You´re havin´a laugh!

Right, that´s it, I´m not coming home. It´s supposed to be minus 4 degrees in London on Wednesday. What the hell is that about??? I´m staying in Buenos Aires where it´s 30 degrees and they serve fresh orange juice in every cafe (I´ve been drinking a lot to get my vitamin C levels up cos I am certainly going to get a cold on our return.) I get Eastenders updates and the Guardian online - what more do I need?

Well, maybe not. Plane takes off in three hours. Getting excited about going home. But not at all excited about the weather. Someone sort it out please. You have 15 hours.

xx

Homeward bound...

Flew from Auckland to Buenos Aires today. It took eleven hours. Arrived before we left. Needless to say, we feel a little strung out - the 22nd of January is turning into a very long day... Got 2 days to get our heads together before we fly back across the Atlantic, arriving at Gatwick on Sunday morning. We then prop our eyes open with matchsticks and head off to Sussex for John´s (Marv´s uncle) 80th birthday. All very exciting: he´s a top bloke, and we´re very happy we get back in time. I hope we manage to string a coherent sentence or two together.

We're staying in a lovely old school hotel in the Recoleta district of BA. Near the cemetry, and a bit posher than the centre of town, so a little less frenetic. Just what the jet lag doctor ordered.

Other than that, we had a lovely fancy dinner in Auckland with the lovely Michaela (you may have noticed our attempt at controlling the expenses has been somewhat abandoned as we get nearer to coming home...) and climbed up the sky tower with her and the exuberant Hadley (Michaela´s son) who took some top photos...of himself. Very entertaining. More people throwing themselves off the tower. WHY???? Perfectly good views from the top INSIDE the tower if you ask me. Also did some power kiting in Raglan - with a bar rather than handles in preparation (in theory) for kite-surfing. Don´t know how far I´ll get with that, but it was good to do some kiting. Oh and we met up with Marv´s other Uncle (Bob) and aunt (Grace) who were feeling very disoriented having just arrived. Gin and tonics were the suggested solution. Right, I´m finishing here as this is not making much sense, and is certainly not in any reasonable order. Very much looking forward to getting home and catching up with everyone...

xx

Not a lot

That's what we've been doing, and it's ace. Staying in a wooden cottage on a hill. Our bedroom leads on to a deck which looks out over a lot of trees and the sea. Pete (v. old friend from Brum) & Gemma (Pete's lovely gal) came to stay for a coupla days. Drank a few gin & tonics. Ate a good fish meal in town. Drank A LOT of white wine. Stumbled home through a 'short cut'. Stayed up drinking more white wine on the deck, all of us except Gemma seeing shooting stars. Slept till midday whilst Marv & Pete 'surfed' (waves not net). Ate more. Slept more. And that really is about it. They've headed off to climb a mountain, in true traveller tradition. And we're considering flying some kites. Or doing more nothing. Tough choice.

xx