The one with the series of unfortunate events

We are cursed, if you’ve been following previous posts you know how much bad luck we’ve had over the past year, but this week’s been a bumper pack of punches in the face. We have no money, so we planned a budget holiday (it’s our first wedding anniversary, Raine’s been made to take time off work (she’s only taken about 5 days holiday all year), it’s her birthday, and we feel like we deserve some sort of break). It was to start with a local festival, a few friends and a lot of beer, followed by a camping roadtrip to Bristol (to see the Banksy exhibition), Brighton for our anniversary/Raine's birthday, and Newquay to surf. Sounds good...

Thursday I went to pick up Chris, and on the way back to Lancaster the car died – great start to a roadtrip. We managed to get it to a garage, where we were told that the starter motor had gone but, for a large amount of money we don't have, they could have it fixed by the next day. Chris and I unpacked all our stuff, and waited in Blackpool until I could take my dad’s car back to Lancaster.

My dad's car full of people and camping stuff we arrived at the festival on Friday morning, to find that it had been cancelled – apparently the site was waterlogged. We thought it was a joke, some man with a can of Strongbow and a rollie quite jollily told us it was cancelled, we didn’t believe him, but then a slightly more official man (he was scruffy, but he had a clipboard and no alcohol about his person) told us the same thing. We looked it up on the Internet, and it had indeed been cancelled. We talk to the man with the clipboard about a refund, apparently he “couldn’t think about giving us our money back” at that moment...cheers...

We decide to cut our losses, go out in Blackpool that night, and then head off on our roadtrip a couple of days early. We go out, have an ok night, but I slip on some rubbish in the road, I’m in pain, and the next morning it looks like I have an egg stuffed down my sock - add a sprained ankle to the list of unfortunate events.

I hobble about and help Raine pack up the car. We get in the car and we're off on the roadtrip - the car doesn’t start, again. We call the AA out, they say we have indeed got a new starter motor, but won't actually start the car. It’s Bank Holiday weekend, so no garages are open. Say goodbye to the Banksy exhibition because it finishes on Monday and we can only afford to camp in Bristol - so we need a car.

We retreat to Raine’s mum’s house firmly believing that we are cursed, but that we have to do *something* to stop ourselves jumping off Blackpool Tower. We start to investigate non-car reliant budget holiday options.

Now, here is the plan (and it’s quite good considering the time we took to come up with it, the lack of money, and the despair we were feeling). Tomorrow we take the coach to London – it’s absolutely amazing how cheap coaches are, yes they take *forever* to get anywhere, but they are cheaper than petrol and you can read while someone else does the driving (look at me looking on the bright side – eh!?!). We’re staying in a hostel that costs £30 a night for both of us, and that we’ve been to before, so we know it’s not flea infested. We’ve got free tickets to watch the Big Brother eviction tomorrow night – so, so, so sad, but free, and it will be entertaining. We get another coach to Brighton for the day on Wednesday, and hire some surf equipment, ankle permitting – it’s not Newquay, but it has surf, most of the time. Saturday we’re sitting in the Gods to watch an England friendly at Wembley – cheap because we will need binoculars to see the pitch (and we’re probably sat behind a pillar). Then there are the free museums and galleries, if I go ahead with some spray paint I can tell Raine that Banksy has been to those galleries...

The one with the swine flu

I’ve had swine flu for the best of two weeks. I’m slowly getting over the horrible thing. I’ve been so incredibly bored, and I blame daytime TV for my slow recovery. For the first couple of days I didn’t think it was too bad, just like a bad cold; it seemed so mild I thought it couldn’t be swine flu, just some virus I could shake off quickly, but it was just warming up - settling in to its new home. At my worst I’ve been ridiculously short of breath and tired, I had to take breath in the middle of even the shortest sentences, and even now I’m out of breath climbing a flight of stairs. I can understand why people are being made seriously ill by this thing, it’s nasty, and if you have breathing problems before you get this I think you’re going to be in trouble – once there’s a vaccine out, if you have underlying health problems, go and get it, asap. I’ll be glad to get over it, knowing that I can’t catch it again, especially considering the predictions that it might get worse come winter. Raine’s had a very mild version of it - because of her super-human immune system, she’s back at work and seems to be getting over it now.

I’ve not written a blog for ages, so I’ll add in some highlights of the past couple of months. We went to Rome at the end of June, for my 26th birthday. Very cool, very romantic, and very sunny:-) All in all: amazing! We were very impressed with how much we managed to pack into our two days there, I think we saw every major site – Vatican/Sistine Chapel, check; St Peter’s, check; the Pantheon, check; the Trevi Fountain, check; the Coliseum, check – you get the idea! Our pictures are up on Facebook, if you’re interested. It was amazing – all of it, I don’t think anywhere let me down. If I had to pick the highlight, though, St Peter’s was just awe inspiring – I was not prepared for the magnitude, and the splendour. We stayed in a wonderful hostel, right in the middle of Rome, it was reasonably priced and we got our own room – big bonus when it comes to hostels. On my birthday the hostel threw a pasta and wine party (for 2 Euros a person) on the hostel roof, the roof is several flights up, and it overlooks the whole of Rome – in short, it was an absolutely beautiful setting, and the food was excellent. There were big jugs of red wine, and it was really good wine – better than any house wine I’ve had in the UK. Generally the food in Rome was so good – we were on a budget, but it really didn’t matter, the cheap pasta and pizzas were so much better than anything I’ve ever had at an ‘Italian’ restaurant.

I got a temping job at Raine’s work. Unfortunately the flu has gotten in the way, and I don’t know if I’ll be going back – I have to wait for a temp space to come back up. I’m applying for other jobs at the moment, there are some I’m really enthusiastic about, but they’re very ambitious, so we’ll see.

Next month is a big month – Raine’s birthday, our wedding anniversary, and our fourth anniversary...actually it’s more of a big day, since they all fall on September 4th. Raine has a week off, we go to a local festival the weekend after next (it’s called Tommyfest, it’s a charity rock festival, and if you’re in the Blackpool/Lancaster area you should come and join our camp!). We’ll be camping there for three days. Then we’re planning to head off with our tent wherever we feel like heading to. I’m hoping we’ll get some surfing in. We’d both like to see the Banksy exhibition in Bristol – but the enormous queues are putting us off the idea.

Finally, on the weight loss front – I should hit the 2 stone lost mark very soon:-) At which point I’ll be half a stone away from my target weight. I’ve lost quite a lot while I’ve been ill, but I miss the gym – I’m a gym junkie...