The roadtrip ... part 1

Our first stop was York ... we stayed at a bed and breakfast just outside the city, and very close to an outlet mall, which we had to stop in, of course. We only visited the Gap outlet where I picked up a few cute baby things, and some t-shirts for myself. We headed into York to visit York Minster, Clifford's Tower, and we walked around the ancient city walls. We only had one day here, so it was crammed sightseeing. York Minster was beautiful - and huge! Very hard to take a picture of the entire thing. As one of the most important cities in England, and an important base for holding and administering the north in the Middle Ages, York was the site for two of the castles William the Conqueror built in the years immediately following his conquest. Clifford's Tower is all that remains of the original castle, and was rebuilt in the 13th century when the old wooden tower had been destroyed.


York Minster is said to be the largest Gothic Cathedral north of the Alps. It also boasts the largest medieval stained glass window in the world! I know that might not sound interesting to all of you, but if you study stained glass techniques it is really easy to spot the differences from over the centuries. Medieval stained glass does look quite rudimentary when compared to more modern stuff ... anyway, I digress : ) Needless to say, the Cathedral was spectacular.




We then decided to walk part of the ancient city wall of York - something the 3 of us could do together. The wall was originally built in Roman times as a fortification, and York today has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. (And LOTS of towns I've seen have at least some wall left!)


Nearby to York we found Scarborough Castle on the very east coast of England .. since Scarborough wasn't too far we decided to drive up there also so we could see the coast. (I sang 'are you going to Scarborough fair ... parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme' the whole way, much to Peter's delight). The Castle itself was mostly a ruin, but the view was amazing - and the nearby beach as well. There was something to be said for the wind, which at one point nearly knocked me over when I was putting on my hood and the wind decided to use it as a sail! Thank goodness Peter was nearby ...





After leaving the Castle we headed down the hill to take Fletch to the beach. Believe it or not Fletch has never been to a saltwater beach - we were very curious to see how he would react. But first, we got some yummy chips and gravy from a little, and very busy, roadside snack stand. Then it was beachtime - Fletch was in heaven! He loves the water anyway, so he ran right to it and laid in it, drank it etc. He didn't react to the saltwater taste like we thought he might ... but he did react to the waves coming toward him; once he noticed what was happening he sort of ran away from the waves and kept looking behind him to see if there were others !! Very funny! From there we headed back to our hotel for a good nights' sleep ...

Christmas 2007

Well, its been a very busy few weeks for us and I haven't had much time to update our blog. Now, I'm just into the procrastinating stage because there is so much to say and I don't know where to start! I have some time today because the packers and movers are here to clear out our house here in the UK. We will be flying home on Saturday ... well, 'home' as in Canada ... but we are heading to our new home in Cold Lake, Alberta. We are very excited about this transition and have been looking forward to it for a long time. We've come to terms with the fact that Cold Lake is a very small town and will take some adjusting to - but we have so many reasons to think that its going to be a great experience too: new house, new baby on the way, new church to make friends at, tons of outdoor activities practically on our doorstep, a new job for Peter that he is excited about and oh yeah - we get to be back in our own country!! Having a Wal-Mart less than 10 mins. away is a very exciting thought for me - and two Tim Hortons each within a 5 minute drive ; )

So, I'll start with telling you about our Christmas. We spent Christmas with our friends Dave & Kristy, their daughter Lily and dog Toby. We drove up to their place on Christmas Eve; we had a great time hanging out with them. On Christmas Eve we had Chinese fondue for dinner - very yummy. For dessert we had chocolate fondue with fruit - also very yummy. Lily didn't quite make it through the meal and fell asleep in her highchair. It was very funny watching her trying to stay awake and not managing that very well - it looked a little she was drunk! On Christmas day we had a nice big breakfast ... and then a second breakfast initiated by the still hungry pregnant ladies! (Kristy is just 2-3 weeks behind me in her 2nd pregnancy). Opening presents was fun, though it took a little longer thanks to a very inquisitive Lily - but it was fun watching her with all her new toys, and outfits.








We had a nice turkey dinner on Christmas Day, played boardgames, talked to family from home etc. We were a little sad to be away from family this year, but so thankful to have our friends here to spend the time with - it was perfect! It was also lots of fun to play with Lily and be around her ... gave us a glimpse into our very near future! On boxing day we went into the local mall and did some shopping, wandering around ... Dave & Kristy showed us some of the neat stuff in their town, such as an indoor ski hill. On the morning of the 27th we left the Chown's and started our road trip with Fletch - I will continue that adventure in a new posting or else this will be the longest post ever!

