Blogs from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 8

Geo: 53.4807, -2.23451We awake early. All the bags are packed and all that remains is to make sure that the villa is spick and span for when the owners arrive later that morning. We nip to Denny's for our final breakfast of this trip. Peter has his usual 'Grand Slam Slugger' and I have my favourite 'Moons over My Hammy' and return to the villa to gather the last of our things before heading out. We do not need to be at Sanford Airport until at least 2pm and so we decide to do some last minute shopping instead.We head up I-4 to the Mall at Millennia which we class as a 'posh' mall as it has a Tiffany store. Peter had been rather jealous of my Ray Bans that I purchased earlier in the week ... read more

Geo: 53.4807, -2.23451Stage 1 - Manchester to OrlandoWide awake at 3am. Why? We don't need to leave until 7.30 for our 10.50 flight. No worries, just roll over and go back to sleep. Little voice in head."Did you remember to pack that thing"? "Yes, shush now"."What about that other thing"."What other thing"?"The thingamajiggy you need to use the other whatchamacallit"?"Oh that thing, yes I did...at least I think I did".And so on for the next hour or so.We left a little after 7.30. As it was Friday there was rush hour traffic to contend with but we were soon at Terminal 2, Meet and Greet Valet Parking. Arrived at Terminal 2 to a sea of people all stood outside. An emergency evacuation was in process but no one could say why. 10 minutes later and we ... read more

Well, aside from a few family holidays (which we may get around to blogging about at some point!), we sadly haven't done much in the way of travelling since the end of our big trip. I just thought I'd post a quick blog, though, to introduce our new arrival. Elin Marie arrived on Valentine's Day and became the newest love in our lives. Baby sister to adoring Clara, she truly is gorgeous. We are looking forward to many happy times ahead with our two beautiful girls and to inspiring them to adventure and travel as they grow. Hopefully we will have some more travel to blog about soon...... read more

Episode 1 – Travel preparations "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving" - Lao Tzu On Monday the twenty-fifth of March, 2013, I'm standing in front of the bathroom mirror in my parents' house in Manchester, peeling acryllic paint off my face. I was with my friends from the Cosmic Junk Band last night, celebrating my penultimate night in Manchester with food, drink, face painting and intermittent jam sessions of which I think there are now some beautiful and funny recordings lying around somewhere (I say funny because there are a few less serious moments, including me having the great impulse to emit a wonderfully timed "sheeeeiiiit..." amidst a myriad of experimental noises). Anyhow, I'm picking around in my sort of quiff-cum-mohican that is due to be sacrificed tomorrow to ... read more

Richard Frost - Manchester I'd forgotten how cold it gets in Manchester. Or maybe I just preferred not to remember. After 6 months living it up in South America, we've arrived back in the UK wholly unprepared for the ice-cold chill that greets us. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to go straight from Rio de Janeiro to Manchester. More than that, to go straight from Brazilian summertime to British wintertime - a 30-degree temperature difference. But even though I'm shivering like no-one's business, at least I can comfort myself with the memory of being roasting hot on Copacabana beach. And even though I don't have a job anymore, and I'm crashing on friends' floors till we find somewhere to live, at least I can comfort myself with the memory of what we achieved. Like ... read more