Roamin to Rome with Roman

Breed Specific Legislation? What An Absolute Crock Of Shit!

2010-03-02T16:37:00.002+01:00

Well last week was a bit of a shit week for me if I am honest. Not much really happened in the early part of the week as I readjusted after the weekend’s exploits – the normal cycle of work, walking Roman and watching episodes of The Wire whilst playing Football Manager. Then, on Wednesday, I woke up feeling positively awful – the bloody flu, again! In England I never got ill very often at all but already since I have been here in Germany I have had the flu twice. I think it is probably down to the extreme weather we have been experiencing here of late. In England we might get a week of sub zero temperatures but here it has been like that for about 2 months solid. I guess my body is not quite used to it and, coupled with a little too much drinking and a little too little sleep, I guess something had to give.

As a result I only worked for a short period of time on Wednesday – I had some important work I had to do so knew I had to go in and it also meant I could collect my work laptop so that I could provide support from home if needed. By midday I was on my way back home feeling pretty rotten but at least I could just lounge about on the sofa! The attitudes to illness in Germany seem to be a lot better than in England – in England you have to pretty much be dying for your boss to allow you to have a day off and, even then, if you have more than a few in a short period of time they usually bang on about verbal warnings over attendance. Over here it is totally different; each time I have been ill they have insisted that I go home and have told me not to come in for the rest of the week. I guess it is a more sensible approach really as it protects the rest of the workforce and it certainly helps with staff morale – it’s nice to not have to worry what might happen if you have to take some time off for illness.

I didn’t go to work on Thursday or Friday either and, apart from a telephone conference call and another couple of phone calls, I didn’t really have to do much whilst I was at home. Instead I spent my spare time watching the rest of The Wire and playing Football Manager. I hardly ventured out of the house at all, in fact the only times I went out were when I needed to walk Roman. Roman behaved really well for me too; I think he knew I was ill so he walked right by my side even though I wasn’t walking very quickly and he didn’t pull me or mess me about once. It’s mad how dogs can pick up on things like that and change their behaviour accordingly; dogs are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for!

On Saturday I was expecting my new internet connection to be activated and waited in for a technician to come and activate the line. Well, he didn’t come and I still don’t have a new internet connection. I rang o2 to find out what was happening on Saturday afternoon and they said sometimes they don’t need to come to the house so my connection might come up in the next 24 hours. By Sunday evening it was still not on so I called them back again to enquire as to what was happening but there was nobody available who spoke English. They called me back yesterday morning to arrange a new appointment for next Monday; apparently the technicians don’t attend at weekends so why they booked a weekend slot I have no idea!

It’s a bit of a pain in the arse that I didn’t get connected over the weekend for a couple of reasons. Now I have to take a day’s holiday just to sit in and wait for them to come out next Monday and it’s not like I can actually do anything with the day (unless they turn up at 8am of course but I am sure I am not that lucky!). The thing that bothered me the most, though, was that I was looking forward to being able to call a few people in England for a chat. As part of the deal I got I get a shit hot connection to the internet with unlimited downloads but they also provide the phone line so I managed to get unlimited calls to the UK for 4€ per month (landlines only).

I was looking forward to hearing people’s voices again after so long – MSN and Facebook chat are good but it’s not the same as actually speaking with people. Hopefully the technician will come out though next Monday and I will be all set to spend the next three weeks on the phone with people catching up! It’s funny because when I was in the UK I used to hate phones and rarely had longer conversations than a couple of minutes but I think being so far away from people I grew up with has made me think about things slightly differently. I wouldn’t say I was home sick or anything but I do miss being able to just call people up for a chat. I never thought I would be saying that twelve months ago!

At the weekend I didn’t really get up to much other than walking Roman up to the pub in Kirschhausen to watch the football. I didn’t feel 100% well but I thought it would be nice for him to have a decent walk after the last few days of last week. I can’t wait for the evenings to stay light until late as I will be able to take him to the fields each evening and let him run. I can tell at the moment that he just wants to run – I could walk him 20 miles and I swear he would still be the same. There is nothing quite like running for a big powerful dog like Roman and I can’t wait to be able to let him run. He just seems so restless at the moment and has quite obviously got a lot of excess energy that he needs to burn off.

At home things have taken a little bit of a turn for the worse. The lady who I rent the apartment off also has a dog and I was looking forward to Roman making a new friend when I first arranged to bring him here. It transpires, though, that my landlady’s dog is a bloody psycho intent on winding Roman up. I am really not happy about it at the moment and am actually seriously considering looking for a new place to live. At first I thought it was just a natural reaction for her to be a little defensive with a new dog being introduced into her “territory” and I was convinced that things would improve over time as they saw each other more and more but it has been the exact opposite.

From around 8am until around 6pm my landlady leaves her dog outside and I think she has actually given up on trying to train her. The dog is left there all day free to bark at anyone who walks past and, although a lot of dogs do this, the owner would normally try to correct this type of behaviour. This is not the case where I live and none of the bad behaviour that this dog exhibits is ever corrected and, as a result, the dog thinks that what it is doing is correct. A couple of weeks ago there were some heating workmen who needed access to my apartment whilst I was out at work so I agreed to put Roman in my landlady’s garage for a few hours. As I was walking him through the garden with my landlady her dog was jumping up at Roman trying to bite him, baring her teeth and barking quite aggressively.

It was clear that there was a problem but my landlady’s reaction was merely to sigh and apologise to me. I would much rather she didn’t apologise to me but rather deal with the dog’s behaviour. Luckily for me, and for her and her dog for that matter, Roman is a pretty well behaved chap and he has a very good nature. As a result I have been able to control him whenever these things have happened and he has responded very well to my commands. It actually frightens me, though, that one day he might simply have enough of this rogue dog constantly snapping at his face and behaving aggressively towards him and we all know what the outcome of that would be.

It is a really difficult situation to be in really as I don’t want to complain to her as she might just tell me to sling my hook; after all, it is her property and her dog was there first regardless of how it behaves. At the same time, though, I know I can’t just leave the situation to continue as it will undoubtedly just get worse and worse until the point when something serious happens. I actually feel sorry for her dog as it has quite clearly been let down, and badly. It is really infuriating and unnerving but I try my best not to get annoyed at her dog as I know it is not really her fault but her owner’s. I think the best thing for everyone will be for me to find somewhere else to live but I am sure this is not going to be easy with Roman.

This situation also makes a bit of a mockery of Germany’s laws on owning dogs with regards to character tests, taxation, insurance policies and permits. Roman, who to everyone he has ever met, is quite clearly a very well mannered, albeit very enthusiastic, dog and has a very good character yet he is subjected to ridiculous scrutiny and extortionate taxation. On the other hand you have my landlady’s dog that quite clearly has problems yet never has to be subjected to the same treatment. Breed specific legislation? What an absolute crock of shit! It’s the owners that are the problem and I think that my current situation highlights this quite well.

I'm Gonna Drink One More Than You.....

2010-02-22T16:08:00.002+01:00

Well it has been another busy fortnight hence me not updating my blog for so long. With working full time, walking Roman so much and general constant partying it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to spend to update so I must apologise to anyone who is reading and hoping for more regular updates. These last two weeks, especially, have been full of parties including a big carnival called Fasching and a pretty much all weekend session in Hamburg.

Two weekends ago it was Fasching here in Germany and this generally means that everyone takes extra days off work around the weekend to dress up like idiots and get completely and utterly wasted. I didn’t dress up as I don’t really have any costumes to wear but I did adhere to the second rule quite spectacularly! On the Saturday I headed up to the pub as usual with Roman to watch the football before taking him home for his tea. Once Roman was sorted I had to walk back to Kirschhausen (I did some walking that day!) to meet up with all of my friends and head to the restaurant in the village for a crazy night of partying.

There were some really cool outfits on display and I managed to get a few of my friends to let me try on some of their props so there are now some really stupid photos of me on there for you all to laugh at in the Deutschland album. The partying went on pretty much all the night and I headed off home at about 3am as I was offered a lift and thought that was a better prospect than having to walk home! Once home, as I often do, I took Roman for a 3km walk as I hate leaving him for so long and him not being able to go out to the toilet. Yes, I am selfish for going out and leaving him whilst I party but at least I have the decency to walk him when I get back – even if it is sideways!

I finally got to bed sometime around 4am but wasn’t there for that long as the Sunday would be the main day of partying over the whole weekend. I got up at around 10am and arranged to meet Steffen and the others at around lunchtime in Heppenheim. I decided to take Roman for a walk before I went out so that he didn’t go crazy and then joined the others for the drinking to commence. To be fair, I still felt a little drunk from the night before after having drunk countless shots of spirits – don’t ask me what they were as I have no idea! – so I decided to pace myself a little in the first half of the day. The parade that came through the town was quite fun and they chucked loads of free treats into the crowd. At one point they even fired beer out of a hose over everybody and I got soaked – if I had known I would have opened my mouth to try and catch some!

After the parade had finished we all went to a couple of bars but everywhere was so busy so I decided to head home for a couple of hours so that I could have something to eat and freshen up. I also wanted to give Roman another decent walk so he didn’t feel like he had been abandoned. I do feel guilty for leaving him at times but if I walk him plenty I suppose its ok, right? I think I am lucky to be fair though as he is such an easy dog to own in that respect. When I am not walking him he pretty much sleeps constantly. Sometimes I think he has the perfect life – no stress, plenty of exercise, no job, free food and copious amounts of sleep. Sounds like bliss doesn’t it?

I headed out to meet up with Steffen and Nathalie just before 8pm and they were already in Apfelbaum so I went straight there. It was really busy there, as expected, and I had to queue up for about ten minutes to get in. By 9pm Steffen was pretty much ready to go home as he had not paced himself at all throughout the day and was completely and utterly smashed! He bought 10 glasses of cola apfelwein (you get it cheaper like that) and by the time he had drunk one Nathalie had drunk two and I had finished the rest off! We decided to get some food in the restaurant upstairs and that proved to be a pretty amusing experience.

When we got up to the restaurant it was pretty full and there was nowhere really for us to sit. Steffen decided to sit down with a table of girls whilst myself and Nathalie managed to get a couple of seats by the bar. We ordered our food and then proceeded to laugh at Steffen’s drunkenness. He had one of the girls sat on his lap, although he didn’t know them as far as I could see, and was singing Frankfurt football songs quite loudly – not exactly what you want if you are sitting down to eat! The food came for me and Nathalie and Steffen hadn’t even ordered his. He was trying to get us to go and sit down by a table but there wasn’t enough space there as there was already a couple sat eating. He decided to sit down with them anyway and started singing his football songs again!

I found the whole thing quite amusing and there were a couple of lads by the bar who were also laughing but the staff there didn’t seem to happy and I can’t even imagine what the poor couple who he had plonked himself down by were thinking – all I can say is that I hope they weren’t trying to eat in a romantic atmosphere as it would have been completely spoilt! Steffen eventually came back to the bar and ordered himself a pizza – it’s probably worth mentioning that before we had headed into the restaurant Steffen had just been to the toilets to be sick as he was so drunk. Whilst he was waiting for his pizza he decided to have a little sleep on the bar, much to the annoyance of the staff.

When his pizza did eventually come he managed to eat one slice before falling asleep on the bar again and I had to finish it off for him as he said he wanted to be sick again. After falling asleep again he finally realized that he had had far too much to drink and said that he was going to go home. Steffen is a top lad, I would say my best mate here in Germany by a long way, but he can be hard work when he is so drunk! At least he helps to provide an atmosphere though – much better than standing by a speaker looking at your feet!

Once he had gone my drinking session started and boy did I do a good job! After another round of cola apfelweins I decided to start on the Jack Daniels and tequila. Anyone who goes drinking with me knows what I am like on spirits – especially tequila and sambuca – but I really did myself proud that night. By the time I left at about 5am I had spent over 150€ on alcohol and was a little bit tipsy to say the least. I lost count of the number of drinks I had but in the three separate bars about five or six of the staff knew exactly what I was drinking every time I headed back to the bar so I must have had a lot!

Once more I walked Roman when I got home although I don’t really remember doing it but my Facebook status update told me I did and there was a 30 minute gap in activity – it normally takes me about 25 minutes to walk him so this seemed feasible! I was very glad that I had decided to book the Monday off work as, when I woke up, I felt a little delicate. It’s times like these that owning a Rottweiler really becomes difficult – if I had a small dog then a two minute walk around the block at a gentle pace would be quite enough but Roman needs about an hour a day at a quick pace so it makes it really hard when you have a major hangover. Still, that’s the responsibility I took on when I got him so it’s just something I have to do.

The rest of the week was pretty much just all work as I didn’t really go out through the week. It took me until Wednesday to really recover from the exploits of that weekend and before I knew it the week was over and another weekend was upon me. On Friday I finished at 1pm and Steffen picked me up from work so we could pop to the bookies and put a couple of bets on. I decided to stay home after that though as another friend, Leonard, had called me on the Thursday night to say he had a spare ticket for the Hamburg – Frankfurt game for the Saturday if I was interested in going. Hamburg is about 600km away from Heppenheim so we had to be picked up by a coach at 6.15am on Saturday so I wanted to get as early a night as possible.

The Saturday this weekend was all sorts of crazy and was something that I don’t think I could do every weekend – even if I am not far off that anyway at the moment! Steffen had kindly agreed to look after Roman for me whilst I was in Hamburg so, after feeding and walking him at 5.30am, I headed off to meet up with the coach. By 6.22am I was already drinking cola apfelwein and by 10am both myself and Leonard had already put seven or eight cans away. We stopped at a motorway service station to get a bite to eat so I bought a small bottle of Jägermeister to spice things up a little. By the time we got to the stadium in Hamburg just before 3pm I think a fair few of us were quite drunk!

On the journey they were playing all kinds of crap music – Germans seem to love crap music! – so I managed to get them to hook my iPod up to the stereo so I could give them a lesson in the merits of Dizzee Rascal. It went down quite well and there was certainly a bit of a party taking place on the back of the coach! I got on really well with everybody on the coach and I think I have made a fair few more friends this weekend. I am not sure when I will be able to go to an away game again – it’s not fair to ask other people to look after Roman too often and I would feel bad on him too – but I think it will certainly be another enjoyable experience.

The game itself wasn’t exactly the most exciting as the two teams played out a 0-0 draw but this was a good result for Frankfurt as Hamburg are flying high in the league and are in the top 4. I wasn’t really too impressed with Hamburg as they didn’t create many chances and Frankfurt looked to be the better side if anything. During the game we goaded a few of the home fans through the fence which was quite funny as about five or six of them got thrown out for trying to climb over the fence to get to us – idiots! There is only ever going to be one outcome when things like that happen but it was funny to see them behaving like that!

After the game we had to get a bus, then a train then another train to get into St Pauli’s party district. Luckily, the St Pauli firm had agreed to let Frankfurt have their pub and they had ordered in a load of apfelwein to keep the party going. We partied in there until almost 1am before we had to head back to the coach to go home. Leonard was completely smashed and turned down all my offers of tequila, apart from when we found a 99 cent bar, and he was sick when we were walking back to the coach. The youth of today, they just can’t keep up! We managed to find the coach – don’t ask me how! – and had about ten minutes to spare before we had to leave.

The journey home took about 9 hours and I managed to sleep from about 2am until about 6am before we started drinking again. More apfelwein flowed and Leonard cracked out his bottle of Vodka schnapps – I don’t know why but I was the only one who seemed prepared to drink it! By the time we got back to Heppenheim just after 9am I was pretty drunk again and also pretty tired but I had a massive craving for a McDonald’s breakfast – I haven’t had one in months and there’s nothing like a crazed drinking session to make you want crap food! After we had eaten some breakfast – I had a sausage and egg muffin meal and a bacon and egg muffin (bacon ones are crap but I hadn’t had one for years so thought I would remind myself what they were like) – we all went our separate ways home.

I arrived home at 10am and was yet again greeted by a very happy Roman. I decided to not even sit down after feeding him and instead put his lead on him so that I could take him for a walk. It was bloody hard work although Roman was really good and walked right by my side all the way without really needing to be told. I think he picks up on my general wellbeing quite well as he never seems to give me problems when I am a little worse for wear! It was no fun picking his poo up yesterday morning either but that’s another one of the responsibilities you must take on when owning a dog!

Once I was home I decided to have a bit of a mong day and put The Wire on using my iMac. I managed to watch three episodes before falling asleep for a few hours until 6pm. Once I woke up I fed Roman again and took him for another walk before deciding to cook myself some tea to help my stomach to not feel so empty! I managed to eat a full meal then a yoghurt and then a bowl of cereal too. After that I couldn’t really be bothered cooking again so I left it at that. I watched another five or six episodes of The Wire before deciding to go to bed at around 2am. I had to be in work this morning and had already decided I wouldn’t start until about 10am so I didn’t get up until about 9am today. It was harder work than normal…..

I Ordered A Guitar This Week

2010-02-08T16:55:00.000+01:00

Well I failed miserably this weekend at the not smoking thing – yes, Saturday night saw me smoking again although I have not smoked since. I am a little disappointed to be honest and this was partly the reason I wanted to not drink for a month but I couldn’t really say no to a friend’s birthday party! Next week there is a big carnival type party going on in Heppenheim but I am hoping that I will be able to get through next weekend a little better. Still, it is not a bad effort so far – if you ignore Saturday night’s indiscretion then I have now gone a full two weeks. It is important than I somehow manage to break through the barrier when drinking though as if I smoke every time I drink then I will never ever fully quit.

Last week was a little boring to be honest and not a lot really happened as I had locked myself away in an effort to avoid cigarettes as much as possible. The evenings were all spent at home with Roman and, apart from our walks, I never went out at all really. On Friday I finished at 1pm again as I had worked longer hours in the week and I had a few things to do on Friday. Steffen came to the MediaMarkt with me next to where I work so that I could try and get an internet deal sorted. I have the dongle from work but sometimes it can be a little slow.

I managed to find a pretty good deal with a fast connection. For 30€ a month I will get the internet connection, phone line connection, free calls to landlines, free calls to o2 mobile phones and I can cancel at any time by giving one month’s notice. I was also delighted to see that there was a bolt on for unlimited international calls to certain countries for just 4€ per month so I have asked them to put that on too. When you compare the price I got to the original conversion rate between pounds and Euros it works out to be about 20 quid a month for the lot so it is pretty cheap really. I think it will be a week or two before I am connected with them so I will have to stick to using the dongle for the mean time.

On Friday evening I was invited to the pub again to watch the football but I decided not to go again. It is nice to just relax on a Friday evening after the week at work. On Saturday, as always, I took Roman up to the pub to watch all the football and then we jogged home afterwards so that I could get ready to go to Domi’s birthday party. I only had about an hour to spare but that was enough time to get showered, shaved and iron some clothes to wear for the night. It turned out in the end that Domi’s party was a fancy dress party – I think Steffen had told me ages ago but I hadn’t remembered and nobody had mentioned it since. Luckily I wasn’t the only one there who was not in fancy dress so it wasn’t too bad.

I met Domi’s girlfriend for the first time on Saturday – I said to him at the time that I had been in Germany for 3 months now and was only just meeting his girlfriend now! I had never really thought about it before but he has a pretty decent social life really as he is constantly out with all the lads and he never brings his girlfriend. I guess they prefer to spend time together away from everyone else. I am not sure whether this is the norm here in Germany but most of my friends here seem to be single so there is not really a lot for me to compare them to!

Steffen rang the dog training place for me on Friday to see if there was any way I could get in there with Roman and hopefully save on some of the fees but they seemed to want him to have had his character test and suchlike done before we go to the club! It looks like I may well have to pay the full whack to keep Roman here but I am hoping to get around the permit issue as this is only in place for dogs born after the law came into place. Roman was born before but I am not sure whether there are different rules for imported dogs. I am hoping to speak with the relevant people sometime this week, probably Friday, so that I can get it sorted once and for all. I just hope it doesn’t cost me as much as I think it is going to cost!

I will also be looking for cheap flights back to the UK for April this week as I want to come back for a few days to see everyone. It looks like it will be the end of April at the moment but there are a couple of bank holidays at the start of April which would give me the same amount of time in the UK but with fewer holidays taken. I have a feeling I won’t be able to do it then but I will have to speak with Steffen first to see when he is available to look after Roman – yes, he agreed to look after him while I come back to the UK! I have fallen lucky with the friends I have made here I think.

I finally ordered a guitar last week too! It turns out that I can order things off the internet but things work a little differently here if you don’t have a debit or credit card. I had to select the pre payment option and then take the bank account details of the company with me to the bank and make a payment to them using the cash machines! It is a bit of a pain that I can’t simply make the payment online but at least now I know I can order things off the internet.

I am really looking forward to having a guitar again and can’t wait to get practising! Hopefully it might have arrived today but it is more likely I will get it tomorrow or the day after. It would probably be better if it arrived either tomorrow or Wednesday though as I need to do some cleaning tonight and if the guitar had arrived then I wouldn’t want to do it! I could also do with an early night tonight as I only got about 6 hours sleep again last night. Weekends are so bad for me…

A Quiet Weekend, For A Change

2010-02-01T13:34:00.000+01:00

Well, I will start off with the good news today – it has been a whole week and I still have not touched a cigarette! It has actually been a lot easier than I had expected it to be but I think the decision that I made to steer clear of alcohol for a while has certainly had a big influence. Although I have had several urges and cravings for cigarettes whilst in the vicinity of people smoking I have been much better equipped to deal with it this time as I have been completely in control of myself mentally and have therefore not dropped my guard at any time. I must admit though that I have probably not been as good conversation as usual at times!

Thursday night was indeed a later finish than usual so, as predicted, I could not make it to training again. I must admit I am a little frustrated to have not been to training in almost two weeks and there is a chance that I might not train tomorrow – I was told today that there is a really bad weather front coming again from Siberia and the snow will be at its worst since a really bad storm back in 1978! If this is the case then I think it would be very difficult for me to make it to training, if it is even on. Before Christmas I could just get a lift but now that Roman is here I have to take him into consideration. If the weather is as bad as predicted then it would take me forever to walk to Kirschhausen and then the same to get back!

This weekend has been a pretty quiet one for me really due to my decision to not drink. I am going to try not to drink through the whole of February as I think that it will really help me to quit smoking once and for all. I was invited up to the pub on Friday night to watch Hamburg play against Wolfsburg, which finished 1-1 incidentally. I decided to say no as the match didn’t kick off until 8.30pm which would have meant that I would have been walking home with Roman at about 10.30pm. I have to walk through some very dark stretches of road to get home and, given the icy conditions, I prefer not to be out too late – it can be treacherous enough when I can see where I am going!

I finished work pretty early on Friday at about 1.30pm and, as promised, I went home to collect Roman and walked him back to where I work so some of my colleagues could meet him. I think they all liked him although a couple of people were obviously a little intimidated by his size! Roman loves the attention though and, once more, behaved really well for the new crowd. We stuck around for about 10 minutes before heading off back home and I think Roman was pleased with his unexpected 5km mid afternoon walk.

I used the majority of my Friday evening in to catch up on some Football Manager. I have been so busy since I have been back in Germany that I had hardly touched the game since I got back – not like me at all! It was a nice quiet evening really although I spent the majority of it, strangely, craving a cigarette. I have no idea where it came from but I couldn’t shift it from my mind all night! My dad has a theory about associations – when you finish a meal, when you take the dog for a walk and other times you would typically smoke. He reckons the key is to alter the routine slightly so that you no longer have the association. Easier said than done! Still, I didn’t give in so another small battle in the mental war was won!

Saturday was the first real test for me with regards to giving up smoking. I had spent the majority of the week either working, walking Roman or locked away at home. As a result I had come into very little contact with cigarettes. On Saturday, as we do every weekend now, we went to the pub to watch the football for the afternoon. It was my first chance to test my resolve around people who would be smoking. I have to say, it was pretty difficult and I felt pretty tense for the whole of the time we were there. I was originally going to stay for the evening match but decided that I would go home so that I could get away from the smoke as I didn’t feel like I was very good company – I hardly said a word all afternoon as I battled away with my own mind!

To take my mind off it on Saturday evening I decided to cook a massive Bolognese. It is said that keeping your hands busy is very important when giving up smoking so the preparation and cooking certainly helped to pass a little time. I cooked loads so I had some left over for yesterday too – I always do this as it makes it so much simpler for the following day! I am going to try and get hold of some plastic tubs this week so that I can cook huge pans full and then freeze portions separately to make life easier. It would also help on days when I have football training as I would be able to have a proper meal for lunch as I don’t normally get to eat until about 10pm when I train.

I took a few photos on my way back from the pub using my camera phone so that I could upload them to Facebook so there are now some more shots of Heppenheim and Kirschhausen covered in snow. It is such a pretty place, especially in the snow. As we were watching the football it had begun to snow and by the time we left the pub there had been another few inches of snow fall. It seems like there will be no end to the snow this winter here in Germany and I for one am making the most of it and really enjoying it. I have been assured it’s not always like this so I guess I have fallen pretty lucky in my first winter here!

I also had some fun with Roman as we walked back making snow balls and throwing them in the air for him to catch. I am sure the motorists passing by thought I was crazy! It must have taken almost an hour to get home on Saturday when it usually only takes 35 minutes! Roman really enjoyed himself and was very excited; he almost pulled me over a few times when I was throwing snow balls – if only we could have been in a field so that I could have let him off the lead! I reckon he would have a brilliant time in the snow if he could run around but I just don’t know any fields where I can take him and let him off.

I now have an even bigger urge to buy a guitar and am determined to sort something out this week. I think the nearest place to buy one is in the next town but I can only get there if I catch a train or if one of my friends drives me there. I have managed to find a website though where I can get an acoustic cheap enough so I will ask one of my friends to order it for me and I will pay them. It is a pain in the arse not having a card that I can pay for things on the internet with and I will have to get that sorted out at some point in the future.

One of my Facebook friends has recently acquired a guitar so a lot of their statuses this weekend have been about that. I have been sending a few links to her of guitar tutorials on YouTube for songs I reckon she would like (and she has so far) and she has sent me a couple back. Even though we only communicate through text over the internet I can tell how excited she is to be learning to play and it has made me want to get back into it even more. I reckon that it could really help me to avoid cigarettes too as my fingers will be constantly busy if I take it up again!

Yesterday we spent the majority of the afternoon in the pub again as there were two matches that I wanted to watch. The first, at 3.30pm, was Stuttgart against Dortmund. Dortmund have been excellent this season and Stuttgart recently sacked Markus Babbel after an awful start to the season. I said as soon as he was sacked that they would immediately go on a good run and they have; they followed it up yesterday with a 4-1 victory. The 5.30pm kick off was Leverkusen against Freiburg. Leverkusen have looked really good this season and currently sit at the top of the Bundesliga whilst Freiburg have really been struggling and look like they could well go down. Leverkusen won 3-1 and Hyypia managed to bag a goal!

Yesterday evening was a pretty quiet one really. I was going to play a bit more Football Manager but decided to watch a film instead. I watched This Is England and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had seen it before but only once and I always find that a second viewing of a film, especially one like this, often makes you think about things a little more deeply. The first time I saw it I felt that it all seemed a little awkward in terms of the acting but this time I enjoyed it more. It’s a very powerful film really and bears a lot of relevance to current events in England I think.

I had a bit of a lie in this morning and didn’t start work until about 10am so I will be working until at least 6pm this evening. If I can do enough hours each week from Monday to Thursday then it means I can have an early finish on a Friday and have more of a weekend with Roman so that is what I am trying to do. It also makes it easier to do things as the shops are all shut on a Sunday here so I only have Saturday to sort stuff out if I work all day on a Friday. Hopefully I will be able to get up at 6am for the rest of this week so that I don’t have to work later.

More Snow and Quitting Smoking Again

2010-01-28T12:34:00.000+01:00

This week has been much busier for me at work and I have not made it out before 6pm all week. I have still been having problems getting out of bed in the morning but this is more due to the fact that I am still struggling to sleep at night more than anything. Things are getting better, slowly, but it might be a while yet before I am into a really good routine. I actually managed to get up fairly early this morning and was in work for 8am but then I had a conference call with my boss and some other people so it was pretty important I was here for that! It just goes to show though that I can do it when I put my mind to it!

Having said that, I went to bed much earlier than normal last night and I was in bed shortly after 10pm. I felt tired before I went to bed but then felt awake again within five minutes! Luckily it didn’t take me too long to get to sleep and I think I must have been asleep by about 11pm. I have decided that I am not going out on the lash this weekend so I will be trying my best to be consistent in the times I am going to bed and getting up over the weekend. Hopefully by doing this it will make it easier for me next week and will help to establish a proper routine.

When I woke up this morning I was greeted by quite a lot of snow outside – it had snowed at the start of the week but it snowed again quite a bit overnight. As I was up so early when I took Roman for his morning walk most people had not been out to clear the paths so it was all snow where we were walking. It was nice to not have to worry about whether I would slip over or not and there is nothing quite so satisfying as the crunching of fresh snow underfoot! Roman seemed to enjoy it too and it seems to be so much better for his paw than normal.

I have not managed to get to football training this week as I have had to work late and I have a feeling that I am not going to make it tonight either. It’s a little frustrating to be honest but this is the nature of the work I do. One week I will have pretty much nothing to do yet the following week it will seem to be never ending! I think there is a training session or a match on Sunday morning though so I will definitely be there. I think I will walk Roman up to Kirschhausen for that so that he gets plenty of exercise over the weekend. He really gets spoilt for exercise on the weekends with our visits to the pub!

One of my work colleagues is trying to help me out at the moment in finding a way to pay less fees for Roman to be here. Apparently the colleague who originally called to enquire had spoken to someone in office here and they were given all of the official fees. I sit next to someone in work who has a Rhodesian ridgeback and her parents owned Rottweilers in the past so she has been trying to get some information for me. It turns out that there is a clause in the law about the permits that discounts dogs born before the legislation came in (January 2008) and Roman was born before this. Hopefully this will mean that I don’t have to have a permit, which would save me €275, but because he has been imported I might not be able to get around it.

Also, the character test might not be needed if I sign up for a dog club. At the dog clubs they meet weekly for dog training sessions and, after a period of time, the dogs are entered into an obedience contest. After this contest you are awarded a certificate depending on the number of points you score. As a part of the dog club membership (which I think is as little as €40 per year) I think you get the character test built in as such so that might also save me a lot of money. Fingers crossed on that one too but I guess I will find out for definite on these things once I find a dog club.

I stopped smoking again on Monday (my last cigarette was at about midday) and I have just passed the 72 hour mark. I am feeling a little more confident about it this time for a number of reasons. Having discovered I may have to pay extortionate amounts to keep Roman here I am aware that I might not have much disposable income so have a financial incentive. Also, I can’t afford to go and get wasted every weekend so I have decided to stick to coffee or cola when I go to the pub. Hopefully by not drinking alcohol I will not drop my guard as it is so easy to do after a few pints.

I have not really noticed any massive cravings so far but I have noticed from time to time that my jaw is extremely tightly shut – feel the tension!
I have also been thinking about coming back to England sometime in April and have managed to find flights from as little as €40 each way from Frankfurt to Manchester. As I will also need money to pay for that I have even more incentive not to smoke.

I would also like to go back to Rome either in July or August, more likely July though, so I will also need to be saving for that. I think if I can have enough incentives then maybe quitting smoking will be easier. When I have tried in the past I have not been able to see anything at the end of the tunnel, these things give me a tangible reason to quit

The Snow Is Back!

2010-01-25T11:19:00.000+01:00

The snow is back here in Germany and I think Roman is delighted – he loves the snow! I woke up this morning to find a layer of about two inches of snow covering my garden. It’s quite surprising how well it has stuck as it had only been light snow throughout the night but it is much drier here in general than in England so maybe that is why. I am always a little tentative when walking Roman when there has been fresh snowfall as he is so strong and the slightest pull from him at the wrong time could well result in me going over and looking like a complete tool! I’m glad to say that this morning we had no such problems.

A work colleague had told me last week that the snow was on its way back but it just didn’t look likely until yesterday. I woke up pretty late (again), awoken by my new friend, Leonard, calling to ask if I wanted a lift to the pub because of the weather. I said no as I wanted to walk there with Roman so that he had plenty of exercise. We have been to the pub twice again this weekend and, each time we go, I am more and more impressed with him. He is such a friendly dog and I think most people have been surprised at how good natured he is. I hope that people who have a bad view of the breed alter their way of thinking after meeting Roman. I am sure that they do – he has an infectious enthusiasm that even the most stubborn, hard-faced person would struggle to discount.

Football training started again this week after the winter break so I walked Roman to Kirschhausen on Tuesday evening after work. It’s about three and a half kilometres to where we train so he had plenty of exercise that night. I had to tie him to a post next to the pitch whilst we trained and he was pretty funny. He barked a lot as we were running around the pitch. I think that he thought that I was going to leave him there! Hopefully, the more times we go the calmer he will become. All of the lads at football seemed to love him too which was good.

Football training was a little difficult after so many weeks of indulgence but I managed to get through the session alright. We ran for about 90 minutes so we must have done a fair amount of miles. I would guess that we had run close to 10 miles but it’s hard to say. After we had finished jogging we had a match for about 30 minutes. Roman went a bit barmy once the footballs came out – I always used to play football with him in England so I think he wanted to join in! Once football had finished we then had to walk the three and a half kilometres home.

By the time we got home I felt pretty knackered but it was hardly surprising really – I must have covered about 20 miles on Tuesday when you take into account the 2 and a half kilometre walk I have to work and back each day plus Roman’s morning walk of about 2 kilometres. When I woke up on Wednesday morning I was aching quite a bit and the walk to work was slightly less pleasant than normal! Still, no pain no gain as the saying goes. I should have had another training session on Thursday evening but I couldn’t make it due to work commitments.

Work has been pretty good since I got back and I have now been given some projects to work on which definitely helps me. It has been difficult to integrate properly here as I feel a little awkward approaching people at times. There is no employee map, if you like, so I am not sure what jobs everyone does and, furthermore, I am not sure who speaks English and who doesn’t which only serves to compact the difficulty. I feel that now I am being involved a bit more than I was before Christmas and it is looking extremely likely that I will be offered a more permanent contract soon.

I had to give a presentation to some of the senior management last week on a major project that I wanted to implement here and that seemed to go really well. Everyone was really impressed with the way that I spoke and the ideas that I had. I was quite nervous before it but once I got started it was pretty straightforward. The funny thing is that I never prepared in any way for it; I merely relied on what I knew and my natural charm! I have not really done this type of thing before but I found it much easier than I thought I would.

This week a lot of my friends here went to Mallorca for a few days from Thursday until Saturday so Friday was a pretty quiet affair. One of my friends, Guido, called me to ask if I wanted to meet him in the pub to watch the Freiburg – Stuttgart match but I had to decline. Roman’s paw has gone a little bad again so I wanted to take it easy with him for a few days. I can’t work out why it keeps happening but I have a feeling that the shape of his pads may mean that they rub against each other when he walks. I had a look to compare his paws and one definitely seems to have more of a protruding pad so maybe this is the reason. It may be that longer walks will always cause this to happen but I will keep my eye on it.

