Yesterday we reached the one week marker - we've been in this country for over a week now, and it feels simultaneously too short and like we've been here forever. We've been to so many places, done so much driving, and done so many things, it would be impossible to blog about each one of them and do them justice. So instead, I'm going to create a list (I'm good at lists) - at the very least it will jog my memory about what I've done here in Yorkshire, and it mi...

We've been in the UK now for six days - just 24 more days in the Drizzly Isles - and we've been based in the same place for all that time: Hebden Bridge. I tout it might be nice to write a little bit about this small village in the Pennines of Yorkshire. We chose Hebden Bridge because it was central to all the various places we would be visiting - Halifax, Heptonstall, Blackley, Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Jodrell Bank, York and so on. We could have stayed in Manc...

So, where was I? We left Dubai on Saturday. The 8am flight meant we had to be checked in by 6am, which meant our driver had to pick us up at the hotel by 5.10am, which meant we had to be ready by 4.30am which meant I had to be awake by 3.30am to shower, dress and check the hotel room no less than three times to make sure I hadn't left anything behind. Which meant it wasn't surprising that I arrived bleary-eyed and exhausted in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire at 4.30pm...

Dubai made for an interesting comparison with Sydney. We only passed through Sydney briefly - we had to get off the plane, go through customs and security (and some very surly Australian border guards), and then wait in a departs lounge for an hour while they spritzed the plane up - but the level of scrutiny and inspection made you think we were moving in for good. Dubai, however, was a breeze. Immigration barely glanced at us, and walking through the "somethin...

Before the trip, one of the things I was looking forward to was the flights. I've never flown long-haul before, so to me the prospect of 21 hours flying seemed great. "I can read, watch movies, listen to music, it's a great opportunity to catch up on things I never have enoug time for!". Actually, those 21 hours are more for being uncomfortable, hot, tired, uncomfortable, sleepy, restless and uncomfortable. I have no real frame of reference, but I'm lead to belie...