Australia Blue Skies

Third Stop – Australia (Business Class) how travel should be!! Yes, we were upgraded and I realised what really sleeping on plane was like. On arrival we met the newest arrival to the family as we were picked up by Anton’s sister Larissa, her partner Jeroen and our nephew Yannick, a beautiful baby boy of 9 months. After a little chat over breakfast we headed over see Anton’s grandmother known as Bub’s (Babushka is Russian for grandmother). We had arranged to go to mass with her to celebrate Russian Othordox Christmas and afterwards went for a walk through Hyde Park back to her apartment, were we celebrated in true Russian style with Anton’s parents with Heering, Salmon, Pelmeni (small balls of minced meat covered with the pastry) and vodka, tasty!. Finally our last stop for the day was over to Anton’s friend from Ireland Dave (AKA Davo), were we also finally got to meet Kath his lovely girlfriend from the UK and their Rhodesian Ridgeback Bonnie. We had a good catch up and quickly settled into what would be our new home for the coming x2 weeks in Sydney. It was the perfect spot in a place called Manly and we were located 5 mins from the sea and 25 mins from the centre of Sydney on the ferry (which is a really enjoyable ride). Thank you so much guys for letting us have your fantastic abode!! Over the coming weeks we meet up with an array of family and friends. So Big Thank's to:

- Larissa and Jereon for arranging the fab picnic at the Sydney outdoor festival

- Tegan and Greer for the lovely breakfast down at Manly. Congrat’s Greer is such a lovely baby.

- Michelle, Jeff and Max for a wonderful first Barbie in Aus (and Liana for some great conversation). I am still dreaming about your amazing house, well done guys!

- Grant for traveling up from Canberra, hope the romance is going well!

- Jo for making it up to Sydney to catch up

- Ben for coming up from Canberra and do some surfin’

- Christine for having lunch with us, still interested in hearing more about your business idea!

- Anton’s folks, Robin and Mike for bringing Eileen snokelling and body boarding (am missing it already!) and also for arranging to have all the family and friends for Robin's bday.

- Larissa and Yannick for catching up with me to go to the art expo. I think I was little more taken with Yannick and his beautiful smile than the art.

- Leah and Gerard for a good natter over coffee, congrat's on the job promotion!!

- Ian and Elizabeth for coming out for dinner (even if we could not hear ourselves speak!)

- Dave and Cath for making us so at home in their abode, and thanks too for all the wonderful barbies!!

- Tim for being for coming up to Sydeny to catch up with us. It was a pleasure as always!

- Jan, Cole, Anna and Marco for showing us your wonderful home and giving us a beautiful breakfast.

Looking forward to seeing any of all of you over the next year in London or Dublin!!

Would love to have wirtten more about all our experience but as usual I was little behind ib getting this together!!

Scuba Diving - Leyte

Second Stop – Cebu, one of the islands of the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. On arrival at the airport we met up with Anton’s friend from Singapore, Ian and his friends – Ben, Paul and Claire. After a brief hello we all hopped into a taxi to the local port to where we would be taking a boat over to the island of Leyte (our final destination). But soon after arriving at the port we realised we would not be going anywhere due to torrential rain and unpredictable seas. A little frustrated and tired we headed to a local hotel to stay the night and had a good feed to cheer us all up.

The next day was clear skies so we were on our way across the waters. On arrival we were collected by private transport bringing us to SoGod Bay. We drove through busy villages (Parungi's) surrounded by luscious rainforest and rice paddies. Our lodgings were intimate with a capacity of up to 14 guests, consisting of separate rooms all facing the beach, so beautiful.

I had a wonderful instructor called Phil Mcguire (good old Irish name for a Aussie from Canberra) who was teaching me over the 4 days of my PADI Openwater Course. I was hooked immediately with Scuda Diving. You really feel like an astronaut under water!. While I was taking my course the other guys were off adventuring on a number of dives including one which they were able to see whale sharks (check out the amazing photos in the album thanks to Paul's fantastic eye).

As we were there for News Years we went out to see a local fireworks display. We were joined by a number of very excited local kids, which made it all the more fun, if not a little on the dangerous side.

Most evenings I spent studying for my PADI course while the other guys took part in a mini tournament of Pictionary, were Paul established himself as a graphic design genius with his quick handed sketches (Paul - we bow our heads to you, Oh Pictionary Master).

The cooking was very much ‘western style cusine’ through out the week but thoroughly enjoyable and it always managed to satisfy our hungry mouths after a day of diving particularly the Mango Flot Dessert. But eager to try some local food we asked the cook to do a special evening of Pilipino food, in which she was delighted to accommodate us in. We asked the staff to join us and had a wonderful evening of chat and an amazing array of local dishes with a mix of fish, meat and vegtables dishes, along with some locally caught coconuts of course!

When our time at SoGod Bay cameSoGod Bay came to an end we said good bye to all the staff including Dopey and Shirley and Barbara (x3 resident dogs). We were sad to leave our beach hide away but were looking forward to seeing Anton’s family once again in Aus...