juz's blog

mels, juz's blog is

http://www.justineboles.blogspot.com

and its best to create a new log on to post there cos it seems to post to your default blog - which is a bit annoying

i had to do the same myself

back in Saigon for NYE

yup, back in saigon - felt like i never left but have managed to see so much in the last few days which is strange - we did a 3 day whistle stop tour of the mekong delta, which was very touristy but we saw the same things we'd see if we did it independently

still managed to stay in 2 different towns, saw the suset from Sam mountain, did some lovely river trips, went to the river markets, etc, etc - it was really nice but not the most moving experience, bit too easy for my liking - but we got to see a lot which was cool

still, here we are in the centre of Saigon (Ho chi minh city), the parades are going through the streets now and ive just heard the first sounds of some dance-like music so we could be in for a good one

think we'll be celebrating before you here - would love to fly back for another party but no can do , so will just have to give it the bifters here!

hope everyone has a great NYE - im sure you will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

life in the slow(ish!) lane...!

testing testing, this is for Justine.

Films

back again! i dont know the film from which the Saigon saying comes from but the Quiet American was on TV the other day, saw a bit of it. Michael Caine was in it. They showed the Italian Job yesterday too which was as superb as ever.

Seasons greetings

Well that's that for another year! yes, still think it's over rated. The morning swim was great, highlight of Christmas for sure, water nice and warm, absolutely packed and some competitve swimmers trying to do a full workout amongst the crowds, not much festive cheer is you tried to cross the lane in front of them! the steam coming off the water looked great and the weather was pleasantly mild for time of year, even had some winter sun. Never made it to the pub which was a shame as was looking forward to it, so still not been to the pub on christmas day. Feet gone numb so have to move, see you later. xxx

Saigon, shit. I'm still only in Saigon

ok, only been here a day now - anyone recognise the words above from a film?? pretty obvious but had to say it

saigon pretty cool, good to back in a proper city again - the main drag is pretty much like the khao san road (Bangkok), loads of cafes and fake guide books (they actually print fake books, amazing!

went to the war remenants museum this morning which was pretty shocking and horrific - loads of photos and storys of the horror of war - but i guess its better to know the truth of what goes on, even if its horrible to hear it

just read the quiet american by graham greene which was excellent, and also set in Saigon, so to pay for homage we went for cocktails on the roof of the Majestic hotel, which is where he spent many an evening - lovely views

was funny to use a urinal that he prob used too!! sorry, but im a bit of a graham greene fan, so forgive me that one

so off to the mekong delta tomorrow i think on a 3 day tour, hopefully on a few boat trips as well - then back here for new years eve hopefully

for some reason there are loads of water parks here so we may treat ourselves to a splashing on new years day

hope the NYE plans are cool for everyone, enjoy the party !!!

boxing day

after a big lie in, and some nasty aches and pains froma a late night we hauled ourselves out of bed for the jeep tour today

it was pretty cool and we did a river walk (no leeches this time), sledged down some sand dunes which was cool, saw a lovely cannyon, and then some more sand dunes

was ok, but its never that peasurable being ferried from tourist spot to tourist spot with rip offs awaiting you at each point - all cool though and glad we did it

off to saigon tomorrow which im well looking forward to, sounds excellent, then we better get ready for NYE - some partying to be done there me thinks

im sure loads more things happened today and yesterday, but cant be arsed to type at mo, sos

oh yeah, i think the one thing i miss most about boxing day is all the lovely leftover food - i would die for a turkey, cheese, pickle, onion, mustard, stuffing and tomato sandwich - if someone can arrange that i would be eternally grateful

see yer later, have a good NYE

xmas dinner, kind of ...

hope everyone had a lovely xmas day - and you all got loads of goodies!

we had a very silly day - we kicked of with a morning swim, then had some belini cocktails with bread and cheese

we headed out for bloody marys and then went back for present time

it all got very silly and it finished off with me and chris both donning a dress and my xmas wig for a girlie dance - the photos are very scary and i'll stick em up soon

off for xmas dinner and i actually managed to get chicken and some roast potatoes - brilliant!!! we where all so stuffed which is as it should be -

no after eights though :-(

so we managed to wade through a 2 course dinner, and 14 jugs of draught beer for about 7 quid each - brilliant!!

