And now the end is near....

Well, it must have been years since I've written a post (Sunday 11th October to be precise) and I've got some news so now seems as good a time as any!

First off, the BIG news, I'm leaving Comet and moving on to pastures new, Republic, the fashion retailer, again to be precise! Should be starting there just after Easter in my new role. I started Comet 12 years ago, and although there have been a few trips round the world thrown in for good measure, it does feel like 12 years now and it seems like the right time to hang up my gloves! I didn't take the decision lightly and have been pondering and procrastinating for well over a month now, but I know I've made the right decision!

Anyway, there's plenty more interesting stuff to write about too! We went to our first wedding fare (together!) on Sunday which happened to be at the venue we have chosen. I say (together) but it's really my first but i can't vouch for Michelle as she seemed to be a natural at it. On entering we took a right into a room which had 5 roast dinners laid out on a table. Hey, this is alright I thought, and preceded to sit down and take out my emergency knife and fork (I always carry a pair with me, well you never know do you?). Anyway, I was just about to stuff a mouthful of turkey and stuffing into my mouth when I noticed "for demonstration purposes only". What a strange notice, "demonstration purposes only" How can you demonstrate food without physical eating it??! What they should have done is have a load of food toffs, or better still that Aussie and the bald bloke off Masterchef there scoffing the food and talking b*lloc.... sorry nonsense!

"That my friend is a triumph!", "I could quite happily lick that plate clean", "first you get the turkey dancing on your tongue, then the stuffing comes out of nowhere and there's an explosion of flavours in the back of your throat!". Pair of nobheads!

So, after wrongly sitting down to a roast dinner, I then found myself being drawn to the canapes that were neatly laid on a silver platter. Michelle had wandered off to look at some seat coverings so I downed a few of them when noone was looking and then wandered off towards the windows. Lo and behold there was some wine to taste! I soon came to the conclusion that this wedding fare malarky wasn't so bad after all. I sipped (I was driving!) a couple of mouthfulls of red and white , obviously dispensing of the tasted wine into a spitoon, and then headed off to the bar. The bar wasn't open but that was the only place I hadn't been too yet! There wasn't a great deal to taste there so after a quick "about turn" I caught up with Michelle again who was just agreeing colour schemes for the seat covers. I won't tell you what colour they are as it will spoil the surprise on the day (that's if you are invited ;0)

When we finally got home I jotted down the dates of the remaining wedding fares in the area and we are now booked into one a week for the remainder of the year! Not really, but it wouldn't be so bad if we were as I can thoroughly recommend the food and drink!

Well, I think I'll leave it there, I've got a week off in March (to use up my remaining holiday), so I'm going to get out on my bike and get some snaps with my nearly-new camera. And then after that, the obligatory round of leaving dos starts. I'm pretty sure this is my third time leaving Comet, so this time I'll keep the leaving drinks very low key ;0)

Adios,

p.s. It is my third time I've "left" Comet although this time, as the Governor of California once said, "I DEFINATELY WON'T BE BACK!"

Flying High...

Well it's almost a year to the day that we've been back and it's time we were off again. We fly out to Sri Lanka on Saturday from Heathrow for 2 glorious weeks of no work, eating curry, sun bathing, no Facebook, drinking, no work, swimming, lazying around, and oh yeah no work!

See you in 2 weeks. Adios.

If you can't beat them, join them....

Well it's getting close to the end of the month again and one of us needs to write a blog. (EDITOR'S NOTE - Michelle did actually write a blog the other weekend, but I threw a tantrum and made her delete it. Not exactly freedom of speech and democracy is it. Anyway I went into a strop but we’re over it now. What was the blog about I hear you ask? Well it was about my obsessive compulsive disorder of buying gadgets and electronic equipment which as you know is completely unfounded and probably potentially libellous. Anyway we settled out of court so let’s move on!!)

This leads me neatly on to the topic of this blog..... yes, yes, yes ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND GADGETS (hahahahaa). No not really. While we’re on the subject though, I just wanted to categorically say that I have bought my last gadget (of this year anyway) so you can all rest easy at night. I finished off my collection with a lovely black Onkyo HTX22HD 2.1 Digital Surround System. I decided that rather than spending about £800 on a fully operational 5.1 Surround system I’d go for the more compact one. It has all these features; 2 HDMI inputs, 1 output (with support for up to 1080p, Deep Color, x.v.Color, Lip Sync, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, SACD, and multichannel PCM) but I don’t know what any of this means; Stewart does and he said it’s cracking. Anyway the main thing is that now films sound really good, we don’t need to watch them with the subtitles on anymore, there’s no wires trailing all through the house which would have been the case with a 5.1 system AND most importantly X Factor in HD will now be accompanied by cinema quality sound! (Is that really a bonus?)

Oh by the way, we also ordered a wardrobe and a dresser a few weeks ago, too. It’s pine, has two sections, one triple and a single, hand-made in Beverley, sports 4 HDMI inputs, has a built-in upscaling DVD player, has Audyssey Dynamic EQ for loudness correction and you can hang your coats in it. Obviously not all of the “features” are present, but I’ll let you decide which ones I’ve added.

Well it’s about 7 weeks to our holiday to Sri Lanka and it can’t come soon enough! It seems ages since we went anywhere and it will be a well earned rest. I’m not sure 2 weeks will be long enough though really; last time we went away abroad we had 10 months to do what we wanted. I’m really looking forward to the food too. Obviously being so close to India, curry features heavily on the menu, in fact it will probably feature in every one of my 4 meals a day. Yes, that’s right, I eat 4 meals a day, so what? Interestingly enough, Michelle has now ordered us both a Nintendo Gameboy from eBay. I think Michelle has just got sick and tired of watching me play LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 and thought if you can’t beat them join them.

