We finally decided on a tent to purchase. We ended up getting the Vango Sigma 300+. After having bought it we took it to the local park to practice putting it up. It says 10 minutes on the instructions, however 30 minutes later we had it up. Believe me when I say had Steve not been there I am pretty sure I would have put a match to it. I really don't have much patience for tent instructions!

I am quite chuffed with it. The locals walking by seemed to think we were attempting to squat in the park. Anyway, here is the end result. Looks just like the picture on the instructions (minus the bent peg that I managed to create within the first 5 minutes. Note to self, don't use a big hefty boot to push the pegs into the ground with!)

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson and Donald Sutherland this movie had a fair bit of potential. Ben Finnigan (played by Matthew McConaughey) is a treasure hunter along with his soon to be ex-wife Tess (Kate Hudson). After spending the last 7 years searching for the elusive buried treasure he is obsessed with they are in debt and no closer to glory. The debt is also held with the obligatory villian, a gangster rapper known as Big Bunny. Donald Sutherland plays a mega rich passerby that decides to bankroll the continuing operation to find the treasure. The locations for filming are stunning, the acting perfectly fine, the story to tell is great, but I have an issue with the roles which are ridiculous. Ben is a ditzy klutz that just doesn't suit the physique of Matthew while the blond haired, blue eyed Tess is the brains of the operation. Not that there is anything wrong with this however it was a painfully obvious roll reversal of the stereotypical character types that these actors "physically" personify.Then, they have thrown in an incredibly embarrassing ditz of a female character and the premise here is to show how ditzy she is and how she eventually learns that she doesn't have to be like that. Plllleeeeaaassseee!!! Could we not have just a bunch of intelligent people dealing with the puzzles that come at them in order to find the treasure. The story of the buried treasure and the clues to find it are great so I don't know why they didn't make this movie more intelligent! Anyway, that's my scathing report on it. Should you see it? Wait until you can get it on DVD, in the cheap section! 1 out of 5.

This week we tried a bit of fencing. That would be the type with swords not number 8 fencing wire. After 2 hours of it we were already tired and hot as those masks get pretty hot inside. I don't think I was also expecting it to sting so much when you get hit. Mind you I am a whimp when it comes to pain however Steve did complain when I accidently hit his bare hand in error. I think I came out worse though as I had both Steve and a guy from work that I was practicing the moves with and both of them managed to get me on the same arm. Needless to say I now have an arm full of bruises. It was good fun and I'm keen to try a few more times to see if it is something I want to continue on with. I think however I need to stop laughing so much and concentrate more. Hey, what can I say, it's my secret plan to put the other person off their game! :)

Just a quick note. Steve has kindly gone through our 4000 odd photos from over the last year. He has culled them down and put them into our gallery for online viewing. Here's the link if your interested. Cheers - Carleen www.dekarskigallery.net

I think I have mentioned previously that we are going camping in May for a weekend. So at this point we are trying to lay low again and save some money to buy a tent and a decent sleeping bag for me. Hubbie already has his super-duper one that he bought in Oz for his tramping trips.

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You may notice a few changes to the site. One being that the picture at the top of the site changes each time you log in. We have been going through our collection of photos that we have taken since we have been here and my talented IT expert has fixed them up so they rotate as you refresh. See the way I figure it is that IT is not so scary and hard after all. It has an easy solution. Just marry an IT pro! :)

Morning Tas. Here's your Monday morning blog!

We couldn't believe it this weekend when we were walking home and it started snowing! Twice now in Bristol when everyone has told us time and again "it never snows in Bristol!" Pish pot I say to that. Ha ha ha. OK so it was more like an icy sleet but its cold, white and close enough to snow by my reckoning. If I say it's snow, IT'S SNOW!

Once home we started out for our Sunday arvo destination of Burnham-On-Sea in search of Sanders Garden World which has a large display of tents. We are off on a camping adventure with a group of people from my work in May and generally a tent would be a fairly good item to have in order to "camp" unless of course you prefer the fake camping i.e. caravan with kitchen sink, flushing loo and comfy beds. What's that all about? You might as well stay at home (a jealous tone of voice just doesn't make it across on a blog does it).

We located Sanders Garden World and spent the next hour and a half crawling in and out of tents in between snow showers and sunshine. We have narrowed it down to a choice between two tents. The first one (Vango Sigma 300+) is the lighter of the 2 (only 5.6 kg) so better than a lot of the others for carrying, has 2 separate porch areas that act as further protection against the elements and excellent for more storage space. Most importantly it comes in a fab purple/blue colour that matches my jumper! :) Hey, colour is important too you know. The second option is the Vango Beta 450. Basically it has quite a larger "porch" area which realistically means you at least have a little extra space for those days when it rains and you can get some time out from each other. Still however I am not sure. Here are the pics, what do you think? Which do you vote for?

Vango Sigma 300 (2 votes)
Vango Beta 450 (3 votes)

And finally, a wee video of the snow (icy downfall) is coming of us frollicking in it at the beach - Burnham-On-Sea. Great day but freezing cold.

As a last minute jaunt we decided to go for a trip over to Wales (only 15 minutes away) to have a look at Caldicott Castle.

On the way we stopped at the Chepstow Racecourse for their market day where we bought a load of strawberries, raspberries, apples, brocolli and some nice, hot Welsh cakes to munch on as we wandered around.

10 minutes later and we were at Caldicott having a look around the castle for only 3.25 each. It was a stunning day although still quite cool and quiet enough to have a wander without bumping into tons of other people. I have added a few pics. The daffodils are all out at the moment and Steve took some photos of his favourite variety (the ones that look like eggs in my opinion). Personally I'm a bit of a traditionalist and like my daffodils pure yellow.

Today it was back to the woollen coat again. Supposed to be a low of 0 tomorrow and a low of -2 the next day with highs of (wait for it...) 8 and 6 degress C. Wow, don't turn the heat up too much.

Just a quick one to say that today was the first day in 4 months that I haven't had to use my wool coat. I have been noticing that in the last week I haven't needed my gloves or my hat but the scarf and wool coat where still in use.

But today, finally, the sun was shining, there was actually warmth radiating from the sun and it was time to take off the coat to show my incredibly fluorescent white arms and legs to the world. Woo hoo, bring on summer!