The family that Surfs together.....

stays together, dudes. Having always fancied myself as a surfer dude and being slightly jealous of young T who went surfin' in Kenya I booked the family for a mornings lesson in Cornwall, surf capital of europe.

All kitted up in wetsuits and with Mrs T mumbling about "the things she gets roped into" and that "other women are relaxing on the beach" we happily carried our boards down to the surf. After 10 mins instruciton we leapt into the rather pleasant Atlantic gulf steam.

It was great fun actually, particular watching other in the family getting wiped out by some of the big waves. It was quite exhilaranting when you caught one but by the time you had realised you were riding a wave, remembered to the process of getting onto to your feet you were already on the beach! This was because the waves were not that long due to the low tide....We had a great laugh and promised to do it again when the waves were bigger.

We came back on the last day of the hols. Like true Surf-vets we check the weather - lots of wind, coming onshore so some rather and fear-inspiring large waves that made me feel a little apprehensive. Mrs T had a cold coming on (really, it wasn't tactical, although she did say she would not have fancied it after seeing the height of the surf) and so pulled out and so was available as official photographer, but the boys were still super keen. Surprisingly we were now in the improver group!!!!

The waves were large (the photos do not do them justice) and it was quite a struggle to get out but once again a fantastic experience and amazing how fast you go catching a biggun'. I was exhausted after 20mins and with a rapidlly crocked shoulder spent the rest of the time helping little J our through the crashing waves. Young T was in his element (always been a water baby) and was riding the waves and getting on his feet occasionally. Very tough, but great fun.

Heres a selection from the official photographers portfolio....taken with dry feet!

Young J washes up on the beach

P trying to get up on his feet before a big one hits, its behind you..

Young T looking good nearly wiping out instructor

P arriving gracefully on the beach

Young T catching a wave

J riding the white rollers....

P almost up, almost

Young J almost up

and gracefully down, wipeout!

In the zone, dudes

J about to be well and truly wiped out by family....

T catches another one whilst an exhausted P looks on

Yeah, show off!

Run over by the old man

Im an aeroplane....

Ok, this is looking easy now...

Knarly dude

Knarly brother dude

Deep in greenest Dovedale

A walk in the green-drenched dale of the Dove with no whinging kids.......

Playing with the Enemy......

For one of the weeks of the holidays the boys attended a residential football school (soccer for you colonial readers, or football if you are in Ohio!). This was both good and bad. First the good, Mrs T and I had a week off! Bad was it was run by Manchester United. Now i an completely bias and do sport a rather large chip on my should, but I must say it was very professional run, incredible friendly and worth the, quite considerable, amount of money it cost both directly (cost of course) and indirectly (Mrs T shopping spree in Manchester). It was mainly held in a beautiful Hogwarts style private school withfantastic facilities in Derbyshire, so me and Mrs T dumped them there and went walking and cycling in the Derbyshire Dales (a future post) before meeting up with the boys after spend a few days in Manchester. We picked up the boys at Old Trafford, not bad, but not quite as nice as Portman Road! Heres a couple of photos of the boys and thier teams.....

as predicted the first thing they said to us when picked up was "Can we do it again next year?"

From Englands Green and Pleasant land...

back to Cairo....We are now back from our trip to see family, holiday, eat bacon, play football, fish, golf, shop and all other things. Returned to Cairo and the sweltering heat - actually not too back ca. 34oC. Boys acclimatised by playing 5-a-side in it! News of the holidays to follow - heres a photo of Dovedale in Derbyshire with more green on then we will see in a while!