Team PM & tadpole

21 weeks

Here is a picture of the 20 week scan ... its neat to see the baby's spine, ribcage, the bones in her leg, arm and hand ... and you can see a little bit of umbilical cord in the top picture coming out of her tummy. Kinda looks like something else ... but its not that at all ; ) In the bottom picture, it looks almost like she is looking out at us and you can see her facial features fairly well. This is an amazing technology that we are very thankful for!


And, so you can see my progress ... a belly pic of me at 21 weeks. I am past the halfway mark now - hard to believe, but exciting too. (My eyebrows are raised because I was laughing and making fun of Peter for taking about 3 minutes to finally take the picture!)



Team PM & tadpole

ETPS Graduation dinner

Thursday night was the McKenna dinner at the Officers Mess - this is the official ETPS grad dinner. It was a very formal mess dinner, complete with a head table of many high ranking officials including three Generals. Also in attendance was the Canadian air attache who came from the Canadian High Commission in London just in honor of Peter - the only Canadian military member on the course. After dinner we spoke with him - nicest guy ever - he even offered us use of his 4 bedroom flat in London whenever we wanted! So, I think we'll be taking him up on that offer when we visit London in early January before coming home.

The dinner was full of speeches ... most of them irrelevant to me because I didn't understand the jokes : ) Also, the course representative, one of Peter's classmates and good friends from the course, gave a speech in honor of the graduates. They also had an official grad procession where each of the 19 graduating students (6 Fixed Wing Pilots, 8 Rotary Wing Pilots & 5 Flight Test Engineers) went forward to receive their certificates. It was a very proud moment for all the exhausted students and their wives/partners. There were some awards given out as well, including the McKenna trophy for the best fixed wing test pilot, it was given to Peter's good friend Bruce ... and here we are after a semi-drunk Bruce insisted he put it on our heads ... um, okay.



After dinner everyone headed to the bar ... of course ... Peter drove me home at 2 am because I was exhausted. He went back for a while to hang out with all his classmates since it would be their last night together. He stuck around until everyone was too drunk to carry on a normal conversation ... then he came home.

Since Thursday Fletch & I have had our Peter back! Peter now gets to enjoy over a month off work, he reports to his new posting in Cold Lake on January 22nd. In the meantime, we have some travelling to do in the UK .. then the move to Cold Lake and settling into our new house. It should be a good month and a bit : )

Team PM & tadpole

Its a ...

GIRL!!! We had our 20 week ultrasound today and found out that we are likely expecting a baby girl! They can't tell you for sure, but what we saw sure looked female : ) This scan was a lot different than the first one - the baby was taking up alot more space, and she was moving around all over the place! She was actually sort of standing on her head at first, and it was really hard for the sonographer to get a good picture of her. But, she gradually moved around a bit and we were able to clearly see her heart beating (all 4 chambers), her spine (perfectly straight), some of the umbilical cord, her ribcage, her lips (no cleft palette indications), her face, hands and arms waving around, her little feet - it was amazing. And, the very best part was to know that she is growing and developing normally - a relief to know that all is well for her. We are still coming to terms with saying 'she' and 'her', I think my gut instinct was that it was going to be a boy ... but we couldn't be happier knowing that we have a little girl in there : ) It really is wonderful news! We went straight out to BabyGap after the ultrasound to buy a little dress - the first clothing purchase I've made since becoming pregnant ... it was fun watching Peter look at baby girls' clothes : ) We can't wait to meet her!



Team PM

He's almost done!

By the time most of you read this, Peter will be officially finished his course at ETPS! His final presentation is today at 11 am. It is supposed to be a half hour long, and then there is a half hour question period, so by 12 Peter & his two teammates will be celebrating in the mess to be sure! In attendance at his presentation will be all of the ETPS tutors, a representative from both the Canadian High Commission in London and from Epner in France where they conducted their testing on the Mirage. These guys have all been through ETPS and they know their stuff inside out ... so the intention is to impress and ensure that they are able to present their information well and be able to answer any question that comes their way. They have to present 67 slides in 30 minutes!! And there are another 100 or so slides with information/answers to possible questions that could come up. The amount of work they have put in to this is just mind boggling to me, and I am very proud of him : )

I took a photo of him this morning as he was leaving ... all dressed up in his dress uniform.


