Reddot Club Competition

The golf competition started at 2pm on Monday the 26^th of September, Three groups the pro’s the hopefuls and the losers, guess what groups I was in ;-).

The pro’s with their trolleys started first and steamed ahead, followed by the hopefuls who were looking good, and then it was our time to ‘tee off’. First up was Andy (his our clubs and golf trousers) who made up for any lack of skill with a fantastic dress sense (see photos). Taking his first shot the ball goes soaring up into the air… and then lands with a splash into the pond 20 feet in front of the tee. Who ever design’s golf courses with the first tee in front of the golf house needs to be shot. Luckily the second shot sees him on the fairway with an impressive long shot.

Next was Robin from Fuse, first time golfer. First shot sees the ball fly at a 45 degree angle, right into the shrubs at the side of the tee, where a large THUMP issued forth from where the ball flew out of sight, we later found out that it was a plastic manhole cover. Again the second shot saw him onto the fairway; of course being born natural at all sport I manage to get my first shot on to the fairway (massive fluke), but we did get better as the day and night (no I’m not lying, the last hole was played in the dark) went on. Anyway it was a great day out and we had lots of fun. Well done to James for winning the day and the Reddot trophy.

This was a miss by the way!

Come on then! if your feeling lucky

Nice trousers Andy

Bike trouble

Went for a bike ride on Sunday, we managed to acquire two second hand bikes, one from my mother and one from a work mate. So having tested the bikes up and down the road and pumping the types up, we set off. We first went down the canal to the horseshoe bridge which after its refit had a very useful ramp installed to help you push your bike over the bridge, which was nice and then we rode up the Thames towards Rivermead. We came across a weir and decided to cross there as we had not seen that side of the river before. I picked up my bike to push it on to the weir and had a shock as the front type fell off, of course there were lots of people standing around to laugh at me ;-). I had to carry both parts of the bike over the weir to rebuild it on the other side. Having reassembled the bike and happy that it would not fall apart straight away, we set off again on the other side of the river. Within 50 meter of setting off again , Eleanor's peddle fell off, this set us off into fits of giggles and after that we had to stop every 5 minutes to tighten up the bolts on both bikes, we have since decided to buy each other new bikes for Christmas.

Come over to the dark side

Phil and Sophies miracle

Mont Balnc (The White Mountain) as seen from Fancis's house

Mont Blanc (the white mountain) as seen from Francis's house

Thank God it is over!

Show me the way Eleanor (said in a french Accent)

Boating on lake Geneva

I think!!

It was all worth it.

gay walker

Epagny France

Just got back from Epagney, France and had a wonderful time again. We got the Gatwick train from Reading at 4.30 and Eleanor remembered to bring along a few beers for the ride, which was quite nice of her ;-). We got to the airport in plenty of time and decided to have a meal in the pizza express, the waiters there were some of the most efficient and happy waiters we have ever known, must be all the travellers in good spirits going off and holiday and the fact that they need to catch a plan in the next half an hour.(they probably tip well).

The first couple of day we had to our self’s and we lazed around the house and read books, then took it in turn to read the davinci code to one another. The first night Francis came home from work and we went down to the local super Mache, passed the burnt out firestation (I kid you not). Where we bought some food for the weekend, we got moules and pasta for the next few nights, before Celia’s friends arrived. I cooked the moules that night, which was a nice French meal to get into the flow of things, could have down with a bit of spice in the sauce but I was over ruled ;-).

The next few days flew past, Celia’s friends turned up and were a nice bunch, as nice as a ‘reflection’ of psychologists as you can have in a mad house. We went to Annecy, which is south of Geneva and is a lovely town, with a massive lake. The town is very twee but I think in a nice way. On Sunday we went for a walk in the forest at the bottom of the garden, we drove to the other end of the forest by car and then walked in from there. I finally saw Galadriel’s well, fantastic stone floor stream, which turns into a small waterfall with a pool at the bottom that would be big enough to swim in. We then went for a walk up Mont Saleve in the afternoon, but in the end only managed to make it to the bar at the top of the Mountain by driving.

Sunday night Eleanor and I went a bit mad on the beers, tequila’s and red wine and ended up very ill on Monday all day, which was a shame as it was a lovely day.

Tuesday we went for a meal at a local restaurant and said goodbye to Shaun and Celia and walked back to house via the country lanes, it took us about three hours to get back, via Elaenor's short cut! and was fantastic to see the views of the mountains from a few different hill sides.

Wednesday Francis took a day off to take us mountain walking, we drove down to chamonix and got two cable cars up to the highest point over looking Mont Blanc at nearly 2000 feet. We planned to walk down to a lake on the mountain and then back up to the cable cars to take us back down. Half way down the mountain I started to feel a little sick, I managed to get down to the lake which took about an hour and then had to go throw up. We tried to get up the mountain again as planned but I was finding it two hard and throw up again. Francis decided that it would be safer if we contained around the mountain and down as the effort to walk down is not as great as trying to get up. So after a four hour walk down the mountain we finally got back to the car park, I took a short video with the camera that says it all, ‘Thank god that is over’.

On Thursday we got a lift in with Francis and spent the day in Geneva, went to a art exhibition of lord of the ring paintings. The Legalas and Gimi picture was very good, I must look to see if I can get a copy of that one, we then got a boat from the town centre to the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) office to meet Francis for Lunch in the canteen at the top of the office, which has great views over lake Geneva.