Author: Sev

  • Final Round Up – Get the tissues out

    Unless John suddenly comes up with something inspirational this will be the last post for this blog. It feels really strange just writing that. The end of an era. Time has gone fast and yet slow at the same time since we arrived back. So much has been going on! It’s been lovely to catch…

  • About to go back in the bush, minus a phone

    Yes guys i’m afraid our Madagascar mobile phone has been stolen so nobody can call us for the time being. John still has his British phone for texts but we’re not sure how he’s going to keep it charged as our only charger was also taken. Ah well, these things happen, we’ll see if we…

  • Thank You Again!

    This is just a quickie to say thank you so much to all of you who have donated so far and especially the people who have kindly helped us to raise money. So far our joint efforts have raised an incredible 1484 pounds. With the Jiv donation that makes it 2484 so we’re not far…

  • Poor Old Mozambique

    Hello All, We’re back in Maputo now and to the best Internet cafe we’ve found in Africa so far. This post is full of raw emotion as well as stuff that John and I have spent a lot of time philosophising about. Before I published it I considered toning it down and then changed my…

  • Floods and roaches

    It sounds like something biblical doesn’t it? We’ll it’s not all that bad, quite entertaining when you look back! A lot has happened since we left gorgeous Cape Town. Our first stop on our way up the coast was Nature’s valley. It absolutely poured it down and we spent most of our time cowering under…

  • Chilling complete, back to the travelling

    And we’re really looking forward to getting on with it again, we fly to Cape Town tomorrow to explore the southern reaches of Africa. We are both very excited indeed and it’s thanks to a couple of weeks chilling with Rightee that the travel magic’s back! Under our collective, Mary style, name of VAJ (Viv,…

  • Thank you!!!

    Yes, I am officially reet old now! Reet reet old! My birthday was absolutely amazing and that’s a big thank you to loads of people for making it that way! The day was great, I wasn’t born until seven twenty in the evening and as we’re 6 hours ahead here I could have a great…

  • Laos – Straight to the roundup

    Sorry guys, I did half write a post a couple of weeks ago but then managed to get a mystery illness and didn’t quite finish it. In truth the pair of us have had sensitive stomachs for our entire time in Laos. We put it down to the heavy handed use of spices. There’s nothing…

  • Vietnam Round up

    No prizes for guessing that we really enjoyed it! We spent almost a month there and will be back like a shot if the opportunity presents itself in the future. The usual roundup’s been harder to write this time as there were so many good things it’s been difficult to group them. GOOD Hanoi and…

  • Ho Chi Minh City (or is it Saigon?)

    It’s supposed to be HCMC but none of the locals actually use it and prefer Saigon. Ho Chi Minh was a hero of North Vietnam and it wouldn’t surprise me if the persistent use of the name ‘Saigon’ is part of the North-South divide that still clearly exists in Vietnam. Our guide from Cat Tien…

  • China round up

    Well we’ve certainly had some extreme views about this place. Here are our well considered notes after we got over the initial shock. GOOD Yes we have quite a few things. It’s bloody Cheap yay for that. Beer and food were unbelievably cheap. Full pints were 16p from a shop as were those gorgeous roasted…

  • The runs caught up with us

    It was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s just a shame it chose the day we had a 9 hour land crossing from China to Vietnam. Maybe we said too many nice things about Chinese food and some balance needed to be restored. The cheap noodle soup we ate at lunch time sat awkwardly…

  • Down South

    Hello from South China! We’ve seen a good improvement in our experience of China since the last post. I’m sure you’ll all be glad to hear that and as Kat points out, at least we’re not at work. Fair enough. We had a delivery of 11th hour train tickets on Wednesday and so boarded our…

  • Yum and Yuk

    Yum The food in China is divine. It always made me ill in Britain so I never touched it. Here it’s incredible and also extremely cheap. The good thing about that is you’re free to try things without worrying about wasting your money. Only once have I not liked something we’ve tried. We thought we…

  • Abandon Ship!

    ‘The Captain has instructed that we must abandon ship’. Not really what you want to hear on any ferry. We were passed our life jackets and lead to the life boats. Both John and I were surprisingly calm. I was worried about us being split up, worried about a capsized ferry being on BBC news…

  • Hiroshima

    Hope all is well with all you folks back home. I’m enjoying Japan. I love cute things and Japan is cute world magnified. You should see me in those toy shops, some serious regression going on. John got rather excited about all the different lego available, you can even play with it in store. Mega!…

  • Australia round up

    I know you’re all wondering what we’re up to in Japan but we have a few loose ends to fix up for Australia first. Here goes then: GOOD THINGS Wildlife. It was worth going to Australia to experience the wildlife, even if we did have to endure some other things we didn’t like. Here’s a…

  • Japan here we come!

