The Buddy System

so since arriving back on the 24th of sept we have swapped the buddy lifestyle for a lovely cottage, large garden, cute dog and very comfy car! all of this courtersy of ben and beth who have very kindly given us the use of the car and house while away. It has been a great experience to be back in a proper house and we have learnt to garden and bake cakes, it wasn't such a shock to the system as during the three weeks that we were back in the UK we did lots and lots of road tripping to see as many people as we could before time ran out again.

Our first visitor was the pretty miss catherine sweet who laughed so hard when she saw the way we were living, we met her in our new company car and enjoyed a trip to waitrose to pick up some groceries! the last time we all met was in biarritz when she joined us for one of the final parts of the buddy trip, camping rough, not really washing, and living like gypsies! We enjoyed an afternoon by the canal and sipped tea in the garden before we had to part ways again.

First road trip stop was Cardiff for about a week, was so weird to be back, didnt feel like i had ever lived there! so lovely to see all the love coffi girls, had a fun night back in the shop also got to see chris and sarah and nick and aimee was kind enough to offer up her home, we had a great day yapping lots and visiting the beach and eating so many waffles! bub and georgie cooked us a feast and we were introduced to the wonderfule pleasure dome and then we spent two nights camping with dave and laura in west wales, trying to surf but lack of waves and bad weather got the better of us, we managed to create meals and even cups of coffee on a cool bbq and it was so nice to get back to the outdoor lifestyle, sitting on rugs and getting weathered.

On to south devon to visit boo's fam, its so beautiful there and had a fun day with his little sisters at a national trust site (a new experience for me...its so very english there!!) making wigwams and running around the woods and was lovely to catch up with his mummy who taught us the delights of baking nigella style! boo heads back to wales to book the next stage of the trip with sta and i head to london for a second meet up with bess, we only had about 5 hours to catch up but it was the best 5 hours ever, we were very tipsy by lunch time on fine cider and spent alot of time catching up and laughing, just the way it should be!

back to the wiltshire countryside where we cained a whole season 2 of 24 and parted ways with the buddy van, was so sad to see him go to his new owners but also exciting to be thinking of the next stage to this adventure whirlwind! had to say an emotional goodbye to catherine who has headed off to india and she is back after we have set off. spent time with boos nephews and sister and steve drinking in the garden and listening to music and playing with lego!

next stop, oxford where we got to have loads of fun with ollie and his fam, had a brilliant night dancing in oxford and then we all finally headed up to cardiff for chris' party, stayed in the pleasure dome again which was awesome and the party was hosted by not one but three different captains who made the night extra special! was amazing to see everyone again, made us realise just how much we had missed our lovely friends and it was great to be around familiar people again, really homely and perfect!

said a sad goodbye to ollie and the others and we were on our way to the airport, a little disaster later and we finally had picked up ben, beth and flynn and we were back in the cottage. Enjoyed spending time with ben and beth for the next 3 days catching up (and playing netball...oh yeah!!) and on the last day aimee came to swindon and we met up to catch up, shop and say goodbye. Just enough time to pack and get a couple of hours sleep and we are on our way to heathrow.............what are we doing??!! we have been so busy we haven't even had a chance to contemplate what we are about to do! 22 hour flight here we come.......................