Touch down.

Well we are here folks. Houston, Texas. We've had our dinner, room service, and we now sat on our gigantic bed, watching our gigantic TV and sleeperly typing this blog.

We have been awake for over 21 hours now so getting a little tired...lol...a brief video blog and a look out our room window is all your getting tonight.

Miss you all.

Ali.

Morning

The last video seemed to work so here's another

I'm sorry for my semi naked body.....

/Adam

And we are off!

And we are away. A six and a half hour drive from Anglsey to Heathrow, trafic was awfull in places, but we got here.

Ali's test of a video blog should folow here....

So, as Ali said, you may get anther post in the morning but you'll have to wait and see.

/Adam

Things are staring to end....(One week)

Ok, so I'm a little emotional at the moment. To be expected I suppose. We are leaving the country after all.

But stuff is ending all around me. Finishing. Ceasing to be...
I had my last Burlesque class tonight with the divine Jeanie Whishes who is also "with child" and moving to Kent....it's my last Friday at work tomorrow as I finish end of May and that is next Thursday...It will be my last Sunday morning bacon butty with mates Shaz and Mark as we will be off moving house next Sunday and it's my last weekend to get some proper packing done. ( meh....that one I won't miss). Next Friday the 1st of June we have a leaving dinner with all our mates. And that's it...us gone...well to Hungerford anyway...2 weeks house sitting for our mates while they go on holiday.

I'm absolutely knackered at the moment...it's too hot for a big lass to be proper comfy doin much of anything let alone ironing three hours solid a day after cleaning a six bedroom, five bathroom, three story house...god I can't wait till next Friday....then comeing home to walk the boys and feed us all befor squeezing in a bit of sorting/packing. Sleeping (or not sleeping) on the floor is taking its tole too...but at least I don't have far to roll off the bed in the mornings...but all of this changes in a week...omg...a week...seven days...168 hours...(approximately) I'm not working it out in seconds, it's a lot...

ONE WEEK....


Ali

Practice pack!

Well, it may sound a bit premature but we have done our first practice pack!

I'll explain why we have done this with a drible under eight weeks till we go. Simple, for six of those weeks we won't be here!  This coming Sunday I'm off on a residential course for three weeks, then the weekend I return we plan on moving all the stuff out of the house and distributing it to those that are buying / selling or storing it for us.  Then we are house & dog sitting for a fortnight, then back to north Wales for our goodbye's  So really, now is the only chance we have to ensure we have the right stuff...

On that note, what is the right stuff?  We are going to a foreign country for more than a few months, what do you pack?  We have opted for light summery type stuff, and if we discover we need something else we'll get it there, no point lugging jumpers and stuff if we plan on staying away from the cold.

Selecting what to take was easier than I expected, three piles of clothes were generated from each closet, yes no and bin. Yes, stuff that 'could' be taken, No stuff that wouldn't be taken but stored and Bin well I think that one kind of explains itself.  My Yes pile is too big and will require a second filter whilst Ali's is just right, go figure.

Oh well, back to the packing, packing the house a little too as there's too much to expect Ali to do it all on her own whilst I'm away.

/Adam

Tech and Mobile Tech

I'm a geek, there it's out in the open, though anyone who knows me will know that.

I have in my time had LOTS of tech, and when I say lots, at one point I had 15 PC's in the house, there's only two of us! I had touch screen smartphone when most people had just discovered snakes on their Nokia's, I had a network running round my house when most big businesses had only just realised that they could connect computers, this was to distribute my lightening fast internet, a whopping 128mb dual honed ISDN!

Have I lost most of you? I'm not at all surprised.

So, on to the present.

We have been planning this trip, this complete change of life style for a little while now, and one of the things that has been on my mind quite a bit is the tech. There has been this big battle between need and want, I know what I want, but what do I need? Well the answer is, relatively little, a few items selected to meet a 'need' and I think we have the bases covered, or at least we have the plan to cover the bases.

