Paul Townsend

Turn off your TV

Have you ever watched the movie ‘They Live’?

My wife and I cancelled our cable service over six months ago now, and what a joy it has been. We still watch certain shows and movies on Netflix, but it was such a relief to get away from the ‘regularly scheduled programming’ (pun intended) especially from the news channels, which are bias beyond belief.

I’m lucky, I come from another developed nation that speaks the same language, and is similar in almost every way to this one. Having been raised in a similar yet different enviornment, it wasn’t hard for me to get disconnected with the ‘mainstream’ since I could sense something was out of place already, having grown up under a different culture.

When I was in school in the UK, I was taught critical thinking. When we learned about journalism in English class, we were taught not to be bias, but to judge the information presented from a neutral point of view.

The US media is so bais that it no longer takes a lesson in real journalism to see it. All you have to do is switch off the television and look up some articles online, to see true journalism in effect. When you turn the TV back on, all you see is ‘Liberal this’ and ‘Conservative that’ and you see talking heads on news channels, where they rarely go outside the studio. You see panels of people talking about a subject, but not actually investigating it, or going out in the field. All American news channels take a sound bite, or a clip, or hearsay, and expand it for many minutes out of the hour with a heated discussion about the supposed subject. It’s like watching a gang of high school teenagers discuss which brand has the worst pair of tennis shoes.

Recently I read this article that explains that only 20% of Americans trust the media anymore:

A recent Gallup poll shows that an all time low of on only 20% of the public trusts the news as citizen journalism continues to rise.

Bias and bungled reporting on US news networks are behind plummeting audience numbers, according to the Gallup Poll.

As far as the 20% who do still trust the news I would suppose they simply either don’t have internet access or when they go online the don’t dare stray to far from sites owned by the corporations that own the corporate media.

For anyone who happens to land here that still believes the news is trustworthy these will instantly make you non-believers as well: Caught: Staged CNN Syria Interviews Faked By Activist Danny and Wag The Dog – Media Caught Faking Syria News Stories.

Of course that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.

RT reports on the Gallup Poll and the continual decline of the corporate media in the video below which also looks at a cutting-edge project that’s encouraging ordinary Americans to drive our country’s news agenda instead.

I challenge you to turn your TV off, and start doing some of your own research outside of the Mainstream Media.

My favorite site to date is www.whatreallyhappened.com

Good luck, and I hope you start seeing what I, and many others are seeing out there right now, that ‘they live’ and that we are no longer informed properly by the media on any channel, and that it is up to us to report the real news out there.

Oh, and coincidentally, does anyone else think that Mitt Romney looks remarkably like one of the aliens in the movie?

A glimmer of hope

Cincinnati Mall, almost completely decimated and flat-lining, is slowly starting to beat back to life.

My wife and I dated, by my visiting her twice a year. I would fly out for two weeks over Christmas, and two months over summer. Since we were so young, the only real dates we had were when her mother would drop us off at the mall for the afternoon during these special times of year.

One of the malls that we visited the most was Cincinnati Mall (formally Cincinnati Mills or Forest Fair Mall). The first time I visited it, was at the very end of 2004 shortly after it had re-opened. The place was packed, every space was open for business and the place was bustling. Over the next couple of years it became our favorite place to date on my visits.

During it’s height (for us anyway, I’ve heard its been through several booms and busts) it had a Bigg’s grocery store, a showcase cinema, 12 varieties of food companies at the food court, and in excess of one hundred stores including many high street brands. At its fall last year there were barely ten stores left and only two food companies remained open (barely).

What was once a dating haven for us, with everything you could imagine, from seeing a movie, eating out, doing some clothes shopping, and grabbing a couple things at the supermarket all in once place, had become completely decimated; a true sign of the failing economy.

It was heartbreaking for me to see the place in such a decline. I’ve heard it’s the second largest mall in America, and I’ve been to the largest (Mall of America) when I had a stop over flight in Minnesota one Christmas. To see such a large building, a place where I dated my wife, and the first mall I had ever been to, to be in such a sorry and dead state really pulled at the heartstrings. We have so many good memories there, and I didn’t like seeing it in such decline.

