Christmas in Grenoble, France

The trip started off on the wrong foot. Out flight was delayed for 7 hours, the airport was hot & stuffy and the smell of body odour was atrocious. The flight time from London to Grenoble was 1hr 10mins and the transfer to Les 2 Alpes was 2hrs!
Anyway, we arrived at 2am on Sunday morning and decided to go for a walk to check out the sites.

Les 2 Alpes is a ski resort in the French Isère County. The village sits at 1650m with lifts running to 3600m. My first day snowboarding was absolutely rubbish. The amount of face plants was uncountable. The next morning, I had never felt so much pain in my life. Every muscle and bone was aching, sprained wrists, whiplash, hamstring crams and more. My sister Eileen even managed to crack a rib and had to spend €400 on medical expenses.

My daily timetable would consist of 3 hours of snowboarding school, 5 hours charging down the mountain freeriding and then 8 hours of drinking to sooth the pain. After the 3rd day, I was engaging in blue runs that take 25 mins from top to bottom. I now have high regards for snowboarders; their sheer physical strength and stamina. Flying back to London was also a nightmare. Out flight was again delayed but this time only for 3 hours. France totally kicks ass, although Grenoble technically isn’t France since everyone spoke English. It gave me a taste of the Language and atmosphere; I am definitely looking forward to moving there in 2009.
Grenoble gallery can be viewed here

Smell the Cheese – 8.2 MB

Sam






Glimpse of the Village









mmm Cheese








Christmas Lunch








escargot








3200m booyah

Race of Champions, Wembly Stadium

I attended the Race of Champions with Noel and Gillies on Sunday. All the big names like Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Sebastien Loeb were competing. Lewis Hamilton also gave the audience a show in his McLaren F1. It was all show and no go since it was unable to get any traction. There was also stunts performed in a TVR, Evo 10, BMW Road Bike and motorcross bikes.
Sebastien Loeb ended up winning the overall competition, defeating David Coulthard in the finals. It was also the coldest night ever in London. All I was wearing were jeans and a hoddie; definitely experienced some shrinkage.
This last few days has been painful, coughing and sneezing.

On the good side, I have purchased all my snowboarding clothing for France and even a set of walkie talkies to communicate to others when I am carving up the powder. But seriously, I’m crap so have signed up for snowboarding lessons. I figured, since I’m going to be there for 6 days; may as well try to get good at it.
Race of Champions gallery can be viewed here

Race + Stall - 6.8 MB
McLaren F1 doing burnouts – 1.8 MB
Flying Motorbikes - 4.8 MB

Sam




Ford Focus WRC








KTM X-bow








Dune Buggy








McLaren F1









2 Wheel Evo 10

Interconnector Christmas Party

When the invites came around, the theme for the Christmas Party was 'Black and White'. It even stated 'wear anything as long as it is black or white'. So I went out and bought a nice black shirt along with a white fashion tie. I walked into the restaurant full of confidence. Little did I know that their interpretation of 'Black and White' actually meant black tie!

There I was, standing there, sleeves rolled up, unbuttoned collar with a flimsy tie. I felt like the Mona Lisa:

a) I looked good
b) Everyone was staring at me.

Every guy in the room was in a dinner suit and there I was, casual Joe sipping champange while trying not to make eye contact with the big bosses. The night ended at 1am as I was completely hammered, this is mainly due to the fact that I was mixing champagne, gin & tonic, beers, red wine, white wine and of course tequila.

2 more weeks before I'm off to France, woohoo

Funny Dancing - 3.4 MB

Sam




Pissed








Even more pissed

Icy Reykjavik

We arrived at the cabin hotel; Reykjavik, Iceland at 2am Saturday morning. It was -3 degrees and gustily like Wellington. The crisp air was refreshing and at the same time, ear numbing.
Icelandic water is known to be the best in the world as it does not contain additives such as chlorine and is free of contaminants and heavy metals.

We spent Saturday on the Golden Circle Tour. It is a journey around the outer region of Reykjavik. You can also purchase a CD with audio commentary of each location. During the tour, we visited waterfalls, geysirs, a crater and a historic village that has been excavated to uncover its political history. On Saturday night, we went on a Northern Lights Tour but unfortunately the sighting was very faint and impossible to take a photo of.

