New Zealand: The Two Birthdays

For a brief moment, I was flying. The sort of flying you do in dreams - in slow motion - looking at the world around you and enjoying the quiet. But then came the fall: the ground rushed up to meet me and as I got a mouthful of sand I was aware of noises again. The sound of an idling engine and barking dogs and laughter, mainly laughter.

***

We were up in Hokianga Harbour. Steve, Sam, Reggie and I had come north to visit Sam's family for the weekend. Kane and Mel live with their three great kids, on a farm a few hundred miles outside Auckland. As usual, we were given a great welcome and treated to a barbecue whilst we had a few drinks and watched the sun set over the rolling hills.

Before the light had completely disappeared, Kane had brought out his antique clay pigeon launcher and, as we had conveniently picked up some clay pigeons on the way, we had some fun shooting down through the valley with Kane's small arsenal of weapons! Sam informed us that Kane had done some shooting in international competitions, which explained why he had enough guns in his cabinet to see off a small zombie invasion!

The next morning we packed up our stuff again and headed, along with the whole family, towards the secluded beaches at the mouth of Hokianga Harbour where we would camp for the night. This wasn't camping as most people would know it though, as well as the obligatory tent or two, we had also brought three motocross bikes, two 4 wheel drive vehicles and a quad! All vehicles were needed to help reach the remote location.

It was idyllic. We spent our first day lazing on the beach; Bob and Ito chased possums in the woods whilst we swam, sunbathed and skipped stones. In the afternoon we made our way, in various vehicles, down a long beach and over big sand dunes to a little lagoon that Mel and Kane often visited when they were camping. It was a welcome relief from the surprisingly hot Autumn sunshine, especially for the two dogs who splashed around with us!

Back at our makeshift campsite - Steve, Reggie and Sam went to find some mussels for dinner, whilst I had a go on the kids' motocross bike. Kane had offered me his own bike for a test drive, but I declined - something told me that it wouldn't be quite as easy to ride on the sand as Sam and Kane had made it look. I was right. Once I'd managed to kick start the machine into life I did a couple of tentative lengths of the beach. Feeling a little more confident I followed the tracks made by the guys looking for mussels, as I approached them I attempted a turn and promptly fell off sideways. Thankfully, Steve and Sam were looking the other way and all that was hurt was my pride as Reggie watched me stack it! She repressed the laughter and I raced off down the beach back towards Kane, Mel and the kids. And that's when my more spectacular crash happened.

Kane tells me that he saw me approach - instead of warning me of my impending doom - he told his family to watch, as he knew what was going to happen - I was going to come off. And sure enough, as I got up speed I went from the hard, wet sand to the much softer, dry sand. The result, as Kane had predicted, was that my front wheel dug in and I was propelled head first over the handle bars.

For a brief moment, I was flying. The sort of flying you do in dreams - in slow motion - looking at the world around and enjoying the quiet. But then came the fall: the ground rushed up to meet me and as I got a mouthful of sand I was aware of noises again. The sound of an idling engine and barking dogs and laughter, mainly laughter.

I regained my senses quickly enough to jump up and stop the hot exhaust burning my leg more than it already had. Mel stopped laughing long enough to enquire whether I was okay (which I was) and offer some food as a consolation! Then I sat back and watched as small children showed me how to actually ride a bike.

That evening we followed up a family game of boys v girls rugby with a meal around the campfire and then lay in the sand to watch the stars. Watching shooting stars and trying to remember any of the names of constellations was a great way to end the day (at least Steve and I thought so, Reggie's attention span didn't last too long and every few minutes we'd hear her whinge 'I'm bored!'. We ignored her!).

The following day we packed up, said our goodbyes to the family and made our way back to Auckland. I'd arranged to meet an old friend that evening.

As I left school at Christmas, there was a far more important departure. Mrs Roberts, who'd taught at St Helen's for far longer than me, had left for pastures new. As it turned out, those new pastures were New Zealand - so it was a a great opportunity to spend a few days with her in her new home.

Mrs Roberts lived in a house with a stunning view, or at least that's what she told me. I had to take her word for it, as by the time I'd arrived it was too dark to see the garden, let alone the volcanoes in the bay beyond.