Last week he and his teammates worked for more than 24 hours straight to complete their 300 page report ... this is what he looked like when he got home at 10:30 on Monday morning. He was exhausted, his eyes were bloodshot, and frankly, he was a little stinky ... but he was smiling! That report was the most extensive of all the projects he's worked on while at ETPS, and when it was completed a huge weight came off!


We'll keep you posted on how the presentation went. I can't wait to have my normal husband back once all this work is done, rather than distracted, too busy for everything workaholic Peter! I can tell you who will be doing the dishes for a few days - I am so sick of washing dishes (I am spoiled and very used to having a dishwasher) ... normally he helps me with the dishes, but has just been too busy for anything but work, work, work. What a nice change it will be for both of us after today ; )

Team PM & tadpole

p.s. 6 days until our ultrasound!

*Change of web address for blog*

Hi all -

In anticipation of our move back to Canada we are going to be changing the web address associated with our blog ... this means that you will have to update your bookmarks, favorites or however you keep track of these sorts of things. Its going to be changed to www.teampm.blogspot.com - we're just taking out the 'uk' part since we won't be living here anymore!

To make sure everyone has time to read this, we won't be changing it until Dec. 15 and I'll post another annoucement before then as a reminder. Afterall, we don't want anyone to miss out on the fun and entertainment to be had by reading our blog :)

Team PM

Christmas is coming!

Tonight, Peter & I went to Salisbury Cathedral for the Advent Procession service entitled 'From Darkness to Light'. Being the Protestants that we are, we really had no idea what to expect, we just wanted to hear the choir sing, though I realized part way through that it is probably an annual tradition for many Catholics to attend advent services. We got there about 20 minutes before it started, thinking there wouldn't be very many people there ... we were SO wrong! The place was packed and they were getting ready to turn people away ... we were the second last group of people to get in, and we ended up having to sit at the very back on some cement half walls. That being said, there really wasn't much to see ... and we could hear perfectly from where we were sitting because the sound travels so well. It started out pitch black in the entire church .. and then the singing started, which was a little eerie - but very cool too. Then slowly the choir procession came in and lit candles throughout the whole place, singing as they went ... it was such an ambient atmosphere. There were readings and choir songs and two songs that the congregation participated in - 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' & another hymn that was not named in the program.

Afterwards we thought it would be nice to stop in a cafe for hot chocolate or something ... but of course, leave it to jolly 'ole England to not have a single cafe or coffee shop opened at 8:00 on a Saturday night! Just one of the things we miss about Canada ... but the town centre was quite pretty with all its Christmas decorations and lights, and a big lit Christmas tree in the market square. We could also hear the church bells ringing from St. Thomas' church, Peter said 'wow, this reminds me that I'm in England for sure!' It was a nice night ... we came home and made hot chocolate here instead :)

Team PM & tadpole

4 months down, 5 to go!

I took some belly pics today ... I feel like I've been getting bigger faster than I have in the past few months, so I wanted to show it off :) Its getting more and more noticeable ... though, depending on what I wear I can still nearly hide it. I can still wear most of my regular clothes, but the maternity pants are SO much more comfy!





Team PM & tadpole

The new house

As you can imagine, we are getting pretty anxious to see pictures of our new house ... so, I finally emailed our real estate agent in Cold Lake to see if she could take some pics for us and send them. And she did! The pictures aren't amazing, in that they don't always show much ... but better than nothing! The house is not completely done, but is supposed to be finished by Christmas. We are hoping that our move in won't be delayed ... but at the same time, its better that its not going to be sitting vacant for too long. Judging by the pictures it looks like there are just finishing touches left like lighting, baseboards, some plumbing etc. So, we'll see ... All that to say, the house looks great! We are both really pleased with what we can see so far ... looks like we made some good choices with decor ... or should I say 'I' ... : )

So, this is the main kitchen (on the main and also technically 3rd level) ... you can't see the eating area and patio doors, but what I really wanted to see was the counter, cupboards and flooring ... you can see one of the french frame cabinet doors (upgrade) and there is another one in the opposite corner. And another upgrade is the huge pot drawers - I'm excited about those, as much as one can be excited about pot drawers ; )


Next is the living room. This is the first room upon entering the house, and you can see the wall that divides the kitchen and living room - and the vaulted ceilings. The wall between doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling, so it feels very open concept on this main level. I do feel the need to clarify, however, that the paint color in this picture in particular looks kinda peach-y ... when really, the color we chose for the entire house was called 'crouton' and is a light cream color. We are hoping that this is just the lighting or something! (No offence to those of you who like peach-y colored paint).