and even the sun came out in the morning - brilliant!

hope it was a as nice for everyone else

happy xmas everyone!!

xmas eve here so just wishing evryone a very merry merry xmas - hope its cool whatever you do !!!

was trying to post a photo here of me and juz with our tinsel wrapped bungalow - but the cable doesn't fit - bugger!!!

think of me as you tuck into your stuffing, theres no way on earth we would get that here - or any chicken cos of bird flu

happy happy merry merry xmas everyone

enjoy

mui ne

made it to mui ne, by a rather dodgy journey - we opted not to get the door to door 5 dollar tourist bus, and thought we'd get the train to the nearest place which is about 30k away -

what we didn't realise was that the we arrived at 1am and the station was in the arse end of nowhere

we ended up getting a bit intimidated by the guys there and had to take a taxi for about 30 dollars - 6 times what it should be!!!

few lessons learnt there

still Mui ne is pretty cool, we on the beach again although the south china sea is quite chilly here - hired bikes and went for a ride to the fishing village

presents are gonna be funny here - we've all bought some novelty rubbish things for each other, so should be fun

where kicking off with bloody marys and bread and cheese in the morning, then for a swim, and then we'll take it from there

gotta jeep booked for boxing day too, to the big sand tunes where apparently we can sledge down - ????? mmmmm, quite intrigued to see how this turns out - we'll see

and we walk up a rived where we are assured there are no leeches

i seriously hope that bit is true :-)

hello

have to get hold of the deep dish album, sounds awesome - as they where last week! junk science is pretty cool too if you wanna try another one of theres, think bobbers has it

xmas sounds cool, outdoor swimming will be wonderful ! we gonna try it here too - sea very rough though

went dancing again the other night too, didn't mean too - just went for a few beers with this ozzie couple, and 12 saigon beers later found ourselves dancing round the floor to some pretty ok tune

downside is we were pretty wrecked, and these motorbike taxi girls tried to offer us a lift and push me on the bike - then we realised they where trying to get my wallet and the bike was the getaway vehicle - my wallet was in back pocket so i was lucky not to lose it - and when i realised i went proper (drunken) ballistic, shoved her off and told if she wanted my wallet i could shove it up her jacksie - how very uncouth of me!! still, ok to overreact a few times

impressed! yes me...

just have to say how blooming marvellous (family site) this Deep Dish is, title:George is on. Strange title but great music. One track sounded like it was going to break into the Body Rockers which was way too good to be true, thankfully christmas mood and not many people in,so the gasp of excitment wasn't too out of place in the morgue like environment i call the office. Unfortunately it was one of those teasing tunes...(oops just started typing songs!) anyone else remember songs? before tunes became the thing to say....NO?!! ok i'm off, the caffeine is kicking in, i've run out of decaf....xxxxx missing you......

Tunes! (not the ones that help you breathe)

Had a lovely run this morning listening to Jay Hannan and Lazy Dog. Sitting at desk now and someone just handed me a copy of Deep Dish! how nice, so zoning out to that right now. Feel the need for a boogie! when you coming back? have you been dancing much? dance parties on the beach are fab aren't they! We finish at lunchtime today and apparently there's a suprise raffle at 11am, it's all fun fun fun this christmas stuff eh! mustn't grumble at least they're making the effort. Far cry from parties at BT though. Right i'm off, work to do and all that, been trying to construct a project plan for about 3 days and getting nowhere fast. yawn yawn. xxx

bugger

Marc, that last one was for Justine, but so blooming hard to get into that one i keep ending up in yours! can you pass the message along please.....xx

Hello

hello, it all sounds good fun. you'll have to read Marc's blog to find out about our Sunday Lunch last week in Tooto! it was a very good afternoon and i was drunk on Moet with Miss Moffat. Claire Wilkinson has just filled everyone on the points i missed out (cos i'd forgotten) to recap: i used the mens loo as womens was too far away, lost my bag twice, second time it was on my shoulder and had hiccups for about 10 minutes. ah the good times eh. Well have a fab christmas and new year in the sun. I'm still optomistic about going to Hampton outdoor pool christmas morning (it's heated) and then to the pub then back to cook food. Miss Moffat coming over and Dan the aussie we met on holiday in Croatia, meeting other friends down the pub at lunchtime, a first for me (on christmas day of course not ever!) had two hangovers this week already and desperately need to tidy flat so all boring until christmas eve. We're getting B52 supplies in though so should be a good christmas. Shame we cant call you guys, but know you'll be thinking of us......xxxx

thanks Claire!

