Alicia Keys was excellent and performed many of her latest songs and a few classics that even I felt the need to sing along to! The only thing I found slightly annoying was the lone dancer jumping around like he owned the stage. Very distracting and something akin to one of your drunk mates getting up on the podium late one night and making a fool of himself. Fortunately for us he wasn’t on stage for every song!

If you are an Alicia Keys fan then I would definatly recommend you see her perform live and even if you aren’t it was still an entertaining show to watch.

The problem with Rickys latest stand up show was the lack of new material. Although he delivers his stories and jokes with expert timing in his own unique style, much of the material in Science was taken from previous shows or from the popular Ricky Gervais Audiobooks which have now been ported to an animated series on Channel 4. For this reason I felt a little cheated because I wanted to see something new and fresh but this show was almost entirely recycled. More to the point, aside from the ridiculous scenery and ‘brain in a jar’ stage props there was very little talk of science at all. In fact, this might as well have been called ‘Religion’ as, in true Atheist style, Ricky spent the majority of his time mocking Christianity and the Bible. Not necessarily a bad thing but something I have seen him do many times before.

Ricky Gervais is an extremely funny and talented comedian, but if you have seen his previous shows and listened to his Audiobooks on iTunes or the animated ’Ricky Gervais Show’ series on Channel 4 there really isn’t anything new here. I hope he can find new and fresh material for his next show otherwise his stand up will soon become overwhelmingly stale and I hate to say it, mediocre at best.

Needless to say this didn’t stop us making the most of our trip so I thought I would share some of my favourite photos here. On the first day we toured Bratislava in the pouring rain, an excellent excuse to dive into every open bar, sit back and order an ice cold Slovakian brew.

On day two we decided to take a train across the border to Austria. Every building we saw in Vienna was more ornate than the last and the attention to architectural detail was extraordinary. We stumbled across a festival outside the town hall, bought a beer, sat down and soaked up the atmosphere.

On the third day we managed to speak with Ryanair but the earliest flight home was not for over a week. It would have meant spending another 8 days in Slovakia providing there was no more volcanic activity! We all agreed that this would cost far too much so on our sixth day we managed to book seats on a bus that ran from Bratislava to London Victoria bus station the following day.

On Tuesday, two days later than expected we departed on an epic journey home. It took us over 26 hours, travelling over 1570km using 2 buses, 2 trains, 1 ferry, 1 car and no planes through 6 countries including Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, France and England. It’s certainly one trip I will never forget.

The tour lasted about an hour and included access to the Manchester United museum that is also on site. The museum hosts a huge array of Manchester United memorabilia from the clubs 132 years of football.

I booked the car in to be checked out at Vauxhall and must admit they did a very good job. They identified that the heater blower motor had packed up and even had the part in stock to replace it there and then. After about a two hour wait it was finished and its obvious now that the old motor had been on it’s way out for some time. The new one, on full power, could remove paint better than a paint stripping heat gun!

After having the heater fixed there was more bad news to follow, the service manager told me that both front tyres were bordering on illegal and needed to be replaced. I made a call to a Jet Tyres, a company not too far from my house and they were £35 cheaper per tyre than Vauxhall. Needless to say I decided to pop in there on the way home and get them sorted, it’s always best to shop around for the best price!

On top of that expense I also had to pay £215 for my road tax and my car still needs a full service plus the air conditioning needs to be re-gassed. So far this year my car has run my bank account dry, right to the last penny. A total of nearly £1000 worth of repairs and necessities! Ouch!

Oh, I forgot to mention, my MOT is due at the beginning of next month plus my car insurance is up for renewal at the same time! Owning a car is expensive!

Not only was it an intimate gig with just over a thousand people watching, One Republic were simply brilliant! Standing only a few meters from the stage meant you really felt a connection with the band. They played songs from their old album ’Dreaming Out Loud’ and a host of songs from their new album ‘Waking Up’ which was released that same day. ‘Good Life’ is one of my favourite tracks.

If you get the opportunity to see One Republic live I would definitely recommend you take it. Vocally Ryan Tedder the lead singer has an amazing range to his voice and certainly knew how to interact with the crowd and really make you feel part of the evening. This was certainly one of the best live performances I have ever seen!

I stopped the car and rushed over. The women told me he had stumbled into the road and she had hit him with her car. The man had a large gash on his head and was covered in blood. Fortunately he was conscience so I asked him to keep hold of his head and not move in case he had any other injuries.

A few minutes passed and I was anxious for an ambulance to arrive. Then the situation became even more serious. The mans head rolled back, he closed his eyes and stopped breathing. After checking his breathing for about thirty seconds and not feeling anything I rolled him onto his back. My heart was racing as I checked his airway and called to the man to regain consciousness. Soon after he made a gurgling sound and tried to breathe. I rolled him back into the recovery position as he spat out mucus and saliva and started to breathe again. To my relief, a minute later, a paramedic arrived, swiftly followed by an ambulance. I stepped back and let them take over.

It was only a few months ago that I took a week long HSE First Aid at Work (FAW) course and passed. It’s the sort of thing you do because you are given the opportunity not necessarily because you think you may actually have to help someone. I’m glad that I remained calm though and instantly remembered what I should do in that situation.

I will never hear or see from that man again. I walked away with muddy knees and his blood on my hands, face and legs but ultimately a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence that if it happened again, which I hope it never does, I would have the courage and compassion to aid anyone if they needed my help.

To break up the journey north we drove through Warick to do some sight seeing. Originally we had planned to visit Warick Castle but in the end decided it was getting too late in the day so found a quaint, old fashioned tea room instead and had a late lunch that included homemade sandwiches, traditional lemonade and a huge slice of cake. Delicious!

I booked our tickets to Cadbury World on the Intenet in advance and was glad I did. It was very busy when we got there and even busier when we left! The tour began with some historical facts about the origins of cocoa beans, the history of John Cadbury himself and how he founded the business which has remained in the family ever since! An interactive show on the chocolate making process followed and then a walk through the packing plant gave an insight into the technology they use to cut, wrap and box their chocolate bars. It was fascinating to watch the chocolate whizzing around different conveyor belts in various stages of the packing process.  

It was a very enjoyable experience if not a little disjointed. The actual attraction is housed at the Cadbury factory and many of the areas are not designed for purpose but rather, cobbled together to fit the need. I was also a little disappointed by the lack of tasters, I think it would make for a more enjoyable experience if you could try different chocolates on your journey around the factory.

On our final day we headed back south and stopped off in Milton Keynes to take a look round the MK Centre, a huge shopping complex. Gemma was in her element and spent plenty of her hard earned cash on shoes, clothes and accessories!

We had an excellent time relaxing, eating and drinking but for me the most enjoyable part of our time away was simply being together with no worries and no interruptions, after all the best things in life really are free.