:)

Ok so. Diving is amazing! This afternoon we went on a very fast little boat, (there were 8 of us I think) out to sea in wet suits. Then we snorkelled for a bit. I saw lots of fish that looked like the fish in my tank, I waved but they didn't wave back, I think its because they were french. Then I went for a dive with an oxygen mask and everything. I poked lots of bits of coral and sea anenomes and they were squidgy. Cest te tres tres bon! I have seen three more cats since we last spoke. Later on at the campsite we were joined by another cat that I named Martine but she wasn't as friendly as Lola and Canard, then there was a massive cat by the swimming pool, I named him Claude. Then last night there was a nervous little black and white cat. She was lovely and my animal behaviour skillzzz meant I got to stroke her by being non threatening and patient. I didn't name her because she mightve thought I was being a bit too threatening and controlling and she mightve run away. I liked her. This morning we went sunbathing on the beach. Wonderful. Yesterday we returned the car to spain. The train was full so we couldn't get back so we got lost in Figueras for a bit and had coffee and then got the next train which it turns out was much cheaper so its all good. Then we missed the bus back from perpignan and had to spend 4 hours in perpignan waiting for the next one. I liked it but I was very tired. Im tired from diving. I have been learning French. Im getting very good,im practiclly fluent now. I've written two songs in French so far: “la mer, la mer, c'est froid, c'est bon, cest belle, la mer, c'est froid et bon!” and also “dejeuner dejeuner, keskasay, dejeuner, dejeuner keskasay” Jen won't tell me how to spell in french coz she says its funnier this way. But I can speak most of french now so its ok. Anyway,i need a shower, I smell of the sea. Aurvoir!

Sorry I'm a bit boring compared to Clare but we're in a hurry...

Monday 30th August, Figueres (Spain), weather: SCORCHIO!

So we finally got to UCPA Saint Cyprien yesterday at about 4:30pm. We'd intended to arrive much earlier, but our lonely, beautiful campsite in the pyrenees turned out to be much too comfortable and it wasn't until "Lola" miaowed at Clare at about 9.30am, presumably to tell her it was time to be fed pain au chocolat, that we finally dragged ourselves out of the tent and bothered to get up.

When the TomTom sent us through Lourdes I couldn't resist the opportunity to show Clare the glow-in-the-dark statues of the Virgin, and we nearly bought mum a hologram picture that was Jesus from one angle and Mary from the other.

So anyway, by the time we finally arrived at the Mediterranean I was kind of tired from the 800-km drive we'd done in the past 24 hours, and a bit confused by how French everything was. It's always disappointing to realise that my language skills are seriously below that required for any kind of conversation, really, but luckily there was a friendly English-speaking UCPA girl who helped us to understand what was going on and feel a bit less lost. We are, however, the only Anglaises there. Which is a bit disappointing but kind of interesting. And probably good for my French.

Last night we joined a quiz team where our knowledge of the theme tunes to Malcolm in the Middle and Buffy ("Contre les Vampires") came to good use. We found ourselves dancing on chairs to Sex Bomb - in order to win more points for our team, of course. So we were quite sociable really.

Last night the UCPA workers decided to have a party outside our bedroom and we weren't allowed to go to sleep until 3.30am which made me and Clare very angry (clare shouted TES TOI very loudly but I don't think they heard). We will be having words later. Probably in English, though.

For now we are slightly stranded in Figueres, Spain, because we didn't realise trains could get booked up over here. But apparently there is still a way back to Perpignan so we will be ok.

Clare's French word(s) of the day: sans plomb.

Adios!

Canard, Lola and the Smiling Dolphins

Saturday 28^th August 2010. Camping a la ferme du plantie

Hallo. We are in France in a campsite which is really a garden. There are two cats, one is called Canard (Duck) and the other one I named Lola. Lola tried to steal our pain au chocolat. I like them:)

Since we left Stockport On Thursday morning we have travelled to Portsmouth on public transport with very heavy bags (turns out my back is very lazy) and then sailed across the sea on a beautiful pea green boat (and by that I mean a giant cruise ship/ferry). Where we sailed across is full of whales, dolphins and porpoises (32 different species spotted to date), so it was very geared to whae spotting, with a nice guide called Clive. I saw lots of dolphins, 2 pilot whales, some backs of fin whales and a tuna (noone else saw the tuna but I didn't make him up, his name was Marcel). It was all of the fun, I also enjoyed trying to figure out how to use Shaun's camera to photograph their little smiles.

There was lots of 'entertainment' on board. I was not entertained by it. For tea on the second night we had childrens meals coz they were cheaper. I had fish cake and chips and a fruit salad, it was very tasty, the chips tasted like school dinners:) At the end of the day when it went dark I spoke to Clive and told him about my degree. He told me I should've told him sooner so he could've told me more in depth stuff about them. He acted like my degree made me clever. This made me happy.

The boat was very rocky and I felt quite sea sick and consequently didn't sleep very much, I also couldn't sleep coz my tummy shouted at me that children's portions were for children.

We got up at 6am (UK time) and got off at Bilbao. We got a taxi to the car hire place and he ripped us off but I don't speak any spanish so I couldn't argue. Then we drove. We had breakfast in a Spanish service station. The lady shouted at me. I don't speak spanish. I had a potato, cheese and ham omlette. It was clealrly mashed potato but I was so hungry/tired I ignored this fact and nyomed it all down. I then bought some bugles and ate some in the car:) We stopped in Bayonne and bought some bread, ham, cheese and ate it on a bench. Then we got confused by a possibly broken public toilet that kept trying to open while we used it. Silly French toilets. Then we drove lots. We stopped at a Champion and bought tinned paella amongst other things. Then we drove to the lovely campsite we're at now and cooked our tinned Paella. Lola doesn't understand/care that camping stoves are hot and kept almost burning her nose. Silly Lola. Jen and Canard are now lying reading a cool camping book. I am too sleepy to function. That is all for now.