As of last weekend alcohol has been banned on the tube and its easy to see why when you see the scenes from the so called "tube alcohol party". The party was organised on Facebook so that people could enjoy the last night of being allowed to drink on the tube. During the party six tube stations has to be closed and services were seriously delayed. Predictably it ended with 17 people being arrested and four train drivers, three London Underground staff and two police officers being assaulted. All good reasons why the ban is a good idea.

We are now back in the UK after a week in St Lucia. I spent most of yesterday recovering from jet lag, hence no blog posts, but am feeling a bit more awake today. Further to my post about our open top jeep ride around St Lucia, I have now been able to get to the pictures. I found that the jeep ride was a particularly good way to see the island, mainly because there are only 8 people to each jeep, so if you have any questions you can ask the guide at any time. You can also ask to pull over at any time, if there is anything you want to explore further.

The tour started by driving through some of the more built up areas of island including the capital Castries. Pictured left is one of the islands many Catholic churches.

Pictured right is the tour guide Chris and our friend Dave who also came on the trip with us.

Here you can see one of the many places along the road where the local farmers offer some of their fruit for you to taste.

Pictured right is just one of the many banana plantations that we drove past.

Pictured left you can see me at the front of the jeep and next to that some pineapples growing in one of the plantations.

Here you can see the landscape as it starts to change as we reach the range forest. At this point the air becomes much cooler and the tracks through the forest are at times no more than dirt tracks.

To the left you can see a view of The Pitons, St Lucia's most famous landmark  that stands over 2,000 feet tall. To the right is a picture of Rory enjoying a dip under a waterfall which is meant to have healing properties.

On the left is a picture of the Sulphur Springs at the dormant volcano and on the right myself, Rory and Dave at the springs.

This shows our visit to a cocoa plantation. The picture to the far left shows the cocoa beans drying in the sun and the other picture shows a lady pealing the roasted beans before they are made into cocoa sticks. According to the guide over 90% of the cocoa from this plantation ends up in the US.

In the afternoon we made our way  back by boat. Here you can see me enjoying the boat trip and Rory swimming in the sea.

We had a busy day yesterday as we went on an open top jeep ride through the rain forest. We set off just after 8 in the morning. Seeing St Lucia by jeep is definitely the way to do it and although it gets a little hairy on some of the steep tracks in the forest, you see a lot more than if you were confined to the coach. You also have the advantage of being able to stand up and take photos whenever you want. We also stopped at a cocoa plantation where we were able to see how they make chocolate, one of my favourite things. Needless to say there are lots of photos but these will follow when I get back to the UK tomorrow.

We went to Dave and Anita's wedding yesterday. They had the service on a private beach called Pigeon Island and as you can see from the photo on the left it was a stunning setting. This was followed by champagne on the beach and then we moved onto the reception at Jacques restaurant. The venue is right on the waterfront and has a private area for functions with room for dancing. The whole day went really well and the happy couple are now off on their honeymoon. Congratulations Mr and Mrs Hedges.

We arrived in St Lucia yesterday evening for a five day stay during which we are attending a friends wedding on Tuesday. I must say I was dreading the eight hour flight but it was better than I expected, perhaps because I managed to watch three movies on the way. We did, however, arrive very tired and so last night we just stopped for a bite to eat before heading off for an early night.

So far I am impressed with the hotel. We are staying at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort in Rodney Bay. On arrival we were greeted with a glass bucks fizz and the staff couldn't be any more helpful. Obviously I have the promised internet access, which is essential for keeping track of my various businesses whilst we are away. I will also post some pictures of the room shortly. We ate in the resorts Hi-Tide Restaurant last night and once again my first impressions were good. Rory had red snapper and I had a baby rack of lamb that came with a sweet potato mash. We are just about to head out for breakfast now, so more on this later, hopefully with some pictures of the island.

I read this interesting article about the top 100 travel websites. It lists everything from where to stay, sites that give you inside information, holiday bargins and travel essentials. It's certainly worth checking out some of the websites it mentions.

The lifeguards are a bit hairier than usual on Italy’s beaches this summer. Newfoundland and Labrador dogs have been drafted in to help on some of the busiest beaches. The dogs are trained to jump out of helicopters and boats to rescue struggling swimmers and have already saved several lives by towing people to safety.

My blogging has got a little bit out of control and what started out as a personal blog, now appears to be more of a mini news feed. With this in mind I have started a couple of new blogs to try and split the content up a little bit. This blog will remain a personal blog, and contain all the usual stuff I blog about. However, I am going to post most of the shopping related content at ineedashop and most of the news related content at atheniaglobe which will both be live soon. In addition to these you can already read my design related blog and my travel related blog.

Nine artists have been creating sand sculptures on a beach in Somerset. The sculptures show scenes from fairy tales including Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretal.

