No time for recovery following La Tomatina. We arrived back in Valencia from Bunol at about 4.30pm and were totally starving after not eating since 7am that morning, despite that fact that we were covered in food all day. Grabbing a quick bite at BK (I usually try and stay clear of universal fast-food places while in a different country, but desperate times called for desperate solutions) and a well-deserved shower and lie-down, we received a phone call from Tim, our tour leader to let us know that we were heading out for dinner at the beach.

All 85 of us jumped on a bus and headed to the beach, where we split up between a couple of restaurants serving Tapas (entree's and snacks), Paelle (a spanish national dish) and Sangria (spanish wine). Apparently paelle was invented in Valencia, and the local speciality was rabbit. Our group went with seafood, and as Aaron and I had both had a healthy dose of BK only a couple of hours before we just tried things as they went past without really eating.

After a leisurely dinner, we strolled along the beach past families out playing (including many very young kids, and it was 11.30pm!!!) and market stalls to arrive at a night club that Tim knew about called Aquarella. Upon arrival the place was closed, but there were the biggest, meanest bouncers you've ever seen standing outside. One of the guys from our group enquired and managed to find out enough to assume that the place opened at 12.

The place was huge and all open air (probably about the size of the ballroom at uni as a comparison), there were at least 8 bars dotted around and no definite dance-floor. Upon arrival, we were a bit worried as the place was dead - we were the first ones to walk through the gate, but within 1/2 an hour the place was pumping - not bad for a Wednesday night.

I was in my element, all Latin music - some I knew and some other stuff, but all very cool! but it made me realise just how much I was missing all the dancing people at home. Had a really good night up dancing with some of the other girls (which was good as I had completely lost my voice by this stage of the night) and even managed to get Aaron up dancing up a storm. Taxi home in the wee hours and a big sleep in the next morning made the whole day perfect!

Waking early, we joined the group (timthetourman.com) for a 7am breakfast so we could get an early 8:30 train from Valencia through to Bunol. Not knowing what to expect, we drifted in out of conscious on the way.

Once in the city, ahem, town of Bunol. We made our way through the streets towards the Town Square and main street. You instantly knew you were in the right place by the tens of thousands of people on the street and the wise shop / home owners who knew what was to come and had covered their houses with large sheets, tarpaulins and canvas.

We were there very early, about 10am, and the actual festival wasn’t to start until 12. This didn’t stop the predominately local Spanish crowd breaking into sporadic bouts of football chants and water fights. We had by this stage, manoeuvred ourselves into a prime position near a 10 meter high greased pole which held a ham. The festival could officially start when this ham was retrieved. You would imagine this tasking taking only a few minutes, but the rilvalry meant that half the people were pulling down the tower of people while the other half tried to climb. It keep ours and the crowds attention for a good hour and a half. They finally managed to get the ham, much to the delight of the crowd, the festival could begin! Now approximately 40,000 people crammed the small narrow streets, in preparation for the tomatoes, the traditional T-shirt ripping occurred, resulting in t-shirts being hurled every where. Girls should be warned to wear a sports bar if you want to keep your dignity. The troops were getting impatient, and a chant had started 'TO-MAR-TEEE TO-MAR-TEEE'.

It was getting very hot, when a loud bang went off, followed by a roar from the crowd, this signalled the trucks were coming. The first truck was beginning to roll down the street. The crowd quickly parted, crushing people to the sides of the small road in anticipation. The truck stopping from time to time to dump a pile of new tomatoes.

After this first truck went by, there was a flurry of tomatoes thrown, they disappeared into a trampled thin muck on the ground and disappeared. We were left looking around thinking 'was that it', when another truck started to make its way up, then another and another. We lost count, but later news reports indicated that a total of 140 tonnes of tomatoes were used in the festival. It was mayhem.

Words, and even these pictures don't begin to describe it. It was almost overwhelming, the tomatoes ended up ankle deep and you were just scooping very chunky soup to splatter people with. For an hour, you were continually being pelted and pelting random strangers with tomatoes. All being assimilated into a massive human bolognese.

Once the second boom went off, signalling the end, put down your tomatoes, you were grateful. The tomatoes actually hurt a bit when you get hit and they really start to sting in your eyes. Temporarily blinding you while another person takes advantage of that moment to target you again.

