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It’s nearly here!!!  No not Christmas, I’m over that already ~ Egypt peoples, Egypt!!!  Ryan & I fly out of London on the 15th December at 10pm for almost 3 weeks of visiting old stuff, getting sand in all our crevices, dihorrea til we drop & I can not wait! 

Ryan had his jabs today (I had mine when I went last time 3 years ago), so we’re fully locked & loaded now.  All we have to do is pack & then we’re ready.  We’ve got one more Christmas day to spend with Marc & Gillian this weekend then it’s all systems go!  Can you tell I’m excited?

As you will see from the itinerary entry that I posted a few weeks back, we really do have a full schedule on our hands, but as Ryan reminded me, we may as well do it while we get the chance ~ we’ve got so much more that we want to explore in the world, who knows when we’ll get back there.  It’s gonna be great!  Plus if I get dissentary, it will help me with my target weight loss :0D

I don’t think we will be able to contact everyone while we are away, but knowing Ryan, he will be able to sniff out an internet connection at a 100 camel paces & we’ll get a post or two up while we’re there.  We will certainly be updating you & boring you all with photos when we get back, so be prepared.

 But if I don’t get to say it before I go, or indeed during our trip ….

PLEASE STAY SAFE UNTIL WE GET BACK.  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL & TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT xxx

So today is mine & Ryan’s 18 month anniversary ~ a year & a half since our first fateful date.  How time has flown.  It’s such a short time on paper, but it seems like forever to us. 

We’re celebrating our anniversary in complete style, utter decadence, total rock n roll manner ~ babysitting my gorgeous God Daughter & her fantastic big brother.  How crazy are we?!  I can tell I’m making you green with envy at the thought!  We’re so outrageous!

I love it though, we are having so much fun together & are really excited about our trip next month.  Life is breezy right now.  It’s winter nearly & the sun is bursting out of the sky, through the trees in the park, aah isn’t life great!

…. but good lord I don’t like snowboarding!  I bought a pair of snowboarding boots a few weeks ago in preparation for our trip to Chamonix in February & Ryan took me to the snow dome last Thursday to try them out ~ much to his utter joy I might add.  He was beside himself with excitement at the thought of me in snowboard boots, on snow.  I wasn’t.  This is how it went.

I got on the lift to take you to the top of the slope.  Now apparently, for any other human being with 4 fully functioning limbs, this task is simple.  For me, it’s more like an exercise in utter humiliation & degradation.  First time, within 5 seconds I was face down in the snow being dragged up a ‘mountain’ with Ryan yelling ’stand up!  Stand up!’.  Now for those that know me well, I don’t need to tell you the profanities that came out of my mouth.  For those that don’t know me well ~ you’re lucky.  Second time up the lift, I was encouraged by the fact that I made it up further that time ~ on my face ~ oh what sweet joy.  Not.  The third & final time of being dragged face down & humiliated, all I remember was yelling at Ryan that he could stick his board up his mountain & storming off down the slope, with my board tucked safely under my arm.

When I had finally calmed down, Ryan convinced me that I shouldn’t let it get the better of me & that I should give it another shot.  I compromised with the fact that I would walk up the ‘mountain’ & attempt to snowboard down.  This is how that went.

First time, I fell backwards, banging my head on solid ice.  Nice.  Second time I lost control & went careering down the slope, while Ryan raced past me & courageously threw himself in my path to stop me.  Imagine an out of control bus flying down a hill & the Keanu Reeves character jumps on board & saves the day …. that’s almost how it looked only Ryan got flattened underneath me.  At least he stopped me from maiming anymore innocent by standers though ~ every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.  The third time I tried to make my way down, saw me fall on my back with a loud & painful thud.  That is where my snowboarding lesson (& almost my relationship with Ryan) ended. 

I hate being cold.  I hate being wet.  I hate falling over & I hate being so bad at something that I want to tear my own arms off in order to hit the people that smarmily say ‘you were doing so well then before you fell over’.

I have foolishly agreed that I will take another lesson, although this time I will be taught by a professional, more for Ryan’s physical well being & the preservation of our relationship than the fact that Ryan’s a bad teacher.  He’s not, I’m just a very unruley & useless student.

Bring on Chamonix!!

DECEMBER 15th ~ we’re confirmed as off to Egypt for a 15 day trip with a few extra days on the end to see us in to the new year. 

