Message from Fiona

Well, I have been press-ganged by Steve into writing a contribution to his blog. Much easier said than done, believe me. His suggested subject was “Traveling around Germany with Two Fat Men” but I’m far too polite to talk about burping, farting and stinky feet in my blog so that one may have to wait.

I have really enjoyed the trip so far and some of the highlights for me have been:
- Taking a couple of lessons at the home of Tribal Belly Dance, Fat Chance Belly Dance in San Francisco.
- Buying lots of goodies at FCBD!
- Camel riding at the Gateway to the Sahara – being one of many doing the same thing at the same time doesn’t necessarily diminish the pleasure of it – it just gives you a taste to want to go back and do more.
- Driving up into the Atlas Mountains to an oasis – the geography and topography were amazing – up there with the Sahara as a place to go back to.
- My first World Cup match – Portugal v Angola – the atmosphere was only matched by my enthusiasm, our team (Angola) lost but it was still a great game.
- Dr Hauschka & WMF – two of my favourite things and they both come from Germany!
- Germany – the World Cup, the people, the beer, the fried potatoes!
- Being persuaded by three young children (Andy, Emily and Katy) to accompany them on a giant Ferris Wheel at the Frankfurt Fan Fest – all the other responsible adults being too scared!
- The pleasure of meeting Steve & Yates friends in California and Germany – we have been extended such generous hospitality and I would just like to say, as we do in NZ, “Thanks Heaps!”

The only lowlights (not many I’m pleased to say) for me are:
- The amount of rubbish (mainly plastic bags and bottles) strewn everywhere in Tunisia – they don’t realise how they are spoiling a natural resource – they (along with NZ and others) should follow Germany’s example by having a deposit on all plastic/glass bottles, it seems to work very well here.
- Smoking! I couldn’t believe it when we got off the plane in Frankfurt and people were smoking in the terminal! There seems a real hypocrisy in a sign saying “No Smoking” but having ashtrays for the smokers convenience placed everywhere. We don’t realise how lucky we are in NZ. Phew, I feel much better getting that one off my chest!

I’m nearly done and in my style, I have managed to bullet point my way through it, certainly can’t compete with Steve’s creative writing so I hope this does instead. This is, as I say, just the highlights of a great trip – bring on the next four weeks!

Bye everyone, love Fi