Our trip back to the UK went pretty smoothly.  We arrived back at Rosies ‘the farm’ around 10.30pm. It felt a little odd as it was still light outside.   We do miss the long English summer evenings.Our trip back was for my sisters 60th surprise Birthday holiday in Tuscany.    We managed to keep it quiet for just under a year.  Elaine her eldest did all the organisation which was quite a feat as there were 16 of us 😀   

She knew that Rob her husband was taking her away but didn’t know where.  Speaking to her a few days before she was excited but was a little down as she’d be missing out on seeing Joel & Aime were over from Turkey and Simon & I were over from Thailand.    Little did she know 😀 

The farmhouse was fantastic.  Within the grounds there was a pool, volley ball & football pitch, gym, table tennis, swings, bbq area  ..you name it, it was there.   

The surrounding area was mostly farmland with vineyards dotted around the place and on top of the hill behind us was a gorgeous little town of Civitella in Val Di Chiana 

It was lovely to spend quality time with all the family and to have a good ole laugh.  We had table tennis tournaments, pool volley ball matches, fun and games with Florence (giant inflatable flamingo) gym workouts, so much fun!   We’d venture out, get lost a little on the odd occasion but it’s was good to explore the tiny country roads, seeing the odd wild boar on our travels.  The weather couldn’t have been better.   Oh to be on holiday with the family 😀

The best birthday surprise ever!!!  😀

It’s Mums Birthday today!
Happy Birthday!!!
Miss you!

Simon and I are both well.  We’ve both been working and we’re still trying to finish off the Junkyard expansion which has taken slightly longer than expected.  The center piece of the expansion which was created by ‘The Art Rising’ has been a real headache due to the shear size & weight of it.  This group first contacted me back in Feb 2018  where at that time they were building a playground in a Burmese refugee camp which I though was cool and thought it would be great to have them build an underwater structure that we could work in with all of our pyramids.  We did ask multiple times for a modular structure, something that would be easy to deploy, we talked about what materials would be best to use and that our deployment resources would be limited to lift bags, barrels and a longtail boat  ..and this is what they made 😀   

It’s incredible and once it’s down we’ll be able to breath again but it’s been and still is a complete logistical nightmare  ..I’d say it’s got to be one and a quater tons .  Si has been a superstar.  Poles attached to the base for support , it took 90 flotation devices hand tied by Simon and a slightly higher tide to get this monster to float and then when we finally towed her to Junkyard and tried slowly to sink her,  removing barrels 1 at a time, she flipped over and sank onto her chest and now we have to go out again and manoeuver her onto her back.  It’s been a headache to be honest, especially for Simon.  He’s been so patient.  I LOVE SIMON!!