Survived!

Well, I made it back from London successfully and safely, and had a great time. Just a shame that Emma, the lecturer that had organized the whole trip, was too unwell to come with us! We all felt quite sorry for her, because she'd been looking forward to the trip for ages, and she'd worked so hard to get it going, yet she couldn't go herself. Poor Emma - I hope she's better soon!

Anyway, the bus journey up was okay, but slightly boring. Over six hours on a bus. Three hours and 20 minutes without stopping. Not pleasant! Anyway, once we got to the Travelodge, everybody got their rooms sorted (eventually!), and some people went off out for the evening to consume alcoholic beverages for the purpose of intoxication. I was not one of those people, although I did have a bottle of Magners in the hotel bar while watching the X Factor final on the TV. The drunken old man in the bar who was shouting at the TV was more entertaining than the X Factor, it has to be said! I was quite lucky - my room had a lovely view of, erm, Tower Gateway DLR station and the tracks running into Fenchurch Street. Fun, fun, fun...

Monday morning, as stated before, was spent travelling to the Houses of Parliament and to the Supreme Court. When we got to Tower Hill station, there were two platforms going westbound for some reason, which was the direction we wanted to go in. There was a train already on one of the platforms, so we all jumped on it. At least three trains came and went on the other platform, whereas we didn't move an inch. When the fourth train came through on the other platform, we all thought the same thing, and ran over to the other train. Will (one of the lecturers who had assumed responsibility for the whole trip) almost didn't get on the train, and we thought he hadn't got on it, but he had. Diane, however (she replaced Emma), didn't get on, and we were laughing for ages. When we got to Westminster Station, Demelza waited for Diane, so Will was left with the responsibility of looking after 46 sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds for a few minutes. Not that we needed looking after, of course! There was quite a police presence in Parliament Square, but that was because there were protests planned later that day against EMA cuts (which went off without any violence, as far as I could work out), and there was an armed guard outside the visitor entrance to the Houses of Parliament. Was I scared? A little bit, but not much, as I knew that he was their for our safety. There's only one word that I can use to describe the Houses of Parliament: huge. They're massive! The House of Commons is just as it's seen on the TV - pretty plain, lots of wood, you get the idea. And I've actually seen what the MPs would do when they vote on a Bill. The House of Lords, on the other hand, is such a vast display of gold, wealth, opulence. It's amazing! We weren't allowed to sit on the benches in either house, and we weren't told why. Still, it was a fantastic insight into our democracy, and how it works, even though I didn't see any MPs that I recognized! Unfortunately, the Q&A didn't happen, which was a shame, but I can't complain, to be honest. After that, we had about an hour free, so me and Joe walked up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, before deciding that it would be easier if we took the tube back to Westminster. Yes, I know, we're lazy, but I honestly couldn't care less! Then Will and the Economics students (seven in total, if you include Will) went off to the BBC, while everybody else went into the Supreme Court. A huge conversion project was made on the old Middlesex Guildhall, and now there are three courtrooms. Each case has either five, seven or nine Justices presiding over it. It's a great building, and I actually sat in on a case. I didn't understand much of it, but I can't divulge what I did manage to pick out of it.

After leaving the Supreme Court, we made our way to Westminster Station, but not before being confronted by a group of protesters who were protesting against the planned axing of EMA. There were about 100 protesters at most, which is pretty pathetic for London! After arriving back at the Travelodge, I was sat in the bar waiting for others to come back so we could go out into London for the evening. After arriving in Leicester Square, people gradually splintered off until there were six of us left. We all decided to go to Bella Italia, and had a great meal there, before returning to the Travelodge and sitting in the bar having a drink. No, I didn't get drunk, I will have you know! I am fairly sensible!

