Colour change: The adventures of the green trousers

As this years theme is the adventures of the green trousers i have decided to change the back ground colour. Hence the green.
Anyway me and the Warden have started the season in Derbyshire and very nice the place is too. Except it is freezing, we have has snow drifts, ice, gales and that was all in the first week. We ended up shutting the site the first week-end as the snow was so bad and the road leading to the site so slippy with ice. One caravan took out the front gate as they tried to make their way onto site.............they will not be happy when they get the bill for the repairs.
Anyway it is very nice to be close to Amanda who is making great strides in her career and has just got a band 7 job at Queens in Nottingham and guess what they are moving further away again.....was it something we said do you think or the fact the Warden eats them out of house and home when he visits (says something about pay back time......he hasn't started to jump on their furniture yet but there is time yet)
We have been really organised and spurned on by the cold and frost and snow have booked our flights back out to Florida. As one of the team will be 60 next February that team member decided there was no way on Gods earth she was going to be 60 and cold so off the sunny Florida we are going. We love the sunshine, there are some great people we meet and we get to stay with our dearest friends.Though this time we will rent somewhere for part of the time as Mand and Rich are going to join us!!!!!
So its our day off tomorrow and we are off on our bikes along the Chesterfield canal, lets hope the sun comes out and i may persuade the Warden to buy me a shandy and a packet of crisps.

Brought flights to Florida 

The Warden at work

Maintainence

Being of a certain age means that me and The Warden have to undergo a certain amount of routine maintainence to keep us (especially me) in tip top condition. So this week it is all about Doctors Dentists and for me Hair dressers.
We have been back a whole week now and I am desperately trying to keep the tan ready for a big party we are going to  at the end of the week.
Oh and The Warden has had some bad news, it appears there has been some interest in the product DynaScan have developed (you will remember he is the Chairman of said company) and he has to go to work this week!!!! I on the other hand do not, so it's out to play for me this week! Yippee

Our last week of freedom

Well it is our last week of freedom before we fly home to the cold wet and dark we call home, and how very very lovely that is going to be. We have seen such fantastic things and had lots of adventures but we both will be very pleased to be home and see every one. Even the Warden who as close friends and family will know is not known for sentiment asked me to to make sure we had brought every-one a gift from our adventures.
Anyway the calendar is already filling up with Doctors, Dentist and Hairdresser appointments, and after we have been to see all the family to make sure they are in one piece we are all set to start work again in Poolsbrook.
Its going to brilliant, a new site, living close to Mand and Rich, and new adventures. Oh and we have already started to plan next years travel plans, first thing booked already the Wardens ski-ing holiday..........big sulks as he missed 2013's he is not about to repeat this in 2014!!!!
Keep reading for the next phase of Sharpes on tour

Driving

We have left New Orleans and we are driving around to Tampa to stay with our lovely friends Ray and Barbara. So dear reader here is a quiz and the winner gets us to stay!!!!!

Which vehicle did the Warden choose from the packed car lot at the car hire company this morning? 

Answers on the blog please

He was allowed to choose.

New Orleans

So after 28hrs of travelling me and the Warden arrived in New Orleans, it may be the big easy but it is freezing, we left Sydney in temperatures of 30C+ and arrived to 9C and biting winds. So me and him have had to purchase hats and search for our coats and gloves in the bottom of our suitcases before we can enjoy the city.
So we have spent a day doing what we always do and we spent the day walking the streets, now i know they have been struggling since Katrina but there are holes in the pavement and the roads you could loose a truck let alone a Warden, anyway we have enjoyed the French Quarter and the night life even though some of the shows were a little suspect!!! and despite  suffering from terrible jet-lag we have given the city a good go. Last night we eat in Bubba Gumps place (well perhaps not his place) and each morning we have enjoyed the American tradition of breakfast out. (though i still cannot get the taste for 'grits' but our waiter this morning said put cheese on....) We did find a wonderful cafe this morning for coffee which had a fantastic jazz band and the sun came out as well so all was perfect.
We then took a ride on a steam boat up the Mississippi to a famous battle field where you guessed it they defeated the British........never mind they seem to have managed with out us. Last night in town tonight then we pick up our hire car and slowly make our way around to Florida.
We are hoping to get some sleep tonight that is if the jet-lag and the guy who sings out side our hotel window at 2am each night all disapear.

Sydney Part 3

Me and the Warden have managed to complete the Sydney Harbour bridge walk. This is scary for many reasons:-
The cost
The fact you have to undergo a hour of training and instruction before hand
You have to wear blue jump suits
You get to be chained on to the bridge as you walk
AND.... you have to walk over walk ways very very high up with what appears to be chicken wire between you and the trains boats and cars which are passing underneath
The photo's they take of you all the way up
The three sets of very open steep stairs you have to climb at both ends
However...the views are to die for and we would not have missed it for the world, and i treated myself to the 'T' shirt when we had finished.

Sydney Part 2

Me  and the Warden are sitting outside in a trendy pavement eating establishment mainly because they have free WFI, so i am am managing with canned music, people smoking all around me......I'm really blending in here !

Well what a fire-work display we had in Sydney, we managed to get a good spot just down the road from our hotel so we managed to see the 9pm and the midnight show, only we knew it wasn't real cos Sydney is 11 hours in front, so cheating really.

Anyway we spent new years day on Bondi beach...get us, and then we watched the film the Hobbit on the biggest screen in the world at Darling Habour.....fantastic. We had a really lazy day today just a picnic in the Botanical Gardens. Oh we did take the ferry to Watson's Bay, but after seeing the biggest fish and chip place which appeared to take up the whole area we caught the bus home.

Tomorrow we are doing the Harbour bridge climb, we are doing it for James because if he had managed to get to Sydney he defiantly would have done it. Anyway wish us luck, i hear it is tough going, but i remember what James said when i did the London to Cambridge bike race 'you'll never do it mother' so then i just gritted my teeth all the same and hey presto. Just got to be careful this time as the tooth implants cost so much i cannot replace them if i grit to much!!!!