It's a Banana

that's no baguette! i have this photo too. not very good at captions either. Here's a little something to remind you off christmas Marc. Bugger can't find how to load the photo?

xx

mmm, not sure bout that one!

not a clue about that photo - nice baguette bobbers!

quite pleased actually cos i know theres lots more worse ones one that somewhere

we are off tomorrow to Ko Lipe, we've booked a small longtail boat for the 3 hour journey across the ocean, and just for good measure the storms have kicked in - nice ! think we are all silently 'concearned' (good choice of word) but sure it will be fine

fingers crossed :-O

rhubarb rhubarb, leeches and jellyfish

quick update on the events of the last few days

we made it to pulau lankawi which is in malaysia - its quite developed but still very basic in some parts - anyways we managed to find a bungalow right on the beach for 8 quid a night - pretty good

wasn't much going on in the resort so we hired a card for a day - 8 quid for the car too, with an 8 quid deposit - bargain! mind you, the brakes where shoite and 5th gear seemed to have dissapeared, but we managed to find a lovely cove beach and a waterfall, then drove up the central mountain for some amazing views

so the story wouldn't be complete without a leech - so, juz had to pay a wee trip to the bushes, as you do, and the rest of us heard this scream, which my trained ears instantly recognised as a leevh scream - they do like juz thats fot sure - ive been quite lucky so far

so visa stamps for another month we are back in thailand now, we sailed straight to ko bulone - id never heard of the place but it was the only boat going so we hopped on - and (sound like a broken record here) but its totally gorge, we got beach front shacks with hammocks up and a lovely bar

you can tell we have too much time on our hands because we spent two hours playing the 'who am i' yes/no game the other night - all good fun though and we are back on the spendygams tonight i think

oooooh, gotta nasty sting of a jellyfish today, two long blisters on my arm from the tentacles i think - obviously i screamed, panicked and and raced to shore

anyways, better go - we off to ko lipe tomorrow, more paradise, utopia etc and all that stuff - speak soon

crazy loons

hello there you nutters, cant believe, just logged on and theres loads of stuff here - superb stuff, and even a photo, brilliant (still havent managed to do that)

cheers for the photo mels, love that shot - that was a lovely day on the beach too - with my white vest :-)

cant beleive its nearly xmas too - quite gutted to be missing it over there - sure we'll have fun here but will miss the wrapping up and cosy pubs an all that - ive promised to make a roast here but f*ck knows how i i'll do that

if your stuck for a nice pub you should check out the the Spaniards Inn in hampstead - its gorgeous and about 500 years old - superb fish and chips too - imagine it gets busy sunday though so youd prob have to book

ok, keep me posted on life in blighty , i love to hear all the gossip

see yer

It's Friday!

Hey Lydia, as you can't make it to the lunch/drinks in december you can submit a photo or two on here. Turned icey here too in the last few days, was worried bike would slide this morning but the gritters had been out in some places so was ok. It's 16.41 and dark! i'm off to friends tonight for champagne and hash cakes! i have to cook them too!! mmm, well here's preying they're edible. Hope you all have a good weekend. Feel i should mention Marc as it's his Blog! right his name's on here, that'll do, dont want to over do it. xxxx

Sunday Lunch

I've sent out an email to invite everyone to pre christmas lunch/drinks. I doubt it will match the super day organised by Mr Wilkinson himself in Little Venice last year but a damned good excuse to meet up with everyone. Maybe we could all bring our favourite photo of Marc along so we feel he's with us. Maybe even have a "best, worst photo of Marc competition"? you just know that's a daft idea that could be heaps of fun???? mmmmm. So i'm adding the invite on hear as i dont have everyone's email address. Mr Jenkins for example, so if you want to join us let me know. Marc any good ideas where to go!!??? happy travelling chicken. xx

Archives

Hey Marc, on the right hand side of the front page is "archives" that's where the rest of the blog is (i think). Following your previous instructions and selecting "blog this" from the front page does not give me the option to type a message? i have no idea how i got into this page, (dialog box to type in) and i know when i log out i'll never get back again either !! i love technology, soo glad im in IT!!!! Went to the service for rememberence day this morning, well it's 200 yards from home and the marching band sounded nice.

xxxxxx you think you'd be able to insert smiley faces.

take two!

hello, testing testing, i've finally renewed username and password and think i'm back in the blog, only the page i've just seen i've never seen before and am now typing this into a text box. Well howdy Marc, thanks for the emails always a joy to get one. My previous message on here never made it to the front page, it was rather long though, i'd had a few coffees at work and think the caffeine had kicked in. I've enjoyed reading about the leeches and am considering some as pets as a dog's a bit too much commitment right now. Crap weekend, i've been home with a cold and feeling rather bored and sorry for myself. Watched the Calendar girls yesterday, it was quite good actually. well that'll do for now, hi to everyone. OOOh getting flash now, i've added the photo i sent you as you couldnt see it. Remember these guys? bless. Oh dear i can't find the save button???? ahh got it,

what??

ignore the prev blog - it was meant for justines, sos -

anyone noticed the bottom of this blog has fell off?? anyone know how to get to the second page

life in the slow lane...!

life in the slow lane alright!!! theres nothing on here - come on juicy boles, lets here whats been going on

actaully, im sat next to you right now in the cafe and you've no idea im blogging this ;-)

spendy games!! - and cheap haircuts!

