Firstly Merry Christmas! Hope you all had fun and festivities with all the trimmimgs.
Made it to Peru. Evetually. Currently in the Miraflores Park Hotel - spoiled ourselved with 2 nights of 5 star luxury. The bed we have here is bigger than most of the hostels we´ve stayed in. (Not that I share a bed with your daughter Mr Nedjar.....honestly.)
Took 4 days to get here. Arctic conditions meant delays and cancllations leaving Canada. Ended up sleeping at Vancouver airport the first night. Missed our connection in Toronto. Forced to spend 2 nights in the "Quality Inn" hotel. Arrived in Lima at 11.45pm Xmas Eve. Proceeded bring in Christmas day at Starbucks in Lima airport. In fact had to sleep there. Yup, I know how to treat a girl...
Vancouver is great. Favourite place so far. Stayed with Ian & Sarah (aka Tommo & Duggs!). Really kind of them. Especially as I had never met them before! Awesome hosts - thanks guys.
Again we brought bad weather with us. The day we arrived the aforementioned arctic weather hit. Turned from mild conditions to minus 10 and several inched of snow. Didn´t mind as instantly turned the place into a winter wonderland - ideal for Christmas. Had to go shopping for warm clothes. Now back pack overflowing.
Tommo & Duggs took us to Whistler the first weekend. Best weekend of the trip so far. Magali as it turns our is an ace skiier. Great technique and effortless in gracefully gliding down the mountain. In contrast I adopted my usual "not pretty but it works somehow" style. How I can have one ski doing a snow plough and the other parrallel at speed and not fall is something Einstein couldn´t decipher. Was about the coldest we´ve skiied in - was minus 20 and then some with wind chill.
Things are the same but slightly different. For eg. "snowploughing" & "parrallel" skiing is called "pizza wedges" and "french fries". They have chips & gravy (a real northern English treat) - but they put some sort of soft cheese on top. Surprisingly, it works.
Got treated to an Ice Hockey game. Are now official Vancouver Canucks fans. Very entertaining: is fast & furious with fighting. Is very amusing. The puck moves too quickly to keep up with. You only know they´ve scored when players jump up & down. You have no idea how the puck has ended up in the net. The fights are bizzare. At random two guys will decide they fancy a piece of each other - even when the play is nowhere near them. At which point they try and leather the living daylights out of each other. The refs (there are three of them) then scate over, not to stop them but to, well, spectate. The other player then do the same. Rather reminded me of playground fights at school. They only intervieve when they fall on the floor. That, apparently, is just taking it too far...
Pleasingly Canadians have old school values that have been lost back home. People are laid back & friendly. They actually talk on public transport. Even strangers. Even saw a "youth" help and old lady on & off the bus. Initally thought he was going to attack her. No one locks thier houses. Going to miss that place.
First impressions of Lima are mixed. Not that pretty, but good night life. Checked into the hotel at 7am ´Xmas day after the night at Stabucks (God bless globalisation). Room wasn´t ready for us, but let us stay in the business centre. Ended up falling asleep in the sofas. After several guests came to use the internet, and complained at seening a snoring, unshaven and smelly chap passed out, the hotel promply decided they did have a room for us afterall. Spent Xmas day exploring Barancos night life. Enjoyed our first pisco sour and ended up bizzarely at a nightclub dancing salsa. Not the average Xmas day antics.
Yesterday, Boxing Day, did our first bit of "blind ordering" at a restuarant. Found a small local place on a side street. Chose it as only had locals in it - didn´t speak a word of English & menu only in Spanish. Did what all good tourists do, smiled and pointed at random words and said "Si" to everything. What we got was what can only be described as 2 plates of fried innards. Mmm. Wished the restaurant had a dog.
We are off to Cuzco today. Are facing a 22hour bus journey to get there. Not really excited about that propect. Will see in the New Year there. Who knows we may see Macchu Picchu and the Inca trail on New Years Day. Have a drink on us!
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Monday, 15 December 2008
mad making contact
Hi u 2
In at last! Why, oh why, can't they make this sort of thing easy.
However, glad to hear you are having a great time. Enjoyed your lat email. Have dispersed around family and friends. Ruth and Keiron said you "don't change!"
