Journeys

Plans for 2011

2011-05-25T20:49:00.004+01:00

We are off to Cornwall very soon for a trip with Spike and Chewy and a couple of friends of ours and their dog. We haven't been to Cornwall for a very long time, so we are looking forward to going back. We will hopefully fit in a trip down to Lands End while we are there.

We still have plans for an overseas trip as well this year, most likely in October. Still no concrete plans on the destination, we're going to leave it fairly last minute and see if we get a good deal.

We will be going to two Christenings this year and there will be visits to both our families.

Steph has nearly got round to transferring her APS films of Malaysia and Thailand onto disc, so those trips and photos will hopefully be appearing on the blog soon.

We'll be back soon with our trip report on Cornwall.

Good Bye Africa

2011-05-25T20:12:00.010+01:00

We have now come to the end of our trip to Uganda. In Kampala we stayed at Le Petit Village hotel. It was a lovely little bit of luxury after our trip, we intended to use the pool but never got round to it. The room was lovely and the hotels restaurant was very good. We met a friendly Texan, who told us about the hotels he had in a couple of countries.

Kampala is a very busy city and there is so much to look at. Newcastle United were playing Sunderland, so we left the hotel to find a bar that was playing the game. We found a little one with a few locals in it who were all pleased to watch the game. They all became fans of Newcastle to support Andy. Luckily Newcastle won, so there was lots of cheering. We bought a round of drinks for our new friends to celebrate the win.

Our trip through the airport was hassle free, we were searched outside the airport and inside, but no difficulties. This is when we saw all the Americans with their huge drums, so we had absolutely no worries about ours. The wait for boarding seemed so long and it was very humid and stuffy. We were relieved when we could finally board. A very lucky passenger near us on the plane was upgraded to first class because he knew one of the cabin crew.

We had a great trip to Uganda and it was a very good choice for our introduction to Africa. We would definitely recommend a trip to Uganda. Very friendly people, great professional service from African Jungles Safaris, amazing animals and an all round enjoyable trip.

We stayed at Le Petit Village, $170 for a double suite

You Learn Something New Everyday

2011-05-17T20:22:00.009+01:00

Our next stop on our tour of Kampala was the Bahai Temple. The Bahai faith was a new one to us, we hadn't heard of it before. The temple was high on a hill overlooking the city surrounded by very neat and peaceful gardens. We were introduced to some followers who explained their faith to us. From what we understood, the Bahai faith is about understanding others and their faiths. There is no preacher and every Sunday, the congregation take it in turns to read from the different and numerous Holy books of the world. The temple itself was very calming and peaceful, no talking or photos allowed inside.

We did feel the peace of the place and it was very welcoming. The faith itself did come across as trying to understand others, which we agreed was a good thing and maybe the world needs a lot more of that.

After the pleasant visit to the temple, our next stop was the Kings Palace, well one of them, more his summer home for parties!

We weren't allowed inside, but were allowed to explore the grounds. A member of the palace staff showed us around and told us the history of the place and some facts about the Ugandan Royal family. Steph had to put a sarong around her trousers because any female on the Kings property can automatically be taken as his wife and the Queen never wears trousers! It doesn't matter if you're already married either! From the hill the palace is on we could see a Mosque that was funded by Gadaffi and a huge man-made lake, created by 200 men in 2 weeks!

Around the grounds were lots of car parts. Turns out the parts belonged to many classic cars including Bentleys and Rolls Royce which were destroyed in an uprising in the 1950's.

We were taken to a tunnel built into the ground. Turns out it was Idi Amin's torture chamber which was originally built as a gun store. The place used to be fully electrified when it was the torture chamber. A layer of water below the cells was also electrified. They are not sure how many people died, but it was a lot. They think some of the bodies might be at the bottom of the man-made lake. It was a very sad place and horrifying to hear the stories.

We bought a traditional picture off a local artist at the palace and were then showed around a small photo gallery of the Royal family. All in all, it was a very interesting little visit.

We finished off our day with a pizza for lunch and then returned to our hotel.

Old Stuff!

2011-04-16T17:43:00.007+01:00

Kampala's tallest building

Our first stop on our tour of Kampala was the museum. Although it was on the small side, it was still packed full of interesting items. We saw traditional clothes, houses and instruments through the ages and the different headgear worn by the numerous different tribes of Uganda. We learnt how the British came to Uganda and the impact they made, the museum housed the first car in Uganda, brought in by the British.

We learnt of a Queen who haunts a tree and that women visit the tree to help with their fertility. During our tour we met a group of school children who all wanted a high five! Approximately 30 high fives each later, we returned to our vehicle, next stop was a touch of shopping at a local craft centre.

There were so many little shops to look at. We had a list of presents to buy for family back home as well as one or two gifts for ourselves. We came across a group of local artists and chose a few paintings from them. We also bought for ourselves a pair of wooden elephant bookends.

We saw the tallest building in Kampala, which wasn't really very tall, but that is really kind of nice. What we noticed the most was the birds. They were huge and quite surreal, as back home we'd only see those kinds of birds in a zoo.

Good Bye Gorillas

2011-03-22T16:07:00.007Z

Our hour was up and it was time to say good bye and embark on our 3 hour trek back. Being down hill most of the way, it was much easier, except for a few slips here and there! The rain had continued to stay away so it was nice and dry as well. Out of the forest and down through the tea plantations we came across a local who had carved gorillas out of wood. Andy had already reached this man before Steph and had picked out a very good carving, we bought it to add to our mementos of this incredible experience.

Finally back at the vehicles we said our good byes to the amazing porters and rangers. Inside the van the rain finally came and we were pleased with our good luck. Back at the Wildlife Authority headquarters we were awarded with a certificate of our experience.

At the lodge we excitedly discussed our different experiences with the other tourists who had trekked other gorilla groups. They were all quite shocked with the 7 hour trek we had just completed, but we were very proud of ourselves for completing it as it added to the whole experience for us.

After dinner we went to our beds and fell asleep quickly.

The journey back was quite eventful, we came across quite a confused state on one of the roads. It looked like some vehicles may tip over and we did come across one that had! We hit Kampala in the early evening after a ten hour road trip and the traffic was just impossible, we thought we'd never make it to the hotel.

Eventually arriving at Le Petit Village hotel, we said a long good bye to our great guide Hamid, who has been exceptional. We had seen rare sights such as a Leopard, Giant Forest Hogs and a male Lion asleep in a tree, numerous of birds we wouldn't have had a clue about and so many animals, all thanks to Hamid who obviously loves his job and is very good at it. We couldn't thank him enough.

For us now it was time for dinner and then bed, the next day we would be exploring Kampala.

Gorillas!

2011-03-03T10:12:00.016Z

The family of Gorillas were spread out a little bit, but there were 19 of them, so everywhere you looked there was a Gorilla. They were just simply amazing and we didn't start taking pictures straight away, we just took in the atmosphere and watched these magnificent creatures.

We saw a baby being carried on its mothers back and a small group of them grooming each other. The silver back was well within view and quite close. He was stubborn though and would not face the cameras, a profile shot was the best we could get. Our favourite poser was a female who was unfortunately blind in one eye, she gave us some great pictures.We couldn't get over how big some of them were and that they almost looked unreal.

A juvenile climbed down a tree right by Steph, which we managed to capture on video. Andy found himself quite close to one and slowly moved away to a safe distance because Gorillas can catch our human diseases.

What made us all giggle like children was the amount of farting going on by the Gorillas and they were loud! But we would all be like that if we ate what the Gorillas ate!

You can only spend 1 hour with the Gorillas and the time flew by. You are literally mesmerized by them, they are indeed very special and what a wonderful experience. We are so happy we had the opportunity to do this.

4 Hours Up!

2011-02-15T19:26:00.005Z

We met early in the morning at the Wildlife Authority HQ with the rangers and other tourists. We watched a short film and then listened to David one of the rangers explaining the do's and don'ts. We were then split into groups to visit the different families, low and behold we were on the hard trek! But, we were visiting the Habinyanja group which had 19 family members, so a mixture of excitement and anxiety!

In our group were 3 more tourists, 2 Americans with their South African guide and our Australian friend, Grant.

We set off in two vehicles as we were also accompanied by several rangers. The vehicle we were in couldn't go any further as the roads were so bad, therefore we jumped in with the Americans who had a more superior vehicle.

We stopped and were met by porters and also introduced to the 'emergency team' who basically are incredibly fit people who come in after you and carry you to the Gorillas and then carry you out! (They do come with a hefty price, but only you can agree to them coming to help you).

Our porter Lorhna insisted on taking our daypack (which was so heavy as it was full of water).

We started off on our trek, not so bad to start off with a rolling path through farms. We suddenly hit a very steep ascent through a tea plantation with the sun shining right down on us. It took some time to get up and we kept stopping to drink and cool down. At the top of the plantation before we went into the forest, Steph had to sit down as she felt quite ill. Turns out she was dehydrated and welcomed a rehydration drink. After a few minutes the drink had kicked in and we were off again.

The deeper we went into the forest, the harder it got to keep steady on our feet. Well, they don't call it the impenetrable forest for nothing! The rangers hacked their way creating a path for us.

We won't lie, the trek was hard and we were travelling at a slowish pace, the aim was to reach the Gorillas before it rained.

Every now and then someone would shout 'Ants' and you had to jump as high and far as you could over the nest. Lorhna our porter was incredible she helped Steph and made sure she didn't fall over. The American lady was also very looked after by her porter and kept her on her feet as well. Andy and the other two men were left to keep themselves on their feet!

At one point everyone felt a little apprehensive, the ground we were walking on felt very unstable, it was like there was no solid ground, just layers of vegetation and not much room to place your feet. We pushed on and were finally told to stop, we were there!

We were told to leave everything with the porters and just bring our cameras. We had made it to the Gorillas and there was no rain!

We walked for a couple more minutes, just us tourists and the rangers and then there they were, the most incredible sight...

Bwindi

2011-02-03T11:32:00.005Z

The journey to Bwindi was very long and the roads got worse. We drove through pretty little villages with smiling faces from the children who waved at us as we carried on our journey. As we arrived, we drove through the last village which was mainly a village of crafts with lots of goods out on display. Andy tried to cover Steph's eyes, but too late! There would be some shopping at some point!

We arrived at Buhoma Community Lodge, our accommodation for our Gorilla trek. Our room was in a great location with a view straight out into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, fantastic.

The room itself was a big Army style tent inside a wooden hut type surrounding. The bathroom was out the back. Everything was a little basic, but comfortable and with electricity and hot water, so what more do you need? Andy wasn't sure at first, mainly because the bed was on the short side and he imagined his feet sticking out the end of the bed getting attacked by mosquitoes! Turned out that he just fitted inside the bed and mosquito net.

We went up to the main building where we bumped into our Australian friend, Grant again and an English doctor. The doctor had been on the Gorilla trek that day and described his experience, it sounded brilliant and we were excited for our turn the next day.

Steph was a little worried about which family we would be visiting as everyone was classing the three families into three groups, Easy Trek, Medium Trek and Hard Trek. Easy was 1 hour there 1 hour back, Medium was 2 hours there and 2 hours back and the Hard Trek was anything between 3+ hours there and 3+ hours back.

Steph had suffered a fitness set back just before we came to Uganda. She managed to strain her Achilles tendon 2 weeks before we were due to travel and the doctors were discussing whether to put her in plaster, instead complete rest and immobilisation was agreed.

But before all this, Steph had suffered from a dislocated knee that had caused a lot of time away from exercise. Steph was reassured she would be fine.

