Llama or Lodger?

Since coming back from our big trip we are not really sure what to do with our lives. Before going our goals for the next 5 years were to have a baby and move to a different country probably in that order. One of the places we were both quite excited about going to on our big trip was Lebanon. We wondered whether this might be the place for us because I really like arab culture, they speak French and Arabic and Dan speaks French and I speak a tiny bit of arabic. They have mountains and beaches and although it's majority muslim it's ok to be a christian, and as with most countries the weather is better than here. But we weren't that bothered about it after going. It was cool I'm glad we went but I won't be disappointed if I never go again.

Since getting back from our trip I've stared to feel a lot more settled in Liverpool, I'm appreciating all the great things about being here like all our friends that are here and we have electricity. (in Lebanon there were constant power cuts, there were 3 hours a day of timetabled power cuts and extra ones on top of that, and we were living in one of the best places in the country for electricity.)

So if we're going to stay here for the foreseeable future...(which I'm not saying we definitely are) What shall we do with our lives? Here are some options we have discussed in the month since getting back.

1) Buy a big house to and get 2 or 3 lodgers. There's this really great one that we've seen with 5 massive bedrooms, 2 big reception rooms 2 bathrooms a utility room and a study... really nicely done up and ready to move into for £135000. I doubt we'd be able to get a mortgage on that amount but we kind of nearly might be able to when Dan gets a job. This is the smaller of the 2 reception rooms:

One downside is we'd probably get shot living in that area. Check it out here

2) Have a baby, that old classic... it's a very popular choice for people at our kind of age and stage in life, a little mainstream but I'm sure we'll give it a go sooner or later.

3) Foster a child, I would like to do this one day probably not in the next 5 years but it's not the most crazy idea on this list.

4) Get into bee keeping. This is Dan's idea, our friend Jenn Haith has just been on a bee keeping course and now owns several thousand bees. Apparently you can do this course for free if you're on Jobseekers and Dan loves a freebie.

5) Get a kitten. It's hard to decide on this one. The pros are cuteness and the cons are cat hair, cat litter, the smell of cat food, vets bills, cat hairs, and our cat suffocating our future baby. We just need to decide how important cuteness is in our lives.

6) Join the circus. I'm not joking, we've been invited by Josh Simpson of Wild Goose arts to join him for however long we want next summer to teach circus stuff in eastern Europe. If you're interested check it out

This is me and Josh in our student days hanging out on stilts.

7) Become a comedienne...I'm going to try and do a few more gigs and see what happens. The main thing attracting me to this career is the fact that as I'm already self employed it would be no extra paperwork to become a comedian. I've written a few new jokes since getting back from my trip my favourite one is about eskimo-muslims.

8) Get a llama, probably the least serious of these suggestions but there are some second hand llamas for sale locally, if you want them don't let me stop you. They're here.

So there are some of the options, most of them require Dan to find some employment first. (he quit his job to do the trip) Maybe we should put it to a vote.

Our Movies

I recently said on facebook that I would stop chatting on about our trip.... I will after this one last post. I was planning to write 4 blogs about our trip one for each quarter...so far I've written 2 about the first quarter and then I started writing the second one but now I'm giving up. I've tried to do a bit too many method of documentation all at once: Photos, a postcard from each place, paper diaries, and a film in 4 parts. I'm sick of hearing about it! So here are the films and accompanying advert which I am quite proud of, and hence forth I shall blog about our life post trip which is a pretty confusing time right now.

The advert

Film 1 England to Switzerland

Film 2 Switzerland to Macedonia

Film 3 Macedonia to Lebanon

Film 4 Lebanon to Kuwait

Southampton to Geneva

Hello, if you have checked my blog thinking I might have written stuff about our 2 month trip to Kuwait, you will have been disappointed. Blame Google. I tried logging on to my blog in other countries and they had to send me a text with a code so I could confirm I am me, the problem was I choose to leave my phone in England.

Anyway I last blogged on day 4 of our trip just before I left England, so today I will blog about the first quarter of our trip using extracts from our diary. I'm also making a film about it which I will put on the internet soon.

Day 5 Sailing to the Isle of Wight in my Dad's boat

Day 6 

"at around 6.30am we saw some kind of cargo ship that came into the 'boats that might hit us' category  We woke Dad up (as we had been instructed to do) and we watched the boat with special binoculus that tell you what angle the boat is sailing at. Obviously it didn't hit us I probably would have mentioned that sooner." Han

Day 7

"The highlight of the day was quite possibly when we rode up the lock with a few bigger boats. We were alongside a trawler with a good sized catch and as they discarded some fish which were too small we snagged 6 for tea."  Dan

Day 8 - Dad dropped us off on the seine which was a tricky manoeuvre depicted below, and we began a 3 day cycle to Paris.

Day 9- The day we ate cereal without bowls, outside a shop. (and cycled 50 miles)

Day 10 -

"We are staying with Dan's Aunty Beatrice who lives in a very posh area right in the centre of Paris. When we arrived she got out some sandwich stuff for lunch and like a typical french person she had 5 different kinds of cheese and none of them were cheddar or cheese triangle. I aspire to be like that one day." Han

Day 11-

 I met up with my french exchange partner Morgane who I hadn't seen since I was 15. This time we were actually able to communicate with each other via Dan.

Day 12- 

We went up the Eiffel tower and then headed south to Dijon by train. The Eiffel tower is really only a half built tourist attraction in my opinion. All those stairs and no Helta- skelta what's that all about?

Day 13- 60 miles

Day 14 (crossing the swiss/ french boarder in the alps)

"The downhill was without a doubt the greatest hill I have ever been on. About 2km down there was a bend and the most incredible view. Massive Alps with snow on top towered behind the lake." - Dan

Day 15 (Lake Geneva)

"We also went on a pedalo and I swam, and by "Swam" I mean played around in the water jumping and twisting like a dolphin on crack" Han

And here ends the first Quarter of our trip I'll write more soon.