I just wanted to say that over all my years of travel there have been many websites that helped me out - but one really stands out of late. Kayak, which now owns rival SideStep, is a flight comparison engine that works in browser to search multiple flight sites and suggest the best price. It's not always right when it gets to the final price, but even so it will generally point you in the direction of the cheapest flight. Thanks, Kayak!

Labels: flying, Save Money, travel

Hate / Love Marmite Wall
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

We're just back from an impromptu short trip to Barcelona. Our plan for the week off had been looking round London areas to move to, but the Great British weather had other plans. So as a result of a hangover (good to see you, TIm) and easyJet we went from getting up at 10am with no plans to being in lovely, warm Barcelona at 7pm. Splendid.

Barcelona was wonderfully relaxing. Eating great tapas at Set de Born in the evenings. Walking along the beach in the sun. Slow, languorous breakfasts at Kasparo. Comfy designer chic at the Soho hotel. Getting lost in the old city. Perfectly perfect.

We even enjoyed our virgin easyJet experience - something I'd been dreading with some of the stories you hear. Now we have some easyJet 'tricks': do internet check-in to get on the plane quicker to choose your seat, their unlimited weight carry-on policy means you only need to pre-buy a single hold allowance if you want to buy wine, and bring some food, books & other entertainment. That and the check-in at Barcelona airport is miles away from the main T2 building (at sector C), which in itself is confusing to get to from T1 (you have to go downstairs to level zero to get a connecting bus) - but the BCN aerobus is cheap and quick.

Barcelona photos will be uploaded soon(ish), especially as Lightroom now has a release candidate that supports the wonderful Canon S90, but in the meantime enjoy this wall of stickers from the pop-up Marmite shop on Regent Street. Mmm... marmite.

Labels: Barcelona, travel

These days city visits, and even my daily walk into work, have an added bonus - tracking down every Space Invader hidden alongside the 'real' tourist sights. Space Invaders, little (and sometimes big) mosaics stuck onto walls, are colourful distractions from the every day. They're whimsical and always surprising, and now you can see how the Space Invader himself does an invasion.

Labels: Graffiti, Space Invader, travel

Not long now and we'll be on a plane to Heathrow, ready to enjoy an English summer of warm beer, cricket and CCTV. What ho!

The Montreal apartment is all packed up and stored in various places. Our aches, pains and bruises from moving all the boxes are starting to fade. We're enjoying some last Canadian sun so we land nicely tanned and I might even have a shave so I don't get pulled aside for looking too suspicious. Ah, modern travel.

See you all soon...

Labels: London, travel

We're now safe and sound back in Montreal after a (literally) whistle stop visit down to New York this weekend. Good fun but I have to say I'm looking forward to a night's sleep of over four hours tonight!

The trip started at 7.15am on Saturday when we left Montreal. At 8.20am we entered the US and 2pm hit New York. Bit of shopping, drinks with Paula, then out to Williamsburg for our traditional dinner at the ever wonderful Sweetwater. Then down to Jess and Gerald's to visit them and the hella-cute Auden. Miette crashed out at 2.30am while I went down to Union Pool to catch Gerald DJ in the back room. Splendid. Then 4.30am we were back upstairs to pass out.

9am Sunday I was up and awake, so went on a wander round the 'burg taking some photos to test my new polarizing filter and compact flash card on a beautiful, bright sunny morning. Latte and a muffin in hand I woke Miette up, and we chatted with Jess, Gerald and Auden for a bit before heading off for a quick wander/shop down Bedford Avenue. With a pile of my favourite t-shirts from Artists and Fleas in hand, we ended up having Mexican brunch at Bonita - before driving the car back to the old apartment to pick up my last stuff (thanks Lisa!).

At this stage we were a bit off schedule, as I'd totally under-estimated the time needed to get 10 storage boxes full of books down four flights of creaky old stairs with my creaky old knees. Luckily my knees held out (unlike one of the boxes) and Miette performed miracles getting all the boxes into our car. Phew. So now it was onto the BQE where we ran straight into major traffic on the way down to Brooklyn Bridge on the way to see Stephen, Yi-Hsian and Kate down at the south end of the island (learning point: getting onto Brooklyn Bridge from the BQE is a pain, just take Williamsburg Bridge). Thankfully a parking space turned up just as we were about to give up and pay the $25 parking fee - for an hour... ug. So we headed upstairs and hung out chez Godfrey for a bit. Wish we'd had longer as Kate was being very cute indeed, unfortunately it was getting onto 7pm and we still had six hours of driving ahead of us. Arg.

