Via Espana

We're back in Southampton where is quite a bit colder than Spain. Southern Spain was gloriously warm for 5 out of the 7 days we were there. The other 2 is was kind of windy and cold, but that was OK as we found stuff to do. It was a very relaxing week and we visited a lot of places and found time for lots of sunbathing as well.

We visited Gibraltar, which is bizarrely British and quite tacky (the town part). The rock is lovely though, with friendly monkeys and an impressive cave system that I didn't want to leave. I could seriously become a cave dweller if they all have cool lighting and play soothing, classic music like this one had, it was really magical with crazy droopy dripping stalactites that looked like melted candle wax and fishes gills.

We also drove a couple of hours north from the coast to visit the Alhambra Palace in Granada. It is more like 4 Palaces, all perched on an impressive hilltop, and I'm so pleased we had the chance to see it. You can see from the photos below that there is a lot to take in, and I'm really glad we went in March when it wasn't too hot.

Aside from those two highlights, we also went out from Calahonda (where we were staying in a friends apartment) to Mijas, a pretty hilltop town, Marbella which is pretty and massively touristy, and Puerto Banus which is quite expensive and not that impressive. Both in Marbella and Puerto Banus it is pricey, but if you go to the smaller, less touristy towns close by it becomes cheaper for drinks and food.

So a good week. And now we're back to the house buying shenanigans here with lots to sort out. I have a lovely tan but I'm sure it is soon to fade.

I am loving the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer at the moment. Just watched the film which made me laugh unintentionally, but the books! The books are cool. I think all romantic girls everywhere can't fail to enjoy them, but boys will probably not, in general. Anyway I've got Nick's sis reading them and we're both loving them and can't put them down. I also read Wetlands by Charlotte Roche the other week, now that was something a bit out of the ordinary. Wouldn't say it was brilliant but it's quite unusual! Quite un-British in attitude.

The Alhambra Palace, Granada, Spain!

*~*~*FAIRY GODMOTHER*~*~*

Here are a few pics of Catherine, Damian and their gorgeous little girl, Samantha! She's about 5 weeks old in these photos and as you can see she is already getting to grips with the camera. I went up to see them in Dunham Massey for a few days last week which was really lovely. Their tabby cat Tom was also a complete tart in front of the lens as you can see.

Damian works as the Head Gardener at the National Trust place there and they live in the most wonderful crazy old house, with a menagerie of animals including chickens and chinchillas. Catherine is pretty much the oldest friend I have; when we were little we used to pretend we were Princesses from the planet Zultria and through our teenage years we developed a penchant for Guns N Roses and the film Lost Boys.

Anyway they have wisely (?!) asked me to be Sam's Godmother which is awesome and a first for me. VERY exciting.

In other news we have negotiated a few grand off the house as the drains have all collapsed at the back, and it's pretty much all steam ahead with the trying to buy it thing. Went looking at kitchens in Ikea this afternoon, it was rather overwhelming.

Nick & I are flying to Malaga this Friday for a week. His folks are already out there and staying at a friends villa so we're all going to hang out and get some sunshine. We're going to Calahonda, but where I really really want to go is Granada so that I can visit the Alhumbra Palace. It's kind of a 'must see' for me. I think it's a couple of hours away so that's do-able.

I've started jogging! How about that. Not very far and not very fast and in completely unsensible shoes but nevertheless. I swallowed a fly last time I went out and even that didn't put me off, even though it made me retch. Need to lose a few pounds and generally be a more healthy person so while I'm not working it seems like a good thing to do. Makes me feel all smug and self satisfied saying that I go jogging, I think that's half the reason people do it if I'm honest. I'll most likely give up soon so better enjoy that feeling while it lasts!

Pictures of the House...

I like the front door. It is wider than average and with the pretty window above it.

2nd pic is the dining room, complete with a couple of original cupboards.


The 3rd shows the view from the front a bit better than the last picture. Also here we have the inside of the garage and one of the upstairs bedrooms.
Then no.6 is me looking very seriously at the cracks up the side. Someone told us it was old bomb damage from the Second World War! It is entirely possible which is very exciting.


And a few more pics of the outside at the back. The garden goes back about 70ft but it utterly overgrown and hard to make out in this pic. The second to last pic is the kitchen which yes, does need some work. It's still early days.. looks like we are buying this place. Whether that is a sensible idea or not I'm still not sure but I feel a bit more chilled out about it now!

In un-house related news I have been not working, just behaving like a retired person really! With lots of walks in the countryside and visits to the New Forest. We went for a picnic there on Monday and I had to shout 'BAH!" at the naughty ponies and wave my arms at them because they caught a whiff of the mini cheddars and were trying to trample down our picnic blanket. Earlier that day we did a 5 mile walk called the Lepe Loop and we saw a field of Llamas plus a buzzard. Wildlife a plenty! Yesterday I went JOGGING can you believe around Southampton Common and today my legs ache so much I can hardly do stairs. And this morning I had my hair highlighted for £16 at Southampton College by a student. Bargain of the century as it's turned out really nice. I don't think I'm ever going to pay for a proper hairdresser again! They also do a whole range of massages and facials which are all under a tenner... fantastic. I will definitely be going back.

Lifted from facebook...