Anyway, just a short one from me today, I’ll try and think of something interesting to say next time, and I promise I won’t mention technology once!

Adios

He-Man

I thought I'd better write a blog as neither of us have blogged in August and if we don't do it soon, that means we'll have missed a month in the archive (see right hand side).

Anyway, so I'll start the blog with a moan about fuel prices. Well it's not really a moan more of an excuse to put this funny cartoon on the blog, which one of the lads at work sent me (thanks Mark G). Fuel prices have gone up though haven't they? Still, I'm sick of everyone moaning about "the current climate" and "the credit crunch" so I'm not going to dwell.

So, what have we been up to then? Well, I've had quite a busy August to tell the truth; I've been backwards and forwards to Ricky a few times, up to Scotland (Ayr) for Al Green's stag do (my mate from Uni not the soul singer ; I couldn't make his stag do, I was double booked!), and then last weekend we went to Belfast for Al Green's wedding to the lovely Jennifer. Oh, we also watched the mighty Hull City beat Fulham in the first ever top-flight football game for Hull. They've got Wigan next week at home and I'm going to that too! Glory Hunter I hear you cry; yeah well I'm not bothered , I'll be dead one day, I may as well make the most of it.

That's about it really, we had a cracking weekend in Belfast, a place I'd like to revisit. It was really easy to get to; we flew from Robin Hood airport in Doncaster to George Best Airport in Belfast (no it wasn't full of pubs!). Al and Jenny put on a fantastic do, good food, a free bar - the Guiness was well and truly flowing, and even a covers band. They weren't as good as The Recovery at Owen's wedding; though I would say that being as though I was the rhythmn guitarist.

So, a fairly quiet September lined up; for those reading in Droitwich we are definately coming down this month, I promise.

Well, I'm off now, as Michelle has got the tea prepared and I've just had a bottle of beer placed down next to me.

Adios,

Technophobes unite

I thought I'd put a girly blog on as Matt seems to be getting ahead of himself with all this technical crap that I for one am not the slightest bit interested in. I am sick of hearing TLA's (three letter abbreviations) relating to TV/PS3/DVD. We have enough cable in our hoose to go the full length of the British Isles, we also have more remote controls than Corby RDC. We have tech magazines laying around all over the place, every other bookmark on the web browser is of a TV/Audio site or a PS3 blog. I am SICK of hearing the words 'look at the picture on that' ' look at the graphics on this game' etc etc. Me and Matt have had a few words about his over use of the PS3 (if you spoke to Matt he would say he NEVER gets to play on it!) He went through a particularly obsessive phase a couple of weeks ago, at which point I decided to call a PS3 crisis meeting. We have agreed now that PS3 is ok in moderation.

We have just come back from a weekend in London catching up with Matt's UNI mates (Al and Wigan) and girlfriends (Jenny and Kate) We went down on the train yesterday and met up with them late afternoon for a few beers and a Polish/Mexican meal last night(!) I know you must all be wondering how you can combine Polish Cuisine with Mexican, and the fact is, you can't. Me being Veggie was never happy about going here anyway and after much unsuccessful nagging at Matt to try and get the restaurant changed decided that I would just have to go along as everybody else seemed quite satisfied at this strange choice of Al's. Me and Matt started drinking about 12.30 yesterday lunch time which was quite foolish in view of the fact that it was going to be quite a late one. I did manage to down a few soft drinks in between pints and halves so when 5 o'clock came I was still relatively sober. After the introductions and a lot off cooing over engagement rings the drinking got underway once more.
A good night was had by all, even more so by Matt who was bordering on paralysis when we all departed each others company around midnight. I took great delight in being sober the next day and reminding Matt just what an animal he had been, needless to say he had no recollection of the past 12 hours! It was a lovely sight from the coffee shop in Kings X seeing Matt slumped over the railings breathing in the traffic fumes. Never one to say I told you say I'm just glad that I insisted that Jenny didn't buy him a Jamiesons whisky in the last pub!
It was a good night though and it was good to see Al in a more civilised environment as opposed to our first meeting at Reading!

Last Wednesday I had my first works night out with my new boss Trevor and the rest of the team, we went to The Westwood which is a swanky restaurant in Beverley, there was about 20 of us in total. At the beginning of the night Trevor told us to drink as much wine and beer as we could and to enjoy ourselves, so, we did! I was so drunk I don't even remember getting home, not to mention going to the bank on the way home to get some cash to pay the cab (that Keelie had already paid once!!) We were drinking a lovely NZ red and I don't think I realised just how much I'd consumed... until I tried to get up on Thursday... and couldn't!! I was still drunk, I felt shocking, I couldn't even stand up! Luckily it was my day off so I popped a couple of headache tablets and crawled back into bed to die in peace. I resurfaced at 1.30pm took two more tablets and laid on the couch for another hour, before then getting in the bath and laying down for another hour, by this time it was almost time to go back to bed. It's fair to say I wasted a very valuable day off!

