Germany is still good. And I'm worrying about losing TT

This morning I was picked up by the same guy as yesterday. As I got into his car he informed me he'd booked a table in a restaurant for tt and I to join him and his French wife for a meal that evening. He's a nice bloke and all, and it's a very friendly gesture, but I thought he would have asked us first! TT hates meeting new people!

Rather than having her fret and be nervous about it all day I decided I wouldn't tell her until I got back in the afternoon. It sounded like a very nice restaurant but I couldn't help but think "Tonight is my penultimate night with TT - I'm going home on Sunday and she's going to be staying here. I want every moment possible alone with her..."

But that thought made me sad so I forced it to the back of my mind.

The training went ok. The school is really informal compared to a "normal" British school. The teachers can smoke so long as it's outside, so they're all stood around smoking by the doors. In the UK they are never allowed to smoke in sight of the students - quite often not on the school grounds at all.

The other unusual thing is that staff and visitors have lunch with the kids in the cafeteria. Lunch was suppressions good. Generally when I'm in a school and get offered lunch I turn it down but due to the informal surroundings I felt obliged to join the teachers on this occasion.

The teachers don't even get their own table, they simply sit wherever there's a space amongst the students. And the kids get on really well with the teachers. As soon as we sat down to kids started asking all about how the training was going and what life in the UK was like. It was a little odd. Especially since some of these 16yr olds were almost more travelled than I was! The daughter of some general had been to schools in Cyprus, Syria, Arizona, Brasil, Bahrain, UK and was now in Germany. Part of time she'd had a personal tutor as she was living on a Navy ship! Remarkable.

The meal in the evening was good. Again there was something slightly surreal about it as I was an English guy, having dinner with an Irishman, his French wife, my Australian girlfriend, in a Greek restaurant in Germany. Very multicultural!

They asked us about our plans for the weekend. We said we'd planned to go to Hanover tomorrow (Saturday) and they assured us it'd be great. They apologised that due to prior commitments they wouldn't be able to drive us (we hadn't even asked!) but they did offer to pick us up from the hotel and take us to the train station.

They then asked what we were doing on Sunday. That caused an awkward silence. For some reason I felt I just couldn't say "well, I'm flying back to the UK and TT is staying here" when they'd spent the last 2 hours saying what a wonderful couple we were and how they'd love us to come and stay with them again soon. So I just opted for "we're not sure yet". Then, to make a tricky situation worse he says "I'll take you to the airport. I know your flight is at 4pm so I'll pick you up at 2pm..." He wouldn't take no for an answer. How am I going to explain lack of TT without it looking really odd?

Germany is cool. And the horses have big willies...

I got picked up at 8 this morning. The breakfast was good. Last time I was here (this very same hotel, unsurprisingly, it's the only one in Cella) I didn't get to try it - because I was accompanied by an alcoholic who dragged me out both of the two nights we were here. The result was that the first morning I was too hung over to get up in time for brekky, the second night I wasn't at the hotel, I was in a German prison.

The guy that picked me up this morning was the same guy that picked me up last time I was here. He told me that the last time our company sent people over it was "a fat (but funny) bastard and an alcoholic that stank of booze the whole time". I loved the look on his face when I said "Yes, the alcoholic was called CB and the fat (but funny) bastard was ME!"

His jaw just dropped.

Him: "No way! You're not XX!"
Me: "Check out the name badge pal."
Him: "But, but.... oh, I'm so sorry! How the hell did you lose so much weight?!"

[I'd lost about 4 stone (about 25kg) during the previous year - I now look like a reasonably normal person and I get very dubious looks whenever anyone has to look at my passport photo which was taken during my "fat bastard" stage]

Me: "oh, you know, the usual way"
Him: "What's that? Jeez, I can't believe it, it is you! Tell me the secret!"
Me: "I just took up Heroin and then I got unlucky and caught AIDs"
Him: [total look of horror]
Me: [smirks slightly]
Him: "You absolute bastard! I can't believe I remember your humour more than I remember your face!"

The training went terribly. Our companies software simply didn't work on German computers. No idea why. Luckily this particular army barracks is a "big gun" training area, so with the constant noise they couldn't hear me anyway. They just nodded and pretended to understand what I was saying.

At the end of it (only 2pm!) one of the guys offered to drive me back to the hotel. On the way back he offered to take me to the NAFI. I'm not sure what that stands for, but it's basically a cheap shop, duty free style, for the exclusive use of British Army employees. I flaunted this rule by doing a monty python style "silly walk"(as performed by all British Army officers and ending every sentence with "What oh?" I also glared nastily (In a way that intoned "I could send you to serve in Iraq sunshine!" way) at anyone that thought they were in a position to question me for ID)

I bought a bottle of vodka, a bottle of rum and a carton of cigarettes for about £5. Bloody ridiculously cheap!

The cigs weren't for me of course, I've given up. They were for my sister. But I did have a smoke with one of the guys today. It was filter cig rather than a roll up and it was quite nice. I enjoyed it.

After returning to the hotel I cleaned my cigarette breath in the most unobvious manner possible. I ate a packet of polos. The first thing TT said to my minty-fresh person was "Have you had a cigarette?" I confessed I had. She didn't care at all.

TT had been out in town earlier while I was working. She took this picture of a horse. Not just because she likes horses but also because it's willy was hanging out. I guess we're compatible because we're both so bloody childish!

We decided to go for a walk around town. It's wonderful. It's a really untouristy town. And despite the fact there's a British Army barracks just down the road no one speaks English. My French is ok/good but my German is awful. TT had a headache so it was my challenge to try and buy painkillers. The first challenge was to find a pharmacy. I confidently asked the first approachable looking person "Entschuldigung, wo ist die Apotheke bitte?" ("Excuse me, where is the pharmacy please?").

Unfortunately my German for once must have excelled and she seemed to assume I spoke the language fluently. "Es ist link auf funfdy vokken sproken blurby vos heist du leiben sie ein deutsch mark blurby auf volkswagen bitte sprechen sie"[sorry Lisa!] she replied with much arm waving and gesturing.