Lord i had forgotten all about those bits, but sadly now you mention it they sound quite correct, struggled remembering the mens toilet bit but yep remember now, in my defence though im sure it was your idea???? losing my bag on my shoulder??? not sure i can confirm that but hey i doubt you'd make it up. Well the champagne was clearly better than i remembered! No we didn't do presents. Have a fab christmas and new year everyone.xxxxx

exciting

dont wanna gloat (but going to), but have just booked two flights, one for kuala lumpar for the 1st march, and one forManilla in the phillipines on the 5th march -so excting - we may even get to witness the crucifixions on good friday

cant believe it, the phillipines sounds excellent, loads of diving, surfing and great beaches

will prob be skint by then, but what the hell -at least we got the flight booked

small world

kinda annoying this, but we met this guy in ko bulone about 5 weeks ago, which is in southern thailand and a really small island

he's a bit of a sleazy dude and we where glad to see the back of him, so was quite wierd this morn to here his voice and look up and see him there!!! in vietnam!

he prob feels the same, but its nuts! how does that happen??

nha trang

well the xmas lunch sounds excellent, well done mellers - and thanks to claire for the extra bits - and a trip back to tooto as well - brilliant

did you do secret santa as well???

and claire and darren being 5 hours late?? wouldn't expect much less, maybe 3 hours - and cant belive you let darren loose on jenga again - hope you cleared some room before starting

so on the coast here in a funny resort town called nha trang- not much going on so we heading off tomorrow again - think its off season here at the mo , but theres massive waves on the beach though which keeps me enertained for hours - seriously - im constantly nudging juz to look at yet another big wave! she's very patient with me

oh yeah, the 30 hour train journey from hanoi was pretty cool - obviously we dealt with it as you do any long train journey - with loads of booze! and spendy games, connect four, cards, and backgammon

we had a 4 bed berth to oursleves (we are really mixing it with the locals!!) which was cool - and we'd bought loads of food and then found out that they feed you on the trains n- we got woken at 8AM with a guy giving us 4 boxes of noodles! brilliant

rest of the food was pretty crap to be honest, but it was a lovely touch - think we got 3 meals in all

just back from a hot spring place too - was quite good although they started emtying the big swimming pool when we where in it - took us 30 mins to suss though, thought we where going mental - "im sure this feels shallower" type thing - quite a head messer that one, we where sat in about 8 inches of water in the end, time to get out

ok, gonna post this now before i lose what ive typed

PS - i cant view the blog proper from here , maybe cos of internet restrictions - so im kinda posting blindm but hope everyone is cool and loving xmas

and a final well done to mellers for the xmas do, sounds brilliant

Sunday lunch

I'm pleased to report our little sunday lunch went very nicely indeed. Following in your footsteps and keeping the tradition that the host gets the most sozzled; I had three large white wines and ploughed through two bottles of Moet with Miss Moffat. Despite giving out wrong directions, 6 people cancelling before i'd left the flat and several others not turning up at all, it was a good turn out. I think about 15 of us in all. Top that with the best Sunday lunch i can remember, a game or two of table jenga with forfeits (i took two pieces home!), a comfy pub, dougie's jokes and generally damn fine company and you couldn't ask for more (no not even me!). Darren gets the award for best being late story, he ran out of petrol on the M25 and had to be rescued by Claire. . If it wasn't for Jat not sure i'd have made it back to Surbiton, i couldn't actually read the board at waterloo! I have a bit of a hangover and took a while to remember how i burnt my finger, thank god i text Jat to say i had toast or i may never have remembered! I remember bits here and there today, and have apologised for trying to make Sparky's shoes dirty (bright white trainers). I think on the whole i was very well behaved though and didn't manage to put my foot in it anywhere? maybe someone knows differently? If the toilets weren't like a freezer i couldn't find anything bad to say for the day. So over to someone else to sort the next catch up! Think you'd be proud Marc. xx

