Holiday Baking

There is only a couple of days left of the summer break and time to think about everything we have done over the past 6 weeks. Obviously you want to do cool things all year and not just cram it into the 6 weeks but I think we have achieved a lot.

Over the summer we have stayed in 6 hotels and travelled to/through 4 countries - here in the UK then France, Belgium and Thailand.

We have finally taken the shed down!

We have been to only the one wedding this year - unlike the other year where we had 7!

Lots of Belgian beer has been drunk along with many a cocktail and an enormous amount of food has been eaten!

I have also made many baked goodies as the Bake Off is back in full swing. This includes cheddar and cheese scones, treacle and ginger tray bake, goats cheese and red pepper muffins, ciabatta rolls, pizza, Mediterranean tarts, double chocolate cheesecake and macaroons!!

007 Heaven!!

Today was so action packed in true James Bond style! They day begun like yesterday by being picked up in a mini van then after quite a long transfer and collecting some others we arrived at Phang Nga National Park for our longboat ride. Everyone - about 20 of us - climbed into the longboat and that was it - off into the open waters. All around was the limestone scenery - Karst formations, it reminded me a little of Guilin in China. Speeding through the water we passed island after island and some fisherman but the island we were heading to was James Bond Island.

 

After 30 minutes or so we were there - not quite like Bond in the Man with the Golden Gun but never mind. It is smaller than I imagined and Ruddy our guide kept saying you can walk round to the beach but I was sure you couldn't as it didn't seem to have one in the pictures. Turns out you pull up and park on a nearby island that does have a beach and a very good view of the James Bond Island. We were there around 10am and it was busy and Ruddy said it gets busier than this - right decision by us to go from Krabi and not Phuket. There was also a little souvenir market on the island staffed from people from the nearby Muslim floating village it seems. There was also a crazy shard of rock face which totally looked like 127 hours type of rock where you'd get stuck at the top.

We re boarded our boat and that was our visit to James Bond Island over, though our next step was still very James Bond esq! Off we were speeding through the open waters again with the wind and spray in our hair when you hear clunk clunk clunk then silence! Our boat had broken down. in the open water. There we were bobbing about with boat after boat zooming past. A gust of wind came and blew us towards the cliff face of a nearby island. We could hear the motor whirring then cutting out over and over again. We decided it wouldn't be far to swim to the nearest island as we were practically blown onto it anyway and it had a small beach so we should be OK! Eventually the motor started and didn't give up - woohoo - turns out a piece of plastic was stuck in hte engine - bloody tourists littering! So we were back on our way! We reached not an island this time but a large vessel floating where we disembarked our tempramental longboat and boarded canoes! At least these can't break down, puncture maybe though!

Our canoest Manoon paddled us through caves, under wierd limestone formations - one looked like a tongue, into a lagoon where the only way to enter was to lay down on the canoe to get under the very low rock opening then into a mangrove forest. It was amazeballs. Our canoe guy was amazing - pointing out lizards and rude shaped rocks and mountains - turns out he is also a Man City fan! We gave him a good tip. You could totally see James Bond canoeing through the area with a villan in tow!

 

 

Back to our longboat which this time held out to get us to the Muslim floating village. 2000 people live on here, they have electric, internet, fresh water and all floating on water. It was weird, at some points it was obvious you were over water like being on a badly built pier and at other times it was a concrete floor and felt like land. It all fit together by a series of narrow alleyways that led through a market, to a school, a mosque and restaurants. I couldn't imagine living there, they look like they are building more too! It could end up mahoosive!!

This was the end of our boat section of the day where once getting it from the village back to dry land we headed in the minivan to Monkey Temple. It didn't feel as much of a temple as yesterday though there was a massive reclining buddha through the big draw here were the monkeys. They were a little vicious at times fighting each other and snatching food out of peoples hands. The caves again were spectacular. They have good locations here for thier temples and I can see why the monks would want to meditate in them.

Our final stop was to a waterfall but due to the amount of rain they have had (not whilst we have been here though) it was gushing. No one went in except a crazy Thai family who were not with our group, it didn't look safe at all!

