holidays
Bienvenidos a Miami
You may have heard me saying how I am going to go to Japan at some point? Well, sadly it’s not going to be this year..
But all is not lost. No sir!
I will be venturing to Miami Beach on 28th July which, I am sure will prove to be one to remember! I have seen many films and TV shows filmed in Miami so I know it’s glamorous. The weather in August according to some weather sites is making Miami look like a scorcher! Average temperatures of around 30° and constant sunshine can’t be bad!
Ok, so we do sometimes get that heat here in the UK but it isn’t very reliable. For example, we might get a week where it starts out colder than expected, rains for the next three days, calms down for day 5, then knocks out a scorching day when people least expect it on day 6. Then after having that unexpected day, we all wear less the next day thinking we might have the same again.. Nope, the week ends with a storm then the cycle continues throughout the British summer. 
Well, I have decided if I am going to go to Miami with all the beach and sand, I need to have myself a beach body. So, I shall be ditching the chocolates at break times and replacing that with a healthier alternative. Maybe an apple? Maybe fruit juice and a sandwich? I have no idea, but it is completely necessary to do this.
Why?
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Holidays 2008
Can you believe it’s already June?! well I am having a hard time believing that fact! Mainly because I haven’t got any holidays planned to look forward to!
Ok, that is a lie.. I am going to Prague for 3 days in October, but that is a long way away and it is only 3 days! I need a summer vacation! 2 weeks please! Yes please! Any suggestions?
Where is there to go outside of UK that I haven’t been? (apart from the whole entire world, haha).
USA is a new idea that has been mentioned recently. I think it would be ACE! just need it to be confirmed then I can chill out and have something to look forward to at long last! I think I deserve a holiday!
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Around the world in 9 minutes
Some of my adventures over the past couple years have taken me to Barcelona, Ibiza, Cancun, Berlin, Dubai, Hong Kong, Asterdam and many other places! Here is a little video I have put together dedicated to all of them.
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Amsterdam a must see - in the SUMMER!
Remember I said I was going to Amsterdam? Well, I did and it was cool! Cool apart from the weather, which was a bit less than just ‘cool’. More like FREEZING! The wind chill was so bad, it was already below freezing most of the time but then add to that blizzard like wind conditions and then you’ll understand why I am complaining.
I have been to a few places around Europe, but nowhere compares to Amsterdam with the number of people riding bicycles! They were the main hazard on the roads. Forget the trams or the taxi, watch out for the bikes! There are cycle lanes EVERYWHERE but they blended in with footpaths to the point that you’d only know you are on a cycle lane sometimes by looking behind you and dodging the bike that was about to run you over!
Cafes in Amsterdam were never far away, with certain smells clouding your nose when you walk past.
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Tallest building in Hong Kong!
Hong Kong.. Once again, still amazing! Second time round!
Ahh… Thats the sound of the feeling when you get back from a good holiday.. 
Just returned to UK yesterday after a truly AMAZING time in Hong Kong!! OK, so yes I only went there 7 months ago and yes I had to endure a 12 hour flight but I had to go again coz I was so amazed last time. I can still say the same applies. It is an amazing place to go for sure! It has everything there.. Views, shopping, good weather (while I was there), funky style, good FOOD and I can’t possibly use all this page to go on and on about what it has all day but trust me, its better than Nottingham, UK.. (OK OK, where isn’t.. I know I know..)
This time round in HK, we went to a whole lot of new places. Our hotel was in a good location 5 minute walk from Mongkok station (Loads of shops and markets). The hotel staff were friendly and the place was really nice and clean although pretty small rooms. More than enough though considering we didn’t pay a lot! We had air conditioning which was obviously convenient since it was so so hot the entire time we were there, even when there was a little rain a couple days in the first week. Breakfast at the hotel was a bit random (when we got up in time), there was the ‘usual’ sausages, egg, toast, beans, coffee etc.. Then there was the option of noodles and samosas.. Some other things I wouldnt normally associate with breakfast as well, however here I am commenting on it but I was always there with my plate heaped with noodles and samosas anyway. I love em’ both!
