Merry Christmas Mom and Dad love from Amy & Laura

How lucky are we?

Merry Christmas to You All

It's 6am and I've been awake for the past hour, getting fidgety so decided to get up and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  Santa is long gone,  he has eaten his mince pie, taken Rudolphs carrot and left some gifts under the tree. (You are never too old to believe in Santa) Ah, the magic of Christmas,  reality is its too early to put the turkey in the oven!!

no time to settle in

It's comfortable here., even with the grey skies and drizzling rain it's like putting on a pair of pj's some old slippers and nestling down with a cup of hot chocolate.  Pure bliss.
Unfortunately no time to rest it's CHRISTMAS and time for that jolly bearded man dressed in red to visit all the good boys and girls.

So its time to shop til we drop then there will be the tree to decorate, cards to write, presents to wrap, the turkey to stuff, will I get it all done in time, will it ever end?

Yes it ends. Boxing day morning and the vacuum cleaner is out,  the remains of a late night supper of cold turkey and mince pies are cleared away and lunch is planned - turkey and chips or possibly a turkey curry. Tea time and turkey with assorted salads, cheeses, pickles and chutney and surely there's room for another mince pie and don't forget the Christmas cake.  By the time the turkey makes its final appearance at supper to groans of discomfort and moans of indigestion it ends with a sigh of relief and a mental note to yourself promising not to eat as much ever again, its over and there's only another 364 sleeps until it's time to do it next year!

PS

It's just struck me that I have mentioned Amy a couple of times but there may be someone out there who doesn't know who Amy is!  So please let me introduce you to the rest of the family...............

My other and sometimes better and sometimes not, other half is Steve and quite literally he is the one who makes me whole and we fit together like a jigsaw.  We have been married for 35 years so know each other quite well and have lived longer 'with' than 'without' each other and to be perfectly honest I have neither the time nor the patience to train another but more importantly I don't have the inclination - quite simple really, I just love him.

Amy is our eldest daughter and Laura is the younger one.  Both are young ladies now, a fact I sometimes forget, but will always remain my babies. These two fit quite nicely into the jigsaw and there's always room to add a few pieces when the time comes.

Steve has a sister, Carole, who lives 'up North' so even when we were in the UK we didn't get to see that much of each other.  She and her husband did come over for a holiday and we would love it if they could fit another one into their busy schedule (hint!!!).

                                                                                So that's it, no nieces, nephews, cousins or       grandkids but at least it makes Christmas cheap   We make up for it by having very  dear friends who we like to think of as our extended family.
Don't worry Joyce, you and Derek haven't been
forgotten and there is plenty of room on my jigsaw  .                                                                                                                              

update

Well our itinerary for the Australian leg of our journey is nearly sorted, just the last 3 weeks to do.  The guide books already look well thumbed and have a couple of tea cup stains.  I've managed to source a card reader for the tablet which will make transferring the photos from my camera much easier.  its winging its way from Amazon to Amy so when we get back home I will be able to test it and hopefully get it working up to speed.  I am still working on a background that is more suitable for the holiday theme but unfortunately the kangaroo wont sit still long enough for me to get a decent photo!!!

I never explained the photo in the last post - short version - Grand Designs (Amy is the Production Coordinator) won a TV BAFTA award this year and they all got a chance to hold the 'mask'.  All good for morale and ratings which means another series. If a certain person is reading this and you know who you are then the category was 'Features'

just testing again

Test

just testing again

This is easy according to, help section of the setup guide. I don't think its easy, I think its quite taxing especially when the instructions contradict each other.  I like to think I'm reasonably intelligent but I can't compete with being told that the acceptable format is jpeg and yet when I try to upload a photo "computer says no" (Little Britain fans can smile now) this format is not supported.

So I tried uploading the same photo on the mommy desktop and hey presto the photo was published within seconds.  It appears that, even though it says it does,  my tablet doesn't like jpegs after all and like the naughty child it is, it chews them up and spits them out.  It better start behaving soon or else it will be home alone when we go down under.

