Unexpected Lunchbox in Ipanema

Ole! I'm in Rio with me pal The Dirty Harris. We're here seeing lovely Fernando and his fella Marcelo, and its Simon's first time, he's a virgin you know.


Anyway, anyway. I had the most pleasant surprise the other afternoon on loosing Simon along Ipanema (that wasn't the pleasant thing you silly), I loitered hoping he would turn up and I found myself following this smiley chappy walking along the shore and then realised I know that smile! It was me lovely lunchbox of beer!





Had a funny evening out at a place called the Week, fully of Bundalicious... you don't need to know those details... anyway anyway.. had a great night and following day on the beach and yakking and drinking mmm sweet guaran-acai batidos mmm. Left Rio this morning, a beautiful morning it was, i'm thinkin morning is best there, and now we're in Paraty.


here are some of the extra bits of interest around those parts...

Petra ain't no dog

On the way into the city... with some very charming jordanians trying to sell horsey rides down or back up and calling me lovely jubbly when I replied to their -where are you from- questions. Nice to know del-boy got this far and not just that yankie doodle indiana jones!




I did nearly buy the outfit to do the adventure in... they are for sale on entry... still, it was not that touristy, really :)














They broke into the warmest of smiles and greetings just after the photo, I must have caught them off guard.

I just didn't want to miss the opportunity, I'm a sucker for uniforms, especially with a tradish helmet. I really, really didn't like the big bear hat thing the orthodox jews wear, by the way, before, when I was in Israel. It just seems wierd. I mean, what got into their heads to bring something so old fashioned and polish to the scorching desert? I am certain god thinks them very odd indeed. I am certain god doesn't approve of them being so insular and cutting themselves off from the rest of his creation by being so -our team- I'm sure. I know in fact coz I have a direct line. Which is odd coz I am decidedly secular.

Am I sounding pompous? mmm... must be me mood this afternoon. Can't be perfect. heyhoo.



These two, I loved them, they were just trottin along, as if they'd just left work for the day, on the way home, all casual like, on their little donkeys. Very cute.






I loved the tea pot, it was just sitting there. This was on the way down the other side of the High Place of Sacrifice.



Lots more photos on facebook... Petra was amazing, and even better than I expect. I thought it would be just a few small facades etched into the hill side, but it really is a hugh city carved into stone through a large area of valley. I only spent the day but you could so easily spend three. And I so want to go back to Jordan and see the whole country. Mmm next year? Anyone wanna come?

Shalom from the Holy land, or ole, or salum ali cum.. or whatever it is

Coming to the end of a very interesting, fun and humus filled trip to Israel; blame easyjet and their damn cheapio flights :)

This was the lovely pool I swam in everyday in Tel Aviv, during the first week. Mmm 50m of salty water... mmm...














Now in Jerusalem, lots of wonderful buildings but I am a bit itchy with all the religious types full of their passion for Christ, Judy or Momo, depending on who you talk with.




It wasn't my favortite place in Israel at all, but there were some sweet views :p








A cheery fella tried to convert me to Islam yesterday, up the Souq! How rude.

Before that, an attractive Armenian taxi driver (lovely skin, big strong arms...) followed me down the road to the JaffaCake gate insisting I let him take me for a quick one (ride that is), free of charge, to bring him luck! Mmm... do I look that foolish? or Easy?? Answers on a post card please.

If you'd asked me for my ideal thing to happen, I would have said to have come across a group of Israeli soldiers bathing in the hot sun... mmm and guess what I got..

I was feeling as content as can be just about then... hehehe

I thank you.

The ShatShuka, mmm


I've been eating alot of this for breakfast and it is delicious - I've even started making for myself when staying at hostels... I impressed a bunch of Germans with my spice eggs! woohoo!

This place was amazing, Mizpe Ramon, in the south west desert, really amazing landscapes and great for hiking about and loosing yourself (metaphorically... i rarely get lost.)




ps. Israel has been great but Petra was the highlight

Found some old family photos

Mary Annie & Roland back in the day, Margate 1948 actually.




Dear old nan is the one in the deck chair with, I think, my dad on her lap. Ah :)















Dad and his mumma, Nancy, oh how I miss her still, I do I do.

Big Willy on a summer's night

Nothing like Willy on a warm english summer's evening, HAHA. And he performed lovely so he did :)



And it was so good to have some quality time with Brenda, Emma and Sarah, woohoo!




And my big sis too... double woohoo!

Kingdom drive one summer afternoon

In reverse order.... but I left the coast to head home at Cromer, this is it's 'famous' pier, I still prefer Brighton :)


Ole, I fancied a drive one saturday afternoon and Norfolk entered me, as an idea I mean, as I was in Essex at the time.


For some reason I thought the drive would be just a few hours, but it ended up being about 4, but loved it all, I love driving about and the Norfolk coast and it's more northerly villages are beautiful.



I was a perfect summer's day too. This windmill was lovely and according to Kim you can rent it, so I think we're gonna stay for a week next year, woohoo!

Tetería en Crevillente

Ole! de nuevo estoy en España, mmm pues ya hace unas semanas aquí y se me pasan los dias sin actualizar el sitio, oops.