This next picture is the 4th bedroom which is on the 2nd level. We also have a sub-basement (the 1st level) which will remain unfinished, this is where our washer/dryer, furnace etc are. Because the house is on a slight incline, this room has a full window even though its in the basement. It will make a nice guestroom.


This is the family room ... which is also on the 2nd level ... it walks out into the backyard. We'll have the tv etc down here. Also on this level, is a full bathroom, but we have no picture of that. Please take note of the SNOW outside the doors!!! These pics were taken yesterday when it was -21 degrees in Cold Lake ... good thing we like winter in the Connolly household - especially Fletch. He's going to be thrilled at all this snow when we arrive.


And, up on the 4th level is our Master bedroom ... not much of which can you see, apart from one of the windows in the room. Nice wall though eh? ; )


Last but not least is the main bathroom, also on the 4th level. Sadly, we don't have an ensuite in this house, but I will have drawers in the bathroom cabinet - which I've always wanted so that is pretty exciting! Again, not much to see ... a tiny bit of the counter, cabinetry and flooring which is exactly the same as the kitchen.


So, needless to say we are all very excited to get to Cold Lake. I honestly never thought that I would say that I was excited to move there .. but I am. Part of it is in my anxiousness to get home to Canada, and into this new house. Also, I'm anxious to be settled again somewhere and to see what God has in store for us! I think its going to be a great 4-6 years ... plus, life will change dramatically soon, and I think that will make things all the more fun. By the way, for those of you keeping track, I am 18 weeks today, which means that I am officially entering my 5th month of pregnancy. Hard to believe! In two weeks, we have our ultrasound, and at that point I will be halfway :) AND, I can still fit into my regular clothes ... but I know someone is in there, they like to kick me in the morning and at night when I'm laying in bed!

Team PM & tadpole

The latest

I think I am getting worse at trying to create interesting titles for my blog posts ... I try really hard each time to think of something eye catching and relevant to the blog entry, but I'm starting to lose my touch!

This last week was very hectic for Peter ... but not so much for me and Andrea, my latest and definitely final visitor from home. She stopped in at our place for about 4 days in her month long journey around the UK. So, she arrived on Wednesday evening and I picked her up in Salisbury. On Thursday we spent the day visiting Stonehenge and the town of Avebury (both of which I've done before). We also visited West Kennet Long Barrow which I hadn't yet seen. It is an ancient burial mound ... quite interesting, though we did encounter an interesting assembly of people inside the barrow (3 in all) conducting/taking part in some sort of ceremony to someone ... we weren't sure what or who, and we didn't stick around long enough to find out!

On Friday Andrea went to Bath for the day, and I stayed home ... defintely have had enough of Bath. Saturday, we decided to visit the village of Chawton to see one of the homes that Jane Austen lived in. The town was exactly what you would envision if I said quaint, pituresque, small English town. Jane Austen spent the last 8 years of her life in this 17th century home, and was there right up until 2 months before her death, when she was sent to Winchester to receive better care from a doctor. It was in this house that she wrote Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. She also edited and revised Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey in the house. Each room of the house was set up with various exhibits and displays relating to Austen's family and her life - Andrea & I both really enjoyed it. We took a short walk down the street out front of the house to see some of the other very old houses, one was dated 1550, complete with a thatched roof that looked like it too had been there since 1550! We ate lunch in 'Cassandra's cafe' (named after Jane's only sister) and then headed off to nearby Winchester. The plan was to visit Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried .. but we decided the admission was too expensive and instead took some pictures of the exterior and then walked around the town a little.




