Monday, July 6th, 2009
Probably the best Zoo I have ever been to, and that takes some beating as Prague Zoo was pretty impressive too.
The temperatures meant it felt like you were in Africa. You were inches away from animals. Seeing Tigers behind a couple of pieces of bamboo, sturdy bamboo I must point out. And all for a price that was well worth paying. I would have paid more, lots more. Edinburgh Zoo, take note.
If you are ever on the Costa Del Sol and are near Fuengirola, I truly recommend a visit.
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Last weekend was the first weekend I had off work since December, so the two of us decided to take a visit to Edinburgh. After all, there was no way work could call me in at the last minute if I was out of the city.
Generally the trip was very good, if a little short. I’ve only ever been in Edinburgh for at most a couple of hours, so it was nice to spend the weekend doing the touristy things. I have noticed the large amounts of tartan and bagpipes to be found there. Americans would love it.
I will make my feelings known about Edinburgh Zoo and how much of a waste of money it was in a blog post later, but I want to use this post to have a rant about the Edinburgh Central Travelodge.
During the week I received an e-mail from Travelodge asking me to rate my stay. I had to answer honestly. We didn’t expect luxury or 5 star accommodation, but we did expect a little bit better than what we got.
The problem was, Travelodge seems to be a haven for people on boozy weekends and stag/hen weekends. I think there were at least 3 hen weekends staying on the same floor as us. Emma and I had been up early to get the train on Saturday morning so by 2am in the night we were fast asleep, until all the boozers came back to the Travelodge.
Suddenly it was like being 14 again, in a youth hostel on a school trip. People standing at their doors shouting down the corridors to their mates at the other end of the hall. The only difference was that unlike the school trips, Travelodge didn’t have Mr Smith policing the corridors late at night.
I know it would probably be very difficult to administrate, but when booking it would be nice to have a tick box titled “If you plan on getting blind drunk and making lots of noise and generally being a bit of a disgrace tick here”. Then stick them all on the same floor and leave us folk who are trying to have a quiet weekend a bit of peace. I felt sorry the next morning for the scores of families with young kids who all looked incredibly tired.
We paid £80 for the night (ok, £20 of that was for early check in and late check out), and being a Travelodge we didn’t expect too much, but I’m sure for the same amount of money we could have found an as luxurious hotel with less revellers staying.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is it that you’d rate Travelodge to a friend or colleague, 1 being not at all likely, 10 being extremely likely… I gave it a 2.
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
A still from the Celtic Identity film at the beach in Aberdeen
If you are heading to the Celtic Media Festival in Wales sometime between now and the weekend, lookout for the section on one minute Celtic Identity films. The above still shot was from a film made by my college colleague Simon Rochfort and features me as presenter. I’m not sure if, when or where it will be shown, but it’s worth a watch none the less.
People often say “David, do you prefer doing TV or Radio?”. I’ll let you be the judge of that when I tell you that on the first day of filming for the One minute film, we managed to get a whopping 18 seconds of usable footage. They don’t call me “David one take Lewis” for nothing.
I’ll stick the film up here to watch once the festival is over. It will also double up as my Blue Peter audition tape should I ever feel the need to apply.
David
P.S. As you can see from above, it’s impossible to get a decent looking still from the film. But trust me, it looks good when watching it.
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
And just like that Bergen is back to normal. When the Tall Ships left Lerwick in 1999 the place was a ghost town for about a month. It felt empty and depressing. Bergen is not like that tonight. If you had arrived in Bergen tonight, there would be very little to suggest for the last 5 days that the Tall Ships in town.
Well, very little evidence. The “Picton Castle” is still in the harbour. They’ve lost their ships cat of 11 years. Chibley was on board when they arrived on Friday, but now no where to be seen. It doesn’t look like they are in a hurry to leave without him.
Wasn’t too sure where I was going to watch the ships leave today, but as we crossed the Askøy bridge in the car it was clear that there was the place to stand. So I spent 3 hours this afternoon standing on a bridge. I took over 300 photos. Put the new camera to good use.
And the best weather of the past 5 days has been this evening. After the boats have left. I can’t imagine they will be going anywhere quickly, there is literally no wind. And Tall Ships rules state that they must use their sails and not their engines. Will be a long trip to Den Helder in the Netherlands.
David
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
The Tall Ships continue in Bergen. Waved goodbye to Emma today. She is having to head back to Aberdeen for a resit in one of her exams. Had that been me I would have probably decided the exam wasn’t worth it, possibly the reason I’m not at uni?
Weather has been mixed. Perfect for the fireworks last night (above). Not so good for the parade this afternoon (below).
One thing about Bergen (and I’d imagine Norway and possibly Scandinavia as a whole), it’s very easy to spend lots of money on very little. 2 Cokes the other day at one of the outdoor bars was the equivalent of about 9 pounds. A pint (well, 500ml) of beer and a 500ml of cider came to the equivalent of £13. I recommend Bergen a lot to people, but never to those who I think would go on holiday to drink, can you see why?
Emma slowly drinking the very expensive drink.
David
