Burn baby burn – version 2

[flv]http://www.garazon.com/video/discoinferno3.flv[/flv]

disco style

and just for the record, I had a burning permit 

Easter Sunday in Maple Park

Happy Easter!

Even though it was very cool and very windy this morning, Alison and I braved the weather and set out for the nearby park this morning to have our first Easter together. The park, Maple Park,  is about a 10 minute drive from home, right next to the Currituck Airport. Maple Park Its built on what used to be the county landfill I think. Well I know its built on the site where the landfill used to be, but I am assuming they did what a lot of similar landfills across the country have done and that is to cover them up and create parks where once was an eyesore. This particular one has a nice size man made water area, supporting fish and several species of wildfowl. There are about a dozen or so geese generally there on the water as well as several varieties of songbirds and usually a pair of wood ducks that we usually see every time we go to the park. We didnt see them today which was rather strange realy. Not sure if they have taken off for the season or they were just in the bushes trying to make a family!
We’ve got some pictures and vidseos of the these two ducks one of us will post sooner or later, either here or Alison will put it on her blog. I cant say the ducks and geese are completely tame although you can get very close to some of them and the ducks have several times come up and taken bread right out of Alison’s hands. This particular park in the county has several areas around the park where you can grill. There is a good size pavillion where large groups can be accommodated and 3 or 4 gazebos

around the park near the water side that each have a grill and table. Being as cold and windy as it was but still very sunny we looked first to see if any of the spots were having even the slightest bit of sun hitting even one seat.  Unfortunately it wasnt to be today and we had to brave the cool breeze and  deal with it. Being familiar with the sort of grilling that goes on around holidays in Cyprus and which Alison has posted about recently on her blog, I thought it would be nice to try and recreate the atmosphere a bit, even if it was on a smaller scale than what they do there by making up a few lamb kebabs. It was also my first time trying lamb actually and I have to admit I liked it! Its got a unique taste and I suppose to some its not appealing but I found the taste very nice and flavourful and very tender too.Well maybe that part had somethign to do with the preparation by having a skilled meatcutter remove all the gristle and cutting the lamb leg up into nice lean pieces. I coated the meat with olive oil and a little oregano and salt and pepper and then threaded them on the skewers, alternating with pieces of onion.

It was really just a bit too cool to be out doing this sort of thing but we had our minds made up and plodded on through. In the midst of trying to get the grill going and trying to get things going quick we forgot to put the potatoes and onions on the grill first as we had planned, but only remembered them about the time the kebabs were nearly done. Well we put some more coals on the grill and had a flame going that would fuel a nice nice furnace and a few minutes of having those packets of aluminum foil wrapped potatoes and onions atop that heat had the contents nearly steamed in minutes! ok not as good as they would have been if slow cooked but edible none the less and by this time anything warm was great eating!

this post or any on this blog wouldnt be complete without me mentioning how wonderful and amazing life and love can be. Another in a  long list of signs we have seen over these last few years is this heart shape that formed at the bottom of one of the Easter eggs Alison made yesterdaywhen she set it in the tray to dry. I guess some could say its just coincidence, but irregardless it made me smile and know that everything is meant to be in this world. We may never understand the whys and hows, but love never fails

Happy Easter to all!

I'd buy this stamp ;)

From FunPhotoBox, thanks to Mike from  Top of Texas Gazette for the link! Cool site.

Wedding pics are here!

More to come soon!

Countdown time again!

Alison and I are going to have the first of our two planned wedding ceremonies, the first one being a very romantic private service with only two witnesses attending: we have to have this service to oblige the immigration visa rules , but still we want it to be very special and it will be of course , saying I do to the woman I have loved and adored since we met on Christian Mingle Singles site 3 years back , who would have thought 2 people could fall in love without ever meeting face to face …..We did and its felt so perfect since day one.
The second ceremony we plan to hold around end of May or beginning of June , its not easy as we really would love to give the chance everyone including Alison’s relatives and friends from overseas to attend, not an easy task being across the other end of the Ocean ,but hopefully things will work out , having kids studying in different places and doing different things is one of the things to consider , and its a big expense nowadays to fly across the sky, oh to win the lottery and pay everyone’s tickets !
This is bascially a copy of what alison has on her blog, but I can say the exact same things, It really is feeling very exciting to me now , I feel like a young teenager again also, I am so in love and so ready to have Ms Markides become Mrs. Weikel ( :
this Valentines day is going to be Very Special and I cant wait.
As soon as we have the second date confirmed we will inform everyone so be ready and watch this spot… or this spot…