Having said our goodbyes, we headed back onto the Henry Hudson Parkway off north. The sun was setting as we crossed into Jersey which was very pretty indeed, but worrying as I was already tired and we knew that sunday evening traffic on dark roads, plus over the mountains, would be quite draining. Thankfully we made it to the Canadian border by 1am, a bit late as we'd seen a lot of deer eating by the road so I was driving slower than I normally would just in case the deer felt suicidal. Unfortunately the border guard was not convinced of my travel plans, plus we'd overspent our dollar limit on shopping having not being in the US for over 48 hours (just). So we got to spend a stressful 45 minutes explaining my travel plans before they decided to let me in after paying some import duty. Phew. Borders are so stressful, especially when you're sleep deprived and tired!

Finally we got back to Montreal about 2.15am, then we unloaded the car and I trogged the boxes up another two flights of stairs into the apartment. Yay, home! 3.30am I finally hit the pillow. Unfortunately at 8.30am my alarm went off as I had to move the car, so I bought us some coffees from up the road and drove Miette into work before taking the car back to the rental place. So now it's 11.30, and any minute now I'm going to pass out and have a full eight hours of kip. Splendid.

Labels: Driving, Montreal, new york, travel

Labels: Scuba Diving, travel

Diving Santa Rosa Wall, Cozumel

As part of my fooling around with Aperture I've now gotten around to uploading some pictures from my first ever dive in Cozumel, at the Santa Rosa Wall. A fun dive.

Labels: Mexico, photos, Scuba Diving, travel

Well after two and a bit weeks of sun, sand and surf it's a bit of a shock to the system to be back in Canada where it's snow, cold and ice. Luckily it's not super cold here right now, just chilly, so I can adjust into winter mode without too much angst. Mexico was super fun and here are a few of the highlights/observations:

• Lying in the sun on a near white sand beach on Christmas day, listening to the waves come in on Paraiso Beach, then having a wonderful dinner underneath clear skies and thousands of stars.
• Diving the Santa Rosa wall off Cozumel, a place that deserves its diving reputation. Plus my first ever fresh water cavern dive in the stunning Chac Mool (Claw of the Jaguar) cenote. Both of these dives were with the lovely Tank Ha folks in Playa del Carmen who I highly recommend.
• Visiting Chichen Itza with its stunning Mayan ruins, reminiscent of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Just wish we'd had more time there - not only for the ruins, but it was actually the cheapest place to buy tourist stuff and I never had a chance to shop.
• Sipping various cocktails poolside to one of the biggest pools in Mexico, plus very rarely using that same pool for exercise style lengths. Yeah right.
• All that good mexican food; fajitas, enchiladas, moles, soups and the rest.
• Experiencing Mexican police corruption and bribe gathering at first hand, as well as Mexico's wonderful exuberance regarding un-signed road bumps that you can only go over at 5mph on a road with a 70mph speed limit. Bless.
• The wonderful, smiling people who are so friendly and fun - they totally make up for those corrupted by their little bit of power in the police force.

So thanks again to Marsha and John for an amazing trip, you guys rocks! Expect to see some photos up at my Flickr stream soon - honest!

Labels: good times, Mexico, travel

Reports are circulating now about a guy who, while infected with a rare, drug resistant form of tuberculosis, traveled extensively from America to Europe and back through Canada - while he was aware of his disease and having being told not to travel. Great. You just have to think he's either incredibly stupid or incredibly selfish, or both. Worryingly he traveled through Montreal and New York, but we won't know if he had any impact as the incubation period can be up to decades.

Labels: health, stupid people, travel

Virgin America is finally approved to start flying! Good news for fans of Richard Branson. Sorry, I mean fans of companies that have a name starting with 'Virgin', as due to FAA regulations no US based airline can be operated by non-US citizens. This seemed to be a bit of an attempt by their (justifiably scared) competitors to slow them down, as it was almost a year ago that I saw some Virgin America plans sitting around up in Montreal.

You can check out some of their in-plane gadgets over at youTube. Highlights for me are the full embedded Linux media center for every seat, proper keyboard on the controls and a full 110v socket at every seat. Yep, they are totally targetting the current Web 2.0 boom kiddies with this one, and being based out west that's no surprise.

