I'm not saying there isn't lots to do in NZ but ...

We've been keeping very busy making our own fun.  Our sister Edith got a video camera for Christmas and we've been putting it to good use.  You may watch these videos as long as you don't tell immigration that George is in the country... okay???



He has even been practicing his magic ... 

A early Xmas present from us!

So travelling around as we are you pick up many things which you haven’t witnessed before. It’s a bit like George Harrison from the Beatles fell in love with the sitar. So I am going to share a few things with you that we have seen in India. Do remember India is an advanced and vast country and has many influences from overseas. Also me and Em have been quite chilled in Jodhpur and watch alot of TV. So the first things were a bit addict to is something called Minute to win it. It similar to millionaire but as the guest are not up to the general knowledge level they take part in games. Click to see a preview.

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Also if you want to see more and how to make the games for the family Christmas see here. http://www.nbc.com/minute-to-win-it/how-to/index.shtml

We also saw this, it’s beyond words.



Know for something of an Indian flavour. This man is the daddy



Since the Cammino and working at Project Why me and Em are trying to live light and fast. So were not doing presents this year.This is an early Xmas present from me and Em Enjoy. If you’re having problems on thinking what to get a loved one for Xmas I know a great charity http://projectwhy.org/Donate.html.

Launchbox FUN!!!

We have been using bits and pieces from the Launchbox over the last few weeks.  Unfortunately at Okhla where we were for the first two weeks didn't really have enough room to make the contraptions.  Now we are based at the Women Center which has more classrooms and a lot more space.

Check out the kids watching the lovely Danny explain the Launchbox and the Launchpad Gallery.  We prepared the kids so they knew that they wouldn't understand everything Danny said but to shout out any words and objects they recognised in the video.  That turned into a lot of fun and noise!

Together we viewed the "On the Move" video.  They were absolutely spellbound!  We shouted out words like rolling, falling, fire, dog, turning and burning.  

 
Here is the contraption that Alan made to inspire the kids to make their own.  We labeled it with the vocab we wanted them to get to grips with (we are totally turning into proper little teachers!).

Here we are building a seesaw.

Getting them fired up with the Stupid Egg trick!

Adding the final touches on their Big Machine!

Here's some video of the girls practicing their new vocab! 

Over a few days they built their own contraption.  They absolutely loved the experience. In mainstream Indian classrooms it's very much one answer for each question.  If they teach the sky is blue and a child might answer sometimes it can be pink or grey, this answer will be wrong.  Opinion and testing out theories isn't really the deal.  In many poorer schools we have been told the teachers only turn up to take registration and the rest of the day the kids play.  In India boys and girls attend school at different times.  At the women's centre the boys come in the morning and go to the normal school in the afternoon.  The girls attend in the afternoon after they have been to school.   

It's a fantastic project that not only supports the kids in this area but also runs classes for the local women (like sewing skills) and provides a bedroom where women can take refuge if needed.

If you donated money to this project before we left or are still collected (I know MCC South London is currently collecting pennies) you're money is definitely going to a grass roots charity that is making a hell of a lot of difference!  A massive, massive thank you to Lex and Danny who put the Launchbox together for the kids xxx

Night night don't let the track bite

Standing on Platform one of Delhi Sarari Rohilla with the Delhi smog enhanced by the wedding season fireworks blurring the lights of the trains as the hollow haunting horns sound the arrival. As we stood amongst the crowd with the sound of Chai, chai, chai rang in our ears and smell of platform food overload our nasal senses.

We found carriage S1 on the 1035 sleeper to Jodphur Junction and boarded finding our beds 25 and 28. We climbed up to our top bunks and laid down and observed. The excitement and high pace energy of the kids from a family near us amused us for a while. A mans ritual of whipping down the bed laying a blanket the perfect shape of the bed then covering it with two further blankets and topping it of with a inflatable pillow. Me and Emily wrapped in a double blanket and heads on our bags showed we were not as experienced but very ready and excited for what lay ahead.

The horns sounded and we were of the rocking motion of the train and the rhythmic chatter of steel wheels on the track made for a soothing felling and masked the light snores.As we laid back and our train cut its way throw the night we could hear trains call out in the night. The relaxing ambiance changed for a definite efficient tone of overhead announcements and platform chaos as we entered stops along the way. All in all we both had a good sleep and the experience was great.

