Not written here for a while so I will be brief:

• Today was the last day at The Fenton Veterinary Practice – my employer for the last 5 years.
• Starting my own business as a locum veterinary surgeon.
• I incorporated my own limited company Pet Doc Martin
• Created a new website PetDocMartin.co.uk
• Created a Facebook page, LinkedIn page, Twitter page and VetSurgeon page
• My first contract will take e to London. I will probably write more about it on the Pet Doc Martin website

My recent trip to Slovenia gave me the repeat opportunity to do some skiing again which I was looking forward of doing on the ski resort of Krvavec. I am proud to report no falls or injuries whatsoever.

The place was absolutely packed, probably due to the fact that it was in that weird time between Christmas and New Year and lots of people had the time off work. The other one was that the weather forecast was very good in the mountains. That was part of the problems with skiing as the snow got very wet and heavy very quickly. The highest ski slope Zvoh got closed at 1pm anyway. Luckily I only bought a four hour ticket so I avoided having to have to plough my way through most of the slopes.

This is about 1600 metres above sea. The valley is not visible as its covered with low-level clouds.	A view towards one of the Krvavec peaks at 1800m
Zvoh ski slope, Krvavec
	View from the Zvoh slope towards the Krvavec peak
	This is a view towards the Julian Alps that is home to Triglav – the highest peak in Slovenia. Its visible in the centre of the photo.
Zvoh ski slope, Krvavec	View towards the peak of Krvavec from the Zvoh slope

I returned to to Snowdonia in mid October 2011 to explore the northern third of the Snowdonia range, also known as the Carneddau. They are the most technically demanding part of the Snowdonia range in my opinion but you should not disregard them as there are some really stunning views seen on this range.

When I was returning back to the car park near Llyn Ogwen I was blessed with a spectacular sunset behind the Tryfan mountain. The shade the mountain was creating was moving so fast I had to constantly move to get the desired photo. Not the easiest thing as I could be ran over by speeding cars on the A5 road on the side of which I was standing at the time of taking the photos.

Sunrise over Snowdon	Idwal Cottage
Idwal Cottage	Snowdon from Carnedd Dafydd
Tryfan
View towards Snowdon from Carneddau	View towards Snowdon from Carneddau
Fynnon Llugwy Reservoir as seen from Carnedd Llewelyn	View towards Capel Curig from Carnedd Llewelyn
Fynnon Llugwy Reservoir	Fynnon Llugwy Reservoir
Carnedd Llewelyn from Pen yr Helgi Du	Fynnon Llugwy Reservoir
View towards Llyn Ogwen from Y Braich	View towards Llyn Ogwen from Y Braich
View towards Llyn Ogwen from Y Braich (Tryfan on the left of the lake)	Sunset behind Tryfan (taken from the A5)
Penrhyndeudraeth	Penrhyndeudraeth

After seeing the filming of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Robin Hood on the Freshwater West beach, Third Star in Barafundle Bay we have again the film crews back in Pembrokeshire for the filming of Snow White and the Huntsman on my favourite beach Marloes Sands.

Filming should be around September 26th – 29th and should mainly involve filming of about 80 horses galloping towards a computer generated castle* on Gateholm island. The film has some amazing actors in it like Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as Ravenna, the Evil Queen. Other actors include Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins and Eddie Izzard. However the filming at Marloes Sands might not actually include any of these big names

Might have a look at the filming next week to see if they are doing it right

* Source of information: @MrSimonWood

Update September 27th 2011
Drove down to the film set today. Was a bit worried access would be severely restricted but I found out from the National Trust officer that the production company was not granted a licence to close off the beach and was specifically ordered to leave the Marloes Sands beach and the path to it opened to the public at all times.

So that meant the path from the National Trust to the beach and the beach itself is accessible. Of course that includes the coastal path which offers very good viewing of the film set, but don’t forget to bring your extra strong binoculars and camera lenses.

