End of an Era

So this is it - our last day in Edinburgh! We're in an internet cafe as our access has been shut off at home, and first thing tomorrow we're on the train with our stuff to Liverpool. Very exciting!!

We had our leaving night on Thursday, which was lots of fun - a lot of people came out, which was really nice. I also received an extremely generous gift voucher for John Lewis (a nice department store) as a going away gift, which was really nice of everyone. The landlords came today to check out the flat, and everything is fine, so we're just hanging around (and doing a bit more cleaning.)

After careful consideration, I've decided to set up a travel blog. I appreciate that this looks a bit self indulgent (even moreso than just merely having a blog!) but there is method to my madness. I've often used my Xanga to whine about work and various other issues that might be seen as somewhat less than professional if viewed by some of my colleagues, ha. But a lot of friends from work and nice acquantainces have asked if I was going to set up a travel blog, so I've gone for it. The blog can be found here and I'll update it from the road, though I may post on my Xanga now and again too. I'll not retire it entirely, but I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch with people who probably shouldn't see my personal blog!

Alrighty, that's it from Edinburgh... I'm sure I'll be on once or twice again before we leave the UK.

2 Days Left! (Of Work)

Yay! I've only got two days left at work, which pleases me greatly. This will probably be my last blog entry from Edinburgh, as we're very busy the next two nights (our leaving party is tomorrow night, and we're out with Gill and Kevin on Friday night) and our internet access is cut off on Saturday. I'll be sure to post loads of updates from the road, though.

We've been quite stressed out with the move, and packing what ended up being more than we anticipated (and therefore more expensive)... although not by too much, so I guess it's okay. Our washing machine is also being highly, highly tempermental, which is annoying, as well as our DVD player, which we sold to our landlords but suddently no longer works (!!) As well, a big storm knocked out all TV reception in the entire building, so we've had no television for the past week or so. And all of our books and DVDs are packed away. I have no idea what we will do on the weekend once our internet goes. Actually, we'll probably clean the flat so we can get our 900GPB deposit back!! Ha.

I'm completely over my job, so I'm glad that the end is near. I think I'm going to be forced to do an exit interview so have been conferring with Paul about how to be professional and not hypocritical (i.e. claiming that I've had a fabulous time, which I've not) at the same time. Hopefully my manager will forget and I can just leave unnoticed.

I'm quite mixed about leaving, as it's obviously really sad to say goodbye to people, but we're also off on this wonderful trip which makes it so much easier at the same time. We've also got quite an exciting year ahead of us, what with buying a house and getting married, so we've got a lot to look forward to. We've really had a great time over here but I think it is probably a good time to call it a day and move into Stage 2: Being A Grownup. Or something.

Unrelated to the above: if you've not seen Arrested Development, please go rent the first season as soon as you are able to.

We've still not had a letter or anything confirming receipt of Paul's immigration application to Canada, which is also stressing me out a bit. I'm sure our application is in good order as we submitted a lot of documentation (plus I was granted the exact same visa over here a year ago on the basis of our relationship) so I'm confident it will be fine in the long run... I just wish they would confirm that the application is in the system and that we have an official file number. I think it was received just over a month ago, and I suppose it was Christmas and all, but it will be nice once the "Thank you for your application" letter reaches my parents.

Well, that's it from Edinburgh, I suppose... I shall write again soon, likely from Liverpool/Oxford/London or some combination thereof, and then from India!

Oh, and on a sad note - Heath Ledger... how awful is that?

Woo! A Post.

So clearly I've been very lazy at blogging as of late, but here we are. Our internet access is cut off on the 25th of January, so my blogs will continue to be somewhat sparse, but I'll definitely post while we're on the road on our trip. For those interested, our itinerary is as follows:

Move out of Edinburgh on Monday 28 January, head to Liverpool for one night, Oxford for one, and London for five.

Monday 4 February: London to Delhi

Tuesday 4 March: Delhi to Bangkok

Friday 28 March: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) to Singapore

Friday 4 April: Singapore to Sydney

Tuesday 8 April: Sydney to Christchurch

Friday 16 May: Auckland to Cape Town (via Sydney and Jo'burg, which will be our longest flight and therefore PAINFUL)

Some undetermined date in early July: Nairobi to London

Monday 14 July: London to Winnipeg

Re Nairobi: I emailed our safari company asking what the deal is with trips that go into Kenya, and they said that they rerouted a handful of trucks around the new year, but that the areas they travel to have been unaffected by some of the problems that recently erupted in Kenya. The Nairobi office is also receiving hourly updates on the situation and are prepared to relay notices to reroute trucks as needed, but from the sounds of it the issues are affecting only certain slums in the outskirks of Nairobi and areas we're not even going to. Still, we're not going to be there for months, but it's good to know that they have contingency plans and that safety is a priority.