You don't get to choose which family you want to visit, there is a chance you can swap with other people if they agree. Hamid came to check on us and we asked which family we would be visiting, he wouldn't tell us, just that it was the best family! We would find out the next day...

The Lion Sleeps Tonight... No Actually, During the Day, in a Tree!

2011-01-27T12:17:00.011Z

So after our excellent and very lucky viewing of a Leopard, we set off for Ishasha in hope of viewing a Lion.

As the roads in Uganda are not the most vehicle friendly roads we have come across, Hamid takes it easy and this is great for us as we get to spot animals along the way. On this journey we viewed Elephants, Baboons, Colobus Monkeys and even a snake.

We came up behind another tourist vehicle on this extremely quiet 'road' There is black smoke coming out of it and eventually it pulls over, we pull over too and Hamid gets out to see if they are in need of any help.

Hamid gets back in and says that the other vehicle will have to limp to the next town for repairs, he thinks damage has been done by going too quickly on these bumpy roads. We set off again, only to pull over almost immediately with the other vehicle. Hamid and the other driver have a discussion and then Hamid asks us whether the single tourist from the other vehicle could join us for Ishasha as they may not make it in time with their limping vehicle. Of course it's ok and a friendly Australian called Grant joins us.

We arrive in no time to view the Lions with a quick pit stop at a very unwelcoming toilet!

We set off around the park and are joined by 3 more tourist vehicles (the most we had seen so far on our safari).

Hamid spotted a male Lion in a tree, which again we couldn't see straight away! We did eventually more quickly than the Leopard. Hamid told us that it's very unusual to spot a male Lion in a tree with female Lions being more common in them. Again we felt we were very lucky. Hamid also explained that they thought the Lions slept in the trees to escape the flies.

The male Lion was well aware he was being watched and was not moving, so one by one the vehicles including ours went off in different directions in search of more Lions.

Our search proved disappointing and the weather was also starting to change which actually made Hamid pretty excited.

The wind had picked up, so Hamid raced back to the tree where we had seen the sleeping male Lion. Hamid explained that the Lion would not like the wind and would leave the tree.

Back at the tree, we were the only vehicle there and just as Hamid had said the Lion started to wake up! He changed position in the tree a few times before climbing down into the bushes below. He peeked out of the bushes and then trotted off. Magnificent!

Another vehicle arrived just in time to see him escape into the distance.

Again, how lucky were we? Hamid has excellent knowledge and Grant our new passenger was equally thrilled and impressed with Hamid.

Grant's driver met us at the entrance of the park and re-joined him. We were now off to Bwindi, for the Gorillas, we were very excited!

Any Sort of Cat!

2011-01-22T12:58:00.009Z

Can you see the Leopard yet?

We couldn't until it came more into view now

How lucky were we to see a Leopard!

Our next part of the safari was to see some Lions at Ishasha and then travel to Bwindi for the Mountain Gorillas. As we left Simba Lodge for the last time, Andy said to Hamid that the challenge today was to see any Cat, even if it was a domestic cat! Hamid had been so good with the animal sightings, that he was up for the challenge!

We firstly went back to the part of QEP that we had on the first day. We drove around for quite a long time before we accepted defeat. Just as we had started to leave, Hamid slammed on the brakes and started pointing at a Cactus tree. Hamid had spotted a Leopard! But we couldn't see it at first! Hamid grabbed our camera and started taking photos for us. We saw it eventually as it started to leave the tree, Wow!

We stayed there a while just looking at it before it disappeared into the bushes below the tree. Another tourist vehicle came along and stopped. They asked us what we were looking at. They nearly fell off the roof of their vehicle when we told them it was a Leopard.

We continued on, heading for the Tree Climbing Lions of Ishasha. Would we be so lucky and get a sighting of a Lion?

Kazinga Channel

2011-01-19T19:05:00.013Z

Bushbuck

Piglets!

Giant Forest Hog

Our Elephant friend who wanted to go the way we were going!

The Yawning Hippo snap

Part of our safari was a boat trip on the Kazinga channel, where we would see lots of animals and birds. Before boarding the boat we came across some Mongoose who were playing inside a small old boat. They were excellent posers for our photos and didn't seem at all bothered by the numerous tourists snapping away.

Queuing for the boat we unfortunately ran into our rude acquaintances from the lodge. They didn't notice us, but that was probably because they were too busy pushing people out of the way to get on the boat first.

Our guide didn't accompany us on the boat, but the boat had it's own wildlife expert to talk us through the sightings.

Steph was excited to have snapped a baby hippo, unfortunately the excitement quickly turned to horror when she was told the poor baby hippo was actually dead!

There were herds of Elephants, Buffalo and Waterbuck all around the channel. We spotted a few crocodiles, which were really well camouflaged. There were just hundreds of birds all chattering at the same time. Photo's can't capture the many sounds of the channel, so we took some videos as well.

Everyone was out to get a 'yawning Hippo' photo and we all kept missing the very few chances. Steph was finally lucky enough to get one, it's not the best picture, a little out of focus, but we got one!

We headed back just in time before the rain.

There was a sprint from everyone to get back in their vehicles before they got soaked. As we left, we were very lucky to find ourselves in a prime spot when a lone male Elephant was in the middle of the road. Hamid our guide stopped the van so we could get some close up shots without zoom. The Elephant decided we were in the way and tried a mini charge at us! Hamid being experienced as he is knew exactly how to keep us safe from any danger, we managed to record a video of the charge.

On our way back to the lodge we were again very lucky as we came across a Giant Forest Hog right by the roadside staring at us and when it turned away, there was another one and some little piglets! Again, the photos are a little out of focus, but there was very little time to snap them. Hamid told us that they don't come out until it's dark, but he thought they may have been confused by the weather which had made the sky gloomy.

Another shy creature we managed to see on our return was a Bushbuck who wasn't so much in a rush to get away.

QEP

2011-01-02T16:11:00.009Z

Our first full day at the Queen Elizabeth National Park, with a very early start! We saw a beautiful sunrise over the park. The days viewing was mainly of prey rather than predators. We saw so many beautiful birds and as we are not 'birdwatchers' we welcomed our guides expertise. We saw so many Waterbucks and Kob, Warthogs, Elephants, Buffalo and the odd Lizard. We almost ran over a very long trail of ants and came across a very big ant hill. We saw the Waterbucks, Kob and Warthogs up close and the rest from a distance. Our guide had very good eyesight and spotted the animals we couldn't even see.

The day was split with lunch back at Simba Safari Camp where we were staying. It was such an amazing day seeing all these animals in the wild and so incredible see so many of them.

What was really enjoyable was that it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves with only very occasionally coming across other tourists.

Simba Safari Camp was very comfortable and the staff were excellent. Our stay would have been perfect if a group of other guests had a little more courtesy towards others. The staff handled them very well though, despite this group of guests being very demanding and rude to them. The lodge only had a certain number of plugs for guests to recharge their camera batteries and this group of particular guests decided that they had more right than anybody else and unplugged everyone else's batteries to plug in their own, apparently to them taking your turn and sharing doesn't exist. Unfortunately, this wasn't the last time that we would experience their rudeness.

On the other hand they were a small annoyance compared to the fantastic first day we had at QEP.

We stayed at Simba Safari Camp

On our Way

2010-12-17T16:04:00.008Z

It took quite a while to get out of Kampala, we had hit rush hour on a Monday morning, so the city was more than hectic! As we gradually left and entered the countryside, there was a huge difference between the two. One thing we noticed which was so good, was that Uganda is so green.

The weather wasn't great, it was raining but it was still warm.

We were on our way to the Queen Elizabeth National park, which was quite some hours away. We stopped off at the equator and had our photo and then went for some breakfast.

Steph bought a traditional African drum (she's always wanted one after seeing them at her Grandparents house when she was growing up). We were a little worried that it might be too big for the luggage, but as we found out at Entebbe airport on our way home, we had absolutely nothing to worry about. Our drum was tiny compared to the drums a group of Americans had!

We reached QEP by late afternoon/ early evening because we made quite a few stops to look at the beautiful scenery. Also, we started to make our first sightings of Uganda's wildlife. The animals were quite far away, but the real safari started the next day...

Uganda!

2010-12-05T13:35:00.006Z

Kampala

One of the quiet roads, just outside the Hotel Triangle

Our long awaited trip to Uganda finally came and before we knew it we were on our way to Heathrow airport. We flew out of Terminal 5, a new experience for the both of us. We have to say that it was a good experience and there was plenty to do before our flight. On our way to our gate, Steph saw people waiting at other gates and was already deciding on our next trip!

Andy found it difficult to sleep on the plane, but Steph had no trouble at all! We had extra leg room seats which was better for Andy being 6ft 1". Landing at Entebbe was very different to Heathrow, first of all there was so much green and a much, much smaller airport. We had no trouble at Entebbe, a little wait at immigration but that was about it. Andy is always nervous as to whether our luggage has made it with us, but again no need to worry.

Maria, our tour company guide was waiting for us and drove us to our hotel in Kampala. This was our first time in Africa and there was so much going on all around. It was a Sunday and Maria said it was quiet, it did not seem quiet at all! Kampala was just crazy, the traffic lights just seemed redundant and all the moto bikes were weaving in out of all the mini bus taxis. Steph thought she'd seen 'mad' traffic in Asia, but this was something else! Surprisingly not scary, just so crazy you couldn't help but watch.

We were staying at the Hotel Triangle for one night before we left on our safari the next day. We went to our room and caught up on some sleep. The rain hammered down while we were sleeping and we awoke to a very soggy carpet by our door. We went for a wonder around the streets outside the hotel, but didn't go too far as we had already planned a city tour on our return from our safari.

Andy was pleased to find that the hotel played the football, so we settled for the evening watching a game before bed.

We woke early to be ready for our safari. The hotel was comfortable and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Hamid our guide for the safari was waiting for us to begin our first African safari.

Our first impressions of Africa were very good and we were excited to continue our trip.

We stayed at the Hotel Triangle in Kampala. We booked a double room, en suite with air-con (we found that we didn't really need the air-con) $120 per night including breakfast.

Andy's 30th

2010-11-16T17:14:00.012Z

Andy turned 30 on 3rd November. Being a Wednesday, we had a family meal. We cooked Andy's favourite, Steak, Chips, Onion rings, fried eggs and pepper sauce. Then for afters we had Smarties chocolate birthday cake. It took a while to get it all cooked because we were cooking for 9 people, but it all turned out well and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Andy finished off the evening by giving a speech under the influence of helium, which was hilarious!

On the Saturday we held a cocktail party at home for Andy's birthday. We had a buffet, chocolate fountain, vodka jellies and of course lots of alcohol and mixtures to make the cocktails. The favourite cocktails on the night seemed to be Blue Lagoons and Seabreezes. Although Steph made her favourite cocktail, a Singapore Sling. The Tequila Sunrises didn't go down very well as no one could hack the Tequila! maybe the glass was too small making them too strong.

Chewy stayed by the buffet table all night cleaning up anything that was dropped, needless to say that he is now on a diet! Spike was very over excited due to the amount of people throwing his ball for him!

The party went down really well, lots drank and lots eaten! A couple of people had a few too many of the Baileys and Amaretto shots and were suffering the next day with a hangover!

At about midnight everyone departed into town to carry on the party.

Andy's main present from Steph was a Song Gigajuke Hi-Fi system.