So this is a things from facebook where you put an X by each book that you have read. The government (?) reckons that each of us have read at least 6 of these. I've cheated slightly because there are a couple here that I didn't finish... and you can't include films. I've kept this lest on my blog so I can update it if and when I read any more.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks X
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere X
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon X
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson X
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton X
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Photo From the Uptairs Window

So this kind of shows part of the U shape of houses that this house is a part of. The green in the middle is a large, shared area plus we also would have a big back garden. This photo doesn't really show you but it is rather lovely and Jane Austen esque as you walk around it.

Still as Undecided as a Fat Bird in a Cake Shop Who's Only Allowed To Buy One Thing

ARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

DOUBLE AAAAAARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Looks like we're buying the house.

We had our offer accepted and went around there yesterday and today with various surveyors/drains people to give quotes and advice. My head it is literally spinning like a jet propelled top from what they said and I still don't know if we're doing the right thing. Thank you guys for all the advice though, I love you all! That sounded cheesy and American but it is true.

The main things about the house is that it either has a) possibly wall tie failure or b) possibly a collapsed drain that has caused cracking and a small amount of subsidence. It has a few cracks on the gable end and it's knowing what those cracks are that is the issue. When the house was flooded last month there was over and inch of water throughout the ground floor so you can imagine the state of the plaster and floors in there. We are either brave or stooopid in believing we are tough enough to take it on.

Nick went up into the very dirty loft around there yesterday and found a very old book on existential philosophy. Maybe I should read it to find out if we're doing the right thing! It seems to be whispering "get a job get a job", it's a feisty little number.

Still it's not 100% that we're doing it but rather than 50/50 I would say it's more like 60/40 for. It's making me feel physically sick with nerves and I nearly vommed the other night which is kind of good as my appetite has been slightly suppresed. Great way to lose weight! No, obviously I don't want to be so stressed that I puke but we made some bad financial decisions last year that ended costing us potentially thousands of pounds and I can't bear the thought that we're being stupid with our money again so I am really, really nervous about it. Still, I pretty much hate all banks as a result so I would rather have our savings tucked away in a property than in a bank at the moment. I think. Interest rates suck arse right now, that's for sure.

This is the most awesome book I have read in a long time. Just go and get it out of your library and savour it. I steamed through it in a few days and kind of wish I had taken my time to enjoy slowly. Honest, it's brilliant!

Oh - also read 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman, another brilliant one although it's for the sort of Harry Potter age group. Doesn't matter! Kids books rule!

You Spin Me Right Round Baby

The last few days have been pretty hectic, in an emotional (definitely not physical, we have been really lazy) way. We were supposed to be heading off by ferry to France next week to begin our Euro travels 2009. Instead we found a house that we both felt ticked all the right boxes for us here in Southampton and have been toing and froing with offers via the estate agents. We didn't plan on buying a property until we finished our travels but Nick has been keeping an eye on the market around this particular area that we like here in the city and this particular one really does look good. We viewed it on Tuesday and since then have been going around in circles changing our life plans.

It is a total wreck, with water everywhere inside from a terrible leak and cracks on the outside that worry me a great deal. It hasn't been lived in for a while and smells awful inside. EVERYTHING need doing - electrics, knocking walls down, plasterwork, central heating....

It is a Herbert Collins house, in a listed conservation area. It is beautiful from the outside and is in an estate that feels like something straight out of Jane Austen. It has a long back garden that faces southwest, the best direction in my opinion.... three bedrooms, garage, parking, lounge and a separate dining room. So even though it needs a shit load of work it could be really really something special. These properties are very much in demand historically speaking, but with the market the way it is who knows what the future holds.

Of course it's going around and around my head that we are buying at a really bad time and the market could drop considerably so we would have to get a really good deal on it. It will be really complicated to do up as well, especially if the cracks are subsidence. And our travels would have to be put on hold. I wish someone could just say to me the right thing to do. Do we go for it (and remember it is really very rare that a Collins house crops up on the market with parking) or stop being so silly and continue with our travels??? There is no easy answer and it doesn't help that family members seem to be either extremely for it or vehemently against it.

These things are sent to try us, right?

Back in Sarfampton

I'm feeling a bit more bloggie now that I'm back from skiing. I think my new years resolution should have been to blog post more than once a month for 2009. Of course that is easier said than done, especially when facebook is such a darned distraction...

Skiing in Bulgaria rocked. Officially. The flight was better than anticipated, as the plane was much more modern than the Monarch one we flew to Florida on last summer. We lucked out with the extra legroom seats as well which was fortuitous. And they even gave us shepherds pie! Even though is was only a shortish flight! All is forgiven.

Once we arrived at Sofia airport we were whisked to our hotel by coach with a bunch of other trippers. It was WEIRD to be on a package holiday after all of our travels, and have all the guides trying to sell you excursions and all that crap. It was late at night when we arrived so couldn't take in the surroundings very well but it was definitely snowy. And icy and cold.

The Rila hotel was huge and very budget, despite it being rated somehow as 4 stars. Am I just too picky? Nick summed it up well when we described it as '80's Novotel stylee'... Our room was a really good size with en suite bathroom and big corner balcony and telly, but it was horrendously noisy late at night, quite cold, with very dodgy electrics that blew twice and yellowy/brown tap water. Nice. It was such a cheap holiday that I shouldn't complain, it really was fine to be honest, once we'd made some earplugs out of toilet paper. CLEAN toilet paper.