    We got bored with Australia and booked some tickets to go and see Keith early. We’re off on Saturday! John’s researched the best airport sleeping spots in Hong Kong so we might look vaugely human by the time we arrive there on Sunday. (Mums: Keith will be in charge of us for the duration of…

  • Caption competition – We have a winner

    Congratulations to you all for your great entries. It’s been a lot of fun reading them! Here goes: In 3rd place with the startling starwars related sizzler: “He says his name’s Yoda and ‘Broken down my car is…’ ” It’s Dr Skiz Congratulations – you win, a birthday card – It’s in the post! In…

  • CAPTION COMPETITION

    A mystery prize is available for the most inventive and amusing caption for a currently untitiled photograph on my flickr site. The photo shows John making a phonecall under the supervision of an amphibious friend. What shall I call it? Get those imaginations to work! See you all after our boat trip! Viv xxx (No…

  • Things have got a little better

    I was amused to read John’s last post. He so rarely gets frustrated, it’s usually me jumping up and down with steam coming out of my ears. I feel a little better now. Yesterday was indeed very frustrating but today has been great. We managed to go out caving. There was only us two and…

  • Australia’s a funny place

    I’ve been here almost two weeks and I still can’t decide whether I like it or not. There’s amazing and unique wildlife but the people here are simply not our kind of folk. Don’t get me wrong, on an individual basis we’ve met some really great people. We went out drinking with a really cool…

  • The last word on New Zealand

    Here are our observations: Good Birdlife Although there are many introduced British birds such as sparrows, blackbirds and finches; the birds in NZ are very different. They are extremenly tame. Sparrows were everywhere and wouldn’t think twice about flying into a building and seeing what’s in the Kitchen. The Gannets we saw were adorable. They…

  • The silver bullet is sold!

    Well hello again and a special hello to Random Stranger! This is Viv again and not John i’m afraid. I’ve got a little less to do on the internet. As you can see from above we’ve sold the silver bullet. It is not a very good time of year to sell so we’ve been extremely…

  • They appear on the north island again!

    Hello to everyone! We’ve been up to all sorts since the last post so i’ll try to only include the details you may be interested in reading about. Hmm We’re back in Taupo now and will spend the night with Ros and Tony again. It’s a really nice unexpected visit. We’re also meeting John’s cousin…

  • Now for the other bits

    Ay up! Got a bit of time to kill before I go white water rafting so thought I’d add to John’s post. He’s gone off to do a sky dive. He’s using his leaving money from Ufi to do it, so thanks guys! What a nutter though, I’m really nervous for him. Can’t wait until…

  • Enough free wine I tell you. Enough!!

    I have been like the living dead today so i’m suprised John is happy enough to let me loose on the blooog…..ar bugger. Anyway, he’s distracted by amusingly dubious pictures containing the adventures of Speake in Thailand. He he. We are having much fun, we must share: Have a click on this little baby! Anyway,…

  • It’s new years eve

    Ay up you lot. Happy new year in advance. We’ve moved on to Napier now. Many thanks to Ros and Tony for looking after us so well. Ros sent us off with some of her wonderful banana and chocolate muffins, happy days! Napier is a cool place, certainly our favourite town in New Zealand so…

  • Egg Fart City

    Yes it’s me again! John is busy uploading more photos. Plenty more pictures of birds ;). I need a camera cable before I can do any of mine so you will have to continue waiting in suspense. Anyway. Rotorua (city of rotten egg aromas) is our current location. It has sulphur rich thermal vents which…

  • Up to 18th Dec.

    Thanks for all the comments you lot. Looks like we’ll have to turn around and head back up North for more Gannet action! We’ve had a bit of a slower pace of life this last week. This internet connection is certainly slow so there will be no more photos for the time being. You will…

  • An update at last

    Hello all! Nice to see you all debating amongst yourselves. The Silver bullet has not (yet!) broken down although John has taken to covering the curtains in velcro. At least they close properly now! The downside is that the stuff keeps getting stuck in my hair. We’re currently in Kaitaia and have just spent three…

  • We made it to Auckland!

    Hello all! We’ve finally left the UK! The 30 hour flight was a bit of a killer, was sure my knees would explode. We did manage to catch the most excellent new Wallace and Gromit movie which I would recommend you all to see. It has some very clever touches and had about half the…

  • We’ve gone even further now!

    Yes, we’ve made it down to a very snow filled coaley. Feeling very weird that the flight will be on us in no time at all. Clarence the plastic dinosaur( kindly given to me by becky) has braved the interest of two cats so far and almost been eaten by Josh the dog. What an…

  • We’ve gone now!

    Ay up all, The first Leg of our trip is under way! We’ve travelled an entire 10 miles to Killamarsh, escaping the blizards of Sheffield. Tonight we are formally of no fixed abode and we’re staying with the sev parents. It feels rather strange. Our entire lives in two bags. We are still living a…