Update

2010-11-15T15:34:00.004Z

It's been a while since we last posted. We've been to Uganda and had the best time, such an amazing place. We have also celebrated Andy's 30th birthday. We will post about Andy's birthday first and then about our trip to Uganda. Here is a photo of one of the amazing Mountain Gorillas of Uganda we visited.

Tomorrow: Andy's Birthday.

Walking the Pack!

2010-09-12T11:33:00.015+01:00

On one of our many dog walks, we had on this occasion invited Steph's dad, sister and brother, who have dogs as well. Between us all we were walking 5 dogs! Luckily all the dogs know each other and get on fine. We walked up Haughmond Hill in Shropshire. There are several routes to the top and we decided to take the longest route. We met many other walkers on the way and more dogs. Everyone just seemed to get on well, so it was a really lovely walk. When you get to the top, you are rewarded with a beautiful view. At the top we stopped for a picnic. We had some treats for the dogs and Steph's sister handed them out. It was quite funny as she is petite and was completely surrounded by 5 dogs in varying sizes from medium to large!

Spike entertained everyone by gathering sticks and small logs, where he tried to carry as many as he could.

Overall we walked for a good couple of hours which was just enough for the dogs.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-09-06T21:16:00.016+01:00

A selection of photos from our wonderful day.

Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary and it has been a really good two years! We got married at All Saints Church and had our reception at the Albrighton Hall hotel. The wedding was quite a large one, but we both have fairly large families. The day before our wedding we had torrential rain and Shrewsbury flooded. It usually takes Steph 10-15 minutes to get to her dads house from ours in the car, but the night before took her about an hour as all the roads in were flooded. She had to risk it and ended up driving through a severely flooded road, but she made it.

The next day though, the rain had gone, luckily! But the roads were still flooded and made Steph and her dad 30 minutes late for the church, which made Andy a little nervous! They got a message through and Andy was able to relax a little.

The church service was wonderful, filled with our family and friends. During the signing of the register, the choir sang Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, which was fantastic.

We were a little rushed when we arrived for the reception because we were behind with the timing a little, so were uber organised getting the photos done. The photographer asked Steph to climb on a tree trunk, she was up there like a shot, we didn't want to keep our guests waiting and wanted to get on with the party!

There were no real hitches except that the cake collapsed! The cake maker had iced the cake warm, and therefore it sunk. We weren't that bothered because if that's the only thing to go wrong, then we felt very lucky.

We had a fantastic DJ who got the party really going. Spike and Chewy were present at the reception, which the kids absolutely loved.

If we could do the day again, we wouldn't change a thing, it was a brilliant day made special by the people there.

Update

2010-08-03T11:58:00.002+01:00

Thought we'd give a little update seen as though there isn't any planned trips between now and Uganda in October.

Steph has unfortunately been made redundant. The charity she works for has had it's funding withdrawn by the UK government. The withdrawal was originally going to take place over 10 months but that has been reduced to 4 months leaving the charity with too little time to find alternative funding. It's a great shame as it was a good project helping a lot of people. Steph can find a new job, but the people that were benefiting from the project won't have the help they were getting, again.

Andy is managing another football team for the new season as manager and coach, they are called Oswestry Boys FC, so we'll be keeping an eye on their progress. Managing this team will also give Andy the opportunity to do the FA level 2 coaching badge.

Spike has just had his birthday, he is 7 now. Chewy is well and still doesn't seem to be too affected by the arthritis in his front leg joints. They had great fun at the weekend as a couple of our friends came to stay and they have a young daughter who had great fun playing with Spike and Chewy.
These friends of ours are off to paradise because they are moving to Bermuda! Lucky things!

Steph is back to netball and the knee seems to be holding up well. Two more essays to go and that's another year finished at University for Steph. 2011 will be her final year.

We have had holiday invites for next year, so a bit spoiled for choice, but no plans as yet. We've been invited to Bermuda to stay with our friends and another friend has just moved back to Thailand and has invited us over as well. We'll have to see what 2011 brings!

We're looking forward to Uganda in October and Andy's birthday in November.
Speak soon!

Germany 4 v England 1

2010-07-18T14:48:00.003+01:00

Not much to say really than the obvious which was that Germany just simply out classed England. Germany deserved the win and finished the game with a real chance for reaching the final. There was of course the controversial decision where Lampard's goal was disallowed. This went and brought out the ever long dispute over whether technology should be brought into the game. We think it should certainly be trialled instead of just ruling it out completely. We think all teams would welcome a trial.

We couldn't help but wonder along with the rest of the country that if Lampard's goal stood, then would it have been a different game? What we do know is that England need to step up, their whole performance was just not quite world class.

On and upwards to Brazil!

Slovenia 0 v England 1

2010-06-26T21:28:00.006+01:00

We did it! Through to the last 16. Ok, there was only one goal, but it looks like the team are back to their old selves, so good news all round and we can only get better. We thought the whole team played really well and Milner was superb. We felt for Rooney though, he is so desperate to score and we hope he does in the next round. Not a lot to say apart from that we are so happy for the team.

Our next game is on Sunday 27th June and it's against Germany. We think England have a good chance. If England win against Germany then they could meet Argentina and Spain in the next rounds, a very tough way to win the World Cup, but you never know.

We'll be watching the next game with family and another BBQ, you've got to make the most of the good weather when you live in England!

England 0 v Algeria 0

2010-06-21T21:55:00.004+01:00

Well what can we say? We don't look like a winning team. The players looked lethargic, there was no compassion. Whose the Wayne Rooney look-a-like because it certainly isn't the same Rooney we all know and love. Again, we can only choose two players we thought did their job, for us it was Ashley Cole and David James.

It was a very disappointing match, but fair play to Algeria. What did we think of Wayne Rooney's comment after the match? Well he was obviously angry, but you can't blame the fans for booing. Its costs the fans thousands to be in South Africa and they don't get the chance to let the players know their individual comments, so the only way to express their disappointment is to boo. The England team need to sort out whatever it is that is wrong and they haven't got a lot of time to do it in. We know they are better than their previous two performances.

Things could be worse though, we haven't lost any games and we could be in a complete revolt like the French team.

On a more lighter note, British comedian/ actor/ presenter, etc... James Cordon has launched a national campaign. All men to 'Back the Beard' for the England team. Andy has been growing his and has even made it through the itchy stage! What do you think?!

COME ON ENGLAND!

England 1 v USA 1

2010-06-13T14:51:00.011+01:00

England played their first group game against the USA yesterday (12th June 2010).

We had a little get together at our house with a couple of our friends and Steph's dad. Andy lit the BBQ for a pre-match meal since the weather was lovely and pretty hot. To join in the spirit of the World Cup and England we put a few flags up, wore our shirts and the dogs wore their England bandanna's.

What can we say about the game? Well we if we're honest we have seen England play a lot better. The beginning was superb with Gerrard scoring a brilliant early goal, but this start was not to be carried through to the end. We can easily point out a few players who played their part brilliantly and we can also point out a few who did not. Of course Green made a huge blunder but you could also point out that the rest of the players didn't help correct that by not scoring any more goals. Rooney seemed to only come in the game in the last 20 minutes. Heskey was taken off but for us he could have got man of the match. Heskey was always busting a gut to win the ball and we felt he played very well.

The worst point of the game for us was the fact that we never got to see Gerrard's goal, the reason was down to a huge error by the tv channel, ITVHD. Someone cut the game and put an advert in and when it went back to the game, Gerrard had already scored! What a mistake to make.

The interview with Gerrard after the game shows he felt they can play better as well. We have every hope in the team and know they should qualify from their group. Fingers Crossed!

Well, to bring up the past, England drew their opening game at the World Cup in 1966 and went on to win the whole thing, so you never know!!

Time To Go Home

2010-05-24T19:02:00.005+01:00

We woke up late on our last day, we had to vacate by 10am and we woke up at 9.15am, the alarm hadn't gone off! Good job we had done most of the packing the night before. We rushed round getting everything into the car. Once the car was loaded up we drove to the office to drop off the front door key. No one was there though, maybe we didn't have to rush in the end? There was another couple trying to give their key in as well, we all decided just to put them in the letter box.

We stopped off at Pendine beach to give the dogs a run before the long journey home. The beach was pretty quiet again. On our way back to the car we were stopped by a man, turns out he was from the local council keeping an eye on dog owners who do not pick up after their dogs. He thanked us for cleaning up after our dogs and gave us some free doggy bags.

About half way home we stopped off at a little cafe for some food, it was pleasant enough, pity there were no tables and chairs outside because it was lovely and warm. We had an easy journey home and still had the weekend at home before it was back to work.

What's Next?

We haven't got much planned for the next couple of months, but will probably do something. We've got Uganda in October, so we might take the dogs somewhere again before then. We've been busy sorting the garden out as we are having really lovely weather and it's good to make the most of it as it can go as quickly as it came in England! Of course we will be supporting England in the World Cup and have made sure we are free to watch the games.

Andy turns 30 in November, so we'll do something special then as well.

The Manor House

2010-05-10T18:10:00.017+01:00

The house we were staying in was a fairly large manor house split into 3 accommodations. We had the largest of the three which we had managed to get on a cancellation, therefore the cost of our stay was greatly reduced. Our part of the house sleeps 8 people in four large double bedrooms, each bedroom had an en suite. The downstairs was made up of a large lounge and dining room and what once looked liked the bar was now a kitchen. We were at the back of the house, if it was still one large house. We had a little balcony off the dining room. There was no proper garden, just a paved area with trees. Underneath the house, the cellar had been converted into a swimming pool and sauna. The pool was an exercise pool.

Outside on the drive was the hot tub, which we used every day of our trip! Sharing our drive was a mobile home that belonged to the site manager and his wife. We didn't meet them straight away as they were stranded in Poland due to the ash cloud that had affected a lot of Europe's air space.

The house was high up on a hill and the drive up was pretty steep, which we realised just how steep when we took the dogs for their evening walk. We were glad we hadn't rented one of the cottages on the site as they were up another level and the drive was even steeper!

The house was decorated with these beautiful, huge chandeliers in the lounge and dining room. There were large leather sofa's and the odd piece of beautiful furniture. We couldn't quite understand the choice of art for the house though. Even though the art was interesting we couldn't help think that it didn't suit the house. Most of the rooms were dressed with these large paintings of half naked people, we figured maybe South American. There were no signatures on the paintings.

There was a more fitting picture, a photo of a family from the Victorian times, which Steph thought was a bit spooky as well because it reminded her of those photos that the Victorians took of the dead.

The house was creaky, but we did not encounter anything supernatural!

The house had freeview but the aerial wasn't very good, so you lost some channels. The freeview box was a bit dodgy as well and Andy ended up fixing it. We're not too bothered about tv when we're on holiday, but it is nice to have it in the evenings.

If you rent this house you need to bring your own towels and things for the kitchen like washing up liquid, sponges, salt, pepper etc... as it is bare. This is usual in some holiday homes, but our experience is the 'household' things are usually already catered for.

Would we rent this house again? Probably no and most definitely not at it's usual price. Although the house was interesting and it was a bit of a novelty staying in a manor house, we don't think it had the luxuries you would expect especially if you paid full price.

We've also got plenty of other places to visit.

We enjoyed our stay though and the dogs had fun.

We booked with Hoseasons, Seascape Cottages, Manor house 4 we stayed 3 nights and paid £140 including pet supplements.

Pembrey Country Park

2010-05-03T20:22:00.012+01:00

We ventured further from Pendine and came across Pembrey Country Park. The park consists of woodlands and a beach with lots of activities such as a dry ski slope, adventure activities, etc... We of course were just there for the walking. To enter the park it costs £3 to park the car. We drove to the beach first.

