only a few hours left in Madrid

In an hour I will be on my way to Madrid airport for the flight to Lima.
Yesterday Justin & I went on a tour of Real Madrid's stadium - I've had to become a real football fan since being with him & even got excited watching a Spurs match when they won! The tour around the stadium was excellent. We went everywhere including the changing rooms & I can tell you the smell of socks & jocks was very strong!! They have a very good museum of the history of the club & all the cups they've won.
After the tour we went & had lunch at the restaurant overlooking the ground.

We decided that we needed a walk & made our way back to our end of town passing many of the tourist spots we'd seen from the bus.

Now in Madrid

Christmas was very quiet in Lisbon, in fact on Christmas eve the whole place was like a ghost town! Christmas day was sunny & bright & we managed to get our day started with bubbles! We walked up to the Castle where you had a great view over the city.

A flight of one hour bought us to Madrid & what a difference! So much colder & so many people. There are Tapas bars everywhere and most of them have hams hanging above the bars.People were out in the squares in their hundreds & they have a strange, perhaps Christmas ritual, of wearing strange hats and bright coloured wigs but at least there are Christmas decorations up. We read that Spanish children do not get their presents until 6th January.
We used the 'Hop on hop off' bus to do a tour of the city. Got talking to a Spanish lady about how many people were about & she said " There is no money but we are out"! Queues to buy lottery tickets were amazingly long - perhaps that's the way to sort out the financial crisis!
After a very cold bus trip we arrived at a Square near the apartment and watched the people before finding the market which was actually a massive tapas area. After a couple of circuits we worked out what to do & ended standing with hundreds of others with a glass of wine in one hand & a plate of food inn the other!

Merry Christmas from Lisbon.

After lunch drove to Heathrow Airport - was an easy drive until I looked for 1) the hotel 2) the car hire place to return the car! I saw what I though was the hotel but circumnavigated one of the terminals in order to get into the hotel. I began to worry when the road took me past the hotel & onto the motorway. I got off at the first exit & headed towards another terminal. Car hire firms began to appear but not the one I wanted! After asking for help I proceeded on the route to find myself at lights not knowing which way to go indecision meant placing myself across two lanes - luckily English drives can cope with this without yelling & raising fingers! It was a good decision because I found another Holiday Inn & pulled in to it.

No reservation there - “you need to drive through the next 4 sets of lights & you will be there,” the receptionist said. By now I was tired oof driving around the airport - it’s extremely large! Booked in & they gave me directions for the car hire place which entailed driving around the perimeter of the runways - bit disconcerting when a plane lands as the wheels almost touch you! Finally found the car hire place & once dropped of got into a cab to be whisked back to the hotel!

Justin arrived & we had dinner watching his team, Spurs, draw with Chelsea!

Day 16 - Fri 23rd December

Up at 5am to catch bus to airport. Check in only entailed dropping off my bag & then we had a wander through duty free before boarding. We took off on time & landed in Lisbon at 10am. I always feel nostalgic, with a tear in my eye, when I leave UK but that’s ok.

Taxi from airport was quick but when he droppped us at the address we were surprised to find ourselves in a linen shop. When we mentioned the apartment owners name we were shown some stairs! Up we went 5 flights ( I later counted them - 100 stairs! More altitude training?).

The apartment is very quirky but really pleasant. We are right in the heart of the old town & can see the castle from a couple of windows. Unfortunately because of the economic climate here the street below is usually decorated with hundreds of light but not this year!

I had booked us in for a tour of the town by Segway & after being taught how to operate it we were off around the town with a guide. It was awesome fun & we went to places we wouldn’t have been by ourselves. The guide was also expressing his views about what was happening to Portugal which was very interesting. The streets are narrow, steep and cobbled. Trams run everywhere adding to the scene. Weather fabulous 19C & sunny

Now raining!

Walk to get paper each day across frozen fields & ice covered roads. Above is the reconstruction of my fall on the stile! I have also been put to work decorating Xmas cakes & as one was for Jake's grandchildren I had to make a big effort. I'm definitely working for my keep. Yesterday we went to visit my niece Kirstie & her family. I'd taken her boys an Aussie T-shirt & they immediately stripped off to put on their new Aussie ones.
Walked around Gloucester Cathedral - used for a scene from one of the Harry Potter movies - & passed many canal boats.
Day always ends with mulled wine in te hot tub - way to go!