I knodded and smiled with what I hoped was a look of gratitude - I even remembered to say "Danke schon" "Thanks lots". It must have worked because it fooled TT. She looked at me expectantly with a rather impressed look: "So, where is it?" she beamed. "I haven't a fucking clue" I honestly admitted...

I spent the next 5 mins asking everyone "Entschuldigung, sprechen sie Englisch?" to which the most common response was "Nein" One cocky shit said "Ja! Und sie?" ("Yes! And you?") before sauntering off well before I could use my dictionary to look up the German for "Look here, tosser...." Eventually I asked someone who's response startled me somewhat: "Yeah mate! I was in your training course earlier! It was ok! I didn't fall asleep!" Nice eh? He gave us directions and when we finally arrived I used my unimpressive German to ask where the painkillers could be found. The girl replied in perfect English (albeit with a heavy German accent) "They're at the end of the store, third aisle, very nearly at the end. Past the toothpaste. Opposite the cotton buds. Danke schon" I'm sure she only added the "Danke schon" to make me feel better.

We then went to a restaurant and had dinner. We tried to use TT's Lonely Planet guide to decipher the menu. After discovering that nothing on the menu existed, according to her book, we just guessed. It was a wonderful meal. I've no idea what we had but it was wonderful. We also had many beers and then had to get an early night as I have to train people again tomorrow.

We've arrived in Germany

We've arrived in Cella, Germany. I'm here through work. Tomorrow I've got to go to an army barracks and train some teachers. I've been here before, more about that later.

I am filled with mixed emotions today. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Everything seems to make me laugh hysterically or fight the urge to cry. TT has packed her rucksack and although she's here with me now, she'll still be here on Sunday when I leave. Here begins her European journey.

I don't know when I'll be re-joining her. I'll certainly be with her for the long 6 week British school summer holiday, but that doesn't begin until mid July. And it's now April. I have a break in June so I hope I'll be able to catch up with her for a week then. No matter where she is in Europe it's a damn site closer than Australia. That thought is keeping me sane.

We nearly died today. As we were driving to Stansted airport a truck decided that it wanted to be in our lane of the motorway. Without indicating it simply moved over a lane. Not a gentle movement, but a sudden swerve into our lane. The only way I could avoid him was to swerve into the lane to my right.

Luckily, bearing in mind I drive over 80 000 miles per year, I'm quite a good driver. I have my advanced driving license and the best thing that taught me was "always know your escape routes" By that, they mean, always know how to avoid an obstacle ahead. I constantly check my rear view mirror and regularly challenge any passenger to try and catch me out. I always know what's behind me and what's to either side.

I also keep aware of the road barriers to both sides. If there is no way to swerve out of the way of an obsticle you need to know which side to ditch. Sometimes there is a metal barrier on one side while it may be a hedge on the other. Guess which is best?

Either way, in this instance I knew that the lane to my right was relatively empty although I knew there was a sports car approaching rapidly from behind. So I swerved and put my foot down. If I'd not put my foot dbtwown I would have caused him to brake sharply which may in turn have caused a seperate accident. It's amazing how quickly your brain can react in a split second isn't it?

TT naturally screamed. As I mentioned earlier, my emotions are running on a high and the thought that TT and I could have died as we were about to be parted for a couple of months made me think. My only option was to laugh lots or cry. TT later muttered that I was a nutter.

Btw, TT applied for her British passport as soon as she arrived in the UK. It turned up and although she'd brought it with her she forgot and presented her Aussie one at the airport. It took her over an hour to get into Germany and I just walked in. But she did get a stamp and I didn't of course. Bah.

Down in Durham then an even longer drive made longer by silence

It's been a terrible day, a catalogue of mini-disasters. I got up at about 5am so that I could iron a shirt and get on the way to my appointment. TT didn't appreciate being disturbed so early and was very snappy when I tried to kiss her goodbye. She's been a little quiet recently, but this morning was the first time she's actually been snappy to me. Is 25 days in one another's company all it takes to start getting snappy or is the Germany thing?

My drive to customer took longer than I expected and I was really stressed by the time I arrived at 9.30. I needn't have worried though, the customer said that I couldn't do the work until their computer engineer turned up and he wasn't due until 12. That really annoyed me. I'd told TT that I'd be leaving there about that time and picking her up from Durham between 2 and 3pm.

And of course, she was already moody with me so I had to cross my fingers as I sent her an sms warning her I may be a little late. The job itself was riddled with problems such as forgotten passwords, lack of management decisions and so on. I finally left the place at 4, just in time to get an SMS from TT saying "I'm totally bored. Durham is shit. Are you nearly here?" Bugger! I was at least 70 miles away. To make matters worse, as I started to SMS a reply to her my phone battery died. Great timing eh?

My in car charger was broken so I was a bit stuck. I then remembered that I had TT's mobile number on my laptop and that I also had internet access through that. So rather than getting on the road I then had to power up the laptop, connect to the internet and desperately email a multitude of friends with the message "My phone has died and TT is in Durham and doesn't know where I am. Could you please SMS her on XXXXXX and tell her I'm on my way and I'll meet her at the train station" No one replied immediately so I just had to put my faith in my friends and get on the road.

I arrived at Durham train station but no sign on TT. I then went back to the hotel we'd stayed at. No sign of her there. I remembered that earlier in the day she'd sent me an SMS saying the only good thing in Durham was a Oz Bar so I wondered if she'd found her way back there. I tracked down the bar and although the bar staff remembered her from earlier they'd not seen her for a couple of hours.

I then had a bit of a brainwave and asked if anyone behind the bar had a spare Nokia charger. No one did. I then got really desperate and said "Look, If I put £5 in your charity box could I please borrowsomeone'ss phone and put my SIM in it to send an SMS?" One charitable bar girl agreed and the moment I put the SIM into her phone I started receiving very annoyed messages from TT. Understandable as the poor girl was stuck in a strange city with nothing to do and no idea where I was. And she also had no idea why I wasn't answering my phone or replying to her messages.

