Fear is in the eye of the beholder - don't let it be you.

As of Thursday I will have visited London at least once a month, every month since June 2010. I'm starting to feel an old hand at the Underground systems, which quite frankly petrified me this time last year. Even though I'm more confident at traveling in the capital than I thought I'd ever be, there is always this niggling fear...

I tell myself I’m being 'extra cautious' when I see somebody looking suspicious, carrying a bag or muttering to themselves (which coincidentally is very common as Londoners are so hectic they are constantly reminding themselves to "eat don't forget to eat" or "definitely remember you have children and they need picking up from school this evening") but it is troubling that people have to remain this aware in a place they once felt safe. Maybe it’s just me, but somehow I doubt it.

Since the 7/7 bombings London has changed, whether it cares to admit it or not. People are going about their daily business but there is always that sense of threat in the back of their mind, and I'm sure it is more than one hundred times worse for the survivors and the people who lost family that day.

Has terrorism won? If we are still worried about impending attack on our nation, and being extra vigilant when carrying out every day tasks which we wouldn't have given a second thought to this time six years ago, like getting on a bus or the tube, then at least in my mind those four men succeeded in their mission, not only to kill and maim innocent commuters but to terrorise Britain.

So on Thursday when I arrive in Victoria coach station, I'm taking a stand - fear is in the eye of the beholder, don't let it be you.

Get your Airkix!

Indoor skydiving; best 21st birthday present ever! Three minutes being beaten up by a 140mph wind in Manchester, never has the term "it's grim up north" been less appropriate, I had an absolute ball.

Three minutes may not sound like a long time, however when you're being blasted with a 140mph wind it is more than enough. It is by no means an unpleasant experience however it is quite tiring the first time, although once you're out all you want to do is get back in again.

If throwing yourself out of a perfectly good plane and hurtling towards the ground doesn't appeal to you but you've always wanted to experience the free fall feeling, this is definitely the way forward. Adam was my instructor and he was just brilliant, although you're only taught four hand signals, it is literally like being thrown in at the deep end but you have so much interaction in the tunnel with your instructor and learn the aerodynamics of your body so quickly it makes it easier to get to grips with.

In the interest of science I've uploaded all three of my attempts so you can see the progression in the short time I was in there, in three minutes you can control yourself in the tunnel and in my case stop bumping into things, falling out of the sky or floating away like an umbrella in the wind (note the awesome catches in the first video).

Shoe came off on the second attempt and it threw me a little, not nearly as much as the manic spin did though - it was a lot faster and higher than the video gives credit for.

I'm now completely hooked, and once I've booked my 10 session course, I will most definitely apply to become an instructor. This isn't an easy feat, you have to participate in a fitness test involving running, press ups, sit ups, pull ups, lifting and my personal downfall touching your toes without bending your knees, hmm - better get on it!

The best offer with http://www.buyagift.com/ for £49 for two people to have two minutes in a wind tunnel. An extra £11 p/p for another minute at the end. The good thing is you can redeem the voucher at either the Manchester or the Milton Kaynes Airkix, so it doesn't matter if you're a northern monkey or southern fairy. For more information go to http://www.airkix.com/

Have you ever have one of those moments...

... when you think something is a joke, a somewhat sick one at that, and then realise that somebody is being serious?

Mooching through some news stories online I came across a... well lets use the term human, who is so full of hate and distain for everyone it is genuinely hard to believe. Fred Phelps is the founder of Westboro Baptist Church, some of you may already be aware of this American organisation founded in 1955 however, being a Brit it isn't something I've come across before; although apparently Jacqui Smith banned them from entering the UK because of their plans to picket a play in February 2009 which featured homosexuality.

I've never seen such an insolent man, his fundamentalist attitude has clearly rendered him insane. The WBC claim gay people should be made to live in a city alone and not interact with straight people. In my humble opinion fundamentalists nut jobs should be made to live on an island a persecute each other until there is nobody left, but hey ho, we can't all get what we want.

Westboro Baptist Church vowed to picket the Arizona shooting victims funerals and they even published a press release regarding the funeral of the youngest victim, nine-year-old Christina Tyler-Green. However since the released of this statement, Arizona legislators passed an emergency law barring protesters from coming within 300 feet of a funeral, stating "a funeral is no place to protest". In response to this "emergency law" Shirley Phelps-Roper of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, announced the group would not protest at the funeral of Christina Green, instead they would appear on a radio station in Toronto, Canada. She also stated that they would still attend and protest at the funeral of US District Judge John Roll, who was shot dead by Jared Loughner last Saturday.

Please click on the image to enlarge it.

When I loaded the oh so subtly named website www.godhatesfags.com I was completely taken aback by the content of this hateful site. I'm not going to link it because I don't believe his website should have any more hits, however I took a screen shot of "Numbers" listed down the side of the page so you can see for yourself the kind of tosh this group of people pours on to the internet (which by the way God hates) ...

Take some solace in the fact this isn't going unchallenged, and that there are some fantastic people in the world who will look at the WBC and Fred Phelps whilst laughing and making fun of their archaic values.

After an initial irate rant about how religious extremism is holding the world in a bronze-age rut I saw the funny side of WBC and Fred Phelps. As Michael Moore has demonstrated, if society laughs at these fools and if we all unite and turn our back on them, who will they yell at? Who will they direct their pathetic little rants at if nobody is listening and nobody cares?