The one reason we still go there is because of the Danberry Dollar saver cinema. For $3 a piece we can watch the latest movies (albeit a month or two behind the big cinemas) for a reasonable rate, and its not far away for us to drive.

When we walked out of the cinema Friday night, we saw the two die hard food companies still serving meals, but something was different. Recently Arcade Legacy had moved in and was pulling the local gamers in, but in addition to that, today there was some loud music playing, and next door there was a venue being set up for an international ‘dance off’. Now that’s not particularly my style, but seeing as there is so much free space at the mall, it made sense to host it there. I smiled as we walked past and my wife picked up a leaflet for the event.

As we ascended the steps and walked up to the second floor, I saw some light breaking through a crack in the black plastic wrap covering one of the many vacant stores. This store used to be Bigg’s, and I was intrigued to see light breaking through from it. As we approached it we noticed a sign had been put up with designs for a huge indoor sports complex. After looking at each other in amazement and heading toward the doors and back to our car, I felt a sense of happiness swell over me as I thought about how the old mall was slowly but surely starting to beat back into life.

Many people fear the economy collapsing and what it will do to them and their families. I say let it collapse. If it was not built well to begin with, let it fall, but don’t let corrupt bureaucrats slowly and agonizingly pull it apart as they fumble their grimy fingers through it.

Anything can be rebuilt, and anything can be built better than before.

It is quite possible that Cincinnati Mall will come back stronger than ever. It may well end up being Cincinnati’s greatest entertainment area in years to come. All it takes is a little imagination, determination and skill.

Without government coercion, and with free markets and free spirits, we can create anything.

The economy may already be flat lining and the surgery isn’t working, but slowly but surely it will beat back into life. Sometimes you have to let a body die, so that it can be reborn again.

Americans have forgotten freedom

My wife and I started out with nothing but each other. Not only did we come from different countries, but we were not given everything we wanted as teenagers. Neither my parents nor hers gave us tuition for university. Both of us are very intelligent, and we have put our minds to good use. We both work full time and run a company together.

Earlier today my wife was working at her store where she is an assistant manager. She and one of the associates got in a conversation and the guy said that “the government should just give everyone a million dollars.” To which my wife replied “where do you think the government gets that money?” The guy did not know, and my wife told him that the money is taken from you and I, from all of us, and redistributed after the government employees have taken their considerable cut. So really our wealth is diminished every time we are taxed more and more money is spent. I could expand her point further by saying that the more money is printed out of thin air and handed out to everyone, the more value it loses, and no mater how much more money you pump into the system, all you’ll do is saturate the market and there will be no value and no use for the money, just like in the Weimar Republic in post WWI Germany.

Back to my wife and I. Now we could have gone to college with or without financial support from both sets of parents. In fact, we actually looked at attending an American college shortly after we got married. The biggest reason we decided not to attend was financial. Neither of us can justify going 100’s of thousands of dollars into debt for a ‘quality’ American education. Recently I met up with one of my old friends in London when we went to visit. He graduated from Cambridge and told us that he only paid 3000 pounds a year ($5000) for his tuition. Now I’m sorry, but only Yale and Harvard can compare to the likes of Cambridge or Oxford. Most American colleges now run in the $10’s of thousands a year now, and the quality certainly isn’t there. American colleges have been saturated by government backed student loans, and you can now get a bachelors degree in almost everything including hairdressing. I’m sorry, but unless it holds a true quality of the mind in what you have studied, it’s not worth the paper its printed on. There are plenty of good community colleges for craftsmanship, and I have always favored apprenticeships over ‘shop-class’.

America has not only lost its sense of value, but many of its citizens do not even know what it means to be free. They do not know how to simply say ‘no’.