We eventually got in contact and met at the bar. Tomorrow I've got an appointment at a place called Seven Oaks which is right in the South of England. TT got in the car and didn't say a word to me the whole 310 mile journey. We didn't arrive here until about midnight, so we're now going straight to bed. At least the appointment in the morning is only about 2 miles away. I'm tired, and really sad that I've upset my girl.

Woke: Durham
Bed: Five Oaks
Done: 450 miles

Waterfalls and a long drive

Having woken in Bangor we went for a little walk around the city. It's one of those places where it's difficult to believe it's really a city. It's so ickle and quaint! I then remembered the last time I was there my friend had taken me to a waterfall nearby. Again, it was one of those topical things because when TT and I had spoken about waterfalls in the past this was actually the one I'd described to her.

It's called Aber falls and it's just a few miles outside Bangor. You have to park your car about a mile from the falls and then walk through a pleasant valley to get there. TT doesn't like walking in the sun (That's good for an aussie isn't it?!) so we took an alternative route through some forest which was positively chilly.


The walk is well worth it. Aber falls is one of those places where you get there and wish you'd brought a picnic. I've been there twice now and thought the same thing both times. If I ever go back I'll make sure I pack some food and a rug. (Then it'll probably bloody rain...!)

We messed around in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall for a while and then had to hike back to the car to get back on the road. TT was certainly getting to see plenty of the country but the downside of that was that we had to spend so much time in the car. As we walked back TT told me what had been bothering her a couple of days before.

Work are sending me to Germany in a few days time, and TT is planning to use that to begin her tour of mainland Europe. So she'll be flying out with my but I'll be flying back alone. She's always said this trip was to see Europe rather than to be with me, but somehow that had never sunk in. And we're having such a good time I just thought she would wait until I could get a few weeks of work to go with her. I try not to let on how disappointed I feel but it's difficult to fill the silent gaps as we walk back to the car.

Work have made an appointment for me up near Newcastle tomorrow, which is right in the north of England. When we get back to the car I look at the long route from Wales to Newcastle. I know I'm going to be busy most of the day tomorrow so I wanted to stop somewhere that TT can occupy herself. Durham takes my eye, I've been there before and know it's another beautiful city. So that's what we do. We get in the car and drive up to Durham.

The 230 mile drive takes us about 4 hours and I check us into a hotel I've used before. In fact, the last time I stayed here there was a promotion on where you could get a free Guinness T-shirt for drinking 4 pints. I don't usually drink Guinness, but TT loves the stuff so around 6 months earlier I'd had a night of Guinness just to win the T-shirt for her which I'd promptly posted off to Australia.

It was odd to be in the same bar again, and this time with TT by my side. Unfortunately, she's very quiet again. At least now I know, or guess, it's about the Germany thing. If the idea of being apart is making her sad why doesn't she wait for me? How can I phrase that without making it sound as though I want to control her?

We have an early night because I'm still about 70 miles from the place I need to be at tomorrow and I'm due there at 9am. At least TT will be able to look around Durham which hopefully will cheer her up.

Woke: Bangor
Bed: Durham
Done: 240 miles

Told off for a second time for same thing in 3 years...

We woke up pretty early - it was still dreary. I think that's probably normal for Aberystwyth. We had our breakfast which was good - it generally is in proper guest houses.

We already had our plans set for a bit of a tour of Wales so we got on the road pretty early and headed up towards north wales with no set itinerary. Within the hour we got distracted by lots of signs advertising King Arthurs Labyrinth. A labyrinth in Wales? That was enough to catch our attention. We detoured to take it in.

It turned out to be this place. We asked the guy at the ticket booth whether it would be interesting for us or if it was mainly aimed at kids / families. He assured us the abandoned mines labyrinth was cool for visitors of all ages.

We paid the fee and got our hard hats. First time I'd worn a hard hat since I went on a school trip to a mine in France. Strange coincidence that eh? Nonetheless, the hard hats really brought out the child in TT and as we were stood in King Arthurs own gift shop she wasted no time in taking a plastic sword from a rack and whacking me around the hard-hat with it. I was laughing so much at the looks from the "real grown-ups" that I couldn't possibly defend myself.

We had a bit of time to kill until the next tour so we went and looked around the place while we waited. TT found a little stall that was selling Celtic jewelry. She bought a beautiful earring and put it in immediately. Just one mind, not a pair! She's like that, I love my girls strange ways. Then we went back to the gift shop/tour departure point.

Suddenly this guy in full outfit appears and proclaims to be Merlin. No reaction from crowd. But in fairness there were only about 20 people and most of them were busy watching TT and I to see if we were going to be more entertaining than him...

He led us down towards the foot of mountain and we then had to walk down an almost pitch black tunnel for about 5 minutes. At the end a boat waited for us in the flooded mine labyrinth. As soon as we got on board it started chugging along and all the way we had an audio commentary of King Arthur stories. It sounds childish but it was actually pretty cool. They had lots of lighting effects and just the geology of the mountain was good to see. TT and I kept making comments louder than we thought we were and I suspect we were the largest source of entertainment on the boat.

After that we carried on up the coast, having decided that we'd try to make it to Bangor to sleep the night there.

We stopped en-route at a little chef. This was an experience for TT. I'd warned her they were bad, but my warnings obviously weren't harsh enough. Little Chef restaurants are crap. Make no mistake, they're awful. Nonetheless, she was hungry and getting bored of service station sandwiches which cost more than 10 times the price of a loaf of bread.

So, we stopped at a little chef/thief. She ordered soup of the day and I ordered some sort of salad. My thinking was that if they didn't have to cook it, they'd have less chance of screwing it up. The soup was funny, the waitress went out the back, spoke to kitchen, then brought out a can of Heinz tomato soup in full view and just tipped the contents into a bowl and microwaved it. Honestly! TT was shocked that they could charge £5 for soup that obviously came from a 49p can but I pointed out to her at least they hadn't cooked it...

My salad was less fortunate, it was a few days old and basically a pile of wilted browning lettuce. I think there was some other stuff in it too but I couldn'tconfidentiallyy identify any of it. I think the round brown bits were at some point cucumber, and the red sludgy stuff was probably oncetomatoe. We paid (yeah, honestly! I couldn't be arsed to argue!) and left. Got a sandwich at service station next door instead!

