Hey guys,

well after spending a week in NHA Trang we have only made it to the beach for 1 day. My oh so pale English skin couldn't quite handle the heat out here even though I spent the whole day in the shade and kept the factor 20 coming.

We were originally supposed to head out to Saigon today but seen as though Kimbers has to shoot off to catch up with her mum in Bali and Laura wants to head straight for Cambodia we decided we might as well not rush it. We've booked an open diving course for the next four days which consists of one day in the class room, one day in the pool and two days out at see in the marine protected areas that surround the islands off the coast of Nha Trang. I can't wait! Neil is pretty nervous as he has neved dived before but i'm sure he'll be o.k (I think your story freaked him a little Craig).

After that we'll head to Saigon, the Mekon Delta and finally Cambodia. Brillient.

Nic - Whats with the housemate? Linseys gone looney lol. Thats a shame it was a nice house. You been up to much else? Missing ya.

Katie Kate and Stuballie - Hello Chumlies, hows it going. Whats with the teaching Kate, you got anything sorted? Hows Amy?

My Amy - Hey missus. WHATCHADOING? xxxxx meloveyoulongtime xxxxxxx Have you been to the wedding yet? How was Ireland? Let me know as soon as you get your pictures website up and running.

Kara - So where you thinging we should set up Fitzharpin desings then? I'm thinking London baby yeah. Couldn't do it without you either. I think black is a lovely colour for a tea room. Keep dave in check and keep me up to date on all your hols you've got planned.

Everybody - Love you as much as Neil loves showing off his newly flat stomach. Take care ya'll xxx

my house mates lost the plot!!!! moving everything form knifes to washining machine draw, Had to go out a buy all new s***, oh well lets hope she f**ks off soon,

Any one need a room to rent out there, keep your ears open guys,

Luv ya xxx

Nic

Work is s*** i hate it

Hi Neil,

Hope you're doing ok over in the far east? Are you sick off noodles yet? hahahaha... Everything at work is still the same old same old. Dawn got the job as Deputy Team leader which she deserves!! she's chuffed to bits, which is good. Other than that there's nothing much to report really...

We all miss you here and we think you should come back hahahaha!!

Take care dude x x x

Mick - stop. please. you're killing me. seriously. how are you fella? good to hear you're all alive and well. who's got the most points? you must be coming to the end of your trip are you? we're in Nha trang now. Missed the fookin beach party but. Had 2 attempted muggings (one by a gang of lady boy - i s*** you not), and a flashing. Nice place. Beach is beautiful though, and the beer is cheap cheap cheap.

Johnny pants. Good to hear you're still alive too. Cheers for the cash bruv, you're a diamond. Any chance you're ever going to be online on a sunday afternoon? If not, we're gonna have to sort something out. Will you please for fooks sake give me your work landline number. And an email address. And have you decided about uni yet? keep me posted bruv. Love ya.

Stubes. That picture that looks like a flatulence accident is a bullet hole in the wall of a bunker in DMZ. I might get round to actually writing about it at some point. If i can ever catch up. How's the new job working out? Hope Kate's cool. Has she looked into teaching any further yet? Tell her the temperature over here is pretty much constant at between 35 and 42 degrees celsius. Thats 95 and 107.6 degrees fahrenheit. And we've walked absolutely miles. So far in fact that my hard wearing go anywhere Karrimor sandals have given up the ghost. Both of them.
Love you both to bits, speak soon.

Everyone else. I'm slowly getting ther putting Hanoi on the postcards. Got 4 more days to put on, then a week in Hue, 1 day in Danang, 5 days in Hoi An and a bout a week in Nha Trang. I really should just spend a few minutes per day doing it....

Take care everyone
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Hello. How you guys doing? Do u miss us tremendously?! I jus wanted to leave a wee msg to let u no we're still alive and also to laugh at Neil. You got beaten at pool by a guy with one arm!! He must of been fairly 'HANDY'!!. But in fairness to him i hear he was a nice guy, there was no h'ARM in him!! You could say he was h'ARMLESS!!! I hear he needed help racking up as well?, the least you could of done was given him a HAND!! In saying that i'd say he was a HANDful when he was young!
Okay i'll stop now. Later, by the way remember you said you liked the smashing pumpkins Neil? What do you think of the song 'disARM'. ha ha ha

Put £215.00 into your nat west account Neiler so that covers the £500. i'll back date the £50's (monthly) and put this into your halifax account starting next month.

