I am on holiday with Laura again! This time we are in Lisbon in Portugal. We have spent the time wandering about and seeing the sights. It is very hilly here compared to Cambridge which means Laura has been eating lots of custard tarts to keep her strength up! One day we went to Sintra, which is a town about 40 minutes away. It was very pretty and had a very nice castle on the hill. The castle was brightly painted and had a cartoon look about it. There were great views from the top. [View Full Entry]

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I joined Lara and her friend Becky on a short trip to Athens and the nearby island of Aegina. We explored lots of the famous sites on the first day, starting with the Acropolis, and then the Roman and ancient Agoras before eating lunch in Plaka. In the afternoon we visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus (or at least what is left of it!) before climbing up Lykavitos Hill to watch the sun set over the city. The next day we went on the flying dolphin hydrofoil to Aegina, spending a while in Aegina town itself (and eating lots of pistachios!) [View Full Entry]

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For some more winter sunshine, and rather a lot of science talk, Charlie and I jetted off to California for a conference on 'DNA damage, mutation and cancer' in Ventura. Afterwards we though we should take advantage of our free flight and so headed to Santa Monica for a few days. [View Full Entry]

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We started and ended this trip in Thailand. Our first stop was Bangkok then up north to Chiang Mai. In Chiang Mai we visited lots of temples as well as learning to cook and visiting the elephant nature park. After Luang Prabang and Penang we were back in Thailand but this time in the south. Our first island stop was Ko Samui and then on to Ko Tao. It was nice to be on the beach and aside from a few torrential downpours it was very sunny. [View Full Entry]

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We are now in Penang in Malaysia which seems very big compared to Luang Prabang. We stayed at the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion which is the big blue building in the picture. It was a great place and a lot nicer than a lot of tower block style hotels near by. As it is a unesco heritage site people who weren't staying there had to visit it on a tour! We visited quite a few places in our 2 days in Penang including Fort Cornwallis, the Khoo Kongsi clan house and another mansion that Laura can't remember the name of! We [View Full Entry]

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Laura went on yet another holiday which gave me a chance to explore some more of South East Asia. We started in Thailand before flying via a rather dodgy plane to Luang Prabang in Laos. It is really nice here and Laura is having a great time. She is taking rather a lot of photos though! Laos is home of Beer Lao which is so nice that even Laura likes it. There are lots of market stalls here and Laura seems to be going a little shopping crazy. I hope that she can still fit me in her bag when it [View Full Entry]

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Here I am up a snowy mountain - if you look really carefully you can see people falling over behind me. I didn't get out onto the slopes much because Charlie was worried about losing or breaking me (and her camera!). My furry friend is called Socks - she had fun chasing sledges and terrifying French children with her mouth covered in blood (from chewing on chunks of ice - silly dog)! [View Full Entry]

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I joined Lara when she visited Cologne for a weekend. We climbed the cathedral spire to get a view of the city then explored the many Christmas markets, sampling various different foods including some amazingly heavy fruitcake (and of course some gluhwein!). [View Full Entry]

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My first trip for some time took me to Prague for a beer-drinking weekend with Charlie and Tim. We also saw various churches, clocks, castles, and rather a lot of skeletons arranged in interesting ways. [View Full Entry]

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I joined Lara on a walking holiday in the Graubunden region of Switzerland. We had a lovely first day wandering in the mountains in the sunshine, admiring the views of the mountains and I had my photo taken above Davos. Unfortunately the weather was wet for most of the rest of the week so Lara kept me nice and dry in her backpack, but I didn't get to see very much, although I did ride in some cable cars, a gondola and a funicular railway which was good fun! We also went shopping in Zurich on the way home! [View Full Entry]

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