When I was there they were filming on the NW part of the beach. I had a walk down the SE side but by the time I came back they moved a bit towards us so my friend and I were politely asked to move to the side. A security guard also politely asked me not to take any photos of the actors on the beach as they are a bit sensitive about it. Don’t know how some other photos were taken of the filmset. Maybe they have special privileges At least you can walk right on the set and nobody really minded, we were quite discreet and did not get in the way. The tent at the top of the ramp is used for catering and there were some nice smells coming from there that made us mighty hungry. Should have asked for a snack as by the time we arrived at the Lobster Pot in Marloes and the Griffin in Dale they were both closed for food serving

Sorry guys, there is temporarily something wrong with the Google Picasa system that results in the below gallery to only show the old photos, not the new ones. Click here for my public Facebook album, but you have to log into Facebook to see it: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150316501078391.348870.524823390&type=1

Uploaded them manually so they are all there below!

	Ramp from the path to the beach
	Ramp from the path to the beach
	This access was made ot llow the film crew access the beach from the field where they established the production centre
	A very large tent with port-a-loos on the right
Don't be alarmed. This is not a remnance of a massacre, but just dummies	Don't be alarmed. This is not a remnance of a massacre, but just dummies
Don't be alarmed. This is not a remnance of a massacre, but just dummies	View towards the rest of the beach
	Quite a few horses were here during the filming

Here are photos from Marloes Sands I took since moving to the area in 2007.

OK. My three-peak challenge underway now. One (Snowdon) down, two more to go (Scafell Pike & Ben Nevis). Today’s climb on Snowdon was a challenge in itself as it was pissing (yes, not just pouring – PISSING) down with rain. Not one thing I was wearing is currently dry and I am using the car heater to dry as much as I can. It will probably take days for my boots to get dry. Funny enough there was hardly anybody up Snowdon this morning. Only a few loonies like myself.

Update 4. September 2011

My three-peak challenge, part 2/3 at Scafell Pike complete. Going ok but legs a little weak. Nearly had to take a dip in the stream on the way to the top as the water was very swollen from the previous’ day rainfest. On my way to Scotland – wish I was driven.

Update 5. September 2011, 8am

This is ridiculous. The weather forecast for my peak no. 3/3 aka The Ben is changing almost every hour. It was supposed to be raining, then it was supposed to be cloudy. Now, again, there is heavy rain forecast between 3 and 6pm. Give me strength!!

Update 5. September 2011, 5pm

Left the Ben Nevis tourist info centre at 9.30 and took me just under 3 hours to get to the top of Ben Nevis. Had a few drops of rain just as I was coming of the top of the mountain but then the skies cleared-up. However just as I came back into the valley the heavens opened-up. Not to wet though.

This info taken from Wikipedia: “In all the challenge involves some 42 kilometres (26 mi) of ascent and descent, with total travel approaching 765 kilometres (475 mi).”

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/National_Three_Peaks_Challenge

Od 1. januarja 2012 se bodo omilila pravila, ki pogojujejo vstop psov, mačk in dihurjev v Veliko Britanijo. Živali, ki vstopajo iz drugih EU držav (razen Švedske in Irske) ter določenih tretjih držav bodo še vedno morale biti čipirane in cepljene proti steklini, ne bo pa več potrebno opravljati serološke preiskave krvi na titer protiteles proti virusu stekline, čakalna doba se bo skrajšala s šestih mesecev na 21 dni, obvezno ne bo več dajati sredstva za odstranjevanje klopov. Trenutno se pa še dogovarjajo, ali bo še vedno obvezno dajati sredstvo za odpravljanje trakulje. Posodobitev (30-Jul-2011): Pred dnevi je prišla iz Bruslja novica, da se Veliki Britaniji odobri ukrep, ki zahteva, da se živali razglistijo 24 do 120 ur pred potovanjem (1-5 dni). Gre namreč za to, da želijo preprečiti vnos trakulje Echinococcus multilocularis v državo, ki jo je trenutno prosta.

Poleg tega se spreminjajo pogoji tudi za prihod živali iz ostalih držav, ki niso na seznamu. Prej je bila obvezna karantena, ki jo bo zamenjalo obvezno cepljenje, pregled krvi 30 dni po cepljenju ter trimesečna čakalna doba.