The beach was huge, it is one of the longest beaches in Wales. There were very few people on the beach and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The weather was warm. The sand was scattered with shells in lovely different colours. Sand dunes lined the beach and the water looked warm, but we knew it definitely was not!

After the beach we went back to the car and let the dogs have a drink, we then carried on for a stroll through the woodlands, we stuck to the edges.

A few people were sun bathing and having a picnic on the large open green areas. We walked quite far and the dogs were getting tired, so we headed back to the car. It would have been nice to have a picnic as well, but we didn't think to bring one.

Tenby

2010-04-30T18:23:00.007+01:00

We travelled a bit further from Pendine in search of more southern beaches. We tapped 'nearest beach' into the Satnav and Tenby popped up. It wasn't far to Tenby, about 40 minutes.

Upon our arrival we ended up driving through the very narrow streets of the town and back out by the harbour. We could see the beach, but no suitable parking. We ended up parked outside of the town on a road, but not far from the beach.

Tenby looked so pretty, it was a lovely warm day, sunshine, blue sky, blue sea and golden sand. The houses over looking the harbour and the beach were all painted different colours. We felt we could have been somewhere tropical.

There were steep steps down to the beach, but nothing too difficult, Steph just had to make sure Spike didn't pull her too much, she still has to be aware of her knee and taking it easy with the foot.

The beach was practically empty, only a couple of other people with dogs. The dogs enjoyed jumping in and out of the water, too cold for us humans though!

Pendine Sands

2010-04-29T17:54:00.007+01:00

We took a short break to South Wales for Steph's birthday and a mini dogs holiday. South Wales is a 3.5 hour journey from our house, so a few stops on the way for Spike and Chewy.

We arrived late afternoon and set out to get directions from the locals to the house as the Satnav only got us so far. The house that we had rented was high up on a hill, a note and a key in the door awaited our arrival. The proprietor was away, but told us to let ourselves in. I guess security is not an issue in the area!

We stayed in a large manor house with it's own exercise pool and hot tub. The house is split into three accommodations, we had the largest part which sleeps 8.

We spent a bit of time unpacking and exploring the house. The pool was housed in what used to be the cellar. We went and had a nosey, the pool was covered with a mat before we knew what had happened, Chewy came running in and straight onto the mat! It all happened in kind of slow motion with Chewy suddenly realising he was sinking! Chewy lept for the edge and Andy ended up dragging him out, a wet but ok dog!

The local beach wasn't far from the house, so we took the dogs for a run. Seems like we had picked a good time of year as there was a sign saying dogs weren't allowed from May to September.

There was another sign that said 'Risk of Explosion!' the beach at Pendine Sands is Ministry of Defence property and part of it is closed to the public. There was enough of the beach open to us and the dogs.

The tide was quite far out, but the dogs managed a swim anyway. There was also a canoe lesson going on just further down.

Steph's 30th

2010-04-24T16:00:00.008+01:00

Steph had a brilliant birthday, big thank you to all our family and friends. Andy arranged a birthday meal with family and friends for Steph on the day before. It was really good having everyone together. On the actual day we went to Alton Towers and had an ace time. Steph went on all the big rides except for the Oblivion, Steph really didn't fancy that one! The new ride 'Thirteen' was pretty good, we thought it would be scarier and longer. Thirteen is basically a roller coaster with a few drops so you lose your stomach and then it goes into a tunnel where the track drops twice and then you go backwards. We had to queue a long time for it.

We all got a soaking on the log flume and went home wet and tired after an excellent day out.

We will do a separate report for the trip to Wales.

2010 So Far...

2010-04-09T19:01:00.004+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. We've made a few decisions for 2010 so we're pretty excited and have lots of things to look forward to.

We've nearly finished decorating the lounge, just the stairs and banister to paint. We've got our new suite which is so comfy!

Travel wise, our main holiday this year is Uganda, we are very excited. This is a trip Steph has wanted to do for a few years now so we are finally off to Africa in October. Before Uganda, we are off to Pendine in Carmarthenshire, Wales for Steph's birthday. This will be a good dogs holiday as well. There won't be much walking on this trip though as Steph had to have surgery on her foot and it won't be fully recovered by the time we go at the end of April. We will be going away again for a second dogs holiday when the foot is better. In addition to Steph's birthday trip, we're going to Alton Towers to satisfy our child/fun side as Steph is turning 30.

Andy's team Technical Services FC are doing well in their Sunday league, they hope to get second in the league. Andy's professional team, Newcastle United are already promoted to the premiership, so as you can imagine, Andy is ecstatic. Fingers crossed for Nottingham Forest FC to get automatic promotion as well.

Steph is busy with Uni and everything seems to be going well so far.

Our next report will be Steph's birthday and our trip to Pendine.

Almost forgot to acknowledge it! You'll notice the new look to the blog, hope you like it.

eBay Success

2010-03-13T21:38:00.004Z

We are now proud owners of a Berghaus Freeflow IV 30 backpack. We say proud because we won a brand new one on eBay for £28.80. These bags retail at £60.00 and after searching the Internet we only found them for £45 brand new, therefore we feel we got a bargain.

The Berghaus Freeflow IV 30 has some very good features which is why we sought one out:

Capacity of 30 litres - a decent size for a day pack
Freeflow back system - which helps against you feeling sweaty when carrying the bag
Breathable shoulder straps
Compression straps
Additional compartment in the base
Holders for walking poles
Pocket for a hydration pack
Raincover
Adjustable chest harness
Made from 600 denier polyester which is good for strength and low weight

Will serve us well.

Destinations Show 2010

2010-03-08T10:07:00.004Z

We went to the Destinations show at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday 6th March. We had excellent luck when we arrived as just as we were approaching the ticket counter, a lady came up to us and handed us a leaflet and said there was a free entry ticket in it for two. Sure enough there was and we got in free! Very nice person!

We've never been to this event before and our expectations were probably a lot higher. There seemed to be plenty of exhibitors, but the room still seemed like it had loads more space for loads more exhibitors. There were a few companies there which confused us to why as their product didn't seem to be travel related. There were a couple of clothing stands where we were able to pick up some discounted gear, a fleece each and a waterproof jacket each.

The show helps you choose and book a holiday with more 'off the beaten track' destinations. As we've already chosen our destination for this year we just gathered information for future destinations. We were entertained by some traditional Bhangra dancers, they were very good. Wanderlust magazine had their photo competition on display and some of the pictures were just simply brilliant.

There was a 'meet the experts theatre' and we were interested in hearing Simon Reeve speak. It was still 20 minutes to go so we went to the bar for a drink. After our drink we realised we should have started queueing a lot earlier! There were loads of people and we thought that we may not get in. Luckily we did but had to stand, but it was only for 30 minutes.

Simon Reeve works for the BBC and has made several travel programmes for them. Before the BBC Simon Reeve worked for a newspaper investigating terrorism, smuggling, arms-dealing etc... For the BBC, Simon travels more 'unknown' destinations.

In the theatre, Simon was interviewed by David Linstead from Wanderlust magazine. Simon talked about his current travel series travelling around the Tropic of Cancer. We saw clips of the series and Simon told us some of the difficulties him and his team experienced. They couldn't get into China at all, so had to take another route. They had to sneak into Burma because the Indian secret police were against them entering with Simon's wife leading the secret police off in a distraction tactic to allow Simon to get to the Burmese border.

Simon discussed the controversy surrounding Burma of should people still travel to the country because you could be supporting the dictatorship etc...

Simon discussed the one country he deemed as the most dangerous for him which he said was Somalia. He chose Somalia because he was protected by a gang on his travels through the country and while on the road they came under fire from a rival gang passing them on the road. He knew that there was nothing he could do himself to get out of that situation.

Simon chose Oman and Bangladesh as 'must see' countries to visit, maybe they will be on our own travels one day.

We'll be watching Simon's series on the Tropic of Cancer on BBC2 starting on Sunday 14th March at 8pm.

We left the show after the Simon Reeve interview.

Our verdict is that the show was good, but I can imagine that the Earls Court version in London was probably much better. More stalls needed at the NEC and maybe a bigger theatre for the experts as it would be a shame if you couldn't get to hear them. Interesting though and plenty of travel information available, Simon Reeve was the highlight.

Thriller Live

2010-02-16T20:10:00.005Z

Not a great picture, but this was all we could get when we realised no photo's were allowed!

To finish off our trip to London and to end our first anniversary celebrations we went out for a lovely meal and to watch Thriller Live at the Lyric theatre. As massive MJ fans we of course loved the show, but we both agreed that even if you weren't fans but still enjoyed his music you would enjoy the show. The performers were top class and involved you in the story. At the end of the show they got you up out your seats and dancing, we had a brilliant night. They told the story of MJ from the Jackson Five through to his solo career.

We have made ourselves a mental note though to always get front row seats as it's quite annoying having someone constantly fidgeting and moving and spoiling your view. Despite this we thoroughly enjoyed the show and would definitely recommend it.

Thriller Live

Buckingham Palace

2010-02-15T19:50:00.016Z

Although a quick visit, we couldn't go home unless we saw Buckingham Palace. We didn't go inside, but will definitely take a look next time.

We're always taken a back by the sheer size and grandeur of the palace. How amazing would it be to be able to explore every inch. The flag was flying therefore the Queen was at home when we went.

As you can imagine the place was very busy and as a result hard to take pictures. After taking in the palace we enjoyed a walk through Green Park and bought ourselves a hot dog.

Madame Tussauds

2010-02-03T19:57:00.016Z

As Andy had never been to London before we had to include Madam Tussuad's Waxworks and the London Dungeons.

The dungeons were a bit of a disappointment, firstly we had to queue for over an hour at least! We had a money off voucher, so stuck with it. When we finally got in we were left to just aimlessly wonder round a mirror maze which we all figured out was just another ploy to keep us waiting longer. When we finally got to start the tour only a couple of the rooms were that good. You are guided by actors and actresses dressed up from the 1800's who each tell a different story, Jack the Ripper, Sweeney Todd, the Great Fire of London, etc..The best rooms were the court room as the actor and actress were hilarious and the surgery room as they really made you jump, the rest were ok. Interesting tales told though.

There is a small boat ride in the dark and a pretty decent ride at the end where the ride simulates hanging you. Overall, it's ok, good for kids, but we're glad we didn't pay full price. No pictures as it was far too dark.

Now Madam Tussuad's was better, we didn't have to queue and we could move around in our own time. The bad thing was that you literally had to fight to get anywhere near the waxworks, it was ridiculously busy! Again we had a money off voucher, so we got on with it. What we like about the waxworks is actually seeing how big celebs really are as the waxworks are life size. Madam Tussuad's redeemed itself for us when we opted for the scary old London street walk, children not allowed! To be fair we've never jumped or screamed so much! There was also lots of swearing from scared adults so I can understand why children were not allowed. Basically you just walk through a set from the black death days of London and actors in costume jump out at you and chase you! Scary!

Admission to the London Dungeons is £22.50 per adult

Admission to Madam Tussuad's is £25.54 per adult

Look out for Merlin 2 for 1 vouchers. These vouchers get you 2 for 1 entry to popular UK attractions.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum

2010-02-01T19:38:00.015Z

Robert Ripley was a cartoonist, adventurer, explorer, etc... He came across many wonderful and weird things on his travels. Ripley collected many souvenirs and along with these and recreations of things he saw, drew and wrote, you will find in the Believe it or Not museums.

