Roving the World with David and James

Trains, Dames, and Automobiles. The final day.

2011-11-20T12:17:00.001-05:00

Off to town!

Monday morning came bright and early at Margaret’s house ataround 7.30am. Vivienne was nowhere tobe found, and the smell of stinky dog had also been successfully banished fromthe house. The four of us sat blearyeyed at the breakfast table and talked about plans for the day. James and I had suggested a day out in Londonfor the four of us and now it was time to come up with a plan to make ithappen! Due to advanced years of ourtravelling companions we decided that it would be a better idea to drive in toLondon and park, rather than subjecting Madge and Shirl to the long train ridefrom Ware. We agreed that the expense ofparking and petrol would probably all come out to the same as the train ticketsanyway, so with plans made we all put on our finery and settled into the carfor the drive to town!

I won’t bore you all with the minutia of our drive in, butsuffice to say it was an entertaining trip with the four of us all piled intoour trusty Vauxhall Corsa, with Madge and Shirl talking up a storm in theback. Before long we were navigatinginto our chosen car park, the NCP lot at St Pancras station (NOT St. Pancreas,as James continued to pronounce it) and, with car safely parked, and girlswarmly dressed for the adventure to come, we headed off into the tube stationto begin the first stage of our trek, a journey to the Tate Modern! Never having been, and eager to see whetherall these years of school were going to mean that I understood more of it thanbefore, it was to be the first of many cultural moments of the day…for all ofus. Especially Shirley.

David and Shirley

However, the first challenge was to be Shirley and the tubetrains, which sounds like a great name for a pop group if you ask me. We didn’t have to wait long for Shirley’suncanny ability to cause chaos and mayhem to manifest itself. Indeed the first instance came when she triedto put her train ticket into the electronic barrier the wrong way around. Of course nothing happened and the ticket wasspat back out at her. Meanwhile, theline/queue started building up behind her. Finally, she turned the ticket up the correct way and the ticket wentthrough to the little top slot where you are supposed to remove the ticket toopen the barrier. Did Shirley realisethis? No. Having been conditioned to look at the rejectslot for her upside down ticket, the concept that if you put the ticket in thecorrect way, the ticket would move through the barrier was completelyalien. So everyone (including thebillions of people behind her) waited for the penny to drop. But the penny didn’t drop at all andeventually a strong and handsome looking man in the line behind Shirley steppedforward, grabbed the ticket from the machine, placed it into her hand, and whenthe barrier opened, propelled Shirley straight through it. Shirley almost tripped over herself as sheswooned at the rugged features of her helper and, simpering “thank you” to hernew suitor, we were off once more. Youmay ask, dear reader, why we didn’t help? That’s because the three of us were hysterically laughing our heads offthe other side of the barrier…..as we do.

James and Margaret

So with that done we navigated the platforms, found our trains,and without losing anyone successfully completed the journey to the tubestation of Mansion House, near the Tate Modern. A short walk over the fabulous millennium bridge led us to the doors ofthe museum where we stepped inside. Wespent a pleasant hour and half at the museum, wandering from floor to floor,looking at all manner of works, ranging from Tacita Dean’s video installations,to Taryn Simon’s photography exhibition, and taking in a bunch of AbstractExpressionist paintings in a special painting gallery. Was it interesting? To me it most certainly was. I did find that my expensive education seemsto be paying off, and while there was a lot that passed me by there was a lotmore that I certainly now understood. Shirley provided the group entertainment in loudly exclaiming thateverything was very strange looking and that she didn’t understand why peoplecalled this art, though even she agreed that the sheer volume of peopletramping through the museum probably indicated that she was the odd one out innot getting it, a result of sorts I suppose.

After we had exhausted ourselves and had made the requisitetrip to the bookshop we headed out into the brisk November afternoon in need ofsustenance. Rather than dealing withthe trains again Margaret decided that we should take a black cab for the nextleg of our journey. So without furtherado we hailed a cab, stepped inside and requested the driver to deliver ussafely to Fortnum and Mason for afternoon tea. Swishing through the streets of London in a taxi is such a greatexperience. Unlike some other cities inthe world, the cabs are always spotlessly clean and exceptionally comfortable. We marvelled at the crowds as we sped alongthe Strand, our driver clearly understanding that we were both hungry andthirsty, and, after whizzing around Trafalgar Square and up Piccadilly, wearrived at the doors of F&M, England’s most hallowed grocer. For those of you unacquainted with thisfabulous emporium, you can find them at Fortnum & Mason. Check out the hampers!

The Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern

Galloping up the steps we entered the tea room and, afterbeing seated by a particularly handsome maître d’hôtel, we eagerly scanned themenu. It took only a moment for us tosettle on the special menu of the day, Smoked Salmon sandwiches, scones withclotted cream and jam, together with pots of tea. With much fabulous swishing of the waitstaff, four silver towers appeared instantaneously on our table crammed withdelicacies, together with four shiny silver teapots, all heavenly! I urge you not to miss the chance toexperience this if you are in London at all. It may be a little on the pricey side, but as with all things in life,you get what you pay for, and the experience and food is just fantastic. We spent a pleasant hour being suitablyrefreshed and topped the whole experience off with some shopping time, pickingup some Lapsang Suchong tea for the journey home to the US.

Tea Time at Fortnum and Mason

Stepping outside at 4pm we realised that we wereconveniently close to Jermyn Street, perhaps my most favourite street in Londonand home to one of two Alfred Dunhillstores. Could we just walk by and notpeek in? Of course not, so in we wentwhile leaving the ladies to wander into some of the shops that werenearby. James handily exchanged thecufflinks he bought earlier in the trip for a pair he preferred and I succeededin escaping the store without spending anything, a very sad state of affairsindeed! I was not, however, to be solucky at our next port of call, Floris,one of the world’s oldest perfumers. James was on a mission to pick up some fragrance and some shower gel,and I was there to just browse….or so I thought. It wasn’t long before the handsome salesman,Karim, had persuaded me to purchase a bottle of Santal for myself. How could I refuse such a dashing Turkish man? The answer, of course, was that I couldnot. So with yet more bags, James and Ipaid the bill and headed on our way once more. Rescuing Margaret and Shirley from the ladies section of the store, wesailed back out into the night and headed toward Green Park tube station tobegin our journey home. It was 5.30pmand for those of you unfamiliar with travelling on the London Underground inthe height of the rush hour it was a busy affair. Hoping that we wouldn’t lose Madge and Shirlin the melee, we held on tightly and rocked our way at high speed throughLondon’s tunnels, emerging at St Pancras safe and sound and ready for our drivehome. Once in the car, we pointedourselves firmly northwards and, with a sigh of relief and contentment, headedback to Ware with thoughts of dinner firmly in our sights!

Bland English Food.....

After arriving back at “Chez Madge”, we dropped our bags offand rushed off around the corner to “The Vine”, our chosen eatery for theevening. Maria joined us soon after andwith Martini’s in hand, always a risk with Shirley on board, we studied the fabulousmenu, happily discovered that all wine was 50% off on Monday nights, andsettled in for the evening. Dinner wasquite fabulous and proved to be a fitting end to our trip. I enjoyed some venison, something that I havenot been able to have since I left the UK, all washed down with some fabulouswines offered to us by the wine waiter who appeared to have a “thing” forShirley. She’s always trouble….have younoticed? But that is why we love her somuch. There is never a dull moment whenshe is around! We talked about life, ourfriends back in Menorca, what we were all going to be doing over the next yearor so, and generally made merry, enjoying the glow of friendships that warm theheart and strengthen the soul. A goodtime was had by all…..especially by Shirley, who, radiant from her Martini, spentthe entire evening winking at the waiters as they bustled around.

With that, dear reader, our story comes to a close. The rest of our trip was made up of packing,heading to the airport, and heading home where we arrived at approximately 10pmthe following day. It had been awhirlwind trip but one that had been worth every minute. Filled with warmth, love, and yet morespecial memories, we realised how fortunate we are to be able to do the thingswe do and to have such wonderful people to share it with. We also enjoy sharing our tales with all ofyou and I was astonished to see that one day we received over 90 hits on theblog. Fame and celebrity at last!

So I bid you farewell, dear reader, until the nexttime. Who knows when that will be? We will let you know the next time we travelsomewhere. But until then, big love toyou all!

D&J

Friends, Foxes, and Are You Being Served?

2011-11-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

Greetings BlogPickers!

Sunday morning came quite quickly for your little discobunnies. We could be found peeking overthe covers at around 7.30am at the Zig Zag Cottage, wondering what there was toeat for breakfast! Yes, dear readers, weare always ruled by our stomach and the memory of the previous days breakfastwas still shining brightly enough to make us leap out of bed (well, Davidanyway), shower, and be downstairs in time for the fabulous Mary-Ann to delivermore grub. The breakfast was just as splendidas before and the setting just dolly. The little pots of Tiptree jams and jellies,together with a bottle of fabulous Tiptree brown sauce, even gave me the ideafor making my own and selling it. Myimagination at breakfast is clearly at its best, especially as I even came upwith a name for the comanpy, “Poofters Purveyors”. Ah the stuff of morning…..

With breakfast done we packed up our belongings, paid thebill, leapt into our trusty Vauxhall Corsa and sped off into the distance. As always we had places to go, people to see,and things to do! There is never a dullday in the travel life of your intrepid friends and today was to be noexception. We were first heading to Warein Hertfordshire to meet up with two beloved friends, Margaret & Shirley, theirdaughters (also beloved), and then the whole lot of us were heading to the pubto meet up with more friends in a sort of wedding reunion bash from lastyear. What fun, I hear you cry! We dashed across country, marvelling at howfast the trees seem to be going, and came to a rest in the car park at Tesco’s,somewhere outside of Hertford.

You will know (if you have been keeping up with our blogover the years) that one of the things we always do in England is to stock upon food stuffs to take back to the USA. Having stopped at Costco earlier in our trip for some of the bulk items,we now felt compelled to pick up those little delights that just make ourhearts sing while we are away from England, namely OXO cubes, spice mixes, PizzaExpress salad dressings, Sharwoods egg noodles, digestive biscuits, and othergoodies. We grabbed a cart and enteredthe fray. With only about 15 minutes tospare, it was a little like we were in an episode of “Supermarket Sweep”, butwith concentration and without lingeringto long over the snow peas, we were in, out, and back on our way in no time,complete with bunches of flowers for Madge and Shirl too.

20 minutes later we finally arrived at our destination. Margaret lives in a fabulous old mews house,built in the 1600’s and there awaiting us was Margaret and her daughterMaria. We deposited bags, kissedeveryone in sight, and then all piled into Margaret’s car for the drive to thepub to meet the rest of the gang. I hadchosen “The Beehive” in Epping Green for us all to meet as it was highlyrecommended in the Good Pub Guide and seemed to be a good location for all to reach. Maria, driving Margaret’s car, deftly whiskedus through the woods in her chariot (well, a Ford Fiesta) and after 15 minuteswe were there, gasping for a drink and eager to meet the rest of the gang. Entering the pub we found that Janet andStuart, Alison, Martin, and their two children Mia-Louise and Luke, togetherwith Shirley, Sarah and Claire, her two daughters had already arrived. There was much more kissing and hugging to beseen, and before long we had all grabbed drinks and re-arranged the entire pubto accommodate all of us for lunch. Afew moments later, Louise and Andrew, together with their daughters Natasha andFrancesca arrived to complete the party. Eloise and Stephen were unable to attend due to other commitments andwere sorely missed. But otherwise wesettled in for an afternoon of catch-up, food and fun!

Everyone was on fine form for the afternoon and onceeveryone had ordered lunch people started to move around and chat even more,swapping stories of the past year and talking about upcoming plans too. It is times like these that make me realisehow much I value the friendships that have stood the test of time. We all get to see each other so rarely butwhen we come back together it is as if no time has passed at all. Truly magnificent! Everything was going swimmingly until thesmell started……

A smell, I hear you cry? Yes, dear reader, a smell of the highest magnitude indeed. It almost certainly seemed to be emanatingfrom our collection of tables too. Thepub was dog free (apart from a few moments earlier when Rodger, Sarah’s JackRussell, had made a surprise entrance into the bar, having slipped the leashfrom outside and leapt all over Janet and James) so everyone quickly did thevery strange looking dance of lifting their shoes up and looking at the solesbut to no avail. The smell continued, attimes strong (deathly so), and at times receding a little. But most definitely it was there and with us,a little like the Holy Spirit if you will, present (or so you think) butimpossible to know for sure!

After a while, said smell was narrowed down to the area ofthe table occupied by James, Maria, Claire, and Sarah. It seemed to be stronger whenever James wastalking, which was a trifle alarming to say the least, and certainly was veryoff putting. James was banished outsideto verify this, and instantly the pong was gone. Upon his return, the pong returned. It soon became evident that the culprit wasJames’ fleece. Sarah suddenly realisedwhat it was. Rodger, little darling, hadfound some fox droppings, something that Jack Russell’s are apparently fond of,and he had rolled in them. When he hadmade his dash into the bar and leapt onto James’ lap he had transferred thiscountry delight to James’ fleece, thereby allowing the whole pub to participatein the fox poo craze. It was on onesleeve only, so when James had been talking and gesticulating, the scent hadbeen wafted across the table. With theproblem solved, James’ fleece was banished to the car, along with Rodger, andthe afternoon commenced once more. Neverlet it be said that all of us are not capable of creating mirth and merrimentwherever we go. The country justprovides so many more opportunities for us to make memories. Thanks to Rodger and Reynard we now have anew story to carry us through the years! Sadly, though, it was soon time for all to depart once more. We paid our bills, kissed and hugged, and departedThe Beehive, burnished with the glow of alcohol, food, and conviviality, anafternoon well spent in fabulous surroundings with fabulous folks. Huzzah! With that, we piled into Madges car once more and sped onwards throughthe countryside back to Ware for the evening.

Once back at Madge’s a quick nap was had by all and then weall repaired to the fireside with some more food, wine, and begun the processof catching up some more. Rodgerre-appeared, freshly bathed, and smelling of lavender and pine, and Margaretand Shirley regaled us all with stories of what they had been up to since wesaw them last. Maria filled us all inon how her horses are, the latest happenings with her husband Bob (a pilot,temporarily based in Russia), and her business activities, which seem to begoing well, and Sarah told us all about her hypnotherapy sideline too. And then there was a knock at the door.

Enter Vivienne. Newlymoved into the mews was Vivienne Johnson, actress and wife of a QC (QueensCounsel (Posh Lawyer)), and she swept into the house wearing full make up….anda full length blue velvet snuggie (for those unaware of the item, google it),clearly the outfit du jour for agingactresses. For those of you who are unfamiliarwith the name, Vivienne was the nurse in “Are you being served” for many yearswho looked after Young Mr Grace. This isher most famous role, though she has also played many other parts over theyears too, including appearing in many Carry – On Movies. Now a drama teacher at school, she is justabout to be re-launched by her son and management company, a story that we weretreated to for the next three hours. Ittranspires that Vivienne is very much in demand, has been signed to a top Londonagency, and is currently going through the auditioning and “putting it outthere” process once more. Now that herhusband has retired, she has decided that she needs to get out of the housemore, hence the re-launch. Vivienne is,however, rather nervous at her re-found fame on the London circuit and so feltit necessary to have us all live through it with her. She told many hilarious stories about actorsand actresses that she had worked with, all washed down with large glasses ofwhite wine and interspersed with random breakouts into song in her husky altovoice, honed by years of smoking. Lifeis never dull with us, dear readers, is it?

About halfway through “An Evening With Vivienne”, saidactress decided that she needed to go and fetch her dog from next door. Enter Boadicea, an exceptionally largeWolfhound…….who smelt of fox poo. I kidyou not. Feeling a rush of nostalgia,deja-vu, and alarm, we all tried to fend Boadicea and her noxious fragranceoff, while trying to persuade Vivienne to remove the splendid but whiffyhound. Vivienne, however, had had far toomuch wine to care, and so we all had to endure both the smell and stories for alittle longer until Shirley announced, at 12.30am, that it was time forbed. This triggered one more round ofstories from our illustrious thespian friend, about Kenneth Williams andVanessa Redgrave (an odd combination) and then off she swept, Boadicea in tow,exiting in the same formidable style with which she had entered.

And that, dear reader, was that. Our day was at a close once more. We did the dishes, tidied up the fireside,and furiously sprayed air freshener everywhere before climbing the stairs oncemore to duvet heaven. The next day wasto be our final one in England and we had all planned to go into London for theday. David, James, Madge and Shirl doLondon town! An episode not to bemissed!

Big love to you all!

D&J

Homos at the speed of light - on the dancefloor, in the car, and in the air.

2011-11-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings dear readers! Blogmeister David here, and finally I have some time to write up a few notes about the last few days. Sitting here on the airplane on our way home from England has been the first chance I have had! This has been one of the busiest trips that we have ever been on and opportunities to write have been, for me, non-existent. The reason for this is twofold; first I was the driver in England, so didn’t not have my normal chance to tap away on the keyboard while James was whizzing us across the land, and secondly we were just so busy that there was nary a moment to think let alone write! But now, ensconced in my minute seat on American Airlines, typing with my thumbs because the seat pitch and spacing has been reduced so much that I cannot even fully open the screen of my 13” laptop, I thought I would catch you all up on some of the excitement that has been occurring in the Martin Koschoreck family.

As you know, dear reader, we arrived last Wednesday on the fabulous transatlantic daylight flight from Chicago (the timing was fabulous, the flight itself far from, as always), and spent a few days whirling around the north country, seeing my sister, her partner Mike, children, along with the famous “Top Tottie from Tottington” Christine. You know all of this because you read James’ blog post on Saturday morning. So I shall pick up from where he left off, because I am sure you are just gasping for more of our gripping adventures. I’d hate to disappoint you all so, without further preamble I’ll move swiftly along…..

After breakfast in the fabulous Zig Zag Cottage in Harwich, which was sitting on top of the previous night’s Chinese feast of Sweet and Sour Prawns, Beef and Broccoli, Chicken and Mushrooms, special friend rice, Prawn Crackers, and Spring Rolls (eaten at 1am in the morning I may add) we decided that we would like to go to the seaside. Harwich, pronounced “Harritch” for those unacquainted, is about as far as you can go without falling off the edge of the world in England. Located in the county of Essex, just above London and to the right, it is a favourite place for sun, sea, and splendor. Except in November, when you get just sea. Still, undaunted by the looming grey clouds and ominous looking sky, we picked ourselves up and swept off towards the seaside town of Clacton. We had only a few hours before we had to go to the wedding so we spent a pleasant time wandering the pier and watching the natives shuffle along the sea walk looking thoroughly miserable in the mist and murk. It was then that I spied a little stall selling fresh seafood, another ever present feature of the English seaside. We rushed over and proceeded to marvel at the offerings available to us. And that was just the lady who was working there, who had on rather a lot of make-up, a brassy blonde hairdo, all topped off with a violent gash of red lipstick. After the initial alarm of the scowling and rather uncommunicative seaside wench, we started to peruse her wares, chiefly, Cockles, Mussels, (alive, alive oh!), crab sticks, pickled eggs (yuck), and the ultimate….jellied eels.

Now, dear reader, I am always concerned about broadening the horizons of my darling husband James when it comes to English culture, so what better opportunity could there be than to have him try jellied eels. I am sure that most of the English people reading this blog are at the moment hurling into a bucket, but for the sake of the Americans who have no idea what this is all about, let me enlighten you. Jellied eels are considered a very traditional London delicacy (chiefly an east London and Essex one I believe), and are eels caught from the estuary of the river Thames, cooked, chopped up, and then chilled in aspic/jelly. They are, dear gastronomes of the blog-o-sphere, quite vile in my opinion. Cold, slimy, gelatinous, lumpy, and well, chewy, are just some of the words I will use to describe them. But seeing as I was not going to be eating them, I proceeded to sell James on the idea of trying them anyway. My reputation for being able to sell an Eskimo snow is there for a reason, however in the spirit of full disclosure I did tell James that I thought they were fairly horrid and that I wouldn’t eat them. But I also impressed upon him the fact that this would be a significant cultural and culinary milestone in his assimilation into English culture. After a moment’s hesitation he stepped forward and handed over the sum of three pounds and was duly presented with a large pot of eels and a plastic fork. I played it safe and had a pot of cockles in malt vinegar……

It only took one mouthful. After shoveling in a hefty portion of the jelly and icky, cold, lumpy, gelatinous, slimy (are you getting the idea yet?) fish into his mouth, a rather alarmed look developed across my husband’s normally cherubic and gorgeous visage. This was followed by a grimace and determined look, that brought on perhaps the largest swallow that has been seen this side of Pamela Anderson on the casting couch. It was to be the only swallow as James then declared himself an avowed member of the “Jellied Eels are cock-a-do-do” club. Spinning on his heel like any good homosexual with a pot of fish in his hand should be able to, he marched onto the beach and proceeded to feed the remains to the seagulls. The seagulls swooped down from the sky to investigate and then as one performed feats of acrobatics and peeled back around and swept off into the sky shrieking in horror too. I guess no-one really likes jellied eel. So with that little escapade complete it was time to head back to our hotel to prepare for the wedding of Alan and Phillip!

Speeding our way through the country lanes brought us safely back where we changed into our finery and within 30 minutes we were back on the road to Colchester where the ceremony was to be taking place. Colchester is about a 30 minute drive from Harwich and for those of you interested in such frippery is the oldest recorded town in England. Never let it be said that this blog is a waste of your time, as without such gems of learning, you, dear reader, would be so much poorer without such nuggets of information to toss casually into the conversation at your next dinner party. 30 minutes later we arrived and after securing a place in a very large car park full of determined looking Saturday shoppers, we walked to the registry office where we met our dear friends Colin and David who we had not seen since our wedding last year. We took our seats and sat back and enjoyed the wonderful ceremony that followed.

In a rare moment of seriousness from your Blogmeister, I have to say that this was a special occasion for many reasons. Alan is a dear friend who I had lost contact with when I moved to the USA and we only rediscovered each other a few years ago thanks to Facebook. So it was particularly lovely to be able to witness and celebrate such a super affair. It should also be noted that the opportunity to see two people of the same sex legally join as a couple in law is a remarkable testament to how far certain parts of the world have come. It fills my heart to see it and the sooner the rest of the world gets their heads out of the sand and realizes that love is valid in all shapes, sizes, and sexualities the better. For those of you investigating elections next year remember that equality is important and I urge you to support candidates who are fair, just and who support equality, regardless of their party affiliation. So there.

After the ceremony was over we all went out to the lovely courtyard behind the office and posed for the obligatory photographs. I busied myself with snapping a few of my own; once a wedding photographer always a wedding photographer it seems. It was a very jolly affair and a short while later we were off back to Harwich for the next part of the day. Alan had arranged for a small group of us to congregate at The Tower Hotel for a few hours and we duly sat on lovely big sofas with gin and tonics, wine, and spent a very wonderful few hours in a small group catching up with each other and marveling at how fabulous friendships are, especially ones that seem to be able to survive long periods apart. It seemed only yesterday that so many of us were 20 years old and heading down to The Euston Tavern in London to dance out little whatsit’s off to “The Boss” by Diana Ross. Ah, the stuff of legend…..

At around 7pm it was time to head onward to the main reception part of the evening. Held at the Royal Oak pub in The Acorn Suite, we arrived to find a veritable feast laid before us and a fabulous disco. With both Alan and I sharing very similar musical tastes I was looking forward to the opportunity to dance the night away and I was not disappointed. Before long your intrepid blogger was busting out some spectacular moves on the dance floor to S’Express, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, YMCA, ABC, The Human League, and other such luminaries of my youth. James and I took to the floor on many occasions and were also joined by new friends Sharon and Adam who were both fab. Sharon was very popular on the dance floor and was at one point spotted being Paso Doble’d around the floor by a very dapper gay man while Adam strutted his stuff with an array of very well synchronized dance moves that were the envy of many. We sat with Colin and David and had a totally stupendous evening. I of course couldn’t resist grabbing my camera on many occasions and, sneaking off into the fray, snapped some photos which I will duly process and dispatch to Alan whenever I get a moment to breath, likely when school is finished in mid-December.

And with that it was time for a taxi ride back to the Zig Zag cottage and to bed. We picked ourselves up, dusted off our jackets, and in no time at all found ourselves back in bed, sleeping the sound sleep of those who have acquitted themselves well on the dance floor. I don’t know about James but I dreamt fabulous dreams of love, life, friendship, and of winning the mirror ball trophy in Dancing With The Stars/Strictly Come Dancing with a spell binding quickstep that would knock your heels off. Ah, the stuff of legend!

So with that, dear reader, I bid you farewell. I’ll post more later in the week. The blog posts will continue for a while after we return as I try to catch up. We’ll see you soon!

Big love!

David and James.

A quick snapshot...

2011-11-05T08:11:00.000-04:00

Greetings blogpickers! A quick snapshot to show you James blogging...a rare and wonderful occurrence! I'll write more later.....

Big love to all!

DMx

Breakfast at the Zig Zag Cottage

2011-11-05T08:03:00.000-04:00

Hello, folks!

In the immortal words of Willie Nelson, we're "on the road again" - this time to celebrate the wedding of our friends Alan and Phil in Harwich, England. We arrived late Wednesday night at Heathrow, hired a car, and drove about an hour to spend the night just outside Oxford. As it was after midnight and all the good Englishpeople were tucked in their beds, I (James) decided to try my hand at driving in this everything-is-reversed-if-not-upside-down country. Motorway driving, check. Since there was nary a soul on the road, I never had to worry about the nasty rule of no undertaking. Driving on the village roads outside Oxford, check. Reverse parking into the minuscule space at the hotel, disaster. Well, not a disaster really since I didn't actually hit anything - just more of a frustration for having to have four or five goes before settling into an acceptable position.

After morning breakfast - and before you ask, yes it WAS the FULL ENGLISH - we headed directly to the Bicester (rhymes with blister) Village Outlet Shops to stock up on some new duds from the Dunhill Store. I'll let David fill you in on all the details.

We left the shop 900 pounds lighter and headed into the scary North Country (just kidding, Christine) to spend the night with Jane (David's sister), Mike, Jack, and Harry. Wonderful company, great visit, and scrumptious homemade chili - a perfectly relaxing evening.

