21 Feb Liebster Blogging Awards

What with leaving London, visiting family and friends across the UK and completing our final travel planning tasks, blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground lately. This will all change once we hit the road and start writing about our travels but for now we’re focusing on getting through these final few days, which are proving to be far more stressful and emotional than we imagined they would be.

Since we haven’t had much time to blog lately we were surprised to be recognised by several other bloggers; Patti from One Road at a Time who nominated us for a Super Sweet Blogging Award and Kristy, aka The Globetrotting Canuck for the Liebster Blogging Awards.

While we realise these ‘awards’ are mostly a way for bloggers to connect with each other, we’re  just glad that people are finding our blog and perhaps even reading our posts. On that note, if you’re interested in finding out more about us, here are our responses to Kristy’s questions.

1. If you start to feel homesick while travelling, what do you do to make yourself feel better?

Actually, Amy has been experiencing a bit of pre-trip homesickness, which we weren’t expecting. Leaving London and going through our ‘last’ meet-ups with people and having to say goodbye has been tougher than we thought it would be. Hopefully when we’re on the road we’ll be so busy travelling that we won’t get homesick and if we do, there’s always a chance to chat on Skype.

2. If you were given a plane ticket today to any destination in the world, where would you fly?

The same place we’re heading to on the 3^rd March; New Zealand!

3. Tell us about one regret you’ve had during your travels?

We haven’t left for our big trip yet but in the past maybe we’ve been too restrictive with ourselves in an effort to save money. On this trip we want to be more relaxed and do all the things we’ve dreamed of, regardless of cost – be it skydiving, hiking, visiting ruins or simply lying on a beach.

4. Which city did you enjoy more than you had expected you would?

Rome – we didn’t realise quite how much there was to do and see, it was amazing. However, Amy doesn’t think she’ll ever find a city she loves more than London – we’ll see about that.

5. What do you hate about travelling?

When you try to speak using the local language and they reply in English!

6. If you could live in one country other than your own, which would it be and why?

We are planning on living in Thailand for about a year as it shouldn’t be too difficult for Andrew to find a teaching job and it has very low living costs.

7. Currently, what are the top 5 things on your bucket list?

Rock Boat cruise in the Bay of Islands
Skydiving in Abel Tasman
Doing a Helihike over the Fox Glacier
Driving around New Zealand
Visiting the Neighbours set in Melbourne

8. What is the strangest thing you ate while travelling?

We still haven’t left yet, we probably won’t eat anything too weird until we hit Asia.

9. What is your most played song on your iPod? (or other music device)

Andrew – Free (Donavon Frankenreiter),
Amy – all Hanson songs dominate her playlist!

10. Which celebrities do you think would make your best and worst travel companions?

Karl Pilkington – he would be the best as he would be so amusing, he would also be the worst as he would be complaining non-stop! (Have you seen “An Idiot Abroad”?)

11. What is your favourite book or movie that makes you want to travel?

Into the Wild – by Jon Krakauer, the story of Christopher McCandless – read it!
A Map for Saturday – Travel documentary by Brook Silva-Braga about his one year world trip.

11 Random Facts about us:

1. Andrew is a black belt in judo
2. Amy is one of Hanson’s biggest fans (That’s right – mmmbop!)
3. Andrew has been teaching French and Spanish, and also speaks a bit of Welsh
4. Amy is the most organised person in the world
5. Andrew’s  favourite singer is Donavon Frankenreiter
6. Amy lists all the books she’s read and films she’s seen
7. Outside of the UK, we have visited 12 countries (Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, Kenya, Tunisia, Turkey, Netherlands, Morocco)
8. We are both Neighbours fans (Andrew more so – his favourite episode was when a Donavon Frankenreiter song was used!) and we are really looking forward to visiting the Neighbours set in Melbourne.
9. We’ve been together for eight years
10. Amy loves horror films but hates it when she can’t sleep because she’s scared!
11. Amy used to play the piano, Andrew used to play the violin