Our last night in Krabi we decided to go back to our favourite restaurant Aning's on Ao Nang beach front and we got a tuk tuk there, I'm glad as it was so hot! We then got lurred into a bar on the basis that the guy liked Daniel's beard! Turned out to be an awesome bar with a band doing mostly rock covers, a lot of rock from the 80s too. The Chang was on BOGOF and they had Makers Mark for the price of JD, everyone's a winner! We stayed til about 1, took a little walk on the beach then got a tuk tuk back to the hotel. A great end to a fab four nights in Krabi.

Number of stray dogs #37
Number of stray cats #7

Elephant & Jungle Trekking!!

Today is our first activity day in Krabi. We are off trekking! First stop was the hot springs. On route we picked up the most annoying Chinese family to join our group then drove through Krabi Town. We saw some primary school kids all dressed up being paraded along - turns out it was their sports day. Puts our opening ceremony to shame!! The hot springs were hot, not as slimy under foot as we thought though.

We then went up the road to the Emerald Pool and this was cool, both literally cooler than the hot springs but also was a cool looking place. Clear glistering water that was a striking blue colour. Shame I couldn't touch the floor, Daniel liked it once he found out he could reach the floor throughout the whole pool! To get to the pool we had to go on a bit of a walk through the jungle. Very tall trees and constant sounds of clicking bugs. The walkway went over the mangrove areas - you don't know what was lurking in there! We had lunch here. There were lines of street vendors on one side and a couple of restaurants on the other. The vendors had some strange items - 3 eggs on s stick with yellow goo seeping out the holes - bleugh! Thankfully we ate at the restaurant. Green Thai curry, chili chicken and stir fry veg, though the Germans only ate a little of the rice and the Chinese ate the funny egg on a stick thing!

We went from here to Tiger Cave Temple - unfortunately no tigers! It seemed like a massive monk complex, a new temple being built, shrines all over and monkeys wandering everywhere. One was drinking water out of a water bottle! We didn't climb the 1247 steps to the top of the mountain as we didn't have time but did climb up and over a smaller mound to the monastery. Crazy to see the monks homes built into the cliff with their washing hung out. We went into the caves there - which looked like they are used for meditation. The trees were huge with massive buttress roots and even though it was shaded on the floor it was extremely hot. We made our way back and went into tiger cave temple, we were invited in by a monk and asked to sign a visitors book and they tide a good luck bracelet to our wrists. Monks were in there chanting and there was not end of the amount of statues of Buddhas. We climbed the stairs to the tiger cave, a tiny space with more shrines. After leaving a donation we made our way back to the bus.

From here we were heading to the elephant trek. Everything has included walking through the jungle I'm glad we didn't get too bitten! We passed a number of rubber and palm plantations before arriving in another area of the jungle. Out of a clearing came the elephants!! Plodding along. We climbed a wooden platform to get onto the elephant which was easier to get on the seat than expected. Ours was called Watna and was the leader of the trek. She occasionally wanted to stray off path but the guide shouted an instruction sort of noise and she was back on track. It was awesome. Up and down, bobbing around but it was something you probably won't get to do again. It wasn't dodgy as you may think, they were well looked after and seemed happy, eating everything they passed almost.

Definitely been an eventful day - with some insight into Thai culture. To end the day we walked into the transvestites from the cabaret show in Krabi, yet another element of Thai culture yet to experience!

Stray dogs #31
Stray cats #5

Everything is Awesome!

Today we fly - yay! S mini drama when we left the hotel as the hoppa to the terminal didn't seem to want to arrive but then it did so phew! Shame terminal 2 was delayed as we ended up rammed in terminal 3. We did see the actor Simon Callow though - another famous sighting at an airport to add to Chris de Burgh and Piers Morgan! To be fair it was pretty swift through security and not much of a wait for the flight. Daniel is loving Thai Airways as we have the first row behind the crew area so loads of leg room and wall mounted TVs with loads to choose from - also he's had free Chang beer! The airline has changed it's route to avoid the Ukraine which is obviously a peace of mind and we are now over the India/Bangladesh border, pretty near the Sunderbans actually.

Oh the reason the title is this is because we watched The Lego Movie and that was their really catchy song! We also watched Anchor Man 2 which was funny. Not long left now though in Thailand's time it is actually tomorrow so it's not good night but good morning!

Holiday!!

