Addendum

Went skiing in Italy with friends almost as soon as I got back, which was not really part of my journey, but turned out it had a twist.

In terms of embarrassment try this. Let the plane taxi to the stand, and let everyone pack the aisles ready to leave. Then punch yourself in the face so hard your nose spouts blood. Shove large tissues part way up your nose to try and stem the blood while every one looks on agog. My only thought was how am I going to explain this while trying to get through immigration.

Some advice if you ask for a shot in Tonale be prepared (single malt please no ice, thanks) for a wonderfully full glass.

Now for the random event. Checked email mid week and by chance a diving buddy is going skiing and has a spare place, not only that, its for this Saturday and its just a hop and skip from where I was staying. Bing! a one week skiing holiday turned into two!

The bus journey getting there was a little tougher than expected, requiring changing buses four times, as I hopped from village to village. Oddly (I felt) you buy bus tickets from the local bar. I dont speak any Italian (apart civilities and ordering hot chocolate) so this made things a little more challenging. Especially for one leg, when given some duff info I missed the only bus. Stuck at an empty freezing station, no map, while wondering what the to do next I surprised myself that armed with a phrase book I actually managed to find a call box and phone a cab. Apart from that everything went swimmingly.

So that's it, end of adventures, back to reality, time to grow up, buy slippers, settle down, be sensible, hmmm.

and thanks again for reading and joining me on this trip,

and by the way I have told about this idea I've got....