We carried on until we got to Caernafon. The scenery on route was wonderful. TT comes from Wales but only as a kid and she'd only previously known Swansea area. It was great to show her the scenic parts of the country and I'd never been to that part either.

Caernafon has a wonderful castle and is a beautiful town generally. The only shocking thing was that when I went into the public toilets near the car park I was reallysurprisedd to see two guys passed out on the floor under the influence of Heroin. And the walls were covered in posters advising people not to approach people on the floor. And there were syringe bins on every wall. Guess that place has a bit of a drug problem?!

We left and carried on up to Bangor. I've been to Bangor once before. My friend went to uni there and I visited him then. So I went drive about and tried to find the places we went to when I was last there. It was really great to go back. The last time I was there it was because I'd just split with a long-term girl friend and I just needed to see my friend. This time I was with TT. It was wonderful to visit a place that I associated with bad times with a girl I love so much.

I remembered that last time I was there I'd parked my car in a pub car park to go for a walk on thepierr and the landlady of the pub had come out and shouted at me for parking there. Ii was relating this story to TT as we pulled into the same carpark to do the same thing. We left the car and had a romantic walk on thepierr. Guess what happened as we got back to the car?!

Landlady:" You shouldn't leave your car here! We're not a f#cking carpark you know!" The funny thing is that the area is dead. There's no shortage of parking. The only reason I parked there was because I felt guilty from the time years before and I'd been planning to take TT inside for a drink. After that interjection I changed my mind and we just got in the car and drove off.

We found a guest house (or gwesty as we'd started calling them, having noticed signs all overWaless pointing out hotels in Welsh) and checked in. It was quite posh. After recovering for a bit we went out for a few beers and I showed TT the bits of Bangor I remembered from the last time I was there. Again it felt really odd. Last time I was there I hated it because I was feeling so bitter about my ex-partner. This time every second was a pleasure because I was with TT. I love this girl.

Woke: Aberystwyth
Bed: Bangor
Done: 100 miles

Whirlwind tour of Wales, here we come...

It's not been a very exciting three days, particularly for TT. I've been up and down the south coast of Wales between Newport and Swansea seeing various customers for various reasons. However, my last appointment was this morning and after that we decided we'd see a bit of Wales for the weekend.

We drove to Gorsignon, near Swansea, the small town where TT was born and lived the first few years of her life. We parked outside her old house and she pointed out where she'd fallen off her bike, and where she remembers buying sweets. It was kind of emotional so we didn't stay very long.

After that we headed along the coast and decided to stop the night at Aberystwyth. It's a dreary day and sea side resorts always look worse when they are out of season on a rainy day. I should imagine that the night life here is pretty good, there seem to be numerous pubs and clubs but TT is feeling ill so we've just had a quiet night in the hotel.

I'm worried about TT, something seems to be bothering her, perhaps it was the visit to her old home and the emotions it caused. Going to bed early now, but we're planning to head on up the coast tomorrow to see some of mid and north Wales.

I've been naughty and had a cigarette today. Slap my wrist, I don't mind, I'm not making a habit of asking complete strangers for a cigarette, it makes me feel like a tramp!

Woke: Bridgend, South Wales
Bed: Aberystwyth, Mid Wales
Done: 100 miles

Torquay is not the most exciting place in the world

Well, I've been busy working for a few days and TT has completely exhausted Torquays list of things to do. Luckily my conference finished today so we went to the sea life centre together. If you like penguines that's the place for you. See them, feed them, get attacked by them, watch them from underwater observation pods, etc.

It was pretty cold and most of the centre was outdoors so we didn't stay a huge amount of time. Isn't Torquay supposed to be the English Riviera? Ie. Warm? These penguins looked perfectly at home in todays temperatures...

The next few days are going to be spent visiting customers in the South of Wales area, so we leave dreary Torquay and head for Cardiff.

Woke: Torquay
Bed: Cardiff
Done: 150 miles

Englands highest waterfall and herds of wildebeast

Work needs me to be in Torquay for a few days so we leave Wales and head down that way. We made good time and when we got close to Torquay we spotted a sign for a place called Canonteigh falls.

When I first met TT in Australia she took me to a waterfall near her home. She'd told me all about it before and I was expecting something very spectacular. However, when we got to it, being the height of summer it had dried to a trickle. We've often laughed about that anticlimax and upon seeing this sign we decided to visit.

It's a fair hike to the top of the waterfall and although lots of other visitors were in the area, we were the only ones that ventured up the trail to the top of the water fall. As we got near the top we realised that there was a massive pipe running along side the trail, hidden in the udergrowth. Could it be that Englands highest waterfall was a hoax?! Some enterprising land owner pumping water off a tall rocky outcrop? The piccy on the left shows the view from the very top. Impressive huh?

After well and truly stretching our legs we complete the journey to Torquay. Work have booked us into a small hotel with a waiter that really is a cross between Basil Fawlty and Manuel. I'm just waiting for him to say to someone "Well? What do you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel window? Herds of wildebeast sweeping majestically across the plain?" Just incase you were wondering about the odd title.

Woke: Bridgend, Wales
Bed: Torquay
Done: 175 miles

Happy again now

TT called me first thing this morning and told me she'd slept really badly without me. Thank goodness it wasn't just me. Although I was expecting to see her later she was supposed to be staying at her Aunts place again overnight. She's now changed her mind and has asked if she can stay with me instead. As if she needed to ask! Feel a little sorry for the Aunty though as she's not seen TT for about 15 years and then only gets one night with her.

The customer visit didn't take long although it was a bugger to find - another "middle of nowhere" place. I was glad to be out of there and on my way back to TT. I arrived about 1700 and met some more of the family. Had a pint with them and then took TT back to the hotel I'd booked. We spent the evening idly chatting about our families. It feels like we've been together forever, I'm so comfortable with her.

Apparently her family liked me and embarrassed her by asking about our intentions! We've only been physically together two weeks! But I know we're going to be together a long time yet.

