A not so early start, a curious choice of Brekkie, from sweet pastries, strong sausage and powdered juices. Then a few hours by the pool; a run in with a German over reserving sun loungers, a asked to see the hotel rules but they were unsurprisingly not forthcomming.

The midday sun sent us on our way in the car to Sveti Stefan, which alas is undergoing a several years refurbishment. However the view and the beach were lovely, the Campari and orange was equally enjoyable.

The afternoon was to be a big drive out. First climbing the mountains behind Budva toward Cetinja. A comatosed town by first observation, isolated amongst the mountain peeks. we stopped for ceasar salad and coke before a walk around. Monestries, churches and a plethora of museums, a few sleepy cafes but no restaurants and shops that barely appeared open.

The Royal Capital of Montenegro the town is immersed in history, it houses the preserved hand of John the Baptiste and a fragment of the Cross of Christ. It has a strange mixture of single story cottages and stately royal palaces.

Next on our agenda was the drive home, electing not to turn on our heals but to push on in the direction of Kotor, this heralded the drive of a life time. we climbed to the crest of the mountains and then across a village plateau to turn and face the road back home.

Narrow, winding and heart stoppingly close to sheer drops we began the 1.5km (as the stone drops) decent.  Manners on the road were passable, but a little sympathy wouldn’t have gone a miss when I was steering towards corners fearing a clutch slip and hundreds of meters at the hands of mother gravity. The views were sublime, the sun’s effect on the water was like a highly polished silver charger, the islands and mountains looked like they had just dropped out of the sky.

turn after hair pin turn we slowly sank to sea level, whilst I realised it may have been several minutes since I last breathed, and I had a pain in my neck and jaw where I had been clenching my teeth.

Back in the relative safety of Kotor streets it struck me that for a country with such a natural resource, over 240 sunny days in a year I had not seen a single solar panel. Combine that with the plumes of noxious gasses emitting from the exhaust pipes of tour busses and lorries and I find the message plastered on state bill boards promoting recycling is probably falling on deaf ears?

The journey home enabled us to join the commuter traffic, though I haven’t seen much industry of any kind, heavy or technological, apart from tourism and farming I think the diminutive number of Montenegrins that there are means other jobs are rare. So I conclude the traffic was probably largely domestic and foreign tourism.

My first holiday in a good few years started off at the Sofitel in Gatwick Airport with a respectable alarm call in the morning for a 10 O’clock flight. Two and a half hours later we touched down in Dubrovnik to be met with a comforting 30 Deg C ambient temperature. Getting our hire car was a little more eventful, it seems a booking stands for not a lot and a bit of careful negotiation eventually secured an Opal rather than a Volkewagon Eos, frankly the lesser model was a point to argue after I had the keys and not before in case the keys winged themselves to someone else.

Once we were all set I took the roads by storm, well the right hand side was negotiated first, then a roundabout, then the painfully slow speed limits, then the border crossing out of Croatia and into Montenegro.  Stern faces were about the limit we had to face.

The journey continued easily, then we came to the Kotor Bay perimeter road. Starting at the estuary and working inland, when we had completed it I realised it had taken about 2 hours to travel about 20km. However the scenery en route made for a very suitable alternative to making headway.

Arriving at the Hotel, a stylish, modern hotel with large lounging chairs in the foyer, three bars, two restaurants and a casino. Arriving in time to dump bags and scout around, walk down to the beach and grab pizza slices in a Beach cafe.

Staunchly eurpoean, kids out till after 10, smoking between courses and the euro. A few words of Montenegrin was about the scope of my linguistic ability, Yar, Ne and hvala made me realise it was not an easy language, there were menus on which not a sinle word could be guessed at, but the waiters enjoyed helping.

The sun went down behind the mountain at 7, the bay went dark at about 9, accompanied by an assorted array of music genres. The hotel had evening entertainment in the guise of a female solo singer and a choice of Simply Red to David Bowie. We then were “privileged” to witness the Under 8’s national champion in Latin American Dance Champion, I took the opportunity to write my postcards!

Then I slept.

good news as the scores are in on my third exam. A pass. Reinsurance module next, not multiple choice so the stakes are raised!

In January I sat my Foundation In Insurance exam, the mandatory module to the Award in Insurance. I passed, a thankful mercy in so far as I have been working in the industry for about 12 years now and it would be a very sad show if I could not pass the first of the exams.

Today I got my results on the second exam I sat earlier last month, the Loyd’s Introductory Test, again thankfully I passed. However I really want to pass on my congratualtions to Helen who I sat the test with who was convinced she failed, … she didnt - WELL DONE GIRL!

Next I am embarking on the yawn worthly Legal and Regulatory module the compulsory module for the Certificate in Insurance. I am liking the whole education and exam thing, sad I know but when you perform averagely at school it is nice to see that you actually can do “Education”, might have taken 30 years to realise, but better late than never. Will keep you posted, module, by exciting module… lol

Today I was fortunate enough to get a whole day to spend doing my hobby - Geneaology. As many readers of my blog will know I am passionate about family history. So off to Olympia to see the “who do you think you are” exhibition. However I am also fustrated that the technology is quite slow to provide people with access to data to complete someone’s family research. We can all do dates and places back through our ancestors, but there is so much more than that. How did your family move around as the generations unfolded. Did the circumstances of the time force young families to migrate to the towns and cities or even further afield on one of the cheap migration tickets to Australia or America.

Now I have found a website that is really useful. Lots of sites offer research services, some offer CDs of data and records, others offer sofwtare, books, folders and storage boxes, but Ancestral Atlas offers keen genealogists not only the opportunity to earn a little money back from all their hard work, but also the ability to load up a gedcom file and see the map of all your families locations accross the ages.  A nice site, simple to use and well… the icing on the cake it can earn you money! At the moment a year’s subscription is only £20 - an absolute steel! get in their quick folks and find people who were born at the same time as your ancestros, maybe died in a tragic event or accident or perhaps a shared relative. www.ancestralatlas.com.