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The Family Bandwagon

Our family is spread out across the country and across the world, and what better way to keep in touch than a collaborative digital journal?

Monday 28 December 2009

Cold Christmas (#2) in Scotland

Well we're back in London today, after a 7 hour (!!) train ride last night - we were delayed for over two hours, 30 minutes out of London, so by the time we'd caught our bus back home it was almost midnight.

Luckily we'd prepared: in Glasgow we bought dinner for on the train, and upgraded our "cattle class" seats to first-class for the princely sum of £15 a pop. So we sat in relative comfort in the (actually too-warm) cabin, snug and safe from the ice and snow outside, and eventually we rolled into Euston Station.

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It's been a fun couple of days. We arrived in Irvine (on the Scottish coast, with views of the Isle of Arran) late Thursday night, and Andy and his dad "Rab" (Robert) met us at the station. A short but treacherous walk along icy streets - Dee took a tumble just metres from the door - and we were in the Melrose apartment.

Robert and Dorothy, Andy's parents, looked after us like we were family - delicious food, silly conversations (the "craic") and plenty of the ol' Christmas cheer. We had scallops, Christmas roast, "square sausage" & IRN BRU and even found time for a traditional British curry at an old Scottish pub somewhere in town. We got presents! "A selection for the wains," said Rabbie, handing us each a Cadbury's selection box. "The wains always get a selection box." (I have no idea if that's how you spell it!)

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We had a couple of walks while we were there - down to the frozen beach front, past a pub that is older than white settlers in Australia, and into a shopping plaza nearby - but mostly stayed inside (too cold!). We watched a lot of football! (Soccer to us antipodeans.) They really are the nicest people, and of course we invited them to come visit us in Australia...

This weekend is Christmas #3 - now the pressies for Dayna and Bruce have arrived!

There are a couple more photos on Flickr, and I finally got 'round to uploading some of Dee's birthday celebrations, too! Finally, here's a funny IRN BRU ad (it's a Scottish softdrink).

The beach in winter

We've just been for a walk along the beach in Cromer. It's a seaside town in Norfolk (East English coast). As you can see in the picture, we had to wrap up warmly before we went out - it's less than 10 degrees out. :-)

I'm staying with Bruce's family for the week. There's Bruce's folks - John & Gwen, his Grandad & Bruce and I. We're staying in a listed building (built in 1800s) which was super cold when we arrived but has warmed up after leaving the heating on all night. It's a strange house with three stories - kitchen & a family room on ground floor; two bathrooms, a lounge & a bedroom on first floor; and three bedrooms on second floor. I'll keep fit running up and down the stairs. :-)

We're just about to go and have lunch. *big hugz* thinking of everyone.

Saturday 26 December 2009

Happy Chrimbo, fam!

Merry Christmas from Scotland, dear family! We arrived in Irvine late last night, and after a long lie in, followed by a walk along the snowy beach, we're back in a warm house playing carpet quoits and watching Christmas telly!

Hope everyone is having a good day, we miss you and can't wait to see you soon.

Thursday 24 December 2009

Happy festive season from London


I think I've got the hang of my new gadget enough to send an update. :-) I've got a new phone - pay as you go with internet and unlimited texts if you topup each month. It's one of the things I'm doing to save money.
I've just finished my 14th day working at IOP headquarters. well, 13th and a half. today was super-quiet - most people have been on holiday this week. Unfortunately I only have enough leave to cover the compulsory days between Christmas and New Year, so I had to work Christmas Eve.
I guess this is part of why it doesn't feel like the festive season for me. We have a tree up at home but none of us will be there for Christmas, so there are only a couple of sad little presents underneath. We were going to have a family celebration last Sunday but Royal Mail was slow so we didn't do pressies, just had a Sunday roast. Tasty, but not Christmassy!
I'm currently eating lunch at the train station, waiting to head to Wolverhampton for Christmas with Bruce & his fam. It's my first English Christmas so I'm hoping it snows! I made mini puds & yummy slice last night - without copha cos I couldn't find the english equivalent. So the slice didn't cut very well but it should still be tasty. ;-)
I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Thinking of everyone!
Lots of love n hugz,
-d-

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Happy birthday Lisa (sorry it's a bit late)

Hope you had a lovely relaxing day!

