Hi your pics and journals are amazing i haven't checked them in a while and my god im so so jealous . You seem to be having a life time experience.Miss u and love u loads. Dawn x

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Dear.Shona We wish you a happy new year and hope you had a nice christmas we went to a cosin in Hampshire for a few days. We go away next Friday on holiday for 2 weeks we are looking forward to that get the sun. Love. Stella@Lionel.

Merry Christmas x

We wish you a merry christmas We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year. A merry christmas on the beach/in the sun/ how weird!! Missing you nursing a hangover on the sofa, no doubt you're nursing one somewhere else. Lots of love Mum xxxxxx

Hi Shona. Oz sounds - well - hot. Just as it is getting frosty here. I've been having real fun trying to get off and on buses with a plaster on my leg using crutches. And the bus drivers are as kind as always. They wait until just before I sit down and drive off as quickly as they can, so I go flying into everyone with my crutches. Great. Anyway, people do give up their seats for me. Feel a little bit jealous that you'll probably be having a bar-b-q on the beach on xmas day. Big celebrations here as Jill got OUTSTANDING in her OFSTED inspection. xneil

Hi Shona see you are haveing a good time seeing a lot of plase and doing a lot is it hot there. We are going to the Carribbian for 17teen days in the new year for a holiday on a cruise we are looking forword to it very much. If you are able to email us please do so. Love. Stella@Lionel.

Sorry, my fat fingers pressed the return key by mistake before I had finished my message. What I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by my own foolishness was that I do so admire you and the way that nothing seems to faze you. There is no way I could ever do the sky dive, even if I was thirty or forty years younger, but that doesn't mean to say that I can't appreciate what it must have taken to carry it out. And, I must say, that you looked totally COOL - as though it was something you do every day as a matter of routine!! Am really enjoying your journals - I read them all even if I don't write to you about each one. Where will you be spending Christmas this year? Must say I will miss you being at the family 'get together'. Mind you, at the last count, it looks as though there will be around 25 of us on the 27th December at our place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still, whatever you do and wherever you spend it, will be thinking of you. Lots of love as always. Jean xxxx

Shona - have just looked at your sky diving photos - PHENOM!! Just for a moment, when I was viewing one of your last piccies, I thought one of your legs had come off but then realised that, thankfully, it was part of the equipment or something!! I

Hey Shona, When do we get the pictures of you all in your Bin that done that gear? Or is it impossible now you've ruined your camera.
By the way, is it a coincidence that everywhere you travel seems to have a change of govt or some sort of crisis just after you've left? First there was Cuba, with Castro being taken ill the day you left,(never been seen since) demonstrations and elections in mexico, huge demos in USA, and then Bush lost control of the Senate, now we here there has been a coup in Fiji!
Watch out New Zealand and Ozzie I say!
Franz Josef glacier sounded beautiful-we never really saw it, due to dreadful weather but I remember Lake Wanaka being stunning.
Lots of love, Mum

Hi Shona,
Just got the video of you sky diving. Looks so good. You were jumping near to where we went sea kayaking and it's really beautiful. Looks like you are out-adventuring me and I'm not sure I like that idea. Not much chance of that with my leg in plaster. Two more weeks and then I'm in a plastic bootie. Don't drink too much beer.xneil

Shona, Fiji sounds the best yet-kayaking, surfing, bare-back horse-riding, mama's food, reality TV set, Love Island Beachhouse, sand-dune surfing, swinging on a palm tree, visiting villages and markets, cruising round islands, magnificent views and fun people- all in paradise. I'm trying not to think about all these new risks for your old mum to worry about, and mostly feeling so pleased for you that you're having such an adventure.
I hope you can bear to leave Fiji and arrive in Kiwi-land. Be warned, when we left the Cook Islands to arrive in Auckland, I was initially overwhelmed by cars and city-life. And I'm talking little NZ, which is positively deserted compared to the UK! But outside the cities, it's also pretty quiet and beautiful, with great beaches. ENJOY! Lots of love, always.