Day 2: we visited the famous Karnak Temple, a superb example of ancient Egyptian architecture depicting life around 1600 BC, and the well-preserved Luxor Temple which was situated in the heart of Luxor.

Day 3: in the morning, we crossed over to the West Bank and visited the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the imposing Colossi of Memnon. In the afternoon, we sailed to Edfu, passing through the Esna Lock en route.

Day 4: at Edfu we visited the Temple of Horus, probably Egypt’s best preserved temple. We then sailed to Kom Ombo for a visit to the Temple before sailing to Aswan.

Day 5: in the morning, we visited the High Dam and Philae Temple which was dedicated to the gentle Goddess Isis.

Day 6: in the afternoon, we enjoyed your trip on the Nile by felucca, a traditional Egyptian sailing boat before sailing to Esna for an overnight stay.

Day 7: we took a full day excursion by air to Cairo and visited the Pyramids, the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities and the bustling Khan-el-Khalili.

Here are a sample of photos taken during our holiday.

Rachel has written a personal account of our Egyptian experience on her travel blog.

Needless to say, we are bloody knackered. However, it was definitely worth it, and some of the things we’ve seen beggar belief. Here is a sample of photos for your viewing pleasure.

made by marnanel
map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data
by permission of the Ordnance Survey.
© Crown copyright 2001.

Doing this made me realise how bad my British geography is. I have a vague recollection of all the places I’ve been to, but strike me down with a feather if I know which counties they’re in!

Yes, you read right, 2315. FOUR hours late. And that was only to BP, not Newport. I arranged for Rachel and my dad to come pick me up at BP as the train I was on terminated there, and I wasn’t going to risk waiting for another train to go the final hurdle to Newport. I got home eventually at 0035.

Why such massive delays? Well, about FIVE minutes before the 1745 train was due to arrive at BP, it stopped. Something wrong with the wheels, or the track. Could have been something to do with the sensors along the track that stop a train automatically (I didn’t know they could do that) if a fault with the train is detected. Well, a fault was detected with the train I was on, and it was stopped, and was not allowed to go above a certain speed. We had to wait for engineers to come and inspect the fault, and as we were in the middle of nowhere, in pitch blackness, they had to get the train to BP so that people could at least get off.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Three positive things about this fiasco:

1. I got a complimentary cup of tea and chocolate muffin;
2. I’ll be able to claim a refund of 50% of my ticket fare as the delays were more than one hour; and
3. I taught Natalie (the girl who was in the seat next to mine) the BSL alphabet.

I don’t usually come home on a Saturday, but I was asked to present a talk about property law at the Deaf Clubs Conference today, and I duly obliged. It was quite an interesting experience, explaining legal terms in BSL to a mostly Deaf audience.

I left Llwynon Road at 6.30am and was at Brixton about 9.45am, so it took 3 hours and 15 minutes to get here from Oakdale. It’s not very often I go back to London on a Tuesday morning though; usually I would go to Royal Oak on Mondays. It was worth it just to spend one more night in the house with Rachel.

You can see what Steve’s been busy doing in my absence during the last three weeks. Bless him, he’s transformed my bedroom from this to what you can see on the left and right. Massive difference, innit? This is my pad in London now until April 2007 when I qualify as a solicitor. I’ve had enough of moving around London, so will stay here (unless Steve chucks me out!).

I’m happy with the room at the moment; it’s nice and cosy and will be nice to come back to after a hard day at work in the law centre in Croydon (it’s only about 10 mins away!). It’s gonna be heaven having such a brief commute. Can’t wait.

It took me 55 mins to get to the flat from Brixton, which is an improvement on the 1 hour 30 mins it takes to get to Brixton from Hornchurch! I’m off to Romford tomorrow though, which should take 1 hour 15 mins. We’ll see!

Sometimes I marvel at how far society has come in terms of the development of technology. As I type this, I am at Paddington train station, just finished a cuppa tea, and waiting for the 12:45 train to Newport.

I have my laptop on with the datacard connected to the Internet. I decided to have a go at moblogging i.e. take a picture on the move, and upload it to a blog. What I’ve done is not really moblogging in the true sense of the word, as I’m not completely mobile – if I’d taken the photograph on my mobile and emailed it to flickr instead of taking the photo on the mobile and then transferring it to my laptop via infrared, then it would have been moblogging. But this is the nearest I’m going to get for now, especially as I can’t get the email working on my mobile.

Anyway, I’m at Paddington, and you can see a picture of some trains that are stationary on Platforms 1 and 2 (incidentally, the Platform 2 train has left). You can actually see my view from where I’m sitting now for yourself – spooky.

Well, apparently, it was scheduled! It was meant to leave at 17:39 and arrive at 20:23! This happened two weekends ago as well. Another thing, the normal route is Newport, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Didcot Parkway, Reading and London Paddington. Today and the last time I got the train to Paddington, it was Newport, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham, Reading and London Paddington. CHIPPENHAM?! Chippenham is in the wrong bloody direction! It’s nearer to Bristol than Swindon!

According to the FGW www, on Sunday 23 January 2005, South Wales services will be diverted via an alternative route NOT calling at Didcot Parkway.