Happy birthday to you...
Happy birthday toooo yoooooooooouuuuuuuu...
Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaay deeear Liissaaaaaaaaaa...
Happy biirthdaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!

Friday 18 December 2009

Welcome to Bendigo

Great to see Damien, Cheryl and Oscar this afternoon. Nana was here so she had a cuddle.
After dodging illness for the year at kinder, last night the gastro wog hit me so I kept my distance. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow. Tonight is a BBQ for our Christmas work function so I'm not happy to be feeling queasy.
Also had a visit from Janet and Kevin. Uncle Ray is deteriorating so they were called up yesterday.
On a happier note, the Probus dinner on Monday went well as did the Rotary one on Wednesday.
Santa visited two more kinder groups on Tuesday and Wednesday. He did a great job despite the heat 38 on Wednesday.
Today Dad went for the ultrasound. He still has pain but will now have to wait for diagnosis and treatment options.
Congratulations to Carolynn and Jared who both received awards from school.

Happy birthday Carolynn

Hope you've had a splendid day!!

Sweet 16. Oooh. ;-)

Happy birthday tooo youuuuuuu
Haaaaappy biirthdaay tooo yoooouuu
Haaaaapppy biiiirthdaaaay deaaar Caaarolynnnnnn
Haappy biirthdaaay too youuuuuuuuu

*big hugz* from an almost snowy London (we've had a few flakes, but nothing much so far)

Sunday 13 December 2009

Formal


There is more on facebook and I'm getting all my friends to put their pics up too.
It was a great night, we won belle and beau of the ball, "belle and male belle" is what they called it.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

day two

lovely day to walk to work. clear blue sky and a crisp cold morning. no clouds - a nice change from Manchester. wonder how long it'll last. :)

london morning

beautiful clear day

Thursday 3 December 2009

Moving Day

Good luck to Dayna as she moves to London. You do remember that your gggrandfather was born there so you're a local. Hope it all goes smoothly and the new job is everything fun and not frustrating.

Saturday 28 November 2009

Saturday 14 November 2009

New Header

Okay, it's taken me many hours over the last few weeks, but I've finally finished the new Bandwagon Header. I wanted to update it with the new members of our extended family, so I figured why not just update everyone as well.

I hope you all like it.

Just for you Mum I've got a tee on RedBubble (with zero markup, the cheapest I can make it). I've changed the design a bit to make it more tee friendly. You can see it here http://www.redbubble.com/people/damienmason/t-shirts/4124819-1-family

I'll also separate out all the different people so you can grab yourself or reorder or remix them.. My plan is to do it now but it'll depend on how Ossie goes, I've just put him to bed for a nap :)

So what do you think of the new header?

Edit: Okay, here are the files.

If you want to remix the header, grab these ones. They're all transparent PNGs with a background the exact size as the header bg and everything placed as it is in the header.. so you should be able to stack the pngs in layers in a photoshop file and then work with each person independently.
Adam
Carolynn
Chez
Dad
Me and Oscar
Daria
Dayna
Dee
Glenn
Jared
Lisa
Mum
Nana
Trinity

I've also put together massive (1000x1500) transparent pngs for each person, in case you just wanted yourself (for avatars etc) which are here

Adam
Carolynn
Chez
Dad
Me and Oscar
Daria
Dayna
Dee
Glenn
Jared
Lisa
Mum
Nana
Trinity

And finally I thought if you wanted to do a calendar rather than using the long horizontal version you might like the more compact tee version, so I've made a big (2880x2100) white background jpg of that for you. It doesn't have the text the tee has.

Calendar pic

Hopefully that's enough to keep you all going for a while :)

Monday 9 November 2009

Exams again

Yes, I'm at that exciting stage of the year again...Exam time. Our exams go for a week but over two weeks (yes it's strange to put the weekend in the middle of them). I'm not looking forward to exams but im definatly looking forward to the formal. Its on the 2nd of December, I already have my dress (I made it) and all my friends and I can't stop talking about it.