When I sat admiring the view the next morning, I realised that I'd arrived just in time to celebrate Mrs R's birthday (I think she told me she was 25 or something like that!). Her kind boss had given her the day off to celebrate. Mr Roberts' daughter, had come down with a sore neck which meant that she couldn't possibly attend school either and so the three of us set off for a walk along the beach.

Two strange things happened once we sat down in a cafe for some brunch: first of all, Susie's neck was mysteriously cured and I actually had a hot drink. Now that doesn't sound like a big deal, but I think the last time I attempted to have a hot drink was when I was camping three years ago; then I burnt my mouth and couldn't taste much for a week. I was like a proper grown up, well, actually, I wasn't - I had a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows.

Mrs Robert's boss, Charles, took us out for a meal that evening. It was great to catch up with the Roberts girls and hear all about their new life down under. I have so much admiration for people who grab chances like this with both hands. I know I will miss Mrs Roberts a lot, she has supported me so much in my early few years as a teacher, but I'm glad she has been brave enough to embrace such an incredible experience.

The following day was my birthday and to round off a fairly stunning long weekend, Steve, Sam and some other friends (Gillan and Debs) decided to treat me to a meal. When pressed, I had admitted that I'd love to eat steak, so Sam took us along to a place he said I would like - and, my goodness, he was right! I've never eaten such a delicious bit of meat - it was cooked to perfection. 

A great way to celebrate my thirty-first!

A message from Alan... (#4)

Dear all the lovely people at St Helen's,

Greetings from Brazil the World Cup!

Woohoo! It looks like you're finally getting some warm weather back at home! I hope you are having lots of barbecues and eating loads and loads of Hocking´s ice cream (I can officially tell you it is the best in the world - Mr Kent has tried lots of ice cream whilst he's been away, just for research you understand!).

I expect lots of you are glued to your TV screens watching the World Cup! Mr Kent is watching lots too, he even managed to get along to a game. Unfortunately, it was the last England game against Costa Rica and by then England were already out! The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing though and Mr Kent and Steve really enjoyed themselves. Both of them had wanted to see England at a World Cup since they were young and so it was a great feeling singing along to the National Anthem!

The football is one of the reasons Mr Kent has been quite so bad at blogging recently. He's very sorry! He is going to catch up whilst he sits on a beach for the next few days.

We've been to quite a few countries since I last wrote. In fact, now we are in Brazil, which is our sixteenth different country! Wow. Here are a few brief notes about some of them...

Despite the airline losing his luggage (and me!) for nearly a week, Mr Kent loved his time in Bali. He loved surfing, riding on his moped and lying on the beach - and even managed to make some new friends when dressed slightly oddly.

His favourite activity was definitely snorkelling in the beautiful, clear waters off Nusa Lembongan. If you ever get the chance to do some diving or snorkelling, you should go - it was an amazing experience, like watching a real life version of Finding Nemo.

In March, Mr Kent and Steve made it to Australia. Mr Kent was particularly excited about watching the Grand Prix, oh, and seeing his family! They saw the Formula One, ate lots of great barbecue food and even managed to find a wombat in the zoo. Mr Kent says they're his favourite animal, but I just think its because they look a bit like him, what do you think?!

Next was New Zealand. If you've ever seen the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, you'll know how beautiful New Zealand is! Lots of mountains, beaches and open space. We spent lots of time with Steve's friends Sam and Reggie and their dogs Bob and Ito.

You'll never guess who I bumped into there! Mrs Roberts! She moved to Auckland in the new year and has an amazing place in the city, next to a very nice beach. Lucky her!

I was reunited with another friend too...

In April we were in California! Mr Kent loved swimming in the sea and visiting cities. We explored Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We braved Death Valley (one of the hottest places on Earth) and eventually made it to Yosemite Park. Yet another amazing place...

In LA we bumped into more familiar faces! Lots of you will remember Reuben and Nathan from their time at St Helen's a few years ago. They've been living over there for a while and Mr Kent loved seeing their church, their school (their teachers weren't as cool!) and even had a Nerf gun fight with them! They told me to say hello to everyone back in Devon! So, Hello!

Since then we have been travelling through South America. First Peru, where Steve and Mr Kent helped out at a project in Lima for a few weeks. Mr Kent then fulfilled a childhood dream when we visited an ancient Incan city called Machu Picchu. It was high up in the mountains surrounded by jungle. An incredible place.

