holy cow batman

• i am hungover
• i am on holiday nanananana

well its official, we are on holiday and it feels mad. well actually i feel sick - a bit too much celebratory wine with miss kane last night but it was a grand night and worth it. It been a busy week trying to catch up with more people before we go, managed to see jen and khal on tuesday and just for you jen i promise i will now summarise and bullet point at the start of the blog so you dont need to read the whole thing. Also saw claire and sara on wed for a visit to the pics and had a lovely night out with work on thurs. they took me to a stip bar for my send off - actually it was just our local The Guilty Lily but it was their official opening night and there were a few burlesque acts going on - i think the boys were enjoying the view. I was too busy looking at the lush wee pink ipod they got me - thanks so much guys i am so so excited about using it and will miss you loads.

today i was supposed to get up and be productive but havent really done much yet. ricky is off to dundee to drop the polo off and catch up with mark so i am treating myself to an afternoon pamper session at the spa in ocean terminal to get some pre holiday preening done.

tomorrow we are off to glasgow in the morning to drop off ronnie at my friend rikke's - his suit case is packed and he is looking forward to being spoiled for 3 months. on monday i am going for a haircut and at some point i suppose i had better think of packing - its a bit too much of a scary thought so will prob leave it to the last minute which is not that wise - but what else would you expect from me.

the cards are still coming in so thanks to all who have sent them, Les B thanks also for the travel grooming kits - going to come in very handy.

right i am going to get off my arse and do some washing - will try and blog before i go with our itinerary --have a cracking weekend and dont work too hard on monday :)

(Un)popular

Hi Folks - I'm definitely getting more used to blogging as it only took me 10 minutes this time to work out how to post a message! As Emma previously mentioned, many thanks for all of you who were able to make the party last Saturday. We had a great time catching up with you all and are very grateful for all the cards & presents we received. Special thanks to Ross and Zoe who travelled up from Nottingham for the party. I must admit, i struggled to even drive to the supermarket on Sunday never mind the 7 hour drive down south.

One common theme which started to emerge as we were getting slightly drunker was that folk started to mention that they thought we were lucky swines for sneaking off for 3 months. Well don't worry, we'll try and keep our blog up to date so that you don't miss out on any of our adventures - it will almost feel like you're with us!! Even folk at work have started to get their own back on us by piling up the work just so that we kept busy before we head off. Honestly, i think we deserve a wee holiday....

Been busy this week with our final preparations for the off. Having realised that New Zealand is a fairly big place and that the wee stretch of water between the two islands is in fact a 3 hour ferry, we've decided to add to our carbon footprint by taking an internal flight rather than the 20 hour drive. I wonder how many other times our geography skills will let us down?

Finally, there was quite a bit of interest in my reference to the global economic downturn in my last post - well OK only one person (hi Dad) - who was particularly interested in why the pound had fallen so much recently. Well it's due to a combination of factors such as the difference in interest rates and the financial market's perception of the strength (or rather lack) of the UK economy, which is influenced by the state of the public finances. In addition, certain currencies such as the US dollar are seen as "safe havens" during periods of turbulence, which partly explains why the pound has depreciated against the dollar in recent months. There you see, those 5 years at uni weren't wasted after all!

Anyway, catch up with you all later. Ricky

leaving do

just a quick one to thank everyone who came yesterday to the old chain pier for our leaving do. we had an absolute ball and it was brilliant to see so many faces - especially ones who had travelled from a far. had a few blubs along the way when saying cheerio to folk especially sandra - man she set me off. thanks also for the cards and very generous gifts, our living room now looks like a clintons display rack (there were so many). its lovely to see all your well wishes and made us smile when we finally got out of bed this morning to read them - helped with the hangover :)

i have posted some pics here of the occassion - some are a bit blurred -this was not from me getting more and more drunk, its more to do with the fact i am still working out how to use the camera - i really need to get to grips with the instruction manual. Anyway you can see them here http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80006&id=732850985&l=f3005 - i am sure my mum will send me more so i might add to it
later in the week i will be posting our itinerary so you know where we will be and when as requested by miss christie - if anybody has any other requests please shout

am off for some munchies -damn this sore head - it was worth it - thanks again - love you all xx

dreams can come true

the dreams are getting weirder - the other night i dreamt a snake bit me in the foot and last night some hooded riders from lord of the rings were descending on me in the shire (obviously i was thinking about new zealand subconsciously- well at least i hope). i hadnt even eaten any cheese. WTF????