Woke: Reading
Bed: Bridgend
Done: 130 miles

I'm very sad tonight

After a couple of days recovery we're back on the road again. Gonna be a long trip this time.

tt is originally from South Wales. Although she lives in Australia now she's from there originally. Hence, she still has family there. For personal reasons, she needs to see them as soon as possible, so today we drove there.

But I have to be in the Reading area tomorrow, and as I'd prefer her to do her family stuff in private I've left her there to do it. So that's been about it for today. We've driven to Bridgend, and I've briefly met her family over here.

Of course, as she was so young when she left, it was like both of us meeting them for the first time and in fact I almost felt that I was introducing tt to them.

Because I'm so used to meeting strangers as part of my job it just felt normal to start introducing and ice-breaking. But with huge difficulty (that I didn't show of course) I left them to their unusual reunion and drove back to my customer in Reading area.

I know it's only been a few days, but already a night without tt by my side feels awful. I can't be without this girl. I knew I loved this girl, now it's even more obvious. I can't sleep without her. I'm in for a troubled night trying to sleep....

{And yeah, I know, I'm seeing her again tomorrow, it's only tonight, I'm a wuss...!}

Woke: Place by Sea (Home)
Bed: Reading
Done: Bridgend, then back to Reading (430 miles)

The simplest things can make me happy

I sent tt an sms this morning to tell her when I'd found the customers address. I'd left her reading in the hotel. She sent an sms back saying that she'd opened the curtains after I'd left and there were loads of cats outside, pawing at the window. Hence the massive sign saying "Please do not let the cats in" which had bemused us the night before!

The job went ok and as planned I left about midday. tt sent me another text to tell me she'd got bored and drank the wine. I love this girl!

On the way home we stopped at Cheddar Gorge. It's a beautiful village and I can highly recommend the cider which has names such as "droop willy" and "cock stopper" and is sold in gallon plastic containers. It's not for the faint hearted (or randy) though!


There are various caves that you can tour and lots of touristy shops. The scenerey is pretty awesome. As we walked through the village hand in hand a lady smiled at us and said "Oh young lovers, what a lovely sight!"

I can't describe how that made me feel - just so happy! I don't know how, but the world can obviously see how much I love tt. That made me glow. I felt like a teenager on a first date again.

The photo to the left is the road either coming out of the villiage or going into it. I don't remember which and I suppose it depends hugely on your direction of travel!

Woke: Nr Torrington
Bed: Place by the sea (Home)
Done: 400 miles

The first journey to do with work I've ever enjoyed

We layed in this morning. We were only at my home, so no reason to jump up and go exploring. I got up and walked down the street to buy some bacon and eggs to make tt a proper english breakfast.

On the way I passed my neighbour. He was the lovely old man kind enough to prepare us maps and directions and things to do in the Edinburgh area - including the castle just south, the highlights of the city, and the salmon ladder thing.

Unfortunately he's a smoker, and as I bumped into him I'd just been thinking "it's been about a week without a cigarette and it's easy, I could have given up years ago..."

But then, when he (not knowing I'd given up) offered me one, I was really tempted. And my thought was "Well, I've not wanted one, so i could take this to be social and then he wont give me a lecture about 'You don't need to give up smoking, etc...'" So I did. But then I lit it.

Don't curse me yet! The taste was foul. Simply didn't like it, and I've only been given up a week! I took two drags then dumped it. Cooking breakfast for tt was much more satisfying.

Then we had to head off. I needed to be at a customers down in the south of the country for an appointment at 9am on monday, so the only option was to drive down this afternoon.

When we got onto the M4 we decided we wanted a break and spotted a sign for a castle. We pulled over and went exploring. It turned out to be a hill. No actual castle left. We'd been had! On returning to the car I realised we weren't too far from Avebury and I'd been there once before so I decided to take tt there instead.

It's a great place, bit like stonehenge but more spread out and you can actually walk amongst the stones. They're all over the village. There are some pictures on this website . We did however notice an ominous absense of stones in the vicinity of the stone-built church though. Strange that eh?!
Unfortunately we couldn't stay long as we still had a long way to go.

The drive was fine (apart from one little mistake, eh tt?!), but once we got there we discovered the road we needed to take was closed.

We called the owners of the hotel about 10pm and didn't realise that the person giving us directions was verbally dyslexic. We wrote down, and double checked every direction she gave us, and we ended up fucking miles away. (Excuse me!)

Ended up arriving about 11pm. And they had the audasity to say "Oooh, you're late.." Bastards! The room had an odd feature, and one very nice touch:

1) HUGE sign on the window saying "Please do not let the cats in"
2) Couple of wine glasses, freshly poured, and the rest of the bottle in an ice bucket.

Unfortunately we're too tired for wine so we decided to get some sleep. I feel a guilty that tt will have nothing to do in the morning while I work, but I should only be busy for the morning. This place is very, very rural though, I hope I don't get lost finding the customer...

Woke: Place by sea (Home)
Bed: Nr Torrington
Done: 400 miles

oh tt, please don't worry

The breakfast provided by congleton was truly awful. We didn't have a choice, we were the only people staying there, furthermore, we were obviously the first guests they'd had for a long time - strange that, eh?

We were given sausage made from 60% sawdust and eggs that looked as though they'd been stolen from a pigeons nest. And it was all floating in grease - hmmmm! Yum! The bloke serving us was the landlord and was very hung-over from the night before. He looked as though he was about to hurl at any point.

As he slid our dirty plates of food over he also coughed up a load of phlegm and offered us his copy of the Sun newspaper. Quality. Def.

We waited until he turned his back for long enough for us to bolt and done so! (We'd already paid the night before)

We got immediately stuck in a traffic jam on the M6. My mother was desperate to meet tt, so I'd promised we'd be over for dinner. When the jam cleared I put my foot down a little and promptly got flashed by a speed camera on the A14. I was only doing 75, I'm not a hugely excessive speeder, 75 should have been ok, I thought there was a 10% tolerance and I know my speedo is accurate!

We got back to my place and tt immediately started to get worried about meeting my parents. I felt a bit gutted about that. They know how much she means to me and they love her before even meeting her. I've spoken about her for the last 3 years so they are desperate to meet her. But tt is really nervous. I felt awful. Between a rock and a hard place.

