what a load of stuff we have accumulated in nearly eight years of living in Europe. When we arrived in Dublin back in 2001, we had 2 suitcases each (one for work clothes, one for non-work clothes, all of them unsuitably imported to a winter in Dublin from sub-tropical Brisbane!) and a box of bedding (which didn't fit the beds in Ireland). This realisation came about as this week we had to fill in the Insurance Manifest - a list of all the stuff we are going to put in the container to ship home, including it's value, item by item. [View Full Entry]

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Ginny and Matt ready to leave 7am on 12th September [View Full Entry]

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It is two months today before we fly out of the UK to begin our six month round the world trip. It still feels like such a long way away, but we know that in reality it is not, and despite having sorted a lot of stuff out we still have lots to do before the big off. It is undoubtedly a bit square to start the blog so far in advance, but I wanted to record some of our plans for the trip, in terms of where we aim to go and some of the intended highlights. The planning of [View Full Entry]

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The Agent came back from Aus tired but with presents last Sunday, arriving at Heathrow an hour or so late, but still at the unhelpful time of 6.30am. She was very pleased to have seen her sisters, her parents, my relos and a smattering of friends in her hectic 2 week visit. For the first time ever her bags weighed less than when she left - on the way out she had been carrying some valuables to be left in the safe hands of others - valuables we didn't want to take to south america, the back-up hard drive from the [View Full Entry]

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Leading up to leaving! Thanks to everyone who have given us cards and presents. [View Full Entry]

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Funny how when you know you are leaving a place that what was 'background' acquires greater import without conscious effort. I have just returned to Bristol from a mad dash to Fort William in Scotland, via Blackpool to collect Uncle Johnny as my personal coach and motivator - necessary as the purpose was to climb Ben Nevis - 4000ft or so of hard, Scottish stone, with it's head in the clouds. Anyway, i find myself noticing the greens of the landscape, the dampness underfoot, the whiteness of the sheep - all things I know not to be features in Aus. Even [View Full Entry]

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Steven// Here are some pictures from the harbour festival in Bristol ( 2nd and 3rd Aug). I (Steven) am staying for a short stop in the UK. It's a stop of 6 weeks here before heading back to Latvia. I have felt over the past year and a bit that I was fleeing my native country in order to taste more exotic experiences. Many times on my travels I looked at Britain as dreary, having removed myself to the other side of the world and comparing life at home with all the new exploits that were in store there. When I [View Full Entry]

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Hello, As you know in November we are off on our travels. We are planning to use this travel blog to keep you all up to date with our adventures. We will post blogs and photo's for you all to see. You can use this page to send us messages as well. I believe it also connects with facebook if your facebook inclined and if you subscribe to this page an email will get sent to you when we update our blog or add photos etc. So, the story so far (for those of you who don't know already). All the [View Full Entry]

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Arrived home from a long day in the office to a somewhat fractious and hard to engage with Bec. having cunningly booked a table at a Turkish place down the road, the 15 minute walk revealed that she had fallen foul of her own caution - by not booking the tickets she found Rio to Panama a few days ago, she was faced with an increase today of $400 each, making them somewhat exorbitant! Having worked out that our departure day was also the final day of Carnivale, and that therefore EVERYBODY IN BRAZIL would want to be using the airport, [View Full Entry]

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