You may notice i’ve added an event manager to the top right. If you want to know what i’m doing, or where I am - you can now follow my calendar! Hopefully it’ll help me organise my life a little better too!

Of course - the other reason I hope I can revive the blog is the amount of interesting stuff i’m doing this year, and interesting places i’ll be visiting. I’m still in training for the Randonnee 100 mile Bike ride across the South Downs, as well as fundraising for my climb of Mt Kilimanjaro which is due to start on 1st September. I’ll also be going away somewhere sunny in 4 weeks and to Dublin in October - So plenty to talk about. That’s when I can drag myself away from FaceBook!

On Sunday we went on our latest training ride for the South Downs Way Randonnee. Will, Jon and I went from Eastbourne to Devils Dyke under a scorching sun on what was the hottest day of the year so far. Here are the lads over beachy head, and a view of the lighthouse above Burling Gap. We cycled through Friston Forest, where I was concentrating way too hard to take photos - but here’s one of Jonny in Friston Forest Car Park. Alfriston was beautiful, as were the many yellow Rape fields along the way. There were plenty of Hang-gliders and cows which gave us something to watch during our many breaks.

Will managed to miss the South Downs Way Acorn at one point and get lost, so while we waited Jonny slept. It was a very tiring ride for poor Jonny whilst Will seemed to have endless energy. Here’s Jonny doing what Jonny does best, and our only view of Will all day - his backside in the distance! When we finally reached the Dyke, we sat down and had a well deserved pint in the evening sun. Perfect!

We reached Southease at 3pm, this time wet only from sweat, but with Dana really struggling. He decided to call it a day and catch the train home, so we took a little break. Big Mistake! We knew we only had 3 hours before it was dark - and slightly naively thought ‘we’ll be fine!’ We headed off at about 3.30 down a long rocky track before we turned through a filthy slurry covered field and up one of the steepest hills i’ve ever walked (not a chance of cycling up there!) Once at the top, covered in cow sh*t - we slowly climbed past lots of bottoms - Loose Bottom, Stump Bottom, Long Bottom, cows bottoms, Jim’s Bottom - until Juggs Head where the boys shot (I crashed) down through a steeply sloped forest to the A27 - only to be faced with yet another 250metre long rocky climb to the highest and final point - Ditchling Beacon above Brighton.

By the time we reached Ditchling Beacon and the Dew Pond, it was getting dark and we were shattered. My fall in the forest had left me with a torn sock and aching calf where the pedal had jabbed into me. No Bother. The one consolation - and thought that kept us all going - the scenery. Looking back in the growing gloom at the beautiful white cliffs above Newhaven in the far distance, saying to ourselves ‘we were there’ was pretty good. Even if it had taken us all day!

So yes - it took us 8 hours. 5 miles an hour. Pathetic. Early days though I tell thee. Once a week and we’ll have it down to 4! Jokes aside - we must halve our time or we won’t finish the race. I’m going on a diet of Peanuts and Chicken - that should speed me up!

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday to me.

Yesterday, after feeling like idiots by wasting our day and sleeping in until 12, we went straight out to Camp Nou near Les Corts to buy tickets to the FC Barcelona vs Racing game on Sunday. I tried in vein to order the tickets in broken spanish from the guy at the ticket office - who just pointed me to another queue - the queue for the FC Barcelona museum. After we´d realised we hadn´t made any sense to the guy we tried again in English - which of course - like everyone in every shop here - he understood perfectly! So birthday night - we´ll be above the North Goal in Camp Nou. Sweet!

After our slightly traumatic ticket buying experience (we also struggled to buy tickets from the automatic machines which wouldn´t accept our cards) we took a tour around the New Camp which is just the most incredible stadium ever. The tour includes views of the players changing rooms, pitch, coaches dugout, vip area, press office, players lounge (with leather sofas and espresso machines!) plus a tour of the museum with trophy cabinet! Barcelona are an incredible team who have won everything! They have so many trophies its ridiculous. Probably the highlight was the museum of press photos of Football - games, countries, players, funny and serious.

After Camp Nou we headed over to La Sagrada Familia - a Cathedral designed by Gaudi in the late 1800´s - which is still unfinished after 120 years! We went up the lift to the bridge to take in the breathtaking views of Barcelona. On the ground floor theres a museum all bout Gaudi and the reasons why the cathedral looks the way it does. Gaudi was really into nature so the columns are built like trees, the ceiling represents the canopy of leaves, there are little mushroom and fish shapes in the walls and his use of light through stained glass is incredible.

Back at the Hostel, we played cards and had drinks until 11 before heading out with all the other Hostellers - mainly Americans as well as a group of lads from Leicester. We went to a crazy cocktail bar where they burned everything - ther highlights being a Harry Potter with cinnamon which crackled and a Bin Laden which was Whisky, Vodka and Baileys set on Fire - mental! At about 1am we took a drunken anc confusing tube ride over to the Zona Universitat to Pacha where we blagged free entry! We got back at about 8am to a silent hostel where Jon and Dan went to bed - and I - well - I´ll leave what I did to a personal chat - too personal for this Blog