Only 157 Days until we head off to see the Little Green men at the Little Ale’inn

So the planning almost seems to be done, does it Lorna? Apparently “yes” comes the answer from the Tour Geek. Time to show the Foggies in the there Ireland, a little of the Americas:

• Las Vegas
• Grand Canyon Skyway
• Bashful Bobs
• Four Corners
• Zion National Park
• Grand Canyon
• Canyon de Chelle
• Hole in the Rock
• Monument Valley
• More Hinjun stuff
• Area 51

We are also planning to have a go on a shooting range in Vegas (watch out women with loaded guns, not a good idea), visit the Ferrengi in the Quarks’s Bar, Hike into the canyon all the way to the bottom, drive lots of miles (about 2,500), eat Buffalo Burgers and Rattlesnake sausages and get drunk occasionally.

We Cant Wait!

  Hoo Yah, summer has actually arrived in the UK, well as far as we are concerned!!

Twas the first “Foggs” BBQ (nickname from the Barty’s based on our travels, so Craig is Phileas Fogg and Lorna is Passepartout?).

After a tough Saturday having to deal with technical issues, we decided it was time to burn some flesh, so out comes “OLE RUSTY” and time to severely kill something. Having been a nice warm day (well warm for the UK anyway), it made a welcome change to sit out in the garden until the wee small hours eating burgers and drinking beer. Mr Spike was extremely happy at being able to wander around and spray anything that didn’t move or look too intimidating.

Unfortunately having 2 bloomin great Chestnut tree in the garden, tends to leave sticky buds all over the gravel and poor old Spike spends hours walking a few feet, to have to stop to pluck the sticky buds out of his paws, to then realise he now has them stuck on his bum.

 So next time you are in the area, stop in and enjoy a good bit of food from our rusty old barby and a few beers.

 Summer is here, you are most truly welcome.

I had a couple of lessons on a real man’s motorcycle back in Feb and decided that I wanted to learn how to ride and get a proper bike. The only problem with this logic is that I am rubbish on a real bike, having spent my time on a twist and go scooter, the concept of the clutch and brake in different locations has almost caused me to be thrown of so many times.

The instructor was very patient informing me through my earpiece that I have just driven through a Stop sign, I am driving too slow and that I being overtaken by a disability scooter, that I have missed my turning, I need to change up from first gear when I am travelling at 40mph, the list is endless.

So we decided to put Sasha up for sale (the bright yellow scooter we have) and look at buying a proper bike for me to learn on, after 1 month of advertising, we mainly had calls from a company that “have buyers interested in buying the bike, providing we pay them first” and an eastern european chappie who wished to view the bike with his wife, but then mysteriously never appeared.

Earlier this week a girl sent a text message through with the perfect grammar of “You still had bike for sale”, she called me in a thick european accent and the conversation went a little along the lines:

Girl: I wish for to buy bike, where am you living

Me: In York

Girl: Where is please?

Me: York in Yorkshire

Girl: Is this far from London

Me: Err yes, about 200miles plus a bit

Girl: I can get train to you yes, then drive bike back, how long this take

Me: How long this take, what the train or to ride the bike back at a speed limited 62mph

Girl: I ride on motorway

Me: Well if you are legal to do so, but it would take a long time to get back

Girl: It ok I like colour so I want to buy

Me: Forgive me, but are you real or is this a joke

Girl: It real I want buy it

So after this conversation, I started to receive more texts exclaiming that she would arrive by train on Sunday with cash only to buy bike and ride back. Now I started to get a little more suspicious about this, especially since she refused to use electronic transfer or bankers drafts. Thoughts of being handed hookey money and seeing Sasha ride off into the distance, with a girl giving a false name and address, started to flood into my mind.

We decided not to sell since there was too much risk associated with this transaction, but still the texts kept coming, “I very genuine, no funny business” “I want bike, you have no risk for sale”. Sorry call me jaded or a complete cynic, but trust of fellow humans is so far down on the list that we eventually told the girl that the sale was totally off and we would not sell to her at all.

So we still have Sasha and I still need to have some more experience on a geared bike to prevent me from killing myself. In the meantime I have sat my bike theory test, what a complete waste of time and money that is and I have under 2 years to pass the bike test or I need to take it all again.