Vse skupaj je posledica harmonizacije EU zakonodaje pri čezmejnem prehajanju hišnih ljubljencev. Trenutno velje tudi, da cepivo proti steklini drži toliko časa, kolikor je navedeno na licenci proizvajalca. To bo ostalo tudi po 1. januarju 2012. V Veliki Britaniji večina cepiv proti steklini drži 2 leti in zato se cepljenje tudi mora ponavljati na dve leti. Težava nastopi pri nekaterih drugih državah EU (sam imam veliko opravka z Francijo, kamor potuje veliko Britancev), kjer je cepljenje potrebno opravljati vsako leto. Seveda to velja, kot razumem, tudi za Slovenijo. Upam lahko vsaj, da se bo pravilo veljavnosti cepiva glede na licenco proizvajalca razširilo na vse EU države. Regulativa EC 998/2003 po mojem mnenju čisto na koncu (Aneks 1b, odstavka d. in e. v 2. točki) določa ravno to. Seveda se lahko motim, ker mi je cela regulativa bolj podobna kitajščini .

Dodatki:

• Izjava za javnosti DEFRA: http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2011/06/30/new-rules-pet-passports/
• Informativna brošura ustanove DEFRA v angleškem jeziku (PDF; 182 kB)
• Regulativa EC 998/2003 ki določa zgoraj omenjeno harmonizacijo

This is about Lake Cerknica – the largest lake in Slovenia, when its there, of course, part of the Notranjska Regional Park. When its there its about 25 km2, but can reach up to 38 km2. It has a complicated system of communications with the underground reservoirs which means the lake can drain and thus completely disappear. It usually fills up after the autumn rains and the spring thaw, and is empty round May and June (sometimes even in winter) so I was lucky to see it when I was there on June 16th. It has been recorded the lake draining off and not re-appearing for a whole year.

By the way, if you open Google maps and look up Lake Cerknica, you will see the aerial view of it when it is drained.

Zelše village church

On of the problems with this lies with the local fish. Now imagine you being a fish and your whole world that you know gets drained once or twice a year, like down a toilet. You have to appreciate this being a bit of a existential problem for the poor fish. There is, however, a system in place for protecting these poor fish by capturing/keeping them in a part of the lake that doesn’t get drained.

For all you bird-watchers out there you would be interested to know the Cerknica lake is an important habitat area for over 250 species of birds, about a hundred of those species nest here. A few of them are very rare and on the endangered list like the Corncrake, Common Snipe, Red-necked Grebe, Ferruginous Duck, Northern Shoveler, Common Redshank and the Curlew.

The church in Zelše near cerknica.	The church in Zelše near cerknica. It is built on a small hill to the south of the village and is dedicated to Saint Volbenk and belongs to the Cerknica Parish. It was built around 1680 with a triple rounded apse, unique in the region. The belfry was added in the 18th century. It has excellent acoustics and is sometimes used as a venue for various concerts.
The intermittent Cerknica lake – the largest lake in Slovenia, when its there, of course.	The Cerknica lake
The Cerknica lake	The Cerknica lake
The Cerknica lake	The Cerknica lake
The Cerknica lake	The Cerknica lake – the trees here are outlining where the road goes and what you see in the middle is a small bridge that allows the water to flow from one side of the lake to the other.

Here is an example of an area I remember visiting as a child and have only vague recollections of it. It is a stunning area in the karst region of Slovenia – the same region where the world famous Postojna caves and Škocjan caves are located, however the Rakov Škocjan park albeit less known to the regular tourist, is still a must see.

The photos you see are from a part of the Rakov Škocjan that might not be for the faint hearted or extremely worried about rocks falling on your head. There is an actual warning sign when entering one of the caves that there is a serious danger of falling rock and that you enter at your own peril. If you happen to have a helmet with you – use it!

