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8月18日 I'm off to Finland for the World Air Guitar Championships!!!So, I've been back for a couple of days now from mine and my mate Ed's Mongol Rally adventure for a couple of days. And it's funny, as pretty much everyone who I've spoken to since my return has said something along the lines of "Blimey, you must feel like you've come back down to earth with a bump."
As it happens, that's not really case.
Yes, the Mongol Rally was amazing. And yes, there was a big part of me that never wanted it to end.
But at the same time, I also jumped on the plane home from Mongolia knowing that I had a lot to look forward to when I got home.
For one, there were the obvious things - such as catching up with family and friends, and the start of the new football season that's just started.
What's more, the next few weeks will see me officially shake off the label of 'loser in his late 20s who still lives with his parents' - as I'm currently in the process of moving out and into my own pad!
And no offence to my mum and dad, but this is something I'm really excited about!
On top of all this meanwhile, the beginning of September will see me return to work and start my first year as a fully-qualified teacher.
Needless to say, part of me is absolutely cacking myself about this particular challenge! But in the main, I can't wait to throw myself into it...
So on the basis of all of these things, you're probably thinking that it's all go at the moment in the world of Rich!
However, I decided that the next few weeks weren't going to be QUITE eventful enough! Which is why, this coming week, I'm jetting off to Finland for a few days - to go and spend a few days at the World Air Guitar Championships!
Yes, you read that correctly.
The World Air Guitar Championships!
But how? And why?!
Well... it's possibly fair to say that I have a bit of a weakness for attending bizarre events! To give a couple of examples, my brother and me both risked life and limb back in 2005 by going along and taking part in the infamous Gloucester cheese race... while last year, my mate Andrew 'The Lothario' Best and me both attended the World Beard and Moustache Championships!
I also actually have 'previous' in the world of competitive air guitaring - as back in 2003, I went along to the UK Air Guitar Championships in order to write a feature about it for a music magazine.
Yet in spite all of this, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that it wasn't actually me who initiated this forthcoming trip to Finland.l
No, entirely to blame are three lovely ladies by the name of Sonja, Cecilie and Tanja.
Now those of you who were following mine and Ed's progress on the Mongol Rally will probably be able to put two and two together here...
But, for the benefit of anyone who WASN'T tuning in. Sonja, Cecilie and Tanya are the three Danish girls who we met in Budapest on a drunken night out - and who ended up squeezing into our car with us for the next few days as we drove across Romania.
If you happen to be reading these witterings on my blog site at www.softbulletin.co.uk, you can see some snaps of the girls in the photo section - as earlier today, I uploaded a gallery of over 150 pics taken throughout the rally. For those of you who are reading this on Facebook and want to see the pics - well, simply click here to be redirected...
Now of all the things that Ed and I got up to on the rally, the fact that we had three Scandanavian females on board was the one thing above anything else that seemed to capture the imagi nation of folk back home! And while Ed is happily married to the lovely Claire, speculation seemed to be rife among our families and friends - judging by some of the texts and emails I received whilst 'on the road - about what I may or may not have gotten up to with our glamorous hitch-hikers!
I must say, a big part of me has enjoyed being slightly vague about this - and in the process, fuelling speculation even further!
Hell, I'd be the first to admit that I'm hardly Don Juan - and as such, I'm quite happy for people to believe that I have it in me to charm three hot Danish chicks into joining me for a Roman-style orgy!
However, I hate to be a party pooper... but I can honestly say that nothing like that actually happened!
Yes, Sonja, Cecilie and Tanja were all gorgeous, and brilliant people to boot. They proved to be fabulous company for several days before we eventually bid them farewell in Bucharest, and part of me wants to marry all three of them and live happily ever after in bigamistic bliss!
Yet from the off, the dymanic between Ed and me and the girls was actually more like a family unit. This was something we all actually joked about, and it was all quite sweet really. We decided that if we had to shoehorn the five of us into conventional family roles, Cecilie and Ed would've been mum and dad, Sonja and Tanja would've been the two children... whilst I would've been 'Crazy Uncle Rich'!
Having done a fair bit of travelling for the last few years, I've become accustomed to the fact that you inevitably meet people 'on the road' with whom you get on famously, and end up spending quite a bit of time with... only to then go separate ways and then never see or speak to them again.
There were certainly a few such people who Ed and I met during the Mongol Rally.
