venta

The final leg of my holiday write-up, in which we leave Oslo on a boat...

( Ferry )

( Copenhagen )

Don't like verbosity? Try the Flickr version

Current Music: Gloryhammer - Space 1992 Rise of the Chaos Wizards

After a mild hiatus (while I went to Whitby to frolic with the goths), the now really very late write up of my holiday continues. You may remember we had just boarded a train to leave Stockholm.

( Train )

( Oslo )

The low-reading version is on Flickr.

If you're following along, you'll know that my holiday write up has been to Helsinki. Now, we catch a boat to Stockholm...

( Cruise )

( Stockholm )

Pictures on Flickr.

Recently we embarked on a whirlwind tour of Scandinavian capital cities. We booked pretty much at the last minute, with Discover The World, whom we've used before. If you want an agent to book you a holiday somewhere chilly, I'd highly recommend them.

About three days before we left, we realised that we had very little idea what in particular we wanted to do in any of these cities, and didn't really have time to start looking it up. Fortunately, a fat parcel showed up on our doorstep from Discover The World, containing a glossy guidebook, plus a whole bunch of leaflets and maps for each city. Ideal on-the-plane reading! And so we set off...

( Helsinki )

Much less wordy and more pictorial version of the above available on Flickr.

Current Music: Tall Ships - Tall Ships

When on holiday, I'm a do-er. I always have been. In a museum, in a gallery, up a tower, walking across a hillside... definitely not lazing in bed all day, or sitting still. Sunbathing? Wouldn't thank you for it.

However, I think I'm getting old. I'm also, these days, probably working harder than I ever have. Longer hours, plus I'm more contactable when not in the office. I've also given up dicking about online when at work: if I'm in the office, I'm working. Some nights I dream about spreadsheets. The idea of doing nothing is becoming more appealing.

Right now, I'm lazing (admittedly in the shade) on a sunny roof terrace. With a beer (plus the little dish of the nuts that this jolly civilised place provides as standard). We didn't make it back to the museum, where the next tour in a language we could both understand was 5pm. We're just... sitting. And I'm ok with that.

At the back end of last year, five of us who knew each other at university got together for dinner for the first time in ages. We brought along our respective other halves, and had a jolly evening eating curry in a house in St John's Wood.

Four of the couples live in London(ish, if you count St Albans). The fifth has taken up residence in Munich and, recently, bought a holiday home in Austria. A general invitation was issued to visit them, which I mentally filed as the sort of polite thing people say.

However our Christmas card this year, and then a follow-up email, suggested we really should visit. ChrisC and I had said we were learning to ski (in the snow dome at Milton Keynes), would we like to visit before the end of the ski season and try some real snow?

We consulted air fares, compared calendars, and decided we would. ( An adventure! )
--

Current Music: Tim Hecker - Virgins

In between celebrating birthdays in Scotland, and going to Whitby, ChrisC and I jaunted briefly around Northumberland. We stopped in Alnwick, and managed not to go to Alnwick Castle (it was slightly closed and largely overrun with schoolkids), but we did manage lots of other castles. And Alnwick Gardens. And, of course, Barter Books.

( It's lovely up north )

I'm back. I don't know if you missed me :)

I've been (in order) to Scotland for a baby's first birthday party, to Northumberland for a holiday, and to Whitby for a goth weekend. I now have a massive pile of photos to sort through, and a lot of black laundry.

How's everyone doing this day-that-feels-like-Monday-to-me?

Regular readers will know that I trundle off to Glastonbury every year to frolic among the madness and mayhem. Except this year, Glastonbury had no festival for me to frolic at. Nothing daunted, ChrisC and I headed up to the Edinburgh Fringe to do some frolicking there instead.

( Lengthy musings on the topic of Edinburgh Fringe )

Continuing my rather attenuated effort to write up my weekend... we already did Friday.

Saturday began with some actual being tourists, we went off to ( Acqui Terme. )

( Back on the Begging Train )

( And on to the ball... )

Current Music: Pulp - Countdown

Following on from my earlier claim that you can get by in a foreign country by smiling, being enthusiastic and saying "thank you" a lot, I wondered about the possibility of compiling a bare minimum phrase book for use by people who know nothing of the language they're going to be floundering in.

My BMPB should be small enough to fit onto a piece of paper considerably smaller than most phrasebooks. It assumes general goodwill on the part of the people to whom one is speaking, and isn't intended to cover any specific circumstance.

( First attempt at BMPB )

Current Music: Billy Talent - Billy Talent II

Who put West Cork so damn far away, that's what I want to know. Schull is five or six hours drive from Dun Laoghaire, which is an hour and a half on the jet boat from Holyhead, which is about an hour and a half drive from Criccieth, which is about six hours on the train from Oxford. A long way to go for a weekend.

( Corking )

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Entries tagged with holidays

Let us clink and drink one down

Got lions and tigers, only in Kenya

Here we come, the modern-day buccaneers

I've been living for tomorrows all my life

Hey there, Mr Blue Sky

Skiing down a slope or two, miles and miles away from you

How we laughed once, how we sang, and how we raised the rafters

I love it when you tell me how your day's gone

Another opening, another show

I'm warming my back against the heat of a bonfire

I'll do graffiti if you'll sing to me in French

If she likes the black stuff, I like the black stuff too

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December 2025

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