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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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...

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!

Stainless steel camping Martini glasses.

We have found the Holy Grail!

The things people do for a Martini!

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

Rise and shine with David and James!

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!

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!

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.

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....

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?

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

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

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....

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

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

Rainy days and Thursdays....

Greetings from BlogLand on Thursday,

Hello all! I hope you are all well....it's quite late here (12.25am) and I am getting ready for bed. Today has been a long day! We managed to sleep all the way through the night yesterday, awakening to the alarm at 8am. A quick shower and brushing of the teeth and we were on our way to breakfast. I had spotted a place yesterday that I fancied trying. It was called the Victory Cafe, and it reminded me of the kind of place I would sometimes be taken by father when I was a little boy. Well, all I can say is that I probably didn't have particularly refined taste buds when I was a boy! It wasn't too bad, but I can say that I have now done it and that memory is dealt with!

After that, I headed out with camera bag while James did the conference thing. I felt a little sorry for him as I gamboled around town....well, I only gamboled for about 30 minutes as then the heavens opened forcing me to duck in and out of shops. I was working my way down Oxford Street at the time, so it wasn't really too much of a chore as there are plenty of nice shops to spend time in! I was thrilled to find the latest re-issues of 5 Thompson Twins albums on CD that I had been wanting to buy in HMV, so that made up for the fact that it was raining and that all the pictures I had taken so far were crap.

After a sandwich from Marks and Spencer (where else!) I arrived at Marble Arch, one of the places on my list for photographing. And I was faced with the same problem here that has stumped me at so many other sites. How to take pictures of something so big? I didn't want to do just small detail shots, from which you would never really know the bigger scene, and all the other kinds of angles I shot just looked silly. So instead I shot it in 5 pieces and I will try and do some kind of montage thing after the fact. Who knows if it will work; I have never tried anything like that before!

Next I headed off to Hyde Park, which was really quite lovely post rain. I wandered around, took some dud pictures of daffodils and then settled for some hopefully nice scenic views of walk ways and couples who had stopped for a quick snog on the paths. I have high hopes for these; snogging always adds a little something, don't you think?

By this time, the gorgeous James had finally broken his bonds and was heading to meet me. Through the wonders of cellular communications, he emerged from Hyde Park Corner tube station to meet me at the Wellington Arch. Then the heavens opened again. With that we headed off down toward Buckingham Palace to see if Liz Windsor was there. I am guessing yes, as her flag was flying from the roof. After realising that we had not been invited to tea though, we headed off in the other direction with as much flounce as we could muster - pretty difficult when you look like a drowned rat. After heading up the mall to Trafalgar Square we decided that enough was enough, and that shopping would be the antidote. A quick train ride and we arrived at Marks and Spencer's clothing store in Marble Arch (seems like a circular tale, eh!) James busied himself in the underwear department (bet you really wanted to know that) while I picked out two nice pairs of flannel pyjamas. How middle aged are we! Those of you who thought that this blog might get a little racy can switch off now!

Next on the agenda was dinner. James had wanted to try an Indian restaurant so we went to Veeraswamy off Regent Street, England's oldest Indian eatery. It's been there since 1926, and I thought that would mean it was either going to be terrible or fabulous, with little middle ground. It turned out to be quite fabulous, although with scary prices. I had a chicken, James had lamb and we washed the whole thing down with a Martini each and a bottle of wine (between us, not each!) Back on the train (pic attached!) and now it's time for bed!

Tomorrow I have to do more photography (getting a bit nervous now...have to shoot some good stuff or I am in trouble!) and I have to do an unplanned English paper, thanks to my professor changing the syllabus. It meant that I had to buy a book tonight to read tomorrow, and then write. So I am not a happy bunny about that. But such is life. I can't really grumble can I!

So that, dear readers, is today. Tomorrow night we are heading out for dinner with two dear friends, David & David who are coming up to town to meet us. I can't wait!

I'll post again as soon as I can. Hope all are well!

Big Love,

D&J

Wednesday with a vengeance....

Hello all,

Well, it's the end of Wednesday for us here in London. It's been a long l o n g l o n g l o n g day! We woke this morning at about 5am due to the wonders of jet lag. I was starving, and my stomach though that I had missed dinner due to the time change. So, after lurking under the covers for another 30 minutes trying to go back to sleep we got up and got dressed and went for a walk! Roving the streets of London at 5.30am showed a very different side to that which I am used to. The streets were being swept, the air was crisp and clear and the loudest noises to be heard were the birds singing, punctuated by the odd diesel engine in a taxi passing us by. We spent a pleasant hour walking from Euston up to Camden Town and back, just in time for a cafe to open and serve us breakfast! Egg, Bacon, Sausages and toast were the order of the morning, all washed down with a jolly good cup of coffee. After that, a brisk stroll back to the hotel and the day began proper.

