Hello

Hello everyone! I am back in the land of the living - well, almost. I think i have had gastro or some sort of tummy bug or even food poisoning as for the last week my body has felt that it needed to get rid of something and it all came to a head yesterday with poor mike having to stop every hour while i try and throw up - not the most pleasant of experiences. Water and even cigarette smoke is making me heave!! He is actually freaking out that I am pregnant but I don't think so as I feel that i am on the road to recovery - I personally think it was American food which did it - terrible stuff!!!

Well as you know we are in London and have spent the last couple of days touring. Yesterday we went round the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge Tour and the HMAS Belfast Tour (which to be honest was really boring!! and not the best place to be when feeling rather ill - and get seasick normally anyway!!)

Today we went to the British Museum, we were there for about 3 hours and only covered one small part of it. We then we to Madame Tussauds which was very, very cool indeed! Then off to the Sherlock Holmes Museum which would have been good if not for the hundreds of french school kids, and you all know how much I love the french!!

It has amazed me that in every single British Exhibition/museum/tourist attraction the staff have not been able to speak English properly!!! Ah well, this is London.

We are off to Dover first thing in the morning to sail out to France, so a very early start indeed! It will be interesting driving on the wrong side of the road ourselves when it freaked us out so much other people driving in the States, Mike and I are currently fighting over who is not going to start the driving - I think I am winning, but that could change tomorrow.

It will be nice to be out of this hotel we are staying in. For the location we are paying quite a good price, but the room is about the size of our bedroom at home with a TV that is too old to have a remote (can you believe that??!!!), a portable shower unit in the actual room (that is blocked and if it is overflowed we have to pay a £100 fine!! So you can imagine how quick our showers have to be!) The toilet is a shared one for the floor, and with what ive had over the last day or so i feel sorry the other guests!!! And we have a bed that is like sleeping on concrete with pillows made out of stone. Our backs have never been so sore; we are literally walking around like old people who need canes. We have taken advantage of our free breakfast once and won't have it again - you get a choice of cornflakes and/or toast! Not even worth it - and the coffee is disgusting. Oh, thats right,in the room we are provided with coffee sachets, sugar sachets, a cup and a kettle but no milk! In fact the hotel doesn't even supply milk, so if you wanted to buy some at the shop down the road you will have to drink it quick because there is no fridge in the room! Well, that is the french for you I suppose!!! Sorry, i'll shut up about them now!

I think that is it for now....we will try and log in while we are in France or Amsterdam!

Take care of yourselves and we look forward to seeing you all in less than 3 weeks!

Luv Karen & Mikey

Hi all Mikey writing this one,

Well we are finally in UK... bit sad to see the end to the Vegas part of our trip, as you can all imagine I was having a blast.
On the way through the airport i finally found some WPT (World Poker Tour) gear. I spent the whole week looking for somewhere that sold the authetic stuff and found it fifty metres from the gate.

The trip over wasn't too bad for me (Thank God british customs are a little easier than US) but Kaz is having a bit of a poor time, she ate something i don't think agreed with her and had gastro on the plane, she's asleep in the room already, but has been promising me all day that she'll be right tommorrow.
We're staying in a dinky little hotel just outside the city centre and everything is kinda close, the management to the hotel are french (yay .... not) but i don't think we'll be spend much time there over the next few days anyways.

I can't get over how old everything is.... We rode the London Underground here and first thing i noticed is that there is a really musty smell to the air, kinda made me think of old tombs would love to exploring down there but Kaz won't let me i'm sure.
It's about the same temprature as Las Vegas about 12C so not too bad yet. Glad to be back somewhere where they drive on the left hand side of the road again (never freaked out so bad as USA drivers turning left wide through intersections, was worse than going on the tower of terror in the dark in the rain)

Our plan of attack is to go get our London passes (kinda like an all access pass to all touristy stuff) and hit Liecester Square and go to Tower of london and that kinda thing.

Well gotta go put more british pounds on my cash passport,
Keep those messages coming,

Love to you all,

Mikey & Kaz

Well we are just about to leave Vegas - just waiting for our shuttle back to the airport. It has been a really great and interesting time here.