After you had a good look at the top of the Small natural bridge turn back towards the car park and about 20m down turn left and continue on a track which will lead you to an open cave. The path continues down it and then ends at a tunnel with slippery rocks on the left and a stream on the right. On the other side there is another cave where you cross the stream over a stone bridge (see featured photo on top). The path then leads you to yet another tunnel, this one much longer than the first but still manageable. That opens up into the larger open cave that is located under the Small natural bridge.

The Great natural bridge	The Great natural bridge
At this point the spring is gushing vertically into the stream.	One of the many springs. Next to it is a remnance of an observation platform that apparently found the hard way what nature is all about.
Prunkovec spring	Prunkovec spring
Prunkovec spring	Close to the Prunkovec spring
Close to the Prunkovec spring	Ruin of St Kancijan Church
There was an actuall tree growing from the top of the wall of the church	Ruin of St Kancijan Church
Ruin of St Kancijan Church	Thi is the top of the Great natural bridge. As you can see it is very wide with space for a wide track that can accommodate cars parking on it.
Tkalca cave entrance	Tkalca cave with the visible Rak river within it
The Rak river entering a sinkhole that leads to further caves inaccessable to mere mortals	The river Rak
Taken from inside Tkalca cave looking up, into the entrance	The view into the cave from the Small natural bridge
The Small natural bridge	This is the top of the Small natural bridge
The Small natural bridge	Below the Small natural bridge
Another cave near the Small natural bridge
	The Small natural bridge as seen from the cave below
The Small natural bridge as seen from the cave below
This little fella' was making a lot of noise below the Great bridge

This is a stunning castle with surrounding estate close to the northern Italian city of Trieste, close to border with Slovenia.

The Miramare Castle is a stunning Carl Junker designed 19th century castle near the northeastern Italian city of Trieste and was built from 1856 to 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, later Emperor Maximilian I and Empress Carlota of Mexico.

The castle itself is very interesting and worth the charged visit, but be prepared to be charged first for the visit, then for the audio guide that you rent and then by a huge parking fee on your way out. The gardens are worth a walk but when I was there (June 2011) they were extremely unkempt, there were signs of the paths not being cleared for months if not years

http://www.castello-miramare.it/

Miramare castle	Miramare castle
The fountain directly facing the Miramare castle	Miramare castle
Miramare castle	Miramare castle
Miramare castle
Part of the Miramare castle estate. This is an entrance to the estate built in the hill conneted to a road that has adjacent tunnels on each side.	Part of the Miramare castle estate. This is an entrance to the estate built in the hill conneted to a road that has adjacent tunnels on each side.
	Miramare castle gardens
Miramare castle gardens – looking needy of some good gardening work	Miramare castle gardens
Miramare castle gardens	Miramare castle gardens

Oglej or Aquileia in Italian is a small village in north-eastern Italy close to the holiday town of Grado (Slovenian: Gradež).
It is the home of the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia which houses the largest and stunning piece of mosaic I have ever seen. Restaurateurs have manufactured an elevated platform and glass walkway inside the basilica allowing you to still walk in the cathedral without walking and ruining the precious mosaic on the floor.

Its worth paying an extra €3 and climbing up the many steps to the top of the tower and enjoying the view – you can even see a little bit of Venice.

Small portion of the large floor mosaic	Small portion of the large floor mosaic
	Cripta degli Scavi
Cripta degli Scavi	Cripta degli Scavi
Cripta degli Scavi	Cripta degli Scavi
	Aquileia – Oglej as seen from the tower
view from the tower towards Venice	The bells in the tower
A copy of the Capitoline wolf in Piazza Capitolio	A copy of the Capitoline wolf in Piazza Capitolio

This is an old favourite of mine and apparently for many Brits as well as during my short visit there saw countless UK reg cars on the roads.

The Savica waterfall is part of the Sava Bohinjka river which is joined by the Sava Dolinka near Radovljica to form the Sava river. That in turns flows into the Danube at Belgrade which discharges into the Black Sea.

The 71-metre waterfall is fed by the Triglav Lakes and flows into the Bohinj lake.

Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue	Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue
Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue	Bohinj lake and the church or St. John the Baptist
Zgornja Sorica	The Savica falls

Pic courtesy of @owenwarrell (Twitter)

V lokalni rafineriji Chevron je okoli 18.20 prišlo do eksplozije. Poročajo o dveh mrtvih. Iz rafinerije, ki je od mene oddaljena 8 km (po zraku), se vali gost črn dim. Baje smrdi po žveplu.

Problem je tem, da so v bližini še elektrarna na zemeljski plin (še v izgradnji), dva plinska terminala in še ena naftna rafinerija, vse v rangu nekaj km, pa da o številnih tankerjih polnih nafte ali plina ne govorim. Kolegica iz službe živi precej blizu rafinerije in pravi, da je vse tiho, tako da upamo, da je vse pod kontrolo.

Sinoči so poročali o dveh mrtvih, danes zjutraj (3. junija) pa že o štirih. Veliko informacij poročajo na spletni strani lokalnega časopisa Western Telegraph. Do eksplozije naj bi prišlo pri vzdrževanju nekega 730m³ velikega rezervoarja ob 18.22 četrtek zvečer.

Chevron je spomladi 2011 naznanil prodajo te rafinerije podjetju Valero Energy Corporation za 730 milijonov USD. Prodaja naj bi bila zaključena v drugi polovici 2011.

I decided the other day to clear up my finances, get rid of the mess and make a cull in all those dodgy direct debits I had in my bank account.

I challenge you to have a look at your finances and see how many companies have a wide-open back door to your money.

Paypal

I have been a avid user of Paypal for years and always tried to use it to pay for on-line purchases if at all possible. However recently I had a problem with a company that I had a subscription with through Paypal, more precisely with the Paypal recurring payments. Unbeknown to me at the time they hide the fact that you had a recurring payment (a subscription) deep down in the History section of your account. If you do not look really really carefully you might be led to believe that the recurring payment is not active any more and you could forget about it. This was not the case as I regretfully found out.

I would expect Paypal to have a clear list of ALL your recurring payments (they are basically subscriptions with a different name) on the Profile section, not hidden so deep that even as a long-standing customer could not find them without getting help from internet forums.

The problems is that being human you forget what you are subscribed to by the time you should have noticed it and perhaps acted on it – like cancel the subscription. You might not even know where the subscription was set-up and how you are supposed to cancel it. The company I had the subscription with was also very sneaky and deeply concealed instructions on how to cancel the subscription and made the procedure complicated.

When I decided to start clearing the debit card and bank account connections in Paypal I started getting e-mails that  some of those connections could not be cancelled as there were outstanding payments. That turned out to be not the case. One of the warnings I had was completely false and I had to remove the associated card with the help of the customer support. The other warning was about some old recurring payment I set-up with my website hosting provider. Doesn’t instil confidence in the reliability of the Paypal service.

When I was finally able to cancel my account I received two e-mails about additional TWO subscriptions that got closed when the account was closed. Where did the y come from and how come I didn’t know about them.

That motivated me to go to my online bank and cull all direct debits that either were not supposed to be there, like my O2 mobile phone membership that I cancelled last year, and my Privilege car insurance that I also cancelled last year. Do you know these guys keep the direct debit going on for at least a year after you cancel the account – just in case they need to rip you off a little more. Because that is just what I want really – an open door to my bank account. If they do take the money then I wish you good luck on proving you did not authorize the payment and even more luck to get a refund.

Recently I have had some problems with this website and it seems y hosting provider has had some problems that they are hopefully solving OK.

However I don’t have that many visitors to the website so I don’t think I should really need to inform you.

In fact, why am I writing this.

Still doing it.

Damn. Stupid me.

Wrote all this garbage now, might as well press the Publish button.

M25 parking lot on December 18th Photo: TOMMY HINDLEY

There were plenty of warnings about possible weather problems before I set off from Haverfordwest in the SW Wales to Stansted airport on December 18th. There was very little snow in Pembrokeshire and the airport was open. There were absolutely no problems up to the M4 exit for Slough.