Tuesday morning was spent visiting the Old Bailey, and I actually got to sit in on a murder trial! As with any other court case, I'm not able to reveal any information about it, but it was quite interesting. The case that I (and others) were sitting in on finished before we had to go back to the bus, so we decided to go to Caffe Nero for a bit, which is where I decided to have my lunch. A panini and a coffee - very healthy! Not! Then it was back to the bus towards Marble Arch and Christmas shopping on Oxford Street, which was VERY busy - as you would expect near to Christmas! Didn't buy all that much, apart from a £2.99 mouse mat with the London Underground map on it, and possibly another coffee, but I can't remember. Then it was back onto the bus home, and after stopping at Gordano Services, for the next leg of the journey, somebody decided to put a film on. The film in question? Hot Fuzz. In my opinion, one of the funniest films ever made, and it was a great way to spend two hours or so on the bus, even though some of the action sequences were a bit over-the-top and drawn out too much.

Was it a worthwhile couple of days in London? Definitely. It's just a shame that Emma didn't get to enjoy it on account of being ill. Would I go and do it all again? Yep. Definitely. SO much fun, and I didn't get lost this time!

At long last - the licence has arrived!

Yes, after eight-and-a-half weeks of waiting, my full driving licence has FINALLY arrived! Now I have a legal form of identification other than my passport! And, of course, I've been 18 for nearly a month, so I can get served! Not that it mattered on my 18th birthday party of course. I'm blaming Miles for this one. One word: Guinness. It's vile. In my defence, I did manage to drink the whole pint of it. Before subsequently bringing it back up into the toilet. Lovely...

On the bright side, I'm off to London next week for a couple of days for a college Law trip. (It's got some Economics students coming as well, but not many.) We're travelling up on the Sunday afternoon and evening, before arriving at the Travelodge (exotic, I know) near Tower Bridge and spending the evening in London doing, well, what we feel like doing. Then the following morning, we get a tour of the Houses of Parliament courtesy of Sarah Newton, the Conservative MP for Truro and Falmouth, before a Q&A session with some MPs. I wonder what 'interesting' questions I can throw in there somehow... Anyway, that afternoon, the Economics students are off to BBC Television Centre (I've been there already, but that's another story if I haven't already posted it!), while the Law students are crossing Parliament Square to visit the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK. When we went last year, they'd only been set up for a couple of months, and it didn't exactly go to plan. This time, however, they've got proper tours set up, so it should go a lot better. Then it's back to the Travelodge and another evening free. I'm thinking a visit to Leicester Square is in order, and possibly a meal out, but I'm only paying for myself! And on the Tuesday morning, the Economics students are being carted off to the Bank of England, while us Law students are off to the country's - and possibly the world's - most famous criminal court. The Central Criminal Court. Or to everybody else, the Old Bailey. Built on the site of the infamous Newgate Prison, it has tried numerous infamous cases over the years. What cases will be happening when we're up there? I suppose only time will tell. Tuesday afternoon - Christmas shopping on Oxford Street! What to do on Oxford Street? What to buy? There's so much choice! It should be a good couple of days - and I get them off college. What a way to start the last week of term - in London! I'm really looking forward to it. Eight days and counting...

An emotional rollercoaster

To the true sense of those words, the past few weeks truly have been an emotional rollercoaster. Half term started fantastically, with my brother's wedding. It was an amazing day that was thoroughly enjoyed by all. He is now with the woman of his dreams, and he honestly couldn't be happier. As mentioned previously, the day went off without much of a hitch, despite dodgy weather and scaffolding still being around the church. Louise looked beautiful, and I am very proud to call her my sister-in-law (even though she's been like a sister-in-law for a few years now!). They are a brilliant couple, and I wish Daniel & Louise every success that they deserve.

On a much sadder note, our family has recently suffered another bereavement, the second in less than nine months. My grandfather (on my Mum's side) died back in February, which was more expected than this bereavement. Two days after the wedding, my grandmother (again, on my Mum's side) was suddenly taken ill and rushed to Leicester Royal Infirmary, where she died a couple of hours later. It's come as a huge shock to us all, as she was eating breakfast with us less than 36 hours before she died, and I'm still struggling to get over the shock of it all. It's been especially tough for Mum, as she's lost both parents within the space of less than nine months. I feel so sorry for her - she's had to cope with so much, as have her four siblings and their families. Tears were shed at the crematorium and the church on Monday, and at the burial of the ashes on Tuesday. Yet when we went for drinks on Monday evening, everybody was laughing! Well, I suppose in times of sorrow, you've got to somehow have a laugh somehow.

