Saturday 31 December 2011

2011: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

All life, all feelings through the year and what a year it was.

Happy New Year To Everyone!

























Feb photo: (C) British Cycling
Jun photo: (C) Antti Haavisto



Tuesday 13 December 2011

Ode to travelling.

Here, I am again in Wales having big time troubles with my travel plans. Some of you may remember me telling about my adventure to Canaries, or should I say, almost to Canaries as I never got there. When I went to universiades, Finnair forgot my bike to Finland. Last time I travelled home my train was delayed by some hours because of an unknown problem in train tunnel. Yesterday Norwegian failed with the timetables and we missed our train and had to pay 56 pounds more pounds to get home two hours later than planned.

We had planned months ago that we will stay over Christmas and New Year in southern spain. We booked everything and until this morning the plan was to catch a ferry over from Portsmouth to Bilbao. However, some might guess what I'm gonna say next. A text message came, not from a friend or a mysterious girl, but from a ferry operator:

'We are sorry to advise that your Brittany Ferries crossing on 15/12/11 at 22h00 to Bilbao has been cancelled because of bad weather. Please call 0870.......'

Fucking hell, just a text message. The I got an email saying the same thing. Then I got another email from them, which wasn't not about a sudden change in weather. Hell no, it was my ticket and they also thanked me for using Brittany Ferries. Cheers for that, much appreciated. The helpful lady in the office was very sorry of course and promised refund our crossing or choose another crossing week later. Thanks again. Not that, it was her fault, but come on: a ferry week later. I tried to laugh at it, but it wasn't real tho. Hah. Now what?

We have a new plan now. We will drive additional 1200 kilometres through all France and to get France we had two options: train or ferry. Not very good ones when considering my latest travelling history, ehh? Anyway, we opted for Eurotunnel train from Folkestone to Calais as it might work, I'm not sure about that anymore. I'm just waiting for another text message to arrive.

Travelling is fun and relaxing, said someone. I seriously doubt that. None the less, training is going alright, uni work is coming together. And also I was so happys to see so many friends at Levi!


'The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before.'

-G.K. Chesterton