It doesn’t mention being diverted to Chippenham. Perhaps it was announced on the tannoy, but hello! Deaf??

My logic tells me that: the line between Swindon and Didcot Parkway is being subject to engineering work, which means that the trains need to go from Swindon and Reading via a different route, and because of the complexities and general crapness of the national railway infrastructure, the only way FGW were able to achieve this was to divert the train to Chippenham after Swindon, bypassing the Didcot Parkway section of the line completely. I’ve had to work that out myself, FGW certainly haven’t gone to any great lengths to explain this to me.

As a matter of course, I don’t bother asking staff at stations or on the trains because they are generally unhelpful, or respond with a grunt and a squeak.

This comes after a Christmas and New Year fiasco with seat reservations. The whole rail network has been undergoing a transfer to a new national seating reservation system, which has meant that between Christmas and now, it has been impossible to reserve seats, even on the busy trains, which include the two trains that I catch between Newport and London Paddington. I have literally had to run onto trains to be sure of obtaining a seat. There’s no way I’m standing up for two hours. It seems to have abated now, thank goodness, but myself and my mum have made numerous phone calls to Trainline.com asking to reserve seats, with operators giving vague impressions of the problems, so that customers are just left bewildered and confused.

The irony is, I pay ?31.20 for every return ticket I purchase, but I get such a crap service. The rail network needs some SERIOUS investment, and the sooner the better.

Saturday 18 December
Having caught the 1245 train to Newport from London Paddington, which involved a great deal of heaving as I had a heavy suitcase (thankfully one of what I call “trolley dollys”) and a backpack with two LLM folders in, I arrived in Newport at 1430. The evening was an interesting one as my mum hosted a dinner party for us four, Rachel and Sam, Sam’s parents June and Dave, and Linda and Stuart. Rachel and I were slightly bored because we couldn’t follow the conversation, but it was nice to meet Sam’s parents and there was some lovely grub too.

Monday 20 December
Mummy took me shopping in Cardiff for my Christmas presents! Whoo!! She was being antagonising because she wouldn’t tell me whether or not she had bought me a £79.99 blazer from River Island that I’d told her I wanted!!! She bought me two pairs of jeans and a sweater from Madhouse and a funky hat and scarf from GAP. We also went to the new Costa in WH Smith for my dreamy latte and almond croissant – heaven.

Wednesday 22 December
Went up to stay with Rachel’s parents in Pentwynmawr for a few nights and went out for a Chinese at Peking City in Blackwood with Rachel’s friends from school, which was lovely. One observation I’d like to make though – I was the only one who drank booze! And young people are supposed to be boozers?! All of them are university students as well. Boring!

Friday 24 December
Rachel and I went back down to Malpas with Oliver in tow to spend Christmas Eve with my family i.e. the usual plus Uncle John and Aunty Annette. Rachel and Oliver left for home around 10pm, leaving me on my own with my hearing family. Sitting there in the chair not able to follow the conversation got me riled up, and I blurted out “How does it make you feel to know that I’m left out of conversations like the one you’re having now?”. Mum, Dad, Kirsty, Sam, John and Annette were all astounded. It was quite funny. I asked them all why they never bothered to learn BSL, and why don’t they do something about it if they feel so bad about leaving me out of conversations. It was quite interesting, and I felt tonnes better for having gotten it off my chest.

Saturday 25 December
I got the blazer I wanted! Whoooo!!!! After the usual Wilks Christmas Day, Rachel came down to Malpas and stayed the night.

Sunday 26 December
Rachel and I went up to Pentwynmawr for Boxing Day and stayed there until Wednesday. We didn’t do all that much to be honest. I just studied my LLM materials and watched TV.

Friday 31 December
After spending much of the afternoon in Cardiff shopping (where I spent far too much) with Rachel, and a lovely lunchtime meal in La Fosse, we went up to Pentwynmawr for the New Year as Mum, Dad, Kirsty, Sam, Linda, Stuart, June and Dave went to the Old Mill Hotel in Batheaston for two nights. We had a pleasant evening at Carl and Sian’s home with the Johnsons, followed by a quick visit to the Pentwynmawr Workingmen’s Club to see Diane and Jack.

Monday 3 December
Heaved all my stuff back to London (heavier this time because of all my Christmas presents etc.).

Och well, back to the grind that is RAD tomorrow. It’s quite nice to get back to normal, but the past two weeks have made me realise just how much I enjoy being at home with the families. Hopefully, Rachel and I will be able to buy a house this year in the valleys. That would give me a huge incentive to move back to South Wales. Let’s hope it happens.

- seeing Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge
- feeding and stroking a kangaroo
- having pictures taken with a koala bear
- shopping in Melbourne’s city centre
- meeting Kym Valentine aka Libby Kennedy from Neighbours
- visiting Ramsay Street
- getting to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world with ATCV
- visiting the Statue of Liberty in New York

Rachel, Jon and I are completely exhausted after our trip, but it was definitely worth it.

Back to domestic issues – I’m starting at UWE on the 10th September, and moving into the flat on the 9th. There’s a lot to sort out this week. Anyone who is waiting to hear from me, please be patient! I’ve got a long list of things to do, and replying to emails and answering letters is on the list, so I’ll get round to it eventually!! Just remember, patience is a virtue!