David Currie

67Spent a very nice weekend at the University of Wales’ Gregynog conference centre relaxing whilst Christine participated in a statistics conference. Not a part of Wales I’ve been to before but the green rolling pastures are very aesthetic. Just a shame that the rights of way on the map don’t seem to have any corresponding presence on the ground!

76We stopped off in La Rochelle last night, partly because it is nicely en-route from Bordeaux to St Malo and partly because, having been the subject of our French text books (not to mention the home of my French teacher) it was somewhere we felt we had to see. We didn’t have long to look round but the area around the Vieux Port is certainly very picturesque – whether it would remain so in the height of the tourist season is another question. If nothing else though, the locals were happy to let Christine try out her French on them without immediately resorting to English.

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Had a trip to Goodwood race course today courtesy of my employer. Having seen nothing larger than dogs racing before it was quite awesome to see these powerful beasts up close in the paddock. We didn’t spend much time in the stand as it was much more exciting to be right up at the rail as the horses thundered passed. The course even lays on a minibus out to the start so that you see the pre-race preparation.

Having lost my first bet I then proceeded to win in five out of the six remaining races. I was hedging my bets each way though which, combined with small stakes, meant I was only about £15 up at the end of the day. Still, with work paying for transport, food and drinks the day was definitely a winner!