Hi Guys,
I know we should have contacted you but its seems that I haven't really been sending emails to anyone at the moment.
So I met mum and dad in London after my second last day of work. Well it was a quick catch up and a dinner before the both of them fell asleep, so i escorted them back to their hotel and let them have a nice sleep. The next day was teh last at school and also a party so I was a bit late in meeting up with mum and dad and marcus and cherry and hazel and fionia for dinner. But not to worry, they were all accepting of my badness so that was it. They enjoyed a nice dinner befoere dad fell asleep at eh table! Geeze, i didn't think that the jetlag would affect them that much.
On wednesday dad, mum and I set off on a site seeing trip around London, in which we took in the sites of Oxford street, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Green Park, the Houses of parliment, Big ben, Westminster abbey, The london Eye and that is wher I left them. They went to see Tralfagar square while I went and picked up the last few things from the school, only about 9 bottles of wine from the kids, so i coulden't leave them behind.
The next day we picked up a nice new hire car, a 207 which was fantastic, and set off towards Sailsbury and Stonehenge. We spent about 2 hours at stinehenge and it was great. Mum and i had a look around and finished our tour before dada even got past the 3rd stage on teh voice tour. So we just ast in teh grass and drank in the ocassional sunshine. Mum played around with her new camera and we just chatted. I think that she was a bit concerned that I had changed a bit to much but was relieved to find me the normal Edwin, you know confident, good looking, tall masculine figure tha we have all come to know... Anyway, from Stonehenge we ended up heading straight for cardiff and a meeting up with Sarah and her mum for a lovely risotto dinner that she cooked for all of us. It was great. On friday we headed off to Cardiff castle and a site seeing tour of there as well as a tour of the cardiff Bay and a walk around town. this was quite a full day so I took them back for a bit of a rest and a sit down chat telling them that the can't possibly see everything so they need to slow down ro they will miss stuff because they are asleep. Friday night was dinner at sarah's dad's place, a fish pie, and then saturday we said goodbye to Sarah as she was off to Portugal. Bad timing, i know.
From Cardiff we set off to Brnstable to catch up with some relos there, _Anthony I think as well as Nancy. It was great. Anthony needed a break from the young kids so he took me off to the local surf beach, the first that I have see in my time thi the UK. It was amazing, almost as good a s somewhere from Australia. The sun was shining and it looked beautiful. To bad there were so many people about. After a day in Barnstable we set off early to Cardiiff airportfor a flight to Edinburgh, and then to meet up with Hanice and Alisdair. It was at this point when I left my phone inthe ire car, and as yet unable to retrieve it. hmmm, it made things difficult but I have managed to be OK without it.
Back on track and we picked up a car, and then promptly headed off in the wrong direction for about half an hour before turning around and heading off to inverness. The drive through the country side was amazing. Hills nature, landmarked buildings, not so many dry stone walls but really beaoutiful. And apart form the road there was not that many people around. It was amazing, but then again it was in a different country, no longer in England. We shared the driving and teh snoozing on teh way up to inverness where dad picked up a phone card and got in contact with Janice. Then again we headed off, along the shore of Loch Ness, and no moonsters, to the tiny village of Tomich where JHanice and Alisdair were waiting. They live in the last house in the village and west from their house there is only wilderness to the west coast of scotland. Pristine lochs and forest. Alisdair was pretty pleased that there was another young bloke around to do some of the adventure sports that he love so much, and as I hadn't realipsed that the sun stayed up till 1000 at night I was a bit puzzled as to why he kept wanting me to do somethinglike canoeing down a river at nine at night. It was OK as we were all tired.
The next day we were recruited into helping Alisdair pull off the roof of his new house. It was just some corrugated iron, but it was stubborn and the structure was a bit dodgy. As it was I was the only person to fall off the roof, though landing soflty like a cat. Near teh end of the day we finally got all of the iron off and ever so cleverly we pushed and rocked this over 100 year old roof trusses back and forward till they crashed down. Unfortunately no cameras to record our triumph, only a pile of bronken wood filled with wood worm. This was rthe end of the work day for the workers, so we all headed back for some amazing grub that janice had cooked up wiht mum.