Labels: travel

So due to a slight hurricane hitting Bermuda today my trip's being cancelled. Of course this was after I dragged myself out of bed and all the way to JFK. Doh. So if anyone feels like hanging out in New York this weekend let me know {:)

Labels: travel

Back in the US again - sunny New York City is outside my window with the usual chorus of sirens trilling away on the streets below. Flew back yesterday with the delightful Virgin who, having saved me an hour of queuing through the use of my silver card then decided to upgrade me to Premium Economy for the first time ever. Yee-haw! I'm now thoroughly hooked and will be contemplating how to get a non-economy flight back to the UK and then a non-economy round the world ticket. The thought of spending 20 hours in a plane to some far off country in cattle class does not appeal...

Other thoughts now fill my mind - which parts of my life do I pack up and ship back to store in England while I travel and which to leave behind? Don't have a huge budget for shipping so that will help keep me to the bone on what stays and what goes, plus most of the electronic equipment won't work so that's easy. What of the less physical aspects though? The friendships and behaviors I've developed over the years? At least this time I'm emotionally more prepared for such upheavel, something that I totally underestimated three and a half years ago when I came here from London. Still scares me a bit though - the through of just leaving stuff and stepping away for a while, if not ever. Never was very good with change, so this is a great opportunity to get better at it. Chocks away...

Labels: life lessons, travel

Just got back from a tiring but fun day trip to Calais with G'ette and Simon. Had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5.10am (GMT while I'm still in EST - yep, that means 12.10am) to drive down for an 8.30am ferry from Dover. Brought back many fond memories of my last trips over to France which were oh so long ago - yes dear ones, probably before the Ecu was even spawned from whatever twisted mind it came.

Much delights were to be found in the French hypermarche - wine, chocolate, wine, cheese, wine and of course cheap stationary. Did I mention the wine? Also got the chance to experience how British mobile phones actually work in other countries, and the difference in service levels between French and New York restaurants. Very.

Now I'm just completely exhausted having only really had about 10 hours sleep since Monday morning... Somehow managed to fit a trip in to see Blue Jam at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Chris Morris of Brasseye fame wrote this sketch play and it shows. Very bizarre but often extremely funny. Enjoyed it immensely until halfway through when I realized that part of me was not enjoying the contexts - for example a woman getting a plumber in to 'fix' her baby that has been dead for 4 days. This has since lead to many discussions about whether it's right to laugh at this stuff or not, or whether it's fundamentally wrong/unhealthy/whatever. I was reminded of a sketch show I went to see just under a year ago in New York (Kiddies/Pumpkin Corner or something like that - the name escapes me). The last sketch was highly disturbing and left a very bad taste in the mouth, discussing child abuse between disabled siblings. Living in New York has definately changed my sense of humour, is that a good thing or a bad thing though? Answers on a postcard please.

Oh, and on which note, Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) is a really enjoyable game - very clever, highly addictive and well done. The main character runs round town carrying out gangland tasks and stealing whatever car he fancies all to earn more money/success. You have to question though whether sleeping with a prostitute to raise your health levels, and subsequently pummeling her to death to steal the money back is healthy for your mind. And you know the kids play this.... God I'm getting old!

Labels: Family, france, travel

Well my first batch of mince pies taught me to roll the pastry a lot thinner! I also need to go shopping for a proper baking tray for them rather than trying to get a cheapo aluminium (pronounced 'alum-in-um' over here of course) muffin trays to work. Nowhere near as nice as the ones from Myers of Keswick but they contain a lot more love, and of course grubby fingerprints.

I've also discovered that I now have enough airmiles from Virgin to fly to Hong Kong and back, or South America. Wow. I found that out while I was trying to book a flight back for Christmas. As I watched Orbitz and Expedia the flights got progressively more expensive. 'Tis the season to be flying to the UK apparently. I was also faced with the quandry that if I follow through with my current plans of travelling come February I only have a few short months left in New York. This means I wanted to try and spend the minimum amount of time back in the UK and consequently I'm not staying there for New Years. Unless I change my mind of course... I normally do. Or do I?

Labels: englishman in new york, food, travel

Well, as you can guess from the fact I'm typing the plane landed safely... No sleep though, apart from the 20 minutes I caught during Hedwig and the Angry Inch (which I had just been starting to enjoy when I dozed off).

