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Published: October 20th 2008
Hello everyone!
Well it's been a while, so we thought we should post a blog to mark an anniversary, even though we haven't been up to too much...
Can you believe that last week marked 2 years since our arrival in Arizona? We finished our round the world trip and landed in Phoenix on Tuesday 17th October 2006. In many ways it seems a lifetime ago, but sometimes it seems like only yesterday...
So 2 years on, where are we?? Has our 'new life' lived up to our expectations? Well, we have a lovely house that we could not have dreamed of owning in the UK, we have added a four legged friend to the family, have made some good friends, have a more relaxed way of life and we own 2 businesses...
& so we think we're doing ok...
We have managed, thus far, to maintain our desire to work from home and escape the rat race that was sucking us in, so yes, we both agree - right move, right decision! Most of you may know that the company Ginnie worked for, Carlson, closed down their Bristol office earlier this year, but my old company McCanns are in the process of making redundancies, so who knows? Had we still been in England, Ginnie would definitely, and I might have, lost our jobs this year... so yes, absolutely the right decision! We are masters of our own destinies...to a certain extent!!
Since our last post back in May we haven't really been up to much... we hunkered down for the summer, closing the doors/windows and putting the air-con on in June and are only now emerging. We had 106 days where the temperature was above 100f/38c - we peaked at 116f/47c on our hottest day... so that kind of weather is a little bit like the British winter - in that you peer out of the windows and watch the world go by without getting involved too much! But now it's glorious, the next 8 months are why we chose to live here - the temps are in the high 80s/low 90s (31-35c) and the mornings and evenings are cool... it will drop down to the low 70's (21c) through Dec/Jan & Feb and will be sunny sunny sunny! The only downside is that the pool water has now cooled off and is
Enjoying a day out
In the mountains up north to escape the summer heatnow off limits until end March/April next year, so we took advantage last weekend and enjoyed the water for the last time this year...
So what have we been doing...fairly busy trying to make some money! Ginnie has been throwing herself into Little Pink Book to try and make that a success with her partners - it's going well. Hopefully it will gather momentum over the coming months and start providing an income to warrant all her hard work. I've been busier than last year, but could always use more!! But then that might require some more effort!
Ginnie has also been busy working with her charity
- She created this website for them and is now on their Board of Directors, so her involvement is growing. Ginnie really enjoys it...and working with a charity was always something she wanted to do when we were back in England, but she never had the time or energy to devote to it...
We've continued to work with Maverick, getting him to be a better behaved citizen. We've made good progress with him. Remember that he was 8 months old with no training when we got him, so he's coming on strong and doing well and is now 16 months old. We start a new set of obedience classes with him next week... Click on the video link towards the top of the page and you can see him at play in the garden...
We made a few day trips up north over the summer; it's cooler up in the mountains so provides some relief to go and hang out in the mountains by a lake for a day - have a picnic, go for a walk, read a book - just enjoying the cool and the scenery!
We had a visitor in late September; Ginnie's friend Anelia combined a conference in LA with a trip to Phoenix, so it was nice to have her here for a few days, especially as she came clutching Hula Hoops, Smarties and Jaffa Cakes!!! Ginnie took Anelia to some of the Rowe Tours hotspots like Sedona, but Anelia was happy just to spend some time by the pool in the sun, given the lack of a UK summer this year!
Sally is our next booked visitor; she is coming over for a couple of weeks at Christmas - from
Dec 13th to 28th - so that will be good. We've planned a trip to Vegas for a few days, which is always fun. It will have been 18 months since my last trip there and Ginnie hasn't been for about 5 years, so it's about time! Sally hasn't been since she went with Dad 15 years ago, so it'll be wildly different for her! It will be nice to see Sally and we're looking forward to her visit - better start dusting now!
The election is obviously looming large and frankly we'll be pleased when it's over and done with - 2 weeks tomorrow. Hopefully the right man will get the job and maybe help to jump start the economy with a new wave of optimism that things might change for the better. The Americans are quite a resolute bunch, so even though things are undoubtedly tough, there is a belief that it will get better, so fingers crossed...! I can't vote, but Ginnie will be! Not that a vote for Obama will do much in McCain's home state of Arizona! Having said that, even here McCain's lead has dropped to 7 points from double digits, so you
never know! Anyway, enough politics, it will just be nice to be done with the commercials and the non stop news coverage!!
So that's about it...we hope you're well wherever in the world you're reading this...
Love
D&G
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