We both come from different sides of the fence with regards as to what tech should do, Ali is an 'i' person, and over the last two years has gained an 'i' pod, phone and pad (nano, 4s and 2).  I on the other hand am an Android type person so have a Google Nexus one and an Asus Transformer (TF101).  All of these items have been bought with the trip in mind, and have been considered purchases. I also bought Ali a Mac Mini for Christmas, which was a stroke of genius to my mind, not only have we both had some time to get used to it's ways, it's small enough that when we go it'll go into Ali's hand luggage for safe keeping.

So that's the easy bit done, now I have to think about... how to connect to the outside world!

Mobile phones,
We all live with these things, and we live with our numbers, I know I've had mine for a good ten years, possibly more, the wife has had hers for about five.  We have changed carriers, we have changed phones, but we have always kept the same number.  So, what to do when we go out of the country? Do we both keep our contracts (Rolling Monthly) ruining, which will be fifteen pounds a month or is there something else we could do?  I'm still investigating.  When we are out there we'll be looking to use Skype or some other VOIP type service to call back to the UK and inevitably will have to get a PAYG sim only deal each so we can call each other and others within the US.

Mobile Internet,
I can't go without, Ali can't go without Facetube for too long, she gets withdrawal symptoms! Most RV sites have some form of WiFi setup and the option is to have a 3G / 4G dongle type device, they are available, but they are far from cheap ! I think for  the most part it's going to have to be a case of having a look at what's available when we get there and try to get a good deal because we'll be getting a bunch of stuff at the same time.

Well I think that's about enough rambling from me for now...

/Adam

The Waiting Game...

If you've been following our posts you'll probably know that the last blog was all about everything being sorted....hire cars, hotels and flights all booked....people to see and things to do before we go is pretty much tied up too....packing the last of our belongings is happening in the bestest, randomest order it can (as its been left to me)... Having everything tied up is great...and obviously there is still stuff we have to do...some phone calls for change of address and actually shipping our belongings to the in-laws for storage in their loft... but that cant happen yet....not unless i wanna be sleeping on a blowup bed for the next 9 weeks...

So the big thing now is the waiting.

Knowing there isn't really anything standing between us and the trip of a lifetime except time itself is a real bummer...
Everyone remembers being a kid in the back of their parents car.....a couple of hours day trip used to seem like an eternity...."Are we there yet?" Drove them mad...
My nan used to say "Dont wish your tomorrows away. It takes the fun out of today". Clever bird my nan. Its true too. Since we booked everything all Iv wanted to do is go...just pack up and leave. The mundane humdrum of work everyday. The relentless british weather (four seasons in one day). Ha.
But what about what iv got here and now. A lovely house in a lovely place, brill friends and family and my boys...my lovely boys. im gonna miss it all.

Seriously...I think I can honestly say Iv never been so scared in my life about a day trip....ok so its slightly longer than a day trip, but u get my drift. Giving everything up to go to a country Iv never seen before. (other than on telly or in a film...and we all know how accurate they are). A country pretty much as far away as you can get before you start coming back again. Where the weather is even more unpredictable as it is here. Real cowboys, on horses, with guns..(the cowboys not the horses) with more diversity than my tiny mind can imagine...and it can imagine a lot ill have you know...white people, black people, yellow, brown and green people. (well we are going to Roswell). All colours, races and creeds...all in one place...a pretty big place ill give you, but still...But i still wanna go now....

Am I mad?   Probably... but not about this i dont think. Anyone would be daunted by the prospect of selling everything they own, leaving their loving families, friends and canines at home and traipsing across a country that could virtually be classed as hostile...But i wanna go. I really wanna go. And im gonna... soon.
So for now Im still going to work everyday, Im still dodging the British rain and im still walking my boys. And we will go when its time to go and not before. I wanna enjoy my today and not spoil it by wishing it was tomorrow.

So, no...were not there yet...we havent even set off...

Ali