On Sunday we drove up to Bristol (where I would be parting ways with Andrea as she had a flight out of there on Monday). I wanted to visit the S.S. Great Britain, which was built in a dry dock in Bristol in 1843. It was the first ship to ever have an iron hull and a screw propellor, and at the time was the largest vessel afloat. It was a working ship for 90 years, and in 1970 it was towed back to Bristol and transformed into a museum. We were initially shocked that it cost 10.50 gbp to get in, but we soon learned that this was well worth it. There were 3 parts to the site: first you went down to the dry dock to check out the hull, the propellor and rudder ... then inside to a huge (and very impressive) exhibit about the ship and its work ... then out to the ship itself for a fun audio tour including very realistic props and displays depicting life on board the ship for passengers. It was a lot of fun!





After the many hours we spent with the S.S. Great Britain it was time for me to head home ... so we had a quick bite to eat and then I dropped Andrea off at her hostel. Meanwhile, back in Amesbury, Peter was working his tail off! He and his group worked every day all day and until about 10, 11 and beyond. On Sunday morning Peter went into work at 8:30 and did not return home until 10:30 this morning!! It was full 24 hours of work required to get their report done and edited ... he was very tired when he got home, but also a little hyper because this enormous weight was off his shoulders! He took a well deserved nap and then for once, in what feels like a long time, we spent the afternoon and evening together. This week will be fairly light for him; all they have to do now is prepare their presentation, and then give the presentation on December 6th - then he's done! Yay! It will be so nice for him to be finished so we can (sort of) resume our normal life, even though a lot is about to change! Speaking of change .... this morning I felt and saw the baby moving for the first time. It was amazing to see my tummy being thumped from inside - very exciting :)

Our next big plans are to visit Ireland the weekend after next, so we'll be sure to keep you posted.

Team PM & tadpole

An update ...

Well, the last few weeks have been busy - for both Peter & I. Peter was in France working on his last project for the course, which was a lot of work ... in the meantime I decided to head to Ottawa! I surprised my parents by not telling them that I was coming. I had their friends Bob & Earlene pick me up at the airport and take me back to their house .. then my parents arrived while I hid upstairs. When the time was right, I snuck down into the kitchen and surprised them both!! It worked out very well and it was a nice way to start out my 2-week visit. (Fletch was at his baby-sitters house ..) I spent most of my time visiting friends, and doing my Christmas shopping (much cheaper in Canada!) ... and alot of time was spent relaxing and hanging out with my parents. Meanwhile, Peter was having a busy, but fun time with two other classmates in the south of France - they were even able to squeeze in visits to Marseilles and Nice. The hard work for Peter started when he got home last Friday. Him and his 2 teammates for the project have to write a 300-page report in just 8 days - needless to say, its an extreme amount of work! Once Sunday night rolls around they will finished and will hand it in on Monday. It is a busy week for Peter, which means he's not going to be home as much, which would normally mean that I would be incredibly bored ... but my friend and former classmate from Algonquin, Andrea, is here visiting with me for a few days. It was perfect timing for her to stop in, and its great for her as it saves some money and is nice to see a familiar face while she backpacks alone for a month.

After this week things will start to slow down a lot for Peter and soon he will be finished his course altogether! We are both excited for him to have a month off so we can do some travelling and spend some time together.

I don't have any recent pics to post, but I'm sure I will soon ... so stay tuned :)

Team PM
(p.s. I am 4 months pregnant today .... little tadpole is growing very quickly!)

Introducing tadpole

Today was a great day for Peter & I! This morning we went in to the hospital for my first ultrasound. It was awesome to see our little baby up on that screen - we couldn't believe how clear it was and how easy it was to see the head, legs (which were moving all around), belly and facial features including eyes, nose, lips and ears! Even the mouth was moving, almost like the baby was chewing a piece of gum. And at one point its whole body jumped, kind of like it had a hiccup - it was so amazing and wonderful! Also, they determined that I am in fact 13 weeks, not 12 so the due date was pushed back a week to April 30/08. I always thought I was 13 weeks, I think the midwife had counted wrong or something. It has made me feel so much more anticipation about having the baby and being its mommy - I felt quite emotional when I saw it, which surprised me. I never thought I could feel that way until I actually 'met' the baby, but not true - we are so thankful for this amazing gift from God. Enjoy the pics! The ones of my 'belly' don't show much, since there is still not much to show! But, I thought I'd post them anyway for you all to see, there is a slight difference ; )




Team PM & tadpole

Last week & my birthday

Last week Peter was away in Toulouse and was supposed to spend Thursday night in Northern England. However, on the way back from Toulouse the plane's windscreen cracked and they had to make an emergency landing at Boscombe. So, he was home on Thursday instead of Friday. In the meantime, I decided to go north and stay with our friends Dave & Kristy for a few days. Fletch and I headed up there on Tuesday and planned to stay until Friday, but we came home one day early to see Peter. While in Milton Keynes Kristy took me to the American base for some good 'ol North American groceries! It was great! I got some 'real' peanut butter (not the oily goo the Brits call peanut butter), some KD, and a bunch of other great stuff. Its amazing how much I've taken little things for granted that its such a treat to have them again! They have a great place up there - complete with horses across the street! In the picture you can see Kristy, Lily (who is still very unsure of the horses) and Flynn.