When we arrived, we tried to do everything ourselves without asking for directions and help every 2 minutes.. The roads in Hong Kong aren’t too easy to follow though unless you know where you are headed.. We stopped to ask a lady for directions.. Now, we couldn’t speak a word on Cantonese past hello and thank you but her ‘directions’ consisted of hitting our map with the back of her hand and spitting Cantonese at us so fast that even if we could speak the language we wouldn’t understand what she was going on about. We stuck our hands in and took back our map thanking her for her ‘help’ and walked on. Eventually we navigated our way using the not so clear tourist map.
I had mentioned before on my friend’s blog (Anand), that I did not intend to buy a Nintendo DS Lite on this holiday .. So.. What did I do? Of course, I bought one.. Someone tell me why!? OK, so they aren’t as bad as I had thought and I found myself getting addicted to it whenever we were in the hotel! 
Things out there are so much cheaper than in the UK.. For example, eating out at a nice restaurant (by ‘nice’ I mean anything better than a fast food restaurant) would normally cost at least maybe £10 - £25 or so? Well, eating out in Hong Kong somewhere nice would cost around HK$120 which works out to be roughly £8.. Most of the places we ate at cost half that amount anyway, so you get the idea, its really cheap! Food there is so good as well, with lost of variety everywhere you go! mmmm! 
. Its a similar story with shopping in general too. Well, to be honest you only have to set foot out of the UK to experience that though. 
.
There was so much to do and see, we still didn’t get to do everything in the 2 weeks we were there.. (Maybe I need to go at least one more time 
) . We traveled mainly on the MTR (The underground rail network) which was always clean, fast and busy! Almost every stop had a HUGE shopping centre above it! Good idea in principal since you don’t have to go outside to get home, but because of the size, the walk back to the MTR was sometimes a mission in itself. So much variety there it takes great control (or a lack of money) to not go crazy and buy something every time you step off the train.
The city never sleeps. I don’t know what time it was some of the nights we were out, but Boots (chemist, health and beauty shop) was still open.. So was the Nike shop, oh and the Adidas shop, also the 24hour McDonald’s (obviously)! Everything was still open! Do they not sleep?! Hmm 
.. But it was definitely convenient for us anyway! We had many walks down the Ladies Market (Not just for ladies haha) and a trip up the Victoria’s Peak!
I need to thank Vicky and Suet for meeting up with us and helping make this holiday GREAT!! Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your time out there and we’ll have to do this again some time! Be safe
Ugh, our coach journey from the airport was shocking! I always use this company when I am going to and from a London airport as it always seems most convenient, but will think again next time! The toilet on the coach must have flooded or had a leak or similar because the whole coach STANK of urine etc etc.. Won’t go into too much detail but imagine a 4 hour journey when that is all you can smell. Exactly.. Terrible!
I am still in process of sorting out all of the pictures from the holiday.. I am sure I will get round to it soon, so watch this space! 
I found this so funny in all the MTR stations… The poor granddad in the picture has a bit of a tumble down the escalator!
See more cool pictures here
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Dubai was fascinating!
Jamaica kinda didn’t happen this summer due to a bit of a fiasco with tickets, so last minute decision led to us going to Dubai! Wow! It was really good! It looked just as good as it did when I Googled it before we left! Could not believe how much construction was going on out there! That will be THE place to be in 5 years time when everything is completed! The world’s tallest building, tallest hotel, only 7 star hotel, 40 degrees summer heat all year round, only islands created in the sea purposely for residences to name a few of the major attractions!
