BolingTravelBlog Fri/Sat

I've been awake for twenty six and a half hours, I've travelled five and a half thousand miles,and I've been drinking for most of them. I feel like Keith Richards. But not as good at playing the guitar, or as wealthy, or as attractive to women, or quite as unlikely to be still alive.

Richard "can I pass out now?" B

Adam forces Richard into the world of social media

BolingTravelBlog Friday

Arrived safely in Seattle.

The off-site airport parking was rude and abrupt but also very efficient. The flight couldn't have been better: The captain had a clipped upper class accent, one of our stewards was an old queen, the stewardess was hot - and our Boeing 777 didn't go mysteriously missing.

We were let straight into the country with very little queueing, no threatening questioning, and nobody groping our balls. Our friend picked us up at the airport, the weather is beautiful, the apartment is comfortable, and I've already looked up at the Space Needle and touched a fountain.

Richard "GMT-7" B

Holiday

At the end of the week a couple of my friends and I are going to Seattle to visit an old school friend. It's important to have goals in life, and our goals for the holiday are:

• To spend time with our ex-pat friend.
• To look either up at or down from the Space Needle.
• To visit the Boeing factory.
• To eat a lobster.
• To smoke some legally-bought medicinal weed.
• To drink some of the local beer.
• To visit Canada.
• To try to understand what the hell our friend does for a living.

Richard "Mission Impossible" B

Practice

Several weeks ago it became clear that I had taken a wrong turn with my guitar playing. My guitar teacher actually told me to stop playing and put the instrument down before I crippled myself with repetitive-strain-injury. On that same weekend I was lucky enough to talk to a virtuoso guitarist, a very fast drummer, and a kung-fu expert. They all said roughly the same thing, and that is that you can't be fast and dexterous unless your muscles are relaxed and your movements are fluid. You have to perfect your techniques slowly before you start speeding them up.

I now spend hours practicing songs at quarter speed, concentrating on fluidity, posture and muscle tension, and my playing is very slowly improving. Give me another year or two and I think I'll really be starting to get somewhere.

Richard "I wish this were a montage in a film" B

Watches

• Yes. I know it makes me look like (even more of) a weirdo.
• Yes. I realise that it hasn't been fashionable to have a heavy keychain hanging out of your pockets since the 90's
• No. I'm not one of those "steampunks"

My favourite watch had to go to the menders and when I got home I found that my spare watch had a flat battery. The watch that my grandfather was given when he retired also had a flat battery and I have been reduced to telling the time with a 130 year old pocket watch and to lugging around a few ounces of silver chain.

Richard "Victorian Stationmaster" B