Breakfast at Marks and Spencer (Really? Is it ALWAYS about food?) with the obligatory slice of Victoria Sponge, and then we were off on an official school visit at the Bolton School (even deeper into the North Country) to visit our Christine in her native professional habitat. She treated us to a delightful lunch of sandwiches, sushi, fruit, and homemade apple cake! The visit was way too short, and soon we were on the road again - this time heading southward once more to the coastal town of Harwich in Essex.

The four hour journey took actually 7-1/2 hours, what with bad weather and crowded motorways, and we arrived at the Zig Zag Cottage at about 10:30. Quick check in, and off to find some victuals. At that time the only choices were fish and chips, kebabs, or Chinese take-away. We settled on the latter.

So that brings me to the point of this morning's photo of breakfast at the Zig Zag. Paul and Marianne run a well tended and very clean bed and breakfast in an 18th century cottage in the village of Great Oakley just outside Harwich. After another full English, I can barely move. And now David wants to force to go for a morning walk along the beach. When the choice is to walk or to stay in eating Galaxy chocolates all day - well, I'll leave you to guess what I've chosen.

Until next time.......keeeeeeeeep traveling!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Galena, your blogmeisters new union suit, and the way home.

2011-08-14T22:12:00.000-04:00

Greetings, Blog Pickers, Blogmeister David back again! It’s Sunday and we are in Illinois, about 60 miles from Normal (such an odd name for a place…..but I guess it is better than having another York, Springfield, Peoria, or other such multi state name). We left Galena around 10 am this morning and have been driving for about 2 hours already. CyberBitch, the voice in the GPS, tells us that it will take about 7.5 hours to get home so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to wrap up the blog for this trip. We are sitting here (driving here?) listening to the Glee- 3D The Movie soundtrack and Lea Michelle has just belted out Don’t Rain On My Parade, the song we had at the opening of our wedding last year. I am also watching yet more corn whizz past the window. I just posted a question on my Facebook page asking where all the wheat is grown in the America. All I ever seem to see is corn……and LOTS of it. Ah well…the multiple uses of social media. I look forward to hearing the responses!

We pulled into Galena at around 3 pm yesterday and checked in at the Aldrich Guest House. It is an absolutely gorgeous pre-civil war era home owned by Brian and Fran. It had taken some time to find somewhere with availability and who would let us stay for just a Saturday night as most have two night minimums at the weekend. We also had to find a place that would be welcoming to two men as well, something that straight couples are fortunate enough not to have to worry about. Having already discovered a few places that we didn’t think would welcome us due to wording on their websites, we were relieved when we actually spoke with Brian on the phone and he assured us that it didn’t matter one bit to him. Just another equality issue for you all to think about in the coming election cycle…..

Anyway, after checking in and having a quick tour of the house, we headed off to downtown Galena with a spring in our step after having spent 7 hours in the car. For those of you who have not been to Galena it is a beautiful place filled with tremendous history. We really didn’t have time to do it justice from a history perspective so shall have to return some time in the future. But for the few brief hours that we did have we busied ourselves on the main street. We found a bank, I withdrew $50, tucked the receipt away, photographed the bank, and had the bills changed into a $50 bill at a little store across from the bank by a young lady called Lauren. With that, we headed off to find our antique store for Illinois. Right across the street was a suitably run down store called “La Belle Époque” and so in we rushed. At the farthest end of the store sat a man with wild hair, wild beard, and wild eyes. I went over and said hello and asked him his name. “Buz”, he replied. I asked him if he was an Illinois native, at which point he got a little shifty in his chair but responded yes. I guess he may have thought I was from the IRS or something so I quickly stuck out my hand, told him my name, and that I was a photographer. I explained to him the project I was working on and he got really excited! He asked me what sort of stuff I wanted and I gave him the same answers as I gave Joan. Well, Buz lit up with the biggest smile ever which made him look even wilder than before and said he would love to do it. He even said he would throw in the box as well. So without further ado James and I departed and left Buz excitedly hopping around his store rooting through boxes and junk like a man possessed. I wondered what on earth we were going to get this time and we headed off to the shops.

Walking around Galena was a very different experience to the previous week of vacation. Garrison had been a very down to earth, sort of homey vacation experience. Galena was all about smart gift shops, antique stores, and expensive little boutiques. The contrast was really quite marked and made for an interesting hour as we wandered along the very crowded main street, seeing people decked out in Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and other assorted designer brands. But everyone seemed in a holiday kind of mood so we mingled in and had a good time. I also made the ultimate purchase of my vacation in a strange little shop selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, and underwear. A bright red up to date Union Suit! Yes, dear reader, you can see it now can’t you. These are an updated version of the traditional Union Suit and I can’t wait to wear it. You can check out my purchase at www.lazyone.com. I am tempted to take a picture of me wearing it when I get home, but I have a feeling that it might be just a little too revealing and I wouldn’t want to scare any of you silly. So you’ll just have to look at the website and image yours truly standing there posing for you. James is really not too sure about this new purchase especially as I am threatening to wear it with my new woolly hat from New Glarus….ah well.

All too quickly we found that it was time to return to see Buz. As I entered the store he was sitting there waiting for me. He presented me with a small cigar box that contained just three objects. Was I a little disappointed that we hadn’t received this enormous container of things? Maybe, but I had set the parameters of the project and it was up to Buz to choose. Buz, however, was like a little puppy. He was SO excited and I took advantage of the moment to do his portraits. We found a great spot next to the window of the store and this time I had him hold the box of stuff together with the $50 bill. I took a couple of shots, some where he was smiling like a mad axe murderer, and some where he was looking serious and really rather menacing. He was a good guy and told me that I was the highlight of his week. He was thrilled that he been a part of my project. That in itself makes the whole thing work for me. It is becoming clearer that I may need to continue to tweak the project, so when I return to school tomorrow I’ll start the process of discussing the concept with a few folks and see where it leads.

We had dinner reservations for 8 pm at The Goldmoor Inn, a nice looking place outside of Galena, so after stopping off for a quick glass of wine at the DeSoto Hotel in Main Street we headed back to the hotel to have a bath (David) and a nap (James). I was eager to use the beautiful old claw-foot tub in the en-suite bathroom and so threw a handful of bubble bath salts into the water and disappeared under a cloud of heavenly lavender bubbles for 30 minutes while James snoozed on the beautiful iron framed bed, surrounded by fluffy blue and white pillows like the bearded renaissance man that he is. Then a quick change of clothes and we were off to eat. I had been looking forward to this meal but was also aware that I was approaching my dining limit. Although all of my clothes still fit I am fairly sure that I have gained around 8 pounds or more on this trip. Seeing as I had just lost 17 pounds on weight watchers this, dear reader, is not good news. So I resolved to eat sensibly tonight.

Dinner was lovely. The location was a modern constructed inn, which, as my nephew Jack commented on Facebook, looked like it had been constructed out of flat pack materials. Still the location was outstanding in that we were overlooking the river as the sun set in the distance. We dined on caprese salad, crab cakes, pork tenderloin, and beef wellington coupled with a lovely bottle of Domaine Chandon Pinot Meunier. It was all very nice and as you can see, the eating sensibly concept failed to even get started. So feeling like we had each eaten a Zeppelin, we headed back to the guest house and lay on the bed groaning with gluttony until we fell asleep, sleeping the sleep of those who have eaten too much and will pay for it in the morning.

Awakened by the smell of bacon and coffee at around 7.30 am we showered and headed down to breakfast. It was a lovely affair and Brian and Fran cooked up a storm and presented it all in front of us (groan, more food). This was my first experience of a bed and breakfast in the USA, although they are a staple of the UK, and I can honestly say that it was a fantastic experience. The standard was very high and provided almost the same quality as some of the hotels we have been staying in, although in a very different and extremely comfortable way. Next time we’ll certainly be looking at more of these places to stay and can whole heartedly recommend Aldrich in Galena. There was even a little guest book in each bedroom for you to write about your experience as well. I took great pride in writing both of our names in the book as we were the only same-sex couple to have done so. I love the fact that it will cause some people to no doubt have sleepless nights due to the horror that two men have been sleeping together in the very same bed…..ha!

And there, dear reader, you have it all. We are now 3.5 hours away from home. We just stopped for lunch at Hardees where I felt an almost uncontrollable desire to get up on the table and do a solo “Flash Mob” style routine when Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” was played on the tinny restaurant music system. But, seeing as we had stopped at El Paso, IL, I took a quick look around me at the other patrons of the restaurant and reigned myself in. Probably a shrewd move considering the rather large and scary looking truckers, seated at the table next door, devouring mountains of burgers and fries. Instead I am contenting myself with typing to you while listening to “The Very Best of Judy Garland” in the safety of the car as we pass yet more corn. Such is the life of the passenger on a road trip.

So our vacation is almost at an end. It has been a great trip. It has been quite different for me and I certainly have enjoyed myself immensely. I feel privileged to have been able to share in James’ reminiscences and have had the opportunity to see and do things that would not normally have been on my radar. “Homos on the Road” has been a riot of fun and splendor in many ways. From the Four Seasons to Cabin Number 6 and everything in between it has been a merry and dare I say it, a gay old time. I hope that you have also enjoyed keeping up with our crazy activities. I often get messages from people saying how much you enjoy the blog and that is one of the things that keep me going with it. I look forward to the next trip where we can travel with all of you by our side once more!. I hope you have also enjoyed all the pictures that have been posted through Facebook and the micro-blogging with pictures through Twitter as well. It’s been a blast! School starts back for me tomorrow with my first meeting taking place at 7.30 am in Lexington. So I’ll be up at 5 am and on the road by 5.30 am, this time on my own with only a cup of coffee, a banana, a hardboiled egg, and maybe a few pieces of toast on a plate to keep me company for my commute. James will be heading off to the University for some Meetings. So think of us both as we return to our version of reality.

And with that, dear reader, I’ll leave you with a line from a song by The Beautiful South which is “You can’t have too many good times”.

So Big Love to you all. It’s been a blast!

D&J

In search of Paul Bunyan and his chopper....

2011-08-14T22:03:00.000-04:00

Well, dear readers, it is time for some catch up on the blog. It’s now Saturday and we are on our way to Galena, IL for the next stage of our trip. We left Rolling Hills Resort early this morning (6.15 am) and hope to be in Galena around 3 pm or so. But first, let’s head back to Thursday and pick up the trail….

After our day of fishing we decided that we wanted to do something a little different that involved some exercise. It was time to bring out the bikes and head off to do some sightseeing, exploring, and riding. Armed with a trusty old copy of Lonely Planet USA we headed off to the village of Walker about 2 hours north east of Garrison. We threw the bikes onto the rack, grabbed our water bottles, and headed out, keen to see some more of Minnesota. I loaded up the rooftop canon on the Pathfinder just in case we saw Michelle Bachmann fly past on her broom and off we went. The drive through Northern Minnesota was really quiet beautiful and reminded me of when I spent time in Canada back in 2000, hardly surprising considering the proximity. It seemed that as we drove further north the pine trees got bigger, the grass became greener, the log cabins prettier (as did the men). What was really nice to see was how some of the usual suspects of fast food chains and stores like McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Walgreens, had risen to the occasion and actually built nice log cabin inspired buildings. It was a welcome change from America’s endless, featureless, obsession with dull strip malls and cookie cutter stores.

Arriving in Walker we decided that we would take a walk around town and have some lunch. Lunch was bagged in “The Outdoors Café” which was basically just a greasy spoon serving quite good burgers, and then we headed off for a wander. It was “Market Day” in Walker, which in reality appeared to mean that all the shops on the main street had dragged out all the things they couldn’t sell onto the sidewalk/pavement and were hawking them there instead. Flip Flops, bric-a-brac, “art”, t-shirts, walking boots, and other goods could be purchased at bargain prices. The local Tupperware store were even having a sale too, though we declined to purchase, despite James being attracted to a natty plastic salt and pepper shaker set. We flitted in and out of some of the stores, pausing to spend some time in an antique/thrift store as well. Here I had an idea for a new art project, revolving around items that have been previously owned, that would encompass all 50 states over a period of time. But I am getting ahead of myself…..more of that project when we get to Friday!

After we had tired of endless numbers of flip flop shoppers and people pushing buggies over our toes we decided it was time for our bike ride. We headed back to the Pathfinder and set out for the Paul Bunyan Trail. Having seen various paintings and statues of this particularly dashing lumberjack and his chopper I was eager to see the countryside that had been nominated as his “trail”. In reality I am sure lumberjacks are hot, sweaty, smelly, and poorly dressed, unlike the pictures of Paul Bunyan that portrayed him as handsome, clean, with well manicured hands and smelling of manly cologne. So off we peddled up his trail. The ride was really lovely and very uneventful (apart from a brief rain shower). There were no lumberjacks to be seen (smelly or otherwise) and I really couldn’t see any connection between our surroundings and Mr. Bunyan other than a shrewd marketing department. We rode for about 12 miles each way and returned to the car a little pooped out and ready for home. A quick stop for a vodka and tonic at a local watering hole in Garrison helped refresh us, and we spent a pleasant and relaxing evening at the cabin, dining on more of James’ kill from the previous day before turning in, saddle sore and tuckered out.

Friday found us in the mood for a more relaxing day. It was to be our last full day in the area so we decided that we would kick it off by cycling into town for breakfast. On the way I started to contemplate the seeds of my idea for my new art project. It must have been something to do with the peddling as all of a sudden the idea burst into my head and started fleshing out really nicely. I have always been fascinated by people, their stuff, and what it means to them. I am also fascinated as to how people and their stuff relate (or don’t relate) to their surroundings and geographic locations. What better way to explore stuff, relationships, and location than through antique stores across the country. The idea is still pretty much beginning but I felt that I had enough to go on to at least start the process off. So with that, I told James what was in my head and off we went to put my plan into action. Bear in mind, dear reader, that this is still a fairly fluid outline and I have learnt enough to know that my art projects usually always turn out different from what they started as! So expect this to change and develop over time.

We started off at the local bank. Bearing in mind that I want to do this over the entire United States if possible, there has to be a few set parameters to work within – the artist materials if you will. The main tool was to be a $50 bill. I took $60 out of the ATM and then headed inside the bank. There I was met by a lady called Bonita. I explained to her that I would like a $50 bill, which she duly gave me. I then photographed the bill and the ATM slip on a spare piece of counter. Then, upon leaving the bank, I took a photograph of the bank itself, made a note of its location, and set off on the next leg of the journey. Getting the $50 bill may be different in some states, as that may be challenging on weekends, but I will always be taking $50 or $60 out of the ATM, recording the ATM receipt and location, and also recording from where I change it into a $50 and the name of the person who does it.

Next stop was to find an antique store. Aware that I need to make sure that I allow the creative process some room to develop, the only criterion I had was that the store had to be owned by a native of the state, obviously, in this case, a Minnesotan. So we headed into the nearest town, Brainerd, to find an antique store. There, we found a whole street full of them, and after a few enquiries we found one that was owned and run by a native Minnesotan, Joan Cooper. Her store was called Antiques and Accents and was veritable treasure trove of “stuff”. Joan didn’t know what was coming, poor love, and was mightily suspicious of me. Here is what I asked her to do. I showed her the $50 bill and asked her to pick out $50 worth of stuff from her store. The only condition was that the items had to have been previously owned (i.e. not new). If she wanted to pick items that related to Minnesota in anyway, by her own judgment, that was fine, but it wasn’t necessary. She could pick as many items as she wanted to make up the $50 or as few items. I just wanted it to be her choice and not mine. I also said that I wanted to be able to take her picture with the $50 bill, along with a couple of pictures of her store, inside and out. She looked at me like I was mad, but then said yes. She seemed more comfortable when I left her a business card and that we would go and have lunch while she picked out the items. With that we left a puzzled looking Joan behind us, stepped back out into the sunlight, and went in search of lunch.

We settled on the North Wind Café, just a few doors away. As we entered I noticed a sign on wall by the counter. It said “No out of town” on it. A little perturbed I asked James if that meant we were not allowed to eat here as we were from somewhere else. He laughed at me and pointed out that if you lifted away the picture frame that was leaning against the sign it revealed “checks accepted”. I scowled at everyone in sight, and, just like when a cat falls off a fence in front of you, picks itself up and saunters off with an air of “I meant to do that all along”, marched off to a table, to drown my sorrows in pepsi and French fries.

Soon it was time for us to return to see Puzzled Joan in her antique emporium so we paid the bill and hurried out. I was excited to see what she picked for us. As we entered the store there she sat, beaming at us looking very proud of herself. “Do you want to see what I have picked for you to make sure it is okay”? she said excitedly, all trace of Suspicious Joan having evaporated. “Sure”, I responded. “But whatever you have chosen is fine”. It was fascinating as she still didn’t get the concept that someone was asking her to be the person who was making the choice. It was all about her, the native Minnesotan, and her view of the stuff. With that she showed me the collection she had put together. She had chosen about 6 items and they all still had their tags on (I made a mental note that all future items had to have a price tag or sticker on them too).

I also wanted to buy a box to hold the objects all in as well. I would like to try and buy roughly the same size of box in each store for consistency, but had already decided that the box should not be bought out of the $50. If they wanted to donate a box that would be fine, but I felt that it had to be kept separate from the main purchase. James was duly dispatched to the back of the store and came back with a charming wooden box to carry it all in. All the items were put into a brown paper bag, placed into the box, and a receipt written out to MKphotographers for $50. Next I took a couple of quick portraits of Jean holding her $50 bill (I may in future also take a picture of them with the box of items too), a couple of pictures of the inside of the store, a few from outside, and we were off and on our way. James peered into the bag and asked if there was $50 worth of stuff there. I said that I thought so, yes, but it really didn’t matter. If someone swindled us, that was all part of the piece. It would be documented along with everything else when the work is displayed. Likewise, if someone chose to give me some old piece of crap that they had been dying to get rid of for 25 years that would be fine too. This is all about representing the people through an artistic piece, good/bad, nice/ugly, and about all the connections that can be drawn and created through the interrelationships. I have no idea what I am going to do with all the stuff, but I would like to display it in collections, maybe photographed as a typographical piece as well. The project will no doubt continue to evolve, but I remain very excited about it and plan to do Illinois when we are in Galena today (Saturday)

Having finished with my art for the day, it was time to go and see some other people. We had spied a sign pointing to a pottery store off the beaten track earlier on our travels and we wanted to go visit to see what it was all about. So off we went, down some little dirt track, to Brown Bear Pottery. There we met the fabulous Haddie, a 50ish woman who sits making pottery to feed herself and pay the bills, and making ceramic sculptures to feed her creativity. We spent a lovely hour talking about pottery, Cat Stevens, politics, Nicaragua, and parties before purchasing some of her lovely pieces and heading on our way. I also continued on my series of taking pictures of artists in their locations too. She sent us off to see Bob at Ripple River Wood turning studio where we found more kindred spirits to chat with and pass the time. We bought a few pieces and I took Bobs picture to add to the collection. Maybe this will develop into another project over time….who knows! But for those of you at the University who are reading this blog I am continuing to try and think a little more broadly in my work….so there.

Over the course of the week we had cooked at the cabin most of the time for a few reasons. 1. There were not many places to eat in Garrison. 2. Everywhere that we found dished up either burgers or sandwiches or frozen pizza. 3. We had been trying to eat a little more healthily as we are both expanding on this vacation. 4. We had a mountain of fish to eat, courtesy of James, fisherman extraordinaire . We were moaning about this terrible state of affairs to Haddie at Brown Bear Pottery who suggested that we try The Lonesome Pine (cue chorus of Laurel and Hardy singing “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” one of my faves!) Wow, we thought, a recommendation! We asked if it served burgers and she said yes, but that there were lots of other things too, including fresh fish, pastas, salads, and veggie options. So with dinner plans set we went back to the cabin to pack for our early departure and, after taking a quick nap, we headed out for dinner.

The Lonesome Pine was FABULOUS! It was filled with lovely people, great atmosphere, and importantly great food and wine. We sat at the bar drinking Gin and Tonics for an hour while waiting for a table. James wrote postcards to his blisters and brother, while I sat watching the world and all the people go by. For dinner we both had fresh walleye, one breaded and fried, and one broiled with garlic and lemon. Everything was washed down with some super wine that we didn’t finish so took home with us for later. A definite winner of a place and a big thank you to Haddie for pointing us in the right direction.

Arriving home at around 10pm I thought it was time to sit by the shores of the lake and finish up two of the almost empty bottles of wine we had ended up with. So we grabbed the camping chairs, some glasses, and headed down to the shore of the lake. Thunder was rolling in the distance, lightning darted around in the sky, and there were breaks in the clouds that let the moon shine down on us. We could hear people laughing in their RV’s and caravans while we sat and thought about how lovely the night air was. Protected by bug spray (we had learned!) we spent a wonderful hour or so while James remembered more stories and happenings from his previous visits to the lake. He talked about fishing, swimming in the lake as a kid, rowing out on the lake, and a myriad of other memories. It was a wonderful and fitting end to our time at Rolling Hills Resort. Who knows if we will ever be back again but I am very pleased that we went and had the opportunity to do so many different and fun things.

So now, dear reader, as I mentioned earlier, we are back on the road again. Our destination is Galena, IL which will be our halfway stopping point on the way back to the Martin Koschoreck homestead. We are just passing over the Mississippi as we I type….so stay tuned for the final installment of the blog a little later!

Big love to you all,

D&J

Of fish and of men.....and the ones that got away.

2011-08-13T23:51:00.000-04:00

Wednesday morning arrived early at Camp Rolling Hills Resort. We had to be at Garrison Sports by 7.30am to obtain our fishing licences and to pay for the morning’s fishing trip. So James had set his iPad for 6.30am to give us enough time to shower, get our fishing outfits on, have coffee, and be off. 6.30am on vacation? For fishing? The things I agree too…. Still, once showered and with a cup of coffee in front of me, I wondered why it was still dark outside. I could have sworn that when I had been up early the day before it had been sunrise by now. So I look at my watch. It was 5.40am. Ouch. It seems that James’ marvelous iPad was not capable of picking up and synchronizing the time. NTP Apple? Ah well, at least it meant that we could enjoy coffee and the sunrise, which was still 30 minutes away…

At 7.30am we rolled up at Garrison Sports already for a mornings fishing. James was a little nervous about the whole affair, still remembering his childhood experiences that had seemingly scarred him for life. I was wondering what the other people on the trip would be like and would we be sharing a boat with some thundering, loud, obnoxious, fishing people, bedecked out with hats, fisherman vests( all covered with hooks and feathers) while all the time talking about the one that got away (ran away, more likely). My worrying was in vain. Accompanying us on the trip were a bunch of middle aged ladies and their husbands, a father and his young son, and Bette, the famous lesbian daughter mentioned in a previous post. It would, at this point, be an appropriate moment to mention that, with the exception of Bette (for obvious reasons), nearly all women that I have seen in Minnesota seem to have the same hair-do. It’s a sort of short thing, all clipped, bobbed and curly. It looks a little like a bathing cap pulled up over the ears and lifted at the back. The curly aspect is a little reminiscent of a water spaniel, and, I must be honest, It is odd how many people have it. I think it is a cult thing really, sort of like the masons but with hairdryers and a shampoo and set thrown in for good measure. Anyway, I just thought I would mention that….

Once we were all on the boat, Bette whisked us up to the front and handed us our rods. She introduced us to Greg, her brother in law, who would be the captain, and also explained that we would be heading out along the lake shore. We’d be looking for the “weeds” as that is where Northern Pike hang out. Super, I thought. Here I am, again likely to be thrashing around in the weeds. It would be just like returning to corporate America in so many respects. Still, the engine turned on, we turned into the breeze and off we went, a motley and rag tag collection of fisherpeople all intent on landing the big one. Or, in my case, hoping that James would land at least one fish so that we could move past this particular paternal scarring event.

After about 10 minutes, Captain Greg decided that we were in a suitable place and parked the boat. Now it was time for action! Bette informed us that she would bait our hooks (such a quaint expression) and with that she plunged her hands into a bucket and pulled out two live and thrashing fish. “Minnows” she proudly proclaimed. These “minnows” were about 9 inches long! I always thought that minnows were small little fish, but it seems that I was wrong. These “Super Minnows” were to be the bait that would catch our Northern Pikes. At this point I started to feel a little uneasy over what we were going to be doing with our bait. Swiftly, Bette grabbed my hook (hey now…) and shoved it into the mouth of the minnow and out through the top of its head. With that, she threw it over the side of the boat, and told me to let out some line. I, an ever obedient and instruction driven person, did as I was told and flicked out a hefty amount of line. My minnow, thankful to have been returned to the murky depths of the lake, swam off into the weeds, presumably where the Northern Pike were waiting to gobble it up, hook and all. And so began the long processing of waiting. I was waiting for my poor, defenseless, little minnow to be devoured by some big hungry monster fish that I would then haul (in a manly way) into the boat. I felt a little like I had gone to the zoo with a bag of pork chops and was just dangling them through the bars of the lion cage. It didn’t seem particularly sporting to me. But one look over at James, who was staring intently at his “bobber” (float for the euro zone), almost as if he were willing all the fish in the lake to just hurl themselves at his hook in some sort of aquatic hari kari, told me that I should just sit there and keep my mouth shut (a tip that would have served my minnow well if you ask me).

And so we sat, and sat, and sat. Periodically we would pull our line in to make sure that the minnow was still there and alive. Then the poor thing would get thrown back into the drink again to wriggle itself attractively. And so we sat, and sat, and sat. In fact we sat for four hours straight. Apart from Greg moving the boat to a few different locations, the only movement was that of the little kid down the other end of the boat catching the only fish. He reeled in a 24 inch Northern Pike (with the help of his proud dad), and that was it. Clearly the fish were unimpressed with my minnow and had either all gone shopping or had decided that they were too smart to fall for that old bait on the hook routine. So we headed back to shore with nothing to show for our 4 hours other than a credit card slip.

As we had dreams of glory in our heads, what do you think we did dear reader? Did we slope off into the distance to lick our wounded pride? Or did we jump into the car and go and kick some kittens around in frustration? No, like lambs to the slaughter we went back inside Garrison Sports and signed ourselves up for the afternoon fishing trip instead. Never let it be said that we are without either ambition or perseverance for we were determined to empty the lake of fish that day…or go broke trying. With that, we went and ate pizza and drank beer, something that all successful fishermen do, or so we thought.

