BACK IN FRANKFURT

Have a look a the gut and the right knee, welcome back to Europe....this is the before photo by the way, there'll be a similar photo but of a very white slim, fit younger me at the end of September I hope.............

The last seven months in the Philippines have passed without much excitement, no 'excellent adventures' and probably only 2000 beers under the belt...A larger stomach has appeared, but the cold of Northern Europe has already started working its' magic and I can feel the kilos falling away as I sit here with a cold beer to hand. My knee also started to expand into melon size as we left Manila airport and I had the most painful trip I've ever had, coming back here, tears in my eyes I must admit. It's been 4 days here now and I can just about walk up and down the stairs to the toilet, thus giving Seans' pot plants a chance to recover..........

The resort, El Rio y Mar, continues to do well with record numbers of guests in the last few months. Many visiting yachts have passed through and we've made many new friends Pity I don't have an income from the place, but that's what Sweden is for now, courtesy of my good friends Staffan, Artur and Tommy. They seem to have come out of the recession already and business looks good for the future, I'm happy for them, three young hard working guys with a vision....

The Chugga Bugga awaits us in the garden of the house in Laholm, next to the prolific apple tree. I hope she has survived the winter well and that I left enough antifreeze in the engine.



We also have a small caravan and a big caravan to sort out, courtesy of mate Thomas Iggstrom who hates living in a caravan. Michelle will be organising everything concerning the living areas and we should be able to use the house as well, so I sort of hope that we will have some friends taking advantage of Ryan air flights this summer to come and visit us now we can provide some comfortable place to stay..........any takers??????????? We're about 100 miles south of Gothenburg and 60 miles north of Malmo, right next to the coast (5kms).

Here's a picture of the 'small' caravan, it's actually bigger than the Chugga Bugga inside....



I've bought a car, haven't seen it yet, but it's the first real car I've had since 1988 in Algarve. I've driven a lot of miles since then but not in my own car, so it'll be really nice to drive around in Sweden whenever we want to in our 1998 Nissan Primera, not pretty or fast, but Japanese, reliable, economical and full of electric thingys'. I'm sure you'll all be impressed with how sensible I can be sometimes when I post a photo next blog

Sean came over to the Philippines for Christmas season and then again just recently for Easter so we did a few miles in the fast boats and drank a lot of beer, he caught no fish which I'm happy about and just goes to prove my point that he's killed most of the fish in the South China Sea already and there's nothing left......that's the way it is.

Can't think of much more to add and there aren't too many photos right now, so I'll leave you with a picture of us in warmer climes............



Bye for now, stay cool and have a look at a good mates' blog at www.blogatrip.com