Hi peeps

Thankyou all for the birthday messages (even yours Johnny - eventually) and sorry its taken this long to respond.
The Internet is still pretty shaky over here and some of them don't let you access international websites other than email. Which is handy.

Anyway we just arrived in Nha Trang today. Andy is here somewhere so we'll be catching up with him at some point. Woo hoo! Another male who not only like football, but likes Pompey. Fantastico.

Well a quick update for you. I'll get round to putting more postcards on but to be honest they take fookin ages and I'm now about 2 weeks behind. And I'm in the beach capital of Vietnnam. Still, tan time and hangovers permitting I'll try and catch up as much as I can before we leave here.

We left Hanoi and went to Hue, which is a really beautiful city and we had a lot of fun. Then on to Danang for a day where we met up with a few guys who run motorbike tours who, after said tour, then took us dowwn to Hoi An. This is the shopping city. A million catalogues. Pick what you want, what material you want it in and it takes them one or two days to make it. Hand fitted and crafted. So obviously we all went mad. I bought 9 suits, 9 shirts, 1 duffel coat, 1 full length coat, 4 pairs of shoes, 1 pair of flip flops and a pair of trainers (with Neil Boy embroidered on the tongues). All hand crafted to my measurements. And the price I hear you ask? Around 400 quid. They should arrive home before Xmas and probably won't fit me by the time I get back. But what the hay.

After this, we headed for Nha Trang where I now sit, after spending the day on the beach.

OK, don't worry lads, I've had an idea (said in my best Michael Caine voice). Rather than keep trying to phone people (not that I'm trtying to hard - sorry everyone) it'll be far easier, not to say cheaper, if I go online on MSN (thats the webchat you get with a hotmail account you fools) at a certain time of the week, every week. This means I pay 20p for an hour rather than 40p per minute, and I can have as many conversations on the go as I want, saving me even more money. Or we can all have one big conversation. Whatever. The point is, anyone who wants in on this (and trust me, you are ALL invited, thats why I gave you this website address in the first place - you know, I kind of like you all) just has to set up a Hotmail account (it's free before you start moaning Tone), download MSN messenger (also free), and send me an email from your new address. Then i can add you as a contact and bingo, we have lift off.
The trouble I'm having really is the time difference. We are 6 hours ahead (7 when you put your clocks back in a few weeks) and the Internet place tend to close at 11 pm over here. So I can only be online upto 5pm (4pm) your time.
The only way round this is to make it a weekend day when hopefully more of you can make yourselves available.
I was thinking 3 o'clock your time starting this Sunday. If anyone's got any better ideas then please let me know, cos I'm missing the sound of your voices and MSN is probably the closest I'm going to get for a while (Johnny you still haven't sent me your fookin work phone number and Tone can you give me your landline number for your new house if/when you get one). We tried having a mobile for a while, but we have to keep getting new sim cards every time we move countries and its fairly expensive to use them.

Thats about it for now. Having loads of fun, the tan's coming on a treat, the weight I've lost has mostly come off my belly and is down to the seriously healthy diet I've got (fresh fruit and veg, fresh seafood and the odd pizza when I'm hungry) and the fact that I'm sweating pretty much 24/7 and walking about 57,000 miles a day.
Mand is fine too (sunburnt from today, so she might have to spend the next 2 days out of the sun - pppffffftttt :o) ) and there's the chance we're going to find a 16 hour beach party. Woo hoo!

Can't be arsed with too many personal messages other than

Julie and Danny - Easily the best sister. Can't believe you put a message on here. Haven't eaten anything too dodgy yet, but when we get to the Mekong Delta we're going to hunt out a snake restaurant that brings a cobra to your table, slits its throat and takes out the heart which you eat while its still beating. Then wash it down with the blood. Cannae wait mon. Apparently its good for the libido!?! Passed on a few things in restaurants that looked slightly dodgy though.
How are Bex and Tor? Have they moved to constantly party in Mallorca(sp?) yet? Say hi to them and Ken for me. Don't forget, 3pm Sundays if you fancy a webchat.