There were different areas to ski in which was good; lower down the slopes were quite busy and full of dangerous beginners falling around everywhere, but you could take a gondola right up to the top of the Musala mountain and there were quite a few great runs up there at the top. Sadly on 2 days the gondola was closed due to high winds but we found a third area with 3 different red runs to play on. No broken bones to report, just one rather large bruise on the side of my thigh that is shaped exactly like the end of my ski pole! It has snowed just prior to our arrival but then didn't show all week so by the end the lower slopes were getting back to bare earth, thick slush and ice. I found them quite a challenge like that but Nick didn't really like them and stayed off. We saw many people on crutches in our hotel, I feel quite lucky I wasn't one of them.

I really am so pleased to have gone, the last time I was so slow and couldn't turn and now I am much faster, can turn and even managed a black run at one point. To be fair I didn't realise it was black until we'd reached the bottom and Nick spotted the sign, or I wouldn't have done it. I felt quite confident on the red runs by the end of the week.

Borovets itself is very chavvy and seedy, with lots of go-go erotic bars and crap like that. Bars pumping out Euro pop selling 'full English breakfasts' and telling you they're 'cheap price! Asda price!' I guess that's what most Brits want when they go abroad. Very cringeworthy.

In other news! ... My very good friend Catherine and her husband Damian have just had a baby! She is called Samantha Elizabeth and was born on Thursday 5th Feb weighing just under 6lb. Massive congratulations to them both and hurry up and post some pics on facebook or your blog please...

We are hanging around in the UK until this weekend when our friend Ben is coming down from Birmingham to stay. Then we plan to hit the road, Jack, at some time next week., depending on snow/ice conditions here and in northern Europe. This week we are getting the van ready and keeping busy doing lots of last minute things. The van is being serviced today so fingers crossed they don't find anything terribly wrong with her.

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!

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Blogs are like buses. You don't post an entry in ages and then two come along at once!

Anyway just to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009. Hope you don't get bitten by the Credit Cruncher monster and lots of nice things happen to you and your families.

I am cosied up in my big fat face knee high slipper socks at my in laws house in Southampton. Lovely lovely lovely and Christmas day tomorrow.

ajhflsagf

Oh my giddy aunt, nearly 2 months since I last blog posted. It's now become so daunting to post but if I don't get it over with then I will just stop for good and I don't want to give up after all this time!

I have been keeping an old fashioned actual physical paper diary come scrap book since we have been travelling, which I know is soooo un techy but it is very satisfying to leaf through the fruits of my labours and clasp it to my chest in pride. Sad eh! It's full of maps and old ticket stubs and I intend to keep it forever and read it back when I'm old and wrinkly. Anyway I'm keeping it by my side as I type this so that I can remember what I have been doing and when.

Back to the massive recap then...

So Rome was really wonderful. REALLY wonderful. Just epic, beautiful, awe inspiring and dripping in thousands of years of history. Couldn't really do everything or even take it all in, even with the massive amount of time we had to explore it. St Peters Basilica, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, the Vittoriano building, Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese and on and on and on!... The most amazing sculptures by Bernini in the Galleria Borghese just took my breath away. Google the Rape of Persephone and you will see what I mean. We also met some really nice fellow travellers in Rome, including Scottish Alan & Lesley who we spent a lot of time with and one very drunken evening.

After Rome we drove south south south to the Bay of Naples, arriving in Pompeii on 3rd November. We stayed at the camp sounding 'Camping Spartacus' which was about 2oo yards from the entrance to the ruins and was a campsite full of orange, satsuma and lemon trees. We stayed at that site until 19th November as it was just a cheap and great central location for lots of day trips out. We made friends with a little black dog called Nerina who would come and see us with her tail wagging madly every time we came back to the van after a day out.

We ate so many oranges and lemons (the satsumas tasted funny) that I still have some in the van from the bumper crop we harvested before we left. The oranges were the best I've ever tasted although we did have one nasty orange encounter which I shall relate:

It was the evening and we were in the van watching telly by candlelight when Nick decided to eat an after dinner orange. He had taken a couple of bites before he realised it was crawling with maggots. In the dark candlelight he hadn't spotted them... what makes it 10 times worse is that these were no ordinary maggots, they were JUMPING maggots. I kid you not, these little fellas would work themselves up into tight little balls then suddenly spring off a good foot into the air and land somewhere else. We were both literally so horrified that neither of us knew quite what to do. Eventually I leapt up and scooped the orange into the bin then Nick also leapt up, wretching violently as you can imagine and brushing them off him. I got some kitchen paper and had to go around collecting them up, and finally used the handheld vacuum cleaner to suck up any remaining lurkers, hoping none had hopped off to freedom.

Maggots aside, the time we spent there was lovely. We of course visited the ruins which were huge, the city of Pompeii was larger than my home town of St Peter Port and just incredibly interesting but also very, very sad. It is so well preserved and you can well imagine the people that lived there. There are the famous plastercasts as well of the victims in their last, dieing breaths and you can tell by their postures that there were in agony.

