mileage in may

I'm currently waiting for take off from london to copenhagen and to put harlands mind at ease I have been waiting at the airport for some time now... Enough time to calculate my air milage this month. Twice to copenhagen and back (by the time I return) and once to morocco and back to london..

8700 km roughly.

Could somebody tell me how far I would have made it if I had done that mileage in one flight?


Thanks.

picturesque morocco

.....but not as beautiful in real life

View from our balcony

The Village beach in Taghazout

The Zouk in Agadir

Taghazout by night

not really sure what's going on here...

Surfers view of Taghazout

Animal Kingdom, only thing missing is a picture of sugarmuffin , my stray puppy dog on the beach oh, and the kittens in the boat, brand spanking new, six of them. adorable flea infested little nippers.

We had a really nice time in morocco, lots of eating, sleeping, enjoying the sun and, yes, you guessed it: surfing. Although the waves were pretty minuscule we tried out best but it was long boards mainly... I enjoyed it and surfed for as long as I could, even on saturday. I would love to tell you all about it.... maybe another time....

Your Place at the University of Westminster

BSc Honours Human Nutrition - Full-time

..."you have been given an unconditional offer of a place on the above course"

nearly there....

All in all the trip has gone really well (so far, touch wood and all that). 10 hrs to Hong Kong, nice and easy, watched movies and relaxed. 10 hrs in Hong Kong with Ollie, a delicious dinner and a few pints in an irish pub and we were knackered when we got to the airport. 13 hrs to London, slept quite a bit, ate loads of food and watched telly (5 episodes of CSI included). My bag made it which was a huge relief as I was convinced it would get lost... I've made it to stanstead with time to spare but I'm on my own though which isn't at all as much fun... I'm having a hard time getting in to my head that I'll be seeing my family today...

you couldn't write this stuff...

I had little adventure yesterday when I went in to Hamilton to pick up the last presents and souvenirs. Driving down the main street I realized I had a flat tyre but couldn't pull over straight away because of the roadworks. I eventually found a loading bay and pulled in, got out and, yes, sure enough it was as flat as a pancake. I couldn't believe it. We've had this car for 5 months and never had a problem and this happens when I'm on my own, which is very unusual. And on top of that I was wearing my lovely white tunic, which I had to take off (I had a cami underneath though...)After an SOS to Harland to find out where everything was I got to work trying to get the jack out, with great difficulty. Then I got help from a lovely girl who was having coffee with two friends in a cafe where I pulled in. And here's the funny bit. The three girls had been sitting there chatting about what they can and can not do with cars. Two of them said they were useless when it came to cars and didn't even know how to change a tyre. The other girl then said: "You really ought to know how to change a tyre, I will have to teach you one day." And that's when I pulled in with my pancake wheel. So they got their lesson on my car and I got some much needed help + a good story to take home with me. As it were quite a few people stopped to see if we needed any help and I felt very well looked after :)

We had dinner with Rochelle and Paul and won't see them again this time. It was sad saying goodbye to the kids, especially Flynn "I love you with all my heart" bless his cotton socks. It's sad not knowing when we'll see them again. Rochelle is such a good sister to Harland and a good "sister" to me, always happy and warm and easy to talk to.

So, today we begin the final leg of our journey. Taking the car back to cousin hero in disguise Colin and then on to Auckland on the bus, spending the night in a hotel near the airport before we fly out tomorrow.

It's been such an amazing holiday

the beginning of the end

we've just come back from a bbq at auntie sue's and it was lovely, sitting there enjoying the view of the waitangi river, in spite of grey skies and tropical style rain. As alway we were fed some lovely food and according to tradition I ate far too much:)
We're heading south tomorrow, to the Waikato, which means we had to say good-bye to a few people today, not knowing when we'll see them again. So, even though we have just under three weeks before we fly out it does feel like the beginning of the end... I'm trying to look on the bright side, I'll get to see my family soon and we'll be starting a new exciting life in Gbg, but I can't help feeling a tad sad that our trip is over. At the end of the day, who knows when we'll next get a five month holiday...

90 mile beach

was woken up in the morning by Ethan playing on his drum with a big, loving smile on his face (of course Harland put him up to it...) and we set off North looking for surf. Got to Tauranga bay,where Harland was sure there would be nice sized waves but she was a pancake... Nevermind, we drove on, it turned in to a bit of a surf safari...minus the surf, even shipwreck bay was calm and flat.

In the end we drove as far as 90 mile beach, where we'd previously been on a tourbus, a well known beach where it is common to drive on to the beach and along it. So we did just that and in the end we managed to find a few little waves and squeeze out some board action.

Finally New Zealand

Not much to report really, but we're here now, just taking it all in, relaxing and catching up with family. Had a fab night last night with Rochelle and Paul. Drinking beer, eating freshly caught fish and then off to the pub to watch rugby. It's all very familiar in a lovely way and I really enjoyed it in spite of still being a bit jetlaged. It feels strangely normal being here and I have to pinch myself, we're actually in NZ, something we've looked forward to for so long.

Harlydarly is showing his nephew Flynn photos of Lo.

"She would make you laugh so much, she's nuts, ey."

:)

hong kong

we're in hong kong and I'm SO tired. It's 7 am GMT and I only got an hours kip on the plane, which is actually a good thing because I'm getting zoned in to kiwi time. It's been a good flight so far, lots of movies to chose from and TV programs (watched about six episodes of sex and the city). Lots of food to eat and the eleven hours from London just danced by. Now we're facing the last leg of the journey and I can't believe that we'll be in New Zealand in 12 hours time. It still feels surreal. It was snowing in london last night (was it last night, no hang on it was the night before... tuesday anyway, I'm so lost) and I woke up in the morning thinking "in a couple of days we'll be worrying about sun lotion and so on" couldn't go back to sleep of course...

