Manor House Hotel Guildford

... being no good with goodbyes i managed to slip out nice and quietly without any tears!!

Yesterday was the North West Surrey finals day and i managed to get lucky with my team mate choices and ended up in 4 finals!!!! Barrie and i won the Mixed Pairs. Pat and i won the Ladies Pairs ... obviously i am very good at choosing my leads!!! I lost the Singles and sadly even with a super sub in for me in the ...

... departure - didn't help that yesterday's booster should have been kept in the fridge - ouch thick serum being squeezed into my arm; I've thrown the last injection into the deep freeze - I take that as I arrive out there! Anyway I hope this blog gives you a few laughs along the way; and please keep your messages and humour coming. Catch up soon and watch this space. Amanda x

Well, I left Chicago on August 21 at approximately 9:30PM. I arrived in England and stepped off the plane at approximately 11:15AM on August 22. As some of you may know, I had issues obtaining my Entry Visa and even though I received it, I was detained going through customs. Apparently having the stamp in the passport was not good enough. It turned out to be no big ...

... cafe that I am using closes in 20 minutes so I don't have time to tell you ALL about our free day in London, so you will have to read it hopefully tomorrow. I would have done it yesterday but the Internet in the hotel was £24 for 12 hours which is like $48. Today was a blast but I have to pack because tomorrow is FRANCE at 5am. Thank you guys for reading. I hope everyone is doing well. I am great, and having loads of fun. Stay tuned in for day 2. Cheers mates, Meredith

... visto el destino escogido. Si bien en principio no me hizo excesiva gracia compartir unas semanas de mi vida con una completa desconocida, su presencia fue lo único que posibilitó que tanto Mercedes como yo volviesemos vivas, relativamente intactas y, lo más milagroso de todo, juntas. Y además, sólo tardamos medio año en volver a dirigirnos la palabra. Los preparativos, como la decisión, fueron bastante rápidos. Conseguimos un billete de avión relativamente barato hasta ...

... It was nice to see all that. The traffic home was crazy! The M25 was packed beyond my understanding and it went terribly slow. When we finally came to M1 it was better. When we turned off M1 to go to Rushden we ended up taking the wrong way and got a bit lost but the signs on the side of the road soon guided us right. The drive home took us 3 hours. We started at 17:30 and was home around 20:30.

The night before Mum and Angelique arrived in London, I did not sleep a wink. It reminded me of the night before xmas as a kid. Checking the clock every hour, I waited in anticipation. When we saw them at Heathrow airport it was a mixture of hugs, shreiks of delight and tears - I felt very emotional. After not seeing my family for six months, it dawned on me how much I missed them. It was a rainy ...

... Lost Baggage area...surprise surprise another queue. Had to fill in a form etc....it was incredibly annoying because 1) John obviously needed his luggage and 2) we weren't staying very long in London at all. The lady reassured that it was rare we'd get it back in that afternoon so most likely it'd be arranged to arrive in Cork for us at the airport the following day. THREE HOURS after our plane actually landing we were out of security and ...

... people burn more calories standing up. Controversial. Work-based adventures have included a teleconference to a room 20m from my desk (not exciting) and a trip to Faringdon for a 3 and a half hour meeting (very tedious and ultimately pointless). Glad to report next week's meeting for the same project has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

... currency and flip flops, we headed into London in the evening to see Tara's favourite band "The Weakerthans". Good gig, and we knew it was going to be a good night when the lead singer came on stage and sang "I hate Winnipeg". Steve: Confused? So was I.