Briefly back to Blighty

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Happy New Year everyone - its 2007 already!

I made a quick trip back to the UK for Christmas and New Year (which of course lots of you know). I fattened up on loads of good food. It was a pleasure to eat good wholemeal bread, real milk and cheese as well as the usual rich Christmas grub. Christmas was with the family in Bournemouth then up north for a good round of friend visiting.

The unexpected event award goes to a torch lit procession through Edinburgh while I was staying with Alan and Sue. Someone in health and safety must have been having an inspired day when they decided to allow a couple of thousand people to walk through the middle of the city with big burning things! I am still not sure why we were processing but it was lots of fun. A boat load of Vikings seemed to think so as well. The bonfire and fireworks on Carlton Hill were good - better than they managed a few days later for Hogmanay. Don’t the Hogmanay organisers think about bad weather in Scotland in winter??? As always Edinburgh was looking very pretty in its Christmas lights with a good buzz of lots going on.

Christmas news in Lanuza was a nice litter of six pups from one of our adopted dogs. Five brown one white. The white one is cutest so made it into the picture. When will someone come up with the genetically engineered super pet that never grows up?

There are a few things that no traveller (or VSO volunteer) should set out without. This book - The Art of Travel - is perhaps one of them. Written in 1872 its older than a lonely planet by a good way BUT just as useful. I have already tried one good tip - ‘Repairing a battered powder-flask’. Fill your powder-flask (or Sigg bottle) full of dried peas or similar, add water right to the brim and put the lid on tight. After 3 or 4 hours the peas will expand and push out any dents in the bottle! Just make sure you take the top off before it splits. It worked for me.

Rain has to make it into the blog because it’s the wet season - this may be a recurring theme over the next couple of months. I was doing some surveying in the forest today and now have prune type wrinkles everywhere! Difficult to photo rain so I went for a nice shot of it falling on the pebbles outside my door.

Hopefully 2007 is going well for you all

Matt

Note: Viv has added a load of photos to her website from our holiday here in the Philippines in August 06. If you want to take a look this link should take you directly there Vivs Philippines pics

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Photos

Lets burn the city!
Torch-lit procession going down the mound onto Princes Street.

Slippy stuff
With an unseasonably warm winter this was the only ice that I found back in the "cold" UK. Outdoor ice rink, Princes Street gardens, Edinburgh.

Cute pup
This one is staying the rest will be given away.

'The Art'
The Art of Travel – How to float your wagon over a river using goat skins and many other useful tips for the traveller.

Splish Splash Splosh
It just keeps coming and gets in everywhere. With high humidity its impossible to dry anything.

Comments

[Cecile]

Galton and peas
Is this the same Francis Galton who founded biometry? ! Amazing if it is. This beats Darwin and his finches. Peas seem to be a great source of creativity for him, not only he invents regression, he also uses them to repair flasks!