I really wanted to do some travelling this weekend, but due to the weather forcasts I didn't exactly feel like travelling 100 miles somewhere just to walk around with an umbrella, so the destination had to be nearby London. As a loyal reader of Lonely Planet guides, I've checked a map in the English version of the book and found this place called Southend-on-Sea. My flatmates confirmed that this is where Londoners generally go out for the weekend. It's east of London, which is also great, as I didn't need to cross the jammed traffic of London's centre, and it's not very far from Canary Wharf - just some 40miles ...

 

TomTom doesn't provide for the best guide on the way there though, so I got lost twice!!! But then it took me to a very convenient parking lot almost right on the beach, so I forgave the software for the earlier confusion. Southend-on-Sea is a small-ish town - although allegedly the largest in Essex. It has a decent beach and a famous pier, which is 1.3 miles long!!! Believe it or not. I walked it all the way to its end, and truly it did feel like 2.6 miles return-trip ;o)) ... What I didn't appreciate was the 2.5GBP entrance fee. I couldn't really figure out why I was paying to walk down a pier!!! Well, maybe because it's supposed to be world's longest pier ... who knows ... but it was fun!

 

Later on, when I properly froze on the pier I set out to get some cafe latte and walking down the main street I've picked the one cafe with the best view over the beach. I've ordered my coffee and the lady enquired whether I wanted a large or a small - so I asked for large (lots of coffee was needed by then ;o)) ... Then she chaged me 1.60GBP ... First I thought she misunderstood that I wanted a large one, but the it turned out to be true, so hey - that was one of the cheapest latte's I've had for a long time!!!

 

It was really nice to watch an eary sunset hanging over small boats and windsurfs. I really liked the place! Now I have to figure out where to go next.

I had a plan a day-trip to Oxford on Saturday. My friend Clarence has a house there that he bought a few years ago and needed to check on it, so we took advantage of having common goal that day, I drove Clarence to Oxford and he showed me the town centre in exchange.

The things didn’t go as smoothly as planned though. First Clarence showed up one hour late and then I got lost in the centre of London. The weekends in London are free of congestion charge, which is cool, but then the whole area gets jammed, so it’s not that great after all ‘cause one wastes lots of gasoline moving by inches on at gear 1 ;o)) …

 

What happened on Saturday was that I took a wrong turn first thing we arrived at the centre. GPS was actually one of the causes of this (apart from driving in centre London first time in my life). As the buildings get taller in zone one from both sides, my organizer kept losing lock on the satellites and I was getting rubbish instructions by TomTom as to where to go … so we did get a chance to drive throughout the whole Waterloo, passed Tower Bridge, cruised through Trafalgar square, and so on ;o)) … it was really fun … Clarence almost gave up on our trip to Oxford, but I insisted on going anyway …

 

We did make it to Oxford eventually, checked on Clarence’s house and strolled through the centre. I’ve taken quite a few pics, which I’ll post here in my blog as well … the place is really nice. I particularly enjoyed the laid back environment, nice cafes and lots of young people just taking it easy … I had a great time in Oxford.

 

Believe it or not, but on the way back to London I got lost again, and this time we again arrived at Tower Bridge and were forced to cross to the south bank of the river where we got stuck in a traffic jam – again!!! Gosh …

 

Unfortunately this unforeseen delay made us arrive late for a birthday celebration of my both flatmates – Tim and Cait … we were some 1.5 hrs late unfortunately … but still we had a great night.

 

I’ve proven my orientation skills getting better on Monday morning when I drove from London to Leicester and crossed downtown London without getting lost!!! So let’s hope I’ll keep to that ;o))
 

The day has finally come and I picked up my new Toyota on Friday, Sep 14! It was a big day … I couldn’t sleep for days prior to that. First I had get myself to Bishop’s Stortford where my Auris was already waiting. I had had already all the papers sorted – including car registration, insurance and road tax … so the car was ready to go …

 

I was soooo happy to see it first. It took me some time to set up the tool, which would take me home  - my GPS HP iPaq organizer. Then it was time to take the Auris home to London …

 

Surprisingly I didn’t find myself having trouble driving on the left after some half year since I’d done that last. Neither did I get lost on the way – the TomTom really worked well for me … and most of all I really enjoyed driving my new car. It was such a great feeling! The Toyota Auris is indeed a great model – it’s really spacious inside, it’s got modern touch in design and the 1.6 engine is well good enough to keep the car quite lively!

 

When I got back to London, another toy was already awaiting me – the Belkin FM transmitter, which I would use for my iPod. It does work somehow, but not exactly useful in London, where probably every FM frequency is taken by a radio station. It’s truly difficult to find a free frequency up there … the thing works way better in Leicester, as I found out today!
 

It's Sunday evening now and I've done one great achievement above the other 'normal' ones this week. I've bought a new car, specifically a Toyota Auris, which is a new version of former Corolla. I had been doing some research on cars for some time already. It all basically started 3 or  weeks ago when my friend and work-colleague - Veeran - mentioned that he's planning on upgrading his sporty Honda to something what he calls fresher and newer! Well, Veeran says he keeps upgrading cars every couple of years - not exactly what I've been doing myself ;o)) ...

 

Veeran happens to sit next to me at work and since the very first time I contemplated buying a car myself, he has been a great advisor! First I had to decide on new vs. used car. Well, my previous two cars were used and I did spend quite a lot of money fixing them, and knowing the price level in the UK, I eventually decided on a new or up to 1-yr-old. So that was easy. Then the size of my car reflected the needs. I really want to see the UK and want to do some mountain biking around the country, so the car must have a boot and an option of bent over back-seats to fit a mountain bike in it ;o)) ... The budget decision sort'a followed suit - new car & class C!