We indulged in a relaxation session at the blue lagoon. The sulphuric milky is a great treatment for the skin. After 4 hours, it was time to head back to the cabin. Although we did visit the Hallgrimur’s Church, it was covered with scaffolding around the front exterior but inside was amazing as expected. Above the entrance was a pipe organ with 5275 pipes. By now, time was running out but we managed to see the Perlan and Government House.

Reykjavik is an amazing City with so much history. For all that are planning on visiting, I recommend you stay for at least 4 days.
Photos from Reykjavik can be viewed here

Sam





Kerio Crater







Look, waterfall








There she blows








Sunset








Blue Lagooon

Top Gear Live = Lame

I attended the MPH Motor show last weekend mainly because the crew from Top Gear were performing a live show. The cars at the show were no where near as cool as the cars from the British Motor Show. A lot of Audi R8’s were on display, it’s not very appealing when you see 20 bog standard R8’s in one room. There was however a Koenigsegg that was full carbon fibre which I thought was pretty mint. The live performance was so crap that the wiggles would have been better to watch. Yes, of course they would have had to rehearse it a few times so they don’t stand there with nothing to say but during the 4 day event, they performed 4 sessions a day; that’s 16 sessions of the same crap. How can they possibly class this as live if they are doing the same act each time? Just for icing on the cake, this show is also performed in other parts of the world! Shocking init? They should have called it ‘Top Gear in Theatre’
MPH Motor Show gallery can be viewed here

Anywho, after the show we went to a pretentious club that screams ‘I am a wanker’. If it wasn’t for the birthday party, it would definitely have been a ‘My phone died and couldn’t get hold of you’. More alcohol abuse to end the night.

Top Gear Stunts - 5.9 MB

Sam




Carbon Koenigsegg








RX7 off FnF Toyko Drift








Car Football

Ancient Brugge

My 4 nights in Brugge has been great. Since it was a business trip, I didn't get too much time during the day to see the sights but did try to take as many photos as possible (it gets dark early). Brugge is a laid back city with extraordinarily architecture and delectable cuisine. The people are friendly, releaxed and love their bier's. The trip was tranquil; dining at exquisite restaurants, drinking full-bodied 12% biers. The serving size of meals are greater in proportion and in no way does it compromise it's taste. If you are a vegetarian, you will not fit in. The belfry tower is a medieval bell tower right in the centre of Brugge, it is a very well known symbol. I only managed to take a photo of The Chapel of the Holy Blood. The chapel holds a sacred vial said to contain a cloth with blood of jesus christ. There were so many places to see and with so much history, Brugge is must for all.
Photos from Brugge can be viewed here

It's Wednesday night and I am at home blogging. Blogs are meant to be quick thinking of opinions but my blogs generally take about 90mins to write. Although this is mainly a diary to remind myself of my travels. So I'm off to Iceland in 3 weeks and Norway in 4 weeks, better start saving instead of drinking it away.

Sam




Big Market Square










Belfry Tower









Feel the serenity








Real bier








Colleague Jeff

B-Boys and Interconnector rocks

My sisters mate Jen rung me on Sunday with a spare ticket to the 2008 UK B-Boy World Finals. To the amateurs, it is just break dancing. But the fact is, there are different classes of competition. It is much more than just twirls and spins. Competitors battle it out with different dance genre along with single, pair and team events. Countries include Japan, Korea, China, Russia, USA, Jamaica and of course UK. The event was ‘Fresh’

I got my contract renewed at Interconnector till the end of the year. Since I will be with them for another few months, they decided to send me to Brugge, Belgium to meet the team. 3 things come to mind when I think of Belgium, I can practise my poor French, drink great Belgium bier and indulge in magnificent chocolate.

For those that know me, my eating habits are generally pretty good. But ever since arriving in London, it has deteriorated. The Heathrow injection is worsening and I feel more and more run down throughout the day. On that note, I purchased some mass gainer and fat burner supplements to help me speed up the process to get my body back into shape. I will not state what I am taking in the meantime as these supplements are potent and I do not want to preach it until it has been experimented on my body. No it is not steroids, not quite anyway.

Sorry no new photos this week as Eileen borrowed my camera for Budapest.
But here are some good time oldies.

Sam




Beachcomber, Fiji 2005








Wellington, New Zealand 2006








Melbourne, Australia 2007








Brisbane, Australia 2008

No smoking!