And yes, I have now reached the ripe old age of 18! Finally I can buy alcohol - legally! I'll be needing to collect my pension soon, if I ever get a job. Which I should do. Hopefully. Or should I just sign on and get Jobseeker's Allowance? No, that's not the right route to go down, methinks. I don't want to become one of the Jeremy Kyle generation!

This blog post is dedicated to my grandmother, Barbara 'Betty' Braithwaite. 1930-2010, aged 80 years. Gone but never forgotten in our hearts. You were a wonderful woman, and you will be sorely missed by all who knew you. :(

Barcelona trip 2006 - what a time!

As previously reported, I am going to tell you about my trip to Barcelona with my school in October 2006. It's quite lengthy, so here goes...

We left school at about 9pm, as the flight from Terminal 1 at Heathrow left at about 7:30am the following morning. The roads were dead quiet, and we had no hold-ups at all. Even two service station stops that lasted about 45 minutes each didn't hold us up much at all. We arrived at Heathrow at about 3:30am. There was one problem, though. Check-in opened at 5am. Which meant there were 95 teenagers and ten members of staff sitting around in the check-in area of Terminal 1, surrounded by bags, waiting for 90 minutes until check-in opened. Eventually, the desks opened, and we were swiftly checked in by the British Airways staff (I actually have quite a bit of respect for BA, despite the fact that I've only ever flown with them when I went to Barcelona), before making it through security (which there was virtually none of - quite surprising, when you consider that there were heightened security measures at the time, including no liquids on flights at all, apart from anything you bought airside; and also, at that point, there were still BA flights to New York from Terminal 1 before everything got shifted around when terminal 5 opened) and finally getting through to the shopping section. Not really that much there, apart from a LAMBORGHINI! Yes, there was a Lamborghini in Terminal 1. Eventually, we all made it to the gate. One of the teachers almost didn't make it (and it was my 'group leader'!) because of some ticket problem, and he only just made it to the gate. Our group had to be looked after by another of the members of staff until our group leader got to the gate. I have to confess, though, that I might not have made it to the gate - I kept dropping my passport, which had my ticket and all my documentation in it! Thankfully, I didn't lose any of it, but why I never put it in my bag, I'll never know. Breakfast on a plane - what fun! All I'd had since leaving Cornwall was a large Fanta at Reading East Services and probably a couple random bars of chocolate. It wasn't that bad, but I've definitely had weirder breakfasts in my lifetime, such as doughnuts (it's very hard to find something easy to eat when you're in a Hilton hotel in London that has been provided for you free of charge! That's another story, by the way). I know this might sound a bit weird, but I never actually knew we were coming in to land at El Prat Airport (yes, that IS the name of Barcelona's main airport - I'm not trying to be rude!) until the wheels touched the runway. I have never felt anything more unusual in my life!

I kinda got lost a bit when I was trying to find the luggage reclaim belt, but I managed to find it. (I think it was something to do with different airline codes used in Spain, but oh well...) Eventually, we boarded the coaches to head to the hotel. I mush have been really tired - I almost fell asleep on numerous occasions! Pretty much as soon as we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags into some security room and headed upstairs for lunch. Well, when I say lunch, I mean a full-on pig-out! It was, essentially, help yourself to as much as you like. Which is what everybody did, basically. We were then given our room numbers and the door cards, so we dumped our luggage in our rooms. But then what to do? What is there to do in a hotel in Spain? Hmmm...I wonder...Oh yeah - swimming. The hotel had three pools: a 'fun' outdoor one that had a bar (which wasn't in use when we were there); a 'standard' outdoor one; and an indoor one. The outdoor ones were too cold for my liking, so I spent most of my time in the indoor one. I was rather stupid and forgot to bring any footwear down to the pool with me. Cue me trying to walk back up to my room with wet feet and trying to explain that I was English to some random Spanish guy, before quickly walking back to the pools. Not a good idea, looking back on it. The food for dinner was pretty much the same as for lunch. I can't actually remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I do think I remember trying to watch a Pirates of the Caribbean movie that had been dubbed in Spanish, and trying to lip-read - very difficult...Oh yeah, I remember what we did now - we went out to look for water, because the water in the hotels wasn't (apparently) all that nice. There was a shop near the hotel that sold a huge 8L bottle of mineral water for €1.20. Water was sold in the hotel, but it was €1.50 for a 1L bottle. I didn't actually buy any, but I thought 'Blimey - that's a bargain! €1.20 for 8L of water - not as cheap as tap water, but oh well...'

