In August Andy's sister Kerry, and husband Scott visited us as the second part of their honeymoon. We commenced the feeding of Scott with a belated Christmas In July dinner, accompanied by a Christmas tree and a splattering of fake snow in the winter sun. No first time trip to Oz is complete without a tour of Sydney, so we headed south and met up with the jetsetters, already buzzing from their recent experience of Uluru. Even on our fourth visit, we thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Taking in the harbour, the Manly ferry, a bracing Bondi beach, and a stroll around The Rocks whilst Kerry and Scott braved the bridge climb made for a fantastic few days. All this whilst still making sure that Scott was topped up with ice cream, and attempting to buy the ... read more

July saw the arrival of Andy's parents, Alan & Sheila, who we picked up in the early hours from Brisbane Airport, apologising for the strange poo smell that seems to linger at the airport as a special treat for new arrivals. Over the next few weeks Alan and Sheila successfully completed their mission of trying out every coffee house in Brisbane, even managing to cuddle a koala and feed some lorikeets between flat whites and caramel lattes. Just in case the poo smell put them off coming back down under ever again, we thought we'd better take them to see the sights of Sydney. A whirlwind weekend ensued, making sure that all major tourist attractions were ticked off, no matter how briefly. Next, thinking that we should demonstrate some of Australia's other, more rugged, qualities we ... read more

Laura bought Andy a full day's sailing lesson for his birthday and early one Saturday he arrived at Manly marina to battle the ocean. Despite tearing the arse out of his shorts getting onto the boat (thankfully for all involved he had taken a spare pair) the morning went quite well as he tacked and jibed around Moreton Bay in glorious sunshine. Stopping for a bit of lunch as the wind dropped the clouds slowly started to get darker in the distance. Setting off back for the marina, the clouds in the distance turned into a full blown thunder storm and chased after the boat. Halfway home, and as Andy was at the helm, the storm caught up changing the gentle breeze into a sudden gale-force wind almost spinning the boat around. The captain took over ... read more

So this may be the slightly less exciting sequel (as the title says - we do have to work this time!), but as most of you know we’ve buggered off again. Who’d have thought one little e-mail could lead to a 20,000 mile trip, and a one-way trip at that?! After a very sleepless night deciding whether relocating about as far round the world as you can was a good idea, we started the most hectic two months we have ever had, and hopefully ever will. Leaving an immaculate and fully re-decorated house behind us (and some parents with newly acquired DIY skills - thanks we couldn’t have done it without you) we said a few tearful goodbyes and headed for Australia and our first stop of Hong Kong. Arriving the following morning we crawled into ... read more

Leaving the cold behind we flew north to hot and humid Buenos Aires, immediately ditching the jeans for much missed shorts. We first visited BA´s biggest tourist attraction, the Recoleta Cemetary. Despite being possibly the strangest tourist attraction ever, it was really quite fascinating. As you enter you find yourself emersed in a mini city full of narrow streets where the houses are in fact huge mausoleums remembering BA´s elite, and one Sra Eva Peron. Our next trip was to see world famous footy team Boca Juniors play not so famous Colon De Santa Fe. Arriving in La Boca we soon spotted the bright yellow stadium. Taking our seats high up in the stand we watched the fans scale walls and barbed wire fences to place their much loved banners around the ground. Despite star player ... read more