Popcorn for dinner

I finally got around to uploading some photos today; you can find them on Flickr (with a couple retroactively added to our last post). I've also got a new phone (an Android phone, whee, it's "wik" (wicked, good) for all you non-geeks, nyah-nyah) and so have a few ... creative ... digital-filtered photos from around London.

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One filter makes photos look like a polaroid,
and gives me a manly, straggly beard


So we had the beer festival in Norwich (Norfolk) the other weekend: a massive, Hogwart's-like hallway under a vaunted, cathedral ceiling filled with barrels and barrels of delicious beers. Traditional ales, lagers, stouts, ciders; there was something for everyone (well, everyone who likes beer I guess), and all paid for with little paper tokens we bought when we arrived.

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You'll be a pinball-wizard, Harry


With too many different types to possibly try all of, I tended to base my decisions on the name of the brewery and/or the beer itself. So after a Red Dragon ale I had a Jack The Ripper, a Hobgoblin, a Pirate, a Neverwinter Nights (confession: I'm making them up). We stayed in a local hotel, had breakfast downstairs and headed back to London with Chris and Tina.

We also saw an amateur production of Jack The Ripper (The Musical) -- yes, the same one I was in so many years ago (ours was better :-D). It was in a tiny little theatre built under London Bridge (literally under -- in a gloomy tomb, very appropriate for the show and probably more spooky than the acting).

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Another filter: "toy camera".


Yesterday we visited "Befnal Green", our old 'hood in the East End. Took the bus into Liverpool Street, walked through Spitalfields (Jack The Ripper again!) and up Brick Lane; street markets and food stalls and crowds of too-cool hipsters scared us into the straightest bar with the campest name: The Birdcage. We sat with a bunch of old rummies and watched Arsenal play Wolverton ... then finished our drinks (I had a Fosters!! Tee hee!) and ran away to watch some fireworks.

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The number of people were intense! After 30 minutes of the fireworks we thought we could beat the crowds, and so ran away to the nearest bus-stop. Unfortunately, no bus came and eventually we were walking along with the herd looking for another way home. Turned out to be another bus stop, then a late night taxi back here -- our planned early night after a few nice fireworks turned into a gruelling trek across the urban jungle towards the safety of our temporary nest!



The punchline: we got home, ordered some dinner from a local curry house (yes, lazy, but nothing in the 'fridge because we've been so darn busy) and then settled in with a tasty glass of Australian red. Waited for food, waited some more, waited, waited, waited. Eventually we got through to the curry-house who informed us that a power-cut had shutdown their kitchen, so it was no dinner for us. We searched through the cupboards, and ended up with popcorn for dinner...

How rock and roll is that!!? :-D

Sunday 8 November 2009

A warm weekend

Hi all,
Just returned from a weekend in Shepparton to celebrate Josie's 40th. She had organised well and had some games(naming TV series from the 70's and 80's and a song and artist from 1969 to 2009) as well as a jukebox and disco lights. Cleaned most up as the evening progressed then went back to finalise this morning. Later went to Cheap as Chips for a little shopping with Denise and Mum. All of Josi
Very warm here again with 32 and 34 (at least) and hotter in Shep. The next week promises more of the same so the air con is getting well used.
All of Josie's children gave up their beds for the visitors. ( and Robbie ended up out on the couch)
News from Berrigan via Val Loomes- Grace Harvie passed away last Wednesday.
We were sorry we missed Charles's christening. Waiting for Lisa to tell us how that went, but she's at a Tupperware party.
Laundry to do and Foxie wants some tea. Hope all is good for all of you.

Monday 26 October 2009

A busy October indeed

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us this month, with: a visit to Manchester; a trip to the country; Sunday roast for my birthday; a Brazilian barbeque; leaving drinks for MI5; an office move; a halloween party; a sci-fi film all-nighter. To top it off we're headed up to Norwich for a beer festival next weekend! Perhaps November can be a quiet one?

