France and French Things

I should get round to writing more about all of these (and there will be many pictures to illustrate soon) but for now - here are some 'observations'.

1. Wine that costs 1 euro a litre and comes in a plastic barrel is really really nice.
2. Cassoulet is the best food in the world, and is even better with confit of duck on top.
3. Stansted is the arse-end of all airports.
4. Villages in gorges are cool.
5. Naming new species of insects must be really difficult.
6. Cheese for breakfast is brilliant.
7. The desire to drive old wooden boats down canals increases the longer you spend in the vicinity of the Canal du Midi.

Did I mention wine in a plastic barrel?

Marrakech Express

Being an extremely dutiful husband, and it being a year to the day that we actually got married (blimey time flies and all that) I thought it only fitting to whisk the little lady of somewhere suitably glamourous. We plumped for Marrakech for a couple of reasons, one - never been there before, and two - we wanted a 'not beach holiday'.

The place is completely mad, people, mopeds and donkeys everywhere and you run the risk of getting run over about every 10 seconds.

It's a great place to get lost in, we managed it about twice every day, but because the Medina is relatively small, it's hard to stay lost for long. Plus, there are always little kids around ready to relieve you of ice-cream money in return for taking you back to where you thought you were.

We discovered that Ray is good at haggling*, and the guys in the souk will let you walk for about 20 metres before chasing you down to accept the last price you offered, no matter how low it is.

One of the funniest things I heard was a stallholder offering me 'T-shirts - very cheap - ASDA price...' showing that advertising definitely works. He didn't turn around and pat his back pocket though, which is good, because otherwise I would have laughed.

Anyway - We took a lot of pictures:




spacmonster's Marrakech photoset

Would recommend a visit to anyone that doesn't mind a bit of craziness. Particularly because you can escape it all by lounging in a Riad, or, spending a few hours at the Bains de Marrakech (thanks for the tip off TW) being alternately buffed, pummelled, steamed and doused with cold water out of a bucket by brusque Moroccan women.

The Belly Dancers were good fun as well. Just a shame I didn't have any small notes with me at the time...

* I'm not, because I generally don't like buying things, so would have given up most times and left with nothing...

We Got Married...

So this is going to be quite a long post...



As you can see - it was in a church and everything - and it was the best day!

After the church we had a big party in a castle - and even fired a cannon...



And we had a dance...



So that pretty much topped everything off - you can see many photos over on my flickr pages:






spacmonster's Our Wedding photoset



So - that was the wedding, but we weren't finished having fun, not by a long shot.

We went off on honeymoon to Africa, and had more amazing times chasing lions and fishes and sleeping in treehouses and eating crabs...

We started in Garonga...




spacmonster's Garonga photoset



Where we saw some frankly mahoosive lions!



At Garonga we went for a walk and hung out with Warthogs, met the marvellous CJ and Mosa, ate fabulous food and soaked up the amazing views from our balcony. Still, we had to leave, but fear not - we were off to the beach!




spacmonster's Medjumbe photoset



The beach was fab - and Ray spent most of her time being fabulous...



Or scared of the water...



I spent my time trying to grow a beard...



In all - everything was great. Maybe we should do it again sometime!

Jumping like a loon...

Hey hey, so I've been in Guernsey for a couple of weeks and am now doing more experiments with YouTube - here's a clip of me hurling myself in to the sea.



Commentary of a very skittish sort provided by the panic stricken Ray, honestly - I've jumped off that thing more times than most people have even been in the sea.

Should be some more pictures of my hols over on Flickr before too long, probably before you get round to reading this at any rate...