Thank you for blog Thank you for all your news. i just got Mim's letter from Venice, You lucky things. We are really looking forward to seeing you.
Love Mummy
Thank you for blog glad you are all safe.
Thank God a blog at last.
Thanks to James for doing the blog. Look forward to hearing from you again.and seeing you on the 30th. Love Mummy
Lilly feeding the horse reminded me SO much of ginger! Do you remember? And we always had to hold our hands so so flat hahah GOOD TIMES. Also love the windchimes and chess pieces. WHAT is bamboo doing in France?!! Also LOVE the photo 'James and a random bloke. Oh wait! It's Lilly!'. No hilar antics from me today I'm afraid, very busy with revision. Hahah. Haa. Lots of love xxxx
hi hey Guys,
how r u all doing? I am so happy you all are having great fun ^^
i am so happy i realise i can leave comment on this travel blog because none of you has replied me on facebook.
i am so worried about u guys huh...lol
haha, remember, let me know when you guys are back in UK because i am looking forward to our reunion. ^^
I have a lot to share with you lots. ^^
x.x
Thank you for blog hi James,
Many thanks for your blog. It was a good laugh. I am glad UR all safe.
We are off to Hillsong local group where I am doing dinner. BFN love Susan
YAY Reading your blog has never been so much fun! haha. I absolutely LOVE the pic by my clock!!! tis awesome thankyou =) =) =) and i'm glad you found that padlocked bridge too. I need to have a tourist trip to Latvia....half the monuments are new to me! Sounds like you had a brill time there, I feel very proud :D
Plus the kitchen where you stayed looked uncannily like my relatives flat in Riga!
Anywho, must be off.
Lots of love x x x x
LOL nice to see youre upholding the family name in the dancing department Lilly. The classic fists-infront-of-the-boobs-while-bobbing-from-side-to-side move is always a winner. Success. Also love the naked Russian men; I'm surprised James didn't join in (we all know how he loves getting his kit off. ....slut). HANNAH HAS THIRTEEN DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL FOREVER AND EVER AMEN WOOOO. Also Sevens is coming up, ARE you jealous? Much argument over what outfits to get that will beat last years amazingly hawesome construction workers. I have therefore decided to go in the nuddy and beat (let's face it) pretty much everyone. Jake is watching AlloAllo in the background (thought I'd give you a running commentry) and someone goes 'HEIL HITLER' and this guy replies '....hail Mary...?' AHAHHAHAHAHA LAL. Maybe it's a have to be here thing. But to be fair I'm not even there I'm just in the background and I found it funny. In other news, I fell in the bath today. Not like slipped over whilst taking a bath or anything mildly sensible like that, I was fully dressed and was not even taking, or planning to take, a bath. Just decided to lean over the bath and it took me rather by surprise and I just toppled right in. It's quite a steep drop, I can tell ya THAT for free. Also if you have a minute and access to youtube watch Michael Mcintyre's phone conversation joke on Mock the Week it is HILAR. Also, I'm sitting here wearing the only headphones I could find (which happen to be classic over-the-head 90's style headphones, with microphone mouthpiece thing attached) and it reminded me of Peter Kay on the bus 'CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?' AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA ok I'm really going to go now cus this comment is getting steadily worse but don't you worry you will be hearing from me soon in yet another intelligent (and relevant) comment. Loves to everyone x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Impressed I AM impressed! Was wondering when Alice might get around to writing something..... All the I's and me's seemed to be in the right places AND you have not only heard of crenallations but could spell them. Do I sound patronising? :-) xxxx
various things I say to myself when I get ripped off. I usually send the bill to God. Afterall, He could have stopped it.
Don't punish yourselves too hard, hundreds of other suckers have probably been ripped off the same way!
