Hi everyone Thought it was time for an update on what?s been happening. Last e-mail I wrote I think Clare & were still in Portugal. I?ll just fill you in on the last part of our adventures! We got back to London about a week ago, had a fantastic time away. Lagos (Portugal) was beautiful, definitely a place to go to relax, sit on the beach and read a book.

After we were in Lagos, we headed to Lisbon for few days before going back to Spain. Lisbon was a beautiful old city, had a great time exploring and taking in the sites. The first day we got to our accommodation (which we found out later was in the dodgiest part of town!) we arrived and there was no credit card facilities for us to pay (apparently it was ?out of order?) so trying to speak to the guy who could only understand broken English was tricky. We told him we would pay later; I think he interpreted it as later that day (or night!) as when we were in bed at 11:30pm fast asleep from a tiring day there was a knock at the door from the guy asking us for our money. When we didn?t answer straight away we heard some keys jiggling and suddenly I had a flashback from Egypt (did I tell you about the guy Renee & I accidentally got fired from a hotel in Egypt?unintentionally of course!) worried the guy was going to let himself in. Anyway we told him we would pay in the morning?phew!

Headed to Madrid following Lisbon, spent 5 nights there, went to markets, art museums (apparently a must see when in Madrid though all looked the same after a while), wandered around lovely parks, visited the royal palace and took in the sights. We were stayed at a really nice hostel where we met a couple of random American girls and headed out one night to dinner, flamenco dancing (absolutely fantastic!) and sangria. Had dinner another night with two kiwi girls we also met randomly on a bus travelling through Portugal. Turned out they lived in London too, so we?re planning on catching up with them on their return from travels. It?s amazing how easy and refreshing it is to strike up a conversation with other travellers who speak English, especially kiwi?s or other aussie?s. Barcelona was our final stop before heading back to London (for me anyway, as Clare was driving up through France with Josh, Jono & Sam). After a very early morning flight from Madrid we wandered around the main street in Barcelona, Las Ramblas watching the many street performers (human statues, dancers, jugglers etc), dodging the hundreds of tourists and found a huge meat/fruit/seafood market where on some stalls there were selling pigs heads, hoofs and snouts (?mmm tasty!). Caught up with Josh for the day in Barcelona, which was really nice (think Clare & I were going bit crazy with each others company after being together 24/7) Went out for tapas (another tradition when in Spain). For those who don?t know, tapas are small portions of food eaten before a main meal (i.e. with drinks). Also went to the site of Olympics in 1992 and later saw the famous half-built cathedral built by a devout catholic eccentric artist called Gaudi.

Hope I haven?t bored you too much with all that, so many stories and things to mention. The pics might make it a bit more interesting. Still am yet to include pictures from Madrid & Barcelona, will be coming shortly. Back home in London we?re now saving up for more travelling, next holiday will likely be skiing in the Austrian, Italian or Swiss alps. Clare and I will both be travelling home in Jan/Feb for a family wedding in March but I will most likely be returning to the UK as there is so much I still haven?t seen yet!!

I?m still doing agency nursing work, mixture of home-care nursing and health promotional work. Next month I hope to get some short-term contract work administering flu vaccinations before the long winter months set in. Guess what! I'm going to be on TV over here (on the BBC channel in fact!) Yesterday we were filming with the BBC crew for a segment called the money program. I lost a coin toss and had to be filmed testing blood pressure and cholesterol with the work I've been doing lately for the flora margarine company 'testing the nation'. We've been travelling around the country (nurses) offering free BP & cholesterol tests and giving health advice. So I'm going to be on the program, I was miked up and everything! It's going to be on broadcast on October 13th, so I'll have to record it and keep that as memorabilia.

We've had sam & jono (& josh one night) stay with us for the past week on return from their 6-week european tour until they found somewhere to live. It turns out they found a room just 2 minutes walk from our place so I?m sure we?ll be seeing quite a bit of them. Last weekend we all went out for dinner and caught up with Renee, her dad & Jeremy, who just came over from oz to visit, as well as renee's boyfriend & a couple of other friends. Went to this place called cheers (remember the old TV show ?cheers? with Ted Danson?) in central London.

Had a great time together. Anyways time to sign off. Hope you are all well, would love to hear what you have been up to. Missing you all, keep smiling Love Em xxoo