I personally thought people there were generally friendly apart from when it came to having to wait in queues.. Wherever someone is ’supposed to’ wait behind you (e.g. on stairs, getting in a bus, at a supermarket checkout etc) the people of Dubai obviously have a different system.. All of the above examples are instances of where I have been waiting and someone has just squeezed in front as if to say there was no queue to wait in. That aside the people were willing to offer help when asking for directions and asking where is good to eat / visit. One person we stopped was stood with us for a good 15 minutes telling us all about buildings and shops where we were stood - he was actually really helpful!
Food in Dubai was good.. There was a MASSIVE selection on offer in all of the shopping malls we had went to, might I just add the malls were HUGE!! Some with well over 300 shops (Biggest I have ever been to!). There was Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, American all side by side in the same malls! So as long as you were in the food section you were spoilt for choice! Ahh, I loved it! . Gold gold gold, there was so much gold on offer. I don’t personally like that much gold but I know a lot of women and other guys would and it was all 18K 24K and 36K out there, even some gold bars on offer too!
The heat was almost unbearable outside most of the time, temperatures over 40 degrees during the day and over 30 degrees throughout the night! With humidity so high you felt like you were covered in sweat the second you left any buildings! I would want to go back there in a year or so because there was so much construction going on I think it will look so different in that time!
All that said, as soon as I got back I had to get in front of the TV and check on Big Brother (so sad!).. Felt like I had missed so much of it! Darn, back to work now and to the UK’s unpredictable weather routine Boo!
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Holiday season is upon us!
Ogenki desu ka?
Holiday season is finally here! Could hardly believe it though considering the weather we’ve got here in the UK!! Wow it has been so bad! Floods, more rain, wind, cold days mixed with hot patches all in the same day!? freak weather…
Anyway, Booked 2 holidays now! Firstly Jamaica for 2 weeks with the family, should be good. I will get to see lots of relatives I have not seen in years! Also take lots and lots of photos! The weather should be good there, it usually is. I imagine it will be a lot better than here anyway so thats a bonus! Secondly, Hong Kong (again)! I will not be going to Japan or Thailand as planned (well, unless we can get cheap flights from Hong Kong) because we left it rather late to book it and prices have since soared beyond reach! 2 and a half weeks in Hong Kong though will be ace! I loved it last time I went so I am sure it has not changed much in the 6 months, so I will love it once more!
New gym membership! 
Coincidence that I have joined? I think not! Of course with these holidays pending, I will want to try and look sharp in the sun! Hopefully should be going every other day to the gym (excess?) so I can get a lot done in a short time, then continue to go less aggressively when I return. This gym is close to where I work, so hopefully my motivation will be boosted since I will see it on my way to and from work every day! I need to get fit for these holidays!
I haven’t been to the cinema in a long long time! 
.. Anyway… Yea, so I need to see a movie!
In other news, I am also going to put in some extra effort with my Japanese learning skills, as they seem to be lagging a bit lately. Also, I am still yet to find somewhere that I can go to learn Thai Boxing!
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Anyone been to anywhere in East Asia?
Read all + comment here www.locksleynet.com/blog
Planning to go to 3 places this summer in East Asia but need some recommendations.. I have been to Hong Kong and would definitely go again because it was AMAZING.. I really want to go to Tokyo, Japan though because it looks so good in pictures I have seen and from what I have heard it lives up to this image..
Also wouldn’t mind checking out Thailand, because its a popular place for people from UK to go visit when thinking about East Asia.. Want somewhere with some cool food to try out and places to visit! If you read my blog about Hong Kong then you already know that I am up for trying ANY kind of food people in the country eat. Basically I love food..
So.. Anyone who knows or has any recommendations lemme kno
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Holidays for 2007!!
Read all + comment here www.locksleynet.com/blog
Can’t believe how fast this year is going so far!! Seems like it was New Years day just yesterday!! Well, the question of holidays is here now.. None confirmed as yet, but its gonna be an EXPENSIVE summer I think.. Jamaica, then Tokyo –> Bangkok –> Amsterdam back to back! Dammit!!
I definitely want to go to all the above places this year then maybe a random trip somewhere in Europe at a later date in the year… If I have the cash!!
