Jersey...old folk and no tax

Jersey is a piece of land in the channel islands, it is part of the UK but only 14 Km from the coast of France... long story and since you asked..... It all started in world war II when the UK Held Channel Islands as a strategic entry point, they gave it up to the Germans.. but nobody told them that and they bombed away killing a few folk. The Germans took over for a few years and ruled the roost and many castles, After Victory on D-day the UK refused to give supplies to the Germans and most of the soldiers gave up and the UK took back the island...

learnt all of this from the Jersey War Tunnel museum, fantastic museum from start to finish and very educational...

Jersey is a tax haven where old people go and retire, most tourists appear to be over 75+, breakfast in the hotel was like a rest home....... god bless them.

Jersey is however a great place 27 diffferent beaches and more castles than you can poke a stick at. The tide is also amazing, the marina where all the rich folk keep their boats during low tide is nothing more than a pile of mud with very expensive rudders stuck in the ground, come high tide it becomes a normal marina, again with very expensive boats. The tide from low to high raises 5.5 metres.

We managed a few beach trips, a 2hr 30 run and just generally relaxed. well until we got back to heathrow and my bag didn't show up... in fact not till wed did it arrive mailto:#@%%5E%%5E#m .

In summary Jersey is a nice place but we won't be going back for 50 years.

TDF

The magic of the biggest bike race in the world hit London for the start of TDF a few weeks back, the day dawned with glorious blue sky and sun (for the first time in a few weeks) and 2 million odd folk came for a look. Getting a space track side was ni on impossible so we settled with some friends in front of one of the 11 massive screens set up in Hyde Park with our supermarket bag full of beer. Managed to make it to the trackside to see Julian Dean, NZ's sole rep this year fire past (you can see him in the pic to the left if you look really hard), but he had a crap day and finished well down. Fantastic day and the hype and size of the event is mind blowing.... it is a shame that drugs have again shat on this years race, we had been following it daily from our desktops at work but gave up when it turened to custard. Check out Julian Deans diary for a riders perspective it is good value. JulianDean.co.nz .

tis a shame it's not really possible to ride in Central london, as it would be great to get out on the bike and do a few miles.

Poor Form

aye, its been a while since the last post so we thought it due time to provide an update of what we have been up to. Things are going along at 100 miles an hour at present, so finding half a day to sit and do nothing is quite a treat. Work is keeping both of us busy and i am spending a fair whack of time away in Scotland where i am learning to say aye in every second sentence.

Since Amsterdam we have made it to Jersey for a weekend, watched the TDF, visited the extended family, gone to Toast nz, and got very wet in the London summer amongst others things but i think they were the highlights.....

Slowly but surely making progress on the wedding so good news there....

We are off to Portugal next Saturday for a week to lax in the sun with a group of friends so that should be great...

Amsterdam

How to describe Amsterdam........ Its fairly hard to articulate what Amsterdam is like, after having a couple of days back at work we will attempt to describe the city that is the most alternative city you can imagine.

i) bikes.... they reckon there is about 600,000 bikes in the city, not hard to believe there are bikes everywhere and where as in London, car parks are gold, the same is true of a bridge rail / lamp post / rubbish bin, anywhere you can lock you bike to. They say bike theft is a problem in the city .. don't really understand why when they appears to be six bikes for every person.

ii) Coffee shops - A new meaning for 'coffee' indeed. If you want to see 80 year olds having a reefer or a quiet pipe with their newspaper, Amsterdam is the place to be. Needless to say across the road from every 'coffee shop' there is a munchies bar - this means on every street there is a coffee shop and kebab shop!!!!! . A coffee shop should not be confused with a cafe which serves actual coffee... so they call it - it was crap.

iii) the red light district - Not much you can say, that's not actually true we could write alot but in keeping with the R13 rating of the blog we will leave it and say it needs to be seen to be believed.

iv) Trams - the trams share the roads with bikes, people and the odd car. There are no road rules and if you think crossing Willis street at lunch is dangerous, try crossing the main road in Amsterdam.... combined with the 'coffee shops' one of our favourite things was just watching folk go about their business and trying to cross roads. Controlled mayhem that is self regulating - it just wouldn't be allowed in the land of the long white cloud. ACC and OSH would be all over it.

We also managed to knock off the Heineken experience (entry buys you a tour, 3 beers and a gift... go figure it was a bottle opener in a bottle of Heineken). Fourth form history also came alive with a visit to Anne Franks house -a surreal experience. Kudos to the foreign folk who lent us they umbrella while we waited in the pouring rain to get in...

Still don't really know what to make of Amsterdam, nothing can prepare you the laxed feel and acceptance of what the west generally term unacceptable - not a place that is forgotten easily.

T-365 Days

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

or should that be aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!