hmmmmmm just received an email from Travel Italia asking for reciprocal links so I have complied.. will it make a difference to my site I wonder.... any emails from anyone else about this would be good

Anyway the weekend......... had another wander up to see David Blaine on Friday, it was afternoon very pleasant weather and he was obviously enjoying it all... waving smiling and looking remarkably relaxed for a man that hasn't eaten for a week. A friend though went to look later on friday and described a very different atmosphere, he said that people were abusive and there was a general feel of aggression in the air, at one point a firework was released and the glass cage visibly rocked. DB must feel somewhat vunerable!

After having a look at the man we wandered around the Design Museum which has some fascinating bits of stuff in it as well as the ubiquitous Alessi kettle! Wanderings continued to Browns- newly opened in Shad Thames where we had dinner, a very efficiently produced and tasty meal ... Pete had driven up in an electric car so we headed home following the Thames path in a narrow Noddy-like red car, unfortunately the batteries are not very efficient and any slight upward gradient meant the lights dimmed and the car slowed to worse than walking pace!! Luckily we were not on the road holding up vast queues of maddened London drivers!

Yesterday was spent in hard labour on the boat! It is now empty, we must have moved 20 tons of rubbish, assorted metal pieces, bags of gravel and all manner of tat.. it is now empty! and we will be living in it by the end of October, dont know whether to be excited or horrified at the prospect... at the moment I'm just feeling exhausted

Forgot to mention about the surfing with Ruby Wax!! Bank holiday weekend Pete and I headed to Cornwall... weather was wonderful, St Agnes just utterly lovely I really want to move there right now!! People were really really friendly and unlike Newquay it hasn't lost its Cornish charm at all...... so we booked a surf lesson, turned out that it was fully booked by Ruby Wax and family/entourage..... so I watched Ruby's first attempts at surfing !! Which is an odd way to spend a bank hollday monday, we did get to have a go though as we stayed an extra day....... waves were the biggest I've ever seen in Cornwall and my underwater somersaults were spectacular!!! Decided this should be a new sport, particularly as I am soooooo good at it. I managed loads of 360's a few forward flips and even the occassional back flip, plus the ungainly sideways 3/4 flip to land face first in the sand, not elegent I grant you but utterly spectacular!

Went to see David Blaine last night, well he is in walking distance of home so it would seem churlish not to! So we wandered as a group, Pete and his kids, me and my boys and Steve a friend planning to have a drink in Shad Thames whilst in the area. It's a very pleasant bit of London and DB has chosen an excellent view for his sojourn into the self. We arrived on the other side of the bridge and it took a few moments to spot anything different but saw the crane first. So we wandered to far side of the bridge past a hot dog seller, will DB gets smells wafting up to him of bland frankfurter sausages and magnificent fried onions?? Above our heads in a narrow glass casket was a sort of duvet bundle, very reminscent of the bundle of the fusty grey homeless that lurk in doorways all over town. As there was little proof that an actual person was even in there it also reminded me of the duvet bundle that is placed under normal bedding by teenagers (well I did it anyway!) when they have gone out without permission and rather hope that the parents wont look too closely into a darkened room. But I digress we made lots of comments like it could be a robot, a lookalike and other similar suggestions and then there was movement from above and all heads turned upwards as DB slowly stood up. This was accompanied by a rousing cheer, the man in teh glass box proceeded to remove his jumper hang it up and wrap himself up in his bundle again and then subside once more to the bottom of the box. As far as I could see the person looked remarkably like David Blaine so I would say it was him!? Such an odd spectacle though, very zoolike in its voyeuristc qualities!! A man has chosen to place himself above humanity?? Is he watching the crowds that gather with the same sense of unease that I watched him?? Obviously his unease will be far greater as he is supposedly doing this without food, though I think it would very stupid if the water doesn't have some colourless nutritional addition to it, vitamins and supplements and maybe a sedative or two would make survival of 44 days sort of possible. DB's view of the Tower of London though, from across the river, is absolutely gorgeous with its floodlit turrets and ancient stone walls, it might help though probably after a few days you would stop appreciating the sights!
But, and there is always a but.... traffic was appalling last night as anyone crossing the bridge slowed to look and I would guess that by the level of traffic everyone who was travelling anywhere in the vacinity decided to take a look too. This is going to make driving utterly unbearable if it carries on for 44 days!