Marina - is that really you? thought your fingers had fallen off :o) Thankyou for the birthday message. How's you? And Rob? How's the wedding plans coming along? Send me an email goddammit, I miss hearing from you :o)

Lara - Where have you been too? Not only do you miss my going away party (bad enough) but then i don't hear from you for months. Naughty naughty :o) I'm all good hun, not really missing work (funnily enough) but I am missing some of the people (not you though, so don't get too excited :oP ) How's the horses? Been made into glue yet? Drop me an email or a message and let me know all the goss and what you've been up to. Nic has my email if you deleted it. Speak soon hun x

Everyone else:
Keep the messages coming. I'm keeping up pretty well on the footie (say we were top of the league, say we were top of the league) and I'm probably seeing more games than you lot. Well bits of games anyway. And mostly with Vietnamese commentary. Seen the scousers twice already and have been seriously unimpressed Stubes. Manure Knighted are looking pretty good though. I actually think I'd rather see them win it than Chelski. Don't tell Hooper I said that. Any transfer news is more than welcome though, and any back stories. Its strictly games here, so i miss out on the rest of the soap opera that isThe Premiership.

Loving you all loads and hope to speak to you all at some point on MSN.
Take care of yourselves and each other (said in my cheesiest Jerry Springer voice).

Love you more than Sol Campbell loves men
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Hi you Guys,

Well it looks like you two are having a lovely time, Well work is still the same Neil a couple of new faces but still the same old!!!!!!

Where you going next then?

Not a lot has been happening here really. All boring as usual.

Well i hope you continue to have a lovely time together.

Love Lara

Hi you two, just got back from our hols and now got your web site from Dad, well Ange really as they did n't know it off by heart!
We had a great time but nothing like you 2 are having and your settings are much nicer!!
Happy belated birthday to you Neil.....how old?!!!! Be catching me up soon hahahahah!
Danny said dont drink or eat anything you dont like the look off..... if you do and like it just dont ask WHAT it is!!!!!
Everyone here is pretty much getting over the hot spell and the cooler weather is setting in ......but you know the weather here it may well throw in another hot spell later...hope fully!
Hope the tans are coming on and you continue to enjoy yourselves.....miss you both, will write again soon xxxxxxx

also happy birthday neil forgot to say oops
hope you had a good one

hi ya

just spent way too long looking through your photos very nice!! things good here had a great holiday although didnt see much sun (only coming up in the morning) as spent most days feeling like death with exstreme hangovers oops
but what i did see in the day was nice. Not good being back its been grey and rainey all week. Now this is the england i remember for i moment i actually thought i lived in an OK country, oh well. Tea room going well andy who i always go to for help and advice is on hols for two weeks next week and i only have two weeks to get everything specified all the gas and ceiling plans done all the schedules and details of about 20 things done and its all gotta be ready for costing in two weeks arrhh and no one to help me as everyone has way too much work on. need you here to do my details you are so much better then me. However making all this work load worth while is the 10% payrise i am getting next month he he he he. Spoke to terri she fine finishes her job in 3 weeks has a few other freelance projects to be getting on with but will be looking for perm work. she also buying a new car as am i this weekend hopefully if i find the right one.
anyway its fri and i am finishing work, gonna go drink myself silly and dribble on some poor sole who will be unlucky enough to be sitting next to me when i finally pass out ha ha

missing you lots hurry back fitzharpin deisign needs you
kara
xxx

Hey you guys!

HaPpY bIrThDaY Neil. Sorry its late, been in Ireland. Had a few pints of the black stuff for you.

Had a nightmare journey, 21 hours. Flights were cancelled due to terror alert. Drove to Liverpool in Steve's car, caught a truck ferry (we were one of two cars!) to Dublin then Steve drove from Dublin to Belfast while I was in a coma from travel sickness pills. Ireland was amazing though.

Met Cheryl for lunch today. Verity is GORGEOUS. (Cheryl you're not too bad either!)

Message is in Penang in Malaysia, I'll email you the bar.

Going to set up a photos website so you can see the pics. I'll try and sort it this weekend.

Love you both loads.

x

Hi Pompey crew. Hi Jonny and Boyf.
x