So…. Who is coming?! All the above will take place during August! Jamaica is kind of a family thing but the rest, anyone who wants to tag along can come along.. Got a few recruits already.. Do it!
Think I’ll be racking up a FAT amount of photos, so may have to re-construct the rest of my website by the time I get back from hols..
If you REALLY wanna see what a mess the site is/was before I closed it off you can hav a look –>here< –
Wooooooo!!
Also, wanna do a pointless random day trip to somewhere in UK that I not been before.. Hmm, where to go where to go.. Erm any suggestions?
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Hong Kong was AMAZING!!!
Ok, so by now you all will know I’ve just been to Hong Kong! It is an amazing place. I was lucky to actually make it to the airport though, after booking my coach tickets for the wrong day!! Yea what a start, plus leaving it to last minute to realise and change it left me in a tricky situation… Even that wasn’t enough, I then did my washing and packing right up to the last half hour before I needed to be on the coach.. Meaning I had a SPRINT all the way to the bus station… LUCKY is what I felt when I sat down on the coach! Would have probably done something stupid if I missed it!!
First impressions when I got there… Hong Kong is by far the cleanest place I have EVER been to! Not even chewing gum wrappers or Coke cans were to be seen on the ground in contrast to the UK, where on many street corners you could find probably more than one instance of both the above.. People follow the local laws without it affecting their lives.. eg, there is a law whereby you can’t cross the road when the light is on red for pedestrians, even if there are no cars.. Or you can get fined HK$5000 (£333 approx).. This doesn’t bother people though as you can sometimes see hundreds of people stood at a crossing waiting for the ‘green man’ without a single person venturing out to cross before the change.. There are too many things like this to write about in this blog, but cultural differences between HK and UK are vast.
Food was also amazing, despite the fact that I thought most of it looked completely strange. “What’s that?” is all I kept repeating every time I was at the dinner table.. I tried more different food there than I have in my life as well as some things I have had before, but in a style I would have never seen before. Squid, Octopus, Seaweed, Sushi, Duck, Ostrich, Crab, Lobster, Chicken, Beef and Pork to name a few of the things I ate whilst there.. Not saying I liked them all but it was definitely good to find out for myself than take other people’s word for it. Food there is not as it looks, sometimes there would be a ‘red blob surrounded by some white spongy stuff soaked in some weird brown sauce’ etc.. So I’d look at it and close my eyes with a screwed up face expecting a terrible taste bringing those chopsticks near to my mouth… Then most of the time, in fact ALL the time it was nicer than it looked. Sometimes the food tasted nicer than the smell. Always a pleasant surprise, plus it looks less rude when you finish your plate obviously, so nice food definitely helped me along with that! Sometimes I couldn’t even recognise chicken from first glance, that’s major for me since I’m a fan of chicken!! (However, look on the photo pages at a shop sign with a whole chicken incl head and it could put you off chicken!!) Check the pics out on PAGE18 of pics (As soon as I locate my camera battery I will get them on there). Ah, food food food! Question for you if you’re still actually reading this, ‘Do Chinese people cook at home? ‘Coz there were queues for every single food place there and believe me there were MANY MANY eating places!!.. hmm…
Everyone seems to live in apartments in HK… Really tall ones.. Some of them over 80 storeys tall :?… I’m not exactly the biggest fan of lifts, since I’ve had some bad experiences (getting trapped in one for half an hour, having one fall one floor and freeze etc..).. Having said that I didn’t exactly like the sound of taking the stairs up the 32 floors where we were staying at one point… Loved the views once inside though.. Wish I could have stayed there! If I had been more prepared and left the UK with a bulging wallet then I would have been in shopping paradise.. So much shopping potential in Hong Kong!! Forget London, go to HK! I like clothes and gadgets, probably like most guys really and let me say I felt like I was watching heaven go by through iron bars at times.. I didn’t exactly splash out.. Didn’t have any idea how much cash I had since I know I didn’t exactly save up I didn’t bother checking the old bank balance.. What a mistake though, seriously!! Things were so cheap there! Not exactly, ‘look I’ve been to Hong Kong’ style things, but general clothes, electronics, gadgets etc were so much cheaper than UK!! Could have bagged myself a Nintendo Wii or PS3 which aren’t even released as yet in UK at half/third of the price taken off!! OMG what a mistake it was not preparing properly!!