Where did we leave you last? Thats right - on the Tuesday we were desperate to do some laundry otherwise we would have looked similar to all the homeless people around here. We were advised that the nearest laundromat was near Hard Rock Cafe and on the map it is only 2 blocks away, so in our wisdom we decided to walk!! Two blocks turned into 3 miles passing the most dodgiest and scariest people ever, carrying our suitcase full of dirty clothes. Not the best experience. So after our long, long, long, long walk we treated ourselves to Hard Rock Cafe lunch and couldn't resist getting the souvenir martini glass - had to start my collection again!

After the laundromat we caught a cab back but not before getting asked for some powder if we want some by a drug dealer. You have never seen us move so fast!!!

That night we went to see the Stage show we suffered through the timeshare presentation for! In one word, it was actually quite crap!! Very amateur and wouldn't pay any cash to see it. There was one chick in it who just couldn't dance to save her self and was always out of time with the others - she was the best thing about the show!!!! Sorry, there were 3 drum guys who came on as an interlude who were fantastic! Yes, the Jubilee Show was full of boobies.....so Mike was in heaven!!

Yesterday we met up with Angie and Laura (Mike's aunty and cousin) for the afternoon. It was really cool meeting them. We went through the Fremont Experience, the Star Trek Experience and even the M&M Experience - yes you read that correct - the have an M&M Experience (4 levels of it!! - with even a museum)

Anyway, we have to sign off now as our shuttle is arriving. We will finish off our Las Vegas Experience hopefully at LAX Airport!

Speak to you all then

Luv Karen & Mikey

Hello all

Well we are well and truly in the Vegas atmosphere. After the arduous flight and terrible US customs (which suck big time) we have settled in and visited many casinos. We have had great fun playing all the crappy out of date pokies and even did really well on the roulette table. Tomorrow we are visiting all the other ones we missed!! Even the Palms Casino to do a bit of celebrity spotting (apparently that is where they all stay!)

Today we went to the Las Vegas Outlet Centre and did a huge shopping spree for waqrm winter clothes. The best place on earth for cheap stuff.......craps all over Harbour Town etc. I have discovered that Mike is a much more fussy shopper than I am!! Was getting excrutiating in the end but it was worth it - he looks rather hot in his new get up!!!

It is really hard to get used to the fact that everyone smokes inside here - even in the restaurants. Really plays havoc on our sinuses that we had to buy special nasal spray for it! We really do appreciate the non-smoking laws in Australia now!!

Funny quote for the day - we saw a homeless guy with a sign that said "Why lie, I need beer"!!!! It was hilarious!!!

We have done so much walking today! The Strip is HUGE! A lot longer than you realise and the weather is freezing for the middle of the desert - about average 15 degrees. People aren't really understanding our accent either - we have to talk slow like they are all dummies - which we have to say that most Americans are! Couldn't live in this country if we were paid!!! Sorry Guy!

We had to do a Time Share thing today to get free show and dinner tomorrow night for the both of us. We got caught by the salesman as soon as we arrived at the hotel (not good after 32 hours of flying!!) We must have looked like right suckers!! But we went for it - and believe it or not it isn't a bad deal! Too expensive for us though. But we do get tickets the oldest and best show in town. Mike is really happy as they describe the show as "Rhinestones covering practically nothing" So we will let you know all about it when we are next on line.

It is 2am in the morning here and we have been walking all day so we are about to call it a night (well me anyway, mikey still has a date with another pokie! - on limited resources mind you)

There isn't much more to update you guys on, but will definitely have lots more stories next time we are on line.

We love you all, and talk to you soon.

Keep sending those messages!!

Luv Karen and Mikey

hi all we just got off the plane less than an hour ago,
Both really tired and Grumpy.... US Customs sucks we ended up doing a total of 30 hours in airports but gained a day, and haven't slept a wink, going down the buffet now for a steak and bourbon with my baby then coming back up for some sleep.
Got sidetracked by a Timeshare company on the way, got to go to breakfast with them in the morning but they gave us free buffet and show tommorrow night going to upload pics soon stay tuned