'Its the final countdown!!!!'

Thats right, its my final blog before I set sail for sunnier climbs, and I can't blummin wait!

But first, a blog for your delectation.

We'll start where we finished, and the weekend was a fairly good one, although we didn't get up to anything really as mom had caught a nasty flu-type cold (dunno who she could have caught that off!), but we made use of our time and made more and more lists about lists about what preparations to make before our holiday, which was more productive than you may think.

Monday saw us back to normal after the Labour Spring conference, although Birmingham City Council had helpfully left all the plants and palm trees (I don't know why palm trees in a city centre are meant to make us feel all summery, but somehow they do!), so that was nice.

This week saw me working my ass off to get all my loose ends tied up (oooh, sounds like my upcoming operation!), which was helped with not much work in, and despite one of those frustrating days where you want to do loads, but things keep cropping up that you have to deal with NOW, everything was done and dusted by lunchtime on friday, which was great. I've also packed up all my stuff to be sent downstairs for my new same-job-but-downstairs-so-technically-its-a-new-job.....erm.......job! Its gonna be weird going back to work in 3 weeks time and going to a different job to do the same work but on a different floor. It will be like starting a new job, but not....

......I have a very confusing life!

Anyway, enough about that, back to the holiday, and all the fun of the fair thats happened this week. I might as well give you a list of some of the things that have gone wrong this week, thankfully they've happened this week so we can get them sorted out and out of the way before the holiday, so in no particular order:

1. My aunts radiator leaked rust all over her new carpet, which we discovered was some form of hydrogen (thank god she doesn't smoke), which had to be drained completely;

2. All of our suitcases were built over 3 years ago, before they found out that making suitcases out of hard plastic might not be a great idea as suitcases may have to be loaded on top of one another on a plane. Lets just say when we opened them up, plastic crumbs fell out of the main part of it, so we've had to buy new cases;

3. The President of Venezuela (where Isla Margarita is located), is threatening to break out a war in the next couple of weeks, so we might not be coming back for a while! (Oh no, what are we to do, we must get back to grey, cold, England!)

So, apart from all those things and many more that I can't think of at the moment, we're damn ready for this holiday!

So, for one last time before I trundle off into the warm sunshine of the Caribbean, here's your last little taste of whats to come:

Are You Jealous Yet?

#11 St Vincent

This is where alot of the scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed, so expect plenty of market stallholders selling 'genuine' pirate tours and 'real' pirate ships...bless 'em!

First up, the standard beautiful picture of the ocean lapping against the shore. I wonder if I'll get bored of it?.......Nah!

Next on Animal Corner, the endangered St Vincent Parrot. How cool is this fella!

That is one colourful bird, and speaking of which, a musical finale for your entertainment. I give you St Vincent. Think of them as a throwback to the days of flower power and ban the bomb, and you are pretty much in their headspace. They have some pleasant ditties, although they do tend to sound the same!

So thats it from me, I shall blog on my return where I will report on my adventures in the Caribbean, and if you see on sky news that Venezuela has become a war zone, spare a thought for the old beagle!

Tarrar-a-bit!!