Post-holiday blues, and reds.

Er, hi.

And so I return, rather sheepishly, to my own blog. I actually genuinely started this thing with the sole intention of using it to document my adventures to America, but sadly the reality was that there was very little internet out Californie way and I just didn’t get an opportunity. I was limited to scavenging wireless on my phone from coffee shops or hunting for an internet-enabled computer in our hotels. It was barbaric; you understand.

Yeah, that was the one.

I got back about a month ago and just haven’t been able to bring myself to write about it. Over the course of three weeks we literally did so much stuff that I wouldn’t even know how to write a blog entry that would justify it all. It would have to be a series of blogs that would stretch over a number of days, or weeks, and eventually would become entirely tedious – both to write and to read. So I’m not going to do that, but suffice to say, it was an immense time. The best thing about it can’t really be described in blog format, which was seeing Chris and Mia – tremendous people with a fantastic lifestyle who have genuinely changed the way I look at life. That sounds lame, but is true.

And I didn’t see Becks! If you’ve stayed with my adventures thus far, which would be impressive seeing as my last blog was in October, you’d know that the one thing I was looking forward to was seeing David Beckham in action for the LA Galaxy. Alas, there was a game, but I decided not to go – Kerstin offered to drive, but it was a 5-hour round trip through Los Angeles at night that I really didn’t fancy. Palm Springs drew me in and I didn’t want to leave – I never expected that to be the case, but it is. And it’s awesome!

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Red Mist

So Ryan Giggs won Sports Personality of the Year 2009, and I have to say, I was surprised. Now before I go on, I want to put on record (internet) that I’m a massive, massive fan of Ryan Giggs. The guy is still a tremendous footballer, an ambassador for Manchester United and role model for professional footballers – and human beings at large – in general. At 36 he’s arguably as good now as he was ten years ago, albeit for different reasons, and the idea of playing for the same club for 20 years and maintaining a first team place for that entire time is almost unheard of. So, in short, there is no doubt that the man is a hero and a legend.

Sigh. Look how perfect he is. And Giggs is there too.

But is Giggsy really Sports Personality of the Year, or is this more of a career-achievement award dressed up as something else? I mean, Giggs is the most decorated footballer in the history of English football, so you can’t doubt how good he is or how deserving he is… of something. Some kind of personal achievement award, perhaps. And also, I don’t want to run down the list of other nominees and talk about how they deserved it more than Giggs based on what they’ve done in the last twelve months, but there’s no doubt that over the last year, Giggsy hasn’t personally achieved what some of the other nominees have.

Man Utd won the Carling Cup,  the World Club Cup and the Premier League, plus got to the final of the Champions League last season. Was Giggs the driving force behind this success? You have to say, no, he wasn’t. I might only be looking at what happens on the field because I don’t know what happens off of it, but you have to say that Ronaldo, Rooney, Vidic, Ferdinand and Van Der Sar were the players that really made Man Utd successful last term. You can’t honestly say that Giggs was one of their top five players.

And this season, yes, Giggs has been playing well, but compare what he’s done to what Mark Cavendish has done in the last year, for example… read if you care to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cavendish#2009

In short, Cavendish won a record nine Tour de France stages and is considered the fastest sprint cyclist in the world. This is a guy who is right up there on top of his chosen sport, taking on the best in the world and beating them. Can you really say that he shouldn’t be in with a better chance than Giggs? Hell, Cavendish didn’t even make the top three for SPOTY which I think is a real shame. I’m not a cycling fan, by the way – not by a long shot. I know nothing about it, however I think I can see when congratulations and recognition is in order and I think Mark has been hard done by.

Either way, well done Giggsy – you deserve something mate, even if it might not have been totally appropriate. The fact that he seemed genuinely shocked and embarrassed to be accepting the SPOTY award speaks volumes for the man – deep down, he probably knows it should have been someone else. Great guy, total hero.

...shit hair.

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TTFN!