For those that are interested I have included a map of where we are going & our itinerary below.  It’s all very exciting!!!

Day 1 Cairo Welcome to Cairo, the city of the mysterious pyramids and pharaohs, tombs and temples and more than 6000 years of history. Arrival transfer from the airport to our hotel in Cairo. In the afternoon our tour leader will meet us to brief about the next days of your journey.
Day 2 Cairo Today we will first visit the Giza Plateau to explore the world famous pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycrenos. In the afternoon we will head our way to Sakkara, the first capital of ancient Egypt, famous for its step pyramid built by King Zoser in 2700 B.C. In the evening we’ll board the overnight train to Aswan.
Day 3 Aswan Our day will start with the discovery of the High Dam before visiting the Philae Temple – dedicated to the Goddess Isis – and the unfinished Obelisk.
Day 4 Aswan, Felucca Cruise Today we’ll board our traditional Felucca to start our cruise on Nile. We’ll first visit the Elephantine and Kitchener Islands and continue our way down to north. Overnight stay on Felucca including all meals.
Day 5 Felucca Cruise Today we’ll sail all day long on Nile and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of one of the greatest rivers on the earth.
Day 6 Felucca Cruise, Komombo, Edfu After breakfast we will head our way to the Komombo Temple which was built during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. The temple is dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek and god Horus. Then we’ll continue to Edfu to visit the largest and best preserved temple in Egypt. The temple is dedicated to the falcon god Horus and was built over a 180-year period from 237 BC to 57 BC. Then we’ll head our way to Luxor.
Day 7 Luxor, Dahab After breakfast we’ll depart for the West Bank of the Nile and start our discovery with the Valley of the Kings, “the city of the Dead”, where magnificent tombs were carved into the desertrocks, decorated richly, and filled with treasures for the afterlife of the Pharaohs. Rising out of the desert plain in a series of terraces, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut will be our next stop. In the evening we’ll board our overnight coach to Dahab, the activity and leisure centre of Egypt.
Days 8 to 12 Dahab Five more days to savour the sun, sand, sea and to enjoy the activities available in Dahab : windsurfing, sailing, deep-sea fishing, swimming, but above all, snorkelling and diving. Jeep and camel safaris are also available in this charming Red Sea resort. On day 12 we’ll join a day trip to the world famous Blue Hole, the snorkelling spot near Dahab.
Day 13 Dahab, Cairo Our last day in this fantastic town. In the evening we’ll board our overnight coach back to Cairo.
Day 14 Cairo Our journey will continue with a visit to one of the most important museums in the world, the Egyptian Museum, which houses more than 100.000 relics of ancient Egypt. Today we’ll also discover the Citadel of Saladin, Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the Hanging Church and the world famous Kahn El Khalili bazaar.
Day 15 Cairo Our trip will end after breakfast in Cairo. Transfer to the airport.

Just a quick note to encourage you all to check out my friend Melanie’s paintings on my site ~ they’re brilliant & more importantly for sale!

I think she’s got a talent for painting & if you do too, please pass the information on to your friends & family in case they might be interested.  It can be shipped anywhere in the world & she is happy to negotiate on price.  So please, help a budding artist ~ you never know you might get it cheap now & it could be worth a fortune on the Antiques Roadshow in years to come!!

Click through here.  Thanks xx

We arrived at Southampton train station on Saturday & literally just missed our bus by about 4 minutes.  We then had to wait for 2 hours in a bus shelter for the next one to where we were going.  I kid you not, that’s how remote this place is, busses only go there once every 2 hours.  Surprisingly I kept my sense of humour though & managed to make the time pass by talking to a drunk old man who gave Ryan 2 conkers ~ for free!

We went horseriding pretty much as soon as we arrived in Burley, which was a wonderful experience.  We trekked across the new forest moors, which are absolutely stunning at this time of year ~ about as moody as my horse after an hour of trotting with me on her back!  She was a feisty one, but I kept her under control ~ I think we had a mutual understanding of one another.  She didn’t like me & I didn’t like her!

Then on to the tipi.  It was brilliant!  There was so much room, so much so that we had a guest come stay.  We didn’t know it had come to stay until yesterday morning when Ryan pulled back the door flap & he hopped across the floor.  It was a small green frog!  Cute little sucker too. 