On Saturday I decided to take Roman up to the pub so that I could watch the football with my friends. Again he behaved impeccably whilst there and again he got absolutely spoilt with biscuits. I think it is fast becoming one of his favourite places to go! We were back there again yesterday evening to watch the Hoffenheim – Leverkusen match and there were a few funny occurrences! Mariana, the landlady, said that I didn’t have to make him lie down all the time and he could walk around freely. It’s nice to find such accepting people. Roman was in his element then constantly going between people for treats and strokes.

Mariana let him into the pool room for a few minutes so that he could have a sniff around and I made a joke saying that I hoped nobody came into the pub through that entrance. Yes, you guessed it, two minutes later somebody did in fact come in that way! I think the guy got a bit of a shock to be greeted by a 60kg Rottweiler on the loose but, once again, Roman was superb. He was excited to have a new friend and greeted him with the same enthusiasm he seems to show everybody! He followed the guy back into the main bar and, once again, resumed going up to everyone for strokes.

After the match had finished we had to walk all the way home again and it was still snowing and starting to stick a little. By the time we got home I was feeling a little tired so decided to run a nice hot bath and get something to eat before thinking about bed. I have been struggling to sleep recently and I think a lot of it is down to the exploits of the weekends. I was reading something on the internet that had loads of suggestions of how to make it easier to sleep so have been trying a few methods out. I went through the list of suggestions and found that I only do five of the things that it recommends but out of the other seven I think there are six that I can put into practice.

Saturday night was a bit of a crazy night, especially given the fact that I wanted to have a relatively quiet weekend! It was a friend’s birthday last week so he had organized a birthday party in Kirschhausen. The thing I love about birthday parties over here is that they lay on free booze and free food. Socially, it seems to be so much better over here than in England! I ended up drinking until about six in the morning with about six or seven of my friends and then headed home feeling a lot more drunk that I had planned on being!

When I got home I took Roman out for a three kilometre walk – I knew I would be asleep for a while and it is not fair on him to not be exercised and taken out to go to the toilet. I eventually got to bed at about half seven which is definitely not a good move when I am trying to establish a good sleep pattern! Still, I knew that the Saturday would be a wild one even if I had tried to deny it. I have decided that I want to cut down on the drinking and partying a fair bit; it seems a waste to spend all of my spare money like this and I know I could build up a nice pot of savings if I just chilled out a bit.

I had a bit of bad news this week also regarding Roman and the dog tax. I had been hoping to get away with paying about €70 per year but it turns out that this area of Germany classes Rottweilers as dangerous dogs so it becomes much more complex. I got a colleague to call the local authorities to get some information for me and have found out that it will cost me a lot more than that. It will cost me €72 per year for the license which is pretty much what I had expected but I will also need to do a few other things.

I have to apply for a permit for him which could cost as much as €275. Luckily this will last for four years so I will probably not even be in Germany when it comes to renewal time. Furthermore, Roman must also undergo a character test which, depending where I get it from, could cost anywhere between €150 and €300 but this must be approved by an expert here. I am hoping I can get it as cheaply as possible but if it costs me €300 then so be it. I will only have to get this done once but it is still a lot of money. I will also have to take a proficiency exam to demonstrate that I am capable of controlling him but I have been told that this will not cost very much at all.

In total I might have to spend as much as €700 in order for Roman to stay here! I wasn’t expecting the figure to be anywhere near that but if that’s the way it is then so be it. He is worth every penny and more so, whilst it is frustrating that such a friendly dog is subject to all this, I can grudgingly accept it and I guess measures such as these ensure that the rogues of society are less likely to try and keep a dangerous dog. I will also need to get a liability insurance policy for him but I have no idea how much this might cost.

So, given all of this unexpected expense I think that February will definitely be a tight month. If I have to pay out all of this in one go (I am hoping that some of it can be paid for at the end of February but I am not holding my breath) then I will probably have about €300 to live on for the month but I will also need to buy Roman’s food out of that. Even if I wanted to go out and get wasted I am pretty sure that I won’t have the finances to support it so it may be a blessing in disguise really.

Another Mad Weekend

2010-01-18T13:28:00.000+01:00

Another weekend down, another beer fest! I think if I carry on at the rate I have been going during my time so far in Germany then I will end up needing a new liver at some point! On Friday evening Roman and I made our first trip to the Trio pub to watch the FC Bayern / Hoffenheim game. I’m delighted to say that Bayern won (pretty much everyone here hates Hoffenheim as they are a club solely based on finance and have effectively bought promotion from a much lower status). I was a little nervous about taking Roman to the pub to be honest as it is a totally new environment and the pub is normally quite rowdy when the football is on.

To be fair though I could not have been more impressed with him. He tried to run around the pub a couple of times but generally he behaved brilliantly. All of the locals seemed to take to him very quickly and he really enjoyed being the centre of attention. Ringo and Mariana (the owners) took to him very well and gave him several biscuits so he now watches them intently every time they move in the hope that they are going to get him more treats! He was a little excitable when the goals were scored but that has to be expected when a pub full of grown men are jumping around and cheering.

I am glad that it went so well at the pub as it is 3 miles from where I live so means that Roman has plenty of exercise whenever we go there. We went back on Saturday afternoon to watch the Bundesliga matches too - Germany’s equivalent of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports is to flick between all of the games being played so you get to watch all of the matches in part. The crowds always seem to be packed at the games too so it seems that live screening in this way doesn’t have the negative effect on attendances that we seem to expect in England.

On Thursday evening I decided to put a few bets on but altered my strategy slightly. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I had been putting accumulators and trebles on but I was finding that the majority were losing. I was about €40 up at Christmas but there is something disenchanting about losing the majority of your bets even if you are in profit. I decided to start betting on single matches instead but at a slightly higher stake. Previously I was betting €3 or €5 on each accumulator but I decided to up the stake to €10.

I am pleased to say that all 4 of my bets from Thursday evening came in so my €40 outlay earned me just shy of €70. I used the winnings from Thursday and picked seven matches that were being played over the weekend, again laying €10 per match. I managed to pick 4 winners from the 7 so got back what I had laid out so I am currently about €30 in profit for the year. I am thinking that when the pot rises a little more I will focus on one or two games at a time and bet a higher stake, maybe €20 per match. If the pot diminishes then I will return to lower stakes. As long as I am in profit there is no ‘real’ loss so I can afford to be more liberal with the stakes although I will be careful to keep the betting money totally separate from my everyday finances.

I found a really useful thread on a forum where I post that focuses on betting. Some of the members there are extremely good at it and are already into thousands of pounds of profit for the year. Having said that though some of them lay up to 500 quid at a time so I am definitely small fish compared to that! There have been some pretty good tips flying about on there though and 2 of my original bets on Thursday came from these tips.
I made two trips to Apfelbaum again this week but I am thinking that I might start toning it down a little. I can afford the lifestyle I have quite comfortably – despite liberal spending over the festive period I still have about €500 of last month’s wages left and I get paid in about a week. However, I am not sure that continuing to live like this in the long term will be good and I am sure that there will come a point soon when I stop enjoying the nights out so much – moderation is key! It really doesn’t help when you are trying to adjust your routine so that you are up early every day in the week – I need 2 hours now before work really as I like to walk Roman a couple of miles before I start and by the time I have a shower and some breakfast then walk to work the 2 hours flies by.

On Saturday I headed up to Frankfurt to meet the lads as they had been to watch Frankfurt play. It was an enjoyable evening there and we got the last train back around midnight. The atmosphere around Frankfurt is actually pretty good and there were several decent pubs and bars. We were drinking around Sachsenhausen, an area I had been trying to find with my stepmother and her sister when they came to visit me last year. It seemed that we had been walking down the street that ran parallel to where all the activity was – bloody typical!

There was one bar that wasn’t such a great experience but I didn’t actually know until we had left – it seems that some people in there had been singing Hitler songs but I hadn’t noticed as I didn’t understand what they were singing. It’s a shame that there are still people like that around but this is certainly not reflective of my experiences of Germany as a whole. I have actually been impressed with the attitudes of people here in general. I find that German people tend to be very welcoming, friendly people and this is the first time I have experienced this kind of thing.

Sunday ended up being an extremely lazy day for me – I only ever seem to get about 5 or 6 hours sleep after a night out at Apfelbaum so I am usually pretty tired on Sundays. I didn’t feel ill or hungover but I had a distinct lack of energy all day long. Roman is such a perfect dog at times like this – he immediately knows that I am tired and just sleeps all day long. He didn’t get a walk until just after 5pm so he had been in the apartment for 24 hours without going out. I was pretty knackered last night so he didn’t get his usual pre bedtime walk either but he didn’t seem too bothered by it.

I managed to get up a little earlier today than last week – I got up shortly after 8am – but I want to start getting up at 6am so that I can be in work by 8am every day. If I can get into a good routine then I can work until 5pm Monday to Thursday and then only have to do 5 hours on a Friday so can finish at lunchtime. If I can do things this way then it will mean that I have more time with Roman over the weekend and he can get out and have plenty of exercise – I am sure he would be happy if I could manage to do it!

I should have had my first training session after Christmas with SV Kirschhausen yesterday morning but I didn’t get to sleep until about 7am yesterday so there was never any hope of me making that! There is a training session tomorrow evening at 7pm and another one Thursday so I will definitely be there for them. I think I need to cut out the partying at weekends though so that I am ready for the football each weekend! I am not sure how much fitness I have lost over the festive period but I am confident that I can regain it pretty quickly and I have been thinking about trying to quit smoking again – yes, I failed…….again!

Christmas and New Year

2010-01-14T14:06:00.000+01:00

Well it’s been absolutely ages since I last updated my blog so apologies to all of my readers! I have been so busy over the past five weeks that I have had very little spare time and had just not managed to find any time to update. Things have been going very well for me lately (don’t they always though?) and I am very happy. Life in Germany has been treating me very well and I was lucky enough to be able to go back to the UK for Christmas to see my family and friends.

December was a very busy month socially for me as there seemed to be parties almost every Friday and Saturday night leading up to Christmas. There was another Christmas party at the football club, this time it took place in the changing rooms. It was a really good night and one of the guys had even brought a mini kebab and burgers for everyone to munch on. There was loads of free beer, Jagermeister, Bacardi and Jack Daniels floating about and I ended up pretty drunk by the end of the night. After the football party there was a house party for someone’s birthday that I went to and after that I ended up in the nightclub in Heppenheim until 6am!

There was also a winter party for the sports club as a whole where all of the members were present in the restaurant above the football pitch. I didn’t realise just how many members there were but there are football teams, table tennis teams and volleyball teams. There must have been well over 100 people there and it was a really fun atmosphere. The food in the restaurant was really good and, once more, I ended up a bit drunk! Fortunately, I wasn’t as drunk as Steffen who ended up on stage with the microphone calling me out so that he could “thank me on behalf of everyone for coming to Germany”! It was absolutely hilarious but I reckon it was probably one of those things you had to see.

Before Christmas my German was starting to improve quite a bit and I have been trying to converse more in German with the people I know to try and aid me in picking the language up. I reckon I might have forgotten a fair bit whilst I have been in the UK but once I start talking German again I am sure it will come back quite quickly. I can’t tell you how difficult it is to learn a new language when you have no classes and rely solely on conversation to pick it up. Still, I managed to pick up a fair bit of French and Italian whilst I was on my travels so I know it is only a matter of time until I am able to speak German fairly well.

There was a Christmas market in Kirschhausen too which was good fun. I am not sure many people really bought anything apart from alcohol and food! I am aware that the focus on food and beer seems to be becoming a theme in this blog but, honestly, it seems that a vast part of the culture in this area does in fact focus around these areas – either that or I have made friends with a load of food obsessed alcoholics! After the Christmas market I, yet again, ended up in Apfelbaum (the club here in Heppenheim) and was there until very late.

I came back to the UK on Christmas Eve and was a little worried that I would not be able to make it as Frankfurt airport, where I was flying from, had been shut for a couple of days earlier in the week. Also, Manchester airport, where I was flying to, had been closed around the same time for a day or two. Luckily, everything worked out well and my flight wasn’t even delayed. It would have been disastrous if the flight had been cancelled – I am well aware that I may not make it back to the UK next year for Christmas but I will have had chance to build up a decent network of friends and will hopefully be able to spend Christmas with someone here; I would have felt awkward having Christmas here as my German is not good enough to fully engage with everyone and I have only really known people for a couple of months.

I managed a few nights out whilst I was in the UK, firstly on Christmas Eve. I went out for drinks with my brother, Rich, and our friend, Nath, around Chester. We only stayed out for a few hours but even that was enough to get Nath wasted! Nath has never really been much of a drinker and it’s always a recipe for disaster when he comes out drinking with me as there are always lots of shots floating about! We were home by about 11.30pm and then Rich and I continued drinking Jack Daniels until about 1.30am before I headed home to get some sleep ready for Christmas Day. At one point in the evening we somehow found ourselves in the middle of a dance class of sorts – I found this very amusing and we sat there for about half an hour but I am pretty sure that Nath and Rich felt a bit uncomfortable in the situation!

Christmas, as always, was pretty good to me. I got an Armani chain of my mum and a few other little things, some money from my parents with a few little things and some vouchers for Scotts off my aunt and uncle. I put the vouchers towards a new Henri Lloyd coat that cost 80 quid and the money I got off my parents I put towards an Armani bracelet and some clothes shopping in Liverpool. All in all, I did pretty well and I am made up with the new things I have.

In between Christmas and New Year I went out with some old friends and ended up drinking triple black Sambucas. They were surprisingly easy to drink but, unsurprisingly, they also got me very drunk! I forgot where I was for a while and ended up getting chucked out of a nightclub for smoking – in Germany it is allowed in pubs and nightclubs; I must have been so drunk that I thought I was in Germany! I ended up having an argument with the doormen for about half an hour outside as they wouldn’t let me have my coat (yes, the one I had just paid 80 quid for!) but the police came along and sorted it out for me!

For New Year I met up with an old school friend who I had been playing football with for a while before I went on my travels, Ryan, and also another blast from the past, Kevin. I had told them that I wasn’t staying out late as I had been invited to a house party and I didn’t want to spend loads of money getting into a club and then loads of money on the drinks. We had a few drinks around Chester for a couple of hours around a few different bars before we parted company. They were trying to get me to go back to the nightclub I had been chucked out of but it was 25 quid entry and I didn’t fancy my chances anyway. I got them to agree to go thirds on my entry but, as soon as we got to the door, the doorman informed us that I was banned for life! Funny!

I had decided before I came back to England that I wanted to get a tattoo done before I headed back to Germany. I had had the idea in my mind for about six months but had been trying to work out where to have it done on my body. The tattoo is a philosophical statement from Marcus Aurelius – Nothing happens to any man which he is not fitted by nature to bear – and has been a favourite of mine for quite some time. I ended up getting it done in a fancy font on two lines sideways down my ribs on the right hand side of my body. It only cost me 40 quid so I was pretty made up with that. A lot of people had said that the ribs are really painful for having tattoos done but, personally, I didn’t think it was too bad at all. There were a couple of moments where it hurt a little but, other than that, it was just like anywhere else really.

All in all the festive period was a lot of fun for me and I also had a very interesting start to the New Year. I got to spend quite a bit of time with someone who I like a lot, and I have done for a very long time, and it made returning to Germany a little more difficult than it would have been. Still, I have made the decision to be here now and there is no way I am going back on that. I also plan to move to France, Spain and Italy over the next ten years so there is very little chance of anything substantial happening as I don’t intend to return to the UK on a permanent basis. It’s a shame that the timing was so bad really and, in another life, things could have been so different.

I went out with some family and friends to celebrate mine and Rich’s birthdays (they are 1 day apart with mine on the 5th January and Rich’s on the 6th). We went to the Mill Hotel in Chester – certainly not a place that we would normally go to but I fancied something a little different from the norm. It was actually very nice and, despite them seeming ever so slightly child-unfriendly, the evening went pretty well. There was a live singer on there and she was really good with the kids and helped immeasurably in keeping them entertained.

I have been back in Germany for a few days now and it’s almost like I have never been away. It’s surprising how quickly you get back into the swing of things really. Roman arrived here on Monday but there were some problems along the way. He behaved perfectly throughout – apparently he slept constantly during the journey and never made a sound and only woke up when it was time for him to be fed or walked. The guy who brought him over, Peter, seemed really impressed with him and said his wife had even walked him on the Sunday evening. I am glad that he is so well natured that pretty much anyone can immediately get along with him so well.

Roman was originally meant to be picked up at 10am on Sunday but Peter called on Saturday evening to ask if he could pick him up at about 1am instead as he was driving down from Scotland and he wanted to try and avoid the bad weather that was due to hit the midlands and south east on the Sunday so I ended up waiting up for him. Despite the 9 hour head start Roman didn’t arrive until about 9.30pm on Monday – he was meant to arrive early to mid afternoon so I had stayed at home to wait for him but the roads were so bad coming across Europe in parts that it took a lot longer. It was lucky that he had been picked up early as he probably would not have arrived until Tuesday otherwise and I had to be in work then!

I was a little worried about the flight I was catching back from Manchester as there were hints that there might be heavy snow on the Sunday and I was due to fly out at 6.25pm. Luckily, the worst weather that appeared was light snow showers and everything went pretty well. The flight was about 20 minutes late taking off but, other than that, everything went perfectly. When I arrived in Frankfurt my friend Steffen was waiting at the airport to drive me back to Heppenheim – he really is a top lad. I was also worried about checking in at Manchester as I was only allowed 20kg in the hold – the bag weighed close to 25kg due to all of the shopping I had done whilst over in England! Luckily the girl on the check in counter didn’t seem too bothered and I didn’t have to pay any extra.

Heppenheim has been covered by a blanket of snow most of this week but it seems to be beginning to melt at the moment. Luckily there is a big difference between Germany and England. In England it has been widely reported that if someone grits or clears the path outside and somebody has an accident then that person is liable to be sued – unbelievable! In Germany everybody, and I mean everybody, does this daily. Every morning people are clearing the paths and every evening they grit. As a result it is quite easy to get around here and I have been able to walk Roman 3 times a day without fearing for my life if he decides to pull.

Roman seems to be enjoying life here so far and I can’t wait for the weekend so that I can walk him up to Kirschhausen to meet the gang. I am hopeful that the pub that I frequent, the Trio, will allow him in as we often watch all of the football on a weekend and it would provide both a good chance for exercise and also a chance for more socialization around people. He gets on very well with most people but it is always nice to get him used to new situations and a lively pub is one that he is yet to experience. Normally in a lively environment he is lively too but I would like to be able to go somewhere lively and for him to be calm so it would be good if he is allowed to go.

I also bought a Liverpool scarf whilst I was in England as I had promised to bring one back to put up in the pub. I managed to find a “This is Anfield” scarf so I am hoping to put it up above the door or somewhere similar so that I can touch it on the way in akin to the way the players and Rafa do on their way out for a game. I had hoped to bring a couple of football shirts back for people too but they never gave me any money before I went to England and I managed to spend all of the €1000 I had brought over plus all of the Christmas and birthday money I got!

Yesterday was an extremely busy day for me at work. As is often the case in this business you can be sat around with little to do and something really important will pop up suddenly that needs to be completed the same day. This exact thing happened yesterday and I didn’t leave the office until 8pm! Once home I gave Roman a quick walk and then ended up working until 11pm at home in order to get it done in time. I don’t mind this though; as I say there have been times where I have had very little to do and the working week has been shorter than normal as a result. You have to take the rough with the smooth.

I've Given Up Smoking!

2009-12-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

The last couple of weeks have been more of the same for me really – working and football training in the week and drinking and partying at the weekend! The weekend before last I went to a birthday party on the Friday night and don’t really remember a lot! I woke up at 6pm on the Saturday and decided to just stay at home before going to bed again at about 1am. I was up nice and early the next morning in the hope that my registration was back from the league for me to make my debut for SV Kirschhausen but I was out of luck so had to make do with watching the game instead.

After the game had finished there was a big gathering of everyone connected with the club in the restaurant upstairs and we all got to eat for free which was really good. I wasn’t sure what some of the food was but I tried some of everything that was there and even went back for seconds! I was feeling pretty stuffed after that and headed off home to get a relatively early night ready for work the next day.

My last couple of weeks in the apartment in Kirschhausen I have been getting a lift into work and back home from work off Timo who works just down the road from where I work. I have been starting at about 7.30am every day and finishing at 5.15pm. As a result I was able to finish early on Friday last week and ended up only working from 10am until 3pm. I had arranged to pick up the keys for my new apartment and I also had a few things to do such as some much needed washing and I also had to get a passport photo done for my pass for football.

It was really good of the lady I am renting the apartment off to let me have the keys early and I actually moved in on Sunday 29^th November but she has not charged me any more for this. I paid her the month’s rent on Monday (only €529 this month as she has given me a discount as I am in the UK from the 24^th December). My rent next month will only be €506 too as I will not be back until 10^th January. I think I have fallen on my feet with this apartment as the lady, Mrs Huber, seems to be very nice.

This weekend just gone I went to Apfelbaum both Friday and Saturday night. On Friday I went with Timo, Simon and Toby after we had been in the Hexenkessel with a few of our other friends. It wasn’t really that enjoyable a night to be honest – I wanted us to go and dance with a few girls and have a good time but the others were more preoccupied with drinking and I got bored fairly quickly. On Saturday night I went with Dave and Leno but again they were reluctant to go and dance with girls preferring again to just drink! Luckily, I had already decided I only wanted to stay until 2am as I had to be up for football on the Sunday so I didn’t get bored in the time we were there.

I had been looking forward to making my debut for a while by the time Sunday came so I was fairly psyched up for it. I got up at about 10.30am and was fully awake by the time that Domi and Steffen picked me up to drive to the sportplatz – we were playing away this weekend. I learnt that I would be playing in my preferred position – central defence – so was pretty happy about that. Unfortunately a couple of players had called up to say they were ill so we ended up having to play with only ten players for the whole match.

In the first half we were fairly dominant and took the lead after about 30 minutes. I won the ball just outside of my own area and took it towards the corner flag to try and buy some space but had nowhere to go. I was closed down by a striker so I held him off before turning and picking a team mate out who played a long ball forward. Domi latched onto the through ball and managed to put it past the keeper to put us 1-0 up.

My first half performance was pretty much perfect. I won every tackle that I went in for as well as winning every single header I challenged for. Every 50 50 went my way too with the opposition seemingly happy to wait for the ball to come to them – I did no such thing and forced my way around them every time to snuff out the danger before it presented itself. The only blemish on my first half was a free kick I gave away after about 5 minutes for a shove in the back near the half way line. Incidentally, that was the only foul I made all match.

In the second half the wind picked up massively and, typically, was blowing against us. A combination of this, a deficit of one man and a few tiring players meant that we didn’t finish the game very strongly and conceded two goals in the last 20 minutes. I was really disappointed with this as I feel that I could have prevented one of them if I had been in the area to defend the cross that came in but I had gone to close a player down. The first one we were totally outnumbered for; I think it was 4 on 2.

Near the end of the game I did start to boil over a little – not in a particularly bad way but my passion and determination was certainly evident with me flying into a few tackles in a desperate bid to regain possession and get the ball up the pitch to try and get an equaliser. On one occasion I flew into a tackle and got the ball but due to us playing on a hardplatz I ended up getting a massive burn down my right leg that is still pretty sore now! The referee actually told me to calm down a little after that but, to be fair, he didn’t call a foul and I had won the ball anyway.

On Monday I collected the last of my things from my old apartment and handed the keys back before heading to do some shopping just around the corner from my new apartment. Steffen had picked me up from work and drove me around. He’s a top lad and has been really helpful. Most of the German I have learnt has come from him and he is always offering to help out with things. Life could have been so much harder over the past few weeks if I had not met my new bunch of friends when I did.

I had football training on Tuesday this week which went quite well but I ended up hurting my leg again when I blocked a shot – it’s not a nice feeling to get the ball smacked into a burn from point blank range but there is no way I will be backing off from my defensive duties no matter how much it hurts. I built a rod for my own back in that respect though really as I had been telling everyone how in England we don’t go down after being tackled and hate showing that we’re hurt so I have to adhere to that now – although I would have done anyway!

After training on Tuesday I gave up smoking. I have been thinking about it for about three weeks now but have been waiting for the day when I am in the right frame of mind. That day came on Tuesday so I haven’t had a cigarette since 9pm Tuesday after training. There are a few reasons I want to give up – better fitness will mean better performances, it will save me money and I won’t stink of smoke all the time so hopefully this will be a benefit with the ladies when I have learnt a bit of German!

It has been a tough couple of days but I am determined to stick with it. I have tried to give up several times in the past and my best spell was a year without smoking. Most of the time I manage about 8 weeks before starting again for no apparent reason so I will be extra vigilant around the end of January and start of February. It would be nice if I could beat it once and for all but I will just be taking it one day at a time and seeing how things work out really.

Last night I decided to stay in as I knew it would be easier to stick to the not smoking if I was not around people who smoke. I ended up eating absolutely loads though – after eating a very large spaghetti Bolognese I then polished off a whole tube of sour cream and onion Pringles (with 25% extra free) followed by a Mars bar, a Twix, an apple, a banana, some grapes, a Clementine and a yoghurt. This was all in the space of about 4 hours max so I think I will have to be a little careful not to get fat! I am now out of chocolate and crisps though so I will just stick to fruit for my snacks over the next few days.

Today has been a real struggle for me not to smoke and I have had some pretty big cravings for most of the day but I have managed to resist. Each morning I have to walk past several cigarette machines in the street which is pretty difficult and today I have been unable to think about much else other than smoking! It’s a real pain in the arse as I cannot focus or concentrate on anything fully so I think my productivity has been a bit below par today. Still, I know this stage doesn’t last forever and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Tonight I have football training again so at least the majority of this evening I will be distracted by something else. I just hope that I have a good session and manage not to hurt my right leg any more than I already have. I am looking forward to the prospect of playing again this weekend and wouldn’t want to have to cry off like a girl!

I Have A New Apartment From December 1st

2009-11-18T08:08:00.002+01:00

Well, the apartment viewing went pretty well. The first one I went to see was very close to work and I liked it quite a lot but the big problem there was that they wouldn't allow a dog at all so that pretty much ruled it out for me. It was a shame really as the location was great and it was pretty big. Still, the disappointment in the first one was quickly overshadowed by the elation after the second apartment viewing. Although the second apartment is a little further from work at 2.5km it is also a pretty decent size and, best of all, the lady said that I am welcome to bring Roman! I explained that he is a Rottweiler and described his temperament and she said it was no problem as a relative of hers had owned a Rottweiler and she had looked after it when they went away once so she was already familiar with the breed. A massive stroke of luck I think!

I am tied into the current apartment until 30th November so we negotiated for me to move in on the 1st December. The rent is slightly more at €700 per month but a lot of that difference will be saved on bus fares anyway and the location is so much better. There is a supermarket about 200 yards away so this is much better for me as I don't drive. It's a little awkward doing shopping where I live at the moment as a taxi is about €10 or €11 so it means that I have to buy little bits at a time and take it home from work each day. It's hardly ideal so I am made up that I will be in an apartment so close to a supermarket. Another big advantage of this apartment is the washing machine. You don't realise how valuable those things are!

I had a bit of a nightmare this week trying to find a launderette to do my washing in. I had got to the point where I literally had one more day's worth of clothes so it was imperative that I got my clothes washed. There is a new laundry service in Heppenheim but I had seen a price list and they wanted €1.50 per jumper, €2 per pair of jeans, etc... so it would have worked out to be very expensive. One of my new friends, Steffen, drove me around a few local towns here to see if we could find a launderette but the only things available were washing services and the cheapest price I could get was €24! I didn't want to pay that much - at that price I might as well get a train to Frankfurt and have a day there and then get the train back as there wouldn't be much difference. Luckily, Steffen's mum offered to do the washing for me and I now have enough to last me until I move into the new apartment.

I have made some big strides here socially now and have a pretty good collection of friends. I was in the pub one night and got talking to a lad called Daniel who was about to leave to go to the restaurant up the street so I asked if I could go with him. When we got there there were about 12 of his friends who were very welcoming to me. In particular I get along very well with two brothers, Timo and Steffen, but the rest are all very nice and I am happy that I have managed to make so many friends here so quickly.

It turned out that Timo plays for SV Kirschhausen so I asked him if I would be able to go along to training and see if I could get a game. I currently have no football boots or shin pads so he lent me both and we went last Thursday. I think the training session went well and some of the remarks that got back to me included "he's aggressive"! I think this was said in a good way but it certainly typifies the way in which I play the game quite well. After the training session I filled out some forms to sign up for them and the following day I made a copy of my passport to accompany the registration form. With any luck it will all be sorted in time for the game this weekend but should certainly be back in time for the one the weekend after.

Over the weekend I did a fair bit of partying again - it's becoming a bit of a theme really! On Friday Steffen picked me up from work and we went to get me a mobile phone as it is difficult for anyone to get in touch with me otherwise. We managed to find a pretty decent contract on O2 that gives unlimited minutes to other O2 phones for €20 per month. I am pretty pleased with this as all of my new friends are on O2 and I even managed to get a pretty nice phone from the deal. The phone is a Nokia 6700 and is packed with decent features. It has been a few years since I owned a Nokia but I have had only bad luck with other brands so I am hoping that Nokia's reliability is still what it was.

On Friday night I ended up going to Apfelbaum with Daniel and Tobias (another one of my new friends) and I got home very late into the night, I think around 6am but can't remember fully! On Saturday morning I got woke up at 11am by Steffen who had come to take me back to pick my phone up as there had been some online fault when they were trying to put the application through. I was still pretty drunk from the night before and this made for quite a bit of comedy in MediaMarkt!

Saturday was a day dominated by the local table tennis championship and this ran from around 1pm until about 7.30pm in the hall just up the street from my apartment. I abstained from drinking in the day in the knowledge that there would be a big party at the restaurant where I had met all of my new friends, Alfredo's. Timo came third in the championships after losing to another of my new friends, Marc. Marc ended up finishing second after being beaten by a very consistant Hajo who goes by the slogan "Hard to Kill"!

After the championships we headed off to the restaurant and the drinking games began, German style! After a few rounds the 3 litre beer jugs started coming out and this proved to be quite amusing. The game here was that whoever had drunk from the glass before the person who finished it had to pay for the beer. I managed to finish four of these jugs off - I was determined not to pay for it! On one occasion I was handed a jug that was half full and I looked at it wondering whether I could finish it - I knew if I didn't that the next person would. Anyway, I managed to down the lot to the surprise of a few people!

We drank there into the early hours of the morning and there was a real party atmosphere all night. Once people had become a little innebriated the songs started and the noise level went up a few decibals. I am learning some of the German songs from them but I am also teaching them a few English ones including Steve Gerrard, Fernando Torres and You'll Never Walk Alone! After most people had left there a few of us decided to get a cab into Heppenheim to go the the Hexenkessel (a pub in the centre that stays open very late). Whilst there we engaged in a few tequilas and got even more drunk before heading home.

I got to bed some time between 5 and 6 feeling pretty drunk and dreading getting up. Sunday is football day but they don't play until 3pm over here (whereas in England they play at 11am) so at least I didn't have to be up ridiculously early. Steffen came round and woke me up at about 1pm and we headed off to the football to watch Timo play. They game finished 3-1 to the opposition but Timo again managed to get on the scoresheet - it seems that drinking with an Englishman helps his game as he now has 3 goals in his last 2 games and he had only scored a couple all season before that!

This week has been pretty busy with work and I have a lot on right now. I have been looking at the reports that are currently used here and looking at ways in which to improve the reporting dramatically. Everything is done manually and in some cases it is quite basic so I am looking to overhaul everything using automated queries through VBA to provide dashboard style reports that need very little work to maintain and update. I think that people here are impressed with the work I have done so far and also with the ideas that I have put forward.

I mentioned last week to some of the IT department that I would benefit from more RAM as some of the calculations I have been performing are very RAM intensive and yesterday I got given a new PC that is much better and was also told that they are looking to order me a brand new laptop! Even after such a short period of time I feel very welcome and valued here and am looking forward to staying here for quite a while. Ideally for me I think I would like to stay maybe 2 or 3 years but I will have to see how things work out really.

Last night I had football training and the weather was typically English. Everybody looks at me like I am crazy when I turn up in shorts and t shirt for training - they all wear full training tracksuits but you won't catch me doing that! Ich bin Englander!! I keep telling them that the weather here (despite being fairly cold) is actually fairly mild from what I am used to at this time of year but I am not sure that they believe me. Training went fairly well and, although I gave the ball away a few times, I managed to clear the ball off the line 3 or 4 times and make some last ditch tackles. I am looking forward to our next training session tomorrow and can feel my fitness returning slightly already. I think I might have to give up smoking though...

Week 3 In Deutschland

2009-11-06T09:56:00.002+01:00

Last weekend was a really nice weekend for me. I arrived in Frankfurt airport just after 4pm to meet my stepmum and her sister and we had a coffee there before heading for a taxi to take us to the hotel. I thought it would make more sense to get a taxi direct from the airport as the train into Frankfurt was €3.70 each (€11.10 for the 3 of us) and then we would have needed to get a taxi from there to the hotel anyway. I presumed a taxi to the hotel would be around €15 but it was €24 - taxis over here are pretty expensive!!

My stepmum suggested that I should see if there was a room available in the hotel for me to stay in as it would really have eaten into our time together if I had gone back home to Kirschhausen on Saturday night and then had to get a train back on the Sunday. It seemed like a logical idea, especially when you take into account the fact that it is €10 each way on the train anyway. Luckily they had spare rooms so I booked in at the Holiday Inn Express in Frankfurt for the night.

The first thing we decided to do was to try and find somewhere to do my washing. We asked at reception in the hotel and were told that there was somewhere in the station so we headed back there. We looked around for a while but couldn't find anywhere and the staff at the station didn't seem to know anything about it either! We stumbled across a hostel on the way out of the station so I headed up to their reception to see if they could point us in the right direction. As it was there was one literally about 100 yards away. When I left the hostel I couldn't see my stepmum or her sister, Karen. It turned out that they had decided to wait on the other side of the street as the hostel was next door to an interestingly named shop, The World Of Sex!

We headed to the launderette and dumped my stuff in a washing machine before heading off to have a look round for 40 minutes whilst it washed. We managed to spot a few restaurants and bars but not before walking right through the middle of the red light district! There was sex literally everywhere in this area and it was a bit of a shock when you think what England is like. I thought it was highly amusing but I am not sure my stepmum or Karen felt entirely comfortable in the area!

Once we had been back for my washing we had to wait for it to dry. I think they must have bought their tumble dryers from NASA or something - it only took 15 minutes and it was completely dry - not bad for €1! We decided to try an Italian restaurant we had walked past but it turned out it was so busy that we couldn't even get somewhere to sit. It was a shame really as it looked really nice and if a place is that busy then it is usually good. We stumbled across another place just up the road so ate there instead. The food was good but a little on the pricy side but at least we all got to try the apple strudel!

After leaving there we decided to head back to the hotel for a drink before going to bed. I actually stayed up until 3am as my stepmum had brought Football Manager 2010 over for me after I had managed to get Nath to go and buy it the night before she came out - it had only been released that day and I didn't fancy paying the German price! I am pleased to say too that the internet network coverage in Frankfurt was superb so not only have I now got Rosetta Stone downloaded with all 3 language levels for German but I have also managed to download a few new music albums!