Breakfast the next day was set out in pretty much the same way as lunch and dinner were the previous day, with juice and hot drinks on tap. Mmm...The orange juice there was so fantastic, I don't think I will ever taste anything like it for a long time. We then boarded the coaches to head to the world-famous Nou Camp Stadium, home of FC Barcelona since 1957. Really, there's only one word that I can use to describe it: huge. It holds a maximum of 98,787 people, and was the scene of one of the most dramatic Champions League finals in history (1999, when Manchester United scored two goals in injury time to beat Bayern Munich 2-1). We even went into the changing rooms and got into the press gallery! There was a museum there as well, which was alright, but a bit boring. That said, though, I did get my photo taken with the Champion's League trophy. (I'm pretty sure it was a replica, as it was slightly dented in places. €10 that cost me - not bad.) Then it was back onto the coaches to find somewhere for lunch. We had lunch in some park that was on a hill to the south of the city centre. I have a hunch that it was Parc Montjuïc, which hosted the Spanish Grand Prix on four occasions between 1969 and 1975, the last one ending in the deaths of at least four spectators. Fantastic views, although I never took any photos while we were in Montjuïc - I wish I did, though! (The hotel were providing packed lunches for us, but they forgot the vegetarian ones. Somehow, I didn't get one, despite the fact that I'm not a vegetarian!) Then down into the city itself to walk along Barcelona's most famous shopping street, Las Ramblas (English: 'The Rambles'). Loads of shops selling loads of stuff (there were even a few sex shops, but I didn't go in any of them) at fairly good prices, with street entertainers as well. (Apparently, the street entertainers can act as a distraction for visitors, so that pickpockets can nick money and stuff. And, to avoid money being nicked, some of the girls stuffed it down their bras! Clever idea! I mean, I would have done that, but I'm a guy, and I don't wear a bra.) We probably spent a good hour and a half to two hours wandering in and out of the shops (quite a few sold cheap leather handbags, and I have my suspicions that they were fake designer goods) before boarding the coaches and going to the Sagrada Familia (English: Sacred Family), Barcelona's famous cathedral, which was designed by Antoni Gaudi, but not finished. In fact, it's not going to be finished until at least 2026! We didn't go inside it because we had to get back to the hotel to a) go swimming in the pool and b) eat. Mmmm...food...

Woke up the next morning and had breakfast as normal. Sport and shopping was, again, the general theme of the day, but it was different to the previous day - and a LOT noisier. We first visited the Circuit de Catalunya, which was alright, but nothing all that special. We did get to go up onto the podium, though, :) The good thing about it was that we got to go into areas that most people don't go to. We visited the media room and the TV control room, before walking under the track (yes, you heard me, we walked under the track) and climbed up some steps into the main pit straight grandstand. The views were pretty good, actually, We could see the whole of the main straight up to turn 1, then straight ahead of us was turn 9, with turns 12, 13 and 14 (it's been changed slightly since I went there) to our right. I mentioned that it was noisy, but that's because they had a Formula BMW school event thingy on at the same time. And believe me, it was VERY loud! After all that had finished, we got back on the coaches in the paddock and went back under the track at turn 9 to head off to La Roca shopping village for lunch and, erm, shopping. I didn't buy that much there again this time around - only some chocolate (which I promptly ate :D) and can of Coke. Yes, I am very sad, there's no need to remind me of that! We then went back to the hotel to go swimming again, before we went upstairs for dinner. Mmm...food...Following dinner, we went downstairs to some random room, where we spent the remainder of the evening playing all sorts of random games, one of which was throwing beanbags into a bucket. Odd...