In the Midlands

Managed to get my bag down the 9 flights of stairs without injuring myself. I would definitely stay at the Luna Simone Hotel, Belgrave Road again as, apart from the stairs, it was in a really great location.

Got to Victoria station for the car hire only to find that the credit card I’d used for the booking was in Oz. After some discussion - Me “I can’t very well go to Sydney to get the card" - the guy relented mumbling about all the fraud in England ...... & I was soon ready for off. I had been dreading get out of London but it was surprisingly easy.

The roads were quite clear & I was soon onto the M1 north. The weather forecast was strong winds & it was certainly scary going past some of the trucks. The journey took me 2 1/2 hours. Al’s family were waiting for me and after a quick catch up we went to the pub for lunch. Other members of the family came around in the afternoon to see me & I caught up on a couple of years of family gossip. Amazed that Gladys is 87! By 9pm I was ready for bed.

Day 7 - Wed 14th December

As I got into the car for a drive flurries of snow started with the temperature reading 3.5C! Drove past our old house & down to the Red,White & Blue. It was strange going in their after so long. Met the owner & found that many of the ‘bad boys’ of the early 90‘s were related to her.

Drove to Wolverhampton for a wander & ended up in Sainsbury’s. They even sell TV’s & the price of wine was far cheaper than home & it comes from Oz & NZ!Wolverhampton hadn’t changed but it was too cold to stay out.

Afternoon was lazy, Gladys was out at a Christmas party, in the warm. Walked up the road for fish & chips - it was very cold & the paths were slippery as they were covered in frost.

Day 8 - Thurs 15th December

Drove to Frank F Harrison school - I had been the Special Needs Coordinator there before leaving in 1997. I spent nearly 3 hours talking to the Special Needs team & catching up with some of the staff I knew from ‘97.

Drove over to Jake’s & was immediately given the job of decorating the tree because -in her words- “You haven’t decorated a tree for years!" I can tell you I was under pressure but did my best! The house is full of Christmas decorations & looks lovely.

Rushed through the frosty air outside, in our swimsuits, to plunge into the ‘hot tub’. It was brilliant sitting in the dark with me praying that the forecast snow would reach us. Champagne, dinner & much conversation ended another day.

Day 9 - Fri 16th December

Disappointment greeted me today ( I’m probably the only person in the UK to feel this way!) as there was no snow! You don’t lie in bed long here as you get up to walk across the fields to get the paper. We set off wrapped in thick jackets, gloves, scarves and hats down the lane to the paper shop. We had to cross a stile into the field and I was warned that the wooden step was slippery. I placed my foot on the wood & whoosh I was on my back with feet in the air! Jake was trying to help me up but she was laughing rather a lot!! John tried to pull me from the front with Jake lifting from the back when my trousers caught on barbed wire - more laughter from my family! I also got my glove caught on the barbed wire but eventually I was standing in the field & we were on our way and that was all before breakfast. As you can imagine I was very cautious on the way back!

After breakfast we drove to Worcester I had been wearing a podometer & my sister was determined that I would walk more than 10,000 steps so we parked well away from the centr

We did our evening run in the freezing cold to the ‘hot tub’, this time with mugs of mulled wine in hand. The stars were spectacular in the clear sky & so ended another day. Pictured with my little sis!

e! It was a very bracing walk! I bought a couple of items - I hope they fit in my bag!

The sights of London

Spent morning on a ‘Hop on, hop off’ tour around London. Was cold & grey but passed the time until I caught up with Justin for his birthday. I met him at an Italian restaurant in Covent Garden. A number of his mates came along & it was an enjoyable afternoon. He went off to the pub to watch the soccer & I came back & had an early night.

