It’s Christmas time, Heathrow is heaving, kids are screaming, queues are endless and I am sipping free champagne, totally oblivious to the mayhem happening outside of the executive lounge.

The executive lounge is basically of a haven for rejects that can’t afford business class airfares. The décor is drab and dated, and the wireless is not free. But as far as places to sit go, at least we have a seat. They also do a very nice flapjack. Oh, and did I mention the alcohol is free?

We have a 24-hour flight ahead of us, so it is nice to sit and chill after the hectic week we have had.

We are flying premium economy on AirNZ. I am hoping they have wireless functionality on board. I quite fancy having a good blog at 30,000 feet.

Our check-in wasn’t as uneventful as I hoped. As we’re flying premium economy, we got to use the business class check-in. This was all well and good, no queue, straight in, until they realised our return date from NZ was more that 6 months away. This is no issue for people such as me who are on a dual nationality passport, but for British folk (Mike), this is an issue.

We aren’t planning on spending more than 6 months in NZ as we are heading to Aussie in January, but we haven’t yet booked flights for this. This is apparently an issue. The lady behind the counter looked concerned. She took our tickets and passports and went to seek her supervisor. The supervisor returned looking concerned and asked many questions. In the end, they took our tickets away and changed our return date to May. Luckily we have flexible tickets, so can change the dates in the future for a small fee.

Anyway, back to the free booze and a fresh blog from 30000ft.

Its 6.30am, its dark, its cold and we are sitting in a queue of cars outside the car boot sale. The insane thing is, we are 30 minutes late. People already have their stands set up for the day. There are buyers wandering around with torches looking for that bargain that idiots like us throw out because they belonged to great grandparents and have been sitting up in the loft for the last 25 years.

We are directed to our allocated spot and no sooner than the first box is out of the car, vultures descend upon us. They rip open boxes and frantically rummage through all the carefully wrapped items, carelessly discarding the newspaper dated 20 April 1991.

Vulture One: “How much for this?”
Mike: “£2 for that”
Vulture Two: “How much for this?”
Mike: “£3 for that”
Vulture Three: “How much for this?”
Mike: “£4 for that”

Finally after 30 minutes of mayhem, the vultures are all rummaged out and we are £50 richer.

Looking around, other sellers appear to have a method to their selling. Things are displayed in an orderly fashion, nicely laid out, items labelled appropriately. We have decided on more of a haphazard approach. Our items are displayed in a disorderly fashion, items left in boxes, clothes and shoes spread out over the concrete and a few random items on our paste table.

People pass by our table to look at our stuff. A lady stops to look at my sweaty and worn out trainers. “How much?” she asks. “50p for the crappy pair and £1 for the not so crappy pair” I reply. She hands over the cash. People will buy the most unlikely things. I really should have brought my old underwear down.

A gypsy wanders up to our table and starts fondling Mike’s old camcorder.

Gypsy: “Does it work?”
Mike: “Yes.”
Gypsy: “how do I know it works? I bought one t’other day and it don’t work. Chucked it in the bin I did. I don’t want to buy another one that don’t work”
Mike: “It works. It just needs to be charged.”
Gypsy: “How much?”
Mike: “£10. The wide angle lens alone is worth £50”
Gypsy: “But you can’t guarantee it works”
Mike (slightly agitated): “It works”
Gypsy: “But I can’t see that it works. I‘ll give you £5.”
Mike: (more agitated) “It does work and £10 is the price”
Gypsy: “But I can’t see that it works, I’ll give you £8”
Mike: (really pissed off now and thinking of upping the price) “NO, price is £10.”
Gypsy: “Go on, I’ll give you £8”
Mike: (clearly not wanting to sell to this guy for any price now) “NO”

Thankfully creepy gypsy guy walks off.

Dribs and drabs of people come up to our table. Some buy, some just look. We really don’t want to take this stuff home, so I buy a marker pen for 10p and start putting prices on things.

“Box of Poole Pottery from the 1950s – £5 the lot.”
“Box of glasses – £3 the lot”
“Box of brass – £2 the lot”

Mike makes himself a sandwich. As soon as he bites into it, a flood of people arrive and the buying frenzy begins. Rather than help out, I sit back and laugh, watching Mike struggle with the money, a sandwich and a mouthful of food.

After a long morning of standing around it is all gone and we are £140 better off for our efforts. This money is to be converted to Australian dollars for our big tour next year.

Summer is here and the weekend was amazing. We  got our kayak out for the first time this year and went for a paddle. We started heading across to Brownsea Island, but it got a bit choppy in the channel. We got scared when big waves kept crashing over trying to swamp us and decided to head back closer to land. We were out for about 3 hours and got burnt as we forgot to take the sunscreen. Honestly, the last two months have not required it.

After the kayaking we hopped on our push bikes and went for a cycle ride down to sandbanks, hopped on the chain ferry across to Studland. We rode up some steep hills, then down some steep hills to a nice little beach called Middle beach. There were loads of people due to school holidays so we only stayed briefly. It looks like an ideal place for snorkeling around the rocks.

We got home about 5.30pm and decided to have an inpromtu barbie and invited Miked kids over. As usual we got very drunk and woke up the next morning to a stinking hangover and another hot sunny day. I refused to let my hangover get in the way of doing things, so we went for a walk, had a nice creamy pasta (great hangover cure), a coke, a lunchtime siesta, then headed off on the bikes again. This time we did a gentle flat cycle around Holes bay, past Upton House, and around the other side to Hamworthy. We found a neat little resort that were selling holiday homes which they guarantee to rent each year for you, and grabbed a few brochures to consider this investment.

On the way home we decided to stop for a beer down the quay. It was a lovely day so why not? After about four coronas we rode the short distance home. I was purposely zig zagging like a drunken person, announcing to Mike “Look at me, I’m not drunk”, when I hit the fence and fell into the bushes. It must have been the funniest thing to see and I couldn’t stop laughing. Feeling a bit battered and bruiised today though.

We finished the evening with a delightful Thai meal overlooking the harbour.

We’re going to Turkey!

We have booked a holiday next month and we’re well excited.

I think summer has finally arrived here, the weather has been amazing the last couple of days. And I am back on my health and fitness program to try and lose the weight I lost, then put on again over the last month.

We just got back from the Larmer Tree festival and we had so much fun. It was the best festival I have ever been to. It had an enchanted forest which glowed with fairys at night time. We spotted wild macaws and loads of peacocks and peacock babys. There were creative workshops. You could get a massage. There was delicious food and drink from around the world. A huge variety of fun bands eve Mum and Dad would like to dance to. And learned to juggle, ride a unicycle and hoola hoop.

I’m gonna write a few blogs on it and put some photos up over the next few days.

Heres some photos:

http://www.wheresjo.com/Larmertree/index.html

We are off to the larmertree festival this afternoon for 5 days of camping and music.

Should hopefully be fun and hope the weather holds out. Currently it is warm an sunny.

http://www.larmertreefestival.co.uk/