MUNGUIN EN VANCANCES

All packed and ready to go.

Arrived and waiting for cocktails.

Picnic luncheon at the castle.

Inspecting the gardens.

Floral arrangements specially planted for Munguin's arrival.

With Dani and Zeta.

It's hard for a wee furry animal to keep cool,
but the fountains look good.

And there are some nice green places in the shade.

Quick meeting outside the USA Embassy with Ronnie. He was thrilled.

I wanted to them to get the parliament in but Abé had to get his head in the way.

Country residence at Lake Balaton.

A cruise on the Blue (Green??) Danube.

We visited a synagogue ... 

...and a church.

It was nice of them to put up barbers' poles to point me to the hairdresser.

So, we climbed to the top of a volcano (in the car)

We even took public transport... Me, Munguin, on the métro!! Imagine.

Our gracious host, Viki.

The view from Munguin's apartments.

The wasps were at least an inch long. No joke. Tris was scared stiff!

And finally to Lake Balaton again.
Sincere thanks to Viki, Dani, Abé, Zita, and all the other people who made the stay so marvellous. Seriously never turn down the opportunity to visit Hungary. It's one of the loveliest countries we've ever been to.

Velkomin til Íslands...hin fullkomna frí áfangastað

WE'RE ALL BACKING BRITAIN, EXCEPT ME, OF COURSE...

In August of last year David Cameron urged everyone to help rebuild the economy by taking our holidays in the United Kingdom. He said that the £115 billion tourist industry was fundamental to rebuilding the country.

That’s not an unreasonable request to make. Not only would this support the British hotel industry, it would also reduce the amount of UK money going abroad.

There is some excellent accommodation available in Britain and there are some interesting sites to see. The downside is that it is pretty expensive, but if you don’t mind splashing out on yourself it can be worth it.

I’ve always found holidaying in the UK to be too expensive. I can have a week in Paris for about half the price of a week in London. It is better suited, probably, to the likes of Cameron, who won’t have to count the pennies.

So Mr Cameron duly took a summer holiday in Kernow, where his child was born. Perhaps, mind, he was persuaded in his decision by the fact that it might have been unwise for Mrs C to fly when she was close to giving birth.

There was further proof that Mr Cameron was heeding his own advice when he cancelled his plans to spend his Christmas holiday with an old school friend, the prime minister of Thailand, on, it is believed, the advice of Mr Coulson, who thought it might look a bit elitist. The advice didn’t get as far as Mr Osborne next door, who took his break at Davos!

However, it seems that Mr Cameron has decided that, after all the English tourist trade can do without him for just now, because twice this year, although there were, I have no doubt, perfectly good accommodations in his native land, Mr Cameron has decided to fly out to Spain. Maybe their tourist industry is in an even worse state than England’s and in the spirit of generosity which Cameron clearly has (see the UK’s commitment to give a bigger proportion of GDP than any other country in the whole wide world), he has decided to support it instead of the home-grown one.

It could also be that the food is better and the weather better.

As a footnote to this, I’d also like to say that trying to look as if he is in sympathy with the “squeezed middle”, by taking the most uncomfortable and unpleasant flights with Easyjet or Ryanair, he just looks just plain silly. It’s good that he is not flashy about his wealth, but it is daft him trying to hide that he has it.

He reminds me of a guy who talks terribly posh, getting all guttural because he is in the company of common people. It’s false. And no one buys it.

We all know both the Camerons are rolling in money and that they could hire a Lear jet to take them on holiday and never notice the bill. And it’s not even that they don’t like luxury; they just spent £30,000 of ours doing up the Downing Street flat. My advice to him would be to take a mid range flight, business class. Or maybe even to be true to his word and take his holidays at Bognor!

Pics: David and Mrs C on a yacht off Turkey; George in Davos with a scarf that cost more than my whole holiday; and David with a saggy tummy and man boobs, ouch!