Getting excited!!!!

It's T minus three weeks until we jet off back to Thailand for three and a half weeks of heat, humidity, temples and beaches! WOO HOO!!!

Also mossies, sunburn and heat rash . .  so OOOO NOOOO!!!!

First up we pay a return visit to the hectic, frenetic Bangkok and a second stay at the New Siam Riverside, so hoping for as good a stay as we had last time.

Then we're flying North to Chiang Mai for more shiny cupolas and buddhas then you can shake a stick at. Plus three days jungle trekking, elephant riding, white water rafting and then bamboo rafting.

We''ll sleep out under the stars by a river for a night (Mossies are pricking up their ears .. if they have any) as well as spending an evening in a traditional jungle tribe hut too.

Then it's a quick nip South to spend the xmas week in Phuket for some beach lolling and R and R.

Best start thinking about packing a bag, then unpacking, then repacking, then unpacking, and repeat . . .

Front line fireworks

The Spanish really love their fireworks and the bigger, louder, noiser and more war like the better!!

On our last night in Valencia we, along with about 7,000 locals, watched a midnight fireworks display. In three quarters of an hour they let off about three tonnes of fireworks!

It was more like being on the front line than a pleasurable experience. With ash and debris raining from the sky it was rather terrifying.

Even with a police corden keeping the crowds away from the dry river bed , the explosions still seemed uncomfortably close with some rockets only just clearing the nearby apartment block roofs!

The noise was epic. How I would expect standing near a ground to air missile when it detonates would sound! You could actually feel the whoosh of air knocking your legs backwards.

So many fireworks were set off that the actual explosions were obscured by the amount of smoke in the air.

All in all rather a fear inducing experience, and, with sore, ash filled eyes and ringing ears, we finally made our way back to our hotel.

Along the way we saw pretty much the whole city thronging the pavements, tooting their car horns and heading to the profusion of bars and cafes that were still open way into the earlier hours.