We took Louis to the Panto (Aladin) on Saturday. He really enjoyed it but he was not too well. However, he was able to tell his Mum about some of the characters, particularly the cheeky monkey, Nana banana. We bought him a magic wand!!!! and a chinese hat.
We are off to Tarragona on Wednesday for Christmas and New Year . We should be able to pick your emails there, we think.
Keep on enjoying yourselves and don't forget our number.
Lots of love mad
In at last! Why, oh why, can't they make this sort of thing easy.
However, glad to hear you are having a great time. Enjoyed your lat email. Have dispersed around family and friends. Ruth and Keiron said you "don't change!"
We took Louis to the Panto (Aladin) on Saturday. He really enjoyed it but he was not too well. However, he was able to tell his Mum about some of the characters, particularly the cheeky monkey, Nana banana. We bought him a magic wand!!!! and a chinese hat.
We are off to Tarragona on Wednesday for Christmas and New Year . We should be able to pick your emails there, we think.
Keep on enjoying yourselves and don't forget our number.
Lots of love mad
Friday, 5 December 2008
Santa, sunshine, fishing and starting yatch races...
Q. What do you call a line of rabbits walking backwards?
A. A receding hairline
Magali found this joke (weirdly in a pack of suasages). Reminded me about crap Xmas jokes. About the only thing that’s made us feel Christmassy. 30 degree sunshine, beaches and blue skies are things not really associated with it! However the Kiwi’s still dress some poor bugger up in a full Santa’s outfit (including the beard) at Xmas fetes up & down the country.
Is the penultimate day in NZ. A month here has gone in the blink of an eye. Thinking about it, been gone 2 months and it seems like 2 mins. We know we’ve been crap with updating this thing. Wish could come up with a decent excuse. Can’t.
Spent 2 weeks in the south island. Magali loved Queenstown. Went fishing (with Capt. Lou). Persuaded Magali to come & wish I didn’t. We caught 2 fish - Magali caught both. Still not heard the last of that. Bizarrely afterwards were invited to start a yacht race & made the local rag. Found out that Capt. Lou (a 65 yr old) is the oldest swinger in town. Ended up having beers with him and 2 of his “lady friends”. Weird dynamic. One was a livewire / manic airhead, the other a cast iron battleaxe. Fearing Magali was next on his wish list, we left before he could slip rohypnol in her wine… (Gutted, I had my eye on the battleaxe).
Next place of note was Picton. Really nice relaxed sleepy town with cool bars / cafes. If only there were enough people to fill them! The Marlborough sounds are amazing. Considered buying a boat for £100,000 (was half price and a real boys dream). Realised several practical implications and refrained. Good to dream.
Spent the last 2 weeks with Mr & Mrs Abbot (and my really cool godson ‘lil James!). Many thanks guys! Took full advantage of their benevolence (free accommodation, food and booze!). Especially the nightly BBQ - heaven. Think we’re suffering form protein poisoning. Think may just be able to endure the little lamb, pork and beef ensemble planned for ce soir… Can't think why Mike's nickname at Uni was "Mixed Grill"...
My favourite place has been Paihia in the bay of Islands. Just great all round; scenery, vibe, bars, cafes, people. Went swimming with dolphins. Could swear I saw flipper. Also went fishing. Didn’t let Magali come, but did catch some fish. Honestly…
A. A receding hairline
Magali found this joke (weirdly in a pack of suasages). Reminded me about crap Xmas jokes. About the only thing that’s made us feel Christmassy. 30 degree sunshine, beaches and blue skies are things not really associated with it! However the Kiwi’s still dress some poor bugger up in a full Santa’s outfit (including the beard) at Xmas fetes up & down the country.
Is the penultimate day in NZ. A month here has gone in the blink of an eye. Thinking about it, been gone 2 months and it seems like 2 mins. We know we’ve been crap with updating this thing. Wish could come up with a decent excuse. Can’t.
Spent 2 weeks in the south island. Magali loved Queenstown. Went fishing (with Capt. Lou). Persuaded Magali to come & wish I didn’t. We caught 2 fish - Magali caught both. Still not heard the last of that. Bizarrely afterwards were invited to start a yacht race & made the local rag. Found out that Capt. Lou (a 65 yr old) is the oldest swinger in town. Ended up having beers with him and 2 of his “lady friends”. Weird dynamic. One was a livewire / manic airhead, the other a cast iron battleaxe. Fearing Magali was next on his wish list, we left before he could slip rohypnol in her wine… (Gutted, I had my eye on the battleaxe).