The excited family next door woke us up with there hollering and very demanding whining for their mother. The 0630 alarm call was a little early but it did mean we could get up slowly and chat to the older Indian couple down below. They were heading home and enjoyed the chat and a quick read of the Jolly Post Man. The man with the bedding cleaning ritual must of felt the cold as him and his friend were top and tail on the lower bunk.Once the wake up chai was in then the nut cutlet type things were severed with the finest white plastic bread and Heinz tomato sauce on the side which then was washed down with more Chi. We arrived at our destination.

The experience of this sleeper was great. It was well used and slightly worn yet well maintained. The open track long drop toilet was in good condition no worse then some loos on Southeastern railways back home. I would say to anyone travel by Sleeper and don't be put off by standard class it's where "real India" travels.

Huff and puff in India

This blog comes with a warring. And that warring is this and my next entry is me banging on about trains. So if you keep reading and think your never get the time back you were warned.

So first things first the National railway museum in Delhi. This is a great place on 10 acers with a vast collection of historical trains and carriages from the colourful history of the Indian railways. There's a lot covering the times British colonial ear. It's nice to walk around a well layered out disused siding with trains sitting on the track looking slightly weathered and the odd scare from there working life. There is also a nice under cover museum. With many items ranging from name plates, signals, railway cups and a Elephant skull.

Many of the trains came from works in England and my first instinct was to write about them but then i found a great example of something which i find interesting. It came in the shape of this little yellow beast 25630.
Its a fireless steam locomotive built in Germany in 1953 working as a Factory loco (works shunter) at Sindri Fertilizers, Sindri. Now as you may are not know a steam engine usually works by a fire in the fire box heating water in the boiler and that becoming steam and that pressure is used to drive the pistons to then move the train. But this has no fire. How this works is there a a fixed boiler plant that produces the steam at a great presser. That presser is feed in to the tank on this train. The problem is that this train has a slow speed and cant go far away from its boiler plant. But this type of train was used in shunt yard and factories like chemical plants and explosive factories were you don't want sparks from the fire flying around. This is a great looking train and very creative way around a problem. This idea was tried out in the early days of the London underground.

This Elephant skull is from a wild elephant that charged a mail train on September the 28th 1894 on a rail bridge 220 mile from Calcutta. The loco and its 7 carriages was derailed and the Elephant was found 40 feet below. The impact of the collision and the fall the Elephant was dead. The skull is on show in the Delhi Rail museum. One tusk was given to James Bell the engine driver while the other is at the board office in London.

All in all the train system is amazing over here from it in city Delhi metro to its long distance rail roads which I will be covering next time.

Are they really talking about us?????

http://projectwhy.blogspot.com/2010/11/rerely-is-love-instant.html

We keep reading Anou's blog entry (link above) and thinking "oh, how nice, what lovely people they sound", then we look at each other and have to remind ourselves that it's written about us!!  How strange!!!  It reads like the best references we've even been given!!!

Isn't it a shame we cannot take all the credit for ourselves!?! ha ha ha.  If it wasn't for our families, church and friends we would even be here at all.  They have released us with their blessings and so many have supported us and Project Why financially.  With the love and grace of God somehow we have managed to grown into people that can have fun and give love easily and we experienced both of these things in very large quantities here at Project Why.   The amazing part is we have received much, much, much more than we could even imagine giving back.

Anou, her family and this amazing project have made us feel so welcome and have taught us so much.  How will we even thank them????  

Elephants on the way to work!

Our walk to school

We've been super fortunate to be staying with the Anou and her family.  Anou gave 'birth' to Project Why and continues to work very hard making sure that it continues.  Most days we travel with her, her daughter Shamika and grandson Agastya in two rickshaws (or autos as they are called here) and too keep grounded she visits the person who first inspired her to start Project Why.  We have chai and receive a blessing then Shamika, Alan and I walk the last bit to school.

Shamika letting Alan 'lead' the way to test if he can remember which twist and turns to make.

Learning can happen anywhere.  This class were so engrossed in their studies they didn't even look up when we started taking photos (VERY unusual reaction in India).

The classroom above from a little way down the road.  It's an awesome street with lots of action, chickens, dogs, kids, cooking, cleaning, chai and chats!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

For some reason our camera wiped a whole lot of our photos (including one of Alan being Princess Diana at the Taj...) but some which I thought were lost were saved!  Hurray!

Exercise books are actually called 'copies' in India.  This is due to the fact that in government schools books are used for copying off the board.  Sometimes it can take a bit of encouragement to get the kids to draw in their books and to convince them it's okay to write what they want and to make mistakes.  I think I helped by leading by example here - check out all my spelling mistakes!  This work was inspired by one of the all time best books EVER ... 

Finally some videos!