Our night in the tipi recovering from our trek was lovely.  We weren’t very good at lighting the fire in the tipi ~ hence me being named Squaw Poking Smoke!  It took a long time to get the hang of it, but once we did we had a roaring old fire & were toasty warm for the rest of the night.  Initially it’s a bit smoky, but then when that goes you just get nice & warm & we were!  We made up a double bed with the mattresses that were supplied in the tipi & had quite a cosy little night, watching the fire burn away.

We also hired bikes on Saturday/Sunday & took them around Burley.  Five minutes later we were back where we started ~ it’s not exactly a sprawling metropolis, not even a town, barely even a village I have to say!  But it’s beautiful enough that Ryan & I would like to go back. 

As I mentioned about the busses, it really is quite remote, there are only 2 busses on a Sunday that would get us back to Southampton train station, so we had to ride around & around & around & around & around Burley, in an effort to stay close to get the bus.  But finally, with the 4.17pm bus caught successfully, we made our way back to Southampton to get our train home.

We fell in to bed aching & stiff after all our excercise, but it was well worth it.  A good weekend had by both x

This time last week it was my 28th birthday.  This time last week, I was having a special day, being pampered, taken out to dinner & getting all excited about the fact that I had such a fun weekend ahead of me.

This week, I’m sitting at my desk in drizzly London, working in a badly lit office, under the droning of air conditioning & computers.  Oh how quickly we forget!!  The week is going fairly slowly, compared to last week, so I guess it’s true what ‘they’ say ~ TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN!!

Well the birthday celebrations have come to a close for another year & what a week it’s been. 

I’ve been to dinner more times than I can remember, I’ve had wonderful breakfasts both at home & out with friends, I’ve been on suprise picnics, I’ve met more waxwork celebrities than you can shake a stick at, I’ve received some thoughtful & wonderful gifts & I’ve had a thoroughly brilliant time!!!  It’s been a busy few days, all coming to a close today with a quiet dinner at home with Ryan & a bloody good nights sleep I think.  There are lots of photos for you to see: Birthday photos which give you an idea of what we got up to over the last few days.  There will be more to come as well so be sure to check back!

How do I feel now I’m a year older?  A little bit more creaky & a lot more sensible!  No more going to bed at 5am & waking up with a hang over for me … I’m all sensible now!  In bed by 1am with a few pints of water to keep me going.  Ryan laughs at me, but I’m the one laughing the next day when he’s feeling ropey ;0)

Here’s looking forward to next year ~ as soon as I start planning I will let you all know.  There will probably be an email going out next week!!!

xxxx

Ryan & I went to see the studio recording of Dermot O’Leary’s new BBC 1 gameshow yesterday & during the warm up before the show, he asked the audience if he had a big nose ~ I said yes.  I was in the front row, about 2 feet away from him, he heard me & called me a cheeky bitch!  Ryan said he only said what the rest of the world has known for years, but blimey!  Being called a bitch by a celebrity is SO cool!! 

Then today I saw David Beckham, which I have to say was MUCH more exciting!  He is very attractive in the flesh & not as tall as I thought he was.  He left in a flurry of paparazzi flashes, but I managed to get a long hard look at him & he’s priddy!

That is all :0)

How excited am I?!  Not only is it only 4 days until my 28th birthday, but I’ve received 2 birthday cards already ~ only helping to build on the birthday frenzy!  I haven’t opened them though as I’m sure they are the only cards I will get in the post, so I’m waiting until Wednesday.

Ryan & I are going in today to book our Christmas holiday which is SO very exciting too!  We have decided to go to Egypt & do a 15 day tour over Christmas & New Year.  It will include all the sights from Cairo, Luxor, Aswan & under the sea as we are going to Dahab to learn to scuba dive as part of the trip.  I’ve been to Egypt before a few years ago, but Ryan has never been, so I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction.  I haven’t been to Cairo though, so the pyramids etc will be new to us both.  Can’t wait to see them, I just hope that we get to see them when there’s not too many tourists about ~ they always spoil the view!  The weather for the trip wont be too hot either, at about 20-25c, so it will be just nice to see everything.  Last time I was there it was between 40-47c everyday, which was almost unbareable. 

I can’t get too excited about this yet though, we’ve go soo much to do before then, what with the tipi trips, learning to ski etc & of course ~ my birthday!