I've been doing my bit for nature by filling up the bird table in Stew's garden. Stew always complained that he never got any birds (in the garden!) and I told him it's because he's not putting the correct food out. He thinks if he throws a full slice of Warburton Toastie on the garage roof once a week that we will get a myriad of birds flocking round. Well after watching numerous nature programmes and even before that actually I knew we were never gonna have a Blue Peter garden throwing random slices of bread out, so that's when I went to Wilko and got the biggest sack of bird food that I could carry. It took a week or so for the birds to start coming in (I think they wanted to finish the bread on the garage roof first) but they are coming thick and fast now. We've got Robins, Blue Tit's, Great Tit's, Hedge Sparrows, Blackbird's, White Collared Doves, the ubiquitous pigeon and even a squirrel is frequenting the table. It is so funny to watch them all coming in, it gets really busy and I think we might even have to start organising two sittings. The squirrel is the funniest of all, he has to jump up on the plant pots, across onto the recycling bin and then he hops onto the table. I think he must have a family as he fills his face up with nuts and then scurries off down the garden and under the fence, to God knows where, and then within minutes he's back again repeating the sequence.

Parking is proving to be a bit of a nightmare while we're staying at Stew's, luckily for Stew and Kirsty they have car parking space for 2 cars outside their house, but we have to park on the road. Because the houses are so big down the avenues just about every house has 2+ cars so parking is sometimes impossible. So much so that the other night when I parked I was actually 1/3 on double yellows. I didn't give it too much thought as I was more off them than on. I was mortified to find a parking ticket on the windscreen the next day! I have disputed the ticket, and have provided a pic of how I was parked so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get off with it?!?!?!

Just going back to the subject of remote controls. I once read in one of those silly magazines that chavs read (I must have read it in the dentist's waiting room) that if you have trouble with remote controls and you keep losing them down the back of the couch or under the chair, that you should instead get an old pair of oven gloves and hang them over the arm of your chair to safely store your remote controls!!

Chilling in Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai on New Years day after a 60 minute flight from Bangkok - what a breeze! It was such a relief to get away from the hustle and bustle, not to mention the intense heat.

We were met at the airport by an ex work colleague and his family (Alan, Apple and Andrew) Alan used to live here a few years ago and is currently on a career break and back in Chiang Mai soaking up some culture. It is not difficult to see why he has come back. Chiang Mai is a fantastic place. It is much cooler than the rest of Thailand and without the humidity, it is less busy than the touristy resorts and it has so much to see and do and fantastic restaurants, bars, shops etc. It is going to be difficult for us to leave!!!

We are due to fly home to the U.K on the 16th January, a little bit earlier than we anticipated but we are both ready for home now, despite it being mid winter there! So rather than clock up more miles travelling to Cambodia for a week or so we have decided to put down our packs for the last time and spend the rest of our trip in Chiang Mai, it has got everything we need to end our already superb trip on a high. Cambodia will have to wait for the next trip when we will have the time and inclination to do the country justice.

On Wednesday we hired some bikes with Alan and Apple and they took us to the Elephant Reserve, about 20k outside of town. It was a great drive (despite the pot holes ;o)) through windy roads up into the hills and away from city life. Myself and Matt went on an elephant ride, it is something I have wanted to do this trip and obviously Thailand is the perfect place for such activities! There are loads of elephants at the reserve and they are amazing creatures, I love them. Our elephant was a female and she was called Mae Moo, she was 38 years old which meant we were the same age, she did seem to be aging better than me though, although I'm not sure I had quite as many wrinkles as she did!! We were on Mae Moo for an hour, we sat on a seat that is attached to her back and there is a local sat up front (on her head) giving her directions and steering the way. I couldn't help but think that it was a cruel thing to be doing, but the elephants handled our weight with ease and it is such a relief knowing that these animals are protected and looked after daily without the fear of being hunted or separated from their herd. Elephants are extremely protective of their young and the rest of their herd, and they become very distressed when one of them is captured by predators or runs into difficulty. They do everything they can to protect each other, they really are something special and it was a real treat for me. It was a slow and bumpy ride, and often quite smelly when one of them would stop to do their business ;o) We also went into one of the rivers where the elephants had a drink and sprayed some water around, it was a great experience and one I will never forget.

After that we headed off to a great Thai restaurant for a lovely Thai lunch, because Alan and Apple have lived here before they know all the best spots so we really have being spoilt since we arrived. We then went to see some waterfalls before heading back. A fantastic day. Yesterday we opted for a lazy one, so we headed across the road to a "posh" hotel and made full use of their sun deck and swimming pool amidst the Germans. We sat sipping ice cold drinks soaking up the rays, thinking of our friends back home venturing back to work after the Christmas holidays!

We have been doing a bit of shopping since we arrived here as we have put it off our whole trip as we couldn't afford to pack any more weight. They have a night bazaar here every day and it is huge. The handicrafts are beautiful and if I had my way I would but them all. There are shoes, handbags, t-shirts, dvd's, cd's, jewellery, souvenirs you name it it's all here for the taking. The only thing I'm not too good at though is the bartering, they come in with a ridiculous price and then we have to haggle. I have had a few attempts, some successful and others not so. We have another week and a half though to get the rest of our pressies so I hope to have it cracked by then.

On Monday we begin our 4 day cooking course. We attend cooking classes Mon - Wed, 10am - 4pm and then our last day is Sunday. We are shown how to make our own curry pastes, Thai soups and other local dishes, this involves a trip to the market to buy our own ingredients. We are really looking forward to this. We get to eat all our own cooking too so we will be stuffed by the end of each day, it's a hard life!!

Today we are just going to amble into town and have a look around, we have had Alan showing us the sights and delights of Chiang Mai since we arrived so we have being spoilt not having to get the maps out finding somewhere to eat, best places to shop. We'll probably end up in some girly bar paying through the nose for our drinks being accosted by lady boys!!