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhBIDKevoTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdZYuHGnfUM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzkoKpayR_E

Diwali

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z3KZMgoSKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcOOxg1sVhU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI0yfaleTvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uT_vJxlOqY

Enjoy!

Finally some photos!

The kids enjoying the bubble workshop (sorry we didn't get the cow in the background).

Cleaning the classroom with the bubble mix.

A few of the students outside the classroom.  They had just finished painting it ready for Diwali.

Getting ready for sunset on Diwali night at home.

The balcony of the house after we'd put all the candles out to welcome and guide home Lakshmi Ganesha.

Someone enjoyed all the Diwali sweets!

The Dad of the house we are staying in is actually the Indian version of my Dad.  He is about the same age, smokes cigars, well travelled, tells bad jokes and great stories of people and places which I pretend to know all about.  Loving it!

Needless to say Alan is pretty popular with the kids.

There's a first time for everything....

We were so sad to complete our pilgrimage to Santiago and we weren't really sure what to do next.  It all seemed so finished.  Going back to the UK was a strange experience.  It was wonderful to go back to church and see all our friends and family but we didn't have our own home, we didn't have a place of work and everyone had carried on with their lives while we were away.  Where did we fit in, did we fit in? 

I have been reminded over this last week of the alpha and omega carving on the cathedral in Santiago.  Strangely it is reversed.  It is there to remind us that one journey finishes and another one begins.  And so it has.  Project Why is a pilgrimage in itself.  Many people have been on this journey for a long time and it's humbling to finally join them on their walk.

The kids here at project why are incredible.  It is obvious that many of them are burdened with very grown up responsibilities and it's such a joyful experience to see them come into the project each day, leave their worries at the door and transform into sponges ready to soak up every little bit of information they can.  We have soooooooooo much fun everyday and we feel very privileged to share some new things with the kids that many haven't had the opportunity to be part of before.

First time blowing bubbles. The bubble show was a MASSIVE hit.  Alan held them captive for 20 minutes and they tried super hard to keep their promise to sit on their bottoms and not pop the bubbles.  But like all kids - this was a difficult promise to keep - it was just too tempting and exciting.  Alan did us proud and even managed a bit of bubble tennis and bubbles inside bubbles.  We took them outside group by group so they could try and blow their own bubbles.  We're pretty sure many of them had never blown a bubble before.  It was great PR for the project as many local kids joined in. 

First time a cow has walked through a bubble workshop.

First time the bubble mix was used to clean the classroom floor after a show.

First time playing with a jigsaw puzzle.  I was lucky enough to be helping out in the additional needs classroom when a six year old boy arrived for his very first day at school.  The classroom was a hive of activity with half the class painting pots for Diwali and half playing with lovely wooden puzzles.  He was very nervous and was sat between a teacher and me as we painted pots.  A puzzle was set before him and he had no idea what to do with it.  So I tipped out the pieces and put the puzzle back together again.  I tipped out the pieces again and helped him to finish the puzzle.  He put all the pieces upside down in all the wrong places.  Over the next hour we completed a few puzzles together, he was getting the idea.  Slowly I walked him over to the kids playing with puzzles and he sat down and started joining in.  He kept looking over searching for encouraging smiles which I was more than happy to provide.  I'm not sure what my heart was bursting with but it was certainly bursting.

First time being covered in shit.  We'll I wasn't actually covered in shit and it wouldn't be the first time.  But I died of embarrassment one day as somehow I had managed to step in some dog/cow/chicken/human shit (take your pick, I really wasn't sure).  And somehow I had managed to get a bit of it on my trousers.  Somehow I was the only one amongst around 50 very clean children to have got themselves into this predicament.  I actually thought I was going to die with the shame of it all.  The majority of these children do not have running water in their home, I'm guessing many have dirt floors and share their small space with a lot of family members.  Yet, here I was, covered in shit. Typical.

First time playing cricket with the teaching staff inside during the lunch break.  The staff are so much fun.  We eat together, play games together, sometimes sleep and talk and talk.

Last day walking tomorrow!!!!

We really can´t believe it!!!! 

We have walked further than London to Dundee http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp#fromNode=308260060632301%7CLondon,%20London%7CSTREET%7C530129%7C179589%7CtoNode=218260005632280%7CDundee,%20Dundee%20City%7CSTREET%7C340442%7C730335

And a little further than Whangarei to Wellington http://www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/new-zealand-map/interactive_map_home.cfm/node_id_a/295/node_id_b/287.html

What will we do when we stop walking and there are no more yellow arrows to follow?????

Day39!!!! Arzua - We arrive in Santiago on Friday!!!!

