On the plane over Des met a guy who'd recently brought property here, who could recommend an estate agent for us to contact. So in the morning he gave them a ring, and their colleagues took us for a drive round 3 of the properties for sale, and a few others that had been sold and done up, so we could see some of the things that had been achieved. The properties gradually got better throughout the day as in the amount of work that needed doing on them but they all had potential.

I fly today at 5 o'clock to Varna, and then I've got no idea where I'll be staying (?). I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not really sure what to expect there. I've set up my phone so I can use it there, but vodaphone charge £1.69 per minute for calls in Bulgaria, so I might get a sim card out there. A few useful links I might need:

• Mobile Phones

• Map of Varna

• Map of Bulgaria

The other day we were looking at buying a wireless PCMCIA card for Laura's laptop, so that she can use it at the university and at home with out new Belkin Wireless Router, which has been working well with my work Thinkpad since we got it set up. I liked the idea of getting a Belkin network card so that it is the same as the router, but according to the information I found online it doesn't support WPA - apart from an addition to the manual on the Belkin site that tells you how to configure WPA with the card. I then decided to phone up their pre-sales technical support line to check on this and I got through to an advisor immediately without being put in a queue. Also the guy I spoke to knew everything I needed to find out about the card without having to look it up on the system somewhere - Very impressive com,pared to a lot of technical support departments!

While sorting out all my various documents on our different computers today, I found some old webpages that I'd made back in 1999 after going interrailing around Europe with a bit of an account of some of the places we visited. So I've included them now on this site under the travel section at the side - I might try and add a few more bits that I remember from the trip and some photos soon, but for now it's just the text.

Well we ordered our [Ikea] [Fågelbo Sofa] on the 18th July, and received it initially when we expected - 2nd August, although instead of being in 2 parts and us just having to put it together like they told us would be the case, it was in three seperate packages and we had to put the backs on each part and join it together. After a while trying to understand the diagrams (no text on the instructions of course!) we got the first half together and then found that for the second half the bolts seemed to have a different thread to the holes for them. After phoning Ikea, and waiting a couple of days for a 'product specialist' from the store to get back to me I was told to try hitting them with a hammer to get them in as thats what they do in the store, or they could get someone to come out (which would take 7-10 days), I decided to try it and got them a bit further, but then they got stuck. Next step - get someone to come out. The upholsterer came out, was shocked at the advice we'd been given, put screws in to hold it temporarily and said he'd need some parts, we then had to wait 7-10 days for them to arrange this. When they phoned us back it turned out they couldn't get the parts, so we had two options: a discount (of 10%) or a replacement. We chose the replacement which took another 7-10 days, and arrived yesterday without the bolts to fit the replacement parts together - Aparently it will take another 7-10 days for them to find and ship out a packet of bolts for us...

I wonder how long it will take before it fits together properly?

Well I've now been back at work at IBM Hursley for a week and I'm currently working in the DBDC team which will involve dealing with DB2 and database connectors installation and fixing problems. It will probably be mainly working with DB2 on the mainframe (OS/390), although the team is going to start to be more involved in DB2 on distributed platforms as well. It's been quite strange going back to a different team, having to get all the userids sorted out again and starting to learn how to do things for my new role but the team I'm working with are great and have been really helpful. It's also been strange adapting back to British life - the supermarkets seem expensive and there are lots more choices! I'm sure after a few weeks I'll have got used to life back here a bit more - although this week I've found it quite tiring commuting to work. Although with car-sharing I don't have to do all the driving, but that means finishing at times that are convenient for both of us.

Well we fly back home today leaving Montevideo at 5.50pm, everything is pretty much packed and Jonathan is going to give us a lift upto the airport. Just a few more goodbyes to say and check our mail before we go. It still feels strange that we´ve finished here and are heading back, but it will be nice to see our families, as we´ve definitely missed them. But it´s going to be strange adapting back to life in England after our time here.

We´ve had a nice week in Montevideo, but it´s been strange - having left Salto, and finished, but not having gone home yet. It´s been great to catch up with everyone down here. Also we managed to time it just right for Daniel´s birthday party which was great fun.

Our time in Uruguay is coming to an end, the last 9 months seem to have flown by really quickly, it's incredible. It's interesting to look back over the time we've spent here and see what's happened. Firstly, I'm amazed at how my Spanish has improved in the time we've been out here - well I say Spanish, more like Rio-de-la-plata-ish. When we came out here, I could only understand a few words of spanish and speak about the same, where as now, I have had conversations with people, taught the communion group, and preached (well writing it in English and translating it first!). God has definitely helped me to get to this point - I couldn't have done it on my own I'm sure. I still find myself falling into the same mistakes in the language though, particularly when praying in church!

Looking at the work we've been involved with, the Youth group appears to have the most obvious changes - when we first started it, the kids were all very shy, and didn't like to take part in discussions or to pray at the end of the session. Now most of them are taking part, and last week all of them prayed aloud at the end of the session. Also the homegroup in the parish has grown in confidence and are now meeting more frequently.

I'm certainly going to miss the people we've met out here, especially the kids. It's going to be quite strange to go back to my old routine. Going back to living in a bigger city, having to get up and drive an hour to work every morning.

To be continued as I think of other things...

Ingredients

• thin Beef steak- cut into small strips or pieces

• small piece of Ginger

• Cumin

• Carrots

• Broccoli

• Green Pepper

1. Heat some oil in a pan, and add the ginger and cumin.

2. After a few seconds cooking, add the Beef.

3. Once the beef is cooked, add the vegetables and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Served in the picture with Egg fried rice:

• 1/2 medium sized Onion (finely chopped)

• 2 Eggs (beaten)

• 1/2 cup of rice

• 1 cup of water

1. Heat the rice with 1 cup of water until the water has boiled right off.

2. Fry the onion until starting to brown, then add the rice.

3. Mix the rice and onion and fry briefly, before adding the egg.

4. Mix the egg in with the rice and onions.

So I arrived in Montevideo at 6.30 on the overnight bus from Salto, to go to the American Airlines office where I thought it would be just a case of them telling me the options and prices for them, and me selecting the one we wanted. I was wrong! I got to the office, and showed the lady in there the tickets, and she looked them up on the computer. Aparently there wasn't anything to tell her whether or not I could change the route, it just said I could change the dates for free - If I wanted to do anything else I had to speak to the original travel agent (in England), and get them to get the airline office in London to put the details on the computer system! So I went to an internet cafe and phoned our travel agent (Key Travel), who took a few details from me, and then said "you're a purple, I'm going to have to transfer you" - whatever that meant! Once she found that the other department was busy, so decided to try and help me herself, so I found out that we couldn't change the route - so what would have been the point of transfering me? In the end I got the dates changed so we don't have a stopover in Miami anymore, so that we can get through Miami before it gets too close to 4 July.