E-re I go!

My E-ticket arrived yesterday and I'm very E-xcited.

I also booked my flight down to Heathrow at a bargain £30 each way, Glasgow - Heathrow. Makes me wonder how the so-called bargain airlines can justify £50 in taxes to take you from Prestwick to Luton or, even worse, Stansted when it then costs you another £50 and 4 hours to get into London.

Still thinking about the places I want to visit in the States, the problem is they're all quite far away from one another and travelling right across the middle of the country is almost impossible thanks to a few hills or something!

If anyone has any smart ideas of how I can start in Chicago and visit Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, San Francisco and LA I'd really appreciate them. Those damn Yanks! Biggest country in the world (that might not be an actual fact) and they can't blimmin build a decent public transport infrastructure, ours may be late, cancelled, expensive and have leaves on the line but at least it covers the whole country.

Anyway, my E-ticket arrived yesterday and I'm very E-xcited.

Decisions Decisions

Ok, people I need help here. I'm trying to figure out a route across America and am finding it difficult deciding which places to visit.

So far I have New York and Chicago which are set in stone definites as I'm there with my family. After that I'd like to visit Karen in Portland and San Francisco is a must before I fly out of LA on the 26th August. It's the places in between I can't decide on...

Do I go to Glasgow, Montana? Should I take my time travelling and spend less time in each city or hammer it to each place and spend more time in a base? What's the best way to travel? Greyhound or Amtrak? Should I go south then double back up to Portland or stick to the north border?

Small Change

As part of my savings plan I have decided that anything less than a pound coin (although the 50s depend on how skint I'm feeling at that particular moment) will be stuck into a metal Mandarin Napoleon container that mysteriously seems to live in the bottom of my wardrobe.

As well as this I have decided that instead of buying 3 trashy magazines every week I'll stick the £4 in, although I can't give up Heat magazine as that is an essential item.

So if any of you spot me with a non-Heat trashy magazine or anything less than a 50p in my purse feel free to shame me in public...

It's the only way I can do it.

Woohoo or should I say Yeehah!

I have finally booked my flights to America. I fly to New York on the 20th June, travel via Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco (plus many other undecided places) to Los Angeles and then back home on the 26th August.

I'm getting very excited about the whole trip now and have spent the afternoon deciding what to pack, not easy given that my trip will take in laid back country, inner city dancing, work related dancing and a fancy dinner in NYC for my mum's birthday. Plus I can't seem to find my pink, glittery cowboy hat which I know will work so well out there.

Point & Shoot Panic

After the untimely death of my last camera, it refused to take a photo of a hill in Ballachulish then gave up completely, I have been searching for a replacement model. I am now lost in a mind-boggling maze of megapixies (as they are known in my house), optical zooms, digital zooms, LCD screens, resolutions, exposures, shutter speeds and white balances and I am still no closer to deciding which camera to go for.

I have a maximum of £150, want at least 7m megapixies, a big screen and wee features like colour swap and colour accent would come in handy for taking nice dance shots.

Suggestions on a postcard or in a comment please.

Drum Roll Please...

The Boy hates being called The Boy and is now officially happy to be known as Alasdair.

That is all.

Downsizing is the New Black

Well that's what I'm trying to convince myself with anyway.

The bank balance has dictated that the round the world trip isn't happening. Instead I'll be embarking upon a series of mini-tours starting with the USA this summer. I was really disappointed at first but I think it's probably better in the long run, I won't have to sell my car, I won't lose all my contacts at work (it's taken me 5 years to build up a reputation and regular work pattern), I won't go bankrupt and I'll only miss my best pal and The Boy a little bit, I'm thinking they might even be able to join me on future trips.

To celebrate my decision I went to TopShop and bought myself a sexy new black top to wear out with the girls tomorrow night - you can tell where my problems started, eh!

Oh flip it's February!

Eek, this is the month I had decided to buy my flights, thinking that having decided to go travelling almost a year ago I would have saved up enough money...

I really was kidding myself with that one.

From the beginning of (my) time money has burnt a hole in my pocket, I never owned a piggy bank, well not one that was actually used for money (jewellery and randoms bits'n'bobs resided there instead) and my Saturday job wages rarely lasted me until Sunday. A deciding factor in sticking with freelance work was that I can't budget from one month to the next and am much better getting small amounts of money regularly.

Knowing all this about myself and still thinking I could save up should really have set some alarm bells ringing but nope, I was sure I could do it.

Ach well, I got some travel vouchers for Crimbo and have a few payments coming in so fingers crossed.