Okay, we are SUPER excited and bed bug free!  Sorry we haven´t been updating much but our routine is pretty much...

• Get up anywhere between 6am and 7am
• Leave the hostel
• Find Breakfast
• Walk
• Cafe and Crossaint
• Walk
• Find a place to pee
• Walk
• Cafe and Cake
• Walk
• Arrive at next hostel
• Shower
• Hand wash clothes
• Feet up
• Eat a three course meal
• Talk about blisters, kilometres walked, good hostels, bad hostels, pilgrims/tourists mix etc
• Repack bag for quick getaway in the morning
• In bed by 9.30pm
• Lights out at 11pm
• Kinda of sleep, keeping in mind that other pilgrims might hit me in the night for snoring...

Next day - repeat

Sound boring???  Funny enough it´s been one of the happiest, fun and fullfilling times of my life!

Day 30 - Bed Bugs in Villafranca del Bierzo

Just to let you know we are going great guns now (probably trying to run from Bed Bugs) and have reached Villafranca del Bierzo.  We should be in Santiago by the 15th hopefully!  We now believe we are actually going to make it all the way there by foot and are getting super excited.

Oriental Bazaar

So its day 25 and its turened a bit cold and rainy now and then. Well on day 5 it was hot and very hot and my bag wegithed me down. So seeing a charity clothing bin i tossed my jumper in it. So i need somewere cheap to buy a new one. Oriental Bazaar was the place. It has every thing you ever need. Its a bit like a pound shop mets a DIY/home store. On paying for my jumper (a homage to Scott at the science musuem) and a star head band for Em. Emily noticed the guy watching the CCTV. He showed us all the ways he can zoom in and watch split screen. Em and the guy moned about how pepole stole stuff. When Em asked if i was surprised and felt sorry for him that he need all that to stop pepole nicking stuff. My answear was well he was also selling a device to smoke drugs as well as a set of digtal micro scales and my fave just by the cartoon DVD ther was a DVD and the pictuer on the front was a naked woman huging a cow. So not saying he desvers all he gets but no i dint fell sorry for him.

Any way the ligths are out in the hostel so going to spark up the pipe and watch this DVD under the sheets.

(I normally add a pictuer of the topic but not this time, as having the Spainsh police looking for you once is engough)

Camino Surprises ....

• There is a rumour that one lady is doing a “commando camino” after she left her underwear behind and now classes undies as a luxury
• I regret going down to 2 pairs of undies and throwing the bottom half of my zip up trousers away
• Meeting two friends who met 30 years ago as they were in the same ten pin bowling team.  They were the best in Finland at one point but now they are not so good as “we have new younger members and they need to learn a lot”.  The husband wouldn't walk with them as he plays ice hockey three times a week (he´s 78).
• Planning the day ahead and  thinking, ah, that stretch is only 12 kms - no problem.
• Eating ALOT (including three course meals with chips most days) and losing around 4 kilos so far.
• That the homeopathy snoring spray is actually working (a little).
• That we haven´t got bed bugs yet.
• Jumping in the back of a car as the guy who was driving said he was an amigo of the owner.  We were hobbling into town (well I was) at about 8 at night and I think the guy felt sorry for us as it looked as though we´d walked all day.  He wasn't to know we decided to have a short day and a long lunch instead and had only been walking for 3 hours!  Needless to say we didn't end up in black bin bags...
• Suddenly crying as I thought it was super sweet that a truck driver beeped and waved to us when we were walking along a motorway.  (We wave at a lot of truck drivers to get them to honk their horns and it usually works, but this was the first time one had made the first move so to speak).
• Enjoying spending time with people who don´t speak English.  The quiet is nice and the charades are fun.
• Remembering odd things that people say... “you gotta look back or you don´t know how far you’ve come kid”
• Developing a taste for strawberry jam.
• Naturally waking up at 6.30am.
• Totally by accident staying at a hostel sponsored by the author of the pilgrimage, Paulo Coelho.  I´m not sure what this website says but you can see pictures of the hostel http://www.icaljacobeo.es/Mostrar.cfm/Reportajes/I/camino/8000/kilometros/fecha/caducidad/193044 it was so peaceful and a bit of a magical experience.
• Making it to the half way mark!!!!!!

Half way there!!

Thats rigth were well on the way. All we have to do is the same as before but a bit diffrent. So as you walk you get to think about what you would like to do in the futuer. Here is just a small list of mine and Ems posible furtuer job prospects.
1) Run a pilgrime hostle dug in a hill side.
2) Run a company that send futuer married couples on the Camino to realy find out about each other.
3) Become shepards whith a donkey hearding the sheep(This was as we got suround by sheep and walked with them)
4) Drive one of these.

