I joined in the charity auction for Ultralab (1990-2006)’s Gina Revill who is raising charity money to go on a trek to Cuba in order to raise much needed research funding for investigating endometriosis.

As I was jet lagged still, I did not go to work, but joined in the auction from home via iChat AV. The wonders of Apple technology!

Ultralab (1990-2006)’s former Director of Research, Dr. Ian Terrell conducted the auction, which mainly consisted of movies, sound tracks and film scripts.

I bidded £7 and won ‘About a Boy’, ‘Scooby-Doo’ and ‘Stuart Little 2′.

You can sponsor our Gina, every penny counts….
Sponsor our Gina, she’s really nice.

When I was in the States this time last week I headed into the Apple Store and bought me an iPod Shuffle. I already own an iPod called ‘Curtis’, but its a bit bulky for running, and some mornings the battery has run out and I cant be bothered to charge it in time.

So, ‘Moyles’ my new iPod Shuffle (named out of respect of Radio 1 broadcasting legend Chris Moyles is a very cool piece of kit.

Already I’ve enjoyed about 7 songs it has played me at random.

I love the way it plugs into the USB port, charges, and brings over random songs!

Big discount too….US price!

Enjoy uncertainty, get an iPod Shuffle.

Day 8 Photographs

We packed up the car, with our stuff, hit the road on the early hours of Tuesday morning, returned the rental car, waited three hours for the plane, had a McDonalds, flew to Atlanta, had a Pizza Hut, waited for a plane, flew to Gatwick, got the car from the airport carpark, paid £72 !!! (Rip off NCP!!) and drove home.

Both planes were full of people, and screaming kids. The parents of those children screaming should be ashamed of how they dealt with their kids, one woman let go of her kid who ran around the plane as it was taking off into the air. Shameful.

At Chicago airport the bus driver taking us to the terminal made us all crouch down as she drove us through a gate for empty buses, it was a very funny moment.

On route out of Gatwick Airport Ultralab (1990-2006)’s Jonathan Furness (Google’s number 2 response for a search on Jonathan’s Blog) telephoned to say that there was a telephone conference call at 10:00am at Ultralab (1990-2006), so I made my way there to join in, before heading home and going to bed, getting up a few hours later, going out, coming home, crashing, my body clock is all over the place.

Thanks to everyone who put up Andrew and myself, we had a great time, thanks the the families, the bus drivers, the friendly staff at McDonald’s and the amazingly cool reception we got everywhere we went.

At Atlanta Airport I tried to blag us some better seats, the seats we booked from the UK were rubbish, so I tried to blag us some window seats….time to turn on the Essex charm…

{Matt} Excuse me ma’darlin, you’re looking great today,

{Delta Rep} Hey, how can I help you….

{Matt} Hows about some seats along the side of the plane, the seats I booked with Flight Centre Chelmsford are rubbish.

{Delta Rep} Ermmmmm

{Matt} I’ll be your friend for life

{Delta Rep} And if I came to London?

{Matt} You’d be staying at my house

{Delta Rep} All done for you.

It was great to spend time with my brother, I’ve not done that for a long while, something I’ll be doing a hell-of-a-lot-more-often.

Cheers bro.

Day 8 Photographs, the final set.

Watch these movies:

 Crying on the Plane: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Flying out of Chicago: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Woke up after a great nights sleep, to Jim tapping a drum, cheers mate! Had a great breakfast on the porch, cooked by Grandma Bohlin before heading down to the basement to pack.

We then went out on Grandpa’s boat, a 1974 classic, Kendra and Brian apparently water-ski with just their feet during the summer, the speed boat ride was amazing! Grandpa drove real fast. Thanks Grandpa! We saw an Eagle flying, an Eagles nest with an Eagle in it, and lots of Loons.

Day 7 Photographs

Grandma gave us some maple syrup, thanks Grandma!

It was really sad leaving Grandma & Grandpa’s house, we felt really at home there, thanks very much for having us!

We headed into the town of Minocqua with Shirley & Jim, went to a fudge shop and bought some fudge, then headed into a Popcorn shop, and bought some popcorn.

It was sad to say goodbye to Shirley & Jim who have been amazing (as always) keeping us busy with lots of things to do, mixing with their family etc etc, we followed them along the road to Stephen’s Point on our 400 mile journey back to Gary & Cindy’s house, we waved goodbye and continued on. We stopped for a Cousin’s Sub (not as nice as Subway) and finally a Burger King. It is Cindy’s birthday today, so we brought her some flowers. It took us six hours to do the 400 mile journey.

I’m writing this last entry on the same floor I wrote the first one, almost a week ago, the week has flown by.

We packed on the driveway, we’re up early in the morning, and heading to Chicago to fly home to Gatwick, then collect my car, and head for Witham.

View the Day 7 Photographs here.

