comparethemeercat.com Outtakes

The little Meercat that appears on TV for comparethemeercat.com now has a bloopers reel:

Catching Tapeworm

Photo Albums on Facebook

For those following, I am uploading and tagging all our old photos onto facebook. I'll still be posting wedding photos here, as we go forward in updating this blog. To view the albums if you are not a member of facebook you can join then add us as friends using our email.

Wes on Facebook
Donna on Facebook

Anti-Teenage Deterrent

Created by Train Horn

Actually I can hear a tiny high frequency electronic sound, like the sound when you turn an electronic device on sometimes - but nothing that would make me move on.

The Groom

Here I am on the beach on D-Day (marrying Donna day), don't be deceived by the clouds, it was sweltering hot and sunny but there were a few clouds to give us a bit of reprieve.

If I look calm, it's because I was actually half-doped on Benadryl to keep the mozzy-bites down.

The combination of heat and antihistamine meant I spent most of the day in a blissful daze, only just aware of what was going on around me, enough to be able to speak my vows on cue and smile for the photos.

Actually I think half the time the smile was a side-effect of the drugs.

This was Gina's camera btw, she took some good snaps.

Hedge Yourself

The GBP is becoming more and more worthless everyday and inflation is just around the corner - summer/autumn by my reckoning, the time to move you savings is now if you want to keep their value.

I have just opened an account at BullionVault to purchase gold. In fact currently they are even giving a free gram of gold, plus £1, $1 and €1 deposited into your BullionVault account for you to sell straight away. If you choose to sign up to BullionVault, please use the link I provide here as I get an extra comission (you can do the same on your own blog once your account is set up).

Another way of hedging, though I'm not so sure of it's potential now is through Zopa. At the time of this post, they are still offering 9.1% ROI, but will there be a rise in defaults as the year rolls out? Only time will tell but the ability to spread your lending by as little as £10 deadens the risk. Again the link I provide is an affiliation link which gives me a small bonus, so much appreciation if you use the link to sign up.

This is just what I'm doing to hedge our savings against potential inflation. The truth is it's almost, but not dead, certain and I'm not financial advisor. I recommend doing your own research on gold but I found this article from The Motley Fool very helpful, in fact TMF are a good source of financial wisdom on many fronts - I'd recommend searching their archives.

Err, that's it for now.

Just added Twitter feed to the sidebar...

But first, an apology.

This blog has been inactive for over a year. I am ashamed. I have been thinking about it and about the wedding photos.

I'll start to get them up soon. The truth is I've been put off the huge task of editing them and editing our videos - but if I can get one or two up it's better than nothing right?

Critters

For some reason, it seemed like the animal kingdom was doing it's best to stop the wedding (or at least ruin the photo's). After my encounter with Zooey, my sister-in-laws possessed cat, upon landing in Maui I was set upon by mosquitoes. At first I was bit in the hand, then on the side of my forehead. By day three the little b*s had caused me ear to swell double its size (visible on some of the Luau photo's).

Here's a comparison ear-to-ear:

 

As if my ego  wasn't bruised enough, Donna made me wear some sort of plastic face mask the night before the big day which made me look like an android from the movie A.I.:

 Jude Wes

Must Do Checklist: The Luau

It's one of those extremely expensive tourist things that has to be done, so here we are queuing on the beach, near twilight waiting to get our hands on those free complimentary Mai Tai's.

To be fair, it was a free bar and all you can eat, what else could you ask for?

Here's the pig going into the ground. For those that don't know, a Luau is where they cook a whole pig in the ground before serving it up.

View photo's of the Luau

Basil Tomatoes

So we finally settled in and on the first night we decided to all go out together and sample some of the local cuisine. Mike recommended Basil Tomatoes just down the road from Ka'anapali. I have a video of the event but I haven't got round to editing yet.

Some of the highlights include being served by the militant waitress we nicknamed 'butch' (wait till you see the video) and being served purified 'clear' milk (also in the video).

Mike had already finished his drink at this point. I guess no one has mentioned to him that you toast first and then drink.

Since we paid for the meal on my card, we ended up with a fistful of dollars. I didn't get to play with it long, as Donna was already comfortably getting ready to be in wife-mode.

View the photo's