We slowly made the walk back to the train station, as always up hill. The locals come out of their homes with hoses to help rinse off the participants. It didn’t really help. When you were this covered you need a fire truck to clean you off. The tomato pulp is in your ears, stuck to you everywhere. With the heat of the day, you could feel it all drying out and smell it starting to cook on you and everyone else.

They had showers set up at the train station, so we rinsed off, and bought a couple of souvenir t-shirts. Which were basically compulsory as you needed one (a T-shirt) to get on the train.

Rating out of 5: *****
Recommend you go, it just rocks. Oh and Spain is fantastic as well. I’m going to Pamplona next year, want to come?

See all the photos here

Being the suckers for punishment that we are, the day after our mammoth stair-climbing effort at the Sagrada Familia, we decided that it would be a nice day to go for a walk in the park. The guide books all mentioned Park Guell, but didn't seem to say much about it other than it was another spectacle acclaimed to Gaudi. They also neglected to mention that it was at the top of a big hill. (It was hot, no water, stuck in a desert, ready to pass out, hot! -Aaron)

Story goes that this guy, Guell, decided that he would have a park for him and his rich friends to play in, so he talked to one of his mates, Gaudi, who designed it. Gaudi's designs are all a bit different and the combination of his designs in mosaic tiles and large archways and the view from the top of the hill made the climb worthwhile.

Heading off at our usual first-day, break-neck speed, on our first day we headed off to see a famous church that had been recommended on the gumtree travel discussion board. Even though I had been told it was really spectacular, I was still just expecting a church... but the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi is a bit more impressive than that.

I think one of the things that make it quite impressive is that it was started in 1882 and is still not finished (and they are currently still working on it). You can tell when you walk around that different parts have been completed by different people as they are quite different. The other impressive bit it that it is currently 100m high, with 4 towers, and when it is finished (no idea when that will be) it will be 170m high with an extra 3 towers.

Gaudi's design, of which you get used to in Barcelona, are strongly based on geometrical combinations of parabolas and circles etc. He is also very into the Mosaic tile look (see post on Park Guell) and does not do things by halves. This meant to take full advantage of the Sagrada Familia and it's views you climb the stairs to the top of the 100m tower. Now I didn't count the stairs, but estimating they were 25cm high each, that means we climbed at least 400 steps, and more likely greater than 600 steps (on the way up and 600 on the way down) as we managed to get lost half way and end up at the bottom again (it's all one way and the directions were in Spanish).

Olympic Village (Aaron)
Carmen seems to have forgotten to write the second half of this post. After walking up and down hundreds of steps, we decided that we hadn't had enough walking. (We have come to a realisation that our holidays are, and always will be the same. We arrive, all excited and not wanting to miss anything.. storm around on the first couple of days taking everything in. Seeing the main attractions etc. Only to be buggered, and have nothing tourist-ie to do for the last few days. It is not a bad way of doing it as it leaves you some time to just relax and soak it in.) So we went to look at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Village.

It is all very pretty, and seems to be mostly unused these days, giving the impression of a slight ghost town.

The flight and arrival at Barcelona all went relatively smoothly, and the Swiss Chocolates on the plane were even worth the extra leg of a trip through Geneva (we booked the cheapest flight we could find). We even managed to find the right bus and the street where we were staying with no problems. We had booked a B&B just off the main drag, "La Rambla", and were lucky enough for there to be someone standing outside No. 25, which looked rather in descript, with no sign and not even a name next to any of the doorbells. Aaron asked "Casa Monica?" and the guy pointed to one of the intercom buttons and we were away.

Casa Monica was on the 3rd floor (which was really the 4th floor), but suited us perfectly. It is a small guesthouse with only 2 rooms run by Monica and Fillipe (who don't speak English, but we managed). We stayed there for 3 nights when we arrived in Spain, then another 2 when we got back from Valencia. We had the best room each time, which was really 2 rooms - a bedroom and a breakfast room, and was really spacious and had a balcony for people watching. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone going to Barcelona. Much safer and more comfortable than a hostel and didn't cost much more.

Eager to get out and see what we were in for, we dumped our bags and headed back to La Rambla (only a couple of minutes walk). La Rambla is the main tourist drag in Barcelona, it is a big pedestrian street with open restaurants, souvenir shops, market stalls, florists, open air pet stores, a street performer or artist every 10 metres and multiple scam artists. A walk down La Rambla to Port Vell can take any where from 15 minutes to over an hour depending on how side-tracked you get looking at things along the way.

