Mistletoe and Wine (Snogging 'n' Booze)

Me and Jenny love Christmas, but this year it's extra special. We have said for nearly 3 years now that once Christmas of the final year ticks round we would have to start getting our bums in gear. Well it's almost here and we are beside ourselves with excitement. Once the new year is here we have to get ourselves busy with all the red tape, such as visas, carnets, injections, wills, more spreadsheets (Ollie). The list is almost endless. But finally, after all this time, we are startling to realise we will set off! As Homer says, woohoo!

With all the news of recessions and credit crunches we feel we couldn't have picked a better time to go and get away from it all (although some would argue now is the time for prudence, but we're not listening), and leave the misery behind. Certainly we won't miss the gloomy newspapers and television programs. Obviously we have not avoided being affected and it looks like we will have to rent out our house rather than sell it. But even this has a long term silver lining, especially given the recent interest rate drops. Others in a similar position may be interested to know that there is a middle way between selling your house and renting it out, and this is called 'Permission to let', which is effectively a short term buy to let mortgage. But it is easier to obtain, may well cost less (for us 1% on our standard mortgage rate) and has to be renewed on a yearly basis. But this means you can rent your house out for short periods of time when away, legally. Cushdy. Sorry - I promise never to mention interest rates and mortgages in a blog again.

Back onto more interesting things. We have booked ourselves up for some super training in the new year, including a second attempt at attending training with The Land Rover Adventure Club who charge just £65 for a days training for the two of us. It is group training, but if nothing else it will get us back into the groove of off road training. Also we are attending a British Red Cross training day, which should allow Jenny to save my life should I have an off vodka. Well that's what I hope anyhow.

Exciting Things To Do and See

Even at this late stage in our preparation we are still changing our minds about our route and what attractions we will visit. For me it is usually a sporting event that takes my fancy, but for Jenny it is normally some natural wonder that she wants to stare at, sober. One of most recent changes to our route was instead of heading north in Europe straight away, instead to head south to start with, aiming for Romania to go and see the bears. This was caused by a combination of factors, including seeing an article on the Romanian bears in Wanderlust and also being approached by Paul from Transylvania 4x4 Tours who not only has a cheap place to stay, with landie mechanic, but also can arrange the tours for you. Perfect. Paul has been dead nice when chatting by email, so we are more than happy to pop by.

We have always planned to use the last leg of this trip to catch The Ashes 2010/11 in Australia. I am such a massive cricket fan that it would be a dream end to a dream trip. Only thing is I have now realised that the Rugby World Cup starts in New Zealand in September 2011. It would seem such a shame to miss that whilst we were down there? Another coincidence that I have just noticed, is when we go through Pakistan, the ICC Champions Trophy will be taking place. Rude not too :)

But it's not all bears and sport. We have also recently chatted to someone who has just returned from Everest Base Camp, and wow, those pictures look great! As we were now heading to India (instead of China), well, lets do Nepal too! Brilliant. The only thing we do want to be careful of is setting deadlines, so all of this may go out of the window, as we want to avoid the stress of deadlines for most of the trip. Oh, did I mention the football in Kazakhstan?

Dino

In our last blog we mentioned that poor old Dino's electrics were knackered. Well we got our friendly vehicle electrician round and he fixed it right up. Cheap as chips too. So we are happy bunnies once more, and have been busy tidying up Dino, including painting over our ammo boxes that had 'Bomb' written all over them. Over Christmas we head down to Cornwall, when we will probably try and spend a day on Dino getting him into better shape, including adding the dead sexy driving lights and high lift attachment. Once these are in place, no serious overlander will laugh at us again!

Also a very friendly user from the HUBB has been in touch and has sent us some Puncture Safe to help protect our tyres against punctures. This stuff looks great, and as soon as we get out new tyres (end of January) we will write a review of it. But it doesn't stop amazing us how generous and helpful people can be. Thanks Chris :)

Save The Cheerleader Save the World

OK there is no cheerleader, that was just to get your attention! But Jenny's sister is trying her hardest to save the world, and has been working in the wind farm business for over 5 years - and now she has a blog. For those of you who are interested in either cheerleaders or saving the world I'd suggest you visit it for a darn good read. My dad is in it too!

So, that's about it for this year - maybe we will fit in a quickie before the end, but I doubt it. Thanks to everyone who has got in touch, and hope you all have a great Christmas, and as exciting New Year as we plan :)

Love you all

Jenny and Ollie