I wanted her to meet them, but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. At the same time I knew my parents weren't any reason to be scared and I knew she would be ok once she met them. It was difficult. In the end tt stayed at my house and I popped over to mum and apologised that she was ill. I felt so sorry for mum, and also so sorry for tt, there really was nothing to worry about! Parents aren't any easier going than mine!

Woke: Congleton
Bed: Place by sea (home)
Done: 250 miles

Snow! Wonderful snow! - on a negative note, who's ever heard of congleton?

If you have heard of the place I hope that's all you've done - I hope you've never had the misfortune to actually visit the place. If you live there and love it, I'm sorry, I guess someone has to....


But anyhoo, today:
We woke up in our lovely b&b in Aviemore. I'm not a huge breakfast fan but this morning I was really looking forward to it. I woke up feeling happy, I knew I'd achieved my goal of showing tt snow and the day was only going to get better from here because we were planning to go even higher.

The breakfast was excellent. The owner had travelled all over the world and she'd had her photo's made into table placemats. This caused loads of breakfast conversation with people talking about their own, and other peoples mats. It just made everyone start talking about travel and so on. Great idea, very social!

We left the place and headed off up the tourist trail through the Cairngorms. The drive was spectacular. Not very long, but it seemed it. The conditions got worse every few minutes. As we ascended the windy road up the mountain the outside temperature display on the dashboard descended accordingly.

The snow got thicker, the car got less responsive.

Being a mountain road it had hairpin corners which we had to negotiate at snail pace. It was great challenging driving. Due to the conditions we only saw one other car the whole way, and that was a rescue vehicle.

When we reached the top tt got out into proper deep snow. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

We then took the fenicular railway (train pulled up mountain by a chain) to the very summit. The picture shows tt and the view from there. The view was awesome, but having tt in it was what made it wonderful for me.

tt was in an amusing childish mood up there, and we went to the childrens play area and completed a kids activity book together. I wish I had kept that, it was funny. You should have seen what we done to the "spot the difference" page....

Tt also sent her mother a postcard from the highest post box in Britain. (I wonder if she ever received that?)

Early afternoon we realised we had to start heading back. We were in remote scotland, in heavy snow, and I was supposed to be at work on monday morning. It had taken us all week to get there, so we knew we'd better head back.

We took a scenic route down from the mountain and saw a herd of deer on the way. That was a remarkable sight.

I wanted to get as many miles done as possible that afternoon so when tt dozed off I put my foot down and we were quite a way down the M6 when tt woke and decided she'd had enough car time. We decided to pull off at the next junction and find a guesthouse or b&b.

We ended up at a place called Congleton. Don't ever go there. Perhaps that's severe, maybe the rest of the town is ok, but don't go to the bed and breakfast pub next to the railway bridge - words can't describe it, you need all your senses to get a true appreciation!

It had taken us a while to find anywhere so we tolerated the unfriendly welcome (how's that for a contradiction in terms?!), crap food, damp and peeling room, mouldy sheets, cold shower, etc.

I'm a terrible boyfriend, how did I end up bringing tt here?! Especially after the wonderful place we stayed last night in the highlands. And she's been here less than a week! They say variety is the spice of life though eh?

Woke: Aviemore
Bed: Congleton (aka shitville)
Done: 400 miles

We're in the highlands

I'll tell you more very soon....

Suffice to say, we're in the most romantic place I've ever been and I'm in love with the most precious girl in the world.

(It's now "very soon"!)
We woke up this morning and had a wonderful home cooked breakfast at the guesthouse. The owner makes her own marmalade and although I'm not usually a fan we felt obliged to try it. It was better than any I've tried before.

We then spent the morning exploring Edinburgh properly. It's truly a beautiful city, shame most of the buildings were covered in scaffolding. The cathedral in particular is well worth a visit and they have volunteers there to answer any questions you may have. She told us that many of the stained glass windows were removed by a bishop in about 1800 because he thought they suggested the people of Edinburgh were illiterate!

His thinking was thus: "Stained glass windows depict bible stories to people who can't read. We can all read now, so lets get rid of them to prove it..." and proceeded to replace what were probably beautiful windows with plain ones.

Edinburgh also has a Dungeons thing which made us laugh. The posters and advertised features seem to be identical to the one in York. We went to the castle but didn't actually go in, we were running short of time.

As tt is from Australia she'd been really cold since arriving in the UK. She bought a lovely warm coat in Edinburgh in the hope of finding snow later.

We left Edinburgh by the impressive forth bridge and began to drive into the highlands.

On the way we stopped Pitlochry to see a "salmon ladder". You may wonder how salmon could possibly use a ladder? Well, they put their tail on the first rung and then use their little finny things to...Sorry! No, it's actually a series of plataues in a river than helps them get upstream to the spawning ground - because some inconsiderate bastard has built a power station over the route they used to take. If you're really interested, it's all explained here. It wasn't the right season to visit and we only saw 1 fish.

The destination I had in mind was Avimore, a place I remember going to when I was a kid. As we got closer the traffic news on the radio told us a road about 50miles away was blocked by snow. That was a postive sign, although it was wonderfully sunny where we were at the time.

I needn't have worried though, as we got higher into the mountains, so the snow began to fall. When we arrived there was a light dusting of snow. Not quite as good as I'd hoped but we were yet to have our little miracle...

We'd just checked into the quaintest bed and breakfast, one with an open log fire and everything. It's very romantic. Darkness fell about 6pm and we then occupied ourselves in the luxurious bedroom for a few hours. When we decided to go out for food about 9pm our miracle had begun. Under the cover of darkness about 3 inches of snow had fallen, the whole villiage was like a scene from a christmas card.

We ate in a place with real character, "Skiing Doo", the walls are covered with memorabilia from all over the world with no particular theme. It's a party place as well as a restaurant. Shame they don't have a website. Afterwards we scrunched back to our b & b and I was very envious of tt's new coat, but sharing it was fun. We sat by the open fire alone for a while then went to bed. Snow exploring tomorrow!

Woke: Ediburgh
Bed: Aviemore
Done: 130 miles (again!)