Christmas - Thai Style

Hello All, you must all be buzzing now with the anticipation of Santas arrival this evening and what he will bring all you boys and girls that have behaved this year. He will be mafted when he gets to Thailand I hope he has his swim wear with him :o)

Well we have had a very exciting couple of days as you can imagine, Matt's proposal and my Birthday yesterday, I'm on cloud 9. Thank you all for your lovely messages and well wishes it means a lot to us both. My engagement ring at the moment is a stainless steel band bought from the lucky lucky man on the beach, we're going to shop for a real one when we get back so I'm looking forward to that, not sure Matt is ;o)

We have had a really relaxing time since we arrived in Koh Samui and the weather has been superb. The resort that we're at is full of westerners and chavvy Brits which is a bit of a come down after 8 months on the road, but I guess it conditions us a little for return home. It is really touristy here and is not like travelling now at all, it's more like being on holiday. Thailand is beautiful (what bit I've seen) but I can't help but notice the seediness that consumes the place. There are so many fat, balding old men here who are just out for the Thai girls and there are also lots of the same kind of men married to the Thai girls. It's shocking to think that these beautiful women are exploited in this way, but as Matt said it's the life they choose and they don't see anything wrong with it. The men are just sad pathetic old perverts who can't form a relationship with a woman because she loves him, it's all to do with the size of his wallet.

Yesterday we spent another day relaxing by the pool and then late afternoon we decided to start my Birthday celebrations early. We had a wander along the Lamai Beach taking in the other resorts, some of them really luxurious and others not quite so. The beach here has surprised me, while the sea is that beautiful aquamarine colour and the sand is white, there is litter strewn everywhere, plastic bottles, fag ends, numerous shoes and flip flops, drinking straws, and there are loads of random dogs wandering up and down. No I'm not referring to the ugly women I'm talking the 4 legged variety. Not the sort of thing I was expecting. Having said that there are some parts of the beach that are spotless. Luckily for us we stay by the pool on the loungers, it's easier to get to the bar!!

So we went in the 1st pub yesterday, a Swedish pub and ordered a couple of Singah Beers, to be told the distressing news that they weren't serving alcohol that day as there were some presidential elections taking place, and it was against the law to serve alcohol. It didn't seem to have a negative effect on the prostitution laws in Thailand just the drinking ones. So we order a fizzy drink and made off back to the beach to our resort where we knew they were serving beer as it is off the main road and out of earshot of the police. As we were heading back we heard some Reggae music and saw some candles flickering away at some beach side bar so we parked our butts and spent most of the evening there, watching fireworks and sipping ice cold beer. We also bought a kind of balloon to celebrate my B'Day. You light it inside and then it takes off into the air and drifts off into the Thai night. It was quite romantic actually he he. After the beer we went to a nice little Thai/Italian restaurant for some food, we had been there a couple of nights previously and enjoyed a great Thai curry so we agreed that we would go back.Matt told the lady that owned it we would be back on Sunday as it was his girlfriends birthday, I didn't think she was paying much attention to us crazy westerners but last night when we had finished our meal she came across with a big cocktail of ice cream and fruit covered in chocolate sauce with two dessert spoons and wished me Happy Birthday. What a lovely gesture.

Today has been much the same as any other, we have been laid by the pool listening to Brits bickering at each other, touts trying to sell us sarongs and pancakes, and crazy kids diving about in the pool, with some dodgy 80's music playing in the background. It does not feel like Christmas at all. We are enjoying it though, we have had no stress of getting up the M1 in rush hour traffic, no Christmas shopping to do, no planning of our logistical Christmas between Droitwich and Hull, and to top it all it's sunny and we're in a lovely little resort on a Thai beach.

There are no signs of a Christmas lunch anywhere on the menu here for tomorrow so it will probably be red and green curry for lunch, at least the colours are seasonal :o) Tomorrow night we are having a BBQ and there is a live band playing so we think(!) we're looking forward to that. If it's rubbish we are heading to the 7/11 for a bag full of goodies and beer and will barricade ourselves in our room and watch some trash TV, it will be just like home!!

It's not a question of curry...

Well hello there, as you can probably tell by the flag, or maybe you can't as it looks similar to the last one, we are now in Malaysia. We crossed over the border yesterday to Melaka (or Melacca depending on your spelling) which is/was a very important port city on the west coast which has been conquered by the Portuguese, Dutch and of course the English at various stages throughout it's history. It's still bleeding hot, before you ask, but we seem to be coping with it ok and only need to stop for a drink every hour. There's an old fort and palace that we visited today and hopefully I'll post some pictures within the next few days.

So on to the subject of food. Anyone reading this who knows us will know that we are both partial to the odd curry be it Thai, Indian, Chinese. Michelle can stomach even hotter curries than me which is a bit embarrassing really but hey ho. Now being in Asia it's not a question of whether you're going to eat curry (when I say curry I'm really referring to anything that's mildly spicy really, I know that's a bit of a culinary stereotype but as I've said before it's my blog and I'll write what I want to!). Sorry where was I, yes it's not a question of whether you're going to eat curry (I actually typed that out again I should have cut and paste) it's at what time of the day you are going to eat your FIRST curry and then how many subsequent meals that day will consist of the stuff. Do you skip breakfast and have an early lunch of curry? Do you have curry for breakfast but of a sufficient portion to last you through to teatime? Do you go for the triple whammy and have breakfast, dinner and tea (breakfast, lunch and dinner for all the southerners) of curry and then spend the rest of the evening in the W.C. Incidentally we bought 20 (twenty!) packs of tissues earlier from the chemist as none of toilets here have toilet paper in. Plus if they do they are the toilet of the squat variety and you have to take your shoes off when you go. That's not some religious rule it's just that your ankles end up getting covered in ..... anyway that's enough of that!!

