Erik’s Leaving Do

This week Erik and Adrianna will head back to Slovakia to settle down and bring up little Dominik in more familiar surroundings.

I’ll miss the Bezak around the office, not to mention playing him at Badminton and ping-pong but he’ll still be part of the team and will be over to visit in June hopefully.

On Tuesday we went out for a few beers, starting at the Beehive and then moving to the White Hart once the Chelsea fans had gathered to watch their epic victory over Barcelona. I stayed over at Paulo’s flat in the Maltings and got to work 8:30 the next day feeling slightly the worse for wear…!

Jayesh & Priya Part 1

This Saturday was Jayesh & Priya’s Registry Wedding in Finchley, so we got dressed up and met up with everyone at Avenue House for the ceremony and subsequent photos, before reconvening at a restaurant on Finchley High Road.

In the evening we gathered at Mak HQ for more food and lots of chat and even a bit of singing and guitar playing.

Wet Wales Weekend

This Easter weekend we set off to Brecon to catch up with Mum for a couple of days. Unfortunately the weather was almost unremittingly wet, so major walks were out of the question, although we did manage a walk along the canal.

We also drove up North of Brecon around the Llyn Briane reservoir and surrounding hills – a very beautiful area even in the pouring rain!

On Saturday evening we had a lovely meal at The Black Swan, and generally ate too much and did not do enough exercise. Not exactly Plan A! But nice all the same :-). I also got up close and personal with a fully grown North African Milky Eagle Owl at the Mountain Centre, which was quite a buzz!!

On Sunday afternoon we headed over see to Roger & Angela and Sean in Monmouth. Roger cooked us all some fabulous Roast Lamb and we ate very heartily indeed (again!) and chatted all evening. Roger showed us some fascinating photos of various family members going back several generations, and took us through the family tree he’d researched on Ancestry.co.uk, which currently goes back to the early 1800s…! On Monday morning we shared a very fresh coffee, courtesy of the raw beans I had brought with me. Yum.

More pics here on Flickr…

Balloon trip

Last year my birthday gift for Smeeta was a balloon flight with AdventureBalloons.co.uk and we initially booked a flight last spring, but it was cancelled on the day because of the weather. We then forgot all about it until a month or so ago when we re-booked a flight from just south of Reading.

We both took the afternoon off to get to Padworth Village, just off the A4, and got there in plenty of time. The crew turned up in a Land Rover, towing the basket and additional gubbins in a trailer. We were invited to help them set up, and me and another guy were given the task of holding on to the inflating balloon (via a long rope) and jumping into the basket at the last minute.

Taking off was a weird experience: you suddenly become aware that you are no longer in contact with the earth, and before long you are looking down on houses and roads. It is eerily silent, until the powerful burners are lit up…

We set off south over the Aldermaston atomic weapons research facility, and out over the open fields of Berkshire. Saw a herd of deer cantering across a ploughed fields, in broad daylight. Also saw a Chinook helicopter, a light aircraft, and a couple of paragliders enjoying the early evening skies.

After a 40 min flight our pilot was busily radio-ing his land-based crew trying to decide where to land, and we eventually came down in a field alongside the A340, clipping a fence-post as we came in low… as one of the two ‘handlers’ I had to leap out as soon as we hit the deck, push the basket over on it’s side and then run around the front to hold the tethering rope to keep the balloon under control as it deflated and settled to the ground.

It was then all hands to the pump to fold and stow the massive ballon, and then the staff handed out glasses of bubbly and certificates to all. Great fun, thoroughly recommended!