On Sunday we decided to take a walk up the river and head for the old town in Frankfurt. It was a nice walk but it was a lot colder than I had expected it to be. The temperatures around here have been mid teens most of the time but it felt about 7 or 8 down by the river. I think it was so cold because we were by the river because once we got back into the network of streets it certainly felt a little warmer. The old town was quite picturesque and gave my stepmum and Karen the opportunity to get some photos.

We found somewhere to eat in the main square in the old town and all had German dishes. I have to say, the meals were quite nice and I think we were all happy with what we had chosen. After we had eaten we decided to go and see if we could find somewhere to buy some socks for my stepmum - as the weather had been mild recently she had brought light shoes without socks so her feet were pretty cold! I learnt a lesson about Germany that day - everywhere is closed on a Sunday! I couldn't believe that a city the size of Frankfurt had no shops open but it was true!

We managed to find "designer district" so at least we got to have a look at some €25,000 outfits whilst we were there! We had a good look around the city - it looks very different in the day but then I suppose that is true of all places. It was a shame everywhere was closed really as it would have been nice to have a look around the shops to see what the fashion in Germany is like. In the end Karen offered my stepmum a spare pair of socks so at least that problem was solved but it was still frustrating to not be able to shop!

Our time in Frankfurt was quite funny really - every time we decided to go somewhere or to do something it seemed that it was closed. My stepmum and Karen wanted to do a Rhine boat tour but when we tried to ring the place they told us that the season had finished - we located the office a little later to find that the season hadn't finished and they booked on one for the next day! We also found a nice pub style restaurant that we wanted to eat in but, although there were staff inside, that appeared to be constantly closed too! We also wanted to try and find a tavern over the river as Karen's guide book had recommended the area for Apfelwein but when we walked down the street the guidebook mentioned we couldn't find anything!

We eventually found a place to eat on Sunday evening back in the old town - there was a traditional German pub there that looked really nice so we thought we would give it a go. It was probably the best decision we had made in our time there. The food was delicious and the Apfelwein wasn't half bad either! The dishes were all traditional German dishes and I got the chance to practise some of my German in there - I ordered all the meals and drinks in German; I'm getting better, slowly but surely!

The time came for me to get the train back to Heppenheim and I managed to get one just after 8pm that would see me arrive in Heppenheim just after 9pm. I decided to get a taxi back home as I couldn't really be bothered carrying my bags 5km! The taxi cost just over €10 which I wasn't too happy about - I won't be getting a taxi again, I will wait for the bus in future even if I do have to wait almost an hour!

I had made a promise to work that I would get something finished by Monday but, due to spending the whole weekend in Frankfurt, had not had any time to do it! As a result I ended up working until 3.30am but managed to get it pretty much done, bar a few final checks needed the following morning. Despite having such a late night I managed to get into work for about 10.30 and was happy enough that I managed to get all of the files finished quite quickly.

It's been quite a long week at work and I have done quite a lot of hours in the office but the advantage of working longer hours in the office is that I have not had a need to cart my laptop back and forth as I have not needed to do any work at home. That has given me the opportunity to use Rosetta Stone a bit more at home and I have been managing between an hour and two hours per night depending on what time I finish work each day. I am starting to get into a bit of a routine - I start anytime between 8am and 10am but I finish each day just before 7pm so that I can catch the pus at 7.10pm from Heppenheim to Kirschhausen. This means I have about 3 or 4 hours spare time in the evening to relax which is better.

I arranged to view some apartments this week too - yesterday I looked at an apartment that was really nice although it is about €100 a month more expensive than the one I am in right now but it has a big advantage in that the lady renting it out said she will happily do my washing for me! This is a big plus for me as I don't want to spend my spare time (and cash!) at the weekends going to the nearest town that has a launderette to do my washing. Also, it is much closer to work and is easily walkable in about 15 or 20 minutes so this will save me money on bus fares. The apartment itself was bigger than the one I am in right now and I also think it is decorated much nicer.

I have another viewing arranged on an apartment this afternoon that, from the pictures, also looks very nice. Again, the rent is about €100 more than my current rent but this one has an added advantage in that they allow dogs. I am not sure whether they will be happy with a Rottweiler but I can ask! This apartment is about 2.5km away from work but only about 1km from the station. Again, it is easily walkable so I will be saving on bus fares and this apartment has a washing machine in so that will be a money saver for me too!

I have been discussing with my boss this week about arrangements for me to go back to the UK for Christmas and have been delighted with the accomodating response I have received. As agreed when I commenced employment they have stumped up the cash for one return ticket for me and he also told me that it is no problem for me to work from the UK for a few days to allow me more time with my family and friends. I have now got a return ticket booked on Lufthansa flights to return to the UK on 24th December and to fly back to Frankfurt on Sunday 10th January. Officially, I have had to book holidays for the 28th, 29th and 30th December and the 4th, 5th and 6th January - Thursday 7th and Friday 8th will be the days I am working.

I am really impressed with the company so far. They seem to be very welcoming and very accomodating in so many ways and I have found people here to be really friendly, helpful and accomodating. The lady who I am currently sharing an office with has been ringing apartments for me to get information and has even been kind enough to take me to view them so that she can act as a translator for me! Things are good here, long may it continue....

Week Two In Deutschland

2009-10-31T14:45:00.002+01:00

My second week has been mostly dominated by work - I have been working until 6 or 7 every night at the office and then taking work home with me too. There is a lot going on at the moment and there are some things that need to be done as quickly as possible so I have taken it upon myself to throw myself into work the only way I know how. I am enjoying the work although some of the stuff I have to do right now is a little monotonous and quite tedious but the stuff I am doing right now is not what I will be doing long term - there was a massive need for this work to be done quickly and I am probably the most suitable person to do it given my skillset.

I have not really been out anywhere this week as I have been so busy with work but I did pop out for a few beers last night in my local, the Trio pub. I didn't leave work until just after 7 last night and went straight to the pub - it took me 45 minutes to walk there so the first beer was all the more enjoyable! I had my work laptop with me so spent a couple of hours trying to get a little ahead with the work. I know my employers don't expect me to be putting extra hours in away from the office and the official requirement is only for me to do 40 hours a week but I am just not that type of person; I would rather sacrifice my personal time to ensure that the work is done in time.

I headed home at about 10pm last night so that I could get something to eat. Once I had eaten something and freshened up (with the assistance of a very strong black coffee!!) I headed back to the pub to see if I could get a few games of pool going with the locals. Sure enough there was a group of guys in there happy to play pool and table football so I ended up drinking with them until about 3am! I have never been particularly good at pool but I suddenly seem to have gotten the knack. I won a few games and was delighted to learn that not only does the winner stay on but the loser also has to buy the winner a drink! My choice of drink was tequila shots and I had quite a few!

I got to bed at about 5am after playing far too much Football Manager - I have a save going with Fiorentina at the moment and I am really enjoying it. I started out as Frankfurt manager but got offered the job after about 6 months so thought I would give it a bash; best decision I have made on the game for a while!! I expected to have a feel a bit off this morning when I woke up given what I had drunk but I feel remarkably alright. I feel a little tired but a few strong black coffees have helped that!

I am now on my way to Frankfurt to meet my stepmum and her sister from the airport as they are coming over for a few days to see me. It will be nice to see them again and have a little bit of familiarity for a change. Although I am making friends here it's not quite the same as people you know well and it makes a big difference to be able to have a fluid conversation. I am trying to learn German but have very little spare time at the moment and I am also waiting for Rosetta Stone to download so that I can start using that - I have literally no vocabulary in German so need some help!

Most people here speak at least broken English which is good but I always feel bad not being able to speak with them in their language. I am picking up some words here and there and I am finding German words easier to pronounce but I think it may take some time before I can have decent conversations. When I was learning French and Italian I had so much spare time and also had lots of opportunities to speak the language with people. I also had a basic vocabulary in each of the languages which really helped a lot.

I have been looking at apartments on the internet this week as I would like to find one that will allow dogs so that I can bring Roman over here. I am really missing him loads and can't wait to be able to take him for long walks over here. One big problem I have with the apartment I am in right now is that there is no washing machine. This wouldn't be such a big problem if there was a launderette in Heppenheim but there isn't so I have to get myself 5km into Heppenheim and then get a train to the next big town and then wait for the washing. This means that washing takes up a day at the weekend as well as costing me far too much! I am taking the opportunity today to do a load while I am in Frankfurt - two birds one stone...

My First Week In Deutschland!

2009-10-27T12:24:00.003+01:00

My last few days in the UK were pretty enjoyable. On the Friday I went to Liverpool in the daytime on a shopping mission determined to find myself a nice new Emporio Armani laptop bag. It seems that the range of Armani in the UK is nowhere near the level it is in Italy (unsurprising when you think about it of course!) and I didn't have any joy whatsoever! I did find a bit of a bargain in the USC shop in Liverpool One in the form of a Henri Lloyd laptop bag for just £30! Given that I had expected to spend a lot of money on the Armani version I decided then to go on a bit of a shopping spree as I also needed some new gear for work.

I went up to Liverpool with one of my friends, Stevo. The last time we went to Liverpool on a shopping day we ended up going to one shop then a pub followed by another shop and another pub! We were very drunk by the end of that day and even went out in Chester that night! This time we concentrated a lot more on the shopping as I only had limited time to get everything sorted in time for Monday. I wanted to get some trousers and shirts but ended up only being able to find one shirt - I am quite particular about the shirts that I wear; short sleeved with a pocket, never different! The shirt I found was a Henri Lloyd shirt but I also found another gem whilst walking around.

We decided to have a look in the Liverpool shop as we were passing and I found the new white Liverpool shirt with a really cool touch to it - instead of a traditional name and number on the back it had the number 9 and "El Nino" printed on the back in a really cool font. It cost a lot at 60 quid but it was worth every penny! This now brings my collection of Liverpool shirts to 7 so I have one for each day of the week now! After we had finished shopping we decided to go to the Wetherspoon's near St John's Market for a few pear ciders before heading off back to Chester.

I also took the opportunity whilst I was in Liverpool to meet a girl, Katie, who I had been chatting with for a while on Facebook from Liverpool but had never met. We spent an hour or so in the pub with Katie chatting before we had to leave as we had a night out in Chester with a few of my friends to partake in! It was nice to finally meet her after what must have been about 6 months chatting online. I think that this was the first time I have ever met anyone like this and I don't think I would have done it before I had gone travelling.

After I had been back to my parents' house I took a shower and had something to eat before getting ready to go out for the night. Rich, Nath, Stevo and myself were all going out and we had arranged to go out just after 10pm when Rich's girlfriend, Lisa, got in from work. Stevo arrived at my parents' house just after 9pm and we walked to Rich's house to have a beer before we went out. A friend of ours, Paul (who we all call Dude!) came to pick us up. We were hoping for him to come out with us but he is a taxi driver so can't really afford to take a Friday night off but at least I got to see him again before I left the UK.

We had a real good laugh whilst in Chester and stayed out pretty late; I think it was about 3am before we decided to head off home. We played a bit of a game throughout the night too - each time someone bought a round they had to buy a "gay" drink and nominate someone to drink it. There were some quite strange drinks being bought for a group of lads! In the first place we went to myself, Rich and Stevo immediately started what we call "dickhead dancing" - if you can't have a laugh at yourself who can you have a laugh at? Nath is a little shy so he didn't really want to as he was a bit worried about what people would think!

When I got home I decided to take Roman for a walk (yes, at 3.15 in the morning!) so walked with Stevo to his flat from my parents' house. As we were walking an old friend, Emmeline, called Stevo so I arranged to go round for a brew. It was an interesting half hour as she also has a couple of dogs. To be fair they all got on quite well but, upon reflection, maybe 3.30 in the morning wasn't the best time to be reintroducing them! I left Emmeline's flat just before 4am and walked home with Roman - it's been a long time since he has been walked at that time in the morning (I used to do it quite regularly after a night out as I felt guilty leaving him alone all evening!) but I think he appreciated it.

On Saturday I arranged to meet Katie again, this time in Chester, and met her off the train with Roman shortly after 2pm. She had said she wanted to meet him so I asked her to come down and spend the afternoon with us. We walked over to the meadows near Handbridge with him and sat talking for an hour or so there. There were a lot of other dogs about but Roman behaved very well until a guy decided to let his little rat-like dog come straight up to Roman off his lead. You could see by the way the dog approached he was slightly aggressive but his owner was a proper tosser. He seemed to think it was amusing that his dog was daft enough to try and have a go at a Rottweiler - I doubt he would have found it so amusing if I didn't have proper control of Roman and if Roman had a vicious streak....

After that we took a walk around the city walls - it has been a while since I have done that and it is a good walk at about 2 miles in total. Katie had never been to Chester so knew very little about the place and it gave me the chance to play tour guide once more! I enjoy showing people around and it's good when you know a bit about the place where you are. We then walked down towards the station so that she could get the train back to Liverpool. She had just missed a train so we sat in the beer garden of the Town Crier for a bit having a drink and this also gave Roman an opportunity to have some water. In total I think we spent around 4 hours together and it turned out to be a really nice day, even if it was a bit cold!

Saturday night was a bit of a chill out night for me - I don't really get hangovers anymore but I certainly felt a little bit tired after a heavy night the night before and not the most sleep I have ever had. I can't really remember what I got up to but, knowing me, it was probably watching football or playing Football Manager or surfing the net - these are my usual relaxation routines so I doubt I strayed from them on this occasion!

On Sunday morning I went back up to Liverpool, this time with Roman, to spend the morning and some of the afternoon with Katie again. We had clicked quite well and it is always nice getting to know someone new; it was just a shame that I would only be in the UK for such a short space of time. It is often the way though that you meet people you really connect with at inconvenient times. It was really cold in Liverpool all day and, like an idiot, I had neglected to take a coat with me! We sat about for most of the time in a park just outside of the town centre chatting and, again, it was a nice relaxing day.

I headed back to Chester just after 2pm - I had been promised a Sunday roast and there was no way I was going to miss that after about 3 months without one! I love my food and nothing quite compares to a good Sunday roast. It's the thing, other than Roman of course, that I miss the most. It always seems pointless cooking one just for myself and the washing up afterwards is never nice - at least if there are other people eating you can normally con one of them into the washing up on the grounds that you cooked!

Sunday evening saw my first game of football in 3 months too - I played for the team I used to play for on Sunday evenings. Unfortunately the opposition didn't turn up so we had to play a friendly game. We were actually lucky enough to get two games as one of the teams didn't show up for the game after us either so we stayed on. We didn't perform very well to be fair so I guess it was actually pretty fortunate that the designated opposition didn't show up as that means you get a 5-0 win by default. It was nice to get a game again after so long not playing but I will certainly be looking for a team to play for in Germany.

Monday was a bit of a rushed affair as I still needed trousers and shirts for work and also had to do loads of washing and drying in time for leaving for the airport. I did the washing in the morning and headed into town with Nath and Stevo around midday. I managed to find a couple of shirts (again Henri Lloyd) and, eventually, managed to find two pairs of trousers that I liked. I also managed to pick up some Timberland gloves - Germany was not as warm as Italy and I knew that the winter time could get quite cold so I wanted to be prepared.

Upon returning to my parents' house and checking my tickets I spotted that the airline I was flying with stated you should arrive for check in no later than 2 hours before the flight time - I had presumed that check in opened 2 hours before check in so quickly had to rearrange my lift to get me there in time. To make it worse, I hadn't done any packing but luckily Nath and Stevo helped me out a bit and we managed to get everything sorted a couple of minutes before my lift arrived!

I had to wait around for ages in the airport and was pretty hungry so went to a restaurant there for a chicken tikka masala and a cappuccino. I was pleasantly surprised not only with the quality of the food but also with the size of the portion. I had been expecting something pretty basic and fairly small but it really was quite nice! I also spotted an Emporio Armani laptop bag in the duty free section of Manchester airport for 200 quid - I was proper gutted about that but in a way it had turned out well as I had managed to get plenty of decent clothes for work.

My flight left Manchester at 6.15pm and I arrived in Frankfurt at about 9pm local time. I then had to get a train to Heppenheim which was just over an hour. By the time I had located my baggage and located the ticket office it was about 9.30pm which meant I didn't arrive in Heppenheim until just before 11pm. I couldn't find a taxi there so my new boss, David, drove down from the hotel to pick me up. It wasn't very far away but I really didn't know where I was going and I was also carrying 28kg so didn't really fancy the walk anyway!

The hotel, The Park Inn, was quite nice and, luckily for me, they had an ironing room so I could iron some clothes for work the next day. It wasn't the best iron or ironing board but I managed to get the creases out of my clothes anyway. I didn't get to sleep until about 1am and had to be in reception for 7.30am to meet David to go for my first day at work! Lack of sleep seems to follow me around no matter where I go and I rarely get more than 6 hours a night these days - it's not through choice though!

Work have been really accomodating towards me in my time there - they sorted an apartment out for me to move into on Tuesday and David gave me a lift home Tuesday night so that I could go and get some shopping. The apartment is reasonably nice; it only has 1 bedroom but the lounge is a decent size as is the kitchen. I was pleased to be able to cook myself a good meal - after so long in hostels it really was a treat!

I have been picking up a few words of German throughout the last week and am now able to count quite well, name all of the days of the week, name all of the months of the year and ask a few basic questions in German. I am downloading Rosetta Stone so that I can learn more quickly but it is quite difficult to pick up when you have literally no vocabulary! Luckily, most people here speak pretty good English so it has not been a totally alienating experience so far but I am keen to develop my German skills as I always feel bad not speaking the language of a country I spend time in.

Over the weekend I went to the local pub near to my apartment and made a few friends there. I even went to a nightclub, called Apfelbaum (The Appletree) with a woman who drinks in my local pub and we were there until 6 in the morning! I was surprised at how good the place was as Heppenheim is not the biggest place in the world but there were 3 sections playing different music - R&B, 80s and dance. I am looking forward to going there again soon....

It's Been An Action Packed Few Weeks, Sorry For Not Updating Sooner!

2009-10-15T15:06:00.002+02:00

Well, where to begin! Lots has happened since I last updated my blog and I feel I must apologise for not updating sooner but the only internet connection I had available was really poor - every time I tried to do anything my connection got cut and I lost everything I had done so I got to the stage where I gave up! Confession time - since my last update I have not actually kept a diary either so a lot of this update will be from memory and, consequently, there will probably be quite a lot missing. Maybe the best way for me to do this is to focus on key events as it is really hard to remember in what order and on which day things happened.

I ended up staying in a hostel in Roma for around 3 weeks and, I have to tell you, I was pretty sick of hostels by the end of this 3 weeks! Hostels are really fun places to stay if you are moving around but the minute you stay somewhere for a prolonged period of time everything changes. Sure, you still get to meet a whole bunch of people but the new experiences tend to dry up a little if you know what I mean. You find yourself going to the same places with people and the conversations begin to take a similar trend.

The 3 weeks in the hostel weren't exactly fruitful for me either. I must have sent off around 50 or 60 emails to people that had advertised accomodation online but only ever got 4 responses. 1 of these responses ended up being a room share with a girl who didn't want to share with a guy, another was outside of the city centre but had no washing machine and was overpriced when you take into consideration commuting costs, another one seemed alright but was a little small and the last one turned out to be a scam - the pictures were really good, location was excellent and the price was really good but then the guy wanted me to send him a deposit before he sent the key! Yeah right!

As for work well this wasn't exactly the easiest thing to come by either. Although I have quite a bit of experience in the job that I have been doing I have never studied for it. As a result, nobody in Roma was prepared to even entertain me for a job as they insisted on candidates having a degree, regardless of prior experience. I found this particularly frustrating as I know how capable I am of actually doing the work that would have been available to me. The only types of job that I think I would have been able to get there would have been either bar work, pub crawls or hostel work. These jobs are not particularly awful but the pay is and it would have meant I would have been living on about 100 euros a month at the most and the hours would have been ridiculous.

I was resigned to the fact that I would have to accept one of these types of jobs when I got an email out of the blue from a guy I used to work with asking what I was up to and whether I would be prepared to relocate to Germany for work as he may be able to hook me up with something. We emailed each other a few times so that I could get more information about the role and he could get more information about my current situation before I agreed to speak to another director within his company regarding the role. The following day the other director called me up and asked me whether I would be prepared to fly to Frankfurt to meet with him. I agreed and he booked me return flights for the very next day!

The meeting, which was more of an informal meeting to give us the opportunity to get to know each other a little more than a formal interview, went really well. We seemed to share a fair bit of common ground and I think that he was impressed with the way in which I answered a lot of the questions he put to me. We sat talking for around 2 - 2.5 hours before parting company and I headed back to the airport to fly back into Roma. I was really impressed with the lengths that he had gone to in order to meet with me - they paid for the plane tickets and all other transport connected with the trip, it wasn't cheap let me tell you!

After I had spoken with him I decided that I was going to take him up on the opportunity of work, if indeed the offer was forthcoming. It was a bittersweet moment for me really - although I wanted to stay in Roma and had never even contemplated moving to Germany it was becoming apparent that life in Roma would be extremely difficult without qualifications and the potential offer in Germany would be a very good one that I would be a fool to turn down. When I left the UK I pretty much gave up the career that I had worked so hard for with no guarantees about the future and the job in Germany represented a way for me to continue my career at a higher level and also means that I do not have to return to the UK - this was one of the major things about me leaving, I didn't want to live in the UK any more.

At this point I decided that I would go to Perugia to visit the American girls who I had met in Sorrento so called Jordyn to arrange it. The first night I spent with them we travelled to a place called Lucca, a charming little walled city north of Pisa. Jordyn had seen it on a Relocation, Relocation, Relocation type programme and really liked it so suggested we all go there. It was a really nice place and I enjoyed the time we spent there. We arrived at about 9pm and left around lunchtime the following day - it wasn't a particularly big place and we also wanted to go to Pisa. Whilst we were in Lucca I received a text message to tell me that the director I had been speaking with wanted to move forward, basically I had the job! To celebrate we went to the local supermarket and bought a couple of bottles of 2.59 euro champagne - you wouldn't believe how cheap wine and champagne is in Italy - and we took it to the top of a tower to drink!

Pisa didn't really have too much to offer from what we saw of it but we did manage to get a bite to eat there before heading off to see the tower. The thing that struck me the most about the tower was just how small it was! I always expected it to be bigger but it really wasn't that big at all. We took the usual photos of each other trying to hold the tower up, hugging the tower, kicking the tower down etc.. before we had to head off to catch the train back to Perugia for a house party. We arrived back into Perugia just after 7pm and all headed off to get showered and dressed up.

The house party was really good fun and the Italians made me feel really welcome despite the fact that I couldn't speak as much Italian as I would like. I did, however, meet a guy from North Africa so I was able to speak quite well with him in French for quite a while. It was quite surprising that I remembered so much after 4 weeks of not speaking it and trying to learn Italian. When we arrived at the party we were immediately given red wine and there must have been hundreds of bottles of the stuff floating about. The Italians, contrary to popular belief, certainly know how to party!

After the party we headed off to a late night bar that had just opened in Perugia that was only open between 2am and 6am. It was free entry and the drinks were reasonably priced in there for a change. The music was also pretty good and I enjoyed myself there. After we finished there, some time around 3.30am, we headed back to a friend's apartment for some food - in Italy they don't really do fast food but like to cook pasta after a night out instead! It made a really nice change to get some decent food after a night out and we eventually headed back to Jordyn's apartment at around 5.30am.

The following morning I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and it has gradually got worse each day afterwards. At one point it was so bad that I literally could not sleep because of it. I know this is a bit gross but I will describe my problem anyway. One night I went to bed at 11pm and got out of bed at 10am the next morning although I would have been lucky if I had got more than 2 hours sleep. I was in so much pain that it was taking up to 45 minutes to get comfortable enough to get some sleep only for me to wake up within 5 or 10 minutes choking on phlegm - my mouth was producing loads of it due to my throat infection but it wouldn't go down my throat as it was so badly inflamed. It was a really horrible night.

The following day I decided to organise myself ready for returning to the UK for a few days before heading off to Germany. It had been 8 weeks since I had seen any of my family or friends and I had really missed Roman especially. My flight home was due to leave at 6.30am the following morning but I needed to check in at 4.30am as I had baggage I had to check in. To get there for that time I would have to get a shuttle bus at 3.30am from Firenze and this would mean me getting up at 2.30am! I didn't really trust myself to get up early enough so decided to get the last shuttle bus at 7.10pm and sleep in the airport.

This actually turned out to be a really bad decision. I didn't realise that Pisa was quite so small an airport and at midnight, when the airport had quietened down a little, I was just about to get my head down for a few hours when there was an announcement stating that the airport was closing until 4am! I have never been to an airport that closes before so it was a little bit of a shock and meant that I had to sit outside the airport for 4 hours waiting for it to reopen! It wasn't all bad though, there were about 20 of us that had to do this so there were people to talk with but it did mean that I got no sleep at all!

After arriving back in the UK I decided that I didn't want to sleep in the day as I wouldn't have slept at night so I spent the day at my brother's (Rich) house playing on Football Manager and catching up with him, Nathan and Stevo. It was nice to be back amongst the boys again even if I was feeling particularly tired and ill! I went to see Roman at Emma's house before heading back to my parents' house for something to eat and to sleep. It was really funny seeing Roman again - he was blatantly excited but it was almost as if he was so excited that he could hardly move! He normally bounds around all over the place but he was relatively calm despite the obvious excitement.

Yesterday I managed to get in at the doctors so I now have some antibiotics for my throat infection and I got some aspirin based painkillers off Rich that really helped me with the pain a lot. I spent another couple of hours with Rich and Stevo whilst waiting for Emma to get in from work so that I could go and pick Roman up and take him to my parents' house for a few days. Roman has behaved really well with Casper and my initial worries about him charging around the house have proved to be unfounded. He was remarkably calm once he got inside the house which I am pleased about.

Today I have come to visit my mum with Roman and will be staying here for the night. My little brother, Jamie, has apparently missed me loads so I am sure that he is happy to see me. My mum's next door neighbour has the tiniest dog in the world so we let Roman play with her. It was really funny to see as she really wanted to play and chase him around but he was a little unsure - he has never played with such a small dog before and I think he was worried that he might hurt her so he was really hesitant. Don't believe the press - Rottweilers are actually gentle giants!

Oh Cecilia - Bellissima Regazza!

2009-09-25T14:29:00.004+02:00

Thursday 24th September

I got up pretty early today and was eating breakfast by about 8.30am. It seemed a shrewd move to arrange to do something so early in the day! I slept really well last night from about 1am although I did wake up at about 6am. Once I had finished breakfast I checked my emails to see if I had received any replies from the emails I had sent off enquiring about rooms. I didn't have a single reply at all! I was really disappointed as I wanted to try and sort accomodation out as soon as possible.

I spent pretty much the whole day with Madeliene today and had a really enjoyable day. The weather was pretty good again today also but not quite as hot as the day I walked around with the Brazilian guy. I actually remembered a couple of extra places around Roma so Madeleine got a better tour I think. We stopped off at my favourite restaurant in Roma - yes, the one by il Colosseo - and had a really nice meal. Afterwards we went and relaxed in the park close to the Colosseo for about 45 minutes before heading back to the hostel. We were out from about 9.30am until about 5pm.

When I got back to the hostel I checked my emails again and found that I had a reply from one of the people I had emailed saying that I could view the room tomorrow at 4pm. I replied to enquire about the address and confirmed that I would visit. It is actually the cheapest one that I had emailed and it's pretty central to Roma so I just hope it's reasonable. It would be great to sort out my accomodation tomorrow so I don't have to spend any more time in the hostel than the 5 days I had booked.

Once I had eaten some free pasta in the hostel I headed over to get the free pizza again and have a few drinks. I met some guys at my hostel that wanted to go to Campo de Fiori and maybe find a club so I headed off with them. They were Ned, Simarth and Kyle - all from America. They were really good fun and we had a real good laugh pretty much all night. Kyle was unbelievable with the women - nothing fazed him at all, he was happy to approach anyone. He got chatting to 4 Italian girls at a bar and then I joined in with the conversation. As I could speak Italian and these girls couldn't speak much English I had a pretty unfair advantage and I pretty much monopolised the conversation!

Kyle was really impressed with the amount of Italian I could speak and, I have to say, I was pretty impressed too! I spoke with them for about 20 minutes before they left the bar but we did exchange email addresses so we could speak on Facebook. I can't remember all of their names but I remember one for definite - Cecilia. She is very pretty and looks typically Italian if you know what I mean. She had very appealing eyes - something I particularly like! We arranged to meet up some time and agreed to organise it online some time this weekend. 4 days in Roma and I think I might have found an Italian girl to teach me Italian!!

After they left we went around a few bars and finally ended up in a club called Mood. It was pretty good but really expensive. I remember talking to some Australian girls and some Dutch girls but can't really go into much detail as I wasn't exactly sober by this point! I actually got back to the hostel at about 4.30am after a really good night. Again, I was drunk but at least I have made a connection with an Italian girl now!

I Got Up At 3pm!

2009-09-25T14:02:00.002+02:00

Wednesday 23rd September

I was so bad today - I didn't get up until about 3pm! I slept right through the morning and afternoon and, although I woke up a couple of times when there was a cleaner in the room, there was no way I could get out of bed any earlier. I think the last few days have definitely caught up with me and I will be taking things a lot easier tonight. I have still felt tired all day and don't think I will have any problems sleeping tonight either!

Once I was up I started looking for more accomodation and sent about 10 emails off to people who had posted adverts. I have not received any replies to any of them yet but hope I will start getting replies soon as I could really do with having something sorted by the weekend. The prices here seem to range quite a bit - apartments seem to be a little expensive but if you are prepared to share it ranges between €300 and €400. Some of these are a few miles outside of Roma itself but some are actually pretty central. I would prefer somewhere central but I guess I will take what I can get really.

After the free pasta I headed over to the other hostel for free pizza and a few drinks. I had got chatting to an Australian girl called Tracy and an American girl called Madeleine so we went over there together with an English guy who was on his own. Again, I can't remember his name - I'm bloody awful! Madeleine said she was heading back early as she was tired due to jet lag but wanted to go sight seeing in Roma tomorrow and only had the one day. I offered to walk her round everywhere and she accepted. It was a pretty good way of ensuring I didn't drink all night as I arranged to leave with her at 9am!

The English guy left a little later and I sat with Tracy until around midnight having a few drinks. It was pretty amusing as I was quite sober as I only had about 4 or 5 beers but Tracy actually got quite drunk and she was almost falling over on the way back to our hostel! On the way back I saw a few people who looked lost so stopped to give them directions - I even directed an Italian guy in Italian! I never thought I would be doing that within such a short space of time. I always try and help people if they look lost now, especially at night as I can appreciate how easy it is to get lost!

Sight Seeing

2009-09-25T13:45:00.003+02:00

Tuesday 22nd September

I have to confess to not keeping a diary, so to speak, over the course of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so a lot of this will now be from memory so might not be as detailed as usual. I took the Brazilian guy around Roma for the day and we ended up walking around for around 6 hours I think. It was a pretty good day and, although I have already seen the things I was showing him, it was really good for me too as it gave me the chance not only to see all of those things again but also get to know Roma a little better again.

I have been low on spare clothes for a while now so managed to find a pretty cheap shop to buy a couple of t shirts in - these were much cheaper than the Armani stuff I bought in Milano and it was €16 for 2 t shirts. You don't appreciate how nice it is to have clean, fresh clothes until you have to live in the way I have for the past 5 weeks. At times I feel so dirty it's really uncomfortable. I can't wait to have somewhere to live so that I can do my washing whenever I need and also to be able to get all my clothes from the UK.

We visited pretty much all the sites today - Piazza della Repubblica, Fontana di Trevi, Colosseo, Foro Romano, Citta del Vaticano, Castel Sant'Angelo, il Pantheon, etc... We stopped off at a restaurant right next to the Colosseo to get some lunch. It is a restaurant I know well as I visited it a few times last year when I came here on holiday with Emma. I was pleased to see that the food there was still very good and I remembered a couple of the staff there too. I have been dying to use some of my Italian and got the chance with the waitress - I told her she was a very beautiful girl in Italian and she seemed pretty pleased! I wasn't trying to pick her up as she had an engagement ring but I just wanted to say it as early as possible...

The weather was pretty good all day and I am pretty sure that I am really going to enjoy living here with this climate. The more I think about it the more I want to work evenings somewhere so that I have the days free to sunbathe - typically English, eh? I think it would be good to maybe get some work in a hostel or a bar or a hotel as they would be English speaking roles but I would be working alongside fluent Italian speakers so this would help me to learn Italian quicker. Ideally, I need an Italian girlfriend - I will definitely learn quickly then!

We went out to Campo de Fiori this evening after having far too many sambuccas in the hostel bar and I ended up losing the Brazilian guy but spent the evening with a couple of Argentinian guys we had been speaking with in the hostel. They were really nice guys and we had a really good laugh. I was winding up all the Asian guys who come around trying to sell roses to couples - most of them were getting a bit annoyed with them so I pretended that me and one of the Argentinian guys was gay and started haggling loads on the price of a rose. They got pretty annoyed after a while but the couples near us thought it was hilarious! I got in pretty late, I think at about 3am and felt extremely drunk!

On the way to Campo de Fiori we saw some American girls by a bus stop so stopped to talk to them and it turned out that they were going to Campo de Fiori too. I knew that they were waiting in the wrong place so told them and said that they could come and get the bus with us and I would show them where they needed to get off. Once we got on the bus they were really rude - everytime I tried to talk to them they turned their back on me! I was pretty annoyed - I wasn't hitting on them, they weren't that good looking! I was just trying to help them and be nice. After that I decided to leave them on the bus and let them find their own way!

My First Day In Roma!

2009-09-25T12:38:00.003+02:00

Monday 21st September

I woke up a few times throughout the night but finally got up at around 9am and headed down for breakfast. I got chatting with Yuli again for a while and also got chatting with a couple of students, one from West London and one from Ghana. Yuli said that if I wanted to play football with him in Napoli that I could. I think it may be a little far away to be honest but it was really nice of him to make the offer.

I sat talking with Barbara for a while this morning too before heading off for the train. She had come to Italy to meet up with her boyfriend who works on the boats in Sorrento but when she arrived here he finished with her and left her with no money! It may have been a little unwise to travel with little money but he had asked her to come and said that he would have money for her to use! She was pretty much stuck in one place with nothing to do and no money to do it with. She had enough for a night in a hostel in Napoli tomorrow before getting a plane back to Hungary tomorrow but had told me she would not have anywhere to sleep tonight.

I decided to pay for her to have a room for the night - it was only 20 euros anyway. I didn't tell her at the time that I was doing it, I just went and paid for the room and brought the key to her and she got quite upset because she said she felt stupid and was annoyed at herself for getting into the situation she was in. She tried to refuse the room but I just said her mother would be horrified if she thought that her daughter had nowhere to sleep for the night and if I had a younger sister who was in the same situation I would be too. Eventually she accepted the offer but I gave her little choice really.

I got the 11.07am train from Sorrento to Napoli and listened to a bit of Lily Allen on the way. I managed to sleep a little on the train from Napoli to Roma which was good as I was a little tired and it helped to break up the boredom somewhat. The ticket only cost me €10.50 from Napoli to Roma but that was because it was a slower train. It ended up leaving almost half an hour late and the train journey itself took around two and a half hours. It was certainly better than some of the train journeys I have had lately!