Talking of food we made a bit of a food faux pas yesterday. Michelle ordered a bit of a curry medley and it's served on banana leaves in this particular restaurant. You don't get knives, forks and eat with your hand(s), specifically your right hand as the other one is used for doing the business in the toilet if you don't have twenty packs of tissues; seriously it is. So there we were eating away with our right hands when the waiter bought over a little silver cup of water. Now being thirsty I started to drink it and after a while Michelle had a few sips too. Strange I thought why he didn't bring one each. What we can only guess today, after both having crippling stomach cramps for about an hour yesterday, is that the water is used for washing your fingers in. Obviously the water would have come out of the tap rather than from a bottle of drinking water so God only knows what sort of parasitic filth was in it. Still we're all right today and even went back to the same restaurant tonight so it can't have been that bad. We didn't drink the water today though!!

We're off to Kualar Lumpur, the capital, tomorrow so will probably be away early as it's only two hours from here and we can spend most of the day sightseeing and eating. The south of Malaysia is predominantly Muslim and so there are quite a few Mosques around. In fact, there's one about what sounds like 10 feet away from our room, as this morning the "Call to Prayer" aka "Early Morning Alarm call" blasted out at 5am. It's actually a recorded voice these days but in the old days the head of the Mosque I presume would climb the tower or Minaret as it's called, next to the Mosque and start wailing at the top of his voice. God knows (or should that be Allah knows) who they've got to record this wailing as it sounds like a cross between Barry White and Roadrunner, it really is awful, the last thing you need at 5am that's for sure.

So that's me, I better stop now as it's getting late here,

See you Soon,

Aussie Aussie Aussie!!

Well hello there, it's been a while. Michelle is also posting too, so some of you probably won't bother reading this as it won't be as exciting as Michelle's! Well we're in a place called Mount Gambier which is famous for some crystal blue volcanic lakes apparently; we haven't seen them yet, but we've just been told by "the local friendly campsite neighbour" , more on this subject later. We were hoping to hire some bikes tomorrow and ride around them, but unfortunately can't find a bike-hire shop so looks like we'll be doing it on foot.

We spent last weekend at my cousin's house thanks again Andy and Lisa for a great (and heavy drinking!) weekend. They live in a gorgeous part of the country right on the doorstep of the Barossa Valley, home to Jacobs Creek amongst a multitude of other fine wines. They've recently moved into their new house, the size of which would put most houses in the UK to shame. Not only does it have 4 bedrooms, 2 lounge rooms, study, double garage it also has a fantastic alfresco (patio to you and me) area which we made full use of. In fact we probably spent all our time out there, either drinking, eating BBQ or recovering from drinking and eating BBQ. Friday night was a quiet one in the local pub with what seemed like all the locals all of which we're now on first name terms with. Saturday night was anything but quiet and we had a mammoth BBQ and drinking session with the same locals from the night before plus about 500 others! There was a constant stream of people coming and going, eating and drinking, laughing and shouting and generally having a good time. I made the mistake of mixing my drinks and had a pretty bad hangover, (the first one since drinking with Kirsten in Auckland) and spent most of the next day trying to stay out of the sun and drinking copious amounts of water. I don't know how Michelle did it but she seemed unaffected by it, even though she drank at least 10 bottles of Coopers Pale Ale, and that's just what I saw her drink! Sunday was really hot so once it had cooled down enough for us to start moving around, about 5pm, we took a drive to Mount Crawford forest and then through the Barossa to Jacobs Creek retreat, where Andy and Lisa will be tying the knot next March. One thing I have to mention also is that we saw some live kangaroos, as opposed to dead ones in the side of the road. Now some of you may know they I spent most of 2001 in Australia and in that time only saw one live kangaroo and that was in Tarango Zoo in Sydney.

So that was the weekend that was. Since leaving there we had a very relaxing 3 days in Robe on the South coast below Adelaide, mainly not drinking and definitely not driving.

Onto the subject of Aussies (I've just been reading what Michelle is typing next to me, so apologies if this is old ground). Now before I start this rant I just want to say that the majority of the Aussies that we've met have been extremely friendly, very hospitable and generally great folk (especially Judy and Snow in Melbourne, Wayne and Jan in Robe and of course Andy and Lisa in Williamstown although Andy isn't really an Aussie yet!). However there is always a bad apple(s) in the bunch who seem to go out of their way to annoy us by interrupting whatever we are doing and giving us not only their life story but every single route to anywhere in Australia. It starts off with a "where you from?" quickly followed by "where have you been?". "Sydney to Adelaide" is usually my response and then that triggers off a tirade of "You didn't wanna go that way", "Did you go here?", "Why didn't you go to this place?",etc., etc. This goes on for about 30 minutes and ends with either the Aussie either passing out from over exertion or me just walking off muttering under my breathe something along the lines of "why don't you just mind your own business you friggin know all". Now most of you are probably thinking it's just the Aussie's being friendly, but believe me when you get it day in day out for 3 weeks you start to get a bit fed up. The two worst examples have been a knob from Sydney who we bumped into at Wagga Wagga. He actually got the map out and showing me the best route to go to Darwin from Perth, which we're not even going to whilst breathing cigarette smoke in my face. The second worst offender was about 30 mins ago here in Mount Gambier. This guy didn't even bother asking where I was from but just launched into "have you been to Port Victoria" or something along those lines. I had a mouthful of tuna sandwich at the time so I couldn't respond appropriately with "Why don't you p*ss off you big fat nonce". Anyway, that's how we feeling at the moment, both of us, just a little bit "aussied out". As I said these people are in the minority so sorry if I've offended anyone with this but it's our blog and I'll write what I want thanks.

