Steff and nonsense

My parents came to Doha for a visit.



Now I wouldn't say they're useless....exactly...but I have my suspicions...

I left them alone for one day, whilst I had to go to work. I made sure there was food in the house and ordered them a cab for 2pm, to take them to the shops. What could go wrong?

The first text I got was at 11.30. They couldn't turn the telly on.

Then I got a call at 2. They couldn't get out the front door.

The most worrying text was at 5pm, saying, "When are you coming to pick us up? Starting to walk home now."

I found them about three quarters of an hour later asking some guy for directions. Mum was complaining that Dad had taken them the wrong way, and had lied about how far it was.

I'd only left them along for 9 hours and they were asleep for at least 2 of them. It's a wonder they ever managed to get out here in the first place, but come to think of it, I've not heard from them since I dropped them off at Doha airport. Maybe I should give them a ring...

Oh, and did I mention they blew up my hairdryer?

Saturday may have been just another day for many people, but not here: We had a belated Halloween Party.

The best thing about fancy dress parties here is that people really make an effort. Back home, you could just shove in some glow-in-the-dark teeth, and you'd probably be the best dressed. Not here though, oh no.

Everton's wife, Alex, and I went as a witches



Other people were more imaginative though:





(At this point, you'll be pleased to know, I realised that I didn't have to be in every single photo)







The award for the person who made most of an effort goes to Peter, who was up until midnight the night before making his coffin:



And the award for the scariest person, goes to Stefan, who I had to avoid for most of the party:



Oddly though, I didn't have a nightmare that night. Instead I had a very odd dream about having a drink with Ant and Dec, or trying to. Dec never turned up.

I badly planned my holidays this year and ended up with 2 almost back-to-back. This time I was off to Athens with 2 friends who I met at BBC Bristol: Dilster and Hoskins.

The holiday didn't exactly go off to a flying start for Dilster, as he found an old mouldy banana in his bag which had gone all over his clothes.



Still, desite Dilster reeking of banana, we persevered and saw all the sights.
The Temple of Zeus:



The Acropolis:







Unfortunately Hoskins couldn't get the name of the place in his head, and kept calling it the Apocalypse. He eventually got fed up of Dilster and I guffawing at his error, and just referred to is as 'Stones on the hill', which I felt didn't entirely do it justice...

From the Acropolis, we could see an even higher hill:



...so of course we had to scale that one. This was easier though, as there was a Funicular Railway. As we sat on the train, waiting for it to depart, Dilster proclaimed, "This is going to be one of THE best views from a funicular railway."
He's obviously not been on many...



...it was inside.

Still, he made up for his banana deodorant and his dodgy views, by coming up with some interesting facts:
Greece smokes twice as much as any other European Nation.
One third of the population of Greece lives in the Greater Athens area.
There are estimated to be 150,000 dogs in Athens.
He then started wondering how many windows there were in the city, at which point Hoskins and I started crying into our beers.


The low point of the holiday was probably when we got lost, so decided to get a cab home. It turned out we were approximately 50 metres from the hotel. I don't think the taxi even got out of second gear...

But the high was finding that Greek people love tourists, especially ones with blonde hair, and would let us queue jump into nightclubs...where I found my new favourite drink - Pea Juice!



The thing we didn't ever get round to was to use the hotel pool, despite the 'eye-catching' advert in the lift:



Maybe next time...