I had a project to do - my anthropology paper. Lets just say that I did it and leave it at that, okay? It took me until 1pm, much longer than I had thought or wanted. James had headed off to his conference leaving me in the hotel to work. Once I had the paper completed, I headed off into the outdoors once more. First stop was lunch, a cheese and onion sandwich, bottle of cola, and a bag of chips/crisps from Marks and Spencer. Such bliss! All this was eaten on the move while ducking in and out of shop windows to avoid the odd shower of rain. Oh, and in between all of this I took a bunch of pictures, though nothing very inspiring I may add. I had a picture mission today, and nothing was going to stop me!

I had been thinking about what I wanted to do for my photo project while I was here. After all, I have a show to put up at Starbucks next week, so my deadline was really here. Suffice to say that I started work on the idea that I had. It involves focusing on one particular landmark in London and the plan is/was to spend the next two or three days photographing it. After about 3 hours of work, I think I may have 4 good usable images. But I have to admit, I am not sure how many more things there are at this landmark. So we shall see how it goes tomorrow and in the meantime I will collect images for plan B! James joined me after his presentation at the conference (which went very well) and we had some more walking and sightseeing to do!

We headed down toward the Houses of Parliament, as it just seemed a nice place to be going. The sun was out, it was late afternoon and the light was just lovely. We spent a pleasant 2 hours walking around, covering Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the South Bank and some of the bridges. I took a bunch more images for Plan B and, surprise surprise, we ended up in the pub around 7pm. It was a welcome pint of beer after all this walking and photographing!

Dinner was a short walk away to a Fish and Chip shop of all things. It was okay, but not wonderful. My tolerance for large amounts of fish and chips has faded as I have become older, and I have to admit that I felt like a beached whale after eating it all. And, truth be told, I still do, 2 hours later.... We walked back to the hotel afterwards, and are now just sitting in the bar chilling with a glass of wine each before heading to bed.

I am sorry that I don't have any images for you all yet, but I haven't had chance to download yet. I'll do them tomorrow morning and maybe work up a few images to post to Flickr. Then it is back to the streets again!

After all, tomorrow is another day!

Big love,

D&J

Day One - Part Two.

Greeting all.....Your friendly BlogMan here!

Well, the first day is at a close. You caught our early adventures in the previous post, and now we are ready for bed. It's 10pm London time here and we are POOPED!

I forgot to mention earlier that we had a super surprise when we arrived at the hotel. The owner of the hotel in the Lake District where we are having our Civil Partnership ceremony next year had delivered a bottle of Champagne to the hotel for us. We had originally planned to meet him for a drink, but he was called away back to the Lakes so he left that instead. I am a sucker for good Champers, and will do anything for a good bottle. So Nick, name your price.....lol. By way of return, you can check out this fabulous mans hotel at http://www.winderhall.co.uk in case you ever need somewhere to stay in the Lakes.

After we left the hotel, today we went and had a sandwich for lunch and carried out a few errands. First order of the day was getting second sim card for James' cellphone so that we were both contactable. So, for those of you who collect phone numbers, here they are:-

David +44 7950 185 421
James +44 7904 614 970

Make a note of those if you want, and you can add them to your phonebooks. We keep our cellphone numbers in both Spain and England alive all the time, so you can always contact us when we are over here/there.

Next stop was to wander over to the Comedy Theatre, just off The Haymarket. We had booked theatre tickets to go and see Sunset Boulevard this coming Saturday. James has always wanted to go to the theatre in London, so we needed to pick our tickets up. Although it's called the Comedy Theatre, Sunset Boulevard is a revival of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical from the 1980's. With a completely re-worked score and staging, it has proved to be a big hit on the London stage second time around. We go this Saturday evening and cannot wait!

After that we headed to Alfred Dunhill, hallowed ground of my favourite clothes designer. Alas, this time we were just looking as the prices are now so far out of reach it isn't funny. We checked out the old store on Jermyn Street, and then trekked over to their new store on Davies Street. For those of you interested in their stuff, which includes luggage, clothes, suits, pens, cuff links, leather, watches and just about everything else, you can see more at http://www.alfreddunhill.com/ Ah to be filthy rich. We have some clothes from them from our previous lives, and it seems that we will never have anymore unless someone adopts both of us and gives us an allowance.

Next up was a leisurely stroll around parts of Mayfair on the way to dinner. By this time we were quite tired, but as it is the first jet lag day, we really needed to keep going until about 10pm tonight to get sleep equalized. We meandered our way around, eventually ending up at Pizza Express on Dean Street, home of London's first Pizza restaurant back in the 1960s and also a jazz club where many luminaries have and still play. Fabulous pizza, great salads and just a super atmosphere. Of course it was also accompanied by a nice bottle of wine. What more can we wish for.