We came across objects such as a model of the Titanic made from matchsticks to shrunken heads. Being interested in travel (obviously!) we found the museum fascinating. What was good about this museum as well was that it was open until midnight. We went in about 8.30pm and enjoyed a crowd free, leisurely visit to the museum.

Just for fun, we opted to go in the mirror maze and felt like kids running round and bashing our heads against the mirrors! We also went across a bridge that had the room spinning so it felt like you were going to end up upside down, Steph felt a little woozy on that one while you couldn't get Andy off it!

We loved the life size model of the tallest man that ever lived, the giant chair, the mini cars and the portrait of the Queen made out of one penny pieces. There were also recreations of the strange and wonderful people Ripley met on his travels. Well as Ripley would say 'Believe it or not!'

Admission to Ripley's Believe it or not museum is £25 per adult

Tower of London

2010-01-25T19:48:00.011Z

Our day had to include the Tower of London and the Crown Jewell's. We did the usual, queued to see the amazing crowns and accessories, can you believe the size of some of those gems! We went up the bloody tower and learnt the story of the two unfortunate young princes who were murdered by suffocation. The legend of the Ravens is interesting, apparently Britain is very paranoid because it is said that if the 6 resident Ravens leave the Tower of London then Britain will fall, so they have had a wing clipped to stop them leaving, even though some do leave anyway! They keep 7 Ravens there, having one spare!

Our feet were aching by the time we had wondered round so headed for the souvenir shop and the exit. We bought two magnets in the shape of Beefeater's for our fridge. On our way to catch a bus we wondered by this crowd that were all buying London scenes on canvas, they were very good. They were selling at £20 each which we thought was a little steep for what they were, as we were walking away the seller said we could have one for £10, so we bought one. We bought a black and white canvas with Big Ben and a black cab,with a bright red double decker bus on it, looks great in our kitchen.

Admission price for adults to the Tower of London are £17

HMS Belfast

2010-01-16T12:42:00.012Z

HMS Belfast is a large and powerful light cruiser and the only surviving vessel of her type to have been active during the second world war. HMS Belfast served for 32 years playing important parts in the second world war, the Korean war and carrying out peace keeping duties. The ship is now part of the Imperial War Museum and is open to visitors. You can tour the ship with an audio guide at your own pace, following the arrows. There are staff to advise and help and many of them are veteran crew. They have waxworks on the ship that show you how each room would have been. We thought this was a really good museum and we think that you don't actually have to be too interested in naval history to enjoy this attraction.

Admission prices for Adults to HMS Belfast are £12.95

Walking Around Westminster

2010-01-14T18:48:00.009Z

As you can see from the photo's it was a lovely day in London. We strolled around the Houses of Parliament, debating on whether to go inside or not. The queue was pretty massive and not moving very fast so we decided to give it a miss. We will visit London again, so maybe next time. We walked over the Thames and headed towards the London Eye. Steph has been on the London Eye a couple of times and Andy wasn't too keen and again there was a huge queue. We headed off in search of HMS Belfast.

Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms

2010-01-12T20:30:00.015Z

Churchill's Bedroom/ office

the red phones were for intelligence

switchboard

planning/ stratgegic/ meeting room

Churchill's dining room

Andy's favourite quote from Churchill!

The interactive table

Enigma Encoding machine

one of Churchill's uniforms

Churchill cigar

retro typing

trying to win the war

Our Anniversary - London 2009

2010-01-09T14:49:00.014Z

We went to London for a long weekend at the beginning of September 2009 to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. We have both said how the time has flown and we don't feel any different in our relationship than we did when we were not married, we feel this is good.

We stayed in a Travelodge hotel in Covent Garden as we had also booked tickets to see 'Thriller Live' in the West End and thought walking distance between the hotel and theatre would be a good idea. Additional plans to the weekend was to do some sight seeing as Andy hadn't visited London since he was a child, so some of the usual tourist traps were on the cards.

We spent our first day doing a lot of walking! We walked from the hotel to Trafalgar square and onto Westminster, stopping of course to take in the sights. We spent the day visiting the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War rooms, Parliament and Big Ben, HMS Belfast, the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels and Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. A very full on day and Steph had broken one of her own rules which caused some discomfort! Steph was wearing new trainers and didn't think they would rub and cause blisters, but whenever Steph has new shoes, she always rubs vaseline on potential blister areas on her feet to prevent any and it has always worked. Steph had neglected to put vaseline on this time and had pretty sore feet at the end of the day. Fortunately we stopped at a pharmacy and found a miracle cure, Compeed blister plasters, Steph recommends them highly!

Ok, so after taking in Trafalgar, we carried on towards Westminster, stopping at the gates that lead to number 10 and stopping at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War rooms. It's a pity you can't get any closer to number 10, but oh well not much to see anyway. The war rooms are well worth a visit if you're interested in Mr Churchill and Britain during the second World War.

The museum is actually set in the underground rooms where Churchill and his staff spent most of the war. It would have been hard going for the staff as it wasn't very comfortable and quite claustrophobic in places. The museum contains all the rooms recreated as they were back then. You can see Mr Churchill's room and Mrs Churchill's room, they had separate rooms. Cabinet staff rooms, strategic and meeting rooms, intelligence rooms, etc... All containing original furniture and accessories. There is a fairly large room which contains artifacts including Churchill's clothes, honours, letters, etc... There is also an interactive table where you can touch certain eras of the war and find out information, pretty impressive.

We stayed in the Travelodge in Covent Garden, £89 a night for a double room.

The entrance fee for Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms is £14.95 per adult.

We ate our evening meal at the Loon Fung restaurant in Chinatown.

Blast Shakes Town!

2010-01-04T18:56:00.002Z

Shrewsbury is normally a quiet town, so when an explosion happened yesterday morning, it was big news. It is believed that the explosion happened as a result of a gas leak in a flat. The flat was above an empty shop. The blast destroyed the building and caused damage to surrounding buildings. Fortunately there were not many people around, but unfortunately the explosion still injured 12 people, seriously injuring 2 of those. Emergency services were quick on the scene. Many roads in and out of the town have been closed. Shrewsbury residents are used to road closures though as the town has suffered from bad floods in the past. No photos as basically there isn't much to see and you can't really get that close due to the area being closed off. Best wishes for a full recovery to those injured.

Our next trip report will be about London, we visited in September 2009.

Hello 2010!

2010-01-01T16:18:00.006Z

Andy's New Years Resolutions are to get fitter and not to drink beer during week nights, Steph's is also to get fitter as she put on a little weight due to lack of exercising because in 2009 Steph dislocated her knee and it has taken its time healing! We're both looking into a trip to Rwanda in 2010 and planning a joint party for our 30th's. We're doing a little decorating in our house, living room next and we have ordered a new suite. It's back to work for the both of us on 4th January after a good 11 days holiday over the Christmas period and Steph is back to her studying as well in February.

Wishing you all the very best for 2010!

Good Bye 2009

2010-01-01T15:55:00.013Z

Great Christmas, one day of snow and Steph suffering from the flu on New Years Eve again! (two years in a row now!). Christmas day was spent at Steph's dad's house as it is also his birthday. Also present on Christmas Day was Steph's sister Leanne and her partner Rich, Steph's brother Dave and all the pets, Spike Chewy, Holly and Ozzy (all dogs), Molly and Noddy (two cats). New Years Eve was spent at our friend's house, Steph just about lasted until midnight!

Hope you all had a good 2009!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T19:50:00.003Z

Merry Christmas to you all. Have a good one and keep safe.

Frankfurt Christmas Market

2009-12-22T22:04:00.009Z

On the 4th December Steph, her dad and brother went to the Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham. The market has become an annual event and has been in Birmingham every December for quite some time now. Steph wanted to go because she wanted some German wooden decorations. Steph and her family used to live in Germany when she was a child and she remembers the German wooden decorations on the tree and we thought we should get some for our tree.

Steph bought a wooden table top tree complete with its own tiny little wooden decorations for £12, a wooden Father Christmas figurine for £8 and 6 wooden hanging tree ornaments varying from £1 to £1.50 each. Lunch at the market was a Bratwurst sausage in a fresh French stick for £3.

They got to the market at opening time which was 10am and a good job because by 11.30am the place was packed out! They took a break from the market and the cold to do some Christmas shopping in the Bullring Shopping centre.

Good Bye Cymru

2009-12-17T19:14:00.005Z

We really enjoyed our holiday with Spike and Chewy and we know that they really enjoyed it too. Where will we go next year? Perhaps back to Wales? Steph used to live on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales when she was a child and there are some beautiful places to visit, so maybe a log cabin on a lake on Anglesey? Sounds tempting! We would love to take the dogs to Scotland, but we're not sure about all the car travel for them, the best thing would be to do the journey in stages and stop over half way. There are plenty of B&B's that are dog friendly, so this is a very possible option. We would love to visit Scotland, a cottage near a loch? Tempting also.

We are thinking hard about our holiday next year as well. Steph has a 'must visit' list, so it would be good to pick a destination from there! We are both 30 years old next year as well, so there will be celebrations!

We went to London in September to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. We will write this report soon. In the mean time we are fast approaching Christmas, so some festive photo's are in order we think. Steph went to the Frankfurt Christmas market in Birmingham on 4th December, so some pictures from that and other festive photos to come.

Shell Island

2009-12-16T19:21:00.010Z

We paid £5 for a one day pass for Shell Island. You can come and go, but you need to keep hold of your ticket to avoid paying the fee again. Shell Island can be cut off from the main land when the tide is in, just check the tidal times before you visit. We parked up and headed onto the beach. The beach on Shell Island has very rocky parts, very pebbly parts and of course little shell parts, but there is a part with enough sand ideal for dogs.

We've been to Shell Island before back in 2006 and camped. It's great to camp and we really enjoyed it, we may do it again sometime. Spike particularly liked camping as we found when we couldn't throw his ball for him because we were cooking or cleaning, he would go to the next tent and drop his ball at the feet of the first person he could find! He was very popular with the kids and the parents as it kept the kids busy!

Shell Island has some lovely dunes, but they can be dangerous so caution is needed. We wasted our one day pass really as we only stayed a few hours. The dogs got tired, the island was very busy with visitors and the weather wasn't nice enough to just sit on the beach and relax, so we headed back to the caravan site.

Black Rock Sands

2009-12-15T20:31:00.007Z

We spent a day in Porthmadog and at Black Rock Sands. There was a really friendly pub in the town centre, we were a bit late for lunch but they served us anyway. It was a really beautiful day and we ate in the beer garden. Spike and Chewy made friends with a friendly golden retriever.

We've been to Porthmadog and Black Rock Sands a couple of years ago. The beach isn't ideal for the dogs to swim, but they can get plenty of exercise and you can drive right up to the sea if you want to, just be careful you're not caught out by the tide!

We had an ice cream at the beach, a 99 to be exact. The dogs had a drink and a dog biscuit each. After this day out we went back to the caravan to relax and the dogs were exhausted, they put their paws up and fell asleep!

Tywyn and Harlech

2009-12-06T19:51:00.017Z

We took a day out to Tywyn. Tywyn isn't the best place to walk the dogs as the beach is mainly pebbles and stones, not the best surface for their paws, so we stuck to the path at the top of the beach. The weather was pretty bad as well, the worst day for weather in fact. Andy's grandparents have a caravan in Tywyn, so he rang them to see if they were there. Turns out they were which worked out well as we hadn't seen them for a while and the weather was getting worse. By the time we got to them, it really started to rain. The dogs were very well behaved in the caravan. There is a scenic train ride through Tywyn and Andy's mum and other family members were passing through and came to the caravan to say hello. The caravan was pretty crowded, but good to catch up with everyone.

