Simone's birthday!!

Hello again,

after no updates for weeks and weeks, here's another just days after the last one. Simone's birthday was on Thursday so we went out to celebrate on Thursday at a restaurant called La Ventana. Lovely food and they do some veggie stuff, had a great night although I probably should have said no when the Tequila started.

Then we went to Suchitoto for the weekend. We stayed in the suite at Los Alemendros De San Lorenzo. As usual it was awesome. We had a lovely weekend, but the highlight was a visit to a number of waterfalls about 30 mins away from the centre of Suchitoto. Absolutely brilliant day and highly recommended.

Check the video here, and the photos here.

B & S xxx

Summer Holidays

Well the time sure has flown by and I can barely believe that nearly two months has gone by since the last post which was an all too brief note saying we were in New York. So it’s in New York that we shall begin.

Amazing place and I absolutely love it. It’s like walking around a giant movie or TV set. Even though I had never been there before it was like I had and on the first day I was like a little kid. Day 1 we spent the day walking round with Steve, who having just finished writing the Rough Guide to New York was very knowledgeable. Having arrived that morning on the night bus from Montreal the night was pretty subdued especially having walked what felt like most of lower Manhattan. Day two started by meeting Ian and Louise and going up the Empire State Building, which was just awesome. Incredible views from the top and an amazing building inside as well.  After, we took in a few more famous landmarks before heading off to the museum of modern art. By this time, it was time for lunch and a trip to Central Park. We hired a couple of bikes in Central Park after all the walking we had already done we felt like it was the best way to see it. In the evening we met Ian and Lou again for cocktails before heading off to Little Italy where we went for the best pizza in New York, according to Steve. I gotta say it was pretty damn good!

Day 3 was more of the same visiting New York landmarks, of which there are many. We took a trip to Harlem, the Ghostbusters fire station, several pubs in various areas, all the while looking like I had a camera permanently stuck to my face. I took approximately 1000 photos while in New York a selection of which can be seen here. That evening we met up again with Ian and Lou and along with Steve and Tiff headed over the river to Brooklyn. On Friday evening they open Brooklyn brewery and we spent a few hours there sampling their wares. We went somewhere else after that, but in all honesty I have no recollection of the rest of that night, but by all accounts I had a great time. Saturday was not an early start, although I did go out and take some early morning (10:30) shots in Battery Park. We spent the afternoon firstly in Chinatown before heading to the meatpacking district to check out this wild garden they’ve grown on a disused bit of highline railway. In the evening we headed back to Brooklyn where I can safely say I ate the best steak I have ever eaten at Peter Luger Steakhouse.

Sunday was July 4^th and as I put in the last post we headed off to Coney Island to witness the phenomenon that is the World Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. It was a boiling hot day so a great time to be at the beach, but it was packed as you can imagine it would be on a holiday weekend. We flew back to London the next day although we did have time in the morning to walk over Brooklyn Bridge which was, dare I say it, awesome! Our flight home was slightly delayed (4 hours) taking off after the man driving the refuelling truck drove straight into the side of the plane. Lucky I’m not a nervous flyer! If you can’t be bothered to check all the photos I put a smaller selection into this video.

London was brief but hectic as was the whole time in the UK, but it was great to catch up with friends and family even if only briefly and thanks in particular to all the people who accommodated us while we were back or put on BBQs.

We finished the hols with a couple of weeks in Spain which involved some time relaxing by the beach and reading plenty of books. The best of which was Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes, an excellent read. I also bought one of these excellent Sony e-readers, which I highly recommend. Then we went off to Madrid where I was for my 40^th birthday. Simone asked what I would like to do so we spent the morning on a tour of Real Madrid’s stadium before heading off to Athletico Madrid’s stadium after lunch for the afternoon tour. Brilliant! Even though I had now reached 40 and become a grownup I didn’t let that stop me going out a getting drunk on mojitos and having a raging hangover the next day. I don’t feel like it’s been my birthday if I don’t have a hangover on the 5^th August.  Check out the photos from Madrid here.  After a weekend back in London and a final catch up with people plus a visit to see QPR thrash Barnsley we are now back in El Salvador. I spent my $1000 return to work bonus on new mountain bike and I’ve been out several times already and I’ve carried on with the surfing although the weather has been pretty shocking. Simone’s birthday tomorrow so we going away for the weekend, report and photos to follow and hopefully quite soon I’ll try and get some video of some mountain bike action on here.