Then we began the walk back to our hotel, where we are now in bed. I hope we sleep well tonight. Tomorrow James has his presentation at the University of London, and I have to tackle the next part of my Anthropology paper in the morning. So it's not all glory! I aim to get the paper done early so I can be out and about working on my pictures. No idea of what yet, but I'll get there!

So that, my fabulous friends and BlogFollowers is your lot for today. We will write more tomorrow!

Sweet dreams and Big Love,

D&J

London Bound

Greetings Blog Pickers,
Well, It’s Tuesday morning (8.55am) and we have just arrived. As I type we are sitting on the Gatwick Express train whizzing our way toward downtown London. The train takes about 30 minutes, so I thought I would take the time to dash off a quick post.

We left Cincinnati bang on time last night at 8pm. The taxi ride was a little alarming as the driver was texting constantly, AND talking on his phone, AND using his two way radio to communicate back to base. Consequently, after whizzing through check-in we headed straight to the bar…where else! After the taxi-ride from hell, a beer was definitely in order. One thing that surprised me was how quiet the airport was. Back in my corporate days, 6.30pm would have been a very busy time with people heading back from meetings etc. I know that when I was travelling around, I would always try to be on the flights that would get me back into CVG at around 6pm or so. Not now though it seems. The airport was a shadow of its former self. Could it be a mixture of the recession and also the fact that people have wised up to the shitty service that the airlines are dishing out? After having been told that if we wanted a once free plastic bag for our checked rucksacs we would have to pay $5 each, it seems that there is no end to the nickel and diming on the skyways. Ah well….bitch bitch bitch.

Finally on board, we settled in for an uneventful flight. The flight attendant sitting opposite me was a dental hygienist by night and a trolley dolly for Delta by day. “In the event of an emergency landing follow the gleaming white teeth to the exit doors please…” After dinner and a drink, I shut my eyes for a sleep. Normally I am not able to sleep for more than 2 hours on airplanes (no idea why that time seems to be my limit), but this time, after waking up after my two, I feel back asleep again for another 3 hours. Quite a record! Arriving at London Gatwick was uneventful, and in full possession of our bags, if not our faculties, we headed out through customs after dashing through immigration. Just think, next time we do this will likely be when James has his marriage visa for when we get hitched in the UK next year. What fun! After a quick stop at the Marks and Spencer “Simply Food” for some water and chocolate biscuits (cookies in American…Chocolate biscuits? ick…..) we headed for the train.

So here we are. James has just leapt out of his skin as a train going the other way passed on the next door track. The dour lady sitting next to me just laughed at him. Perhaps I will smack her in the back of the legs as we get off the train. For those of you who love to know these things, we will be staying at the Hilton Euston, which is on Upper Woburn Place I think. I am sure you can find it online if you must. Once we get to London Victoria on this train, a quick change onto the tube will see us on our merry way. Perhaps a nap and then out into the big city! I’ll write later!

Big love to all!
D&J

PS, we just woke up from our nap, showered and are off to find some lunch. I’ll write soon!

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines.....

Hello to all!

Welcome back to our travel blog for those of you who have been here before. For those of you who haven't been here before, then welcome anyway!

James and I are getting ready to head off on a mini-trip next week. We will be heading to London for a few days, so we figured that it was time to dust off the blog and crank it up again. James will be in a conference at the University of London, while I will be taking the opportunity to explore my home city and hopefully make some amazing images...no pressure there then!

We will be staying at the Hilton in Euston which will be quite a novelty. Other than staying for 2 nights in Claridges back in 2005 (which was the most amazing experience ever, by the way) it will be the first time that I have spent an extended period of time in Central London. I'm looking forward to the photo opportunities that it will bring. While James is in his conference I will be roving the streets! In the evenings I am sure that we will be getting up to all kinds of fun stuff, so we will keep you posted.

I'll be posting images on Flickr as before, and then perhaps using some of those images to kick off a blog post here. If you want to access my Flickr pages, you can do so by heading to :-

http://www.flickr.com/davidnmartin98

When I makes a blog post here, I will also make an update to my Facebook status to let you all know that something is going on here. That way you won't have to check multiple places to see what we are up to! Anonymous commenting is turned on for this blog, so if you want to comment here you can, or you can just use Facebook. So many electronic places to go! For those of you who are new here, then you can also read all the archives from our last big trip, our journey to Spain in 2008.

Exciting stuff! We leave on Monday evening, so get ready to travel with us through this blog as usual!

Cheers!

D&J