luv ya Mrs G XXXX

Our First Christmas Tree

Today marks one of the ‘firsts’ for us with so many more still to come. This one is very special though. We have always had a hard time being apart on holidays; Christmas being especially hard for us. Today we went and bought a tree together and some decorations. We put on some Christmas msic and had a lovely evening filled with such a tremendous happiness of sharing something we have dreamed of for quite a while. We had bought the ingredients to make mulled wine but feeling a bit worn out form a long day of shopping we thought better to pass on it tonight or we would never have got the tree done!

I’ve not taken the time to post anything since Alison arrived,  we’ve been doing a lot of ‘catching up’ I will post a better update on things soon, but for now we are settling in just wonderfully and so very happy being together. Her flight over was good and was actually a little early arriving. She made it through immigration very quickly too. The time difference so far hasnt been too bad a problem and shes adjusting well to that , maybe wakign a bit early in the morings but usually managing to get back to sleep. the weather has been rainy but warm the first couple of days. It cleared up nice today but getting a little colder today. Just made it feel more like the Christmas season.

Ok time for some more catching up.. speak to you all soon and thanks for all the congratulations and comments and mails!

9 days to go

my lady in red

9 days to go and I just can’t wait! my heart hasn’t stopped racing since the day she booked the flight! Well truthfully it hasn’t stopped racing since that morning i woke and read that message from her on Mingle! And each day now brings us nearer to our special day and the excitement just builds more and more. Once again today we had a chance for a quick skype and I got to see my baby once again Shes just back in from another outing, this time to WalMart! yes they have one there too, operating as an ASDA – WalMart Supercentre!

(From Wikipedia, Asda is a United Kingdom supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, toys and general merchandise. It became a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer,[1] in 1999,[2] and is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco,[3] having overtaken Sainsbury’s in 2003. Asda is Wal-Mart’s largest non-U.S. subsidiary, accounting for almost half of the company’s international sales.)

So here’s my super shopping Brit standing outside the afore mentioned WalMart. Quite a different look than hte super centers here, but none the less theres the familiar WalMart logo. my guess is pretty soon that star in the middle will be replaced with a world globe Well all of this is just another example of how all this technology helps to keep us close by sharing the days events with each other.

Well i havent had so much to send her these last few days though, trying to get over a bad cold or maybe the flu and I’ve kept inside mostly. I did send her a pic of me after getting rid of some of my grey hair this morning! shhhh! LOL well I dont think I’m so vain really but I do hate having a head full of grey hair and looking so old. I’m not about to give in to it yet, but when the time comes i will go gracefully but until I can afford that “Just for Men” I will keep using it! I dont have a before and after pic so i will just post the after one…

Magically the grey is gone

Now just to get the beard to match! lol well thats another day. Have to do these things gradually or i will look in the mirror and not recognize myself! Well anyway this is image Alison sees from my webcam during our video chats. I still think i have the better view of seeing her Its wonderful these video calls, only it just makes me want to stop and look at her than to speak! As much as i love this I cant wait to give it all up and have her face to face though. Its been a long three years almost and if you think about it it has hardly been a months time we have actually been together in the same place! ?But we still have managed so very to stay close and connected several times a day without fail. Maybe the very rare occassion one of us was too ill or unable to use a pc or cell, but even those days we at least managed once to speak somehow if it wasnt more than a text.

I guess this post is more a ramble than anything else, just trying to pass the time until these days are passed anf we are where we were destined to be, at each others side love you baby xxxx

Counting the days! :)

The day Alison and I have dreamed and planned for so long is now nearly here, and today marks one of the happiest days of my life. Alison booked her flight today to come to the US permanently! (Pause here for celebration and cheering! YEA!! ) Its really hard to believe its finally come. Though we never have doubted for a minute it would happen, this distance separating us has caused more than it’s fair share of aches. But soon they will all be forgotten in a single kiss when we are at last together forever.

