A few days in Bristol with James was our next trip in the UK. Bristol seemed as good a place as any to spend a few days. We picked James up around 11.00. He travels with a Paddington bear size suitcase, on every trip, regardless of duration! This time he also brought 4 bags of vegetables! We arrived at around 2.00 and after a bit of a drive around the town centre- not intentional, more a result of too many navigators, we got to the apartment. If I say so myself...

It's surprising how little of our own country we have visited. This year, our year at home, we decided to make a start rectifying this. Our first trip was to the Shetland Isles at the end of January to see the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, which sits about as far north as St Petersburg, Helsinki or Anchorage. Now you might be thinking 'the Shetland Isles in January are they mad'? Well, I had exactly the same thought but Peter assured me it's not that cold a...

For the final leg of our trip we planned to drive inland towards Launceston, Tasmania's second largest town and then over to the west coast and back down to Hobart. The day started with a hot shining sun as we made a short detour down to the beach to watch waves crashing up through a blowhole. We did laugh when someone got cocky and stood too close and got a surprise shower. Leaving town, it started to rain as we drove up the east coast, and did it rain. The firs...