After Peru came Bolivia and another beautiful location called Lake Titicaca. In Bolivia we went cycling on some of the world's most dangerous roads - it was scary but exhilarating.

Next we flew to Argentina and spent a week eating amazing food before we went to Iguazu Falls. These water falls are the widest in the world and were flooding, so they were even more spectacular than normal! We got on a boat right underneath some of them! We were very wet!

Brazil is our last country before heading home! It is football crazy at the moment! People from all over the world are here watching the games. There is a wonderful atmosphere and the people here have been so lovely to us.

Mr Kent and Steve are going to visit the Amazon before heading back to Rio, which they loved when they visited last week. Then our adventure will nearly be over :( We are sad to be finishing our journey, but excited about coming home. We feel like the luckiest people (Well I'm a bear, I think!) in the world.

I hope you are all really well. You must have done so many things in the past few months! Sports days, residentials, SATS, etc. The summer term is so busy!

Have a brilliant last few weeks at school before the summer holidays! Year 6, I expect to hear about some wonderful acting at the end of term! Very sad I can't be there for the production - I'm sure Mrs Gagg and Mrs Theobald have done a brilliant job!

Take care,

Lots of love,

Alan

xxx

New Zealand: The Fellowship of the Steve

We were both excited about travelling to New Zealand. Steve had lived in Auckland for two years and couldn´t wait to see old friends and visit favourite haunts. I, on the other hand, had never been to New Zealand before but had heard so many great things about it from those who had. I'd been enticed, like so many others, by the promise of landscapes from Lord of the Rings - I couldn't wait to explore Middle Earth!

Thankfully, we weren't greeted by a great army of orcs as we got off the plane, but we did have to do battle with the very thorough customs guards! I say 'do battle',what I actually mean is that they politely asked if I had anything in my bag that I shouldn't. My trouble is, that although I knew I didn't, I always feel guilty under questioning and for some reason answered, 'I don't think so.' This led to me opening my backpack and the security guard searching it maticulously. Gratefully, satisfied that I was just awkward rather than suspicious, he stopped before the full body search.

Outside the gate we were met by Steve's good friend, Sam. Sam had lived and worked with Steve for the two years he was in New Zealand, so I think we immediately had a mutual appreciation for each other's ability to put up with my cousin! It was great to see the two of them catching up.

We spent the evening in downtown Auckland meeting various old friends and enjoying local food and drink. It was a little overwhelming to be introduced to so many new people in one night, but it was also clear to see why Steve had enjoyed his time in New Zealand so much.

Our night ended in slightly comical fashion as Regina (Sam's lovely girlfriend) kindly offered us a lift home only to find that Sam's 'classic' 4x4 had a flat battery. Being men, we were sure that we could fix this problem and assumed the hand on chin/blowing out cheeks position that is expected of us when we are looking under the bonnet and 'sorting' car problems.

Steve was soon behind the wheel and pressing buttons and other technical stuff, but unfortunately, despite getting close to starting the engine a few times, all he succeeded in doing was switching the squeaky windscreen wipers on. Much to the amusement of us, the unhelpful crowd on the back seat, who giggled like school girls at his efforts.

Reggie had promised to cook us her Brazilian speciality 'cheesy peas' for breakfast the next morning, but as I'd slept in and she had gone to work at the gym, I had missed my chance! Instead, as Steve and Sam went to fetch the classic 4x4 from the impound where it had been towed, I got ready for something even more exciting than cheesy peas (hard to believe, I know!) - Sam, Steve and I were heading to Sam's second home on the Coromandel for a boys week!

Now, when I was about ten I designed my dream home and then submitted my ideas to my Mum and Dad. Kevin McCloud would've been proud of my architectural drawings - they included, amongst other things, a go-kart track and a water slide that left directly from my bedroom. Unfortunately, my parents didn't take the plunge and decided to redecorate the living room instead. Disappointing. Since then, the design of my perfect home might have changed a little (although I'd still love the go-karts and the water slide) but I love visiting interesting houses and seeing how people have made their own dream homes become a reality. Going to Sam's place was one such opportunity.

The drive there already offered the opportunity to marvel at rolling green hills, but they became more and more dramatic as we got towards the Coromandel, a peninsula that juts up from the top of North island. Once we had passed through the town of Thames, the narrow ribon of Tarmac hugged the shoreline as it weaved around giant green hills.