The American empire has expanded so far that people now allow themselves to be patted down at airports, stopped at ‘sobriety’ checkpoints (Nazi-lite anyone?) and stripped of almost all their constitutional rights on a daily bases. They openly believe almost everything they hear on TV, including the heavily biased propaganda machine that is American News channels. Americans are so afraid of losing their jobs, so inclined to ‘work hard’ and pay off their debts. Debts which are incurred under the corrupt banking and government cartel known as the Federal Reserve, money which is stolen from the people through taxation and then lent back out to the people in paper money at interest.

The problems with America run so deep, that the nation is deeply divided. It is not simply a case of left vs right either. Many conservatives, though perhaps more open minded to the idea of the constitution and limited government, still believe in many big government programs. Programs such as the overly expanded and stretched out military, restoring the draft (involuntary servitude anyone?) in the name of honor and sacrifice. They believe that a progressive such as Mitt Romney will save the day against the dreaded Obama, and yet forget that they both stand for the same unlimited government.

There are many wars going on right now in the Middle East, and this country is stretched thin in many areas, from the economy, to the military. Right now our battlefield is a philosophical one.

Where does the government get its money from? All of it is stolen from you. Government is supposed to be our servant. It is supposed to serve us in basic areas only to maintain limited law and order.

Ask yourself these questions:

Where does the government get its money from?

Is my purpose in life to make the most out of it for myself and my family, or be a slave to a collective?

Am I supposed to serve the government, or myself?

Am I not by serving myself, and protecting myself, really protecting others too?

Am I supposed to listen to what others tell me to do, and please the collective driven by leaders in the shadows?

Watch the movie ‘The Matrix’ and realize how it reflects on our current society. I took the ‘red pill’ a long time ago, and the rabbit hole is a long way down. Question is, are you ready to take it too? Or just take the blue pill, turn the news channel on tv back on and fall asleep?

Americans have forgotten freedom, because as I watched the fireworks going off on July 4th this year, I couldn’t understand what they were celebrating any more. Will all the intrusions of government in our everyday affairs, what freedom is really left? What I see around me right now mirrors that of the British oppression of the 1700’s, or that of Nazi Germany of the 1930’s.

Are you ready to wake up and declare true independence? Or have you forgotten too?

We are at war

This country is now a shell of it’s former self. The presidency is now a joke. If Mitt Romney win’s at the GOP national convention in August, and the presidential contest becomes Mitt Romney vs Barack Obama, you may as well stay home in November. Both these candidates stand for the same issues.

The difference between these two candidates is almost zero. Do not be led to believe that voting for one ‘side’ will change everything for the better. This problem has been a long time coming, and this country has been rotting away from the inside out for many decades now.

The healthcare bill that just passed is a strong indication of just how rotten the United States government has become. No nation should force its citizenry to purchase a product from a company.

“Man was born free and yet everywhere he is in chains.” The chains that now surround him are often emotional, peer pressure, and financial chains, aided by the hand of government tied with corruption and advertised at a childlike level on TV.

The people of this nation are now so emotional about politics, that they do not see clearly the real issues at hand. Illegal immigration, homosexuality, race, none of these issues are of grave importance. These are out-dated issues brought up with strategic timing to trigger an emotional response from certain percentages of the population in order to ‘swing votes’. Being ‘Illegal’ is simply a technicality, it is not the real issue. Being homosexual does not mean your children will all become homosexual themselves, and with a black man as president, I can say that for the most part, racism is mostly dead, except for certain ‘extreme’ areas. The real issue of the day, the most important one right now, and what is of grave importance is human liberty. The right to live your life how you want to.

Voting for what Jessie Venture calls the ‘Rebloodicans and the democrips’ will not save us come November. Voting for new senators and congressmen can definitely help if the right ones are choosen, and real changes are brought about at a local and state level. This country is currently being used for special interests and for what the occupy movement calls ‘the 1%’. There is truth in that. How does dying in foreign lands help improve ‘our’ freedom at home?

While our troops have been away, almost the entire Constitution has been written over or erased by documents such as ‘the patriot act’ and ‘the NDAA act’. This has been done with bipartisan support from both republican and democrat administrations.