saigon

we've no booked our 30 hour train trip to Ho Chi minh city (Saigon) although we will prob stop just short of there for some beach days and xmas before heading there for NYE

also forgot to mention we went to the old hanoi hilton (Hanoi prison) musuem yesterday = very disturbing - saw the original gullitine there too

very nice place this, if not a bit too mental -

ho chi minh

went to see uncle 'ho' today - seriously - he has been embalmed and is resident in his own mausaleum - it was quite interesting to see him and his musuem

basically he lead the uprising and revolution to form a unified communist vietnam, and seized power after the japanese had surrendered after the end of world war II -

the french soon controlled the south again though, but needed assistance from the americans (to no avail) to resist the communist pressure from the north -

but the north where making secret inroads into the south along the ho chi minh trail which was used for transporting supplies and soldiers

finally america withdrew and the south was taken in 1973 (i think) - they renamed Saigon as ho chi minh city in 1973

he had died in 1969


(PS - history was my worst subject (after English, and RE, and electronics), but this is what i remember from today)

hanoi again and offski

done a few tourist things here - went to see the water puppet show last night which was quite 'novel' - although im glad it only lasted 50 minutes, and im glad i only paid $2 for it -

does that sound positive???

also found some wicked bars and food places - ended up with four medicinal shooters last night, all of which tasted worse than paint stripper - they where meant to be herbal and healthy but they just strippped the skin from my lips which are still hurting today - lovely

also went to a great canteen called bittet - bought 200 people crammed into a tiny room, but we got steak in garlic, fried potato, salad and a beer for $2 - food tastes so much nicer when its cheaper!! strange but true!!

tooth hurty

forgot to mention had a tooth whizzed out in bangkok - cost 7 quid and took 5 minutes - had left juz with a coffee and i was back in time to finish it

went back next day for two fillings, so have only got one tooth left to sort out now - and its not giving me many problems

would have cost me 10 times more in the uk - easily - quite a relief to finally get em sorted

hanoi

well, wasn't quite ready for hanoi - its totally insane, moped madness and a demolition derby at every junction - i love it !

and when i say a lot of mopeds, i mean total shed loads (can i swear on here if the family are reading ?? ) there is shitloads of mopeds

waiting for a gap to cross the road is a waste time, the best (and only) strategy is to move steadily accross the road and let the bikes dodge you - you cant move to quick cos then they bump into you -

having 20-30 mopeds either side of you is quite scary - at every junction there is about 200 of em lined up waiting to take off

fingers crossed so far, its a relief to reach the kerb each time

close shave...

so after a top night at deep dish we surfaced rather lately for our early flight to hanoi - chris and becky woke us up twice and then left without us (understandable - we hadn't started packing at the time)

id pretty much given up hope but we went through the motions of getting a cab to the airport, and walzted over to check in 5 mins before expected departure expecting a big " %%%% OFF! your late" but no, he waved us through immigration with our rucsacs - when we then heard our names on the airport tannoy (2nd time in my life - after me and matts trip to tenerife)

long story short - they delayed the plane ten mins for us, and then i was the last one on cos i had 3 pen knifes on me - to 'secure' them they where stapled in a plastic bag and given back to me - brilliant !!

access denied...

for some crazy reason i dont seem to be able to view my own blog here in hanoi (restricted internet access) - but have managed to find a why of posting on it - hopefully!!!

i'll just try it now

Doomsday!

