Oct 2006

I thought that after all these entries from Sarah, it was about time that I put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard. So here goes...

We decided some time ago that we would take the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, rather than fly up, which would take about an hour. There were several seemingly good reasons for this decision:

1) Sarah loves taking the local public transport
2) It would save us paying for a night's accommodation
3) It would be fun
4) We had obviously forgotten how much we hated our last overnight train journey. (London to Edinburgh - don't do it)

We pitched up at the station and boarded no problem, accepted our complimentary (or so we thought) orange juices and made ourselves comfortable in a cabin just large enough for an oompa loompa travelling alone.

Soon after leaving Bangkok, a very friendly steward (the same one that gave us our orange juices) appeared in the doorway brandishing a menu. A quick glance answered our unasked question; no, the food isn't included. We had already bought some snacks to keep us going, so we politely indicated that we wouldn't be partaking of his culinary delights. This had the effect of changing his attitude completely, it was almost as if we were no longer welcome on the train and should get off immediately.

Then he enquired, 'Do you want to pay for the orange juices now or later?'. These were the same orange juices that were handed out at the beginning of our journey in a fashion that implied they were complimentary. Apparently they were 80 baht and he wanted 10% 'commission'. Cheeky git! (No, he didn't get any commission). He must have passed the word around the train staff that we were tight, because from that moment onwards we were made to feel like a pair of vagrants that they would like to move on to somewhere else. Despite the fact that we were actually travelling in first class!

Anyway, we got very little sleep that night as the air conditioning seemed to have been switched to arctic. All we had were thin sleeping bag liners to sleep in because the blankets that were provided seemed to have been dragged along behind the train before they handed them out.

At least when we arrived in Chiang Mai the sun was shining and the driver from the hostel was waiting for us. We stayed at Eagle House 2, which according to the Lonely Planet is "the better of the Eagle twins", although when Sarah read this out to me I mistakenly thought that she had said that it was "the better of the evil twins". On reflection, I'm glad we weren't staying in the other one.

Our yardstick for accommodation standards has become the hellhole that we stayed at in Negombo. By this measurement, Eagle House was above average, but only marginally.

Desperate not to stay in our room a moment longer we launched ourselves into a one day Thai cookery course, taught by Mr Visutt, who spoke very good English. Sadly, he seemed to have learnt it from watching Dr Who in the Tom Baker era, because his presentation style was very similar to that of a Dalek. Although, I never managed to get him to say 'exterminate, exterminate!'

It was a very good course and hopefully one day Sarah will put it to good use by cooking dinner.

Chiang Mai is a very pleasant city, much calmer than Bangkok, apart from the night bazaar, which is a bit like going to a huge market where they only allow stalls of three different types; hippy beads stalls, fake Rolex stalls and the universally popular 'dead cockroaches in a lovely mahogany frame' stalls (Sarah's personal favourite). Repeated ad nauseam until my blood sugar dropped so low that we had to go and find something to eat (unusual).

There are certain things that all travellers seem to do in Chiang Mai and probably the greatest of these is to go trekking. You can do treks that last anywhere between one and seven days (even longer if you get lost). Sarah and I decided that a one day trek was the best bet for two reasons, firstly, we had very limited time in Chiang Mai and secondly, why would any sane person choose to sleep in a hut in the jungle, being bitten to death by mosquitoes when there is a perfectly good bed in a hostel available? Or are we just not getting into the spirit of things? It seemed that we were wrong, as the city was full of Ray Mears wannabes, just dying to disappear into the hills for a spot of light rambling and starvation....

Our 'trek' first pitched up at the Mae Ping elephant training centre and we walked down to meet the elephants (this was probably the most walking we did all day). It was at this point that I truly surpassed myself in the David Attenborough stakes. Presented with a large bunch of bananas I was informed that I was free to feed them to the elephant standing rather impatiently next to me. So I peeled a banana and gave it to her, she seemed pleased with this system, so I repeated it and again she looked very happy. It was after the third banana that our guide suggested that the elephant might also like to eat the skins! I have to be honest and admit that it took a few seconds for the significance of this statement to sink in. Elephants obviously don't bother peeling bananas in the wild. I don't think they have the manual dexterity.

The rest of the morning passed without major incident, we went for an hour long ride on a twenty five year old elephant with a name that neither of us can remember, but definitely sounded a lot like Taliesin. I don't know whether the training centre ran out of Thai names, but I was a little surprised that their immediate thought was to start using the names of Welsh princes.

