Last week, my parents came to visit with their camper van and we popped over to Cornwall, stopping off at Bodmin Moor, Jurassic Coast and Devon. We had loads of fun sight seeing and even got to surf at the weekend when Mike joined us. Good good times..

More pictures to follow soon

7th-12th May 2011 I am SO lucky with my job: I regularly get send over the ocean, usually for a night or two, which is just brilliant! But this time when my roster appeared, it was even better: I saw the three letters ‘CUN’ along with the dates 7-12th May, meaning FOUR nights and THREE FULL days in CANCUN!! (and 2 half days) I LOVE MY JOB!!

It is DAY 1 in Cancun and after I’ve settled in the hotel, I feel like going straight to bed, but the clock tells me the local time is only 4pm so I drag myself out of the hotel to the shop across the road and buy some SOL beers (75p each!!) and on the way back I could NOT resist a McDonald’s cheeseburger!! I met up with my colleagues down at the pool and managed to chat until 8pm local time at which point I my eyes really couldn’t stay open any longer. DAY 2: The next day I spent ‘checking my perimeter’ -as you do- by walking a mile along the beach via the nearby mall and getting the local bus back (only 10 pesos=50p!!) and then did some relaxing on the beach. That eve we all went for dinner at the well thought of but greasy food restaurant called Bubba Gump, the restaurant Forrest Gump sets up in the film with the same name. The setting is lovely and we even see a crocodile in . . . → Read More: Cancun]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/cancun/feed 0 http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town2 http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town2#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:41:16 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=1070 Cape Town. Days 5 to 8. March 2nd – 5th Day 5 Today is all about Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront and Lion’s Head. But before we go anywhere, we need to stop of at the dentist as I broke a tooth.. Our landlady Vanessa recommends one in Seapoint so we decide to park up for the day here and walk to the V&A Waterfront via Greenpoint and get all the sights in on our way. However, it looked a little closer on the map so by the time we reached the Waterfront we were parched and needed to rest our feet BIG TIME! When our feet felt ready to hit the road again, we preceded to check out the Waterfront, the lovely local Crafts Market and then on to the Aquarium which was the main thing Mike want to see. We got there just in time to see divers descent in the big “predators tank” to feed the rays and turtles which was great to see! Other than that we were not so impressed (how can I be when I’ve been to the one in Atlanta which is HUGE!) so we left soon after that. Time had flown by and it was already 4pm, time to get back to the car. We had a few hours to go before sunset, so we decided to check out Clifton’s beaches (they are numbered 1,2,3 and 4) before heading to Lions Head. However, the numbers are not displayed . . . → Read More: Cape Town Days 5 to 8]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town2/feed 2 http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:51:35 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=1054 Cape Town. Days 1 to 4. February 26th – March 1st 2011 Cape Town. We’ve both wanted to go for ages. When we were deciding where to go, Mike suggested we both write out a Top 5 of where we would like to go (he LOVES ‘Top whatevers’!) and we both had Cape Town at the top, so it was a no brainer. And after reading the Cape Town Lonely Planet , it soon transpired that our 7 nights may not even be long enough as there is SO much to see and do.. We asked some local South Africans in our circle of friends, where the best place was to stay, bearing in mind, we would like to be near Cape Town, but at a beach somewhere, where we could walk to restaurants and have a tipple if we wanted to.. We were told Camps Bay Clifton area and found a little gem in Camps Bay called Karibu.

So, off on the 25th of Feb we fly from Heathrow. After a lovely flight (which included plenty of films and sleep) with my favourite airline we arrive in Cape Town the next morning (Day 1). We have a little kaffafle finding our rental company but we soon drive off in a white (apparently the colour of choice for car drivers in SA!) Chevrolet Spark. We cannot believe what we see when we get to Karibu, AB-SO-LUT-ELY fantastic views and gorgeous apartment which . . . → Read More: Cape Town – Days 1 to 4]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/cape-town/feed 1 http://www.mafgirl.com/maldives-with-cindy http://www.mafgirl.com/maldives-with-cindy#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:46:52 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=1019 14-17th January Having a job flying around the world has some obvious advantages and one of them is that your friends/family can come along on a working trip for a fraction of the price

My brother and boyfriend have been on my ‘discount list’ forever and this is the first time that I could delight a friend with this lovely convenience, as I can now chop and change my ‘discount list’ more often than before. My best friend Cindy was the first (of many I am sure) to enjoy this treat and when the time came for a nice destination at the right time to appear on my roster, she jumped at the chance to come with me!

The mini trip was from Friday evening until Monday evening, essentially giving us a mere 48 hours in the capital of the Maldives: Male. We arrived in the early afternoon local time, and were both pretty tired after having been on a plane for 11 hours (14 working hours for me!), but we decided to try and stay awake and explore the city. Firstly we walked around town taking random lefts and rights and the inevitable happened: we got lost.. Luckily Male is not big and we figured as soon as we hit the ocean, we would eventually get back to the seafront near our hotel. Indeed this was the case, but first we strolled past an industrial estate where we got many of funny looks from the men . . . → Read More: Maldives with Cindy]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/maldives-with-cindy/feed 0 http://www.mafgirl.com/twelve-days-of-christmas http://www.mafgirl.com/twelve-days-of-christmas#comments Sat, 01 Jan 2011 10:17:44 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=928 I realize the official Twelve Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day, but mine started on our -pre Christmas Drinks Party- at our flat and lasted until New Year’s Eve, as this was the time I was feeling particularly Christmassy!