Sam's house lay a few miles north of a little settling called Coleville. We stopped there briefly to pick up some supplies before making the epic journey down Sam's driveway to his house. The driveway wasn't your average driveway - it wasn't nicely paved or shingled with plant pots lining the side, instead it was six kilometres of dirt track winding its way through dense New Zealand forest.

As we drove along the bone shaking road, I wondered whether the original owners had done it to deter anybody delivering junk mail, however, the reason for the long drive soon became apparent once we reached a clearing in the trees. A secluded piece of land, off the grid and far from the stresses of modern life and with the most incredible view. It was Sam's own slice of paradise.

We had an incredible week up there. Every morning I woke up to the sun rising over the bay (like the photo above). We went sea fishing, shooting and quad biking; visited the beaches and managed to squeeze in a few barbecues. To pay our way, Steve and I helped Sam out with a few jobs - his rather large lawn needed mowing and we even found time to chop down a few trees for the woodstove.

Throughout the week we were accompanied by Sam's loyal canine  companions, Bob and Ito...

In fact, there were only a few occasions when the two adorable muts weren't glued to Sam's heel - one was fishing, where Steve and Sam managed to catch enough fish for a good meal. I was on another boat with Sam's friend and, although I caught the first fish, most of specimens I pulled on board were too small to keep. Actually, I'm pretty sure that I caught the same fish about twelve times! Thankfully, Steve faired a lot better and he even caught a kingfish at one point.

The other activity Bob and Ito weren't with us for was our quad bike journey along the goat trails of an imposing hill called White Star. Our journey began with a painful drag up through the gorse bushes around Sam's house - I think scratches outnumbered hairs on my legs by the time we'd reached the more open ground.

Having had very limited time on a quad, I let Steve drive whilst I clung on for dear life and ducked every now and again to avoid low branches. However, once we came to a field nearer the top of the hill Steve said I should have a go, so on I jumped. The field wasn't flat and some of its undulations were hidden underneath long grass - but Steve and Sam said that I needed to keep speed up to get over them. So as I was faced with a bump just before the summit, I did as Steve instructed and pulled the throttle. Subsequently, we found ourselves staring at blue skies as the quad left the ground and tipped so far back it was almost vertical! After trying one more time, I decided I'd hope off and let Steve find a safer route!

We did eventually make it to the other side, but only after another scary moment when the quad became stuck on a small tree stump. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem had we not been on a narrow goat path next to a large drop! In the end Steve did a great job and managed to hold the quad in one place whilst Sam and I helped pull it over the obstacle. The rest of the trip was less harrowing and the views from the top were worth every scratch and near death experience!

The night before we returned to Auckland, as we watched the sun set over the Pacific with a glass of something red, I realised that all the hype about New Zealand was right. 

I was going to enjoy the next few weeks!

Hanging on Down Under

As Tamsin and Chris are occasionally partial to a glass of wine, or two, and as a thank you for letting us stay with them for the week, Steve and I decided to send them on a wine tour, whilst we looked after the kids for the day.

So as Tamsin and Chris left - wearing that giddy look that parents get when they have no responsibilty for the day - we made our way to the centre of Melbourne and a science exhibition.

Within seconds of our arrival Archie had sniffed out the SNES Mario game and Ella was trying to feign interest in my stories of 'old' computers. I'd just explained about how her mum and I used to have to wait for hours for the cassette tape in our Atari to load up Space Invaders, before I realised she had walked off to find Steve - and I had been talking to a confused Australian school boy.

We spent the morning exploring the interactive displays - making a Matrix style slow motion movie clip, playing on old computers and generally pressing buttons to our hearts content!

After lunch, Steve left to catch up with Todd. Archie, Ella and I decided to spend another hour or so in the museum. Ella particularly enjoyed playing hide and seek in the pitch black room  (a slightly unnerving experience when you're in charge of someone else's children!) and it took a bit of persuading to get Archie away from the computers!

Following that I made the slightly misguided decision to try and find a playground in the nearby park. After twenty minutes of walking I had two fairly grumpy children who at one point lay on the grass and refused to go any further. Like a good uncle, I bribed them with icecream and we made our way to a park we'd visited the day before.