As soon as I arrived in Roma I got my bearings. I found an internet café so that I could search out some hostels and found one that was €23 a night so headed there. I booked in for 5 nights here to give me some time to be able to look for somewhere to live, I just hope that I can find somewhere within 5 days as it's not exactly cheap living out of hostels although this one provides free pasta in the evenings and its sister hostel does free pizza about an hour later which is pretty cool - at least that will keep my expenses down a little in terms of food!

I chatted with the guy on reception for a while and he gave me some really good information on sites that I could use to look for both work and accomodation so I had a look as soon as I had dumped all of my stuff in my room. I found a couple of suitable places so sent some emails off. It seems that it will be pretty expensive if I want an apartment but if I am prepared to do a share then it seems quite reasonable really. I did look for some work too but it's a little difficult as the computers here only have internet access so I can't sort a CV out right now and a lot of the places will need an address. I decided that I will concentrate on finding somewhere to live for now and worry about work once I have found somewhere.

I had some free pasta in the hostel and headed over to its sister hostel to get some free pizza and have a few drinks with anybody I could find to talk to. I got talking with an American couple for a while and then met a Brazilian guy after they left - I can't for the life of me remember his name but I am so bad with names that I seem to forget them all the time! I always feel really bad but it's really difficult when you are constantly meeting new people everyday. I arranged to spend a day walking around Roma with the Brazilian guy tomorrow as he only has one day to see the sights and has no idea how to find everything and I know Roma pretty well.

Fawlty Towers!

2009-09-25T12:18:00.002+02:00

Sunday 20th September

I got up at about 9.30am this morning - just in time for the breakfast so I went down and had a chocolate croissant and about 5 cappuccinos! Saw Brian at breakfast and we got chatting - turns out he lives in Rome so he gave me his email address and said to let him know when I arrived as he would be happy to put me up for a couple of days while I was searching for somewhere to live! After he left I sat talking with Yuli again for a while and learnt some more Italian - I can speak very little right now but the more you try the more you learn. Yuli is a really nice bloke and he seems to really enjoy helping me learn some Italian.

I had to move rooms this morning in the hostel as there is a big party due in tonight. When I went into the room there was a Hungarian girl there called Barbara so I sat talking with her for a while. She seemed like a nice girl so I suggested going down to the beach together a little later - it would be nice to have some company now all of my American friends have left. After about an hour Barbara decided to come to the beach with me so we spent about 4 hours down there sunbathing. The weather was really deceptive today as it was a little hazy for most of the day but the sun was very strong and I ended up burning quite a bit on my back! Ah well, it will go brown in a few days I think.

It was nice to have somebody to talk to for the day and we spoke about all sorts of different things. I went swimming in the sea a few times - I love swimming in the sea and I hope there is a beach fairly close to Roma so that I can go there from time to time. Barbara thought the sea was too cold so didn't come in the sea which was a shame - it's always more fun if there is someone else in the sea with you!

I have been feeling pretty tired all day today and I am sure that I will sleep well tonight. I am going to try and get an early night tonight as I need to travel to Roma tomorrow in search of my new life. I tried using the internet in the hostel to try and plan out the trip and also to update my blog and Facebook but it was ridiculously slow so I gave up pretty quickly on that idea. It's been really frustrating and I have now fallen quite far behind on my blog so I am going to have to spend a lot of time bringing it back up to date in Roma.

I went out for an evening meal with Barbara and we went to the funniest restaurant ever. It was almost like Fawlty Towers! They were so disorganised, didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing and got pretty much everything wrong for the whole of the time we were there. I thought it was really amusing but then I never stress about things like that. Maybe somebody different might have been annoyed but I thought it was too funny to be honest!

After the meal we went to get a waffle and a gelato and the heavens opened just like the night before but only heavier. It rained so hard that within a couple of minutes there was pretty much a river running along all of the roads and we got absolutely soaked. All of the Italians were looking at me like I was crazy as I was walking quite casually in my t shirt - I'm used to this kind of weather in England so it didn't bother me in the slightest but they were all running for cover!

When we got back to the hostel we sat and had a beer before heading up to bed. I think we turned in at around 11pm which is pretty early by my recent standards! As soon as we had gone to bed a big party of German teenagers started making lots of noise so, after about 15 minutes, I went and told them to shut up or I'd shut them up. It was certainly a lot quieter after that but it was definitely not quiet! Still, I was pretty tired so it didn't take me long to get to sleep.

My Second Day In Sorrento

2009-09-24T18:14:00.003+02:00

Saturday 19th September

Somehow managed to get up at 9.15am today and, even more surprisingly, I actually feel pretty good, despite a hint of tiredness. I spoke with the Dutch guy again this morning and we ended up going down to breakfast together. We had a few cappuccinos and chatted for about an hour before he headed off out for the day and then I got chatting with the guy behind the bar, Yuli. I sat and chatted with Yuli for about an hour and managed to pick a fair bit of Italian up off him, particularly ways to chat Italian women up! He actually said he thought my Italian was pretty good and that I must be pretty intelligent to pick it all up so quickly.

I then realised my dad had text to say that he had transferred the money to me so I headed over to the Western Union place to pick it up. It was actually a really easy process to get hold of the money - I just needed the reference number, the name of the person who had deposited the money and my passport for identification purposes. I then headed to la farmacia to get some tweezers to try and get the spikes out of my foot but they weren't really much help and I just ended up doing more damage than good! I went back to la farmacia and asked about some creams and they gave me some stuff that stinks like tar but they assured me it would help to clear it up within a week.

I also popped into a barbers to enquire as to how much it would cost to get a haircut as it has been almost 3 weeks since my last one and my hair is now far too long for my tastes! I decided to get my hair cut there and went back after I had eaten something. It cost €10 which is a little steep for a shaven head but it was worth it and I feel so much better now. The hair cut experience in Italy is totally different to in England. The guy took such pride in what he was doing and he must have checked everything about 15 times to make sure it was perfect. When it came to the tidying up he used a flick razor to get everywhere perfect and even shaved down my neck!

I got another phone card to call my dad and let him know I got the money ok and also called my mum for a quick chat to let her know I am alright as I had not spoken to her for a few and she sent me a message saying she was a little worried - mothers, eh? I went and bought a pair of flip flops so that my toes would be open to try and encourage the spikes to come out of my feet and headed back down to the beach for a bit of a sunbathe and to relax after another busy day.

I went back to the hostel and got chatting to another American guy called Nick who would be sharing the dormitory for the night. It turned out that Nick knew some of the American people I had been knocking about with last night so he called them to arrange to meet up with them again at some point tonight. That was pretty lucky really as I didn't have any of their phone numbers! I went out with Nick and some of his friends (Beth and Hannah) for a gelato before meeting up with the others.

We headed down to the beach for a few drinks and a few of the other Americans joined us for about half an hour. Just after they left Jordyn and John came down to join us. 6 of us ended up going skinny dipping tonight which was pretty funny but then it started raining pretty heavily and there was a thunderstorm so we got out and got dressed - it's horrible getting back into wet clothes! We headed to the bar next to the hostel and sat there until about 5am drinking before everyone but Jordyn left. We got chatting to another American guy there called Brian but he only stuck around for about half an hour.

The weather was much better than before so Jordyn and I headed back down to the beach for a while to chill out and we sat talking for a while. I walked her back to her hotel at about 7.15am and got her email address to add her on Facebook. I finally got to bed in the hostel at about 7.30am after another very long but enjoyable night! I really enjoyed spending time with the Americans and it was a shame that they would be leaving but that's the curse of the traveller I suppose!

Sorrento, Sun And Skinny Dipping!

2009-09-24T17:42:00.003+02:00

Friday 18th September

I managed to get up at 10.30am today which was really surprising given the time I went to bed last night! Unfortunately I had already missed breakfast but I wasn't really too bothered this morning. I got a shower and packed my stuff up ready to set off for the train station to head to Sorrento. It turned out that Jeannie, the American girl, also wanted to spend a day in Sorrento so we arranged to go together. I have not really had chance to go swimming in the sea up until now as I don't like to leave my stuff on the beach totally unattended so I was glad of some company for the day.

We got the train at about 1pm from Napoli and arrived in Sorrento just after 2pm. The hostel I had booked was pretty easy to find so I dumped all of my stuff there so we could head down to the beach with a much lighter load. The beach at Sorrento is ridiculously small and I think I might well have gone to Capri or the Amalfi coast if I had realised prior to booking the 3 days in the hostel. We had a good day down there though and I spent almost 2 hours swimming in the sea.

I got chatting with some American girls in the sea - Elizabeth, Alyssa and Melissa - and arranged to meet them at the beach again tonight to have a few drinks and a mini party, so to speak. We all agreed to bring our swimming gear too so we might well end up in the sea again. I was glad that I had made some new friends so quickly as I knew I wouldn't be short of people to speak to for the night and beach parties always tend to be fun occasions.

I rang my dad to arrange for him to send me some more money as I am now running really low - I only have €40 left now and that will be gone some time tomorrow. He was in work today but has said that he will go and do it pretty early tomorrow morning so that I have the money before lunchtime. I found a place that is open from 8am until 8pm tomorrow for me to be able to get hold of the money so it doesn't really matter what time he does it.

I headed back to the hostel so that I could have another shower - it's always nice to refresh yourself after swimming in the sea and it was also pretty warm today so I am sure I sweated a bit. Once I had pretty much got ready to go out I met another 5 American students who would be sharing a room with me for the night. There was also a Dutch guy there who was on his way out for the evening. I only spoke briefly with them all before going out but they all seem nice enough.

I went to the supermarket to see what deals they had on and found a bottle of Jack Daniels for just €12.49!! Needless to say, I snapped that up immediately! I managed to find somewhere nice to eat and chilled out for a bit before heading down to the beach to meet with the Americans. We had arranged to meet around 9.30pm but they said they might be a little late as they had some big meal arranged at the hotel. They turned up just after 10pm but I wasn't too bothered.

I had a really fantastic night at the beach with the Americans and it was probably my most enjoyable night so far since setting off from Chester. We had a game of football, or soccer as the Yanks like to say, which was really good fun. I had Alyssa on my team and we played against a couple of American guys, one called Ian and I can't remember the other guy's name - I'm really bad with names! We won 5-1 so I managed to ensure that the English rep was upheld. We played barefoot and the beach was mostly stones so my feet took a bit of a pounding given the already fragile condition they were in.

I was about to start playing football again when one of the American girls asked me "to go nudo in the sea" with her. Well, it would be rude to say no to such a request so we pretty quickly ended up in the sea skinny dipping at about 1am! I think she was a little shy at first but I think she really enjoyed her first skinny dipping experience. It was funny but she said exactly the same thing I had said the first time I did it - how liberating it felt. We disappeared out into the sea for quite a while and all of her friends got worried as they were shouting us but we couldn't hear them so they thought we had drowned! I didn't drown but I did kick a urchin or something and I now have about 15 spikes in my foot!

All the Americans left shortly after we got out of the sea and I got talking to a group of four people - 2 Italian guys, an Italian girl and a Dutch girl. I sat with them for about an hour trying to speak Italian with them but it is not easy when you are a bit drunk! The centre of Sorrento is not far from the beach but there are some really steep hills so they offered me a lift up to the top which was pretty nice of them. Once they dropped me off I headed back to the hostel and sat at the bar next door having a couple of beers and trying to understand some conversations that the Italians were having - I didn't understand much but it can surely only help to listen to the language being spoken? I eventually went to bed at about 4.30am feeling pretty drunk and pretty tired too!

Pompei

2009-09-24T17:24:00.003+02:00

Thursday 17th September

I woke up pretty early this morning at about 8am and went to get some breakfast which ended up being a croissant and cereal - much better than some of the breakfasts I have had to endure recently! I got a nice refreshing shower and decided to get ready to go to Pompei. It turned out that one of the lads I was sharing with, Alex, also wanted to go to Pompei so we arranged to go together once he had sorted a couple of things out that he needed to do. It's always nice when visiting a place like that to have somebody to discuss things with.

We got on the bus at around 11am and arrived in Pompei at around midday. We walked around Pompei until about 4pm but the heat became unbearable at times. The weather forecast had said it would be overcast today so I wore my jeans thinking it would be a little cooler but the sun was out for most of the day so I just felt uncomfortably hot for most of the day. Even though we didn't see everything that Pompei had to offer we were both content with what we had seen so decided to go and get a bite to eat in the shade somewhere.

Pompei itself was really sensational. The site was absolutely huge and I could very easily have spent 8 or 9 hours in a place like that. It was almost a shame that they had not built some form of café or restaurant inside somewhere as this was one of the main things that stopped us staying longer apart from the heat. In places the quality of the buildings in tact isn't particularly great but you really get a feel from Roman life and get an understanding of how a town would have been laid out. It was really interesting to see how many similarities there were between Pompei and any modern city and it was amazing to see how little we have evolved in some ways from those times. Another thing I really liked was the grooves in the roads where the carts would have been driven.

We headed back to Napoli after having a drink and something to eat. I got chatting to 3 Irish girls at the bus stop whilst we were waiting for the bus who had also visited from Napoli. They were really impressed with it too but they had been out drinking the night before so only spent a couple of hours walking around. I know I keep saying this but I really have changed a lot - 6 weeks ago I probably never would have even spoken to these 3 girls but now I feel I can really chat with just about anyone. On the bus on the way back I managed to get some photos of Mount Vesuvius after a nice Italian guy pointed it out to us. We chatted for a little while and, even though I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, we managed to speak about a few things.

When we got back to the hostel I met some more people who would be sharing with me for the night - Claire and Brie, a couple of Australian girls. Sam, Ed, Claire, Brie and I all went out for a bit of a walk around Napoli and to find a supermarket to be able to get some food to cook for the evening. Once we got back to the hostel we met some more people - Jeannie (an American girl), Luke (an American guy), Mateusz (a Polish guy) and Bruno (I think a Chilean guy) and we all sat drinking and fooling around until about 4.30am!

It was a really enjoyable evening and we had a really good laugh. The language barrier threw up a few funny conversations when Mateusz misunderstood a few words and he was totally confused a couple of times trying to keep up with all of the different accents. My time at the hostel in Napoli has been really enjoyable and I have made yet more friends. Hostels in general have provided some very good experiences for me and I will definitely think about using them in the future if I decide to go travelling again.

First Night In Napoli

2009-09-23T17:51:00.002+02:00

Wednesday 16th September

Managed to get up at 8am this morning with no problems which was fairly surprising considering the time that I went to bed last night. Having said that though I seem to need much less sleep these days than I used to even though I am so active both mentally and physically. I sorted all of my stuff out ready to leave and exchanged email addresses with a few people I had met so that we could add each other on Facebook. We also offered each other accomodation if we were ever in each other's cities. I am not sure how serious people are when they make these offers but I know I will keep to my word on it.

I went to catch the metro with a couple of Dutch guys I had been drinking with last night and we parted company at the Duomo where I got the next train to the main station in Milan. I arrived with about 15 minutes to spare which was good as I like to have time to spare when I arrive as there is nothing worse than having to rush around in a busy train station and you always end up hot and sweaty and feeling very uncomfortable. I managed to find the train pretty easily. The train wasn't too busy but I was sat with a couple of Italian people - my Italian is nowhere near good enough to have conversations with people yet so I decided to listen to an Italian course on my iPod.

Breakfast this morning had only been light - cereal, a bread roll, cappuccino and orange juice - so I decided to get some more to eat on the train as we would not be arriving into Napoli until after lunchtime. I bought a panini and a cappuccino and it was pretty expensive but at least I felt a little less hungry and a little more awake! It was a very different experience from a train in England. In England you have a little shop and you take everything back to your seat but here there was pretty much a whole carriage for the shop with an area to eat and drink.

Another big difference with the trains in Italy is that you can get off the train at every stop to have a smoke. There is a law in Italy that says you can't smoke in railway stations but nobody takes any notice of it and the police or rail staff never say anything to anyone. This was quite handy on a train journey that ended up taking 6 hours. I tried talking with an Italian bloke each time the train stopped and we went for a smoke. It was difficult to understand but we managed a little bit of chat. I find the only way to be able to learn a language quickly is to try and enter into conversation with people as much as possible. I feel comfortable enough on a one to one basis but it can be awkward if there are 4 people and the conversation is constantly broken up because you don't understand.

The weather has been overcast for most of today but the sun came out just as I arrived into Rome and I was very tempted to get off there and start my new life there and then. I resisted the temptation though and continued on towards Napoli. I really want to visit Pompei while I am in Napoli and I am also looking forward to going to Sorrento for a few days on the beach. The weather forecast is not great for Napoli today and tomorrow but apparently it will be a pretty sunny weekend!

When I arrived at Napoli the tourist information place had nobody there. I waited for about 15 minutes but nobody returned so I decided to get something to eat as I was bloody starving! The nearest place to eat was a McDonald's so I went there. As I sat down I realised there were a couple of American girls sat next to me so I asked them if they knew of any hostels in Napoli. They had a travel guide book but it wasn't really much help. I chatted with them (Jen and Steph) for about half an hour as there train was delayed before I headed back to the tourist information office.

This time there was someone there and he was pretty helpful. Not only did he tell me where the hostels were but he even called them for me to make sure that there was a room available. I thought that was really nice of him as most places just give you the information and let you find out for yourself. When I arrived at the hostel the guy there was also pretty friendly and called a hostel in Sorrento to reserve me a room for 3 nights after I leave Napoli. So far my experiences of Italian people, save the ones who laughed at my clothes in Milan, have been really good.

Not a lot happened in the evening really except for watching a football match (Inter Milan against Barcelona) and having a couple of drinks with some English guys (Sam and Ed) who I would be sharing a room with for the next couple of nights. They are currently cycling through Italy and will be finishing in Nice before catching a plance home. It's funny how a football match can kill conversation so easily. I decided to watch the match in the hostel rather than go to a bar as I had heard that Napoli has a bad reputation and there a couple of areas in particular you should avoid at night - I didn't want to get caught out in one of them!

Milan

2009-09-23T17:11:00.002+02:00

Tuesday 15th September

Got up at around 8.30am today and had breakfast and a shower before getting ready to go and get the train. Strangely, I had no hangover this morning and, even though I felt pretty tired, I didn't feel ill in the slightest. Unlike another recent experience, I made it for my train with plenty of time to spare and found my seat in a compartment with a Chinese couple and an English lady, Julia, who now lives in Kenya.

We all talked for pretty much the whole journey which was pretty good as the journey was 5 hours and there is nothing worse than sitting with people in uncomfortable silence for such a long time and also it's boring as hell! 5 hours was a little much to be honest for a train journey. I don't mind 3 hours but 5 hours was too long. Still, at least it's not as bad as a plane where you are crammed in and pretty much just have to sit there!

Tomorrow I have another train journey and that one will take 5 and a half hours so I am glad that I decided to break the journey up. Even though I have already been to Milan I don't mind having an overnight here. It's somewhere relatively familiar to me and is the first place where I have felt confident of where I am going since I left Chester almost a month ago. As soon as I got off the train I remembered where there was a tourist information office so headed straight to the Duomo to find it and look for a hostel for the night.

The tourist information office pointed out a hostel not far from the San Siro, another area I am relatively familiar with from my trip to watch Inter Milan against Fiorentina last April. I got the metro from the Duomo to by the hostel which only cost €1 - I love travelling in Italy as it so cheap. If you are using the metro a lot you can get a day ticket for €4 that gives you unlimited use! The hostel cost me €20 for the night and although this is more expensive than some have been I can't really complain as it is in Milan. The hostel itself seems pretty good. It's fairly big and there are lots of people around to talk with.

When I arrived in Milan it was raining and continued to rain all day long. I felt somewhat strange walking around the fashion capital of the world in England shorts and a sweaty t shirt in the rain and I swear that people actually laughed at me! I decided to go and get a new outfit that would be more suitable for this kind of location and, indeed, weather. I was absolutely starving though so I had a calzone at the Galleria in the Duomo shopping centre. Again, it cost more than I would ideally like to pay but I had been there last year with Emma and remembered it being particularly nice.

Once I had satisfied my stomach I took a walk down the via Manzoni to search for my favourite shop in the world - Emporio Armani! I couldn't really afford to pay the prices there but I decided to buy something anyway and ended up walking out of there with a pair of jeans, a t shirt and a nice new zip up hoody. Even though they are all casual clothes I immediately felt better walking around Milan and, all of a sudden, people stopped looking at me strangely.

The Duomo made a massive impression on me again and I decided to get a few photos of both the cathedral and the shopping centre in the evening. As I had already visited Milan I decided not to walk around taking loads of photos, if you would like to see Milan then I have another photo album on Facebook with all the photos from last year's visit in April. The Duomo was so amazing though that I had to get more photos!

I headed back to the hostel at around 9pm and met a guy called Thomas from Spain who would be sharing the room for the night. He is in Milan for study and is in his final year of law and economics. We got talking to some people outside who showed us where we could find a few beers so we walked there and got a few bottles to sit outside the hostel with. We actually ended up sitting outside the hostel until about 3am talking with loads of people there.

There were lots of different nationalities gathered there including Dutch, Belgian, Australian, Spanish and Ukranian. I was actually the only English person there for a change but, luckily, English was the common language so most of the conversation was conducted in English. It was interesting to hear so many different languages being spoken between people though. I'm not sure why but I like to listen to foreign languages even though I can't understand a word sometimes.

Jack Daniels!

2009-09-21T17:55:00.002+02:00

Monday 14th September

I woke up a couple of times in the night again but eventually got up at around 8am. I sorted out all of my dirty clothes so that I could do some washing this morning before heading down for breakfast. Breakfast was a refreshing change for me - cereal, orange juice and French bread (that wasn't stale!!) - and I actually enjoyed it for the first time in a while! Once I had had breakfast I went to do my washing and it took absolutely ages - over an hour to wash and almost an hour to dry and, even then, it wasn't all completely dry.

I only have one t shirt now as I decided it wouldn't be, or feel, right to wear one that says I am walking to Rome for charity. As a result it makes it quite difficult for washing right now. I put my only t shirt in the wash but then got told off by the people in the hostel for not wearing one so had to sit outside in the sun for about two hours whilst waiting for the washing - I would have spent this time catching up on Facebook so it was a little inconvenient to say the least! Still, it was a fairly pleasant morning so it was a good opportunity for me to try and get a little bit of a tan - always the optimist!

I have decided to get some more clothes when I get to Milan but will have to arrange for my clothes to be sent over as soon as I sort somewhere to live in Rome as I will need clothes then and I can't afford to buy a whole new wardrobe, especially not at Milan's prices! To be honest, it will probably cost me enough just to buy one more outfit in Milan - when I was there last year I could have spent a fortune so easily!

I managed to pick up a charger for my iPod yesterday so at least I had some music to accompany me whilst I sat around outside waiting for my washing. You wouldn't believe just how much I have missed my music since I left home. I don't think you realise how big a part it plays in your life until you can't have it! I was like a kid in a sweet shop this morning shuffling through all my favourite music!

I set off for Monaco just after 1pm and the train only took about 20 minutes to get there. I have to say I was a little disappointed when I got there - Monaco and Monte Carlo are built up so much by people that I had gone there with this image in my head of some magical place but I have to say it felt a little like a hotel resort in Spain only with Ferraris, yachts and rich people all over the place! I got bored pretty quickly there and I was on a train back to Nice by 4pm! It's a shame I didn't enjoy it more but there have been places where I expected nothing and got some really good experiences so I guess it balances itself out in the end. In a way I am actually a little gutted I didn't spend more time in Nice looking around as it seemed like a more interesting place to me.

When I got back to the hostel I updated another couple of days on my blog and this brought me pretty much up to date. Tonight I am planning to have some rest and relaxation and I have already decided I am going to get a bottle of Jack Daniels to help the time pass! It's been so long since I had a really good night on Jack Daniels and there have been some testing times recently so I think that it is definitely in order!

I spent a little time today looking online for jobs in Rome to see what was available at the moment but I will have a really good look once I have some more time. I also sent an email off to Holly at Vango offering to pay for the equipment they donated as I didn't manage to complete the walk. I am hoping that they don't take me up on it as I have already shelled out so much funding the walk itself but I felt that I had to offer in the same way as I did to the people who donated to charity.

I added a load of photos to Facebook today and labelled and tagged them all only for Facebook to not apply all of the labels and tags - I was so annoyed but didn't really have time to go through them all again so I will have to do that another time. It's a good thing I have been making notes on what all of the pictures are otherwise I would be in trouble now! Also, I have spent quite a bit of time online today and I don't really want to be sat here any longer, I just want to go and have some fun with the other people in the hostle.

I went and got the bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of coke and was made up as it only cost me €20. I think that works out cheaper than it is in England at the moment and, at last, a reasonable price in France. I think that it must just be really expensive to drink in bars, maybe that is a deliberate thing initiated by the powers that be to discourage binge drinking in bars. I ended up drinking the whole bottle tonight and even got another 5 beers from the bar in the hostel afterwards but, I have to admit, I was pretty wasted!

There was quite a gathering at the hostel tonight and there must have been at least a dozen of us sat outside until the early hours of the morning. It was another good opportunity to speak French and I found that I can even speak it when I am wasted so I must be getting pretty good at it now! I ended up going to bed at about 2am feeling pretty tired and extremely drunk!

Meeting New People On The Way To And In Nice

2009-09-14T17:44:00.002+02:00

Sunday 13th September

I really struggled to get to sleep last night and fell back asleep after both of my alarms that were set for 6.30am and 6.45am. I had requested a wake up call from reception so I thought I had a safety net so to speak. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I never got the wake up call and woke up at 7.25am - just 17 minutes before my train to Nice was due to depart! I packed up in a hurry and had an extrememly wuick wash and brushed my teeth before literally sprinting up the main street in Nimes with my heavy bag on my back - I got a few funny looks from people but the ticket had cost me a lot and there was no way I was going to miss the train! I made it with about 3 minutes to spare but didn't feel particularly nice - I was now all sweaty again and felt distinctively dirty.

The sun was really hot this morning too so that didn't really help and it looked like being another fantastic day of weather with not a cloud in thesky. The train ride ended up being a fairly enjoyable one for a change. I was sat next to an extremely pretty French girl, called Isabelle, and thought it would be simply rude not to talk to her! French people definitely seem to be more friendly and we chatted for a couple of hours before she got off the train at Cannes. My French has definitely improved a lot - there were times when I didn't understand completely but my French dictionary sorted out those problems. To be able to sit and chat with someone for such a long time about varied subjects surely means I have improved massively - 2 weeks ago I probably wouldn't have understood a word and probably wouldn't have been able to speak much myself but I am feeling more and more confident every time I speak with someone French now.

Isabelle was telling me that she works on cruise ships and can earn up to €2,500 a month - admittedly she does have to put a lot of hours in for that but there is little to do on the boats and all of her food and accomodation is paid for so, in essence, it's al,ost like earning €4,000 a month really. She said a flat month would be worth around €1,500 a month which I thought was quite reasonable given the fact that you have no bills at all whilst on board. It definitely got me thinking about the future - if, for whatever reason, things didn't work out in Italy then it would always be an option. She even said that you are allowed to take your pets with you and Roman would be able to go with me!

I arrived into Nice just before midday and was welcomed by blistering 30 degree sunshine for pretty much the whole of the afternoon! The tourist office was right next door to the train station so I enquired about a youth hostel and was pleased to find that there was one less than a mile down the road in the direction of the beaches. It is more expensive than usual at €22 a night but that's a lot cheaper than a hotel and breakfast is included in the price also. The hostel is very busy and there are a lot of people buzzing around here which helps to pass the time.

I had a walk around Nice for a short while and took a stroll down the seafront once I had sorted all of my stuff out. I sat on a chair by the seafront for about an hour before deciding to go off in search of food. It was a bit of an irregular hour for eating in France so I had to make do with a KFC - it's been a while since I had one of them but I can tell you the English definitely do it better! I didn't fare much better for my evening meal - McDonald's - but I couldn't be bothered looking for a restaurant and it did save me about €10.

I rang my parents to let them know where I was and also what my new plan was for my journey into Rome. As I had originally planned to arrive at the end of October the change in plans means that I may arrive into Rome and have nobody there to meet me as originally hoped - that may change but it depends on quite a few factors so I will have to wait and see on that. I also spoke to Rich to tell him to make sure he sends off for his passport this week so he can come and visit as soon after I arrive as possible - he isn't the most organised of people and I had been telling him for weeks to get it sorted!

As I sat down to update my blog and my photos I got talking to a couple of English girls in the hostel, Gabriella and Hannah. They are coming to the end of their travels also after travelling around Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and France and will be getting a flight from Nice on Thursday afternoon back to England. They seem like fun so I arranged to go out for a few drinks with them - it can get really boring in the evenings when you have no company and English speakers have been few and far between so it's also nice to have an opportunity for free flowing relaxed conversation.

Back home I don't think I would have ever spoken to them to be honest but I think that this journey has changed me in a few ways. I am now more outward and am becoming more confident. I think the good experiences I have had with people along the way have also helped and I think I actively search out new experiences now. Also, as I have said already, it can get pretty lonely with nobody to talk to so I am now prepared to speak to people more as it is a good way of alleviating the boredom.

We went in search of some wine and beer just before 9pm but were horrified to learn that the supermarket had shut at 8.30pm! We had a walk around for a while but couldn't find anywhere else to get some from so decided to have a walk up the front for a bit instead. After a bit we sat on the beach having competitions to see who could skim stones the best and who could throw the furthest - these are the sorts of interactions I think I would struggle to have with someone I don't share a language with and it was nice to just sort of sit around doing very little and chatting about anything that sprung to mind.

Gabriella is really quite an amusing character. She seems very impulsive and loved going into the expensive hotels for a look around! Hannah seemed reluctant to do it but Gabriella just walked in - she did get escorted out and got some funny looks outside the casino too but it was quite amusing. She has a very relaxed attitude and it's quite refreshing to meet someone like that. She is currently taking a year out from studies to work for a while before going off travelling again. Hannah is certainly more reserved than Gabriella but is also a very nice girl. She is studying for a politics degree at the moment and has another couple of years to go. Although she was more reserved than Gabriella she is quite a conversationalist and I found it really easy to talk to her. Hannah commandeered my camera at one point and took some random photos - a rare opportunity for some photos of me for a change amongst all of the photos of towns and buildings!

I had a really nice evening with them even though we really didn't do very much and we decided to head back to the hostel at about midnight. We stumbled across a shop that sold alcohol on the way back - bloody typical! - so I bought a couple of cans of Kronenbourg to drink before bed time. We got back to the hostel at around 12.30am and went to bed pretty soon after. I find beer usually helps you to get to sleep if you have had a couple but this wasn't the case tonight - I struggled to get to sleep and it ended up taking me until around 2am before I finally dropped off.

Nimes - What A Fantastic Place!

2009-09-14T16:11:00.004+02:00

Saturday 12th September

I didn't get up until about 10.30am today but I was definitely tired after the last few days and I hadd opted not to have a breakfast in the hotel anyway - I didn't fancy paying €5 for stale bread again! I had a shower and woke up properly before deciding to take a look around Nimes and see what was there and to get some photos. I was really impressed with the history on display here. In fact, I have been impressed everywhere I have been in France so far. They seem to have different attitudes towards history in France - it is not only embraced but takes a very important part within the towns and cities.

My hometown, Chester, is steeped in Roman history but this is not capitalised on properly and, in fact, is actually disregarded in places. Things in Chester seem to be hidden away whereas in France everything is signposted that is worth seeing. There is an ampitheatre in Chester that is only half uncovered - there have been petitions for years to get the other half uncovered but it has always been blocked for one reason or another. It's ridiculous really that such heritage can exist yet be so readily disregarded.

Nimes is a particularly stunning place in France. It's not only the quantity of Roman history that is on display here but the quality with which it still survives today. The Roman gardens here are truly spectacular and really put Chester to shame - it's ironic that so many people visit Chester for the Roman history when there is so much more and of more quality in other places around the world. The ampitheatre here is also breathtaking and is something that I really recommend you take the time to go and see - even if Roman history does not particularly interest you I fail to see how you could not be impressed with it.

The ampitheatre in Nimes is, of course, nowhere near the size of the Colosseum in Rome but, in a lot of ways for me personally, was actually a better experience. The condition of the ampitheatre in Nimes far outdoes that of the Colosseum in Rome, although the deteriation of the Colosseum has had a bit to do with earthquakes there I believe. One of the things I really enjoyed about the ampitheatre in Nimes was the fact that pretty much every part of it was open to you. You could, if you so chose, climb all the way to the top to get a view of the arena from up high or even to take in the view of the town from an elevated position.

To make things even better they had even taken the time to make the most of the underneath of the arena with designated rooms in the archways with displays of equipment that would have been used and clothing that would have been worn. There was a room specifically for the gladiators and also one for the bull fighters. To go a step further they also had relevant films being shown in these rooms such as Spartacus. I was really impressed with the amount of thought and effort that had gone into making the experience as good as possible for visitors. As recently as a few years ago, 2005 I think, the arena was even used for a live display with a crowd - on this occasion there was a bullfighting display as would have happened in times go by.

The Maison Carrée was aloso another marvel to behold. It is a Roman civic temple that was built around 2,000 years ago and although the architecht is unknown it is believed that he either came from Rome or had very strong connections with Rome due to the style in which it was built. There are also some distinctly French styles within the building so the common thinking is that the architecht was in fact French but had strong connections with Rome. I'm not sure if that is romanticism on the part of the French or not but it sounded logical enough. The thing that struck me most about the building was the almost perfect state in which it still stands today. The roof has been restored but other than that it is exactly as it would have been 2,000 years ago. It really is a stunning piece of architechture and gives a huge insight into Roman culture.

I have eaten better quality food than I have had for a while today and I am feeling the benefits of it already. The only drawback is that it is costing me around €14 a meal including a drink and it's these sorts of prices that really killed off my quest. I am happy to be eating good quality food again though and, with the pressure off, I don't have to budget so much anymore. I had a calzone this afternoon for lunch and was so impressed that I decided to return to the same place for my evening meal and I had a lasagne. You can get these things cheaper than I paid but you tend to find they are pretty poor quality whereas the food today was really good.

After looking at various options today to see where I will go from here I have decided that my next call will be to a place called Nice. I really wanted to go to Monaco and Monte Carlo but really couldn't afford to pay the kind of prices that a place like that would have. Nice is a 15 minute €3.30 train ride away so I have decided to stay a couple of nights there to give me plenty of time to go to Monaco. After that I have decided to go to Milan - the ticket to Nice is €45.30 whereas I can get a ticket from there to Milan for only €30. Although I have been to Milan before it made sense to go there as it has a massive station and pretty much the whole of Italy is open to me from there and it breaks the travelling up nicely whilst putting me in familiar territory.

I have always wanted to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, the two towns buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79ad. I have decided to get the train from Milan to Naples on Tuesday which will give me the opportunity to visit both places. It will also be an opportunity for me to take a few days out and relax on the beach in Sorrento Bay - a place I believe is very beautiful also. Although I have failed in my quest to walk to Rome it has not been all bad news for me as I would not have previously had the opportunity to visit these places and they are places I have always wanted to go - expect lots of photos from those visits...

