04:30 ZULU TIME SOMEWHERE ON AN ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC A TAXI DRIVER WITH THE CODE NAME "THE CONDUCTOR" ARRIVES AT HIS DESTINATION TO PICK UP PASSENGERS UNKNOWN..... Always wanted to start something like that. So 4:30 am is quite early but that is when our taxi to the Sydney airport arrives and our Tasmanian adventure begins. We arrive at the airport early and I sense that their may be some bitterness amongst all present, to my crazy desire to get to the every airport early or even very early...however, after some coffee and food this feeling subsides. We arrived in Hobart and our driver (let us call him Steve for this narrative) went to fetch the rental car while we waited for the bags. Should have been relatively quick considering it was a small plane ... read more

I'll keep this one brief as we haven't done too much to write about. And I mean that in a good way. We've just been taking it easy. Sleeping, eating, drinking and hanging with Steve and Maja. We haven't even taken any photos. I took Shane on Saturday night for his birthday to Cafe Sydney, a gorgeous restaurant in Sydney Harbour. M&S were off at a birthday party in town so we went for drinks beforehand and then Shane and I ate loads of tasty seafood and had a lovely bottle of wine. When M&S got home a bit later, we stayed up drinking and went to bed around 3am. The next morning our heads were a little bit fuzzy, but we did manage to get in some wedding ring and grocery shopping. And that's about ... read more

We're grouping days 6 & 7 together as it really was one long, uncomfortable day. We're in Sydney!! We stayed in the T5 Sofitel at LHR on Sunday night (so lovely) and took off Monday morning for Oz, arriving last night on Shane's birthday (23 hour flight). It was really not a fun birthday for him as we were stuck on a plane for most of it, so we're going to be celebrating today (Wednesday). We're really sorry for basically lying to all our family, friends and workmates for the last couple of months. It's been really tough! Our "UK Driving Tour" portion of our trip was indeed made up. And why did we do this? So Kramer, Shane and I could watch Maja have a heart attack. Quite sadistic, we know, but it was totally ... read more

The day started like an ordinary day. We awoke to what we thought was drilling on a nearby construction site?(to be confirmed) Breakfast was tasty. We also discovered our hotel to have a large Uncle Bill friendly section (picture in tomorrow's blog). I question why Jane, Kim and myself feel the need to punish ourselves with a quick 1 hour hike up the mountainside, but am told we must earn our wine, gelato, food and even beach rest for that afternoon. The walk started with our daily routine of getting to the park entrance and realising that someone in the group had forgotten the entrance ticket. Kimmy had the honours this fine day. Being the gallant gentleman I ran back to the hotel to fetch them. The walk was very nice with stunning views even the ... read more

We left the Holiday Inn Malpensa Airport (clean and decent hotel) and made our way into Milano Centrale, where we hopped a train to Levanto. Walked out of Monterosso train station in Cinque Terre around 15:30 to a stunning view of the sea, beaches and high hills. We made our way to Hotel Marguerita on Via Roma. We’re in a fabulously large, disabled room with 2 big beds, perfect for us and Janie. We went for a long walk and a tasty lunch on the sea consisting of Panini and bruschetta. We’re finding the people here efficient but not overly friendly (which is ok by us), except for the gelato man who Kim loves as he only charged her €1.50 for a €2 gelato (strachiatella & vaniglia in a waffle cone). We all had slightly too ... read more