Surprise trip to Cornwall

I've never been whisked away in my life but I have now.

Shackell Family boxing day

Why sit at home on boxing day when you can be bowling, playing blue basket and picking random pressies out of a lucky dip. Bowling went well, Liv loved it and actually beat mum with bumpers up and using the pushing slope thingy. We had the traditional cold meat and chips and then the games started with a quiz from dad and then lucky dip. Mum and dad went around the cash and carry and found a lot of £1 pressies. needless to say, they were slightly random. Hayden had the most practucal with Candles. Sal has two salt shakers, they were reduced because they were salt and salt. Cous cous had a paint your own figurine. Dean had bracers. Andrew had a girlir pictre frame. Mum had big pants. Dad had an old womans rain hat. Aunty has a tasteful handbag. I had a crafty spider and Jo had big earrings. We played a round of blue basket and then opened our secret santa. Very good day and full of festive cheers.

Christmas day Sprout off

Who has a sprout off on Christmas day? The Shackell family did. Christmas day started with me opening my pressies on my own which was a bit odd but most relaxing. Visited Grandad and then onto pick up mum and dad. As always, Hayden cooked a mountain of food and it appeared on platters mounted high. What would you do with a left over 25 sprouts???? You have a sprout off and try to put as many sprouts in your mouth as possible. Dad and I thought it would be easy but try it. I got to 7 and was heaving, dad got to 14, Hayden got to 5. Oh, they just squelched :(

After dinner Dad, Hayden and I played poker and blackjack and then helped Live open her mountain of pressies. Unfortunately Liv was very poorly today :(

Windband Christmas day

What a Christmas day! The day started at 7am with cleaning and preparation for a 3pm lunch. It's shattering, I will never make a housewife :) Jen, who was supposed to arrive at 11.00 and ended up arriving at 1.30 arrived at the door dressed as a christmas ree, with lights! We ate, drank, played pass the parcel, opened out secret santa pressies, played on the wii, quizes, Jen stood on the moisturiser and it went straight up her trouser leg, we passed the balloon between chins, passed the balloon between legs, balanced on one foot, played musical bumps and statues (I was the juke box). Great great time.

Becky's Masquerade ball

Tis cold up north!

Don't let anyone say otherwise, it's cold up north! I'm a southern softy by heart and well and truly proved it when I stood out the car after a 7 hour car journey wearing a skirt and sandles into a puddle of ice, literally. We stayed in a gorgeous cottage by Penrith with Al's family. We visited the Rheged cente with mountaineering exhibition, did a photo tour of the lakes, ate, drank and was merry. It felt just like christmas already :)

Remember remember the 5th of November

I really do love autumn. I love the colour of the trees, i love the yellow, golden, reds, browns and everything in between. The drive to Rae, Jue and Archies was filled with every colour of leaf you can imagine. We had a bonfire, mulled wine, fireworks. It's sucha strange thing that English people sit around a bonfire in November in the freezing cold weather. Mad dogs and english men :)

Today we went for a walk, through the trees, looking for mushrooms, kicking the leaves (see Rae's great high kick for an example) and my favourite pastime (apart from travelling) - photography.

Pumpkin Lanterns

'Gone with the Wind'

Another early start after a very disturbed nights sleep including Jo shouting at our neighbours for being noisy while wearing her PG's and bed socks. We tok a taxi to the airport and settled in for a long day of airport waiting. We looked around the shops, airport wacthed and again got excited if there was a different make of plane. I've never been so happy to have a delay.

On the Kulula flight we again had a fantastic security warning of -
* If smoking, you will be asked to sit on the wing and today's inflight entertainment is gone with the wind.
* No mischeif in toilets cos it's filmed and will be used fo our next advertising
* Torch to shine in the sharks eyes
* Isn't yellow his colour
* Brace position to kiss your bum goodbye
* Margarine tubs will fall from the ceiling
* Attach your margarine tub, then children's, then anyone else who is acting like a child
* No foul language unless towards mango oassenders
* If you switch on your mobile phone, we will confiscate it and make international calls to our family and friends
* Welcome home, we hope you find your car where you left it

This time we checked in 7 hours early and had a schedule of dinner, shopping, sitting, music quiz, walk around. I was so bored I wrote down my mobile phone numbers. We were then delayed for another hour becuase of fork lighting.

But we landed in London, we ran for the coach and I was met at the bus station by Al and Jen. So So nice to see them and catch up on all the new experiences/ sights we saw.

Nelson Mandela's Island

I had a brainwave to walk to the waterfront from our hotel and told Jo that it would only take 30 minutes. 1 hour late, we arrive! We took a boat to Robben Island and went on a bus tour around the island. The dogs had bigger cages than the inmates cells. We were sound around the prisin by a prisioner who was there for 9 years. I didn't quite know how I felt about that becuase it was like some kind of torture to relive that every day but as he explained, he was there for peace, not hatred. Nelson Mandela's cell was tiny.

