A sunny weekend at Narooma

A weekend in the caravan at Narooma. Nice surf, warm water and sunny weather.

I just love those natural shots, taken when nobody knows that the camera is pointing in their direction.

We arrived in the dark and woke to a lovely view of the sea, fantastic.

Parrots with breakfast, nice but I couldn't manage a whole one.

Look Mr Seagull, you can see that the beach is completely full, now move on and somewhere else.

Immi makes the leap to "Surfer Girl"

Holly and Immi run into the surf under the watchful eye of the local coastguard.............

....only joking, its Me!!!

 

Short of people to rescue, the local search air rescue crew drew straws and threw the co-pilot out of the door. They gave a few minutes to cool down and calm down and then returned to pick him up. Good entertainment, but sadly no offers of a free trip around the bay.  

Home Via Bangkok

A few nights in Bangkok to try and ease the jetlag. Katie loved the place as she, for the first time, felt tall. My lasting memory is the smell - not great.  We all got very good at holding our breath when passing certain 'strong' food areas and markets.    

Great appartment.

Where's Wally?

Shopping in MBK

We visited (3 times), Bangkok’s largest mal. Yes its vast, sprawling over 6 seemingly endless floors with a strange combination of branded stores and eating places, alongside market sellers who stock visually identical items but of lighter-weight construction and at only 50% of the cost. These were joined by a floor dedicated to electronics which had outlets from key manufacturers such as Canon, Mac and Sony right next to Game and DVD outlets which openly sold memory cards for hand held games that held 40+ of the latest games for only $20....I don’t know why that great idea hasn’t caught on elsewhere?!

One tip, the nation is filled with relatively small people, so when buying clothes, brace yourself for a slight increase in size……….or was it just me that needed shorts which closely matched my chest measurement?!

Day trip to the floating markets

A day trip to floating markets with a ride on the canal. I now know what happens to 2.8lt truck engines after the vehicle is scrapped – they get pivot mounted onto oversized flat bottomed canoes, fitted with scaffolding pipes for exhausts and then attached to a dinner-plate sized razor sharp propeller on the end of 10ft long drive shafts, which are dipped in and out of the water and swung around carelessly by the driver……..OMG, this combination of huge horse power and spinning blades has to have been classed as a weapon in the Western World and thus banned.

With a hull as flat as a Tea Tray, the boat was about as stable as the Greek economy, but that’s ok as all of the life jackets were neatly stowed in their packets in a cupboard at the front of the boat. 

One seller on her way to the market, bit like a Thai 'Blue Casket'!

Window shopping Thai market style

 The 'truck engine' revs up......ahhhhhhhhhh!

Local wood carver - a 9 month project, sadly didin't have room for it in the hand luggage

This looks like just a normal market, but look at the floor - its on an active trainline!

check out the video:

Watch the train run through the market!

Using the Skytrain

Rush hour was very very different

A walk in the park to finsh our day before taking the midnight flight back home.

Not Christchurch, but Whitchurch & Hereford – the last few days of our UK trip.

The last few days of our trip were spent with Nicola and Andrew in Christchurch and in Hereford with Grandma and Tadcu.  Time for packing and some lovely walks in the warmer weather.

Just before we leave the UK, we had to visit what is

probably the nicest shop in Ledbury, Herefordshire, the UK, the World.

http://www.juicejewellery.co.uk/

Bates at the Lakes - 2 day challenge

Rowing a whale boat across Windermere in Jan after breaking the 3” thick ice to launch and returning in the dark – you must be mad......we were and it was fantastic.

Paul and Suzzie arranged a 2 day “challenge” for the Dorsett family, with each of us leading on one activity…….it was an absolute blast.  Group juggle (Immi), boat navigation (Me), canoe adventure (Katie), low ropes (Holly) and hill climb (Sal), all spurred on with rewards of chocolate.

Juggle challenge – go Immi.

Low ropes - fantastic fun - good 'lead' Holly

Yep, its ice and we are all crazy.

How many layers – Tshirt x 2, long sleeve top, fleece, coat, life jacket, buffalo fleeze (adult size) and waterproof top (adult size).  

Into the middle of the lake. Stopped at a pub for a hot chocolate and then rowed back in the dark using torches to find our way....fantastic.

Paul’s drive to work... I don’t know how he puts up with it.

Ready to go canoeing

Its time to walk the plank. With water temperature at just above freezing I was on the edge of my seat waiting for one of the girls to fall in and me to have to direct Sal which way to swim.  

Now point to the coolest hat on the lake.

 

 We are walking to the top of that mountain, now follow me...

One mountain (hill) conquered!

Favourite activity positions – Sal: canoeing, Katie: canoeing (?), Immi: walking the plank between the canoes, Holly: walking up the mountain, Me: having a cup of hot chocolate!  

Paul & Suzzie - we can’t thank you enough,

so different and so us.