We spent an hour and a bit creating adventure stories on climbing frames, slides and swings. Ella made me be the monster and chase her, but it was Archie who left with a big sense of pride and achievement. Having just turned seven he found it hard to even reach the monkey bars, however that didn't stop him trying. The previous day, with a little help from his dad, he'd tried time and time again and managed all but one bar before he was exhausted. This would be the day though; he'd done his press ups, he'd got a new haircut and he was ready.

The moment he achieved his goal was a little bittersweet for me - although it was great to see his joy at completing the monkey bars, he had also managed to kick me in a rather tender area on his way down. I blurted out a 'Brilliant!' as I crumpled on the ground in a heap.

As we walked back down the road, with Ella trying to convince me of the merits of her having another piggyback, we heard a big crash. Turning, I saw that a car had pulled out in front of a tram and the two had collided. Whilst it was stopped we took the chance to hop on and rest three pairs of weary little legs - only to find Tamsin and Chris on board.

That night, our last in Australia, we had a barbecue and admired the amazing view from the apartment. Steve's friend, Jack, joined us an entertained with some juggling skills, whilst Tamsin helped ammend his CV, the best anyone can after visiting four vineyards in an afternoon!

We were leaving early the next morning, so, sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Archie and Ella. We read a few stories together before falling asleep on their bed. I'm terrible at goodbyes at the best of times, but with those two it always feels so much harder. Part of the reason - and I know I'm biased - is that they're such good kids, despite those devilish smiles!

Almost as hard is saying goodbye to Tamsin an Chris. It is not an understatement to say that without their help in past few years, I wouldn't have been able to take this amazing trip. I only hope that they know how much I appreciate their support - moral and financial! Thank you guys.

Our time in Australia was only short. Steve had used it to catch up with old friends and visit wineries (not a bad week!) and I had had the chance to watch F1, eat great food and spend time with my amazing family - oh, and see a wombat... Don't forget the wombat!

Awesome Aussie Animals

What is the best animal in the world? That's a difficult question, I realise, there are lots to chose from. When I ask children at school they often chose things like elephants, horses or little kittens and puppies. They're wrong. Until a few years ago I might have made the same mistake - elephants are cool, horses can run and jump 'n' stuff, and kittens and puppies are cute, I suppose. However, I learnt that the greatest of all the beasts is the wombat.

I didn't know much about wombats until my sister introduced me to her friends Robin and Rhinannon. Like me, they had done some backpacking in Australia when they were younger, but instead of the obligatory picture with a koala, Rob and Rhiannon were determined to get their photo taken with a wombat. And they did. Sitting pride of place in their front room, in front of pictures of their two young children, is a framed photo of them cuddling a rather startled looking Australian marsupial!

Robin has become rather evangelical about his love for wombats - telling anyone who will listen about the animal's ability to stick its head in the ground and leave their thick bottom in the air (a genius mode of self defence) - so much so that when Chris, Tamsin and I decided to take Archie and Ella to Melbourne Zoo, there was only one animal the grown ups wanted to see!

Steve, being the classy fellow he is, had joined his friends on a wine tour of the Yarra Valley. So the five of us embarked on our own adventure, through Melbourne on the city's tram network until we arrived at the zoo.

The first few exhibits we visited were a little underwhelming. All of the big cats appeared to be snoozing, prompting Archie to remark, "What's the point of having an animal in the zoo that sleeps all day?" Hard to argue with. The day improved, though, when we visited the sea life enclosure and saw a sea lion and his little penguin friends.

After lunch, we managed to find a few animals that weren't fast asleep: gorillas, monkeys, kangaroos and I even got to see the tigers that had alluded Steve and me in Nepal. We spent a while in the butterfly enclosure and Tamsin was very proud that her husband didn't scream like a girl (too much) as the beautiful creatures flew all around us.

We had left the best until last, though. Deep inside a network of tunnels, Ella and Archie came across what looked like a dead animal. It lay on it's back, motionless. Short stumpy legs pointing up in the dark, but if you looked close enough you could see its furry little chest rising and falling and a big fat bottom! We had finally found a wombat.

Back outside and we met another, this one only slightly more awake as it waddled around its enclosure. Nonetheless, a beautiful sight, I'm sure you'll agree...

We rounded off our day with a Chinese takeaway (something that is almost compulsory when you are with my sister) and learnt all about Steve's day - at least the bits he could remember.

