We Made It! Barely!!!

So, we made it here alive and the trip has been amazing so far. We almost didn't get into the Scotland because we didn't have a ticket booked to leave the country. The guy pretty much laughed at us and told us we we're screwed and it took a good 10 minutes to talk our way into letting us in. Graham didn't help the situation when his bank statement stated he only had $6 in his account (it was an old bank statement). We spent our first 2 nights in Glasgow staying with Grahams Aunt Rosie and Uncle Gerry. Our second day here we got dropped off in downtown Glasgow by Grahams cousin Leigh. We started drinking farely early and met a local named Murray who showed us a few of the local pubs and took us to the University of Glasgow. We got some carry out (booze from the corner store) and drank on a big grassy hill with a bunch of people we met down by the university. There must have been about 200-300 people drinking on this hill. It was an awesome party. After that we went bar hopping with some french ladies we met and ended up at a peep show. It was just university students in the peep show so they didnt show everything but it was still fun. At the end of the night we walked home from downtown Glasgow to Cardonald which was about a 4 hour walk. All that walking to get home to a locked door. We ended up sleeping in the back yard on lounge chairs for an hour before Graham remembered they said they would leave a key under the mat. So at 6 am we stumbled into bed.


Last night around dinner time we took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh to see Dave and Charlotte. Thats a couple that Graham knows. We started the party early at The Amber Rose while waiting to meet up with Dave and Charlotte. We went to 3-4 different bars last night before finally ending up at the Casino around 330 AM. I some how managed to make 80 Pounds playing poker even though I hardly remember it. Graham finished up 35 pounds from black jack. We got back to Dave and Charlottes flat around 630 AM and slept right through the royal wedding. Today Dave had to work so Charlotte took us around and showed us some cool spots around town. Edinburgh is a beautiful city!


We've been absolutely stuffed since we arrived because the food is amazing and it's hard to stop even though you're full. So far we've had haggis balls, haggis on pizza, haggis and bacon sandwich, haggis burgers, deep fried pizza, blood pudding sandwich and curried chicken.

It's currently 215am and were sitting in Dave and Charlottes flat watching the Jays beat the Yankees on the internet.

5 Days left In Canada!

The past few weeks have flown by and were down to our last 5 days in Canada. You would think that with 5 days left we would both be ready to go and pretty much just have to pack. But thats not the case at all. I still have a few things to take care of before I can leave.

Things To Do

• Call my insurance company to see if I can put a hold on my car insurance
• Buy a net book
• Sort out my insurance claim with work regarding my knee surgery
• Go into Bell to cut back my phone bill considering I wont be bringing it
• Pack my back pack
• Purchase a flight out of Scotland
• Call Visa and tell them that I will be traveling and not to cancel my card when it gets used in a foreign country

If I wasn't such a procrastinator all these things would be done but I just can't seem to get them done knowing I still have a few days to do them. I don't think that will ever change with me.

We have found ourselves a place to stay in London. A friend of ours is over there for school so she said we could stay with her for a couple days. We most likely won't make it there for the royal wedding but we will be in London a couple days after so hopefully there will still be some stuff going on related to the wedding.

I've been getting pretty anxious to get traveling, but I know the night before we leave and the day of us leaving the anxiousness will turn into nervousness. But, I don't think i'd be normal if I didn't get nervous. This will probably be my last post before we leave but I will try to write atleast every couple of days. It all depends on where we can get on the internet and if there is anything "blog worthy" of course.

15 Days Until The Start Of My New Life!

Time keeps ticking as the date gets closer and closer. In 15 days the plane will take off from Pearson and then we will land on the 26th in Glasgow. We have our first place to stay once we arrive. We're staying in Paisly with Graham's Aunt which is only a few miles from the airport.

This weekend was the last weekend that I'll make it up to the cottage. I went up Friday morning but had to stop at Casino Rama to feed my ongoing poker addiction. It went well as I made $215 in about 3 hours so I was very pleased. Had a great weekend at the cottage and decided to try my luck at the casino again and in hind sight, I was probably not using my best decision making skills lol. I played poker for about 2 hours and lost $200 so all in all I'm up a whopping $15 dollars this weekend lol. The hand that killed my stack was a pocket pair of nines! Long story short, I made a full house and he made a bigger one on the river after we got all our chips in on the flop. But the important part was that I played well but was just card dead and got all my chips in with the second best hand which is a situation in poker that you can almost never get away from.

One last thought... This weekend I was talking to my friends Dad who owns his own business. So while we were sitting around the fire enjoying a few alcoholic beverages we ended up talking about business and how he started his company etc etc. I won't bore you with the whole conversation but there was one thing he told me to always remember. He explained that the business world is a lot like a whole bunch of people standing around the bottom of a ladder. Most people are always stuck on the bottom step and are always looking up at the asses of those people climbing up the ladder. While others take chances and risks and climb the ladder. The moral of the story/metaphor is to not be the one looking up at the asses of everyone else. You want every one to be looking up at your ass while you climb your way up the ladder!

Don't just stand at the bottom of the Ladder your whole life!

????????

As i'm waiting to fall asleep each night I tend to think about the trip and what each day, each week, each city, each country and each experience will throw at me. I wonder what the daily "routine" will be once I'm traveling and what the major differences will be in comparison to my life here. I wonder if it will be more adventure or more vacation? Will we even make it to Australia in the 3.5 months we think it will take? I wonder if this trip/adventure will change me? For better or worse? Will I find my way somewhere else in a far away country and decide to stay? Will I meet life long friends while on the road? All these are questions that will be answered in time. But for now I just have to continue my every day routine and wait for the 25th before those questions start to get answered. So for now i'll continue to wake up and make my coffee and breakfast. I'll continue to watch sports center every morning. I'll continue to work on strengthening my knee and i'll continue to prepare myself for this trip. So those are my plans for the next 20 days, but after that who knows. Thats the beauty of our plan; we have no plan, other then take it day by day and city by city.

23 Days Away! Am I Ready For This?

So as you can see I am using google Ad Sense on my blog because I thought it would be a cool way to possibly earn some extra cash. So far I have earned $0.03 lol. But hey, it's still early and i'm hoping the blog traffic picks up as the trip moves along. The blog also keeps stats of where all the traffic is coming from which is pretty cool. So far I have viewers from Canada, United States, Netherlands and Australia. Another feature of google Ad Sense is that it scans your blog posts to find key words so it can advertise accordingly to what the readers would potentially be interested in (hence the recent ads for flights to Scotland and cameras).

I bought my pack the other day. I spent a little more then I was hoping too but I think having a good quality back pack will be important and a good investment in the long run. After I bought the pack I was driving home and I got to thinking about this trip and was a bit nervous when I started to realize how big it`s going to be on the grand scale of ``traveling``. I can just imagine what ill feel the week before, the day before and the moment I walk through the doors at the airport. What doesn`t kill you only makes you stronger right?

As most people who are reading this probably already know I am still recovering from my knee surgery that I had January 28th. I`ve been doing everything I can to strengthen all the muscles surrounding my knee so that there won`t be any issues once we`re on our way. The last thing Ì need is some sort of set back with my knee once I`m out of the country. I`ve been doing all the recommended physio as well as going for a few 30-40 minute walks every day. I bought a pass at the local rec center so I can do some swimming and walking in the pool. Walking in water is great because the resistance of the water strengthens all the muscles that depleted around my knee while I was on crutches for 5 weeks. We don`t leave for another 23 days so I think I have ample time to get my knee in shape to be comfortable with all the walking and exploring over seas.

Thats all for now! Thanks for reading! :)