The federal government is now so corrupt, that it has become very obvious that every action taken is one to loot from the pockets of working Americans, and to strip their liberties away. On one hand politicians talk about the greatness of america and of our freedoms, and on the other hand they strip these freedoms away for profits. In a bold new attempt to silence people like myself from speaking out online to thousands of other people, they have recently introduced legislation such as SOPA and PIPA. And they call this the land of the free, where you are supposed to have freedom of speech.

For those of us who are awake, and who realise that neither the republicans nor the democrats have any interests in representing ‘we the people’, and only care about representing their own special interests. We understand that we are now at war with the federal government and the oligarchy behind the scenes.

I am by no means an anarchist, nor am I inciting violence. The war that has now began is a philosophical war for our independence, to finally once and for all decide the fate of man, to show what liberty is really all about. Freedom means just that; to be free. To be free to choose, to live the life you see fit for yourself, not the life that some bureaucrat in a far away land wants for you.

I am currently reading a book called ‘Non-violence is not for wimps’, it is very insightful and shows how to combat current issues without resorting to violence.

This philosophical war is just beginning, and it will take years to win. Be prepared to be in this for the long haul, it won’t be pretty, and the government will clamp down. This battle will not be won or lost in November, and there are many trials and tribulations ahead. Be prepared to learn truths that will make you sick to your stomach, and keep an open mind about the world around you. There is a lot to learn, and a lot to do, but no-one ever said revolutions were easy.

The Revolution continues

The mainstream media claims that Mitt Romney has the GOP nomination, we are being told to pick between the lesser of two evils. Even the son of the greatest presidential candidate in history has flipped sides and decided to support the ‘presumptive nominee’ But the Revolution continues! You see, the Ron Paul Revolution is a philosophical one. It is the idea of self liberty and self determination. For much of the last one-hundred years the US population has been sidetracked into left vs right politicking, and has been left with the choice of ‘the lesser of two evils’.

I will not vote for Mitt Romney, I will not vote for him even with Rand Paul’s support. I will only vote for a man of principle, and that is Ron Paul. What is the point in voting for Obama-lite? Many of Obama’s policies and legislation are Romney inspired. Why would you go out and vote for another progressive? Why would you vote for a known flip-flopper? Why would you vote for another fraud, a snake in sheep’s clothing?

I’ve seen bumper stickers and comments that say that those who voted for Obama are idiots. Well, do you think that voting for McCain made you a saint? The John McCain who supported the bailouts, the wars of aggression in the middle east, and who co-wrote the NDAA act? Do you think that John McCain the progressive would have been much better than Obama the progressive?

All those on the left that say that those who voted for Bush (the counterfeit conservative) are idiots, do you really think that John Kerry would have been better, or Al Gore? Al Gore, the guy who sells the idea of Global Warming, and makes millions trading ‘carbon credits’.

Do you not see that the media steers you into choosing between ‘the lesser of two evils’ on a consistent basis?

When I went to the very first Tea Party in Cincinnati back in early 2009, I was impressed when a man made a speech about how he was tired of voting for ‘the lesser of two evils’. And now I see that the Tea Party, along with its supports such as Rand Paul and Glenn Beck, have abandoned their principles and are now supporting a progressive that is worse than George Bush!

Where are your principles?

Do you really think you’re going to make all that much difference when you throw your support behind a ‘chosen’ candidate who is firmly a part of the establishment? The same establishment that has given you all the rules and regulations, taxes, wars, and liberty stripping security that we now feel under the suffocating pillow of bloated government.

So I ask you, will you vote for another establishment candidate, or will you spread the word of Ron Paul? The word of liberty and the constitution. Or will you become another tool in the New World Order’s toolbox of useful idiots? Blindly believing that if you support their ‘chosen’ candidate, that you are somehow aiding the cause of freedom?

Don’t get swept up into the crowd, stand as an individual for liberty and spread the ideas of the consititution and of self worth. Don’t go along with the ‘mainstream’.