Back to the mommy pc to edit the post and add a screenshot and guess what the tablet doesn't take screenshots any longer following an update some time ago and here's me thinking updates are supposed to improve the service.  Steve took a photo of it using his Ipad and then emailed it to me.  How kind you are all thinking but I know better it just gave him ammunition for his 'Apple is far superior than Android' point scoring.

just testing

Thought to myself 'what's the use in inviting everyone to join us on our adventure if I can't actually post anything from my tablet'  so I have spent the last few hours (apart from the 1hr.15mins Amy was on Skype! )trying to work out how to upload photos from the camera. Not an easy task but armed with a micro sd card and an adapter I think I have it sussed even though I have to keep swapping the cards over

Anyway this is the test. If you can see a picture of a digital layout of mine of two swans then it has worked.  If not then I have to go back to the drawing board with a box of tissues and a few tears of frustration. 

Nose in the Guide Books

My stars are back, not the same as before but until I get a new layout design I am happy to leave it as it is.  At least they are here to wish upon.

One thing for certain is that I have made a note of the URL of  Just Dreamin which I will pass on to anyone who would like to join in with us on our trip.

Today's task is to start on an itinerary for Australia although I think it will be a more relaxed one as we are spending more time there and covering a smaller area.  We also have the two house swaps to look forward to which will give us the chance to recharge our batteries.

Our visas have been granted, our seats on the planes booked and our API has been recorded - is this for real or am I just dreamin?

Back to the Drawing Board

Earlier I was trying to give friends the blog address so that they can follow our 'adventure' when it became very apparent very quickly that I didn't know it!  How big a boo-boo is that?  We searched on as many configurations of Just Dreamin as we could think of but no luck, for once Mr Google failed to come up with the goods. 
When I got home all I had to do was click on my bookmark bar and there it was but,,,,,help.  When I posted the other day I decided to press of all the buttons out of curiosity.  I chose a new font and altered the width of the sidebar, then I changed my mind and altered the colour,.  Several changes later and at a point where I was enjoying my investigation of different layouts and colour options the phone rang and I thought I'd reverted back to the original design when I closed the computer down.  I think that is when the problem arose because I now have a different background and I don't like it! What has happened to my stars?  I think they have gone to Blogger heaven because I cant find them anywhere, of course not having a copies of the original designs doesn't help so I have only myself to blame.

So I'm now thinking - what if I designed a new background better suited to our trip. Could I?
Should I?  Do I have the time?

Yes, yes and yes - well I might run out of time but I'll have a bash even if it means burning the midnight oil and missing Strictly!

Look what I've just found!

I knew this blog was lurking around somewhere in the ether but as I'm getting more geriatric by the day my memory is on the wane and as it's been at least a couple of years since I last posted anything I couldn't remember my sign in details! Then lady luck was on my side because not only did I find the blog I found an old back up of my computer and lo and behold there was all my sign in details. So I didn't have to argue with Mr Google about my security details and fill in numerous forms to reset my password, all I did was 'sign in'

Anyway, the reason behind my search for 'Just Dreamin' is that one of my dreams, or should I say our dreams, is about to come true. Steve and I had always talked about a geriatric backpacking trip to New Zealand and Australia and had decided that we would take this trip while we were waiting for our house to be built. (Another dream - to live abroad in our retirement) However after dealing with the Greek people for 4 or 5 years while we were viewing properties and trying to buy a plot of land we decided it wasn't such a good plan after all. After a long discussion on one of our journeys to Crete we made up our minds to stay put and that way Steve could keep an eye on the building works and crack the whip if necessary.

When the building work had finished and we moved in there was still a fair number of jobs on the blue 'to do' list. Some of these were cosmetic. painting walls, arranging and rearranging the furniture, hanging pictures, the rest were quite big jobs that required a degree of manual labour. I mention this because Steve is only just building a shed and the drive still needs block paving so as you can see the work on the house hasn't yet finished and we haven't had a holiday since we moved in. So we've taken the plunge and 10 years late, we are off 'Down Under' for three months on a ski holiday (not literally skiing but Spending the Kids Inheritance) just after Xmas.

The flights were booked some time ago, Steve has sorted the car hire, the visas have been applied for and the passports checked. The latest guide books have been consulted and the itinerary for New Zealand has been worked on - we both have a wish list of must do activities so it has been tailored to suit. There's still things to do but we are getting there.

So back to the point of the blog search - I thought it would be nice if all you lovely people out there were able to come with us on our holiday, I like to have company and I'm sure you too would like to swim with dolphins, go on a whale watching adventure, sail round Sydney harbour and visit the famous Opera House. Now you know some of my other dreams and if they work out and I have time I will keep you all informed of our progress, post maps so you can follow our route and show you some photos.

All you have to do is watch this space!