Not just because it's our christmas lunch but it's Pete & Geof's last day on virgin radio!! what will i listen to now in the morning? they are hilarious and cause me to laugh out loud daily, which as you know is a great feeling with your head phones on! anyone recomend a good morning radio station?

tattered toes

thanks for the foot picture Marc! just tuned in after a blooming awful day to try and raise a smile and after being reminded how wonderful the beaches are there i scroll up to feet! nice to be remembered though whatever the reason. Beam me up and take me with you!!
xx

backgammon

is great - ive just discovered

think me and dad tried it years back, and mustn't have quite sussed it properly cos we gave up

but juz picked a cheap one up there other day and im proper addicited

thai boxing

me and juz went to a thai boxing match last night - it was brilliant

we sat at the back in the cheap (er, but still very dear and dearer than the locals pay) seats where all the gambling goes on - it was nuts. By the 3rd or 4th round the betting was frantic and we just couldn;t figure out the system lots of hand waving, shouting and crazy gestures -

the fighting was great though, and no where near as brutal as we had imagined

although the last two fights where very much a case of , 'bugger this, im off for a pint' - a quick tap to the shoulder, fall over and leave the ring -

not much betting in those ones


off to deep dish tonight, then vietnam in the morning - fingers crossed

rumbled

well spotted claire, that is indeed a picture taken from the 1987 issue of Thomsons 18-30 holidays and is actually a picture of torremolinos

well done

Deep Dish...

are playing here thursday night, aint seen them since me and bob went on a school night a few years back at turnmills

has to be done

big brother...

just found out i can check who has been invited to this blog, and who has not bothered to look...

it makes for shocking reading it really does, jo T?? Phil McC????

i really expected better, and am quite upset - so much so that im off for another bloody mary and a bucket of Sangsom

oooh, i love this picture malarky, juse one more then

think thisis the only photo of all of us that i have - it was on ko lanta and was just after we played limbo (with belts) , i think the lowest we got without collapsing was, er, about 5 foot

sterling effort

this ones just for mellers ....

wearing flip flops or going 'free' style for the last few months has left my foot modelling carreer in tatters, as you can see

has anyone got worse feet than this??

trying to put a picture up.....

not managed this yet, but here goes - if succcessful it will be a shot of the view from our bungalow on ko lipe

here goes

small world...

just bumped into some dudes here in bangkok that where in the next bungalow to us on the small island of ko lipe!

bloody travellers, no imagination heh!!!

anyone want anything ?? ...

hello there,

gonna be here till friday evening i think, so i anyone wants anything let me know and i can send over - no promises but i will defo try

most of its shoite, but there are pretty good (fake) diesel tee shirts, shorts, and Adidas tracky tops - most are about 2 quid, maybe less so just send me size, style, colour and i'll see what i can do for anyone - u can get most colours here

loads of watches too, but cant gurantee they will get round the clock more than once

Marc Wilkinson

oh yes, well done on the diving! as a fellow hyperventilator wearing a snorkel i know how awful it is! after 12 days in croatia i still couldn't look under the water!

Marc Wilkinson

hello, by jove, just managed to get into this by clicking on the Blog This thingy above, never worked before. Anyway how long in Kao San for? Karen got some fantastic t-shirts i'd love one!! will put cash in your account. I'll find out where she got them from....might help.

khao san road ...

back on the khao san road again in bangkok, staying just off it - nuts as ever, but quite like it -

as a result everyone (in bebington) will be recieving Desil tee shirts, Kevin Kline shirts, and Raybin sunglasses

claire, any peference??

jim, cheers for the offer, any pants will be gratefully recieved, pref thongs, but Y's will do mate

whats everyone up to for NYE??

done it,,,,

yis, ive managed to become a full-on PADI, went down to 18 meters today without hyper-ventilating, saw lots of groovy coloured fishes and have qualified as a diver!! no big deal, but pretty chuffed and proud of the whole debacle, considering how scared i was before hand

next, (and this is what i really weant to do) is learn to hang glide -prob in oz - ive been a fish, now i wanna be a bird !! (no jokes please)

oh yeah, good breakdown gag claire - bum bum !!!!

off to bangkok tonight on a 14 hour bus, chris has got some valiums just in case we cant sleep - they have a nasty habit of pllaying superloud crap music on the buses here

hope everyone is well and lookin forward to xmas- has it snowed yet??

see yer

see yer

PANDORA

i've just typed in " i like the way you move" as in the body rockers, it didn't recognise it and i've ended up with Bay City Rollers "i only want to be with you" it sounds awful too, really not a bay city song, now if it was bye bye baby well would be ok, not sure i understand this website. thought bought up music of similar genre? oh well.....

