Fish & chips & martians

The day started a bit later than anticipated due to the antics of a black squirrel that kept posing on a tree outside my sister's house. Apparently these squirrels can only be found in a couple of places in the UK, and Letchworth is one of them. I'd seen a couple of ordinary grey squirrels as well, but this was a good start to my birthday - to see something so rare.

I checked out my sister's new man and then we set off on our adventure. Despite massive roadworks that reduced our speed on the M25 to 50mph (approx 80kph) plus one stretch of 40mph, we reached the first stop on our travels in reasonable time.

I have now seen and been inside the Threshold music shop, which got a big nod of approval from my sister. I even bought something (a Moody Blues DVD of course) so I now have a Threshold plastic bag *g*


Cobham seems to be a bustling little place and very pleasant to visit, even without the Moody Blues connection - almost a place I could stay awhile.

We had a quick bite to eat then set off for Brighton. The hotel I'd booked us into sent me (supposedly) clearer instructions on how to find the place, as apparently other guests had complained they were hard to find. Well, let's just say the revised instructions were even less clear than the original set! By sheer fluke we found ourselves in the right street for the carpark which is right behind the hotel.

Once we'd settled in we headed down to the seafront and to the venue, mostly just to see how long it would take to walk there - 10 mins give or take - and the box office was open so we collected our tickets then headed off to walk along the Promenade and look down on all the people sitting on the shingle beach.

It was between 5.30 and 6pm and the sun was as high in the sky as between 2 & 3pm on an aussie summer day.

We munched on fish & chips, wandered a little more then back to the hotel to change and get back to the Brighton Centre for the show.

Sis was mightily impressed with the event - she hadn't been to a show like this for a long time and queued up with me to buy the CD of that night's show (yet another bonus birthday treat). We were both in agreement that Jennifer Ellison (Eastenders) might look the part for the Parson's wife, but she really can't sing that well. There was one word she kept mangling at one point in the verse, which was repeated at the end of the verse and she didn't mangle it then. Very strange.

Unfortunately, just about every photo I took came out blurry (drabbit!) but the completely different angle to the stage from the Brisbane show made it so much better.

Sadly, Shannon Noll did not perform (some will wonder why that was sad), due to a family problem, but his understudy did a creditable job as the Parson.

JH looked his usual self, but his voice sounded tired and there was one moment where he went off key, but at least his microphone worked all the way through this time!

That was yesterday. Today we wandered through The Lanes, full of curio shops, jewellery stores, you name it they've got it stores, then went to Eastbourne to visit one of my cousins. We got there around 4pm and left 6 hrs later, when sis declared she was almost too tired to drive back to Brighton.

Tomorrow we're off to crop circle/white horse territory.

Safely arrived

Fifteen minutes ahead of schedule my plane landed in 14C 'heat' and I heaved a sigh of relief. The flight on the whole was good, I got a reasonable amount of sleep in spite of the large gentleman sitting beside me (I was in the aisle seat, thank goodness) who made eating breakfast rather difficult due to his elbow sticking in my side.

We only suffered one bit of turbulence, around 5 hrs out of HK - probably going over the Himalayas - which caused a minor bit of consternation. It's not very comforting for the rear end of a jumbo jet to not only go up and down in the turbulence but also side to side! I had visions of the plane wagging its tail.

My sisters were waiting, we had coffee then drove home and surprisingly I didn't fade out until around 2.30, had a couple of hours sleep then stayed up until 11pm. I also got cuddled very thoroughly by Sue's three cats - Mischief, Socks and Whisper.

Today we went into the town, bought myself a broadband dongle which is working really well, and found that my mobile phone does not want to play ball with the networks over here. Not happy, Jan!

Tomorrow is Brighton and War of the Worlds.

Tired wings...

I am now sitting in Hong Kong International Airport with just under 3 hrs to kill until the next leg - enough time to give my wings a rest and to thaw out - I have never been so cold on a plane before!

And the awesome thing? HKIA has free wifi throughout the airport! Way to go HKIA! HKIA is also so large that you have to get a train to get from arrivals to baggage claim and the departures area!

The flight on the whole was smooth, except for around 2.5 hrs from HK when we hit some turbulence which lasted on and off for an hour - due to a tropical storm in the Philipines.

It's just gone 9pm (2 hrs behind Qld) and is 30C - Cairns weather!

Now going in search of coffee and another bottle of water - the one I bought in Cairns airport and hadn't drunk completely got confiscated at the security checkpoint here. But the security guy was seriously impressed with the Tardis *g*

Up, up and away..............

In less than 9 hours now I will be putting my wings into long-distance flap mode, tying my luggage firmly on my back and leaping up into the sky above Cairns, heading for the UK and the welcoming arms of my sisters, who have no idea what they've let themselves in for. Especially the one I want to spend quality time with because I haven't seen her for ten years. My eldest sister has been over here a couple of times since I moved to Cairns but the other one has developed a 'thing' about flying.

Can't say I blame her - my left ear gives me no end of trouble. Last August I was returning from a work trip to Melbourne and after taking off from Sydney my left ear did not pop until we were over Townsville - mega-ouchies! Luckily I had a nice old chap sitting in the same row who was quite happy to talk to me all the way even though I could barely hear half of what he said, and was quite sympathetic to my problem. So in October, when I went to Canberra, I sucked on several boiled sweets which helped tremendously.

I have had it checked out by the doctor who says that it's a genetic problem (thanks, parental units!) in my eustachian tube and that I should take some Codral before I leave this arvo to dry up all mucus which should help - along with sucking on several boiled sweets!

Almost 8 hours to go - better get the packing done!

See you in the UK!

As promised, here is a photo of my Tardis - cute little thing - and really soooooooooooooooo much bigger on the inside. It has the same, if not more, grunt than my HP laptop!

Yes, that's a dragon holding the TV remote - one of many using my house as a lair.

14 sleeps to go...

This is going to be my travel blog as I tootle around the UK countryside doing research for my next-but-one novel, visiting family and friends and generally having a great time relaxing.

There will be photos. Lots of photos.

There will be new friends met, ones I only know through the internet so far. And I plan to do some serious bragging while in Dallas - they think Texas is big? Wait till I tell them the sizes of some of our cattle stations over here *snortgiggle*

So, 14 sleeps to go, the Tardis to be updated with all my necessary photos (to show the family) and music and other stuff - leaving room for all the new stuff of course.

And for all the Dr Who fans out there who thought this might be a Dr Who blog - well there will be some Dr Who mentions as I am going to Cardiff, but the next post will have a photo of my Tardis - which is sooooooooooooo much bigger on the inside!