A quick update, we are currently in Barcelona. Visiting the local tourist sites and soaking up the culture. Spain is almost just as you imagine it, endless night life which goes on and on. Everything has a raw, and dusty quality. It is the sort of place you feel you should have got a tan before coming, everyone is beautiful, tanned, and sexy. The local hero is Gaudi, a artist and architect. Almost every main tourist attraction has some connection to him )Gaudi).

We can´t really make proper posts while over here as we don´t have cables for our cameras. So we will give full updates when we return to london.

Tomorrow we head down to Valencia. This will base us for our day trip to Buñol for the La Tomatina, tomato fight. We will spend a few more days down in Valencia before heading back to Barcelona to complete our trip before heading home.

News has it, that is snowing back home. Dad has been playing with his new camera and sent through a couple of photos of my home in Christchurch, New Zealand. We are set to head to Spain at the end of the week, so while you are in minus temperatures we will be in the 30 degree region. We will roll over while tanning for you. :+)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARC!
Well my little brother is growing up - today is his 19th birthday. Hopefully he hasn't kept it too quiet, and some of his work mates will make sure he hits the town! Although he might not have the energy... I also have to congratulate him on a great start to the season in Formula Fords after getting pole at the weekend at Manfield then driving fantastically (so I'm told) to finish the day with a win and 2 seconds. - Carmen

A couple of the Wellingtonian girls we met on our castle trip, Amy and Caroline who live in Milton Keynes, came down to London for the weekend to check out the sights. They brought Amy's boyfriend, Aaron, with them so that made for a confusing evening.

We meet them at the London Eye at 5pm. They suggested it, but it is something we've been meaning to do for ages. After about 1/2 an hour in the cue (and our tickets were pre-booked), we made it to our pod with the 32 other people that would be taking our 'flight'. The 'flight' took about 45 mins, which was long enough to see the sights without getting bored.

Amy has the same SLR digital as Aaron, so they were both in their element swapping lenses and discussing settings. Think that Amy has decided she wants a zoomy lens like Aaron's for her birthday (on Tuesday if anyone's interested).

After that we headed to Covent Garden for dinner, then were going to go for a drink when it was suggested that we go see Trafalagar Square and a few of the other sights that the others hadn't seen.

We ended up checking out St Pauls, the Millenium Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe. Amy, Aaron and Caroline were off to Jamie Oliver's restaurant for lunch today, so we expect a full report sometime soon.

Listen up, I've got an announcement. I have just accepted a job at a company which cannot be named Pharmaceuticals as a Production Engineering Management Graduate (whew, what a mouthful). After going through an interview and an assessment centre, the powers that be have decided I'm the one for the job.

The basic outline is that a company which cannot be named have been looking for a new production manager to join their team and having little luck (after interviewing like 20 people), so they have gone back a step and looked for a graduate. The theory is that I will start out learning the ropes and as I go on, will be given more and more responsibility. They are hoping that I will slide into the production manager position within 18 months, so I feel I have big shoes to fill.

The downside is a bit of a commute. It is based in Horsham (about an hour on the train each way from our house) but I'm hoping to be able to work on the train. The upside is that I will be going against the flow of commuters so will have the train to myself most of the time.

There were 8 initial candidates that were interviewed, 3 got to the assessment centre, and I'm not sure if they hired 1 or 2 of us (will have to wait til I get there). The assessment centre involved an hour interview, a 20 minute presentation, a team exercise, a numerical reasoning test, an oral reasoning test and a factory tour (I was very tired by the end of the day) The annoying thing about the way that hiring is done in this country is that it is all through a recruitment agency, so finding out about the terms of the contract involved a lot of phonecalls from me to my recruitment lady to a company which cannot be named to my recruitment lady and finally back to me.

I will definitely be sad to leave behind my job at Conoco Phillips as I have made quite a few friends here and it is a great environment with great benefits, but working here has made me realise that I'm not really thrilled about finance.

They wanted me to start ASAP, but I feel a bit obligated to help out my boss, Katy, at Conoco Phillips and then we are off to Spain for a week at the end of the month and off to Germany mid September, so I'll start on the 27th of September.

Deciding that it was time to get away and see the countryside coinciding for my overwhelming urge to live in a castle got the better of us and I managed to hunt out a weekend trip to the Yorkshire Dales that incorporated a stay in a castle.