We still have time, and Ron Paul may well sweep the floor at the GOP convention in August in a similar way to how Ronald Reagan did in 1980. Soon the GOP and the democrats will realize that currently; neither have the young vote and that Ron Paul does. We want to live in a free and prosperous society, and we do not like the debt and burdens of slavery currently being handed to us.

The Ron Paul Revolution of liberty and restoring this country continues!

“An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government!” – Ron Paul

Quality of life

I’ve been back in the US for three weeks now, which is almost twice as long as my trip to England, and yet I can’t help but draw comparisons and get annoyed at how far this country has slipped from ‘the land of the free’. When I first came here I felt that it was more open than England and had more opportunities. Indeed when my wife and I got married we decided to stay in the US because of this very reason. The house prices and cost of living in England far outweighed that of the US. On our trip I was astounded to learn that prices had remained reasonable in the UK and yet here food prices have all but doubled in the few years I have been here.

The thought of moving back is there, but I still love this country despite all its faults, and I’ve already sunk my roots in. To me it does not really matter where I live and I have discovered that I am not particularly loyal to any one country. What I am loyal to though is an idea. That Idea is freedom and self liberty, the ability to do what you want and to make what you want of yourself. That is why you see me supporting Ron Paul and trashing the establishment. This ‘establishment’ has grown like a fungus on the statue of what used to be a great idea of liberty. Lately all you see is the basic shape with the moss growing all over it. I’m sorry that it looks ugly as I strip away sections of it, but truth is truth, and I will show it to the world for all that it is, the good, bad, ugly and the upsetting truths about where we are and what we have done.

One of my old work friends said it best when he said that he’s from ‘the party of leave me the hell alone’. He was for all intents and purposes a conservative and voted so. And yet he did not care that his neighbors were gay. He said that so long as they were not intimate in front of him that it didn’t particularly bother him. ‘What you do in your house is none of my business’ he would say, and that ‘if they could find a preacher who was willing to do the service, I don’t care if they get married either’. This coming from a guy born in deep eastern Kentucky, really has a lot to say about freedom and not being prejudice. He embodies all the great things about the appellation culture. Recently I went to a firing range with him and he let me try out some of his rifles.

As you can see that is another sport I enjoy here that I cannot do in the UK. Though in the UK you are treated like an adult everywhere you go, and can even drink in public places including on trains. Unfortunately here we now have ‘sobriety checkpoints’ which awfully represent the checkpoints of Nazi Germany during its heyday.

So it does not matter where you live, so long as you stand up for what is right, and make the most out of life for yourself and the ones that you care about.

As for me, I’ll stay here as long as I can. I’ll defend liberty in any way I can, and teach others who are willing to listen. Eventually a time will come to either fight or to shrug. I suggest you read Atlas Shrugged so that you can point out the looters on both sides of the political spectrum. There is a virtue in selfishness and you should always take care of yourself first. Never allow yourself to become a victim of ‘the system’ and never tie your own chains.

The quality of life is whatever we make it, so make it a good one, and ask yourself the question ‘what is freedom?’

Welcome back to the USSA

It is with great sadness that I write this. The USA is no longer a free country. Any illusions that you may have that this is the symbol of hope and freedom in the world are false. It is a sad day indeed when you feel more free in the old world than you do in ‘the land of the free’.