As I have often done for many other events, a countdown script for this very special event has been added to the site, you may already have seen it there in the top of the sidebar. Well actually its in three parts which should be self explanatory, but seeing as I often don’t make things clear I should probably elaborate. The first one is a countdown until the day she leaves to go to the UK to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks before beginning her new life as an Americano! She leaves Cyprus on the 22nd of November. The next countdown is to the time her plane leaves London to come to the US, and of course it wouldn’t be complete without the last one; the most important one of them all to me, the time her plane lands at Norfolk where I will be waiting like I have won the lottery! She lands in Norfolk on December 9th at 9:28 pm. I wont be late, even if the plane is! I still have some counters up on various other pages and sites of mine from past events that were very special to us, our trips to see each other and I also set a countup scriot on another site that counts the days since she and I met, as I write this now it was 939 days ago that this beautiful Brit sent me a smile and a short note asking “Would you like to write sometimes?” since we both were widows and at a point very similar in our lives. Well that’s a story already told so I will let that be and just say from almost that very day, we both knew things were going to be very different for us!   Well anyway here we are 939 days later waiting only for another 39 more to pass. I can’t begin to tell you how long these days are going to seem now. I cant even begin to describe how happy I am either, Its beyond words, it truly is. I feel the hand of God in all our story and a love destined from the beginning of time.

I’ll just continue to update this post with any related news instead of making new ones. and I have to apolgize for not doing much to update the sites lately too, along with us being busy getting things sorted for our reunion, there has been a lot going on with my mom as well. Another long story that, and maybe I will get around soon to expounding on all that happened, but for now she is scheduled the middle part of November to have a rather in depth surgery to reconnect her stomach to whats left of her esophagus up in her throat. No none of this was brought on by sickness but by a simple procedure done at a local hospital in August that ended up tearing her esophagus and having to be transported out to a larger hospital. She’s coming along and doing ok, well the best she can under the citrcumstances if you consider being on a feeding tube 14 hours a day, every day since the 23rd of August! Well as I say thats another story…
For now heres the itinerary as it stands now

Outbound:  Tue 09 December 08 Duration: 12:28
Departing:  Terminal 3 London Heathrow Apt (LHR), London, United Kingdom 14:00 Tue
Arriving: Terminal 4, New York J F Kennedy International Apt (JFK), New York, United States 17:05 Tue
Continental Airlines (CO 8245)
Aircraft type – 346
Connection: 17:05, Tue – 19:45, Tue -
Change plane
Stop-over duration: 2h40
Departing:  Terminal 3 New York J F Kennedy International Apt (JFK), New York, United States
19:45 Tue
Arriving: Norfolk International Apt (ORF), Norfolk, United States
21:28 Tue
DELTA (DL 6231)
Aircraft type – ER4

Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for dropping by!

Happy 4th of July

Yes I know this is Independence Day but there is one Brit I wont ever lose my dependence upon, my beautiful bride, Alison Michelle! Happy 4th of July baby!

I can’t help but think that if the US had lost the Revolutionary War Alison and I would both be Brits and we wouldn’t be going mad waiting on this immigration and paperwork to get sorted! We’d likely already be together. well no doubt of that.

Well at least one or two things good came out of the US gaining independence, we dont have roundabouts or spotted dick! well not any that i know of anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of a few cases

And for those inclined to comment about the Union Jack on display, just know its not the first time I have posted it on the 4th, last years post was having a very special one included

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Garazon!

Somewhere on this website, or one of my others is the story of how I came about the screen name of Garazon. I’ll look for the link to it… Oh. it’s on my old site…  How I came by the name Garazon is a rather often asked question. It’s kind of strange and spooky really. When I first got online through AOL I had the option of creating various other screen names to use for individual family members. I was trying to come up with something unique, (which turns out to be a very hard thing to accomplish). I went through everything I could think of, entering a new screen name only to have this blasted dialog box pop up saying “that name is unavailable or already in use” or some such nonsense..