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Friday, May 30, 2003
BBC...again
The Holiday programme have confirmed that they do want to cover some of our trip, and plan to join us for a week in Canada, just two weeks into our trip. As you can imagine, Sarah's panicking already - "what will I wear?" (aha, suddenly those practical North Face things seem slightly less attractive to her!), "but I won't have got a tan by then" and "you won't have lost weight by then" are three thoughts that surfaced immediately. I wonder what the last six weeks in England will be like? I suspect I'll be on a diet, in the sun, and going round the shops with Sarah again to find practical and beautiful backpacking clothes. We'll tell you more when we know ourselves...
Things to do...things to know...things to wear
This week has been *bliss* We have been away for a few days, to firstly see some of our friends Up North, and then to drop the children with my brother's family in Chester. Then we went to Birmingham for a few days, to stay in a hotel and just act like adults. It's also been the chance for Sarah to do her "big shop" - for the right clothes to wear at the right times, and all to be crush-proof, non-iron, and backpacking practical - three things that don't normally appear in Sarah's vocabulary. And it was a success - Sarah has now got some good backpacking trousers (how did I manage to convince her that North Face was good for her to wear?), plus some tops (aha, although some came from 'sensible' brands, we did both end up getting some other stuff in Fat Face, which was incredibly comfortable to wear. Sarah has also got some practical shoes (again, something which is a miracle!). Anyway, we've now got all the clothes we're going to need, and have nearly got the girls kitted out (now that the postman has puffed up the drive with a HUGE Boden box. We'd certainly recommend Birmingham for shopping - we'd not been there before, and it certainly benefited from sunshine. We hit the shops, strolled the canals, and stopped every 10 minutes for a drink & snack. Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Getting closer...
Every day things get more real - we've just passed the "two months to go" mark, and are starting to think about really boring practical things - like how much can you fit in a rucksack, where to get travel insurance (we tried lots of different places, but the cheapest by miles was Insure and Go who offered a really good deal with the insurance for the girls included for free - so 12 months worldwide insurance, with luggage cover, has cost us just under £500. Lots and lots of other insurance didn't believe that backpackers could be over 35, or charged quite a bit for the girls, or offered pretty poor cover. We've also just picked up our Australian visa's - because we are going to stay there for longer than 3 months we couldn't get the ETA (a kind of electronic visa) sorted, so had to get them the old-fashioned way (it involved a queue at Australia House before opening hours, to be at the front of the queue) - it brings back memories of our last round the world trip, when we queued up for visa's to Jordan (small embassy in Holland Park, for a very expensive pretty stamp), India (long, long queue, with quite a bit of chaos and lots of administration - very similar to India itself) and Australia (same process, same brightly coloured sticker in the passport). Facing the man at the window, behind thick 'bank counter' glass made me a bit nervous. It was a bit like walking through customs - although you know you've done nothing wrong, the walk makes you feel as if you have. Well, the visa window was the same - although I knew there would be no problem, I still felt nervous knowing that the assistant could NOT issue a visa - and bang would go the roaming-campervan experience! But of course, nothing of the sort happened, we got lovely visas issued quickly, and we're one step closer to travel. Thursday, May 15, 2003
A year without Television - or so we thought
This week the children are having to cope without television - due to the usual kind of minor transgression that allows parents to impose discipline completely disproportionate to the crime! Anyway, as a result, every morning they've been having a lie in, or even doing creative things in the morning. The interesting thing is that I guess they're going to get very used to not having a TV on in the mornings or afternoons. But all that MUST change...because next week we've got a visit from a researcher working for the BBC Holiday programme. A few weeks ago they asked for people to let them know if they were planning a gap year - and we did (although we're not really typical gap-year-ers). Apparently they did have lots of interest, but for some reason (can't think why?) we stood out. So next Tuesday they're coming to visit, film a little bit of us (that'll be fine for the children and Sarah, but those of you who know me will be aware that I have "a face made for radio" - so I'll lurk in the background given the option!). We're not sure what it could lead to, but we'll see. It would certainly suprise a lot of people if we popped up on their TV screens!
Saltspring Island - our first accommodation booking
  Well, we've started to book some accommodation. Although we'd been excited by the SaltSpring Island Hostel, unfortunately the tipi and tree house reservations were grabbed right at the opening of the booking season, and we were too late to book! However, instead we've found a lovely camping site Lakeside Gardens on a lake, where we can reach a lakefront (literally three feet out of the front door) cabana, big enough for all of us. It costs us $70 Canadian - which is about £30, which is expensive compared to what we may pay elsewhere, but it's worth it to start with a few relaxing days before we dive into the hurly burly of our Canada adventure. It's a 2 hour ferry from Tsawwassen (gulp, I've got no idea how to pronounce that!), which is a 1 hour bus from downtown Vancouver, so it'll be an adventure getting there. But it looks lovely...
Cameras - again
Well, as you'll have read, we decided to go for the Ixus 400. By looking around on the Internet I saved around £100 on the high street price, and order from Digital Camera Company - but then discovered I wouldn't get delivery until the end of May - and then not even guaranteed. Although they didn't tell me this, I saw that 2 days after I ordered their web site was quoting looong lead times for delivery. And when I called I got a complicated story about a worldwide shortage of 3&4MP chips, and how nobody had them. So then I looked around again, and discovered that Amazon were selling them at a lower price, had a quicker delivery time, and threw in a free 64MB Compact Flash. And so, I cancelled my order and re-ordered with Amazon. That was yesterday, so now I'll wait to see what turns up - but I'm a lot more hopeful because Amazon have not let me down before. Thursday, May 01, 2003
MP3 Players (road-kit)
We also want some music for the road, in the form of a personal player. Again, I started by reading the reviews, searching the web etc etc. And pretty quickly came to the conclusion that want we want is something small and light, and that had reasonable music quality (let's face it, when you're sitting in Bangkok on a bus, high fidelity would be a total waste). And the winner was... the Freecom Beatman. It's amazingly small, only takes a single AA battery, and will be really easy to lose (it's so small, that you start to think that ear-bud earphones seem quite large!)
Camera's (road-kit)
Read back through our travel diaries
Having sooo nearly decided on the Nikon 5700, with it's amazing zoom and resolution, I started thinking and reviewing what I'm looking for a digital camera to do. What we want is something to take our photo's on this trip, that are good enough to be enlarged a bit, and that are likely to be lots of pictures of us in far away places. Last time, we took a Canon SLR with 28-300 zoom lens, and we took lots of interesting shots of people from across the street etc. The zoom lens was really helpful to get the shot we wanted, without having to disturb the scene. But this time, it's likely to revolve around lots of photo's of the family, and when we thought about that, I realised that "small is good" - we need a camera that can just slip into a pocket whenever we go out, and which is always available...and the Nikon doesn't really do that too well. Although it's a lot smaller than a standard SLR, it's a lot bigger than all of my pockets! So I looked some more, sought some more advice, read a few reviews, and then ordered a Canon Ixus 400. It's got 4MP resolution, 3x zoom, and it's very small. So it'll take the pictures we want, and there's much more chance of it being in my pocket when I want to get a shot of something fun. All that time, all that testing, all that going round the houses, and then doing it all again to change my choice!
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