I have given up smoking, it has been 2 weeks now. I am coughing heavily, feeling sick and eating a lot. Not my idea of fun but I'll see how long it will last.
On Thursday, I got an email from my ex-boss Chris Bunce (Buncy) at First NZ Capital insisting that I have dinner at a place called 'New Culture Revolution'. Ofcourse it is an asian restaurant; who in their right mind would call a restaurant that name. Whats wrong with 'China Inn' or even 'Wangs House'? Since Buncy gave that place so much hype, I decided to fulfil his dreams on Friday evening. The place was actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Everything was made fresh and still had a chinese zing. Good work Buncy. If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to share it as I will try my best to give it my compliments and criticisms.

On Friday and Saturday night, I got leathered. Whats new?

Now tonight was something different. My flatmate was doing research on Cat food and happen to have a spare can of Jelly meat. After negotiating the terms of £10 for half a can, Cale was ready to hoover it down. The smell was revolting and the sight of him chewing was repulsive. None the less, he completed the task.

Sandbar? - 3.8 MB
New Culture Revolution - 6.4 MB
Yummy Cat Food - 5.7 MB

Sam




Feed








Cale about to vomit








Would you feed that to your cat?

Oktoberfest 2008

4 Days in Munich for Oktoberfest was outrageous and I am totally over beer. The stench is oozing out my pores, my hands are bruised and blistered from swinging steins, my lungs are black as night. The night we arrived, we visited a well know establishment called Hofbrauhaus to warm ourselves up for Oktoberfest. Drinking from steins gets you absolutely wasted. Steins are 1 litre but you drink it at the same pace as a pint, so you are basically drinking and getting pissed twice as fast. Just to describe how leathered I was, I passed out fully clothed with my man-bag and shoes on.
Oktoberfest 1 – Sam 0

Saturday morning started at 8am as the doors for the beer tents opened at 9am and you have to line up else you will not be allowed in if the place is full. The doors normally close at 11am so there was no way we were going to miss out. Beers did not get served till 12pm since it was the opening day of Oktoberfest so it was dead boring sitting there twiddling with our thumbs.
At 12pm, beers came rolling in. Due to the 3 hour anticipation, I ended up drinking beers like water. We were kicked of the tables at 3pm as it was reserved but we weren’t too bothered, everyone was fully tanked. The night ended at the hostel getting more plastered and passing out at 12am. Oktoberfest 2 – Sam 0

To show that I have culture and not just about the booze, we visited the Nymphenburg Palace. This palace was built in 1664 to celebrate the birth of Maximilian II Emanuel who went on to become a ruler of Bavaria. The palace and park is about 200 acres but after 90mins of walking, we had to call it quits. Back to the beer tents we go for some refreshments. At around 10pm, I went back to the hostel to freshen up as my clothes were saturated in beer. I sat on my bed, closed my eyes and woke up the next morning. Apparently everyone was jumping on my bed and nothing was able to wake me up. I was very ashamed of my effort. Oktoberfest 3 – Sam 0.
We all sat in the courtyard on Monday with minimal words spoken. Everyone was either too hung-over, loss their voice or sick of everyone else.
Oktoberfest was an experience of a lifetime. Anyone keen on Oktoberfest 2009?
Oktoberfest gallery can be viewed here

Marienplatz Glockenspiel – 6.2 MB
Hofbrauhaus – 5.6 MB
Oktoberfest Part 1 – 6.2 MB
Oktoberfest Part 2 – 3.5 MB

Sam




Head count








Marienplatz Glockenspiel








Eileen with her first stein








She was carrying 10 at one stage








Boozed








Nymphenburg Palace









€8 My Little Pony

Dutch people hate tourists

I will talk about Amsterdam before I start expressing my opinions. Amsterdam is such an awesome place. Our flight was delayed so we started having shots and get getting plastered at the airport. Even during the 45min journey, we were the typical drunk Aussies/Kiwis on the plane. We occupied the last 2 rows (there were 11 of us) and the drinks cart only managed to finish serving us before they had to return back into their cabin. I feel sorry for everyone else onboard.

