What a Couple of Weeks it's been!!!

It has been some time since I blogged... However, I haven't been receiving anguished emails asking where I am, so I am assuming that my readership is confined to the people I saw when Dom and I were back in the UK!! For back in the UK we were, to attend the wedding of Big Steve and Laura which, naturally, was legend. More of that later.

Firstly, we were very pleased to receive our second guests, Vicks and Judith. Sadly, while they were here, we had the worst weather we've experienced. Hail, thunder, torrential rain, the works. Dom was constantly saying "we've never had ___ (insert freak weather condition here) like this before" which I think was scant consolation for our guests. No matter - we did have a nice couple of days and once Vicks and Judith decided to treat the holiday as if we were all in the South-West of England it was a lot easier!!

So, with V&J we went down to Sour in the South of Lebanon. There are some fabulous Roman remains there including the largest Hippodrome remaining in relatively good condition. We then had a lovely fish lunch - and then it started raining. The afternoon took a more depressing turn as we went to Cana - probably best known for where Jesus performed his first miracle, but also where in 2000 Israel massacred over 100 men, women and children who were sheltering in a UN camp. And they knew they were attacking a UN camp. The pictures in the memorial are very harrowing to say the least.

Sunday we went on a tour of the Qadisha valley. This tour was carried out in the pouring rain, and in thick cloud. Apparently there are some amazing views in the valley - or so we were told by someone we met who showed us where these views can be seen. Sadly the cloud had descended and we could see nothing. So we had the slightly bizarre experience of our guide saying "... and there is a fantastic view here" at various points on our trip when visibility was reduced to about 3 meters. Anyway, a lovely time was had by all, and V&J took buses, went on day trips and generally enjoyed themselves. I have now realised to my eternal shame and horror that I did not take a picture of them while they were here so unless Vicks can send me a scanned image of one of her photos, you will have to take my word for it that they were here!

More on the last few weeks will follow soon. It is Dom's 40th birthday tomorrow and we were out celebrating at a joint birthday party with our friend Caroline until 4am last night. I am shattered!!