On Saturday we celebrated my birthday by heading to Longleat for a drive through a safari park! It was a good time .. there were camels, zebras, giraffes, lions, tigers, Canadian wolves, monkeys (who crawled all over the car) etc. We then headed to Pizza Express for dinner ... I know that sounds like a really bad, fast food-ish type joint, but its actually more like a posh pizza parlour with all kinds of specialty pizzas. Oh, and the best part of my birthday was the chocolate chip pancakes Peter made me for breakfast - a tradition in our house .. and thanks to the American base this was possible! Yay Aunt Jemima! I also got a new silver, Fossil watch which was a good surprise. I had seen in it in the duty free shop while we were on our Cruise, I did not know that Peter had gone back to buy it for me - and he kept it a secret all this time .. he's so strong!







There's not much going on this week ... though now that I'm pretty much back to my normal energy I've been keeping busy cleaning and cooking and walking with Fletch. The weather here has been beautiful, sunny and crisp, usually about 10-12 degrees - I LOVE it! Tomorrow Peter & I head to the Salisbury hospital for my first ultrasound! We are really looking forward to this - we will hear our baby's heartbeat and hopefully be able to make out an image on the screen. Can't wait for that - I'll post again tomorrow to let you all know how it went : )

Team PM & tadpole

Lions, lemurs & bird-eating spiders

Yesterday Peter and I went to the Bristol Zoo. Its not very far from here, though we ended up taking what felt like a very roundabout way to get there thanks to Mapquest. Once there we were surprised to find the zoo in the middle of a boarding school campus ... it was kind of weird since all the zoos we've been to seem to be way out of the way of civilization. Once inside, it didn't feel at all cramped, and was a nice size zoo for a day visit - especially for a pregnant and therefore much slower and easily fatigued version of me!

The highlight of the day were definitely the seals! We got there just before feeding time and watched them show off for the crowd for about 20 minutes. They were swimming around really fast and sliding on and off rocks, and screeching and very much enjoying the attention.

The gorillas were also pretty impressive, as they usually are, simply due to their sheer size. We watched them being fed also; they were fed through a fenced window and a zookeeper was handing them food through the holes of the fence. There was a little shelf for the young gorilla, and the mother to crawl up on and sit on to eat. But the best was when, Jock, the big male (who must have weighed at least 500+ lbs.) came in for his food and decided to sit up on the shelf as well, though he was clearly WAY too big to fit there. He had to bend his neck and lean down a bit to be at the same level as the zookeeper - it was pretty entertaining.

The lions were also quite spectacular, mostly because we were able to get so close to them which I guess is one of the benefits of a small zoo. There was still a barrier, and a chain link fence between us, but I think that is the closest we've ever been able to get to a lion before. After the zoo we headed into downtown Bristol for dinner and then came home - it was a good day indeed ... needless to say I was in bed by 9:30 and fast asleep ; )





Aside from our adventures together, Peter has had yet another flying adventure to report about. On Thursday he flew in the Tornado, which is a Cold War swept-wing supersonic air interceptor (I didn't just know that, he is saying it to me as I type!) So, for the first time he went SUPERSONIC! This occurred about 80 miles off the west coast of England over the Atlantic Ocean. Now, for those of you who may not know ... supersonic means that they broke the sound barrier - otherwise known as travelling faster than the speed of sound! Pretty cool ... though he says it was a little anti-climactic because there was no sonic boom or any big acceleration, just the changing of the Mach number. However, I think its still something that he will always like to talk about ; )

That's it for us for now ... Peter is heading out of town this week, to France. I will be possibly heading back to Milton Keynes to spend a few days with our friends Dave & Kristy just to get out of the house. Hope you all have a good week!

Team PM & tadpole