Woohoo! The time has come for holiday! We deserve it this year. Today we are just travelling down to Heathrow we don't fly out til tomorrow but still we are very excited. To be honest it was smooth sailing all the way. The strike on the railway didn't affect us, neither did the closure of the tube stations or roads to Heathrow due to insane rain and flooding. So happy days. Mentioning insaneness there is always one and this time it was a crazy on the tube whistling Monty Python and playing the harmonica. To sort of quote Justin Timberlake he was trying to 'bring crazy back' by trying to get others to join in but being London they did a good job of ignoring him!

Currently we are at our regular Heathrow hotel - Park Inn, better room than before though. We're trying out a different one on the way back so it may not be our regular for much longer.

Tomorrow - we fly!!

Detox Diary Day 2

OK, first day of the holidays lets see how today goes. Same start as yesterday then the chai tea gingerbread shake. That was actually very nice and refreshing.

Lunch was a roasted and clean carrot soup which was nice, much better than the chickpea soup.

Now today's snack was interesting, a walnut and lentil pate, again it was perfectly edible.

Tea was yummy salmon poached in coconut milk with greens. Will definitely have this again but with the addition of some rice I think.

So far so good, though it's hard not snacking when feeling a little peckish and also when Daniel comes home with a pizza! Self control much needed!

Also I have been looking up dishes to try in Thailand. According to BBC Good Food the top 10 dishes are:

1. Phat Thai
2. Tom Yam
3. Laap
4. Khao Soi
5. Som Tam
6. Phat Kaphrao
7. Green Curry
8. Yam
9. Kai Yang
10. Khao Phat

Will have to see how many we try when out there!

Holiday ideas!

Getting excited about our holiday!! So I've been doing some research of what we can do out there, this is what I've come up with so far:

Krabi:

Hot Springs
Jungle Trek
Wat Tham Sua
Krabi Town
Railay

Phuket:
Phang Nga Bay
Old Town
Elephant Trekking
Big Buddha
Show

Bangkok:
Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant
Floating Markets
We already have a city and temple tour thrown in free so won't have much time here

There is obviously more to do than we have time for but hopefully we'll be about to tick off some of this list!

Spa F1 Booked!!

Woohoo we are off to the F1! After watching the Australian Grand Prix the 2014 season doesn't seem so bad with all the changes - a little quiet but the first race was so eventful.

Our options to go the Spa are researching it a little and deciding not to drive ourselves were:

1. Eurostar
2. Camping & Coach
3. Coach & Hotel

Coach is cheaper than the Eurostar but to do the camping we'd still have to get to London and stay over so we also thought that if the weather was pants we'd also be outside all the time, too old for that now!

So coach ans hotel option has been selected,  pick up at Rotherham too and a hotel closer to the track than Brussels but not as expensive as Liege! Bargain!!

Deposit paid!! Vrmmmmmmmm...

Holiday booked!! Thailand Baby!!!

After visiting the Times Travel Show and perusing all the brochures we have decided Thailand is our vacation spot this year! So after much deliberating on where to stay as there are so many scenic spots we have settled on Krabi, Phuket and Bangkok. Sooooo our holiday is now booked! Thailand Baby!!!

Christmas Crafts

Now Christmas is over I can post pictures of the gifts I made this year. My friend and I are now making our Christmas presents to each other because as we have got older you tend to buy everything you want so a homemade gift has more thought and time put into it. Well that's the theory! We've done this for the past two years and so far so good - this year I made her a travel set as she goes to New York every year. A journal, change purse and eye mask with some red white and blue mini bath bombs to go with it.

I also made an eye mask for my other half as I had spare fabric left over from his games rooms pac man cushion to add to the collection!

The final gift I made this cushion:

I am quite pleased with the outcomes - I wonder what I'll make this Christmas?

6 weeks holiday in numbers

The summer holiday in numbers:

6 weeks of school holiday
5 loads of washing done post holiday - omg how long did we go for!!
4 chillies that are currently growing on our plants - come on guys, you can do it!!
3 countries visited - Majorca Spain, USA, Mexico
2 Christmas presents made - nuff said for now, don't want to give the game away!
1 house sold - yay!!

Time to move on

Our time in LA-la Land has come to an end - we didn't see many celebs but we definitely saw allot of plastic La-La's!

It makes a change not going to the airport but this time going to the train station. We are Amtraking our way to San Diego. Union Station is nice - old fashioned with massive wooden and leather chairs to wait on - no wonder there are a few homeless in here. What is odd is how quiet it is - at this time of day, 11.30ish at St Pancras the station would be rammed. I guess in a city that has more cars than people who uses the train!

