I have to share this story.  

I was absolutely dreading my flight from London to KL after my first debacle with the crying baby and other disastrous travelling experiences which i will have to tell you all another time.  I was determined however to not let anything get me stressed about it.  So i was prepared packed separating things to be declared etc, so went through the airport without a hitch, things were looking good.

I arrived at the airport early so i was one of the first to board so it was easy to get to my window seat.  I was that organised i had a little bag hanging from a coat hook on the back of the chair infront with essentials, hand cream, munchies, hair brush, mp3 player, a book, everything i needed without going through my hand luggage in the overhead compartment.  I was very organised and very pleased with myself as i lay back in my chair with the rug over me and my blow up neckpillow  nestled behind me.  AAaahhh i was good.

"excuse me miss, you're in my seat"  peace as i knew it was shattered by that one sentence.

I calmly pulled out my lil ticket stub showing clealy I was in the right seat (i did have a moment of hesitation thinking my dyslexia was to blame), suddenly all hell broke loose when this large loud woman came storming up to us with her partner yelling "you're in our seats.... they're our seats... it says so here" as she frantically waves her ticket stubb in our faces.

At that point, one of the flight attendant came up to us and confirmed that there was a mix up and that the woman and her partner should follow him to a newly designated seat.... She didn't like that at all... boy she had a set of lungs that one.  She was adamant that she have the window seat she requested and paid for.  She and the first man were going for it.

And so being the nice person that I am, i cut in and said i'll take the other seat and the first man gave in and took the isle seat.  I was a bit miffed about all this as i had to cart all my belongings out with me, my scarfe was dragging, things were dropping i had to grab my luggage again.  Then there was a bit of a debacle as they found two people with my surname, so i explained my sister was also on board with her partner.  Then saying that there was also a problem with their seating so would move them as well.

So here I am standing with my arms overflowing hot and bothered when "Madam please follow me"  He leads me up the stairs and my jaw drops........ I'm in FIRST CLASS BABY!!! YEAH!!!

I had a window seat, this gorgeous chair with so many controls.. bzzzzzzzzzzz the legs shorten to touch my feet... bzzzzzzz the legs pull out... bzzzzz the back goes down and down and down and down... I had a bed to sleep on!!! and what's this?...... brrrrrrr a MASSAGE!!!! what else do I have??? compartments to store all my junk... a menu for breakfast lunch and dinner .... 4 course meals??? WOW, and the tele screen.... nice and big *sighs*

I was bouncing with excitement and pleasure, and to think the screaming lady could've had all this.

And my sister?.................. well she never came up those stairs but when we landed in KL, as i was leaving the plane i spotted them sitting in Business class with the biggest grins on their faces matching mine.

I do believe strongly in spending quality time with family.  My brother, sister and I have been looking forward to this time together for days and it's been great however, I think you can all imagine how it would be after spending days on end in confined places (car, tent, b&b) with the same people.  It's fair to say we were starting to drive each other nuts.

For starters..... it's NOT okay for me as a navigator to get it wrong once in awhile and get us all confused and taking wrong turns on unmarked roads however it is definitely okay for the navigator and backseat driver to be asleep while I'M driving.... (shakes my head, my siblings are very sound sleepers i don't know how many times i yelled and not one woke up.... ended up circling around flipping Limerick for 40 minutes before i finally got out of there in the right direction).

I was really not happy with them at one point and left the car just to get away and clear my mind.  I grabbed my camera and jumped over some rocks intending to take some photos of the rocky landscape.  I saw a donkey and snapped a photo.  A goreous donkey that stopped and made this great eeyore  sound.  If you've ever heard it, it's quite loud and scary, their whole body quivers with the effort to make the bellow. 

Anyway I was fascinated by it and just stared and watched wondering what it will do next.....  The donkey turned it's head, looked straight at me, squeeled, then started running after me.

It was quite a terrifying experience as i stumbled over rocks trying to get to safety.  I literally threw myself over the rock fence dived into the car and slammed the door shut.  Us siblings looked at each other then burst into laughter.  It was all okay between us again.

We drive each other insane but it's always good with us.

And the donkey?........... well guess he was just letting me know to stay out of his side of the fence.  They're not very sharing animals, unlike sheep (a story for next time)

Right now I'm off to bed.  I'll post more tomorrow evening.

Back in Dublin again after three days up in Northern Ireland but before I go into that tour i'll go back and fill you all in on my camping trip.

First of all if i had to choose between an organised tour or a self camping trip (with friends/family that is)  I would definitely go for the camping trip.

It's awesome, i loved it. Not too sure if in WA we can just pitch a tent anywhere you like but here in Ireland we camped anywhere that wasn't private property.

In saying this, we only camped once, it was very sad. but my darling sister was adamant that we not camp again after that first time.  But to me it is an experience i will never forget and one i plan on repeating in oz.

Picture this.  Sitting back with a glass/bottle of whatever takes your fancy (water as my case was) surrounded by luscious tall green grasses a couple of feet from the edge of a cliff.

Taking a deep breath you loose yourself in the moment listening to the crashing of waves against the cliffs below you as the sky gradually yet vibrantly changes colour before your eyes. 