#goddoesntgiveacrap

Liverpool Tourist...

As promised, and in order...

 

Cabin fever has ravaged all aboard...

New Year is fast approaching and I can't help but feel the urge to escape and travel somewhere completely random and unexplored (by me at least). I get itchy feet when I've been in the same place for a while and there is any opportunity to travel. Planning trips in 2011 to Europe and the USA is just one of the reason's I'm finding it particularly difficult to keep myself grounded.

An old friend called me up the other day suffering from the same cabin fever on dry land syndrome. He was in Bristol and wanted to escape, after suggesting we should hit up Amsterdam for a weekend (as amazing as it would have been) that idea was firmly shunted when I realised I'd left my passport back in Cheltenham, because I'm an idiot!

Living close to Liverpool has its advantages and its loud glaring disadvantages, but with some persuasion from said friend we've now opted for a fun filled tourist day around my home city. I decided this was a brilliant opportunity to compile a top ten things to do in the 2008 Capital of Culture... yes people it was three years ago and we're still clutching at it, but hey! John Lennon was killed 31 years ago.

Top 10 in Liverpool:

1. See jellyfish and tall ships in the Albert Dock
2. Find the hidden dock
3. Take a ferry across the Mersey to Birkenhead*
4. Salute the Liver Birds
5. Museums/Galleries - Walker Art, FACT, Tate, World, Maratime, Beatles... yada yada
6. Get lost in the unnecessarily complicated Liverpool One
7. Turn the Place Over - seriously check out the link.
8. Order a beer from the Cavern Club and say "cheers" to John Lennon
9. Try some funky flavours of Tequila at Bar Cava - whilst you're on Wood Street check out Concert Square
10. See Queen Victoria's penis**

* Don't stay too long it isn't pretty. Although you can see the Liverpool skyline (worth it).

**#8 and #9 make this more amusing.

So there we have it - a day (or two at a stretch) full of jaunty Northern fun. Stay tuned - pictures to follow in January. Peace out.

Network Fail...

Of all the places to be stuck, Birmingham New Street... not the bustling nerve centre of the universe but a black hole strategically placed inside a Bermuda triangle like phenomenon specifically designed for trains and the broken souls of passengers just hoping they may actually reach their destination.

Joe Bidden said, “It is absolutely bizarre that we continue to subsidise highways beyond the gasoline tax, airlines, and we don't subsidise, we don't want to subsidise, a national rail system that has environmental impact.” – This man talks sense.

On average for a round trip from Cheltenham to Liverpool it costs about £25 if booked in advance £35 if not. For this amount of money, you would at least expect a service that will take me from A to B without any major glitches. 

Here's the kicker, as of January 3 2011 not only does VAT increase to a whopping 20% but National Rail are upping their fees by around 9%. Now, 9% sounds like a lot. It gets worse. This is just a national average, so some mainline links are going to increase much more than 9% - 25% to be precise. So a train fair that initially cost £35 will now cost £43.75 before VAT.

AWESOME.

Dear Dave, 

As we're all in it together in your BIG SOCIETY, would you mind subbing me the extra £8.75 it will take me to get home to see my family? As I'm sure your £142,500 per year could more than cover a couple of trips.

Yours sincerely (may want to look up that word, it's in the dictionary just before spineless),

An epically poor student and unfortunate member of your tiny rich boy society.  

                              

"Beyond highways and roads, we need more money for mass transit, intercity passenger rail and freight rail. We have a long way to go to bridge the funding gaps." - Bill Lipinski

Venice €€€ on a budget...

Venice has a stigma for being inexplicably expensive, so much so that in 2010 it was named Italy's most expensive city, but it isn't as impossible as it may seem to travel to Venice on a budget.

Here are my top ten things to do in Venice on a budget:

1. Get lost amongst the canals and churches (it's easy to find your way back, just head for the 'Vaporetto'). (Free)
2. See San Marco's square when it's empty, either sunrise or very late at night it the best time to catch the otherwise manic square in its dormant state. (Free)
3. See Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man in the Gallerie dell'Accademia. (A little expensive at €12.50)
4. Try ciccetti in the local wine bars around Per Rialto. (Between 90¢ and €2 for a dish and small glass of wine)
5. Take a gondola taxi across the Grand Canal. (50¢)
6. Learn to shun the pushy men selling flowers of an evening. Tip: "No grazie io non voglio niente" and if they still won't go away: "Si prega di lasciarmi in pace" - a polite way of saying sod off. (Free)
7. Visit the Rialto Market and eat roar oysters fresh from the Mediterranean. (€2)
8. Climb the Campanile di San Marco. (€8)
9. Try some Italian hot chocolate. (€2.50)
10. Take a trip on the vaporetto over to Mauro and admire the glass blowers at work. (€12 for a 24 hour pass)

Cost break down we decided to go for three days and two nights:

€45 (tax inc.) for a return flight in November. (Money saving tip: fly into Treviso rather than Marco Polo, a bus transfer from the airport takes about 30 minutes and only costs €8 anytime return).

€50 to €60 per night for a hotel. 

€20 to €30 per day for food (splash out an upscale meal in the evening will cost you about €30 plus drinks).

Overall cost: €178 p/p