Farewell parties complete

Nice drinks on Saturday night in Putney to say goodbye to friends. And then a very nice BBQ with Stephs family on Sunday. We are all packed and ready to go

Bagged up!

Video at Hampton Court

Last Trip on Grizzled Skipper for a while

Everything is becoming 'The last Time we'll...!' which is making it all very real, today we spent a day at Hampton Court, and we are spending our last day on Grizzled Skipper before our weekend of farewells.

Had a great day on the Golf course at St George's Hill on Tuesday, while Steph and the Kids enjoyed a day at Thorpe Park with Ganma and Gramps

Farewell BBQ at Woodstock

Here is Immy showing off the rather large prawns we bbq'd yesterday. We said farewell to family and friends from James' side. A lovely day and the weather treated us very well, but sad to say goodbye to all.

The prawns, whilst impressive in size, were sadly less impressive in flavour... the small ones are definitely more juicy!...

Running!!

As Steph and I enjoy our food, and the occasional tipple, we have been  a little concerned that the trip could lead to some pretty sizeable weight gain. So in a small attempt to keep this in check we have started running in the mornings. This started in Spain when we were already quite fit due to the 'Insanity' workout regime we tackled over 60 days to fight off the takeaway diet we had during all the house move and Visa stress!

Anyway this morning run has now taken us through many different routes, from the hot July sun of Marbella and its hills, the wind swept rain of Tenby, The tow paths of the Thames in the Chilterns, and Gatwick airport runway (Dont ask!). This mornings was one of the finest, taking on the Pirbeck Isle near Swanage, where we ran from the campsite down close to Harry Rock, on possibly one of the finest mornings we have had this summer.

We are looking forward to stretching the landmarks that we run to the Palm in Dubai, Halong Bay, the beaches of Vietnam and Thailand, the Mekong delta, and then the deck of the cruise ship. I am using an app called runtastic to log all the maps of the runs.. so maybe i'll post some when I've worked out the technology.. anyway here are some snaps from this morning, looking back towards Swanage.

A Great day in Poole with Russell & Sarah - 2 weeks to go!!!

A really great day in Poole yesterday, Lunch at the Marina, beers on the beach front at the Sand banks hotel, and a curry to see it off.

Russell and Sarah are leaving the country to explore the world on the 14th September ( 4 days before our departure ) so we were all in a very similar state of mind, even before the Leffe started to flow freely. 

Their Journey will take them through europe and onto the trans siberian express, which was our first choice of route to the tropics before the reality of the journey was compared to the fun of a stay at Atlantis. It is likely that they will be our first visitors in Melbourne, so we look forward to a second session on the beach down under!

2 weeks to go, we're all getting very excited. Rigs is trying every method possible to break his leg before the trip which is helping me not to relax too quickly. One more day in Dorset and then back to organise the bbq on saturday