All I Want For My Birthday Is Diva….

…..But somehow, I fear I may be asking for a massive birthday miracle. 

Because when you are at the mercy of customs, you could run up against what I call the “red-light-catastrophe.”  You know, the one that allows you the all-access pass into your much anticipated holiday destination.  (Most popular in that of the Mexico airports) You’ve packed your bags so carefully, travelled for a dizzying amount of hours, you’ve just been through the long excruciating custom lines…. and the warm sun and sand awaits you and the billboards within the customs area tease you as they beckon you to their delicious havens….  

And its just all through those sliding doors that lie before you.

But not so fast!  There is a button you must press first.  If it lights up green, well my friend, its your lucky day…. Proceed and sip cocktails!  But if it lights up the ‘horrid red’- do not pass go, the customs official (whom I swear smirks as you lug your bag upon the counter) will now take you from the sticky warmth you have only just been teased with as that door slides open letting the “lucky green lighters” pass through- and you must take a long ‘pause’ as customs ruffles through your delicately placed underwear.  Its the longest 5 minutes of your life…. because you’re adventure has already started. (or perhaps you’ve realized you may have miscalculated the days to number of undies- and you are totally going to run out).

Sunday, August 7th:  Cheese-Ham, England  (Really, its Chesham, but the latter sounds better.)

We most certainly hit the red button, and we are feeling one of the greatest ‘pauses’ this journey has thrown our way yet.  We’re so close we can literally taste the French Baguettes and ooey gooey cheese, heck, we are even washing it down with a beautiful red wine from Bordeaux!  But our sliding door has closed.   The ship arrived yesterday into Thames Port, but Diva must now wait in her deep dark crate until Mr./Mrs. (must be political) Customs Official says that the drawer thats jam packed of ‘pancake mix’ is a-okay.  (Perhaps I should have left that behind?  Hind sight is 20/20 on that one… ) 

And we were just gettin’ rollin’, too….. finally having a few nibbles of the ‘good stuff’ between all these bloody ‘pauses.’ 

For those that may not know, our main mission for this adventure through Europe with our trusty Diva by our side (can’t you just picture it?) is to use a program called www.workaway.info to volunteer our way around France, Italy and Spain by swapping about 25 hours of work a week- be it farming, picking grapes, cooking, painting, gardening, cleaning etc.- in exchange for accomodation and food. 

Everybody wins right?  Its brilliant!  We get a taste for the culture, the people, the real ‘heart’ of the town…. its fullfilling, you have a purpose and you truly experience a completely different way “to be.”  I suppose you get to reinvent yourself, in way.

And best of all, your budget doesn’t seem to slip out from under you so fast.  And the longer we can ride this journey on Diva out, the longer I have to catch up on this blog.  Or fall behind.  But I have a new goal, too (and a brand new writing pad for 99 pence) and thats to sort this blog out. 

I recently read in a UK Marie Claire issue about “blogging” that you must post regularly- up to 3X per day.  Well, there is no way I can/will do that, you would be ‘sawing logs in your chair bored’ hearing about how I spent most of the morning keeping Ray entertained by playing “JUST DANCE” on nintendo Wii.  (its not a pretty sight)  But what I can do is try to at least post 1-2X per week.

You may even find a few new features this week as we are working on the website (ahem, or should I say, Brother Bear our website GURU is) to include “Ray’s Corner.”  Stay tuned …. for those that are foodies, you’re going to love this.  He’s making a new video as we speak!

But there is something missing… you say?  Like perhaps the last month of “Wyatt Commentary” since we arrived in England on June 25th.  (Wow, have we really been Diva-less for that long?) 

Oops!  Seems as though you pressed the red button my friends, that sliding door is closing on this blog for today….. You’ll just have to come back tomorrow and press that button again. 

I promise you it will be a mystical story……filled with Roman Baths, men in tights, castles, a princess, bootsale treasures and even a little cider from the Hastings Beer Festival to wash it all down with. 

But come thirsty, there is a lot of stories to be told….

 

 

 

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