That’ll do for now. It’s time to go home and reflect on Ryan Giggs’ hairdo. I think we could all learn a thing or two.

California Countdown: 2 Days To Go!

What’s being billed by expert commentators as the greatest holiday of all time is taking place in two days’ time as the wonderful scarlet-clad bimbos of Virgin Atlantic will whisk me away to sunny California where the sun is shining, the beer is flowing and the love is free – particularly if you hang around the back streets of San Francisco late at night.

Artist's impression

For those of you that care, my lovely German fraü (umlaut optional) and I will be travelling first to LA, then Hollywood, Palm Springs, San Francisco, San José, Las Vegas, San Diego and probably other places as well. I know that Vegas isn’t in California so really I should be talking about our America trip but this is my blog so screw you.

You will have to permit me, dear reader, to be a bit sad now in admitting that the thing I’m really looking forward to is going to see David Beckham’s LA Galaxy playing at the Home Depot Center against San José. It’s going to be a holiday filled with life-changing experiences (see Backstreet Boys, above) but getting to see Becks play while we’re out there is going to be a real treat for me. Say what you want about the man and his silly voice, but he’s the ultimate professional and a complete role-model of mine. I’d rather meet him than that tosspiece Mickey Mouse any day.

Swoon. Oh, uh, I mean... handshake.

My awesome uncle Chris and his awesome wife Mia live in Palm Springs and I’m really looking forward to seeing / meeting them; think I last saw Chris about 12 years ago and Mia, who I suppose is technically my aunt… step aunt? I don’t know. But we’ve never met anyway so that should be fun. To be honest it’s going to be fun for me regardless because she’s a vegan, so I will enjoy endlessly mocking her diet safe in the knowledge that she doesn’t have the bone density to fight back.

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Splish-splash

Our base for the trip will be the beautiful Ocotillo Lodge in Palm Springs, which used to be home to the Rat Pack in the 1950s. It’s now been refurbished with a gym and other modern amenities, and has a massive cork-shaped pool (that’s CORK-shaped, not what you were thinking) – apparently the largest one in Palm Springs.

That's the second biggest cork-shaped pool I've ever seen!

So I suppose we’ll be spending some time there, having a run in the gym and a dip in the pool, lounging around in the sun reading books and listening to music, you know… the hard life. And if that gets too strenuous we can just pop down the road to the Hot Springs and have some spa treatments. I’m sure all that eating and sleeping is going to knot me up real fancy like!

You know what’s going to really annoy you? We get to stay here for nothing and we probably won’t even be there very much because we’re going travelling around the state. Yes, we’re going to probably spend six or seven days in this paradise but shun it for the rest of the time. That’s right. Fill me with your hate.

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Preppy Prep

The packing has started in earnest; I’ve chosen a comically oversized bag that’s twice the size it actually needs to be so that I can bring stuff back. Hotels still give away free towels, right? Well even if they don’t, I fully intend to use my mighty Pound Sterling and his sidekick, HSBC Foreign Exchange Boy, to smash the crap out of the puny American Dollar with some purchases that would make even the most ardent capitalist blush.

Feel that Washington? That's Elizabeth II dominating your face.

From my last trip stateside I remember them not knowing how to price or even name football boots which made for some very economically friendly purchases. Sadly for me, my hero David will have completely fucked me over in that respect; having now made “soccer” an acceptable sport in the land of spray-on cheese they probably know what the equipment is worth, the bastard. I might ask him for a pair of boots and a ball at the game, us Brits have got to stick together. He’ll understand. But yeah, if you know me and have any requests for things I can bring you back, leave me a comment on this post. I like comments.

I don’t want to write too much, otherwise this post will just become a very boring itinerary of our journey. Suffice to say I have lots of lovely recommendations from friends and colleagues to go along with the stuff we’ve already got booked, so we should have an awesome time. I’ll try to keep this bad boy updated wherever possible but, for now, goodbye Scotland, work and freezing temperatures. Hello sun, beaches and wonderful, wonderful excesses.