Well...its true, after 11 years, Jill and I finally got engaged on 25 January 2005 and will be tying the knot on an as-yet-undisclosed-date in the future...possibly in another 11 years!

We took a trip to Dublin from 25 May 2005 to 28 May 2005 and it was way too short. Ireland is a wonderful place and the people are friendly and most importantly...Guinness originates from there! PS. We almost missed our flight to Dublin as we did miss our train to the Airport and arrived about 30 minutes before take-off. Our hotel was decorated in medieval fashion and was quite good. It has its own pub and even has authentic Irish dancers doing the jig in the evenings!

We took a trip to Paris for Jill and Bev's birthdays from 25 March 2005 to 29 March 2005. Well, apart from having some very comical departure problems, we took the Eurostar train from London to Paris, which goes under the English Channel and travels at 200+ mph! Also, my wallet was stolen by a pick-pocket and it had my debit cards, credit card and all our travellers cheques! Big thank you to VISA for sending me emergency cash and AMEX for refunding my travellers cheques when we got back.

Having said all that, Paris is probably my third favourite city in the world only outdone by Phuket in Thailand and Cape Town which will always be the best. It has a very historic feel and I hope to go back there again sometime.

We took a trip to Sousse as and end of year break from 29 December 2004 to 5 January 2005. Very interesting indeed! Everyone spoke mainly Tunisian (a mix of Arabic, French, Turkish and few other things), Arabic or French and very little English so the language barrier made things quite fun.

We met Karin and visited Al Djem, the set of Gladiator before Karin left. We also visited many other historical sites.

I was very sceptical about Tunisia at first, but my perception changed very quickly as it is a very nice place with lots of different influences and very friendly people. Also, when you mention that you are also from Africa, and not European, they are even friendlier and if you mention South Africa, the Tunisians go on and on about the 1996 African Nations Cup when we beat them. It was lots of fun!