Hopefully speak to some of you soon on Skype we are normally online at about 10:30pm UK time, so keep a lookout and give us a call.

Laters

B & S xx

New York

Having a fab time in NYC and hopefully will have a proper post up in a couple of days, but wanted to share a video of a great day we had visiting Coney Island to see the world Hot Dog Eating Contest. It was brilliant!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZQUoCKU57Q

B & S

Montreal

The first week of our holiday has absolutely flown by. Simmie very happy to be back in Montreal and I’ve really enjoyed my first, but probably not my last visit. It’s got a real European feel to it and it seems to be full of good looking people, so obviously we fit right in.

The World Cup has been in full swing while we have been here and we have managed to see quite a few games. There are bars for every nation here, so it’s possible to get a great atmosphere whoever is playing. Would have been nice to see England do a bit better, but as I get older the less I care. Germany was by far the better team so good luck to them. My second team this year is Chile, although by the time I’ve posted this they may be out too as they play Brazil later.

We have also done quite a bit of cycling while here. They have this very cool system called Bixi, you hire a bike for 24 hours at the cost of $5 and they have docking stations dotted all over the city. You pick a bike up ride it where you want to go and leave it at your destination. You don’t keep the same bike all day, you don’t have to return it to the same spot and you don’t need to worry about it being stolen. It’s awesome!

Yesterday was spent moving furniture. Ged was moving from his old 3rd storey flat to a nice ground floor place with a garden. Getting the larger pieces of furniture down the narrow staircase that led to Ged’s flat was not easy, but throwing it off the balcony would have led to some damage. Unfortunately, we have a bad internet connection here so gonna try and get some photos up soon.

Next stop New York, which I’m very excited about and which we’ll have more about next week. Until then, au revoir.

B & S

Montreal has it's own Nelson's column. Yes I know, I couldn't believe it either.

The view from the mountain. More of a hill really.

Excited by the prospect of another fine England performance. That's right we're about to watch the cricket.

What a beautiful day for a bike ride!

We've entered this pic in a best holiday picture contest. We're hopeful!

I saw this tribute to the late 70's hit TV show Monkey in China Town

Even got to play some football at one of Ged's coaching sessions.

As an international cricketer I'm often asked for batting tips whilst in the park.

The front of our holiday apartment.

Hi everyone,

It seems amazing that I’m writing this entry on the last day of school. It only feels like we’ve been here 5 minutes and already the year has gone. Tomorrow we fly out to New York and then a bus to Montreal arriving Sunday morning for 10 days with Ged (Simone’s brother for those who don’t know). Then back to NYC for some time with Stevie K and old school friend. We are then back to the UK for a couple of weeks before heading to Spain for some sun and celebrate my birthday in Madrid. Very excited about the whole thing and will hopefully see you all soon.




To finish off it was the primary staff talent show today and I did my first ever gig as me and some other teachers did a cover of I love rock n roll. The acoustics aren’t great and I think the sound guy forgot to turn my bass mike up, but it was great fun. The kids make a great crowd and they aren’t too fussy about musical ability.



Watch the video here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQojbItMxAA

Ben & Sim

Better late than never Roadtrip, Part 3

So weeks have passed by again whilst I’ve been thinking “oh must finish writing about Easter road trip” and now it’s June! And two weeks Friday we’ll have completed our first year the ABC school. How time flies.

After we left the islands we drove up to the northern more mountainous region to a small town called Perquin. The area was once pretty remote, lots of hills and was a key area in the Civil War mainly because it was a guerilla stronghold. It’s now known as the “ruta de la paz” (peace route) on tourist info but strangely only mentions the peace in terms of the nature and serene scenery.

