Clifton Hotel Mansfield

Hello everyone!

First of all I would like to say a very very big thank you to everyone at Colsterworth School for my card! I loved the book with all my goodbye messages. I will be looking after Frederick and making sure he has a good time with me ...

ARGH!

My brain can't actually handle the magnitude of this whole trip! Keep having flashes of reality that I'm literally going to be on the other side of the world in about 30ish hours! That aside I think I'm quite excited; tho sitting around waiting for time to pass and for me to be sat on the plane isn't really conducive to a thrilling environment!

I'm so glad that I ...

... been great helping out with hotels and cars. Last week was the big planning meeting which to eveyone,s surprise went really well and we have now booked hotels in Cape Town, Misna and a 3 day safari. We travel on friday 13th November and I have just booked our Heathrow airport Parking
More next week

... we are probaly too late to get anything sorted before we go away.










We have anther house hunting weekend planned for Oct 17/18 in Northumberland, but this will just be a fact finding trip. We don't expect to complete a Purchase

... day was spent relaxing in the caravan until the highlight of the evening, a £3.50 carvery a couple of miles down the road! Noma actually drove us there and back and didn't even manage to get us lost! (it is only 2 roads I guess!) So the carvery was as yummy as the last time although Noma did have something to say about the non-cheesy cauliflower cheese! Good all the same!

So we headed back to a nice bottle of wine ...

I have managed to get an interview for a job tomorrow, so today's first job was to go out and buy some respectable clothing. I don't think that turning up in a Beer Laos T-shirt and some yellow speedo's is going to get me the job somehow!! A new suit, shirt and tie were therefore purchased. It was then back to the Davies household for an afternoon BBQ with some relatives.

... time writing this blog so I can keep reminiscing when I'm feeling blue back in overcast Mansfield. IT'S BEEN AN AMAZING AND WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE MADE ALL THE BETTER BY BEING ABLE TO SHARE IT ALL WITH MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE!! We managed to board our flight on time but then just sat for about an hour doing nothing. Typical BA buggering it up - Blummin' Bolivian buses were more reliable! Then, as we were just about to shoot down the runway, the brakes came on ...

... and also as a capital for some ancient kingdoms. In those days it flourished in trade and agriculture and was a centre for Buddhism. A highlight of our stay here is a tour to the Yungang (Cloud Ridge) caves, one of the three great Buddhist grottoes in China. Construction began as early as 460 AD and there are over 50,000 Buddha statues that were carved into the caves by over 10,000 artisans, stonemasons and their assistants. So bearing ...

... get down and get dirty'. Our excursion to the north of Saigon would have been considered risky business indeed 30 odd years ago but today the peaceful farming communities around the former Viet Cong stronghold of Cu Chi Tunnels belie the horrors of the Vietnam War. Begun by the Viet Minh and later expanded by the Viet Cong, Cu Chi's tunnels were constructed to conduct covert operations and then quickly hide from the enemy. There are reputed to be around 200 kilometres of underground ...

... Chinese language skills. Days 3-5 / Yangshuo The train arrives into Guilin on Tuesday morning, where we transfer by bus to Yangshuo. Over the next two days we explore the region on bicycle, riverboat and by foot. The town and its surroundings are a photographer's paradise! We take a two-hour cruise up the Li River, witnessing the picture-perfect scenery along the way. We can also hire bikes for half a day and ride past the amazing limestone outcrops that jut up from the ...