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I think I already mentioned Manchester (in an email?) -- we took the bus on Friday night, arrived quite late and were very happy to see Dayna & Bruce (thanks for picking us up! I'm not sure we could've handled another 20-30 minutes on a bus, even a Magic Bus.) It was really good to see Dayna, and we spent the weekend talking, playing Wii, drinking Dayna's impressive collection of donated alcoholic beverages (as Vicky has left for kiwi-land). We even did some tourism/shopping around Manchester central, with the mandatory "duck into shops and pubs to escape the rain" manouever. Then it was back on the bus on Sunday to get here! All in all a fun weekend away.

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Another weekend was spent away in Dorking, south of London. Only an hour or so on the train, but out of the city and surrounded by greenery: fields and glens and forests and hills. We stayed with Martin and Helen (of "Jack The Ripper: The Musical" fame -- Martin is originally from Castlemaine) and had a lovely dinner in a pub/restaurant in the middle of nowhere (Helen drove) with delicious food and an awesome, relaxing atmosphere. Seriously! Good! Food! The kind of place you have dessert, even though you can't really fit it in. The next day we hit a farmer's market, before returning to the big smoke on the train.

Hmm, all these relaxing weekends, we should be completely chilled out, right?

The weekend of my birthday Dee cooked a lovely roast lamb for us & 9 guests. We stuffed ourselves silly, I got presents (yay!) and played Xbox. Tim Churchward, who I went to Uni with (and who is known as "the nicest man in the world") even visited with his wife -- they are travelling, and stayed with Martin and Helen for a few days. Great to see them!

Chris and Tina (housemates) were away for my actual birthday, so when they returned they took us out to dinner at the O2 Arena to a Brazilian barbeque house. Dear Goddess, so much fresh and tender barbeque meat: you grab a plate, load up on the bare-minimum amount of salad required to keep away the scurvy, then wait with hungry eyes as the waiters bring freshly cooked skewers of lamb, beef, chicken, fish and other poor, delicious animals straight to your table, slicing off as much or as little as you request before putting the skewers back onto the barbeque to continue cooking. I ate. And ate. And ate. For days I couldn't eat red meat! I even tried chicken hearts! (Chewy, tastes more like beef than chicken, and more than a little freaky.)

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Afterwards we took a ferry back along the Thames to London Bridge, then had a traditional ale in a real pewter tankard at The Cooperage. We spoke to the manager about some of the paraphenalia hanging on the walls -- apparently in ye olden dayes of cobblestones and muck it was easier to drag barrels of wine and beer on gigantic wooden "cask sleds" dotted with flint than to risk breaking the wooden spokes of cartwheels.

On the work-front this week we moved into a new office, a proper "City" office. I'm even wearing a suit again (although not a tie)! Right in the heart of the square-mile, our office is newly appointed, clean, bright and airy and has a coffee machine. Yes, small things like that are all that is required to make me happy. The week earlier we said goodbye to a young man who may or may not have joined the secret-service -- we'd become good friends, and I'm hoping he stays in touch, even if he can't talk about what he's working on :-).

Right now we're sitting in our local "indy" cinema, Shortwave, having a glass of wine and trying to decide whether we want to see the Mexican film they're showing this weekend. It's free, as they're meant to be showing Coco Before Chanel, but I spent last night in a sci-fi film festival so I'm not sure how long I can stay awake, even with a nap from about 8am until 1:30 (I got home at 7am, and only slept a little bit in the cinema).

T'was fun though: I met Martin at Victoria station on Saturday night, then we headed to Troy's place for a Halloween party. We were amongst the first to arrive. We didn't dress up, as we were off to the film festival later, but I put in some scary looking contact lenses and we both donned wigs that Troy had from the last dress up party. Soon enough more people arrived: Frankenstein, Death, witches, zombies and even Jack Pumpkinhead and his lovely Lady (what was her name?). Troy cooked nibbles, and Martin and I filled up before heading to meet Allen (from RBS) at the film-festival at midnight.

It might sound daft, going to a party before an all-night film fest, but I think it was a stroke of genius: at about 5:30am Martin and I headed back to Victoria Station and he jumped on the express to Gatwick, where he was catching a flight to Australia at 9am!! With that kind of schedule he was bound to fall asleep on the 'plane, wake up in Dubai, then fall asleep again when he got to Melbourne at about 11pm -- time zone adjustment sorted! Or, at least, that's how the thinking went. We'll wait 'til he gets back to report on how successful the plan was...

I'll upload some photos and link to them here in the coming week: Manchester, and full photostream.

Sunday 18 October 2009

photos of balloons?


Find the rest of the pictures here (in lower quality than this one). You'll need to log in to Flickr to see them - they're "only family". I'll change that if you want me to.

ballooning

We had a great flight this morning. We had to meet at 6am and found there were eight passengers. After a couple of pilot balloons to test the wind direction, the basket and balloon were set up for the flight, from the Londonderry reserve.(one in Bendigo not Ireland).
Buildings and vehicles looked like toys as we drifted over the city. We even managed to spot our house. Since balloons are governed by the wind we floated over farms and bushland, spotting lots of kangaroos, until we reached Kamarooka where we landed in a farmers paddock. As the day was becoming windy, the landing was bounce, bounce then drag as the basket tipped over on it's side. We'd all been instructed on landing procedures so had no problems. We then helped pack up the balloon and basket back into the trailer and were driven back to Bendigo for a late breakfast at the Boardwalk cafe. Glenn and Dee will be pleased to hear Dad chose Eggs Benedict and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had Eggs florentine (with salmon). Also juice and coffee. Sue made sure we also had water to prevent dehydration. We were presented with certificates and a wine glass each. We'll test them with a sparkling bronze cabernet savignon we bought on our trip to Adelaide.
We both had a wonderful morning. Thank you all. I'll try for photos.

Saturday 17 October 2009

Up up and away

Balloon flight looks good for tomorrow morning so we'll be up up and away. Meeting at the Boardwalk at 6am so doesn't sound too early. Maybe there's a small plus for daylight saving.
Post again tomorrow afternoon to let you all know how it went.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Happy birthday Glenn

Hey bro,

I know you had a fab day with cake and fizzy drink (but no fairy-bread.. awwww). Hope the rest of the year is as good as today has been.

Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay to yooooooou...
Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay toooo yoooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu...
Haappy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaaay deeeeear Glennnnnjiiiiiii...
Haappy biirthdaaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!


keep smiling!
*hugz*

Thursday 8 October 2009

Happy birthday Dad

Happy birthday Dad!
Hope you have a fun-filled day with lots of smiles.
*big hugz*

Haaaaappy birrrthdaaaay to yooooou...
Haaaaappy birrrthdaay toooo yoooooooooouuuuuuuu...
Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaay deeear Daaaaaad...
Happy biirthdaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!

Wednesday 30 September 2009

Happy birthday Damien

Happy birthday to you...
Happy birthday toooo yoooooooooouuuuuuuu...
Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaay deeear Damiennnnnnn...
Happy biirthdaay toooo yooooooooooooooooouuu!


Hope you have a fantastic day, a lovely week and a terrific year.
*hugz*

Monday 28 September 2009

Holiday in SA

We've just returned home after a great week. We travelled to Kingston on the first day via Naracorte. The second day we followed the coast road to Wellington. Dad was disappointed to find you couldn't see the sea and the weather varied from very wet and squally to fine and sunny. It was fun to cross the river in a punt at Wellington and we were lucky in having a very short wait to cross. We visited one winery then had lunch in Strathalbyn. We followed the winding roads and found Bains Rd which led us to Damien and Cheryl's. Oscar was very smiley. What a happy little boy. On Thursday, we walked with Cheryl and Oscar to the local shopping centre, a short? 1.7 kms. We should be feeling fitter. Friday we rested although the weather cleared so we weeded their garden. Went out for an all you can eat for tea at a Chinese restaurant. Pouring rain, hail and windy.
Saturday we all went to the larger shopping centre where Dad bought me a rose gold necklace for my birthday. I've been looking but not found what I wanted before. Also I bought a pair of homyped black boots, ready for next winter.( Nana gave me birthday money so now I've spent it.)
Today we left about 9am SA time, stopped at a local shopping centre where I bought a glass dragon then headed for home. Mostly fine and sunny. We had two stops for lunch and a cuppa and arrived home about 5.30 Vic time. Foxie is glad we've turned the heater back on. I'm sure he missed the heater more than us.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Kerkyra with pictures



