BUFFET BOY: (The Excalibur Casino, Las Vegas USA)

If there's one thing that trips me up time and again, it's the 'allyoucaneatbuffet'. Being British, I'm never sure if they're lying about being allowed to keep going back and so I invariably return to my table with a plate at breaking point. Finishing everything on my plate is a bit of a bug bear of mine…but with breakfast including pizza, eggs benedict, corned beef hash, a burger, (part of our scientifically controlled diet for the cycle trip) all mixed into one glorious fat-fest, I faced my usual struggle. By way of escape, the waitress informed us when we took our seats, "if there's anything you don't like you can leave it if you want - I'll take it away and you can get something else". We're a long way from India.

We're staying at ye-olde-England-castle-styled Excalibur casino hotel because Jeff (neko's pal) thought we might feel more at home here. Quite right too. Now back to some serious carb-loading before we hit the tandem.

YOU MAY KISS THE BRIDE, AGAIN: (Vegas baby, USA)

"You must stop getting married now" my best man Richo said to me after it appeared I'd married Neko for the third time - once in the registry office, once under a tree, and then into the Church. But the pull of getting married again here in Vegas is proving a bit much, not that getting married by Bristol's own Elvis, Dave Mitch, didn't hit the spot…but I just heard you can get married by Chewbacca here! "By the poweeeeeeer invested in me by the state of Nevada…..and here's your free chips". Awesome.

CARRY ON CYCLING: (Detroit, USA)

US Customs is a friendly place…I've always struggled to resist making some humorous quip or another in the face of scary authority, especially geed up and giddy on arrival in 'Motown'.  We had our checked luggage searched. On being asked what was in the giant Bicycle box, the immigration officer wasn't that amused when I answered "a huge laptop…sir?". "That's too big for a laptop sir" was his astute response. "And what's in your wife's box?". Well I'm sorry, but no-one slanders an Englishman's wife without having the common decency to ask first. One of these days I'm going to get a full body search by some guy with too much power and no sense of humour.

VEGAS BABY!: (Las Vegas, Nevada)

After 3 and a half weeks back in sunny beautiful Bristol, we are ready to hit the road again...quite literally. We've bought this tandem off eBay and are gonna cycle from Vegas to Death Valley and Yosemite! It's going to be amazing.

From there, I think we'll get a bus up to Oregon and cycle from Ashland to Bend via Crater Lake on the new Sierra Cascades bicycle route, which is basically the bike-able version of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Wish us luck, we had a crazy practice today...but are feeling sorta fit and kinda ready!

VOLCANIC DELAYS: (Bristol, UK)

Ash is everywhere apparently. No flights. Stuck in the UK! Having to slum it at The Daltons, graze in their fridge, and hang out with our God Daughter. What a chore! It's a bit like when we were in the South of France, waiting for an obscure car part, stranded in Oskar & Mackenzie's villa on the Cote D'Azur. Poor us. We've been treated like royalty, had fun with Eleanor and had time to sort some house things out, see heaps of friends, and find ourselves a tandem to take through some of America'a national parks. It is so great to be back, and we're looking forward to returning in the autumn already. We love Bristol AND we are really excited about the next leg of our trip. Steve figured out we have spent a 10th of our year off so far with the Daltons! We must love it.

CATCHING UP ON THE BABY BOOM: (Bristol, UK)

Our Bristolian kin have been breeding like flies. We've been away from England now for 8 months...and in that time, 7 new little babies were born to our very good friends! So we've managed to make the rounds and meet all of them, plus been covered by them at church, woken up by them in the morning, painting and baking, playing and swinging. We got to spend lots of time with our god-children, who are growing up ever so fast. I was especially honoured being asked to be Godfather of one of Pete & Rach's new twin boys, Theodore. That brings the god-children count up to a whopping 4!

SURPRISE! RUTH & CHRIS' WEDDING: (Somerset, UK)

We've been very naughty and snuck home to the UK from Malaysia to surprise our good friend Ruthi for her wedding on Easter Saturday. It was just wonderful to be home again, especially because no one was expecting to see us and then hey - suddenly there we were!

The whole wedding weekend was down in the Quantocks in Somerset and they had the most beautiful day…it rained, and that made all the beautiful details and people they'd gathered really shine: ice-creams outside the family church in Bridgwater in the drizzle, locally grown wine, open fires, in-jokes with people we'd never met before, as well as the added bonus of it being a spectacular reunion for us with so many of our best friends.

KL: (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

We are having to change directions slightly and delay out trip to Oz to see family. Being away has been a great opportunity to feel inspired and creative. KL is like all of Asia mixed together.

We chanced upon several photo exhibitions - Through the looking glass by local artists from Malaysia & Singapore, Steve McCurry, and the Sony World Photography awards at the Patronas Twin Towers, featuring to our surprise our family friend first prize-winner, Bristol's own Tammany Baker. Congratulations to Tammany.

On the travelly bits of our trip (trains, planes etc) we get time to indulge in silly thinky time. We usually like to give our blog a title rather than just a date but couldn't think of one for KL. We were thinking what Mum and Steve would name it and decided Mum would go for "Like it or lump it" which is ridiculously lame, and Steve would go for the slightly more funny but only on account of it being bizarre "Koala Lumpur"…it's Aussie, it's funny and furry, what's there not to like mate? We miss home.

Having a bit of experimental photo fun of our own from the top of Petronas towers