Goodbye Friends - Adios Amigos

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Well, it’s been a long time since our first (and last!) update here. So what have we been up to…

After our last days at work, it didn’t take long to settle into a life of getting up late and relaxing - well, there’s a surprise!!!

But it wasn’t all fun and play… apart from boring paperwork we had to sort out, the real challenge was to fit all our prized possessions (junk) in Mark’s parents’ loft. Failing miserably, we had to ask the local family to come to the rescue and make room in their loft too…So here’s a BIG THANKS to Sandra, Judith, the other Judith, Jimmy, Leanne and Lee for looking after some of our stuff whilst we’re away and the biggest THANK YOU of all go to mum and dad (Glenis and Fred) not only for rearranging their loft to fit most of our stuff in, but also for looking after us for a month and providing us with hot dinners, clean towels, evening entertainment (this meaning Maria being fleeced to death at card games), and all their invaluable help and sound advice. You made it all so much easier for us and we’re forever grateful. Also thanks for big sis Wendy, Iain and Carolyn for a lovely evening meal and a fun game of Mousetrap.

After about a week or so without a clear idea of what to do, we spent the next week on a whistle-stop tour round the country visiting friends.

We’d also like to say hello and a big thank-you to all of you who provided us with a bed, food, and drinks whatever the case was and of course always good company… John, Ineke & Joseph in Guiseley and Mercedes, Steve, Maria & Carmen in Yeadon for the cooked meals; Andy & Jill for letting us share their special day with them; Alison & Tommy in Richmond for a lovely evening of tapas and sangria (enjoyed by all after a bit of erratic driving - won’t say by whom!); Kathryn & Dan (thanks for saving us from the WILD horse, Dan) for a gorgeous pub meal in the lovely village of Deane; Stan, Sally, Robert & Megan for a couple of nights’ food and accommodation (and cricket lessons for Maria!) in Southampton; Louise & Dave in Swindon for a drive round the Magic Roundabout and useful travelling tips, Ed & Michaela for a bed in Birmingham (where we finally(!) planned our trip) - good luck for the future guys; and last but not least Darren & Breige in Nottingham - sorry we missed your Halloween party this year, but I had to give someone else the chance to win first prize ;-)

The week away started with Jill and Andy’s wedding at the lovely location of Hazlewood Castle. A wonderfully organized day (with military precision in the words of the best man… but then again you wouldn’t expect anything less if you knew our Jill) with beautifully dressed people - too bad Mark left his selection of 3 ties in the hotel room and had to hide behind people to have his picture taken, out of sheer and deep embarrassment (the peasant!). We also have to add we had our best meal of the year, which is going to make the deep fried cockroaches in Cambodia even less appealing (thanks for the warning Sarah!). Yikes!

As for planning the trip in Birmingham…. basically we had a rough idea or where we wanted to go to, but not a clue of how to link it all together, so we decided to take advice from someone in the know. We ended up getting a round-the-world ticket which means the wallet won’t take such a beating, but the ticket’s restrictions meant we spent the best part of 3.5 hours just to get the initial draft worked out!! (picture attached to prove it). Gluttons for punishment that we are, we went and spent another 3+ hours with another travel agent the following day just to compare options. But the good news is we left Brum with a plan and the answer (at last!) to many people’s question of “so where are you going, then?”

So where are we going, then? OK, here’s a quick run-through for those of you that don’t already know…

Manchester - Madrid - Rio de Janeiro ..... Sao Paulo - Buenos Aires ..... Ushuaia ….. Santiago - La Paz ….. Lima - Caracas - Miami - Panama City ….. Mexico City - Denver ….. Las Vegas - Seattle ….. Vancouver ….. San Francisco - Los Angeles - Auckland ….. Christchurch - Sydney ….. Adelaide ….. Cairns - Ayers Rock - Perth - Singapore - Heathrow.

The “…..” mean sections we’ll have to arrange ourselves (not part of the ticket), going either by air (and paying for the flight separately), or by land and riding on trains, buses, or llamas as the case may be. The destinations in italics again mean we’re making our way there ourselves and are not part of the ticket but are important stopovers in the trip.

However the plan is to not use the return leg from Perth, as we’d like to stay in Australia for a bit longer (planning to apply for a 6 month visa) and from there plan a second trip round South East Asia (if we haven’t run out of money and wanderlust by then, that is!).

And with that we returned to Bolton for a few days before we set off again…


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Hola chicos y chicas

Las proximas paginas son mas bien para los anglo parlantes pues cuentan mas que nada a que nos hemos estado dedicando durante estas ultimas semanas en España. Pero como no queria que nadie se sintiera dejado de lado, pense que tambien podia escribiros unas lineas por si se me ha escapado contaros algo durante nuestros encuentros.

Retomando la historia donde la dejamos en nuestra primera y ultima pagina, ya sabeis que despues de vender la casa el 30 de agosto y pasar unos dias en un hotel, nos fuimos a casa de los padres de Mark. La idea era pasar un tiempo con la familia (a la que, aunque os parezca dificil creerlo, no vemos mucho mas a menudo que a vosotros aun estando mucho mas cerca) y visitar a algunos amigos desperdigados por el pais. Tambien nos dedicamos a poner algunos asuntillos al dia y a atacar el consabido papeleo que conlleva vender una casa, asi que no fueron del todo unas vacaciones, aunque hay que decir que a levantarnos tarde y sin despertador nos acostumbramos sin problema ninguno...

No me voy a meter en detalles de a quien vimos ni que hicimos pues al no conocer a nadie mas bien que os iria a aburrir, pero si os gustan los mapas como a mi (y si teneis uno a mano) a lo mejor os gusta ver donde fuimos en tan recorrido.

De Manchester volvimos a un sitio cerca de Leeds para la boda de unos amigos, antiguos compañeros del trabajo de Mark. En un sitio muy mono con doble ceremonia (no pregunteis por que, que no es lo normal alli tampoco), la civil, y luego otra que fue mas bien una bendicion por parte de un obispo, y luego como aqui, unas copas, la comilona, mas copas y a bailar para quemar las 50 mil calorias. Ellos aseguran haber disfrutado muchisimo de su dia, pero a mi siguen sin darme ganas de hacer nada parecido, demasiado paripe, asi que no os sorprendais si una de estas paginas viene a contaros un dia que nos casamos en una isla del Pacifico y que no hacemos lista de invitados (son eso suspiros de alivio lo que oigo?!?). Pero no os preocupeis, que ya os invitariamos a algo en la proxima visita para celebrarlo...

De la boda nos fuimos a Londres, salimos a cenar (tapas, por cierto) con una pareja de amigos, luego pasamos un par de noches en casa de otros amigos en Southampton, de ahi nos fuimos a ver a otros amigos a Swindon, de Swindon a Birmingham a ver a Eddie (a quien creo llegasteis a conocer todos o casi todos) y a su novia, alli ¡por fin! planeamos el itinerario con el de la agencia de viajes. Esto, por cierto, nos costo entre 3 y 3.5 horas (ya podeis ver todos los garabatos en el mapa - ver foto mas arriba), y como fuimos a dos agencias por aquello de comparar, echamos alli el dia. De Birmingham nos fuimos a Nottingham y de ahi vuelta a Manchester.

Poco paramos, pues a los dos dias volvimos a salir otra vez para hacer otro mini-tour que os contamos en la pagina siguiente...

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