So there you go, the moral here is if you are going to buy a scooter in a city known for bikes and scooters, make sure it is a well known make that everyone will want, not one that looks like a giant canary that has been stretched and squashed.

Its Saturday morning and Spike the cat gets his own back for being left inside all week by jumping on us at some unearthly hour in the morning & wailing at some unmeasurable decibel level in our ears.  Joy! 

Well, its official, Craig has gone back to work, been there for two weeks already and in his words “has done very little yet”.  Meanwhile, I’m on a roll- the last permanent member of IT left yesterday, my contractor has just quit to pursue a career in the NHS and has kindly offered just a weeks notice,  I have several hundred applications for two permanent roles all from people outside the UK, where English appears to be their 4th or 5th language (not even second) currently residing in a country thousands of miles from the UK, without a work visa but able to start Monday courtesy of this wonderful governments open door policy, oh and some bus driver from Dagenham who has a PC at home and can drive a bendy bus.  I can see this recruitment lark taking a while! 

Anyway, away from the work stuff, we’ve been very busy, drinking, sleeping, a bit more drinking, the odd movie and then spending hours irritating the cat, all told, fun times at the Allan household!  Still, following my successful introduction to Indian food we’ve made Friday nights at the local a bit of a thing  – curry things for Craig, sweet coconut & pineapple things for me, washed down with a small tipple, a stagger back and plenty of snoring!

Next month we have decided to go visit the Folks in Ireland (takes us a month to prep the Livers before we go!), we’re off for the Bank Holiday, flying straight into Knock (no doubt Craig will sample the alcofrol on the EASY-BMI-RYAN-JET-AIR and the hospitality offfered at £5 per smile or £10 per pleasantry).  The plan is to annoy the folks with the American itinerary (yes it will be bound & neatly presented by then Stu!), finalise the trip details and then sample the local delights of that there Ireland (rain, mud, clouds and cold weather).  You never know, it might even be dry and not windy this time we visit!

We did manage to watch a wierd film the other night – Southland Tales, starring Duane “The Rock” Johnson (oh how silly must his mortgage application look, Name: The Rock, Occupation: Useless actor who has to strip in every film he stars in) and Sarah Michelle Geller.  A must see but don’t try to understand it.  The best bit – Justin Timberlake wearing a cool t-shirt and singing “I’ve got Soul but I’m not a Soldier”.  If you can’t be bothered to watch the film, check out Utube which has the clip – very good.  Been singing it all week.

Anyway – must dash, Spike needs pushing across the floor again, he’s not impressed that we’re not paying attention!

So this Easter we had Allan and Bel up to stay with us and boy did we sup some of that there alcoholic beverage thingy:40 bottles of beer12 bottles of wine1 bottle of poo12 cans of ciderOh My liver pate anyone? This actually beats the record set by those well known alcofrolics The Folks in that there Ireland.We took a gentle stroll into York to enjoy the rather windy sites, as well as scoffing a hog roast sandwich each (ooo yummy), then the plan was to try a local Indian restaurant (Lorna’s favourite I think not), but it was a really nice meal in pleasant settings with excellent company.Sunday was spent watching the 3 inches of snow settle and Allan & Bel waiting behind a bush to pelt Craig (who with his spider sense realised this and didn’t come back until they got too cold), then learning the ground rules for Texas Holdem (big Blinds and all that stuff). Finishing off the evening with a nice 2.5Kg leg of lamb between 4 ravenous meat eaters.All told a really pleasant weekend with 2/3 of the Barty Crew and really nice to see them again, so come back soon.

We plan to celebrate this evening (and commiserate) since Craig managed to bag a really good job today.  Starting on April 1st (yes it is a real job and not an April Fool’s joke, or we hope not anyway!)  its back to stuff he knows lots about  – taking the mickey out of everyone around, practical jokes, being argumentative – oops I meant to say software development.  So, now all the practical aspects kick in – we need another car again for instance.  Then there is the sharing out of the chores – and I thought I’d managed to avoid them!

But is the dream over, our escaping the rat race and seeing distant shores??  Well, not so much over as on hold until we rebuild the coffers a little.  We’ve still lots of dreams and plenty of plans in place and we will make each one happen – of course a large windfall at this stage would assist with the plans (ps any rich distant rellies out there wanting an orphan to claim?).  We did try to claim Craig was the original inspiration for Tin Tin or of course Jimmy Somervilles love child (and if you know who we are talking about it would take some leap of the imagination for that one) but unfortunately he lost his hair before we could get the claim to court – so lost out there!