Next place of note was Picton. Really nice relaxed sleepy town with cool bars / cafes. If only there were enough people to fill them! The Marlborough sounds are amazing. Considered buying a boat for £100,000 (was half price and a real boys dream). Realised several practical implications and refrained. Good to dream.
Spent the last 2 weeks with Mr & Mrs Abbot (and my really cool godson ‘lil James!). Many thanks guys! Took full advantage of their benevolence (free accommodation, food and booze!). Especially the nightly BBQ - heaven. Think we’re suffering form protein poisoning. Think may just be able to endure the little lamb, pork and beef ensemble planned for ce soir… Can't think why Mike's nickname at Uni was "Mixed Grill"...
My favourite place has been Paihia in the bay of Islands. Just great all round; scenery, vibe, bars, cafes, people. Went swimming with dolphins. Could swear I saw flipper. Also went fishing. Didn’t let Magali come, but did catch some fish. Honestly…
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Goo-day
Hi all,
how are we? Jo, Lily is so cute! I bet she is getting more than her fair share of attention right now:-)
So the journey at this end continues, we left Thailand, its city madness, amazing beaches and spicy food for Australia a couple of weeks ago. We spent them between Melbourne and Adelaide. Completely unplanned, we happen to arrive in Melbourne during their 'Melbourne Cup' week, these guys have a national holiday to go watch the races, how fab is that! the rest of their week is pretty much a drunken party. Accommodation was hard to get as all of OZ descends on Melbourne for the week so we decided to hire a campervan and drive the great ocean road. A few chuckles I can see on your face as you try and imagine Jon fit in the campervan bed:-) it wasn't all that bad...the adventure was very enjoyable and we discovered some small jewels like Port Fairy and Mornington Peninsula. Went to a superb local farmers market in Mornington, I had never seen such large strawberries in my life!
Back in Melbourne, we stayed with a few friends/ex-colleagues (thanks Jamal and Kev) and enjoyed some home cooked meals and autralian TV - lovely jubbly!. Fia, we stayed with Kev and Nat on their farm. They have 135 hectares of land with cows, horses, dogs, cats, hens , chicken and...an emu! they put us to work, earn our keep...we had our first proper aussie BBQ and finished the night singing to 80's classics with farm animals for an audience, you can't beat it.
So here we are now in New Zealand, arrived yesterday. The plan is to hire a car and visit places such as Queenstown, Milford Sound and the glaciers before heading up to North Island.
We'll be staying at the best hotel in NZ - Chez Abbot!
Lots of love to all - Laura, keep us posted on baby arrival:-)
XXX
how are we? Jo, Lily is so cute! I bet she is getting more than her fair share of attention right now:-)
So the journey at this end continues, we left Thailand, its city madness, amazing beaches and spicy food for Australia a couple of weeks ago. We spent them between Melbourne and Adelaide. Completely unplanned, we happen to arrive in Melbourne during their 'Melbourne Cup' week, these guys have a national holiday to go watch the races, how fab is that! the rest of their week is pretty much a drunken party. Accommodation was hard to get as all of OZ descends on Melbourne for the week so we decided to hire a campervan and drive the great ocean road. A few chuckles I can see on your face as you try and imagine Jon fit in the campervan bed:-) it wasn't all that bad...the adventure was very enjoyable and we discovered some small jewels like Port Fairy and Mornington Peninsula. Went to a superb local farmers market in Mornington, I had never seen such large strawberries in my life!
Back in Melbourne, we stayed with a few friends/ex-colleagues (thanks Jamal and Kev) and enjoyed some home cooked meals and autralian TV - lovely jubbly!. Fia, we stayed with Kev and Nat on their farm. They have 135 hectares of land with cows, horses, dogs, cats, hens , chicken and...an emu! they put us to work, earn our keep...we had our first proper aussie BBQ and finished the night singing to 80's classics with farm animals for an audience, you can't beat it.
