When In Rome …

I’ve just finished my first day back in work after my amazing long weekend in Rome and I’m depressed.

This was my third visit to Rome and once again it was an amazing experience. All three visits have been brilliant in their own way, the first because it was my first big adventure. Myself, my nephew and a close friend managed to walk all the major sites of the city in 3 long and exhausting days. This was especially rewarding because it was all new and we had put in the time and hard work during the mid-summer sun, what an achievement. It was only after my second visit however that I realised I had only scratched the surface and that during my first visit I had missed out on the real magic of Rome. Since our initial visit my nephew had moved to live Rome, made friends, got a job as a tour guide and learnt the real beauty of Roman life, so my second time in the eternal city was a truly amazing experience. We visited some of the major sites, but this time armed with his massive depth of knowledge, therefore what had previously just been beautiful and impressive became meaningful and interesting, the city was beginning to make sense. In the evenings we ate well, drank plenty and on two occasions played football with his Italian friends. The locals teaming up against the foreigners, which involved people from England, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand and Argentina … the Italians didn’t stand a chance! This second experience in Rome had truly opened my eyes to the experiences that where on offer in the rest of the world, and when my better half secretly booked this trip for us I was blown away. I couldn’t wait to show her the magic of Rome as I’d experienced it.

We arrived in Rome mid-morning on Friday and with relative ease we had the journey to our hotel planned out. This was refreshing for me because I’m not the most confident in my abilities of navigating when in a new place, despite me usually being right if I pay attention. This time however I had some familiarity and the fairly constant grid system makes it easy to head in the general direction and end up in the right area. After getting the shuttle bus to Termini (the main bus/train station), we decided to brave the metro, which was fantastically easy to navigate, It’s cheap too! Once we found the hotel (Ancient Romance B&B) we instantly knew we’d be staying here again, the building was brilliantly located, the rooms where fantastic (as was the air conditioning), the staff where really helpful and the price was great.

We decided we’d take it easy, adjust to the heat (34°C) and have a gentle wonder around St. Peter’s Square, Castle St. Angelo and the surrounding area to familiarise ourselves with some shops, places to eat and most importantly, where to get nice ice-cream from, haha. As we’d been up early we had intended to take a late afternoon siesta before we headed out for the evening, but my nephew had finished his tour through the Vatican at 5, which was just around the corner from where we’d stopped for Ice Cream, so we met up on our way back to the Hotel. We all grabbed a shower and chilled out in the lovely air conditioned room before heading back out to have ‘a few beers’. We met up with a close friend of my nephews in The Abbey before heading to Campo de’ Fiori where we met up with a few more of his friends. We then headed to the river where a festival was taking place! This essentially meant lots of food and drink stalls along the rivers edge and LOTS of people. We had a great time and met up with a bunch of students from various countries, one of whom was a creepy dude who sounded German, needless to say we didn’t really entertain him for long, lol. After some drunken antics we headed back to the hotel because we had an early start!

On the Saturday morning my nephew had arranged for us to accompany him on a private tour with a lovely American family who he had been guiding around the city. We met them at 10am and the plan was to cover the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and The Forum in the morning! This was the first time I’ve seen my nephew at work and I was pleasantly re-assured that he is VERY good at his job. His depth of knowledge is amazing and he was able to guide us all on an experience that brought everything to life, despite the ridiculous 36°C heat. Come dinner time we decided that we should leave the family to enjoy the rest of their tour, so we thanked them for their generosity and wished them well. From their we decided to grab some food, get a quick shower and head to the Vatican Museums to visit the Sistine Chapel. To be honest it wasn’t quite as mind blowing as I’d hoped, but this was most likely due to the fact that the whole hour long walk is full of work which is equally spectacular. Plus, by this time I was grumpy because I’d spent 6 hours walking around in the ridiculous heat and all I was looking forward to was a cold shower and a power nap!

After a good sleep we got ready and headed out for a meal. We walked through the Vatican, past the Castel Sant Angelo and across the Bridge of Angels, before heading towards Piazza Navona. We stopped at a beautiful little restaurant in a narrow street just outside the square. The green ivy was flowing down the front of the rustic yellow building, the light was fairly dim and the shutters, tables and seats outside where typically Italian, even complete with a wobble from the uneven cobbled street, this was perfect. We had the most amazing meal, accompanied by the bustle of Rome, in a fantastic setting. The owners where even a stereotypical old couple who pottered about checking that all the guests had well taken care of and gesturing like crazy about everything! After a wonderful experience we headed off to meet my nephew and his friend. We started off very chilled and got talking with lots of people, but by the time we’d talked half of Rome to sleep and 2 o’clock had rolled around we were totally wasted, so we made our way home … this took two hours, even though we had walked it in 20 minutes on the way. Classy!