The elephant centre was actually very good. After we visited the elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka I was a little concerned by the way the keepers treated the elephants, they didn't seem to have any kind of interest in the elephants beyond getting tips from visitors and were quite happy to give them a good few whacks with a stick for no real reason. Mae Ping was very different, the elephants seemed to be happy and very well looked after. The keepers seemed to have very good relationships with the elephants and our 'driver' was constantly talking to Taliesin throughout our ride.

This was followed by a leisurely bamboo raft trip down the Mae Ping river where we came across the world's most dedicated sales team. Three teenage girls stood chest deep in the river trying to sell hats to the raft passengers as they went past. Unfortunately for these budding entrepreneurs I already have a hat and they were selling the exact same court jester style hats that everybody had been trying to sell us on our elephant ride twenty minutes before.

We narrowly avoided a visit to a snake farm in the afternoon, ending up instead at a butterfly farm. There's an hour of my life that I will never get back.

That was it for Chiang Mai apart from an evening spent brushing up our pool playing and Chang Beer drinking skills, obviously we're still working on the latter.

We've moved on to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand now and we're relaxing by by the beach. Stay tuned for the next installment.

We arrived in Bangkok tired and stinky after our overnight flight from Sri Lanka, and with no bed for the night. Lonely Planet's guidebook gave fantastic instructions on how to get away from Bangkok's Don Muang airport but unfortunately we landed in Suvarnabhumi airport, which opened only last month. Luckily there was an airport bus outside so we hopped on and I promptly fell asleep. After about 30 minutes I woke up, just as we got into Bangkok itself. Despite the air conditioning on the bus, sitting in traffic in the sun was making me feel like I was being baked alive.

We had a plan for getting a room - a hotel on Soi Rambuttri, a few minutes away from Khao San Road. I had high expectations from the write-up in our trusty guidebook and was so pleased when the girl on the reception desk said that they did have a room available, gave us a key and invited us to take a look.

Lonely Planet describes the Rambuttri Village Inn as the Holiday Inn of guesthouses - well it looked more like the Ritz to us when we walked in. Air-conditioned, with our own bathroom with hot water, a TV, bedcovers we could actually sleep under and best of all, a rooftop pool, all for a tenner a night. We checked in for three days.

That night we headed over to Khao San Road which is basically traveller heaven. The road is lit up by neon signs and more shops, stalls and street food sellers than you can count. Narrow alleyways with even more shops and places to eat branch off the main road. We wandered about and got ourselves some food - which included the nicest spring rolls I've ever tasted and it cost us 55 baht - less than a pound.

Khao San Road seemed to have a magnetic pull as no matter where we started, we ended up back there every night of our stay in Bangkok, trying more of the street food. Banana and chocolate rotis one night for 20 baht each - 14p - and they were divine!

Next day, we started with a lunch that had so many chillies in it I thought I was going to collapse and die face down in my dinner. After I had recovered from that, but still with a nasty ache in my stomach, we set off for a spot of sightseeing. Bangkok has more than 500 temples and although we had no plans to see them all we thought we should make an effort to see at least one. Resisting the urge to get a tuk-tuk, we walked over to Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Grand Palace (Phra Borom Maharatchawong), a former royal residence. The place is true bling. I had seen pictures but seeing is believing. It was like walking around a fairy story.

Bright gold buildings with coloured glass and ornate decoration - and you can see temples like this everywhere in Bangkok. Rising up out a boring grey cityscape will be a gleaming golden chedi, or tower.

That evening we decided to find Chinatown - best seen at night apparently. In an attempt to burn off some of the extra calories we're taking in with all this delicious food, to save a bit of dosh and seeing as we had plenty of time, we decided to walk there. It was a long walk and we got lost a few times along the way. It didn't seem to matter how much further we went, there wasn't any sign of the hustle and bustle we were expecting. Then we noticed that there were lots of Chinese signs above the doors and shops, but they were all shut.

Have you ever come home after a terrible at work, exhausted and fed up and with no food in the fridge? You know exactly what you want, a Chinese takeaway - duck pancakes with hoi sin sauce and then crispy fried beef and rice. So you get in the car, drive down to the takeaway and your heart sinks when you realise it's Monday night and they're shut.