Thanks for the blog especially the art gallery news. with love form
Robert just had his 5th cycle of chemotherapy he feels OK. I was blessed because some customers came and bought some art.Robert and Susan
privjet! ok i'm hoping privjet means hello or something like that.....haha. my only other phase that i'm very proud of is "zak njis" meaning shuttup :D emphasis must always be on the NJIS, as helpfully demonstated in monty python!! well ok i do know a few others but they are relatively boring compared to that.
well looks like you guys are having a fantabulous time, seriously these blogs are the highlight of my day, i swear its on a level with facebook now so be very honoured!
just wanted to say, you mentioned about couples locking padlocks onto a bridge and throwing away the key into the river, i had no idea that that was the story behind it, but there is a little bridge in one of the central parks in Latvia that is literally covered in them. i thought it was some rock or goth tradition hahahaha. i'm not really sure how long you guys will be in latvia for but do let me know if you want a remote tour guide! haha that's a new one. remote as in far away, not robotic. HA. and promise me you will visit the laima clock and go to a laima chocolate shop. obviously no need to bring back any for me......ahem.
anyways, enjoy moscow and whatever else you have left of russia and blog more often!!!!!
lots of love, xxxxxxxxxxxx
ps. some caterham school goss in case you didn't know; Mrs Redding is leaving to become the head of a girl's school!
Thank you for blog it was great to hear about Mim's b-day.
We miss you. Rang Caroline yesterday and found out you had written more blogs.
Love form Mummy and Daddy
Daddy is going along OK
aww it all looks so exciting, jealoussss! glad it's going so well :)
when are you guys in europe? because if you're in prague on 18th there's a chance I could visit you...
Jane xxx
Yurts and Dorts Those photos are wonderful...can we have a yurt party in France?; you can build a yurt next to the pool and we will try to find camel butter or whatever it is they eat.
Now there is real proof that James will take his clothes off at every opportunity! Glad to see that he has lost some of his tubbiness though, or is it all stuffed behind the money belt?
I do love the ice mascara, especially on Alice.
And Hannah Dearest.....you have nothing better to do??!! I suggest you get on with your IB preparation or your Gap year will cease to be a Gap year and transformatise into the beginning of the rest of your working life....
Lots of love to you all
Mutti xxxx
Ok by now I'm sure you are all getting sick of me and would really appreciate some sensible comments on your blog. Tough. I'm back for more hilar Hannah humour (alliteration too, aren't you lucky) so man up and deal with it. So basics I BURST out laughing at one of Mim's lovely photo comments. '...but basically its a section of the lake that isnt frozen because it's a river' AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH a section of a frozen lake that isn't a frozen lake because it's a river. GOOD ONE. Also, the 'Mim being Mim' photo is quite possibly the best photo EVER. Closely followed by the photo of your ice tower. AHHAHAHA I LIE I LIE.. I just saw the photo 'Ugly Lilly in the bar' AHAHAHAHHAHA IT WINSSSS. And I think the fact that you all look like eskimos (though that is apparently a politically incorrect term nowadays, or so I'm told.) (also just to add to the hilarity I just wrote 'nowagays' by accident. HAH.) (Also I seem to be using a lot of brackets though I'm not sure why. I think it's because these bits have to be said in a kind of undertone, so just imagine me saying something quietly on the side before continuing with all my amazingly intelligent thoughts and views on the topic). SO (see what I did there..?) I must be off to eat soon, but I just realised that I never finished my eskimos comment because those naughty brackets are out to get me, and I have now forgotten the point I was going to make. SO I shall be off to eat and will catch up with you lovely travellers soon, don't you worry. x x x x x x
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAA. GUESS WHAT. JUST TAKE A GUESS. TAKE A WILD GUESS. I saw the 'Ulaanbaatar' and I was like durr they can't even spell they put too many A's. You would have to be like Ulaaaanbaaaaatar when you say it and then you would look like a twat and people would laugh at you but THEN I saw that James was writing and I was like DURRR THE DYSLEKA SPELT IT WRONG AND I BLAMED THE RUSSIANS. AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. AAAAAAHAHHAHAHAA. Is ok James I maeke a jaoke, if funnay jaoke, teel againe. NAAT. Ok too much BYE.
LOL THEY TIE THEIR SCARVES TO IT.
Made me chuckle, not gonna lie. But not a racist chuckle. Basics seestair I shall reply to your private message but I had to comment on the scarf-tying habits and also on the booz. And also on the spring cleaning AHAHAHHA SPRING GET IT? GET IT? SPRING.
