Leopard Hunting!

We are back out on the road this weekend and as promised we are keeping you fully updated!! Well, having a blog as and when we can.

Yes, its a Leopard hunting weekend! Ok ok, please excuse me for a minute, i have to switch on the 'gadget geek' section to explain! Apple have launched there new update to their operating system, they have named the last few launches after big cats, so we have had Panther, Tiger and now we have Leopard!

So after work yesterday we headed for London and after checking into our hotel we headed for Regent Street, the home of Apple in the UK. We arrived at just after seven. Leopard was launched at 6pm, with the Apple stores closing two hours before to prepare. So we were expecting it to be busy, but wow! We had to queue to get into the store, and the queue to buy our copy of Leopard. So after a twenty minute queue we had our copy! Jo did not get why it was such a big thing, and why so many people were there, when they could just buy it tomorrow or the next day .. but Apple has this draw!

With Leopard in hand we headed back to our hotel and stopped off for a Pizza on the way.

We are staying overnight so that we can go to Olympia in the morning. There happens to be a Mac show there this weekend!

Our Apple weekend continues ......... !

Mr & Mrs Butler

Well believe it or not its been a month since we got married! Time flies!

Sorry for the lack of updates but as this is suppose to be our 'Travel' blog we have not done much traveling since coming back from Vegas. Having said that i am currently on a train to London, Jo is beside the seaside at Hove today and we visited Swindon on Sunday, so who says we haven't been traveling!!

Keep your eyes on the blog and the website as we will keep it updated as much as possible. We have a trip to London next weekend - an important date in the life of a Mac Gadget Fan! Its Mac Expo Live at Olympia, it is also the launch of the next operating system for the Mac, called Leopard!

Ok ok .. this is travel blog, not a gadget blog!

We also have a trip to Cornwall in November and we will be 'blogging' as much as possible. Sadly last year when we went the only place that had an internet connection was the Red Lion Pub so i am going to have to force myself to visit the pub each day, just in the interests of keeping you all up to date on our travels!!

Back at home

Well we made it! Flight delayed by 4hrs but we have made it back to the UK! The M25 then decided to delay us a little more but we arrived back at Westview just after 3pm, so thank-you to our taxi driver!

We thought we had escaped the balloons etc on the car, which is traditional, but we forgot that we had left the keys with Mum and Nik!! So the last leg of our trip was spent with a back seat of balloons!

The weather also welcomed us home, with rain all the way to the south coast!

Anyhow, we are back! Thank-you so much for all our cards and messages, its been really great.

We have not finished! - keep watching the website and we will add some more pictures over the next few days and i will change the website around a bit so you can view the pictures in a number of ways, which might help with you that have slower internet connections!

In the meantime you can visit our full FlickR website at:

www.flickr.com/photos/slinkey/

Just click on the above link. When you get to the FlickR website you can view the different 'sets' of photos such as the wedding pictures by clicking on the links on the right of the page. If you need a hand then let me know.

Mr and Mrs Butler have left the building

Well we are trying too!

We are currently sat in McCarrans International Airport, but nowhere to go! Our flight has been delayed, so instead of leaving at 16:06hrs Las Vegas time we are now due to depart around 19:00hrs Las Vegas time. Not sure why, but its probably the plane that we flew out on!!!!

We have both been very unimpressed with Virgin. More because a lot of people have said that they are very good, rather than anything else. Delays happens and that is part of travel, but they have been very average all around!

Oh well, the wireless internet is free, we have plenty of reading material and nowhere else to go!!

Day 7 - Last Day

Well our last full day in Las Vegas has come an end and we have continued to cram as much as possible in and knacker ourselves out - we should sleep well on the plane back!

Our agenda for the last day included a trip to see the Hoover Dam. Jerry, our tour guide for the trip was a local to Las Vegas so we learnt lots about the area and what you don't get in the guide books!

The Hoover Dam was good, an incredible bit of engineering, and breath taking when you see it for the first time. We did the lightning tour, so spent about half an hour on the tour inside the dam and then about twenty minutes looking around outside and of course taking just a few pics!

To round off our day we did a helicopter ride down the strip at night. It was an incredible but short trip, what made it more interesting was a thunder storm coming in from the surrounding mountains. We had flashes of lighting all the time but the ride was smooth and really good. After we landed the heavens opened and Vegas had a few more drops of rain to help out their 6 year drought!