The trip was £100 a head. That included, the transport (up, back and all around), accommodation at both a backpackers and the castle, two breakfasts and one medieval feast. The bus left Friday night, allowing people to finish work and head to the meeting point. There were two groups of 16, each group on a bus. From London, we drove effectively non-stop through to the city of York, arriving about 11.30pm. The tour guide/bus drives forces everyone to participate on some group bonding games and activities on the way up. So by the time your there you're well acquainted with the group and the time has flown by.

Upon arriving at the hostel, the group ascended on the bar until about 1am when you could visible see everyone falling asleep where the stood. It is surprising how much sitting on your arse for 4 hours tires you out.

Yorkshire Dales
The next morning, we were greeted to toast and cereal before given a whirlwind tour of York. After the tour, we were given 4 or 5 hours to explore for ourselves. Considering it is the middle of summer, it was strange to see a thick fog in the morning which didn’t lift until mid-day. There are a few interesting things in/about York. The original city had a defensive wall completely encircling it except for two entrances. The walls are almost completely in tack with only a small section missing. We spent a good 2-3 hours walking around the walls and taking photos. Guy Fawkes used to live in York, and his house is still there. And there is a very nice old ruin of a Methodist church, back in the day the king of England was under the effective command of the church, which was run by the pope in France. The king at the time didn't like this, so he created his own church, 'The Church of England', placed himself at the head of the church and burnt the other churches to the ground. He did have an ulterior motive to all this. He also wanted a divorce from his wife, which the old church would not allow.

Assembling back at the hostel, we jumped in our bus and went to Asygarth falls. Made famous by the Kevin Kostner version of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. We hung out there for an hour or so before moving on to Wensleydale cheese factory, to do a spot of cheese tasting. This particular cheese is made famous by Wallis and Grommit. There were a good 15 - 20 cheeses, some of which were very nice, other of which were not. We even bought a block, a nice smoked cheese.

You will have seen in pictures and maybe on TV, dry stone walls all over the English country side. Well it is true, they are everywhere. In the 19th Century, a few land owners held titles for most land in England. The government at the time passed a law forcing the owners to give away large amounts of their land. Of course they gave away worst, least profitable sections away. These blocks of land were littered in large stones, the new peasant land owners, picked up these stones to make the walls. This was also due to a requirement that the land had to be fenced off in order to claim their new land section. The walls have been standing for hundreds of years without mortar or cement.

At this point we dropped in on the highest water fall in England. We weren’t very impressed. Some of the group went for a swim, those who had and sense, did not. Yikes, it was cold. We hung out there for a few hours until it was starting to get dark and it was time to make our way to Bolton Castle.

Bolton Castle
The 14th century castle was perfect. It was just as you wanted it to be. Decaying from war and age. But enough of it standing that you can go inside parts and look around and stay. When we arrived, we weren't allowed to look around. We were taken straight up to a room on the second floor and given an array of clothes to pick through. We were dressing up into medieval times. Some of us looked good, while others looked like a peasant. As you can tell by the lack of photos of me, I was a peasant. It was getting towards 8pm, so they took us through to a Hall, where our medieval feast was laid out. The owner, Lord Bolton greeted us and told us the story and history of the Castle and his lineage. They made the food mildly authentic; the feast consisted of some cooked chickens, a lot of stew and other vegetable slops. But we ate our fill. Beer and wine was provided. After dinner we had a couple of boat races and drinking games before the tour organised games began.

At this point, we still had not looked around the castle, had no idea what sort of condition the other 90% of it was in and it was getting towards being pitch black. We split off into groups of 5 or 6 for a scavenger hunt type game. Each team was given a map of the castle, and a clue. Using this clue we had to find in the castle an item. The items dressed one of our team into a king. A crown, cape, sceptre, cross and shield. We had only a single lantern for each group. The race was on. It was a serious laugh, there were people running in all directions, in the dark, people lost their groups and therefore their lantern bearers. The castle is surprising large. There were a lot of pigeons nesting in parts of the castle, and as groups of drunken peasants ran through the decaying rooms they tended to suddenly fly out of the dark, scaring people. You were constantly hearing screams and laughter.

Once the teams finished up, we gathered back in the dining hall next to what was now a raging fire. A few more drinks later and we were ready for our next task. Blind folding our now 5 kings, we headed down to the hedge maze outside. With the group standing around the edge of the maze, the object was to yell directions at the blind king to try and get him/her out of the maze first. Upon exiting the maze jugs of beer had to be downed to finish.