At 2pm we returned to the dock to be greeted by Bette and her wife, Lisa. We were also joined by Shelley, Greg’s wife, and Greg himself, who was still in charge of the boat. I gave Greg a stern look as we boarded, which just made him smile broadly back at me in an alarming fashion, and, with a roar of the engines, we headed back off to find a fishing spot. This time we went to the other side of the lake and it seemed that we were heading for Canada before Greg stopped. Our minnows were retrieved from the buckets, re-speared onto the hooks and hurled over the side over the boat to strut their stuff in front of the predators of the deep. And we sat.

In fact, we sat for only about 10 minutes before James’ bobber disappeared. Bette instructed him to pay out some line to see if the bobber would come back up. Apparently if the minnow has decided to go for a snoop around the weeds, as they are wont to do, the bobber will come back up again. But it didn’t. Aha! It seemed that James had caught something…or rather his minnow had. I tried to put the vision of the minnow fighting for its life in a fight to the finish with the demon of the deep out of my mind and instead reeled mine in, stowing my rod and minnow out of the way, and reached for my camera (of course). Meanwhile, James was being instructed to pay out more and more line which would allow the fish that he had caught to retreat off with the minnow in his mouth. This he did and we waited with bated breath for about 3 minutes which, we were assured, was all it would take for the presumed monster on the other end to swallow both minnow whole and hook.

When James felt the line tighten, presumably when the monster had eaten the minnow and had decided to work off dinner by taking a little swim, Greg yelled out “STRIKE!” James whipped his rod up, creating a beautiful arc while in the process scaring the pants off me and everyone else and began to frantically wind his line in. The rod bent over, and James, now a man on a mission, hunched over his reel like some possessed maniac engaged in the battle of his life. “WIND IT IN” yelled Greg, and James wound faster and more manically. I wisely stood to one side, a little perturbed at the change in my husband into mad fisherman, and Greg reached for his landing net. By now, the bobber had resurfaced and was speeding toward the boat. Behind it was a trail of foam and sputum, giving the impression of a surfer being towed upside down. Closer it came, everybody watched, and waited, and then Greg stuck his net into the lake at the appointed time. He hauled out this massive Northern Pike (26.5 inches long), removed the hook from its mouth, and dumped the whole thing into James waiting arms. We named the fish Don, after James’ Pa.

Like a duck to water, James knew exactly what to do next. He broke into this big smile and thrust the fish out in front of him, eerily reminiscent of the creepy monkey holding Simba out at the opening of The Lion King. Everybody roared, clapped, and I pressed the button on my camera like a stage mother happily capturing her infant prodigy’s proud stage debut. Suddenly the fish gave a shudder, jerked a little, and a dead, slimy, and very chewed minnow shot out of its mouth and landed on the floor in front of us. Nice. With that the Northern Pike was carried off by big burly Greg and dumped into a holding tank to presumably reflect on the error of its ways, not to mention the stupidity of not noticing that the Minnow had a hook through its head.

Did you think that was it, dear reader? No, of course you didn’t. A demon seemed to have been awakened in James who, with new minnow on the end of his hook, threw his line out once more. About 10 minutes passed and James’ bobber disappeared again. Yes, he had caught another one. Over went the rod, manic winding James re-appeared, Greg roared, and another hapless Northern Pike was hoisted from Mille Lacs Lake into the holding pen. This one kept his lunch down and was carried off scowling to join his new friend in the sin bin. Then it was my turn. But I am sad to say, dear reader, that I was not quite as successful as James. My bobber went down, I paid out my line, but my strike was too nellie it seems. My fish just laughed and swam off with his free lunch. When I reeled the line in my hook was bare. Do you think I learned? No, because an hour later the same thing happened again. I lost my fish once more. Ah well. Who wants a big old slimy thing flopping around in their hands anyway I said, shrugging off defeat with ease. James was bringing home the “bacon” so what did I care? I was happy that he was finally dealing with the past. We named his second fish Darline in honour of his mother.

To add insult to injury only moments later James did it all again. I sniffed disdainfully as James and Greg hoisted a Bass over the side of the boat. Everyone cooed and clucked appreciatively. The bass was 20 inches long, which meant that it had to be thrown back (Bass,it seem, have to be 21 inches or longer to keep, proving once and for all that all fisherman are size queens). But Greg informed James that it was one of the most beautiful fish he had seen caught. It seems that not many people catch bass any more on the lake so it made James even more proud of his achievements. We named this one Kate, after James’ eldest sister, and throw it back into the lake where hopefully it will have learnt that in fish land there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

With that, Greg turned the boat around and we headed back to port. I dutifully took pictures of James holding his prizes on a string and then we delivered them to the sport shop for cleaning and preparing. In no time at all they were handed back to us in a large plastic bag. Dinner for the evening was assured….well for the next four days in fact. We actually ate it for two nights and donated the rest to Orin, the resort owner who seemed very honoured and pleased with his gift. For the epicurious amongst you I provided the cooking services and that night we ate fillets of Northern Pike, sautéed in butter with garlic, diced spring onions, a small chopped chilli, and a white wine reduction, served with potatoes, and carrots. It was delicious, even if I say so myself.

And with that, our day of adventure was over. We polished off the wine, did the dishes, and headed off to bed. James slept the sleep of the master fisherman, no doubt dreaming of his Pa, proudly patting him on the shoulder (and then demanding to know why he only caught 3), while I dreamt about the ones that got away…..sniff.

Big love to all,

D&J

We're off to see St Judy, the wonderful diva of.....Grand Rapids.

2011-08-11T10:38:00.000-04:00

Howdy Doody BlogFiends! Thought I should come up with a different greeting from the normal one. How's that for a starter?

Tuesday morning loomed long and large. We had more work to do, for me some reading of an awesome book by Chris Orwig, photographer and super chap, and James had work to do for an online class that he is teaching. We also had a date with a certain movie star in mind. So with that we set off for the town of Grand Rapids, MN, about a 1 hour drive or so from Garrison. It was a pleasant drive with nice scenery and no untoward events....except the bird that flew straight into the radiator of the Pathfinder with a loud thud and a flurry of feathers. The bird wins the headache of the day award, methinks.

Arriving in Grand Rapids we turned to the trusty GPS and Bing Maps to find a local Starbucks to camp out at. Alas, we were out of luck it seems with the only Starbucks in the entire town being a licensed concept store located in Target. Call me a snob but having worked for Buckies for over 7 years in corporate stores, licensed concept locations and their lack of beverage standards are not on my menu. So we spied a Caribou Coffee location a little way down the street and settled in there. I have to say that the coffee was pretty good too! They looked a little flumoxed when we asked them to make us a french press of coffee so we settled for an Americano for James and a Mocha for me instead and settled in for a few hours. A pleasant experience indeed. James typed away and I read away, all the while watching the comings and goings of various Minnesotans and their caffeinated habits.

Soon, however, it was time to leave. We had a definite mission at hand, and those of you who use Facebook or Twitter to keep up with our adventures will know what the mission was. You see, Grand Rapids is no ordinary town. It is the birthplace of none other than St Judy herself. Yes, dear reader, your happy homos were here to make a pilgrimage to the Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition.

Could we be any gayer?

With barely contained excitement we went back to the car, re-programmed the GPS and sped off towards Mecca. With no idea what to expect our imaginations went crazy. Would there be a real life animatronics version of Judy at the entrance? Would there be an interactive re-enactment of Liza's birth? Would we be able to cluck appreciativly at the stupendous collection of Cecil Beaton costumes that had been designed for Judy in her many movie roles? And then we arrived.

Located right on the main road, highway 169, with traffic thundering past, was a small sign that read Judy Garland Museum. There were no dancing girls wearing snappy outfits and red sequined hats. There were no munchkins ready to offer us a lick of their lollipops. There was no walking, talking version of Liza Minelli, with Lorna and Sid Luft walking deferrentially two paces behind. Instead there was an ordinary building with a sign. Just a sign, saying "This Way to the Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition". For a moment we looked perhaps a little crestfallen, and then, remembering that Judy was nothing if not a trooper of the first degree, we picked up our smiles and swept forward, radiating a smile that would have knocked the socks of Louis B Meyer, and entered the museum front door.

James listening to Judy sing in the museum

Once inside we came face to face with a delightful lady, wearing an odd looking frock that was an alarming shade of green, who informed us that we had to pay the princely sum of $8 each to proceed any further. With credit card at hand we paid the fee, snatched up the photocopied map and sailed through the doors into the exhibition.

The museum was completely different to anything that I was expecting. Despite the fact that Judy Garland was a major star, and love her or hate her, and an important part of cinema history, the museum was suprisingly without pretension or glitz. It had been set up by a group of people who were really proud of the the fact that Judy Garland was from Grand Rapids, MN, and had spent all their time collecting memorabilia from around the world. They had even managed to secure her house. There was no fancy lighting or glitzy corridors lined with costumes and gold discs. There were no dancing ponies or munchkins. Just a treasure trove of Judy stuff to look at. Playbills, photographs, a few dresses, telegrams, and of course the house in which she lived were the crux of the exhbition. There was a letter on the wall from Liza thanking the people for honouring her mother, and also a mention of that other deity, Barbra Streisand, who had donated funds to support the museum (bless!). It was a remarkably honest and down to earth rememberance of a star who started out in humble beginnings, and who, through little fault of her own, ended up in a humble and sad ending.

Will the real Judy please stand up!

We went from section to section of the museum, marvelling at the material that had been amassed, and then toured the house that Judy (or Frances Ethel Gumm as she was christened) was born and raised in. It was all very special and heart warming. She was, and is, such a special lady. All joking aside she was someone who has inspired many a person to move forward in their lives and I am glad that people have the chance to see and learn something about here. And of course to visit THE GIFT SHOP!

How could there be a Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition but no gift shop? We were not dissapointed. Although modest it had just the kind of campy "trinkerama" that one would expect to find. Wizard of Oz lunchboxes, ruby slipper badges and brooches, assorted books, postcards, mugs, creepy Judy Garland dolls, etc etc etc. The list just went on. There was even a very large picture of Andy Williams, who was the guest of honour at this years Judy Garland festival that had taken place at the Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition earlier this year (The picture looked like it was from the 1970s and I am sure that he is about 97 now). But the biggest prize of all, apart from the foam "yellow bricks" that you could purchase for 50c each, was the set of Glinda and Dorothy Salt and Pepper shakers. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and Dorothy Gale of Kansas sculpted in porcelain, with holes drilled in their heads (three in Glinda (p), one in Dorothy (s)) and with clever little magnets to hold them close together. No matter that Dorothy looked like she had been hit in the face with a brick and that Glinda looked her make up had been done by Robert Smith of The Cure. These, dear readers, are insignificant minor details that mean nothing to Friends of Dorothy from all over the world. And so, with credit card in hand, we forked over the requisite $12 to have these ceramic morsels enter our lives. You may or may not be fortunate enough to see them on the dinner table when you next come over for dinner. If not, then consider yourself persona non-grata and be gone...before someone drops a house on you!

"If I only had a brain"

With that, dear reader, we left the Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition (don't you think the title just rolls of the toungue after a while?). Waiting outside was the Wizard of Oz wooden cut out display where children could put their heads. Well, seeing as we are all children at heart, it was too good an opportunity to miss! I, being the perfectionist that I am, made James put his head in all of the holes and pose for photographs, presented here. I am sure that you will agree that the one of him as Dorothy is just perfect and more than a little disturbing, seeing as how his eyes are so close to the top of the cutout head. Bless him and St Judy! You can see all of the shots here on this page, including one of yours truly, your blogmeister as well.

And with that, dear reader, our trip was done. We spent the rest of the afternoon tootling around Grand Rapids, MN, and then headed back to Garrison. Garrison seemed a strange and quiet place after having been to the Judy Garland Birth House Memorial Museum and Historical Exhibition. But we cooked our dinner on the grill, washed our dishes, and retired to bed, thinking that for the next few days our cabin in Garrison was home, and that there really is no place like it.

Big Love,

D&J

P.S. Don't forget that you can now follow us on Twitter for the microblog updates too! David can be found as dnmartin98 on Twitter so hurry along and follow us! You wouldn't want to miss anything would you!

Where to now, chaps?

Uh oh.....

"If I only had some courage!"

"If I only had a heart"

Lesbians, Bugs, and Bicycles.

2011-08-09T23:38:00.001-04:00

Greetings all!

Sunday morning dawned bright and early at Camp Moi. To be precise it was about 4am. Our bijou little home doesn't include curtains really....just a few thin cotton pieces strung over the window. Even if they had been heavier it wouldn't have drowned out the shrieking of the Loons on the lake (no I am not talking about the tea party either). Still, a well placed pillow over the top of the head allowed a few more hours of sleep sending us through to about 8am.

Once we were up and in the land of the semi living, things didn't seem quite so bad. James took a look around him and realised that maybe he had judged the placed through jaded, distant, and tired eyes. The place didn't seem nearly as dire in the daylight. Yes the sofa, walls, bed, vinyl, etc was still there. But he seemed a little more content with it all. I, the hardier one of the two of us when it comes to roughing it (yes, dear reader, I am deathly serious. You may find me at Claridges or the Four Seasons when funding permits, but I am always happy to go camping and do adventurous things...like shopping in the dollar store) just smiled and nodded sagely.

Sunday was to be an easy day. We had some chores and work to do, so we headed off to Brainerd (such an odd name). We needed to find a laundromat/laundrette, James had two hours of work to do online, and I had to wrap up my last time sheet for Cisco. So we spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon there, stopping to pick up a lovely Weber charcoal grill from Home Depot for $30 on the way home so that we didn't have to go back to the Blue Goose and be intimidated by Sherry and The Hydraulic Boobs (wouldn't that be an awesome name for a country western band?)

We did, however, go for a bike ride when we returned to Camp. It was to be our first piece of real exercise since leaving Kentucky back on the morning of July 30th. So in the heat we straddled the saddles and pushed off down the driveway for a ride into Garrison. It was very pleasant, with the exception of some fat, lard ass trucker who tried to knock us off our bikes deliberately when we tried to cross the road. A shake of my fist and an evil stare made me feel better, though I still peddled hard to make sure that I was safely on the other side of the road before he could get me. But other than that, the ride was largely lovely and uneventful. We totalled about 7 miles all told before panting back up the hill to the resort, gasping for a glass of wine. Yes, dear readers, we are destined to be two old fat knackers by the time we return to Hebron in a week. Ah well....C'est la Vie! Dinner was grilled on the new BBQ and we turned in for the night.

Monday dawned with another early start, though this time I had a horrid headache that made me retreat under the covers for a while longer. Ibuprofen and coffee soon sorted me out and we set off to enquire about fishing trips. One of the demons that James is keen to lay to rest on this trip is "The Fishing Trip with Dad". I gather that there was a trip with his dad in the dim and distant past which involved James not doing very well with his rod (ahem...) and his Dad yelling at him and calling him a duffer. Consequently, the fishing trip demon needs to be dealt with. Having asked the owner of the resort, Orin, and our next door neighbours at the site, Earl and Marty, which was a good company to take a trip with we had settled on Garrison Sports. Having been told that The Blue Goose fishing trips were always full of drunken yahoos we had figured that that would not be good for James' delicate fishing constitution. So off we toddled toward the aforementioned place to enquire about the details of "getting yer rod on....." as I like to refer to it.

Pulling up at Garrison Sports I was a little puzzled as to a sign outside that said "Bear bait here". Those of you who are Friends of Dorothy too will understand that this is not the kind of thing that you expect to see outside a fishing shop. Having been referred to as Bear Bait before, I stepped gingerely inside. Stepping up to the counter triggered a very nice lady to appear from the backroom and she smiled broadly at us both. James, instantly at ease, started on his whole talk about wanting a fishing trip and being a novice, and not having done it for years etc. The women nodded appreciatively and before too long they were getting on fabulously. Meanwhile I, the observant one, had noticed a very prominent HRC equal rights sticker affixed to the front of the counter. I hissed "James, look" and pointed to the sticker. He ignored me, as usual, and carried on with his new best friend. After a few minutes, I tried again...."James, have you seen this?" I whispered. Still I was ignored. This, dear reader, is a normal but frustrating sense of affairs. I mention something or point something out and am duly "tuned out", only for James to suddenly "discover" the thing that I mentioned and pretend that he was the one who first found it. Sure enough a split second later James looked down and saw the sticker. "Oh look", he said to the owner, you have an equal rights sticker on your counter". The owner smiled and said "Yes, my daughter is..." and stopped. You could see the calculation taking place in her brain....and then looking at both of us (who must have appeared a safe bet" continued "a lesbian". And it that point it was like everyone was family. She and James continued chatting up a storm and I was left to mooch around the store looking at the various shapes and sizes of rods and poles.

Before long, husband of female owner appeared behind the counter too. By this point James had decided that we were going fishing on the Wednesday morning trip (8am -12pm). Surprise! That was also the trip that was being captained by the lesbian daughter and her significant other. James, thrilled at the idea, was clearly in his element. All memories of "The Fishing Trip from Hell" seemed to have vanished. As husband of female owner approached, his wife turned to him and said "These two gentlemen noticed the equality sticker on the counter!" At which point, husband turned round, took one look at us, and then, in a voice that boomed throughout the ENTIRE STORE and shook the rafters, said in a broad and resonating Minnesota accent "Ah, homo's are you then?"

Now, dear reader, I am not easily caught off guard. But this is deepest and darkest Minnesota we are in. Paul Bunyon may look like an escapee from the gay bar, circa 1982, but it still doesn't strike me as the last bastion of tolerance, especially with fruit cakes like Michelle Bachmann liable to be lurking behind a pillar. A quick look around assured me that there was no one else within earshot and that we were safe. James at this point had first laughed nervously and then said "yes" to husband owner. At which point everyone chuckled and we carried on pretending that we were in an episode of The Walton's. And with that, we all shook hands and sealed the deal. Yes, we are booked on a fishing trip in Garrison, MN on Wednesday morning with a couple of lesbians. Is Garrison ready for this? Although slightly alarming at first, it was heartening and lovely that the owners had so straight forwardly embraced us and their daughter. I can't wait till Wednesday to tell her about it!

The afternoon took us off to Kathio State Park for a hike. Arriving, we checked in at the visitors office, bought our state park permit and headed on to the hiking trails. Everything was suspiciously quiet. Still, we sprayed ourselves down with bug spray (Ben's 30% deet, thank you very much) and headed off into the tundra. You can see pictures of us all ready at the start of the trail in this blog. Don't we look happy! It was, however, not to last. After about 45 minutes of hiking we realised why there was no-one else there. That reason was the bugs. I can honestly say that I have never seen or heard so many mosquitoes in all my life. Although the bug spray was doing a good job of keeping them at bay, it seems that the effective distance of bug spray is a distance of about 6 inches from the body. Both of us were enveloped in clouds of mozzies that made it seem like we were in a horror movie. Sure, they were not biting, but it was really difficult to "Keep Calm and Carry On" as we Brits like to do. So with much flailing of arms we had to cut the walk short and return to the car. Mosquitoes and Deer Fly - 1, James and David - 0. Bummer.

And so, with that, dear reader, we returned home, cooked our dinner and spent a quiet evening at the cabin. Having stopped off at the liquor store for wine we sat inside scowling at the bugs that littered the outsides of the window. I noticed that there was big spiders web, complete with large, unpleasant, hairy, hungry spider on the outside of the window next to my chair. So I turned on the table lamp next to the window and watched a million mosquitoes fly straight into the spiders web and get caught. I cackled out loud to myself, while remembering a line from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark;

"Revenge is better than Christmas",

And with that, dear reader, I bid you goodnight.

Big love,

D&J

The Eagles have landed.....

2011-08-08T23:45:00.000-04:00

Greeting all! Yes, we have arrived at Rolling Hills Resort! We touched down on Saturday evening around 7pm on our nostalgia fest. James drove us into the resort and although it was 41 years since he had been here he said that it felt that driving down the driveway into the resort itself was almost the same. Now I feel I should clarify something here for my european readers. Resort make it sound like we have gone to the sunny Costa Bomb or somewhere exotic. In fact it is really a caravan site next to a very large lake on one side and a very large pond on the other. Interspersed in between the caravans/mobile homes (more english/american translation) are six cabins. We were destined for cabin #6.....we had originally booked cabin #1, the same one that James had stayed in as a nipper, but that had been reassigned as a whole season rental so we we got "upgraded".....to one that was larger and more modern (ahem....)

Once we had parked the car, we took a quick walk around the resort during wich James was rather quiet. Then he spoke up. "It's really different with all these caravans here" (see, now he speaks english....). And then he went quiet again. We had previously had a talk about what we were likely to encounter 41 years later...well, I had talked about celebrating the differences, not expecting it be the same, reflections of a childs life through an adult's eyes, etc etc and James had just sat their stony faced as he always does when he knows I am right, but I sensed that this was a lot different from that which he had been expecting. Still, it was a first night and with my usual tact and subtlety I.....stayed quiet.

Returning to the door of the cabin, we entered. In this instance not a lot had changed. It was like stepping back into your grandma's kitchen and house. Formica everywhere, nothing matching, two recliners, a suspect sofa (minus antimacassars) and a dubious looking carpet. The bedrooms were dark panelled (read budget MDF) with a double bed in each. In between the bedrooms was a makeshift shower with a large hot water tank in the middle of the floor. A toilet filled with brown water loomed ignominously in the corner like an empty throne waiting for its next hapless regent. Our journey, it seemed, was just beginning.

I could sense that James was a little crestfallen, so I cheerfully suggested that we drag our bags in from the car. So in a matter of minutes were were firmly inside and ready to make the best of it. It was clean, tidy, hideously unmatching, but fine. We had not anticipated coming to a luxury pad with a maid and fluffy slippers but had come on a journey back in time. I suspect that James had not thought that the journey back in time would extend all the way to the bed linen and the vinyl floors. Still, there we were and that was that.

I could sense that both of us needed a drink. You know, dear readers, that my mind is never far from the next meal, so I cheerfully (and perhaps a little too brightly) asked what he wanted to do for dinner. The answer was quick. " Blue Goose for dinner" said James. I nodded, subserviently, havening never seen a goose that was blue, nor having had one for dinner either. It quickly became apparent that this was the local bar/restaurant/diner in the town of Garrison just a short drive away. So back into the car and off down the drive we went. To the Blue Goose......

When we arrived we noticed that that Blue Goose had a liquor store next to it for off sales. Great news in that we could pick up some wine for our new home! So we scurried off into the bar for dinner. As soon as we entered I realised that this was not the place that I was going to be able to ask for a martini. In a scene somewhat reminiscent of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, where they arrive and go for a stroll around Broken Hill and everyone stares (except we were wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers, having wisely left our man-bags in the car) we entered the bar and looked around. Lots of people looked back. Then they carried on with their business and returned to chatting, about what I have no idea. But I was glad that it wasn't about us. James and I slid into a table in the corner and I wondered what my chances were of ordering a cosmopolitan (just kidding). Shortly a bubbly young blonde waitress with a perky chest appeared at our table. We were later to find out that her name was Sherry, due to overhearing a conversation in the parking lot where some men were talking admiringly about her chest as though it were the twin cams on a new truck ("wow they are big and powerful, certainly a handful")

Sherry dutifully dispensed menus to us and informed us that she would tell us what beers they had on tap if we asked. Sensing that this was a leading question, I obligingly asked "what beers do you have on tap?" To which she gleefully responded "Budweiser, Bud light, Miller light, Coors Light and Amber Bock". Sucker punch. Feeling the need to assert my individuality against the large perms and rippling plaid shirts that were all around me, I responded that I would have the Amber Bock. She turned to James who said "Gin and tonic". Traitor. So who is the nellie one now, dear readers?

Once Sherry had taken herself and her chest back to whence it/she came from, James and I began to peruse the menu. After deciding on Walleye sandwiches (check out the picture on James' Facebook Profile) we sat back to enjoy the surroundings. James would occasionally come here in his youth with his mother and father for dinner. He couldn't really remember much about the interior so I can't comment on whether or not it had changed much. But we did spend a very nice evening there, enjoying our surroundings and the people around us. Sherry was delightful, and her chest was really quite the star of the evening, even if wasted on us. The men at the other tables though were certainly most appreciative. The little 6 month old baby at the table next door certainly thought it was Christmas (and time for Christmas Dinner) everytime she came back to the table, judging by his smile, grabbing hands, and eyes like frisbees.

Having left the restaurant we descided that we wanted to pick up a bottle of wine from the liquor store. Walking past a group of plaid shirt and wifer beater clad gentlemen, who were the ones discussing Sherry's appendages, we entered the Blue Goose Liquor Store. Choice was fairly limited, but seeing something that we liked we paid the burly gentleman at the counter and headed on our way back to the cabin. Will we return to the Blue Goose? Perhaps for a drink later in the week methinks. I feel a need to see if Sherry's boobs last the week, or whether she uses a handpump each day for top-ups.

Returning to the cabin we took another stroll around the resort. James was still quiet about the whole experience but seemed content. Places change and things come and go. But as we walked around I asked if it was stirring any memories for him. His answer, in his usual way, was succinct. "This place holds many ghosts" he said. And we will leave it at that.

And thus it was time for bed. We turned out the lights, brushed our teeth, and hit the sack...well the double bed anyway. We slept the sleep of the travel weary. One of us because he had been sitting gazing out of the passenger window all day, and the other because of time travel, which brings the sleep of memories so vividly to life once more.

Big love to all!

D&J

Back to the future....nostalgia for Jimmy.

2011-08-06T18:54:00.001-04:00

Greetings once more blogpickers! Yes, 'tis I BlogMeister David once more. I am sitting here in the passenger seat of the car again writing to you. James is driving (as usual, though I was allowed to drive for about an hour today...huzzah!) so I thought I would end your suspense and tell you about the next part of our trip.

We just passed Minneapolis (hey Miss Janet!) and are now on our way to Garrison, centre of the universe. From there it will be a short trip to "The Cabin of Childhood Dreams and Escapades". Well, the cabin of endless family holidays and fights with sisters might be a little more accurate. So let me tell you more because I am convinced that you, dear reader, are beside yourself with anticipation as to why we, your intrepid friends, are heading here.