When I walked through the immigration line upon entering the country; what I saw reminded me about what I had learned about Nazi Germany during the late 1930’s in the buildup to the second world war. As you walk through the cattle lines toward the immigration officers, you are made to feel like a prisoner, like you did something wrong for traveling abroad. When the stony faced immigration officer calls out ‘next!’ resembling that of a Nazi officer, he very bluntly asks you why you traveled outside of the country, as if it is a sin to do so. After he stamps your passport, as if you are visiting the country instead of returning home, you walk through customs, where the looters have a chance to go through your bags and personal belongings. After all, how dare you bring back anything of value without paying taxes on it. Once you make it through customs, you drop your bag off for your connecting flight, and are then sheep-herded over to the Nazi SS in blue uniforms under the guise of being called the TSA. The bright blue dressed morons then march you single file, like the prisoner you are, through the cancer giving x-ray machine, in a complete violation of the constitution and your basic human rights and self dignity. If you have any metal of any kind on you, you will then receive a liberty stripping pat down. By the time I had gone through the X-ray machine and watched my wife do the same, only to have her head and hair felt by the rubber gloves because of her berets, my blood was boiling. My arms were crossed, and I bit my lip as I trembled with anger, while it took everything in me to not cause a scene. I very promptly picked up my bag, my jacket, put my shoes back on, and helped my wife retrieve her personal belongings. We then made our way to our departure gate in silence as my anger at all the fat, stupid, lazy people that call themselves Americans allowed themselves to be herded like sheep without any recollection of what the founding fathers had gone through to give them freedom, which has now been completely and utterly stripped away.

I was glad that our connection flight took a while, it took me a very long time to calm down. Had my wife not been traveling with me, I would have refused the body scanner, and gotten myself into trouble the same way Rand Paul did earlier in the year. But, it being the last leg of our vacation, I did not want to spoil it for her.

This is no longer a free country, the sad realization I had after calming down from the Nazi TSA pat downs, was that it was not only at the airports that the blue dressed morons now operate at. They are beginning to set up checkpoints just like Communist Russia did in its heyday. They are now infiltrating public transportation, and busing. And what’s worse is that its not only the TSA, or homeland security, which oversees all departments, going against the checks and balances of the constitution. It’s the police force. ‘To serve and protect’ does not register in your mind when you see cars being pulled over left and right on a daily basis for silly little infractions. It is not much comfort to know that the USA has a larger prison population than any other country on earth. It is not much comfort to know that many of these prisoners are there because of non-crimes. Why should you go to jail when you have not harmed anyone else?

This really is the United States of Soviet America, and if you think otherwise; you are sadly mistaken. This country certainly needs new leadership, but it will not come in the form of Mitt Romney.

We do not need another Barack Obama or George W Bush. We need a George Washington. We need a man who will stand up and defend the Constitution. Better yet, we need men, women and children to learn and understand the Constitution, and to realize just how many liberties have been stripped away from us, and are willing to put their principles first.

Jet lag

It’s 3am UK time. I am wide awake. It seems that my body clock has been spun completely off-center. It’s funny, I always used to sleep fairly well on my return trips to England when living here, but now that I am more of a visitor than a resident, my body can’t seem to adjust, at least not yet anyway.

Today Brooke and I will be heading up to London on the train to see The Phantom of the Opera. There are three things that I wanted to do with Brooke on her first visit to the UK, which I didn’t get a chance to do last time. One was to eat at the Punch Tavern, which we did yesterday. The second was to go to a theatre production in London, which we’re doing today. And thirdly to head to Paris for a day or two, which we’re planning on doing next week before we leave.

Whenever I used to travel to the US; I used to compare prices between products and services in the Canterbury area, and in the Cincinnati area. Now, after having lived in the US for 4 1/2 years I find myself doing the same in reverse. What I remembered is the high cost of housing and petrol/gasoline, but what surprised me was the day to day cost of food, clothes and various home products. I remember thinking how cheap everything was in the US when I used to visit, but lately it seems that everything is so expensive. It is true, many items have gone up in price in the US, inflation it seems, is far higher than you’ll hear about in the media.

I can see now why both the UK and US governments behave the way that they do when it comes toward oil and gasoline/petrol. The UK has made it practice to restrict its citizens usage of the resource since it needs to import more of it. Whereas the US economy is built off cheap oil, and the US government builds its blunderous foreign policy off retaining its dominance on the purchase of cheap oil. Of course, both governments are wrong in their policies, since there are alternative energy resources readily and cheaply available. But it does explain why prices and inflation are higher than ever, and why energy prices are so high.