It was simples! Collected our tickets, got a subway then boarded the double decker train. Smooth riding all the way to San Diego. We didn't see much from the train, residential then countryside mainly. We did see Anaheim though no sign of Disneyland. We exited at Santa Fe aka San Diego. Where the station was was so close to our hotel really we walked through the Gaslamp Quarter to F Street to our hotel - Andaz. Doesn't look like much from the outside but it appears in our guide book twice for best club with a view and pool. We were greeted with complimentary drinks and went to our room where we found no end of complimentary items, chips, cereal bar, weird banana chocolate thing and a whole list of items we could ask for if we'd forgotten or run out of. We could get used to this! Not the biggest room but a room for trendy guests. Glass wall separating the sink area to the bedroom.

We know we have a busy time here in San Diego what with Sea World, the zoo and Mexico for tonight we went to a sushi place - Hive. It was great, the sushi was yum and to top it off some dishes were on happy hour!

Happy days!

Venturing to Venice

Today was our relaxing day at the beach - well it was meant to be our relaxing day at the beach! As our tour bus ticket didn't expire til 10.41am - yes I know accurate, we thought we'd take the first bus at 10.15am down to Santa Monica. Now the buses never run to schedule due to all the traffic so we were pushing it a little bit! It did not arrive at 10.15! What did drive past us was a police escort with a car on a trailer filming a moving car scene - cool. Thankfully our bus did turn up at 10.35 - just in the nick of time!

Our first stop today was Santa Monica Pier - where there was more filming! This time we had not only no idea who it was but also what he was saying - it was Mexican, but he did look like he was doing a link for a TV show. The pier was good, it was sunny, we stopped for a hot dog (#2 of the holiday) then took a walk along the beach towards Venice Boardwalk. it's further than you think! This is why our day wasn't as relaxing as it should have been!

At this point the weather was great, we took in the street vendors, quirky shops and performers and the odd crazy then grabbed a milkshake at Muscle Beach and watched some 3 on 3 basketball action. It did get a little heated - probably playing for money or if being cynical or believing the films drugs or women lol. There weren't many muscles on Muscle Beach, probably because it's the middle of the day on a Wednesday, early morning or a weekend would probably be busier. People were playing to pose with the muscles that were there. Sorry I shouldn't call them muscles - they are people after all. That was a little weird.

We headed back to Santa Monica - stopping on the way to buy some art from a local artist - he was cool, had a book showing his work exhibited in many countries, never been to the UK yet though.

This is where we were a little naughty as our bus tour tickets had now expired but in a taxi it would be quite expensive, if we had to get a taxi we would but we thought we'd try to get on the tour bus first. It worked!! They didn't even check our ticket! We plugged our earphones in to make it look like our first time doing this part of the tour! Heehee. We used our journey to figure out where to go for tea for our last night in LA as we didn't want to go back to Westfield. #we settled for the best steak house in Beverly Hills - Mastro's.  We managed to book a table online - good job as when we got there it was heaving! The steak was amazing - the best steak ever (well it should be at that price) but truly it was the best steak I've ever had. Big claim. Cooked perfectly. Also had great service - you can see why it's a favourite of the Beckhams and Kardashians - oh yes we googled who had been there once we got back! We even got driven back to the hotel by their private car - we asked for a taxi, got escorted to a sleek black car and driven home! It was a great way to end our time here.

Chicken Headed Bimbo's and LARPs!

After touring LA yesterday we thought today we'd actually visit some of the attractions LA has to offer so first stop La Brea Tar Pits. We all know how disappointed I was the last time I was here, not being able to visit the Tar Pits - well this time we made it! We got off the bus outside to be greeted by a lady with two disabled people shouting down her phone that she had told the chicken headed bimbo that she would need help today and to be fair to her there was no way she could push both wheelchairs alone. It was definitely the best insult I'd heard for a while!

We headed into La Brea Park and the the pits - it smelt like workmen were resurfacing a road! Not only can you see the pits outside, the pit they were currently working on they also have the Page museum too. In here they have all the bones of animals discovered in the pits - giant land sloths, sabre toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, they were massive - it was awesome, the makers of Ice Age are genius to think of making something like this into a film. I'm glad we finally made it there - it was totally worth it.