The sun sets to the howling of the wind and cries of birds circling the foot of the cliffs.

You are now filled with utter calm and complete peacefulness, the world seem miles away.

It was a gorgeous evening one that no hostel, b&b or hotel could ever give you.



By the way I am having problems uploading my pictures so I tried really hard to set the scene here.

The below was written on the back of  a brochure on the bus  at 10.30am 17th July 2007.

" Now I'm not usually one for tour groups but i figured this was the best way to go while travelling alone and trying to see as much as I can in such a small amount of time and a great way to meet people from around the world.  Ok perhaps I should've expected it but it still came to a surprise with me when I arrived at the meeting point for my tour to begin and found that all but 3 people who are on the tour all come from Australia.

So far the tour itself is going fantastically. Northern Ireland is awash with history and troubles still happening today (more about this later) what drove me insane was the pub crawl last night!

Yes that is correct, I, Analisa went on a pub crawl staying sober of course *winks*.

Now i didn't mind it so much but what i did mind was the next morning (or rather the couple of hours later after crawling into bed in the wee hours of the morning) now tell me if i'm just a party pooper but when you go on these tours wouldn't you think it'd be a bit of a waste if you end up skipping some siteseeing activities just cos you can't seem to get your feet under you and the idea of walking across a rope bridge makes you queezy after a big night out???"

Well what an awesome experience the last few days have been.  We managed to travel through to the Cliffs of Moher in Galway then following the coast south into Dingle then Kerry.

There is so much to put in here but I'm now on my to Northern Ireland with a tour group.

One thing I will say is that i highly recomend a road trip through Ireland, and that there is never such a thing as a wrong turn. 

I'll write more about my mountain climbing, a donkey, camping with a view and how three people can drive each other mental at times.

I left Perth on a cold, dark, wet, rainy Winters day to arive in Dublin on a cold dark, wet, rainy Summer's day.  It was awsome!! :o)

I'm sure Dublin is a beautiful city when the sun is shining but there really is something special in the air when it's rainy, I'd almost call it magical.


So what have i seen and done so far?  In short:

Acted the tourist and shopped in touristy places;
The Spire is a brilliant idea, i used it many times today to get my bearings while exploring without a map;
St Stephen's Green - a tranquil luscious green park;
St Patrick's Cathedral;
Trinity College;
The Book of Kell;
Camping stores.

I have been trying for the last half hour trying to figure out how a mac works.  I think I'm just too tired at the moment to think properly so  hopefully I will be able to upload my pics of some of the above tomorrow morning.

We start our camping trip tomorrow and at the special request of a work colleague of mine will head out to a town called Dingle in Kerry.

Unfortunately i won't be on wireless so you won't hear from me for the next 5 days.

Bye for now.

People were always telling me that the journey out to Europe is long.  I never knew how long until i was on it. 

The first leg to KL wasn't so bad,  a short trip, decent food and a perfect neghbour.  My definition of a perfect neighbour is one who smiles, gives a quick introduction, some small talk then leaves you alone for the rest of the trip.... It was a peaceful and fairly enjoyable trip...  I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The second leg of the trip.............  well,  I  wasn't too bothered that i had slight dificulty in breathing due to the heavy dense muggy air, I wasn't bothered that the there was a bit of a mix up on some gate information displayed on the schedule board confusing me within the airport.  Nor was i concerned that my flight was delayed.  I didn't stress too much when the gates beeped and was subjected to a frisk search and i didn't panic when asked for my passport a second time and asked a zillion questions of where i was going and my purpose for the trip.  What rose my temperature, dampened my palms and had my heart drumming fiercly against my ribcage was the sound of a crying baby 5 seats across in the next isle from me.

It was alwful.  She (baby was wearing pink) cried and cried non stop for the first four hours and then every now and then for 20 minutes at a time. it was crazy.  It was an insane flight.

Just received a call from big bro. 

Well it looks like since he didn't get round to organising accommodation for us (surprise, surprise), we're going camping afterall.  Not sure how lil sis will take this, she's not a happy camper. But as my brother says, she can always sleep in the car.

So now the big dilema...........what's the best way to pack a sleeping bag? or do i just tie it to my luggage bag??

3 more sleeps (not that I'm counting down or anything)

I mentioned before that I'll post up my itinerary so here i goes.

Date	Where Am I?
8th July	16.30     Depart Perth 22.10     Arrive in Kuala Lumpur 23.40     Depart Kuala Lumpur
9th July	05.50     Arrive in London 11.15     Depart London 12.30     Arrive in Dublin (an no doubt crash into my brother’s bed)
10th – 15th July	Road trip with siblings. This slightly exaggerated map pretty much sums it up, I’m going EVERYWHERE!!!
16th – 18th July	Northern Ireland tour with a tour group
19th July	Up to my own devices here
20th July	18.00     Depart Dublin 19.15     Arrive in London
21st July	Explore London 19.00     Jack the Ripper Tour begins
22nd July	Day trip to Stonehenge, Lacock and Bath
23rd – 25th July	Touring Scotland
26th July	12.00     Depart London
27th July	7.25            Arrive in Kuala Lumpur 9.40           Depart Kuala Lumpur 15.00     Arrive home in Perth