On the coast not far from Pompeii is another famous ancient city that was also destroyed by Vesuvius, Herculanem. We did a day trip there and it is better preserved than Pompeii athough a lot smaller.

We visited Naples, which was bustling, a bargain hunters dream and just crazy in a beautiful Italian way with miles of narrow cobbled streets that the scooters just whizz down and nearly knock you flying. We took the train to Sorrento, which was touristy but stunning on its high up location above the sea. We went by coach up Mount Vesuvius then walked around the summit which was massive and bellowing out sulphorous smoke.

Finally on the 19th November we left the site and drove south to Paestum, a town on the west coast about an hours drive south of Naples. It has some amazing classical Greek temples that are said to be the best preserved in the world. We were cycling around them in T shirts as the weather was so mild. They have a really good museum there as well that brought back all of my A Level Ancient Greek!

Paestum was the furthest south we ventured, and we had decided to travel north back through Italy as we had discovered that 99% of Croatia's campsites close in October and we would have a hard time finding places to stay there. So on 21st Nov we arrived back in Arezzo, Tuscany, where we had a cold shock as it was really wintery with snow on the tops of hills. It was nice though to be back in northern Italy as it really is a bit more civilised when it comes to driving and the roads. Not that I really mind the mental drivers but it is much less stressful when you leaves Naples, you sort of exhale and realise you have been holding your breath without knowing it the whole time you were on the roads there!

We headed north again after Arezzo, stopping for one night in Bologna then pushing on to the Swiss/Italian border to a small lake called Lugano. It is right next to Como and very pretty. While there we got completely snowed in for several days in our lakeside campsite. I made a large snowman and we went for cold, wintery walks. After southern Italy it felt like getting out of a hot sauna and plunging into an icy lake, weather wise.

On 1st December we shook ourselves out of the snow and drove north through Switzerland, through massive amounts of snow which was fun but a little scary without snow chains, finally crossing the border into the Alsace region of France and stopping at a small town called Masevaux, near Mulhouse. It is very close to Basel in Switzerland and also to Germany.

Our friends Katy and Jan from Holland met up with us there and we spent 5 lovely days with them. We went to a pretty town in France called Colmar, and into Germany to visit the Christmas market in the University city of Freiburg which is on the edge of the Black Forest. We walked in the forest and also around Masevaux which was really snowy and stunning with piney hilltops and wild deer running around. We spent cosy evenings in the van together with good food, wine and brilliant company.

8th December then, and we do a big 8 hour drive to Paris, to spend two days at Euro Disney in the FREEZING cold (but still good, tacky fun), then several days exploring the city. Although Nick got a nast cold by the end of it. We bumped into a lovely couple we had met in Rome who were also travelling Europe called Simon & Julie, with their little 3 year old daughter Holly. We spent several evenings with them in their caraven and our camper.

Finally on 15th December we left Paris and drove up to a little town called Coudekerque which is just outside of Dunkerque, then on 18th Dec we got out ferry back to Dover. After driving here to Southampton we ended our camper travels for 2008.

Roma

Well I am having a day of languishing in the van. The skies are decidedly grey and every now and then a big bucketload of rain comes down and soaks everything. Nick is off helping a fellow traveller in his campervan with some DIY, he's been gone for hours and has taken the soldering kit with him so who knows when he'll be back...

Last night there was the most terrific thunderstorm, our power went out and the rain was torrential. You really feel the elements when you're in a campervan, the lightning was so vivid and the thunder was so loud, we were snuggled up all nice and warm and it was really very exciting. Today all our tables and chairs and our awning are soaked through and covered with leaves. The air is still very damp.

We have been here for a few days now, staying at a site called 'Happy Camping', which is apparentely named after a porn film, so I was told yesterday. We are on the north ringroad outside the city, and can get into the centre on a train for one euro which is a bargain. Yesterday we went to the Vatican Museum and got very achy legs - it is massive. We saw the Sistene chapel of course, the second time for me but the first for Nick... and all of the collections from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. We both found that stuff a lot more exciting than all of the religious imagery. There is some interesting modern stuff there as well though, Dali and Francis Bacon. We were so tired and hungry when we finished as we hadn't taken a packed lunch that we decided to go for some wine and a pizza. Bit naughty when on a tight budget but there you go.

We came to Rome from Umbria and Lake Trasimeno, which is the most beautiful Lake we have found on our travels. It even beat Garda. Out site was two metres from the waters edge and it was incredibly peaceful. Just below our camper there was a nest of 'Nutria' in the rocks, they are Italian otter type creatures and are very cute, with fat bodies and round heads. We watched them come out every evening and swim off for fishies. We did a lot of cycling and walking around the lake and into the surrounding hills. It was just lovely. We also saw little bats, owls, herons and egrets plus all sorts of gulls, it was a twitchers paradise! We had good weather there, sunbathing weather even which was glorious. We've travelled further south and it's got worse! But apparentely its snowing in the UK so I really can't complain. It's still Tshirt weather, you don't need a jumper until the evening. We also met some great fellow travellers from the UK - John & Rosie from Cornwall who are beef farmers and Sean and Iona who are also longterm travellers like us.

