United Kingdom

Its late so I'll keep this one short...ish! Certainly no time to look up those big, clever-looking words in the thesaurus tonight, no Sir. I just wanted to say it has been a mad week or so. As avid readers of my two previous posts may gather, the trip upon which Kate and I are about to embark has been literally years in the planning. The thought of finally stepping aboard that aeroplane had seemed just too far away to comprehend. Every extra shift worked, every time I stayed a few more hours at work to clean up somebody's overpriced and under-eaten Nacho Combo(tm), it was with that moment in mind, as distant as it was. Yep, that extra two hours equates to maybe £7 after tax, which amounts to perhaps $11US, which could in turn pay for two overpriced Nacho Combos deals at a friendly hyperplex in the States. That was what I told myself anyway.
But now that moment is fast approaching and our last goodbyes are imminent. Sorry, that sounded dreadfully sombre...perhaps recapping briefly the 'mad week or so' would help lighten the mood and move this narrative in the right direction...

So, we left Bradford a day after my 23rd birthday. My mum and brother came to Leeds to say their goodbyes and wave us off in our GNER First Class carriage. Crazy as it sounds, the first class tickets to Norwich we bought a few days in advance were almost exactly half the cost of standard class, had we bought them at the station on that day. With our complimentary newspapers and cups of tea, we motored down to the city where we had met, studied, and grown to love. We had planned to meet and say goodbye again to a bunch of old friends from both university and the UCI where we had worked for over two years. It was fantastic to see all the old faces again, and quite remarkable to note that almost everybody was sporting a radically different haircut from when we left less than five months earlier! I met two old uni friends, Jack and Pete, who I'd not really spoken to for about two years. It was fab to note they'd not changed a bit, and had a great laugh catching up with them. For the outsider, sorry for the in-references, but I have to say cheers to Vic, Jude, Desi, James, Owen and everyone else who came out too! [Damn, while on the subject, cheers to the Odeon posse who made it out for my leaving do too!]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnyway, after staying just one night at a friend's house, (thanks again Desi!) we headed back down on the train to Kate's parent's place in Kent to spend our last few days in the UK furiously packing and saying bye-bye to even more family and friends! There's not been any tears shed yet by either of us, but I suppose there is still time outside the airport! Hopefully from the next post on, this weblog should start to get interesting as our journey will have properly begun! Either that or it'll become a word-desert, maybe the odd tumbleweed of a sentence - such as "We're having loads of fun!" - blowing past every few months or so. As I keep saying to everyone, I'll try my hardest to keep it updated, but I just can't promise anything! Also, I'm not entirely certain they have the Internet in the USA, so you might not hear anything for a while!

Andy.

Oh and for the record, the aforementioned Nacho Combo (tm) was of course competitively priced for the cinema environment - Odeon Leeds/Bradford and UCI Norwich would never seek to overcharge for their quality retail goods. Never. Fact. Yes. Never.

It was probably spring 2002, back in our first year of study at the University of East Anglia that we formulated our plans to go on an extended holiday after graduation. We had originally intended just to travel around the USA for 3 months in September 2005, as I had talked with Kate about how much I'd love to see America one day. This was, by the way, years before that annoying advertising campaign about how we've all "seen the film," and should therefore feel compelled to "visit the set". I seriously question whether watching J-Lo in Maid in Manhattan could really make you want to visit New York. The bog, to puke your guts out is more likely. But to be honest, the said campaign actually hit the nail on the head, despite some of its odd film choices: I wanted to see in real-life so many of the places I'd seen on the small and silver screens throughout my life. It probably seems desperately sad to want to visit a country based on the TV and movies it produces and exports, but I have a good excuse lined up, I assure you! All about being a product of my environment and stuff... actually, it really isn't that good. In fact, forget it. Maybe I'll come back to it in a later entry. I get the feeling I'm losing some of you, so I'll just get on with it.

Soooooooooooooooo, we were going to head to the States in the autumn and planned to be back in time to tell our tales around the Christmas dinner table, our stories of course enhanced by loads of John Smiths and too many bottles of White Zinfandel. However, over the years of watching Neighbours when we should have been studying, it became clear we really wanted to visit Ramsay Street, and maybe some other places in Australia - I'd heard there was an interesting rock that people sat and stared at. Also, viewing that beautiful Peter Jackson movie REALLY made us want to visit New Zealand - although I'd be shocked if anyone else who has seen Bad Taste didn't also feel drawn to such a wonderfully picturesque and geographically diverse country. I also have an uncle who moved to Thailand a few years ago, giving up a career in property management to work with yachts in Phuket. It seemed crazy, if not downright rude to not stop by for a visit on the way back to the UK.

So, with these three essential stops added to our game plan, our 3-month America Tour metamorphosed (I swear that spelling doesn't look right!) into a nearly-9-month World Tour. We added a few interesting-looking stops along the way in the form of Fiji, Malaysia and Singapore. The aim is once more to be home by Christmas - those cans of John Smiths and bottles of White Zinfandel are just having an extra year to chill, the same as us really.

Andy.