Santa Monica

Just come back from a great trip to the west coast, and Santa Monica officially rules.

Springtime in Paris

Every year I visit my friend in Paris, and have just returned from this year’s trip. I spent three days enjoying the warm Parisian sunshine (it was even warm enough to wear my flip-flops a couple of times!), catching up and generally having a fantastic time.

No trip to Paris is complete without a little indulgence, and this year it came in the form of a visit to the luxurious Laduree tea shop – the home of the double-decker Macaron! The pastries were absolutely delicious – I did bring some back to share around the office but they disappeared before we could take any pictures!

Posted by: Jemma

Moules & Frites for Christmas anyone?

This year me and my brother Will (yes the one who doesn't work here!) spent Xmas at our dad's in Brussels.

Always a good place for drinking insanely strong beer, we now had the pleasure of wandering around the winter markets in between drinking insanely strong beer.

Highly recommended!

GOA

My ‘What we like’ this month is my holiday to Goa. I could write a thousand words about this inspirational place however, I will limit it to one special experience which was visiting an elephant sanctuary in the jungle.

Not only was I able to meet these amazing creatures but I rode and washed them and watched intently as they played amongst themselves. The sheer size mixed with their gentle, laid back nature was incredible and there were times that you simply forgot how dangerous these creatures can be. It was a ‘once in a lifetime moment’ and I have such fond memories...

Posted by: Jemma

On top of the world!

I spent most of October in Nepal, on a 24 day trek to Everest Base Camp crossing two high passes, the Renjo La and the Cho La.

Our 12 strong trekking team congregated in Kathmandu and after taking an adrenaline fueled flight to Lukla (check out Lukla airport on YouTube!) we met our team of hero's - the Nepalise Sherpas and Porters, and the adventure began.

We were up at 6am each morning, woken by the call for washing water (no need - it's babywipes all the way!), breakfast at 6.30am, then up and out.

Trekking through the Himalayas was like dropping into another world - away from the rat race, no mobile phones, stripped back to the very simplest of living conditions. Our journey took us to the most remote areas, across glaciers with temperatures ranging from scorching sunshine to below freezing, walking and sleeping at altitude of over 5,000m. Each day brought mind blowing sights - the highest, most beautiful mountains in the world....(and possibly the lowest toilet conditions!) It was proven within our team that toilet humour is international!

We congratulated ourselves and our Nepalese team with a huge party on our last night, and after a kettle full of rice wine the Nepali singing and dancing came naturally to us all - the best ending to an experience of a lifetime!

Check out our leaders report at: http://www.jagged-globe.co.uk/news/reports_read.html?id=697

Posted by: Yvette