 

Few models came into mind - they were Vauxhall (Opel) Astra, Ford Focus, Toyota Auris, Peugeot 307, Vokswagen Golf. Simple elimination brought me to the winner. Golf is basically overprised, Ford doesn't have a good reputation in the UK, everyone out there drives an Astra, Peugeot is unreliable and loses value, and Toyota Auris ticked all the boxes - keeps value, is good value for money, looks very nice and is super reliable and safe.

 

When I went home to the Czech Rep, I found time to test-drive the Auris and the car is just a beauty not to look at, but to drive too ... I immediately started working on the price negotiations. At first instance I'd contacted 20 Toyota dealers, out of which only half - 10 - came back to me. This really wasn't fun at all to be honest. I expected a 'friendlier' approach, but didn't happen. These guys probably deal with 'fake' customers every day, who take much of their time and provide for no business. So I got their offers, some of them ridiculously high - i.e. some would offer me what they called a GREAT DEAL, which was a used-car that cost more than a new one with another dealer. Lots of inconsistency out there. But no problem, I've brought all these dealings down to three offers, pushed a bit more and the winner gave me a price I instantly knew was a great deal - especially when the others confirmed they would have to lose money to match this although I said I'd pay the deposit right away!!!

 

So next Friday is the day. The car has been insured already, I've bought Toyota official floor mats and cannot wait to see the baby next week on Friday!

 

Wish me luck on the road ...

As my previous blog suggested, I spent the (UK) bank holiday week at home in the Czech Rep and had a really nice and relaxed time there. The first weekend, right after my arrival, was a little cramped, as I went to Prague to attend a night out with my friend Michal and his new girlfriend - Tara. On Sunday I went back hom to Ceska Lipa to spend some time with my parents finally.

 

On Monday I grabbed my father's VW Bora and drove it to a nearby town called Doksy, which lies right at the Mach Lake. This lake is famous in the country for a poet who used to live nearby and who wrote one of the Czech most valued poems about it. The whole place is trully picturesque and amazing. One has to see it - a beautiful lake surrounded by beaches and sand-stone rocks ... amazing ... I did a run around the lake that was just under 15km long and took me some 1hr 20mins to complete. As I ran in the forest, the surface was soft and I didn't encounter any knee problems, which I sometimes do when running in London.

 

On Tuesday I drove to a city called Liberec, which is one of the bigger Czech cities - of course this is very relative to Czech standards. First of all I wanted to visit a Toyota dealer to do a test drive of the new Toyota Auris, which I was contemplating for purchase by then. The drive was great, I loved the car, spoke to a very cute lady from the dealer's and received a few brochures. After that I drove some 2-3 km to a nearby look-out tower called Jested. I parked my car just underneath the hill and checked the tracks leading to the top. The easiest one was to walk alongside the road, and that option would have been 6km long. I decided against it and instead chose to follow the cable car track, which lead straight up. I saved time, but definitely not energy ;o)) ... on the top of the hill, where the look-out tower is located, awaited a sweet prize - a restaurant, fairly cheap, full of unbelievably hot waitresses and relatively good proper Czech food ... Later that day my father asked me to help him move a few trees from one garden to another. Although pretty knackered by then, we managed to fulfill the task and everyone was happy ;o)) ...

 

Wednesday was a granma day. I drove to Prague to see my granny, whom I took out for lunch (she paid though ;o)). It was really fun. Haven't seen her for some time, so she started filling me in on various topics and never bothering telling me how these topics relate to each other ... so I just listened and let go ... After that I left for my sister's place. She and her boyfriend Tomas returned from holiday the Sunday before, so we had lots to discuss. Tomas wanted to show me his new Subaru Impreza. Yes, I was impressed - it's the fast version - 2.5l and some 300 horsepower ... and inside it looks like a racing car :oP ... In the evening we met with Michal and Tara again. This time they brought over another friend of Tara's - this one was from Montreal.

 

I returned back home on Thursday morning and spent some time investigating my future Toyota Auris prospects. As a result I sent out some 20 emails asking for a quote and kicked off the selection process of the most appealing offer ;o)) ...

 

On Friday my sister and Tomas arrived to my parents' home and we went out for a nice steak dinner. There's a very nice restaurant in Ceska Lipa that we always go to. Their steaks are always tasty and big enough to fill up even a lad like me ;o)) ...

 

Then Saturday came and my friends - Dusan and Lenka came. Michal and Tara also joined us and last, but not least, we were also accompanied by another Dusan's friend Sylva. We did a BBQ session - food was good - a bit too much though and it was really fun catching up with some of my friends after such a long time of no see ... Unfortunately other friends couldn't make it due to the holiday season I believe, so we only managed to meet up in half of the possible numbers ... it was good fun anyway though.

 

My flight was scheduled to Sunday evening. My parents took me to Prague earlier to do some shopping, but I was too tired and so were they, so no money was really spent there ;o)) ... Then they dropped me at the airport, we said good bye and I was on my way. The EasyJet flight was late again!!!, then the baggage took a million years to show up and when I arrived at Victoria some 45min later than I thought I would have - the tube was closed ... I wasn't thrilled, believe me ... As I didn't want to spend 50 quid on a cab, I decided for the night busses option, which meant I had to go to Traffalgar Sq. first and then take another bus to Canary Wharf where I live. I got back to my flat after 1am and still had to pack my stuff and get ready for a 6 o'clock alarm and trip to Leicester ...