We left the tar pits and walked through the park to LACMA. The first piece of art we saw before even getting to the door was this suspended rock above a walkway - it was huge, you wouldn't want that dropping on you - you'd end up looking like a cartoon character with arms and legs sticking out of a rock that splattered you into the ground. We got to the door to find out it was free Tuesday! Awesome, saving bucks on holiday - 30 of them - is great, pennies, sorry cents, to be spent on other things. LACMA is massive, I think it was 7 buildings so there was no way we could see it all but we did our best. We saw Japanese, European, American, Pacific art work and Metropolis II, though as it was a free day it wasn't running. It was a very cultural morning!

We left for the bus only to see the same woman as earlier still waiting. I guess the chicken headed bimbo still hasn't sorted her problem!

Morning = Culture            Afternoon = Celebrities

We headed back to Hollywood for a bite to eat and then a celebrities home tour! We took a walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard (not in the same vein as Julia Roberts!) to select the best tour we could for the best price and ended up taking a starline quality tour but for half the price - oh yeah and it turns out the guy's wife is from Doncaster! This was great, in a roofless slightly smaller minibus whizzing around the winding roads, first stop Mulholland Drive - a great view over Hollywood Bowl, downtown and the Hollywood sign. Then up into the hills, round Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive again. I love gossip so this is the best tour for me! We saw Beckenham Palace and Tom Cruise's land next door, I say land as he owns most of the hill and has a spacecraft like gate. We also saw Jackie Chan's place, Eddie Murphy, Marilyn Monroe, Steven Spielberg, Ice and Coco, Dr Phil, The Osbournes old house, Michale Jackson's house where he died and the Playboy Mansion as well as a block of condos where Cher and Matthew Perry owns whole floors. We saw where Wynona Ryder stole all that stuff and where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car drunk. It was v cool - also v touristy but who cares! Our guide told us about LARPs as we went round. Loads of awesome houses not owned by anyone famous - owned by LARPs = Lucky Arse Rich Person - I want to be a LARP! It makes you see how the other half live...and makes you wish you live like them!

Pink Taco was our choice for tea tonight - back to the Westfield - it's been a tiring day! The brisket tacos were however amazeballs.

What's Your Dream? (Again)

A car is vital in LA if you want to get anywhere soon, if not it takes forever! Our plan for today was to get the hop on hop off bus - which handily stops outside the hotel, we can suss out the locations and decide where we want to visit as we're never going to be able to do it all - as the guy on the plane said, you won't see everything in 4 months let alone 4 days!

We eventually got the bus, it was half and hour late and headed on the yellow line to Santa Monica. There's not much between us and Santa Monica so the guide bus played the Beach Boys down our earphones! We didn't get off at Santa Monica today, we decided to come back another day and continue on the yellow line to Beverly Hills.

We alighted here and took a stroll round Rodeo Drive, on route we saw Stan Lee! Now I obviously didn't recognise him but Daniel insisted it was him driving round a corner in a Porche. We were then on a celebrity hunt. Needless to say we didn't see anyone else - well anyone we knew. We did see an awesome car outside of Bijan - which we later found out was the most expensive men's clothes store in he world - only accessible via appointment! The car was cool, I couldn't tell you what it was but Daniel could - a Bugatti Veyron. We didn't buy anything on Rodeo - well except lunch and that was even on the corner of another street, don't think we could afford Rodeo prices!

After lunch we boarded the red route to Hollywood. It is a completely different world in Hollywood and unlike what you expect the area to be like. It is not glamorous at all, filled with souvenir shops, rammed with tourists and littered with all kinds of people dressed as different famous film characters. We got accosted by Scream and posed for a photo. We wandered around a little, took in some stars then got the red route round the rest of the tour seeing landmarks like the hotel where Julia Roberts stayed in Pretty Woman - not the Wilshire with Richard Gere - we had already seen that but her and Kits place - apparently it is still a bit of a dive like in the film! I know I have used this title before - but it is the quote that comes to mind every time I think of here. What would it have been like without Pretty Woman in the 80s!?! We also saw the Whisky A Go Go - which the Bourbon Rooms from Rock of Ages is based on and then headed back to the hotel. When I say headed back we didn't actually arrive til a couple of hours later. Not having a car means getting anywhere takes forever!

We stopped in the hotel for tea tonight as we were knackered from all the travelling!! Why are portions so large!!?!!