That night, Archie and Ella settled down with a new cuddly toy that their parents had bought them at the zoo. Ella had chosen a lion and Archie a tiger.  I was that close to buying a wombat.

Need for Speed

I vividly remember the first time I saw a Formula 1 racing car in real life. It was June 1989 and my Dad had brought his Nigel Mansell obsessed boy to see his hero drive in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. We had been sitting in our deck chairs since 6am and chosen our spot with our friends Dennis and Matthew. By the time the F1 cars arrived for their practise, we had already endured frost bite and suffered smoke inhalation from the disposable barbecue we'd 'cooked' breakfast on - but all of those worries soon disappeared when Andrea de Cesaris blasted his way around the famous old circuit. It wasn't so much the sight of the the red Dallara that amazed me as it passed us at Club Corner, it was the sound. The V12 engine screamed as it accelerated away from us - louder and more angry than anything I'd heard before in my life. My Dad recalls me standing with my bottom jaw almost touching the floor. I was in heaven.

Twenty-five years later and I'm still hooked on the sport. I've be fortunate enough to witness some of the greatest drivers ever to have graced a Grand Prix circuit - Schumacher, Prost, Vettel, Alonso - and even watched the late great Ayrton Senna. So when I realised that our time in Melbourne would coincide with the Australian Grand Prix, I jumped at the chance to attend.

Once my sister, Tamsin, had grown out of her My Little Pony phase (I think she would've been about 15), she became equally obsessed with Formula One. Whilst we had been in Qatar visiting her and the family, I had mentioned our plan and she and her husband, Chris, decided to come and join us in Australia too. I was so excited to be going to watch the opening race of the new season with her.

However, before we could watch any motor racing, Steve and I had to make our way from Malaysia to Australia. No problem, we thought. All our airport troubles are behind us, we thought. That was before the lovely lady at the Malaysia Airlines desk asked to see our Australian visas. D'oh!

Steve and I had been so diligent about researching visas and entry requirements for Southeast Asia, but neither of us had thought much about our week in Australia. After all it was one of the colonies, wasn't it?! Surely we didn't need a visa to enter somewhere with our flag on, did we? (In case any of my Australian/convict friends are reading, I am, of course, joking!) Apparently, we did.

Despite arriving in plenty of time, we were now faced with a race to get on board our plane before the departure gates closed. Our first obstacle was obtaining a visa. We had to collect a deli counter style ticket and waited for our turn - we were more than a little alarmed when we noticed that the current number on display was 2125 and our ticket was 3017! Thankfully, there weren't nine hundred people in the queue before us and we managed to get our paperwork done before racing back to the check in desk to drop off our luggage.

We were told we now only had a short time to get through security and make it to the departure lounge. In films this would mean pushing through crowds on escalators and hurdling security gates whilst being chased by security. In reality, it meant lots of stressful clock watching whilst patiently waiting in queues, like the good English boys we are. This was followed by a mad dash in flop flops through the departure hall to find our gate, which of course was the furthest away! We made it, by the skin of our teeth, and as we settled - slightly sweaty - on the plane we hoped we'd get some sleep before arriving in Melbourne the next morning.

As it turned out, our airport experience had been far less stressful than the one Tamsin, Chris and the kids had had to go through: their plane had been delayed by twelve hours and so we wouldn't be meeting them at the airport, but later on in the day. Instead, Steve had arranged to visit some old friends of his, Danielle, Todd and Lucy. 

We'd arrived in Melbourne at quarter-past-six in the morning and even by the time we had reached Danielle and Todd's house in the leafy suburbs of the city, it was still only seven-thirty. Despite the early hour on a Saturday morning, Danielle managed to give us a warm, if slightly sleepy, welcome and soon we were joined by Todd and Lucy.

That afternoon we were treated to a proper Aussie barbecue by our hosts - shrimps 'n' all! Todd and I set up the gazebo, barbie and sofa in the back yard, whilst Steve used his culinary expertise to create some salads in the kitchen with the girls. It was great to meet some new friends and see Steve enjoy catching up with old ones.

A taxi across town would probably have cost a small fortune, but we were in luck as another of Steve's friends, Jack, kindly offered to take us over to Tamsin and Chris' apartment.

After another sleepy greeting - this time from my brother-in-law, Chris - we were grateful for the chance to lie down and get some rest before the big event the next day: the Grand Prix.

