Parrots, pirates and fancy dress ~

I f you can see yourself as a porcupine,

a Pink Lady

or even a panda,

whether you go to cold party

a gold party

or just want to dance, 

dressing up will raise the spirits and must be good for the health.

If you can imagine yourself as Captain Flint, the town of Hastings in East Sussex is hosting a massive fancy dress party this Sunday 21st July ~ Hastings Pirate Day ~ They promise a parrot-flying display and a pirate ship donated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL American football team. Beware, there may be more than 15,000 pirates in town - they are current world record holders' for this sort of thing. 

Download the programme of events here.

Hot Air Ballooning at Luxor in Egypt, from my perspective ~

Like thousands of British tourists, I too have been hot air ballooning at Luxor while on holiday in Egypt.

It was a fantastic experience, not least because so many balloons went up at once.

I had no idea that there would be 19 passengers in the basket that hung beneath each balloon. We had two pilots, one of whom was British. The equipment looked brand new.

It's a massive set-up with a number of different companies offering daily trips at dawn. It is pretty chilly when you set off, or it is in February.

Some balloons went high, hoping to catch air currents which would take them over the Valley of the Kings.

We were taken low over the sugar cane fields, which I found both fascinating and more enjoyable than flying high.

Most of the other balloons flew at some altitude, the wind taking them over the fields, away from the archaeological sites and majority of ancient temples.

We flew over Luxor and the River Nile. It was beautiful.

You could look into the top floor of people's houses. I was fascinated to see that they kept chickens up on there, often with a great deal of rubbish.

To my relief, we landed safely in a field of stubble. You do think, when you climb into the basket, that up that you might not return alive. By the grace of God, I did.

Sophie Neville in Egypt

sophie@sophieneville.co.uk