jonandalanaupatree

At first glance, the english summer looks to be about as much fun as a barrel of wet kippers, and, admittedly, you have to work pretty hard to find the positive side of landing yourself in England's wettest, coldest summer on (some) record.

Here's four pretty great things you can do to make the most of a bad summer situation:

1. Head to the south coast in a camper

I think we've all seen enough of the daggy dancing; obviously it was pretty exciting to be near the ocean again. England's coast is beautiful beyond all stereotypical expectations. There's so much to see once you get beyond Brighton and we just loved walking in the hills, taking brisk dips in the ocean and parking up and watching the sunset over the rolling country. More than a little homesickness arose, aided by mr hamlyn's extremely rare and highly sought after mix-tape - which has become the unofficial soundtrack to summer 2007.

2. Get out your Sunday best and go to Bestival

Bestival is a fantastic music festival on the Isle of Wight. While the Isle of Wight is officially part of England, it seems to possess it's own microclimate and here you can lap up sunny, warm goodness whilst listening to awesome tunes.

Bestival goes for three days and features a diverse range of entertainment including dirty ol' rock'n'roll (either listening to it on the main stage or learning to do it in the dance palace), burlesque dancers with champagne and cupcakes, electronica and VJ madness, the forbidden forrest, tea for two and oh la la a relaxation zone complete with sauna, massage and other nicey nicies.

We had the loveliest of times just wandering from one event to another, marvelling at everyones costumes and generally enjoying what was a most invigorating yet relaxing weekend.

Jon get's down with the Charleston

3. Go to where the summer runs freely and in abundance.

In our case, Turkey. One day we will upload some of our own photos, until then...

Cappadocia is an area of amazing natural beauty in central turkey. Highlights included our cave house hotel complete with swimming pool, the serenity, getting lost on bikes, larding around a bit, finding hidden fairy chimneys and taking a dawn flight in a hot-air baloon. The four-hour horse trek through the rubbish dump was not a highlight.

We were a little dubious about going on a four day gulet cruise but decided to take the punt and go with it. Far from being the oldest members of a party boat, we were among the youngest members on a hard-out cruiser boat. Highlights included St Nicolas Island, diving of the yacht into the ocean, the food, Jill's 70th birthday rope swing into the water, swimming in the med, breakfast at Olympos, watching the sun rise, lying, reading, eating...

Istanbul was the last stop on our two week tour of turkey. We figured it'd be good to go somewhere madder and more full-on than London so that London would feel quiet in comparison when we got back; Istanbul exceeded all our expectations. Highlights included the Aya Sofia, the Hammam (where jon got a dry man scrub and alana got an oily lady rub complete with shampoo - and we'd asked for the same treatment - go figure), getting out of the touristy side of town, finding alana's great leather jacket, the pink cafe street and the Istanbul biennal. Lowlights included the wandering bottom-and-wallet-seeking hands on the tram and getting harassed at the grand bizzare

4. Make a baby

We won't go into too much detail on this one, suffice to say that making a baby is a great way to warm up on a cold summer's night. This activity does have far reaching consequences, ones we're pretty stoked about facing about now. We're expecting a wee baby sometime in May.