views from the Jaffa hostel roof

these are some of the pics from an old story. it is a few years now since Claire and me were treated to such wonderful hospitality in Israel.

Ever been there

This place is familiar. Just a few pictures back. It is an early morning view over loch Awe. It is a sort of a view over a garden. A great place to train when the midges were asleep.

More places to practice

so where d u think I am

Like the busses none for ages then a whole fleet all at once

A friend called today to ask me a favour. He asked if it was o.k to bring a friend of his along to a class of mine. But before he asked me he told me a story. Apparently his friend had been in Georges Square very recently and some nutter had tried to plunge a knife into his neck. Fortunately his friend had managed to fight off his assailant. .... However it brought to mind some telly footage I had seen of guys bouncin around with what seemed to be mostly samurai swords. I thought I remembered that the footage was shot recently in Glasgow...... Man what route is this bus on?

this'll be the tourisy stuff for real

Bulgaria 08 One very interesting time was had. In its own way it may even have been more interesting than 07. Let us just say it was different. The hotel was all inclusive and the European cup was on the telly. For once I did not get ill from the food. The noise the frogs made was unbelievable. Major levels of decibel I thought it must have been ducks or geese not frogs. When I got round to investigation I found that there were a goodly number of species and that over all there must have been thousands. and then there was the snake. The first live one I had come into close contact with since the Hong Kong Snake restaurants; there they took great pleasure in teasing Cobras. Made me feel quite ill. This however was about 18 inches long and swimming like the clappers, as far away and as quickly it could get from me. I almost stood on it.
The insects were a problem for quite a few folk but for me the old marmite worked a treat no bites until just before we left.
It was great meeting all the people again and great seeing how far they had come over the year.
on a few night we went down to eat and drink with the guys and I think if anything the wine was even better this year. The Mavrud was excellent especially. The Gamsa and Melnik were also good. The was also the first time in my life I got to taste some really nice vodka.
This brings me to the point of this whole style of tourism. This is not insular. Tho we may be a group engaged in what could be called an insular activity It is an activity carried out by people from across Europe. This group consisted of Bulgarians(of course(( all male))) Russians(all female cept for Misha and Max), Irish, Scots(East and West coast) and Joe(hi Popeye hope yr hudge has shifted). Local people sharing there local culture, local hospitalty, history, architechture, food, drink. Still there was a beach and a great bay sheltering water that never got very deep, just deep enough. There is also the fact of different training partners. some may say that is stretching the point just a bit too far.
I however am still searching for Dimitar. I spent the whole of last years camp trying to trace him. I thought that was to meet us and maybe that is where I went wrong. All 5 days it went on. So you must be dimitar then. Mo I'm Mitko.... ah so you must b Dimitar then..... No I'm Ivan........ so you must be ..... no I'm Micko. By the end of it I must admit getting a little paranoid and the guys did wind me up a bit.. Who the *7^%? is Dimitar. Eventually it all got sorted.
I must say I really like the Black Sea coast and the people i meet there.