But, back to the grind then, at least until October when we do the Folk Tour.  And as to me – well, one month as Head of IT and I’m quite proud to share with you all that I have managed to lose the entire original support team – yup every one of them has resigned (hoo harr, I’m NASTY).  So fun and games all around me at the moment.

Spike, the flabby lay-around is now on an enforced diet which  might have been as easy to offer him a gastric band or something, lots of faff weighing out bits of food only to watch the cat devour it in seconds and wail for more. 

And this week we mourn the last of the Pear Dare, supped earlier on by yours truly – delish!

So, to the weekend, a fab meal planned by sexy chef Craig, champagne to celebrate his new job offer and plenty of laying around doing nothing.  Enjoy the weekend everyone.  Next week for us workers its a shorter one!!

What a hectic last few months it’s as if Christmas was years ago (me so sad I love Christmas time).

Lorna (aka BossLady) has been working her little socks off whilst I get to play “howsebeetch”, you know general stuff; cleaning, cooking, ironing (all this and no man boobs either).

We were recently hit by a nasty flu bug (my first in 4 years), but now we are back up to full speed and enjoying the weather in cold, wet Yorkshire (oh Tyddyn we miss you so). Poor little Spikey has put on so much weight with not exercising and the vet reckons he has a dodgy ticker (amazing that she gleemed this info after listening to his heart beat fast whilst ramming a thermometer up his jacksy, think my heart would race a little too!!).

So what else is happening in “chez allan”, well Lorna is busy booking and arranging The Folks guided tour (we even added some little fun pictures to their page on the site) and we will add the best bits of video from the tour.

Me, well besides my chores, I have been chatting to a few companies about using my wealth of knowledge (shhh, stop laughing now) on Projects, so who knows we may even have to share the chores soon (Lorna even had to ask me where we kept the pots and pans the other day, shows how much time she spends in the kitchen).

At the end of this month the Barty’s, well 2/3 of them anyway (no little H) will be paying us a visit and I’m hoping to get the BBQ out for a bit of ritual animal burning.

Anyhoo, let us know what is happening with all you guys.

I suggested this morning that we went off to visit the shops.  A brief car trip to the York Designer Outlet for a wander around inside seemed a good idea so off we went.  The intention was window shopping only!  Hmm, one new coat, a suit and several tops later, it seemed sensible to get out of there while the bank balance was still unaware of the ££s I’d just spent.

The best bit…..got a pair of new jeans in a Size 8 – woo hoo, haven’t been that since my school days (too bad its the American size, but I’m not telling anyone but you about that!)

Well hello from the new and improved Our One Big Adventure website.

It has been a while since we managed any updates, but we is on a roll now (hopefully anyhoo).

So 2008 was a wonderful start, I suddenly became an adult, well a child in a man’s body anyway, celebrating the anniversary of my 39th birthday only in the style that we can, back in St.Lucia for a glorious period of time. every day consisted of 3 solid meals, wine with lunch, cocktails during the day and champagne at night.

Lorna (the most wonderful wife ever) had booked a helicopter transport from the Airport in St.Lucia to the hotel as a surprise, along with a days sailing, searching for whales, snorkling and champagne at the sunset. We stopped again at the East Winds Inn, which I have to say is second to no other hotel for service and food quality. On the way over I was forced to wear an 8inch badge with flashing lights on it, which got a few giggles and plenty of alcohol from the cabin crew.

Back down to earth now and Lorna is now the Head of IT (no surprise there really, she is good at what she does) and we are enjoying time in a little village in Yorkshire (it does not compare to the wonderful cottage in Wales where we spent a year). Thanks to the Barty’s for the calendar with the most wonderful views from our old property (brings back so many good memories).

And now we are busy planning the summer vacation (ooo yes), with a visit to Vegas and a road trip with the Folks from over in that there Ireland.

Plenty of things happening to keep us busy at the moment, learning to play cribbage (or being shown and forgetting the rules immediately, thanks Stu & Jen). I’m learning to ride a real motorbike instead of a twist and go, so if you see me on the road, better leave a lot of room, still struggling with gears at the moment.