As you will recall James and I went back to the UK to get married last year (if you really haven't been paying attention then I suggest you check out the blog archives and catch yourself on). Well, to cut a long story short, it was all a bit expensive, what with a seven course dinner and a country house. So this year we decided that we needed something a little less expensive. One evening James came home from work and started talking about the cabin that he used to go to when he was a young boy...basically every year from the age of 0-16. He mentioned that he might like to go back and visit, especially now that his parents are no longer alive and his dad can't terrorize him to go wrestling, or to participate in some other such manly activity which would be pure anathema to any soft and sensitive boy (though certainly less scary than kissing girls). I sat there , listened and thought to myself...

"That was 41 years ago....ha. The place will now be either a supermarket, a bingo hall, or a microbiology centre dedicated to growing super strong plants that will save the world from certain destruction by aliens riding llamas". (Good idea for a movie, huh...Llamas vs Triffids...rocking!)

Well, dear reader. As you have by now probably surmised, I was wrong. Very wrong. In fact we are at this very moment on a freeway hurtling towards a date with destiny with nary a flux capacitor or a Delorean to hand. I am about to be transported back in time to the VERY SAME CABIN BY THE LAKE FROM 41 YEARS AGO. We are destined to spend 1 week here, and, providing that the bugs (which I am sure will be the size of planes) don't get me first, we will have a very informative, educational, and reflective visit. We are going to go fishing, hiking, biking, and possibly flower picking (if I can work that into the schedule to neutralize some of the testosterone that will be lacing the air). It will, dear reader, be fun.

So there you have it. You can be sure that I will be blogging regularly on how thing progress. I am so gripped by the impending excitement that I will even be tweeting about it. Those of you who are of the Twittering persuasion will be able to follow me on Twitter as dnmartin98 if you choose to do so.

After all, you wouldn't want to miss anything would you?

Watch this space.....

Big love,

D&J

Fondue, music, and a little bit of sausage dancing.

2011-08-06T14:39:00.001-04:00

Greetings readers! It's a beautiful sunny day again here in Madison, WI. We have been here for three whole days now and are loving it. It has been a mixture of work and play for both of us; e-learning conference and Cisco interspersed with play time in the streets of Madison.

Wednesday was a beautiful day here in the land of cows and sunshine! Having met up with Nancy and Ann, two other professors from the University of Cincinnati, we decided that a mini-road trip was in order. So we piled into the car and headed off to the Swiss style town of New Glarus. Home to the oldest Swiss settlement in Wisconsin, and to our favourite brewery, it is somewhat of an annual pilgrimage. I had already done a 2 hour business development call with some people in Norway and California so was totally ready to get out of the hotel. The open road beckoned so off we went.

Arriving at New Glarus we spent a very pleasant hour wandering the shops and generally having a lazy day. We finally decided that it was time for lunch around 1pm so headed to the local Swiss restaurant. There we indulged in Rueben sandwiches, Cheese fondue, and bratwursts. There was mirth, merriment, and laughter all with a Swedish accent. I should mention that there was no polka dancing or clogs in evidence despite rumours to the contrary. The afternoon was spent at the New Glarus brewery home of our favourite beers before heading home for a much needed nap. Oh afternoon naps I will miss you when this vacation is over!

Wednesday evening was an opportunity for more culture. Throughout the summer Madison has classical music concerts that take place on the green around the state capitol building. The music was obviously important, but the opportunity to sit on the grass with a bottle of wine and friends was perhaps more appealing. So with plastic glasses in hand we settled in for an hour or two of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Chardonnay, that well known oakey composer. The music was good, the wine better, and as you can see from the picture above everybody had fun. The most fun though was had by a group of people sitting a short way away from us. A squirrel ran down a tree and straight into the middle of a group of picnickers. The squirrel proceeded to then run around, no doubt scared out of its fur, while all the picnickers screamed and ran around in circles. After a while the squirrel ran back up the tree, it's job done, and all the people sat down sheepishly.

The whole evening then sped by with a visit to The Old Fashioned, a Madison institution and one of our favorite places to hang out (such a strange turn of phrase). Fueled by the cocktail of the same name, we indulged in walleye sandwiches, bratwursts in buns, and gourmet mac and cheese. All six of us seemed very happy and James did declare later that he had felt a little silly at dinner, presumably code for being hammered. However everyone was well behaved, even though James did contemplate trotting out his Jimmy the Hula impression for the table. Alas, it was not to be, despite many requests. Neither did he agree to perform "The Koschoreck", a special kind of polka danced while wearing lederhosen backwards and upside down and involving six pounds of bratwurst together with a large bag of cucumbers. Ah the stuff of legend....

Thursday bought more work duties for us: James spent time in the conference discussing the finer points of e-learning retention while I chaired some meetings with people in the Cisco Hong Kong office. Gripping stuff! In the afternoon I headed out for a walk and a visit to the Madison Contemporary Art Museum, a terrific place that was showing an exhibition on technology and its impact through the ages. I spent a pleasant two hours there before returning to the hotel for a few more meetings and dinner in The Capitol Chophouse, a very splendid affair indeed. For those who like such details, dinner revolved around steak, scallops, crab cakes, and was accompanied by a Panther Creek pinot noir and a Frogs Leap Merlot. All jolly nice indeed. It was good to spend time with a group of friends and marked a definite high point of the week so far!

Friday was a lazy day. I had spent the morning recording some presentations for Cisco from our hotel room while James took to the floor in the conference to present his paper along with his colleague Jim. I'd like to say that the afternoon was filled with our usual kind of craziness and mayhem, but it was actually spent wandering Madison, looking around the university, eating ice cream on the shores of the lake, and popping in and out of various shops. It was all quite restful and very welcome. Friday also ushered in my last day of working for Cisco as well. I have been very fortunate to be able to return to my old job, now as a contractor, in the summer and to work with my (mostly) fabulous colleagues there. It went very well this year again, and I look forward to the possibility of doing it all again next year! Now it is time to try and return to being an artist once more.....

Friday brought a quieter evening at The Old Fashioned as two of our party had already departed. Still, we acquitted ourselves well and retired to the hotel room for a reasonably early night (11.30pm) as we all had early starts. Nancy and Ann were heading back to Cincinnati and James and I had a date with a car for the next part of the "Homos on the Road" extravaganza.

So there you have it, dear readers. I'll be posting tomorrow as we head onwards and upwards....literally. We are heading to Minnesota! Yes, I am wondering why as well. But all will be revealed soon. Keep your eye on the blog!

Big love to all!

D&J

Hot Dogs, Curry, and the road to Madison

2011-08-02T17:52:00.000-04:00

Hola blogpickers!

We are in the car and on the way north once more. Having picked up the car in Naperville, we are now heading to Madison, Wisconsin. We also just stopped off in Milwaukee to have coffee with Alina, one of my co-workers at Cisco. Not having seen her for over a year it was nice to have a face to face catchup that didn't involve a WebEx meeting! We met at Alterra Coffee on the Lake where cakes, coffee, and caffeine ruled the moment!

But a few quick words about Monday. Monday saw us do a boat trip on Lake Michigan and around the Chicago waterways. It was a historical and architectural tour (more culture, Bones), followed by work. James had some university work to do, and I also had an hour or so of Cisco work to handle. So after our boat trip we retreated to the hotel room and typed, emailed, and organized. Then it was time for lunch. And what a lunch it was.

We went back to the Four Seasons for their Hot Dog special. Yes, dear reader, you heard correctly. But these are no ordinary hot dogs. Hand chopped, smoked, and seasoned beef, handstuffed into Hot Dog casings, all served up on a steamed poppy seed bun, together with chilies, onion, tomatoes, and three hand made condiments. All washed down with a glass of local beer. You can see the picture in the mobile uploads section of my Facebook page. It was scrumplicious (or delumptious if you wish).

Next stop was the Art Institute of Chicago museum for some much needed art therapy. I had never had the opportunity to visit before so was looking forward to the chance to see a museum that I had heard so much about. I was especially keen to see the Uta Barth exhibition of "blurry photos" on display. As someone whose work I admire it was great to see the actual pieces in the flesh. I still need to think more about the work but I found it invigorating to see. There was also an exhibition by Meatyard, one of my professors favourite photographers. James and I spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around the museum and viewing a remarkable collection of works.

Food is never far from our thoughts as you know, so we were shortly faced with the question of where to go to eat. A quick posting on Facebook revealed some awesome suggestions. We were particularly excited at the idea of Topolobambo or Frontier suggested by a number of you, but were dismayed to find that they were both closed on Mondays. The same also went for the suggestion of Girl and Goat. Still after some cogitation and deliberation, James selected the Gaylord India restaurant for some curry. So of we trotted and dined on Rogan Josh, Tandoori Chicken, and Chicken Tikka Masala. Ah the smells and the tastes! It was very good and seemed an excellent end to our gastronomic odyssey in Chicago. A big thank you to all who suggested locations to us.

And that brings us up to date. As mentioned, we are now in the car and on the way to Madison. We'll be attending a conference on e-learning for the next few days and I'll be putting my Cisco hat back on with a few meetings to hand over my projects to some folks in Hong Kong and Belgium. Of course we will also be having fun as well! We will be sharing the time with some other professors in the education field so I am sure there will be lots of stimulating conversation and wine.

So with that, dear reader, I will sign off once more. Keep an eye on the blog as we will be back shortly! But in the mean while, keep your pecker up and big love to all!

D&J

Pizza, shopping, and vaginas.

2011-08-02T15:22:00.001-04:00

Morning all!. Blogmeister David here again. It is Tuesday morning and we are now safely on the train to Naperville to pick up our car and head onto the next portion of our trip. We had a super 4 days in Chicago and as I am a little behind in the blogging I thought I would use the train ride to catch up.

After Saturdays gastronomic extravaganza, Sunday dawned to find a tired David and James peeking out from under the covers of the lovely bed in the Swissotel. Coffee was definitely needed so after a shower we headed off to Buckies in search of breakfast and caffeine. Safely esconced in the corner of a Michigan Avenue Buckies armed with french press of Decaf Sumatra, bagels, and oatmeal, we plotted our assault on the world. That assault involved shopping. Are we not fearless and intrepid, dear readers? I'd like to say that we went shopping just for you so that we could blog about it, but I suspect that you wouldn't believe it. So I'll admit...it was all about us! We spent a fabulous 2 hours wandering the shops, nipping in to Nordstrom, sidling into Saks, browsing in Brooks Brothers, and flitting in to the Four Seasons to buy baseball caps. It was really tiring. In the words of Posh Spice...."Being this fabulous is really hard work"...thanks Victoria! We think that relaxing with your hubby would be a work out too, but moving swiftly on....

It was, of course, getting close to lunch time. We had reservations at the Walnut Room in the old Marshall Fields store on State Street. James has always wanted to eat there and seeing that this vacation is all about James' nostalgia kick, we took the opportunity to do so. The restaurant is very very lovely inside, in a kind of faded glamour Norma Desmond way (can you picture us there now?) The food was good, the view over the street lovely, the Sauvignon Blanc crisp and delightful, and the portrait light by the windows was perfect. I took some shots of James that I'll post later. It was a lovely way to spend lunch and for James to remember all the times he went there in his youth.

While sitting there and looking out the window I noticed Nordstrom Rack across the street. Lunch came to a screeching halt and we gathered ourselves up and swept off to bargain hunt. Nordstrom Rack is such a funny experience: high end clothes and bargain hunters. Still, all those years of shopping at El Cort Ingles in Spain paid off, so with elbows firmly pointed out we joined the throngs. I secured a nice Burma Bibs blue check shirt (coz I need another blue check shirt to go with the other fourth three) and James found nothing. Score for David!

By now it was about 4pm so a retreat to the hotel room for a nap was in order. Dinner was not too far in the distance and we needed to make sure we had enough strength to make it though the evening after such an arduous day.

And so the evening arrived. This was to be a special evening, though one I was a little concerned about. Those of you who know James well will know that he is a creature of habit (as am I to an extent). Nowhere does this manifest itself more than in eating pizza. Being from Chicago James is convinced that they invented the stuff and will happily duke it out with anyone else on the planet over who has the best crust and sauce (yawn...). Accordingly we have always only ever been allowed to eat Pizza at Giordano's on Rush Street when we go to Chicago, a place that meets His Lordship's strict criteria. I, on the other hand, like the pizza at Giordano's but hate the place with a passion. I do, however, know how to put up and shut up (sometimes...) so have meekly acquiesced to eat there for the last ten years. Tonight, though, was to be different. James had decided (with no reason given) that he wanted to try a different pizza joint. Fine by me! So off we went to Lou Malnatis new pizza place on North State street.

To cut a pizza story short, we had a great time. They make great martinis and the pizza was fantastic. For those who wish to know James ordered the Lou Malnati's Chicago classic. He loved it and was so effusive about the experience to our waitress that she went and fetched the owner, Mark Malnati. There then ensued a love fest between James and Mark over the pizza. When James explained that he would only ever eat pizza at Giordano's and I mentioned that I had been frog-marched there for 10 years, his response was "10 years? That's an awful lot of wasted time". Classic. I should also add that the venue is great too and they have much cuter staff. These things are important. Would you eat pizza that has been delivered by someone with face like a slapped ass? No, dear reader, I agree. I know what my reasons for choosing a pizza are

After pizza it was definitely time for a glass of wine. After prying James out of the pizza joint we headed to They Westin for a quick glass of wine. It was on our way back, at 12.30am, that looking down I saw the object in the photograph. I have no idea what it was all about. But I thought that I would share it with you. Thus ended a day of Pizza, Walnuts, Nordstroms, and vaginas.

"Homos on the road" is proving to be constantly amazing....and with regard to vaginas, educational too.

Big love to all,

D&J

The Four Seasons

2011-08-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

Greetings all,

Well it is now Monday morning and I thought I would take the time to update the blog from the weekend. James is doing a few hours of work in the hotel room and I have just finished an hour of work for Cisco as well. So now seems to be the perfect time to put my feet up, have a cup of coffee and to write to all of you!

I promised you an update on Saturday night, and so, dear readers, you shall have it. I should point out that the reason for my addiction to the Four Seasons can be blamed entirely on my good friend Ilona with whom I spent a week at the Four Seasons Hualalai resort in Hawaii back in 2001. Since then it has become a place that I love to go to for drinks and cocktails when possible. The last time was in Las Vegas with Ilona during Cisco Live! However this time was to be for dinner, an experience I have been looking forward to for a very long time.

After the graduation party, we checked into the Swissotel and started to get ready. A quick shower and a change of clothes later, James and I were off and out the door on our way. The Four Seasons is down the opposite end of Michigan Avenue to the Swissotel so we took a leisurely stroll along the road, gazing as always at the fabulous shops on the way. Michigan Avenue really is one of my favorite streets in the whole world to walk. The shops are great, the tree lined foot paths are gorgeous, and the atmosphere always seems to be special. Watching all of the other people on their way somewhere is also a delight. I like to try and guess where people are heading. The person in front of be at one point must have been going home for a bath as he smelt a little fragrant....

But enough of such frippery. Before long we had arrived at the entrance. The Four Seasons in Chicago is a little unusual in that the entrance is at street level but the hotel lobby is actually on the 7th floor. So you are quickly whisked up in the elevators (I like to think of it as being raptured, as I am sure that Heaven is going to be run by The Four Seasons) and deposited in the lobby. The photo attached is of the large display of flowers. The bunches are all just perched at an angle in the vases so that the stems are barely underwater. The effect is very artistic and quite fascinating. Flower arranging as art....something new to try at school maybe?

Quickly, as it was 9.30pm, we headed into the restaurant and were seated by the window. There were about 12 other people there for dinner, but no celebrities. Knowing that the Spice Girls have all stayed there on multiple occasions did make me excited, but there was nary a single platform boot or union jack dress to be seen. So I busied myself with the menu instead. And oh what a treat it was. In the mobile uploads album on my Facebook page you will find a picture of James perusing his menu. Martinis arrived (Tanquery), wine was ordered (Stags Leap Merlot, 2006, tasted and decanted at the table), and heapings of fresh bread rolls and cheese snaps were delivered, devoured, and digested. The wait staff were divine, the atmosphere sophisticated and elegant, and James and I looked fabulous in our Dunhill and Brooks Brothers combination outfits. This, dear readers, is why we will never be able to retire.

And then the food arrived. Many of you have asked what we had, so here goes.

James - 63 degree Farmers Egg & Petite Greens, Artichokes, Serrano Ham, Lucques Olives, Piparra Chilies, Aged Sherry Vinaigrette,and Green Goddess Dressing.

Wild sockeye salmon, suckling pig sausage, candy striped beets, Yukon gold potato gnocchi, watercress, and champagne and order caviar sauce.

David - Bison carpaccio, bay scallop ceviche, black garlic, Daikin tempura squash blossom, frozen violet mustard.

Dietzler Farm 35 day aged strip steak, porcini mushrooms, garlic scapes, roasted Vidalia onion pomme puree, Australian winter truffle, and a bourbon bordelaise.

All this was followed by a fabulous dessert tray of chocolate, foams, fruits, and creams. Marvelous is all I can say....but of course I can, and will, say more! Dinner dispensed, we were then delivered (I seem to be stuck on an alliteration streak) to the lounge, along with the rest of the wine to listen to jazz. The jazz was great, although it is my least favorite kind of music (I find the whole solo thing like watching musical masturbation - fun for the person doing it, but a little dull for everyone else) and the company of course was excellent. All in all a super evening. It was everything I had hoped for and a fitting start to our trip! The only thing that would have made it better was if Ilona had been there with us as I felt a little guilty going there without her...

And that, dear reader, takes you back to the blog post of the gorgeous James fast asleep in bed at the hotel. Sunday, the next day in our odyssey, will be documented tomorrow, as will Monday. Suffice to say we are having a super time!

So with that, I'll bid you adios! It is lunch time, and guess where we are going....yes, back to The Four Seasons, but for something a little different! They are participating in National Hot Dog month and they make their own hot dogs! I can't wait!

Big love to all!

D&J

And that's a wrap.....

2011-07-31T02:12:00.001-04:00

Dinner at The Four Seasons is done. I'll post more tomorrow about the evening but for now, all that is left to say is goodnight and God bless to you all. James is already out for the count and it won't be long before I am too. Sweet dreams to all....

Big love,

D&J

The graduation party.

2011-07-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

Greetings all,

The party was a great success. Although we were only able to be there for a few hours it was great to see everyone there! The picture above shows a couple of James' aunts with him. There are four aunts (although only two were here) and we don't get to see them nearly enough. Three sisters and a brother in law were also in attendance so a good time was has by all

So now we are on the train to downtown Chicago having left the car at Kelly and Robs house for a few days. Next stop is Union Station and then a short taxi ride to the Swissotel!

I'll be posting more later!

Big love to all!

D&J

"Homos on the road"...vacation time is here!

2011-07-30T14:49:00.001-04:00

Greetings Blogpickers!

Yes, it is summer and that means vacation/holiday times. Hooray for us! Today, Saturday 30th July, is the first day of our vacation that we have titled "Homos on the Road". Yes folks, this year we are doing something a little different! After spending far to much money getting married in the UK last year we have decided to stay in the USA and roll around the country on a road trip. It will be a little shorter than usual too as I have to attend a surely gripping and stupendous orientation session at the University a week and a half before school starts....but I digress.

So, dear reader, where are we and what are we doing? Well, in the traditional spirit of the road trip, we are eating chips, drinking fizzy drinks and farting in the car. That's James...I, of course, am writing to all of you. We are currently en route to Chicago for the first stretch of the journey. This afternoon we will be attending a graduation party for Nicole, James' niece, in Naperville. After that we will be heading to downtown Chicago till Tuesday morning.

We'll be staying in the Swissotel this time, a new hotel for both of us. I am still debating whether to wear pigtails and a Heidi dress, but I did remember to bring clogs for James. I shall of course being yelling out "Grandpa" in the lobby as well whenever I get the opportunity. I am hoping for lots of chocolate and cowbells as well. Failing that I'll settle for some mid range sophistication and a couple of martinis. Forgive the zany humor....i think it is because we are listening to a European Lounge album, courtesy of Zune pass in the car....it is slowly frying my brain with all the bontempi keyboards and jazz drums.

As for this evening what else is there to do while in Chicago than to eat and drink! I am terribly excited because we have dinner reservations at my most favorite hotel chain ever, The Four Seasons. We'll be in the "Seasons" restaurant and I just can't wait. Here's to hoping that they accidentally give us a bottle of Krug to drink instead of Evian. But if they don't I'll settle for Cristal instead. :-)

Then we'll be just rolling around Chicago for a few more days. Shopping, Snogging (hopefully), and Sunshine. Of course I will endeavour to capture the trip (except the snogging) and share it all with you here. We don't have too many firm plans, but I gather there is a rather plain and dowdy art museum somewhere that we may go to if we can't find anything better to do. Suggestions are always welcome....

On Tuesday we head to Madison, Wisconsin for a few days. We'll be at an e-learning conference and Cisco have also persuaded me to work a few extra hours this week too. So it will be a mix of work and play for both of us. For those of you who have never visited, Madison is a super place. The people are nice, the cows are pretty, the food and beer is awesome, and the lake is just dolly (to use a Louise-ism from a few years ago).

We'll be leaving Madison on Saturday for Minnesota. I'll leave you all guessing as to what we will be doing there, but be assured, dear readers, that you, if you wish, can happily travel alongside us on our road trip through the wonders of this blog. All I will tell you is that it involves the outdoors and rubbing two sticks together...make of that what you will.

So adios to all and I'll post more a little later!

Big love,

D&J

2011-06-11T10:37:00.001-04:00

Morning blogpickers! It is a gorgeous Saturday morning here in Charlottesville Photo Town at the Look3 festival of the photograph. Thus will be a short posting as I am about to wolf down some breakfast at The Nook before heading off to the Masters Talks at 11am. This morning is Latoya Ruby Frazier, David Liittschwager, and Steve McCurry. I can't wait! Tonight will be Sally Mann interviewing Nan Goldin which should be similarly wonderful....

Yesterdays highlight was undoubtedly the premiere of Mary Ellen Marks latest work, coupled with a video. Called The Prom it was an amazing, sad, funny, heart moving view at the American prom....i urge you all too see the work and the video when it is launched through Getty in January.

Otherwise, the day was filled with laughter, food, and friendship. And also a great discovery. I thought Look3 was every other year...but I was wrong. It is 3 years on and one year off....and last year was the year off. So who's coming with me next year?!

Big love!

DMx

2011-06-10T10:42:00.001-04:00

Hello one and all from Charlottesville! Its day two of Look3 and what a great event it is proving to be. Yesterday I was fortunate to see some amazing works by truly great photographers. From the Photograpers of the year awards to the works of Massimo Vitali it has been well worth it. Of course there has also been some wine and good food as well.

Yesterdays highlight was the insight exhibition with Antonin Kratochvil, and the insight conversation where Antonin was interviewed on stage by Scott Thode in the paramount theatre. It was an interesting experience and I learnt quite a bit about how a true master works. The interview and work also raised a number of questions for me, but mobile blogging is a poor place for that much typing so those will have to wait!

The evening was similarly pleasant with some Japanese food, more wine, and a late night pizza. All washed down with great conversation with a bunch of people who I just love to bits. Truly Look3 is all about Peace, Love, and Photography!

Today brings an exciting program. First up are the Masters Talks. Ashley Gilbertson, Christopher Anderson, Martin Bell, and Mary Ellen Mark will be the speakers. I am looking forward to the Mary Ellen Mark work "The Prom" being premiered. Then this evening tonight Insight Conversation is Massimo Vitali being interviewed on stage by Alex Chadwick. Good Stuff! I wish I could write more....and will when I am back on my PC, wonderful as the multi-touch keyboard on my Windows Phone 7 is!

So stay tuned blog friends....more to come later! For now I am off to find the rest of the gang!

Big love to all,

DMx

2011-06-09T11:05:00.000-04:00

Good morning dear readers. Thursday is here with another blistering day in Charlottesville. It is going to be 97 today....ouch.

So where was I....last night, right? So after arriving and checking in I headed downtown for a walk around. There is a free trolley bus from the university dorms so after having had my teeth shaken to bits on the ride, I was downtown. The mood here is very festive though it was still quiet. Some band was playing in the arena so there were lots of people heading to the concert. I busied myself with admiring the fabulous aerial photographs from George Steinmetz that were hanging from the trees in the downtown pedestrian mall. It's quite inspiring to see these works just hanging in the air, especially as they were all taken from a microglider. After a while I settled for dinner in a little bar on the main mall called positively 4th street and watched the people go by. I have never been to Charlottesville before and I can say that from what I have seen it seems like a cool and happening place. And so my leisurely evening progressed, a welcome change of pace from my summer work with Cisco. At around 10pm I ran across the ever wonderful Barbara Houghton and Keith Farley. It seemed like a great opportunity for a glass of wine...who was I to refuse! So we sat and chatted for about an hour. Barbara as usual dispensed some sage advice about making art while re-embroiled in the business world which made me feel a lot better about my summer. But before long it was time to return the dorms. We bid our farewells and I headed back to the bone shaking trolley bus. When I had boarded the bus the driver had told me I was at Alderman and stadium. So it seemed reasonable to ask this driver to let me off there. And he did. I stepped off the bus, it sped away, and I realized that I was in a completely different part of the campus. It was 11.30pm on a campus that was closed for the summer. There was not a soul around. Great.

However all was not lost. Thanks to the wonders of windows phone 7 I was able to utilize the walking directions feature of Bing Maps. I was about 1 mile away. So with a sigh and a smartphone I headed home, arriving safely a short while later.

And now, dear readers as you can see, it is time for breakfast at The Nook. Recommended by Barbara it was, as you can see, fabulous. I am all registered for the festival and will be heading to my first exhibit after food and coffee. I'll be heading to see "Natural Habitats" by Massimo Vitali. I can't wait and I'll keep you all posted as the day unwinds.

So have a great day and Big Love to all!

DMx

2011-06-08T23:47:00.001-04:00

Greetings BlogPickers! Yes, I have arrived safely in Charlottesville, VA all ready for the fabulous Look3 Festival of the Photograph. If you look carefully at the attached photograph you'll see some of the exciting people who are here and who I will get to see over the next few days!