Yep, it was Monday and it seems the 'No opening on Mondays' rule applies in Bangkok's Chinatown too. I was very grumpy and then ... it started to rain. We ditched our no tuk-tuk policy, grabbed the next one and made our way back to Khao San Road as the heavens opened and the rain came down.

Tuesday was public transport day. Most people who know me will be aware of (and those unfortunate few that have been abroad with me will have experience of) my great love for testing out public transport in foreign countries. Bangkok has a wide choice of public transport, although it's not very joined up. We hadn't really got over our experiences on the buses in Sri Lanka (I still have a big black bruise on my calf from where I fell backwards and whacked the seat on one trip) and we weren't keen to sit in traffic anyway so we decided to go for the river taxi instead.

The Mae Nam Chao Phraya river separates the city east and west and various canals (khlongs) come off it. We got on the Chao Phraya River Express and travelled about 30 minutes down the river. I can't say I would like to have a swim in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya but it was a pleasant enough journey and a different way to see the city.

After getting off we found the main post office to send a few things home and lighten our rucksacks a bit. (When we checked in for our flight to Bangkok my bag only weighed 11.5 kilos and I'm determined to make it lighter ever time we fly.) Next stop was the Skytrain - a 'overground' line with airconditioned carriages and fantastic views over Bangkok. There are only two lines and the entire route is printed on the back of your ticket so its really easy to use. We got off at the end of the line, Mo Chit, for Chatuchak market. It's supposed to be the mother of all markets, with zillions of stalls selling all sorts of things, from handmade Thai silks to live snakes. I had a feeling we wouldn't be able to stomach it for long. We needn't have worried - when we arrived we realised it was a weekend market - and it was Tuesday. Great. Yet again I was grumpy but this time we were too far from home to get a tuk-tuk back. In fact we were miles away, off the Central Bangkok map we'd been using.

Rather than get back on the Skytrain we decided we'd use the afternoon to have a look around some of the malls near Siam Square and make our way back to Chinatown to make up for the night before. I wish I had come to Bangkok on a two week holiday with a credit card to max and not on a 6 month trip where every penny counts. There are so many fabulous shops here.

We spent most of the afternoon looking for a hat for Gareth. This has been an ongoing saga since we left the UK. Despite all our planning, the one thing we didn't get sorted was a hat for Gareth. In our excitement at Heathrow, we rushed through to Departures before checking out the shops for a hat and we forgot that all the shops after that are Chanel, Harrods etc. I think Gareth tried on 90% of the hats in Sri Lanka - they all have pea heads and every baseball cap made him look like Elmer Fudd. It was the same in Bangkok. I have offered him a loan of my bandana but he's not going for it..........

What seemed like a hundred miles of walking later, we found our way to Chinatown, all lit up and very busy. We wandered around for a bit and then decided it was tuk-tuk time again and got dropped off again in Khao San Road. At last we found Gareth a hat! After all that walking we stopped for a Thai foot massage on our way back to the hotel. It's the first one I've had in a disused Shell petrol station that doubles as a makeshift cocktail bar but it was wonderful.

Today we're having an easy day, Gareth is lounging by the pool as we speak, before we get the overnight train to Chiang Mai. We'll let you know how that goes soon!

After our excitement in Kandy and our unplanned night in Negombo (in a room with the grottiest bathroom and the most dodgy wiring we had seen so far in Sri Lanka), on Thursday all we wanted to do was get to Kandy and make up for lost time.

The original plan had been to take the train for what is supposed to be a truly picturesque journey up through the mountains, but getting the train from Negombo was getting so complicated we decided to get a bus instead.

The bus journey took just over three hours and cost about a pound for three seats - one each for us and one for the bags. We were exhausted by the time we arrived - any road journey is an experience in Sri Lanka but bus drivers are notorious for their constant daredevil overtaking and sounding of their horns. They seem to have different horns for different purposes, a short sharp beep to say 'Get out of my way', a musical one to say 'Hiya mate, see you later for a beer' and a really loud one that they sound over and over and over again. I think this one was specially designed to really annoy all the tourists on the bus and give them a headache. The buses are also filthy and you get off with black dust all over your hands, your face and up your nose. Despite all this, the views were spectacular as the bus climbed higher and higher up the steep twisting road, although it paid not to have a seat right next to the window, especially if you didn't have a head for heights.