New Year's Eve was good -we just went to a nice bar on George Street and saw the fireworks, which were quite nice. Nothing much to report but I must be getting old as I'm kind of over celebrating NYE!!

We've been quite busy with packing/sorting/selling and generally working out the logistics of getting our lives overseas. Jeff was in town for a few days and stayed with us for a couple of nights over the weekend, so it was good to see him. He's embarking on a few months of travel as well so it all sounds quite exciting.

Wooo... 8 days of work left!!

And congratulations (a few days late) to Leighton and Julie on the birth of wee baby Riley, a brother for Kaleigh, and a nephew-in-common-law for me! (And a nephew for Paul, of course.) Also congratulations to Dylan and Catherine on their very very new baby, Frankton Lennox!

Happy (Almost) New Year!

So we returned to Edinburgh on Boxing Day after a nice couple of days in Liverpool. On Christmas Eve Paul and I took the rental car through the Welsh countryside and had a nice lunch a few hours away in Wales. The weather was a bit grim - very cloudy, rainy and foggy, but what can you expect from winter in the UK!

Christmas itself was good. We opened gifts with Paul's family in the morning (they gave us lots of stuff - I was surprised!!) and we all had the traditional lunch together. Paul and I keep collecting bottles of champagne that people give us but we don't drink, so we took that opportunity to bring them and open them on Christmas Day. Food was pretty good and Paul's aunt served a traditional Christmas pudding, which I love, so it was very tasty. In the evening a lot of their extended family turned up (no one we knew, as it was on their other side of the family) so we cowered with Paul's cousins by the buffet table. It was nice to see the Carters though, and we'll see them for a night before we leave next month since we're stopping over in Liverpool for an evening.

Last week I did two half days at work and I've got to go in tomorrow morning, which I'm dreading since our network, for a variety of reasons, will not be working, which means that I cannot access ANYTHING to do my work. It's also a bad time of year because a lot of things are due, and the girl replacing me is away so I'm all alone in the office tomorrow and I'm sure a lot of stressful things will be happening. I'm so glad I've only got eighteen and a half days left!!

Which is a bit terrifying - in four weeks' time we'll be in Liverpool, all moved out and ready to hit the road. I'm really sad to leave behind our flat, but onwards and upwards, I suppose (and the fact that I am NOT sad to leave my job behind makes up for it!) We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff we're not taking and a lot of stuff is already cleared away, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get everything else shipped back to Canada. Time flies!

I bought Paul the first series of Arrested Development on DVD for Christmas; it is very, very funny and original.

And Tomorrow is Christmas!

So we're in Liverpool at the moment, staying  with Paul's aunt, uncle and cousins. We drove down Saturday afternoon and it was relatively uneventful, although we did need to drive through a lot of fog near the Lake District, which was a bit frightening, but we made it unscathed. (And got to eat at a tea room on the way.)

Our Chritmas party was lots of fun in London. We left on the train last Monday at around 9am, and of course the Scots started drinking on the train by 10am. A lot of them were very messy once we arrived at the hotel around 2pm, but it suppose it is one of those memories that I'll be able to remember once we leave! The hotel was nice enough, not quite as posh as the one last year, but it did the trick. I also got my hair done, and it was slightly terrifying before - it resembled Amy Winehouse somewhat, at least in height. I managed to tone it down though, and it looked fine in the end.

Dinner was alright, and the awards ceremony was well paced, so no one was falling asleep into their salad plates. The dance was amusing as well, although the music was far, far louder in the dining area than on the dance floor, for some reason, which was a bit bizarre. I finally hit the hay at about 1am, and beat a number of my coworkers to bed by (literally) six hours. There were a lot of complaints on the train back the next day!

And now we're in Liverpool... yesterday we went into the downtown to do a bit of last minute shopping. I got my haircut and the ordeal ended in tears. Has anyone seen the movie About a Boy? You know that kid, Marcus? I feel like my hair looks like his. Paul assures me that it looks fine, but it is awful. At least I can wear something on my head once we go travelling.

So that's it for the moment from here. Happy holidays to everyone!