Leaving Jersey, but not if the volcano has anything to do with it

The weekend was a little fraught to say the least. Not everything fitted in the van, so Peter played 3D Tetrus for two days trying to make everything squeeze in. Well the boy did it, apart from a couple of bits. I spent the weekend cleaning and getting stressed, although a drink at the Splash on Sunday afternoon revived the soul a little.

Peter went off on the ferry this morning, with Jono, and was so excited. I might have more of a problem though! I'm supposed to be leaving in 10 days time, but this damn volcano is causing me concern. Flights still grounded, and I cannot get through to anyone at eurorail in the UK (they couldn't post me the tickets anyway)! So, lets hope this cloud goes well away and we can start moving around Europe again.

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Building our Barrel Vault Wood Fired Oven

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In 2009/10 there was a brief outcry in the UK about the amount of unnecessary road signs on British roads. The consumer group called Civic Choice submitted information that there were tens of thousands of excess road signs and that too many signs were confusing and distracting. The AA results of a survey can be found here and the Campaign for Plain English also supported some of the findings. I think this problem has ‘gone global’, well at least ‘gone European’ OK maybe just ‘gone Portuguese’. There is certainly a road sign disease spreading on the IC8, one of the major highways in Central Portugal. This disease seems to have reached its peak in the area between the turn off for the IC3 and Castanheira de Pera. The disease is spreading, the spores of signs scattering along the roadside and new signs growing all the time. In this short distance, it takes just 10 mins to drive, it has been reported to me that there are a ...

oh what a lovely bougainvillea

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Helen and Peter in Portugal

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