So here we are now in New Zealand, arrived yesterday. The plan is to hire a car and visit places such as Queenstown, Milford Sound and the glaciers before heading up to North Island.
We'll be staying at the best hotel in NZ - Chez Abbot!
Lots of love to all - Laura, keep us posted on baby arrival:-)
XXX
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
Say hi to Lily - now isn't she a beauty....not that I am biased at all. I had my first cuddle on Sunday!Expect you will be 'down under' by the time you get this, enjoying those barbies and fine weather. Not missing much here except our first big freeze....it is freeeeeeeezing here.
John and I are off 'zorbing' on Sunday, curtesy of Cato and his red letter day, so hope this will not be my last addition to your blog.
Carry on having fun!
Sunday, 26 October 2008
last day in thailand!
Spent 5 days in Railay & one in Ao Nang. Loved our little beach hut in Railay (less than a fiver a night!) - despite lack of hot water! Good for waking up in the morn...
Arrived in Ao Nang yesterday, booked into room that "definately had hot water". This turned out to mean "definitely does not have hot water". Ironic as thats what I ended up in as Magali was looking forward to a warm shower...
In a bid to save money chose to eat at the cheapest place in town (a few tables next to a portable kitchen at the side of the road) - proceeded to have the best meal of the holiday. Spicy glass noodle & prawn salad, grilled fresh fish (barraccuda), chicken green curry and sticky rice - washed down with 2 ice cold singa beers and a bottle of water - all for a staggering 4.50. Bargain.
Sat in cafe waiting for our pick up to the train station in Surat Thani. Then overnight train journey to Bangkok. Not looking forward too much to that one, but at least this time we have booked "sleepers". Shall wait to see if the Thai train companies accommodate 6ft 2in englishmen...
Weather been a bit dissapointing, but have what looks like a hint of a tan. Magali looked at the sun a week ago and has gone a golden bronze.
Next installment will be from down under - managed to find some accommodation in the end so heading off on time. Throw a shrimp on the barbie mate!
Arrived in Ao Nang yesterday, booked into room that "definately had hot water". This turned out to mean "definitely does not have hot water". Ironic as thats what I ended up in as Magali was looking forward to a warm shower...
In a bid to save money chose to eat at the cheapest place in town (a few tables next to a portable kitchen at the side of the road) - proceeded to have the best meal of the holiday. Spicy glass noodle & prawn salad, grilled fresh fish (barraccuda), chicken green curry and sticky rice - washed down with 2 ice cold singa beers and a bottle of water - all for a staggering 4.50. Bargain.
Sat in cafe waiting for our pick up to the train station in Surat Thani. Then overnight train journey to Bangkok. Not looking forward too much to that one, but at least this time we have booked "sleepers". Shall wait to see if the Thai train companies accommodate 6ft 2in englishmen...
Weather been a bit dissapointing, but have what looks like a hint of a tan. Magali looked at the sun a week ago and has gone a golden bronze.
Next installment will be from down under - managed to find some accommodation in the end so heading off on time. Throw a shrimp on the barbie mate!
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Greetings from Thailand!
Congrats Jo & John! Send a some photo's of your new niece, purely for Magali obviously....
Been in Thailand for 9 days. Bangkok still utterly bonkers. Grand Palace stunning. Magali being very brave and eating all the street food - but it is lovely (just need to blank out the lack of hygiene.... but tastes great!). Took in a Thai kickboxing event in Lumphini statium - saw several teenagers kick the living crap out of one another...
Headed off to Ko Chang. Stayed on lonely beach, not that lonely! Weather a bit hit and miss, but as per normal staill managed to get burnt with factor 20 in the shade & rain... Stayed in a small place called Sunset bungalows, got a bargain for air conditioned beach hut (5 quid). Got hammered on Samsong & chang beer. Saw a one legged guitarist who was really quite good. Crap drumer.
Spent 29 hours travelling on all modes of transprt to Krabi. All changed. Railay beach has gone umarket, Ao Nang is more developed with large upscale hotels, and Dave you're not going to believe this, Anadaman Inn has closed!!!!! (Andaman Inn was the place we survived the tsunami - and the main reason for heading down to Krabi). Bumped into Audlee Beckham (not his real name) who is a mate / worker from Andaman Inn randomly in Krabi. Going on the lash with him tomorrow in Ao Nang. No playing poll with ladyboys this time...
