Hello - and to Lisa too! sorry for being nosey but Catcher in the rye is fab!
Hmm, J and P - freezer is white and cold - what a silly question - no snow in it though. must go - Have to stand in the hall while year 9 are tortured in the name of SATS!

Hi there! Just looked at all your lovely photos - your artistic skills make China look tempting although your written descriptions do not! Ta for your e-mail at work today. It was a bank holiday yesterday and so I spent all day at work thinking it was Monday and not Tuesday! Very confusing! Am joining a book group at last which you will have to also join when you get back Janet. Our first book is Catcher In the Rye, which I read many years ago and so am reading again. Rob has moved into the house he has bought - very trendy! My cat Jonny continues to wee over everything! People at work are betting how long it will take me to return him to the sanctuary - NEVER! He is too cute. Hope you continue to enjoy Vietnam. Take good care Love Lisa x x p.s. I take it you didn't meet up with Nic Davies in China?

Hi Janet and Pete. Just caught up with your latest travels and photos. Love the pandas and I've always wanted to see the terracotta warriors - maybe one day! Life here carries on in usual chaotic fashion. Chantelle has finally left to pastures new and Carol from the office has tranferred to the technical side on Biology. New lady Jo now in office. I'm looking for another job, but no luck yet, so I'll probably still be here when you return. Your temporary replacement, Shelley, has been taken on permenently, more on the physics side. John Jones is not being employed next year - everyone else unchanged.

Have to keep working to fund my expensive holiday tastes. We are off to Venezuela in August for a family trip. Taking Rob and Greg too - it's Kev's big 50 this year so we thought we'd celebrate in a big way. Rob is transferring to Bath Uni in Oct, direct into the second year. So more stress. I'll need another holiday.

Bye for now

Love Jacki

We made it across the border into Vietnam and are having a great time in the beautiful mountain region of Sapa. We have been treking with a local guide from one of the hill tribes, and stayed over night in a local village. The house was very basic, set amongst the sweeping terraced slopes. The terraces were being ploughed by water buffalo and hand ploughs ready for the rice planting in a few weeks time. The hill tribes people are all dressed in the most colourful and ornate clothing. They have however caught on to the tourist boom and we were harrassed, in a very friendly way, along our entire trek by the women and girls of the tribes, trying to sell us their beautiful embroidered articles. We are glad to have left China and found this beautiful part of the world. We head to Hanoi on a night train in a couple of days.

Aloha surfers,

A quick howdy from the deep south. Amazing photos ... a couple of Ursula Andress moments going on there. Enjoy 'Nam .... n-n-n-nineteen and all that. Chuck Prophet was on top form in a very down at heel pub in Winchester with vast amounts of balding blokes and I was still very young. He still plays a very beautiful guitar. Thoroughly entertaining. Billy news update ... he's playing Tolpuddle and he's also playing the Beaminster Festival with a bunch of school kids. Very rock 'n' roll. Endorse It in Dorset is on for a second year running and has expanded to a three day event. Peeping Toms, Pronghorn, The Beat!! Neville Staples!!! It can't get any worse. Anyway, I'm sure you're not concerned with a festival in a muddy field in Dorset when you're in South East Asia. If you are then South East Asia must be very poor indeed. Enjoy!! Hang 10

Hi y'all, just to let you know we are off to Vietnam tomorrow, hoping to cross the border on Friday 29th, and heading for the Hill Tribes of Sapa. See you on the other side. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hi Janet & Pete,

Thanks for your last e-mail. Good lukc in getting the Vietnam - I have heard that it is a stunning country - less commercial than Thailand. (Still gutted that we will not be able to meet up in August - it would have been great!) We'll have to leave the reunions for when we return in mid August. Hope you are both well and still enjoying your big adventure - not long now!
Take care, lots of hugs, Nicky

I've run out of credit on my phone and it's refusing to let me top up - so I'm not ignoring you! Really hope you manage to get yourselves into vietnam. Were the pandas cute and cuddly? bye for now x x

G'day guys, hope that you can get into Vietnam alright. I'm going to be in your part of the world at the end of the week. I'm spending nearly 3 weeks in South Korea. Christine's flying me there : ) Sounds like I'll be seeing a fair bit of the northern provinces of South Korea- mountains, islands, temples... Sounds like the birding is a bit better there than in China! See ya, Brett.

Hi to all tortopus fans. The J Guy Band just keeps rockin'. Johan - birding in China is very bad. I have been here for 3 weeks and seen so few birds. I think they have all been eaten. We've seen Pandas though - hurrah! Not in the wild though, they have all been eaten too. Roll on Vietnam.

hello. went to the zoo today - saw several turtles but refused to call them turtles. saw several tortoises but refused to call them tortoises. They are all "a tortopus". hmm.

Just want to say hi from Björkliden in the very north of Sweden. The spring is in the air here too, even though we still have about a metre of snow... But my face is, hm, quite brown again! I really enjoy the "spring-winter" and I try to ski as much as I have time to. The days are getting longer and longer. In a month we will have midnight sun here! The first migrating birds arrived here a couple of weeks ago. Yet it is only large masses of snow buntings and one dipper, but they are beautiful! Now and then I can see a couple of hawk owls in the village, which is quite cool!

It is nice to hear from you now and then! You seem to have a good time in Asia! Tired of travelling??

Also must tell you that our younger sister will go to the Swedish school in Nairobi this autumn term!! Time to go and visit her...!?

/Johan