Off to LA-LA Land!

Today we move on - had a great time here in SF but won't miss the weather! Having mow sussed out the public transport system in SF we easily get ourselves to the airport and all checked in with plenty of time to grab lunch over looking the planes.

The flight was not very eventful except the very smelly man sitting next to me who thought he'd tell us all about LA. Nice of him though he stank!!

Getting off the plane and waiting for our bags we instantly noticed the heat! Oh yeah - it was red hot!!

When in LA the easiest way to get around = taxi. The place is a concrete jungle of vast expanse and public transport would have been a nightmare! Taxi is easy - door to door. And when arriving at our hotel they were doors manned by attendants that you don't even need to open them yourself! Needless to say our hotel was by our standards posh! Located on Avenue of the Stars, next to the old Fox Studios, down the road from Century City and Westfield.

We didn't do a great deal once we arrived - had tea at Rock Sugar which was awesome, then headed 'home' so we were fresh and ready for what LA had to throw at us!

Night time on Alcatraz! Scary!!

We are very excited today - it's our night time tour of Alcatraz - ooooooo scary! Before then we have a lot to take in. Yesterday we decided to get a hop on hop off bus ticket to go to the Golden Gate Bridge - oh my days it was windy - so windy my hair hurt and Daniel thought his glasses would whip off his face! It was a little foggy but cleared up on route. It was great, the bus took us over the bridge and back again - don't know about cycling it in that wind though.

We thought on the way back we would get off at the Palace of Fine Arts built for the Expo that SF hosted. It was very fancy and old, very much like British venues. After some photo snaps we headed back to the bus...and waited...and waited...and the bus...never turned up! What! Where was it? The guy said one would be along - he lied!! We ended up getting the Muni bus to Fort Mason which was a pleasant surprise. A nice walk through the park where we witnessed a bicycle crash of two French tourists - a little closer to the edge and they would have been goners!

We made it back to the Wharf and had some more fish - well it is Fisherman's Wharf so really we should! This time sole and jumbo shrimp. This fuelled us enough for shopping!!

We thought this would be a good evening to visit China town - it was virtually deserted. Felt very different to London which is manic even first thing in the morning. We did manage to find an awesome restaurant and had a delicious meal. It even had the Peking duck similar to China. I was very impressed. We just wondered why it was so dead - were American's scared of it after dark? It was Friday night, it should have been heaving!

Saturday itself was dedicated to one thing and one thing only - Alcatraz - however...it wasn't til 6pm so how to fill our day, hmmm. Well we decided to visit the park. On route we saw picturesque landscapes like the Painted Ladies. The park itself was huge - so much so we only saw a tiny part of it! They had a music festival like Leeds/Reading in one part. We headed towards the Academy of Sciences which was cool - inside they had a small scale rainforest to walk through, not great in the canopy with birds and butterflies flying round your head! They also had a planetarium with a good earthquake show with some great facts, though hard to remember now - should have took notes! There was also an aquarium - loads in one place. It is a research place which you can see bits of with a museum added on.

The one thing we haven't yet tried is the dungeness crab so after we headed to a crab house for an early tea before boarding for Alcatraz. Now although its a night tour it's not actually dark at 6pm so at the minute we are just like all the day visitors...things soon change. It's quieter, there are more sections of the prison open and you have a guided tour up to the cell block. You still have the audio tour but after there are talks by rangers and a demonstration of the cell doors opening and closing. As the sun went down it became spooky. There were times where there were only us on a certain cell block. And the hospital, well that was probably the scariest place, just like in the Alcatraz programme - which I still think they shouldn't have cancelled - deserted, dark, only lit by one solitary lantern. There was one room in complete darkness, with a tiny opening to look through - you couldn't see anything and were too scared to stick our heads in so we put the camera through with the flash on - it was a bathroom - not in use and still like it was back in the day. We also got to go round the kitchen and had a talk by the ranger on the library about one of the prisoners, his friend later in life. A little personal insight. The cell doors demonstration was loud and echoed round the empty prison. I say empty, tomorrow is their anniversary so former guards, kids of guards and prisoners are staying in the prison tonight - one prisoner in his former cell! Good luck to those!

We get to leave on the last boat with the rangers in the pitch black. The night tour was definitely not to be missed and felt much more reminiscent of the true Alcatraz. The only grievance is we didn't have time for the shop before the shut it - oh well!

