After the long weekend last week, we had a reasonably quiet one this week. There were two highlights to our otherwise ordinary week, and both involved England. The first was the eagerly anticipated package from Dave & Andi's Vibrotoys in Northampton, yes that's the address that was on the back of the jiffy bag. A little disappointment followed when, enclosed, was not the wind up Noddy car that Mel and Carl expected, given the address.

The disappointment however was quickly replaced with utter joy, when out of the bag came an England flag (now flying proudly in our lounge), several England stickers and LOTS OF SWEETS!! Tangfastics and Rowntrees Fruit Gums that just about lasted from when Carl walked in at 7pm to when the footy started at 11.30. Mel was, within minutes, cursing Dave and Andi's kind gesture, as the sugar kicked in and he was off! Dave can testify that Carl is still as hyper on Tangfastics as he ever was, having endured half an hour on the phone with him on Friday.

Thank you also for only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate, tasted like chocolate rarely tasted since in NZ (sing along to well known advert tune), and other goodies too.If this is how Moro bars are rewarded, there will be more on their way soon (For those who have not been initiated, Moro bars are a bit like Mars but Dave would say they are better)!!!

Second of course, was the superb result of England beating Argentina. The advantage of being half way round the world and not too far from Japan is that we didn't have to pull a sickie to see the match; we just had to stay up till 1am when it finished! Dave kept Carl well informed as he was watching it 30 minutes ahead and Carl managed to keep a poker face so as not to spoil it for Mel. For the match against Nigeria we will be heading to Leftfield where they have a cinema-sized screen and a good supply of beer….COME ON ENGLAND.

Apparently there is some Swedish bloke in charge but I am sure that this cannot be true, we would never let some johnny foreigner run our England team would we? Surely not, really? honest?

Well done David Beckham and the boys, we have our England sticker on the jeep to advertise to all where our allegiances lie.

Finally for this week, we would like to make a formal apology to Mr. Alan K Best of Linslade, Leighton Buzzard. In last weeks newsletter it was suggested that Alan had not seen the beauty of Mount Egmont due to cloud cover. We havenow been corrected on this matter and would like to blame Doug and Mig for mis-informing us!!

Hopefully next week we will have a lot more to tell you about with our trip to Great Barrier.....bye for now....Mel and Carl.