anyway last night ross and zoe arrived from nottingham to stay the weekend, so lovely to see them, havent caught up with them in ages. They are here for the leaving party which is today - we will be meeting up with family and friends at our local pub the old chain pier, in order for us to say our cheery byes. have quite mixed emotions at the moment - in the one hand i cant wait to get off, in the other i am really nervous and i suppose in denial at the fact we will be away for 3 months. Maybe i just think its still all too good to be true. I am also not relishing the fact of saying cheerio to family and friends who i will miss enormously - but i know through the power of tinternet we can be in touch as much as free wifi access will allow.

there has been a slight change in plan in new zealand we are now flying in to auckland picking up the camper van and then travelling the north and south island before flying back to auckland via christchurch (before we were just going to drive back) think we underestimated how big new zealand actually is and this gives us a couple more days to see the immense countryside and in ricky's case meet more sheep. cant wait to see fiona in dunedin along with the penguins.

better head and start getting breakfast ready, hope to see as many of you as poss this afternoon from 3pm. catch ya later xx

Family Affair

Well since the last time i blogged a week has been and gone again, i really do think the days are starting to go faster. at midnight last night i turned to ricky and said this time in two weeks and we will just have landed in tokyo - except it wont be midnight there it will be 9am (oh i foresee some jetlag) - how mad is that. As if Tokyo wont be strange and bewildering enough we will arrive having been up for almost 24 hours and will have a full day ahead of us - this could prove fun. we will just need to try and sleep on the plane although i am thinking we will be too excited.

i have started to have some really weird dreams about going away which is leading me to become quite nervous (one has involved me losing ricky and ending up in morroco!!!!!) i am sure this will not happen - i wont lose ricky he will purposefully leave me somewhere.

since most travel plans are now in place we have now started to panick about what loose ends we need to tie up before we go ie the flat/cars/bills etc - the list of things to do seems to be getting longer but mr murray is taking control and is getting through it(albeit rather grumpily, i think the stress is kicking in). you would think we were leaving the country for 3 months or something. we literally have a tree full of paper we need to take with us with all our info/visas/confirmation bookings etc. i am sure we can cut this down somehow.

we are trying to catch up with as many of you as possible before we leave. Had a lovely meal with Alan and Phillipa last night -thanks so much for coming through guys it was fab to see you. we also had a really nice dinner with Jake and Rach and new wee baby Evie last week (so cute). its mad seeing our friends turn into responsible adults over night. there seems to have been a lot of people becoming responsible lately.

Had Ellis's christening on sunday which allowed us to head to cumnock for the weekend to see friends and family. It was lovely to catch up with everyone (even though we will see them again this weekend) and we had great time - we went out for lunch after church which was fabby doo and then sampled some of my mums scrumptious cake before heading back to russ and sands for a cuppa. Ellis looked so pretty in her (very old family heirloom) dress and Zoe was hilarious introducing everyone to her mum and dad during the service. I was looking after Nic's wee one Isla during the proceedings as Nic and Robert were godparents. She was so well behaved apart from ripping pages out the hymn book (extra money in the collection box from us) which to be honest i was finding extremely amusing. Amazing how church flies when you dont have to listen to the sermon as you are entertaining a child. i might borrow her for the next time.

Just wanted to say thanks so much to all who have sent cards and gifts - you really didnt have to, it was far too generous but we greatly appreciate the thought and look forward to using our new gadgets and gifts along the way. Not to single you out Sarah but the toilet tissue on the go dispenser i think was an extremely enlightening present which will prob be used very often. And on that bum note (see what i did there) i will sign off for now. catch you soon xx

Technology

Hi There - well i've finally got round to losing by bloginity and posted my first message. Please note that this is totally off my own back and not due to constant nagging from Emma who was concerned that it was turning into "Emma's Blog". I must admit that it took me a good 20 minutes to work out how to add comments to the blog - hopefully i'll become more efficient in future, otherwise this could be my last posting.....

Not quite sure what i should add, so i thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss the current economic crisis and what policies should be followed to ensure the downturn is minimised. It all began with a series of imbalances in the global economy which can be traced back to the 1990s.........OK I'll save the rest for another day (promise).

So as Emma has highlighted, we have been busy with our master/cunning plan and are now pretty much sorted for our travel plans. Emma has been busy sorting things out for our time in Oz. I'm particularly looking forward to catching up with Andrew in Sydney and sailing round the Whitsunday Islands - though i will remember to take Jake's advice and buy some ginger tablets in case my sea legs desert me (like on the English Channel last Sept).