The drive down was largely uneventful, though long. I did work via conference calls with Cisco for a portion of the way which helped pass the time and after 8 hours I arrived in Charlottesville just as the temperature hit 97 degrees. It is hotter than blazes here, I kid you not. The oh so unhelpful instructions from the University of Virginia told me that there would be signs telling me where to go to check in. There was one sign and fortunately I found it. So having checked in, a map to the dorms was thrust into my hand and off I went. It is a neat idea to contract with the local university to supply rooms and at 40 dollars a night is a real steal. So having settled in to my cut price palace (which looks a little like a prison cell...pictures to follow) I headed off to downtown Charlottesville. And there, dear reader, is where I will leave you. You see I'm quite tired now and need to go to bed. But fear not, my intrepid blog friends, I will return tomorrow morning with stories of the first night in town. There isn't much exciting to tell really but a little grandstanding never hurt anyone, right?

So with that I'll bid you goodnight and wish you all the Biggest Love.....

DMx

2011-06-08T12:51:00.001-04:00

Uh oh. So the burger and fries was great.....and then I saw this. I am screwed now for the week. Oh well, I'll just have to keep eating. Cheers!

Big love
DMx

2011-06-08T12:39:00.001-04:00

Well blogpickers, I am well on my way. Having just crossed into West Virginia I figured it was time for some lunch. Having been on Weight Watchers for 5 months it is time for sine JUNK FOOD! So here I am at Hardees. Come join me for lunch! It feels weird traveling without James so I'll eat this in his honor as I know he likes Hardees too.

Next I'll be back on the road and heading to the festival for those who are interested you can check out the details at www.look3.org

Catch you later and big love to all!

DMx

Off once more!

2011-06-08T07:26:00.002-04:00

Well folks...the blog is back! I'll be heading off to Look3 this morning so thought I should check that all the blog feeds are working okay.
Watch this space for more updates. And don't forget to follow the blog on Facebook network blogs to help with the blog feed being pulled faster. You wouldn't want to miss anything right?
Big love,
DMx

Mall, lunatics, and chile's...

2010-12-23T20:27:00.001-05:00

Greetings all from Texas! Where it is about 70 degrees warmer than northern kentucky...how delightful!

We arrived safe and sound last night at around 8.30pm. Of course our first stop was to the store to buy wine and then we were on our way to Lisa's house in Pflugerville. We spent a fabulous evening just chatting and catching up with Lisa and Joel, while eating tamales and drinking wine. Such fun!

This morning, after a leisurely start, we headed off to the Barton Creek mall to do some Christmas shopping. Were we crazy to go to the mall this close to Christmas? Maybe, but not as crazy as the man we were about to run into...

As we strolled through the mall a man and his young son walked by. He walked quite close to us and Lisa accidentally bumped into the little boy. She immediately said sorry but the father turned round and started to yell at her. She apologized again, and before we knew what was happening the man was letting out a torrent of abuse at her. James stepped forward and asked the man to stop at which point he turned on James. Well, the woke thing resulted in a huge argument with James telling the man to get therapy and me suggesting that he should switch to decaf. It ended with man walking off just as Lisa was about to hit her stride as Bon Qui Qui. What a lovely day at the mall.

Of course, just as when you are in the grocery store and you see the same people again and again, every where we turned we saw him again. When we went to Nordstrom, there he was scowling angrily at the shop assistants too. Clearly the guy needed a little more Christmas spirit!

Finally we left the mall and who should be exiting in front of us? Yes, it was crazy man again, so Lisa snapped a quick picture of him. I think she is off printing some wanted posters as we speak...

So now we are all comfortably back home, with a glass of wine of course, and James is going to cook Chile Rellenos for us all. I am sitting on the couch writing to all of you! Such is life.

So tomorrow a little more shopping and chill time. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. And just in case you are heading yo the mall, here is a picture of the crazy man!

Big love to you all!

DMx

Listening for ET?

2010-12-22T19:25:00.000-05:00

Greetings BlogPickers...David here at about 35000 feet. As you can see James has discovered a new career as a listening post operative for SETI and is currently listening for ET. Or he could be listening to the Doris Day Christmas album while checking out the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living on his nice Windows Phone 7. Yes, that's right...its the debut of the Roving The World caption competition!

You dear reader must decide. Post your answers as a comment to this Facebook post!

Big Love,

DavidM

We are on our way, Rodger...

2010-12-22T15:31:00.000-05:00

So, we made it to the airport okay. Our lovely neighbor Karine brought us here in her nice new car, and we are now set to go. First off though, something to eat in Outback...and of course a drink. We'll be boarding soon, methinks.

Now, who is Rodger...I have James!

Big love!

Time to leave the snow behind.

2010-12-22T08:49:00.000-05:00

Greetings all! BlogMaster David here just checking that all the technology is in place and working as today we are heading to Texas for the holidays! We leave for Austin this afternoon where there is nary a snowflake in sight. I'll be keeping you up to date as we travel and also while we are there. I'm also excited as this will be my first trip with my new windows phone 7 as well. A little Xbox live on the plane I think for me...

So watch this space! Updates will be coming thick and fast, and if you are not already a follower of the blog, then help us out by following us below. The more people who follow us through network blogs the faster our feed will get pulled. Now I am off to pack!

Big love to all,

DMx

The ceremony - continued!

2010-08-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

Welcome back dear reader! As you now know, James and I were married at this point. The deed has been done, everyone was crying and laughing and maximum drama and campiness quotient had been reached. We spent the next hour with our fabulous photographers and all of our friends. Steven and Josh don’t normally do formal shots at weddings anymore, but as we had asked they had graciously agreed to do so. I had created a shot list of 30, and Louise agreed to be crowd marshal, group organizer and in all round in charge person to help things on their way. The group shots went perfectly and I can’t wait to see them. Many thanks to Steven and Josh for doing them! After that was complete, the James and I headed off for the romantic photographs to be taken. We went to various locations around Winder Hall and had a great time! I suspect you will see many vomit inducing images of James and I gazing adoringly at each other. We rejoined our guests a short while later for a drink.

In the meantime the dining room at Winder Hall was being prepared. The fabulous team of Nick and Co transformed it into an amazing banquet hall for our guests. At 4.30pm on the dot, the call for dinner was made and all of our guests went and took their seats. Nick then called us into the room and everyone cheered. I cried…of course! Dinner was just amazing. You can find the menu on a previous blog post which details all 6 courses. The staff commented later that they had never served so many courses to so many people before, so I am pleased that we gave them a new experience too! The service and food was all beyond our wildest dreams! As course rolled into course, and everyone began to feel exceptionally stuffed, the champagne and speeches began. First toast was to our parents and their memories. As they are all now deceased it was a poignant moment that brought some more tears to many. Next up was my sister, Jane, who gave a great speech, telling many funny stories about me, and also reminding everyone of the fact that I am so much younger than her!

After that came Lisa and Ilona, the two “Best Men/Women”. They both gave really love speeches that made me blub even more and it was a very special moment to have them both with us. Sonia performed the role of “compere” and introduced all of the speeches with some of her comedic skills. James then read a letter that had been sent by my friend Simon and finally it was time for James and me to give our speeches and toasts to each other. A fab time was had by all! With the final course done it was time for a short break for everyone. We had listed this on the order of the day as “Powder Your Nose Hour”, so everyone disappeared off back to their respective rooms, hotels, corners of the world, and started to change for the evening. James and I took the opportunity to get out of our lovely suits and into blazers, khakis and some fun bright ties. I could be seen wearing an electric pink polka dot tie with a blue check shirt, while James sported an electric orange polka dot tie with a bright green striped shirt. No-one was going to lose us tonight!

The evening started at 8.30pm with the cutting of the cake. Steven and Josh had been busy doing portraits of everyone, and now with everyone ushered back into the hotel it was time to plunge the knife! The cake, made by the wonderful Lizzie, was a single tier fruit cake, adorned with blue ribbon, diamante, and sugar roses. I was a little nervous about the cutting part, but Nick assured us that all we had to do was to sink the knife in and they would do all the rest. Flash guns popped, everyone cheered, and the cake luckily stayed in one place neatly speared by the cake knife. It was all very dramatic and I felt like I had just harpooned Jaws or something with all the commotion that was going on around me. Almost immediately Nick called for the first dance and James and I took our positions on the dance floor. We had chosen “Tell Him” by Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion (of course!) and for the next few minutes we swayed and danced away with our guests staring to join us after the first chorus. Many years ago when James and I first met, we had sat listening to this song in the dark one night and it holds very special meaning to both us. Did I mention that I cried as well?

And with that, the evening was well and truly on its way. We danced, drank, ate more from the buffet and it seems that everyone had a great time. It was so nice to see all of our friends chatting, laughing and re-cementing old friendships that had been re-discovered. A magical night!

Morning came soon and before we knew what was going on it was time for “The Morning After”, a reception at the Winder Hall for everyone to re-convene and have tea, coffee, and cake. Some people had already departed as they had long drives ahead of them, but we still had around 20+ people come see us. There were a few bleary eyes from the previous night’s festivities but everyone was in great spirits! Emails were swapped, phone numbers exchanged, and gradually people started to make their way home or too the pub for lunch. We headed to the Wheatsheaf once more for lunch with those that were left and spent a leisurely afternoon just relaxing and chatting. The perfect end to the event!

Next event was on Sunday evening. We had reserved a table at The Kirkstile Inn, just about 10 minutes’ drive away for Lisa, Joel, Sonia, George, Jane, Mike, James and me. More food was just what the doctor ordered (not!) so we of course rose to the occasion and ate once more. We also sat down and worked out the new family tree! I now legally have two daughters (well in the UK at least – Sonia and Lisa), and I am also now legally a Grand Father too as Lisa has to fab kids, Jonathan and Julia. Grandpa at 43! My heavens! We also worked out that my sister is now Aunt to Lisa and Sonia, and that makes her a Great Aunt to. It was a lot of fun, and it is quite interesting to think how the family has now grown by quite a bit on both sides. I shall have to work on a new Christmas card list I can see!

And with that, the evening and the weekend drew to a close. I can’t even begin to recount how lovely it was and how special the whole event was. To think that James and I are now “legal” is amazing. Having our friends with us for the whole weekend was such a special treat, and I thank them all for coming and spending the time with us. I can’t wait to see the photographs which will help preserve the memories forever! There is one more day to blog about, the Monday, where we all had fun in London, and I’ll write about that soon. But until then,

Big Love to all!

D&J

The Wedding Day Begins....

2010-08-25T11:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings blog friends around the world! Here I am sitting at 35000 feet somewhere over the United States on our way back home from England. I promised you all that I would write while I was on the plane, and after a 4 hour nap here I am! There will be a number of updates, so please keep up!

You saw the blog for Friday night when we had our second event at the Wheatsheaf pub. We had such a great time! Throughout the course of the evening almost everyone came to the pub with us. At one point we had 34 people there! As they had reserved a whole section for us that seated about 20 people, some ate, while others drank at the bar and then we all switched out. It turned out to be a great evening and a super opportunity for people to meet and get to know each other before the big day. Most notable event of the evening was when the landlady of the pub insisted that James and I come behind the bar and start pulling pints. She snapped a photo of us which I’ll scan and upload at some future point! It was so good to see so many of our friends having such a good time together and we hoped that it would set the tone for the weekend to come! James and I left the pub around 11.30pm to head back to the Winder Hall.

Saturday morning came quickly. I am not sure whether it was nerves or excitement, but I woke up at 5am on the dot! Unable to sleep it wasn’t long before James was awake too. We busied ourselves finishing up the few odds and ends of administration and ceremony bits and were down for breakfast at 8am. This was to be the first of many meals…..many many many meals it seems. Shortly all of our guests who were staying at the Winder Hall with us came down and a good time was had by all as usual!

Breakfast finished, James and I headed off to Cockermouth for haircuts and shaves. We had found a great barber shop where they do full face and neck massages, together with wet shaves with old fashioned cut-throat razors. You may recall, dear readers, that we have a passion for these things, with the last one being at the oldest barber shop in Lisbon, Portugal back in 2008. For those who need a recap head back through archives to either April or May 2008….. We had our haircuts and then the shaving process started. Gents, if you have never experienced one of these then I urge you to give it a whirl. They start off with moisturizers, and pre-shave conditioners, and hot towels, then you are tipped back in the chair, and the wet shave begins. It is a little worrying to start with as you are lying there and you see the blade advance toward your neck, but once you relax into the process it is amazing. Next there is more conditioner, balsams, and toners, followed by hot and cold towel massages. Simply amazing!

With that done, it was time to head back to the Winder Hall to start to get ready. We arrived back around 10.45am and nervously headed towards our suits. We had not tried them on since we had taken delivery from the tailors, and that was 7 weeks ago. Seeing as we had spent the last 3.5 weeks stuffing our faces in various pubs and bakeries, this was a moment of nerves. I (David) have put on quite a bit of weight through the trip as I had already moved up 2 notches on my belt! The trousers went on, and although exceptionally snug, they did in fact fasten up. The new concern was then not bursting out of them as we had planned a 6 course meal for us and our guests that afternoon! We continued the getting ready process, received a lovely phone call from my friend Simon in the US wishing us good luck, and then the photographers arrived. Steven and Josh spent time with our guests and with us and it was a real pleasure to have them there. Suzanne, the wedding planner at Winder Hall for us then appeared to start the final count down.

It was at this point that I started to get nervous. Now, dear reader, despite what you may all think, I am usually the un-flappable one. When everyone goes to pieces, I am usually quite calm and collected. This time I was a nervous wreck! Still, the hallway downstairs was cleared and we were ushered down to meet the registrar/justice who was to perform the ceremony. Suzanne quickly ushered us into the room where the ceremony was to occur and we had our final interview. Still a bag of nerves, I started to cry….which was a signal of things to come. I had already warned everyone that I would likely cry throughout the whole ceremony. The warning was to be true!

1.30pm crept closer and as the interview ended we were led outside by Suzanne to the outside. We had planned the whole ceremony and had a few surprises for our guests! We had kept everything quiet up till now, but the time was upon us. At 1.30pm precisely, with our guests all assemblend in the hallway, looking toward the ceremony room, and James and I behind a curtain at the other end of Winder Hall the music started……

The first piece was “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, sung by Lea Michelle who plays Rachael in Glee. As the song got to “one shot, one gun shot, and BAM” James and I fired some party poppers (that were more lack luster than they should have been) through the curtains and stepped into the hallway. Everybody turned around and saw us and the event was under way? Camp much? It was going to get much camper dear readers……we have a reputation to uphold! As the music progressed we walked down the hallway hugging and shaking hands. It was all a bit of a blur to be honest but I do remember thinking how totally gorgeous everyone looked. I of course started to cry….. We made our way to the entrance of the ceremony room just as “Don’t Rain On My Parade” reached its climax! Waiting at the entrance was our wedding party of “Lisa, Sonia (Daughters), Margaret, Shirley (Ladies of Honour), and Ilona (Best Man). We kissed, hugged, and then the next piece of music started. Yes, dear readers, the next piece was the David O Selznik fanfare that prefaces Gone With The Wind. With bells chiming and trumpets blaring, we moved aside the velvet rope that was guarding the entrance and walked into the room. James and I walked up to stand by the registrar (Sandra) and I picked up the microphone just as the Selznick fanfare ended. James and I then called out for the wedding party to join us and in they marched to stand next to us! I handed the microphone to Sonia, and the next phase of the entrance began!

The music, I hear you all ask? Yes, you have guessed correctly….the overture to Gone with the Wind started to play. With the first bars underway, Sonia started to announce our guests couple by couple into the room. We had wanted everyone to have their grand entrance, and we did! As Sonia called names out, everyone processed very grandly into the room to the music, taking their seats. It was like an award show! Everyone looked just fabulous in hats, dresses, suits, and fascinators. As everyone came into the room and the music swelled louder it was also as camp as row of pink chiffon tents…..perfect! I of course was crying my eyes out already! As Sonia announced the last guests and everyone had taken their seats the music gently finished and we were faced with a room of 34 of our dear friends. What an amazing sight. For those of you who were there, you all looked gorgeous! We took our seats at the front of the room, and our wedding party sat in the front row and the ceremony began. And then I had a terrible thought. I had left an important part of the ceremony sitting upstairs on the bed! No, not the rings, but some special cards that were to be given out to our guests during the ceremony. I stood up, said to the registrar “I’ll be right back” and bolted out of the room! Sandra thought I needed to go to the toilet apparently, but I retrieved the cards, galloped back down the stairs and was back in my seat within about 1 minute. It was hilarious, and although totally unplanned, added to the hilarity of the whole affair!

I won’t bore you all with the minutia of the ceremony, but there are a few points to call out. First point was the first reading, Shakespeare’s sonnet #29, chosen by James and read magnificently by the family actor, Sonia. She walked to the front and gave such an impassioned reading, I was mesmerized (and balling my eyes out still). Next up was our first piece of music. After all the campiness and hilarity of the opening, we had wanted to reset the tone of the ceremony to be a little more serious. We had also wanted some drama too! The Shakespeare was to be the first.

Next up was our first ceremony piece of music. As the opening chords started up, I rose from my seat and walked toward all of our guests. James and I had prepared signed cards for our guests with the lyrics to our two main songs on. These were the cards that I had left upstairs! The first piece was “Love Never Dies” the main song from the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name. As I completed handing out the cards the introduction ended and the main piece began, sang beautifully by Sierra Boggess, currently playing the lead role of Christine Daae on the London stage. If you haven’t heard this piece, head on over to YouTube and check it out. This was my music choice for the ceremony and as soon as the song started I began to cry again. The lyrics are desperately romantic and a total tear jerker. At this point a significant portion of our guests were also now crying their eyes out too! The piece concluded with much sniffing and nose blowing, and all around me I could see beautiful women with running mascara. Objective achieved!

The ceremony continued with our second reading, beautifully ready by Louise. This was my chosen reading, and it is “I Will Be Here” by Stephen Chapman. This is also a tear jerker, and by the end we had more who had joined the crying brigade. Dear readers, we know how to do drama…… After this we moved onto the central point of the ceremony, where we read our vows, and exchanged rings. It was absolutely beautiful. As the registrar moved through the ceremony, James and I repeated our vows as instructed and I continued to cry (had I ever really stopped?) Seeing James look at me as he said his vows was THE most amazing part of my life so far. The second song then began, Everything Possible, sung by Tim Seelig, conductor of the Turtle Creek Men’s Chorus. Another tear jerker! Dramarama was complete! At this point, Sandra called us forward, asked for our witnesses, Margaret and Shirley to step forward and we all signed the civil partnership register. With that, Sandra uttered her final words “I know pronounce you Civil Partners in Law” and it was done. Everyone cheered, people stood up, I cried more, and the final song, “Over The Rainbow” sung by the cast of Glee played us out.

We are now officially and legally together, and it is the most amazing feeling ever.

To be continued……

Sitting in the paranoia pen waiting to fly!

2010-08-24T04:42:00.000-04:00

Well folks, we are on our way back home. Having passed through 5 passport and security checks we are now sitting in the special caged off areas for people on flights to america. One can only assume that someone did a cost benefit analysis and found that it was cheaper to build all this extra stuff for usa flights than it was to change our foreign policy to stop people getting mad at us...oh well.

So we are now married! I am sorry that the blogs just stopped before the wedding but understandably i was banned from blogging during the ceremony! Once we are out of the world isolation/pariah pen and on the plane i plan to have a nap and then fill you in on the weekend! I won't be able to upload though until i get access again.

So now the question is what to put on our immigration forms. Perhap when they tell i have write that i am single i should ask them for written permission to lie on a federal form, as i think it is a felony to lie on a federal form is it not? Answers on a postcard please!

So to the skys we fly!
My husband and I (makes me sound like the Queen!) will see you all soon!

Big love,

D&J

The weekend begins!

2010-08-21T02:33:00.000-04:00

Greetings to all! It's Saturday morning! I just wanted to do a quick post for yesterday as it was a whirlwind!

Everyone is here safe and sound now. The afternoon started off slowly with James and I sitting in the lounge at Winder waiting for people to arrive for the first reception. It seems that picking a place in the middle of nowhere gives some difficulty...well, that and the M6 motorway being blocked up for hours! But about 2.30pm people started to trickle in, and before we knew it we had a full house! Last to arrive at Winder Hall were James' daughters and their significant others. We were all a little nervous as to how they were going to fair with the long drive from central London, but although it took them longer than planned, they arrived safe and sound. Christine and Sheridan took an accidental trip over one of the mountain passes, and Maria, Sarah, Margaret, and Shirley arrived safely after a mammoth trek from Hertfordshire, which involved many rest stops and losing Shirley in a service station for a brief period of time!

At around 6.30pm everyone started to head off to the local Pub (The Wheatsheaf) for dinner. As you can see from the photo it was a pretty busy time! We took over half of the pub and a good time was had by all! Eloise and Stephen were the last to arrive from London at 10pm, and we are looking forward to Alison and Martin and the kids re-joining us tomorrow.

So today is now the big day! Both James and I have been awake since 5am this morning with nerves/excitement. We still have a few things to finish, but are well on the way. We have wet shaves and haircuts at 9.15am in Cockermouth and then the fun will all start to begin when Steven and Josh, the photographers, arrive at 12pm. The ceremony starts at 1.30pm. I am sure that James will confiscate my cell phone at some point, but if possible I will try to post a few blogs during the day. For all those who are unable to be with us, we wish you were ALL here. We have received many messages of love and support from you all and are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. I'll keep you posted when I can!

Big love to all!

D&J

Size matters....seriously

2010-08-19T17:31:00.000-04:00

Greetings dear readers. It is Thursday evening and this blog comes from one very tired writer. It has been a very busy few days! Yesterday we got up at the crack of dawn (5.45am) to head to Manchester airport to pick up Ilona. Arriving there at about 9am, it was just great to see her! She had a decent flight over and we quickly bundled her into the car and whisked her off towards the lakes.

We had to make a quick stop in Kendal, the place where James and I had completed our residency interview a few weeks back. Over the last few weeks we have bought various items at Marks and Spencer's, a nice department store, and we needed to complete a tax free shopping form as we are not UK residents. We have completed many of these in the past, but Kendal had clearly not done one for about two years. It wasn't long before James took charge and was soon giving lessons to the staff in how to fill the forms out! Meanwhile, Ilona and I went for a look around the lingerie section. While browsing, we stopped mesmerised. There, hanging on a hook, in turquoise silk, with bright red ribbons ( a horrid colour scheme if ever there was one) was the biggest bra we have ever seen in our lives. Yes, dear reader, you are reading correctly. We are talking about bras. Can you guess how big this was? It was

40 GG

Yep. Now, I am not normally an expert on bra sizes, but this one was a show stopper. It was big enough to either take your bowling balls to the bowling alley, or, as Ilona pointed out, to hang outside your house and use for hanging flower baskets. We toyed briefly with the idea of buying it to use as an extra piece of checked baggage, and then decided not to. Returning to James, we rescued him from the throngs of attentive shop assistants who were now hanging on his every word and headed off. A quick stop for lunch and we were on our way once more. We arrived at the Winder Hall, and gleefully we all went to our rooms. Yes, this was the day that we also said goodbye to the campsite and checked in to a room with a bed! It is not our final destination, as on Friday we will move again into the largest room at Winder Hall, complete with four poster bed. The rest of the afternoon was spent having a nap and finishing up a few errands before heading out to the pub for dinner. Tonight dinner was at the Sun Inn at Braithwaite and was jolly good too. Bedtime soon arrived, and we all crashed out for the night having decided to do a walk the following day.

Thursday dawned quickly with a fantastic breakfast in the Winder Hall. Oh what a joy not to be sitting outside a tent frying eggs and bacon on the grass! We dined on Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, and also Fried Eggs with Black Pudding, Bacon, Sausages, Toast, Mushrooms, and lots of coffee. Fuel for a walk as our theory! Then with a spring in our step, we headed off to a walk. We decided, due to time issues, to re-do the walk that James and I had done earlier in the week. Ilona did brilliantly slogging her way to the top of the hills with us. It was a little windy at the top, as you can tell from the attached picture!

The afternoon was spent wondering where Joe and Cheryl, our next door neighbours from the USA where. We knew that they we landing around 8am at Manchester, but when they hadn't arrived by 4pm ( a 2.5 hour drive) we were starting to get a little concerned. A timely text from Louise and Andrew, informing us that the M6 motorway was closed quickly shed some light. We got online and discovered that the motorway had been closed at 11.15am and was only just reopening, because someone had climbed onto a bridge and was threatening to jump off onto the motorway. The motorway was not re-opened until 3.25pm when someone had finally talked the poor man down. Joe and Cheryl finally arrived at about 5.15pm, after quite possibly the longest journey in history. Still, they were safe and that was the most important thing! Luckily they arrived just in time to go to the pub for dinner! A good evening was had by all, and when I returned from the pub we also had a text from Louise and Andrew telling us that they had arrived too! Hurrah!

So now, dear reader, I am off to bed. We have an early start tomorrow as we still have some administration to take care of. Then in the afternoon the whole weekend starts with the welcoming reception and Winder Hall. I'll post plenty of pictures and try to blog throughout the day. It should be fun with 30+ people arriving to spend the weekend with us!

So with that I'll say goodnight and of course, big love to all!

D&J

The night before the start.

2010-08-17T17:34:00.000-04:00

Greetings, dear reader. It is tuesday night and James and I have just finished dinner. Tonight we came to The Cottage in the Wood in Braithwaite. This is the other hotel that we have chosen for some of our guests to stay at. This hotel holds a special place in our hearts as it was the first hotel in the Lake District that we stayed in together back in 2004. We had been staying in a Campsite down in Winderemere and were on our way to Scotland as part of a month long trip around Great Britain. We were fed up with camping in the rain, so decided to stop off at the first place we saw to see if they had room. That place was the Cottage! We loved it so much that we stayed 2 nights and then came back for a week a year later!

We had originally wanted to have our wedding here, but the owners, Liam and Kath were unable to accomodate the number of guests we needed It was Kath in fact who referred us to the Winder Hall. The hotel is fabulous and the restaurant is magnificent, so we are glad we came in tonight. Unusually both James and I ate the same; Smoked Haddock and Leek Risotto with a poached duck egg, on top followed by Roast Venison with swede, red cabbage and blackberries. We finished it off with a selection of cumbrian cheeses. What fun! We have given up worrying about whether we will fit in our suits on saturday, so to those who are coming this weekend, please bring plenty of safety pins for us!

So tomorrow Ilona arrives and we can't wait! Poor James has had to listen to me for 3 weeks so I am sure he is looking forward to a break and some fresh company! Last night we spent a wonderful evening with Alison and Martin and their two kids. Now as more people arrive I can feel the excitement and nerves starting to build!

