From Thailand we flew to Hong Kong and checked into a pretty nasty cell in the Mirador mansions on Nathan Road - a place we had been before and knew was at least safe. We spent a few days wandering around the markets picking up various pressies for family back in the UK. Kerry got some new glasses. We decided that it would be nice to be back home for New Year and managed to re-arrange our flight dates. After a single night in Beijing, we now fly back to the UK on the 31st. Our next job was to arrange somewhere to go for new year - not an easy task as on that exact day an earthquake in Taiwan managed to knock out all internet and long distance communications all over Hong Kong. Brilliant.
On the food front, we both confirmed our suspicions that Wonton soup is nasty - something about the texture. We bought a couple of fancy cheap mp4 players with comedy chinese-english instructions. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
Christmas in Hong Kong
On the way out of Hong Kong we managed to lose our (now almost dry) oil painting of Everest in the airport lounge, and break our RC flying saucer. Bangkok rubbish.
After a fleeting stop in Beijing - one night in an airport hotel at -3 degrees (and a nasty landing on a snow covered runway), we boarded a BA flight to London. Before the flight we spent a few hours taking advantage of the oneworld lounge, and during it Kerry managed to snap the end of her BA issue headphone jack on in the seat socket. After another bumpy landing we arrived at Heathrow, 8 hours better off. It was raining. We taxied to John and Alex's gaff in Croydon and spent a very pleasant evening with them and M,M&M (Mark, Mads and Melissa) who were over from New Zealand.
From there I went to Sydenham to spend a few days with my brother and his girlfriend in their new house. We painted and moved the shed. We errected a bathroom extractor fan. We dug a vegetable garden. We saw a production of 'Watership Down' at the Lyric theatre (men with pompoms on their heads as rabbits). We sat behind David Suchet, the bloke who plays Poirot, apparently. We explored central London and did some cycling.
Then I took a quick trip to Aylesbury on the train for a night our with some old friends. Beer and Thai food turned out to be a recipe for a great evening.
After all that it was off to Radnage to see Mum and Peter, and to have our slightly late family Christmas get together. Pretty much the whole family came over, which was really nice. It was great to see everyone again, and to offload all the presents we had picked up from various places and had been carting around the world with us.
Once everybody had left, I basically chilled out for a week or so with family. Very relaxing. I cooked some samosas, I chopped logs and said hello to Mum's sheep, geese and 'White Knight', the pet llama.
Mum and Peter go out a lot, and I was albe to join them a few times! We went to the Oxford playhouse to see 'Our countrys good' (about the first fleet of convicts to arrive in Australia) one night, and to Aylesbury to see a slightly nutty band at the limelight (self-described as 'possibly one of the best phono-fiddle bands in Buckinghamshire') - notable highlights were a rock version of 'walking in the air'... followed by a good old English Indian meal at the El Halal with popudums and lime pickle. mmmm.
We had planned to head to Naples for a weekend on the 1st Febuary, but due the fact that we only had a few days to get our arses in gear, money constraints and BA's planned strikes around that time we basically decided that we couldn't be arsed... (Due to Ben's thriftyness we are no longer going to escape to the coast of Italy to enjoy the fine Italian cuisine and indulge in a few glasses of wine whilst watching the sea gently lap against the shore. As a consolation Ben is going to take me into High Wycombe to visit Morrisons followed by lunch at Pizza Express, apparently the next best thing to Naples... - Kerry) Ah shutup woman... - Ben
During our last week we spend a great, very pissed up night in Aylesbury with friends, taking in a curry and a standup comic as well as an evening of theatre and fun at the Wycombe Swan, watching 'Blue Remembered Hills', by Dennis Potter. Tomorrow we fly to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to restart our travelling fun.
Sheep and White Knight, at Mum and Peter's place
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