Jenni and Michael's CrAzZzzzZy Sale!!! - Part 1

Part of our grand plan has been to cut down on the amount of stuff that we want to put in long term storage while we are away. Rather than just chucking out all of our unwanted possessions, we figured we might as well try and make a dollar or two by holding a good old garage sale.

Over the past week I have utilized what little artistic merit has been bestowed upon me to knock up a dodgy flyer and have spent a couple of evenings, walking around the suburb of Maylands and stuffing them into people's letter boxes. I had a bit of success selling my TV on Gumtree, so I also posted an ad there too.

The last couple of nights of the week were spent gathering all of the items that we were looking to sell in the main room, right next to the back door, ready to be shifted out early Saturday morning, before people would arrive. (You can see some photos of the 'stock room' on the Flickr page)

Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out how much (or little) we managed to sell!

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish

Jenni and I are now officially unemployed! The final week at work was a busy one for the both of us, tying up loose ends and handing over work.

The leaving lunch at the Moon and Sixpence started off as a bit of a debarcle due to the establishment misplacing my booking, but they managed to pull through and accomodate about 25 of us.

Both of us were treated to very kind words from our respective managers and directors at goodbye speeches and were wished well by many people. Once again, Jenni and I woud like to extend our thanks to all of the people we worked with over the past few years at Rio and Proteus . You will be sorely missed!

We took a couple of snapshots of our goodbye cards. Cheers to everyone that contributed, the kind words mean a lot to the both of us.

Times a Tickin'

Jen and I will be officially unemployed in a couple of days!

Everything is full steam ahead at this stage organizing things like last minute visas, selling stuff we cannot keep, moving out of the house, booking the first few nights of accommodation in Japan and all sorts of other things.

We are definitely looking forward to having a bit of a breather after we move out on the weekend.

For anyone who has missed out on the Facebook invite or hasn't heard through the grapevine, we are having leaving drinks at the Grapeskin Wine Bar (the wine bar in the Brass Monkey) from 7pm onwards on Friday the 12th of March, 2 days before we take off.

So Much Great Advice, But Such A Poor Memory To Remember It All

In the lead up to our trip, a lot of people have given us advice about places to visit as well as helpful travel tips. Jen and I appreciate all of the advice, but we just cant remember everything that people tell us (well I cant anyway). So I thought I would log it all in this blog so when it comes time to put things into action, I can refer back to here. So some things for Jen and I to remember are:

From Cynthia:

• Bring a bottle of red cordial. It is great for tummy bugs. http://baliforfamilies.com/bali_belly_and_raspberry_cordial.htm.
• In Vietnam, make sure we go to Da Lat: The French influenced capital of the Lang Dong province, which is located in the Vietnamese highlands, 1500m above sea level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Lat.
• In the major cities in China, we need to go to the night markets. Thats the place where you can get all of the crazy foods like deep fried crickets on a skewer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_market. http://www.hobotraveler.com/143jeff01_01.shtml.
• Get the phone numbers and addresses of all of the Australian consulates in all of the countries that we are passing through before we go. If we ever get into trouble, just give them a call or get a taxi driver to take you there. http://www.dfat.gov.au/missions/.
• Tour guides are really cheap in China. They can speak English, pick you up and take you places and are relatively cheap to hire for the day. Make sure to utilize them.
• Beware of people slashing your bags in airports to steal stuff.
• Keep ALL VALUABLES in your day pack. Do not leave anything valuable in your main bag.

From Jen Cleaver:

• Keep a travel blog. It is the best way to keep people informed with the progress of your trip and when you are done, you have something for yourself to keep.
• Write your blog posts up before you go into an internet cafe.
• Bring a little hard drive to store photos on.
• When you finish your trip, turn your blog and digital photos into a photo book. http://www.photobookaustralia.com.au/?pg=index.
• When we finally get to Europe, make sure that we take a trip to Rome and Barcelona.
• Take a digital camera each and both post separate articles on the blog. That way we will get different perspectives from the trip.
• Get one of those mesh security bags to put over your bag. People are most likely to go for an easier target. The sad fact is that if someone is determined enough, they will get into it anyway, but the more deterrents you place on your bag to hamper their progress, the less likely that they will target your gear in the first place. http://www.pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=50.
• Bring a roll of toilet paper with you.

From Reenz:

• Sort out ALL of your VISAs before you go.
• When travelling with your partner, take a day off from each other every now and again. Otherwise you will drive each other insane by the end of it.

An unusual fetish

Jen and I have discovered that Miss Sassy Pants has acquired an usual fetish for my thongs. We got a couple of instances on video that you can view below.







Miss Sassy Pants cuddling her newly adopted 'teddy bear'.

The plan

Jen has signed up to a fancy travelers website called www.travellerspoint.com that allows us to track our trip. She has plotted our general route on one of the maps. You can check it out below. When we get a chance, we will update with a  few more details on exactly where we are going and will also upload our planned itinerary too.

More Videos of Miss Sassy Pants

Here are some more videos of Miss Sassy Pants (as per a request from my folks...)