Ben Nevis Challenge The gauntlet of climbing the highest mountain the UK was laid down and a team of seven signed up; myself, Ashley Bowers, Phil Cartmell, Sam Thrower, Owen Bouwer Claire Nicholson and Kathryn Shackleton. Arriving on Friday 29th September we soon realised the extent of what we had let ourselves in for. I would describe the Nevis Range as the lake district on stilts. After a very cold night camping at Glen Nevis campsite we got our gear ready and set off at 8:30. We quickly realised that map reading skills were not needed as plenty of other climbers [View Full Entry]

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Disney land Paris blog Day 1 - sun 19th aug 2007-08-24 Well as usual Leanne was up first, making the sarnies to take to airport and finishing off the packing. Next up was Thomas, very excited saying “are we going to see Mickey mouse?”. Soon the car was all packed and off we went. On arrival at airport car park, we were escorted to terminal on minibus, everything went smoothly and soon we were boarding the plane to Paris. There were lots of excited kids including Thomas. We travelled from the airport to our destination (dream castle hotel) in a minibus [View Full Entry]

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DAY 1 The holiday started by Bert dropping us off at Teesside airport. Got there well in time and chilled out in the airport, so much so that Leanne nearly cause us to miss the flight by going shopping for sweets !!! Thomas loved the plane and was very well behaved, he did find the pilots voice quite amusing and couldn’t stop laughing. He spent most of the journey just looking out of the window. When we arrived we quickly jumped onto the shuttle bus and Thomas fell asleep instantly. Bernadette very kindly picked us up to take us to Michelle [View Full Entry]

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Well hats off to Leanne, she managed to win 2 V.I.P passes to Sunderland airshow. We arrived at 11:00 for the Champagne reception and quickly realised the alchol was free all day. The weather was totally amazing, we spent most of the day sat in our own private viewing area watching the air displays. Thomas couldnt come in the VIP area so his nana and grandad Mason took him around the shows which he really enjoyed. Meanwhile away from the paupers aand back in the luxury tent we enjoyed a 3 course meal with wine and chatted with the F-60 fighter [View Full Entry]

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Leanne thought we were going to London to enjoy a stage show, 24 hours later she was engaged and in the sureal setting of the Ice Hotel 200km inside the arctic circle. A holiday to beat all holidays, the most amazing place we have ever been to. At it coldest the temparature was a chilling -28F. DAY 1 We woke up at 5:30 on Monday morning, we packed our bags and headed for central London to visit the capital ;-). Leanne was supirsed to see me pulling into Heathrow airport and started asking questions. We boarded a plan to Stockholm and [View Full Entry]

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This was our first family holiday together Thomas was still a tiny little baba but had loads of confidence. We stayed in a 2 bedroom comfort villa at SHerwood Forest Nottingham. The villa was a good size and had an excellent log fire and was right in the middle of the forest, all around us was surrounded by nature, we sat for hours watching the wildlife pass our patio area, we seen squirells, pigeonns, grouse, pheasant and more squirellls in fact hundreds of them. We spent most of our time in the pool area, and Thomas enjoyed his first swimming expeirrence [View Full Entry]

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We went to Magaluf when thomas was just a bean inside Leanne. After a pleasent flight we reached our destination. We were expecting an all inclusive hotel of a reasonable standardd, however when we arrived, it wasnt as we expected. After a few moans and groans, they finaly accepted our complaint and upgtaded us to a five star, on the condition we went half board instead. we agreed. Our new hotel was gorgeous, as was the meals. Our first full day was fab, well apart from one little incident. We decided to head for the beach, which was just near the [View Full Entry]

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Well its a early rise and shine this morning, 5am to be precise by 6am we were all packed up and raring to go. We arrived at Stonetwaite near Keswick around 9am. Mase put up the tent while Leanne supervised ;-). During this time Thomas took in the scenary including local sheep and lambs. After we had setup the tent Mase decided to cook the first feast of the day-hotdogs. We enjoyed our meal and decided to discover what Stonethwaite countryside had to offer, we decided Tomas was old enougth to walk rahter than be strapped into his buggy. So we [View Full Entry]

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We took Thomas to see Old Mother Shiptons cave. in Knaresborough. On arrival we soon scoffed our sandwiches while Thomas made himself at home in the children’s adventure playground. Little T showed no fear and was soon flying down slides meant for kids twice his age :-). We made the 15 minute walk up to the Old Mother Shiptons Cave, now this was the point I expected Thomas to get scared as he has a thing about caves due to the story "Where going on a bear hunt". But Thomas once again showed no fear and was soon shaking hands with [View Full Entry]

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Three nights of Amsterdam at its best, nearly 20 of us made it out for Davy Butlers and Danny Hewitts joint stag weekend madness. I was best man for Davy and had a few tricks prepared for the lucky grooms. Our flight took less than 2hours and by the time we arrived in Amsterdam we were well on our way to being drunk. We all departed the airplane, Vince sported an easyjet travel meal sticker that had been placed there by The Rabi. After getting our bags and bumping into the great dart legend Bobby George we caught the train to [View Full Entry]

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