Another day was spent in Harlech. There is a pretty castle in Harlech, but unfortunately dogs are not allowed in the grounds, so we admired it from outside.

We of course took the dogs to the beach. The car park is quite a walk from the beach, but it was a lovely day, so the walk was really nice. As usual, the dogs had the best time playing on the beach. We managed to get a picture of the four of us using our mini tripod and the timer.

Our Caravan

2009-12-03T17:57:00.009Z

We had our own little 'garden' outside the caravan and it was just so nice to relax there after the long walks with Spike and Chewy. The 'garden' also doubled up as a dog grooming parlour as well, as the dogs definitely needed a groom after swimming in the sea.

A couple of chairs and a glass of wine! And relax!

Barmouth

2009-12-02T19:38:00.014Z

Our day out in Barmouth was lovely. The weather was fantastic and the beach wasn't over-crowded, well not on the end where dogs are permitted.

The usual activities, basically doing what the dogs wanted. Throwing the ball in the sea for retrieval and swimming and throwing the frizbees along the shoreline. We had lunch in a dog friendly pub just opposite the beach in the beer garden.

When the dogs were worn out we went for a stroll around the town, that proved to be tough for Spike and Chewy. There was too much going on and too many tempting smells in the form of candy floss, ice cream, pop corn, etc... We headed back to the caravan park and the four of us relaxed outside the caravan on the grass.

Spike and Chewy's Holiday 2009

2009-11-30T18:33:00.018Z

We took the dogs back to Wales for their holiday this year. We stayed in Andy's dad's caravan on a 5 star caravan site. The caravan was very impressive, a large static caravan, plenty big enough for the four of us. The caravan site we stayed on was Islawrffordd in Talybont, situated right next to a beach and within easy travelling distance to other beaches for walks with the dogs. Our first beach was to be the one at the caravan park. I don't think we have to tell you about how much the dogs love the beach, the pictures will show that. We had pretty good weather for this trip, we had one rainy day, the rest sunny and warm and one windy day, so all round pretty good luck.

The beach toys this year were two frisbees and tennis balls, they have more toys, loads in fact, but some are not suitable for the beach. Chewy couldn't wait to get in the water and Spike couldn't wait to get running after his ball.

Around the Hotel

2009-11-03T19:21:00.019Z

We thought that we would finish off this trip report with some pictures of the hotel we stayed in. It was a pretty amazing place and would recommend it if you are after a bit of luxury in Crete.

Our next report will be the trip to Wales we took with the dogs in August, after that will be our trip report on London.

It's Andy's birthday today! Andy has had a very busy birthday weekend! Friday we went to see 'This Is It' in the cinema, Saturday we spent the day in Manchester at the Trafford Center for Andy to have a birthday shopping spree, Sunday we went down to London to see the Michael Jackson Exhibition at the O2, Monday we had a birthday lunch with Andy's mum and then after that we went to Sheffield to see Newcastle United play Sheffield United and then finally today, we chilled a bit and Andy had a second birthday lunch with Steph's Dad.

Happy Birthday Andy! xxxxxxx

Trying to Be Artistic!

2009-10-29T19:54:00.006Z

Ok, this one was just for fun!

An appealing place to relax?

Fancy a cocktail?

That's where I want to be!

Fun and Games

2009-10-25T10:58:00.011Z

The hotel hosted lots of activities. There was a gym, spa, football, beach volley ball, archery, water sports, tennis, table tennis, etc...

We've never done archery and still haven't! We went to the class, but by the time we found it, they had already started and therefore we were unable to join because they had completed the safety aspect of it.

Andy and and another guest who we had become friends with decided to have a one on one footy game. Some other guests came down and convinced Andy to have a go at volleyball with them (he's never played before). Turns out he was quite the natural and a very competitive guest insisted on being on his team!

Other activities we enjoyed were of course swimming and relaxing (if you call relaxing an activity!)

Greek Health and Safety in Action!

2009-10-23T17:37:00.008+01:00

We had to take a photo when we spotted this! This workman was fixing some fencing we think about 20ft high. He's sat on a pallet that is tied to the crane attached by a hook. No safety harness for him, or even better no Cherry picker to take him up and no hard hat, just a baseball cap!

Yummy Yummy In My Tummy!

2009-10-22T17:41:00.009+01:00

As there were 5 restaurants in our hotel, we thought we had to try them out. The hotel's Mexican restaurant did not impress us on our first visit. We ordered fajitas but when they turned up there were no tortilla wraps, we thought they had brought us the wrong dish. We enquired about it and we were told "this is how we do fajitas" If the meat and vegetables don't come in the tortilla's then usually the tortilla's come on the side and you fill them yourselves or so we thought. We really began to doubt our understanding of the dish. We looked around the restaurant as we realised other diners were looking at us, it was then that quite a few spoke and said they had received the same response about the fajitas and that they thought they were supposed to come with flour or corn tortillas as well.

Well we thought, it's only the wraps missing, so lets just eat anyway. Well we didn't have more than three mouthfuls as it really was not good. Quite a few diners just left without finishing their meals.

We did leave without finishing ours, but we gave the restaurant a second chance a couple of nights later and they seemed to have sorted it out as the fajitas came as what we thought fajitas to be, they tasted much much better and the restaurant was full of happy diners. We were told later by hotel staff that there were teething problems with the restaurant, but hoped that they were sorting it now.

The Thai restaurant was unbelievably good. I have never ever had such a good Thai meal outside of Thailand. We went quite a few times, but would have gone more if it hadn't been booked up.

The two continental/ Greek restaurants were fantastic. They were set out in a self serve style with lots of different options. Steph loves Moussaka and it was very good. We love buffet style restaurants like this because you can have a little of everything if you so wish

To toast our honeymoon we treated ourselves to the 2 Michelin Star Al Dente a la carte restaurant. The food was excellent, the staff were excellent and the atmosphere was excellent. We enjoyed prawn starters and steaks for our mains. The above pictures show how good they were.

Heraklion

2009-10-15T15:28:00.011+01:00

A trip to Crete wouldn't be complete without a wander around the capital, Heraklion also known as Iraklion. At the harbor is the Venetian fortress, we took a stroll to see it up close. The capital is home to some good shopping, art and history museums and some interesting architecture. We spent an afternoon browsing in the shops and the market as well as taking in the scenery.

We were told that most of the shops take a siesta in the afternoon, but we found that a great deal of shops stay open which was a good job because we needed an additional memory card for our camera. We managed to buy a few trinkets and gifts while we were in the capital.

Exploring Knossos

2009-10-09T18:04:00.016+01:00

Knossos

2009-10-08T18:44:00.013+01:00

Another day out was to the ancient Minoan Palace of Knossos, this is where the legend of the Minotaur originated from and was the home to King Minos. The palace was built on a hill called Kefala as this was a very good location as it was next to a river which made for a good water supply, it also had good access to the sea and a forest.

The palace has been destroyed many times and each time has been excavated, the palace is believed to have been built and re-built between 2000 BC and 3000 BC. Many archaeologists have tried to excavate the site, but it was Sir Arthur Evans who was able to secure full funding and purchased the place.

If visiting the site, we recommend that you hire a guide as we found them to be excellent. There are plaques around the site, but even though we read a couple, they didn't tell the story as well as the guide and some parts were so busy you couldn't get close to the plaque.

We learnt that the Minoans had a very sophisticated plumbing system in the palace, amazing considering the place is ancient.

The Minotaur legend isn't all that it seems as well, not sure if we should tell you what the experts think or let you visit Knossos to find out? Ok, we'll tell you!

The experts uncovered many art works which are now in a museum in Heraklion, but they have put reproductions in their place. One picture was of a bull with a person jumping to grab hold of the horns, a second person doing a handstand on the bull's back and a third person behind the bull with their hands in the air.

One theory is that these people were kidnapped from villages and forced to play a sport in order to win their freedom back. They would have to grab the horns, somersault over the bull and land the other side. If they didn't get it right then they were almost certain to be impaled on the bull's horns and killed. The legend that the Minotaur was half man half bull is just a myth.

The legend of the labyrinth comes from the palace itself. Experts believe that the labyrinth was the palace as you can imagine that all those years ago something with a lot of rooms would be like a maze to a person when they mostly would only have been in one or two roomed buildings. Knossos palace has around 1000 rooms!

The symbol for Knossos is a two headed axe and this is called a 'labrys' a Lydian word which could have eventually developed into the word 'labyrinth.'

An actual secret passageway or an underground purpose built labyrinth/maze has never been discovered.

Around the site you can visit the throne room, the king's bedroom, wine cellars and although we couldn't get close because it was still being excavated, from a distance we saw the Queen's bathroom and her bath. There were two absolutely huge urns about 9ft high and pretty wide, they were used to keep liquids like oil and water in. The legend goes that a young prince climbed into one and subsequently drowned because he was unable to climb out due to the sheer size of them.

The site has been partly re-built with modern materials to show visitors what certain parts would have looked like, this has received some criticism as some say it spoils the site.

Santorini

2009-10-06T19:03:00.022+01:00

Beautiful Santorini

2009-10-05T18:48:00.013+01:00

We took a day out to visit Santorini, an island which was formed by volcanoes and still is active today. The last eruption was in 1950. You can take a boat to visit the interior of the volcano. Santorini enjoys year round sunshine and is a beautiful place to photograph.

When we went there it was lovely and hot, but very windy. The villages are extremely picturesque, especially Oia.

Oia is nestled into the cliff face and has beautiful views, the volcano included. We took a lot of pictures here! Some of the houses and hotels had swimming pools right on the edge overlooking the sea. We learnt from our guide that the blue colour used on the buildings is partly to keep mosquitoes away as apparently they don't like blue!

We visited 2 villages, Megalochori and Oia, the capital, Fira and enjoyed a drive around the island.

We took a ferry from Heraklion to Santorini and joined a guided tour. As we were only going for the day, we thought the best way to see the island would be a guided tour, but if you have more time, then do it yourself with a guidebook as unfortunately on our tour there were some visitors who had no courtesy for others. They didn't keep to time scales and as a result no one had much time to spend in Fira before they had to catch the ferry. The guide didn't seem very helpful, the driver on the other hand did voice his annoyance. As we found out, it would have been ever so easy to tour the island on our own.

We didn't let them spoil it for us and made the most of the time we had.

The island is full of beautiful domed churches and littered with these quaint little windmills, with the windows and doors painted in different colours. Megalochori was made up of winding paths with houses and little courtyards.

Fira was very much the capital, very busy and lots of souvenir shops. Steph reckons she had the best strawberry ice cream ever in Fira!

Caldera Palace

2009-09-19T11:18:00.009+01:00

The sun came out and we were able to fully appreciate the hotel and it's surroundings. We discovered a local bar just across the road from the hotel that played the football - much to Andy's delight! We walked up along the coast and found the area was lovely, just what we wanted as we didn't want the Malia setting. Don't get us wrong, we love a good night out, just glad we weren't staying there throughout our whole holiday. The hotel's beach was good, the hotel obviously looked after it as the adjoining beaches weren't so attractive. The sea was beautiful, but you had to be careful when entering as there were sharp rocks. We did most of our swimming by our room. The pool water was pretty cold at first and took some brave attempts to get in! Once you were in though, it was lovely. We were pretty lucky with our room as the sun came over to our side at about midday and stayed until sunset, the guests on the other side lost the sun at midday. We bought a bat and ball, an underwater camera and some goggles, as we are big kids and like to have a bit of fun!