I'd read in the guidebook that Kandy's considered to be the only city in Sri Lanka, other than Colombo. Our only experience of Colombo had been the night before, when our van had overheated and broken down at the edge of the road in rush hour traffic. Everything looked grey and I had nearly choked to death from the fumes from all the traffic. Kandy was totally different - lush green vegetation and loads of colour and pleasantly cool (I have decided hot countries aren't really my thing) after the sweltering heat of the South. It was hectic and as we got off the bus with rucksacks on our back, trying to look in the guide book as discreetly as possible to find our way to the hotel we'd booked, it was the usual onslaught of locals offering us tuk-tuk rides and everything they were selling, except about a hundred times harder. There were shops, stalls and people sitting on the pavement selling just about anything you could ask for. In fact the only thing we didn't see was a hostess trolley.

We eventually got our bearings and found our hotel, the Olde Empire and indeed it was old, Gareth does believe that the owner dated back to the Raj. Our room was a bit dark and dingy but opened onto a lovely balcony with loads of comfy chairs and a view of Kandy Lake. While we were there we met Kate from Bristol, doing a couple of months of volunteering in Sri Lanka before meeting up with her boyfriend in India for another few months. It was so nice to meet someone that we could have an easy conversation with. Kate had already been in Kandy for a week and worked out the local scams, best places to eat and fastest internet connections (believe me we have found some slow ones!). She also introduced us to our first proper bar, called The Pub. It had the best toilets we'd seen since Changi airport, with a tiger print toilet seat and toilet paper. To make sure we got as much use as possible out of these gloriously clean toilets we had a few Lion lagers (and went back the next night for a few more!).

With only two days left in Sri Lanka we still hadn't seen any elephants so on Friday we decided a trip to Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage was in order. This involved another filthy trip on the bus and changing buses at some random junction but we found it alright and it was definitely worth it. The Orphanage opened in 1975 with seven elephants and there are now more than eighty elephants, with various deformities. One has lost an ear, some have wonky or missing tails and there was one with only three legs, who we nicknamed Tripod. He didn't move much. When we first arrived we passed two huge old elephants and were encouraged to approach them by the Sri Lankans working there, who also took our camera and snapped us with Raja, the oldest elephant in the Orphanage.

When we got the camera back this guy started saying 'Tip, tip' so Gareth took a 10 rupee note out of his pocket and this guy said 'No' and what sounded like 'Coins'. The coins are in such tiny denominations they're worth barely anything so Gareth went to give him a handful - and he replied "No, one hundred'. So Gareth told him to bugger off because we could take our own photos for that much. It's not a bad photo anyway...

After spending a bit of time watching them roam we followed them down to the river to see them being bathed. I have been quite restrained with the photos up until now but when I got back to the hotel I counted that we had taken 56 photos of elephants. We've shrunk this down to thirty-something now but you'll all be pleased to know that unfortunately we don't have enough of an allowance to put them all up here. You can see the rest of them when we get home!!!!

We had planned to get loads done on Saturday as it was our last day before flying to Bangkok. Best laid plans and all that. We got up early so I could try a Sri Lankan breakfast but I couldn't face fish curry first thing so we just had some bananas. We also planned to get an Ayurvedic massage and steam bath to flush out some of the dirt in our systems after those bus journeys, but the place was closed so we stayed grubby. Instead we visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, or Sri Dalada Maligawa, where the Buddha's tooth is supposedly enshrined. Nobody knows whether it's really there or not but I think Gareth and I both know the answer. It was an impressive building anyway.

The Temple is busy all day with locals visiting with offerings and we managed to time our visit to coincide with a service. There were hundreds of people milling about with flower offerings and me and Gareth looking a bit lost, wearing MP3 players giving us the history of the temple in English. We always try to blend in.

So our time in Sri Lanka is up and we have both really enjoyed although it has been trying at times. It's a great place to visit but not without its challenges, dirtiness being one of them. It will take me a long time to forget the filthy stinking toilet I visited in a seemingly clean cafe, after eating some short eats there.

We have seen some funny things, people walking through knee-deep puddles of muddy water in bare feet but wearing a plastic bag on their head to avoid the rain. Cyclists carrying open umbrellas as they pedal down the road. Many, many dogs, who all bore some resemblance to either Maddie or Jess. I'm sure we'll come back one day but it will be with a big bottle of Dettol and lots of wet wipes.

Aayu-bowan from Sri Lanka for now!

We have had a few complaints that we've been a bit slow with the blog - give us a chance - this is our first week! Anyway we now have lots to report so get yourselves a cup of tea and if you fancy it, a cherry bakewell too.