Well its nice to dream.

The things we hear.

So you over hear lots of diffrent things as you walk and hang out in hostles. My fav so far is a conservation between two people.
1- Says do you speak English or Spainsh?
2- yes,
1- then asks which one?
2- In a obivous tone, English.
The fact that the connsevation was so fluid it was obivous he spoke preety good English i laugth for hours on that one.

The next one a fellow prilgrime Rory passed on to me. He walked past a couple and the women was resting her feet and the boy friend was afew steps forward. He looked pissed off. And Rory said as he past he heard the girl say fine i cant stop to rest me feet but its OK to stop to take a photo of a puddle.

Well the joy of human natura

Burgos Baby - Day 18

Ok, so instead of making use of the hotel we had to book into today (and I´m talking about using up all the complimentary toiletries people), or seeing the amazing historical sites of Burgos, or attending one of the many hundreds of church services, or reflecting or even walking like a good little pilgrim, I´m sitting here in a dirty Internet cafe with a pretend coca cola updating you lot and considering getting Burger King for dinner (maybe I´m a tinsy winsy bit homesick and a little tired).

So the update is.... we walked around 25 kms yesterday.  Which was super impressive as I had a nasty stomach bug two days before.  It was like a 24 hour throw up bug that was on a tight schedule so it decided to do all it´s business in 6, obviously not in it for the overtime.  I recovered well as we walked only 12 kms the day afterwards and found ourselves in a lovely little place called San Juan de Ortega at a hostel that is connected to the church.  It didn´t open till 2pm so I fell asleep on a bench like a tramp and shuffled through the door at opening time.  I then found a corner bunk, got in it and didn´t get up until 5.45pm, went to mass and then took part in a tradition of theirs.  After mass they feed all the pilgrims this amazing garlic soup.  Without a doubt it´s the best soup I have ever had.  Healing soup I reckon!  I went back to bed at 7.30 and woke up again at 6am and walked to Burgos!  I am a brand new pilgrim.  However...

It´s now Alan´s turn.  There is no healing garlic soup, but he is in a hotel with lots of Spanish TV so I think he´ll live!  He is already on the mend and we´ll be walking again tomorrow.

Last night we thought we may have arrived in heaven.  We had been recommended to stay at a Albergue (hostel) in Burgos called, Parroquial de Peregrinos Emaús.  A local had to help us find it but it was like walking into a palace.  They have rebuilt this church and it includes lots of rooms for the youth to use, smaller chapels for daily mass, a massive church for weekly services, accommodation for the two priests and a hostel for pilgrims.  It´s donation only and we prepared the meal together (well, Alan and I set the table), went to mass altogether and had breakfast too.  I think it holds about 20 people and Alan and I had a room to ourselves (which was just as well as he wasn´t well in the night).  

As we were getting our credentials stamped they invited us to mass.  I explained that we cannot take mass as we are not Catholic but was it still alright if we attended.  She huffed and puffed and said something about it being the same Jesus, gave me a English translation so I could follow along and instructed us to go up for a blessing instead.  

So we attended (there is a lot of standing up for a tired pilgrim, and no MCC style rise as you are able, and when it came to communion we thought maybe we shouldn´t go up to receive a blessing.  However, the lovely huffing and puffing French lady marched up to us and said she had spoken with the priest and it was time we got walking up the front.  And we did, and it was wonderful to be a part of it.  We have found it very hard that we are not welcome to take communion at church and we have had angry moments and sad moments.  We are trying to be open minding and it really does help to meet everyday people who think they same as we do as after all it is the same Jesus, isn´t it?

In true Emily and Alan style we have made up for it in our own ways.  We had communion last Sunday, just the two of us, at the side of the road with our water bottles and croissants!  Chris Dowd will be beaming!

All things considered we are doing great and might even book at flight and a date from Santiago back to the UK in the next week.  The lovely people at the Science Museum have given us two nights at a hotel in Santiago (which isn´t that spiritual I guess, but VERY motivating!), so we´ll let you guys know very soon when we intend to get there.

Love you all lots and more xxx

Day... EVERYDAY - SheWee

Okay, it beautiful here, don´t get me wrong, but if you if you go just off the path, it´s like a camino toilet!  Ladies, tell your friends, there is no need for loo paper and no need for squating.  Get a SheWee!!!!  The only thing is I´m more concerned about getting caught weeing as they might thing I´m actually a man whose surgery was pretty convincing ... http://www.shewee.com/newstore/

Day 11 - Sleeping with the nuns

Okay, so today we reached Santo Domingo de la Calzada (just after Logroño on the map) and we are staying at a hostel run by nuns.  Sweet!  In fact they sing in the church along the hostel in about 8 minutes so I´m gonna go and check it out.