OK, so in a nutshell, Hong Kong is an amazing place, I’d recommend it to anyone that wants to go somewhere: [glamorous] [with completely different culture to UK/US] [for shopping] [food] [Gadgets] [buzzing 24/7 with LOTS to do]. If you agree with any of the above then GO GO GO!! If you just want purely clubbing then just stay in Europe, clubs there are good but there is just so much more to be doing!
I will DEFINITELY be making a return to Hong Kong, maybe even this year.. We’ll see! Places I hope to go this year are:
-Jamaica (I was born there),
-Hong Kong (It was so good and I want to re-do it this time with a FAT wallet),
-Tokyo (Looks good and I hear good things about the place),
-Shanghai (can mainland China rival Hong Kong? Well I wanna find out myself)…
Looking expensive to me.. Looks like I’ll have to go out a lot less between holidays this year!!
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Got to thank Nicky and Anna and family for the invite to HK, had a wicked time as you already know! Maybe do it again in 3yrs :P. Don’t forget 2008 summer Anna! lol! Oh yea and DELETE those pictures PLEASE!!
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Happy New Year once again people!! Gosh, this blog has gone on forever..
Peace!!
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Last blog before Hong Kong!!
Woo hoo!
Its FINALLY here!
I’m in HK between 25/12/06 - 01/01/07
PEACE!!
See ya when I get back!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Can’t believe its nearly Christmas.. Think I’ve lost that christmas feeling you used to get when you were a kid.. Now I just look forward to time off work / uni and seeing cousins / uncles etc etc..
I’ll be in Hong Kong Christmas until New Years Day and I absolutely CANNOT WAIT!!! Will be around after that though people so if you’re around Notts (My home city) Giv me a shout!
MERRY CHRISTMAS MERRY CHRISTMAS
+ not to forget
have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Woo hoo!
Peace!
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Wow wa wee wah! Its been a while eh?
Well, as pointed out at a silly hour of the morning, I haven’t written a blog for a good while now.. Time to get it sorted out I think.
So here goes.. Last Saturday, well, interesting I’d say.. Was there an occasion? I can’t even remember if it was someones birthday? Hmm. Oh well, but good weekend. A few crazy photos were taken that night. Not all of them could make it onto the site though.. For censorship reasons, lol!
Chinese test earlier in the week was ace! Feel like I did just fine, phew! One down, 2 to go (Spanish and Japanese). As if they weren’t enough, there is the looming 3000 word Essay due in this Friday! STRESS!!
Did I mention I decorated my room? Well, I did, finally! Got 350 pics printed out and I think it looks pretty cool. Moving out is going to be a bore, all that blu-tac!
Oh yea, fruit n veg.. This week was the first time for a lil while now that I bought myself some fruit n veg. Well, buying it isn’t really enough is it? Got to eat it now.. pffft.. My health is so bad at the minute.. Still got that ‘oh so talked about‘ cold, so ideally should be eating as much of the stuff as possible! As well as getting a sleeping average higher than 4 hours per night! I need more sleep!
HONG KONG IN 15 DAYS!! OMG can’t wait! Gonna be AMAZING!! Woop woop!
Keywords of the week (Don’t ask, lol) - Hamph, Pushpa, Mandira, Soy loco si?, Retake Reta, Ooooof! Terre ma Nungi, bubla………….As I said, best not to ask since that is possibly the most random thing you will ever read!
Oh yea.. blah blah blah!
Peace!!
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