Windy walk on st annes beach 1

Decadent supper of strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

It's a lovely day here in England so enjoy this quintessential English home.

Derg sleeping

Lol

Brilliant.

http://ping.fm/ddIHz

http://ping.fm/zaY4Z

Beamish loco sheds

Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy. 6mph max speed.

Beamish tearooms today

Beamish tearooms

Beamish beer truck

Swing bridge one day garden.

Tyne bridges.

Sage concert hall.

Big ass art gallery.

Sunday in Newcastle

Hartside Top, my family.

Hartside Top, teatime Saturday.

Breakfast pear with sugar and cinnamon.

Lol

Dog

Home

This is as exciting as it gets where I live.

Test

Me

Tet ley bum tetellelleteley flavour lovely as can be

Steeplechase, blackpool pleasure beach

Darren at blackpool pleasure beach

Darren nickelodeon land with krabs

St Annes beach 11am

Knott End 21.30
Dogger central

Hubsand

After we got back from Germany at the end of March I started limiting my calorie intake to 1200 - 1500 per day and lost exactly two stone before heading to Alaska. Upon returning from Alaska I've gained 10 lbs. According to the various online calorie calculators I rely on for information I was scoffing approx 6000 calories every day during my holiday (which, on a cruise, is a very easy thing to do). I would lose count at about 2000 calories during the breakfast buffet and then throughout the day just sit back and watch my lousy will-power battle it out with my holier-than-thou conscience. My lousy will-power was completely victorious in every battle but I didn't let it spoil my holiday because I know that if I'd said 'no' to the delicious stuff shoved in front of me I would have got depressed. Besides, top chefs toiled in hot kitchens in order just to make my taste buds orgasm so it would have been very rude (and stupid) to deny their hard work.
Been back 3 days and lost 1 lb already. Yay.

Today is our last day in Vancouver and it's raining. We only have to pack and make our way to the airport so it's no big deal. We've been in Canada and Alaska for the last two weeks and this is the first rain we've seen so we're very lucky (everyone keeps telling us; "you're in the middle of a huge rainforest, you will get wet").
We've done lots of things for the first time on this trip; cruising (loved it and will do more), float plane flying, whale watching, getting caught in riots, throwing snowballs in June, eating baked alaska in Alaska and a whole bunch of other stuff. Here are the photos if anyone's interested. And here is the itinerary:
Vancouver
Inner Passage
Tracy Arm
Skagway
Juneau
Ketchikan
Inner Passage
Vancouver
Grouse Mountain
Victoria BC
Vancouver

NICKY NOOK

Darren on top of Nicky Nook

Eight thirty Thursday evening, St Annes beach Lancashire.

Taking his gold disc to the dump.

Just back from a week in Berlin. Marvelous place. I was there 11 years ago and I hardly recognised the place. NYC will take second place now for city holidays as Berlin offers all of the NYC stuff we love but is only a two hour flight away. Brilliant musuems, quirky shops and restaurants, lots of lovely, individual design-conscious neighbourhoods, coffee shops on every corner and much much cheaper than NYC. It even has things NYC doesn't...polite locals, litter free streets and much better public transport. Did I mention that it's just one hour and 50 minutes away from our local airport?