We'll keep you all posted, but for now, dear readers, goodnight and big love!

D&J

In the drink....with James!

2010-08-17T10:38:00.000-04:00

Greetings Blog Pickers! Just a short post with a humourous picture. Last time I posted we were heading over to @Winder Hall to have dinner and to choose the wine list (Sunday evening). Well, we had a fabulous evening with superb food and great wines. The wine list is now set! Well, as yoou can imagine, after all that drinking we didn't feel that that it a good idea to drive back down the scary country lanes to the camp site. So the ever increasingly awesome Nick drove us back in his truck. So next morning, the question was "How do we get back to the Winder Hall"?

The answer, dear reader, was to wade across the River Cocker. This was the river that rose to about 9 feet last december and took out half of the village of Cockermouth, the bridge at Low Lorton and ruined many homes. But, now that it is a lot lwoer, we doned sandals, tied our boots around our necks and headed across. Knowing how you all love details, I felt obliged to take a snap of James, intrepid explorer, in mid stream. What a stud he is!

So tomorrow, we check into the Winder Hall for the final leg of yoour amazing trip. We head out at 6am to pick up Ilona from Manchester airport too. Our first guest arrives! We'll keep you posted, maybe with a paparazzi shot of her arriving thorough the terminal!

But untill then,

Big Love,

D&J

Invasion of the Mosquitos!

2010-08-17T08:09:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers:

By now you will have read over and over about the rain in the Lake District. Of course, we woke up again this morning to yet more of the wet stuff. What's worse is that I (James) am now entirely covered in mosquito bites. My skin looks as though I have broken out with a severe case of small pox or something similar. OK, dear readers, I know that you all know that I am sometimes prone to slight exaggeration, but I'm certain that I could now be the star of a feature film of some 1950s insect horror plot.

Thank goodness for hydrocortisone. I am--at least for the moment--itch free. If they attack my face, I will NOT be having the wedding photographs!

Signed,

Attacked by the Mozzies!

Onwards and upwards me hearties!

2010-08-15T12:19:00.000-04:00

Yes, dear reader, as you will now know from earlier posts, it has been a sunny day! Accordingly, we went on a hike at about 11am this morning. Here is the gorgeous James pictured at the start of it. You see that tall hill behind him? That is where we were heading.

The walk was quite a tough one as we are both out of shape due to lack of exercise and too much beer and wine over the last few weeks.
However, with some determination and plenty of rests we made it all the way to the top and back again, a total of just over 3 miles.

Now we are back at the campsite again and James is having a well deserved nap. I am taking the opportunity to catch up on some reading for once. I am about half way through The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and throughly enjoying it too.

This evening, as James already mentioned, we are heading to the Winder Hall for dinner. The main purpose of the evening is to taste some wines and champagnes so that we can put together the drinks list for next weekend. Nick will be cooking in the kitchen but will also be likely acting as our sommelier to Seeing as we have now seen him cook and mend the plumbing, we are wondering if there is any end to his talents! We will keep you posted!

So there we have it. Sonia and George should also have landed in London by now too. They will probably be all meeting up as we speak! Ilona arrives on Wednesday, followed by Joe and Cheryl on thursday. What fun! Tomorrow we have to complete the ceremony details and in the evening we will be heading off to Windermere to have dinner with Martin and Alison who have also arrived, though from the closer departure point of Essex.

With that i'll say goodbye for now as it is time to get ready for dinner. I hope all are doing well!

Big love,

D&J

A sunny day in the Lakes!

2010-08-15T05:14:00.001-04:00

So it has stopped raining in the Lake District AND I (James) have signal on my phone. These are two minor miracles. We've just finished eating breakfast and are planning to go on a hike. Normally by this point in a trip we would have completed many hikes by now, but the weather had not cooperated. We've also had many tasks to tend to with the upcoming nuptials.

Today looks to be good. A walk this morning followed by dinner at the Winder Hall and a meeting with the owner to select the wines and champagnes. Of course, we'll have to taste them!

Well, that's it for now. Off to do dishes, shower, and on with the rest of the day.

Morning in the camp site

2010-08-15T04:59:00.000-04:00

Greetings all!

The sun is shining at last! For those of you who are wondering where we have been staying, here is The Homestead.

Big Love to all!

D&J

Goodnight everyone!

2010-08-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

Just got back from dinner at a local indian restaurant in Whitehaven. Now it's time for bed! James is of course reading as you can see, while I, dear reader, tap away on the phone to all of you!

Today was the first day it didn't rain all day. But we spent most of the day inside various places doing admin tasks. We met with Suzanne at Winder Hall and finally got to meet the owner Nick. What a super chap he turned out to be, in fact every bit as nice as his email personality!

Tomorrow is more admin as we are off to meet the lady who is baking our wedding cake! Yum!

So goodnight dear readers. We'll speak to you all soon!

Big love,

D&J

Back in the lakes again.

2010-08-12T17:24:00.000-04:00

Well, we got back to the lakes this evening about 7.30pm. Guess what...it's raining!

The tent is still standing and seems to have remained totally waterproof during our absence. I have to admit to having been a little nervous about leaving it unattended for 7 days with the Lake District weather being what it is, but hats off to Nemo for making a solid piece of kit.

Tomorrow we will be back on the wedding trail again. We will be at the Winder Hall doing some more touches to the weekend plans and then hopefully off to see Lizzie the cake baker to discuss the final devils for the cake decorations. We are also looking forward to hearing from Lisa, James' oldest daughter who we think should be safely in Paris by now. We'll keep you posted.

So now, having just finished dinner in the pub it is back to the tent. We'll touch base tomorrow!

Big love to all,

D&J

Adios a Menorca!

2010-08-12T08:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings dear reader. It is thursday morning and we are on our way back to England once more. Sorry for not Blogging more while we were in Menorca but the time has just rushed by. We have had such a great time with all of our friends and were able to spend every day apart from one evening with Denise.

The attached shot is one that will be entered into the Salgar history book. It was taken at about 2am on wednesday morning outside the Reina. The beauties flanking James are Christine and Maria. We had earlier been for dinner with Maria as it was her last night. Unfortunately,coffee at the Reina turned into brandys, wine, cointreau, and two bottles of sparkling wine. Bed time came at around 3.30am for all.

I was up and about at 8am and thought i would check that Maria had not overslept. She had not and was busy dealing with the mother of all hangovers. It was so bad that flying was out of the question. So, with laptop in hand, i headed off and booked her a new plane ticket for the next day instead. So that is how Maria came to be on time same flight as us!

So now, dear reader, having been delivered to the airport by the gorgeous Christine, we are in the air. We will be landing back in Luton airport in a few hours and then heading back to the lakes once more. In just 9 days time we will be getting married! There is still much to do. We'll keep you posted!

Big love,

D&J

To the skies we go!

2010-08-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

We are off and flying! Hurrah!

See you back in England. Thanks to all our friends in Menorca. We'll be back in a few years we hope!

Big love to all!

D&J

The post of love.

2010-08-10T06:40:00.000-04:00

So here I am on sunday evening sitting outside the Hotel Xoroy
in Cala Alcaufar. I have no idea when this post will make it to the blog as i have no data service on my phone here on the island. So this will likely be horribly out of sequence in our travels. But here is James, the man I love with all my heart sitting reading his book. He is just so gorgeous that I had to post how much I love him.

James, I can't wait for our ceremony on August 21st. I love you!

Big love to all,

DavidM

The Lost Weekend.....

2010-08-08T09:55:00.002-04:00

Well, dear reader, after a little nap on Thursday afternoon, we headed down to the Reina Isabel for dinner. And that is about all I can remember. So there. I think there must have been some kind of cosmic radiation over the island, because I can’t really remember much about the evening at all and neither can James. I remember that we had dinner at the Reina, and we had drinks at the Reina. Then I remember the Top Totties from Tottington appearing and asking us to go to the El Pirata for drinks. We asked for our bill, it took ages to arrive, by which time Christine and Sheridan had come looking for us again. So, with me in charge of Denise in her wheelchair we headed to the Dinky Bar instead!

To give a little context, the Dinky Bar is on the sea front at S’Algar. For years it was a little coffee and snack bar that also served alcohol too. But it was always closed in the evening I seem to recall. No-one could understand why as it has the best location of all. Anyway, years ago someone woke up to this fact and it is now the hopping bar of S’Algar. So we spent a couple of hours there laughing, chatting, and watching all of the 20 year olds having a good time. There is nothing like watching the youngsters of today to make you feel a little older. Good on them! We had a super time and depending on who you ask it was either 1.30am or 2.45am when we all went to bed. I haven’t a clue to be honest!

Friday was spent on the sea front. I have become a little concerned with sun bathing recently, after listening to a fascinating show on NPR back in the USA about it. So although I would like to acquire a little bit of colour before the wedding, I am not attempting to tan like I used to. Accordingly I scoured the apartment for some suitable sun cream to wear. I found some factor 50 and headed to the front. James headed off for a walk across the rocks to Cala Alcaufar. Never having used factor 50 before I squeezed a large dollop out onto my legs. Oh My God…this stuff was so thick that it took forever to work in to my skin. By the time I had finished I was almost totally white from head to toe. I guess that is how it works, because I shone like a beacon on the front, reflecting sunlight for miles around. Feeling a little conspicuous I quickly lay down and hoped that no one would notice me. No such luck. James of course appears loudly proclaiming “Oh my God you are so white!” Nice….. Actually, by now some of it had worn off/worked further in, so now I bore an uncanny resemblance to Marcel Marceau, the French mime artist. Resisting the urge to stand at the front and do the whole mime/sliding doors thing I settled for lunch instead with James. Perfect!

That evening we headed out at around 8pm. Tonight was the first night of the S’Algar fiesta. When I was a kid the fiesta was a big highlight of the year, with a parade, games, and a famous competition involving a greasy pole. Before you all start sniggering, I never did participate in the greasy pole competition, which involves trying to balance on a greasy pole above the ocean. See….get your minds out of the gutter people. The highlight of tonight’s opening of the Fiesta was a huge Paella for 1000 people. Now THAT is mass catering! We duly lined up with Denise, Maria, and The Totties and surprisingly it was quite good. Washed down with a few glasses of sangria, we had a super time and were ready for an evening of dancing. The band struck up, and all of a sudden we were mesmerized by 1000 Menorquians doing a line dance to Achy Breaky Heart. Some things will stay with you forever….. We danced too, and once our friend Jenne appeared, she and I did a manic dance that slightly resembled a hair dryer being thrown into a bath tub. It was great fun, and, a little exhausted, we returned Denise to her house, and then retired to Christine and Sheridan’s house on the front. This time we were joined by Pauline, or Granny Tottie (GT for short…). We were also accompanied by a strange man called Nick and his dog Truck. Much laughter, many drinks and hilarity later, we realized that Nick had gone and left us with Truck. Way to go Nick! Beats getting a pet sitter I suppose. Just find some random group of people, tag along with them, and when they all get shit-faced, leave the pooch with them and bugger off. The next part of the evening involved Christine lying face down on a couch pretending to be unconscious, Sheridan shrieking at her mother in concern because she thought she was unconscious, GT throwing Cava over everyone, the dog licking everyone and trying to climb off the balcony, and a good time being had by all. I am not sure who the good time was who was had by all, but I vaguely remember Nick returning some time later with a frizzy haired woman from somewhere, collecting his pooch and leaving. ‘Nuff said…..

Morning came with a loud bang. Literally. The parade was launched with a marching band and cannon. When you have a hangover like a juggernaut there is nothing like a marching band outside of your window. Yes, dear reader, this all happened. I am not making any of this up. Roused from our sleep we dashed outside to be faced with 12 foot high Paper Mache (sp) baby. It waved at us. Slightly startled, we waved back. Then it shot water at us with a big water pistol. We were now officially awake. The parade moved on, the vuvuzelas blew, the drums banged and we saw Totties waving in the distance. Ah the joys of summer!

Saturday afternoon was spent at Jenne’s house with her and her mother Betty. We had a great time catching up and chatting. It is lovely to be back with all of our friends. We just wish we had a little longer to be here. The afternoon rolled into the evening, and before we knew it we were all back at the Reina for dinner. After all of the shenanigans of the previous nights, this was a far more sedate affair. John and Sarah, our friends from just outside of S’Algar joined us for a few hours too. Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will remember them from our exploits before. We spent a pleasant evening just chatting and watching the world go by. The evening finished up with the fiesta fireworks, and, feeling a little sluggish, we all kissed our goodbyes and headed to bed.

So now, dear reader, it is Sunday morning. In 30 minutes we will be picking up Denise, duly re-christened the Duchess of S’Algar, and we are heading to see some other good friends, Sue and Alex for Sunday lunch. I can’t wait! Sue and Alex are fabulous people and although we have only known them for a few years, they have been so welcoming to us. Alex has also told me that I can upload to the blog from his PC, so by the time you read this, I will likely be eating roast beef!

And that, dear reader is that. I’ll keep writing and will post more when I can. We hope all are doing well in their parts of the world!

Big love,

D&J

Palms, Hymens…and everything in between!

2010-08-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

Well, we have arrived in Menorca. It is good to be back! I am currently having more technical issues, in that I can’t get data access on my phone here. So I have decided to carry on and write blogs anyway, and then as soon as I get signal on my laptop somewhere I can upload them.

This morning came oh so quickly. The alarm went off at an unhealthy 3.30am in the Hotel Ibis. A quick shower and we were off and running…well, off and walking anyway. The terminal was just a short walk and when we arrived at 4.15am it was just heaving with people. One of the disadvantages of flying with low cost airlines is that the slots they use are often at anti-social hours. This was no exception. We arrived at the Easy Jet check-in, (or as I like to call them, Beastly Jet) and checked in Not having opted to check bags we made our way with our two pieces of carry on through the throngs and entered security. Now, as someone who has travelled a fair bit in his time, I like to think that I am quite prepared. Not, it seems , this time. We took off shoes, belts, etc. and sent everything through. Along comes the stern faced man. “Do you have liquids in your bag sir”? “Oh gosh, yes”, I replied. He opened the bag. Fished out a few items and I put them into the clear plastic bag. Back into the scanner went everything. Back came the stern faced man. “Any more, sir?” “Ummmmm….maybe”, I replied. Back Into the bag he went and pulled out a pot of jam that I had packed for breakfast. And also some extra shower gel and some other toiletries…oh well!

Finally the bag went through unscathed. With red faces, we headed off to the gate. Now for those of you who have never flown on Beastly Jet (or Ryan Air, a similar outfit) it is a total experience. Your tickets are really cheap, and the level of service is commensurate. I paid 70gbp for the two round trip tickets to Menorca from Luton. When you add in taxes and fees, it was about 140 pounds. That’s about $250, so it is a really good deal. The kicker is that you have to pay for everything on board, there is no seating assignments either, and you can pay a few pounds for priority boarding. You also have to pay to check bags. But still, the total cost of flying is desperately cheap and the service level is the same as what you get these days on a US carrier…coz you have to pay for all the same stuff there…’nuff said.

Anyway, once on board the plane it was a pleasure to find that it was only half full, a really unusual occurrence on Easy Jet. The seats are really close together on these planes, so it was nice to be able to stretch out a little. The flight was good, and despite the fact that they were selling copies of the Daily Mail, Hello magazine and their very own scratch cards offering the chance to win 10,000 pounds, entirely uneventful. Uneventful is good with regard to airline flights….

Once at Mahon airport, we decided to head into the capital to take care of some business issues first. First stop was the solicitors/lawyers office. Every year they file my tax return for me in Spain, and I pay them a chunk of change. As I have no money, no income, and only a condo to my name, the tax return is likely really simple. So with James in tow we showed up to get copies of the tax return. As expected, we received a copy of the form and there were two boxes on it that need filling out. So guess who is doing the tax return in future. I love my future husband even more now…..

Next up was a quick trip to the Orange shop to sort out (yes you guessed it) some mobile phone issues. Last November the Spanish government introduced a new law that said that all Pay As You Go sim cards for Mobile/Cellular telephones had to be registered to a passport number. Well, we didn’t know about that law until we tried to use the SIM cards a month ago. James’ card was fine, but mine was as dead as a doornail. A little bit of research online told us about the law and also stated that any money on your account was protected and could be applied to a new number. Yes, dear reader, you know what is coming don’t you….

As James’ card was still active, it was a simple matter of adding his passport number. De nada, or no problem. When it came to mine, the assistant pouted and said that there was nothing that could be done. James persisted and she finally agreed to call the call centre. They were less helpful and told us that we would have to fly to either the mainland or to Palma, Majorca to sort it out. Yes, that is right. They want us to fly to another land mass to have 40 euros transferred to a new account. So now I have a new telephone number instead, and we will continue to work on this issue. For your reference, dear reader, here our Spanish phone numbers to add to you ever growing lists….

James :- +34 691 153 710

David :- +34 615 342 397

As always, texts and calls are always welcome……

So, business done, we headed back toward the bus station. On the way there we stopped in at the bakery that we used to frequent. As we entered, the owner greeted us with a “Where have you been? It is ages since you were here…..” It was so nice to be recognized after 2 years. I think it is all down to James and his charisma, as after 30 years of coming here no-one ever remembers me! With chocolate “palmeras” (chocolate cakes in the shape of palm leaves) in hand we headed on our way once more. A few steps later and, yes it started to rain. The clouds rolled over head, the sun disappeared and the heavens opened. It seems that the weather fairy has followed us once more. Still, undaunted by this, we carried on, only to be greeted by a woman waving frantically from a door way at us. It was the librarian from San Luis in Menorca, who we also hadn’t seen for two years. Again, I think it must be James’ personality, or perhaps the fact that we are always dressed in matching outfits…even in the rain. The librarian’s name is Ximena, pronounced “He-Men-Ah”, or, as I like to refer to here “The Hymen lady”. It was lovely to see her, and after kisses in the rain and a promise to come and see her in the library next week, we sloshed forward once more. A quick trip on the bus and we were back in S’Algar once more.

Having dropped off our bags at our friend Maria and Bob’s place as I had a guest in my apartment until the Friday morning, we made our way down to the main square of S’Algar. Once there, we started to run into many people that we know all at once. Phillip, Claire, and their girls, Elaine, Kate, Paul, Jennifer, and lurking in the corner, Denise and Maria. Denise is one of my oldest friends on the island and she had a stroke about 6 months ago. She is still recovering from the effects, but is, in her own inimitable way, forging ahead in life the same as ever. It was good to see all of our friends who we have missed so much over the last two years. The afternoon was passed pleasantly with lunch at the Reina Isabel, the main restaurant in the square, and then a well-earned nap! Had to look our best for the evening of course!

And so, dear reader, that was our first day. Is there more I hear you cry? Of course there is! But for Saturday night and Sunday Morning, you’ll just have to wait won’t you!

Big love,

D&J

Menorca bound...

2010-08-05T00:55:00.000-04:00

We are off! See you on the beach!

Big love

D&J

A night in the Ibis

2010-08-04T17:13:00.000-04:00

Greetings Blog pickers! Just a short update to say that we are safe and sound in our hotel in Luton. Basic but quite comfortable and we of course picked up a bottle of wine for the hotel room.

So now we are sitting on the bed, drinking wine and eating cheese, watching the Spanish weather forecast. The man is speaking so fast that i cannot keep up, but the pictures tell me all i need to know...yes folks it is going to be raining in Menorca tomorrow! Oh well, at least we will be prepared..

Our check in time is 445am tomorrow. Boy do we love those early morning flights. I'll have to skip the cold medicine tonight methinks...

We may be out of touch for a day or two when we arrive. Due to a new Spanish law, my sim card has been deactivated. First stop is the Orange store to get it sorted. James' phone should be fine though so you can reach us on his spanish number which is +34 691 153 710. As soon as we can we will be back online with the blog. Next update may well be from the beach! James will be the one in the pink flamingo swim shorts...

Big love to all!

D&J

Onward to España!

2010-08-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hiya! Y'awrite? James here practicing the northern vernacular. We've just left the campsite, dropped off our bags at the Winder Hall, and are now headed down to London to catch a flight early tomorrow morning to Menorca. The sun is shining for the first time just as we leave the Lake District, but isn't that the way it always goes? I don't think my northern accent will serve me well down south, but oh well. I have five hours in the car to practice me cockney.

This photo of David is one of the few you'll see of him. I am defo not the photographer! (More northern for you! ) He's the one always doing the driving on the left side of the road, thank goodness!

Perhaps I'll write more later on. For now I have to look up at the road so I don't get dizzy.

Bye for now!

James

Breakfast Time

2010-08-04T05:03:00.000-04:00

Morning all!

Just a quick post now that the mobile blog is up and running. Hungry? I am!

Big love,

D&J

Dull place number 1.

2010-08-04T04:47:00.000-04:00

Tried some mobile Blogging yesterday but i used the wrong email address, so here goes again!

This afternoon we want to a little village called Maryport, just outside of the lake district. It was a pretty grim place but the wind did give James a nice hair do.

Be warned...never come to Maryport.

Big Love

D&J

Demons, Seeds, and a nasty cold

2010-08-03T07:36:00.000-04:00

Greetings all...

Before you ask, yes it is still raining. We have now entered our 9th straight day of rain in the lake district. The saying "Rain before 7, fine by 11" clearly has a veto option for the lake district.....unless they are referring to month numbers of course!

On Saturday we decided to venture outside of the Lakes for a while. We did, and guess what..it wasn't raining there! We spent a lovely afternoon at Brough Castle and Brougham Castle, two English Heritage properties about 50 miles away from where we are staying. I won't go so far as to say that the weather was wonderful, but it was nice to have a little break from the rain. The odd break in the clouds also meant that I was able to break out the camera for a short while. More than a little rusty, due to my summer being devoted to Cisco and wedding plans, I was a little nervous at first, but soon got into the swing of it. I even spent some time with a standard lens on my camera...that didn't last long though, and soon I was back to my beloved lensbaby kit. I shot some images of James, one of which is attached here. A little different from my normal work...maybe a new direction?

Afterwards we headed back into Cockermouth. You may recall, dear readers, that we had reservations at "The Bitter End" for dinner. We dined on Supremes of Pheasant, pan fried in butter with Juniper and Thyme, with Roasted Garlic Mash Potato, Parsnip Crisps, and a selection of vegetables. Totally awesome, and for those of you who think that English food is bland, I am very sorry to have to disappoint you!

Sunday was to be a trip to see my sister in Congleton. The drive there was about 3 hours and we spent the day with Jane and Mike and ate lots. It didn't rain there either, which was nice. Then, back to the rainy lakes of course. I have developed a nasty cold as well, which is annoying (which also gave me a bunch of bad dreams too...or maybe it was the scotch and ibuprofen?). We haven't had a single chance to do any walking yet, and it looks like we won't this week either.

On Monday we had an important task to complete. This was the day that we would give notice for our Civil Partnership in Kendal, having completed our residency requirements. We arrived (with me sniffing a lot) at the register office to met by two ladies who would process our application. One was the spitting image of Patricia Routledge (Mrs Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances) and the other was the spitting image of her next door neighbouor, Elizabeth. Every time something went wrong with the registrars computer she would call the other lady "Lynne, come here please" in this stentorian voice, and Lynne would scurry over to fix things. It was somewhat hard to keep a straight face through it all, but after a whole hour of Mrs Bucket tapping away at the keyboard we were duly processed. Now the notice of Civil Partnership has to be displayed for 14 days before we can get hitched. Our residency is now complete, so we can leave the area officially. Accordingly, we are heading off to Menorca on Thursday for a week! Pray that the rain doesn't go with us.....

Today, with me still full of the cold, it looks like the sun might be out for a few hours in between the constant rain. We are heading into Keswick and plan on taking it easy for once. James has a bunch of paperwork to catch up on, and I need to blog a little too. Can't disappoint our readers! I'm hoping that the weather may brighten up tonight and that I feel a little better, as I would like to buy some venison to cook at the campsite....I'm thinking of some Aged Venison medallions with some Juniper, red wine reductions, and new potatoes....anyone want to come visit!

So that's all folks! Tomorrow (Wednesday) we drive down to Luton for the night and then head out to Menorca early on Thursday morning. We'll keep you posted as to where we are!

Big Love to all,

D&J

The Photographers

2010-07-31T07:30:00.000-04:00

Thursday

Greetings all, Thursday afternoon came really quickly didn’t it? Well, that was because I finished Thursday morning only about 2 minutes ago here on Saturday. Confused? Please do keep up…..

Thursday evening was, as you can imagine, kind of slow after the night before. We spent the night in the Kirkstile Inn, a super pub with a dinner of Stilton and Spinach Vegetarian Lasagna and beer. Bedtime was at 9pm though….ouch.

Friday dawned, and yes it was still raining. Did you expect anything else? Kippers for breakfast, cooked by yours truly, and then we had an appointment with the photographers to keep. They are located in Bowness on Windermere, and like everything else, having booked them two years ago, I was really eager to finally meet up. We had a great meeting with them. We clicked (ha ha…pun intended) straight away and spent just over two hours chatting and going over the day. Steven and Josh were so great to be with and I can’t wait to see their work. I spent ages looking at wedding photographers, and was thrilled with what they had done for others, and even more excited that they were available. They have done a number of Civil Partnerships before for women, but we are to be their first male CP couple. I hope we do a good job for them as well! There is a chance that as long as we don’t both look like trolls in the final images that they may use us in advertising. Fame at last! It is an honour to maybe be able to help out such great photographers and really nice people. If you haven’t done so, check out their website at http://www.steventaylorphotography.co.uk/

Afterwards, as it was still raining (surprise!) we stopped off at our Florist and picked up our quote for flowers. We then decided to continue the hunt for shoes. Having checked out many Marks and Spencer’s stores and finding shoes that we liked, but that were not available in our size, we headed to Carlisle. There, at last we got shoes sorted, so our wedding outfits are now complete! Such fun!

Then of course it was time for dinner. Having had Kippers for breakfast, Sausage and Chips/Fries for lunch, Scones and James for just after lunch (at Brambles in Windermere for those who watched “The Lake” on telly last year), and chocolate for after an “after scone” treat We really didn’t feel like eating much. So we went to a fabulous pub in Cockermouth called “The Bitter End” (Alan and & Phil, this is a great place if you are looking for some good beer and top tucker when you arrive in a few weeks). The dinner menu looked so good that we are now booked for Saturday night there….One pint later, we were off to The Wheatsheaf in Lorton for our second pint before bed. Such a busy day!