I awoke the next morning, half expecting to be clambered on by my nephew and niece, after all, that's what Archie and Ella always do - but their flight ordeal the previous day had left them so shattered that they slept in longer than me. After saying a proper hello to Tamsin and Chris, I went to get revenge and jump on them instead!

Soon we were all up, washed, dressed and ready to go to Albert Park. As we wondered past a multitude of trendy looking coffee shops and patisseries, Archie told me about his progress on the Wii since I'd last seen him and Ella skipped along beside us (for approximately two blocks until she was tired and needed a piggyback!). It was great to be back with the family.

Inside the park there was a great atmosphere; Archie and Ella enjoyed the Pixar Cars themed kids' area, whilst the four adults found the food and bar more to their taste. We located a good spot to perch ourselves, opposite a screen and on a corner so that the cars didn't just scream past at two-hundred miles an hour!

We watched various support races and displays, until finally it was time for the big event. However, as the cars came round for their formation lap, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Long gone were the screaming 3 litre V12 engines that I had fallen in love with all those years ago - this year, regulations required a 1.6 litre V6 hybrid version. Instead of a deafening angry roar, I could hear myself talking above the noise of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and Jenson Button's McLaren as they sped past. This wasn't how I'd remembered it!

Despite the lack of noise, the race was still a great spectacle. Unfortunately, Lewis had to retire early, but Jenson managed a podium finish.

As we wandered on to the race track after the race, I wasn't sure that F1 had grabbed Archie and Ella in the same way it had done Tamsin and I when we were their age, but they wore their McLaren t-shirts with pride and seemed to enjoy their day, particularly when it was rounded off with an icecream!

Malaysia Mourning

There was something that hung over Malaysia whilst we spent our two days there. It wasn't just the smoggy cloud that shrouded Kuala Lumpar in an eerie veil. Seven days prior to our visit, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had left the city's airport with 239 people on board, bound for Shanghai - it was never seen again.

Kuala Lumpar had the feel of a place trying to come to terms with the tragedy, whilst also trying to continue with life as 'normal'. Our long bus journey from the airport gave us a glimpse into another hectic Asian capital city. Busy roads criss-crossed their way through first dense residential suburbs and then in between the high rises of business zones before finally reaching the narrower streets of old downtown Kuala Lumpar.

Our hostel was a friendly place - no frills, but comfortable and coveniently situated next to dozens of food outlets - always a good thing when you are travelling with Steve! We freshened up, grabbed a bite to eat and then got on the train to go and see the city's famous Petronas Towers. 

Once the tallest buildings in the world, the iconic twin towers stand arm in arm and define Kuala Lumpar's skyline. Even in thick fog they were an impressive sight.

The next day we wandered around the city centre and quite accidentally stumbled over a huge shopping mall. If we'd tried to walk around the complex it would probably have taken us all day, so we settled for exploring the food court instead!

Before leaving the mall we couldn't resist visiting a shop that was ideal for Steve. Throughout our journey, on the strict instructions of his three year old nephew, Steve is taking photos of himself wearing a Superman t-shirt in various places. The shop we walked into had the biggest collection of superhero toys, outfits and memorabilia that I'd ever seen and it offered Steve a great photo opportunity. We found a pair of Superman pyjamas and Steve promptly entered the changing rooms to transform into Clark Kent. 

My job was simple: take the photo. However, whilst I was waiting for the transformation, I started to read the comic strips that were plastered on the changing room doors and there at the bottom was written: NO PHOTOGRAPHS. So when Steve emerged in his pyjamas (which, incidentally, cost over £100!) I tried to surreptitiously take his picture. He obviously hadn't seen the sign as he proceeded to blatantly pose proudly!

We a managed to escape the store without being fined an then made our way back to the Petronas Towers to try and find our bus to the airport. We were frustrated to find the park surrounding the skyscrapers largely cordoned off, but soon realised that the lush green fields were soon to play host to a concert in aide of the 'rescue mission' for Flight MH370. In fact, everywhere you turned there were big billboards that bore the slogan #prayforflightMH370.

I don't think that our brief stay in Kuala Lumpar gave me the time to form a real opinion of Malaysia. The whole place seemed, understandably, somber - collectively holding its breath for news of the missing plane and the passengers. Tragically, it appears that news might never come.