Anyone ever watch Long Way Round? Ever wish you could go on a once in a lifetime journey like that? Well Ewan and Charlie are doing it again but instead they are going from John O’Groats to the southern tip of Africa. I think they just made Tunisia yesterday so theyve been on the road for about a week so far.

Once again they are doing the riding with Claudio the cameraman and the support team in tow and trying to raise awareness of the problems on route by supporting the UNICEF projects they visit. The thing I loved about the original was they were going to places I’d longed to visit but had never really seen on TV. Places such as Mongolia as a whole or Magadan have always been in my top 5 places to see and I think this was where my enjoyment of the program differend from alot of peoples. I just watched it for the places they visited, nothing at all to do with Ewan or the bikes. Now with them heading through Africa I’m curious to see the route they will be going and whats in store for them.

Apparently this one started being planned as they rode into New York at the end of their previous 3 month trip around the world but with all the troubles and hard terrain they encountered in Asia I was never sure Ewan would be up for it. Charlie got some practice is when he did the Paris – Dakar rally in 2006 but I think the other two riders may struggle.

Anyway the website is up now and you can follow them on thier journey by checking out their travel log and film thats being uploaded every few days to the BBC website. Should hopefully be on the BBC in September I think.

Now I think they are cheating with this pic. Thats taken at the start of Glen Coe at the Kings House Hotel looking up at Buachaille Etive Mor. Now as I understand it they went down the east coast so they could pop in on Ewans parents in Fife. So why tease us with the carrot of them driving down Glen Coe?

So my entries have been rather short of late. Plenty of reason for that though..overworked and all that jazz

So I’ve moved sections in work again…back to Russia and Iraq. My old favourites. The only thing is thanks to the xmas holidays theres a months worth of workto do and only myself and Carol to do it! It was only supposed to be a temporary thing before rejoining my old team and getting back to my Asia and Latin America officers. Well that wont be happening anymore…I’m off to Africa! Well not really off to Africa but I’ll be dealing with the officers out there soon…Nigeria, Sudan, Seirra Leone…They like giving me work in troubled places dont they! Should be happening in a few weeks so we’ll see how it goes.

We had our team event on wednesday afternoon. Instead of giving out bonuses to half the folk in the place they restrict that to the few that are liked and give out team recognition funds instead. Basically an attempt to keep everyone happy but not really spending that much cash. I think it worked out at 30 quid per head so it was a nice lunch at Di Maggios and then a couple of games of bowling with a handful of free drinks. I think I managed 6 pints before heading home and there was still 100 quid in the kitty at that point. Played crap in my first game and didnt break a hundred but managed a respectable 120 in the next. And despite a few cheats going on my team still managed to win the tournament

I was very guttered when I got home. Vonnie had been baking and and tidying and I conked out on the bed for half an hour before joining everyone in the livingroom. Don’t really remember much (I was absolutely shattered as well) other than my hangover kicking in about 9pm. Couldnt sleep because of it.

Early night was had last night as well with Vonnie inbed for 8 and myself in bed for 10! Roll on the paternity leave!

Well that was a lot less painless than I thought it would be. I was expecting to be thrown to the Lions yesterday but everything actually went quite well.

Left the offie about 3pm on Wednesday to catch the 5pm flight. I was a bit worried that as I dont really know Steven that well but that I do know we’re both quite quiet it would be a long trip but we bumped into Willie Hunter from work in the lounge and everyone seemed to liven up. The flight was amazingly only 5 minutes late which is a first I think but despite free drinks and munchies in the lounge the meal on the flight wasnt that great. Beef in oyster sauce promised a lot but erally failed to deliver. 2/10 purely for the effort.

After the trip on the Paddington express we jumped down to the tube to catch the central line alnog to Victoria with the intent on hitting the pub for the Chelsea v Liverpool game…but we didnt account for major delays on 80% of the lines. Finally got a train only for it to wait for ever at each station it stopped at until we hit Gloucester Road (I think) where about 300 drunken partying Liverpool fans tried to get on the train in an effort to get to the match. It was about 7pm at this point and they were still miles from the ground singin, shouting and playing drums on the side/roof/doors of the train. This was until one of them realised it was the wrong train and they all bolted out the door leaving only a manky fez on the floor as proof that they were there.

Finally made it to the hotel…and what a hotel. The “Rubens at the Palace” to give it the full name the staff used. The room was smallish but comfortable but it was literally 100m from the office and about 250m from Buckingham Palace. Went for a wee wander to stretch my legs with my camera stopping outside the palace to phone Vonnie. I’d only been out of Scotland a few hours and I missed her. Took a few photos of the sights and then wandered to get something to eat with the intent of just heading back to the hotel for an early night.