Milan airport has been forced to suspend flights because there are too many hares at the airport. The hares have been getting onto the runway and causing problems as well as confusing the ground radar. The airport was closed whilst a team of experts tried to catch and locate over 80 hares.

Apparently if you want to lose weight a greek diet could be the key. A study showed that a typical meal in Greece contained the least calories when compared to other holiday destinations. I don't know about that, but when I went to Greece the food was no nice I had second helpings of everything.

If you are planning a trip to Ireland and like me find it hard to survive with no internet access you might want to visit Carlow. A project run by the council in partnership with E-net has introduced 24 hour wireless access to all of its main streets making it one of the first towns in the EU to offer open air web access.

Fees can really mount up when using your debit card abroad. It doesn't help when you think your card is free to use and then find out that you have been charged a fee after all. HSBC advertise the fact that their debit cards are free from transaction fees when used abroad. They do however, charge 2.75% on top of the exchange rate for overseas withdrawals which they say is not a fee, its simply how they calculate their exchange rate. It sounds like a fee to me.

Still on a holiday theme I came across this article on thisismoney about the cheapest destinations for UK travellers taking into account the current exchange rates. Apparently you can currently get the most for your pounds by heading to countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. This is because the pound has strengthened greatly against those local currencies within the past year. For example a pound will now get you 12.8 rand, 10% more than this time last year. It’s a different story though if you are thinking of heading off to Eastern Europe you are 13.6% worse off than last year.

The same article has an interesting section about using credit and debit cards abroad. Last time I went abroad I was aware that there would be a charge for overseas transactions but didn’t really pay much attention to what the charges were. It was a bit of a surprise to see how the charges had mounted up just in one week. The article contains a handy table comparing what providers charge for overseas transactions. Interestingly enough if you have a credit card from the Nationwide or the Post Office they do not charge you at all. Most other credit card providers have a 2.75% charge when used overseas. Likewise with debit cards most companies charge not only for making card purchases but also to withdraw cash. This is where I got out with my Bank who charges 1.5% on every foreign withdrawal. Once again Nationwide does not charge its customers for overseas transactions. It might be time to open another account to use when going on vacation. I’m sure in the long run it will help save a lot in unnecessary fees.

This was my first trip to Ireland and although most of our time was spent at a friends wedding, I left with the intention of going back again for a longer stay. It definitely wasn’t the weather that made my stay enjoyable, it basically rained on and off all weekend. I did however find it refreshing to be surrounded by beautiful countryside instead of feeling rather crammed in as we tend to be back in London. One thing that immediately struck me was that every person we came across whilst in Ireland greeted you with a cheery good morning or a friendly wave. Back in London, things are slightly different, if you even so much as glance at another person on the bus or train, you are met with a blank, unfriendly look.

During this visit we hired a self catering cottage from Dream Ireland. The cottage is located in the grounds of the Mount Wolseley Hilton Hotel. It included a double room with en-suite bathroom, two rooms with twin beds and a third room with a single bed. It also had another bathroom and toilet as well as kitchen and large living/dining area. In fact it was much bigger than our house and cost 420 Euros, that’s about £287. I was very impressed with the accommodation offered for the price and you also had the option to use the hotels pool, spa and gym. The cottage also had the advantage of being located within an easy five minutes from the main hotel which has several restaurants serving food for most of the day and several bars which were open until very late.

The atmosphere in the hotels bar was a welcome change from a smoky pub; smoking having already been banned in public places in Ireland. On the night we arrived, at nearly midnight, we were surprised to find the hotel’s main bar still open and the locals enjoying a good singsong well into the early hours of the morning. In fact they were still singing when we left at three in the morning. In all it was an enjoyable few days and I will definitely be going back.

Views of the living area in the cottage.

I just got back from my trip to Ireland during which we stayed in a shared cottage. It's always so nice to be home. All the cats were pleased to see us and Rory's father was kind enough to trim our hedge, whilst he looked after the house for us. I really missed home, but most of all I missed my nice new TV.

I and my husband are heading off to Ireland this weekend for a friends wedding. It always occurs to me when going away how much easier it is for men to pack. They simply pack a pair of jeans and a pair of trousers and a couple of tops. My packing dilemma goes something like this. We are going away for 4 days. The first day we are at the wedding, so I have my dress and shoes, but what if it is cold, I might need a jacket. The next day I will need something casual to wear during the day, so I pack jeans and trainers, but wait I am going out in the evening, will I need something smart? So I pack a skirt and top, but what if it’s too cold for a skirt… I pack trousers. The thing is trousers require different shoes to a skirt so I pack my smart boots as well as my strappy shoes. Ok, the bag is starting to get heavier at this point and thats before I think about day three. Men have it easy. 

This underwater restaurant is in the Maldives. I'm not sure why it makes me think of Jaws, something to do with all that glass maybe.