You saand like your from Laaandaaaan ....

For no reason at all I will be posting quotes of the day, when I hear good ones...

'Once an arsonist, always a a saint'....
Gareth D. 31 March 2012

This is the last post before I leave the UK..... Tomorrow is April 2^nd 2012...

Ricks Extra Long Summer...Part 2....Day 1........

But before that starts, here are the last few days’ activities in UK...

I left Skegness on Thursday morning for the last time. Mum and dad were off to Boston for a little bit of shopping so I dropped them off in town and after a few minutes of final goodbyes I left. Leaving them to their day out. I wonder when I will see them again.

On arrival in Northampton I found Tracey about to cut the grass on a lovely sunny afternoon, so I changed my plans, which were originally to do my laundry and ended up vegged out on a towel in the back garden taking in the lovely weather and reading through my Canada guidebook. There is so much to do and see I really can’t make my mind up what to do first!!

On Friday I had planned a day out to London to meet up with Jim Robinson – one of my old mates from my days in Holland. Dan also had the day off work, so he picked me up and after parking at Northampton station we got the train to London and met up with Jim in a pub on Leicester Square.

We then had a brilliant day out, wandering around the sights of London, doing jump shots, imitating statues, catching up on old times and generally loving every single minute of the English spring weather.

Me at Tower Bridge

Jim and Dan jumping and getting told off by security

Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The London Eye and The Shard were all jumped before we arrived at Tower Bridge, where after I jumped, Jim and Dan had a go. As they were standing on the fence, about to leap off we heard a tit of a security guard shout at us to stop –we obviously didn’t and after they had jumped off, Dan got a good telling off by the Jobsworth spoilsport. One final jump followed at St Pauls, before we stopped for a drink. It was the start of a really good session, which continued in Punch and Judy’s – the infamous bar that overlooks the acts performing in Covent Garden. We met a bunch of 30 something girls who were down for a hen night and Jim had his arse kicked in a drinking contest by Karen, from Darlington, who was already well pished! The girls left soon after as they had to drop their suitcases at their hotel before going to a roller disco later – I hope they had a good time and can remember it!

Dan and Big Ben

We had a few more beers before dinner in a good Italian restaurant and then a walk down to Piccadilly Circus where me and Dan said goodbye to Jim and we went our separate ways. It was really great to see Jim and hopefully we will meet up again sometime somewhere across the ocean. He has a brilliant posting to an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, so you never know.

London - Street entertainers and sleeping tramps

On the balcony

  

Ice cream time

Nice statue

Me and Dan got back to Northampton, but Dan was really tired a little over the limit to drive and so I drove his car back to my brother’s house and he stayed there to get some sleep before he went home on Saturday morning.

Saturday was a good day. I packed my bags in preparation for my departure on Monday and Gareth prepared a presentation for a job interview – for VW Australia. Then in the evening we had my final night out – a really nice meal in Frankie and Benny’s – where we all ate as much as we could and had a brilliant night out. Although there was one point when the lights went out in the restaurant and we thought there had been a power cut – but it turned out that it was a birthday cake coming out and Happy Birthday was played far too loudly! It still didn’t spoil a really good night out though.

Later on in the early morning, I was sat watching Ice Hockey with Mikie when he saw that it was April 1^st – so he decided to wind everyone up on facebook, by stating that he had split with his girlfriend Lucy. Within a few minutes he had loads of messages from around the country asking what happened and why (James was also online saying he had broken his hand – lazy year it was his leg and his head the year before that) Mikie went to bed and slept well until Gareth woke him up early asking what the hell was happening and making sure it was an April fool.

Bags packed

Night out

Tracey and Mikie

Gareth Mikie and Tracey

Sunday afternoon - a cool afternoon enjoying bacon butties, watching Liverpool get beaten by Newcastle on the TV and generally messing about on my last day. There was one point when I made a brew and there was only 3 teabags left and so I used just one to make 3 cups. It made me wonder...what else do we use too many of, when just one will do? Teabags is obvious. I will have a think about that and maybe come back to it sometime....

So as its the last day I will attempt to answer the questions that some people have asked me....

How long am I going away for?

I don’t know. I can stay in Canada for up to six months at a go. But that is 6 months from when I enter the country. Theoretically that means every-time I go to USA, the 6 months starts again. But after a good time here back in the UK, I may come home again for shorter trip rather than the 3 months I have been home this time. The actual answer therefore is ‘I aint got a clue when I’ll be back – the same as last time’.

What are the travel plans?

I want to visit all 50 states of the USA as well as seeing the best bits of Canada. Initially, I was planning on doing the USA before the end of the year. But having looked at it in more detail, it is a big place and so I don’t want to rush it too much. I hope to spend between ½ and 2/3 of my time travelling but that depends on weather, flight costs and any other unforeseen circumstances. I also want to see some of the North American sports, so a bit of Hockey, American Football and hopefully the Major League Soccer would be good to see.

  

Where am I going to go?

I’m definitely planning on seeing the Rockies, places like Yellowstone national park and some travelling around the prairies of Canada. It’s a big place, so I’m going to try and plan as I go, rather than planning too much. I might to get down seeing some of South America and maybe Cuba. But that’s dependant on costs. It’s fairly probable that I will end up in New York again at some time for a week or so, just because it’s so good. I would also love to find a nice beach for a week in the summer, so who knows!

 The Blog?

The blog will continue, but I want it to be less of a Diary that it seems to have become. I hope to do less of the trivial stuff like:-‘Today I got up and did this’. I’ll write about where I have been and what I have done, but even I have become a little bored by writing a lot of the same things. I want to shorten the entries a bit too. I will see how it develops and would love more input from anyone reading it. There have been over 20,000 hits on the bloody blog since I started it so I have to keep it going. I would love a bit more input from the people reading it though – so please leave some comments every now and then!!

Jumping?

I will keep jumping things. It is now part of the fun, but like the blog, I don’t want it to become boring. So I want to keep it for special places and occasions. But if you want to jump stuff - do it and post it on Facebook, where it will be added to the group - 'Jump the World'.

If anyone has any more questions that I haven’t answered, please feel free to leave a comment or send me a message on email or at facebook...

 So that is is. I start travelling again tomorrow. I think I will now go and book in online....