With Niece Jayden, Brampton, Canada

Well, I am back on home turf, but still 3000 miles from 'home'. On Sept 16th, I made my way to Toronto, or Brampton specifically (a suburb of Toronto). Time to visit my friends and family, and to finally meet my cute little niece, Jayden. She was already 14 months old by the time I met her. I also got to see my nephew, Spencer, who was approaching his 6th birthday already.

My sister and Marshall graciously let me stay on their couch for a few days between visits to my other friends. But with my parents and Michelle arriving just a day apart (Sept 26th and 27th), there was simply no room for us at the house so we are now camped out at my good friend Mark's apartment since he has somewhat moved in with his girlfriend. It is nice to have our own place for the first time in over 18 months. It is amazing how you miss having your own space and somewhere you can just chill out without someone bothering you, or you bothering them. Being without wheels we spent a lot of time catching up on our movie-watching thanks to our 8-movies-in-1 DVD specials that we bought in Burma for about 1$.

It was wonderful to see my parents again after so long. They decided to visit Brampton during our time here as they head to Mexico every winter and would have been gone by the time Michelle and I made it to Kelowna B.C. We did plenty of family things and even managed to celebrate Spencer's 6th and my 36th birthday with everybody while we were all together. *Stub

Farewell Dinner, England

So it was time to say goodbye to England. All in all the last few months have been great (after the intial shock of being back), but have flown by. It was great to see my family pictured here - left to right - my brother Richard with my niece Christina, my dad, my mum, sister and her husband (remember they got married in Italy over a year ago?), and nephew Dylan and my brother's wife. My family were exceptionally generous to us in so many ways and Martin and I could have not have transitioned back without their generosity and help. Thank yooou.

It was also brilliant to see lots of old faces of friends from all my previous 'lives' in England. And Martin's too. So many of them made such an effort to come and see us, or just put us up.. and just put up with us!! Thank you to everyone for just making the time - we loved seeing you all.

I stayed on a few days after Martin left, to go to a good friend's wedding. An excellent laugh with great people. Then it was time to say goodbye to my family (yes, my mum let me go!), and onto the next chapter... Oh, Canadiaaa. * Mush

I Amsterdam, Holland

In what seems to be a city wide promotion, this huge sign was just outside the famous Rijksmuseum. A beautiful building, famous for housing one or two million Rembrandts. Unfortunately, as with most of the museums, it was under renovation. We did manage to spend a few hours at the Van Gogh Museum, which we loved; it was an interesting exhibit with some of his best works on display (The Bedroom, Wheat field and crows, Sunflowers).

We loved the atmosphere of Amsterdam. It seemed very relaxed with tons of bikes around, just cruising along. It didn't feel like a big city, but along with all the canals and bridges, there were flower boxes everywhere. The beautiful canals were lined with narrow, wonky houses of all different shapes and sizes with fancy architecture and gables. The buildings have a distinct lean forwards towards the street with a pulley at the top of the gable deliberately designed to move and hoist furniture into the building. One day strolling the streets, it was pretty cool to watch a huge fridge being hoisted in through the window.

Of course, no trip to Amsterdam would be quite complete without seeing the infamous red light district. Being a native to Amsterdam, Stiffler had no desire to see it, but as we strolled towards the area we encountered it by accident. Actually, it's really quite a picturesque area being in the older part of town. It is also the 'coffee shop' district - where shops sell 'wacky backy' in a somewhat legal fashion! Not our cup of tea, or even 'coffee', but it had a cool vibrant atmosphere even though very popular with tourists. We strolled around the red light district later at about 9pm and it didn't feel as seedy as we expected. Of course, it's hard to miss the girls in each window and the Erotic museums along the road. We did get offered various stimulants by people selling on the streets and bridges though, but no different from other parts of the world, I suppose. * Mush

Reunion with Stiffler, Amsterdam, Holland

Since we had been apart for almost 2 months, it was time to see Stiffler again. We originally met her in Vietnam and travelled with her for about 2 months through Vietnam and China. The last time we saw her, she was reluctantly heading back to China after some fun times in Hong Kong with us and friends.

We flew over to Amsterdam from Birmingham and she picked us up at the airport. It was great to see her again, and as always, was weird to see travel friends in their 'home habitat'. We saw plenty of sights around Amsterdam, and enjoyed some evenings at various pubs around town. This old pub called Hoppe was actually where Stiffler's parents met, and frequented with her after she was born. I think she had her own table in the back corner to play at. Pretty cool to return to your roots so to speak.
We spent four quick days in Amsterdam before heading back to England but it's always great to catch up with old travel friends. *Stub