Crete

Sunset from balcony, Beach near our hotel, Beach at Rethymno



As the long weekend approached (weekend of 24th May) James and I began to get very sad, as we hadn't found any cheap flights to anywhere :-( BUT on the Thursday night, without having given up hope, James saved the day by finding return flights to Crete for 80 pounds all together for both of us!!! How exciting...

Anyway, we booked flights and accommodation from Sunday afternoon till very late Wednesday night (arrived home here in London at 3am last night) and had a FANTASTIC time.

When we arrived in Crete on the Sunday night it was dark, so couldn't see anything. Also we had just missed out on the dining hours at the hotel and were STARVING, but the hotel people insisted on us having a meal and opened the restaurant up late especially for us, and cooked us up a HUGE meal!!! I didn't like a lot of it though, as it was mostly traditional Greek food... and we all know what I'm like with my food! I woke up at 6am Monday morning and snapped a few photos of the Sunrise from our Hotel balcony.













The food we could not finish on first night, sunset at 6am, trying to devour as much food as possible.



The next day we had a look around the hotel/resort and then decided to rent a scooter for two days. James took an instant liking to what became known as 'Little Scooty' and if it weren't for him (the scooter) we would not have seen half the beautiful sights we saw on our adventures.











Little Scooty, me driving, James driving


The first time I hopped onto the back of Little Scooty, with James driving, I was petrified. It took James quite a while to understand what I meant when I screamed, "SLOW DOWN!" or, "BE CAREFUL OF THE LOOSE GRAVEL!"
Eventually, thank God, he learnt how to ride properly and I leant how to stop yelling and digging my fingernails into his back. I even quite enjoyed riding on Little Scooty and jumped in as driver a couple of times! It was lots of fun beeping people as we flew past :-) It was also quite tricky remembering to stick the the RIGHT hand side of the road and not the left!

The first trip we did was quite a long one. About 50km in fact. I don't think anyone else on small scooters drove as far as we did that day and by the end of it, I had the sorest bum imaginable (because James wasn't good enough at dodging the bumps). We drove to a lovely town called Rethymno where we saw such picturesque beaches and had lunch in one of the cute little cafe/restaurants. The waters were crystal clear and even though the sand was rocky, it was still beautiful.

On the way back from Rethymno, we had to stop a few times because my bum was getting very sore (as I mentioned earlier). There really wasn't enough padding on the back seat. Anyway, once when we stopped, we stopped alongside a little farm with a few goats (we saw a lot of goats actually) and we realised one little baby goat had its head stuck in a fence and was bleating and struggling to free himself. The mother goat came by after a few minutes and started bleating its head off too... and I suggested to James that he should jump the fence and try and help the poor little thing. Anyway, it didn't take much to get James in there... I think I saw a tear in James's eye at one stage, so he slid under the fence, by rolling though lots of dirt, walked up to the little goat, almost got near it, and the poor thing moved so quickly because it got such a fright, that it freed itself and ran off happily with its mother. Ohhhhhh.... what a happy story.














Photos from Rethymno beach



The next day we did some more riding on Little Scooty and found a few more nice beaches. We also decided to purchase some snorkeling equipment and did a bit of snorkeling, which was lots of fun! In the afternoon, we had a little picnic with wine, beer, cheese and olives right at the top of the peninsula where we were staying in Agia Pelagia. The views were spectacular!











More adventures and our little picnic



The last day of our trip, we had to hand back Little Scooty... James was devastated. We walked down to a nearby beach and did a bit more Snorkeling and then headed into Iraklio, which is the main town (5th largest city in Greece) and where the airport is. We had dinner there and drinks in a nice bar before heading to the airport to fly back to London.













Snorkeling pics, sitting on balcony



Well... that's about it for now, until James decides to add his 2 cents worth to this blog! Love Leah (and James)

We finally have the internet at home!!!

Hello everyone!

I'm just going to give you all an overview of what's happened over the last month (since we moved into our place).

Firstly, work has been going great. I have been going to a whole heap of different schools all over London, carrying my little back pack containing a laptop and projector, which I use to do my presentations to year 6 kids. I have also been to random parks and youth centres where I have presented 10 minute scenarios to year 6 kids about safety on the undergound tube and on buses, which works on a rotating basis with Police, Firemen, Rescue Services etc... It is so much fun and to make it even better, all of my travel is paid for, even the travel I do while not at work!!! Check out my work uniform...

Picture: My work outfit

James has done a few more weeks labouring, still coming home with paint in his hair and saw dust up his nose, as well as complaining of a sore back all the time. He's a hard worker I suppose, but I am starting to get a little tired of his complaining. However, I usually feel sorry for him when he walks in the door because his hands are, most of the time, covered in cuts and grazes from sanding and stuff.

Since leaving St Albans, we have still been keeping in touch with Chris and Kay, and her daughter Kirsty and her boyfriend Grant. So far we have been out to a pub in Camden (near our place) for drinks and dinner with Kirsty and Grant, and one weekend they took us to Newmarket, where we stayed with Grant's Mum the whole weekend and went to the races. The races were great, but I'll leave that blog to James... I'll just put a few photos here for you to look at...

Picture: James and I at the pub with Kirsty and Grant

Picture: James and I at the races in Newmarket

Picture: Kirsty and I at the races in Newmarket



Last Sunday, we went and visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace. It also was the warmest weather we've had since being here, and the Londoners refered to it as a Heat Wave!!! We went on the London Eye and walked through Green Park to the castle, where thousands of people were half naked, sunbaking in the park! Yes, they show off their white meat by stripping down to their underwear... such a strange sight! The Monday after, there were so many Lobsters getting around. It is like they've never, ever seen sunlight in their whole entire life. Unfortunately for us though, this 'Heat Wave' didn't last all that long, and now we're back into our 10-11 degree days :-( I do think I'm becoming more tolerant to this weather though, believe it or not. Oh, the guards that we saw at the obligatory were very scary... I tried to have my picture next to them, but I was very hesitant to stand too close to them. James called me a scardy cat, but he was just as scared (although he'll never admit it).

Pictures: In front of the guards, up in the London Eye and Buckingham Palace (where we had tea with the Queen).

That's all from me, for now :-)
Leah x x