I think the main thing we need to sort out now is what we should take with us. Thankfully i decided to buy some very small suitcases so as to minimise the amount of new clothes Emma needs to buy! I guess we need to prepare for all conditions, given that I'm pretty sure it'll be a bit chilly when we're in Canada. Mind you, the past few days have been good preparation for driving through any blizzards we encounter in the Rockies.

OK that's enough blogging for now. Think i'm all blogged out. Ricky

nearly 3 weeks (tomorrow) till we finish work

yo yo good people. so we sent out the link for the blog to everyone at the beginning of the week and so far feedback has been really good - hope you have all added it to your favourites or rss feed (if i missed you sorry have added link to facebook and twitter so you should be able to find us from there). please please leave your comments - its great to get feedback and hear how you are.

this week has been a bit of a flurry of energy - at the gym on tues and badminton last night - so not feeling the most sprightly today and a tad stiff. i think that might do me in the exercise stakes until the weekend. but in amongst all of this stupid behaviour holiday fever continues.

3 weeks tomorrow till we finish work - its quite unbelievable - we have been honing our plans for austalia this week and we now have accomodation for the hunter valley booked http://www.thill.com.au/ - very excited about meeting the resident kangaroo and tasting some fine wines (still off alcohol and has to be said the novelty is very much wearing off - still only 2 weeks more to suffer that one) . we have also had confirmation of our booking for the sail on the whitsundays. the boat is very aptly called the Alexander Stewart (pictured above)- nice and Scottish. it sails from Airlie and we will be cruising for 3 nights and 2 days doing not a lot except helping out with the sailing and some snorkelling - apparently we will be heading to some of the most amazing beaches and coral reefs so rather excited about that one.

Off into town tonight after work to meet claire and to try and find some flip flops - think Accessorize is the place to go - will need to try and wear them in before we go though as you know what my feet are like - 1 day in sydney and they will be ripped to shreds probably with blisters ahoy - no matter how nice and soft the shoe is. damn and blast my pathetic, weird looking soft skinned feet. i am also on the look out for a hat but having a bit of a debate about this one - should i just wait until i get over to australia before buying one as if i get one here it might be rather bashed by the time i get there - this of course will only apply if i decide to buy a stetson - which to be honest i think would look pretty cool - christie i am nickin your travelin style here.

the other conundrum is what books should we take with us - all suggestions greatly appreciated for this one - let us know xx

snow brings everything to a halt

sorry i couldnt resist this really amused me http://tinyurl.com/cggbol

it has nothing to do with the trip sorry hope you enjoy

4 weeks to go

well that was rather a quick week - its all becoming very real and now in what seems like no time at all, we only have 4 weeks to go. Its been a lovely week just chilling and catching up with friends, there has also been some great news winging its way to us. Kelda and Callum got engaged at the Taj Mahal and Goggs and Christine have set a date for their wedding at the v. posh cameron house. Congratulations to you all - Nice one!!!!

we had a really good catch up with mr gordon on the phone last night where we were discussing plans for when we are visiting them in Sydney - going to be brilliant to see them and find out how good goggs's tour guide skills are. Plan is to see them for 4 days when we arrive, go on a whistle stop tour of the blue mountains and hunter valley wine region for a few days before flying to cairns, where we will spend 6 days in accomodation right on trinity beach (prob do some snorkelling, a trip to the barrier reef, the rain forest and lots of lounging around as well as visiting the local sites) we will then drive to Airlie before getting on a cruise round the whitsundays and then flying back to sydney where we will spend our last day climbing the harbour bridge. watch this space for photos.

we also managed to work out this week how to connect to people via msn so we could use the webcam. this will allow us to catch up with people face to face, so if you have a webcam or even msn, please respond to my invite so we can chat whilst we are away online. if you didnt recieve an invite please let me know - our user name is emmajcowan so you might be able to find me.

i also joined twitter last week - for those who dont know its a micro blogging site http://www.twitter.com/- if you register i am on there as emmajcowan as well - kind of like a mini facebook but a lot quicker to scan and hear what folk are up to -i am just trying to find as many ways as poss to let people know how we are - what would we do without tinternet eh?

ricky has been back in dundee this week catching up with his folks who are off to florida next week - mad to think we wont see them again until june. whilst he was away i caught up with claire who made me feel very jealous as she told me about her wonderful trip to africa - i am now wishing we had included that as part of our itinerary - still always next year eh mr murray?