'. Also took a drive through the village I spent the ages of 5-10 and also 13-16 living in. Again, things always seem bigger when you're younger! Still, it was cool to see and to show Dave.