Our Honeymoon

2009-08-31T20:17:00.009+01:00

Our Honeymoon, May 2009. There were no real dramas with getting to the airport, we were well organised this time. The flight was ok, just the usual annoyances.
Upon arrival in the capital of Crete, Heraklion, we were greeted with a luxury, private coach, just for our hotel. This we warmly received as that meant there would be no dropping off at other hotels which would have increased our transfer time. This was a little concern of ours as we had booked a resort.
We booked a 5 star hotel on a 5 star resort. We don't normally do this, but we thought it's our honeymoon and why not? The hotel happened to be all inclusive as well, we like to eat out and experience local restaurants and cafes but again thought it is our honeymoon and as it turns out, there were lots of different types of restaurants at the hotel.

First impressions were excellent, it certainly looked 5 star. Our room was incredible. The bed was huge and so comfy, didn't think we'd ever get out of it! The bathroom was all marble with a huge power shower with all the bells and whistles and the bath was a jacuzzi bath! We had booked a 'swim-up' room and certainly got that! Open up the patio doors and step out onto our decked porch and then straight into the pool! There was a like a river/pool that snaked around the hotel and had steps up to all the ground floor rooms.
We cracked open our bottle of Champagne and toasted our honeymoon. We went and had a wonder around and ended up at one of the pool bars for a Pina Colada and a lager. Here we met another honeymoon couple.
Slowly we went back to our room. We were both very tired from the trip as we had to show our faces at a birthday party hours before we flew!
Steph nearly slept in her clothes she travelled in as tiredness, Champagne and Pina Coladas make you very sleepy!

The first two days were a bit windy and rainy. The locals said it was the worst weather they had seen for a long time. No matter, we became excellent at table tennis and propped up the bars in the hotel and out! We wanted to wait for the sun to come out before we went exploring. We didn't have to wait long, day three to the end of our honeymoon, we couldn't have asked for better weather.
The honeymoon couple we met had gone to one of the sites we had on our list when it was raining and said they didn't enjoy it much as they rushed around it because otherwise they would have been soaked through.
We were staying in Crete longer than them, so stuck to our plan of waiting for the rain to stop.

A view from our flight

Our huge and most comfy bed

We were impressed with our room

Our Swim-up room

We stayed at the Caldera Palace in Analipsi, Crete.

Update

2009-08-28T10:57:00.002+01:00

We are back from our trip to Wales. It was a brilliant trip and we managed to get the best of the weather which was a bonus. The dogs seemed to have the time of their lives!
We stayed in Tal-y-Bont and visited Barmouth, Tywyn, Harlech, Porthmadog/ Black Rock Sands and Shell Island. Trip report to come soon after Crete.

For our first anniversary we are off to London for a weekend. We have booked tickets to see Thriller Live in the West End and will be visiting as many attractions as we can fit in!
Can't believe it's been nearly a year already since we got married!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Crete report on it's way.

Sealife

2009-08-18T18:17:00.025+01:00

Recently we went to the Sealife Centre in Birmingham. We had some 2 for 1 entry tickets, so thought we would use them. We enjoyed the visit. Andy was a bit disappointed that the Sharks weren't very big (and too quick for photos!) and the Piranha tank wasn't bigger! So a trip to the Blue Planet Aquarium in Chester might be on the cards. The photos we took weren't too bad, as flash photography is not allowed.

We're off to Wales with the dogs for a holiday, so we will start the Crete report when we get back. Wela i chi!

Sealife Centre Birmingham

We paid £15.50 for the both of us using the Merlin 2 for 1 ticket.

TSFC Trophy Night

2009-08-17T18:49:00.004+01:00

On Saturday July 18th 2009, TSFC held their presentation night. Up for grabs were trophies for top scorer, most improved, best in training, players player and managers player, to name but a few! There were a few surprises on the night with special trophies for the manager and assistant manager from the lads to say thank you for helping them win the treble. There was also a surprise for the lads. Although TSFC came second in the Lucozade league, the manager presented the lads with a trophy from Lucozade and VIP tickets to see a premiership game. A good night all round!

The Treble!

2009-08-05T10:12:00.005+01:00

TSFC have had a great season this year, they won the league and two cups. As you can see from the pictures there is a lot of silverware. Fully deserved, they worked hard and it paid off. Next season they have decided to conquer the premier league on a Sunday but may come back to Saturday football after that.

Deja Vu Wembley!

2009-07-31T08:48:00.012+01:00

We embarked on another trip down to Wembley on the 23rd May 2009, to see Shrewsbury Town football club (again!) v Gillingham football club.
Again, another convoy of coaches headed down south, making one stop at a motorway services, where Shrewsbury fans just took over the whole place.

It was a lovely day, so on arrival we headed to a pub. The pubs around Wembley were allocating themselves to either team, we ended up in a Wetherspoons.

Our seats in the stadium were a bit higher up than last time (ok, a lot higher up), but a good view. To cut a long painful 90 minutes short, Shrewsbury lost in the dying seconds to a late winner from Gillingham. The dream was over again. Maybe they will be lucky next time? Or maybe everything happens in three's?

STFC 0-1 GTFC

Arrivederci!

2009-07-29T09:21:00.011+01:00

We will finish off this trip report on Milan with some pictures we took while exploring. We both found Milan to be a friendly and interesting city and would definitely visit again. We have found that not everyone rates Milan as a weekend break as much as we do, but each to their own and we all have different ideas on how to spend a long weekend. We are thinking about some more long weekends and considering on continuing with Italy, Venice and Rome being high on the agenda for obvious reasons.

Next time though we will take a more extensive phrase book as ours was not enough to get us by. Our little souvenir of Milan is a miniature vespa.

The next trip report will be our honeymoon in Crete. Before that, we will update you on TSFC and the treble! and a short report on our deja vu trip to Wembley! As you can probably see from the trip countdown on the right hand side of the blog, we will be off to Wales very soon for the dog's holiday, Tal-y-bont to be exact. We have more plans ahead and reports will follow accordingly.

Steph hasn't forgotten about the trip reports on Thailand and Malaysia, they will come, she just hasn't got round to transferring the APS films to CD yet, but Steph will get her act together and get it done!

3 Jolie

2009-07-27T19:28:00.013+01:00

We went for a meal at the newly opened 3 Jolie restaurant owned by the AC Milan footballer Gennaro Gattuso. The restaurant was walking distance from our hotel. We really enjoyed the meal and would reccommend it. The restaurant had low lightning and a colourful decor, which set for a good atmosphere. The food was delicious and without much of a waiting time. Andy had steak and Steph had a beef spaghetti dish. Steph was drinking Vodka and they were very generous with their measures, so if you order a single you are more likely to get it verging on a triple!

After the meal, we went to our hotel bar for some drinks and got talking to our friendly barman, there was a bit of a language barrier, but we think we just about understood each other. The barman felt that he wasn't being challenged enough, so we got him making some cocktails! They were pretty good. The hotel bar closed quite early so the barman recommended his local. His local turned out to be a plastic gazebo in the middle of the street, but it had a good atmosphere. A couple of locals joined us and the language barrier was even greater, but everyone seemed to have a good time anyway.

Our friendly hotel barman

At the barmans local

Gattuso's restaurant

This Is It

2009-07-07T08:55:00.004+01:00

Steph has been asked by a few what she is going to do with her 'This Is It' Michael Jackson tickets.
She has two concert tickets and two after show tickets. She has decided to keep one concert ticket and refund the rest. Steph also has a tour t-shirt, so all this will make a nice souvenir of the Michael Jackson concert that never was.

Michael Jackson

2009-06-28T12:56:00.008+01:00

Just interrupting the Milan report to give a special mention to one of the world's greatest entertainers. For Steph's birthday back in April, Andy and the family bought Steph tickets to watch Michael Jackson in concert at the O2 arena in London. So, as you can probably guess we are very sad that Michael Jackson has died and that we won't get to see this great performer. Its a very sad loss. Andy is very fortunate that when he was younger he saw Michael Jackson in concert in 1989 on his Bad tour.

Here are some pictures from April, Andy threw Steph a Michael Jackson themed birthday party and everyone dressed up as Michael Jackson.

We are huge fans. RIP MJ.

San Siro

2009-06-16T18:06:00.013+01:00

Kaka!

Crazy Fans!

A big part of our trip to Milan was to see AC Milan play. AC Milan is Andy's joint favourite European team with Real Madrid. We were very much looking forward to seeing Maldini and Kaka play.

We arrived at the San Siro (it was an early evening match) to a great atmosphere, we had a drink with some local fans before being let into the ground. As we were early, our first point of call was the club shop. Andy bought a home shirt with Kaka on the back.

The San Siro stadium looks pretty amazing from the outside, but incredible on the inside with an atmosphere to match. The fans make the atmosphere and AC Milan have a hell of a fan base.

We had some great seats, near the bottom, but high enough to have a great view of the pitch, opposite the tunnel.

The match: AC Milan v Torino

The final score was 0-0, disappointing as it would have been good to see AC Milan score.

What we loved was that the commentator would introduce the players number and first name and the fans would shout the surname - brilliant!!

We have to say though that some of the die hard fans certainly had a die hard attitude! We observed the fans on the top tiers and some were hanging off the railings! If they fell, they would have been dead!

Food and drink were brought round the stadium and to our amazement on this pretty chilly night, the most popular buy was the ice cream!

Maldini has only just retired in his forties, for an out field player, that is practically unheard of in England. Does anyone know the secret to why Italian players have longer careers?

After the game there was organised chaos with fans from both sides on their way home. We could not find an empty taxi or a bus to save our lives! We tried walking back to the hotel, but ended up getting a bit lost. We actually found out later that we had walked near to our hotel at one point! Eventually we found a taxi and welcomed our bed!

Shopping!

2009-06-15T18:19:00.012+01:00

Andy deserves a well earned drink from all that shopping!

We both like doing this a bit and as it was Andy's birthday, we did a lot of it! Milan is great for shopping, clothes and shoes is what we were looking for.

If you've got a particularly large purse or wallet then the designer shopping centre, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is the place to go. If you're wallet or purse isn't particularly large, then it is still worth a visit. Window shopping at Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc... and the centre itself is beautiful. The architect for the building was Giuseppe Mengoni who unfortunately fell off some scaffolding and died in 1878, a few months before it was completed.

Not far from the famous Duomo is a shopping area called Quadrilatero d'Oro, here you will find little boutiques to large shops and departments stores, as well as a huge amount of Jewellery shops.

For the longest shopping street in Italy, go to Corso Buenos Aires, open til late as well!

While shopping, we did take in some sights as well. Who cannot miss the very imposing and impressive Duomo! There is an entrance fee for the treasury, baptistery and roof, but the Cathedral is free. This is one of the largest churches in Europe, it boasts 3000 statues, 135 spires and 96 gargoyles. Its a very beautiful building and is well worth a visit.

We did this part of the trip over two days, as there is so much to see.

Andy's Birthday - Milan 2007

2009-06-11T17:57:00.009+01:00

Andy loves his football and has always wanted to go to Italy, in fact he has actually asked if we can live there one day for at least a year! Don't know when that will be! - So, it was only natural to think that the best birthday present would be a trip to Milan to sight-see, shop and to go and watch AC Milan play.

AC Milan is one of Andy's favourite European teams along side Real Madrid.