Day 08 - Socks and Sandals...

Not my feet, but pretty close!

I got lost!  If you hadn´t ever noticed Alan´s legs are about 5 times the length of mine.  This boy can walk fast.  I cannot walk fast.  My legs are short and tubby and I have been reduced to walking in socks and sandals for some days (although today I was back  in my boots).  This is due to my feet swelling up BIG TIME and some of my toe nails changing colour and threatening to fall off (which they haven´t).  Anyway....  Alan usually walks a little ahead of me, finds a nice spot in the shade, gets a pedicure and they I shuffle along, we say nice things to each other and then repeat the process. 

On the way into Lorgono, I was shuffling along and didn´t see Alan in the shade up ahead.  Hmmm, I thought, he has finally lost his patience and has gone a little on ahead.  So I walk some more....  An hour passes and no Alan....  I´m not so annoyed anymore, just a little worried.  I walk 'quicker'.... two hours later, no Alan.... I get a bit panicky....  3 hours later I´m close to tears, I use my not so hot Spanish and describe Alan to some locals who are chilling by the path (Barbar means beard which is kinda cool)... anyway, I get to the outskirts of town and I'm tired, hungry and hot and freaked out (we hadn´t been more than 30 minutes apart on the whole trip till this point) I walk into the pilgrims office and burst into tears (how embarresing).  Google translator is the best thing EVER, they ring every hostel in the land and then the ring the Spainish police!  About an hour passes (which contained one false sighting, 'an English doing his shopping' does not equal 'Alan Worman, 35, beard and tall'... eventually we found each other and gave the other pilgrims quite a show as there was ALOT of crying and hugging and then more crying and hugging.

Turns out I got lost as I was staring at my sexy socks and sandals and didn´t see the MASSIVE yellow arrows telling me which way to go.  Alan went looking for me and the rest is history.

I´ve never felt the need to ask Alan how much he loves me, I never really made a pie graph of how much I love him - after this day I´m pretty confident I´ll never need too.

Call the Cops

Just a quick up date of whats going on this end. First of all the pilgrimage to Santigo is going really well. Have lots of time to reflect and just spend toime thinking about things that just need a little time. Its hard when the days are filled and rushed and you have to be here there and every were. Here you just have to walk 25k a day. i think as me and Em adapte to the walking way this process will happen more. To day hit a long strech of straigth road and it just hipnotized me rather than bored me.

Two things i like to share. First of every were we go there having a festia. We have seen bull running, marching bands, kids walking around in mulity colored overalls (dont know why) and the fire work display that had pepole in our hostel ducking under the bed.

The next thing is as we walk we follow yellow arrows. I walk a bit faster then Em so if i get ahead i wait in the shade. The other day after a long wait i re traced my tracks seeing were Em has got to. She was no wer to be seen. So i headed of to the town we were aiming for. Em had took a sligthly diffrent (wrong) route in to town. We were both worried as know its 3-4 hour since we saw each other. Em had gone in to a Info place and they called all the hostles and Police. so i rock up to a hostel and every one seem to know me and in the process Em found me. then the place we stayed at the vicar refered to me by name the whole time. One thing about this funny story is it also ha dmany sobrering sides. Alougth this happens a lot the info guys took it serisouly and got the police involed and they were worried as the daily ligth was comming to the end, it just brougth home how serious this can be we haveheard stories of pepole beging found dead on route. Someone left a Hostle early the other day in the dark and fell down a ditch now has grazzed knees and black eyes.

It all end well for us and things are great. See what the fiture holds.

Day Five!!!

Well, we´re in Uterga and Alan reckons we've walked around 50 MILES!  So far...

• Mary will be pleased as we stayed at a place that used to be a monstery last night.
• My feet REALLY hurt.  Not blistered but I think my feet have swelled up and they don't want to make friends with my boots. I'm hoping they'll get back together at some point.
• We are still married.
• I´ve run out of minutes at the internet....

Gusse the wegith of the cake.

As were out on the Camino we are awear that our values would changen. Also we would value things in a diffrent ligth. But not in ways like these. First of when your in a super market you normal look for the item then a brand you know and finally check the price. Oh no not us as we have to carry every thing when buying stuff for the next day lunch the first thing we do is pick it up and check its wegith. odd i know. Know we all know about seeing things and worshiping them. Well when me, Em and onther pilgrim saw the compeed shelf in a farmice we fell to our knees and thanked the lord there and then.