Our journey to Sri Lanka was long and boring. Slight hitch with a cancelled train from Swansea but we made it to Heathrow with plenty of time and met up with Fi for a quick gossip before check-in.

When we got to Singapore we spent the best fiver of our lives (before we got to Sri Lanka) on a shower which left us feeling a bit more human again and then it was back on the plane for the four hour flight to Colombo. Coming in to land, Gareth's trusty watch broke and I've persuaded him that this is a sign that time is not important to us now. Except when we need to catch trains, planes and buses of course. As we touched down on the runway (only minutes away from Friday the Thirteenth) it was drizzling with rain. Once we'd picked up our luggage and got ourselves some rupees we met our taxi to the hotel and settled back in our reclining chairs for the journey ahead, a 2 hour drive down the coast to Hikkaduwa. The further we went, the heavier the rain got, and eventually turned into a thunderstorm that made your brain rattle. Sri Lankan driving is something else, lots of tooting, constant overtaking and our driver dodged knee-deep puddles, tuk-tuk drivers and wandering dogs all the way. I nodded off to sleep as I guessed that Gareth was stressed enough for the both of us. We eventually reached our hotel more than an hour late, at about quarter to four in the morning and climbed into bed for some much needed sleep.

Next day we woke up late (unusual for me some might say) and did a bit of exploring. Hikkaduwa is a small town which is based around the coast road that runs from Colombo to Galle. As you drive south, there is jungle on your left and the sea on your right - and the road is lined both sides by a seemingly neverending supply of places to eat, stay or shop. We stopped at Rita's, a guesthouse and restaurant on the beach side and had our first taste of Sri Lankan food, fried rice. We both had portions that would easily have fed three and it cost about 200 rupees - about a pound. The food prices here are unbelieveable - bottles of Coke 40 rupees (20p), 80 rupees for a big pot of tea (40p) and all sorts of mini-snacks (called short eats) starting at about 8p. Best of all, Lion lager in 600ml bottles for 120 rupees (60p for those of you who haven't worked out the conversion yet). We've had a few of those I can tell you!

There's not much to do in Hikkaduwa except relax really, and it didn't take too long before we realised how easy it would be to spend our whole ten days there on the beach. Everyone is friendly and easy-going and you feel at home there very quickly.

On Saturday, Gareth hired a board and hit the surf while I did a bit more relaxing at Rita's with a pot of tea. I did try to get photos of him but was being a bit hassled by two dogs who seemed to live in the restaurant so I only managed to get one of him halfway there. I'm sure I'll improve though.

The hotel Gareth had booked for us (the Amaya Reef) was great - air-con, balcony, miniature toiletries and hot water - but after our first two nights was up we thought we needed to get a bit more into the backpacker spirit so we found a place a few doors down, Blue Note, where we got a cute little cabana on the edge of the beach with none of the lovely features of the Amaya Reef. We had to use the mossie net, pegless washing line and universal travel plug but it only cost us 1500 rupees (you can work it out, cheap). Found some little bug in the bathroom in the evening but at least it wasn't a cockroach......

On Monday morning we organised for a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeler vehicle, a bit like a cable car with wheels and without all the safety features) to take us to Galle. Galle was a Dutch fortress town and we got dropped off by our driver inside the fort, armed with our Lonely Planet guide and a list of potential guesthouses. The first was no longer a guesthouse, the second was revolting and the third was Mrs Wijenayake's. We checked in for two nights at the princely sum of 900 rupees a night.

Well this is our view of Galle - there is not much to see or do. Once you have looked at the cricket ground (ruined by the tsunami) and walked around the fort you might as well leave. We were hassled all the time inside the fort by people who latch on to you and won't bugger off again. On Tuesday we got a tuk-tuk to Unawatuna, about 15 minutes along the coast and spent a lovely day there on the beach.

The water is clean and calm and supposedly very good for snorkelling. We were approached by a guy wearing nothing but swimming trunks and a snorkel and he said something that I didn't quite hear - I guessed he'd asked if we wanted to hire snorkelling kit. Gareth said 'No, we're not interested' and pulled me away but this guy persisted. I thought Gareth was being unnecessarily rude to this poor chap so I said 'Maybe later!' and Gareth grabbed hold of my arm and said 'Sarah, he just offered us drugs!'. I must get my ears syringed....