Watch the movies:

 Grandma explains Maple Syrup: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Grandpa Drives the Speed Boat: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 5: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 6: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 7: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 8: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Road Trip Movie 9: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today was another great day, we got up and had a great family breakfast meal with the Willis family before heading out on the road to Lake Ellison, Gary & Cindy Bohlin’s private land and lake. We were going fishing for the first time in our life.

Andrew rode in the car with Jim, I drove Shirley in Gloria the hire car. We had a great chat as we drove along the highways to Minocqua.

What a great road trip, we stopped to buy petrol, which is more expensive since the hurricane hit New Orleans.

We arrived at the lake, which is at the end of some dirt roads, met with Gary and Cindy and their friend Mike and his family we headed onto the lake and started to fish, this is the first time in our lives we have ever been fishing.

I eventually caught a fish, so did Andrew, the picture below is me catching my second fish, which was bigger than the first one, we threw it back.

Day 6 Photo’s

The first two fish Andrew and I caught we kept, Jim cooked them when we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Bohlin’s house on the lake, and we ate them. The lake is amazing, we spent some time fishing, and I really enjoyed it, Gary and Cindy are so lucky to have such a peaceful haven like this. Gary said that the previous night Cindy and him slept on the pontoon on the middle of the lake, watching the Northern Lights above in the sky. There is no electricity so no lights spoiled their view.
Grandma and Grandpa Bohlin have the coolest house ever, overlooking Squirrel Lake in Minocqua, it took us three hours to drive there from Neenah.

Grandma and Grandpa have been married for 56 years after meeting in high school, they have four children, two daughters and two sons. The fireplace in the house is made from stones taken from the lake, the house was designed and built by them, in the late 70’s, it is amazing.

We had a birthday meal with Grandpa, to celebrate his birthday. Grandma had made an amazing cake, she is famous for her cake.

In the evening we laid on the dock and looked up at the sky, I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. I could live here, these people have made us so welcome, they are so lucky to live here.

We slept well in the basement below the house.

Take a look at Day 6 Photo’s

It is 2am in the morning, 8am UK time and we just got in from the most amazing wedding I have ever been to in my life.

Kara married Brian today (or do I mean yesterday).

Day 5 Wedding Pictures.

Totally and utterly amazing, from the wedding ceremony right through to the meal, the evening dance and everything.

We started in the morning, on the hunt for a suit for Kevin, starting off with a doughnut, thanks Jim.

Arrived at the church at about 3pm and witnessed the American way of doing a wedding, much different to the UK way, excellent in every sense. The ushers escort the women into the church, then the grandmothers, then the mothers…then in comes the bridal party who stand with the couple as they say their commitments to each other.

Kevin was an usher, he lit candles, and held onto a lot of ladies arms

A very touching movie was played prior to the ceremony showing the lives of Kara and Brian in photographs, it was excellent.

The first line the vicar said as Kara arrived at Brian’s side, was “I’d be amazed if you did not say wow”.

Kara looked very amazing, everyone looked amazing.

On completion of the ceremony we headed out to the reception, ate, chatted and danced the night away.

The American’s also dance to ‘Cotten Eye Joe’ and ‘YMCA’, it really was good. I requested Hey Baby by DJ Otzi, that went down well. Krista was at the wedding, she stayed with Kara at our house in 1998.

The dance floor was popular, Kevin, Denise, Shirley and Chad spent a lot of time breaking new moves. I could not believe my brother on the dance floor!

Thanks to everyone for today, it was great, the pictures tell the story far better than I ever could….I’ve never danced so much in my life, and its great to be 6000 miles from home, yet be surrounded by friends.

Good luck in life Brian and Kara, you’re a great couple! Come on over to England soon.

Today is a really strange day, a real blast from the past. I’m writing this entry from the basement, of the Willis family house in Neenah, Wisconsin. Last time I was here, with Andrew was in 1997, when we travelled across the USA and Canada.

Day 4 Photo’s

Kevin from the Willis family stayed on an exchange with us in 1996, we stayed with him in 1997 and met Kara Schroeder, who stayed with us in 1998, we’ve stayed in touch ever since.

Kara gets married tomorrow, and we’re here, in Neenah to goto the wedding.

We left the motel this morning early, headed for a Subway breakfast and started the four hour drive. We stopped in a restaurant called ‘The Bog’ and had a hamburger meal, the restaurant had only been open for five days and we were the first English customers that they had ever had. Good munch.

We finally arrived in Neenah at around 5.15pm, arriving at the Willis house was strange, brought back so many memories of our last time here, all good ones of course, back then I was 17, now I’m 26 (spoken as 24 years and 24 months).

Nobody was home, so we changed on the driveway, called Shirley and met up with the families at a local hotel, they were practicing for the wedding nearby.

Seeing Shirley and Jim again was great, it was excellent to see Kevin arrive with his new wife. Meeting the Schroeder’s too was really nice, Kara’s getting married tomorrow to Brian White, the best of happiness to them both.