We were thinking of going to Croatia after Italy but after some research we have discovered that there are hardly any campsites open after October, so we will probably head up Italy again and into France. Paris before Christmas would be nice, then back to the UK from Christmas and January.

So its a day off today then we are going into Rome again tomorrow. We still have so much to see in the city: the Colosseum, the Old Jewish Quarter, The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, Villa Borghese..... I think we will stay in this campsite for about another week.

Bogulicious

Buongiorno again, I am still in Italy, woo!

At the moment I am languishing in luxury sat in the camper as we now have internet in our van! This is such an incredible luxury, I really really appreciate having it. We had to pay for it of course, and we only have it for one month so I am making the most it.

So, to carry on with the travels… we left Deiva Marina on the north coast of Italy and drove east to another coastal town called Viareggio. At this stage the coast had just started turning south into the boot part of Italy, so you can imagine where we were. We chose Viareggio because it is close to both Pisa and Lucca; both cities are only a short bus ride away, so we stayed there for about a week. As well as being by the seaside our campsite was on the doorstep of a beautiful cycle path through nature woods, which apparentely contained such exotic delights as wild boars, snakes and tortoises. I was very disappointed not to see any.

Pisa's grand Piazza is indeed worth visiting. The tower is darn expensive for what it is but you have to go up it, it's the law. You also have to take goofy photos of yourself 'propping up' the tower or you are seized by the local authorities and thrown off the top.

Lucca is a very beautiful, small Mediaeval city with many stunning old Churches. As a city it is more impressive than Pisa. You see so many Churches though, you get a bit numb by the end of it. It also is surrounded by an impressive set of walls that you really wouldn't want to fall off of.

After that week we drove inland, into central Tuscany and Florence. We found a camperstop right in the centre of the city which was cheap, fairly quiet and ideal for visiting the sights. And visit the sights we certainly did. We walked and walked around the endless beautiful streets and payed a visit to the Uffizi Gallery which was wonderful. They have works of art there like Botticelli's Venus rising out of the sea on her floating shell, as well as Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vince and Giotto. They also have lots of old Roman sculptures which are awesome.

We walked up hundreds of steps to the top of the Duomo to take in the panoramic view of the city with the Tuscan hills all around in the distance. We also visited the Santa Croce Church, the Ponte Vecchio bridge and many street markets. While we were there I bought a funky red leather jacket that is the only item of clothing I’ve bought since travelling! How unlike me is that. The last thing I bought was in Southampton before I left. That’s the start of August folks, I really am a changed woman.

We had one disaster in Florence though, well two infact now I think. The first was that my bankcard had to be stopped because some utter idiot in an internet shop discovered my pin number by his complete ineptitude as operating a chip and pin machine. When asking me to put in my pin number he hadn’t put the price in first so my pin number appeared as the price and he got to see it. I didn’t trust him at all and phoned my bank who told me to cancel it immediately. Yah boo sucks to him and now I have no card.

The second thing was that our fridge well and truly broke. It is a small fridge, but apparentely camper fridges are very special and therefore expensive because they run off gas, 12v and 240v electricity. So we managed to find an Electrolux repair man just outside of the city and thank God he had the part and managed to fix it within a few hours while we sat around chatting, smoking fags and sipping espresso, but the circuit board bit that broke was €330, RRRaaahhhhhhhhh! The pain was immense but we literally had no choice but to grin and bear it. We do need a fridge. Brand new the thing costs well over a grand which is just staggering.

Currently we are one stop on from Florence (with, touch wood, a working fridge). We are about 80km south of the city, still in Tuscany and just outside of a town called Arezzo. We are 7km away from the town in a very rural village called Ruscello which has many olive groves, vinyards and old, dusty looking Italian men sitting around smoking outside bars. It is so pretty I feel as if I am in the film ‘Stealing Beauty’. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Jeremy Irons suddenly popped up and started spouting poetry at me. I feel so relaxed here I could melt into the sofa.

We cycled into Arezzo yesterday and discovered, to my delight, that it is where they filmed a large portion of the film ‘Life is Beautiful’ which is officially one of my favourite films of all time. The first half, if you have seen it, before it is set in a concentration camp! Arezzo has an old centre with a Cathedral and big open squares and Churches. We went in on a Friday and there was also a large market selling food from all over the place. We bought some Dutch cheese that is like a really strong mature cheddar, mmmm. They had stalls from all over Europe but the British one only sold pottery, for some bizarre and upsetting reason. If they had sold marmite I think I would have ransacked the joint and bought the lot. Marmite, and nice sliced bread, are two things European in general really don’t do. I love their bread, but it is so fresh if you don’t buy it everyday it goes off, and if you buy it daily you have to wolf it all in one day and you end up bloated on bread which really won’t do… Bring on the English bread that’s stuffed full of preservatives, that’s what I say!

Well we are leaving this lovely campsite tomorrow and heading south to Lake Trasimeno for a few days before carrying on towards Rome. A lot of campsites are closed now for the winter so we have to rifle through our guide to find open ones. There are loads around Rome though so that shouldn’t be a problem.

We are having a lazy day today, and are about to go another round of scrabble. Oooh you can’t beat it! Seriously, it is highly enjoyable, and I know we are a couple of old farts but it’s the little things we enjoy these days! I bought a pack of cards yesterday as well and can’t wait for a good old round of rummie. You may laugh, and probably will, but I will grin and bear it.

OUR TRAVEL VIDEO DIARY!

www.youtube.com/nickwaite

The above link is to Nick's youtube channel which contains all of our travel videos. I warn you - the cheese level is pure, ripe gorgonzola. You have been warned! Anyway, hope you enjoy them.

Bloguna Matata

Bonjour mes petites blogettes, and firstly I must make grandiose apologies for neglecting you for so very, very long. I won’t dilly dally with excuses, lets just say that there has been a distinct lack of internet around, and the little that there has been has been devoted to quickly checking my email, updating facebook and other humdrum tasks that had to be done under the watchful countdown of the internet café clock.

Last I wrote, we were just about to leave Holland. Well, we ended up staying another month!

Only kidding.

We did eventually prise ourselves from the delights of the Netherlands, to begin our long voyage southeast to Hungary. So, on the 22nd August we left the Hague and drove across the border into Germany, to stop off along the Rhine river in Dusseldorf. We found a camperstop on the river a couple of hundred yards from the bustling centre which was very handy, and we ventured in for a couple of extremely tasty beers that night. The next morning we were off, heading south and following the river through the Rhine valley which is exceptionally pretty and dotted sporadically with ruined castles and various photo opportunities. That night we free camped in a town called Mainz and met a nice German guy who checked out brakes for us (a warning light had been coming on and off), luckily they were fine, just a bit overheated from all the hills and valleys.

We carried on the next day, stopping in a typically Bavarian village called Gerolzhofen. Germany has thousands of camperstops, which are either free or really cheap where you can rock up for one or two nights. It is so campervan friendly, it really was a pleasure travelling through. So, onwards to the next day, which is the 25th August and we found another little town – Straubing and another camperstop. We met an interesting English couple called Nick & Lynn and ended up drinking with them for about 7 hours.

The following day we finally crossed our next border into Austria, home of Arnie and the Sound of Music style scenery – great! We actually just stayed in a service station that night which afforded a surprisingly good nights sleep… somehow the sound of lorries rumbling past is quite soothing. The next day, 27th August, we pegged it right on through Austria and all of its mountainous gloriousness into Hungary. As it had been a long drive we stopped just over the border, once we had gone through the rigmarol of getting a motorway vignette (they are toll roads and you have to provide your vehicle registrations documents and all sorts before they let you buy this pass).

We found a thermal spa hotel in a town called, wait for it…. Mosonmagyarovar… (there are accents above the vowels but I’m not sure where the buttons are to put those on)…which was OH SO GOOD. When we first arrived we didn’t know what the fuss was all about with these thermal spa things but let me tell you, they are simply glorious. You have all these various swimming pools, fuelled by underground mineral waters of various temperatures and mineral properties which are said to be healing. We just couldn’t get enough of them and spent so long rolling around like a pair of beached dolphins that we had extremely wrinkly fingers and toes by the end of it. They are also real centres of the local communites, where everyone hangs out and plays cards around the pools and gossips. After one afternoon, night and following morning of soaky warm wonderment we ended our epic journey and arrived in Budapest.

Now the reason we wanted to arrive in Budapest on this particular day (28th August) was that my Dad and his long term partner Maggie were also going to be there, as Maggie’s eldest daughter Kirsty and her husband Andy actually live in Buda and they were taking a holiday to visit them. Andy works for an airline out there and Kirsty teaches English, although she is really a dietician. For weird reasons, she’s not allowed to practise there.

We stayed in Budapest for 5 nights, and in that time did some really lovely touristy but nice things. We visited the city’s most famous and beautiful old spa and spent the entire day there (I should mention that is was blazing hot sunshine the entire time we were there – around 30 degrees I should think), all getting lots of relaxation and sunburn marks. Another day we drove out to Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in central Europe, which is decidedly green in colour and very refreshing to take a dip in with pretty villages around it’s edge. – The one we went to, Balatonfured, actually had a wine festival going on the day we were there.

We ate out in a fantastically posh riverboat restaurant called ‘Spoon’ which served fruit and champagne cocktails out on the deck and gourmet food all at reasonable Hungarian prices. Later that night Kirsty & Andy took us out for Zombie cocktails at a couple of pretty swish bars. We got decidedly drunk and were convinced we saw Sven Goran Erikson but in retrospect I think it was just some old poor bald guy who happened to look a bit like him. I wouldn’t say that Budapest is mega cheap these days, but it certainly is more so than London or Guernsey.

On the Sunday that we were there we went out to this fabulous old colonial style hotel, the Corinthia, which does this famous Sunday buffet. You stay there for 4+ hours, with all the drinks included in one price, and that includes champagne my dears! The food is overflowing and tempting, from sushi to thai curry to your typical Sunday roast. I overdosed on shellfish and the dessert buffet, which was extensive to say the least, Luckily I had a loose, babydoll style dress that hid many sins. There was even a string quartet, which for some reason serenaded me whenever I walked past! Those crazy Hungarians. Kirsty & Andy live near the citadel, just by the river on the nicer side of the city. They have a really roomy apartment there and we parked our van, Margo, just across the road from it.

On the 2nd September we finally said goodbye to our friends and family in Budapest and drove back the way we had come in, towards Austria. We went back to the original thermal spa place we had found on the way in and ended up staying for two nights for some relaxation. Unfortunately the site was mosquito-tastic and I was munched to pieces the entire time we were there. All the same, it was very nice.

We left Hungary on 4th Sep and entered Austria, where we made a beeline straight for Vienna. We found another cheapo camperstop on a vinery just on the edge of the city from where we could take a train into the centre. At this camperstop we met a terrific old Dutch couple, Don & Willma. Don played both the accordian and the harmonica while Willma sung. He serenaded us with Edith Piaf songs into the evenings. It was great. So we visited Vienna with them on the train and then went our separate ways. We walked for miles around the centre, taking in all the beautiful, impressive architecture and incredible riches the city has to offer. Vienna really doesn’t disappoint, and although we spent just the one day there, I can imagine getting really submerged in it all and wanting to spend longer.

We drove south from Vienna past Graz to stop at a village called Griffen. It is dominated by an old castle which is on this hill with almost sheer vertical sides that looms over the village. It really is epic and like something I would read in one of the fantasy novels I love so much. Well, that day it was really warm again and so we left the motorway to find some shade in amongst the trees in the surrounding hills. As we were parked up under a big tree in a country lane a car pulled up and this Austrian man got out and came over. Turns out he was curious about our strange Guernsey number plate (nb – we have been getting this a LOT). Anyway, we got chatting, and he invited to stay at his place that night. He had a large, empty, chalet style house nestled halfway up a hill and he let us park on the drive. He left us to it and we had a wonderful evening running around the garden and scrumping apples and plums. It was really very pretty, and we weren’t too concerned that he might rape and murder us both because he actually knew about Guernsey and Jersey and was thrilled that we came from there.

From Griffen in southern Austrian we blitzed the drive through to Venice in Italy! When we crossed the border into Italy I was so excited, because I absolutely adore Italy. We arrived on the afternoon of 7th September, and accidentally drove across the bridge into Venice, which is a bit of a no-no. Well, we realised our foolishness (it is horrendously expensive to actually drive into Venice! Very limited space, and all that), and found instead a great big camperstop just across the water from where we could take a water taxi in the city. It was only 4 euros a night, bargain.

So we duly taxied into the city. Oh the city! What can I say? It certainly lives up to whatever romantic, lofty aspirations you may have. I could go on for hours, but that would be so dull so I shall surmise with telling you that we spent one glorious day there, and in that day we visited St Marks Square, the Rialto bridge, many various Churches and we ate pizzas. We walked for miles all around the city, across the grand canal and over many small bridges, each and every one being just like something out of a movie. We drank very expensive coffee but it was all worth it.

On the 9th September we left our camperstop and headed westish, past Verona and to the shores of Lake Garda. We stopped at a picturesque town called Peschiera del Garda and splurged out on a proper campsite. We stayed there until 12th and had many swims in the lake. The town was really pretty with a Medieval fortress right in the centre. They also threw a jazz festival while we were there, they must have known we were coming!

We tore ourselves away from our lovely ‘Camping Butterfly’(!) on the shores of the lake and drove southwest to the Mediterranean sea! We stayed the night of 12th at a seaside town called ‘Finale Ligure’ which was cool, our camperstop was literally on the beach, with waves splashing over the rocks as we slept. It was very hot though, and without mains power we couldn’t have any fans or aircon so we sweated pounds off in our sleep.

The next day we carried on along the coast, past Monaco and on to Antibes. We found a good campsite about 100 yards from the beach in Biot, a town about 30 minutes walk from the centre of Antibes. It was quite a touristy place, with various funny French themeparks close to the site. We settled in for a couple of very relaxed days, and then on 15th September Nick’s parents Tony & Den arrived on the train from Nice to see us. They had arrived in Nice a couple of days earlier for a fortnights holiday.

We spent the next week with Tony & Den, firstly going back with them to their friends apartment in Nice where they were staying and leaving our campervan on its own on the site in Biot. We went from Nice on the bus to Beaulieu Sur Mer and Monte Carlo, swam in the sea and marvelled at all the rich posers and their beautiful small city. We went on the train to Cannes and from their inland on to Grasse, which is famous for its Fragonard perfume. It is perched on a hilltop and you have to walk up many steps to get to the town centre from the train station. The apartment in Nice is right by the beautiful port and we went out for many lovely walks and meals around the city.

On Friday 19th September we picked up our van and with Tony & Den sat in the back we drove east across the Italian border to a town called Ventimiglia. They have a famous market there every Friday and I bought a kilo of sundried tomatoes and a massive jar of local pesto which has been keeping us going! We stayed in Ventimiglia for lunch then set off in the afternoon to stop over for one night in Ceriale, a small town along the coast. The morning after that we headed further along the coast, past Genova to Chiavari, a pretty, historic seaside town not far from the Portofino headland. We all wanted to visit Portofino but as there are no campsites close to it we opted for this town which gave easy access to it.

So on the morning of 21st Sep we took a train to Santa Margherita Ligure and from there a ferry on to Portofino. Portofino is regarded as a very beautiful, exclusive resort and is famous for its pretty harbourside with different coloured houses all along. It is where Wayne Rooney married Colleen, and we went to the Church and Castle where he had one of his three wedding receptions, apparentely. Not that I’m into all that I promise you! It is a very lovely Church though, perched right above the port with wonderful views out to sea and along the coast.

We said goodbye to Tony & Den the next day as they went back to their apartment in Nice on the train, and we stayed on in Chiavari. On 23rd we drove to Deiva Marina, another Italian seaside town and this is where I am now. We have found a very cheap proper campsite that again is on the beach, and we are just relaxing and chilling in the sea and editing our travel videos. We have bought flippers and have been snorkelling. We also have a double rubber ring which is hilarious although we do look like a right pair or twats in it, I have to admit.

I could go on and on in more detail, about the food we have been eating and the various little quirks and experiences that living in a campervan provides. Food highlights include a wonderful lobster linguini in Chiavari and stuffed moules in Beaulieu Sur Mer. Really, this is what Italy is all about, and the pizzas also have been much, much better than back home, as a rule! Of course, there have been problems with the van, but luckily so far we have been able to manage them. Nick replaced the water pump early on when we were in Holland and only yesterday we had to take apart the air conditioning unit and unbolt the front drivers seat to get to the electrics beneath it as we thought we had a short somewhere in the system. Turns out its just the bad electrics here at the campsite, we think.

If all goes well we will leave Deiva Marina in a couple of days time and head on down Italy first to Pisa, then we have to decide whether to go inland to Tuscany and Florence, or head straight down to Rome and come back via Tuscany. There are so many places in Tuscany that I want to visit… Siena, Cortona and many others and Florence is a really big must. My Italian is still pretty ropey and I want to improve it as I go.

So until the next time, I must say Arriverderci and Ciao for now, and please check out Nick’s facebook photos which include all our recent travels. The videos are also on Youtube, we have so far edited the UK/USA part of our travels and have just started on the Euro leg.

Ode to Holland

Oh Holland I will miss you
And your siropwaffles too
With your lovely canals
I don't think I'm anal
If I want to come back for a few!

We have been here for ages. But are finally departing today... on a week long road trip to Budapest, Hungary. In the last week we went to Leiden and stayed on a beautiful lake complete with a nudist area and went rowing and cycling to our hearts delight. We also spent 5 nights in Amsterdam, again on a lake called Gaasperplas which is just southeast of the city. We met up with Alex & Jess who visited the city for a couple of days. We visited some coffeeshops and also walked for miles around the city and stayed in an absolutely huge campsite that felt like a festival ground, there were just hundreds of students and travellers dotted around in tents.

Leiden is a highly beautiful city full of old 15th and 16th century buildings and obviously canals and windmills too. Rembrandt went to school there and we saw the building. Talking of art we also went to the Mauristhaus Museum in the Hague to see Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and lots of other amazing old paintings. I would go to Leiden again in an instant, it is very peaceful and friendly with winding little cobbled streets to cycle down.

We are back in the Hague for one night, which was last night, and so later this morning we are going to hit the road and head to Germany. We need to find somewhere cheap, we went a bit over budget in Amsterdam going eating nice Wok to Walk food and so on. I am certainly going to miss all of the Dutch bakery treats, but it will probably do me good to have a break from syrupy sugary goodness for a while.

Holland Update!

Well, further to my previous blog entry I have to say that we left our friends Katy & Jans, went a few kilometres up the road to a place called Duinhorst at the edge of the city for two days... then we came back! They invited us back for Sunday night and also Nick is getting a gas alarm posted here, it should arrive today so we are hanging around until it does. We broke the past one we had in the van by accidentely shorting out the electrics, so had to get a replacement. I'm not particularly worried about these so called 'gas attacks' you hear about but we do have a gas fridge, cooker and boiler in the van so we do need some kind of alarm if we have a leak.

The van is so lovely, I haven't really described it. The bed is at the front above the drivers seat and it is on a big hinge so folds down and up again when you want to drive off in the morning. It means no faffing around with cushions, you can just push it out of sight. There is a shower room down one side with a pretty decent strength shower cubicle in it, plus a toilet and oval sink, and there is lots of handy cupboard space for all out bits.

Opposite the shower room on the other side, running down the side of the camper is the kitchen with 3 ring gas hob, oven with grill & rotisserie and proper fridge with freezer section. There is a two bowl sink, pull out bin and cupboards above, plus an extractor fan, window and light right above the sink and hob.

So you walk down the corridor between the kitchen and the shower to the end where there is a table with U shaped sofa all around it. We tend to have a side of it each and there is plenty of room. Down at the end there are windows on all three sides plus a skylight above, and we have the entertainments! Ie a pull out flatscreen TV that Nick fitted, the sky+ box and PS3. I also have my bookshelf which is in a drawer and behind the sofa are tucked the games: mastermind, scrabble and upwords! I did want to get a big

So now you can imagine my new home. We are definitely off to Leiden today, followed by Harleem then finally Amsterdam in a weeks time. Katy & Jan are off to Edinburgh festival this afty so we really can't stay in their hosue any longer! They've been such amazing hosts, as anyone who knows them will appreciate. We went back to the beach yesterday for a drink while Jan surfed then came back in on the tram and Katy cooked a mean risotto.