We´re still alive!

Just to let you know we´ve completed around 50 ks and are now at Zubiri (before Pamploma on the map).  We got ourselves over the "Pair of Knees" in good time and we walked today (day three) in the rain.  That was quite hard work especially as our socks were super wet.  But we made it!  We´ve met lots of nice people and we hurt ALOT (well, maybe me a little more that Alan) but we are still married and are smiling most of the time.  Thank you for all your good wishes, thoughts and prayers - they are definately helping!

Day 1 - Em

Hysterical, we helped a fellow Pilgrim cut down her two packs into one pack. From about 100kgs to 60kgs (we´ll it felt like it). We did all this in mine and Italian. she had an electric element to heat water for tea, a robe and a transistor radio, to name just a few ´"essentials" items that we managed to get her to leave behind. She still has her water colour set and cartridge paper, two novels and a bath robe. WE don´t share the same language but I warmed to her immediately, we laughed a lot, esp when she was attempting to decant some shampoo into a smaller bottle I gave her and instead sprayed it all over the hostel walls. It is so difficult to prepare for the unknown. She had all these things as she believed it would make her life more comfortable and she had believed she "needed" them. But actually they were going to make her journey harder and more complicated. I´m not sure if she ever read a guide book or just decided not to follow it´s advice? We don't really know what we´ll need, how much we can carry or what is essential yet. We can only make things a bit more simple and trust that it will work out. Not that I can talk I am carrying ALOT of extra baggage on my body!

Guggenheim and the waxs cannons

First of all some of you reading this may be aware the art galleries and artist can really wind me up. However if your waiting for a post where I describe how I throw a hissy fit and kick paintings of the wall . This is not one of those posts and I quite enjoyed this gallery.

So my visit to the Guggenheim in Bilbao . First of i had a nice stroll from the coach station to the gallery throw a nice quaint park. very decorative and all nice kich 1930s type thing. Then bang i got a glimpse something shimming in the distance. Another blinding flick of light to the retina, turn a corner two cold aluminium curve complementing each other on a clear fresh monotone sky blue back ground. This building is just amazing it kind of unrolls in front of you and parts appear and extend as you pass. The felling carries on as you enter and you learn that when you walk in you are in the centre part which is the heart then you travel throw curving walk ways to the connecting organs then back to the heart to move to the next gallery or organ. I loved the architecture of this and as you moved around you did pass the same thing from different angles but that dint matter. You could see parts of the museum from other parts making areas seem close when in fact they were far away. The only thing that did enter my mind was dose such a unique building which is a piece of art in it own right distract from the art on display- or vice a versea. But i soon got carried away with a collection of sculptures that i have had on my list to see for a while.

A favourite sculptor of mine Richard Serra had his work The matter of time on display there. In fact it created with that space in the museum in mind. The work is the large metal shapes which invite you in and as you follow them you go throw a sense of light and dark. Getting feelings of over empowerment followed by a light freeness. What i love about his work is its large rusty metal work. However with the gentle shapes used and the grace which the work has it dose not come across as brutal.

I passed throw there permanent collection which was the snap shot of Art you see at most galleries you know A hockney, A Warhole so on and so on. They had an show a small collection of work by Anish Kapoor which are always fun to see. The idea that he set up the art work but what quite come out is a bit random i like however is a canon firing wax around the way to go. It has brought some fun back in to art and being a big fan of colour theory i love to hear what he had to say about colour. By the way the audio guides they give out are great.

The Audio guide recall helped me to get to know this guy Robert Rauschenberg. His works in a collection called Glut was the last collection he worked on before he died. They were first put together as a stage for a contemporary dance group but then later reworked to be pieces for a art gallery. The collection of re used and re worked materials throw up striking colours and texture with a hint of familiarity. The stuff that he uses was from a scrap yard in the are of America that had seen the boom of oil refinery crash down around their ears. What was once a sign of strong growth and the get richer quicker (The Glut) know sits and rusted disconnected in a scrap yard. I want to learn more about this artist and his work so there may be more about this to come.

The museum is a great place and really caters for people who like to be around art but in a informal relaxed coffee drinking way. But it also has a lot of deep behind the scene stuff especially on the Audio guide for the Art lover and there much for the pretentious artist to battle about as well. However i leave you this by Jeff Koons. What not to like about a puppy made out of flowers. find out more about the gallery and the artist at http://www.guggenheim.org/. Thank you for reading.

