Dogs are everywhere in France - I'm a dog-lover but there, they're mainly horrible little ones. Lots of people do the Paris Hilton thing - carry their dog around in their purse, men included. Now that is just not a manly look!
Now back in chilly Wellington - but after the temperatures we've been experiencing during the last few days, it's quite refreshing. I'm sure I'll be over that by tomorrow! Flights home not bad but it was very turbulent at times between Frankfurt and Hong Kong. At one stage, the cabin crew were getting really annoyed because people kept ignoring the "keep your seatbelt fastened" instruction. The pilot came on and said "if you could see what we can see on the weather radar, you'd not only return to your seat, you'd run to it"! That got their attention!
It's very sobering to realise how insignificant NZ is on the world stage. The only references we got were about rugby (no surprises there) but disturbingly, the lead item on the 4pm radio news one day mentioned "Nouvelle Zélande". We pricked up our ears - imagine how we felt when the item was about the death of Shrek!! Was telling an Austrian woman about it and she said she'd read about it in an Austrian newspaper. It's good to know what's important!
We had a wonderful time, saw some amazing places and scenery but I guess for me, the highlight was the people we met. Some really really nice people - particularly nice as they suffered politely through our efforts to communicate!
But it was time to go home - we are both a bit tired, it's been a hectic pace all the way, and I'm beginning to look like an Old English sheepdog - can hardly see out from under my fringe now and I desperately need a hairdresser! So we're back, tired and quite round (well, I am, 6 weeks of French food have taken their toll - Andrew's running shoes have been used for the purpose for which they were named, mine not so much, well not at all!). So it's back to reality and saving for the next trip!
