My travelling adventures...

- only a very light smattering - but still it snowed! - very exciting!!

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Well I had a lovely christmas - even though it did not snow - not even close to it! - wasn't til about 10 that we finally huddled around the xmas tree and opened the presents (it doesn't get light til about 8)... It is forecast to snow tomorrow - so will be exciting to see if that ends up happening!

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Howdy!

Well it isn't too chilly - average around 6 degrees :(... - and Rome is a few degrees hotter!

Anyway went to Waddesdon Manor (a Rothschild 'house') on Tuesday to see the xmas decorations and have a yummy xmas lunch...

Other than that have been taking it easy - doing a bit of shopping (went to Watford today) and enjoying the xmas festivities (lots of mulled wine, hot mince pies and rosy cheeks :) )

Am off to see Narnia tonight... and then going to my Uncle's tomorrow :)

Not long to christmas now!!!!

Cheerio for now!

 - Waddesdon Manor

  - Don't know what a gorilla was doing in Waddesdon Manor grounds... - but he has lots of mole holes around him!

Hi!

Well I arrived safe and sound... The plane flight wasn't that bad...  the meals were OK, the movies... well... - saw Valiant (a disney movie which was pretty good) and Sky High (another 'kid flick') and 2 pretty poor movies... it didn't seem to take forever as I managed to sleep a bit - thanks to the 1hr of sleep the night before from trying to decide what I really didn't need to take - I decided I really did need most of it - and as a consequence my cabin luggage was nearly as heavy as my suitcase! - which caused a bit of debarcle just before I went thru customs- they wanted me to pay excess luggage! - but managed to get away from that thanks to the plane's take-off time meant to be in 20mins...

On the way to Seoul I sat in front of a little girl who was excited that we were sitting behind the wings so that she could see them flapping when we took off!  And I sat beside a man who was on his way to Russia - he'd ended up in the 'klink' when he was in Moscow and the Australian government had to rescue him... - he said they wouldn't be too pleased if they knew he was going back (he isn't meant to) - he had to change his passport to do it - and he was not going to go anywhere near Moscow...  for the first time ever I didn't ask any questions - mainly because he'd mentioned he'd flown aeroflot to Moscow - and I wasn't sure whether that had anythign to do with it - and didn't want to find out since I am flying with them in January...

The stopover hotel - the Hyatt Regency in Seoul was very flash... - yummy meals (paid for), had a speaker in the bathroom for the TV, and a night light so your could see your way to the bathroom in the wee hours (haha - get it?!) of the morning...

Anyway pretty much by the time I got to my Auntie's it was dinner, then bed time!

Sunday we went to this gorgeous place that used to be owned by the Fennicks (apparently some well-to-do family that own some department stores) that is getting done up... - had mulled wine, sloe gin and a lovely xmas meal!  And then went on to a carol service at the little old local church - it was all just lit up by lots of candles and you had to wear your big woolly jacket in there to keep warm - very quaint!

And now it is time for some xmas shopping!!!

Later!

17th Dec - arrive in England (staying in the 'countryside' at Littlewood Cnr, Great Missenden)

22nd Dec - go to my Uncle's in Cheltenham in preparation for a white xmas (! pretty please !)...

28th Dec - 4th Jan - Rome with Karen

Russia

7th Jan - leave for my trans-Mongolian adventure (travel 1/4 of the globe, 8000km of rail thru 3 countries over 21 days)

8th - 11th Jan - Beijing - the Forbidden City, the Great Wall

12th-14th Jan - Mongolia - Ulaan Baatar, overnight in Ger camp in Terelj NP

17th - 18th Jan - Siberia - Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Lake Baikal

22nd Jan - Vladimir, Suzdal

23rd - 25th Jan - Moscow

26th - 28th Jan - St Petersburg