Set off early to the shops on Oxford Street. The day was sunny & bright but became dark when I arrived at Victoria Station to catch the train to Oxford Circus. For some reason no one was allowed down to the platform although a TV screen showed that really no one else could get onto the station safely. I finally decided to leave the throng and take a chance at walking to another station. I followed crowds of people assuming that they knew where they were going - it worked. I still can’t get over the jam packed trains.

Luckily there were very few shoppers around in the main area so it was easy to wander. I did my usual visit to Marks & Spencers but was disappointed with a lot of their clothes.

When I was tired of shopping I used my ‘Hop on, hop off’ ticket to go to St Paul’s Cathedral. Wow what a building - the ceilings were beautifully decorated & the overall size impressive. The organist was playing which added to the atmosphere.

Cold but sunny

Day 3 - Sat 10th December

Slept until 1am then was awake for about 2 hours. Slept again until 6:45 - which I thought was quite good. The TV news tells us that many children are being diagnosed with Rickets - lack of the sunshine vitamin (not v Itamin) D!

After a good old English breakfast I walked to Victoria station to check out where the car hire place was. It’s very close to where I’m staying. You notice the number of people when you are walking through the station plus there were about 100 people dressed as Santa, shouting & blowing trumpets - what for? No idea!

I sit and listen to the different accents & little old ladies moaning about school kids, the buses and the Euro zone - occasionally they laugh

Met Justin & went to lunch with his friend Ferhan’s family. They were lovely people English Muslims who explained some of the parts of the religion that they follow. The chicken we ate would have been Halal- very tasty. They care a lot about Justin and talked about trying to find him a wife and listed a number of girlfriends he had much to Justin’s embarrassment and our hilarity! We had a really good time & the children Zac (3) & Ibrahim (3mth) were really cute

Temperature about 6C but sunny.

London calling

Day 1 - 18th December

After a wonderful staff end of year lunch, which included 3 glasses of champagne, I was driven to the airport and promptly fell asleep! Woke as we arrived at airport.

Flight to Brisbane left on time but we had to circle around Brisbane for a while because the skies were very busy. Transfered to the International terminal to find that the flight to Hong Kong was cancelled - the plane door wouldn’t shut so NO GO!!

I was transfered onto Singapore airlines only an hour later than the previous flight but flying at 1.45am (NSW time) was pushing it. Initially I tried to sleep - my neck should be slimmer as my head was going from side to side a million times to get comfortable. I think I dozed for a few hours.

Landing in Singapore meant a 3 -4 hour wait (which I’m doing now!)so I went on line only to find my travel agent was congratulating me on getting upgraded from Hong Kong to London. I could have cried because I’m in SINGAPORE and it was the first time I’d tried to be upgraded!!

The 15 hours from Singapore passed relatively easily with dozing, movies,games & eating!

Things you forget when living in Oz:

• Landing at Heathrow at 3:15pm in daylight, getting out of airport at 4:15 it’s

dark!

• The number of people in London - trains jam packed yuk!

I’m in a nice hotel but when I go to my room I feel that I’m in altitude training! It’s 9 flights of stairs (no lift) up to an attic room - but it’s cosy.

tMet up with Justin (was great to see him) for a few drinks before I fell into bed at

about 8pm.

Back to Orangutans

We are having a quiet few days lazing around the pool, having the odd cocktail & enjoying a massage!

Yesterday the weather was grey & wet so we just stayed around here. Today we went back to see the Orangutans. A mother & baby were only a few metres from us so that was exciting! When feeding time came around only two Orangutans showed up - not even the Macaque monkeys from the other day turned up! It takes 8000 Malaysian Ringgits to care for one orphaned Orangutan for a year so our donation (180R) won't go far but it is an amount that many people could give.

We went into Sandakan town itself because we'd heard that there was a Sunday market - it was rubbish! We were glad to get back to the hotel as it was so hot & the pool was a welcome distraction. tonight we are venturing back into the town to try a restaurant that was recommended to us. We visited a local restaurant for seafood & it was awesome & cheap.

We fly back to Kota Kinabalu for our last couple of days before returning home.

Back from Jungle trip!

