OMG - only 27 days to go!! Can't wait to get the Magnificent ate (8) together again onboard the Regal Princess. Costumes are being prepared, excursions planned, eating and drinking capacity enhanced and general fitness for the fun times we are about to embark on. Prepare for limited sleep, much laughter and general revelry as we sample the delights of the Mediterranean aboard a new ship, the Regal Princess

...and today we leave the 5 acres at Leanyer for the last time after twelve years . Sadness. Last night cleaning up a small snake turned up to say goodbye - one of many many snakes very large and small, spiders, frill neck lizards, big goannas, growling possums, rats (oh - the rats!), Guinea Fowl, Scrub Fowl, climbing cane toads, noisy screeching bats, mango-feasting magpie geese, hawks big enough to take a small dog, peacocks, that bloody dog Socks from next do...

Europe v2.0 begins. This time we have a multi-part, multi-party journey starting with a meeting of old friends in Bali - Andre and Patricia, Yvonne and Dick, and a Welsh-Aussie wedding with a romantic back story criss-crossing the globe; From Bali a swing through Singapore picking up Nathan but leaving Andre and Patrica and on to Madrid Spain with Nathan, d*** and Yvonne, picking up Dylan and Carmen from Madrid to Murcia to Alicante to meet the parents, while d**...

We're baaack! Sixty days; planes, trains, automobiles, buses, ferries, vaporettos, camels and a s***load of walking; too many hotels, homestays and one Berber tent; innumerable churches, artwork, museums, castles, shops, ruins, medinas, tanneries, cafes, pubs, scary cemeteries and underground vaults, TinTin at the cinema in York, walled towns, kasbahs, 30,000 year old cave paintings, 1000 year old medinas and cathedrals (different from churches), beaches, rivers,...

And we're off! can't believe the day has finally arrived. Leave tomorrow on Air Asia - flying via Bali to Singapore. Why do it the easy way. We've calculated we can arrive, get through customs, get into kuta for a massage and a bir bintang and get back out to the airport in time to catch the connecting flight to Singapore. we'll get a few hours sleep before we head to the airport, but there's still heaps to do, as usual.