just a quickie, we on the way to malaysia at the mo to renew visa's - stopped in trang for couple of nights which was pretty chilled although theres not much to see - although we picked up a rip off version of scrabble - called 'SPENDYGAMES' and even the board has typo's on it - 'SPENDYGAMS' - genius!

god, sounds dull heh??

anyways, managed to get me mop cut at this barbers - cost 50 baht - thats about 70 pence! amazing

so, we in satun at the mo and off to pulau lankawi tomorrow, - apprently its a duty free island but i cant see how it will be cheaper than here

see yer

more waffle...

leavin ko lanta tomorrow - very dissapointed, its been awesome, feel very at home here - we did the 4 island speed boat trip yesterday - it was excellent cos ive never been on a speedboat before, i must be moving in the wrong circles :-)
we did some excellent snorkelling - then went to this inland cave with loads of lush vegetation and even a mini beach there - we had to swim through a pitch black tunnel to get there which was well scary - trouble was there was 40 people there on the two tours so not really that tranquil, ann some tourists where putting fag buts out in the sand and even one guy havvin a piss in the corner - f*ckin ridiculous!!!

so, we off to trang tomorrow, then satun then back into malaysia to get the thai visa renewed for another month - then we gonna back to the islands again

this seriously is the life, cant believe i waited untill now to do it

not much else to report, we all still struggling to stay off the pop each night, its so cheap and is just ther tonic after a nice hot day - oh and speking of the weather it looks like the monsoon is well over now cos we got pure blue skys here todat, and a 'burn time' of about 30 seconds

oh - everton won again - result !!!

house in france for let

my folks place in france is available for let, its though the ferry company but if anyones keen then we can sort it direct and prob do it much cheaper, it looks perfect for a summer chill out - and its got a massive garden - couple of acres i think

follow this link and use the ref QU1022 to search
http://www.brittanyferries.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=491

tsunami

forgot to mention that ko jum was one of the islands affected last december - i dont thimk there was any casualties but the accomadation took a battering and there is still loads of debris on the beach - and many of the new bungalows are being built on stilts - its quite a wierd feeling when looking out to see and imagining what went through there minds when they saw it coming - its normally such a tranquil place

monsoons,

been trying to plan around the weather a little here, so have formed a list of the months with least rainfall for the major cities here,

this is incredibly dull, and is more for my own records - apols if anyone is comatosed by this post

city - low months
Hanoi .. nov - mar
Manilla .. Jan - April
Vientienne .. Nov - Mar
Phnom penh .. Jan - Mar
Laod (general) .. May - sept
Andaman coast .. May - nov
Thai gulf coast .. Oct - Jan
Chaing Mai .. Dec - Marc
Saigon .. Jan - Marc

god, im such a nerd

lets off road!

had the jeep yesterday - set off on the 4WD at 9am to explore the island - went to the old town, the sea gypsy village - then brek on this gorge cliff top place overlooking the other islands

then we hit the rough stuff - ive never driven a jeep before and it was great fun bumping all over the really steep roads -

then we headed for a swim and becky thought it would be cool to take the car on the beach - mmmmmm, not good, the car got stuck after about 2 meters and we couldn't shift it at all - it was juts spinning,

anyways . luckily some herman dudes came along and it turned out we hadn't even had it on 4WD - apparently theres some 'locks' on the wheels we hadn't turned - how the buggerey where we meant to know that!

panic over - we celebrated with some more wave bobbing and body surfing (if thats what its called)

the red sea

saw the most amazing sunset ever last night - not just yer normal 'sun dispearing' jobby - but a full on red sea and deep red sky reflecting everywhere that just about made everything you could see - er, red! but very red, looked like the air was coloured

pretty freaky actually, felt like armagedden - or the second coming - im not sure which

more beaches

well, ko jum/pu was quite cool, nothing amazing but good to hang out for a few days (stayed in the woodland lodge)- also looks like the monsoon is finishing now so the weather has taken a good turn - and im becoming a nice lobstery shade of pink -

after ko jum we took the boat over to ko lanta, very chilled here and everyone is very 'free' and easy - lots of poi, UV light, bob marley and jack johnson - bit too mellow sometimes - but its got a superb beach with quite big waves - and we all discovered out new fave past time yeserday - 'wave bobbing' its very complex, you just bob up and down and try to avoid getting flattened - great fun

so then, we got a party tonight, a snorkelling trip in a few days, and we have hired a 4WD jeep for monday -

Lets off road!

oh yeah , cheers for the cave info kelly we are defo gonna head there, , and cheers for the leech info claire - very informative!

dunno what happened to the other one

think i lost a blog note, cannee find it, but all it said was that i we heading off to ko jum today , rec'd by some hippy called dave

AND - just hear the loudest thunder bang i ever ever heard - strucj about 10 meters away and shook everything

awesome :-)

ooooh, i feel just like that Leanardo!

could be the last update for a while this, met this freindly old hippy bloke frome stoke last night playing pool, and turns out he's been here 10 years, and has lived on an island called Ko jum for 3 years - its not on the map or in the guide book, so thats where we are heading - if we can find it!!!

still pissing down here, all though it doesnt bother me - stiff british upper lip all an all that bollox :-)