Onwards and ever upwards....

We woke up and made love. I don't like to call it sex, we made love

We had breakfast and then pored over the tourist info leaflets racked up in reception. I hadn't realised how close we were to Lindisfarne Island, I'd wanted to go there since I was a kid a read a book that was set there.

It's an island off the coast of Northumbria (or Northumberland perhaps, my apologies for not knowing exactly), and it's always appealed to me because you can drive or walk there at low tide, but as the tide comes it becomes a proper island and completely inaccessible until the next low tide. Strandings are common and the whole island has been synonymous with solitude in my mind.

I don't think it's inhabited but I know there's ruins of a monastery there. Apparently St Cuthbert lived there. I think he brought Christianity to the UK, or at least these parts. I like ruins, and tt has never seen anything old in her adult life. We decide to try and visit, but we've no idea on tide times.

We also find a leaflet that features a cool looking castle. We head off in eager anticipation. Our first proper day of exploring together.

The castle was first, and it was fantastic. I'm so sorry I can't remember what it was called. I'll check and update. Remind me if I forget. It was right on the coast and had fantastic views of the sea. Lots of cannons defending the coastline.

It also housed a pretty impressive museum and watching tt explore history was uncanny. I've always loved castles, but I've never been to one with anyone that genuinely enjoyed it so much as tt. She looked completely overawed as we looked around the whole place and discussed every nook and cranny. We spent hours there.

We left eventually and headed towards Lindisfarne. Unfortunately we weren't luck enough to catch the tide. We weren't the only ones, there is a car park at the end of a very long and lonely road where you can wait for the tides to change. We didn't have time to wait so we continued up the coast. We were supposed to be in Edinburgh already.

On the way up the coast tt had her first experience of UK weather. It turned from sunny to cloudy, to hail, to sun, to rain. We wound our way up the A1. My neighbour is from Edinburgh and he'd told us to stop at another castle. Again, I'll have to do a rain check on the name.

It was wonderful though. Shame it was covered in scaffolding. I've got pictures and I'll put them in here as soon as I've downloaded them. There is a small island just off the coast and you can see a building on it. tt and I discussed whether it was a lighthouse or church. I'm sure it was a church because it was on the lee side of the island which would make it useless as a lighthouse unless it was to serve as a warning to people trying to swim to Norway....

We then carried on up to Edinburgh. We found a guesthouse and then caught a bus into town.

The bus journey was an adventure for tt. For the first time she overheard what I would call "typical" UK girl behaviour. Some tarty girls, possibly pro's, were shouting to one another about their exploits the night before. And it was only 6pm! I felt ashamed of my country and tt appeared shocked.

The city of Edinburgh was beautiful though, tt seemed to fall in love with the ancient place. We had a beer and talked about things that we'd discussed online years ago.

To be next to her is heavenly. We've chatted for years, but to hear her voice and feel her next to me is amazing.

We go back to the guesthouse and I manage to get some free wireless internet access as tt goes to bed. I use it to check the ski forecasts for the Scottish highlands. It's not looking good, everywhere is reporting no snow. I'm a little depressed. I really want to show my girl proper snow.

I suppose it doesn't matter too much, we're having a wonderful time just exploring together and being together. But I still hope we find snow, I promised her I'd show her snow!

Woke: Morpeth
Bed: Edinburgh
Done: 130 miles ish

Over-rated pasties. Dancing naked around erections. And yes, I do have condoms, thanks.....

Ever been to "The Dungeons"? Pay a fortune to be ripped off! In fairness (and retrospect) it wasn't that bad I suppose. It had it's moments, but I like to create "moments" whenever I get bored....

We started the day out with our hosts having Cornish pasties. The pasties were a let-down. They weren't actually bad, just a bit disappointing when your host has been telling you for 3 hours that we're going to walk 2 miles to get "the best food in the world" and then you queue for about 20 minutes, get told your first 4 choices have sold out, and then get something worthy of a motorway service station...I'm such a whinger aren't I?

Being daylight and all, we couldn't help but notice everywhere the adverts for "York Dungeons". My friend and host, who lives in York said he'd heard reasonable things about the place so we decided to go. The posters promised two-for-one admission for adults on weekdays so we decided it had to be worth it.

They refused to give us the offer. Some pathetic excuse like it being limited to the first 20 visitors of the day, and there were only two other bored looking "victims" already in there! It's really designed for kids more than us childish adults but it certainly has it's moments.

One funny aspect is the way that you're shown around by characters from the day and age of the room you happen to be in. For example, we went to a room about witches and how the English used to do that ducking stool thing. (A suspected witch was basically held underwater in a pond for about 5 minutes or something. If she was still alive when she came out, they knew she was a witch and burned her. If she was dead they recognised their error, made a public apology, and moved onto the next lucky suspect....)

In that particular room was an actor man playing the part of "witch accuser". He picked on tt and accused her of "dancing naked around massive erections in the forest". Poor girl, accused of being a coke head last night, and now dancing around giant erections. Nice welcome to the country eh?!

The next room was something to do with grave robbers and vampire rumours. The actor in that room pounced on me and snarled into my face "You! Do you have protection?!" Unfortunately for him the four of us had just been making a joke outside about safe sex and I still had a packet of condoms in my hand in my pocket. He must have thought we'd planned it as I instantly produced a packet of Durex to his question

We said our good byes and headed for Edinburgh. After a couple of hours in the car and then hitting the traffic in Newcastle we didn't feel like driving much more and stopped at Morpeth.

I've only every stopped here once before and that was about 18 months ago. I spent my whole evening writing to tt. Now I'm here with her. I'm still the happiest man in the UK. And not smoking is just as easy as I thought it would be with her by my side.

I guess we'll get to Edinburgh, or maybe further, tomorrow...oh, and I really should mention scampi fries at this point, maybe remind me another time eh?

Woke up: York
Going bed: Morpeth
Done: 100 miles - but we had a nice time not driving!

The quest for snow begins - to a flooded bar in York!

