Shaggy
Mandrew Mudpie Joined: September 16th 2004
Logged in: December 4th 2011
Logged in: December 4th 2011
Fiona and I are leaving our friends and family behind for a 12 month, 35,000 mile round the world trip.
Our first port of call is San Francisco and our last destination is Delhi, in between we've planned trips to New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal.
I'll keep this website as up-to-date as possible and hope to send you all many e-mails of our adventures, I'm packed with a digital camera so hope to update you all with some fabulous photographs along the way.
So it all went according to plan with a few hilarities and a million photos along the way, you'll find all of the stories enclosed.
We came back to Scotland for Christmas 2005 and have moved gradually North from Edinburgh to Dundee to Montrose where we now live, and there's no longer just the two of us... Our daughter Lois joined the squad on 9th of February 2009 and she's not going to be the only one for much longer, Fiona is pregnant again and we're expecting our second child in October this year (2011).
We still do a fair bit of "travelling" or should that be holidays? A lot in Scotland and some foreign trips thrown in too, Lois will take her second trip abroad in June with France the destination.
I'll try to update this more as I do enjoy telling the stories and reading about others, take it easy.
Andrew, Fiona and Lois x
Travel Blog Posts
Ella and her first Christmas tree
Howdy partners, what have I missed? Okay that’s enough about you, back to me, #mediawhore that I am…. So, firstly apologies to my legions of subscribers (Hi Mum!) as I had inadvertently made these blogs private which meant you needed to have a user name and password to view them… my bad, it’s sorted now and we’re back in the public domain, world domination to follow… Now on to the main even, since my last blog we’ve had another……. GIRL (of course we did, I’ve always thought if I have one, three or eight children they will all be beautiful blonde bombshells that means I never sleep a wink after their 15th birthday party and so far I’ve been proved right……) so little Ella June Mudie was born at 12:38 on the 15th of September weighing ... read more
Montrose Basin Sunset II
Bonjour! – And here we are again, 9th of July was our last blog so 9 months later, what has been happening to all you lovely people?? Okay, I’ll start with an update from us… It’s the 12th of April 2011 and I’m sitting in my work recovering from the weekend, I was at the Grand National down in Aintree for the second year running and am still feeling slightly worse for wear, it was a great weekend with the same eight chaps as last year and we’re already looking forward to next year. I think it’s like the pain of childbirth, kind of, by the time next year comes around you forget how sore it was and that you said you would never do this again, but ultimately you do as it’s worth it. Yes ... read more
my wee baby
It's been a while, I'm not sure if anyone even reads this anymore but I thought it only fair I give another update.... It's the afternoon of Friday the 9th of July 2010, our daughter Lois is 17 months-old today, unbelievable. We've also today accepted an offer on our house so we're moving again, 6 weeks today although we haven't found anywhere we like to buy yet.... I'm trying to convince Fiona that we should take the sale proceeds and head to South America for a year or so, bring up Lois in Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and the like, she's not for it, not even entertaining the discussions or humouring me in the slightest so I know she means business, ah well - a boy can dream... So, where were we? Fiona returned to ... read more
3 of us
Well, that’s us up to date, Lois is doing great and now weighs just shy of 11lbs, she’s awake and alert most of the day now and is mesmerised by light and shade. She changes every day and seems well settled into her routine, which quire frankly is eating, sleeping and playing whenever she wants…. She is now sleeping through the night which is the best gift any man can get for Fathers Day... Fiona is four months into her year of maternity leave and loves being a full time mum; I’m already concerned about getting her back to work in February. That’s one good thing about Lois being early, Fiona didn’t start her maternity leave until a few days before she was born and is now due back to work the day before Lois’ first ... read more
August 2008 - We get the 12 weeks scan and everything is fine. We’re sure we’re having a boy and we christen the foetus “Milo” and over the course of the next 4 months decide that if we have a boy that will be his name. October 2008 - We get the 20 week scan and again everything is great, Milo really looks like me in the scan which is really bizarre. November 2008 - Friday morning and Fiona wakes having had a really sever bleed, we’re in shock and fearful for the baby, Fiona is 25 weeks pregnant at this stage. We go to our local hospital in Montrose who advise us to go straight to Ninewells, a major hospital in Dundee. When there everything with the baby is checked out fine. Fiona is kept ... read more
August 2008 - We had already booked our holiday so off we pop to the Maldives for two weeks of the most relaxing holiday you can ever imagine, I enjoy it far more than Fiona who is suffering terribly from morning sickness and obviously can’t drink or enjoy any of the water sports I’m partaking in. Worst of all we’d booked a posh Jacuzzi villa and Fiona is told not to use it because she’s pregnant, I think this hurts her more than the zero alcohol intake…. She does enjoy some special pregnancy massages and loves the pain I’m in after getting a deep tissue massage. Seriously, I hurt my back water skiing and though I’d go for a massage, now you may remember from Laos and Thailand that massages aren’t really my bag but I ... read more
September 2007 - We moved house from Dundee to Montrose; a small town on the North East coast, 35 Miles for both Aberdeen and Dundee, Fiona and I both get the train to work. October 2007 - The house we bought is a total hole, it’s 110 years old and needs loads of work done, tough times as we live through it and deal with one dodgy tradesman (who I’m currently suing) and three or four other fantastic tradesmen who made the place into an amazing home. February 2008 - The house is finished inside and is wonderful, we’ve still a bit to do outside but me, Fiona and her parents go about gardening, building fences and restoring walls, it feels like we’ll never get to the end of it but finally we do. March 2008 ... read more
body shots
July 2007 - We get married on the 15th of July. An amazing day in the sunshine. It was genuinely battering down with rain every day in July except our wedding, it was glorious sunshine, so strong and warm that there wasn’t a drop of damp anywhere and we had a fantastic day. A 20 piece brass band playing outside in the Sun with my father law conducting, a 20 a-side game of football on the huge lawn with all my family and friends, great food and plenty of drink, a wonderful band who turned the evening reception into more of a gig than a party and a fantastic time was had by all. July/August 2007 - Our honeymoon in France, three fantastic weeks, we flew to Paris and hired a car, we drove down the ... read more
Photo 3
Well? Where has it gone? It’s been nearly three and a half years since we got back from travelling and we’ve fitted in a fair amount. I’ll add a few quick blogs with photos form our holidays in that time but here’s the script. A quick chronological run-down, as I remember it, contains the following: Dec 2005 - Arrived back, dosed around different peoples houses for a couple of months. January 2006 - I proposed to Fiona and we got engaged. Feb 2006 - I got a job as an IT manager in a Law Firm. I’m still there. March 2006 - Fiona got a job continuing her career as a Speech and Language Therapist in paediatrics, based in Carnoustie. May 2006 - I went on a trip to Chicago for a works conference. June 2006 ... read more
The Home of Football
Right, what the hell happened there then? It’s been THREE YEARS since I wrote this blog but for some reason I never published it. I’m not going to edit what I’ve said, basically it’s all based around “One Big Weekend” which is an annual Radio One concert in the UK which, for the first and only time, came to Scotland in May 2006, the fact that it came to Dundee was even better. I managed to get myself to both days, even though I didn’t get tickets for either, go figure? And had a pretty amazing time all weekend, unfortunately Fiona was really ill with the cold and couldn’t make it, leaving me hell-raising on my own. Anyway there’s much more to tell you in the next few blog so I’ll just publish this as is. ... read more
