I reserved a hotel in Ashford and it took me less than half an hour to get there from Folkstone – the UK side of the Channel tunnel. It was 1 o’clock in the morning CET :-( I was a bit worried leaving all my stuff in the car on an unsecured parking lot and at about 4.30 in the morning I got a scare as I woke up and heard a car alarm.

The trip got a bit boring after that, I knew the German part was ending soon as I passed Aachen. The Dutch part was completely uneventful, but I did get some pictures on a lay-by of absolutely nothing interesting. After that came Belgium and Brussels with it. I heard of people missing the circular road round Brussels and I nearly missed it using the sat-nav. The drivers around Brussels are just about ready for being committed.

I watched a documentary on one of the satellite channels a while ago about the might of the Germany autobahns and well they are constructed. I even remember how good they were the last time I used them on the trip to Scotland in 1999. This time, however, it was obvious, that they can be quite bad. After Munich the motorway took me towards Stuttgart and road was really bad: no breakdown lane, the speed limit was only 120 km/h or less and close to Stuttgart there was one work site after the other so most of that part was driven on a contraflow.

Photo taken just before I sat in that car and changed my life forever After having a chance to get my bearings I have finally got finger to keyboard to write about the trip. Unfortunately I still do not have an internet connection and despite having a wireless-enabled laptop I still cannot get to use someone’s wireless router to get online. Sorry folks but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Now it seem to be all happening. I received the PD reserve 160 and the Cypres 2 Expert 1-pin AAD last week. I would expect the Cypres to come in a nice packet, which it did, but I didn’t have a clue how the parachute would be packed. Well, it literally came “as is”. I put it in a bag myself so it wouldn’t get stained or damaged - not that a plastic bag is any real protection.

Skydiving grandma This is not a news story about a lady who was given a gift voucher to do a tandem jump. No, no, this actualy my mother, who is, by the way, also a three-time grandmother, who bought herself a skydiving course here, in Slovenia, and actually finished it the next year when she passed the skydiving exam and became a proper licensed skydiver. This is no small matter even for the school itself, the school is called Paranoia and is part of the Šolt organization and is ran by Mr.

A colleague of mine a few years ago took a business trip to the United Kingdom and upon his return he described what was his experience like. And he didn’t even complain much about the food (you should see the food we get in Slovenia) but what he just could not understand was the British odd sense of common household plumbing. This rang a bell with me as I have been puzzled on many occasions by the strange water systems the British have as an excuse for decent plumbing.

I had some business to attend to in the UK at the end of last week and I made a reservation with a bed and breakfast near the village of Cheddleton in northern England. As the booking was done just under two weeks prior to my arrival, I didn’t think it necessary to re-check. But then I got to “a” place I thought was the B&B after driving all day long and being completely knackered.

The story repeats itself every year. If you are savvy enough to start thinking which cards you intend to buy and for whom, the whole nonsense can begin as early as November. You can’t really stop thinking about it or even forget the whole thing as the absence of cards from you will eventually be noticed, especially if you still appear to be among the living. You could start outright lying that you converted to Islam and that you do not recognize the whole Christmas period.

These two days were mainly spent doing other stuff, but one of the things, that ended to be taking up quite a bit of my time was the search for the sodden curry powder. You know when you go abroad and you sometimes get a list of things to buy. I had Sharwoods mild curry powder on this one (among other things) and unlike a few years ago, when it was quite easy to find it in Tesco, this time it proved to be mission impossible.