So I've been staying in a little hotel near to Oxford town center with most of my family - eight of us have descended to break the peace and celebrate my nan's 84th birthday. We just had a wonderful (and extremely large) dinner at the Boot pub, just outside of Oxford. The walls have many different shoes from different celebrities such as Gary Linneker and the Bee Gees scattered around. Nice place.

Labels: england, travel

After a brief delay.. Currently I'm at JFK airport, enjoying the services of a get2net free console (which has many dodgy keys, of which 'r' is the wost). Just used my Silver Card with Virgin to check in, saving 20-30 minutes of waiting, only to find my flight is currently delayed over an hour. Of course, being Thanksgiving everything is closed. Damn glad I bought a book with me!

Also wish I'd checked the flight delays prior to rushing out early from Tim's dinner. Good soup though and I have some pie to eat later. Mmm... Also got to play with a cute Sony Vario-Sonnar digital camera (5MP) courtesy of Jon. Smashing.

Labels: travel

Back in the UK at my old house. Fly back later today on United - hopefully it will be as empty as on the way out so I'll be able to get some sleep in, something I was sorely lacking until last night. I decided on Saturday to try and move my flight back to London earlier so I could see my family for longer. This turned out to be hideously easy, although the only flight available was 4.35am and was completely full - so no sleep for Matt and apologies to Stephen for constantly banging him as I tried to get slightly comfortable.

Having left Agia Napa we taxi'd over to Lemesos (aka, Lemesol) where we stayed at the Hawaii Grand hotel. This is another large hotel complex with every ammenity on tap, although the pool was smaller than London this time! I've now come to realize that I'm not really into 'posh' hotels - I'd rather be hanging out with a large group of friends or be somewhere interesting - like Mamacita's in Culebra. Perhaps it's just that I spend all my time in hotels anyway, so it just seemed like being at work!!

The last few days in Lemesos continued to be very lazy. We were fairly clubbed out and Lemesos clubs do not compare in quality to Agia Napa's. Finally beat Stephen in our squash tournament and then in the snooker competition. So the overall score was well in my favour - it was just the 'guess how many times Starlight is played' contest that Stephen was best at.

Labels: Cyprus, Europe, travel

Two flights later (and many free shots at bars) I'm about to have my last night in Agia Napa, Cyprus. Flew in on a very empty flight from Newark to Heathrow, hung out in London for a night, then got up WAY too early to fly on to Larnaca, Cyprus. And now I'm in Agia Napa.

Agia Napa is a mad, clubbing, pubbing place. A strange mix of Brits, Europeans and Russians as far as I can tell. The bars stay open until 1.30, the weather's gorgeous if a little sweaty, and clubs are free if you ask Keith, the barman at Club Titanic, nicely. Me and Stephen have made club Titantic our main home for the week, with the Castle Club the late night venue. Much cheap drinking, betting on how many times 'Starlight' is played (never as many as you think) watching the world go by.Kiris and Keith at club Titanic have been a laff, both having been here for 7/10 years respectively. Keith does a very impressive line in flipping out of the outside bar area into the street when he's not busy chucking straws or ice cubes at passers by. A good laff - and excellent music.

The music has been much more important to me than the cheap an plentiful booze and people watching. I've been catching up on a lack of Glastonbury fuelled Brit-dance out here, plus the residuals of 3.5 years out in the dance drought that is New York. Old classics, new toonz. Lots of dancing, and I've even been drunk enough to have a couple of goes at 'Dance, Dance Revolution' (apparently, I'm a great dancer...) Now I'm aching and tired after 4 days of self-exhaustion and multiple time zones. We're about to move on to Limasol which is calmer - let's see how that goes. May even start taking some pictures.

Oh, and big thanks to everyone in London for a great Friday night catching up. I had a wonderful time in all three venues - Chiswick, Soho and Brixton. Seeing everyone again made me remember, yet again, what I really love about England - friends and family. Oh, and the great Trance Techno that is Sands of Sansara at the Fridge in Brizxton! See you all again soon, but it won't be soon enough.

Now the bars beckon me back... I must do my patriotic duty as a Brit out no the piss in a foreign country and drink more than is wise and dance more flailingly than most by-standers like. Nice one.

Labels: Cyprus, Europe, travel