Sunday 8th June As we got closer to Melbourne and saw a gorgeous sunrise it was quite exciting. We are so happy to be home. Melbourne is just a little cooler- 16C today. We got home to one very happy puppy dog. What can we say. What a trip, what a ride. We have planned trip number 2 - half way through planning trip number 3. Signing off for now. See you all soon XXX A+M [View Full Entry]

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Saturday 7th June Slept in after not being able to get to sleep til 5am - due to jet lag. Got call from hotel reception at 11.20 saying 'Will you be checking out today?' Packed up in a little bit of a rush needless to say. Met Mike in Lobby and went off for lunch with Jan, Alex and Louise at the best little Laksa shop in Darwin. Very nice. More touring around the pick of the fishing spots in Darwin. Back to Mike and Jan's for a quiet afternoon. Then off to Chris's for a Birthday Curry. It was a [View Full Entry]

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Friday 6th June We arrived in Darwin at 4.30am after another overnight flight. That is three nights with no sleep! We were so lucky to get a cab quickly and when we got to our hotel they let us have an early check in at 5.15am. Thankyou Holiday Inn. We did like that. Had a sleep and then braved the heat about 11am. Martin said it was 30C and as he was born in Darwin he had good reason to tolerate the heat better than me. I said the heat was absolutely searing and it must be at least 34C. We [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday 3rd, 4th, 5th June Arrived in Singapore late Tuesday, so went to bed as no sleep yet. Our impression of Singapore is - very clean as everyone knows. Lots of colorful flowers. Friendly people. Tropical weather, thunderstorms and rain with sunny spells. You plan your outings according to the skies above. If it suddenly starts pouring down you just stay in the shop a little longer and browse for a while. Everyone seems to speak good english. A big cultural mix. Food great. Bargains yes, but not the quality or styles that we are after. Except at Louis Vuitton. We [View Full Entry]

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Monday 2nd June Up and off to London for one last look around. Many thanks to Val and Andy for showing us their lovely town and the Norfolk Broads. We got into London and went off to Knightsbridge for a browse shop, and caught Sex and the City at Leicester square - The Odeon. We likey! But can't say too much. Then to Heathrow for our flight to Singapore. We got in early for our 13 hour flight- did a lot of reading, got two seats in a row of 2 which was fantastic and managed a couple of hours sleep [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 1st June Summer has arrived! The days are long and everything is lovely and green. Today Val and Andy took us on their leisure craft boat on the Norfolk Broads. What a treat. They were not so happy with the lack of wind and sun. And I did wear my beanie and scarf! However to us it was so much fun, and we did for a moment get up to 2 miles per hour with the sails. It was very peaceful sailing across the broads. It's not very deep- there was some punting going on also. Under direct instruction from [View Full Entry]

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Sat May 31st First and most impoortantly it was Christie's birthday today. So we rang home today. Happy Birthday Christie! We went off to see the world famous Three Rivers Boat Race today. The boats must complete 4 points on the Norfolk Broads, within 24 hours, but can do this in any order. There were many classes of boat, young, old, large small and in between. We watched the start with each different class sent off at 5 minute intervals with the starters gun. This kept everyone on their toes. Then we let them get a good head start whilst we [View Full Entry]

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Friday May 30th A lazy sleep in at Brentwood- well 7am seems like a sleep in after some of our 4.15am starts. We had a full English breakfast. Then off on the train at 10am to Norwich to stay with Val and Andy. Norwich was once larger than London. It is a medieval city of 200,000. Norwich has lots to see with a cathedral from 1096 and a castle built in about 1160- which is Norman. The walls are made in flintsone on many houses and bridges. Went to St Peter Mancroft Church where Heather and Martin were married. Dropped in [View Full Entry]

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Thursday May 29th Returned the camper to Southend and took our bags to our B+B in Brentwood. Off to the Tower of London today. Off with your head. First wandered around the Leadenhall market and shops. Lunch at Kaz middle eastern restaurant, very nice. There is a huge amount of building and roadworks going on in this area. Busy at the Tower. Described as a 'beautifully preserved monument to cruelty'. William the Conqueror laid the first stone on the white tower in 1078. Richard III allegedly killed the 2 young princes here in the 'bloody tower'. Anne Boleyn -amongst others had [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday May 28th Drove out of York very early -well before 5am. Bit of rain. Got into Cambridge at 7.30am. Decided to park about 1km out of town - found all day parking. When we walked into town we had lucked out and it was about a 600m walk to Kings College and Trinity College. We had a wonderful day wandering the old streets of Cambridge, dropping in on gorgeous cake shops, and of course the colleges. We looked in on King's College, Trinity College, Christ's College, St John's College and Gonville and Caius. Very interesting learning about how the different [View Full Entry]

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