Adventures in Europe over (for now)

Hello to you all from a very gloomy North London. Just when I thought all the snow had finished, I see that more is scheduled to arrive tonight or tomorrow. The forecasters here have been ludicrously bad lately however, so I don't know if that means it is more likely to be clear than snowy. I certainly hope so because I'm at work tomorrow in one of the worst zones I could be allocated during disruption. Fingers crossed that the Met Office have screwed up the forecast yet again.

I got back from Berlin yesterday after an enjoyable weekend with Daz. Last week I went to Madrid with my uni buddy Sam, experiencing the more civilised aspects of Spanish culture as opposed to the dumps I'm accustomed to in the Canaries. Both cities were colder than I expected, with Daz and I having to dive into a cab to escape freezing to death, similar to an episode in Toronto last year with Gareth where we hailed a cab to take us the remaining 100m to the hotel.

Some of you will know that I always like to get to the airport nice and early before my flight. Yesterday we were due to depart at 1920hrs, so Daz and I got to Tegel shortly after midday. That was a bit early even by my standards, but the fact that we had to check out of the hotel at 11 and then carry our bags around in snowy conditions meant we had few other options. Of course, one consolation was that we could spend all day in the business class lounge, which we did sure enough. It actually went quite quickly in the end, and the alcoholic intake of our extended lounge stay was added to when a friendly member of cabin crew decided to ply us with champagne we didn't even ask for. Looking back on the Berlin trip my mind keeps skipping to a poignant but entertaining conversation I had with Daz in a 'tropical' cocktail bar with real sand all over the floor (!) where we had a pretty candid discussion about (a) the chances of me getting a wife and (b) the type of woman it would be if I did. The line that's been making me laugh repeatedly to myself since we got back was Daz saying something along the lines of... "My God, I would bloody love to meet your girlfriend. I'd say, 'Hi, I'm Darren, nice to meet you. What the FUCK are you doing with James?'" Undoubtedly that won't sound funny on the blog but it's got me chuckling just writing it. It stemmed from Daz telling me how I'm too selfish to have a relationship and that any girlfriend of mine would have to be "thick-skinned" to say the least. It sounds pretty harsh writing it down but it had me laughing at the time and it still does now; Dazzy you're a star!

Before I started writing this post I was in a bit of a morbid mood because I had to get the exhaust fixed on my car and I was expecting to be handed a bill of a few hundred quid. Thus I was also going to turn this entry into a dark, emo post about my previous experiences with girls. However, I was plesantly surprised by the size of the bill and I'm no longer in such a mood, so onto other things...

So far my non-drinking quest has been going with moderate success. I say moderate because I've flouted my rule about not drinking on UK soil (with the exception of airports) twice; I had one beer with my Dad when we went for a curry and I had a few drinks with Sam when he arrived at my house the night before we left for Madrid. Tonight it looks like I'll be going out with Daz, Loz and whoever else wants to come along and this will definitely be my biggest test to stay sober yet.

Ok, my fingers are aching. Until next time.