Darren is running the London Marathon

Well, the last 5 weeks has seen me get into training for the 2013 London Marathon and trying to kick start some fundraising needed.  The office Book shop still open for business and some more raffles and events planned for very soon.
Any donations for Make a Wish foundation are more then welcome and please check my fundraising page out at http://www.justgiving.com/Darren-Cummins
I hope to update you as I can with some pics of training/fundraising and everything going on and report on the ups and downs of getting ready to do the most physical thing I have ever done in my life. Cheers Daz

......whereisdarren this time??

In my ultimate garage!!!!

 Yay!! Mountains!!

 ....this was not a short game............

 ...so I had a feed :)...................

 ............how good was that!!!........

 .......great biergarten's too!!......................

............then back to my toy shop....ahhh.......

...........walking the town is best by far

Last month I found myself in Paris again.  Now I have visited the ‘City of Light’ many times and can honestly say I never tire of it.  Living in Europe for the last 10 years I am still nowhere finished exploring the continent but if the opportunity to steal to Paris for a night is there I would gladly take it every time.

My first visit 8 years ago saw me roll up to my hotel home at 11pm after arriving at Garde Du Nord via Eurostar from its original London home, Waterloo.  Feeling restless I decided to go for a walk, armed with the map from the night receptionist.  After a brief chat and some basic direction advice I set off.  This I planned to be an hour or so just to calm my head to get some sleep. 

Finding myself absolutely lost and not tiring of seeing what I would find around the next corner I arrived back shortly after 5am.   This seems to fit in with some clichéd American film takes on how best to experience Paris but I have to admit, getting lost, is an ideal way to do it.  You may not embrace the prospect of walking around any city at night but must admit, walking around Paris well into the early hours again and have always felt safer then London.

What walking, as any city traveller knows, allows you to get a knowledge of the land that subways, open top buses (why do it!!??), or ‘helpful’ taxi drivers will ever allow you to see.  Now I have applied this theory to cities as diverse as Berlin to Marrakech.  Some cities don’t always lend themselves to suitable self walk discoveries, especially when on your own, but if you get the chance, leave the tube, tuk tuk, or bus behind and go get lost., you may just learn to like it.

.....Occupying what???

There are acts of public nuisance that the direct devotees get very excited about themselves by calling it a global movement. The Occupy protests that have seemingly gripped the coat tail public of many nations is very confused.  They are against the greed of capitalism and the way it destroys society. To this endeavour they have made this point by taking over and destroying public parks, public spaces, places of worship and any space that they can disrupt the general public to get back at the 'fat cats'.
This global powerhouse in London has made a large point of trying to destroy the community, congregation and  iconic place of worship St Pauls Cathedral.
I am unsure why they are continuing to pick a fight with a symbol of charity and worship to get at the chief executives of the companies they continue to pontificate about?
To add to the delusional point(?) they share there was a fashion piece in the paper this week on how to style yourself in the 'fashion' of a modern day occupy protestor.

Is anyone else totally confused on what the hell this protest is supposed to be about????????

Mobile blog test event

Let us see if the technology works shall we?
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

....coming soon

Some little pieces on places I've been the last couple of years including south of France, lots of Germany, Austria, Portugal, North Africa and even home.

............our week of London riots

.....confused by all this Sunday morning TV talk back on the riots.........1000's of middle class students rampage through London and the police are attacked for holding them until it calmed down, a few months later and they are attacked as they didn't open fire on looters across London and the UK. David Cameron takes credit for saving England from the riots after waiting 5 days to come back from his Italian Villa to a burning country. No wonder the police are so confused about their jobs and their future. The police in this country have never been given the tools they need that are accepted pieces of kit in any other country in the world. I would like to congratulate the police, especially the Met in having to try and stand their ground, with only a uniform, their colleagues and their courage to protect them.