I plan to get the train from Naples to Rome on Monday 21st September and then the real hard work will start - I will have to do all the bureaucratic stuff required to allow me to live and work there and then I will have to start looking for somewhere to live and some kind of work. I am hoping that arriving earlier will be to my advantage as the tourist season will not quite be over which gives me the opportunity to get some English speaking work whilst trying to get to grips with Italian. I am hoping that this will buy me a little more time and make things easier in the long run.

I spent about 4 hours on the internet today updating my blog and photos and also took the time to send a message out to my Facebook group to inform them of my failure to complete the walk. I offered anybody who had donated the money back from my own pocket but not one person has taken me up on this yet. Everybody has been really supportive and understanding to be honest and I am very grateful for that. I was worried that people would feel let down but the reaction has been pretty good and most people have said I should be proud of what I did do rather than be disappointed with what I didn't manage.

Paris In 4 Hours

2009-09-13T18:48:00.002+02:00

Friday 11th September

I got up pretty early this morning at 8.30am - remarkably early considering how tiring the last couple of days had been and the time I got to sleep last night! Although I only had 6 hours sleep I didn't wake up once during the night and felt much more refreshed than I had done in a while. I think that last night was the first night since I left Chester that I managed to sleep right through. I had a shower and shave and sorted myself out before going down to breakfast - coffee and stale bread, again, for €5, again!

I asked at reception if I could leave my bag with them whilst I went to do a tour of Paris for a few hours and was delighted to see that they actually had a secure, locked room for baggage - it's the first time that has happened so far! I left the hotel at 10am with a clear plan in mind of the way I was going to do it - I had studied the map and worked out a route that would take in all of the sights with as little walking as possible. I power walked for about 4 hours around Paris taking photos on the move. It staggered me just how big Paris was, I don't know why but I just didn't expect it to be so big.

I think I must have covered around 15 miles whilst walking around taking photos but I think I managed to get pictures of pretty much everything I had heard of. Upon reflection I think that 4 hours to do the whole of Paris is pretty impressive really - some people take a whole week! I decided to stop for something to eat before going to get my bag from the hotel and working out my next stop. I had a lasagne at a restaurant in one of the many side streets that was accompanied by a large salad and lots of bread - yes, I ate the lot!

I headed back to the hotel and checked a few of the destinations I had been thinking of moments before when looking at ticket prices and eventually decided on heading straight to the south coast of France - I had originally wanted to visit Dijon and Lyon but that would have added quite a lot expense and there wasn't anything specific I wanted to see in those places so decided to bypass them to make sure I had enough money to cover my travels. I was then faced with a choice between Marseille, Nimes and Avignon.

For me it was a pretty easy choice to make - I had read up about Nimes on the internet when I first started planning the walk and this town was one of the main reasons my course had taken me to the south coast. From what I had seen it was a town steeped in history and Roman history at that. The train to Nimes was from the Gare du Lyon at 4.20pm so I had to walk a couple of miles to get to the station. I didn't fancy chancing it on the underground as I was in a bit of a rush and didn't want to get lost!

The train ticket to get me to Nimes set me back €98 which is quite a lot of money but the journey would cover about 450 miles! Pretty good economy when you consider that a ticket from Chester to London - about 200 miles - costs about 120 quid! On the face of things it would have taken me about 15 days to walk there and this would have set me back between 600 and 700 quid on current costs. I have decided to work out where to go from there but my initial thoughts are a bit more of the south coast and a few cities in Italy.

The train is expected to arrive into Nimes at 7.17pm so I am guessing that the tourist office will be closed by thenso I just hope that there is a youth hostel or camp site sign posted. I also realised whilst looking at ticket prices that I am travelling at a peak time so I probably could have got the ticket cheaper if I had looked first thing in the morning. I will have to remember that in future and sort things out the afternoon before so that I can check to make sure I get the cheapest tickets available!

I spent about an hour noting down all of the photos I had taken in Paris so I wouldn't forget when it came to posting them on Facebook. I also took the opportunity to write down my thoughts for the day - it can be pretty boring travelling on a train in France when your French is not the best and nobody speaks any English! I listened to a bit of Lily Allen and 2Pac - interesting combination, I know! - before my iPod finally died. I had forgotten to bring my wire to recharge it and now had no way of recharging it - I really miss music right now!

I arrived into Nimes just as it was about to start getting dark and couldn't find any any signs for camping or youth hostels after walking around for an hour so finally decided to find as cheap a hotel as possible for the night. Again this was a cost I could have really done without but I had no other choice really. I headed for some food at a restaurant just over the road - it's not nice getting lost in a place at night so I decided to stay close to home, so to speak. I opted for a calwone that came with a large salad and, although it was nice and a lot better than the one in Paris, I was still a little disappointed that it had been spoilt with bloody fromage!

After I had finished my meal I headed back to the restaurant and watched some French television until about midnight. It's funny but I can't understand much of what they are saying but still find myself watching it quite intently! Nimes seems to be a fairly nice place from what I have seen so far this morning so I will have a look around tomorrow and find internet access before deciding on my next course of action.

The Adventure Continues.... Just Not On Foot

2009-09-13T18:36:00.002+02:00

Thursday 10th September

Once I had made the decision to admit defeat I was then presented with a lot of options about what I wanted to do and exactly how I was going to get to Rome. The most obvious, and perhaps cheapest, way would have been to try and organise a flight from as close by as possible to Rome but I decided that would pretty much defeat the object of my original adventure completely so eventually decided to travel by train. There were quite a few places I wanted to go in France and Italy but finances would now not allow me to go to all of them as the train would certainly not be cheap!

I decided pretty quickly to head for Paris and then weigh up my options from there. When I had been looking at various destinations on the SNCF site it was apparent that pretty much anywhere south had to go through Päris anyway and it seemed silly to go into Paris just to get a train straight back out again! The ticket from Soissons to Paris was fairly reasonably priced at €15 too. It only took a couple of hours to get there and I arrived into Paris in the blistering heat at around 4.30pm. I spent almost 2 hours walking around Paris looking for a tourist information office to see if I could find any cheap accomodation anywhere and was pretty much on the point of getting a train straight back out of there!

I then had a moment of clarity in amongst a very stressful day and decided that it would be foolish to just leave as you don't get many chances to visit places like this so opted for the cheapest, dingiest hotel I could find. I found a 1 star hotel - not sure what the star was for, maybe because they had a door? - and checked in. It cost me €42 for the night there which I was not too happy about paying but at least I now had a bed for the night and could go and find somewhere to eat. I decided on a calzone in a restaurant close by but it was shockingly bad and I felt more hungry afterwards than I had done before!

I got hold of another phone card to call my parents again and let them know of the decision I had made and also where I was. They told me they were very proud of how far I had managed to get and that I should not think of it as a failure but rather be happy with what I had achieved. Still, I felt slightly down about the whole thing as it was something that, primarily, I wanted to do for myself and, even if others didn't feel let down, I felt like I had let myself down.

I went back to the hotel room and watched some tennis on Eurosport - thinking about it, maybe that was what the star was for! - before eventually dropping off to sleep at about 2am after a very long, difficult and, ultimately, disappointing day. The adventure, as it was originally intended, was officially over.

I'm Gutted

2009-09-12T19:04:00.002+02:00

Friday 4th September

I slept really well last night and must have got about 9 or 10 hours in total! I still woke up a couple of times during the night though and, interestingly, at 4am again! I managed to get online for about 20 minutes this morning before François provided coffee and breakfast! I was about to ask for the lift back into Hesdin when François told me he was having some problems fixing his son's car but, if I wanted, I could haev some lunch and then he would drop me off there. I had no idea how to get back there and it was a really kind offer so I accepted and took the opportunity to update my blog and Facebook photos and this was where I had left off at the end of the last post.

It took me an absolute age to update everything and I was dreading using a French keyboard - I remember reading on Benedict Protheroe's blog how much of a pain they are but I found it alright once I had gotten used to it. If you were wondering why there was the odd rogue 'q' instead of an 'a' in my last update then now you know why!! I think there were only about 10 mistakes though so that wasn't too bad considering the length of my update...

In the end I departed from Hesdin at about 2pm after we had eaten. François, and his family, really were brilliant. They made me feel really welcome from the first moment and were really kind. I just hope I meet more people like that along the way. It was a good thing I had only planned a normal day of walking today given the time I set off but I knew I could get 15 miles done in about 4 hours if I walked at a good pace. I stopped off in Anvin to get a much needed cup of coffee but only stopped once more to take in some water along the way.

The weather was changeable for most of the day but, luckily for me, it didn't rain at all. It was constantly alternating between cloudy and sunny but the rain would have been a real pain as it would probably not have rained all day meaning I would have had to have changed in and out of my waterproofs all day long!! The wind picked up in the late afternoon and it became a little chilly by the evening. I arrived into Saint Pol at around 7pm and mananged to find a campsite fairly quickly. The reception was closed so I just pitched up for the night before going off to get some food. I had meat and chips - it was a massive portion and I ate the lot, although it was really poor quality food and I wouldn't want to have to eat that very often - it still cost €6 though...

I went to bed early at about 9.30pm for two reasons - it had got dark and I had absolutely nothing to do and I also wanted to try and get an early start in the morning as I was hoping to reach Arras which is about 23 miles away. I needed to make sure I paced myself properly on these sorts of days as I had been really exhausted the day I walked from Boulogne to Montreuil and was on the verge of feinting. I checked Google Maps, incidentally, and discovered I actually walked 30 miles that day!!!

Saturday 5th September

I got up at around 7am this morning and packed up once I had showered. Reception was still closed so it looks like I got a free night! I could do with a few more of these along the way to keep costs down - things have been more expensive than I had originally hoped when planning this walk and I would need to try and keep an eye on the finances. I headed into the town centre and got some pains chocolats before heading off on the days walk. I left Saint Pol at about 8am and set myself a target of reaching Arras by 4pm - this meant I could have plenty of rests along the way. It would be nice to find a youth hostel tonight as France are playing Romania and I would like to watch the match.

As I left Saint Pol I saw a sign that said Arras was 34km away. At 9.20am I saw another sign that said Arras was 22km away! Let me tell you, road signs in France lie...a lot! There is no way, as quickly as I walk, that I had covered 12km in 80 minutes. About 5 minutes later I saw another sign that said Saint Pol was 9km behind me - that sounded more feasible and proved that the road signs do in fact lie! I had a break at the first café after this as I had just walked about 3 miles of dual carriageway and fancied a break from the constant zooming of cars, motorbikes and vans.

The weather had been glorious this far and the sun had been out all morning. There was a little cloud about but not very much and it didn't interrupt the sun very much. It had been warm up until this point but not hot as of yet, although it looked like it would certainly get hot this afternoon - northern France seems to be quite cool in the mornings but it really warms up in the afternoon. To be honest, this morning's weather has suited me - plenty of sun to give me a tan but cool enough to not be uncomfortable walking in it.

I arrived into Arras, amazingly, at 1.30pm - this is partly my problem. I can't pace myself, I just go at everything 100% and never slow down! Luckily, it had only just started getting hot so I hadn't exhausted myself! After leaving the café I had really upped the pace and, using the road markers, I calculated that I had been walking as fast as 5mph in places, even with a bloody heavy bag on my back! I think half of the time I just want to arrive so I don't have to carry the thing any more!

I have been wearing my boots again today but will be changing back to my trainers as soon as the opportunity arises - I can feel some pretty nasty blisters on my heels again - just as I thought my feet were toughening up too! It's funny but the trainers seem to cause blisters around the balls of my feet whilst the boots cause them by my heels, at least this means I can alternate every few days to keep the pain and discomfort down though!

The first eating place I came across just happened to be a McDonald's again so I ate there, got some funny looks of the diners in there as I walked in with my huge bag on my back and dripping with sweat! Once I left there I headed off into the centre to find a tourist office. It was another couple of miles to get there so I was glad I had stopped at McDonald's as all of the food places seem to stop serving between 2pm and 6pm in France! I finally found the tourist office and discovered that the local youth hostel had closed down! Luckily there was a similar establishment in the city that I could go to so I went there. It cost €16.70 for the night which was slightly more than I had been paying at the campsites but it had a television for me to watch the football!

It was another mile to find that place and I made a point of having a shower as soon as I arrived! I had been sweating a lot in the heat and felt distinctively dirty. It's amazing also how much good a power shower can do for aching shoulder muscles, it's almost like a massage! I then decided to head back into Arras and see what the place was all about - despite the long walk it would be a shame to not make the most of my spare time in the city. It seemed like there had been some sort of military^procession in the city today but, by the time I arrived, it had pretty much finished.

I saw some people dancing in one of the squares to Michael Jackson songs and recorded it - it wasn't good, it was embarrassing but the French seemed to be loving it as they had quite a crowd! Personally, I was openly laughing at it but I think I may have been the only one - strange bunch, the French! I then went in search of more food but, typically of France, everywhere had closed for the afternoon! Do they ever work in France? I eventually managed to find a Subway that was open so decided to eat there - at least I could have as much salad as I wanted on my sandwich there...

I managed to get hold of a phone card to ring my parents but not before I had bought a top up voucher for my Virgin phone. A word of advice, don't buy a voucher abroad - I had read every word of the terms and conditions and information included in my sim pack to check for anything to say about buying credit abroad but there was no mention of it. Anyway, the voucher only had 14 numbers on it instead of 16 and I couldn't speak to anyone at Virgin as I had no credit! Grr!

I rang my parents to let them know I was alright and had arrived in Arras and also to give them my planned destinations for the next few days. My dad sent an email off to Virgin to see if they could add the credit to my phone - it was a €20 top up. He contacted me a couple of days later to tell me that they couldn't do anything but had put a quid onto my account - I can tell you now I will never be using Virgin again, I thought that was disgusting! I spoke with my mum and asked her how my gran was doing - she had been ill when I left so wanted to check she was alright. I also asked after my gramps - he checks this every day apparently to see how I am getting on so 'hi gramps!'

I continued my tour of Arras and took some photos but I think I arrived about a week too late to be honest. There appears to be loads of history here but the guide book I had said most things were only open throughout July and August! Again, do they ever work in France? I noticed there was a Roman site here that I would have liked to have visited but, again, it only opens in July and August! I headed back to my accomodation to watch France against Romania but fell asleep 5 minutes before the end! I have since found out that the score was 1-1 but it was frustrating not knowing the result!

Sunday 6th September

I got up nice and early again today at 8am and had breakfast. Yet again I was greeted by stale bread and jam with coffee. The French need to get with the program and start offering a full English but unfortunately they seem to love stale bread! I studied some maps for a while and decided to change my plans and head for Bapaume - after walking so far yesterday I didn't want to commit to another long walk with no decent sized towns in between. Cambrai was 35km away whereas Bapaume was only about 22km. Also, if I got to Bapaume and decided to continue then Pérrone was only another 20km down the road and it is a short cut on my travels to Saint Quentin anyway.

I set off at about 10am by the time I had sorted all of my stuff out and taken some photos around Arras. It's a shame I didn't have more time in Arras and it was not the high season as I think it is a place I would really enjoy spending a little more time. I set a good pace again once I had left Arras and kept it up for most of the day. I had very little pain from my new blisters - my plan to switch footwear seemed to be paying off! I popped the worst one last night and plastered it for the evening and that seems to have done the world of good.

I reached Bapaume at about 2pm but there was really very little to see or do. I couldn't see any hint of a campsite and most places were closed and I couldn't find anywhere to eat. These factors pretty much made my mind up for me so I decided to press on to Pérrone - I would have had to wait around for about 5 hours to get something to eat and I would have been so bored! I will have to make a mental note that nothing happens in France on Sundays!

I put down a good pace once I left Bapaume and arrived into Pérrone at about 6.30pm - there had been little of interest since leaving Bapaume anyway so I just pressed on. I had a few 10 minute breaks on the way but that was more to take in water and have a breather than anything else as well as to let my shoulders have a rest as they have been getting sore more often lately. My left shoulder in particular has been giving me real trouble over the past couple of days so I have to stop every couple of hours now anyway to get some pain relief!

I found a municipal campsite fairly shortly after arriving into Pérrone and that cost me €7.50 - I was surprised to be told I had to pay €1.10 for a token for the shower, cheeky buggers! I pitched my tent for the night and decided to go in search of somewhere to eat to help relieve my hunger pains! Pérrone, luckily for me, seemed much bigger than Bapaume despite how it had appeared on the map. There was quite a lot open in Pérrone and I managed to find somewhere to eat quite quickly although, again, it was poor quality food!

I was sat around fairly bored afterwards on a bench in the campsite at about 8pm half considering going to bed as I was so bored when I got chatting with an English couple. They went out to walk their dog but kindly offered me a cup of tea on their way back which I was delighted to accept - you don't know how good a cup of tea made by someone English tastes after having to drink the stuff in France!

Their names were Barbara and Alan and they were travelling back to Spain after a couple of months travelling around the UK. We sat talking until about 10.30pm and it was nice to have an English conversation for a change - my French has really improved since arriving in Calais but the language barrier does make it difficult for me.

Monday 7th September

I got up at 9.15am today - I guess I needed the sleep after walking so far yesterday! I had a shower and headed off to find a tourist information and a boulangerie for some pains chocolats for breakfast! I studied the map of France and decided to try and reach Troyes by Saturday night so that I could have a rest day there on Sunday in the hope that there would be some internet access there to update my blog and photos.

I left Pérrone at about 10am to head for a place called Saint Quentin. It was only a 25km walk to Saint Quentin and I arrived shortly after 2pm. The first thing I noticed was how busy the streets were - it seemed that I had arrived on a day when the centre was shut off to vehicles and instead the streets were full of market traders! It took me an absolute age to get through the centre before I found a tourist information office, totally by chance!

The weather has been superb today with the sun pretty much uninterrupted and temperatures at around 25 degrees all afternoon! It's not the nicest weather for walking in but I appreciated the sun nonetheless - being from a country where summer lasts about as long as a football match I like to enjoy the sun when it is about!

I got a city plan and a department map from the tourist information office and asked about campsites whilst I was there. I was directed to a youth hostel that had a campsite about 2 miles outside of the city centre. I was staggered to learn that it was only €8 for a room for the night so opted for a little bit of comfort for the night and the hope of a good night's sleep. I am hoping to get to Laon tomorrow - about 50km away - so felt a good night's sleep was essential.

I had not been able to find anywhere to eat again today but managed to get hold of a pretty basic meal at around 4pm before deciding to relax outside a bar having a few beers before finding somewhere for tea. I had to go back to the hostel to get some more money for my evening meal so that added another 4 miles onto my day's walking! Checked out a few restaurants before finally deciding on one and ordered myself a 3 course meal to try and get some decent nutrition for a change.

I called Emma tonight to see how Roman was getting on and it seems I had made the correct decision in leaving him behind. Not only had his paw not got better but it had actually worsened slightly and he has needed over 100 quids worth of treatment so far. The vet, who I actually went to school with, said he was glad I had made the decision I had as it would have been really unfair on Roman to have made him undertake such a trip whilst not in full health. I offered to give Emma the money for the vet bills but she declined which I thought was nice of her.

Tuesday 8th September

Got up really early this morning at 6am so that I could get a headstart. I really hadn't wanted to get up at 6am but I forced myself to get up. Yet again I had woken up a couple of times in the night, this time at 2am and 4am. I had been thinking that waking up all of the time might have had something to do with the tent and the noises but it seems not as I have been waking up every night no matter where I have slept.

I had a quick shower before going to find a boulangerie and got 4 pains chocolats and a can of Fanta to wash them down with! I set off from Saint Quentin shortly after 7am and must admit to feeling slightly disappointed to be leaving another town so quickly. Saint Quentin seemed another charming place with plenty to take in but I am sure I will find a few more places like that along the way too.

I was glad I set off so early and set a really good pace in the morning - I managed 30km by lunchtime, partly as I knew it would be a hot afternoon and I wanted to get as far as possible as quickly as possible before it got too hot! As a result I have some new blisters on my feet but these are on the balls of my feet as I have been wearing my trainers. I will see how my feet are tomorrow but may have to change into my boots for a couple of days.

I managed to find somewhere along the way to get something to eat and had a pizza for lunch. It made a difference for sure and I felt that I had more energy in the afternoon. I decided to slow down a little from this morning's pace, partly due to the blisters - the quicker I walk the more sweat there is so the more I blister - but also due to the heat. Again today it has been pretty hot and the afternoon was no exception. The heat really takes it out of you when you are carrying a heavy bag on your back. The pain in my left shoulder has not been so bad today but it is still there. My right ankle has now started hurting and I am worried it may be a strain so that was another reason to ease up a little.

The next couple of days will see me having to walk over 20 miles each day so it is important I look after myself properly. I never thought I would say this but I hope it is a little cooler for the rest of the week - at least while I am walking anyway! I am not sure I could regularly walk 25 miles plus in this kind of heat.. Today has, once again, been 25 degrees all day and it was about 20 degrees when I set off this morning!

I arrived in Laon at about 5.30pm and went in search of a tourist office. I couldn't find one but saw some signs for a campsite so decided to follow them. They ended up taking me across lots of hills for about 3 miles before I managed to get to the campsite but, on the bright side, it was in the direction I would be walking tomorrow! The camping only cost €6 for the night but the only place close by to eat was a McDonald's so I headed there to get some food - I was so hungry I actually ate two large meals one after the other!

I got back to the campsite at about 9.30pm and decided to get an early night as it was pretty dark on the campsite and there was literally nothing for me to do. I had spoken with an English couple for a few minutes so that I could work out where I was exactly so I could try and set a route for tomorrow but they were pretty much on their way out anyway.

Wednesday 9th September

Pat, the bloke I had spoken with last night, woke me up this morning at 10am - he said he was worried as he hadn't seen me get up and it had been a chilly night last night!! To be honest I think I had just been exhausted after such a lot of walking yesterday but it was a nice gesture. He offered me a cup of tea so I accepted - it's a nice thing to wake up to for a change! Again I didn't have a great night's sleep - I woke up several times through the night and really didn't feel comfortable at all.

Chatted with Pat and his wife for about half an hour before they were ready to set off - it took him as long to hook his caravan up as it did for me to pack up but he had a remote control for his caravan!! Pat was insistent on giving me something, first of all he offered me money but I declined and asked that he gave it to charity instead. He said he would donate anyway but wanted to give me something, after about 5 attempts I finally accepted some cigarettes! I don't really like taking things from people but he really wanted to give me something and, after so many attempts, I found it difficult to say no again!

I left the campsite at about 11.30am after checking the map again. I had noticed that my originally intended route would be pretty much all dual carriageway so had been keen to find an alternate route. I managed to find a better route down country lanes that would be less busy despite adding a few kilometres to my walking but I had already saved these yesterday walking to the campsite anyway. I could see there were no decent sized towns on my way so stopped at McDonald's so that I knew I would definitely eat something!

I managed to get to Soissons by 5pm and found a tourist office pretty quickly. I was hoping for a youth hostel after a pretty poor night's sleep but could only find a municipal campsite so headed there. It was pretty cheap and the staff there were really helpful. They advised me of a couple of decent places to watch the France - Serbia match. I got a shower and pitched my tent before going in search of more food! I ate in a kebab house of sorts before heading off to take some photos of Soissons.

I rang Rich tonight who seemed happy to hear from me although he sounded very surprised when I was talking French to him! My French is really improving all of the time and I am getting more confident in my ability to converse with people. I was telling Rich about the differences over here and how expensive everything was, it has certainly been costing a lot more than I had originally thought it would.

I returned to the campsite for an hour or so to waste some time as I was waiting around for the football and didn't just want to sit in a bar. I headed out to find a bar at about 8.15pm and found a pretty nice one quite quickly. I got chatting with the bar staff in there, who commented on how well I spoke French. A little later I got chatting to a couple of French lads; Abdel and Aurelien. They also commented on how good my French was and were also impressed with both my knowledge of French football and my ideas for their national team! In a world of language barriers, football is the one universal language!!

I returned to the kebab house to eat again as I was starving once more to be greeted by a French guy called Christophe who insisted on paying for my food as I was 'a welcome visitor to his country!' He then insisted that I join him in the bar next door for a drink once I had finished my food. Being English, I have been sceptical on occasions when people have been so nice to me - usually in England these people want something from you. In France people seem to be genuinely nice.

I went to the bar next door for a drink with him as I thought it would be rude not to after he had paid for my food and been so nice to me. I actually ended up sitting in the bar until 1.30am chatting with Christophe, some other locals and the barmaid, Laetitia. My French has really come on leaps and bounds as I managed quite a bit of conversation with them. After the bar closed Laetitia offered me a lift back to the campsite but ended up giving me a guided tour of Soissons in her car for about half an hour! She spoke good English and seemed happy to have the opportunity to practise using it. I finally went to bed at about 2.30am safe in the knowledge that tomorrow would be a tough day!

Thursday 10th September

Got up at about 9.30am and had a shower before packing up and heading off to look for an internet café. The only one I could find charged €6 for an hour, cheeky buggers! I had no other choice though so had to pay it. I wanted to try and work out exactly how far I had come and how far I had left to go and also see if I could formulate a plan of where I hoped to be heading for the following couple of weeks. It was at this point that it dawned on me that I still had almost 1,800km to cover.

At the rate I had been going, about 40km a day, it would take me about another 52 days if you included a rest day each week. A quick calculation meant that I had covered about one sixth of the distance but a check on my money revealed I had already spent a third! I calculated that to make it on the money I had with things being as expensive as they were would mean I would have to walk about 65km a day without having any rest days! To do this I would need to walk every minute of daylight and wouldn't even have chance to stop for lunch.

I thought about the situation for a while and rung my family to discuss the problem. My dad recommended that I take a couple of days out to think about things and relax but I couldn't even afford to do that as it would mean even less money to be able to continue with. I thought about things for a few hours and made a decision. As gutting as it was for me to do it I decided that I would have to concede defeat. I had thought about the repercussions of this decision and realised that there may be some people who are unhappy to have donated for me not to have completed so have decided to offer to personally reimburse anyone who has donated money provided they can send me evidence of the donation. I am feeling totally gutted about the whole situation and it's very difficult to sum up my exact feelings.

I have quite a bit more to update but I really need to eat right now. I will try and update again in the next day or two to let you all know what I have been up to since I made that decision but thought that maybe that was a good place to finish for tonight. I have been sat in front of a computer for about 4 hours now so could do with a break anyway.

Sorry I Have Not Updated For So Long!!

2009-09-04T12:21:00.002+02:00

It has been a while since I updated last and quite a lot has happened!! I have been keeping a diary of sorts to help me remember all of the events so am now typing up from notes I have made. One of the benefits of keeping a diary is that it means I am able to write this up on a day to day basis.

Sunday 30th August

My final day in England was almost a total disaster for many reasons. The first problem that I encountered on the day was a phone call from Nathan to tell me that he had broken down on the M25 and didn't think he would be able to make it all the way to Dover. This was a fairly large problem as Nathan was bringing me some more money to enable me to fund the next leg of my journey!! I didn't panic though. I asked him to try a few different things and call me back with updates whilst I continued on to Dover. At the same time I also got in touch with my brother, Rich, to see if he would be able to drive down and pick Nathan up and bring my additional belongings to Dover if the need arose to which he agreed immediately.

As it was, there was little that could be done for Nathan's car at the time so Rich set off from Chester at around 11am. I had to check in for the ferry by 6pm so I was praying that he didn't run in to any traffic along the way or get lost!! I took a good look at the map and gave him what I thought were the best directions and just hoped for the best. He arrived to Nathan at about 3pm and they met up with me at around 4.30pm in Dover. Disaster number & averted!!

The second problem I ran into was one of miscalculation. I didn't want to walk along the A2 as it is a main carraigeway with cars and trucks speeding along at up to 100mph. Instead I decided to use a couple of B roads through the countryside and go via Folkestone. This sounded simple enough and I was confident that I had located a decent route. My confidence was misplaced however as I ended up walking about 5 miles out of my way as I missed a turning! In total I think I must have walked about 20 miles to get to Dover when it should only have been around 15! I got there eventually though so both potential disasters were avoided although there were some extremely dangerous sections of road along the way and I nearly got killed a couple of times!

I was a little disappointed with Folkestone - sorry if you live there or like it! It reminded me of Blackpool if I am honest although the beach was probably a bit better than in Blackpool! I think after a hard day of walking through dangerous sections of road I was maybe hoping for a little more for my troubles. I rested a short while on the beach there and took the opportunity to walk in the sea to try and help the blisters on my feet.

I met up with Rich and Nathan in Dover with time to spare before check in so decided to go through my bag again and shed any more weight that I absolutely did not need. I decided to leave my MacBook behind as I could not really justify carrying it. Laptops weigh more than you think when you have to carry them 20 miles in the sun! I also got rid of some toiletries that I hadn't used as this stuff can be picked up along the way and I also got rid of some suncream - I now have factor 10 for my body and factor 30 for my shoulders and head - carrying a bag would not be nice with sunburnt shoulders! I immediately felt more comfortable with the new weight of the bag. I had been experiencing a sore neck and sore shoulders over the last few days and felt that the bag was just too havy.

Nathan tried carrying the bag as I had been carrying it and almost fell over backwards a couple of times such was the weight. We then decided to take some photos around Dover before Rich gave me a haircut in the street - people passing gave us some odd looks but it didn't matter - I want a suntan on my head by the time I reach Rome! We took some good photos but they corrupted on my camera which I was disappointed about. Ah well, such is life!

We then had a bit of a mix up when we went to collect my free ticket kindly donated by P&O Ferries - Nathan got the reference number for me from my email inbox but then decided to give me his insurance reference number instead so the lady at the desk at P&O Ferries was slightly bewildered! We had a laugh at Nathan's expense for a short while but the lady managed to sort everything out for me in the end. I then said my goodbyes once more to Rich and Nathan before getting on the bus that takes you to the boarding point for the ferry.

I took the opportuntity to make the most of what little time I had left to use the internet with a flurry of Facebook messages before I passed out of English seas and the service was no longer provided for my mobile by Virgin in the UK. As the ferry left the port I took some photos of the white cliffs of Dover before heading to the food court for some much needed grub. I decided to have the chicken tikka masala and was not disappointed.

I began to feel a little nervous as we crossed the English Channel - I had not used French in about 11 years since I left school and was unsure as to how much I would remember once I needed it. Ah well, no turning back now I thought. I would just have to do my best! The crossing was a fairly good one and we arrived into Calais at 9.30pm local time. It suddenly dawned on me that a morning crossing may have been better - it was dark, I had no idea where to go and I had no idea whether I could converse in French!!

I managed to find my way into the town centre fairly quickly and was delighted to see lots of signs pointing out the direction to the hotels! I found one fairly quickly in the end and checked in - I had no idea at all where I could have pitched a tent so thought a hotel would be the safest option. The room cost €38.70 and breakfast was €5.00 on top of that. It was certainly more expensive than I had hoped for but at least I had a bed for the night! I turned the TV on and found that they have English channels so watched a few episodes of The Office before going to sleep.

Monday 31st August

I got a good night's sleep but woke up at about 5am - strangely I have been waking every night at 4am in England too! I got up at 7.30am and breakfast was brought to my room at 8am. I was a little disappointed with the breakfast to be honest - €5 and all I got was half a baguette with butter and a choice of jam, marmalade or fromage! I did get a coffee too but it was still a bit steep! I showered and left the hotel at about 9.30am to begin my day's walk to Wissant. I remembered that Benedict Protheroe had also headed this way on his first day in France.

Before I got very far I encountered some English people waiting to see the vet in Calais so got talking with them. They offered me a cup of tea and even gave me some sandwiches! I must have been there for about 45 minutes altogether before heading off again. I spoke to a French guy on the beach who assured me that I would be able to walk all the way to Wissant on the beach as the tide was going out - I think the total distance was about 12 or 13 miles. Everything went well for about 7 miles but then I reached a section where the tide was still in and I had nothing but rocks and cliffs to my left!

I decided to climb over the rocks as I had little idea where I was and didn't want to get lost on my first day!! It proved quite dangerous and I nearly fell face first into the rocks on several occasions! There were times when I questioned my sanity in trying to climb over the rocks with a heavy bag on my back but I had reached the half way point so it seemed daft to turn back. I managed to get to the other side (somehow) unscathed and continued the rest of the way along the beach until I arrived in Wissant.

All day the weather was fantastic - the weather report in the morning had forecast 28 all day in Calais and I think it may well have gotten hotter! I managed to catch the sun auite a bit and there is now a definite difference between the colour of my arms and the rest of my body! I will have to have a few rest days on hotter days to sunbathe so that I don't have a t shirt tan when I arrive in Rome! I used the factor 30 on my head every few hours and it seems to have worked well as I did not burn at all - not like me at all, I am usually terrible in the sun!

I arrived in Wissant shortly before 3pm and was very pleased that I now had my trainers - they made the walk a hell of a lot more pleasant and I have now decided to wear my trainers on softer ground or more consistent ground and my boots will be for in the rain as they are waterproof and also where the ground is very uneven as they offer my feet and ankles more support than my trainers do.

Wissant was like a maze to me - I went seqrching for a campsite and it took ages! I finally managed to locate it with the help of a French builder who spoke no English - another chance to improve my French! It only cost €8 to cqmp there for the night, a lot cheaper than the hotel the previous night! I pitched my tent and headed back to the beach and stayed there for about 3 hours to try and top up my tan. I also spent some time walking in the sea to try and help my blisters heal.

I found a restaurant after that and decided to have a pizza and a beer - it's really expensive over here, about €5 or €6 a pint! I will have to stay away from beer in restaurants and bars otherwise my money will quickly run out! I found a shop on the way back to the campsite so got a couple of cans of Kronenbourg - €0.80 per 330ml can - and returned to the campsite to listen to some Italian on my iPod and drink my beers. I went to bed at about 10pm as it had gone dark and I was bored! One thing that I have noticed so far in France is that there are a lot of pretty girls about - I knew I should have listened better in French class!

Tuesday 1st September

I had a bit of a lie in today and didn't get up until about 8am and set about packing up once I had washed and had a cigarette. I was woken up several times in the night due to the wind and also once at about 3am by some people talking quite loudly. It was a bit of a dismal morning but didn't rain at all - it was overcast and very windy throughout most of the morning. I bought 10 pains chocolats from the local Spar (they really do get everywhere!!) and waited for the tourist information office to open at 9.30am.

I explained to the lady about the mishaps on the previous day and requested some help finding a safe way to get to Boulogne. She recommended that I use the GR route and explained how to keep on it - red and white markings dotted along the beach and also down roads through towns. I left at 9.45am and reached a town called Audresselles at 12pm feeling very hungry after walking up and down lots of sand dunes and lots of hills also! I ordered a cheese and ham omelette with chips and they brought out the biggest portion of chips you had ever seen - being typically English I polished the lot off along with all the salad and all the bread they brought me!

I had a cappuccino afterwards to provide me with some sugar and left the restaurant at about 1pm. I followed the trail again for a while and then there was a sign that made no sense at all so I had to guess which way to go. I chose the wrong way and pretty soon found myself on the beach once more! Ah well, Bouolgne is on the coast anyway so I thought I would get there if I just followed the coastline. After about a mile of walking along the beach I had my next near death experience as I encountered more rocks where the sea was still in!