And now it is Saturday. We are back up to date! Sitting here in Keswick drinking coffee and typing has been quite relaxing. It feels weird not to have to be going somewhere and meeting somebody. So today is to be a relaxing day. Yes, it is still raining, which is a little annoying as I have had no chance to take any pictures since we got here. Some photographer eh? Still our days have been plenty busy as you, dear reader, have seen. Walking/Hiking has also been non-existent too. I have no problem in getting the waterproofs out while in the middle of a hike, but starting out in a downpour is far less appealing. Hopefully that will all change soon, as we need a few walks to help with the waistline after all this food!

So, there we have it. We hope that all are well. Not sure when the next update will be, but watch this space! We’ll be back soon!
Big Love to all,
D&J

“The Bag of Very Important Things”

2010-07-31T07:27:00.000-04:00

So Wednesday we hear you cry? Well, the day dawned and it was…..raining. Again. Well, this is the Lake District, and the weather is always unpredictable. Everyone has been asking us what the weather will be like for the wedding, and I always respond that “I don’t know. It’s the Lake District so it could be sunny, rainy, windy, grey, blue, hot, or cold….or all of the above at the same time. Being so high up you never really quite know what to expect. So a word to those who are coming…..be prepared for anything!

So, the day dawned and it was raining. The rain then stopped, and I thought that it had finished. So I started to cook breakfast. No sooner had I lit the stove and cracked the eggs into the frying pan…well you can guess the rest. It began to rain again. James retreated to the car and I stood there frying eggs and bacon in a downpour. This is the life! The raindrops did make the fried eggs go a little funny on top, but they tasted fabulous, and that is surely what it is all about right? It is about soggy socks, wet trousers, and looking like a drowned rat with a frying pan….right?

Next it was in the car and off on a road trip. Today was to be a day of fun, as we were heading to see our friends Christine and Sheridan. The last time we saw Christine when she came to visit us in Menorca back in March 2008. If you feel the need, you can scroll back through the blog archives and look for her. She is the one in the picture standing doing the “I’m a little tea pot dance”…’nuff said. Anyway, Christine and Sheridan live in Tottington and we affectionately refer to them as the Top Totties from Tottington. So of we headed down the M6 for an evening of fun. On the way we stopped off at the parking lot of a pub called the Pheasant. We thought that we had been there before, but couldn’t remember, so wondered if a visual would jog our memories. A quick pull in to the car park confirmed that we had indeed, and recalled having a fabulous meal. I quickly got something out of the boot/trunk of the car, heard a little thud of something falling out of the trunk, promptly forgot all about it, got back in the car and drove on………

About 2.5 hours later, just before a motorway service station/rest-stop I suddenly remembered the little thud. And I remembered that right by the area where I was getting stuff out, was the bag with….dum dum duh…..

THE WEDDING RINGS

So can you imagine the stress levels in the car at this point? Now I am normally calm, cool, and collected in almost all situations. I am the steady one when everyone else goes to pieces. Not this time. The realization that I had let platinum wedding rings fall out of the car, in a pub car park that was now 2.5 hours away, in the middle of the Lake District….well, for the first time ever James saw me have a meltdown. I burst into tears while driving, and blubbed to James what had happened. James, poor love, wasn’t really quite sure what was happening, but I think that my total disintegration into hysteria clinched the deal. We pulled off at the service station which thankfully was only about 500 yards further. I leapt out of the car like a gay man being chased by the leader of the American Family Association, followed by James in hot pursuit and opened the trunk. I grabbed the bag that contained the wedding rings, our Dunhill Cufflinks, passports, check/cheque books, and other important goodies and started hunting through it in desperation, like Brittany Spears hunting for her virginity. And so, dear reader, what do you think the answer to this mystery was?

Well, the rings were there. So were the cufflinks. So were the check/cheque books. And so seemed to be everything else. What fell out of the car? I have no idea, but I know that something did and it was from “The Bag of Very Important Things”. I guess we will find out what it was when we are standing in line somewhere and need “Item X”. With relief, while clutching the wedding rings like some tragic bride from a reality show, I burst into tears in the middle of the parking lot. At which point, a Jehovahs Witness selling brushes appeared next to us and asked if we would like to buy something…..(actually it was some strange looking man offering to sell us a book of jokes, but I thought the JW line was funnier). We told him that we were kind of busy (and by the way if someone is in floods of tiers in a parking lot, the last thing they need is some wise-cracking weirdo trying to flog them a book of jokes….try offering Scotch or a Martini next time please) and he scurried off back to his parallel universe. Disaster and tragedy averted, we headed on our way.

A quick trip around the shopping centre of Bury, (which fixed mobile phone issues for David, and slightly fixed them for James) and we were on our way. Next stop…The Totties! Arriving at about 4pm we were greeted by Christine and Sheridan with wine and hugs. What more could we have asked for! Well, a hot-tub, caviar, and David Beckham spring to mind….but seeing as that was unlikely we remembered our manners and hugged and kissed back. We had a fabulous time with them. We chatted, and drank, chatted and drink, drank, ate, drank, drank, drank, and went to bed. Yes, that was where the 8 bottles of wine came in…and went. I guess when you open the first one at 4pm, and go to bed at 1.30am (David and Sheridan…separately of course), and 2.45am (James and Christine….also separately) you have to find something to fill the time. Morning came awfully quick……

More hugs and kisses and we were on our way on Thursday morning. We stopped off at the service station on the way home and that, dear reader, is where the previous blog came in. And I am still behind as it is now Saturday…..lol!

So, on we go! I’ll see you in the next post!

Big Love,

D&J

Catch up - Part one

2010-07-29T08:55:00.000-04:00

Hello! This is David, finally getting himself together in the online world. It has not been an easy last few days from a tech point of view, but we are well on the way to being sorted! This, however, means that we are now about four days behind on blogging. So, it is time for a catch up. I'll be posting a few blog entries one after another to bring you all up to speed.
Saturday and Sunday

So as you saw, James and his hat worked their magic and we finally left the US on Saturday evening. We were pretty bummed that we had not been able to take our daylight flight, as it is the only way to beat jet lag, but the overnight flight on American was great. We secured some bulkhead seats, and had a great flight over, helped in part by a steward who was drop dead gorgeous....lol. Well, you have to have something to look at for 7 hours don't you, and he just fitted the bill nicely! We watched some TV and movies on the PC, had some nosh, a few drinks, and managed to sleep a little. I, of course, managed to fall asleep and wake up 2 hours and 20 minutes later, which for some reason seems to the maximum amount that I can ever sleep on planes. Arrival into Heathrow at 6am was uneventful, and was also 1 hour early which was a real bonus. Arrival at passport control was great. James proudly presented his passport and enclosed Civil Partnership visa to the nice man there, and the man stamped the visa, smiled, welcomed James to the UK, and wished us both luck and congratulations on our upcoming ceremony. It was really an amazing experience to have an immigration official say congratulations. This may seem like a small and trivial thing to many people, but to a gay couple who are finally getting the opportunity to have their relationship legally recognised it was a significant experience for both of us. So with big smiles on our faces, we headed off to baggage claim, picked up all the bags, and headed through customs and off to the rental car company.

The car process was quick and smooth, and we were off and on our way to the Lake District by 7.15am, a total win! A stop off at a service area for chocolate, maps, sandwiches (thank heavens for Marks and Spencer's on the motorway), a one hour nap in the car, and we arrived in the lakes at the Winder Hall at 2pm, just in time for our meeting with Suzanne, the manager. You will recall, dear reader, that this was to be the first time that we had seen the Winder Hall in the flesh. All I can say is wow!

Of course I can say more than that....you didn't think you were getting off that lightly right? We were just so excited to see the place. It is gorgeous and is every bit as fabulous as we were hoping. The grounds are amazing, the hotel itself is just awesome. All oak panels, comfy leather coaches, old world feel and charm, and just fabulous people. Suzanne gave us a tour of the property and we enjoyed every minute of it. After two years of waiting and planning we had high expectations, and we were a little worried that it couldn't possibly meet our mental images. But it did...and more. We are sure that all of our guests on the 21st are going to love it to bits too!

The next three hours were spent finalising details with Suzanne. We did ceremony stuff, dinner stuff, evening reception stuff, Friday afternoon reception stuff, Sunday morning reception stuff, and everything in between. It was nice to see all of our plans just drop into place. The whole weekend promises to be great. The theme for the event is "A weekend in the country with friends". Although it is centered around our ceremony, we have always wanted it to be more than that. It is about spending a weekend with people that are really important to us, and who we don't get to see as often as we would like. The whole event will start off with a tea, coffee, and cake reception at Winder from 1.30pm to 5pm for everyone to just drop by and say hello and meet each other. I can't wait!

After we had finished with Suzanne we were supposed to be heading off to the campsite. However, we were really tired, and the last thing on my mind was pitching a tent. So Suzanne called a few bed and breakfast places for us, and we decided to check into the Meadow brook B&B just around the corner for a good nights sleep. The owner, Christine, was a highly strung, swishing around kind of lady who was quite lovely. Reminiscent in many ways of Maggie Smith with flailing arms and a wild head of blond curly hair, she directed us to our room. Resisting the urge to have another nap, we showered, changed our clothes and of course headed off the the pub for beer and dinner! We went to the Wheatsheaf in Low Lorton, which is next door to the Winder Hall. It is also the venue for our Friday evening at the pub event for all of our guests the night before the ceremony. We sampled the beer, ate lots of food, and had a great time. We met Mark, the owner who I had been speaking with via phone/email, and firmed up all the arrangements for the Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Hooray for lots of planning! Then we headed back to the B&B and hit the sack at 9pm, and slept straight through till 8am the following morning!

Monday

Showered, and freshly groomed, we arrived at the breakfast table to be greeted by a gushing Christine armed with eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato, mushroom, fried bread, toast, tea, coffee, yogurts, grapefruit, and more toast. Not wishing to seem rude we felt compelled to eat everything in sight and we did. We were joined at breakfast by an elderly couple who were also staying there. She chatted away nervously to us, and he looked at us suspiciously all the way through breakfast, as if we going to swipe his toast. I suspect it was more to do with the fact that he knew that we had come from the bedroom with only one bed in it though. So breakfast quickly became 30 minutes of cocktail party chatter, after which we paid our bill, said goodbye to the effusive Christine and went on our way. First stop was a trip to Cockermouth (pictured here), the village nearest to Low Lorton to do some shopping and to meet with the registrar who would be performing the ceremony.

And then it started to rain. And just so you know, dear reader, it is now Thursday and it is still raining.......

We arrived in Cockermouth and went straight to the grocery store to stock up on a few provisions. Then with a few hours to wait before our meeting we wandered around town. We found a great place for haircuts and booked ourselves in for wet shaves, facials, and haircuts on the morning of the ceremony. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of an old fashioned wet shave with a cut-throat razor, I highly recommend it. The last time we did one was in Lisbon in 2008 where the barber spoke no English and James and he spoke in Portuguese for an hour. This one will be in Cockermouth, and will also have a strange accent, I am sure! A little more wandering and then it was off to the registrar!

We arrived and were met by Sandra, the registrar. She was quite delightful, and spent about 1.5 hours going over the details of the ceremony. She was fully supportive of what we were wanting to do, and with a few minor tweaks here and there we are now sorted. Again, it was a really exciting process to be going through!

Next up was a quick trip to Keswick, and then off to the campsite. The campsite we had chosen was actually quite close to the Winder Hall, but it was across the River Cocker. Unfortunately, the floods last year had washed away the 200 year old bridge! So we had to drive all the way around to get to it, but once there we were greeted with a very quiet campsite and about 20 chickens. Ah the bliss of the country! Tent up, sleeping bags unrolled, car tidied, and by then it was time for, yes, you guessed it, beer and food. This time we were going to try the Kirkstile Inn, highly rated in the Good Pub Guide, our travelling bible. It didn't disappoint. Fabulous real ales, and for dinner James had Steak and Ale pie, while I had Chicken, Leek, and Stilton pie. The setting was beautiful and we can't wait to go back again. Across the room was a table of four, and they kept us entertained all the way through the evening with their conversation. One lady had a voice that would cut through a dockyard like a supersonic jet, and she had no idea as to how loud she was. She also wouldn't let anyone else at her table get a word in. It was fascinating watching someone talk, eat, show pictures, wave hands in the air, and not even breathe for about 2 hours. It was little like watching a vacuum cleaner that was out of control.....not stopping for breath and maniacally devouring everyone and everything in its path!

Tuesday

And so, off to bed once more. Our Monday was complete! So you want to hear about Tuesday? Of course you do! But in the interests of time, I'll keep tuesday brief. We got up, cooked egg and bacon (of course) drank coffee, marvelled at the rain (again), and drove to Keswick. Once there, we discovered that our 7 year old rain jackets were, well 7 years old and were useless. So, 400 pounds later we were kitted out for another 7 years. Next stop the florists. We had spoken with our florist over the phone, but now we had the chance to meet in person and finalise the flowers. Just like everyone else, she was totally delightful and we can't wait to see the finished arrangements in the Winder Hall on the 21st! Evergreens is the name, in case you find yourself in Keswick and need a florist.....Tuesday afternoon was spent in Penrith trying to sort out phone issues (with no luck) and then dinner was in Bowness on Windermere at "The Hole in T'Wall" pub, with more beer. Not a Martini in sight.......might have to change that soon.

Wednesday.

Well, you'll have to wait for this one as now James needs the PC. I'll write a little later on, and post when I can. But it involved a trip to a good friend, and 8 bottles of wine.......ouch!

So with that, dear readers, I'll sign off for now. We still have a few tech challenges with James' phone. A dodgy radio in the phone seems to be the root cause, so if you can't get through to him on his UK number, then try mine. For reference our numbers our:-

James:- +44 7904 614 970 (011 7904 614 970 from the US)
David:- +44 7950 185 421 (011 7950 185 421 from the US)

We both have email access again on our phones (service permitting), so you can also get us at dnmartin@mkaconsultants.com and james.koschoreck@uc.edu We'd love to hear from you!

So that is it for now.

Big Love to all!

D&J

Yes, we made it....

2010-07-28T07:34:00.001-04:00

Greetings all! Yes, we made it to the UK again. We have had more than our fair share of technology challenges since we arrived, so have not been able to blog or be in phone contact much. Today is the first day that we have had any kind of online access, and this is at a motorway service station. Part of the technology battle has been telephony issues. For those of you who have both of our UK cellphone numbers, James' number is messed up at the moment. So if you need to call us, please use mine. The number is (from the USA) 011 44 7950 185 421.

Anyway, we have much to share with you all, but that is going to have to wait for a little later on. Just wanted you all to know that we are fine!

We'll post soon....

Big Love to all!

D&J

Up up and away!

2010-07-24T17:22:00.001-04:00

So here we are, finally in Chicago. Everything seems to be in order at last! The flight is on time and James is wearing his hat. What more could we wish for? We are going to be heading straight up to the lake district in the morning for our meeting. It will be the first time we will have been in the Winder Hall! Who would ever plan a wedding in a place they haven't seen? We would! As soon as i can get online tomorrow, by phone or Pc i'll post an update. Till then, Big Love! D&J

On our way.....take 2!

2010-07-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

So, after much to do, we are back on our way to the UK. As you will have seen, dear reader, due to weather in Chicago, our 6.50am outbound flight from Cinty was cancelled this morning. We were told that all the airlines had cancelled their flights, and so we couldn't even been booked onto another airline to make our 9.30am daylight flight to the UK. Ok, we said, and waited to be re-booked. A few taps of the keyboard and we were booked onto a flight leaving Cinty at 3pm this afty, and then an overnight flight to London (booo...)

We thought "how nice they are all being". Then as we moved to one side, another group of passengers moved up and went through the same process. Except the check-in lady told them that she could get them on the United Airlines flight to Chicago at 7.56am! A quick process and karma check told us to leave it, rather than haul the lying witch across the counter and ask her why she had told us there were no United flights. So we skulked off back home for an extra few hours of kip seeing as we had only slept for four hours the night before.

Karma paid off. I managed to cancel our UK "non-cancellable" reservation at the hotel in Birmingham for this evening and get a refund, and I managed to rebook our car rental with Budget instead of Hertz, reducing that cost by 40 pounds too. So, despite the pleasure it would have given us to rip the check-in ladies head off, we made out okay in the end. Now we are back in the airport and getting ready to head through security on step 1. Lets hope that the weather fairy plays ball when we get to Chicago for our next leg.

So now we will be landing in England tomorrow morning at 6.50am. We will have to drive straight to the Lake District as we have a meeting at the Winder Hall at 2pm! Nothing like jet lag and meetings! Oh well, we are thrilled to be on our way at last (hopefully!) I'll post more when we get to Chicago!

Big love to all,

D&J

Oh Dear! The weather fairy became weather bitch.

2010-07-24T06:22:00.001-04:00

Thanks to weather in Chicago our flight was cancelled. This also means that we will miss our england flight now too! Stay tuned for more info as we try to stay chipper! Big Love, D&J

The Night Before (NOT The Morning After!)

2010-07-23T23:31:00.000-04:00

Well, this is James here. It's 11:15 p.m. on Friday night, the 23rd of July, and we're finally ready for our trip. Good thing, too, since we have to get up at 4:15 a.m. tomorrow morning to catch a flight to Chicago. From Chicago we head to Heathrow in London, and then on to the booming metropolis of Birmingham, where we will spend the night in a hotel. This, dear readers, is likely to be the last of the comfortable night stays since for the next two weeks we'll be roughing it in a campground somewhere in Low Lorton in the Lake District.

Packing for this particular trip has been very strange. Well, I suppose you'd have to talk to David about the actual details of the packing, since he has done it all. But we've travelled enough together for me to know that it's not something that I should interfere with! He has lists....and a system. And woe is he who interferes with the system. Kidding aside, he's done an amazing job. What makes this trip different is that not only are we packing for a month of camping in the UK, but we're also packing for a week at the condo in Menorca and formal clothes for the wedding on August 21st. We have more stuff than when we went to Spain for six months for my sabbatical a couple of years ago! (And if you weren't following the blog at that time, you might be interested in checking the archives. Then again, why I would imagine that you would be interested in the history of our travels is really beyond me!)

So....are we ready? Toothbrush? Check! Passports? Check! Credit cards? Check! Sanity? Sanity? Sanity? OK! Check!

This trip is going to be extra special....and not just because I am being betrothed to the man I love. We'll be joined on the 21st by 34 of our dearest friends from around the world, including Lisa (daughter) and Joel (her husband), Sonia (daughter) and George (her boyfriend), and a cast of VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE. (OK, that was a little too Pooh!)

So, onward to Bedfordshire (as they say in England) or to the Feather Ball (as my father used to say). In other words, to bed....to rest....for at least 4 hours.

Until next time...

James and David

Only a few more days...

2010-07-20T09:13:00.000-04:00

Greetings BlogPickers! I thought that it was time for an update on this wet and rainy morning in Hebron, Kentucky! We are now in the home straight for the upcoming trip, as we depart this coming Saturday 24th July!

It is a little nerve wracking as we have only just started to pack! Sure, getting ready for only a month away is a lot easier than when we went to Spain for 6 months, but the wedding makes things a teeny bit more complex. We have so many things to take over for the ceremony itself, not to mention loads more luggage than normal too! Wedding suits, evening outfits and so on. And on top of that all the camping equipment too!

As for the wedding preparations, we just sent out the menu choices to our guests. We have had a lovely time sorting it all out as we both love to cook and eat. When we first started to work with Nick, the owner of Winder Hall where we are having our weekend, we asked him if we could make requests for the meal. He was thrilled with the idea, saying that he often cooks the same kind of thing over and over again. As he is a top rated chef, the idea of being able to stretch his wings again was something very appealing. So we took him at his word and spent many months crafting our menu! Here it is:-

1st. Pimiento Bavaroix (Red Pepper Mousse) - or - Parma Ham, Asparagus Tips, Poached Egg, and a foaming Chive Hollandaise

2nd. Vichyssoise

3rd. Citrus Sorbet

4th. Best End of Lamb, Crusted with Green Peppercorns, Mint, and served with a current sauce - or - Fillet of Pork, stuffed with Prunes and Sage, with a Sage Cream Sauce - or - Fillets of John Dory

5th. Lemon Torte

6th. Local Cheeses and Crackers

7th. Wedding Cake and Champagne

After all of this we will be handing out a pair of stretchy trousers to everyone! Although it is only 8am in the morning, now I am starving....

More details of the wedding weekend will be posted soon. We wish that we had been able to invite everyone to come to the UK with us, but as that wasn't feasible, we will try and keep you all up to date via the blog instead. Of course, there will be all of our wild and wacky travel adventures too. Those of you who have been following our blog for a few years will know what we mean. Perhaps we can throw in a few more videos too!

So over the next few days we have to finalise elements of the ceremony and we still have to work on the actual important 45 minutes were we get hitched. We have music sorted, entrances and exits, some readings, and a sketch of the vows. Time to get busy though! We have, though, finally succeeded in choosing all the music for the evening event. It promises to be a totally random affair as both of us sat down and created playlists of some of our favourite music. We have everything from Bing Crosby to Lady Gaga, with a stop over on Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, Spice Girls, and Vicky Carr. Quite eclectic to say the least!

So, there we have it dear reader, a smallish update. The first main blog post will likely be from the airport on Saturday. Keep watching!

Big Love,

David & James

Re-entering the blogosphere....

2010-07-07T09:35:00.002-04:00

Greetings all! This blogmeister David returning to the blogosphere once more. But wait, I hear you all cry...why now?

Well, dear reader, in case you didn't know, James and I are heading off on our travels again this summer. Though this time things are going to be even more exciting than usual. We are heading to England on July 24th, and will be away until August 24th. And the exciting part? On August 21st we will be getting married/civil partnered! Oh the excitement! Oh the joy! Oh the....planning!

So, in preparation for that, it is time to dust off the blog once more. We will be keeping you up to date as we prepare to leave, and of course, once we land back in good old Blighty (England for all the Americans.....) we will be posting lots as we travel around too. Will we be posting on the day itself? If I can smuggle my cellphone into my wedding suit, most certainly!

So, sit back and enjoy. This blog exists on blogger.com and can be accessed directly if you want to by heading to www.rovingtheworld.blogspot.com . It also gets feed into facebook pages through the wonderful world of Networked Blogs. It would really help us if you became a follower of our blog through Networked Blogs. The more followers we have, the more frequently Networked Blogs and Facebook will check our blog for updates. If you are reading this on Facebook, then you will likely see a button to follow us somewhere! Please click it!

Happy Trails, and watch this space!

Big Love,

David and James

The day after...Off to eat and sing!

2009-12-06T11:33:00.000-05:00

Morning Blogpickers! It's the day after the wedding, and we are a little tired. The evening was great and we had a super time. It has quite invigorated me for our wedding next year! I couldn't blog last night as Blogger was acting up, but all seems well now. Lisa and Joel are safely in Cancun and James, Jonathan, Julia, and I are on our way to Florencias house for breakfast with Sonia and George. I am looking forward to this as finally we are going to record Florencia and James playing the guitar and singing Mexican folk songs. George bought a portable recorder along for the occasion. I have wanted to record then for ages so hooray!

For those of you who are wondering, the picture today is of Jonathan and Julia, our grand kids. The are great and it is so nice to be able to spend time with them. Last time i say them was Xmas last year. How time flies!

So on with the show! I'll post more later.

Big love! D&J

Ding dong the bells are going to chime!

2009-12-06T09:53:00.000-05:00

So Lisa and Joel are now married! The service was in a little open air chapel in the hill country
And it was beautiful. Freezing but beautiful! Lisa looked awesome, as did Sonia, her sister. James gave her away, and when James and Lisa walked up the path to the chapel it took my breath away. The service lasted about 15 minutes and now we are at Carmellos for the reception. A fun night is in store!

Big love, D&J.

Power shopping in Austin!

2009-12-05T15:07:00.000-05:00

Well, James is now all fitted out after a whirlwind shopping trip. Brooks Brothers, Dillards, Mens Wearhouse and now we are sorted. More to come a little later, but now, David needs a drink! Martini please!

Big love, D&J

Sashay, Chante!

2009-12-05T10:54:00.003-05:00

Morning Blogpickers! Yes this is Blogfuhrer David, from Austin calling. Today has dawned a little warmer! Hooray! Yesterday was so cold that I had no idea what was going on. It was a very strange experience, as it was certainly no colder than Cincinnati is, but I guess my body was expecting something a little different! Subsequently I spent the whole day wrapped up in a fleece, and a scarf....Brrr! We had a good time tootling around San Antonio and made it back to Lisa's place around 8pm in the evening. What did we do in the evening? Sit and chat and drink wine of course.

So this is just a quick post as we are heading off to do some shopping! Fashion calls, so we are zipping out to Brooks Brothers, Macys and other such fun places.

Maybe I'll post some mobile fashion show blog pictures a little later....watch this space!

Big Love,

D&J

Here in snowy Texas!

2009-12-04T14:33:00.000-05:00

Well, it really is snowing in Austin. It's also cold enough to freeze your whatsits off too. Freaky weather-it must be the result of all that hairspray in the 80s! Lord knows there is enough big hair in Texas to need spraying...

So now we are off driving to see some old friends and visit some familiar places for a few hours before meeting up at Lisa's house a little later. We just ate lunch at Taco Cabana too, so fueled with Mexican nosh we are now heading to San Antonio for the afternoon. I recall going there a few years ago at xmas and enjoying myself. James also used to live there, so it should be fun. But now, dear reader, I have some homework to do! No gazing out of the window for me. I'll be glued to my laptop for the next hour or so, writing a paper. Gripping stuff! I'll keep you all posted as to our adventures a little later.

But for now, Big Love to all!

D&J

Snow in Texas?

2009-12-04T07:47:00.000-05:00

Greetings blogpickers! Welcome back to roving the world with David And James. Who knows whether all the blog links still work? If this shows up on facebook can someone let us know! Time for a quick update. We are on our way to Austin for Lisa and Joels wedding. It takes place tomorrow and we can't wait! I'll keep you all updated on our travels, but for now we are just sitting in the airport on our way to Memphis. Can you believe that they are forecasting a snow storm in Austin? That should make things interesting!