Naaaaat.
Private message coming your way. Get excited.
Good LORD I am so jealous it looks like the most amaaaazing place ever. I would now like to convey my reactions to this post in an appropriate form. I have chosen a list.
For a start, I would very much like my own yurt.
For another start, I BURST out laughing at the horse guide and his fondness for taking photos. HILAR.
(Also love the yurts).
For the points that come after the start, tbh I'm just so so so jealous of all of you it looks like youre having an incredible time especially in the yurts and lucky lucky Claire, I am going to drag her to Mongolia too because I have decided that it is my favourite place ever (particularly the yurts) and I'm sure my visit there will prove me right.
So to summarize I basics would love a yurt, please and thankyou.
Hope you're all having an amaze time (aduh) and don't get too cold and James PUT SOME CLOTHES ON. Slut.
BASICALLY JUST TAKE ME WITH YOU NEXT TIME OKAYS.
And update more; I have nothing better to do but read your blog and cry ever so slightly at my immense jealousy.
Love to you all x x x x x x x x x x
Smith Dorts Just because I have to deal with 2 drunken Dorts and the aftermath, (this was a one-off, honest....well almost) AND those extraordinarily misleading photos from the Boozer, is it fair to post the details of the Smith family problems for all to see all over the world?!! ......ok, fair enough, perhaps the world should be warned! =) xx
animals Hi you four. As far as I can tell, which is not from looking at the picture as they are much too far away but from accessing the www, the deer you saw from the train were possibly Mongolian gazelle that are the largest ungulate population in central asia.
The bactrian camel is the only wild camel, there are no wild arabian camels only those that have gone feral of which there are quite a number in Australia, believe it or not! The bactrian camel is very rare in the wild so do not expect to see any, I guess the one Alice saw, like the one the rest of you saw, was a domesticated one.
Things on the bear front in China are not very pleasant. Bear bile is a much sort after and wholely inaffective Chinese medicine. The bears have a tube surgically inserted in their bile duct and are kept in small cages so the bile can be harvested on a regular basis, very nasty.
Mongolia is one of those many countries I have not visited that I would very much like to, I am very jealous!
Love Paul (not Mr Vodden, please!!)
WOO BEIJING.
"wo ai beijing"
NAAAHT. But I'm sure you're having an amazing time. IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY IT WAS AMAAAAAZE but I was SO hungover on Sunday morning and I literally couldn't move HAHA and mum found it hilar. But I did not. But it was suuuuch a good night.
Anyway HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMMY MIM HOPE YOU HAD A CRAZY CHINESE TIME.
So apparently you should be in MONGOLIA right now which makes me crazily CRAZILY jealous. And if you're not there yet then GET BACK ON TRACK YOU SLACKERS. And if you are then buy me a souvenir ;) ;) tnx tnx.
Ok MESSAGE ME I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT IS
In other news my exam results totally ROCK Lilly I'm totally showing my Lilly and Timmy and Toby genes. And in more other news its my party this weekend WOOO and then the weekend after mum AND dad AND the boys are away = PARTY AT THE SMITH HOUSE AHAHAHAHHAHA WOOOOO ok BYEEEEEEEE x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
we are 4 young whippersnappers off on our gap year travels from hong kong to england by train via as many places as we can afford =)
Below is our planned route:
And here for anyone who's interested, is the approximate itinerary for what is happening.
TRANS-SIBERIAN
11th Feb: leave HK on the train for Beijing
12th Feb: arrive Beijing
13th - 14th Feb: in Beijing
15th - 18th Feb: in Mongolia
19th Feb: on board the train
20th - 22nd Feb: at Lake Baikal
23rd Feb: on board the train
24th - 27th Feb: in Ekaterinburg
28th Feb - 2nd March: in Moscow
3rd - 5th March: in S... full info
Susan Skinner
non-member comment
Thank you for blog
Thank you for all your news. i just got Mim's letter from Venice, You lucky things. We are really looking forward to seeing you. Love Mummy