Well, as Shania would say, “It looks like we’ve made it……..” I’m writing this in total darkness, from our backpackers lodge in Northbridge, Perth, It’s 6.40 am, and Verlie is still snoozing, we have yet to work out how we want to blog, we don’t really want to blog the same things, so we will probably post one joint blog with my slightly cynical, wry, Meldrewesque view on things balanced out with Verlie’s hopeful, optimistic, slightly sunnier take on our experiences. Well first things first, we had an unscheduled stopover in Singapore, which we managed to turn into a very productive and worthwhile day. We landed in Singapore at 8am, bang on time for our connection to Perth departing at 930am. By 915 we were told that the plane had a fault with the flight ... read more

Today is Monday April 19th. I'm already missing my best friends Birthday and who knows right now what else i could miss. I'm in the sunshine state of Florida spending time with my Mum and Dad and i am having a great time. I've lazed by the pool with my Mum, played Wii with my Dad and we enjoyed a wonderful 'Sofa Sunday'. The big news is the volcano in Iceland, my flight is due back to UK on Thursday for me to land Friday morning so i can say goodbye to so many wonderful friends and family on Saturday night. Today, Mum and i took a very good friend called Pat out for lunch. It was her birthday last week and 'Princess Pat' always celebrates for the month of April! So we took Pat to ... read more

Doesn't time fly?! I always thought when i was younger making that statement was a sign of getting old but looking back Christmas seems just like yesterday which sounds even more cliché. My diary is full of lunches, dinners, drinks and reminders to see, eat with, call and e-mail friends prior to our leaving date which catch me unawares even if they have been in there for months. Recently the Brides (three wonderful ladies who all got married within the same year as me) took a trip to London. For the first time ever I actually did something in London other than shopped! Mark and i are living in what can only be described as a pigsty. I've never seen our house look so terrible it's like in one of those programmes you watch on the ... read more

Well, the title says it all, even if it is a slight exageration. This week I had an offer of a 2 year volunteer placement in Namibia from VSO, my former employers from way back. I'd re-applied to volunteer back in November after we found out that the wait time was 2 years plus for my Australian visa, and in-spite of them telling me they wanted me back, when they hadn't come across with anything concrete after 2 weks of my badgering phone calls, I decided not to chase them any harder. And what do you know, 3 months later an offer arrives in my inbox. I looked into the placement description, and being experienced in the ways of VSO, took everything with a pinch of salt, as, back when I was a volunteer, placement descriptions ... read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR! So that was 2009 then, quite a busy year for us all told, we will probably look back on it when we are old and grey and say it was the year that shaped and changed our lives forever. 2009 was Of course the year we got married, went through (as did many many people) a very tricky time financially, and made the decision to up sticks and re-locate to Australia. Apart from getting married, the best moment of the year for me was hearing the Christmas chart rundown, and hearing Rage Against The Machine had beaten the X-Factor to number one. A triumph for proper music fans everywhere, and proving what I have known for a long time, that if people stick together and work together then they can win the un-winable, ... read more