Security is Sitting in a Cardboard Box

. : Working With Bombard Balloon Adventures : .

I was driving home from uni in June considering employment options to cover me till I went to Oz and would leave me free to go to the big #sigur-ros meetup and the fatcat weekend in August .. I'd been on the road for an hour when outside Swindon my phone rang. The voice on the other end informed me that it was Mike Lincicome from Bombard Balloon Adventures. I'd applied to them before easter so it took me a few seconds to realise who I was talking to. To cut a long story short he offered me a job on the spot but the catch was that I had to be in Beaune (south of Dijon) within 48 hours. I drove like a maniac all the way home totally overcome with excitement to tell my parents. I had to do it. It was too mental not to :D .. by the time I confirmed I was going it was Sunday morning and everywhere was shut so I sorted myself out a return ticket on eurostar and bought some insurance over the net. Having made sure that we didn't have gig or Oz crash I jumped on a train and before I knew it was enjoying a cold beer with the guys in front of some Austin Powers. Highlights of the journey were being given a first class seat for free because second class was full and buying dodgy metro tickets off some dodgy old french geezer shortly after I arrived in Gare du Nord.


Home .. for a day or two - "Chateau La Borde" .. in "La Borde au Chateau" .. great name :) well technically Buddy says these were just the gatehouses and the chateau was a monolithic complex up the road ... but the occupents didn't get out quickly enough after the revolution and apparently they'd previously been complete gits to the locals so ... game over

I had a day to familiarise myself with the kit and then at 4:30 the next morning we began the 14 hour drive down to Siena which became a 16 hour one after one of the pickup trailers (which was carrying one of the baskets) lost a wheel going at a significant pace down the autoroute. Needless to say the cloud of smoke, sparks and crazed cries oover the radio were a suitable introduction to the cowboy outfit I had joined :p

It wasn't long before we hit the alps .. the beautiful scenery got me through the wall and I was really fine all the way down until the Florence-Siena Autostrade.

At the Italian border with the Frejus tunnel in the background. The Frejus give less merde for carrying LPG than the Mont Blanc (for obvious reasons) .. so the small detour was worth it. By this time, the limited tape collection had already gone through a few plays .. I've had enough Avril to last me a lifetime .. but there was also the pulp fiction soundtrack and "what's the story ..." ... the guys are (left to right) Paddy (Kevin O'Flynn), Piney (Rich Pine), Rod Stewart, Sancho (Ben), Fitz/Goldmember and later "goldfender" after driving a pickup into the hotel in Siena :D (Rich Fitzpatrick) .. eh moi "the Deviant" or "Casper" .. the milky skinned kid with the bed hair (and apparently something quite large in his right pocket?)


... our target - a scan of a postcard of Siena at night


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