Photo taken on my iPhone of the M25 standstill

Then it all started to slow down and by the time I got to theM25 exit on the M4 the traffic stopped. We managed to somehow move a little so I was mostly on the M25 slip road but that was it until about 16.45 when we slowly started moving. We more or less crawled on the M25. Managed to see the remains of the burned-out people carrier that caused all this mess – it was just near the M40 junction on the M25.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Highway Agency was warning there were problems on the northbound M11 so I decided to take the A10 and A120 roads that ended up being very snowed up but at least empty with no accidents on them. I arrived at the B&B near Stansted called Puttocks Farm at about 8.30pm – about 10 hours after I left Haverfordwest. The trip usually takes me 5 – 5.5 hours.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

To top it all the next day I couldn’t get a taxi to take me from the B&B to the airport about 10 minutes away. They were taking orders only after 2pm but that would be to late for me. Luckily the B&B owner gave me a lift so I didn’t have to leave my car at the airport costing me £13/day. And to top that as well the place was 2 hours late due to some engine problems – apparently something refused to start up in the plane. The passenger next to me remarked that the pilot just couldn’t find the reverse gear and in the end somebody else told him.

Tuesday. Almost not worth mentioning as I was going to go back home to Haverfordwest. The train from Paddington was strikingly fast and it looked like we were in Bristol in no time. It feels like ages when driving.

However I was supposed to change trains in Newport, Gwent and they have done some modifications to the station and platform assignments meaning I had to cross to the other side using lots of steps to reach the footbridge. That made me miss my connection to Pembrokeshire. Grrrr. Writing these lines as I am bored and sitting in a quiet refreshment bar on the platform waiting for two hours for the next train home. Apologies to all Newport fans, if you exist, but your station looks mighty grim and not a wireless connection in site to kill some time updating ‘ruddy’ Facebook or go on Google Docs. I don’t think Google‘s Chrome OS would be very useful here – you tech guys know why.

Have been writing bout this London trip while waiting for the train home, still in Newport, getting bored now. Really bored. Think I might have to go to the loo to kill some time. Grrr.

PS. did end up in Haverfordwest OK but very late. A least the system of request train stops worked Ok so didn’t have to get a taxi from Milford Haven.

Saint Paul's Cathedral

Monday. Did some more walking round London and did the touristy view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Fat Tyre bike tour guide told me that the view from the top of the cathedral was much more impressive than from the London eye. I surely was not disappointed. The tour was not that bad.

Village Deli in Bermondsey

The one thing I wanted to do on this day is to go for lunch in Bermondsey. Specifically to a deli on Bermondsey street called Village Deli on 109 Bermondsey Street. I went to it last year but forgot what it was called. It seems to be a family-run business and trying their toasted wraps are a must if you go to London and the 5 minute walk from London Bridge tube station even in the bitter cold is well worth it.

The evening was spent going to the first west-end show I have ever been to. Now you would not find me dead at a musical but there were some theatre plays there and the re-enactment of the famous BBC comedy series ‘Yes, Prime minister‘ (and ‘Yes, Mr Minister before that) was something that had to be seen. And it was really really good. The actors were brilliant and the Gielgud theatre, where it was playing, was packed.

After the play a short walk around central London, long enough to get spectacularly lost and then back on the tube to get warmed-up again.

	The tube
View from Saint Paul's Cathedral	View of the Shard from Saint Paul's Cathedral
View of the Millennium bridge from Saint Paul's Cathedral	Saint Paul's Cathedral
The Shard from St Thomas street	Looking up on the Shard being built from St Thomas street

BT Tower captured from Oxford Street

Sunday. Nothing much planned for this day. Did do some shopping but came to Oxford street to early – nobody told me they opened the shops at twelve so I spent some hard earned money at a well-know American coffee franchise called Stardollars or something. The best was left for last as I went to the Natural History Museum and put on a pair of skates after about 17 or 18 years and didn’t fall once. I am however still removing the wood from underneath my nails. Now I am against self-harm as much as the next guy, but it was so much fun and I would urge anyone to try it at least once. Good place to chat up girls, by the way, as you can rush to the saviour if any of them falls down. Just mind you don’t accidentally chop their fingers off on approach. They kind of don’t like that very much and would spoil your chances of a pull – just a tad.

