Next stop… Newcastle! After being damn near strip-searched at Gatwick airport I was glad to meet my Auntie Marcia an hour or so later at Newcastle Airport where I crashed on the couch to catch up with her and my cousin Suzy over a well-needed cup of tea.  This peacefulness lasted about 3 hours as my other cousin Neil, his wife Jen and their three adorable, yet excitable, kids Ellen-7, Matthew-5 & Finlay-2 soon swept in in the only way younguns know how…. loudly! It was really good to see them all again as the last time was 5 years ago and the kids have grown sooooo much!

They stayed til around 9 then I jumped online to check my email before my eyes totally shut down and went to bed for the most peaceful sleep I’ve had since leaving home! Which isn’t hard as it only had airplane seats and a couch at Amelias to compete with haha.

Anyways… tonight is dinner at Shiremoor House Farm or something and then movie with my other cousin Lynn and her friends so I’m hoping I’ll last the night as I have found by like 3pm onwards I’m fading fast but as always I will push through!

Here’s some pics of the kids at Adventureland yesterday arvo after we picked them up from their holiday programme, and the doggies Nina and Jesse!

I was sooooo glad to arrive in Oxford finally on Friday morning and Amelia picked me up from Heathrow and we took a bus back to her place.

On Saturday morning I met up with Mooreski for a sightseeing tour round Oxford but didn’t take many pics cos I’m dumb like that! I did take some on the walk home to Amelia’s and then the next day when Amelia and Mike took me to Tootsies for brunch and Christ Church College for a look-see cos Amelia could get us in for free! Yussss! Then we headed back to theirs in the arvo for their nana nap while I checked my email then we went to Nandos for a late tea.

Here’s some pics of Paddington roaming around the plane and of the transit lounge in Brunei which was my home for 10 hours or so… it was hot and muggy… the place where time stopped for me and the worst part of my long flight. On the plus side the toilets weren’t anywhere near as bad as I’d been told but I definitely had to watch my bags so when I did try to have a snooze I lay with my head on one bag and my feet on the other! Oh and there was no big screen telling you eta’s on anything etc so you always had to listen to every single voice call over the loudspeaker which was sooooo annoying cos there were a tonne of them!