Lunch

yes, the 18th is a Sunday, next weekend in fact, think have a decent turn out and some friends from various groups. I'll be there early getting slowly sozzled in case it all goes pear shaped.

Apologies

Sorry Mr and Mrs wilkinson for the comments on hash cakes and i hope you've enjoyed www.imahippy.com as much as i have.

Entertaining

Have to say how much i've enjoyed reading all the updates, all very funny and entertaining. Crazy fools all round. Claire/Clare/Clair (not sure which one your are so covering all options) your brother is the least likeliest person to come to any harm, he has more than the luck of the Irish!

in defence

Bob you should be a writer, great review of the night. In my defence i didn't have a go at him for being fat i had a go at him for taking up soo much room! In addition to all this there was the japanese girl with designer chewing gum streaks on her bum, the bouncer i had a go at for trying to make us leave 30 seconds after the lights went on which was 10 seconds after the music stopped abrubtly! and the express walk home (marc i too needed a pi pi) it wasn't the best dance night but was good fun, lots of babbling all round.

euro wirral...

actually - there are a few eoro wirral stars i could mimick also - wasn't Paul Heaton from wirral, and Ian Ashtbury also?? an xmas Love Removal machine maybe??

hired a truck/jeep tomorrow - its about 10 foot wide - with dodge steering and no handbrake - should be fun

xmas songs ...

just for the record we will prob in veitnam for xmas and have decided to do a 'local' home produced song each - by way of caberet

i think this was inspired by a day of shaky impressions, but i cant remember - so there .......

tonight Matthew, i will be ..............

Chris - Shakin Stevens (AKA shaky!) - Merry christmas everyone
Justine - Shane McGowan and Kirsty McColl - Fairytale of New York
Marc - John Lennon (and yoko i think) - so this is xmas (war is over)
Becky - Slade - Merry xmas everydoby

Im not sure shaky is actually from Crowborough, but there you go

bill bryson

anyone read 'a brief history of nearly everything' by bill bryson?? ive just finished it and its superb, and not too technical - i loved it - loads of stuff on the cosmos, cells, atoms, dinasours, and the evolution of humans - brilliant - defo recomended

anyway, might send it to dad for xmas - although if he reads this it kind of spoils the surprise - so maybe i wont, or maybe i will (double bluff)

PS - this is also a 'family' blog - so any conversations should be limited to sport, current affairs, the weather, and maybe the church - although not sure bout the last one :-)

EG - hashcake discussions should be posted on www.imahippy.com !!!!

bloody hell, did it.....

day two of the PADI course, and we've gone from a 6 foot pool to a 12 meter open water dive - this is no big deal to anyone whos dived but it scared the pants off me - i had to surface within 2 minutes, but mananged to go back down again, its pretty nuts when your just relying on some tube in yer mouth to keep you breathing

quite a few times i was ready to chuck the towel in but managed to hang on, and cant say im at the point of enjoying yet, but after these two dives i reckon i might like the next one - hopefully

we also did the nuts excesises of ditching our mouthpiece and recovering it, and using someone elses mouthpiece - me and chris also worked out a new hand signal/smile for 'peeing in my wetsuit' - has to be done :-)

just for the record, 12 meters is about 6 to 7 times the depth of a normal swimming pool, hence the major early freakout

18 meters next..................shoite!!

the Bays

glad to see u keepin things going bob, hope the bays where great - i do miss the messy nights at paradise as well

whos emily?? van de Pol ???

PADI stuff

sos, but the last stuff got lost - wasn;t that interestng anyway

so, started PADI diving course today - pretty intense as it goes, loads to learn - and DOUG - i remembered to turn my oxygen on ! result (sos mate)

off for a sea dive tomorrow and im not sure we are ready for it, but even if we fail its worth the money for the 'eject' button which shoots u too the surface - it cvan give you the bends, but that sopunds pretty good too - so there you go

speak later xxx

bugger; did the last one post ???

hope so:::::::::::::::::::

Freerange Xmas Party at Rhythm Factory

Xmas is in full swing here in London, including the Freerange party last Friday in Whitechapel. Marc... it shows how fast the year has gone since the last FR party. The Bays played again which were wicked, but unfortunately half of frigging East London were in the Rhythm Factory that night... it was chocka! We still had a lot of fun though, making the most of it as we don't go out much these days Marc.... I blame you.

