20 years ago today.....

...... there was a storm - it was a bad storm - I nearly died. That is my version of the storms of '87 that hit South East England. Joe always teases me for saying 'I almost died' but I only just found out that is because the storm only really hit the south east so bypassed Swindon.

I remember the night well, I was eight years old - it amazes me it was 20 years ago!! We had some of our neighbours children staying they were about the same ages as my and Rich. Their parents were away for the night. I awoke to an almighty noise outside my bedroom window which was inches from my head. My bed was covered in debris from the trees, that had blown through the frame of the window. There right in front of my face was the top of a tree, had the tree been taller or our house a little further back that tree would have landed in my head. This however was not the only thing going on in the house, the kids from down the road went screaming in to Mum and Dad's room thinking the window has shattered in their room. Dad went to investigate to find a tree had come through the roof and in to the bedroom. I to this day am so impressed how cool, calm and collected my parents were. If a tree were to fall through my roof right now I do not think I would be calm. They did not panic or begin to worry about how they will fix the roof. We all went downstairs and sat in the middle of the living room - deemed the safest place in the house and waited for the storm to blow over.

We used to have 12 huge pine trees in our back garden after the storm we had 6. The huge pine tree in the front was still standing and to this day is the only one that is. The council came to take down all the existing trees, our next door neighbour refused so her remaining trees still stand.

The neighbours whose children were in our house did not fare as well as us. A tree fell on the house and cut the roof in half down the middle, with the trunk sitting on the front and back walls of the house. The tree fell directly on top of the room of the girl who was sleeping in our house - it is amazing they were at our house that night.

East Anglia was not the worst affected area with the South coast getting the worst of the storm, many buildings damaged and 18 killed. I hope we never see another storm like it.

St Ives

To complete our little collection on mini trips away Joe and I went to St Ives (Cornwall) last week to spend a few days with Emily in her family's house. We had a fantastic time and with weather was brill. I have wanted to visit the Eden project for ages so as we were down that way we went. It was fantastic, especially as in the tropical dome they had a Cameroon section - so we spent ages looking at all the familiar plants. The domes are fantastic and the variety of plants they grow is amazing. I was taken by how well they use the space and you do not only walk around the floor of the dome but go up in to the top. We had a great day there.

We had some fantastic food - as holidays is all about the eating for Joe and I. I had some delicious grilled Mackerel to continue my reminiscing about Cameroon and it was so tempting to eat it with my fingers but thought better of it.

Emily and I even donned wet suits and went bodybording which was great fun, I rode some of the waves pretty well and at one point a seal even joined us in the sea!

My Thai

Five years ago from now Joe and I were in Thailand on our Honeymoon, so we decided what better way to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary than with a Thai meal. That is after our plans went wrong as the hotel we planned on going to closed down!

We heard about this Thai restaurant in London with a Michelin star so thought we would give it ago. As our original plan included a hotel stay we looked at local hotels, the hotel attached to the restaurant was getting on for £350 a night to soon knocked that on the head and went cheap and cheerful from lastminute.com. The meal was magnificent, we chose one of each of the five options, soup, salad, relish, curry and main dish. This was all served together after a lovely noodle starter. Then exotic fruit to end, some of which we were familiar with with from Cameroon others were very strange.

We then spent the next day in London (to avoid congestions charge and other reasons) went to both Tate gallery's and had a nice day hanging around in the rain.

All that is left is to say

"Cheers for a great five years"

Oktoberfest

Last week Joe and I went to Munich to visit Conny (fellow volunteer from Buea). We also chose this week to go as it is Oktoberfest in Munich. We had a great time, visited a castle outside Munich and saw all the sights of Munich.

Oktoberfest was like nothing I have ever seen before. Everyone goes in traditional Bavarian dress. The second time we went I borrowed one of Conny's so I would fit in! The first night we went we could not get in to a tent so we sat in a beer garden. We get served beer in 2 litre glasses and enjoy. The fest is basically a huge funfair selling lots of beer. Many drunk people on various rides, the oldest ride is this helterskelter ride where you have to go up a very fast escalator to get up (felix goes first, friend of Conny's then Joe then me with some help!)

The second night we went we managed to get in to a tent which was fantastic. A band playing a great selection of songs, everyone dancing on th benches and generally 100's of people having fun. The tents are amazing structures and to think they only have them up for 2 weeks of the year - only Germans could organise such an event! I am now very tired and could do with another holiday to recover!