We went round the museo de la revolucion, where former guerillas show you round, tell you what they were fighting for, how they were affected and all the awful things that happened to them and the civilians caught up in it all. Then we went round a guerilla camp in the hills and saw how they lived on the move at the time. Sure, it’s a one sided museum but very informative and a voice of the side you don’t hear elsewhere. The next day we visited the Mezote Memorial to the thousand or so civillians, mostly form the same village and surrounding area who were brutally killed by the army in December 81. After seeing the list of names of children, (some as young as a few days) on the wall of the memorial garden and then the names of all the families and the family member who died, don’t think anyone can leave there without feeling moved. (Google El Mozote for more info- it's a long story and what happened there was denied for years and to some people it still didn’t happen, despite the one survivor trying to tell her story to the world)


We also put Monty’s off road tyres and skills (and maybe kate's and my nerves) to the test again and did a bit of exploring. We had hoped to find some waterfalls but since was still dry season we weren’t so lucky.

After the few days in the mountains, we headed back down to the coast for a last bit of tropical relaxation with Kate and Gav. The usual: beach, beer, books and a little bodyboarding and surfing for Ben. All in all a great roadtrip!

So there you go, all up to date on our adventures. Looking forward to a summer of more adventures and catching up with friends and family. Hasta luego!

Spingtime in Salvador

Greetings!

Well it sure has been a long time since I wrote anything on here. Apologies if anyone has been expectantly looking here regularly only to find nada. Since Sim's last entry plenty has happened so I'll start with my second appearance for the El Salvador cricket team on the Easter tour of Belize. We were soundly beaten in both matches although I was second highest scorer in the team with a mighty 23, Roger high scored with 49 and we were the only two to get double figures so I guess defeat was inevitable. Day 2 out for a golden duck although I did get a mention in El Salvador Cricket's magazine for my efforts in the field. Like a young Jonty Rhodes I was.

Here's the team outside our luxruious team hotel. The tour also included the longest bus ride I've ever been on 17h hours each way. Still it was pretty good fun although I'm not sure I'll be going on tour again it was pretty expensive and it's not like I spent hours batting. Sticking with cricket some more recent news. Last week I agreed to become the new club captain for my league team the Cuscatlan Chiefs, so that will be a challenge.

After returning from the cricket tour Dad and Kim arrived. The last of our visitors for the year. We first headed off to Antigua in Guatemala, the highlight of the trip being climbing up olcano Pacaya. which was spitting flames as we walked down in the dark. Very exciting. See the video on youtube by clicking this link. Pacaya Volcano . Of course this is the volcano that recently properly erupted, covering Guatemala City in ash and killing seveal people, including a journalist reporting for TV. In fact about two weeks after we went up two american tourists were killed when they wandered off from their guide and strayed on to a thin pice f lava rust and fell through into molten lava. Might have been a little less keen to go up there if that had happened before we went up. The fact that it rained all the way up did not dampen this intrepid explorer's enthusiasm.

On the way back we spent a couple of days at the beach, which was a nice relaxing end to the Easter Hols. While there we did some kayaking down the estuary which  was pretty cool but most of the time was spent lying by the pool drinking cold beers and doing a little bit of reading.

Monty shows off his 4x4 skills.

If I sit at the back it's easier to avoid the hard paddling work.

Dad obviously had the same idea.

Unfortunately, the trip to the beach ended in disaster for Monty. Home on the back of a rescue truck.

Obviously the next day it was back to school for Simmie and I . Dad and Kim spent the next 4 days exploring San Salvador before jetting off to New York where they got stranded due to the vocano in Iceland (right next to the frozen peas).

Since then no more guests so the house has been kinda empty. Lots of time to practice my drumming and of course plenty of end of term work to do at school, reports etc... Able to write this blog today because at the end of last week, during which time it seemed to be constantly raining, we were hit by Tropical Storm Agatha. All the schools in El Salvador are closed and although it hit Guatemala worse there has been deaths here unfortunately and lots of people evacuated. Rain has thankfully stopped nowso probably back to school tomorrow. Only 13 day to the holidays and my first gig, which hopefully someone will video. Then off to Montreal, New York, London and Madrid, where hopefully we'll get to see everyone.

More soon, ciao all xxx