Wednesday was going to be our last day in Galle - we planned to get the train to Kandy in the afternoon. We both woke up early and were lying in bed when we heard an almighty bang that seemed to shake the roof. Then there was another one. And another one. I thought maybe it was thunder, there had been a lot but it didn't really sound the same. Next came the rat-tat-tat-tat of machine gunfire - and Gareth got out of bed to see what was going on. Turned out the Tamil Tigers had sent three suicide bombers disguised as fishing boats to attack the Navy Military Base on the edge of the fort - about 200 yards away. Pretty scary. Under these pleasant circumstances we met the rest of the lodgers at the guesthouse, and most of Mrs Wijenayake's extended family. I thought that 'tea and toast' was a very British response to crisis but they do it in Sri Lanka too. A curfew was imposed on Galle so we were stuck inside the house and our plans for getting the train to Kandy squashed. A good point was that I finally finished this book I've been struggling to read for ages! At about 3.30pm a van arrived to collect Yvonne, a Dutch girl who was also lodging there. Yvonne had been doing some voluntary work and the coordinator had arranged the van. We hopped in too and were taken to Negombo, north of the airport. It was another nightmare journey which lasted 6 hours in baking heat and included a breakdown on the edge of the road in Colombo in rush hour traffic, but at least we were out of Galle.

So all in all it has been a fun first week. We've left Negombo and are now in Kandy in the hills, where it's raining but lovely and cool. But that will be another story...........

From tomorrow we'll be computer-less so this will be our very last UK entry on the blog (for a while at least).

Work finished for us both on Wednesday so now our trip is a lot more real and the list of things left to do is shrinking all the time.

Friday was DD day - I met up with the girlies for our big trip to London. The trip started with a lovely bottle of champagne on the train to Paddington and a quick lunch in the hotel before we headed to Covent Garden for a drink before the show. We managed to find the only pub in London that didn't stock blackcurrant so Lizzie missed out on her second favourite tipple, cider and black. Then it was over to the Alwych Theatre to find our seats....

The show was fantastic, we all loved it. As Nia said, she had the Time of Her Life. I think the grins in the image below backs this up!

After the show we had some food and and then headed back to the hotel where we were all tucked up in bed at the ridiculously early hour of 10.30pm - paid off next morning though as we hit Oxford Street and its shops. Seeing as I have NO space in my rucksack for anything else, I concentrated on getting Nia, Eleri and Lizzie to spend their money and I think I was very successful! It was a fab weekend and I really enjoyed.

Me and Gareth spent about 3 hours this afternoon going through the packing (again) and checking we have absolutely EVERYTHING we need. Our kit looks disturbingly small though - I have a feeling it's all going to be rattling around in Gareth's huge rucksack ... maybe I will manage to sneak a few 'luxury' items in after all!

That's all the news for now - I think this is a sensible place to sign off. Our adventure starts properly on Wednesday morning when we set off, trek-style, for Llanelli train station (Gareth thinks we're getting a taxi but I think we should start as we mean to go on) and find our (get this!) First Class carriage seats (a lovely unexpected upgrade courtesy of all the other Reeseys) for the journey to London Paddington. Let the fun begin!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us.

After a bit of a panic moment at the beginning of last week when it dawned on me just how much we had left to do before we set off, the good news is that we're now much more organised all round. We both have rucksacks, everything fits in the rucksacks and so now all we have to get through is the half a million or so jobs on our 'To do' list. It just seems that everytime we manage to clear a few more things off the list, we find a new set of things to do, keeping it around the half a million mark most of the time.....

After a few weekends UK-trotting, we stayed at home last weekend and Gareth whipped up a top curry and his now world-famous homemade onion bhajees (well almost world-famous) for the whole of the Rees Clan - and it wouldn't have been a proper night in without a bottle or two of champagne (I feel weak at the thought of no fizz for six months).

Our last full week in work flew by and Friday night I met up with the girlies for dinner and Dirty Dancing lessons before next week's trip to London. Eleri came well prepared with a bottle of fizz but drama of dramas - we couldn't open it, despite Nia's best efforts with a butter knife. We enjoyed anyway and I'm sure we'll make up for it in London.....

Saturday night we were in Southampton to celebrate Lynn and Jon's joint 30th birthdays and their engagement - big smiles all round. Got lots of top travel tips from Lynn's friends who between them seem to have travelled everywhere on earth and certainly everywhere on our route, which was great.