Saying goodbye to San Sebastain and Hello Camino!

It´s our last couple of days in San Sebastain and my highlights have been (in no particular order)...

• NOT quiting Spanish classes (even though it was super hard) and being able to recognise stuff on the menu and being able to order it.

• Discovering frozen food pick n mix at the supermarket.  We got frozen prawns, mussels and spinach.  Best thing EVER!

• Visiting the Science Museum here.  Having a go on a segway and meeting a Spanish version of Dan Plane (complete with orange polo shirt).

• Having a party on the beach with our new friends from class complete with booze and eats from Lidl´s and having a great time for about three euros.

• Getting better at walking up the hill to see Jesus at the top!  

• Meeting Ruberta at church.  This girl is an inspiration.  She has moved here from Brazil and is currently learning Spanish (she speaks Portuguese) and trying to find a job.  She told us about her trip to Australia when she didn´t know a word of English, she ate McDonalds for a week as she only knew numbers and it was easy to order.  But she successfully got to grips with the language and stayed for a year and travelled round.  She gave us lots of encouragement about learning Spainish and suggested we carried around a dictionary with us and look EVERYTHING up and just to keep trying.  We are trying to follow her advice and I know she is probably reading this blog with her English dictionary in hand!
  
  
• Fanatically using my phrase book to communicate with our wonderful host.  Not really sure what I said but she walked out the door and returned with three bottles of unclassified liquor!

• Watching the Simpson in Spainish.  Try it, you´ll like it.

So Sunday we´ll start our walk.  I´ve stopped panicking and decided to take it one step at a time.  Thanks to Jane D our first day won´t be too bad.  We´re staying a refuge she suggested 8 kms out from St Jean pied de port.   

Not sure when we´ll be updating our blog again but all your thoughts, prayers and any other good vibes are much appreciated!

Love you all lots,
Em xxx

A busmans holiday.

So apart from hanging out on the beach and hang around bars and restaurants i have done the odd cultural thing. I´ll be covering my favourite in a few post . First of the home from home is the science museum.

Its a little out of the centre of San Sebastian but there is a handy bus to get you there. Once we paid our 7 Euros and worked out the automatic barrier we were in.

The first thing we explored was a interactive gallery pretty much like the one we worked in in the London science museum. there was a great exhibit were you rolled a golf ball down a ramp and watched it do a loop the loop. There was a great set of pulleys you could play with as well. There was also the exhibit you weren´t sure what they did at first. One of these had a screen and a button i hit the button and nothing happened. When i hit it again in confusion i noticed something next to me drop then be winched up. The thing that fell was two small jars filled with a water type liquids and the other was water. There was a camera attached. So you observed via the screen what happened to the liquids as they fell. So putting this all together i gave it another go. this time the thing flew down towards the ground. to the point were it stopped before but oh no not this time it carried on totally detached from the cord hitting the floor and smashing. Not knowing in Spanish WHAT CHANNEL IS GALLERY MAINTENANCE ON i moved on.

There was a section of bendy mirrors and lenses and some illusions. they also had a children´s gallery like the Garden in the science museum. We left soon after trapping our fingers and nearly slicing ourselves on sharp metal.

We saw a demo of a seg way which was fun. The Explainers there are very similar in approach to us back at the science museum. They even wear orange too. We messed about on the seg way then watch a show all about electricity.

It definately was a blast and it was a great afternoon out. People probably will ask is it better than the science museum in London. Will that´s a bit unfair as it has a lot going for it. But it had no national collection it was quite small. the other thing is it has a charge on the door and funded by a national bank yet there were sections that were worn and in desperate need of repair.

The whole thing is well aimed at getting a understanding and excitement in science and exploring it. So a great place to go on your own or with kids.

All you teachers, singers, education type people and parents - we need your help!

Hi Guys,

As we start on our walk on Sunday we will also start planning our activities that we´ll do with the kids at Project Why. 

One thing we´d really like to do is to sing a lot with the kids.  We need your help as we´d like you to post on our blog site your favourite songs you like to sing with your class or with kids in general! 

My favourite is ...

I like green bananas and pink icecream,

wobbly jelly makes me scream,

Mum´s hamburgers are pretty cool,

but I like fish and chips best of all!

Fish and Chips,

Fish and Chips

Makes me want to lick my lips

Eat them for breakfast lunch and tea

Fish n' Chips are for me!

If you could add a link to a youtube video of it (or of you singing it) even better!

Looking forward to your comments!  Thanks xxx