These rocks were much steeper and mostly covered in seaweed and were definitely more dangerous than the rocks I encountered yesterday. I didn't want to get lost again though so I decided to just go for it, maybe not the most sensible decision in my life but what would Ray Mears do? I had to traverse about half a mile of rocks like this and it was heading around a cliff face so I couldn't even see where it would end. I was dreading the tide coming in even though I knew it was on its way out!

I got to the other side of the rocks feeling very relieved only to find the steepest steps in the world to return me to road level. The last 2 miles and the next mile there was a very sheer cliff so I thought I better take the steps rather than risk my life again! I ran up most of the steps, partly because I wanted to get back to a safe place and partly because I hate walking up steps. I got to the top and was happy to see that I only had about a mile left to wakl and it was all down hill, just a shame I didn't have roller skqtes!

The beqch in Boulogne was really nice, very clean white sand and also a pretty decent size. I walked in the sea for a while again to help my blisters and then sunbathed for a while before going in search of a campsite again. I put some factor 30 on my ankles today as they had got sunburnt yesterday! The weather has been really good this afternoon - the sun cqme out at about 3pm and was glorious until about 6pm or 7pm.

I asked a Frenchman who, again, spoke no English but managed to get enough out of him to know where to head for. I had to walk another 2 or 3 miles to find a campsite. I am not sure how many miles I covered today. I think it might have been as much as 15 but it's hard to tell as so much of it was along the coast whereas the roads are more direct. Also, it was a difficult day as the wind was so strong and most of my walking took me directly into it!

The campsite was just outside of Boulogne in a place called Le Portel which seemed nice enough but the camping cost more at €11.20. I managed to practise more French whilst I was talking with the lady at the reception. I feel like my French is improving day by day although I have a very long way to go before I can hold any decent form of conversation - at least I am managing to get by though!

Once I had pitched my tent I went in search of somewhere to eat and settled for a bolognaise at one of the local restaurants - strangely they were just opening as I arrived and were closed when I passed it about half an hour after I left! People just don't seem to work over here! I had a walk around Le Portel for a little while after my meal before heading back to the campsite and decided to get an early night at 9.30pm as there was nothing to do and the wind was so strong that I didn't want to get out of my tent!

Wednesday 2nd September

I had a terrible night's sleep last night as the weather was pretty horrific for sleeping in a tent! The only are to pitch was at the top of a hill and I was very exposed up there to the worst the weather had to offer. I was worried that my tent was going to fly away so struggled to get to sleep - a couple of pegs kept working loose so I had been replacing them but decided to give up in the end and sleep in a wind tunnel! I decided right then that I had to get away from the coast as soon as possible!

The weather has been dismal again this morning and I have had to deal with both a strong wind and intermittent showers. It's a real pain having to get changed in and out of my waterproofs as it is far too hot to walk in them when the sun comes out. I found a cafe in the centre of Le Portel to get some more pains chocolats and a pot of tea before braving the weather. I also took the opportunity to try and read a French newspaper to help jog my memory of French - I headed straight for the sport section as football is a universal language!

I decided to head for a place called Montreuil-sur-mer after I had visited the tourist office and was informed that the walk would be about 40km (that's about 25 miles). I took some photos around Boulogne before I left and I made sure to eat as I passed a McDonald's at about midday! About 8 miles down the road I stopped at a cafe in Condette for a coffee and got speaking to the lad in there - again he spoke no English but it was another chance to practise my French. The conversation flowed surprisingly well and I am feeling more confident now everytime I get the chance to converse in French!

The paths were pretty good pretty much all the way to Montreuil-sur-mer, certainly a damn sight better than they had been in England anyway! France, as a nation, seem to be quite keen on jogging, walking and cycling and provide decent paths for people to be able to do this on. One thing you do have to watch out for though is the odd motorbike flying up the path - I am not sure whether it is legal or not but it is certainly common!

I stopped a couple more times on the way to rest and drink water and also get a coffee when the opportunity arose but came over all dizzy on my last break about 3 miles outside of Montreuil. After realising how many miles I had to cover when speaking with the lad in Condette I had upped the pace considerably so that I could make it before dark. I think maybe I pushed a little too hard but got plenty of water and energy tablets down my neck to help.

I arrived in Montreuil-sur-mer at about 7pm and found a campsite fairly quickly. It was only €8 to camp here so I was happy about that! I went in search of a restaurant only to discover that everything was in the 'high town', meaning lots of hills to get there! I finally managed to find somewhere reasonable to eat and ordered a lasagne with an extra portion of chips - the bloke there looked a little bewildered but I ate every last bit - I'm doing us English proud! I also had a few Fantas to help replace the sugars in my body as I think this might have been why I had felt dizzy earlier.

As I finished my meal an English family approached me who had noticed I was wearing a t shirt stating I am walking to Rome and we chatted for about 20 minutes. They seemed really interested in what I was doing and they were very nice. I gave them my blgo details and they even took some photos of me!! I left the restaurant at around 9pm to head back to the campsite as I had noticed a sign stating that they closed at 10pm each night. I am glad I left so early - everywhere looked completely different in the dark and I almost got lost a couple of times!

To make matters worse I had come out in shorts and t shirt and it was now pouring down quite heavily - it's funny but I have seen more rain in 3 days in France than I saw in the whole of my 2 weeks travelling across England! I eventually managed to find my way and arrived back at the campsite soaked through at about 9.45pm - just in time! It took me until around midnight to get to sleep due to the noise of the constant downpour of rain on my tent but at least the wind had died down!

I have been trying to find a way to phone home for a couple of days now too but none of the telephone boxes seem to accept cash over here. I am trying to get hold of a phone card from somewhere but everywhere I have tried either does not sell them or can't seem to fully understand what I am asking for!! The search will continue...

Thursday 3rd September

I got up at about 8am this morning and headed off to get a shower and freshen up before packing my stuff up. Just as I started to pack everything up it decided to rain, bloody typical! It stopped after a couple of minutes though and the sun came out so at least I didn't get soaked again. Just as I finished packing everything up it started raining again and this pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day - rain one minute, roasting the next!

I headed into the town centre of Montreuil-sur-mer again so that I could try and find an internet cafe and a launderette. There was no internet cafe, I was reliably informed at the tourist information (which was only open from 10am-12pm and then 2pm until 7pm!), but there was a pc shop pretty much next door to the launderette where I could use the internet. Such is my luck that the shop was in a bit of a mess and there would be no internet access all day!

After my laundry was done I decided to head for a place called Hesdin which I think is about 15 miles away. I left Montreuil-sur-mer hoping that I would find an internet cafe there but not really expecting one. The walk was another difficult one, mainly due to the changin weather and me having to change in and out of my waterproofs constantly! I stopped off at an Aldi to get something to eat as my route had not taken me near anywhere suitable to eat.

I had a massive stroke of luck as I arrived in Hesdin that afternoon - I got speaking with a guy called Francois as I was enquiring about getting access to the internet and also about finding somewhere suitable to camp. He informed me that there was nowhere that he knew of for me to use the internet but I was welcome to use his internet at his house if I wanted. Even better, he offered me a place at his table and a bed for the night!! I fell really lucky speaking to this guy I think!

He lived in a village just outside of Hesdin so gave me a lift to his house and offered to drop me back in Hesdin on Friday so that I can continue on my way. He speaks no English at all, as do none of his family so this has been a really good opportunity for me to develop my French also. When they are speaking with each other I can barely understand a word but I have managed quite a bit of conversation with them provided they speak more slowly with me! It's surprising just how much French I cqn qctually remember and I am learning more all the time.

I am planning another 15 mile walk tomorrow to take me to a place called Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise and have another mammoth day planned after tha of 23 miles to take me to a place called Arras. I am hoping that Arras will also have internet access as it is a much bigger town than any of the others I have visited so far so I will hopefully be able to update my blog again on Saturday and upload any additional pictures if I have the time.

I must say I am really enjoying my time in France so far despite the initial nervousness about the language barrier. It is proving difficult at times but I am getting better all the time so I am sure that I will be able to converse quite well by the time I reach the south of France. I just hope that my Italian also comes on this quickly as I need to be as fluent as possible by the time I reach Rome!

Only One More Day Left In England

2009-08-29T18:05:00.002+02:00

I'm actually quite excited now about the adventure ahead as the time I will be leaving the country is drawing very near. This time tomorrow night I will be readying myself to board the ferry from Dover to Calais and will be out in the wilderness, so to speak! Although I was quite good at French at school I was far from fluent and have no idea how much I have forgotten! I think that the time crossing France and walking through Italy will probably be quite lonely for me as I will not be able to communicate in the same way with people as I can in my own country.

On the positive side, it should provide me with an opportunity to enhance my language skills - both from the point of view of learning French whilst I am speaking with people and also from the angle of Italian - if I cannot have conversations to the same level with people then I think I will spend more time practising my Italian using the lessons I downloaded to my iPod. Hopefully things will go well with this and I will be reasonable at speaking and understanding Italian when I cross into Italy.

On a sad note, Roman is still not able to join me and my ex girlfriend was going to book him into the vets as his paws are still not in a condition for him to be able to take part in this adventure with me. I am really gutted about this and am already missing him loads. I can only imagine how happy I will be when he can finally join up with me. It is looking like he will not join me now until I actually arrive in Rome as the logistics of arranging for him to meet me somewhere along the way now become more difficult.

The last few days have seen me arrive safely in Canterbury although I do have horrendously sore feet again now! The bruising has subsided considerably but, as a result of resting, the blisters have come back with a vengeance! It will be fine in a day or two though - the pain from blisters never really lasts that long. My ankle was seeming to get better but was really painful yesterday. I have resorted to wearing ankle socks and not tying my boots right up to the top so that the contact between my ankle and my boot is kept to a minimum. I tried using some of the bruise relief cream on it last night and some bruising seemed to appear around my ankle last night. It doesn't seem too bad today but I will be using the cream again tonight and again in the morning to see if it helps.

The walk to Dover tomorrow will be around 18 miles, I think. This will probably be the last tough day I have for a while as I am planning to cut down a little once I reach France so that I can recuperate - I think the constant pounding all day long has taken it's toll on my body which has been made worse by having to carry everything - something I never expected to do so had not done any training for. I think this has probably been the most difficult thing for me to come to terms with along the way - the weight has been manageable on my back and shoulders but my feet have taken a real pounding as a result of the extra load.

I have to give a mention to a pub again (sorry to those who think I am an alcoholic living it up on a holiday but they are the best places to socialise in villages!). The Oak in Charing kindly reduced their price considerably for me so that I could take a room for the night rather than stay in the tent - there was nowhere suitable to pitch it closeby with the nearest campsite about 4 miles away and I had already walked about 20 miles that day. I don't think that I could have taken the extra mileage so was very grateful for their kindness. I ate in the pub - fish and chips which was delightful! - and had a couple of drinks before turning in for the night at about 10pm. I must have been really tired though as I slept until about 9am and only just made it in time for the breakfast service - good thing that Canterbury was only about 18 miles down the road!

I have had a really nice time in Canterbury and will be sorry to leave it behind tomorrow - it really is a beautiful place and it is steeped in history. There is so much here to do and to see and I am just sorry that I did not have more money and more time. It is a place that you could really do with having a couple or three days to be able to take your time walking around and looking at everything it has to offer. It seems pretty similar to Chester in many ways - Roman walls, lots of Roman history, Cathedral and great shopping. Maybe that's why I have liked it so much...

Back To Walking Tomorrow

2009-08-26T16:10:00.004+02:00

Just a quick update today as there is not really that much to say other than to provide an update on my health. My feet, although not completely healed, do feel a fair bit better than they did on Monday. I have been using ice packs to help reduce the swelling in my feet and have had a couple of days of total rest to try and help the recovery process. I have got some padding that I will be putting on my feet tomorrow morning before I get back to the road and hopefully this will help to alleviate some of the pressure on my feet. I will also be asking my friend, Nathan, to bring my trainers with him when he comes to meet me in Dover. I think a softer sole might be beneficial where the walking routes are a more stable quality.

I have received a couple of comments on my blog over the past couple of days expressing displeasure at the progress I have made so far. I deleted the first comment and have now put comment moderation on my blog as I did not feel that anything said was particularly constructive. As a result I have decided to try and address some of the things that I have been criticised for.

One of the criticisms is in relation to Roman not being with me. Nobody is more gutted than me that he has not been able to start the walk with me but his paws were simply not in a good enough condition to start the walk with me. As I had committed to a starting date I had to make the decision whether to start without him or whether to delay the starting date. I didn't want to delay the starting date as I had organised a lot of things based around that date and didn't want to mess people around. As it is, I am actually glad that he has not been with me as there have been some very dangerous situations on roads along the way that would surely have seen us both killed if he had been with me.

Another thing that I have been criticised for is accepting a lift when the roads have been dangerous. I would just like to say that the times when this has happened have only been for a few miles and have been at times when I genuinely feared for my safety if I continued to walk in these areas. I know for a fact that my family and friends would not be best pleased if they thought I was putting my life at risk at times and, although I would have preferred to have walked every mile, I am not prepared to put my life at risk either. I understand that there is, of course, the charity aspect to this but what use would me being hit by a truck have?

I have also been accused of basically having a holiday and going on a booze tour of Britain. I assure you that this has not been a holiday and, in fact, has been very difficult so far. I have had so many problems early into the walk and my mental strength has really been tested at times. As for the comment about a booze tour, I can understand the view as I have been to a few pubs in the evenings but it's not like I am on a binge tour at all. I have drunk socially with the locals and have tried to use the angle of having a meal and a few drinks in the pubs I have encountered to help as a bargaining tool to allow me to pitch a tent on their land. There was one night that did end up with quite a lot of alcohol consumed and that wasn't the best choice to have made but just because I am doing this doesn't mean that I should turn into a robot and avoid alcohol completely.

I am sure that when I get into France this type of thing will be less common anyway. As I am not fluent in French it will be much harder to strike up conversations and make social connections with people. As a result I would imagine that I would not be drinking on a social level with people and therefore turn in for bed at the earliest opportunity. Having said that I do wonder what people are expecting me to do between the hours of 5 or 6pm and 10pm. Personally, I like to mingle with people and have a few drinks with them. I don't see anything wrong in that to be honest.

There was also a comment saying that the poster was glad that they hadn't donated and felt sorry for anyone who had. I am sorry that the poster feels this way and hope that people who have donated don't feel that way. If they do then I would appreciate it if they would contact me and let me know. I hope that the majority of people understand the reasons for me having to accept a lift a couple of times - I am sure that anyone with children would want their own children to act exactly as I have done.

Strangely, the same person also left a comment today stating that they wished they could get their money back. I find this quite strange as they had previously stated yesterday that they hadn't donated. The comments have been left anonymously but there is a facility on your blog that can track people and their pageloads so I can see from that report that it is the same person posting the comments. I feel that this person is now trying to discredit me and this is why I have decided to moderate comments. I can accept criticism from people and am quite happy to leave constructive criticism publicly viewable, as I have done in the past, but I felt that the comments that had been left added no value whatsoever and basically amounted to a personal attack.

Please feel free to give your opinions on what I have written today as it would be appreciated and I would be interested to see what the general consensus is amongst my readers. On a finishing note I would like to add that when I originally came up with the idea that I wanted to do this it was a personal thing and I had given no thought to charities whatsoever. I only added the charities later as I thought that at least somebody could benefit from what I am doing. I know I am not going to please everybody all the time and I am sure, as has already been the case, that some people will totally oppose me but I just hope that people can understand the troubles I have had and the reasons for my actions so far.

My Feet Hurt!!

2009-08-25T14:54:00.004+02:00

The last couple of days have been very painful ones and my feet are in really bad shape right now. The blisters are not bothering me in anyway but I have bruising on the sole of my right foot that is really hindering me and I also have a problem with my left ankle. I am not entirely sure what is wrong with my ankle as it is quite strange - when I start walking there is little or no pain but, within a mile, I suddenly start getting sharp pains in it. It feels like something on my boot is rubbing on my ankle and causing the pain but there is no blistering around the area so it's not rubbing that is the direct cause of the problem. It feels as if there is some bruising that is being aggravated by walking but there is no swelling so I can't put my finger on exactly what it is!

I managed to reach Totternhoe near Dunstable on Sunday evening after a very difficult and painful day of walking and there were times when I had to stop as the pain was so bad. Once I arrived in the village I found that the campsite my dad had managed to find was not actually a campsite but more a chalet / static caravan site. There was literally nowhere on the camp for me to pitch a tent and I got no joy when I asked. Luckily there was a pub just next door, called The Cross Keys. I popped in to see whether they would be willing to let me pitch my tent in their garden which, by the way, was pretty damn big!

The landlord there, John, agreed fairly quickly once I told him what I was doing so I got myself a pear cider and took my boots off to relax for a little while. The relief when I can take my boots off is massive and it's a part of the day I really look forward to - I obviously look forward to the pear cider too. In case you haven't noticed it's my favourite drink! I sat out in the garden for a couple of hours until the sun had pretty much gone down before pitching my tent by some bushes.

I decided to join the locals in the pub then - it had been pretty lively in there up until that point with lots of loud music, singing and dancing but a few of the regulars had left just before so it had quitened down a lot by the time I went back in. I got chatting with a few of the regulars and a few people bought me a drink - I had intended on a really early night but it's rude to turn down a drink so I didn't end up getting to bed until a short while after midnight.

It was another enjoyable night in the company of some really nice people - I have found that the stays in villages have been much more accommodating and enjoyable than the larger towns as there is more of a community feel and it's much easier to strike up conversations with people. In a larger town people seem to have their own little groups and it often seems rude to gatecrash their conversations. I have noticed that the staff are more approachable in the village pubs too and I chatted with John, the landlord, and Charlie, the barmaid, for quite some time with a few of the locals.

One of the locals has offered to get some cotton t shirts printed up for me and I need to give him a call today - I am not sure where I put his phone number (I know it's in my bag somewhere but it can be a bit of a mission trying to find things with so much stuff in there!). I will dig out his number when I have finished typing this up and try and arrange something. It was really nice of him to offer but he said I had captured his heart with two of my charities - he was an ex soldier and also knows a Rottweiler very well and supports both causes.

I have also been meaning to speak with the guy I met outside the George in Kilsby the other night who was an area manager for a mobile phone company. He said he would enquire about the possibility of getting me a phone with a couple of hundred pounds worth of credit on so that I could use it to update my blog on the move a little more easily. I have not had any battery in my phone since yesterday morning but have managed to get it fully charged now so will make sure that I make those calls. If either or both can help me then I will get them to deliver the stuff to my parents' house so that Nathan can bring it all down to me when he comes to meet me at Dover.

Yesterday was a really difficult day for me. The plan was to walk from Totternhoe to somewhere near Barnet and this would have represented the longest day of walking in the whole adventure at about 28 miles. The day started alright but, within a couple of miles, I was in excruciating pain with my feet and ankle again. I managed to walk about 10 miles in total and made it to Luton just after lunch time. The last mile must have taken me about an hour though and I was really struggling to walk.

I have a friend in Bromley from when I had to work there in my previous job and I had asked him if he could put me up whilst I was around London. Dave had kindly agreed and I am very grateful for that. Once I reached Luton I got back in touch to see if he would be prepared to put me up for a few days so that I could get some much needed rest and give my feet some time to recover. He agreed again so thanks to both Dave and Anna, his girlfriend. It really means a lot that people are prepared to help me in this way and I have been delighted with how welcome people have made me feel throughout the journey so far.

I jumped on a train from Luton into London and then got another one from London to Bromley so that I could wait for Dave to finish work. I sat on a bench in Bromley in the sun and waited for a couple of hours and, despite the funny looks I got off a few people, I really enjoyed the relief of just sitting down with my boots off! Once Dave finished at 4.30pm we went to The Tomfoolery pub to have a pint or two and managed to catch the first half of the Liverpool vs Villa match - I wish we hadn't bothered given the performance and result!

We then went back to Dave and Anna's flat and he cooked up a terrific piri piri chicken dish that really hit the spot. You don't realise how much you take good food for granted until you have to actually try and find it every night for a reasonable price! Another thing that you take for granted is a shower - the relief I feel every time I manage to get a shower is immense and it seems to help with any aches and pains I may have.

I have had a day of total rest today whilst Dave and Anna have gone to work and have not really done much at all. I am planning another day of rest tomorrow as I really need my feet to recover before starting off again. I only have another couple of days of walking to get to Dover - first stop Canterbury - and the length of the walks is nowhere near the level I have been putting myself through until now. I had never anticipated carrying such a heavy bag as I had the stroller but I think that this has really added massively to the problems I have with my feet. I think I would not really have the problems I have now if I had not been carrying the bag - I am not used to the pounding that your feet have to do when you are carrying a lot of weight and I think the distances I have been covering have been so much harder as a result.

I'm really proud of the number of miles I have managed to walk up until this point but am also gutted that I am being made to stop for a couple of days because of the pain. It might have been an idea to factor some rest days in earlier given the extra load I have to carry but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think the big problem for me has been knowing that I have to be in Dover for the ferry on the 30th and I knew I had to get a lot of walking done each day to keep to the schedule. At least once I am in France I do not have to do that level of walking - if I need a rest I can just take one, the only thing that this will really impact is the amount of money I have left when I arrive in Rome!

Good Times And Bad Times!

2009-08-23T16:36:00.003+02:00

The last few days have been a bit up and down to be honest. I met up with my friend, Brad, and he let me stay at his for a couple of nights. He was a really good host - he cooked both nights and showed me around a few of the local pubs! It was an enjoyable couple of days and it was nice to have a bed again after my night in Telford Town Park. Brad picked me up from Tamworth and we headed back to his and he dropped me off in Tamworth again the following morning so that I could complete the walk to Nuneaton.

I noticed on the way back into Tamworth that the A5 seemed to be missing a lot of footpaths on the way so I popped into the local library to have a look at the Warwickshire street atlas. I noticed that the Coventry Canal ran, in a roundabouts way, from Tamworth to Nuneaton so decided that this would be the safer option. I had left my ruck sack at Brad's house for the day to give my shoulders a day to heal so had hopes of a nice relaxing day, so to speak!

As I got on the canal I got talking to somebody on a barge so that I could make sure that I was going the right way and she informed me that it was only about 11 miles to Nuneaton - brilliant, I thought! She was wrong though - it was actually about 19 miles! I only know as I checked on Google when I got back as it took me four and a half hours and killed my feet. Still, at least I had a day off from the ruck sack and this seemed to do the trick as my shoulders have actually coped much better since then.

That evening I went to watch a football match between Shilton and The Fox (Nuneaton) - this is the team that Brad is managing this season. I was pleasantly surprised to be treated to a really good game of football - very often in the Sunday league circles you find a 'hit and hope' mentality with a lot of long balls. This was totally different as both sides got the ball down and passed it around and there was a lot of nice movement. The game finished 3-2 to Shilton but I think a draw probably would have been a fairer result.

The following morning Brad treated me to a breakfast batch from down the road before I headed off for the day's walking. The plan on this day was to reach a town called Kilsby which I think was about 22 miles away or so. Things went pretty well at first and I was making good time but then I started to get into more rural areas and things became more difficult. First of all the paths disappeared - this wasn't so bad as I could walk on the grass verge for a couple of miles. Then the grass verge disappeared and I was given the choice of either 2 foot nettles, the road (which wasn't very wide and had a lot of HGVs driving along it) or a farmer's field. I chose the farmer's field!

After this I was treated to a section of a few miles of road that had a bike lane up each side so I was able to walk on this and, despite there being some mammoth hills along the way, it was a fairly pleasant hour or so. I found a little roadside cafe about half way up one of these hills so stopped for a tea and a 10 minute break. I had covered a lot of ground and it was not quite lunchtime yet! Then things went wrong again - a couple of miles up the road all of the paths, bike lanes and grass verges disappeared and I was left with very narrow, windy roads with thorny bushes on either side. I decided as soon as I saw this that there was no way I could safely walk this section of road so tried thumbing a lift.

I stood there for about 45 minutes and not one person stopped. I was outside a business farm type building so decided to pop my head in and chance my arm. As it turned out I had been stood only yards from a cafe all along and hadn't realised! In fact, when I first popped my head round I thought it was someone's back garden and they were just eating their lunch outside! Luckily, there was a bloke called Ron who was just finishing up and was on a half day so offered to take me up the road until it got a little safer.

We ended up travelling about 5 miles down the road before the road became safe again and I am very glad that I decided to get a lift as some sections of the road would surely have seen me killed. It is really winding me up how many sections of road don't have any footpath whatsoever - so much so that I am considering writing a letter to Gordon Brown to tell him so (not that it would do any good, of course).

I arrived into Kilsby fairly early that day and immediately found the local pub. The only problem was that it was shut for the afternoon and didn't reopen until 5.30pm. I sat in the beer garden to wait for them to reopen - I asked permission first of course! Once it reopened I was straight in there and was delighted to see that they sold Kopparberg pear cider - I fell in love with the place immediately! The pub was called The George and it is just off the A5 at Kilsby. It really is an excellent place and I would recommend it to anyone in the area.

I had a quiet word with the bar maid there, Victoria, as to whether I would be able to put up a poster about what I am doing and also to see if there would be any way that I could pitch a tent in their beer garden. She fetched the boss, Maggie, and I was delighted to find that she was a very kind lady who agreed immediately. I ate there and contemplated getting a fairly early night but then I realised there was an open mic night - they're normally entertaining so I thought I would have a look.

After about 6 or 7 bottles I was considering turning in for the night - I think it would have been about 11pm by this point. Then I got chatting to a few of the locals and the ciders really started flowing. Before I knew it I was on my way to McDonald's in Rugby with another of the barmaids, Doreena, and a regular in the pub, Pelham! I think I got to sleep at about 5am and knew immediately that it was a bit of a mistake.

I woke up at about 10am and remembered that some more of the locals, Jo and Dave, had offered me a breakfast if I wanted one. I decided to head down there for a fry up and to recount on the night before. We had all had a cracking night and I had managed to make a few friends in Kilsby. I found everyone there to be really genuinely nice people and everybody was really friendly. After we had eaten some breakfast Dave offered me a lift a few miles up the road as he informed me there was another dangerous section of road just outside of Kilsby.

Once we left I saw what he meant and was glad that he had offered and that I had accepted. Once we parted company I set about walking to Stony Stratford. I don't know why but I had visions of Stony Stratford being another sleepy village - I couldn't have been more wrong! It was a fairly decent sized town just outside of Milton Keynes. I couldn't find anywhere to pitch my tent and was becoming a little exasperated due to extremely painful feet - my blisters are alright but I have some fairly bad bruising on the soles of my feet that is really causing problems and my ankle is also extremely sore every time I take a step.

I decided to get a room at one of the pubs in the town and try and barter an evening meal and breakfast into the price. The pub I found at was The Old George in Stony Stratford and the landlord let me have everything for £40. I had to get my parents to phone and book with a debit card as I couldn't afford to pay that much out of what I have left to get out of the country. I have left money at home with them so they can just take the money from there.

I decided not to stay in the bar once I had eaten as I wanted to try and tend to my feet a bit. I had been to Boot's and bought some cream to try and relieve the bruising and also some padding for my feet and the bottom of my back - the steel support in the ruck sack has now started to rub against the base of my spine so this is also quite sore. These things seem to have helped a little but I am still in a lot of pain and finding walking pretty difficult.

I am happy with the weight in the ruck sack and feel physically fine to be doing this but the pain I am in as a result of my feet is really quite bad. I am wincing with every step at the pain in my left ankle and if I step on an uneven piece of ground or a stone with my right foot. I will not be beaten though despite the pain but I am hoping that I might be able to get an old work colleague to put me up for a couple of days in Bromley if I reschedule my rest days slightly. I think that if I carry on for many more days then I am going to be in really bad pain and this will only hinder my progress.

Despite the problems I am having I am still enjoying myself but it is really hard going at times. Today I have been travelling from Stony Stratford to Dunstable - my dad managed to find a camp site just down the road from the main town so I will be trying to get in there tonight. I hope they have space for me as I don't fancy having to walk around looking for places to stay the way my feet are right now! I will update my photos soon, probably when I get to London on Tuesday.

I Had To Sleep Rough Last Night!

2009-08-19T13:29:00.002+02:00

Things have been much better over the last couple of days and I have been making real progress. It has not all been plain sailing though. I left Telford this morning heading up the A5 in an effort to reach a place called Brownhills West by the end of the day. After a couple of miles the paths disappeared completely and another mile in the grass verge turned into nettles! A further mile and it disappeared altogether to be replaces with some very unfriendly thorn bush hedges - this has been the worst section of road I have to deal with so far and it has been extremely dangerous at times.

A couple of miles outside of Telford there are two really big and really steep hills - it was just my luck that there were only thorn bush hedges lining both sides of the road! As a result I had to run up the hills and duck into the hedges every time I saw any traffic coming. It was extremely hard going at times and extremely dangerous but I managed to make it to the brow of the second hill relatively unscathed - if you ignore all the scratches from the hedges that is!

I could see that the next mile was exactly the same in terms of hedge lined roads and spotted a guy parked up in a HGV in a lay by. I asked him for a lift and he took me a few miles up the road - I know I am meant to be walking all the way but I also have to think of my personal safety. We went past Weston Park which is where the V Festival is held - if anyone goes this weekend and is heading from Telford then check out how bad the paths are and you will see what I mean. All through this area it was hedge lined roads and, to make it worse, the road was very windy.

I am glad I asked the guy, Bernard, for a lift as I could have been killed walking up there - a couple of miles down the road we saw a smashed up Mercedes that looked like he had driven into the back of someone - that could have been me! Once Bernard dropped me off I headed down into Brownhills and managed to find a police station so that I could ask for some advice concerning the roads. They kindly told me of an alternative route through Lichfield and Tamworth that would lead to Nuneaton where I need to be by tomorrow evening.

I will spend the rest of today trying to get to Tamworth so that I have a nice short walk tomorrow into Nuneaton. I have just received an email from a friend of mine advising me that I can still stay at his so it will be nice to arrive early so that I have chance to spend a few hours with him and also freshen up somewhat - last night I had to rough it as I couldn't really find anywhere suitable so I ended up in the middle of Telford Town Park hidden in some trees in my sleeping bag. There was nowhere near enough room to pitch my tent so I just had to make do. It wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep I have ever had but I slept nonetheless!

Nightmare Start!

2009-08-18T16:15:00.002+02:00

I am currently sat in a McDonald's using their free wi-fi as I really needed a sugar boost so decided to get a chocolate milkshake!! I only noticed on the way in that they have free wi-fi for all of their customers and decided to make the most of the opportunity and provide a brief update on my (extremely difficult!) progress so far!

My problems yesterday started fairly early as my stroller received it's first puncture about 5 miles outside of Chester. I decided to pump the tyre up and persevere until I could find somewhere suitable to address the situation. I must have got about 2 miles down the road - it was a fairly slow puncture so only needed to be pumped up every twenty minutes or so - when the stroller suddenly got very heavy. The other tyre was also punctured and was now completely flat! I pumped it up but it was flat again within about 10 seconds!

I decided to push on until I reached the next landmark on the road so that I could give my brother, Rich, a ring to help me out. Stupidly, I had not packed a puncture repair kit or spare innertubes so he brought some stuff out for me. I had made it as far as Jackson's Fencing just outside of Tattenhall by this point but the last 2 miles had felt like 10 - they were absolute hell as the stroller felt so heavy as a result of 2 flat tyres! A guy called Chris kindly provided me with some drinking water which I very much appreciated!

I had to wait there for about an hour before Rich arrived and, after about an hour and a half of mucking about I finally got moving again. One of the innertubes had 25 separate punctures whereas the other had two bad ones. Wondering how I know how many there were? Rich bought a bottle of green slime that "allegedly" fills in all punctures and repairs new ones as they happen - sounded good but it didn't work quite like that!

Anyway, I managed to get back on my way and within another 2 miles had more punctures. I decided at this point to ditch the stroller - if the punctures were this frequent this early on then I decided there was no point persevering as it would happen time and time again along the way. This presented a bit of a problem as there was a hell of a lot of weight in the stroller. I had to trim down pretty much every single non-essential item so that I could get everything I needed into the rucksack.

I managed to set off again but I was massively behind schedule. I didn't arrive into Whitchurch until almost 9pm last night and I was totally and utterly exhausted - both physically and mentally. I think I must have been running on adrenaline as I got the shakes and went really cold as soon as I stopped. I think my blood sugar levels must have been really low so I had a couple of glasses of coke and some very sweet coffee with my evening meal in a pub called the Raven Hotel. They kindly agreed to allow me to pitch my tent in their back garden free of charge - I think the guy I spoke to was called Mike (if not then please correct me!!). Anyway, I just wanted to publicly thank them as it was very kind.

I can't find the lead at the moment for my camera so I will have to update with photos at a later date!

One More Sleep!

2009-08-17T00:46:00.002+02:00

It's only a quick update tonight as I have been pressed for time all day long. There has been so much to do today to make sure that I am ready for the journey but I have been lucky enough to have my brother, Rich, and my friend, Nathan, around to help me. The stroller is now all packed and ready to go and Roman seems happy enough walking in it's presence. The only thing left for me to do now is get a bath and get to bed - I could really do with a good night's sleep before the journey begins.

I have decided that it will be best for Roman to stay behind for a while until his paws are healed enough for him to join me. Nathan will be bringing him down with him when he drives down to Dover to take us over on the ferry. It's going to be really strange to not have Roman around and I reckon it could be a lonely couple of weeks until I see him again. I'm sure he will miss me too - whenever I had to work away he just used to sit by the back door waiting for me to come back!

Whilst I am on my way to Dover Rich and Nathan have agreed to take Roman out on the fields by my house so that he is exercised but without the risk of further abrasion to his paws. They are getting better and the infected areas seem to be scabbing a little more now where as previously they just looked raw all the time. I still feel cruel putting the lampshade thing over his head but at least I know that it is helping.

I can't believe that it's time to leave already. It seemed like it was ages away when I handed my notice in at work - that was almost three months ago now but the time has gone so quickly. The last three months have really flown by and I have really enjoyed the preparation time. I just hope that I am prepared enough for the walk ahead. I'm sure I will be fine but I can't help but think that I have forgotten something. I'm sure I have forgotten loads but I'm sure that I will find my way.

I will be up nice and early tomorrow morning to get ready to head into Chester for the big send off. I never received a return call from Granada Reports so I am not sure whether or not they are coming out. They seemed to be quite positive about it and they originally covered the story a few weeks back so I am hoping that they will be there. I have received a message from somebody from the Chester Evening Leader to say that he will be out to have a chat and take a few photos.

I really don't know what to expect tomorrow morning and I am not really sure what will happen. I suppose it is a chance for me to get together with a few people and say goodbye to them all properly. I'm not sure how it will go but I am sure we will find our way as the morning unfolds.

Anyway, that's about all for tonight and I think my next update will probably not be for a week or so. Wish me luck, I'm sure I'll need it!

Only Two More Sleeps!

