Home of the Free

In the imfamous words of that guy from the Royle Family…”home of the free my arse”.  18 months had passed since we last visited the one thing we noticed was how things don’t seem to be as inexpensive as well remember.  That’s across the board.  In fact, the idea that we live in Rip Off Britain is becoming less and less real.  OK, so when I drooled my way over to the Apple Store things have similar numbers.  £799 or $799…I appreciate there is a difference but so many other things just aren’t what they used to be…funny I thought they were in a huge recession…so why is everything more expensive.  Heck..who knows.

It was a whirlwind trip lasting only a week.  But wait, you say…you blogged all this new stuff!  Yes, its called the beauty of scheduled posts.  I didn’t really want to advertise the fact I was out of the house for a week.

Travelling with the kids is always fun — NOT.  If plane journeys didn’t have such a substantial pay-off at the end no one would ever fly.  The hassle, the expense, the time wasted at the airport..its all mental.  Then our lovely air stewardess tells us that even though we are in a bulkhead seat with a child cot for Holly, she mustn’t sit on the floor.  Something about decompression and oxygen…excuse me…really.  What about these 10 people in the toilet queue.  Should they be standing up in case of a decompression or should they pee in a cup?  After 5 minutes we put her back and agreed we would take it all the way to the top if required.  She never said anything else.

Seeing family and friends is great.  I caught up with a great friend, James, whom I hadn’t seen in 13 years.  Yes James, you were there and it wasn’t Bo’s apartment but Pipers.  We went to a pseudo family reunion, hung out with friends from my university fraternity (yes, its just like Animal House) and had play dates.  Ironically we also meet up with Nicola’s friend from school and see him and his wife more than we see friends from school who live up the road.

All in all a great trip…although I think my wife was swapped when I wasn’t looking.  I set her loose on two seperate shopping occasions and she only bought 2 things.  I’m thinking of having her tested!

Here’s a few pics from our trip…nothing much really but good fun all the same.

Hey good lookin’

Holly gives the A gates at Terminal 5 a big thumbs up

Evan at IHOP .. time is 6:05 am — Jet lag is a bitch!  BTW, Wal-Mart is remarkably quiet at 4:30am

Meet Will…my great nephew..which makes me sound MUCH older than I REALLY am

Holly and Will

Roberto Burrito and family…yes, we did experience the best of Halloween — even a crazy man with a chainsaw (and I’m not even kidding)

Could it be that Holly also shares my strange attraction to Velma from Scooby Doo?

Nuclear pumpkins

Peek-a-boo

We got to visit Skyline Drive, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Related posts:

1. Family Friday – May 13
2. Home
3. To Infinity….For Free!
4. Holly’s First 4 Days
5. Pretty in Pink