Renata vino a Alicante y también los otros exilios, Katka y Robert, jeje, y fuimos a la teteria de Crevillente.





Valerie me había hablado del sitio muchas veces y siempre he querido conocerla así que fuimos el finDe pasado; es un sitio bonito pero no tan lejos de la ciudad, me han dicho que queda en la nada lejos de todo, pues no... pero hermoso si :)

Ljubliana Alpine gorgeousness, isn't it

Ole! Harald was in Ljubljana for a few weeks work so I got an invite to visit, woohoo. You know how I like to visit, aye :)

An added bonus is that Alessandra also lives here so we caught up over cafe, dinner, vino etc etc and discussing men, men and well, u know. The usual.





The City is beautiful, and surrounded by alpinesque forest, mmm.





We also went down to Trieste in Italy, just across the border, and to Koper and Portoroz on the Slovenian side, beautiful weather everywhere Mmmm.














Did I say about Harald's cross dressing. He's a huge coconut fan.

Birthday on the beach

Had a lovely afternoon on the beach in Alicante with Octavio and Simon (Dirty) Harris (haha)

a perfect way for me to spend such a day :)

Kings of Queenstown, hahaha

The colours of Arrowtown hills, Mmmm.

Had a fantastic few days in Queenstown with Dr Timberlakes. Here is his Slopes Debut :)



He has assured me today that actually he was going slow only because he thought I was taking a photo, and so the speed was on purpose to give good photo! Oh, right, I should Cocoa!

A couple of days in Tokyo

The weather has failed me - well, I'm used to it always being nice :) It's been overcast with heavy rain every night, I got soaked in me nice new purple polo, which was ok really coz I had one of those japanese spa thingys in the hotel after, they have it very very hot!
Anyhoo, I was expecting to see a friend who I've not seen since Prague in, mmm, I think 1993, so just a while ago. Unfortunately it didn't happen; he had to get off to Ireland :( heyhoo. So, Tokyo was tainted by disappointment, I'm a people person, but it was nice to walk about and get familiar with the place. A few things have struck me, which was rude and I couldn't dodge them! haha.
1) They eat REALLY fast.
2) I think the unusally common amount of -bad- breath is from green tea, but I once heard that they think we smell of sour milk? or am I getting confused.
3) They do like to conform - which means everything is clean, & works, but a little boring. Mobile Phones - walking about the electricals area and seeing the variety of stuff on sales didn't fit with the odd fact that everyone I saw with a mobile had the same style, with the exception of the odd iPhone.



Anyhoo. The people are charming, which I love. I just wish I could say more than thank you and good afternoon. The only thing was the constant -Welcome- said to every person walking into a shop; it get's on ya tits after a while, well, it does on a busy saturday afternoon :)

Devonport ferrying about

Finally popped over to Devonport on the ferry from Auckland wharf and caught up with Rebecca (the shell 90's possy, is that how you spell that?), its only been 15 years or something ridiculous, oops. I seem to be doing alot of catching ups like that recently, very nice.
Dr Beardsley was there for any medical emergencies :)



posted from Tokyo, asakuna, woohoo, but i'm not feeling like whatsit in that hotel room with slippers, you know, what's he called? Had a nice japo style spa on the room though, woohoo.

Kawhia hot water with Dr Timberlake

Had a lovely day with Dr Timberlake over at Kawhia, the -other- Hot Water Beach in this beautiful country, except its a lot quieter and more wild than the Coromandel beach.















Kawhia (the wh sounds like an F, by the way) is about 50k south of Hamilton. Had a nice steamy cafe and date scone on the way, mmm... I don't do carbos though. Justin had a bacon butty, and him a doctor too! I don't know what this feeding info is here but somehow it should add to your imagination of the day, no?





Kawhia

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Stuck in the rut...



Mmm lovely and warm.. and our sea defences lasted, oh, all of about 10 minutes! woohoo!

you should see the other pose, not so graceful and superheroe, really. oops.

Cambridge to Hamilton in the kayak woohoo

One stunning waikato morning, a few days ago...

Justin and me at the starting flag. We set off around 7:30am and had a beautiful clear day for the trip, although that meant it was quite chilly too, woohoo!

Our beautiful driving lady for the day was Sally, a world renowned sniffer of horses.


Passing underneath the Cambridge river-crossing bridge. The Waikato was steaming nicely for the first couple of hours and was kind of warm and much clearer than we expected.




Sun makes it way into the river creek to warming us up, mmmm.








Just passed a little waterfall... and Justin takes off! The water looks calm, doesn't it, but it was fast moving with lots of eddies and currents appearing from nowhere... which can be a little alarming :)


This was the route, following the river from Cambridge to the centre of Hamilton, I think thats about 30km by river.



We stopped about 11am for a warmup in the sun, cafe and some lovely buns, or was it a muffin?






And there were loads of ducks, everywhere, very cute.


The duck-shooting season has just started here and I'm starting to think these quacks are pretty smart because all along the river there were loads of mallards and Cambridge lake, it's like there's some stadium concert for ducks, you can hardly see the water for their numbers. I also saw lots of big old brown trout (Tom, is that that likely species?) anywhere the river ran shallow and weedy reedy :)
We got to Hamilton about 12:30 and it all ended too soon, I really like this kayaking malarky.