2009-08-15T19:31:00.000+02:00

Last night ended up being a really late night and we all drank far too much! We must have had about eighty shots between about six of us and that was on top of about ten or twelve pints each! I managed to get up before lunchtime and relaxed for a bit before heading over to a friend’s for a barbecue. The weather has been brilliant here today so it has been a good chance to get accustomed to being in the sun all day.

Tonight I am going to be pretty busy again. It was my step mum’s birthday the other day so we are off out for a meal this evening before I head off into town again for drinks with a few of my other friends. It’s quite likely that it will be another late night and I am not looking forward to the potential hangover tomorrow – I have felt alright all day but I am sure it will catch up with me tomorrow!

I am sure tonight will be really good as I am off out with a friend from Cardiff, Sophie, who I don’t get to see very often. She is an absolute scream and we always have a laugh when we get together. It’s nice that she has managed to come up to Chester before I leave as I will not see her now for quite a while! I have told everybody I know that they are more than welcome to visit us when we have settled in Rome.

Roman has had me in hysterics for the past couple of days. The vet gave us a lampshade type thing to put over his head to stop him licking and chewing at his paws when I am not around. When I first put it on he seemed a little freaked out by it and just stood still as if he was frozen. I couldn’t get him to move for ages and I am sure he was wondering where his body had gone!

He seemed a little bewildered for quite a while but, eventually, he seemed to settle. He still doesn’t seem totally happy about it but at least he is not completely freaked out by it now. At first he wouldn’t even sit down let alone lie down and when I went out I could see through the blinds that he was still stood exactly where I had left him! I got my brother, Rich, to pop round a few times during the evening to check on him and let him out to the toilet. Apparently he was still a little unsure of it but it has certainly calmed him down somewhat!

His paws are starting to look a little better but I am pretty sure he will not be able to start the walk with me. Instead I think he will have to join up with me either after a few days or at Dover when Nathan comes down to take us over on the ferry. It’s a big blow for me as he’s like my shadow most of the time. He is with me most of the time so it will be really strange to be without him for a while. Still, I would much rather have his paws completely healed so that this sort of thing won’t happen again on the way to Rome.

What A Horrible Day!

2009-08-14T20:49:00.001+02:00

Today has been such a frustrating day for me and I feel like I have managed to achieve absolutely nothing at all. I noticed last night that Roman’s dreaded limp had come back a little so had decided against an early morning walk. When I checked his paw this morning I thought it had got a lot better, only to realise I was looking at the wrong paw! Now both paws seem to be affected! I took him to the vets this morning to get it checked out.

The vet has prescribed some new antibiotics for him and given me a new cream to apply twice a day. He has stressed that I need to make sure Roman is not licking his paw constantly as this can be a way of allowing infections in. As a result, he has given us a lampshade type thing to put on his head – he is going to hate me for putting it on him but he needs to get better. I just hope the new course of medication works better for him than the last lot.

The vet reckons he may need up to a week of rest and this could be a real spanner in the works. We are set to leave on Monday morning, only a couple of days away. I am going to give him total rest for a couple of days and see how his paws are but I have looked into alternative arrangements in case it hasn’t healed sufficiently by Monday. I am hoping that it will be much better but I don’t want to take any chances as it could really hinder us if it is not allowed to heal properly.

I can’t believe the timing of it but I suppose it is best to get it sorted now than for it to happen half way through France without the same support network around us. I have spoken to my ex girlfriend and she has agreed to look after Roman, if need be, for a week or so and he can be driven down to meet me somewhere en route once his paw has healed enough. It could well mean that I have to walk to Dover alone.

I’m really gutted about this prospect and, if it works out this way, I know I will really miss him. I will have to talk to myself for a change rather than to him! I really hope that this new medication works quickly though so, hopefully, it may only mean a day or two delay before he can join me. I’m lucky enough to have really good friends and they have already offered to drive him down to me whenever he is ready to go.

My ex girlfriend brought some papers around yesterday to be signed regarding the house but I was not satisfied that what I was signing actually said what I had agreed to so I asked for it to be amended. Her solicitor is in Manchester so we had to go all the way up there to sort it out. The round trip ended up taking about three hours as she got the wrong postcode so we went to the wrong place originally! To be honest, it is something I could really have done without at this point – I am already so busy I really don’t have much spare time.

I changed £1,000 into Euros today and this was another disappointment. When I first started looking last week I could have got a rate of about 1.165 but I could only get 1.133 today. It’s just typical of the luck I have been having of late but I had to get it changed today while I was there as I am quickly running out of time. I meant to pick up a muzzle from a pet shop in town today also but it totally slipped my mind so I just hope they still have it in the morning.

I am off out tonight with the lads from football for a send off party so I may be a little hungover tomorrow. Still, no rest for the wicked – I have another million and one things to do tomorrow. Hangovers are for weaklings!

So Much To Do, So Little Time!

2009-08-14T00:31:00.001+02:00

It’s been another pretty hectic day today really. I managed to get up even earlier this morning and was out of bed by about 7.30am – not quite what I would like it to be but it’s certainly another step in the right direction! Nathan is going to ring me at 5.30am tomorrow to get me up as I have another really busy day planned. I will be taking Roman out early and then have loads of things to do in the morning before getting more walks in followed by a night out with the lads.

Once I was up this morning I took Roman for a five mile walk and we were home just after 10am. My younger brother, Jamie, stayed last night so once I had woken him up and sent him to the shop I sorted us some breakfast before heading off into Chester on a publicity drive. I went armed with a bag full of posters with the sole aim of getting as much publicity as I could.

After being told in the first five or ten establishments that they didn’t put posters up in the window but would put it in the staff room I decided to start targeting the bigger companies. My original aim was to try places like pubs and cafes with the idea that they would be busy places with a wide target audience. Unfortunately, there would only be five or ten staff likely to see the posters in places like this so I changed my tactics.

I must have visited about fifty shops once all this had dawned on with the sole aim of getting them to put the poster up in their staff room. The shops ranged from supermarkets like Tesco and Marks and Spencers to clothes shops like Next, FCUK and Tessuti. My bag was certainly a lot lighter by the end of the afternoon when I headed off home and I calculated that if each shop had, on average, forty employees, then I was potentially hitting up to two thousand different people!

Some of the people I spoke to actually knew about me already. Some had seen me in the papers and some had seen me on Granada Reports. It is nice to be recognised and it’s a real conversation starter with some people. I must say I actually enjoyed doing it and it was nice to speak to so many different people in one day. I’m not normally the type to approach people in shops so it was definitely a change from the norm for me.

The goods arrived from Vango this afternoon too – I got a pop up tent, sleeping bag, self inflating sleeping mat and a top notch ruck sack. I’m really happy with the help that they have provided and the way in which they dealt with me. I really got the feeling that they wanted to help and that I wasn’t just an inconvenience. I will be putting the tent up tomorrow at my brother’s house so that I can get Roman used to going in a tent – it will be the first encounter he has ever had with one but he will have to get used to it quickly!

I really can’t wait to get started now and I am becoming more and more excited about it with every passing day. I’ll admit to feeling a little nervous too but only about the change my life is about to undertake. I am still nervous about exactly what I will do when I get there but am convinced that an intelligent person with ambition, drive and determination will succeed anywhere they go – I certainly hope that this is the case!

Day Fourteen

Our last day on English soil will again be a chance for myself and Roman to recuperate and try and update my blog, as well as doing some laundry if needed. I don’t know whether there is much to do in Dover – I will be checking this out in the coming days – but I am sure I will find a way to while away the time! My friend, Nathan, is going to get us on the ferry as I cannot take Roman on as a foot passenger due to his size so we will just be waiting for him to arrive really.

The ferry ticket is booked for 7pm so we will need to board at around 5.30pm as the check in closes at 6pm if you are carrying pets on board. Hopefully Nathan will arrive into Dover mid afternoon and we will have the chance to get something to eat, if not we will eat on the ferry. I believe the trip will take about an hour and a half but, due to time zones, it will be 9.30pm when we arrive in Calais. As a result we will have to find somewhere pretty sharpish to camp for the night!

Another Busy Day!

2009-08-12T23:08:00.000+02:00

I managed to get up at about 8.30am today which was pretty good as I had a terrible night of sleep. It was one of those nights when, no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get to sleep. It must have been about 2am by the time I finally dropped off. To make matters worse I kept waking up throughout the night! My mate rang me at 6am to wake me up but I fell back asleep for a couple of hours. I am hoping I will have a lot more success sleeping tonight as it has been a very busy day and I am feeling pretty knackered now!

Once I had got up and replied to a few emails I decided to walk to where my dad works to see if I could sell some DVDs. It’s just over 4 miles away from where I live and we did about 5 miles on the way back. I didn’t put his boots on him for this walk but have been out again tonight with him wearing them. We stopped for a brew with my dad and managed to sell a fair few DVDs. Every little helps, as Tesco say!

I wasn’t in the house for long before I was off out again. I had to get my mum a birthday present so had to go into Chester to do that – for those who don’t know I have 2 mums, a little confusing sometimes when I am trying to explain stuff but that’s just how it is! While I was in town I decided to get some things that I will need when we set off on Monday. Right at the top of the list – and usually right at the bottom from past experiences – was sun cream. I got a selection of factors so that I will be able to adapt depending on the weather. I picked up a few other things too including toiletries and lots of batteries for my camera!

I must have walked about 6 or 7 miles by the time I walked into Chester, around the city and then back home so I was already up to about 15 or 16 miles for the day. When I got in I fed Roman and then, half an hour later, we had to go out again – as it was my mum’s birthday today I had been invited up there to eat. In total I think Roman has done about 11 miles walking today and I have done close to 20 miles.

Tomorrow I am determined to get up early and get a couple of walks done before noon so that the schedule is not quite so intense. I have felt like I have been in a rush all day and I always think that you are less productive at these times. It’s nice to be able to think about things properly and I find I forget less that way. One thing I almost forgot today was to ring DEFRA to see if Roman needed a health check before we boarded the ferry. I rang them at about 5.30pm and they told me that they have no requirements for that; the passport is sufficient.

As I was sure I had read somewhere about a health check I decided to ring P&O Ferries just to make sure that they had no additional requirements for Roman. As it was, the only thing they insist upon is that we board earlier than usual. This is no problem to us and I am now happy that everything is definitely ok on that side. It would be tragic if we had got to Dover and been refused board for whatever reason!

I have also been communicating with Holly from Vango today and she has advised me that my stuff has now been sent out so I should receive all of that either tomorrow or Friday. I can’t wait to put the tent up and introduce Roman to it! I am sure it will be a bit of an alien concept at first but he seems to adapt to most situations pretty quickly so I am hopeful that he will have no issues. I will let you know on that!

I received a message on Twitter last night enquiring about what I will be doing about food on our journey so I promised to divulge in tonight’s post. The plan regarding food is to pretty much pick it up as we go along. I am hoping to find pub type places along the way for evening meals and it would be great If we could stumble upon some supermarkets to pick stuff up for each day. Ideally, I would like to pick up four or five ready made pasta meals to consume during the day – I will need a lot more than normal given the high exercise levels. I will also be taking some whey protein powder with me to be mixed with water as I want to be safe in the knowledge that I am covered for all of my protein needs if I can’t find something substantial in the evening.

Days Twelve and Thirteen

If everything has gone strictly to plan by this point, which I am sure that it will have done, then we will be enjoying a much needed day of rest on our twelfth day. I will use this as an opportunity to do some (probably much needed) washing and also to locate an internet café to be able to update the blog. It will be nice to relax for a day and I am sure that we will feel much better for it!

Our thirteenth day will see us depart Canterbury and head for Dover. The walk is only (I say only but it’s still far!) about 15 miles so we should be able to do this fairly quickly and arrive reasonably early, probably mid to late afternoon. Again, I may use this as an opportunity to update my blog – I am sure there will be a lot of pictures by this stage so it may be easier to spread it over a couple of days.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2009-08-11T23:23:00.001+02:00

Today has been a pretty busy day for Roman and I. The first thing on my list of things to do was to return the tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat to Great Outdoors. Vango had not been able to get hold of their rep so I asked Holly to give the store a quick ring to explain what had happened. They were fine with it but, rather than get a refund, I decided to get an exchange – they had been good enough to agree to everything so I thought the least I could do was actually put the money back into the store.

I had been thinking for the past few days about walking boots or trainers. I have a cheap pair of walking trainers that would be fine for back up but I felt I needed some good quality ones that provide decent ankle support and are also fully waterproof. Another of the things I had on my shopping list were some decent socks – I have plenty of thin cotton socks I can use as lining socks but didn’t have any decent walking socks (not socks that walk, obviously!)

The lady that Holly had spoken to on the phone, Sandy, was really good and managed to help me out with everything I needed. After trying a few different trainers and boots on I decided to opt for a pair of Merrell boots. The boots in question are Gore-Tex so will not only keep my feet dry but also allow them to breath. They were deceptively comfortable for walking boots and cost just £90 – a small price if they don’t cut my feet to pieces!

I also asked Sandy about socks – I don’t know about you but I know very little about the technical details of such things. She recommended a couple of different types but said the ones that she would go for if she were buying them would be the X Socks. I must say, they are also pretty comfortable – they have padding in all the right places and are also breathable. They were £12.99 a pair so I picked up 4 pairs of them.

Holly also said that Vango would be happy to give me more stuff so recommended that I go on the website and take a look at their range. They said I could pick a different tent if I felt another would be more suitable. I decided to stick with the one I had picked – although it is fairly bulky it also gives the benefit of lots of space for Roman, me and all of our stuff!

I decided to ask for a few more things but didn’t want to be too extravagant. I chose a rucksack that would be able to carry a fair amount of stuff – although all of our stuff will be kept in the stroller it would be good to be able to split clothes and electricals from the rest of the stuff in there. I also chose a chair and a self inflating pillow – I hadn’t even thought about that until I spotted it. Holly said that this would be no problem and should be sending the stuff first thing tomorrow morning. I think I should get it just in the nick of time!

Vango have really been brilliant with me and I am very grateful for all the help they have provided. Most companies have refused to help altogether but Vango have gone out of their way to provide me with as much support as they can. I’d like to take the opportunity to publicly thank them for their support and also to thank Holly who has been excellent throughout.

This afternoon I took Roman to the vets to have a general health check before we leave. Everything, as presumed, is fine with him and we now have the all clear for our trip. It was pretty hot today here so it was a good opportunity to see how he coped with that. He did pretty well really. In total we walked around seven or eight miles by the time we made it to my dad’s afterwards and he was ready to go again within about half an hour!

I had read on the DEFRA site that Roman would need a health check prior to leaving so had booked in at the vets but they think he may need to have one within a certain number of hours of the trip. I will be ringing DEFRA tomorrow to see what their stance is on this. If he does need one just before we board the ferry then I will have to locate a vet in Dover but this will not be a problem as I had already decided to factor in a rest day in Dover – lucky really!

My dad has managed to print a few hundred posters out for me today so tomorrow will also see me going around local businesses in Chester trying to gain support and get our posters put up in as many places as possible. I hope we get well received, I’m sure we will be by local businesses though. I am also going to see about getting some cards printed up, kind of like business cards. I am sure I will be stopped along the way by many people and it would be handy to be able to give them a card with my blog address on.

Roman had his first proper walk in his new boots today and, after the initial bewilderment, it seemed to go pretty well. After about a mile he seemed to be used to them and they didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. I love that about Roman – he adapts to new situations so well! I am going to try walking him with the stroller tomorrow so that he can get used to its presence.

I managed to speak with my friend from Nuneaton on Facebook last night and it seems that he may be able to put us up for the evening. I am quite excited about seeing him again – we met in Tunisia on a holiday a few years back and always intended to meet up for a drink but it never happened. It will be a good opportunity to have a few beers together and catch up. If you’re reading, thanks Brad!

Day Eleven

Our eleventh consecutive day of walking will take us from Newington to Canterbury. We will be passing through Sittingbourne and Faversham along the way before I journey takes us rural once more. There will probably be about 8 miles of rural walking and this will make a nice change after a couple of days of urban walking.

The trip from Newington to Canterbury is about 21 miles in total and I am hoping to arrive in Canterbury by late afternoon. I have decided to take the first of our rest days here as it is said to be a very interesting place with much to see. Although it is a rest day I am sure we will still do a fair amount of walking!

I was hoping to meet up with a guy I have mentioned before in here called Benedict Protheroe. He walked from Canterbury to Rome last year. I spoke to him earlier on the phone and, unfortunately, he is off to Canada next week for 9 weeks working. Instead, I will look to locate a launderette and an internet café so that I can do some washing and update my blog!

It's Starting To Come Together Now - Good Thing Really!

2009-08-10T23:37:00.002+02:00

I have been out walking with Roman today a couple of times without his boots on just to try and take the edge off his enthusiasm a little before I try him with the boots on a proper walk! I will be getting up early tomorrow to take him for a 5 mile walk and, after about an hour’s rest, will be taking him out for another 5 miles but this time with the boots to see how he gets on with them. I don’t want to just put him in them constantly right now but it is important that he gets used to them. I am sure that after a couple of walks he will forget he had never used them before anyway.

I got an email back from Holly at Vango today to say that she had not managed to get hold of the relevant people but had checked in the Vango warehouse stock and they have the items I bought in stock anyway. She has said that if I return the items then she will send replacements as soon as she has confirmation I have been able to return them I will be doing this, hopefully, after Roman’s first walk so it will be done pretty early.

I’m really happy that Vango have decided to help me with this. Obviously, a saving of £141 for me is brilliant as it will mean we have that little bit more money to go with. It’s nice to know, though, that there are companies out there that are happy to help with things like this. All too often I have been met with the “we have already selected our charities for the year in our budget” script that companies put together to be able to fob people off with. It’s frustrating, to say the least, but at least I have managed to find a few companies to help out.

I am currently trying to sell some of my things before I leave to help out with my funds and have today managed to sell one of my televisions. I’m a bit gutted on the one hand as I paid about £400 only six months ago for it but I am also pleased that I have managed to get £270 for the television and a stand as, again, it will help greatly with my funds. I still have a couple of televisions to sell but am pretty hopeful that I should be able to shift them. If anyone is in need of a new television then give me a shout as I don’t have a definite buyer for one of them yet.

I am also trying to sell my DVD collection – again this is a little gutting as I had built a decent collection up and I am only getting £2 or £3 each for the majority of them but if I can sell 100 DVDs then that’s another £200 - £300 towards the kitty. This week is about maximising my opportunities to get myself a decent fund to go with. A few family members have also decided that they want to give me a little something to help me out. I had not asked but it will be very gratefully received and I am sure that it will be very helpful along the way!

I have tried calling Jennie at the Rottweiler Welfare Association again today to see what is happening with Just Giving. It’s really frustrating to not be able to collect for them yet but I will keep on plugging away and hopefully we will get the resolution we want before I depart. If not then I will just have to set it up on the way, the only problem is I don’t think I will be having a rest day until the 28^th August. I couldn’t get a reply off Jennie’s number so I will try again tomorrow; I did leave a message but have not had a return call.

I also tried to get in touch with Simon again today – the guy who was trying to get my story into a national newspaper. I have been trying for the last few days as I was expecting some developments in the early part of last week but it keeps diverting to answerphone without even ringing. I will keep trying and hopefully get hold of him some time this week.

I have set up an event on Facebook today to try and get people to attend my big send off from Chester Town Hall. I have been in touch with Granada Reports again today and am hopeful that they will be able to send somebody out to film so it’s important for me to try and get a crowd together and create a bit of atmosphere. It will also be nice to get the opportunity to see my friends and family one last time before I leave.

The bicycle trailer / stroller arrived today and it’s pretty cool. It didn’t take me long to put together – it was quite straightforward. Like a typical bloke, I paid no regard for the instructions (or destructions as I like to call them!) and just ploughed ahead with building it. Predictably, I got a couple of things wrong but it all came together quite nicely within about 20 minutes once I had seen where I had gone wrong. I think I will have to reinforce the bottom a little but, other than that, it looks perfect for the task.

Day Ten

Our tenth day of walking will see us depart Dartford nice and early and start on our trek to a place called Newington. The distance we cover should be around 22 miles in total so it will not be quite intensive as the previous couple of days. The way I have planned this out means that I can have a couple of rest days before getting into France so I am quite happy with that. Also, if we get delayed anywhere for any reason then I know we have plenty of time to play with.

The day’s walking will take us through a few places I have heard of, although I have never been to any. There will be Northfleet and Gravesend – for the football fans you may be familiar with a club that used to be called Gravesend and Northfleet that is now called Ebbsfleet United and was the subject of a takeover recently where members on a website all bought an equal stake in the club. If I get close by then I will get a picture of the stadium!

Other towns along the way will include Rochester, Chatham and Rainham. This will be our second day of walking through mainly built up areas and I am sure that it will be a nice change for a couple of days after so many days of isolated walking with little human contact other than people driving by!

Roman And His Boots!

2009-08-09T20:27:00.001+02:00

I tried Roman’s boots on him properly today and took him out for a walk in them. He was absolutely hilarious when I put them on him for the first time – he didn’t quite know what to make of it and had a look of bewilderment about him! He walked really funny and was almost bounding around at first – I think that he thought maybe they would come off if he was enthusiastic enough.

I took him for a short walk in them just to see how he got on so we went over to the field for a bit. It took him a little while to get used to them and I don’t think I’ll be letting him run around the field in them – he slipped a couple of times but I am sure that this is natural for a dog that runs around like a nutter. He must be so used to being able to use his claws to grip that it must be strange for him to try and stop.

Once we were back on the path he seemed to be a little bit better. The apprehension he had showed at first didn’t seem to be so obvious and he seemed a little more relaxed in them. I don’t think it helped that I didn’t take him out yesterday and his general exercise levels have been low recently due to his recent paw problems. I will be trying him again tomorrow on a road walk and will see how he does walking five miles in them. I think once he gets used to the feel of them he will go back to normal.

I’m looking forward to getting back into the routine of lots of decent walks with Roman. It’s nice to be able to laze around, so to speak, but it’s of no real benefit to either of us. The week ahead is going to be a busy one but I need to make sure that we are walking twenty miles a day by next weekend ready for the start of our journey. I am 99% certain that he will not struggle with the physical side of it as he has managed so many long walks before but I definitely wanted to make sure I had some form of protection for his paws if the need arose.

I am playing football tonight for the six a side team I play for in our penultimate game of the season. Our last game will be next Sunday evening, the day before we leave, so I will have to be careful not to pick up an injury. I hope I don’t jinx myself by saying this but an injury at this point for me would be disastrous! I would still go ahead but it would certainly throw a spanner in the works.

A few people have asked why I simply didn’t finish playing last week but that’s not me. I really enjoy football and I think the physical exertion really helps me to take away any stresses that have built up in the week. Also, as the season finishes next Sunday and we are in the middle of a relegation dogfight, I don’t want to let the lads down. If there is a chance we can stay up then I will do all I can to help even if I am not going to be there next season.

The lads from football have decided to take me out tonight for a bit of a send off – I just hope it’s not too messy! No matter what happens, I will definitely be getting back into the intensive walks tomorrow – after all, if I get drunk one night when I have set off then I will still have to walk the following day so I need to make sure that I am in the right frame of mind to not let something like that get in the way.

Day Nine

Our ninth day of walking will be another long slog and we will be walking about 26 miles in total throughout the day. I am keen to try and make a little bit of time up so that if we run into any problems nearer to Dover then we have a cushion to ensure that we still arrive in plenty of time. Ideally, it would be good to arrive in Dover on the evening of the 29^th and this would mean that we would have the following day to relax before checking in for the ferry at 6pm.

The walk to Dartford will see us pass briefly through London and we will be going pretty close to the Tower Of London. It will be our first day of walking that will be pretty much all in built up areas with people about. I am thinking of getting some sort of board attached to the stroller with some advertising for what I am doing – I will be seeing a lot of people on this day so it would be good if I could raise the profile of our walk.

A Heavy Night And A Lazy Day!

2009-08-09T00:19:00.000+02:00

Today has been a really lazy day for me – after the meal last night I invited a couple of my brothers and a few of my friends around to have a few drinks so we popped to Asda on the way home and picked up some booze. We got a bottle of black Sambuca, a bottle of Southern Comfort, some lager and some cider. All of the alcohol has now gone and it was quite a night!

We ended up having an all nighter and I didn’t go to bed until about 9.30am! I got out of bed just after 2pm as I didn’t want to sleep all day and not be able to sleep tonight. I will be starting the walks with Roman from tomorrow now I have his boots and I can’t wait to get them on him and get out. We haven’t been out at all today – I have not been ill but I have certainly not had the same energy levels that I usually do!

Once we all woke up this afternoon we just sat around watching films and looking at videos on YouTube. I have not had a day like this for ages, I seem to be busy most of the time but it was really nice to just take a complete break from everything for the day and just relax. It will be my last chance to do this before I go as I will need to make sure that everything is sorted before I leave.

I don’t have to go to the dog training class tomorrow as last week was the last session before the summer break. I think I will miss going there – even if I did have a bad track record of actually making it regularly! It was really good for Roman to get interaction with other dogs in a controlled environment and I feel it has helped both him and me.

As today has been such a lazy day there really isn’t much else for me to write about today. Apologies for not having much to say but we all have to have a lazy day from time to time! Weekends tend to have less to write about anyway at the moment as the majority of things are happening during the week when I am able to contact people.

Day Eight

Our eighth day of walking will take us from Dunstable to a place called Cockfosters, just outside of Barnet. The day’s walking will be around 25 miles in total and I think we should be arriving some time around 5pm. The first half of the walk will not really see us go through any decent sized towns but we will be passing through St Albans, London Colney and Potter’s Bar during the afternoon.

Surprise Family Meal!!

2009-08-08T00:50:00.000+02:00

My family and friends surprised me tonight – I was meant to be going out for a meal with my mum, two of my brothers and one of my brother’s girlfriend but it ended up being a surprise bash with about twenty people there in total! I was pretty surprised as I was just expecting a nice quiet meal! It was really good and I had a really nice time – it was nice to see so many of my friends and family all together at the same time.

I managed to get hold of Roman’s dog boots today – a friend of mine, Lou, had ordered them off the internet and they arrived on Wednesday but she lives next door to my mum about 12 miles away so I couldn’t get them until today. I can’t wait to put them on Roman and take him out in them – I’m sure he will find them a bit strange at first but, once he is used to them, they will be invaluable.

The boots look really cool and everybody is really impressed with them. They may have been quite expensive at about £50 but I am sure they will be worth every single penny. If they protect Roman’s paws then they will have done their job. I will only put them on him when I am walking along the path – if we are on grass then I won’t put them on him so that I can make sure that the grip on the bottom lasts as long as possible.

My nan has been in hospital for a few weeks now so me and my mum popped to see her for a bit before we popped up to her house for a bit. I went to see my granddad who lives just down the road for a bit afterwards as he wanted to give me some money to help me out with my expenses along the way. He gave me £50 and I am really grateful for that. Any money that my family give me to help me along the way will be very helpful.

Other than that there hasn’t really been a lot going on today. My laptop arrived earlier today and I am really happy with it. Again, the laptop will really help me along the way and I can’t wait to get started and using it to update my blog each day!

Day Seven

After a couple of days of longer walks we will only be walking about 21 miles on our seventh day of walking. We will set off nice and early from Stony Stratford and will be aiming to get to a town called Dunstable by the end of the day. We will be passing by Milton Keynes and Bletchley along the way but will not be passing through any sizeable towns along the way.

Euro Rates

2009-08-06T22:37:00.001+02:00

I decided to check out what kinds of rates I can get when I change my money into Euros today. As I will be changing quite a lot I was hoping that I may be able to get a better rate as a result – I wasn’t wrong! It wasn’t a massive increase but it will certainly make a difference. I was actually surprised at just how different the rates are depending on when you go. I was quoted as high as 1.151 Euros per £ but also as low as 1.125 Euros per £. I’m glad I decided to take a walk around as I now know which places are the most flexible and will be trying to get them into a war with each other for my business when I do change it!

I am trying to sell some of my things at the moment to boost my funds such as my televisions, DVDs, books, etc. I am hoping I can raise up to £750 extra by doing this and this would certainly help a fair bit. Using the conversion rate of 1.151 I was offered today this would equal about 860 Euros which would easily cover a month’s rent when I get to Rome. I have been looking at some estate agents in Rome to see what sort of stuff is available for when I get there and it looks like I will be paying around 800 Euros per month. This is pretty expensive compared to what I am used to so I will have to be quick finding a job!

I am hopeful that, by the time I reach Rome, I will have just over 4000 Euros left so I will have a little breathing space but it certainly won’t last a long time and I will have to be very careful with my money! I’m no stranger to living on a budget though, I have had to do it many times in my life due to certain circumstances so I guess I will just have to be disciplined again for a while until I can get myself a decent job.

I am resigned to the fact that whatever jobs I do find I am suitable for are not going to be great in terms of pay but as long as they enable me to get a foothold in the country I will be happy enough. I am sure that the first six months to a year will be pretty difficult and will certainly not be the free living I will become accustomed to on our journey but I am sure it will all be worth it once I have established myself there properly. Nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy!

I bought a couple of phrasebooks today whilst I was in town comparing Euro rates. I got one French phrasebook and one Italian phrasebook. I can remember bits of French from when I was at school but I am sure that a phrasebook will come in very handy. As for the Italian, I am improving each day but a phrasebook is a must for me for when we arrive. I downloaded a couple of teach yourself Italian things last night and have now organised them in my iTunes library so I will be able to put those on my iPod.

The solar charger I ordered arrived today and I must say I am surprised at the size of it. I thought it would be much bigger than it is but it’s quite compact really. It’s roughly the same size as a hip flask, maybe a little bigger. It will be invaluable to me on our journey and will enable me to be able to carry on learning Italian whilst we are travelling. It is imperative that I am as good at Italian as possible on the day we arrive.

I ordered myself a new laptop too last night and that should arrive either tomorrow or the day after. I was considering the practicalities of updating my blog weekly from an internet café and, normally, this would be pretty straightforward. Once you throw a 55kg Rottweiler into the mix it becomes a little more complicated! Not all establishments, if many at all, will be happy for him to be with me so I had to consider this possibility. I decided that if I organised my photos and wrote a piece for my blog each night on my laptop then I would be able to sit outside the café using their internet access solving that problem altogether. Another benefit is that I may not have to stop in one place for quite so long – if it is all organised on my laptop then it may just be a 30 minute job to update my blog.

I played in a football match tonight for the team I played Sunday league football for last season. It was our second preseason friendly. Although I will not be there for next season it’s a good way for me to keep in shape whilst Roman cannot be walked so much. I should get the boots for him tomorrow evening so we can start walking properly again on Saturday. I can’t wait, it’s been far too long already!

Day Six

Our sixth day of walking will be a slightly more intensive day than the last. As P&O Ferries are only able to supply us a ticket for the evening of the 30^th August I need to make sure that we allow ample time to reach Dover in time so I decided to add a few miles onto a few of the days’ walking. Our sixth day will see us walk about 24 and a half miles from Kilsby to a place called Stony Stratford, just outside of Milton Keynes.

It will be another pretty much unremarkable day of walking and I don’t expect to see much of interest along the way. I think the largest place we will walk through will be a place called Towcester but there will be a rather humorously named town that we pass through – Weedon. I will be sure to get a photo of Roman and I by the sign welcoming us to the village!

Vango And Roman's Boots

2009-08-05T23:05:00.001+02:00

It’s just my luck that as soon as I give up on a cause it comes through. That’s exactly what happened today – I got an email this morning from Vango apologising for the delay in responding to my request but advising that they would like to try and help providing, of course, there would be a commercial benefit to them. After a couple of emails back and forth it seems that they may be able to strike up an agreement with the store I bought their products from for me to take it back and have it replaced by Vango themselves as the store are a major stockist of their goods.

Holly, the lady that emailed me, seems to be really good. She advised me that she would be off on holiday for a couple of days but should be able to give me a definitive answer by Monday afternoon. I will be delighted if this comes through as it will mean that I get £141 back towards my funds! This will be a great help to me as, I’m sure you can understand, every penny really counts for me. I only have a limited budget to work with and I have to think about being able to pay to rent somewhere and to be able to live once I get there if I don’t manage to get a job immediately.

The weather here has been superb today for a change and it has given me a rare (of late anyway) opportunity to get my shorts on and catch some rays. I am sure I will have plenty of time for that on my travels but it can’t harm for my skin to get used to the sun again! I will have to make sure that I get plenty of suncream for the journey though as it would be really bad if I burnt early into my adventure. I have a history of being careless with this kind of stuff so I will be making a conscious effort to change this!

I have had Roman out a couple of times today; I am still only taking him running on the field by our house but it’s something at least. My friend rang me a little earlier to inform me that Roman’s dog boots have arrived so I should get my hands on them pretty soon so our proper walks can start again as soon as I have them. I have really missed our walks together and can’t wait to get started again but am glad that I have been extra cautious with Roman whilst his paw has healed.

His paw does seem to be much, much better now so I think I have done the right thing by him, even if I have felt really cruel at times! I think we take our feet for granted but it has really made me think about how I would cope if I didn’t wear shoes and injured my foot. Also, can you imagine walking around barefoot on tarmac roads when it is 25 degrees with the sun beating down? It would be horrific!

I am hoping to get the bicycle trailer / stroller some time this week but it could take until early next week to arrive. As soon as it arrives I will be practising walking with Roman with it so that he is used to it before we set off. I am sure he will have no problem as he doesn’t seem to be fazed by anything really. I’m pretty sure that he will happily walk at my side behind it but it’s always best to allow a little time beforehand for him to get used to it.

Day Five

Our fifth day of walking is all set to be a rather unremarkable affair. We will be walking about 21 miles from Nuneaton to a place called Kilsby. There are no big towns along the way and there seems to be very little of interest along the whole of the journey. As a result, it will probably be a rather boring day for us but I’m sure there will be a few more days like that along the way, I just hope the sun is out so that it doesn’t make it a miserable day too!

Today Has Been Productive..... But Expensive!!

2009-08-04T23:52:00.001+02:00

Today has been a rather productive day for me and I have managed to acquire some much needed equipment for our journey. I have been looking at tents and the like for a while now and considering what would suit our needs best. Whilst I obviously have to be mindful of weight and packed size I also need to make sure that there will be more than enough room for myself, Roman and anything that I decide to take with us.

I decided to go for a Vango Swift 300 pop up tent. It is a three man tent so there is a substantial amount of room inside for us but it also means that I will not have to worry about where we are going to keep all of our stuff. A two man tent would barely have been big enough for Roman and I so I decided, now that I know I won’t have to carry everything, to go for the larger model.

I bought the tent from the Great Outdoors shop on Sealand Road just outside of Chester and it cost £99 – quite a bit more than I was hoping to spend if I am honest but I felt it was worth it to know that we were getting a quality brand tent with more than enough room for us. Whilst I was there I decided to pick up a sleeping bag, sleeping mat and some waterproofs.

The sleeping bag cost £19 and, again, that is a Vango. It advertises itself as being a pretty good sleeping bag and would be suitable for temperatures as low as -8 degrees but is recommended to be used in temperatures between 7 degrees and 20 degrees. This should perfectly cater for what I need it for. I decided to pick a Vango sleeping mat also and opted for the self inflating one – I can’t be bothered with blowing things up! The mat cost £22 but I am sure it will be worth every penny if it ensures my comfort at night.