All in all having a blast, food is great, beer is cold, sea is inviting, company is the best. Magali still laughing at my jokes. Chang beer helping with that. Staying in Krabi until the 28th when fly out to Austalia - having probs getting accommodation in Melbourne as the Melbourne Cup is on. Apparently Australia descends upon Melbourne for the week.... so Thailand may be extended for a while longer.... ahh, could be worse! Bye for now.
Been in Thailand for 9 days. Bangkok still utterly bonkers. Grand Palace stunning. Magali being very brave and eating all the street food - but it is lovely (just need to blank out the lack of hygiene.... but tastes great!). Took in a Thai kickboxing event in Lumphini statium - saw several teenagers kick the living crap out of one another...
Headed off to Ko Chang. Stayed on lonely beach, not that lonely! Weather a bit hit and miss, but as per normal staill managed to get burnt with factor 20 in the shade & rain... Stayed in a small place called Sunset bungalows, got a bargain for air conditioned beach hut (5 quid). Got hammered on Samsong & chang beer. Saw a one legged guitarist who was really quite good. Crap drumer.
Spent 29 hours travelling on all modes of transprt to Krabi. All changed. Railay beach has gone umarket, Ao Nang is more developed with large upscale hotels, and Dave you're not going to believe this, Anadaman Inn has closed!!!!! (Andaman Inn was the place we survived the tsunami - and the main reason for heading down to Krabi). Bumped into Audlee Beckham (not his real name) who is a mate / worker from Andaman Inn randomly in Krabi. Going on the lash with him tomorrow in Ao Nang. No playing poll with ladyboys this time...
All in all having a blast, food is great, beer is cold, sea is inviting, company is the best. Magali still laughing at my jokes. Chang beer helping with that. Staying in Krabi until the 28th when fly out to Austalia - having probs getting accommodation in Melbourne as the Melbourne Cup is on. Apparently Australia descends upon Melbourne for the week.... so Thailand may be extended for a while longer.... ahh, could be worse! Bye for now.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Monday, 20 October 2008
Hello Travellers!!!!
Finally got onto this thing (with a little help from Ash), hope you are having an amazing time in Thailand! Heard you have already seen some Thai boxing. You will pleased to hear weather is rubbish here but keeping myself going by counting down to our little trip, 8 weeks to go!
Can't wait to hear all your news, take care and loads of love
Lisa and Ash xxx
Can't wait to hear all your news, take care and loads of love
Lisa and Ash xxx
Saturday, 11 October 2008
2 days and counting!!!
We've been to Paris to see Magali's parents, been to Stafford to see mine, spent a day with our new best friend Raymond Blanc, took a train journey with Gary Barlow and had dinner with Chris Rea over the last few days...not a bad way to kick start things off!
Currently sat amongst 4000 boxes trying desperately to squeeze them in a tiny loft.... shapes & sizes....not my strong point it seems....
It seems Magali's blog will only take 10 email addresses as recepients and cut off the others, so please pass on the news to people as and when we update. Cheers!
1 day and exactly 23 hours before take off....
Currently sat amongst 4000 boxes trying desperately to squeeze them in a tiny loft.... shapes & sizes....not my strong point it seems....
It seems Magali's blog will only take 10 email addresses as recepients and cut off the others, so please pass on the news to people as and when we update. Cheers!
1 day and exactly 23 hours before take off....
Monday, 29 September 2008
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Hello - well not long to go now until we start the first leg of this trip....what are we doing!! oh well, a little madness in life is always good me thinks....
The idea here is that we use this blog to post some weird and wonderful snippets of our day to day adventures during the next 6 months, hopefully that way we will all feel some much closer to each other...that was a very girlie comment but hey, I am aloud, it is emotional time :-)
So as this whole blog thing is all new to me , can you try writing back so I can see if it all works as it should. Merci beaucoup!!
The idea here is that we use this blog to post some weird and wonderful snippets of our day to day adventures during the next 6 months, hopefully that way we will all feel some much closer to each other...that was a very girlie comment but hey, I am aloud, it is emotional time :-)
So as this whole blog thing is all new to me , can you try writing back so I can see if it all works as it should. Merci beaucoup!!
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