We had to get up slightly earlier the next day because we had to go all the way around Barcelona to get to Salou. We only had a five minute break to go to the toilet at a service station on the way! We were to be spending the day at one of Spain's best theme parks: PortAventura. I do have a confession to make, though: I nearly lost my ticket before I'd even got into the park! It turned out that I'd put it in my pocket, not my wallet! Silly me...Anyway, we were told to get into groups of at least sig, which I did. My group started off with ten people, but went down to five, before there was only me, Laura and Kerry left (Josh and Charlie had decided to do a runner and leave us). As we were in Spain, and it was quite warm, we went onto the Rapids. We got off them looking pretty wet. Lovely...Then we had a little walk in some random horror maze (it was close to Hallowe'en), but some of us ran out of a side exit because we couldn't be bothered to get to the actual end. No, wait, it was because we couldn't find where we were supposed to go. Whether the exit we used was the right one or not, I'll never know. Stampida was next, which was a wooden rollercoaster. Wait, that's a lie, for two reasons. One is that I have my suspicions it was actually a steel coaster supported by wooden framework, and the other is that it was a racing coaster. (For those of you whon don't have a clue as to what I'm on about, then a racing coaster is when there are two tracks beside each other and the trains 'race' each other around their respective tracks.) We went on the blue one first, which was pretty good, but we then went on the red one, which we felt was better. After a couple more rides on Stampida, and some spinning rides, we left the park to go back to the coaches and get some lunch. don't worry, we went back in! As far as I can remember, we went on Stampida again, followed by one or two more spinning rides, and then one of the ultimate thrillseeker tests: Hurakan Condor. 328ft (100m) tall. 282ft freefall. Speeds of up to 60mph. One of the tallest tower drops in Europe. And I went on it! It's extremely scary, sitting up there, 100m in the air, nothing beneath your feet, waiting to drop. And then the drop. Three seconds of freefall, and then the huge relief that you're back on the ground. Best thrill ride ever, in my opinion. Next was PortAventura's then-flagship rollercoaster, Dragon Khan. Eight inversions, at up to 65mph. It has to be said that Dragon Khan is probably one of the best rollercoasters I will ever go on - we even went on it twice! We would have gone on it more times, but we couldn't really be bothered. I did get a mouse mat of me and Laura on Dragon Khan, though, which I thought was fairly reasonable at €12. This was the point that Josh and Charlie decided to do a runner and leave me with Kerry and Laura. (Not that there was anything wrong with that, apart from the fact that we were supposed to be wandering around in groups of six, and for most of the day we were in a group of five. Oops...) For some reason, Laura and Kerry decided to start singing the 'Bob the Builder' theme tune as we were queuing up for Tutuki Splash, a water ride that got us quite wet, but not as wet as Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park got me (but that's another story). After we got off Tutuki Splash, I had to go and collect my mouse mat (they couldn't print it off at the photo booth by Dragon Khan), and then everybody boarded the coaches back to the hotel. Dinner followed this, then the results of the quiz from the previous night were given out (I never mentioned that, did I? Oh well...) before heading back up to our rooms to start packing our suitcases.

Friday morning was quiet, but we had reached the end of our holiday in Spain. Breakfast was followed by loading our luggage onto the coaches and heading for the airport. Check-in was open when we got to the airport this time (as it was about 10am Spanish time), and then we were let loose in the duty-free section. Mmm...cheap food in large quantities...Then we boarded the plane to head back to Heathrow, followed by collecting our luggage and boarding the buses back to Cornwall. It was disappointing to have to leave Barcelona, as it was such a fun holiday - I would go back and do it all again if I could - but we all had a fantastic time.

Well, there it is. Sorry it took so long, but it was worth it. Oh, and sorry about the length as well! Over 2,500 words. Then again, I have written a 5,500 word essay for English before, but that's a matter for another day...