With Sonja, Cecilie and Tanja though, it was different. The Danes aren't big on sentimentality so they'll probably rip the piss out of me mercilessly for saying this, but in the three of them, I honestly think that I've made some friends for life.
And this brings me back to the World Air Guitar Championships - as having heard about the event and decided it sounded like a giggle, the girls decided some time ago to arrange a trip over to Finland to check it out. This duly came up in conversation during one of the many hours we happened to spend sat in the car talking absolute nonsense - and on discovering that I too am deeply amused by the idea of grown men playing imaginary guitars, they immediately invited me to join them!
Cheap flights to Finland were duly booked - and so this Wednesday, at the crack of dawn, I shall be taking off from Heathrow on a plane bound for Helsinki!
I shall, needless to say, be dishing the full dirt when I get back on Sunday! In the meantime, if any of you want to find out a bit more about the championships, simply click here to see the event's official website..! 8月16日 Back home! And a special thanks to my nearest and dearest...Well... I'm back home!
And much as a big part of me never wanted mine and my mate Ed's Mongol Rally adventure to end, it does feel good after four weeks of hardcore vagabonding to be sat in my own home, on my own bed - with my own laptop perched on my lap... and my own parrot perched on my shoulder!
It's also been great to catch up with my immediate family.
Both my dad and my brother were there to greet me at the arrivals gate after my flight landed - and at this juncture, I really would like to wax a bit of lyrical about the aceness of the Fisher clan.
But first of all, a bit of context!
Now throughout the whole Mongol Rally escapade, both during the preparation and during the actual trip itself, there was one thing that kept happening that really started to get on my tits. And that was the regularity with which people would make comments along the lines of "Oh wow, so you're driving halfway round the world, through Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia? It's a bit like Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in 'Long Way Round', isn't it?"
Of course, I don't doubt for a minute that most people were making these sorts of remarks meaning them to be a compliment.
Please let me tell you though - it was bloody NOTHING like 'Long Way Round'!
For starters, Ed and I are obviously far better-looking and more interesting than a couple of bloody thespians!
But joking aside, there were a number of significant differences between our trip and that undertaken by McGregor and Boorman.
First of all, despite the fact that they probably have enough money between them to buy the whole of Mongolia, McGregor and Boorman had all of the costs of their trip funded by a TV production company.
Ed and I, on the other hand, paid for all of our expenses out of our own pockets. We never actually kept a tally of how much the trip cost us. However, from visa fees to petrol to food to accomodation to a new gearbox that we had to buy after our car broke down in Hungary, I would say at a stab that our personal expenditure probably ended up being about two grand each.
Not that I'm complaining - it was worth every penny...
But my use there of the word 'complaining' leads me to another significant difference between our trip and 'Long Way Round' - namely, the fact that we didn't spend our whole trip moaning like McGregor and Boorman about how hard it all was.
Ultimately though, the biggest contrast of all was the fact that Ed and I, unlike McGregor and Boorman, managed to do the trip all on our own.
As you'll know if you've seen 'Long Way Round', McGregor and Boorman had an extensive back-up team following them throughout their journey, including a technical support crew and even their own bloody doctor.
In fact, I wouldn't be entirely esurprised if they even had their own Andrex bitch on board to wipe their arses for them!
Ed and I, on the other hand, pet off in our car with little more than passports, a Haynes manual, a compass, and balls of steel.
That said, as the trip unfolded, it could be said in a way that we did have an ever-dependable back-up crew - and this brings me back to my immediate family.
Now I'm sure there must be times when my parents in particular must wish in some ways that they could swap me for an altogether different type of son - a Chinos-wearing bank manager with an extensive collection of David Gray CDs, perhaps.
However, whilst I probably have given them more than a few sleepless nights over the years through various escapades that I've gotten myself embroiled in, my folks never fail to support me in everything I do.
The same goes for my brother Al - and when the chips are down and I need a helping hand, my immediate family are always the first people I turn to.
And no matter how insurmountable the problem I'm facing seems to be, they always seem to be able to pull a solution out of the bag.
There were a few such occasions during the Mongol Rally when my family provided invaluable help.
For instance, when I stupidly lost my bankcards, it was my parents who immediately sprung into action and wired me some cash so I wasn't stranded thousands of miles from home with no money.
And there were several occasions when Al bailed us out by adding credit to the pay-as-you-go international simcard we had acquired for the trip - something you could only do via the internet (and strangely enough, cyber cafes are few and far between in rural Kazakhstan!