Today was the first "proper" day waking up next to tt. Unlike yesterday I actually set an alarm and got up on time. Giving up smoking is much easier than I suspected it would be. I know it's only two days, but if my dimly remembered statistics are correct, that means I'm actually over the physical nicotine addiction, and it's now just the other nasty chemicals my body needs to forget about.

Had a busy morning, popping into the office to do some last minute stuff before going away for the week, getting a haircut, etc. My back is 100x better since tt arrived but it's still giving me some shit. No news on appointment with physio yet, but it's only been about 4 weeks - we know how these things (don't) work.....

Got home about midday, loaded up the car and we headed off. The destination is Scottish Highlands because tt has not seen snow since she was very young. It features in one of her childhood memories before moving overseas and she's not seen it since. I may be too late already as it's a mild April, but my goal is to take my girl somewhere snowy.

We got as far as York and by then the jetlag was catching up with tt again. When I last flew that route it took me about 4 days to recover properly. We're staying with some friends here in York and all we've done this evening is go to a couple of pubs.

I was worried about staying with this friend as he and his gf are smokers. Luckily it really didn't bother me. Even when we went out to the pub it was fine. Should have done this years ago! While we were at the pub tt and I were telling them about how I'd given up smoking and tt had given up coca cola. But we didn't call it coca cola (who does?!) We just referred to tt giving up "coke".

When I explain it like this it sounds obvious, but can you imagine my suprise when tt got up to go to the ladies and my friends said to me: "So how long did your g/f have a drug problem before she gave up?" I had NO idea what they were talking about!

The pub we went to is the most flooded pub in York and it's very famous. All the furniture, fixtures and fittings are removable so that when the river rises they can move everything upstairs in an instant. There are photos on the walls of canoeists that actually canooed off the river and up to the bar during one flood that was very severe! Was good to take tt to a traditional, albeit, touristy pub. I think she's still a bit overwhelmed by everything at the moment.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll reach Edinborough. Tt doesn't seem to mind my driving which is a relief, there'll be lots of it to come...

Woke up: Home by sea
Bed: York
Done: 230 miles

Do days get any better than this?

Sunday. Nothing to do apart from lay next to my beautiful girlfirend, tt, as she sleeps, recovering from jetlag.

We sleep, we make passionate love, we sleep, we talk about our travel plans, we make love again, we sleep some more. So the day continues...

Days simply don't get any better than this. I love this girl and tomorrow I'm taking her on our first UK travels together. In Australia we went to Cairns together but it was such a short trip. Now she's going to be in Europe for 6 months and we're going to make the most of every moment...

Double take at life...

happiest day of my life?

Woke up: Home by the sea
Went via: Heathrow
Went bed: Home by the sea
Done: 300 miles

tt is here! The girl I love is here! She's travelled thousands of miles and now she's in my arms. Dad had to take me to the airport as I couldn't get up again this morning. My mum and sister done me proud by painting the place while we were on the airport run.

When I got back I hardly recognised the place myself! tt had a slight delay in customs which made me panic. I remembered a conversation we'd had about "What if immigration don't let me in?" We'd joked about it at the time but I got worried then.

No need of course, she came out of the gate eventually and I hobbled over as quick as i could. We hugged and blocked the whole gate. Did we care? Did we hell! Nothing was going to stop us hugging until we were happy to let go enough to look at one another.

It took over 10 mins for tt to realise I'd bought a big bunch of flowers for her, we were so busy holding one another we didn't notice anything or anyone else.

It's been an amazing day, and nothing can ruin the happiness i feel right now. My girl is here, I'm alive again.


Double take at life...: April 2005

In the beginning

It's now April 2006. But the whole point of this is catching up with the last year, so entirely by memory I'm going to write about 2005:

Woke up: In bed, Home by the sea
Went to bed: On floor, Home by the sea

Take note of above - it's not often I wake up and go to bed in the same place! Especially if there's not a "via" mention. There's a reason I've not moved much today though. A very special girl is on her way here.

I "met" tt about 3 years ago when she sent me an email. She lives overseas, I wont say where but it's English speaking and far away from UK. We sent a few emails to one another then started using web chat. We shared a passion for travel, books and each others interests.

Soon enough we were exchanging photo's, video's and everything else. Unfortunately the distance between us stopped us meeting each other, but we both knew that if and when we finally did then things would be different.

After 3 years I finally flew out and met tt. We seemed to fall for one another pretty quickly. Unfortunately I'd only booked two weeks there. She decided to travel in my part of the world and booked cheap flights as soon as she could.

She arrives tomorrow. Here. My place. The place I've lived alone in for 5 years. The most infamous bachelor pad for miles around. The place that fast food delivery drivers talk about. She's coming here! With a 6 month ticket! Jeez!

The downside to all this is that I've knackered my back. I tried to carry too much at work a few weeks ago and slipped a disc. At the time I thought I'd just be in terrible pain for a bit and get over it. Now it's only a day before she arrives and it still takes me five full minutes to get from standing to sitting or vice versa...

I woke up this morning thinking about all the things I had left to do. Tidying was still high on my agenda, as was decorating. All the thing's I'd planned to do with weeks of time to spare, but bad back and worse organisation meant it was now only a day.

I was saved by my family. My sister, mum and dad turned up and sorted the place for me. They were wonderful. I've always loved them, but thinking of today will always remind me how wonderful they are. I wrote a little card out for mum and dad just to show them how much I appreciated it.

Today is also my last day of smoking, as I vowed that if tt came to the UK I'd be happy to quit. Who needs to smoke for happiness when the love of your life is by your side?

My biggest concern at the moment is that I wont be able to drive to the airport to collect tt tomorrow. I know I can make it, but all the family help has had the undertone "We're going to drive you to the airport tomorrow..." and I really don't want that. tt is a shy girl, I don't want her to have the stress of meeting anyone when she lands even though I love my family very much.

I'm going to have to put on a really convincing act of having a fixed back in the morning so they let me drive. I decide to sleep on the floor so that if nothing else it's easier to get up. I go to sleep wondering if my back will allow me to pull a convincing act to get my car keys back. I suspect that my dad may be taking me to the airport and driving us both back. I don't suppose it really matters so long as she gets here safe and sound.