It feels like the ground is moving or like I'm very drunk, I'm that tired. I'm going to go sit by the gate and wait to get on that lovely cool bird (it is roasting here!)

Lots of love to everybody

airport banter

Yes it has been ages since I blogged, but our time in sweden was very hectic. I hve a half-finished blog post with photos that should be posted soon.

We're at the airport and I'm standing at the same computer I used in january 2007 when we went to NZ last time and I was checkings sarah's blog and I was in tears becuse t was so hard to leave everybody and go to the other side of the world. Of course it's not easy this time but it is easier for some reason even though t is 5 monts instead of 2. we've been here for a good couple of hours now due to Harlydarly's ridiculous "good time" motto. That and the fact that we had nothing else to do. The great thing about airoports is that if you get bored, which you do, there is lots of food just waiting to be eaten!

well, must dash, gate 23 and our flight to hong kong is awaiting us (1 hour to fly fly time)

Leaving party

wanted to post a picture of this lovely card from Carol. Get the feeling it's hand made and will definetely hold on to this one.

As it's time to leave scotland I thought it would be fun to get a few friends together and have a leaving bash, something we've never done before. In the past we've just slipped off into the night. I had a great time and I think the others did too... It's times like this that I regret this nomadic lifestyle. But I hope that I will get a chance to meet some of these wonderful people again, one sunny day. And until then I'll at least have Newton Falkner to remind me of the Forsyth sisters:)

the chickens made an appearance

bye bye boxes

c u in sweden next week in sweden

update

For those of you who've lost track this is what we're up to

This is the plan


* We handed in our notice on tuesday. Mrs E took it really well, she doesn't blame us and she's happy for us. It worked out really well

* We're working through our list of things to do before

* We've booked our flight to sweden (25 September)

* I take my exam 25 October

* We fly back to London for a couple of nights 27 October (hopefully catching up with people on tuesday 28 oct.)

* We fly out to NZ 29 October
* We have a bloody good time in NZ
* We fly back to Sweden (via London) 26 March 2009 and start our new exciting life.

Point of Stoer pictures

...emailed through by a lovely dutch man.
Harland and Colin monkeying around out on a cliff high high up.

is that indiana?

roadtrip!

Here are a but a few of the photos from our amazing 873mile (1405 km) roadtrip around the north of scotland. It was basically five days of driving, laughing and eating crisps.

Sinclair Castle

sign... what sign?

the two cousins that made this trip what it was

some disgusting irn bru action in a playground in Halkirk where we stopped for a picnic and hung our wet stuff out to dry. The poor unexpected residents didn't know what hit them... We spent half a day in Halkirk searching through a cemetery looking for non relatives:) hilarious..

I went snorkeling and got mussels. and very cold

the boys were fishy

I tried fishing but didn't catch anything. Did a good job not looking at the camera though....

the astonishing pass of the cattle, leaving the amazing Apllecross peninsula

and can I just say; this country is beautiful

crazy!

We've just booked our flight to New Zealand!!!

28 October - 25 March!

How crazy is that?

and the funny thing is, it's exactly a year ago we arrived back in the UK after our last trip to gods own

Some holiday snaps Little bit of Lo lovin

Bathing in Budapest

Superchilled in a hotpool

Yesterday was amazing. We started off going for a run and after lunch at the flat we headed for the thermal baths. At first we were a bit puzzled, finding our way around the bath house was proving to be a bit of a challenge as it was a maze and there were no signs in english... We found two hot pools and a steam room and sat there thinking "there must be more to it than this...". After a while we ventured down the far end of the building and found the door to the other side. Another few indoor pools but above all there was the outdoor pool, huge beautiful stemin hot outdoor pool. There was also a sauna down some stairs with a cold pool outside it. I spent a little bit of time at the end of the day going between the hot sauna and icecold pool, it was really refreshing! Harland didn't like it at all. There was a whirlpool and a huge jacuzzi down one end of the outside pool, we spent quite a bit of time playing around there
Most of the day, however, was spent just floating around the pool together looking at the clear blue february sky enjoying the warmth.
By the way, the weather has been stunning so far.

Budapest baby- travel journal

After a fantastic week in Sweden we've no arrived in Budapest. When we arrived at the hostel we'd booked we were offered a flat to ourselves for the same price as a double room. The flat is near heroes square and is absolutely stunning a part from amateur like DIY... Last night after we'd made ourselves at home we went for a walk in the area and then down to otragon (the main eating district) for some stunning pizza.

We've spent today waking (lots!) across the river to Buda, up to the castle on the hill to enjoy the view and, after a hairy Gulach, back down again.

watch this space for updates and pictures will be added when we get home

We're having a nice, very relaxed time!

Tack till alla dar hemma for en underbar vecka, det var verkligen jatte mysigt! Halsa mormor att jag hoppas hon kryar pa sig, jag tanker pa henne. Halsa Lo att jag tanker pa henne aven idag och att hennes telefon samtal varmde mitt hjarta igar (hon ringde for att saga "I love you" och "jag saknar dig jatte mycket moster, emma".

Ma&Pa jag har slut med pengar pa mobilen men jag ska se om jag kan ladda over internet. Tusen kramar till er.

Jag hor av mig pa lordag nar jag kommer hem eller pa sondag innan rugbyn (jag har match)

we're off...

on our 2 week loop, dunblane-london-sweden-hungary-dunblane.

a well deserved and much needed break. it's going to be so much fun!

and best of all I'll be reunited with my much loved and missed camera.

second best is seeing friends and family:)

watch this space for updates on our travels