I was amazed at the cost of a meal at the Punch Tavern; £5.79 for a meal with a pint of beer. That’s amazing! Brooke and I would easily drop $40 – $50 for the same meal each back home, and yet my dad only paid about £22 for himself, my mum, Brooke and I.

On recollection. There really isn’t a ‘better place’ to live in the world, your home is where you make it, and what you enjoy out of it. Sure, there are better places, and I enjoy the 28C/86F warm sunny weather back home in Cincinnati compared to the 9C/50F cloudy drizzly weather in Canterbury right now. But the walk that Brooke and I took yesterday evening along the back woods where I used to jog as a teenager were so quite and so peaceful. The wooded areas were full of bluebells, something that I’ve wanted to show Brooke since I first met her. And the fields were quiet and rolling. There wasn’t a sound in the air, except a few rumbles of cars in the distance and the chirp of birds in the air.

I think life is meant to be lived, and it doesn’t matter where you are, nor too much what you’re doing. But how you’re doing it, what you’re doing it for, and whether you’re enjoying it or not. Life really is too short. I grew up in this country, I’ve lived here 4/5 of my life, and yet I feel more like a stranger now than anything, even though I am used to the customs and find myself easily able to blend in and get around.

I’ve grown up a lot since I left England. America is the land of opportunity, though not all Americans, perhaps even the majority don’t use the opportunity. I think England has as many opportunities as America, but perhaps not in the same context. You can get a good education in England far cheaper than in the states, but to buy a place to live here in Canterbury you’d need to be practically a millionaire, whereas in Cincinnati they’ll pretty much give you any mortgage you want, and you can buy a house for not much more than a car in certain places.

I feel bigger now than when I left England, bigger in mind body and soul. I left the old country with many ideas, expectations and dreams. I have achieved many of them, and am proud of myself for doing them. I owe all my successes in life to my wife and my parents, without their support, I doubt I would have achieved half of them. It makes me very happy to be spending the next week and a half with all of them in the place where I grew up. I shall make the most of this, and enjoy eating my favorite meals and seeing old sights, friends and family.

Now to try and grab a couple extra hours sleep, so that I don’t feel like a zombie while walking around London!

Back in blighty

Brooke and I arrived this morning in England. I feel very jet lagged right now, but it is nice seeing familiar sights. We have a lot planned for the next ten days, but we’re going to take it easy and enjoy every minute of it.

My mum made us bacon sandwiches and my dad made me a cup of tea, aside from feeling jet-lagged, I feel great!

More posts after I get over the jet-lag and get some sleep!

Back to the old country

It was a very busy and productive weekend after a very busy and productive week. We shot photographs for my friend’s wedding and we had a blast. It was probably the smallest wedding we have done to date, but it was a great crowd of people, and everyone had a good time.

Last night I packed my suitcase and gathered all my important possessions, including my Columbia jacket, wrangler jeans, leather jacket and Canon Rebel camera. Brooke and I have been working very hard lately and are in need of some down time. I haven’t seen my extended family in England since we got married, and it seemed like the perfect time to go back for a visit, since I am now a US citizen, and tickets are cheaper this time of year, before the summer rush.

Today we set off for 10 days in old blighty. It will be strange going back, I’ve grown up a lot since I left. I was barely 20 years old when Brooke and I got married and I decided to stay in the US. By the end of this year I’ll be 25. Since moving here, I’ve been married, bought and ridden three motorcycles and two cars. I’ve adopted a puppy, who is now our loyal dog. We rent a large town-home in a nice suburban area of the Greater Cincinnati area, we have furniture and all kinds of utensils and other homely appliances. We run our own photography business, and we’re looking at buying a house and studio later this year. All in all, we’re doing quite well, and I’ve gone from being a teenager in love, to a devoted husband and striving toward being a successful businessman.

I’m looking forward to seeing my family again and seeing familiar sights, and sitting down to old favorite meals. For those of you who I’m flying out to see, I’ll see you soon! And for those who I am leaving here; I’ll be back!