On the way back from Burger King though Steven spied me wandering past the pub and dragged me in for the second half of the football. Ended up chatting to a drunken Chelsea fan who’d sold his tickets for ?600 outside the ground and was busy trying to drink it all. Bought me a pint so I cant complain After an entertaining game (or was it the pub that wa entertaining rather than the game?) I headed back to the hotel to phone Vonnie again as I’d cut short the first phonecall when my stomach started eating my from the inside I was that hungry with the intent to have a nightcap in the hotel bar with my complimentary drink voucher (just as well I had that as at ?4 a pint or ?8 a double vodka and coke I wouldnt be buying anything.) I’d wangled an extra voucher though so two pints later I was very sleepy and headed off to bed.

Thursday morning brought me back down to ground as I didnt sleep very well and being slightly hungover I had to head to the main office to print off a few bits I’d forgotten and thenhead round to the satellite office at the far end of Victoria Street. There were loads of armed police about and we thought it was to do with the Rail office as there was about 8 of them grouped around it but it was jus the usual armed presence near westminster. Most of them only had a pistol so the guys with the MP5′s really stood out and each and everyone was kitted out differently but all to the same kind of standard ie surefire flash handgrip, plain iron sites, mag clamped double mags etc. Except for this one guy that what I thought was a russian holosight atached to the top rail. After a second pass I realised it was just a fancy looking reflex sight with a little extra paddign and armour on the casing. Steven looked at me ratehr oddly when I tried to explain this…cant blame him really

The time with the Commission for Africa was busy but actually went really well. Bob Geldoff was supposedly in for a meeting with the head guy but we never got to see him never mind meet him. Got a few things to chase up today at work but other than that I think most people came away happy…except for the girl whos network cable I nicked so we could use the laptop upstairs

The trip home was doomed from the start. We’d managed to finish on time in the office and without even running we caught both the tube and the express without having to wait more than a minute at each station. When we got to Heathrow we were hit with an hour delay because some twat ran a tug into the front wheel of the plane and bent it so we had to wait for a replacement to arrive
It did mean I witnessed probably the weirdest and most amazing sunset I think I’ll ever see though. Basically there was a low blanket of cloud totally blocking the sun from below. From above this looked like your a-typical red sky at night sunset with low level clouds under the sun rather than actual ground. But then there was another blanket of cloud a couple of hundred feet up again which we climbed through blocking out below again but this tme you couldnt see the sun at all…just the sort of light afterglow you get after the suns went below the horizon. And then the clouds slowly started to break up and it looked like the world below was on fire. The colours were that intense it was unbelievable. I think the closest you could come would be to describe it like a magma flow from a volcano with the solid crust breaking up as it moved and letting the bright orange of the molten magma through. Made it back to Vonnie’s flat after the plane crew trying to kill me with Moroccan Chicken with cous cous and was so glad to be back.

Today is payday and the last day of the working week. Can it get much better than this?

Its been a funny week…hold on I’m saying that an awful lot these days!

A basic rundown of the last couple of days can probably be summurised by what ive eaten.

Donnar Meat, Chips and Cheese with Chilli Sauce (The food of the gods)
BBQ Spare Ribs and Waffles
Caramac KitKats
Blood Orange Kitkats
Chicken Fajita and Cheese Burrito
Seville Orange Rolos
Tunnocks Caramel Logs
Hot and Spicy Pringles
25p Noodles

Thats about it…not exactly healthy but definately proof of it not being normal.

The weekend was relatively quiet what with me not having alot of cash and Vonnie hobbling about on her broken ankle. We did make it into Rockers to see The Demons Eye play again. The last time I seen that band play was in there and it was the first time I got to really meet Vonnie who was going out with the bands guitarist at the time. How times change Anyway, it was Eileen and Gordon’s birthday night out on the saturday and seeing as i had no cash I couldnt really go out for them. I did try and pop into the Solid to catch gordon and buy him a drink but I think I got there too early as there was no sign of him.

Got my call up papers for Jury Duty at the High Court again. I thought I’d got out of it after my work giving me a “get out of jail free” card last time but it seems it was just a stay of execution and of all the weeks to have it on

Things are starting to move with the flat. Got the paperwork through from the mortgage folk to get the debt in my name and I’m waiting on a phone call from the lawyers about how much they are going to cost me. Hopefully I’ll have the process started by the end of the week.

Heading down to London tomorrow night for a day. I’ve been asked to go and help out the Commission for Africa with their problems using the system to get thier OT payments paid and various other issues. Should be interesting though its scaring me shedless at the moment…I was fine until they mentioned a group session first thing on Thursday morning. I just hope Steven (the guy im going down there with) can handle that as I’ll have to deal with most of the other work I think.