Britain, Britain, Britain

Yes, it was that time again... off to sunny Blighty! This time with task in hand – to renovate my little flat in the peaceful town of Cramlington as well as to visit family and friends, and best of all, my lovely sister.

The Flat

Three weeks of almost solid work, and many days of working all daylight hours (which makes for long days since it's light at 4.30am and dark at 11pm – had breakfast one day at 4.10). Well, what did we do...? Finally got rid of the last remaining and much painted over wall paper remaining in the bedrooms, full paining of all rooms, renovated bathroom, new tile grout and floor tiles, plastered the main bedroom after removing the old fitted wardrobe (in the end got outside help in for this by the kind help of Mr Wayne and Mr Ross), renewed the kitchen with new units, tiled floor, new hob and oven as well as new light fittings, switches and sockets throughout, new carpet and plastic cladded the mould-prone porch. Good tidy of the garden and garage, dug out the drains and voila! Finished as Tony and Rebecca moved in – a week over schedule but on budget! Think what takes so much of the time is knowing exactly what you need in advance, so much time wasted running round for the odd small special screw, fitting, paint, chemical etc. And what better way to celebrate mine and Celine's birthdays???

Big thanks all round to those who helped, my lovely wife, of course, for just about everything, but also Dad for painting the bedroom, Filly for various scrubbing, painting and sanding the doors whilst talking to the neighbour's parrot and to Andrew for expertise and tool lending, and to Ken for gardening, chainsawing my old sofa and to Mark for jig saw and planer.

Rothbury

The original plan was to go camping in Scotland and maybe visit Ireland as well, though we over-ran with the flat and were tired after. So decided to head for the lovely northumbrian countryside town of Rothbury for a week of pottering, walking and planning for our next adventures in Japan and beyond.

Enjoyed the late nights, evening walks, visited the coast and Ingram Valley. Also enjoyed simonside sizzler sausages from the Rothbury Butcher, who showed me his half page spread on me ordering sausages online from Vietnam.

Eastbourne

Time upon us already, on the train to visit Dan and Becky, fellow worldwide travellers who we met when we were beginning our trip in Rarotonga and they were coming to the end of their trip. Well guys, we're feeling pretty much the same at the moment – but are beginning to plan for the next one! Watched England's last ditched effort at winning a football match, and a moment of peace before continuing the journey to Japan, via Beijing, this time managing an upgrade to “World Traveller Plus” woooo! Oh yes – it seems that now it's becoming more difficult with BA to actually check in with a human – everyone checks in online these days apparently, days in advance and chooses their seats – naturally single travellers choose not to sit next to each other, so there's plenty of empty seats randomly throughout the cabin – meaning that couples can't sit together. Less staff – more profits to the airline, not savings to the customer – remember that!!!

More pics here!