We survived the jungle!After a 2+ hour road trip then a short boat transfer we arrived at our lodge. We had a decent room & the wildlife was on our doorstep. Longtailed Macaques were everywhere & the are pretty cheeky. After lunch one jumped up on the table & ran off with the sugar bowl!

The afternoon was spent moving slowly up the river in a boat looking for wildlife. We saw lots of Longtailed Macaques, Probiscus monkeys & different birds. There were ten people at the lodge & there was an interesting evening with Tiger beer & then it was time to get under the mosquito net!

Early start in the morning with five of us & the guide moving along a wider river in search of wildlife. One of the big moments was seeing a wild Orangutan! I'd kept on about us seeing one of the Pigmy elephants, that are only found in Borneo. The guide said it was very rare to see them & he hadn't seen any for two weeks. We pulled up at the riverbank & jumped off the boat ready for the jungle walk. we were looking very exotic resplendent in leech sock with t-shirts tucked into pants! Within 5m of leaving the boat the guide was signalling for total silence & then we could hear trees being ripped out - we were actually tracking an elephant. Talk about awesome - even with the guide indicating that we might have to dive behind a tree if the elephant came towards us! It was terribly hard to get photos because of the camouflage from the tree but we were only about 10m away from him. We tracked him for a while but the guide was worried for our safety & he'd been doing this job for a long time so we just carried on through the jungle. We came across  numerous amounts of fresh dung & large footprints in the mud. We were covered in mud but the experience was worth it. Our next animal encounter was a monitor lizard swimming beside us.

Returning to 'camp' we went to clean up for lunch & as I started down the steps of our room I saw a snake - far too close for comfort! It disappeared over the boardwalk & I made a long leap from the steps to the boardwalk & was running along it when a twig fell from a tree - I beat the high jump record!

Another leisurely cruise down the river ended up with some people going on a night walk - Valda & I declined! The guide & one other came back to find that they had 3 - 4 leeches attached to their bodies! Staying behind then seemed like a very good decision!

Today we are back to a civilised hotel & we have clean clothes & the ability to laze around the pool.

High tea

After a lazy morning in & around the pool we went on our afternoon tour. First stop was the POW camp which held many British, Australian & others during the invasion of Borneo by the Japanese. It was overwhelming to read what had happened to so many men & the unbelievable cruelty which was afflicted on them all. There were a number of 'death marches' and out of thousands of men only 6 Australians survived! These men escaped into the jungle & were helped by the locals.


We then went to the house of American author Agnes Keith -she'd lived in Borneo with her husband in the 40's & had been a POW & wrote a number of books about her time here. We then went on to have tea & scones in an English Tea House - we were on our best behaviour & remembered to place our little finger outside of the cup handle. We were sitting in the garden & declined to have a game of croquet but did enjoy the view. I made the driver & guide laugh when I told them that my scones were better & perhaps I'd better pop into the kitchen to give them some pointers! The driver & guide were really interesting & informative & they seemed to enjoy our questions & comments as they were continually laughing with/at us!


Staring to get a few things together for the trip tomorrow - will carry the bare necessities but will need to hire leech socks when we arrive!

I've become a Grandmother!

Today Valda & I adopted an Orangutan called Ceria - a 4yr old male ( don't panic Kerry & Justin your inheritance is safe!). Poor little fellow had been found on a palm oil farm as the family pet! He'd been fed rice & sausages & was in a terrible state.The terrible diet ment that he became bald & there were fears that he wouldn't survive.


Today we visited Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. It was about 45 minutes from the hotel & as we were being driven there the heavens open. We were there in time for the morning feeding and even as we were walking to the feeding area we saw 2 young Orangutans in the trees and very close to us. As the time passed numerous other monkeys appeared. The Orangutans would try to knock the other monkeys from the trees - guess who was boss there!


Valda in her wisdom decided that the rain had passed & so didn't take her lovely plastic poncho into the jungle. We guess what! It rained so torrentially that she was soon soaked. My smugness at having my ponch wasn't all it could have been - water ran down my neck & into my shoes, my trousers were soaked to the knees but I was only reaally worried about the camera. It was when we returned to the main centre that we started the adoption procedure! It cost us $30 each & means that Ceria will be looked after for a year & we will be given updates. Another awesome experience being so close to the wildlife.