On the Sunday morning we were a little on the groggy side to say the least and slept in till about mid-day. We eventually dragged ourselves out of our pits to get a slice of pizza from a little place that we’d noticed all the locals using. We stepped outside the hotel and were hit by a wall of heat! It was 38°C today and not the tiniest hint of a breeze. We immediately got a bottle of water from the shop outside and decided that today was going to be a write-off. After our amazing pizza we pottered around a little, but the heat quickly won over us, so we headed back to the hotel for a siesta. We got up about 4 and jumped the metro to Barberini so we could get a snack and visit the Trevi fountain, but it was absolutely packed! We’d only been out for an hour but already the heat was having an effect, so we headed back to the hotel. That night we’d arranged to met my nephew and his fiend for a top class meal at a restaurant we’d found on my first visit. We met about 9 and headed to the restaurant, which to my delight was rather busy. We had the most fantastic meal and I was really chuffed to have found a great restaurant that even my nephew’s friend didn’t know about, despite it being on his door step. After the meal we jumped a cab to The Abbey to meet up with everyone, including another friend of nephew’s who’s girlfriend made a surprise visit from Japan, how cool is that?! After a couple of drinks it was time for us to go because we had to be at the airport at 8am and our posh taxi was booked for 7. We said our goodbyes and set off our last walk across the beautifully lit streets of Rome.

The whole weekend was absolutely amazing and before we’d even got home that night we were already planning our next adventure!

I’ve Got Designers & Writers Block … $%&£!

Arghhhhhh! Work is totally dominating my thoughts at the moment, to the point where I’m struggling to get a good nights sleep because everything is ticking over in my head, long in to the night. As a result, and anyone who’s looked at the site recently will have noticed, my blogging has suffered. I do have a long list of articles that I’ve wanted to write over the last 6 weeks, but I just cant find the time, or focus on things long enough to write anything that remotely resembles good English language. My frustrations came to a head earlier when I read a fantastic article on Web Design Booth called 65 Absolutely Cool And Creative Twitter Backgrounds.

As I usually do when I see something inspirational, I grabbed a scrap of paper and poised myself to jot down some ideas in postage stamp sized diagrams that only I could ever possible understand. This trick allows me to get the gist of it down, then when I get home from work I can expand on the idea and have a play about in Photoshop or Dreamweaver to see what I can make of it. But this time, all I did was stare at the screen, then the paper … back to the screen, then back to the paper. Absolutely nothing sparked in my head. WTF!

Needless to say, I think I need a break from the twists and tales of the relentless paper work. Thankfully I’m off to Rome with my other half in the morning, so I’ll do lots of relaxing, plenty of sight seeing, a fair bit of drinking.

See you all when I’m back.

Arrivederci!!!

The Love Birds Big Challenge

Today I’m struggling to write, the reason for this was that last night I went for the old “meal and a few drinks”. I’m sure that no matter how limited your life experience is, you know that what actually resulted was a messy night out.

The reason I went for to the meal and a few drinks was to see off a good friend as she abandoned us to spend another summer teaching little brats lovely children how to drown swim as part of the Camp America program. This is something she clearly loves doing because this is her third successive year on the program. However, unlike previous years, this year she has had a reason not to go and this is what made last night so interesting.

She is now in a relationship with another friend of mine from when we were both kids. I lost touch with him when he moved to what at the time seemed like a far away land, but now I’m all grown up and allowed further than the end of the street, I realise its about 5 minutes walk away. Needless to say, when I bumped back in to him a while back, during his bands gig at one of the local boozers, I was really glad to find out that he’s still a great lad. A few nights later, and without my knowledge, they love birds recognised each other and got chatting … the rest is sloppy and as I dont have a disclaimer regarding sick and peoples keyboards/monitors I’ll refrain from telling you it all. Despite this gut wrenching sloppiness I’m really glad they have met and you can tell that this is a really serious relationship, despite it only being a few months old.

So to get back on track, whilst last night was a celebration, it also had an undertone of uncertainty, as the two love birds began to realise that any day now she was jetting off to Boston for the summer. It was nice to see two good friends caring so much about each other and what was even better for me was the fact that I knew just how deep their feelings for each other where before they did, so I know everything will be ok, even if they don’t!

Everyone had a great night and I managed to snap a few photos that where actually in focus, despite being a little bit messy myself. As usual they’re all on my Flickr Account if you want to take a peak.

Facing The Sumpter Initiation

I’ve spent this weekend in North Wales with the majority of the close family, 20 of us in total. We all stay in cottages that we rent from the locals twice a year, without fail. This is a family tradition and those who don’t attend at least one of the two weekends will be driven out of their homes by my auntie, wielding a Machete and Molotov Cocktails. It’s all very dramatic and something that must be avoided at all costs! It is also family tradition for family members to bring their ‘new’ partners along to meet everyone and as this was the first time that my girlfriend has joined me in the 9 months we’ve been together, this would be the initiation! The beauty of this initiation is that she can meet everyone, behaving how they normally do with the whole family, but there is also the added fun factor … she can’t get away for three whole days! haha

Despite her nerves we had a fantastic weekend of playing on the beach and climbing mountains, coupled with plenty of relaxing and a few cheeky drinks. I heard nothing but praise from everyone in the family, so that’s the biggest test of all passed, with flying colours! I’ve put some of the pictures I took in a set on my flickr account. Check out the one of the other-half feeling really proud of herself for climbing to the top of the mountain. So cute!