I’m not going to go into detail of what went on in Amsterdam as it could be used as incriminating evidence against me. The red light district was hilarious, although the amount of beautiful women in the windows is about 1:4 pugs. There’s an alley called ‘Skinny Lane’ and the name tells all. This alley was so narrow that you would struggle to fit 2 people side by side through. So when you are walking through, your face is basically pressed against the windows; the beautiful girls were a bonus. After viewing most of the ally’s I found one that I have not walked down; so I went to talk a look. The girls in the windows were hideous; I almost had to take a Viagra just to make sure I could pee. I have given that alley a name that I hope the Dutch can appreciate, ‘Chubby Lane’

We also did a lot of sight-seeing; visited Anne Frank’s house, Van Gogh museum, sex museum, Heineken brewery (it was closed), pancake houses, coffee shops and the best of all; renting bicycles. Since everyone in Amsterdam rode bikes, we had to embrace the culture and terrorise the streets with out rented bicycles. We even had individual names just to make our bike gang better known. Mine was Viper, we also had Slayer and we named the other two guys Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. My advice to everyone is to rent a bike to when visiting Amsterdam, there is so much more out there; we visited places we wouldn’t have known about. The culture also changes when you are out of the city. We managed to find Rembrandt Square where a statue of Rembrandt stands. I didn’t even know Rembrandt was Dutch.

So when I was in Amsterdam, I noticed that no one actually lived there. It is just a city of tourist, tourist, and tourist. Of course there are loads in London, but in Amsterdam, we/they are all in one area. You meet people from all sides of the world.
Back to my initial subject that Dutch hates tourist. Well for one, I got absolutely abused when I was calmly riding my bike but I think the main reason is that tourist do not understand the rules, do’s & don’ts and just there to abuse the substance privileges while being rude and obnoxious. Let’s break that down a bit. Firstly, riding a bike in Amsterdam is not easy; the bikes are old and not very stable as you bounce your way down the cobblestone road. Bikes also have right of way in most places while tourists are constantly blocking their way. You also have and traffic system for bikes, due to the fact that I did not know about it, I nearly got T-Boned by oncoming cars. Secondly, tourists are smoking marijuana in public. This is a no no, you already have the ability to smoke in a coffee shop but people decide to walk around the city and sparking up in the corner. Not to mention they will be high as the cloud and not caring about the surrounding public.
Pics from Amsterdam can be viewed here

Sam






Infamous Bulldog Hostel










Let's Party







Cockring?










mmm salami









Smoking Kills








Want a ride ladies?

Donington Superbikes

Pete, his girfriend Jess and I attended the Superbikes in Donington this weekend.
Donington is about 2 hours North-West of London. Due to the amount of detours we made, it took us 4 hours. We left the accommodation a bit late and ended up staying out in Birmingham. I always thought Birmingham would be a hip place to be but apparently it’s rough as guts. Young girls pushing a pram around everywhere, it must be a craze to have kids at such a young age. The motel we were staying at was an absolute shithole. The entrance was a fire exit; even the stairs to our room was a fire exit. The rooms we so small that the door will not open fully. There was rubbish on my floor and the bed has been made with the same linen from previous visitors. Shit sleeping experience.

Now to the fun part; the Superbikes. Superbikes is one class below MotoGP. It was rainy, muddy and slippery. Bodies were flying everywhere and hitting the pavement at Ferocious speeds. Of course entertaining. We left the raceway soaking wet and smelling like horse manure. The 2 hour drive home plus the 1 hour tube journey was not the most satisfying.
Pics from Donington can be viewed here

10 Star Hotel Part 1 - 5.7 MB
10 Star Hotel Part 2 - 4.7 MB

Sam





Fast Crotch Rockets







brrrmmmm...








Final Race

I am no longer a shitter

As I sat patiently on Friday; ready to slit my wrist, I was offered a role at Interconnector UK. The role is basically supporting staff and using my Trump card on vendors. Today was my first day, it was slow as expected; absorbing as much information as I can about the environment. I also spent about 5 hours crawling around doing cable management. Here's another famous Soh Wisdom

'You have to wash the car, to be able to buff the car'

I don't have any pics this week as Eileen borrowed my Camera for Barcelona. I am however going to watch Superbikes this weekend at Donington raceway so that should be good. I don't know which will be more interesting; The superbikes or the population of 7000 at Castle Donington. Oh, I also managed to obtain another Microsoft Certificaton; I am geek, hear me roar

Peace

Sam