To end on a positive note though, we are enjoying the aussie BBQ and have probably had about BBQ for the last 5 nights now! The steaks are to die for (although I'm sure Michelle won't agree) as is the seafood.

Well I best be off now as I've just seen a guy in the window of this Internet cafe and I'm sure he's eager to give me some directions.

Good on Ya Mate.

Kiwi Fruit's

No I'm not referring to the New Zealand Gay scene, I'm talking about the little brown fury on the outside and lovely and juicy green on the inside fruits. As you no doubt know this is where Kiwis come from, although they did apparently originate in China (Chinese Gooseberry) They are BIG business over here and it is a billion dollar industry for NZ. We have just driven through a place called Te Puke, which is the Kiwi (fruit) capital of NZ, there are literally acres of fields growing them. A lot of Backpackers work for the farmers picking them allegedly. Me and Matt would love to help out but I'm afraid working is not on our list of things do to ;-)

Yesterday we went to visit Mount Maunganui, in the Bay of Plenty. We weren't expecting anything other than quite a large mountain and a bit of beach, so it was just going to be a bit of a stop off en route to Rotrura, but when we got there the sun was shining and the beach was stunning with a campsite right beside it, so we decided to park up and stay the night. That really is the beauty of having your own accommodation in the back, if you like somewhere that much then you can just decide to stay. We then climbed up the mountain (see pics) which was an absolute killer, just a constant climb for about 40 minutes, we were gasping when we reached the top. It was worth the pain though as the views across the Pacific were stunning, and the coastline you could see for miles.

We have being having some top notch gourmet camper van grub since we've been on the road, I cooked a cracking vegi Chili the other night, we've also had a vindaloo and rice(!) and some great pasta dishes, it's surprising what you can muster up with limited resource, although a 3 ring gas stove with grill and a microwave oven is hardly call for improvising is it??

The camp sites are really well equipped in NZ, they have great showers with 24 hour hot water (unlike Sth America where your lucky to get 2 hours of hot water!) the kitchens are fully equipped with hobs, ovens, microwaves, fridge freezers and toasters and are really clean. There are on site laundry rooms with iron and board (again though I didn't come away to iron!!) The point I'm trying to make (to all you non campers) is camping is not about "roughing it" like it was years ago. There is so much hi tech camping equipment you can buy now and so many on site facilities that it really is like home from home, but with the bonus of being in the great outdoors and in touch with nature ;-)

There seems to be an unwritten rule of the road here in NZ for camper drivers, in that they all give each other that knowing nod as they pass on the road, as if we all have some great secret that only caravaners know about!! he he.

Geeks ;o)

It`s curry for tea in Argentina!

Well as Matt has already told you we are in The Capital City of Argentina and it is HUGE! I have never been to a city this BIG before, I can`t even begin to tell you the scale of it. Put it this way, New York is big but is like a piece dropped off Buenos Aires. It really is a fun and friendly place, and like any Capital City is non stop hustle and bustle. The price of things is also relatively cheap too, we are staying in a hotel in downtown BA and it is costing us $30 a night, I don`t think you could rent a cardboard box for the night in London for $30. When we stayed in NY in May we were paying $100 a night, and that was with a shared bathroom, and it was a right shithole!

So Matt told you we`d being splashing out a bit on flight`s and then the Lonely Planet for Argentina, well let me tell you what prompted him to buy the LP Guide. It was the fact that there were 3 different restaurant's listed that served curry dishes (2x Thai, 1 x Indian) we bought the book yesterday and already we have visited 2 of the 3. The book may well have only cost us $32, but the money we have spent in these restaurants makes it an expensive book!!! We have had curry withdrawal though and we both agree that it`s money well spent!

Tomorrow we are back on the bus for probably our longest ride yet, it`s 17 hours!! We are going "up North" to the Argentinian/Brazilian border to see the Iguazu Falls, we will spend a few days there before deciding on our route back to BA (which is where we fly from to go to NZ) Argentina is a massive country and we now have less than 3 weeks to take in and see what we want, so were in for a busy time on the public transport unfortunately. Were still not sure on our priorities after the falls, we had plans to hop across to Brazil, and maybe even spend a couple of days in Uruguay but I think we were being a little bit optimistic.

Argentinian steak is apparently the best in the world, it`s not the kind of thing I can get excited about I`m afraid. We did have a great pizza the 1st night we arrived in BA, after a mammoth walk trying to (unsuccessfully) get our bearings and find somewhere to eat, we threw ourselves into the nearest/next restaurant we could find. As soon as we sat down Matt said "shall we just get up and go" it was just one of those places that doesn`t quite fit the bill if you know what I mean?! Anyway we decided to sit it out and we`re glad we did, as the pizza was superb and so was the bottle of red wine we drank (2.00GBP)

Since we left Bolivia we have experienced a whole new South America, Chile and Argentina are by far more richer than the other 3 countries we have visited on this continent, although it doesn't make them anymore enjoyable to visit. I didn`t fall in love with Chile or the Chileans, they take themselves far too seriously and think far too much of themselves, but as I`ve mentioned before (lots of times) the Bolivians are the warmest people we have met so far in a country where nobody has anything.