Also bear in mind the whole operation could make yourself look as a complete idiot if you fall yourself trying to help the girl up. This, of course, is not speaking from my own experience [smiley face comes here]. The other snafu was that most of the people skating there were couples.

Westminster Hall

This was a Saturday and the big part of the day was dedicated to the John Rutter‘s Christmas Celebration at the Royal Albert Hall. This was the second one I have attended and even though the last one I went to was last year it did not feel like a repeat from the previous year. The only difference was to be the Christmas dinner I signed-up

for that was to be held in the nearby Imperial College dining hall. Now this was a BIG disappointment.

The Houses of Parliament clock tower

Kind of sorry I missed the company Christmas dinner even more. The dinner itself was eat-able but who would want to eat their Christmas dinner you had to get yourself, then eat it on a plastic platter, on a table with no table-cloth in what could only be described as an average student canteen. Awful! Have you heard of the bankrupt Belgian airline Sabena – well this was a Sabena moment meaning Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again. By the way the airline SAS has an unjustifiable connective abbreviation: Same As Sabena.

The morning, I nearly forgot, was spent visiting the spectacular Houses of Parliament. I was so amazed at how much they let you see and where they take you. This was just two days after the student protests/riots when the House of Commons passed the controversial law about tuition fees. The one thing they did not let us do was to sit on the seats in either of the Houses – such a shame as I so wanted to put my legs up.

You know when you sleep in a strange bed and it takes a night or two before you get used to it. That was exactly what I was doing when at about 6am the first morning the hotel, where I was staying, had its fire alarms go off. When I got into the hall outside my room I saw a lot of sleepy-looking heads popping out from behind the doors trying to find out what the hell was going on. As I got closer to the fire exit it looked more like a zombie convention. Luckily they did not make us wait in the brisk December morning for very long but it was to late to catch-up on any zzz-s.

The day’s morning was first and foremost planned for the Thames version of the Fat Tyre bicycle tour – another highly recommended activity if you visit London, so much more interesting for the fact that we had a run-in by the local bicycle-mounted PCSO (Police Community Support Officers). Sorry, but to me its like civilians playing police. They are just not allowed to play with guns. Apparently our guide took us over a red light so he got a bit of a posh bollocking from the two officers. I guess that made the tour a bit more thrilling – don’t judge me if I don’t get out as much

This tour took us round some other parts that the standard (Royal London) tour does not and you even end up sailing on the Thames clipper boats for part of the return journey.

The lunch stop was at a quaint marketplace close to London Bridge where you could have a chance to have some tasty sausages, curries, burgers and much, much more.

The evening entertainment was to be at the Hammersmith Apollo (or as its called now the HMV Apollo) where Mark Watson was spreading his pre-Christmas comedy magic. There was a bit of a cock-up by the production company and one of the advertised times when the show would start was to be half an hour before the actual start. So what Mark did then was to put up a computer screen connected to an overhead LCD display and did some written (chat-line like) humour. Great improvisation Mark! I was surprised about the poor state of the theatre. You see it on the telly with all the big names putting on their comedy acts there and I would never have believed what a dump the place really is. It still however trumps the awful toilet of a place in Swansea Grand Theatre. That place should be condemned, not to mention the almost non-existent legroom – the place was probably designed by a Lilliputian.

	Matt from the Fat Tyre Bike tours
Matt from the Fat Tyre Bike tours
Borough market	Borough market
Shard London Bridge	well guess what this is
HMS Belfast	Hay's Galleria
	HMS Belfast and the Tower Bridge in the background
London Bridge Hospital with the Shard behind it	Signpost warning against importing animals into the UK
Ofcom Building	The Globe Theatre in London
Tate Modern
	Covent Garden
Covent Garden	Covent Garden
Covent Garden

Related articles

• Mark Watson: Do I Know You? Hammersmith Apollo, London (independent.co.uk)