Aidan Williams - High Acuity

* casually walks past the blog and then notices you * Oh hello! You’re still here huh? Wow… I guess it is about time I gave you an update.

So last year when I called my mum, she casually let me know that she had been invited to visit the queen for her services to Relate (bereavement, relationship and child counselling) and Samaritans. My mother is sickeningly modest – virtually no one in the family knew about this and I really don’t understand why she didn’t tell anyone, but I’m very happy for her.

She reminded me of a few other family members who have met the queen. Such as my father who was presented to the queen in 1979 at Queen’s College Cambridge University for his contributions to the university and his college, generally being a good student, president of the debating society, etc.  Or my grandfather who was awarded an OBE by the queen for his role at the Institute for Hospital Administrators in helping to start the NHS, as well as a St George’s Cross for his bravery in World War II. And my grandmother who was awarded an MBE for her work in travel for British subjects in the commonwealth… No, I don’t really understand what that means either.

So, since I will never have the opportunity to win any such awards, it’s nice to remember these things. I don’t think winning the award for most profitable person of the year at my last agency is quite on the same level. Close though! Close.

Wait what’s that? This blog is about me and not the ancient members of my family? Dude! I just slipped in an immodest mention that I won some sh*tty award a few years ago, what more do you want!?

Alright alright… The start of this year really sucked for me. At the end of what I’ve officially declared the worst week of my life thus far in which every day was twice as bad as each previous one, I was out with the guys and while they were very generously attempting to cheer me up, my bag was stolen… This was the real icing on the cake for that week. This included my new Macbook Pro, my white iPhone 3GS, my wallet, my umbrella, etc. The response from the police was wholly pathetic and I won’t get into the details of that, since I’ve heard from many friends that seems to be pretty much par for the course. But I will say that I’ve decided to run for prime minister and when I get into power, I will change the system so we only pay the police when they get results. Now THAT will save the taxpayers a lot of money. I hope the criminals who stole it at least got something good out of the deal, otherwise that’s just a huge waste.

I have since replaced the Macbook with a 17″ Macbook Pro with i7 processor. Sanj and I created an un-boxing video as an experiment to see how many hits it would get on Youtube. But it will most likely never see the light of day as it hilariously features Sanj shouting at me for five minutes as I do various things wrong… Sanj: “What are you doing!?!? Sniff the manual! They all do it! Sniff the f***ing manual!!! This is so wrong; I feel like a porn director.”

On the good side, my girlfriend has been incredible throughout this year, just as she has always been. I’m constantly amazed by everything she achieves, and that she still has energy to come home and look after me at the end of each day. Sanj would be annoyed that I mentioned him at all but he’s also been pretty incredible this year, as has Andy, and I want them both to know that I appreciate them both just a little bit more each day * little tear *. Hey it’s my first blog post in a year, I’m going to talk about this crap, okay!?

My brother also had a truly beautiful 1930s styled wedding weekend on Burgh Island (where Agatha Christy wrote her books). I could write a novel on what an incredible experience this was for everyone attending, but instead I would like to thank my brother for choosing such a wonderful venue. During the day you can walk across the beach to the mainland and then in the evening the tide comes in and you’re marooned on the island, inside this very beautiful art deco styled hotel. The highlight for me was the best men’s speeches, which reminded us all of what an amazing person my brother is. I really don’t think we give him enough credit for everything he has achieved in his life. If he sets a goal, then one way or another, he will achieve it. He’s also kind, generous, intelligent… Sorry, one second, a little vomit just came up into my mouth.

Wow this is getting sycophantic. Oh well, I might as well go all out, right!?

Well kids, I think it’s about time we put this post to bed, don’t you? But if there’s one thing I would like you to take away from this post, one life lesson that you take with you for the rest of your days, it’s that I WON AN AWARD FOR BEING THE MOST PROFITABLE PERSON OF THE YEAR B*****S!

My sister and I met up with my brother at his new offices at 30 St Mary Axe (‘The Gerkin’) for an early Christmas lunch last Friday. He has the most incredible view over London from his office on the 31st floor, and despite the fact that the weather was terrible – it was still a great experience. We proceeded to the restaurant on the 40th floor which had more beautiful views over London AND fantastic food, and possibly the best Earl Grey tea blend I’ve ever tasted! (is it wrong to get that excited about great tasting tea? I don’t think so) I will definitely be going to visit my brother more often in the New Year.

If I were to regale you all with the fabulous food that my mum cooked over Christmas, it would provoke longings to embark post haste for my parent’s house, there to eat oneself cheerfully to death and gorge on Christmas delights. Everyone claims that their mother is the best cook in the world, but my mum really is the best cook in the world.

