Home sweet home...

Our last few days in La Paz were very enjoyable. We spent lots of time eating at our favourite restaurants (3-course dinners for 2 quid!), & browsing the markets. I loved the markets in South America, we bought back loads of stuff with us, but I could easily have filled another bag or two...

On our last day we hit another fiesta! This was quite fitting really, as we also had a fiesta the day we arrived in La Paz. It was Independance day, & was pretty manic! There was a huge street parade to the main plaza, & the Bolivian flag was flying everywhere... We had walked to the American airlines office to check a few things regarding our flight (mostly, what the baggage allowance was!) but of course it was closed due to the national holiday.

Our flight home on Tuesday went well. The La Paz to Miami leg with American Airlines was fine, but the Miami to Heathrow trip with Virgin Atlantic was really good. A nice new bright & airy airplane, good service, good food, & great in-flight entertainment added up to a very enjoyable flight. I do rate them as an airline.

We touched down at Heathrow at 9am on Wednesday, got our baggage & cleared customs VERY quickly (for Heathrow!), practically walked straight onto a departing Railair bus for Reading, got a cab straight away, & pulled up at Will's door at 11am. We were feeling OK despite the 6 hour time difference, & a couple of days without sleep. I even went to rugby training that night! Initially I was only going for social reasons, to catch up with the girls, but I was feeling so good I decided I might as well train... I was so stiff & sore I could barely walk for 2 days afterwards, but that's a different story! When I turned up I found out I had been awarded the coach's player of the season award, & was runner-up in the player's player award, so that was a really nice surprise to return home to.

The last few days have been all about sorting our new house. I have to be out of my current place by the 15th, so there's not much time at all... We've spent the last 3 days painting all the rooms, & it is now looking really good. The previous occupier (a single man) had decided to paint the bedroom & lounge dark brown! We've gone for nice light neutral walls throughout, as we have enough cushions/throws/wall hangings etc to add lots of colour. I've never painted inside rooms before & have been really enjoying it. Tomorrow I'll do a bit of cleaning up & start moving a few things in, then Tuesday will be the big proper moving day. Then it'll be time to tackle the garden! It is lovely being away for 5 weeks, coming back, & still having 3 weeks of holiday stretching out in front of me... Poor old Will was back at work on Thursday!

By the way, I've finally succumbed to pressure & signed up on facebook. If any of you out there aren't on my friends list yet then let me know...