Stew and Kirsty are now on their mini RTW trip, spending 3 days in Singapore (where Stew was struggling with the humidity apparently) then to Oz (where they should have arrived today) for 2.5 weeks before flying back via LA for 3 nights. My dad has just emailed me to say he can`t keep track of us all and the different time zones. I wish we could have planned our trip so that we could have met up with them at some point but it just wasn`t geographically possible. Stew will leave Oz about 3 days before we arrive in NZ :-(

Matt has posted the few pics that we took in Chile and also there`s a few we have taken in BA.. enjoy.

Food, Glorious Food!

Hi, hope you are all well. Over the last few days (we are in Puno right in the south of Peru) I have been day dreaming quite a bit about food we have back home. Now I wouldn´t go as far as saying that the UK is well known in the gastronomy stakes, but there are a few dishes that I´m missing. For instance, roast dinners, a good fry up and a decent Indian curry (I know it isn´t technically a British dish, but people do say the balti was invented in Birmingham or was it Bradford?). This is not to say that the food we´ve been having in S.America is bad, far from it. There´s only been a few times when we´ve struggled to get a decent meal and you can always rely on Huevos y papas fritos in emergency (that´s egg and chips for the non-Spanish speaking).

So during my time on the Internet I´ve been searching through flickr photos for good pics of my favourite grub and added them to my favourites (in Flickr). To view these go to the Flickr button on our blog then click on it. Then click on Matt and Michelle Photostream and then click on Favourites (or just click here). Hopefully, you´ll agree that the photos are pretty good even if you don´t/can´t/won´t eat the food itself. (I´m thinking of Ben particularly who doesn´t eat meat or fish, commonly known as a vegetarian. Although he does he say he likes the smell of bacon even though he´s never eaten it.

Anyway, more posts to follow soon when we hit Bolivia on Sunday.

Adios.

This Post May Contain Traces Of Nuts...

Just back in Boston long enough to use the Internet (the decent Internet Cafe with nice shiny Macs) before getting the bus back to NYC and then flying to Ecuador. I can honestly say this first 3 weeks in the States has been a great start and we've had a really relaxing time. The people are really friendly, if a little loud, and obviously as it's English speaking it's easy to get around, ask for rooms, order huge portions of dinner. Which leads me on to the subject of this post...

Now we all know the rumours of the portion size in America, the general laziness of the inhabitants and the size of the waistlines. Well I'd like, once and for all, to categorically confirm that all these rumours are TRUE!! Godammit!

I'll start with the waistlines; i'd say that 50% of Americans have BIG waistlines, or to put it bluntly are fat. Now, having been aquainted with 2 at Comet (where I work, or where I work when I'm at home) one who I sat opposite in Ricky who was lean and fit (actively fit, not fit in a gay way) and the other who worked in Hull who was/is a BIG lad to say the least. Now we've just come from the beach this morning and some of the people; men,women and kids are absolutely massive and when you see what they shove down their throats you can understand why (N.B. bear in mind that today we've eaten fish and chips for breakfast/lunch and a Dunkin' Donut for lunch/dinner!).

Now the labels on all the food detail (in a great deal of detail) the breakdown by Carbs, fibre, salt, trans fat, unsaturated fat and god knows what other kind of fat even telling you the percentage your allowed for each one daily. I reckon Americans are illeterate too, either that or they just don't @#%*ing bother to read the labels. One other thing; you all must have seen the labels on food at home saying "This may contain traces of Nuts" to warn those weirdos who can't eat nuts. Now on a carton of milk in the first place we stayed in New York it actually had written on "Milk*" at the top; underneath in small print it said "This contains Milk". What the hell else is it going to contain?!??!

Right this is turning into a bit of a rant about Americans and it's not supposed to be that so i'll leave it there. On a positive note, as I said before, we have had a great time here, the people are REALLY friendly, the food is REALLY good (if a little too much of it) and there is some fantastic scenery (mountains, rivers, lakes) and probably one of the best cities in the world (New York). I would recommend everyone pushing aside their misconceptions of "the US of A" and pay a visit (just bring a stomach pump!)

Adios (next post will be in Ecuador!)

p.s. one other thing, the size of the cars over here is also big. The four wheel drives (or SUV's as they call them) are as big as our old flat. Mind you I suppose if you have a BIG family of fat b@stards your average Vauxhall Corsa ain't gonna be able to carry 'em!

Bye Bye to all that American Pie!!

