Fatigue (pron: Fatty Gay)

Okay I’ve been here a week now and not seen one boat race, most of the printed media and secondary broadcast media, ie any other than us, the host media (who are ‘impartial’) are beginning to turn on the skippers of the two crew, they’re both billionaires and this is fast turning into a wank-off between them, it seems when conditions are right for one boat to race it’s wrong for the other and as they seem able to interpret the rules, or make them up, however they see fit, well we could be here along time.

What’s bothering me more though is the lack of a gym, the constantly bad food I’m eating (grabbing what you can when you can) is pushing my gut out considerably, well that and the beer I’m consuming to while away the hours with the rest of the crew, it’s not so much the amount in anyone night, otherwise I’d of had some great stories to write up it’s just the few after work every night! Trust me this is not Austria 2008!!

I’ve only woken up once surrounded by pink wafers after a late night binge, sadly that’s factually correct, but then so is the story of one of our crew asking for what sounded like ‘porky boing boing’, I believe it should have been something like ‘por que Boing Boing’ he was quite simply asking for directions for the restaurant called ‘Boing Boing’.

We did finally get a day off today though, there’s only so much filler you can create when there is no news. So we took a wander in to the old town on foot, it’s a lovely city Valencia and certainly somewhere I’d like to visit again when I’m not in this weird working limbo. En route we take in the opera house, the aquatic centre and the museum, well we don’t actually go in but the architecture is so remarkable it’s an attraction in it’s own right.

We take lunch in the old town square then a couple of us head off for go-karting in the afternoon, I enjoy it much more than expected and manage to get passed by only one person during my session!

In the evening we find a fantastic Chinese restaurant where it’s not only all you can eat, but also cooked to order from your own selection from the fresh food counters. It’s delicious and I intend returning frequently!!

Finally in my boredom and work travelling stylee I’ve started a new lip-sync video on my mobile, I’ll keep you posted!

Size Matters

So yet again racing has been cancelled, this time 'ooh the waves are a bit big' it's pathetic, it's beautiful and sunny here, lot's of day sailors are out, but oh no if you're a seafaring type apparently this isn't good for racing. We've had the early start in case it happened, this will get annoying.

I think the cabin fever is setting in, I was given this graphic to play into the gallery this morning and I burst out laughing. I think Jon will find this reminiscent of one of our old 'technical drawing' days!

That's it for today - farewell.

A Storm Brewing

Well what can I say, it's Monday, I'd like to say more has happened over the weekend but it's mostly been work, work, work! 12 hour plus days, but it's all good, the town has transformed over the weekend and there is now a real buzz about the America's Cup which starts today.

There's two super amazing yachts and people are still in disagreement about which team is likely to win. However what's been drawing my attention is the tea we're all drinking here, I'm delighted to be supping on a steaming brew of...

And while I'm on the topic of refreshments, at the warm up party on Saturday night (yes there was a party!) they were quite literally serving pints of gins and tonics. Fabulous!
The following morning, tales are already circulating the production office of my antics on the dance floor - but I'll spare you the details!I'm seriously regretting not bringing my SLR with me now, there have been some amazing sunrises and sunsets (Pictured: yesterdays sunset) somehow my crappy little 2 mega pixel Nokia does not do it justice. In addition the whole port is quite pretty as well, as are some of the Spanish men, but that's just an observation rather than a tale at the moment!

Finally, as we are live this morning and I am responsible for edited content in this part of the production we have an early call time, up at 5:45am (although that's not as bad as the cameramen and other crew) and it's seems I am not the only person who suffered a bad nights sleep, courtesy of the teenagers running riot in the hotel until 2:30am.

Home, Suite, Home.

Well here I am in Valencia, it's not a jolly holi' this time though, this is work baby and it's serious business. Pictured is the van we're in and the box edit suite that is to be my home.

Annoyingly I still seem to be suffering the effects of jet lag from Cambodia, ping up at 5 this morning as I have been since I got back. I'm hoping my first stint of work in nearly a month might kick my arse back into gear.

My arrival at the hotel last night was joyous, well by that I mean not really. The taxi dropped me off at a hotel, 'nice' I thought (quickly forgetting the hardships of two weeks ago and all those valuable lessons I 'learnt' about myself), I was sure it was the right one, there was some bloke from a sailing team wandering about,
"I'm sorry Sir, we 'ave nothing in your name, are you sure?"
Well no I'm not as it happens and it turns out I've printed out the wrong document, all I have is a box on a map, I show it to him optimistically, somehow and thankfully he knows where it is. So I trudge across a city I don't know, bag in tow, thankfully I find it and check in.

Yes I know it's a bit of a dull post, think of it as a scene setter!

So Long, Farewell...

Well that inevitable moment has arrived, I'm leaving, what happened on the last day I hear you ask? Not too much, a temple, the Royal Palace, dinner at a fabulous and ethical restaurant, that's about it, why can't all blog entries be this quick?

What did I get from this holiday? Well strengthening friendships, learning a bit about myself, an amazing outlook at a completely different way of life, oh and maybe a touch of the shits. Would I come back to these countries? Vietnam: NO, Cambodia: YES.

I don't really know what I was expecting from this holiday in hindsight, I knew it wouldn't be conventional that's for sure and I can't believe it's all over so quickly. For those of you who've followed the blog, thank you I hope you've enjoyed it and there will be more from my adventures in Spain, which start in about 4 days!!

Aw kawn everybody!!