I took Andy for lunch at the Peach Tree restaurant in Shrewsbury to tell him about his birthday present, he had no clue and this was a day before we flew (the rhyme isn't on purpose!).

Well, of course he loved it!

We had an early morning flight, which we both agreed has to be one of the best flights we have ever had. It was a small plane (not sure of the type, answers on a postcard!), but it was quick on take off and landing was very smooth.

We both like to people watch and there was one gentleman on the flight which we both noticed, he was a bit secretive looking - so we concluded he had to be part of the Mafia!

To our surprise, he was actually arrested on arrival to Milan, whether he was part of the Mafia or not, we shall never know!

We did have a guide book and tried our hardest to get a bus to the city, but we ended up in a taxi and paying top dollar for the pleasure. Oh well.

The hotel was classed as a 4 star and certainly stood up to it's rating. It was great. The staff were friendly, the room was tidy and clean and we couldn't have asked for more.

We got our bearings and decided on a plan of action. We decided shopping and sight-seeing first. We ended up walking to the nearest metro station as we could not find anywhere to purchase the tickets for the tram. It was a bit of a trek, but we got to see a lot and it was good exercise. We had our tickets, so using the tram was possible now.

We stayed at the Hotel Mozart

We're Back!

2009-05-17T19:45:00.003+01:00

Just a quick note to say that we are back from our honeymoon in Crete. We had a fab time, visited some beautiful places and met some new friends. We will do a write up very soon.

While we were away, we had some good news, TSFC won the League Challenge Cup! A great achievement.

Just getting back to normal now and challenging the pile of holiday clothes washing!

We're off to Wembley again as Shrewsbury Town FC have made it to the play-offs again for league one! Fingers crossed for a win.

Our first trip report, as promised, will be Milan.

TSFC Update

2009-05-01T21:21:00.004+01:00

TSFC receive a talk by a sports scientist.

Early last year Andy entered TSFC into a draw to win sponsorship from Lucozade. Tens of thousands of teams all around the UK entered but only 80 teams were going to be picked to receive sponsorship and compete in a virtual league.

The day of the draw we tuned into Talk Sport radio, to our absolute amazement, TSFC were second out of the draw!

Since the draw, TSFC have received a brand new kit, a regular supply of Lucozade products and a training session with a sports scientist. The team have been loving it!

The virtual league is calculated from the results the teams get in their own real leagues. TSFC have been doing brilliantly and are top of the Shropshire Alliance League which has resulted in them being second in the Lucozade league which is a fantastic achievement.

The season is not over yet. In the Alliance league, TSFC have 6 league games left and are in two cup finals. Every game counts!

There is a lot to play for and some huge prizes to be won with Lucozade. If TSFC win the Lucozade league they will play an exhibition match at Old Trafford, Manchester United's ground! And, they will win a trip to Austria to a top training camp where they will be treated like premiership players!

Other prizes can be won like tickets to premiership games, these can be won by being top scorer, most improved team etc... Our top scorer is third in the Lucozade top scorers!

You can track TSFC's progress with the Lucozade league here:

Lucozade League

and

You can track their progress in the Shropshire Alliance league here:

TSFC

So, its very exciting at the moment!

Good Luck TSFC!!

Easter Break

2009-04-27T18:42:00.015+01:00

The Easter break was a great little 4 day weekend. weather was fantastic, sunny and warm. We decided to spend most of the weekend with the dogs. We took them out and played their favourite game, football!

We are convinced Spike was a footballer in a former life as he absolutely loves his ball. If you kick the ball up in the air he will header it a couple of times, sort of with his nose, rather than his head. Spike's first touch is also pretty good!

Chewy also loves his football, but would rather just carry the ball and run around rather than do the tricks and dribble.

The nets were up in the goals where TSFC play and the sports field also allows dogs, so we took them there.

It took them both a couple of times to realise that the ball doesn't go through the net, so going around to retrieve it doesn't work!

We took them some water as it was very hot and they were soon panting. It's pretty good exercise playing football with two dogs!

Sportsman's Evening

2009-04-26T12:19:00.008+01:00

Andy and Jeff Winter

On Friday the 20Th March, we attended a Sportsman's dinner in aid of raising some money for the Shropshire Alliance League at the Lord Hill Hotel.

The evening consisted of a dinner (obviously!), a guest speaker in the form of Jeff Winter a former Premier League Referee, a comedian called Danny Dalton, Irish Bingo and an auction of football memorabilia.

The evening started with dinner, vegetable soup to start, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables for main and apple pie and custard for pudding. Quite a filling dinner, but very nice.

The guest speaker Jeff Winter then entertained us after dinner with some of his stories and experiences being a premier league referee. He was very funny and interesting.

The comedian started after a short interval and with a very risque joke, but very funny!

The league had also hired a very brave lady in my opinion! Her job was to model the the football memorabilia for the auction, with little else on!

Andy had managed to get two signed football shirts, Leicester City and Shrewsbury Town to donate to the auction.

After the auction, Jeff Winter finished off his talk and did a book signing. Andy bought one of his books, will he read it? That's debatable!

All in all the evening went very well, the league didn't raise as much as they had hoped, but it was their first evening they had hosted, so next time should be much better.

We enjoyed ourselves, it makes a nice change to do something different in the evening sometimes.

Farewell Malta

2009-04-15T17:47:00.011+01:00

Andy and his favourite barman!

David chose a Tabasco based shot for him and Andy.......

.....Oh yes, they regretted it!

Claire chose a Bailey's based shot,

you would think it would be ok?

Nope!

All smiles again!

The biggest chair EVER!

We would like to finish this trip report with pictures of our various nights out in Malta. We met some interesting people and ate in some lovely restaurants. We like to buy souvenirs when we are away as a nice reminder of where we have been. From Malta we bought ourselves some Maltese glass, it comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and various colours. We chose a large paperweight in a swirl of pretty blues.

We met an American couple one night out in St Paul's Bay, who were interesting to say the least! They entertained us with their tall stories about knowing Britney Spears very well amongst other famous American figures! Whether the stories were true or not, they were entertaining. The couple liked us so much, they even invited us to go stay with them in the states! They had drunk quite a lot, so I guess we won't be taking them up on their invitation as I could hazard a guess at, 1. they wouldn't remember us and 2. it would be pretty busy at their place as they invited a lot more people!

Coming up....

The next trip report will be about a long weekend in Milan, Andy and I took in November 2007 for Andy's birthday, but we won't start writing this until we get back from our trip to Crete, so expect it around the middle to end of May.

In the meantime (until we leave for Crete), we will be updating you on TSFC, a Sportsman's dinner we went to and the Easter break.

Valletta

2009-04-12T11:16:00.009+01:00

All along we had decided on a visit to Valletta, but the day we went we did on the spur of the moment. We get very restless sometimes and just cannot sit by a pool all day, so this day we got in a taxi and headed for Valletta.

We we were dropped off just outside, you enter through the city gate. Driving is almost impossible in the city as there are many narrow streets and streets of stairs. We made our way to what could be said the main square. We took a drink just outside the Bibliotheca, a grand building, built in the late 18Th century. The building houses rare and priceless works, with a small section on display in the main hall. We also passed St John's Cathedral, which was absolutely packed with tourists, so we decided to visit the Palace of the Grand Masters. This was the official residence of the Grand Masters up until 1798 when it went on to become the home of Malta's parliament.

The Grand Masters were Knights who were given the islands by Charles V of Spain in 1530. The palace houses portraits of the Grand Masters and European monarchs, beautiful furniture and art. You can visit several rooms, including the small council chamber, the throne room, the hall of the ambassadors, the yellow state room and the armoury. At the entrance you are given a recording which is included in the entrance fee, it tells you the history and interesting information.

We found the armoury the most interesting as it houses armour, weaponry, etc...

It felt like a worthwhile visit.

After leaving the Palace, we hired a horse and carriage which took us on a tour of the city. This way you can visit at your leisure without being too overcome by the heat. The driver was very useful in his knowledge as well. We took in the city walls, the grand harbour, fort St Elmo, the gardens and the narrow streets.

Valletta is a very imposing city which still remained whole after intensive bombing during World War two, Malta experienced over 6000 tonnes of bombs falling in one month! In 1942, April 15Th, the people and the island of Malta were awarded the George Cross for gallantry by King George VI.

Valletta is a must when visiting this island.

The Blue Lagoon

2009-04-05T13:01:00.009+01:00

We booked a cruise with Captain Morgan Cruises, this would include a leisurely sail to Comino Island to enjoy the Blue Lagoon and the Blue Grotto, a sight seeing opportunity of Malta from the sea, taking in places such as the Grand Harbour at Valletta and a lunch on board.

This trip would be very touristy, especially when reaching the Blue Lagoon. This could not be helped as it was August!

Comino is a very small island between Malta and Gozo, about 2.5km by 2km. There are no roads on the island which in turn would indicate no cars, there is one hotel which is only open during the summer months.

Diving, snorkeling and leisurely walks are the main activities of this island. It is best to bring your own food and drink, unless it is included in your cruise because otherwise you can only get food and drink at the hotel.

The island is a wildlife sanctuary, but is named after the cumin plant, which surprisingly, turns out to be very hard to find!

It seemed like a lifetime before we arrived at the lagoon. Although we had a pleasant cruise, the boat was packed so you were almost permanently in your seat. It was extremely hot and not all seats had shelter from the sun. The lunch was nice and we enjoyed as much as we liked.

Finally arriving at the Lagoon, we were offered a speed boat trip to the Grotto at an additional cost. We accepted and we have to say, it was definitely the right choice! The ride in the speed boat itself was absolutely fantastic! It was like being on a roller coaster and nobody could stop laughing! We were soaked to the skin and a fellow passenger just about managed to film us all with his camcorder (how the camcorder survived the soaking, I don't know!). The recording was hilarious!

The Grotto was interesting enough. The caves and coves were brilliant shades of purple and glistened when the sun caught reflection, very pretty. The waters were extremely clear, just unfortunate they were spoiled by the odd bit of rubbish that had been discarded.

Arriving back at the lagoon, we couldn't stop raving about the speedboat ride!

Fighting our way through the crowds, we managed to get down to the lagoon. Snorkel and underwater camera ready we made our way in.

I was slightly disappointed, yes the water was clear and a brilliant shade of turquoise, but I think the amount of people scared away the marine life. We settled on enjoying a bit of relaxation and some swimming.

Andy spotted some kids jumping off a pretty tall boat into the lagoon and decided it looked like fun! Hey, its good to just act like a kid sometimes, I think you enjoy some things better that way! The kids loved him!

To get into the water where we were, the rocks were quite sharp, obviously slippy, so due care and attention was in order. We spotted a child of about 3-4 years old trying to get in, no adult helping. The child was going to fall, so we assisted and led the child to a more shallow part near the sand and away from the rocks. Eventually, a parent called to the child, but made no effort to supervise. We kept one eye on the child as drowning is possible in the most shallow of waters.

We kept an eye on the time as there was no roll call for our ship and they did warn they would leave on time with or without you!

To avoid the crowds, we would suggest visiting outside of the popular months or stay at the hotel on Comino and visit the lagoon when everyone is gone.

We sailed with Captain Morgan Cruises, departing from Sliema Harbour. Included in the cruise was a pick-up and drop-off coach from our hotel, lunch, Comino and the Blue Lagoon and a cruise around the coast of Malta. The speed boat trip to the Blue Grotto, is an optional trip at an additional cost when you arrive at the lagoon.