The two winning teams, one from the scavenger hunt (Aarons team) and one from the maze (Carmens team), got to throw water logged sponges at the heads of the losing teams while they were in trapped in a stocks. Much fun was had by all. Few more drinks, and a ghost story tour later, each finishing in “and it happened on a night, just like tonight” and we were allowed to sleep anywhere in the castle we liked. Some went outside, some by the fire, and the rest scattered around the rooms.

Having explored the castle in the dark, the next morning we had the opportunity to do it again but this time by light. Lots of pictures in the gallery, go have a look. The castle took significant damage by canon fire in the 17th century, when one of the Kings was being overthrown by civil war. You are only able to climb one of the towers, as one is completely destroyed and the other two are hollow shells. Only about ¼ of the castle remains in useable condition. The rest has no floors, ceilings, with only the stone walls, arches and foundations remaining.

Sunday
After having a final look around Bolton Castle, we packed up, and headed for Sherwood Forest for a bit of an exploration and a picnic lunch. Can't say there’s much there, just trees. Surprising that.

On the way back to London we stopped off for a friendly round or two of Archery. I would just like to point out I bet Carmen :+) Then we arrived back in London about 9pm. Phew, it is exhausting just writing about it. A highly recommended trip!

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Once again us and the flatties managed to go most of the month without seeing much of each other... it's not intentional, just seems to happen like that with us all leading busy lives. After putting the flat dinner off 3 weeks in a row seen as someone always seemed to have something on, we finally got around to it last Tuesday (ok so this post is a week late - things have been busy.)

It was a wonderful evening in Brockey that should have been spent around Kate's flash new BBQ that Aaron, Richard and I spent about 2 hours putting together the night before. (Upon arriving at work the next day, we discovered we had been very lucky indeed with many others being caught in torrential downpours and enduring journey's of up to 5 hours to get home)

Unfortunately a lack of gas bottle meant that we had to revert to a poxy English disposable BBQ, but it ended up being a great evening spent with great people (including the 4 of us that live here and Ang, an Ozzie friend of Kates, who is an honourary flatmate), a lot of beer and a lot of food.

Finally, we'd like to thank Fosters for their sponsorship of this event (Kate won the BBQ and a years supply of Fosters among other things in a radio competition).

Just wanted to say a big Hi to Tori and hope that the rest of your travels in England are going well. Tori stayed with us on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and it was awesome to catch up and hear all her stories about Prague (she was just happy to see TV in English). Unfortunately I was working during the day, but she managed to pack a whole heap in (Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Baker St etc) and I got to see her in the evenings.

Was also fantastic to spend Friday lunchtime with Tori and Charlotte (been here 2 weeks now) in Hyde Park. We've been having wonderful weather the last week, and I was so depressed to have to go back to work that arvo while they went off to see some more sights. Unfortunately I was a bit slack in remembering to take some photos, but those that know Tori knows what she looks like anyway and I'm sure she'll be sending out a big e-mail about England when she gets back to Prague.

11 August 2004. Well after me saying I was slack in taking photos, Tori decided to come back and stay for another couple of days the following week. Once again I was working during the day, but Tori managed to catch Romeo and Juliet at the globe (which is what she came back for) so I think she was pretty happy.

Last week, I got taken up to Leeds with work to run a recruitment centre with work. Caught a train up Monday, came back on Friday. Shocking thing was it cost £140 for transport. Leeds seems like a nice city, but then I only got to see the city at night. Work consisted of ferrying applicants into waiting rooms, into interviews and into technical scenario test rooms. I felt like a bellhop for the week.

Saturday morning, we headed to a Walkabout. It is a chain of pubs established for Ex-pat Kiwis, Ozzies, Boks and slowly integrating Zims. It is cheap booze, large tv screens and good atmosphere. Anyway, we headed in to watch the South Africa vs Australia rugby game. Ozzie won, good time by all.

In the after noon we headed to Portobello road. A famous street market I hear, you might have seen it in the movie Notting Hill. We had a good look around, there are some very cool nics ‘n’ knacks there, but nothing you would really want to buy or need. It was an exceptionally hot day, and after our up tenth drink, we decided it was to go home and lay in some sunshine or at least find some shade.