Very amusing watching Mel giving a fat bloke a right bollocking for being fat, waving his annoyingly fat elbows about and blocking out the clubs lighting and strobes because he was.... how shall I put it.... fat. His overweight mate made the great decision to wear a thick woolly hooded sweatshirt under a denim jacket in this very overcrowded hot sweaty nightclub.... times must be hard for the poor lad, who can afford club entrance and beers, but not the £1 cloakroom fee.

Back at Paradise, Clare (Smith) and Kamela came over late doors, after a Prodigy gig in Brixton, for cups of tea and Bob's embarrassing stories when he was a child.... I'm scared for life. The only photos of the evening are when Clare discovered Karen's collection of international cheeses in the fridge and decided to dump the whole collection on Karen's lap back in the lounge whilst she was mid-anecdote. Clare has photos on her phone which we'll hopefully publish some time in the future.

That's all the news for now.... erm... oh yeah... Conor moved out over the weekend. Sad to see him go, but he's only up the road. He's having a housewarming on New Years Day, (a few hours after I'm having one a party at Paradise... I'm not leaving the house this NYE, after last new year's run in with the Old Bill on Old St roundabout... never again!). So any way, we've got a Doctor in the house. Yes... Emily moves in tomorrow.... two girls two boys in the house... and then I can finally find out what Preparation H really does.

More later

Bob

ps: In regards to the Banana and "What is going through Bob's mind???".... Lydia, nothing was going though my mind, I was just sharing some Banana's. It's what festivals are all about... sharing and losing things.

typos

apols for the typos on this, cant be bothered to proof read it, sos

nudey day!

funny, when we tried to find the turtles they where meant to be on this beack which is totally deserted, its about 3k long with nothing on it -

so where dodging along, and can see one guys miles ahead of us and thats it , just me juz, and this guy on the beach -

the we notice in the distance him running to the beach, with what looked like 'white trunks' on - so lucky that im carrying my binocs with me which confirmed that he was indeed having a mid day skinny dip - and we'd seen hios girlfriend walk off in the other direction about 30 minutes earlier

still laughing about this, we end up walking back and see another couple skipping hand in hand to the beach about 1k away - binocs out again, and again these two are in the nude!! what is going on, we must have been invisdable that day

so anyway, we walked past em - and at the far end of the beach i wrote in massive 10 foot letters in the sand .....

'NUDEY BEACH THIS WAY :-)'

oh well, made me larf

dolphins!!

finally saw some dolpins from the ferry, about 100m away - there was about 6 or 7 of them - the went under and i secretly hoped they would appear by the boat and jump up in unison with a ball on there nose, but no dice for me im afraid, they just buggered off !!

nice to see though

leeched, good and proper

well it had to happen at some point, and we had to give justine a rest from them, but the leeches struck, and when we where least expecting it -

on ko turatao we where pretty sure there where no leeches, and most of the 12 k walk was on concrete road - not where leeches usually hang out - so it came as quite a (non screaming this time!) shock ........

(ps, listening to www.pandorra.com at the mo, rec'd by bob - just type in a tune and it plays you similar ones - brilliant!)

........ when at lunch i thought id take off the boots and air the old pinkies when i looked down in horror at my normally beige socks to see a huge patch of 'claret' - i knew id been leeched, but the worry then was if the little bugger was still there -

luckily he wasn't, but there on my ankle was the tiniest little whole that continued to bleed for about the next 30 minutes (they inject anti coagulent to make the blood easier to drink) -

amazing to think that this little thing had latched onto my shoe, climbed up my sock, bitten me - fed for 30 or so minutes (and got a lot fatter in the process - they can quadruple in size after a feed) then worked his way out, and climbed off my show - back to the ground, without me noticing a thing!!

and guess what, i didn't panic - or scream, or dance - but then i didn't see it on me, thats the next step - see how we handle that then!!!!