We invited Belle to come on the morning of our party, to help us decorate our tree as ‘we didn’t know how to do it’. Belle was happy to lend a hand and whilst Belle and Mike decorated the tree, Vicky and I caught up over a cup of tea. The party that evening was a great success, lots of warm mince pies, nibbles, mulled wine and spirits were to be had. It was lovely to have some of our closest friends all together, although not all of you could make it and were sorely missed !

Not long after this, I packed my bag for my very last trip before Christmas. Actually, the snow played havoc with a lot of airports and my night stop in Edinburgh got cancelled. This made me be on stand by the day before my trip to Barbados, which was meant to get me back in the UK on Christmas Eve morning.. I was oh so worried I was going to get an awful trip instead, which would get me back later than planned, but luckily Karma made sure that work sent me to Barbados a day early with a planned finish a day earlier too! I had a fantastic time in Barbados, . . . → Read More: Twelve Days of Christmas]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/twelve-days-of-christmas/feed 0 http://www.mafgirl.com/snowstorms-and-frozen-waves http://www.mafgirl.com/snowstorms-and-frozen-waves#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:12:51 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=903

First week of December 2010

Although it was forecast, it still sprung upon us as a surprise. It left as quickly as it came and it all started a week ago on Wednesday… It had already snowed a tiny bit and Mike managed to convince me to do a BMF session in the snow. He said it wouldn’t be too cold, but he couldn’t have been more wrong! It took me three hours to warm up again after rolling around in the snow for an hour and just as I had thawed, it started and we saw it all happening from our kitchen window… it started with a few new flakes, but soon it was snowing hard and fast! Even though I was already in my PJ’s I decided I wanted to go out and play straight away! Mike was well up for it too, so we headed out armed with a camera each. By this time it was about 11pm and there was no-one else out there so we felt as we had to snow all to ourselves! After an hour of play we decided to head off to the pub for a well deserved drink, and yes, I was still in my PJ’s, but didn’t care! I figured anything goes in Brighton and I have seen people wearing worse. The next day we all had a snow day off. Gatwick was closed, Mike’s work was snowed in, and even Claire had . . . → Read More: Snowstorms and frozen waves]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/snowstorms-and-frozen-waves/feed 1 http://www.mafgirl.com/first-pictures http://www.mafgirl.com/first-pictures#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:29:04 +0000 mafgirl http://?p=881 Mid October, so only a month and a half ago, I FINALLY, after two years of being camera-less, treated myself to a new camera. Spurred on by Mike’s enthusiasm and expertise on the Canon EOS (he owned a 450D and now has a 50D and several lenses), I decided to step up to the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) too. I have been playing around and trying a few things, both with taking pictures, using different settings and using Photoshop and RAW editor to make the photos more perfect. Here are my first few try outs, hope you like them!!

For best viewing and caption reading,click ‘full screen’ on the far right at the bottom of the slideshow. *If you are viewing this on an iPhone; sorry, the slideshow is only available on devices which have Flash installed..*

Het lijkt nog niet eens zo heel erg lang geleden dat we voor de laatste keer naar Senlis geweest zijn om Marije, Arnoud en Teun te zien, wel vaker zagen Marije (en Cindy) en ik elkaar een aantal maanden niet. Zelfs eens twee jaar niet, omdat ik toen op reis was! Maar elke keer als we elkaar weer zagen was het of we elkaar gisteren nog hadden gezien, en was er niks veranderd in onze vriendschap. Maar nu er een Teuntje is, is 5 maanden toch wel een HEEL verschil!!! JEETJE was is hij gegroeid! Marije’s melkfabriek heeft hard gewerkt om van Teun een grote en sterke kerel te maken. Toen ie een weekje oud was sliep en at hij nog erg veel en was hij niet veel wakker, maar WAT een verschil nu, lekker veel wakker en zo’n vrolijk ventje, overal om lachen! Dat vinden Cin en ik wel leuk! Echt een heerlijk mannetje is het geworden, dus we nemen ons METEEN voor om elkaar wat vaker te gaan zien en we moeten er voor zorgen dat er echt niet meer dan 3 maanden tussen zit! Dus Februari word de volgende keer. Anyway, terug naar deze keer: we hebben heerlijk gewandeld, samen ontbeten, Teun in bad gedaan en geknuffeld, een din van Marije ontmoet en lekker wijntjes gedronken, bijgekletst EN Sex in the City 2 op DVD bekeken. Een HEEEEEERLIJKE tijd was het en veel te snel voorbij, dus dat doen we snel weer!!!

Voor de verandering schrijf ik eens lekker in het Nederlands!! Toen Mike en ik verhuisd zijn naar de wijk . . . → Read More: Adriana en Barbara – gezellig weekendje!]]> http://www.mafgirl.com/adriana-barbara/feed 0