Day 6 - Thank-you

Just a quick note this evening (your morning in the UK !). Thank-you for all the messages whether via text or e-mail or via the comments, we have got them all and have been reading them. The wife is a little slow at replying to her e-mails at the moment but i will have words. I don't know, she is slow at replying to her e-mails now, what will it be like when she has to cook my dinner as well !!!!

We have had a great day. Helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon this afternoon and then this evening we went to see 'The Beatles - Cirque De Soleil' which was amazing, hard to explain in writing but amazing!

And its started raining!!!!

Well its just gone 1am for us, and i need just a little beauty sleep as we have an early start tomorrow we are off to see the Hoover Dam up close!

Photos, of course, to follow!

Day 6 - The Day After ....

Ok, first off, the photos are there now, so go have a look! The photo that i have picked to accompany this entry is not Jo's choice, in fact we did not ask for it to be taken but Sammy Davis Jnr said that if Elvis was in the house, then we may as well!! It also made me think that if Elvis was there, then Dad was certainly there in spirit.

Elvis also told us that amongst other's Frank Sinatra and Joan Collins also got married at the 'Little White Wedding Chapel' (not to each other!) so i am sure Dad would approve as well !!

Our wedding evening did not go as planned, but that actually made it even better. We decided to change out of our wedding clothes as it was so hot and Jo decided to wear her Southampton top, and no, i did not force her, i know she has to obey everything i say now (!!!!!) but she did choose to wear it. We headed for the Irish Pub in the hotel and after getting a Guinness we went outside. 30 seconds after sitting down we found we were sitting opposite a couple from Portsmouth who had got married this week as well and the groom was a life long Pompey supporter! For those unaware, Southampton and Portsmouth footfall fans are not renowned to get along! Well we proved them wrong! He did have to go and put on his Pompey top so we ended up sitting in an Irish Pub, with a Saints and Pompey supporter sitting opposite each other in Las Vegas !!! We even had people walking past the pub shouting comments to us.

We had to stay for a few pints, rude not too!! and then we went for dinner and a wander - we decided not to go to the show, we have another show to go and see this evening.

On our agenda for today is the Grand Canyon!

We also opened all our cards this morning, thank-you all for the cards, and the maid also says thanks for all the confetti that is now on the floor!

New Signing to the Butler Family

I am pleased to report that the Butler family have a new signing as of today!!

Mrs Butler joined the Butler clan at just after 14:45hrs Las Vegas time, today, 19th September 2007!

We had a fantastic time, Jo looked really stunning, everybody was really nice to us and the minister who married us was fantastic and made it feel very special.

For those of you wanting to see the dress pictures - they are coming! Sammy Davis Jnr took our photos - yes our photographer looked like Sammy Davis Jnr, it was not intentional, he just looks like him! They are being developed at the moment and we hope to have them back in about an hour.

Thank-you so much to everybody who has sent us messages via the website, e-mail and text - we have got them all, and we will try and reply over the next few days.

And a special thank-you to Mum and Nik for the champagne, balloons, card and strawberries (covered in chocolate!)

We are now going to go and have a drink, before going out for a meal and to watch Cirque Du Soleil.

The Saints top is Jo's new top, and the 9 is for her birth date - and yes we do know that they drew this evening :-(

Day 5 - The Big Day!

Day 5 - Wednesday 19th September 2007, and our big day has arrived.

Its just gone 7am and we are both up, i have just done the coffee run and Jo is in the shower. Mental note - its the wife's job to get the coffee from now on!

We are just off to get some breakfast (all you can eat pancakes is on the menu this morning!!!) and then i am off to the shopping mall to get my suit, only joking! Just looking for some cufflinks that play 'Elvis' when you press them .. well that's what i have told Jo!

Jo is off the Spa/Salon for a touch up! of the makeup and hair variety - apparently the touch up of the other variety comes after the wedding!!! (sorry mother!)

We had a good evening last night, Mamma Mia was good, although it could not match the West End. Jo enjoyed her frozen margarita although she might be feeling it a little this morning!

Photos will follow later ...

Day 4 - Who told the press?!

Ok come on, own up, who was it!?

We went to the county court this morning to get our wedding license for tomorrow. Tommy our taxi driver took us from the hotel to the court. We turned the corner to find all the press camped out, outside the courthouse. Now who told them that we were getting married tomorrow!!!

Well ok, it might not of been us, it could be the fact that OJ Simpson was due in court to see if he could get bail! Not sure if it has made much of the headlines in the UK, but over here its big news that OJ has been arrested again!

After dining half way up the Eifel Tower at lunchtime we are off to see a show this evening - Mama Mia!