Off to Eastern Europe!

So we went online and found a last minute deal to Borovets, in Bulgaria. We are staying HERE
at a massive hotel which serves buffet food and I'm not expecting it to be amazing, but it is right by the ski runs, you literally ski up to the entrance! Awesome.

I skied for the first time last year with some mates in Les Arcs, and had the most fun time, but I'm aware that my ski skills are very below average, mainly because I'm a wimp and don't want to break any bones by going fast. So I'm going to really try to improve on my speed, hopefully without damaging myself massively. I have the goggles, salopettes and proper gloves this time around so this time it's serious.

The place we are going to is literally just a resort so we unfortunately won't be getting much Bulgarian culture, apart from what's dished up by the hoteliers etc... there is an interesting sounding monastery in the mountain range but it might be too far away to visit. It's called the Rila monastery and looks beautiful and is also very historically important for the Bulgarian people.

Of course we will be experiencing the local food, apparently they are very fond of tripe and offal, hurrah! I actually love haggis which is mainly offal based, so I'm sure it won't be a problem. On my father in laws 60th birthday last Saturday I made everyone have a Burns night with haggis and whisky which was lovely, mmmmm haggis...

Tonight we are driving up to East London for a night with our friends James & Donna, then tomorrow we fly off from Gatwick for a week. Have just found out our flight is with grotty Monarch airlines, which have very horrible 1970's planes with no leg room for tall-ies like me so not looking forward to the flight but I really can't complain at the price so I won't! Although I just have, oh bugger.

I finshed Anansi Boys, it was such a great book! Heartily recommended. I'm just reading Northhanger Abbey at the moment, a bit of good old Jane Austen escapism, nothing wrong with that! We drove up to Chawton earlier in the week to visit the village and house that she used to live in. It is very pretty and quintisentially English, just what you would expect. Oh Mr Darcy!

Twins!

Just got back today to Southampton after a weekend in Swansea with my sis, her husband and their two little boys. Ralph & Rowan are about 18 months now and are hairing around like complete mentallists... it was really hard to leave because they are so adorable and interactive compared with when we last sae them in the Summer! Rowan really attached himself to Nick while Ralph was more keen on me which worked out quite well as we both had one to cuddle. They're not really speaking yet but gabble a lot of nonsense and you can tell that it's not going to be long until they start talking.

We spent a fortnight in Guernsey before that, went back for New Years Eve and stayed around catching up with friends and the folks which was lovely. I have a cousin called Chris who lives in Darwin and he was over in the UK and made it across to Guernsey for a weekend while we were there. It was very cool to get to know him a bit better. He really sold us on Oz and made us both want to go there and travel it thoroughly. Really a nice thing to get to know people that you're related to, I was quite curious as to what he was like and he is an absolutely brilliant guy, really good fun and a complete joker.

We've also been in Bristol, most recently, for the last three days. We stopped there on our way back from Swansea and caught up with Rew & Charlotte, Gabie & Marc plus James & Miranda. Our friend Gabs is expecting twins which is incredibly exciting. Bristol is a great city to visit... our mates live around Clifton/Redland which are just very nice parts of the city, probably they nicest areas to hang around in for a few days. While we were there we went to the brand new cinema in the new 'Cabot' shopping centre and saw My Bloody Valentine in 3D!! Quite hilariously gory horror film where the blood and gore splatters out of the screen at you. It is a terrible schlock horror with no plot but I would recommend it for the novelty of 3D, definitely.

Soooo, back in Southampton and we're planning to go off again at the start of Feb. We're hoping for a weeks cheap skiing in a last minute deal somewhere snowy and then off in the van again for the 2009 travels... carrying on through Europe for several months, this time heading southwest to get some Spanish sun with Portugal and possibly Morocco if we're feeling brave...

And God I'm tired right now and I can tell this is a pretty uninspired blog entry I'm writing. Bleugh, big tired head and it's only 9pm, how crap is that. I have just started reading a Neil Gaiman book called Anansi Boys and I might go and read that in bed. I also finished Brisingr by Christopher Paolini earlier this afternoon and that was very good, in a cheesy but enjoyable way. I am also a bit embarrased to say that I bought couple of the Stephanie Meyer books in Tescoes yesterday, which also look cheesy and enjoyable and come with Rachels recommendation. I wanted to see the Twilight film but haven't got around to it yet, no one wants to go and see it with me!