This nicely rounds off our trip to SF - next stop LA!

All about the crazies!!

So we have had a full day here now, took in some sights at Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf and we have decided that there are a hell of a lot of crazies around here. Not necessarily drunk - more mental! Literally on every corner either begging, spinning some yarn or trying to entertain in some way to get money out of passerby's - at least they are trying to do something. I've said before about the one that jump out from behind a bush to scare people!

Lets have a little update of where we are at: our hotel is very pleasant, fancy lobby with massive chandeliers, a Starbucks which on paper sounds a great idea but in reality the line is so long you can't be bothered with it!

When we sleepily returned from our Cheesecake meal we were greeted by security (well what looked like a security guard) offering to take us up to the cityscape which no one is allowed up to unless authorised. Us, probably being typically British, thought he was luring us up there to kill us! (Dramatic I know but we were very tired!!) You can see the headline now - 'British tourists found dead in sky deck of hotel' and you can hear what readers would be saying - 'what were they thinking, going with a stranger alone up to a floor with only one exit'!! - so needless to say we didn't go - might have been a mistake but we were knackered anyway and be doing with the OTT American enthusiasm.

With a bit more umph the next day we headed down to the sea front on the cable car taking in Lombard Street on the way. A quiet residential neighbourhood brought to mayhem by a crooked street, crazy but you have to visit. Needless to say you wouldn't want to live there dodging all the tourists as you pull out your drive!

As we woke so early (5am) due to our out of sync body clock we were starving by 11am so we headed to the famous sourdough bread bakery - Boudin - clam chowder all the way! At this time the sun decided to appear which was a blessing as it was too cold for my liking! We headed down the piers and pottered about on the sea front and eventually stumbled upon The America's Cup which SF is hosting in the bay. As nothing was happening you could get in free so we headed to the sports bar for a much needed drink as by now we were getting toasty. It was cool even though we know nothing about sailing. It was a good idea to chillax here as we had a busy night planned at the 49ers. So rejuvenated we headed for a quick pit stop at the hotel then a T Metro ride to Candlestick Park.

This is the last season here so going to the first preseason game should be cool. I say it should be cool, actually it was freezing and they lost but the atmosphere was good and I had a hot dog! Keep wanting to sing duh duh duh duh (makes no sense in writing!) but that doesn't get sung at the football, instead it's ahh-oooo - v. odd! And de-fence but weirdly not o-fence. It was very lively with music played throughout - good the dance to warm up! It was great to go.

And now we've reached Friday here and now, ready for another day of exploring. We're gradually getting  on Californian time - only woke at 7am today!

Update...

Boy are we tired! Trying to get straight on SF time was hard but we did it! After enjoying a lovely Cheesecake Factory dinner and shared some cookie dough cheesecake we were tucked up in bed by 9pm watching Shark Week!

Cheesecake demolished!!

What's the obsession with Toblerone?

Two films down and still plenty of time left on this flight. Though it's not been too bad so far. Iron Man 3 wasn't all that though I did miss most of the explanation of the plot due to too much coffee and an emergency toilet visit. The end of 42 was good though on these flights you can't select when to start it so I missed the beginning due to a drama with my lunch tray. The lasagne was OK - well for plane food! We have been travelling for practically a day now what with the train to London, a very squished tube ride to Heathrow and now. Never a fan of travelling in someones armpit on the tube!

As we travel over the beginning of Canada from looking at the map I begin pondering about airports. Mainly - what is the obsession with Toblerone? Everywhere we went there were piles of the chocolate - Smiths, Duty Free - Why? Who knows.

Anyho back to our flight, still over the northern reaches of Canada with some awesome views out of the window of great expanses of white glistering ice - we took a photo - it looks like outer space! At this point Daniel starts signing 'Trapped in the mighty  darkness of the Tundra' - a song I've never heard of but the Mighty Boosh apparently sum the area up nicely - 'Ice ice nowhere to go!' - Well it could melt not to get too geographical about it!

Woohoo Codeword almost done - don't think I've ever completed one before (though Daniel is doing most of it!)

Codeword now complete - Yay!!

According to our flight map we are just crossing the border from Canada to the USA so shouldn't be too long before we land in San Francisco!

Lets hope it's not San Fran Foggy!!