Last time I blogged, I realised I was always moaning about this n that.  So, I've just returned from holiday and thought I'd write a few words about my fantastic trip to balance the scales...

I went to Nassau in the Bahamas for a week.  Vicks and I were invited to a poker tournament by one of my clients.  We had a fantastic time, only had to do an hour's meeting during the week and spent the rest of the time chilling out at Casino Atlantis on Paradise Island, playing some poker and eating dinner at Nobu, my favourite restaurant - can't beat it.

We were due to leave on Sunday to continue our holiday in Barbados so when we ventured back up to the room on Saturday night I checked the flight plan for the following morning.  Thats when I realised... the flight actually left two hours ago back to Miami where we were due to spend the night before heading off in the following day on the Air Jamaica flight down to Barbados.

Obviously I wasn't best pleased but after a few carefully chosen words with myself I was surfing The Net looking for another flight back to Miami so I could still check in my hotel and get away the next day.  It was 6pm by this time and I realised that there were no more commercial flights leaving the island.  This basically meant I’d lose my hotel money, the business class tickets down to Barbados and a few priceless days at Sandy Lane, my favourite hotel.

It was now I started to panic but managed to find a guy who seemed capable of getting a plane to come and pick us up from Nassau and fly us back to Miami the same evening.  I managed to get a good deal but in return he sent me a Piper Chieftain which I didn’t think would manage to take off with our luggage (I was travelling with Vicks) let alone us.  Vicks had also managed to develop a healthy fear of flying in the months before our trip and so when she found out we were taking an hours flight in a paper aeroplane she wasn’t best pleased. That said it was our only option if we were to catch up with our itinerary.

We headed to Nassau international for our 11.30 flight, and after much confusion found the right customs guy who told us to sit and wait in the terminal for our plane to arrive from Miami. We sat there for an hour and a half until the airport was closed, all the taxis had left and it was just Vicks, myself, a few bags and a cleaning lady.  I’d paid $2,500 on my credit card to this guy to come and get us and  was completely convinced now that I had been tucked up. After another hour of waiting, clock watching and cursing, I finally get the shout from the two pilots who came for me.   No apologies made but I was happy enough to see them so I didn’t care. We boarded the flight and headed over to Miami.

Vicks didn’t talk much on the flight. In fact she spent the time glued to the window trying to find things she could see on the water below! I fell asleep and woke up five minutes before we landed.  It was here we met US immigration and found out the pilot didn’t have the correct license to bring in non-resident individuals!  Something the big airlines like BA and Virgin have to carry, apparently.  After much pleading with the authorities and convincing that we’d only be in the country for four hours, he let us in, although he made the pilot aware that without his license, he was responsible for our behaviour during our time in America! Gotta love ‘em.

We arrived at our hotel at 3am in Miami and managed to get a couple of ours kip before heading off to catch the 7am to Barbados.  The plane was on time, Cliff Richard was sat in the row behind us and off we flew to Barbados!

Arriving at Sandy Lane, my shoulders dropped and I just completely chilled out the moment I walked in the door.  I had been a couple of times before, but this time was different.  Within 10 minutes of being on site I’d given the bags to the valet, changed into my Vilebrequins, and swam straight out to the raft in the sea.

We spent the week completely relaxing, I read my first book thanks to Lewis Hamilton and watched a couple of West Ham games with Jamie Redknapp and Scott Parker. 

I arrived back in Marbella last night and Urs from SportWagen brought my fixed Aston round this evening (read my last blog).  All seems well, my folks seem happier than ever here, the sun is shining, YourMarbella is busy and I’m ready for 2008!