Beers and cheers in the sun

An untypically beautiful warm sunny day in London for the ICC championships one day cricket.


what's that bright ball thing in the sky?


many hours (and many beers) later we stumbled accross the NZ embassy to rub it in even further..

South is best..

To celebrate the end of the cricket season, Blake's team, The Highgate Taverners divided in two to compete in the 1st annual Northern Hemisphere Vs Southern Hemisphere cricket match on Sunday, 12th Sept.. A fun day (though weather conditions were miserable - especially since we were in croatia the day before!) which saw the South completely obliterate the North (of course)!!..


The Champion South Team

Cruisin Croatia..

Well, another fantastic holiday has passed and i'm back at work.. isn't it amazing how quickly that blissful holiday feeling fades?.. (as i listen to the sirens blaring past my office window, and blow the remnants of another London cold out my nose)...

But at least I have my photos and this blog to relive the experience and to remind me that the work is worth it!... Here we go again...



Gaby, Paige, Jeff, Aaron, Dan, Ant, Tracey, Sam, Me and Blake picked up our gorgeous (and fat) 45ft Jeanneau from ACI Marina Split on Sat evening..

The theme for the week was generally sailing, swimming, sunning, eating, drinking, sleeping X 7....






..but there were some definate highlights among the haze of laze...

The Blue Cave at Bisevo was absolutely stunning!.. It's a cave that only accessible by dingy (and only if the tide and seas are right), and once you row past the lady charging 20kuna's at the door, you enter a dark tunnel which gradually radiates lighter and lighter in the most brilliant blue glow as you move along it.. it eventually opens out to a large cavern which is bathed in this freakishly almost incandescent light coming through an opening in the cave beneath the surface of the water.. (I didn't get any pictures, but i will shortly get them off sam and post them here).. it was simply breathtaking!..

A couple of nights we moored in secluded coves which just had a restaurant on the shore.. but they felt more like houses where the family would cook for you (after they have caught it and prepared it).. they kept their lobsters in cages in the water in front of their houses!!.. (soooo tempting!!)..

The little towns of Komiza and Stomorska were beautifully charming old fishing ports.. so cute and quaint.. and damn good seafood!!..






We decided to have a bit of fun one night and become pirates.. there was alot of "aarrggh arrrr's" around and "ahoy there matey's".. fun fun..






Hvar was another favourite town for it's marble paved streets, and walled in fort.. This photo below shows me standing at the top of the fort pointing to our yacht in the harbour... he he he..





and of course, no vacation is complete without some sort of hire vehicle mayhem - this time it was scooters in split on our last day!.. I think we maxxed them out at about 65km/hr..!!



ahhhh.. where to next??...

Famlee..

Caught up with Uncle Geg, Aunty Cate and Cuz Meegs in Brighton tonight.. Had a lovely Thai meal with our conversation.. Is good to see family again..

let's try this again..

.. so in the short version of my long weekend..

Friday night Blake and I caught up with Nick - who's off back home to Sydney next week (another one bites the dust).. a few drinks by the Thames and a lovely meal in Richmond and we still couldn't convince him to stay!!..

Saturday we headed over to the new Shez Bu Mansion for a good old BBQ - then out Turnmills that night to see Fat Boy Slim drive the hordes wild!!..

Sunday was mostly recovery for me - and then out to the London International Animation Festival with Ray.. some weird entries, but all up a very entertaining and elightening event..

Monday I headed out to Notting Hill to check out the carnival.. it was manic.. streets packed with dancing people and crazy costumes...

Sorry for the short version - it's nothing like the one i wrote on Tuesday.. but my mind is now filled with the sun, sea and sands of croatia... in 22 hours our plane takes off for Split.. yep, me and 9 buddies are setting sail in a 42ft yacht to see what we can see.. ahh bliss..

oh, before i head off to croatia, I'm heading off to Brighton.. tonight.. just a quick trip down to see my cousin Megan, Uncle Geg and Aunty Cate - and to get a glimpse of the sea again - even though I will be surrounded by it tomorrow!..

and now it's time to shut down my computer and start the winding down process...

..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...