The waterproofs were perhaps the most difficult thing to choose. I wanted something that was reasonably lightweight but also capable of providing warmth just in case I needed it. After much perusal I opted for an Adidas Gore-Tex jacket that also has the Clima Cool feature, much like modern football shirts. I think this will provide warmth when I need it but also ventilation in the important areas. The jacket cost £69 but I feel this will be money well spent. Another added bonus of this jacket is that it is a very bright orange so will ensure that I am seen when walking in it!

As for the waterproof pants, I eventually decided to purchase a pair of Berghaus. They’re not particularly fancy but they have both zips and poppers up each leg – this means that if the rain subsides I can undo the zips to provide ventilation if I feel that the rain will be returning pretty soon. The trousers cost me £40 which, again, was probably more than I originally wanted to spend but I am happy with my purchase. Well, Great Outdoors must like me – I spent £249 in total!

I also decided to order the bicycle trailer / stroller today. I had not received a response to my email but managed to find the same model on another site that confirmed the answers I was looking for. Including postage it is costing me about £70 so it’s a pretty reasonable price all things considered. For a similar model from a bike shop or Halfords I would probably pay between £100 and £150 so it’s a bargain when you look at it like that. When you consider how much easier it will make things for me it’s definitely money well worth spending!

I had also been mulling over for quite some time whether or not to buy a solar powered charger so that I would be able to take my iPod with me. The more I considered it the more it made sense. Although I have been making progress with Italian I am definitely not near the standard I will need to be when I arrive. I decided to download some Italian discs so that I could upload them to my iPod and then I will be able to use these on our walk to help me learn as much as possible for when I arrive.

After having a good look around for a few hours on the internet I finally decided to purchase a model called the Freeloader Solar Charger. It comes with a whole host of adaptors to enable you to be able to charge all sorts of different devices and, most importantly, includes the adaptor for my iPod. It charges fully within as little as 8 hours and can power an iPod for up to 18 hours on this charge. I think I will charge it each day and then use the iPod each evening to brush up on my Italian. In total this cost me £35.

So, in total, I have spent £354 today – that’s quite a commitment really! There’s still quite a lot I need to make sure I have before we leave and I will be focusing on ensuring we have everything we need before we leave. I will be (attempting) to draw up a kit list in the next day or two so that I can tick everything off as I go along. I am hoping to get some help of a guy I have mentioned here before, Benedict Protheroe, on that one. He walked from Canterbury to Rome last year so has first hand experience that will help me no end.

Day Four

Our fourth day of walking will be slightly more intensive than the previous three days as I hope for us to cover about 25 miles. The day’s walking will take us from our starting point of Brownhills West right through to Nuneaton, passing through Tamworth on the way. I have a friend who lives in Nuneaton so I will be trying to get hold of him to see if he fancies putting us up for the night – fingers crossed!

Dog Food, Dog Boots, Ferry Tickets And The Stroller

2009-08-04T00:06:00.000+02:00

Roman’s dog food arrived at the vets this morning so I got my brother, Rich, to give me a lift there to pick it up. The vets have also kindly donated a couple of things for us. They have given us a flea treatment called Advocate that will last Roman for about 3 months – hopefully the duration of our journey. They have also given us a Scalibor collar. These are to keep sand flies away as they can be pretty dangerous to dogs. We don’t get sand flies in this country but they are quite common on the continent.

The vets have been really good in supporting us through the whole of our preparations for this walk. They have been happy to help whenever I have needed advice and have really gone out of their way to help us. If you are ever in need of a good vets near Chester then don’t hesitate to give them a go – the vets I use are Storrar vets and they are right next door to Bill Smith’s Motors in Boughton. The whole establishment is a credit to the vet profession – the reception staff are really polite and really helpful and they all love animals completely, whether it be a cat, a Yorkshire terrier or a Rottweiler! I have always been made to feel very welcome there and I think the family run heritage is probably a big reason behind that.

I have given up in my quest to get a company to provide Roman’s dog boots for free – either I manage to speak to someone and I get the good old “We’ve already picked our charities for this year” script or I email and get completely ignored! It’s really very frustrating at times! I have taken up my friend on their offer and they have ordered the boots for Roman today so they should be with us pretty soon. I’m quite excited about them to be honest (sad, I know!) and I reckon Roman will look quite dapper in them!

The search for a bicycle trailer / stroller continued today too. I have managed to spot a few knocking about and they range from quite expensive models in online stores to much cheaper versions of pretty much exactly the same things on ebay! I have spotted one for £72 on ebay and will be ordering it as soon as I have had a couple of questions answered by the company. I just wanted to be sure about the weight limit on the stroller and also wanted to confirm that the attachments needed to convert it to a stroller are included.

Roman’s paw has not given him any trouble today – in the past he was suffering the day after exercise but he has had no problems at all. I took him out on the field earlier so that he could run around for a bit and get rid of some of his excess energy before going to see my parents. It’s been a while since I have been up to see them and there aren’t too many days to go until I go now so I will have to make the most of the time I have here.

I have been practising a new way of walking Roman over the past couple of days as suggested by Gemma at the vets and Angela at FIDO (the dog training place). I have a double ended lead for Roman and I have been attaching one end to a link about two thirds of the way around the lead and the other end to Roman’s harness. I then place the lead over my shoulder, much like you would with a record bag. Doing it this way means that I can walk him without actually holding the lead – I will need both hands for pushing the stroller!

As soon as I have the stroller I will be practising walking Roman with that, firstly so that Roman can get used to having something in front of him but also so that I can get used to how he behaves with it. Angela got me to try pushing a buggy around in a training class once but it’s hard to judge how Roman took to it as there were so many other dogs about to distract him! I don’t think he will have any problem with it though.

I got a reply from Natalie at P&O Ferries this morning to advise that they would not be able to provide a ticket on the morning of 31^st August due to heavy bookings as a result of the bank holiday weekend. Instead she suggested that we could travel over on the evening of the 30^th August and my friend could then return the following morning. I have decided to get the 7pm ferry over and then my friend will return on the 10.55am ferry the following morning. I am sure it will be a pleasant change to have some company for an evening!

Day Three

Our third day of walking will see us depart Newport and head for a place called Brownhills West. The total distance covered will be approximately 22 miles on the third day. I have been thinking about our rest points along the way and have decided that I will walk for an hour and then rest for half an hour. I think by doing it this way we should reach our final destination each day by about 4pm or 5pm so we will be able to work out where we will be staying and where I can eat!

I think this will be a nice way of doing things as it will mean that we can just relax once we have stopped safe in the knowledge that we are done for the day. I have decided that I will take a few books with me so that I don’t get bored in the evenings. One of these books will definitely be an Italian book so that I can continue learning whilst we are travelling!

The Sponsored Dog Walk Went Well

2009-08-02T23:43:00.000+02:00

Today was the day of the sponsored walk with the dog training club and, as usual, I overslept a little! I just about managed to get there for 9.30am so I didn’t miss it but it was close! There were probably about ten dogs in total participating and we set off once we had had a few photos taken of us all together – it’s no mean feat trying to keep ten dogs calm whilst all sat in close proximity, I can tell you!

The weather today was pretty good – whilst not being excessively hot it was pretty fine with only a little cloud cover at times and not much of a breeze. It’s quite hard going for me when we do stuff like that as Roman is used to walking pretty quickly with me and these types of things tend to be done at a very gentle pace. I often use most of my energy trying to make Roman walk at a reasonable pace!

The walk itself was pretty pleasant and it was nice for Roman to have another chance to be around other dogs. There was another Rottweiler there and the owner had also brought along a 12 week old Rottweiler puppy – they waited at the club house to sort refreshments for when we got back whilst her other half walked the other dog.

It always makes me laugh how the so called aggressive breeds get along fine whilst the smaller dogs tend to be the ones that bark all the time. Roman got on fine with pretty much all of the dogs but was very interested in them. I think the smaller dogs must find this intimidating at times – Roman is a very enthusiastic chap and is pretty big to boot. I guess I would be slightly intimidated by a person who was three or four times the size of me being so enthusiastic with me!

Once we had got back to the club we all got a certificate for the walk and this represents part of the training – it’s quite a job to walk around a busy town centre in a large group of dogs whilst ensuring that they do not cause any bother to anybody, or even each other! I really enjoyed it to be honest and it will be a shame that we don’t get the chance to go there again. I will be looking to get involved in a dog training class at the earliest opportunity once I get to Rome.

Although it is obviously a beneficial thing for us both as it helps develop Roman’s behaviour it is also a really good way of socialising Roman. This is something we struggle with particularly – most people don’t mind taking their dog out with you if you have a Labrador or a border collie, for example, but it’s a different story when you have a Rottweiler. People seem to be fazed by the image in which they are portrayed despite numerous assurances from you. It’s a shame really but that’s the way it is I guess.

Once we had finished there Nathan took me to the Bike Factory and Halfords to look at the bike trailers that I had been pointed in the direction of. It seems that they can, dependant on the model, take up to 45kg load so they would definitely be suitable. I think I may have to reinforce the base a little given the heavy weight but other than that they look very suitable (thanks Jeff and Karen!). I will now be looking high and low for a good deal on one!

Whilst at Halfords I noticed that they sold 2 man pop up tents. They retail at just under £30 so I may well be going back there this week. I will ask before I purchase one to see what their returns policy is – I would like to make sure that it is suitable for what I want really. They did not have any erected in store so I’m not sure whether they would erect one to show you or whether they would prefer you to buy one and would take a refund if not suitable.

Hopefully the two bags of dog food that Royal Canin have pledged will arrive at the vets tomorrow so I will be able to go and pick that up. I’m really pleased with the pledge they have made – although it obviously would have been nice if they could have supplied the food for the whole trip it’s still a really nice gesture from them considering so many companies have simply ignored me completely!

As promised yesterday, I will continue to provide you with information regarding my planned route.

Day Two

We will be setting off from Whitchurch nice and early and the day’s walking will end with us arriving in Newport. All of our walking over the duration of our second day will take place on the A41. There will be 3 stops during the day but these will not be in any places of importance. The stops will simply be for the purpose of rest.

The first stop will be just outside a place called Higher Heath. There is very little of note here and it will really just be an opportunity for Roman to get some fluids on board and for us to relax before setting off again. Our second stop of the day will be at a place called Tern Hill. Again there is very little here at all and it will just be an opportunity to recuperate. Our third stop will be at a place called Hinstock before we move on towards Newport.

I am thinking that I may adjust my plan slightly depending on Roman. As there will be days where we will be stopping at places with very little of interest I may decide to rest for half an hour each time before continuing whilst in cooler climates before moving on. It obviously depends on Roman but it would be much more enjoyable to spend the afternoon and evening in the place we will be staying that is more built up as there will be more opportunity to get things to eat and the like. Obviously, once we are in a warmer climate we will not have this option but I would not like to get bored too soon into our adventure!

I Can Now Announce Our Leaving Date!

2009-08-01T23:09:00.002+02:00

I’ve decided that today is the day that I will announce the date I plan to leave on. Roman seems to be much better now and I feel comfortable enough to be able to commit to a date now. The date I have decided to leave on is Monday August 17^th. I worked out that if I walk 20 miles everyday without any rest days then I would arrive on 31^st October. I think I will probably have one rest day per week which will also give me the chance to sort out my laundry and update my blog – yes, it will become weekly updates once I am on my travels! – so I anticipate arriving in Rome in mid November.

I will be participating in a dog walk with Roman tomorrow with our training group as part of a fundraising event for Dog Aid. This has been set up by Angela, the lady who runs FIDO in Chester. As you may have read in an earlier post Angela kindly donated a dog pack and a first aid kit for Roman a while back. There will be a variety of dogs taking part and we will be setting off from the club at about 9.30am. The walk is not a particularly long one but will be another opportunity for Roman to be in the company of other dogs and also experiencing a busy city centre, something I am sure he will be used to by the time we reach Rome!

Once I have finished there I will be heading off out for a jog with my friend, Nathan, to make sure I keep my fitness levels up before going in search of something that I will be able to transport all of our stuff in once we set off. My brother and his wife (Jeff and Karen) suggested last night that I could consider a bicycle trailer. They double up as a double buggy but look to be the correct kind of shape and build for what I need.

I may need to do a little bit of adaptation but nothing to drastic so, as long as they are capable of carrying the weight I require, this might be a good solution. This will give me the benefit of being able to push all of our stuff along rather than carrying it – this would be quite difficult considering the weight of Roman’s food! Another advantage of this is that they come with a built in cover so I would not have to worry about anything getting damp!

I think the best place to look for one of these would probably be a bike shop so I will be heading off to one or two tomorrow to see if I can get a proper look at one to see if they would be suitable for my requirements. I hope that it will be suitable as they are reasonable inexpensive compared with some of the things I have been looking at. I will also try and be a little cheeky and see if one of the shops wants to donate it for the event.

I have begun mapping my exact route out this week – I needed to have a confirmed date that I would be in Dover for the free ferry ticket that P&O Ferries are supplying – so I can reveal where my stops will be as I pass through England. I have decided that I will publish each of the 13 days one day per post over the next two weeks.

Day One

I will be setting off from Chester Town Hall and hope to be able to get Granada Reports and a couple of local papers out to cover it. The Roman Tours/DevaVictix (Chester's Roman Display Team) have offered to give me an honour guard as I set off so I will be getting in touch with them this week to confirm they are able to do this. I hope to be setting off at about 9am on the day so it would be great if we could get a crowd of people there for it.

I will be leaving Chester and heading down the A41 to Whitchurch – this will be my first scheduled overnight stay. We will be stopping three times each day and our first day will see us stop for rest at Hatton Heath, Broxton and No Man’s Heath. It’s a road I know well from all of my childhood holidays to Devon – this was always our starting point back then.

What Will I Do When I Get There?

2009-07-31T21:01:00.002+02:00

Roman got a pretty decent bit of exercise today – myself, Nathan and Rich took him out on the field by us and played football for about half an hour or so. Roman is the most committed footballer I have ever seen – he’s kind of like a cross between Roy Keane and Dirk Kuyt in that he will happily take your legs off for the ball and will never stop running!

It’s been a while since we played football on the field with him so he was pretty knackered afterwards. It’s funny how much more tired he gets chasing the football around compared with just running around a field for half an hour. I think it must be the mental exercise he is getting as well as the physical exercise but football definitely has more of an effect on him.

His paw seems to be a lot better now too. It’s pretty much back to normal now and I think the rest has done him the world of good, physically anyway. I will resist the temptation to go out road walking until I have the boots for him – this close to the leaving date I don’t want to risk a setback due to impatience. I was hoping that I may be able to get a company to donate some but my search has been fruitless. A friend offered to buy them instead when she heard so I will be taking her up on her (very kind) offer.

Hopefully, if the boots are ordered this weekend, we may have them early next week so the walking can recommence. I will build him up again gradually but will start off with two walks of five miles per day. He is definitely fit enough to cope with that – I used to walk him 10 miles every night with no issues whatsoever so this will be a breeze for him. After a couple of days I will add the third walk back in and about a week after that I will go up to the four so that we are regularly walking the 20 miles a day we will need to walk when we are on our way.

Things are really starting to seem real now. I am now counting down the days until we leave. I will admit that I am now beginning to feel pretty nervous about the whole thing – not from the point of view of actually doing the walk and everything that goes with it but more so how I will set about integrating into Roman society. I am sure that things are going to be very difficult for me over there for at least 6 months and am mentally preparing myself for the challenges I may meet.

I have been thinking a lot about the kind of work I may be able to get over there. There is a chance that I may be able to get involved with teaching English as a native speaker – I wouldn’t get fantastic pay as I have no qualifications but the fact that I am a native speaker means I could get in with some establishments. Another option I have been thinking about is trying to contact English speaking tour operators. Again, I have no formal qualifications but I am an intelligent lad with a passion for Roman antiquity so if there is even an outside chance then it is something I would like to explore.

Those two options are pretty much ideal circumstances for me at the moment – I know I am very skilled in what I have done in the past but I don’t think I would be ready when I got there to do that sort of thing as I am sure that I would need to be fluent in Italian. I will keep my eye out for jobs with English speaking companies but I am not getting my hopes up of falling lucky with something like that. I have also been mulling over the possibility that I may find it difficult to find work.

Personally, I am prepared to do pretty much anything to get a foothold over there. I know I am intelligent and have a lot to offer but the primary concern I have right now is how to establish myself in the country and get settled. I can be more ambitious once I am settled but, for the duration of my short term future in Rome, I can’t afford to be proud. I need to find work as soon as possible after my arrival so that I can afford to pay the bills. I hope that my willing to do anything attitude will stand me in good stead there.

I almost forgot to mention - Royal Canin called me up today and said they were prepared to pledge 2 large bags of dog food for Roman to get us on our way. This is fantastic news for us as this will probably last the best part of a month, I just need to find a suitable way of transporting 24kg of dog food around as well as all the equipment!

Roman Has Fleas!!

2009-07-31T00:46:00.001+02:00

Roman has been scratching at his bum over the last couple of days and biting at it so I decided to do the “flea test” – you get a wet piece of paper and get him to sit right by it and then scratch him so that some hair falls off onto the piece of paper. If the dog has fleas they are easy to spot on the wet piece of paper. Unfortunately, Roman does indeed have fleas – I’m sure the cat has brought them in as he doesn’t have much contact with other dogs and the dogs he does are always clean.

My brother, Rich, popped to the vets for me to pick up a treatment for both Roman and Macy which I applied this afternoon. As a result, Macy has been kept in all night and I have not taken Roman out. By tomorrow it will have had time to work his magic so I will be able to take Roman running on the field with no problems.

Roman’s paw is a lot better now and the cream seems to be doing the trick. As soon as I have the boots for him I will start the intensive walking again. There is not long to go now before we set off so we need to be doing as much exercise as possible in the coming weeks. I’m positive that he will be more than capable of it from past experience though.

Gemma from the vet messaged me this afternoon on Facebook to say that she had managed to speak with someone at Royal Canin and they would be sending a free bag of food to the vets for me to get us started when we set off. It’s taken a while to sort it all out but I am really happy with the result – Roman’s dog food is pretty expensive, bearing in mind how much a 9 stone Rottweiler eats, so this will be a big help to us.

I have been looking for a trolley or cart for most of the day to be able to transport all of our stuff on when we are walking. If I have a full bag of dog food (12kg) and all of our equipment and water then the load would be well over 20kg and I think this might be a little much for me to carry 20 miles each day! As my friend told me he didn’t think he would be coming I thought it only prudent that I look for something.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find something suitable – I have tried all different combinations of keywords on Google and just can’t seem to find what I am looking for. The nearest I have got is a gardening trolley but I can’t find anything suitably built that I could push, they all seem to be pull trolleys. I am planning on attaching Roman’s lead around my waist so that I have my hands free when I am walking to push something along.

I called a couple of companies up as I couldn’t really find much suitable. I was hoping that they may be able to point me in the right direction but the search proved fruitless. I will try again tomorrow but I just don’t know where I will find one! It’s not something you really think about but I have no idea where the best place to get something like that would be!

I have heard nothing back about Roman’s dog boots but a friend said they would buy some for him as sponsorship so I think I may have to take them up on that offer. It’s a shame that companies seem to be so unwilling to help with things like this. I would have thought that the publicity would be a good thing. The thing that really annoys me is that the majority don’t even have the decency to reply – a “no” is so much easier to take if someone takes the time to read what you have written.

I have been trying again to persuade my friend to come with me – I know he said no but I’m not the type to take no for an answer! Plus the fact, it really is a fantastic opportunity for him – I know if I had been offered this kind of thing at his age I would have snapped it up with both hands immediately. One of the things I regret most about my adolescence is not travelling and experiencing life for all that it is. Life is about more than work, I’m just glad I have the chance to do something like this now.

As it is, he seems to be waning on the subject. I reckon if I keep on at him then he might change his mind. When I started asking him he just kept saying no, then he started refusing to answer the question before moving onto a maybe. Tonight he seemed a lot more accepting of the offer and he has agreed to take my advice and speak with his parents to see what their thoughts are. I know any parents don’t like to see their kids move on to another country but I am sure they will see the opportunity here for him and encourage him – if things don’t work out he can always come back.

We Had Our Photo Taken For A National Newspaper Today!

2009-07-30T00:14:00.000+02:00

Today I got a pleasant surprise! I take everything back that I said about Simon being a wind up – he called me this afternoon and it turns out he has been away in Ireland. He arranged to come down with a photographer (who was very pretty, by the way!) to take some pictures of Roman and I. He reckons that he should know by the end of the week but thinks it will be in the nationals as early as Monday. This is probably the best bit of news I have had so far. The publicity this can generate for us and the potential donations to be had are enormous. All of a sudden I feel that the £100,000 target I set myself is actually achievable!

I took Roman out today for a run – his paw seems much better but I didn’t want to rush him back in to anything too soon so I took him on the field. It’s the first time he has been out since last Friday and I have felt so sorry for him. I feel like a really bad owner! He was obviously so happy to be out too – he charged around the field for about half an hour without stopping for breath for more than a few seconds. I could actually see the joy on his face! At the risk of sounding sad, I really do love that dog!

I have been looking at tents and sleeping bags today on the internet to see what kind of price they go for. They are actually really cheap for what I will need but I will try and get back in touch with Vango tomorrow to see whether they are prepared to supply them as sponsorship – it’s now been over two weeks since I emailed them. I know that the lady who would be dealing with it was off to Germany for a convention for a week but I have still heard nothing so I will see if I can get a yes or no answer out of them.

I’ve spent some more time today trying to learn Italian and I must say I am starting to feel a little more confident now. I am having very little trouble now with the pronunciation stages – these were probably the ones that were causing me the most trouble but I am beginning to get used to the way that I need to pronounce things. I will be stepping it up from here on in – if I can get 3 or 4 hours a day in then I am sure I will be able to have conversations once I get to Italy at the very least.

The thing that I am most nervous about with the whole event is actually getting started over there. The walking and sleeping rough does not faze me at all, even having to transport all of our stuff is not really worrying me. The thing that worries me the most is not being able to speak Italian well enough to go to a job interview or open a bank account or even to speak to the police to sort out my residency card!

I think the thing I am most looking forward to though is the unknown. I have lived the majority of my life nicely tucked into my comfort zone, pretty much like the majority of society. This will be the biggest test I have ever had. Not only am I moving away from everything I am familiar with but I am going to a new country that has a different language and different customs and culture. It’s really quite exciting to think of how I anticipate I will change as a person – I will be forced to speak to people I don’t know if I want to integrate and live a full life there.

In England, people rarely even say hello to each other in the street. I have been making more of an effort to do that when I am out walking with Roman and I find that people approach me now I have been on the television. This will probably be the biggest change for me. I will no longer be able to live in my little circle of friends and not make acquaintances. If I want to live a full life over there then I will have to adapt and become a more outwardly confident person.

I am pretty certain now that my friend will definitely not be coming along for the ride. It’s a shame really as there are so many opportunities out there to be had and I regret never leaving Chester and experiencing what the world has to offer. I think it is too easy to get stuck in a routine – get up, go to work, see your friends, eat tea, watch television, go to bed – and live it day in, day out. I now realise that this is not what I want. I want to experience life, I want to live every moment. I don’t want to simply exist.

Walking Wounded

2009-07-29T00:35:00.000+02:00

My younger brother Jamie has stayed over again tonight but he is in work in the morning so I will be guaranteed to be up early in the morning as he has to be up at 7.30am! I have decided that I will take Roman for a run on the field by me as soon as I am properly awake – I have felt so cruel not taking him out these past few days but it’s all for his own good.

His paw seems much better although I think there is still a bit of recovery needed so I will be limiting him to exercise on the field for the next few days and, by then, I might have some dog boots for him anyway. I can’t wait to get his dog boots – they look really cool. For anyone who wants to see them here is a link:

http://uk.shopping.com/xPO-Bark-N-Boot-Grip-Trex-Paw-Protectors-XLarge-Red-Black

Roman has been like an absolute nutter the past couple of days and has barely stayed still for a minute. The only time he has stopped charging about has been to have a sniff of his lead and to give me “those” eyes! Every time he does that I feel really sorry for him. It must be horrible to have all that energy and no way of releasing it.

I replied to Natalie from P&O Ferries with the information she had requested to be able to provide a free ticket for us. I have not heard back off her today but will hopefully hear back tomorrow to confirm it has all been done. I also gave Sam at the vets a ring to see if she had got any further with the dog food company. She said that she just can’t get hold of the rep she had been speaking to but had been given somebody else’s details in the company to speak to. I will ring Sam back tomorrow to see how she got on.

I replied to the guy who emailed me from the national newspaper also today. I put quite a bit of information into the email about the reasons why I am doing what I am doing, the charities I am supporting and the publicity I have already managed to get. I have not heard back from him today but hopefully he will reply at some time tomorrow to let me know if he can do anything to help me. I hope he can, it’s just a shame that “Simon” seemed to be a wind up – I never managed to get hold of him and he never returned my calls so I will have to assume that he was a wind up. What’s the world coming to, eh?

I managed to get hold of some contact details for PR departments within O2 and Vodafone today so called both companies to see whether they would be prepared to supply me with a Nokia N97 for a few months whilst I am on my travels with internet access and pay the bill. I am not sure whether I will get anywhere with this but it would certainly make things easier for me. Both companies requested I sent an email with all the relevant information and the request so I did that this afternoon. I will keep you updated on what happens there.

I went for another jog this afternoon with my friend, Nathan, but we were both the walking wounded today. Nathan was complaining of pain in his calf so I can only assume he has strained it and my ankle has been playing up. I haven’t twisted it or anything but every time I plant my foot I get a shooting pain in my ankle. As a result we only managed to do a couple of miles but that’s better than nothing!

I have managed to get a couple of hours of learning Italian in as well this evening before I got rudely interrupted by Jamie and his big mouth! It’s amazing how much noise teenagers can make without actually saying anything. We have had a bit of a heated discussion tonight – he’s being a typical adolescent male and has been causing a bit of trouble so I have been trying to explain things like gangs, retribution and stabbings. Hopefully if I go on about it enough he may take notice and start behaving before something serious happens.

Looks Like We Have A Free Ticket From P&O Ferries!

2009-07-28T00:42:00.000+02:00

I’m afraid today I have managed to achieve pretty much nothing at all! As my brother was staying over last night and was here all day I didn’t really have the chance to get on the phone – it’s awkward anyway as he is quite noisy and he was watching DVDs all day. Instead, I have had a pretty lazy day but will be getting straight back into things tomorrow – I have not even done any Italian today!

I got an email this morning from Natalie at P&O Ferries about the ticket. It appears that they will, in fact, supply me with a ticket – I just need to send a few details over to them such as the names of the passengers and the times and date that we will need the ticket for. I’m really pleased with that – as I have said before, it’s not a massive amount of money but it is always nice when a company is prepared to help you out in a way such as this.

I have spoken to my friend tonight and he is definitely prepared to take me over on the ferry and I have also been trying to persuade him to just come with me – it would obviously be very handy for me to have a friend in a car to transport all of the stuff we will need to take but I think it would be a fantastic opportunity for him too. I will keep badgering him in the hope that he will agree but I am not convinced he will.

I also got an email back this evening from somebody who works at a national newspaper. After the fiasco with Simon I decided to try and contact the newspaper in question myself and sent an email off a few days ago. I am not sure whether he had really spoken to anybody there but I have received a reply from one of their guys asking me for more information. This will be at the top of my list tomorrow morning as this sort of publicity could really help me to achieve the targets I have set myself.

Roman’s paw seems to be getting better but I have still not taken him out. I am so paranoid about it at the moment you just wouldn’t believe! I will see how it is tomorrow and probably take him over to the field around the corner from me so he can charge around like a crazy dog and expend some of this pent up energy he has. Hopefully, being extra careful like this will help it to clear up and everything will be ok soon with a bit of luck.

Talking of paws, I haven’t heard anything back yet about his dog boots. I will see if there has been a response by tomorrow afternoon and then try and establish a contact with the company in question on the phone if there has been no contact. Again, the monetary value of the boots is not particularly large but if a company could provide them as a donation then this would be a really nice gesture and I would happily promote their company on my blog in return.

I managed to get a jog and a workout in tonight with Nathan – it’s the first time we have done that in a couple of weeks. It’s hard to keep up that kind of program when you are already walking 15 miles a day but it seemed like a good time to get back into it with my exercise levels being so low due to Roman’s paw. We will be jogging everyday this week – we did 3 and a half miles today but will be doing at least 5 miles a day for the rest of the week.

Not Much To Report Today...

2009-07-27T00:48:00.001+02:00

Today has been pretty uneventful for me to be honest. With not being able to walk Roman and all businesses being closed meaning I can’t ring around for sponsorship I have been at a bit of a loose end pretty much all day. I got up this morning and went down to see Angela to get Roman a new harness as the one he has is starting to wear away. I didn’t take Roman as his paw still seems a little raw at the moment and I want to wait until I am 100% certain that it has recovered before I start exercising him again.

My younger brother, Jamie, is staying over tonight and we have just been sat around watching a few films – I treated him to a Pizza Hut earlier but only because I couldn’t really be bothered cooking after football and my older brother’s, Rich, girlfriend gets 50% discount there too! It’s been a while since I pigged out on that kind of food so it made a nice change but I will back to my healthy food tomorrow!

Football was horrific tonight – none of the management turned up for the game. Normally this would not be a problem but they also play for us so we were left a player short for tonight’s match. The worst thing about it is that they never even let us know what was going on – if we had known in advice we could more than likely have gotten an extra player as I have a few contacts from previous teams I have been in.

We lost the game 3-0 which wasn’t too bad really – the last time we played a team that was a man short we won 7-0 so at least we didn’t get totally hammered like that. One of our players, Johnny, had also been at Global Gathering all weekend so he was certainly not in peak physical condition! It’s just frustrating when stuff like that happens as you are immediately in a negative frame of mind right from the kick off.

I have not even taken Roman out once again today. I feel really mean on him and I can tell he would like nothing more than to go out for a nice long walk but it’s not fair on him as it would cause more discomfort in the long term. He has had to make do with playing with me in the house and charging and jumping around like a mad man! He keeps coming over and putting his head on my lap asking for strokes and cuddles – normally when he is well exercised I don’t see anything of him, he just sleeps pretty much constantly between walks!

It will be nice tomorrow to be able to get back in touch with the outside world – I will start chasing companies up about prospective sponsorship and look to make some new links with companies. I could do with getting some sponsor forms and posters printed up so that I can start going around door to door to try and raise some money offline. I am sure that there will be plenty of money coming in online but it would be nice to give it a bit of a boost!

What's The Point In Life If You're Not Really Living?

2009-07-26T00:14:00.002+02:00

Roman has had total rest today and already his limp seems to be much better. I have been applying the cream the vet gave me a couple of times a day but have decided I am going to give him as much rest as possible until it is completely healed. I have not taken him out at all today. To be honest I feel a little bit cruel when I don’t take him out but he has not been bothering me today to take him out anyway so that has made it a little easier!

It was quite strange getting up in the morning and not getting ready to take him for a five mile walk straightaway but I did have to get ready for something. I had arranged to meet up with my ex girlfriend at midday today to discuss the house and my plans for leaving. We have not really spoken in a while and the last time turned into a row over the phone so I arranged for us to meet in a café in town – there’s less chance of a row in a public place and I feel neutral territory is probably best anyway.

One of the reasons I had decided to meet her at the café is that they are dog friendly and Roman always gets a bowl of water and a sausage or two off the owner! It’s just over a couple of miles from my house so is perfect distance on a nice day for us to have a leisurely stroll and then have a break for an hour or so while I have a coffee and Roman catches his breath. It was unfortunate that he hurt his paw really as I am sure my ex would have liked to have seen him as it has been a while!

The main thing I had on my agenda was to inform her of my proposed leaving date – yes, I have one in mind but I would like to wait to make sure Roman is definitely ok to leave before I announce it! I wanted to discuss with her what her options would be once I left as I have no intention of paying the mortgage once I leave. Basically, the options she has are to either refinance the mortgage in her own name, move in and pay the mortgage until it sells, rent it out until it sells or not pay it at all and let the mortgage default!

Obviously, the last option is never going to happen as defaulting on a mortgage would be pretty damaging for her credit rating! I think the ideal solution would be for her to refinance the mortgage but I am not sure a mortgage company would agree to just her name on it as her earnings probably don’t qualify unless she had a hefty deposit and not many people have a lot of money lying around right now!

The most likely option is for her to move in and pay the mortgage until it sells, at which point we will split whatever we get over what is owed on the mortgage between us. I think we both sort of regret buying now to be honest. If we had just been renting then we could have just gone our separate ways back in January and there would be no reason for us to have to keep in touch if we chose not to.

I think the credit crunch has really thrown a spanner in the works too – if we had been in this situation two years ago then we would have had no problem whatsoever selling and would probably have walked away with a decent chunk of money each. As it is, we are struggling to sell it at a price way below market value! I will leave it up to her as to whether she wants to continue to market it at the current price or if she wants to put it back up a bit. I think the reason it isn’t selling now is nothing to do with price but more to do with people being unable to get finance. Once things start to pick up it may well sell at a higher price with relative ease.

We actually sat outside the café for a good couple of hours chatting and there was no argument in sight, which was definitely a good thing. These matters can tend to get quite messy with both parties naturally feeling wronged in some way but arguing about things only gets you one place – in a more complicated mess! I have already lost a lot of money on the house so, right now, if I lose a bit more then I don’t really care to be honest – I just want rid of it so I can move on with the next part of my life.

The other bad thing about having got a mortgage is that, naturally, I ploughed every spare penny into the house to the extent that about 80% of my wages were spent on it whilst we lived together and about 98% whilst I have been here on my own. To put that into perspective over the course of the past two years if we had been renting I could have saved up to £15,000 and would now be either in a position where I would have a nice car to sell or would already have savings and be able to just walk away quite easily. As it is, things are more complicated.

Personally, I don’t think I want to buy a house again and, if I do, I think I will only want to do it if I can get the property dirt cheap due to another recession. It’s quite bad to think like that – capitalising on the misery of others – but in the world of finance this is the only way forward. I think we have been unlucky with timing really but I will be a lot more careful in the future. To think, we thought it was a better idea to buy as we would at least be able to walk away with a chunk of money to start again if things didn’t work out!

It’s this sort of thing that has helped to shape my thoughts in the direction that they have taken. In essence, the last two years of my life have been all for nothing – ok I was making progress in my job but I felt I could go no further where I was and I was feeling very unfulfilled with the demands of the job. I like to be constantly challenged and I feel that job no longer did it. Also, all of the time, effort and money that I put into the house has amounted to nothing.

It is these setbacks, for want of a better word, that have led me to start contemplating what is really important in life. I always believed a steady job, buying a house and having nice things was important. Now I think it’s important to live every moment like it’s your last, enjoy life for what it is and don’t settle for anything. There’s a whole beautiful world out there, why the hell do we feel the need to stay in one little place for the whole of our lives? There are so many things out there to experience, surely it would be a waste of life to not sample them?

Well, you have a little insight now into how my brain ticks. You may think I’m barmy; many people do. Personally, I think people in general are barmy with the things that they attach importance to. The real importance of life is living; what’s the point in life if you’re not really living?