#16 Amsterdam - The Brief

So, as a lot, or few of you may have noticed, I have been counting down the days this week until the weekend. This will not be any ordinary weekend, but a weekend that holds so much potential, as a select few of us will be making the voyage to the cultural hotspot that is Amsterdam. This event is sure to go down in history as 'being held this weekend'!

The plan for the weekend began when a friend of mine stumbled upon a promotional offer from P&O cruises; a 'Buy One Get One Free' offer. This meant that two people could travel return to Amsterdam for £38 each, including accommodation. To put this into perspective, to get a taxi home on a weekend after a night on the town costs me £19! So this was of course a done deal.

As usual, managing to tie everyone down to a particular weekend was difficult, resulting in the first casualty of the event (not literally of course, he was an accountant and due to the trip coinciding with the end of the financial year, he couldn't get time off). But we agreed on a weekend eventually, March 20th. If you believe the guy in the street outside the shopping centre in Swansea, this date will also be the date that the world comes to an end, and with 7 lads beered up in a city with a distorted moral compass, this could well be true!

So the plan for the weekend as it unfolds:

• Meet in Manchester where our mate (now officially known as Romeo One) will pick us up, all of us will be armed with coke bottles filled with a special cocktail we like to call 'whiskey and coke', in order to give the middle finger to the extortionate drinks prices on board the Pride of Hull (the ferry)
• Rendezvous with our other mate (For the purposes of this trip will now be known as Bravo One) in Hull at the station, and proceed to check in at the docks
• Begin consumption of beverages in the cheapest pub possible, avoiding upsetting the natives!
• Board the vessel (God bless all who sail in her), then nominate a 'stag' for the rest of the journey. NB. With us all being arguably single men, the reason for the nomination is so that we can then use the so called 'stag' as not only an ambassador for the group, but also to commandeer free drinks, and also to initiate conversation with the ladies
• Arrive at Rotterdam, then board a coach destined to Amsterdam
• Arrive at Amsterdam
• Let all hell break loose
• Board the coach back to Rotterdam (fingers crossed)
• Re-Board the Pride of Hull
• Arrive back in Hull the following morning with one of the worst hangovers known to man

As you can see we will have a packed itinerary. Essentially this should be a straight-forward open and shut case. However with the presence of so many variables; such as alcohol, hookers, friends who have woken up in a different country after a night out with us before, more alcohol, sea sickness, sickness, drug induced comas, hookers, more alcohol..... (you get the picture), it will be interesting to see if we can keep to our strict schedule.

All that remains to be said is God help us all. Look out for the de-brief next week, and possibly some tweets while we are there!

Tips and advice are always welcome!

#15 Thinking about getting back into farming

After seeing this video today I thought about going back into farming! David Mitchell argues a great case!! Let me know what you think!