Jon Jolly

So we’re back from Egypt and the photos are up on Flickr. We had a great time away and really enjoyed spending time with our friends Dominic, Claire, Rebecca, Joshua, Brian and Liz by the seaside.

Apologies if you’ve tried to comment on the blog in the past few days, access was suspended due to the huge amount of comment spam coming through. Although none of it got live on the site, I returned to a spam folder of around 17,000 comments! Things are back to normal now though.

Oh yes, and I bought a Canon EOS 400D Camera! I’ve wanted an SLR for a looong time and with the income from Dj-ing recently, felt it was finally viable. Although Tim Abbott preferred the Nikon D40x, there was a good deal on the Canon in Duty Free with an 8GB Compact Flash Card thrown in. I’m really happy with the outstanding picture quality.

Anyway, now we’re home there may actually be some interesting posts coming up soon…

Hey, this is Kirsty not Jon! I’ve decided to post on my wonderful husband’s blog as mine is so infrequently updated I fear all who may have read it have since lost hope a long time ago.

So we’re in Luxor and sitting in a Wi-Fi enabled McDonalds (which speaks volumes about the standard of Egyptian food as I would not go near the joint in the UK!!!). There’s a builder in the kitchen doing some impromptu building work and we’re becoming McFrozen from the aircon outlets we’re sitting under. However, it’s still kinda nice to get out of the afternoon heat.

We arrived Tuesday night via Cairo Airport, where we spent 4 hours sitting in domestic departures waiting for our connection down to Luxor. This was suitably long enough to be ripped off by the cafe staff, and we’ve taken a steep learning curve in the art of bargaining since then! We’ve also learnt that Egyptair can’t be bothered to label their check in desks. Oh, and that security staff are more interested in playing with their phones than looking at the X Ray scanner.

Since our arrival, we’ve been on loads of adventures! Our first outing was to Karnak Temple, which was amazing (see photo taken on Jon’s new Canon EOS - ooooh - I’m sure he’ll post more). The sheer scale of the Temple was awesome. The following day we then crossed the Nile and went to the Valley of the Queens and Old Gurna - 2 areas containing a large number of tombs from Ancient Egypt. Back-sheesh (or tipping) let us into a lot of places we probably shouldn’t have been and we also managed to get a lot of forbidden photos! Then today, we went to the Valley of the Kings and hiked over some of the desert landscape. This all sounds so simple and laid-back but we have so many stories to tell about how difficult it is to get between A and B without being hassled out of our life savings! Jon has also learnt from all the locals that he is a “very lucky man having beautiful wife”…

Anyway, gotta go, Jon is threatening to snatch the laptop off me :-). Next stop today - Cairo! Can’t wait to see our friends and enjoy the Easter weekend in somewhere warmer than the UK!

Kirsty x

Happy Good Friday! Youth work related posts will resume shortly.

Hey everyone,

We arrived back into Heathrow this morning at 04.45 after a long flight from Sydney via Hong Kong. Although I got a bit of sleep, I also had time to put a selection of our photos into a web album that is now available on the jonandkirsty site. Click here, then hit the album button and select ‘Hong Kong & Sydney’. Enjoy!

Sorry guys, it’s been a little while since I got a chance to update the blog. Since last time I posted, we’ve moved up the east coast of Oz to Queensland and been cruising round the Whitsunday Islands. As per Mark Yates instructions, we went for a smaller vessel and shared our 3 day trip with a total of 12 other people (Brits, Canadians, Americans, Irish and 1 lone Aussie). Check out Kirsty’s Blog for far more details about that little trip.
We’re now in a tiny town called Cardwell at an amazingly beautiful B&B which we were lucky to get into. Tomorrow we head over to the island of Hinchingbrook where there is only 45 visitors allowed at a time because it’s a National Park Reserve and mostly beach, rainforest and mangrove swamp! Sounds great! After that we’re gonna make our way to Cairns and head into more National Park territory.

We’ve just spent a crazy 2 days in Hong Kong, running round seeing as much as possible. It’s such an amazing city full of western products and eastern values. You can buy absolutely anything there from Prada and Panasonic to Sushi and Saphires, so we picked up a lot of Christmas presents while we explored the endless malls and markets. Just don’t be surprised if you get a gift from us with no English instructions!

We also met up with Kirsty’s colleague from work Chrissie, her husband Tim and their daughter Beth who were over for a wedding. They took us up to the peak and showed us around the harbour via boat. Thanks guys!

We’re now in Sydney, Australia having been picked up from the airport by Jamie in his camper van. 1 hour to get through customs was pretty frustrating after an 8 hour flight, but we’ve spent the afternoon taking the ferry across from Manly into Central past the Opera House. Tonight we catch up with Stu, Caz, Giles & Suzi for a bite to eat, but for now I need a quick nap! Bye…

As you can see from the time stamp it’s just gone 8pm and I’m sitting in the Virgin Upper Class lounge at Heathrow Airport (Terminal 3). Kirsty is getting her complimentary haircut in the salon behind me and I’ve just had mine done too!

I am extremely tired! We left San Diego at 10am Sunday morning, arrived in Philly at 6pm after a 4 hour flight and then got into Gatwick at 8am this morning after another 6 hour flight! Time zones are really screwed up! I’ve managed to get home, wash my clothes, re-pack my bag and get up here without falling asleep but it’s only a matter of time!

My next post will either be from Hong Kong or Sydney where I will try to upload some photos too. Miss you already…

OK, I’ve just finished writing Assignment 5 for Uni! Something about my role as an Informal Educator in the Community and the quickest one yet. I’ve had to get it in 2 weeks early as I’m on holiday from 10pm tomorrow. I hope they like it.

Just a Breakfast Club, Parenting Course, some admin and the church youth club to go…