2009 So Far … 1st Jan to 1st May

Seeing as I’ve lost everything on the site I thought it was a good idea to make an article that covered everything that has happened so far this year, so here goes:

2009 began with Me, Lisa and her friends taking a drunken walk back from a fantastic New Years Eve party at Shaw Hill Hotel, Whittle-le-Woods Near Chorley. This seems to have set the tone for the fantastic year ahead. Because so much has happened I’m going to do a month by month break-down, Enjoy!

January

The year started with Geoff and Mygenet’s wedding, which was all planned at the last minute. Geoff being close family and us having grown up together, I knew I was going to heavily involved, what I didn’t expect was to be asked to usher 4 days before the wedding, and then with 3 days to go I was asked to step in as Best Man due to Geoff’s uncle have an arse of a boss who wouldn’t allow him to take the day off work … on a Saturday! Despite the chaos everything went really well and pictures are available on either of their Facebook accounts.

After the wedding the next two weeks, as it is every year, was filled with birthdays. One of these was a mate of mine and as his wife was out playing we organised a Pro-Evo night for the lads. Lots of Beer, Plenty of Chilli’s and a bit of gambling ensued!

At the end of the month it was Lisa’s birthday, so being the super boyfriend that I am I sent her off to Geneva to see a good friend of hers and spend 4 days getting blind drunk. Upon her return I was in the good books and was forced to endure several weeks of no nagging, drinking with the lads, playing on my xBox and getting spoilt rotten by my lady … terrible times! hehe

February

Everyone know what happens in February, and despite the fact that I hate it, I knew that Lisa was looking forward to it, so Valentines day was in need of planning. Being as how I was in the good books though, Lisa decided that she would take me out! This did feel some what emasculating, but she spared me from wearing the dress, matching shoes and hand bag, so I realised that I could let her be dominant for the day, in exchange for an all expenses paid visit to a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Liverpool and more Tiger Beer than is required to drown a … Tiger?

Next came another batch of close family birthday’s! Towards the end of the month an unusual night out was arranged with a few friends. The venue was the local town hall and the event was a ‘mystery meal’. This didn’t mean we’d get fed something random, it meant that all the staff involved in ’serving’ us where part of a larger play that taking place before us. The plot was of course a murder mystery and the acting was superb. After the police arrived the scene changed as we, as witnesses became involved in the interrogation of the cast, with the ultimate goal of guessing who the murder was. We all had a great night and its an experience I recommend everyone should try, especially if the entrance fee’s go to a good cause.

At the end of the month my car’s MOT, Tax and Service was due, so saving was required, but I did have one night out for a friends 30th. Everyone was there and it was a chance to introduce Lisa to another group of friends who I don’t see very often now we’ve finished playing football. The night was superb and was capped off nicely by the birthday boy being sick down someone’s back after pinching some shots that were meant for other people. Quality :-)

March

Early March was spent sorting my car and attempting to get back in to a routine at the gym, which I failed miserably to do. Other than that, nothing much seemed to happen.

In mid-March it was Mygenet’s birthday, so her and Geoff to decided to throw a small a party that doubled up as a house warming. Everyone had a good time filling their faces and getting to catch up on events since the wedding.

At the end of March myself and Lisa thought it would be nice for the parents to meet, seeing as they only lived a few hundred meters from each other. We had noticed that a life soul singer was on a very nice pub that wasn’t far from where we live, so we booked it. The night was fantastic, the music was great, the food was fantastic (despite a few slip up’s) and the parents got along fine. The night was duly topped off by the taxi having to pull over to let Lisa throw up all over the grass verge right in front of my parents … classy, lol.

April

April is always a crazy month in my life, but this year I decided to do something I’d been putting off for years … I booked to go to Ladies Day at Aintree Races. We both got dolled up and along with out friends had a fantastic day drinking champagne, being merry, losing our money and eating some of the best fish & chips i’ve ever come across. Cant wait till next year :-)

Next up was the usual round of birthdays that take place, including my own, at last. I got lots of nice presents from those close to me and had a good booze up with my mates at the local.

At the end of the month was something I’ve been looking forward too for months … Andy’s Stag-do in Calella, Spain! We were due to be picked up at 04:30 on Friday morning, so being the punch of alky’s that we are, we arranged to meet in the pub at 22:00 on Thursday! The land lady kept the boozer open for us until we got picked up, and so the mayhem began. We had four fantastic days enjoying a free bar, free food and funny nights out. The highlight of the weekend was the stag getting involved in a dance-off with the locals whilst wearing a beautiful red dress with black poker-dots, matching bag and a lovely elephant cock-piece! Coming a close second was Scott’s ability to fall asleep in the most stupid places and wake up covered in permanent marker! Third goes to the bar on the beach where we all chilled out with a pint of Amstel whilst listening to Bob Marley tunes, good times!

So as you can see, it’s been a busy few months. But that’s everything up to date … job done!