Christmas with my parents in the West Midlands was a haze of frosty mornings, country expeditions, conversations aside a crackling open fireplace, wonderful food and sweets, and a couple of great classic Christmas movies thrown in there for good measure. I cannot have Christmas without watching Scrooged at least once – it’s still timeless and classic and still my favourite Christmas movie of all time… just ahead of Die Hard.

On Boxing Day, my friend John, who I’ve known since I was twelve, and his girlfriend drove us out to Hay On Wye – a small town that’s famous for being filled with pretty much nothing but book shops and cafes. They have an annual famous literary festival where my brother saw Bill Clinton speak a few years ago.

We had a great day out walking in the (freezing cold!) countryside and ended it with a nice meal in a country pub at the Llantony Priory, which is the only building left standing in the ruins of an Augustine monastery that was build in 1180AD.

All in all it was a wonderful break for my girlfriend and I. I haven’t been home all year, so it was great to spend some quality time with my parents.

After an incredible week, cramming in 5 days of work into the last two, and looking after my girlfriend who was sick, I started my journey to Cape Town on the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport.

After checking in and doing a small amount of duty-free shopping, I sat and surfed the web for free via The Cloud network with my iPhone – I fricken love this thing! I was able to send a couple of last-minute work emails to ensure everything went smoothly while I was away and give myself some peace of mind, and I was able to surf the net and relax before the flight.

My brothers Kim, Rory, his girlfriend Caroline and I spent most of Sunday visiting Vinyards in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, such as Tokara, Dieu Donné and Delaire, where we did some wine tasting. The views in this area of Cape Town are particularly breath taking. Every time I visit Cape Town, I understand why there are so many health resorts in this part of the world – it’s so beautiful, peaceful and rejuvenating.

On Monday morning, a small group of us walked up Lion’s head. While the most common tourist destination in Cape Town is Table Mountain, I really think the walk up Lion’s Head gives the best views over the city and the surrounding areas, not least because you get incredible views of Table Mountain as you walk up.

While some people seem to find walking up Lion’s Head a rather blasé affair, making it to the top is always somewhat of a cathartic experience for me. And while I feel as though my heart is about to explode in my chest just before I make it to the top, making it to the top and seeing those views is always a great moment.

On Monday and Tuesday nights, my brother Rory rented a beautiful beach house for us out in Hermanus. Kim brought his poker set so on both nights we played into the wee hours of the morning. While Rory, Dan and I spent the evening shouting playful banter at each other, Kim quietly and stealthily gleaned our chips from beneath us. Whenever we pointed out to him “What’s going on here, Kim?? You’ve got all the chips!” he would consistently reply “What? I’ve got hardly any chips! Look at Aidan, he’s got them all!” (I had a bit more than the others). I ended both nights with fifty percent more money than I put in, but Kim really took the pot both nights.

On Wednesday and Thursday I spent a lot of time looking after my beautiful niece and nephew, Nicholas and Maya. We played various games, mostly involving drawing with crayons, various forms of hide and seek, and also clambering all over me whether I was standing or sitting. I also took them to see Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium – which is a fun film and worth seeing. These children are wonderful, but they have way too much energy for me – I know I’m relatively young and should have more energy, but they nearly gave me a heart attack on numerous occasions. Needless to say, they and I slept very well on both of those nights.

Friday was Kim’s birthday so we met up with him at the Planet Bar inside the beautiful Mount Nelson hotel. Kim has some amazing friends – I met Lars (or ‘Larry’ as Kim calls him) a Norwegian actor who I last met just after he finished playing the part of ‘Bugs’ in the film ‘The Beach’. He kept on walking up to me, putting his arm around me and pushing olives into my mouth, and as I was trying to have a conversation with people, I ate them, despite the fact that I just can’t get a taste for olives. I see everyone enjoying them so much and I want to try them every time, but the taste is just horrible to me.

After visiting various pubs and clubs around Cape Town, I ended up staying at Kim’s friend Stephan’s flat at about 5 in the morning. The next day Stephan and I went out to Haut Bay for a great ‘steak roll’ lunch and n the way back, he showed me around his university labs. Stephan is researching minimally-invasive heart surgery techniques using da Vinci S Surgical System robot, going in through the abdomen and working your way through the body to the heart. No more cutting open the breast-plate/chest!

For my final meal in Cape Town, Kim, Stephan and I went to a restaurant in the city where I had an ostrich fillet steak on a bed of crushed sweet potato with red thai curry sauce – yes, it sounded a little strange to me too, but wow… very tasty.

Overall I had an incredible time in Cape Town. Yes, there were some family politics and other things going on, but I always have an incredible time with my brothers. If you have a hectic lifestyle and need to go somewhere to relax for a week or two, I couldn’t recommend any place better than Cape Town.