Well were back in the City of Boston after our jaunt in the Mountains.
We have dropped the hire car back and are now just waiting to get the bus back to NYC at 8pm this evening (takes about 4 hours) we then fly to Ecuador from JFK (via San Jose) at 6.30am (Sunday)
We have had an AMAZING time in the U.S and enjoyed every minute of it.
Last night we stopped off at a beach resort Hampton Beach about an hour from Boston, it was just like a sea side resort in the U.K, full of yawping chavs and pikys, all grossly overweight wearing ill fitting cheap clothes, with lots of kids covered in flies, loads of barry'd up motors too.
The beach was swamped with people and litter (or garbage as they call it over here) people just floating about in the Atlantic amongst dunkin donut cups and Mcdonald wrappers!
Matt enjoyed it though as there were also lots of scantily clad females parading about in their bikini's ;o)
On the way back to Boston today we stopped at another beach resort, Salisbury Beach, that was exactly the same but more run down and less scantily clad women.
We did manage to get Haddock and Chips yesterday though, what a treat to get proper fish and chips when your miles away from home!!
Yesterday was a bit of an eye opener for us both to be honest, it was a really really hot day (above 90c) and really humid, there were just hundreds of Monster Trucks bumper to bumper trying to get parked in this beach resort, imagine a large 4x4 in the U.K and times the size by 3, that is the average size of an American vehicle, nobody drives cars.
Then there was all the food that goes to waste, and believe me as much as the U.S love their grub, they also throw so much away, and they don't bat an eye lid, NOBODY recycles (I know I've already mentioned this) but it's unbelieveable to think that a country seemingly as intelligent and clued up as they are can be so oblivious to Global Warming and the damage they are doing to the environment they live in.
Everything is on a MASSIVE scale here, you have to see it to really believe it, anyway rant over...
Having the car has been great, we have been to so many places and obviously it's great to not have to carry your ruck-sack about, that said I have got the packing of it down to a fine art now, and I could quite easily have packed all the stuff that I wanted to bring but couldnt fit it in as I hadn't packed it properly (a blessing in disguise)
Last night we had to get the maintenance guy in as our bathroom door had locked itself and we couldnt get in, he asked us if there was anybody in there?!?!?
On Wednesday we did a 11 mile hike (it should have been 5.5 miles) we were under the impression that it was a round trip (which it said on the leaflet we picked up) thinking that it was one of those walks where you finish up where you started, well that would have been perfect, but we read it wrong (what was that I was saying about been a proficient map reader??) and what it meant was that it was a 5 mile round trip i.e 2.5 miles there, 2.5 miles back, durgh!!
Needless to say we weren't impressed with ourselves, can you imagine having walked over 5 miles thinking you must be "nearly there" only to be met with a sign post that says "back that way loser and it's another 5 miles back"
I could have cried, my legs were scrathed to pieces when we got back, and after we'd had a bath and gone out for some food we were walking like Frankenstein we were so stiff!
Im not sure if anybody knows (apart from those closest to me) about my absolute fear of creepy crawlies, when I say creepy crawlies I dont just mean spiders, I mean flies, ants, wasps, earwigs, beatles, moths, butterflies.. you starting to get the picture??
I am terrified of anything that's alive and moves that comes near me that isn't human or an animal.
Up to now it's been pretty tame with only a few hysterical outbursts, for instance an ant has passed me in the street (Im not that bad) but I know that Sth America is going to be alive with "creatures" and Im dreading it.
I have sat down with Matt and explained in great detail my fears, and try to make a comparrison with something he is afraid of (flying) I have also told him that he is not to lose his temper with me if I suddenly lose the plot if something lands on me, I have also asked him not to tell me if he finds something in our room, but just to remove it and not alert my attention to it.
I will keep you updated...
We bought another phone card yesterday, they only had a $20 one so we had to buy that, which is ok as we can also use it in Sth America, when you dial the number you want to ring you get a recorder message that tells you how much credit the card holds and how long it will permit you to talk, so in an American accent it said to me "you can talk for 1 day 8 hours", now dont get me wrong I love to talk but even I would struggle to talk for that long!!
Well were three weeks in now and it's all going just great, were getting on really well despite been with each other 24/7 and I only hope that the rest of our trip is going to be as enjoyable as the last 3 weeks have been..
Ecuador here we come!!!!!

Sausages

Oh my God... it's only 25 days til we go!! I've got 11 days left at work, woo hoo!
Finding it extremely difficult to get motivated now, it's funny because I heard Gavin on the phone earlier and he said to a supplier we need to arrange a meeting in about 3 weeks time, and I thought to myself, I wont be here then. It's a weird yet a good feeling!
So how was everybody's Bank Holiday?, we had lovely weather in Berko, and on Saturday when we went up to visit Matt's parents in Worcester, on Saturday night we went round to Matt's friends Ben and Dan for a BBQ, I think their dog Mick enjoyed the food more than anyone as he must have had a good half a dozen sausages, he wasn't keen on the veggie ones though!!
He's a lovely dog, he's a Border Collie, and he's got more toys than Toys R Us and more shoes than Imelda Marcos (I don't mean to wear I mean to play with)
Me and Matt went for a walk along the canal in Berkhamstead on Bank Holiday Monday, think we did about 3 - 4 miles, was a gorgeous day and a lovely walk but we were cream crackered when we got back, my legs felt like lead, I'm so unfit at the moment.
Hoping to walk off some excess pounds when we start our travels, I know we're planning on doing a lot of walking round New York, it's these sitting down jobs that are to blame, and the biscuits and chocolate that we get for free at work ;o)
It's our works leaving night out on Friday, were off in Ricky for a few then it's into London to The Cuban Bar in Camden for some more refreshments, I have a feeling that we wont be doing much on Saturday!!
Should be a good night though as lots of people coming along (supposedly!!)
Just been reading an article on the BBC about the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and how they are in crisis, any way take a read for yourself http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6543653.stm I don't think we'll be going to visit as it's quite expensive to get there, plus is sounds like its us tourists that are causing all their problems in the first place so a good excuse not to go.
Matt showed me some details of a hostel in Ecuador yesterday where a colleague of his had stayed when he was there.
It's cheap as chips at $17 a night, that's for a private double room too!! were paying $100 a night in New York for the same kind of accommodation!
I was also looking at the Travel section of The Foreign & Commonwealth Office website earlier (can't you tell how busy I am), God if you took notice of everything they told you about places you'd never leave the house, nowhere is safe!!
On a much lighter note we have been watching Matt's dvd box set of Phoenix Night's the last couple of days, it's really funny, for those of you that haven't seen it its about a working man's club in the North, with Peter Kay.
Can you hear me now, I'm on the bus!!!!!!