As it was not yet dark Alisdair deceided to oce again rally the troops and take us up the back of the forestry forest to some remote £Loch for a bit of fishing. It was my first time a fly fishing and I think thtat It will take a bit longer to master it. I only ended up catching some heather (the plant not the fish). It was here that I was introduced into the amazing Scottish Midges. Really really really horrible tings that fly all around you and there is nothg that you can do about them. I as glad when at 1000pm alisdair decided that he had had enough so we headed off back to the car and to relative safetly away from the midges. what a day, I would have never thought to hed off and go fishing at 8pm and there still be light at 1000.
The next day was my last so Alisdair got the mountain bikes out for a lilttle ride up the the blueberry patcheswhere we spent lots of time picking blueberrys, till my toungue was blue as well as my fingers. Then an amazing downhill run on the bikes before setting off to Inverness and a bus to Edinburgh. That is where I left mum and Dad and for a couple of days was by myself.
Spent a night in Edinburgh, it was buzzing as the fringe festival was just about to start so there were heaps of people out and about. I once again made themost of the late light and headed up tot the top of what i thought was authors seat, but was infact just a small little hill nex tot hte city. A very early start and off to the airport before flying to Geneva where I would meet alex the next day.
Geneva strated out as a stinker, so i spen most of the day lazing about beside the lake, hirin a bike and going for a ride and just catching up of a couple of zzzzz's. Met alex the next day after a day of searching around for him. we spent the afternoon jsut haveiong alook around, he was tired and worn out, the airplane had temporaryly lost his bags on route form heathrow. all was well and the very next day on Saturday we headed off to the airfiedl, a small paddock next to som cabbage and corn farms, where we caught the club bus up to the top of the mountain for a couple of flights. Alex and I were amazed witht e views an teh flying. It was just really really busy. There were heaps of carazy swiss guys about flying really hectically around the hill, pulling really big wingovers right over launch. But it was a really amazing vibe on the hill as everyone was just haveing a good time. well I thiought this but i could't understand teh frnch wholly. But i didn't here Merde once So that is a good sign. Another day of flying on sunday, which was even better, before the conditions turned really windy on monday. So jusst a day of relaxing beside the lake was in order.
Tuesday and then we were off to Croatia. wow. Amazing. Sun, the sea and plenty of beautiful women to look at. I have never seen so many skinny people wearing hot pants in one place before. we Started off in Split and spent a couple fo days just exploring the city, haggling with the market vendors and swimming in the sea. It was so hot that I think it took a coupleof days for us to get acclimitised to the conditions. After Split we headed off to Dubrovnik where milan and stan caught up with us. Dubrovnik was amazing. once againg it was mainly sight seeing till we got to hot then swimming in the sea, jumping off high rocks and just plain haveiong a lazing about itme.
The Hostel that wew were staiyng at arranged for us a day trip, with other people to go and see Basnia. This was great. We spent the day tasting Oysters fresh out of the sea, Swimming and relaxing in some amazing natural waterfalls, then some really good lamb off the spit for lunch. One of the lambs on the spit still had its tongue. cool. After Lunch we headed off to Mostar for some soubvenir shopping and sight seeing as well as watching a crazy guy jump off 30 metre high bridge. well he wasn't so stupid as he got the tourists to pay first before he jumped. After that it was a bit of lame hore riding, lame because it was just get on these tiny horses and sit there as you get led around. we ended this day trip back in Dubrovnik at about midnight,l a really worthwile trip and an amazing experience.
The next day and we were back in Split just for the night before flying back to Geneva again to pick up our paragliders and strat flying ariound agian. Unfortunately here now as I sit here the weather is not cooperating and it has been raining hard for ages, most ofth time we have been here. So tomorrow Alex and I will hire a car and go and get our gliders and hed off into france in hope that there is better weather there. It is quite hard going from the high 30's back to around 20 degress. It makes you feel real cold. I really prefer the high 30's with swimming than all this rain.
An that is basically a quick ound up of the trip so far. I look forward to hearing form all of you and also telling you all about the rest of our trip.
From
Ed.
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