Later in the morning we walked a kilometre to a rainforest centre. On the way we came across a dead snake- it had been a viper! I quickly warned Valda that if I saw a live one she'd know about it because she'd see me beating the world sprint record. Luckily we didn't see one! The centre was very interesting & well presented.


The afternoon was spent at the pool - this is the life!


Tomorrow we are going to visit the Australian War Memorial & the on Wednesday we are on a river trip in search of wildlife particularly the Pigmy Elephants. We will be spending two nights in the jungle - might have some good stories at the end of that!

Sandakan

A few days have passed because of lack of decent internet so this is recapping a few days with our travels from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu.

Leaving Brunei we started by walking to bus by 7.20. Left on time at 8am & within an hour had been ‘stamped” out of Brunei & ‘stamped’ in to Malaysia. We then drove for approximately another hour through Malaysia before being stamped out. The bus had to board a ferry to take the short (50m) trip across the river before we were stamped into Brunei again. Travelled through Brunei and were stamped out of their & stamped into Malaysia again

A little while later we had to have our passports stamped twice more so that on that day a page of my passport was filled with 8 stamps!

Kota Kinabalu had a beautiful outlook (see pic) but it was extremely hot. Did very little as had a touch of 'Dehli Belly'! Today we flew (40 minutes) to Sandakan & are now ensconced in a lovely hotel surrounded by jungle. It has been horrifying to see how much of the land has been to taken over by Palm Oil plantations - you obviously see it in greater detail from the air.

Off to see Orangutans & other wildlife tomorrow. 

Day in the wilds of Brunei

Today we went on a two hour boat tour of the water village - houses on stilts - and then down the river to see the Sultan's palaces and the wildlife.

Heard all about the Sultan & his three wives and about Brunei in general but it's too much information to put here!

The river tours was really interesting - we saw atleast eight crocodiles who rushed into the water as soon as the boat neared, a few monitor lizards up in the trees and on the banks, monkeys and a lot of probiscus monkeys (only forund in the wild in Brunei). Our guide told us we were very luck to see so many. It was pretty amazing to see so much wild llife so close to a city.

After the wild life we visited the house the 'boat driver' lives in. He has a house in the water village. You walk along wooden boardwalks - no railings! - to his house. we got such a suprise when we walked inside - gilt chairs, huge chandelier ( sorry can't spell), huge TV & karaoke equipment plus bedrooms for 13 people - basically better 'mod cons' than we have!

This afternoon had a great massage. Now having G & T before dinner.

Long bus trip tomorrow into Sabah.

Now in Brunei

Our last few days have basically been in a city so not much happening there!


Today we caught a bus to Brunei. Passport was checked as we boarded the bus & we were asked why we had no visa! I'd google & it said that we didn't need a visa if only staying for 72 hours! The bus left and about 30 mins later we were leaving Borneo - all well passport stamped. 5 mins later we were at the border to enter Brunei. Out of bus to immigration, bus driver calls us out & takes us to an official to explain that we have no visa. The official tells us that we need a visa for multiple entries as to get to Sabah we leave Brunei, enter Borneo, leave Borneo, enter Brunei & finally enter Borneo. Sound complicated?!


All was well because they could do the visa for us. Meanwhile everyone on the bus was through immigration except us - we were told to sit & wait. We felt like naughty school girls! The crunch came when we were told to pay $30 Brunei. We don't have Brunei dollars we said but we do have American (official snorted), Autralian & Malaysian. No we only take Brunei or Singapore dollars!Is there an ATM? No! What to do? The bus driver paid for us & eventually we recieved our passports.


Arrived safely in the capital, went to ATM & were able to pay the driver. Got to Hotel and all was well.
Went for a walk to look around and went into a large Mosque. We had to don some sort of garment and were able to walk inside. Both outside & inside covered with gold. We walked along a purple carpet which ended abruptly half way up the Mosque. Valda and I debated about whether we were allowed to step off it when she took the plunge - within seconds we were being yelled at & told to get back on the purple carpet!


So that's been our first day in Brunei!