Marion Jones - World Class Loser

OK, enough of the gratuitous self posts from London...

 

Marion Jones... busted drug cheat... giving her "pieces of silver" back to the IOC.  Crys tears of apology...

 

Suck it up... maybe they should consider jail time for drug cheats.  Get caught using steroids at an Olympic event - 5 years of hard time in the jails of your home nation.

 

It makes me sick that this woman (and I use that term loosely - have you seen the size of her!) got lauded over at Sydney 2000 when it was clear she was on the juice.  Her husband got busted for roids (he was that massive shot putter) and she had muscles a man would be proud of and when she won all those races by the proverbial mile, we all gushed over her.

 

Well I said it then and I am justified - a dead set cheat.

 

And what is her punishment - she hands back the pieces of metal that made her rich beyone her wildest dreams... oh what a shame.

Home - At Last

Yes, made it back! Had a great trip... work went very well, we got a good result for our efforts and the socialising was good as well... busy, but good.

A few snapshots of my trip:

Me at Stamford Bridge just after full time... my seats were right there! Fantastic crowd and atmosphere. No goals though :(


My street where I stayed in London... my hotel is down the right side near those trees... Harrods is in the background on the cross street at the far end. The buildings on the left are normal apartment houses... very rich to live in Knightsbridge. The Capital Hotel was small, quaint, but reasonably priced and the staff were excellent.


Speakers Corner on Sunday morning... a Muslim man was speaking about how Islam is misunderstood and two American Jews were counter-pointing him. The guy with the hat (obscured) and his son (?) holding the bible aloft were criticising Islam for their "death to infidels" stance. The Muslim man countered that Infidels were only those who entered Muslim lands for "raping and pillaging"... travellers of faiths are always welcome... It was a good debate which I listened too for a good 10 minutes.

Mid Flight Posting

Am in Bangkok... actually slept pretty well and I think I got about 10hrs sleep!  It was a bit fits and starts, but overall the 15hr flight felt like 4hrs only... which is good.

 

Problem is its 4pm now in Bangkok and I have just had breakfast!  Means when I get to Sydney, it will be dawn and I will feel like dinner...

 

I presume that Qantas will serve dinner soon into the flight  to Sydney to try and get us to adjust... I dont feel like Bacon & Eggs and then dinner so quickly in between.

 

My mobile phone died as well... seems as though it turned itself on during the flight - Blackberry's have some odd "auto on" feature and when I landed it was humming away... that scares you because they say to turn off mobiles etc!

On My Way Home

Well, I am packed and about to check out... spent my last day in London doing some shopping on Oxford and Regent Streets and I also saw a guy get hit by a double decker bus!  The bus wasnt moving quickly, but he got hit hard and ended up laying on the road, but he was conscious...  lots of onlookers, but he seemed that he will be OK... pretty awful though.

 

Also spent a fair amount of time at Speakers Corner listening to nutters go on about religion and politics... mostly religion.  If you ever want to meet people who are insane, go to Speakers Corner and check it out!

 

Went through Harrods as well... place is a palace to consumerism!!  So much stuff from Ferrari's to Teddy Bears.  Bought some pressies there as well.

 

Had lunch at a small pub off Regent St and had the best Fish & Chips ever!  Beer battered Hake, mushy peas and tartare sauce and chips.  A couple of pints of Smiths as well and I watched most of the Fiji - South Africa rugby game.

 

All in all, a good day, my feet are killing me and I hope I can sleep well on the plane home.  My next post will be from the Southern Hemisphere!

Work Is Over - Time To Relax

Well, the very heavy week of work in London is over... I dont leave the UK until Sunday night, so in the interim I am having some R&R.

 

Watching the Eng v Aus Rugby test tomorrow with some of the guys from the London office... will also be having one last dinner in a posh London eatery Saturday night to toast our success and then on Sunday, its a quiet day of site seeing and shopping.

 

I am soooo tired.  Will sleep all the way home I think!

London Continues

Been a very busy week... I gave about 6 presentations yesterday, had a business lunch and then a dinner as well for the third night in a row... the food and drink is doing my girth no favours!

 

Its nearly 7am now and I am about to pop out for a morning walk in the drizzle, but I am really enjoying London.  I hear at home the weather is in the mid 30's already and the fires have started... going to be a long summer i think!

 

So in short, nothing much to report here in London other than work / meetings / lunch / meetings / dinner continues unabated!

 

Great fun though!

London Weekend...

Have had a very good weekend in London... been very sporty.  Went to the soccer as I said yesterday and it was brilliant!  Had "Champions Club" tickets in which we had a free feed and a few beers before hand and then seats in the 2nd tier of the grandstand close to half way.  The atmosphere was unbelievable and was the best crowd I have ever been a part of.  The Chelsea fans took up 90% of the ground, but the small conglomerate of Fullham fans were in fine voice as well... it was like both sides were doing the New Zealand "haka" across the ground at each other.

 

The game itself I really enjoyed and both teams pushed their luck on the break and both teams could have (should have) scored a couple of goals each.  Unfortunately it ended 0-0 and I didnt get to hear the crowd go nuts for a Chelsea goal.

 

Dinner last night was at the oldest Indian restaurant in London and the food was fantastic!  Then it was back to the hotel for a much needed sleep, but it wasnt easy.

 

This morning, I woke up at 6am on a Sunday (never done that before!) and after a bit of emailing and work catch up, I went for a walk.  I ended up doing a whole lap of Hyde Park and that took a bit over an hour.  Then it was time for a shower and a look for a pub to watch the NRL Grand Final.

 

I wasnt really keen on this years Grand Final, but the atmosphere at the Fulham Slug was great as they had alot of big screens up and the place was packed with Aussies.  We then realised we will be here next Saturday for the Australia - England Rugby World Cup clash and instantly decided we'd be back at "the slug" next weekend for that.

 

Then I went for more walking and we to Harrods... amazing place and I will go back for presents at the back end of the trip.  They had an opera singer at the escalators singing so loudly and using the acoustics we ended up watching her for about 10mins.  Then it was into the food hall and we picked a few chocolates and truffles to try as well...

 

Lunch was at a traditional English Carvery were roast beef and roasted ham was served up with all the trimmings... along with a bottle of Portugese red wine, I was well and truly feeling stuffed!

 

But then it was time to do some work and we camped in the hotel bar with the laptop and discussed tomorrow's presentations.  We then realised it was 7pm and so my boss John and I went for dinner at an Italian restaurant about 10mins down the road... more wine, spaghetti, coffee etc and I am now truly truly stuffed and tired.  Its 9:30pm, I have to make some changes to my presentation tomorrow and then its time for bed... hopefully a few more hours will be forthcoming tonight!