We had a really nice meal, and then headed back to the Willis house, it seems so so strange to be back here, like stepping back 8 years since we were last here. Feels like home. Andrew crashed on the floor straight away, I sat with Jim and Shirley and watched the wedding film of Kevin, their eldest son getting married, which was two weeks ago.

This is one of the nicest places in the world to be.

Thanks for making us feel so welcome.

Bring on tomorrow.

It is nearly 6am UK time, we’ve just got back from spending some time in the motel hot tub, anyone who knows me knows that I love hot tubs and could live in one….so here goes with what happened today….

Day 3 photographs

We woke up after a really good nights sleep in Motel David. First thing we did, after eating all the remaining junk food from the previous day was go and find the manager of the Motel and find out where we actually were, we did not have a clue after driving in the fog down a long and winding road for ages last night….we found out we were actually in Elmwood Wisconsin, we were about 15 minutes off course, which was not so bad. We got directions, and headed away in the direction of the Mall of America, Minneapolis in Minnesota.

Motel David was really cool, it was clean, big room, nice comfortable beds and very quiet.

On route to the mall we stopped in the city of St Paul and had a Subway for breakfast.

Arriving at the Mall of America was easy, and once again the American roads were a pleasure to drive on (even if they have the sides of the road the wrong way round, I’ll phone W about that). I love driving here, and drove today again, its so easy to drive here….no annoying British drivers trying to cut me up all the time, or speed past having a race. No Chav mobiles on the road either. Nice.

In the Mall we spent time looking around, eating smoothies, buying way too much stuff!

So, if I hate shopping so much, why am I in the worlds largest mall? Tourist thing, gotta say we’ve been there! Plus we got a really good deal on some Vans trainers, two for the price of one, sorted.

In the Apple Store (which is identical to the one in Bluewater, Kent) I spent time on Skype talking to home, before spending an hour or so using up my Powerbook battery type-talking on iChat.

I love the Apple store, but I spent far too much money in there. Tim you got a Mighty Mouse as requested.

We packed up the car with our purchases and headed back into the middle of the mall to have a go on the log flume ride, we ended up paying £19 dollars on tickets and £10 on photographs.

Andrew managed to film some of the log flume ride on his mobile phone.

Once we had eaten way too much Chinese food, we headed out of the city in search for a place to stay for the night. We came across a motel called Super Motel 8, with a hot tub, a pool and free wireless internet. Sorted. I even managed to knock the supervisor down by $10 dollars, and breakfast is thrown in too…. Nice.

Tomorrow we’re looking forward to heading to Neenah, to meet up with the families we last stayed with in 1997. Should be good

Bed time.

Had trouble sleeping last night, my body clock was confused, and I’d forgotten to kill the alarm on my mobile phone, which wakes me each morning to goto work. So, at crazy o’clock in the morning, the phone burst into song.

I logged onto the Internet, and started to do my email, hoping that the screen light would tire me, and send me back to sleep. I logged into iChat and spoke with people in England, and the States. Eventually fell asleep, waking up three hours later, picking up the computer again and iChatting again, this time for much longer.

Ultralab (1990-2006) was alive with people, who I could see on the webcamera…Maureen spotted the camera move, and did some dancing!

We finally left Gary and Cindy’s house at around 11am US time, thanks so much guys for having us stay with you, you have a great house and family.

Day 2’s photographs

The plan for Wednesday was to head down ‘The Great River Road’ along the bank of the Mississippi and go as far as we could, and we did. What an amazing place! We stopped for some food at McDonalds, as our body clocks are still messed up, we stopped 100 miles later for an icecream and to use the phone, and then another 100 miles later we had a Subway.

American drivers are much nicer than British drivers, everything seems to be more laid back when driving, although the road speeds are much slower than the UK, you still feel that you are making good progress as you drive. I drove all day, clocking up 400 miles. Driving in the US is easy, and once you get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, its simple.

We got lost a few times, some of the road signs are not easy to understand and we headed out in the wrong direction. Eventually we headed down a road, no idea which road, to where, or which way, but we were very tired at 9pm (3am UK time) and had no idea which direction we were going, or where we actually were……and fog was descending, We’d hoped to find a motel on the banks of the river, but had actually lost sight of the Mississippi, and had been looking for a place to stay for about an hour, being one of the few cars on the road, we were keen to stop and sleep.

Eventually we came across a Motel called ‘Motel David’ and for $60 David checked us into a really nice room for the night. I’m writing this from my bed in Motel David, we’ll go and see David in a minute and find out where we actually are, before heading for Minnesota, to the Mall of America. Andrew is watching American television, reading about the hurricane down south, tragic news.

Hopefully at some time today we will be able to rob some broadband from a wireless network, and upload this text, and Day 2’s photographs.

Update: Currently robbing broadband in the Apple Store, Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota.