GRAND DESIGNS: (Sydney, Australia)

Well, here we are, tagging a final leg on our Around the World Tour. Annoying isn't it? After being shunned from coming to Oz earlier in the year whilst the renno was still underway at the family 'stead on Sydney's beautiful Northern Beaches, we've finally got to see the folks big dream house realised. It's pretty spectacular. It has been an amazing spa-like retreat…erm, a retreat from our student scum and unemployed bum lifestyle that is.

Well, it's wonderful to spend time with family and catch up with Aussie friends. As well as feeding us up three year's worth of food in a month, Mum has our social calendar planned out with meticulous detail, starting with a fancy house-warming-cum-jazz & canape infused event.

Great to be home…a broad term for us Griffins.

LOST IN TRANSLATION: (Beijing, China)

We left Bristol with a piece of paper helpfully written out in the vernacular by my course mate 'Daisy' with local tasty Chinese delicacies we ought to sample on arrival in Beijing.

On the paper were numerous references to animals and animal parts, including donkey (apparently not actually donkey, but a dessert), so much so in fact that we were told that if we were to ask a stranger where we might find these foods, they may direct us to the zoo.



Now if it had been me writing the list, I'd certainly have written some exceptionally dodgy things on there for my tourist friends, so I assured them I'd be back to punish them if they were leading me up a merry path. Meanwhile, in a fit of self abuse, I stomached an evening treat of sea slug and scorpions.
Deep fried …mmmm.

There are a bunch ways of you can make yourself misunderstood in China. When explaining 'what I do' (study film) to interested new people, I managed to leave someone with the idea that I star in the movies.

Equally, there were plenty of times when i think we got the wrong end of the stick. We visited a Church near our hotel in the 'Chongwenmen' area where we learnt that Jesus was in fact born in 'a mansion'.

Contrary to popular belief, the Church is thriving in Communist China. Despite the stereotypes we've picked up somewhere, we weren't arrested or followed back to our hotel.

MAGPIES: (The Great Wall, China)

While walking the Great Wall of China, our lovely guide 'Duo' pointed out a magpie and was pleased to count just one for good luck. We were fascinated to find that a tradition so idiosyncratic and particular to just this bird, was shared with such a distant people.

Who attributed lucky omens to magpie counting first? Who may have brought this bit of folklore back from their exotic travels? Is the Magpie even a nice quintessentially English bird at all, or has it journeyed from the Far East?

Well, we were eager to share the rhyme we grew up with which Duo was interested to hear, and she quickly declared "I want to see four".

It's strange walking around seeing young families with just one child. Duo cannot get married yet because family tradition in China usually states that the grooms family have to pay the brides family a dowry, normally to the tune of a small house.

GETTING THE STAR TREATMENT: (Beijing, China)

We've been treated like movie stars since our arrival, thanks to the very generous gestures from our friend's mother, Mrs Liu.

Minzhe, my well dressed course mate (pictured right) and expert editor friend, kindly mentioned our visit to his mother, who in turn booked our hotel and arranged for her driver and English speaking guide to collect us from the airport and chauffeur us around for the duration of our stay in Beijing.

Mrs Liu also took us to the finest Peking duck restaurant in erm, Peking, where we dined in a private room and ate like kings. We were relieved that Peking Duck is actually duck and not something fishy or offal-esque! It was the best duck we have ever tasted. We were truly shown the best time. We managed to finish the evening with a wonderfully executed 'Thank you' in Mandarin, and I think I avoided offending anyone…quite a coup for me.

BACK IN BLIGHTY: (Dover to Bristol)

So, part of this year has been about rethinking what we're going to do next. We left our jobs with no intention to return to them. We're open to starting a family sometime...not in a hurry, but glad to have the travelling together unfettered thing done - we'll always be able to travel with kids too, but it's different that's all.

Well, I've just been accepted onto doing a Masters in Film & TV Production at Bristol Uni. Big departure for me in some ways, not sure if I'm just chasing a silly dream, or if I'm lacking the talent needed, but I'd rather not have the regret of "what if's" hanging over me. I always remember when nursing some time ago, an old lady telling me that she had far bigger regrets about the things she hadn't done than the things she had. That always stuck with me.

We are loving being back - the rhythm of evening commitments - home group, band & footy, the familiarity of friends and family, the restfulness of our own space and the excitement of a new year ahead. Neko is looking for work...

JUST ANOTHER DAY FOR YOU AND ME WITH PARADISE: (South of France)

Well, Mr & Mrs Paradise arrived for some fun and games here on the Cote d'Azur. Ever the gentleman, Ricardo arrived suited 'n' booted, in the finest of linen suits, ready for his driver to show them the sights.

So there we were, eating wine, drinking cheese, playing les boules, and looking beautiful I think you'll agree. The ladies were looking rather good too.

Une Poseur, & the man from Del Monte

So we hit Monte Carlo, dined at Medieval villages, frequented the local art exhibitions, beached and bronzed and showed the Frenchies a thing or two about fashion. Sacre bleu!!

Stunning the Art World...again

WE ARE SO DARLING...DARLING: (Verona, Italy)

Aged 14, Mum thought it might be adventurous for me to go stay with for three weeks with a guy who she'd met on a train in Italy. Ahhh the 80's, when you could leave your front door unlocked and anyone your parents age was your uncle and aunt. He was actually a great guy, a director of Italian TV, and Mum thought I might get a precocious foot in the door to television!?! Well, one of the highlights back then was sneaking a peek in the amphitheatre in Verona where Madame Butterfly was being performed. I was enchanted, but we couldn't stay.

Returning now, Neko and I hoped to have a romantic evening at the opera and fulfil my childhood longing. We started our day waking up contorted having slept in our lil' car at a truck stop somewhere in eastern Slovenia, and ended it eating at a Mitchelin star restaurant, staying at a boutique guest house, and watching Aida. An occasional treat.

I love that about us - we are as happy to slum it, eat street food, and people watch, or to dine fine, and rub shoulders with the hoi polloi….it's all the same to us, learning the secret of being content in any situation.

THANK YOU LADIES & GERMS: (Budapest, Hungary & Slovenia)

 So we met up with Cath and her friends, Graham, Laura, and lots of others. Fine fine people. Cath showed us the sights - all the best drinking establishments with their idiosyncratic offerings of hoppy brews…and proceeded to drink white wine spritzers. She is clearly disorientated and will need psychiatric help when she returns home. SO nice to see Cath in a place so special to her.

We spent a few days wandering around, discovered the Hungarian House of Photography and Museum of Crafts & Textiles (top recommendations in Art Nouveau buildings), and went to an old regency style neo-classical Spa. We quite like spas. We ended up marinating in another one later in Slovenia, stewing for seven hours in thermal waters and other people's germs. We've been sick ever since.

If you're interested in going to Budapest, the Hungarian name of the Spa was Szengeti (I can spell that with some authority cos my wife is a Spelling Bee champ).

ENOUGH WITH THE WISE CRACKS ALREADY: (Seged, Hungary)

Can you imagine our disappointment when we spoke to Cath earlier this summer, excited to come to Hungary and hoping to see her there, only to find out after 3 years she's moving back a couple of weeks before we get there. Oh the irony. Kind of. How's about those Bosnian escapades though hey? Police stop us for having our side lights on, then we break down and a mechanic rigs the lights to be constantly on. Now that's irony! With all my time in America, and the loose grasp they have on the concept, it gets hazy at times. Never mind Morrisette's "…rain on your wedding day" (which I believe is only ironic if you're a weather man, getting married, and you predicted it would be sunny).

So to our delight, we heard Cath is back THIS WEEK to collect her things for the final move home. Well, in another turn of irony, I decided to call her to arrange hooking up in Budapest, doing my favourite 'Mo's Bar' stunt of faking some alias or another - this time a demented sounding old fella who is insistent that she's just called me. Cath remained on the phone for a remarkable amount of time - I would have told such a rambling nutter to politely bog off by now. Testament to Cath's good Christian nature? No. Her dad's just had a stroke and it might be him calling. Man I feel bad now. I'll buy her a pint when we see her.

FARM FUN WITH AN AXE WIELDING, BEER BREWING, PIG BREEDING OL' CHUM: (nr. Seged, Hungary)

So, it's been fantastic to catch up with Andy & Sam. Can you believe how plucky and pioneering Andy & Sam are? Moving out to Hungary and buying a farm, getting some animals, with plans to grow what they eat and maybe more…the whole nine yards. Sam is English, but raised for a significant spell in Hungary and Hungarian speaking Romania.

They showed us a great time - first stop, the flea market, where we picked up not only a couple of Hungarian nicknacks, but also a couple of Hungarian words too. This is particularly impressive as, having done half my Tessol course a while back, I can inform you that Hungarian is agreed to be the most difficult language to learn for English speakers in the World! More than Chinese! It's just mental. This makes Andy's achievement of becoming fairly conversational, and stringing sentences together, a work of God himself.

There are other challenges of assimilation into Hungarian life that Andy has to face, including the ability to grow ridiculous facial hair, wear clothes that look garish and 20 years out of date, and eat half ones body weight in meat. Oh hold on, Andy's gonna be just fine. The Hungarian diet is pretty meaty and with plans to raise and eat nothing but pigs, Andy is nearly fully fledged Hungarian already. With Sam so familiar with Hungarian language and ways, alongside Sam's mother Cathy next door, he is set up well. The two of them are really going for it, Sam is cracking on with her Phd and Andy is employed by the university. They're enjoying dreaming some big dreams and settling into country life.

We were also taken to see some traditional Hungarian sights. Most of all, we got a real glimpse into Andy & Sam's lives: where they work, worship and welax (needed the 3point sermon style there). It makes our challenge of getting back on our feet with work and things feel very doable. Lovely talented people those Cheesman's. And speaking of axe wielding, rest assured Andy continues to play his guitar at level 11 at his Hungarian speaking Church, in a language we all understand. Go Andy! (Cue 'God made rock & Roll for you').