Off we go! Big love to all,

D&J

Hailing on all frequencies!

2009-08-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Morning BlogFolk! Welcome to Frisbee land, otherwise known as the breakfast bar at the Akron Best Western!
We tried three times to make waffles here but they all tasted like cockadoodoo! They were seriously dense, though not in a good way, like a sexy man who wanders out of the forest with his chopper in his hand. But I digress!

When we arrived at the hotel last night we thought it may have been closed down. But instead it seems that there was no-one else staying there. The front desk clerk, when asked how he was, said he was just 'doin' his thing'. As his hands were below the desk we chose not to dally any longer and scampered of to the room. A quick shower and a change of clothes saw us heading to Chilis for dinner. We didn't meet any scary people there, the food was good, and the evening was great. What more could you ask for, dear reader? A BEAUTY PAGEANT!

Yes, when we got back to the hotel, Miss Universe was in full swing on the telly. We flopped on the bed with a bottle of wine and proceeded to critique everyone! It was quite an experience to see that everyone in the universe looks the same in a bikini, just with differing amounts of hairspray. But the question is, if it's Miss Universe, where were the dollybirds from Alpha Centuri? Perhaps the hyperdrive on the spaceship was bust...

So now we are on our way again, on the final stretch of our journey. It should take about 4 hours to make it home. Thanks for being with us on our trip.

Big Love
D&J

The lake house.

2009-08-23T11:48:00.000-04:00

Greetings BlogPickers! This is BlogFuhrer here, and yes we are still alive and kicking! We had a little side trip the last few days to Connect-e-Cut and we were in an area with no cell service for most of the time. To cut the story short, Manuelas bridesmaid was staying at a beach house and invited us up to join her. So we headed there on Friday lunchtime.

It is right on a lake, so we spent two days swimming, boating, and playing cards. I took photos of the kids a lot of the time and am really happy with the results. I also did a family portrait too on the dock with my wireless speedlites. That turned out great too!

Last night we sat up playing cards till gone midnight, and now we are in the car heading back home. We are driving to Akron, OH today and stay overnight. Then onto Hebron tomorrow. For those who can't live without minutia, we are currently in New York State, listening to Discipline by Janet Jackson, (thats Miss Jackson if you're nasty!), and I am the passenger, as usual.

We have had a super trip! But of course it is not over yet! Who knows what mischief we can get up to in the next days? All I can say is that it is not over till the fat girl sings, and although Miss Janet is currently shopping at the Hefty Hideaway, she is still a skinny biatch to us!

We have just crossed into Pennysylvania. Pennsyltucky here we come!

What gripping lives we lead, dear reader. We are now trying to work out what the sylvania means. Any idea?

Big Love!

D&J

One if by land, two by FedEx?

2009-08-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

Here I am on
Battle Green in Lexington, MA, just making sure the coast is clear. I feel a tad conspicuous with my accent here, considering that the whole Revolutionary War began here. How humbling to be standing here reflecting on that event, and to think of everything that has happened to both of our countries since then.

We arrived at Simon and Manuelas house last night, and it was great to see them and to finally meet the girls! We had a lovely dinner and evening just catching up and hanging out. Special times with special people. That is what life is all about.

This morning James and I took the girls to the park for an hour and i spent the time taking pictures of the girls while James played with them. The are adorable and were very obliging to my camera. It will take a while to process out all the images, but for once I am looking forward to seeing my work!

So now we are heading on to Concord, after lunch and our trip to Battle Green.
But wait....what was that noise? Was it a shot ringing out around the world?

Oh...it was just James breaking a nail! Silly me!

Bangor, Brunch, and Lois.

2009-08-19T15:09:00.000-04:00

Although it may not be known in the usa, there is a song in england called 'Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Bangor'. The song refers to Bangor in Wales, but it is just as pertinent to Bangor, ME!

We arrived at the brunch spot, sans carnations, to be met by Lois crossing the street. She was quite delightful! We ordered sandwiches and drinks and took a seat outside. There then followed 3 hours of splendid conversation and reminiscing that was super to watch. I also learned a few things too! The time flew by, punctuated only by frequent checks to make sure our tyres had not been chalked by the enthusiastic traffic wardens. We left with a promise to return , and an invitation of a place to stay! Thanks, Lois! We will be back!

Now we are on our way to the next reunion, my best friend Simon, who lives just outside of Boston, and whom we haven't seen for just over 5 years. We will be staying with him and his totally gorgeous wife, Manuela, for the next few days. We will also get to meet their two daughters for the first time. It promises to be a fun time!

So on we go! Next stop Sommerville, MA!

Mad Alaskans and Englishmen.

2009-08-19T10:19:00.000-04:00

Well, the tent is struck and we have left the campsite. James dutifully posed in the spot where the tent was. What would life be without a cheesey photo!

We were up at 6.30am courtesy of a mad woman from Alaska with 6 screaming children in an RV. The little darlings were trying to kill each other while the crazy lady watched. We call her the crazy lady, not because of the kids, but because she had arrived 2 days ago and we saw her driving her RV at high speed the wrong way round the campsite one way system, not once but twice, while leaning out the window. I bet she is going to have a super time here!

Yesterday was indeed a leisurely day. We pottered around the island looking at shops, had lunch of Lobster Rolls and Crisps/Chips, and then a lovely hike around 1 of the beaches. I attempted to take some pictures but the dreaded haze was back with a vengeance. Still, 1 or 2 may look nice with work in post. Dinner was back at Mckays, & James had a great seafood risotto, with crab & scallops, & we had a bottle of Vinho Verde 4 a change.

So now we are on our way 2 Bangor for the first of two reunions. First up is Lois, someone who James went to Uni with in Madison. They haven't seen each other for 35 years. I excitedly asked if we needed red carnations, and a copy of the London Times, hoping that we would get to stand under a clock tower at noon, but alas no. We are meeting 4 brunch instead & they exchanged photos on email. How modern! Now i am out of space!

BL,D&J!

A lazy morning...

2009-08-18T11:52:00.000-04:00

Greetings Blogpickers!

Its a beautiful day again here in Maine. The only thing that would make it better is blogging on a PC and not a Phone! Still, mustn't grumble! We just finished breakfast and are enjoying doing nothing for once. Last night we had dinner and drinks at McKays Pub. We had such a great time that we are going back tonight. The place is lovely and the garden tables are just beautiful.

Today we plan to just tootle around the island for the morning, browsing the scenery and gift shops. Yesterday was so strenuous, that we decided that todays walk would be a leisurely afternoon beach stroll. Expect paddling pictures tomorrow. James will be the one who looks like Esther Williams...

When we got to the top yesterday, the view was amazing, although very hazy, so not good for photos. The walk back down was just as challenging, and the whole r/t took just under 4 hours. The terrain was much rockier than we are used to, but our new boots, Scarpa Kailashes rose to the challenge admirably. Today my challenge will be to take some pictures! I took a few portraits of James last night, but that has been all so far. Oh well! I need to find a way to lighten my camera bag some, so today may be easier if i do that. I may be more inclined to take pictures as well if my bag is lighter.

Character limits approach again, so !adiós y amor grande¡

D&J

OMG!

2009-08-17T21:05:00.000-04:00

Stainless steel camping Martini glasses.

We have found the Holy Grail!

The things people do for a Martini!

2009-08-17T13:50:00.000-04:00

This is on the way up. Can you make out James? 20 minutes to go!

Rise and shine with David and James!

2009-08-17T10:58:00.000-04:00

Morning all! Welcome back to our blogosphere! In this picture you can see our new Nemo Losi tent. Its great! We did a whole load of research on tent this time and Nemo stole the show for us. Its roomy, light, and very sturdy. I almost am wishing for a storm to really put it through its paces. But alas, dear reader, it looks like there is no rain in sight.

Breakfast has been dealt with, in the form of Eggs and Bacon, all washed down with personal french presses of Buckies finest coffee. James is truly a happy camper once he gets his joe. So now it is on with the day!

We plan to do our first hike this morning, after dishes and showers are complete. But first a funny story from last night. We got back to the campsite last night at 11pm. Quiet time begins at 10pm, so we drove in on side lights, kept our voices low, and very quietly shut the car doors and tailgate. The place was as quiet as the grave. Then James accidently pressed the panic button on the car key. Lights came on and started to flash, and the horn started honking like the car was blowing the biggest rape whistle in the world. It was quickly silenced, though not until it had gone through 4 loud cycles. I of course laughed my self silly. The last laugh was on me though, as at 7am, in fumbling for my watch in the tent, I hit the button too! So at least the entire camp site knew when we went to bed & when we got up.
So now we r heading off for a hike, and i hve hit the max on a mobile post!

Big Love! D&J

Martinis in Maine!

2009-08-16T22:12:00.000-04:00

Well, it had happen. We found a Maine Martini! Here we are in Cafe bluefish in Bar Harbor. It is a Blueberry Lemon Martini. Heaven! We have no internet access at the campsite so I am reduced to blogging via the phone...lots of key presses!

We had a wonderful drive up from Portland, stopping off at some lovely towns on the way. James bought a new wind chime for the deck, and we both just enjoyed the drive. With all the stops it took a good deal longer than we had thought but we made it here about 5pm.

After checking in at the campsite we set about pitching the tent. This trip we have a lot of new gear, so pitching everything took a lot longer than usual. The new tent from Nemo went up well, with its rather groovy 'PawPrint', a interior device that is like a big duvet cover for thermarest mattresses. It also has pockets for stuffing with clothes to make pillows. And the best thing is that the tent and accessories all only weighs 6 pounds!

So now we are out in Bar Harbor. Dinner was fantastic. I had Swordfish in a sesame crust with chile oil, while James had a Piece of Salmon in filo pastry, layered with boursin cheese. Delicious! Now we are safely settled in a bar with a beer each. See we don't just drink Martinis! Tomorrow is to be a b exploring day, and we can't wait!

So that is it for tonight. I can't believe i wrote all this on my Smartphone. Now my fingers feel like they are going to fall off...lol.

Goodnight to all and of course, BIG LOVE!

D&J

Breakfast at Dennys!

2009-08-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

Grand Slam, pancakes, syrup, iced tea, coffee, and a bucket full of grease. Someone pass the tums please!.....Burp!

It is going to be a long and bumpy ride to the camp site!

Big love, D&J

Stilletos, Squid, and Stones....Dinner in Portland.

2009-08-16T08:49:00.005-04:00

Morning all!

It is a bright, sunny morning here in Portland, ME. This is a beautiful place indeed. Last night we had a super meal in Portland at Street & Co. It's a great little restaurant that specialises in seafood, and we kicked off the meal with squid with garlic and hot peppers, and for our main course we had Lobster Diavolo, which was a whole lobster between us, along with masses of clams, mussels, squid and pasta. All washed down with a Simi Chardonnay. We pushed our reservation back by half an hour when we arrived so that we could sit outside, as noted by the picture of James on this post. It was a good thing, as the few times we went inside the restaurant, it was hotter than a crotch. At least outside there was a slight breeze. We also had great fun watching people deal with walking on the cobblestones past our table. As the night went on and people got tipsier, then the "cobble stone shuffle" got very tricky for some folks.

D&J's tip to the wise? Don't wear 8" stilletos if you are planning to get shit-faced and trot down a cobblestone street. Unless of course you want to fall flat on your face and be entertainment for everyone else!

So, dear reader, what is happening today? Well, we are heading off to Bar Habor, specifically the Blackwoods campsite in Acadia. We have a site reservation there, and we can't wait to get there. It's about a three hour drive from Portland, so we plan to take the coast road and just enjoy the scenery. Then of course we will have to deal with the most pressing issue of the day - where to have dinner! Those of you who have been following us for a while will be used to the fact that dinner and wine really ARE the most important things to us when on vacation!

So, without further ado, it's time to hit the showers, go find some breakie, and 'git 'n down the trail'.

Okay, that kind of accent really doens't suit me does it!

Big love

D and J

Driving with David and James....

2009-08-15T18:31:00.003-04:00

Blogpickers ahoy!

Well, here we are on our way across the country once more. I’m writing this post in the car on the way to Maine, with the intention of posting it when we arrive there a little later. Boy has it been a long drive! We ended up leaving Rochester, NY around 9.30am after a quick detour to find a Starbucks and fill up with gas. Rochester seems like a nice place, and I wish we had maybe a little more time to explore. But on we go….we have seven hours of driving ahead of us to look forward to…yay!

We headed across NY, and then onto MA, where the people drive like fools it seems. The Massachusetts turnpike is filled with people driving at 90+ miles an hour, tailgating, flashing lights, and generally being twats. If you want to go fast and kill yourself, then fine, but it is quite possible to do that without interfering with everyone else on the road. I can’t begin to tell you how many cops we saw as well. As for my favourite pet peeve, texting while driving, well it seems that is a state hobby, though I will admit that I see just as many fools doing that everywhere else too. I wonder how many people would answer yes to the question “Are you prepared to die for THAT text message?” I suspect not many people will be queuing up to say yes, especially after that recent survey that found people were 23 times more likely to have an accident when texting and driving. I had thought of getting my camera out and doing a little project of taking pictures of people texting and driving, while I was a passenger of course, but thought that people would probably crash if they turned around and saw me. Ok…off that soapbox now!

Aside from the loonies on the road, the journey through MA was quite beautiful. There are trees everywhere, and the highway seemed to go largely through the countryside, avoiding the wastelands of strip malls and industrial estates of other states. Now don’t get me wrong, I can be quite partial to a bit of industrial wasteland, but the tree lined landscape is really pretty. It seems to be lasting as well as we are now almost out of MA and about to cross into New Hampshire. This is a varied country for sure and it’s nice to get out and about and see parts of it that are new to us. BTW, we just passed into NH, so it was closer than I thought! It is also important to say that we just saw the prettiest toll both lady ever. Normally, they seem to be, as you know, rather erm…., well, you know how some tool booth people can be don’t you? It largely seems to be populated by people who failed the Dairy Queen Charm School, but this one had a big smile, lovely hair, and a fresh complexion. New Hampshire must be an agreeable place to be a toll collector it seems!

This does seem to be the time for vacations and holidays for everyone. When there is little to do other than stare out of the window at other cars, you notice these things. Many a minivan has sped past, jammed with soccer balls up against the windows, suitcase shoved up to the sides, and various limbs of children poking out of the sun roof. Service stations have been equally gripping, with sun burnt little darlings everywhere and hassled looking parents clinging to their tempers. The lines at MacDonald’s (of which there are many)have been filled with drunks, people who smell, ladies in big hats, chaps dressed in suits, and of course us, the happy homos, whizzing through and passing judgment on everyone else, purely for the enjoyment of you, dear blogpicker! What would you do without us! Actually I was possibly one of the people who smelt, as I realized this morning that I forgot to pack any deodorant. Still a quick trip to CVS fixed that. James struck up conversation with the checkout lady, as is his wont, and after swapping life stories, we were on our way, leaving a fresh scent in our wake.

So now, dear reader, what else is there to tell you? Next stop will be Portland, Maine. We will be staying at the Clarion Hotel, booked through Priceline, for those of you who are detail oriented. I have never succeeded with Priceline before, perhaps because I am always being cheap and putting in $50 for a roundtrip ticket to the UK as my bid. This time though, James was in charge and we secured a veritable bargain for $70. If, however, the room comes with William Shatner lurking in the closet, I shall be less happy. What I can tell you, though, is that we just passed over a bridge and are now in Maine, aptly titled “vacationland” on the sign. That is good, as I would hate for them to think we came here for anything else. Maybe the woman in the tool booth in New Hampshire was so happy because her state is so small that she knows she will never see the same person twice!

We have dinner reservations this evening all sorted as well. While a passenger earlier, I did some research online with my Smartphone on restaurants in Maine. We are heading to a place called Street & Co, famed for being a cosy bistro atmosphere with excellent seafood, and hopefully a good wine list. So there you have it. I’ll post this when we get to the hotel! Thanks for checking in!

Big love,
D&J

Yawn.....Breakfast anyone?

2009-08-15T07:22:00.003-04:00

Morning comes so quickly! It's 7.30am here and we are up and about! It seems that overnight the required number of people signed up to follow the blog, so this should now be showing on my Facebook feed...Hurrah and thanks Shelly and the others! For others, it would help us if you could "follow our blog". Just below this post is an option to do so. The more followers, the more frequent the pull time on Facebook!

For those of you who are new to our blog, we keep it updated as we go on our travels. It keeps you updated as to where we are, what we are doing, and also contains links into photos of our travels through Flickr. Now we have added Twitter, which will feed Facebook too. Oh the joys of being plugged in! If you are new to our blog, then you can check out all of the archives too. I think that somewhere in this post, if you are viewing it all through Facebook, you will be able to click through to Blogger, as Facebook only shows the first part of each post. Anonymous commenting is always enabled on the blog, so you can leave comments here or on Facebook I guess!

So today we head for Portland, Maine. It is a 7 hour drive from here, and I can't wait! For some reason I have always been attracted to Maine, although I have never visited. The scenery looks so lovely in pictures, though I am a little troubled by how many horror films seem to be based there. We will be staying overnight in Portland, then heading on to Bar Harbor and the Acadia National Park on Sunday morning. Lots of walking, photography, and good times is on the agenda!

Well, time for brekkie I guess. I'll post something a little later on!

Big love to all....

D&J

The eagles have landed....in Rochester, NY

2009-08-15T00:01:00.003-04:00

Greetings Blogpickers!

Just a short post to let you all know that we are here in Rochester, NY for the evening. After a very long day of travel, we just checked in and are heading to bed. I just set up a few new things with the blog, so we shall see if it works. I linked the blog up to my Smartphone, so I can post on the road, and also subscribed the blog to the Facebook NetworkedBlogs application. So hopefully soon, these posts should show up on my Facebook page too.

Anyway, tomorrow morning we will be heading off to Portland, Maine. We will be leaving around 8am I think, and you can follow us on our travels here!

Big love to all....

D&J

Reving the Engines and Enabling the technology

2009-06-29T09:40:00.002-04:00

Greetings Blog Pickers! Yes, we are back and alive and getting ready to roll. It has been a few months since we went anywhere, and we have now decided on some summer travel, albeit small and short trips!

We will be heading out in August for two trips. The first will be to Madison, WI, one of the nicest places that I have ever been to. Each year James has a conference there and for the first time last year, I went to. I was so taken by the place that I want to head back there again. This time I plan to do a lot more photography! Our second trip will be to the Acadia National Park in Maine and to Boston to see my friend Simon and his family. We will be camping in Acadia for three days and then spending three days in Boston with Simon, Manuela, Celeste, and Madeline. Can't wait! We have to get cracking on getting ready, as I have to research and buy a new tent. Our trusty tent that has been all over the world with us is finally ready for retirement, so the next few weeks will be spent researching and shopping, two of my favourite things to do!

And so for the technology. This trip, as well as the blog, we will be using Twitter, and this will be happening via our Windows Mobile Smartphones. I'll be using an application called Twikini on the phone to post to my Twitter account. For those of you so inclined, my twitter ID is dnmartin98. Twikini will allow me to follow those of you I already have set up, as well as posting tweets directly, without having to use SMS. I have been trialing it for a few days and it seems really quite robust and effective. So, if you want to follow me on Twitter, sign up now! For more information on Twikini, you can check out their website at

http://www.trinketsoftware.com/twikini

We will also be on Facebook for this trip as well. Talk about well connected!

Bye for now!

The long and winding road....

2009-03-29T18:32:00.002-04:00

The long and winding road…..

Well, it’s time to return home. Sunday has come all too quickly, and now the fun must end…Boo Hoo! It has been fun but it has also been somewhat exhausting! Yesterday was a great day, though jam packed with things to be doing! Picking up from yesterdays post, we headed out last night to the theatre. When we arrived, we had a quick look around and mingled in the foyer with everyone else. I introduced James to the concept of ordering your interval drinks prior to the show, which is an old tradition in London theatres. Basically you pay for your drinks prior, give them your name and when the interval begins, you come out to the foyer. There on a shelf is a whole row of drinks with little tickets attached to them. It’s an honour system, and I have never had anyone swipe my drink before. It still works in 2009 which is fabulous. Anyway…best not get ahead of myself…

Armed with a bag of Fruit Pastilles (candy) and our program we headed into the Dress Circle of the Comedy Theatre. The theatre dates from around 1850 or so, and is quite small. We took our seats and marveled at the set on the stage. This was a re-worked version of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical of Sunset Boulevard. It had mixed reviews when it opened in the 1990’s, and ran for about 3 years in the UK and about 3 years in the US and then disappeared. It was revived last year with a newly orchestrated score and a leaner production. I had never seen the original so I can’t really comment on the changes, but this show was really excellent. The leading lady was off sick all this last week, so her understudy was performing. She did a very good job considering and it didn’t detract from the performance at all. A great show!

We rushed out of the theatre at 10:10pm and headed on our way to dinner. Having never been to Langans Brassiere before, I wasn’t really sure how to get there. I had asked the concierge at the hotel for directions. Well, he sent us in totally the wrong direction, so it took us a little while to get there. But get there we did, and we arrived in the nick of time for our 10:30pm reservation. Langans was wonderful. We both had Spinach Soufflé with Anchovy Sauce to start, and the James had Bangers and Mash, a British specialty, while I had the Fillet Steak with green peppercorn butter. Yes, we had a bottle of wine too….surprise! We kept our eyes open for famous people, but alas there was not a Spice Girl in sight…….heading out at 11:50pm we leapt into a taxi and returned back to the hotel and collapsed into bed at 12.30pm, which, considering the clocks went forward in England today was really 1.30pm. Yikes! Thank heavens for packing earlier!

I have to admit that this morning came all too quickly. We were up at 6:45am and showered, checked out, and in a taxi to Victoria station. The Gatwick Express train at 7:45am delivered us to Gatwick airport at 8:!5am where a holy dragon from Delta Airlines informed us that our preselected seats from 3 months ago had been reassigned to someone else. Now, I can put up with a lot of things, but I have a short fuse with the airlines. Having been shunted into the middle section of the plane from our window and aisle seat was not good for my spirits. Still, realizing that dealing with these people is often one of the world’s most futile past times, we just left it at that and headed for coffee, duty free, newspapers and ultimately our gate. On board and on our way at 10.45am!

The flight? Well it was what you expect really. It’s Delta. Ever moving down-market with their service levels, paid for by us as the public buying tickets, with not a hint of performance related pay for the people who work their flights. If there were, then they would all be penniless by now…..’nuff said, methinks…. I managed to get through some of my images on the plane and will continue to work on those tomorrow, hopefully for a print deadline of around Wednesday of this week, if not before. I hope I have enough!

So now we are back home again! Cats are all well, we are unpacked, laundry is in, British grocery shopping is put away, James has sorted the mail, and I have just spent the last two hours cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming and washing floors. Now it’s time to relax! A martini is calling followed by the ultimate treat……Dancing with the Stars from last week! Yay!

Thanks for keeping up with the blog and for all your messages and comments! We will see you all this week!

Big love,
D&J

Friday and Saturday

2009-03-28T13:31:00.002-04:00

Dear BlogFans!

Well, it's Saturday afternoon. How time is flying! Sorry I did not get to post last night, but the day was just a whirlwind, as has been today! These short international trips are fun, but jolly tiring!

Friday dawned with our usual breakfast trip to a local cafe. Then I sent about working on my surprise English paper. I had to read the play and write a mini paper, that was not so mini it appears. I didn't get out of the hotel until 12pm. I headed off on several missions, and also to try and take some more photographs. A dash into a few shops to pick up some supplies, a crap picture here, a potential good one there, and of course a stop for lunch, though this time at Wagamamas Asian restaurant. The day was whizzing by! After lunch I headed off to St Paul's cathedral as it was on my list. I had a similar "large building" problem with my shots here, and I am still not sure that I got anything really usable. These big buildings are a problem! Next stop was Tower Bridge, another difficult shot, chiefly because it has been shot so many times before. I fear that my shot here will actually be just quite ordinary, but we shall see. All of my work has been carried out with the lensbaby again, so perhaps that will have worked some magic on the image. A final sunset looking back up the River Thames, and I was done. I have no more time for images, so now the process of editing and working up the images will begin. I am planning on spending the flight back to the USA on Sunday to do that, as I have to print this coming week and be ready to hang at Starbucks by next weekend! Eeeek!

Back at the hotel, it was a shower and change and then off to meet David & David for dinner. We had such a super time with them, and both James and I wish that we got to see them more often. It's good to have friends that you just seem to be able to pick up where you left off. D&D if you read this, we love you both! After dinner, James and I decided to talk a walk back to the hotel so that James could see what the Soho area of London was like at the weekends. It was certainly busy, and we popped into a bar called Village for 20 minutes for a drink. It was really packed, and we didn't stay long at all. We were both ready for bed....talk about feeling old! Everyone looked like they were 12 years old, so we shuffled onward, taking a brisk walk back to the hotel to help walk off dinner.

Today we were up early again and off to Sainsbury, a large grocery store in nearby Camden Town. We had supplies to buy to bring back to the US with us, chiefly food products that we just can't buy in Cincinnati. We had a blast running up and down the aisles with our baskets, though this time we are more limited as to what we can bring back. Still, we managed to stock up really well on foodstuffs, so we are happy. A jump on the train and back to the hotel once more! A quick shower, change, and we were out again 45 minutes later on the way to Covent Garden to meet Margaret and Shirley and their daughters, Maria and Sarah for lunch. These are more friends of ours that we know largely through our times in Menorca. They all live just outside of London so we try and meet up whenever we have a chance. We went to Porters restaurant, which is a famous Pie shop in London. We filled up on Steak, Mushroom, and Guinness pies, Vegetarian pies, and washed the whole thing down with wine, and topped it off with some really heavy hot sponge desserts. Afterwards we felt so bloated I felt like I was going to burst. Lets hope I am ready for dinner tonight!

Now we are back at the hotel again, and James is taking a nap while I do the packing. Tonight we are off to see Sunset Boulevard at 7.30pm, and then we have dinner at Langans Brasserie at 10.30pm. Then to bed, and we leave tomorrow morning. The clocks go forward in the US tonight, so we will also lose an hour of sleep. Still, at least we should get a rest on the plane!

So there we have it. I doubt whether I will get a chance to post tonight, or tomorrow, and then we will be home. So I'll try and post when we get back home on Sunday afternoon.

Hope all are fine and dandy!

Big Love,

D&J