estuarine stonefish

as i mentioned below i cam across a rather dodgy fish on the boat trip we did,

it was lunch and i was sitting in 6 inches of sea water, splashing around and throwing rocks into the sea, as one does - or as one 6 year old may do - when i noticed a fuinny little rock next to me that looked like it had moved a touch -

decided to get out , grab the mask and look a little closer and saw this amazing little warty rock coloured ugly fish with hits mouth pointing upwards - now, im not sure how much of this was natural instinct but something told me not to touch it - i was vindicated by this when juz identified it as a stone fish and would prob have killed me if id grabbed it, as i was doing with all the other rocks! oops,

even worse, when we got back and checked the fish book, we confirmed it as from the scorpionfish family - very dangerous indeed, but it just happens to be THE most dangerous scorpion fish - likely outcome would be a lenghty coma at best -

at least my clothes migt of come back in fashion by then

speakin of that, the year here is actually 2458 i think - nuts!! they use a diff calender

traf arms -

how come lunch is on friday - is it a BH?? or are you skiving off work -have fun anyway - aw , god bless tooto!

back on line...

hi there - back again, sos for delay but theres been no (cheap) internet where we've been so aint been able to go online - and just realised my last comment was before the treacherous longtail boat journey -

so we headed off from bulone for ko lipe - kicked the day off with a few 8am singa beers to calm the nerves which worked a treat - the journey was great fun - 3 hours of bouncing along on a small wooden boat - i loved it

we landed at lipe in the pouring rain and managed to (again) blag some beach front shacks and stuck the hammocks up straight away - i really dont understand why hammocks aren't the first thing people pack cos they are just the best thing when you doing this kind of thing - every spot has a lovely hammock hanging spot - (Mum and Dad - hope you have the hammocks up in france now, i'll be asking claire to check!!!)

ko lipe is a lovely little island, and when the sun came out it was just gorge, amazing snorkelling with really clear seas, and not many jellyfish - and a few cool beach front bars for the evening -

we also did a whole day boat trip to 4 snorkelling spots which where just superb although the current on the first one was quite scary and i also got vertigo from the depth of the sea below me - strange!
the guy doing the trip went out and cought 6 fish for us all so we had a BBQ on the beack for lunch eating our fish using these massive tree leaves as plates, nice touch :-)

also came accross a very dangerous fish - but more of that later

justine also managed to get a dive in which was cool, so after that we headed for ko adang which is ran by the national park authority - its pretty much a mountain in the sea with a few bungalows and pre built tents in bamboo frames - we managed to walk to the big waterfall there (panicing all the time cos of leeches) but it pissed down in the evening so another night of beer and scrabble (spendygames) which is still very addicitive

spent one night there and got the 9am ferry to ko turatoa, also part of the national park - this place is lovely, we hired a tent and pitched it right on the sea front, hammocks up within 5 mins and hey presto , a brand new home! oh yeah, it cost us a pound each to stay there! excellent (search for ko turatao for some pics)

hooked up with chris and becky again here, and we all did a big 20k walk the following day to this overgrown ex prison site (sounds ok to be a thai prisoner!) - quite funny cos the criminal inamtes had to work every day and build roads and do general hard labout whilst the political inmates where down on a different part of rthe island writing dictionarys and inventing new types of cucumber - true story! anyway, we buggered the timings up and had to cadge a lift home cos it was dark and still 8 very hilly Km's to go so we got a bus back with hypo thai teachers - most amusing

so with legs aching we headed off on another hike the next day to try and find the turtles on the beach which they normally nest on, but they wont be there for another few months which was quite dissapoining

one more morning ferry and we find ourselves in the land of go go bars - Phuket - first impressions ???? very benidorm! still, i aint seen the beach yet and we are only here to learn to dive so thats ok

ok, thats it for now - will try send some mails soon, and send some xmas cards - hope all is well,

this is crap!

where is Juicy!

Marc Wilkinson

Lunch on th 18th is in the Trafalgar Arms in Tooting! we can all pay homage to Marc and Doug's flat on the way!

life in the slow(ish!) lane...!

Hello hellow testing testing

Pepper grinder

Lydia, Bob bought the pepper grinder, it was a secret santa pressie. I wondered how you got the pic, i can't find the CD with pics on not sure i got it on CD. Hello Marc, guess you're having fun somewhere off the beaten track. xxx