In the afternoon we shopped and then went out for our last meal in South Africa. A brave choice, a South African resturant that had no body dining but gosh did we go for the right choice.

Can you book us a taxi please?

It was a bit of an 'ACTION STATIONS!. We had brekkie and then it was quickly off to our jam packed day of activity. We took a taxi to Table Mountain with a very talkative taxi driver. We went up in the cable car and walked around the top. I was amazed how much flora was at the top of table mountain. The cloud was coming over the mountain so we had a very quick hot choc becuase we then realised that to get to the tour bus, we had to leave, NOW!

We ran to the cable car and wished it to hurry down the mountain. We then ran down the stairs and ran through the hoards of tourists to the bus. I've never had to get off of a tour bus before and get a taxi. Problem was that there wasn't one so Jo and I had the cheek to sit in another hotel and boo a taxi. We then were picked up at our hotel to go to Cape Point. En route we saw whales mating, went to Boulders Beach which has a penguin colony, Cape Point, went up a funicular and then walked up to the top of the lightlhouse to see a gorgeous view of the point. There was also a sign to the South Pole. I was nearly there!

We drove to the Cape of Good Hope, tried to battle through the tourists to have our picture taken by the sign and then drove back to Cape Town.

Pissed by 10

Another early start after the worst nights sleep in the most softest bed in the world which resulted in me falling out of bed multiple times. Today we had a prearrange wine tour to do at 8.30 with our fellow honeymooners. It was nice to be back with the family. Our first cellar had a tour and then local cheeses and tastings of wine. Oh we didn't want to go, I was getting drunk and it was before 10 still!. We went to a Belgian chocolate shop and my favourite, an olive shop! We went to a cheetah home and then to posh wine tasting at the spier cellar. After our wine tour, guess what we did? We went to the pub! :) And then to a very posh resturant where we were slightly underdressed but then we had to say more goodbyes :(

Use the light to find nemo

A very early start again but this time was becuase I wanted to sit and watch the sunrise. We drove to the airport and had no problems at all! We gave an iron brew to the hire company man who was very pleased about it (it wasn't a bribe, honest). We checked in 4 hours early and then watched planes for 4 hours!. We got excited if there was a different airline like mango or nationwide. We even made up our own game of an ipod music quiz.

We finally boarded and had the best safety talk I've ever heard -
* Please look at your safety card for top tips for exiting
* Look at your exits cos the next time you see them, they might be above you
* The lights on the floor with shine, disco style
* When your mask drops, choose whether you want to use it or go blue
* Slap yourself across the face, don't scream
* Put your designer lifejacket on
* Put the tape around your waist and not your hips
* Put the seat belt around those gorgeous hips
* Light on the jacket to find nemo
* this is your flying squad.

We stopped over and people got off atPort Elizabeth as though it was a buss stop. A taxi took us to our hotel with a view of table mountain and the sea.

A rucksack and a bellboy

After brekkie with a very hospitable lady who volunteered to cook is anything (we were the only 2 guests), we drove to Durban which is a city that I'm convinced is actually a big maze. We went to uShaka marine world cos it was still taining. We went to all of the feedings and sw my favourites - turtles. We saw a dolphin show, penguin feeding, seal facts, turtle feeding.

After the aquariym we drove around and around looking for somewhere to stay but in the end we went into a swanky hotel and had a bell boy carry my rucksack for our room that had an amazing view of the sea.

No swining and then an evening in toy town

Raining again! Jo and I went to Khlua village where we were the only tourists. It's a zula village where you can walk around with a guide. We had to enter the gate by shouting something in zulu. The boys and girls are always kept separately and sleep on straw mats. We were showed the boob tree which is supposed to encourage your boobs to grow if you talk to it, Jo did ;) Jo did some weaving and then we went into the main house and played a love song on an instrument. Jo dressed up in traditional clothing of goat skin skirt. We watched zulu dancing and then it was our turn to join in the wedding dance but we already had first witness of that dance so off we went trying to kick our legs above our heads.

On our way to our next destination we saw a song for 'no swinging'. I kid you not, it was a sign of keys going into a bowl on the side of the road. En route we have never seen so many spar! SA is obsessed! We had power spar, kwik spar, super spar. We visited Shaka land which is the king of the zulu's. We had a tour, balanced water on our heads, drank root beer, stood in the kraai which is the central place to keep animals.

We drove to the nearest town with Eshowe and tried to stay in the George Hotel complete with mould on the walls and beds that felt like they had been slept in so we moved and drove around looking for somewhere to stay. We found a garden centre that had huts like toy town with very kiddie like decoration!

We drove into Eshowe for dinner but alas there were none so we had a picnic from a petrol station. Very early night of 7pm.