I really do appreciate their dependability of my family. I think they know that. And I certainly know that they pull the stops out for me out of pure, unconditional love, wanting nothing in return.
Nevertheless, the thought lurked at the back of my mind throughout the last week or so of mine and Ed's trip that I'd like to get mum, dad and Al some kind of present to say thanks. And given the number of countries that we passesd through, there were plenty of gift opportunities - from Russian dolls in Russia (obviously), through to Genghis Khan-style furry hats made out of yak's wool in Mongolia. Somehow though, saying thanks with the equivalent of a straw donkey seems a bit of a cop-out when the people you are saying thanks to are the people who've saved your neck.
I wanted something a bit more personal and special.
But what?
Well, as it turned out, it wasn't until oy very final stop-off on my way home from Mongolia that inspiration finally struck.
After completing the rally, Ed and I had decided to fly home via Berlin - and being someone who loves Germany and yet had never actually been to the capital before, I decided a brief stopover was in order.
Happily, this proved to be a very good decision - as Berlin proved to be a fantastic and fascinating place. If you're reading these witterings on my blog at www.softbulletin.co.uk, I've uploaded a load of photos from my time in Berlin to the gallery section.
For those of you, on the other hand, who are reading this on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected.
But what of this present, I hear you ask!
Well it isn't a conventional gift. Nothing was, or is, going to get handed over wrapped in shiny paper. In fact, if mum, dad and Al want see their present, they'll have to actually jump on a plane and fly to Berlin themselves, get a taxi into town, and then walk the mile or so from Alexanderplatz to the point where the city was once famously divided by bricks and mortar.
Yes, given that we share a unanimous love in our family of Pink Floyd - and in particular, their seminal album 'The Wall' - I'd decided it'd be a cool idea to pop into a stationery store and buy a permanent marker pen... and then use it to write notes to my parents and Al on one of the remaining parts of what is probably the most famous wall in the western world.
Just call me Banksy..!
Mum, dad and Al - if you decide that going to Berlin in person to see your messages is maybe just a tad too much hassle, simply go to the photos I've uploaded of my Berlin trip and skip to the last few snaps.
Enjoy..! 8月13日 Preparing for the return to the humdrum after Mongolia madness!So, it's 3.56am as I sit typing these words in an internet cafe in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.
As most of you will probably be aware, my reason for being here is because my friend Ed and I decided it would be a good idea to spend a few weeks this summer taking part in the Mongol Rally - a crazy caper that involves attempting to drive a crappy old car approximately a third of the way round the world!
And I'm happy to report that we succeeded in this mission.
Well, sort of!
Basically, WE made it to Mongolia!
Alas though, our wheezing Peugeot 106 only managed to make it three-quarters of the way before it came a distinct second in an argument with a Russian lorry, following catastrophic brake failure! Undeterred however, Ed and I soldiered on sans car, making it the rest of the way via a combination of train, hitch-hiking and taxi!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's been a memorable few weeks!
Some of you many have been following the ups and downs of our journey online - as we've got a webpage set up that we've been able to send updates to via mobile phone.
For those of you who haven't seen this - well, simply click here.
The updates on the site offer a reasonable summary of the main events of our trip. That said though, having been dispatched from 'on the road' as text messages, it's fair to say that are pretty short and sweet and don't really tell the full story.
But fear not - for Ed and me have spectacular plans to unleash the full dirt...
Yes, Ed and I have shot literally hours of video footage of the trip - and we have been having serious talks about getting to grips with some video-editing software and putting all our movies together as a feature-length film!
Granted, it will all be pretty lo-fi. However, we feel we have a very entertaining story to tell - and when it's finished, we're actually seriously going to look into hiring a cinema screen somewhere and having a proper premiere!
We're planning to keep our footage under wraps until then so the film has maximum 'wow factor' - however, I shall be sticking some photos from the rally online at some point in the next few days.
Watch this space...
Exciting stuff then - though in the meantime, it's now back to reality for both Ed and I.
Having reached the rally finish line a few days ago, we are now about to jump on a plane home and return to our normal lives.
That is why I am up typing this at such a silly time in the morning - part of a cunning plan of staying up all night so I'll hopefully sleep through most of the long and arduous flight!
Naturally, I'm sad in lots of ways that the adventure is over. However, having been away for nearly a month, I'm really excited too about the prospect of coming home and catching up with everyone.
See you all soon..! |
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