Well then, for those of you who don't really want to read too heavily about what I'm getting up to, but feel obliged to at least visit the site; I have summarised below my travel plans for the next 5 months. On Wednesday 5th April, Matthew Robinson (shifty looking fellow that I have intoduced to a few of you-> has silly highlights in his quiff and gets on very well with sheep...) and myself catch a flight to Beijing. We stay here for a few days, where we intend to visit tianenmen square, the forbidden city and the great wall of China. On the 9th of April, we will catch another flight to changchun where we will be escorted to the Si Ping City Shaolin Martial Arts Academy (see www.shaolins.org). We will remain here for 10 weeks, learning the ancient arts of traditional Gong Fu (ie. Kung Fu) and T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Assuming that we survive the ordeal and that Matthew is still talking to me, we will fly together back to the UK, arriving on the 18th June. I can then be found at home eating/ sleeping or trying to catch up with some mates until the 21st June, when I fly off to Peru, again with Matt, but now joined by Micheline (Michelle). We have a few days to acclimatise in Lima, and then start our 3 week tour of Peru. We will visit the Nazca lines, Cuzco, Lake Titicaca, do the Lares trek and scale Macchu Picchu before retiring to an Amazon lodge for a few days. From here we then head back to Lima where Micheline will depart and the intrepid trio will once again become the diabolic duo... In Chiclayo, a town on the North Coast of Peru, we plan to spend 4 weeks volunteering in an orphanage and living with a local family throughout the duration of our stay. When this phase of our travels is finally complete we will head, remorsefully I am sure, back onto yet another aeroplane, bound first for Lima, and ultimately for the UK. So long as there are no last minute delays etc. we should arrive back on her majesty's hallowed ground on the 23rd August 2006