More photos, as promised -- press play, then rollover the slide-show for the "full-screen" icon, kick back and enjoy. :-D

Actually, that's exactly what we did in Greece -- a whole lot of relaxing by the pool, a little bit of exploring in an air-conditioned car, and a fair amount of searching for decent Greek food (strangely hard to find).

The trips themselves were somewhere between average and downright horrible: late/early flights, lots of waiting, the stupidest aeroplane seat-configuration I've ever seen (so close together that you couldn't really bring your knees together!), and general chaos on the part of the officials from both Kerkyra and the holiday company, Olympic.

(Our 3am bus, 6am flight happened as predicted. What was not predicted was the hundreds of fellow passengers suffering the same situation -- hundreds of Brits with hangovers, or sunburn, or missing luggage; girls with "flip-flops" and sarongs flirting with boys in cargo-shorts and ridiculous sunglasses; families and individuals with ridiculously large, heavy luggage (what could they possibly be bringing back?!); officials with less idea about what was happening than the human cattle they were responsible for. I remember saying to Dee, "The only way to make this airport more miserable is for some of the fluorescent lights to start flickering." Then a thought struck me: "Or to fill the place up knee-high with stagnant water. That might do it.")

But once we were there -- brilliant! Brilliant despite the crummy accomodation, despite the dodgy bar-tender with his penchant for late nights, loud music and funny cigarettes, despite the narrow, dangerous roads and crazy scooter-riders. Eventually, under the brilliant sunlight, all these things took on a certain romance, a gleam -- they became as much a part of the whole experience as the smell of the ocean, the gentle buzzing of bees and wasps, the sound of our fellow holiday-makers splashing in the pool. Okay, the airport didn't, but the rest ... walking into supermarkets and buying groceries without a word of english is just, just, awesome!

So yes, we explored the entire island by car while we were there -- hiring it from a boy who couldn't have been more than 10 (his uncle came to do the paperwork, but it was the boy's sale, have no doubt). He tried to convince us to get an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) instead: a roll-cage, four chunky tyres and a 250cc engine, no windshield or floor, bucket seats ... Of course we stuck with the little (air-conditioned) Hyundai, thank you very much.

Corfu Town is the main metropolis, and we spent a day walking through markets along tiny streets, dodging scooters and keeping out of the midday sun. It's really crazy how weathered the buildings are -- I kept expecting to hear a crash and turn to find our way back blocked by rubble! We also found beaches, both pebble and sand (hot, hot sand!!), everything from "British" beaches (a whole lot of pale bodies and east-end accents) to secluded ones used by locals and those in the know.

I think the pictures say it all really.

Friday 4 September 2009

new baby

Tamara and Ray have a new son, Charles Albert Rowland 7lb 7ozs, born 4/9/09. (caesarian again as planned.) Mother and baby both well.

Sunday 30 August 2009

Oscar's first trip to the pool


We have just gotten back from Oscar's first ever trip to the pool! It's been a bit cold and rainy this weekend, but the pools were indoor and heated, so it was quite warm when we got there.

Initially we took him into the baby pool. I'm sure mum and dad can guess his first reaction - he kicked around like he was in the bath :) However after a bit of that I think he realised he was somewhere different, and spent the remainder of the time studying everything he could with a detached expression of mild curiosity.

The pool we went to has these weird mushroom things which rain water down, and he rather enjoyed that. It also has a sea creature which sprays water from it's head and he really tried to grab that water, even though it just made it spray into his face :D

After a bit of a play in both the baby and the kids pool (he was a bit weirded out by floating I think) we changed him, wrapped him up and he instantly fell asleep. He's still asleep now that we're home :)

We didn't take any photos at the actual pool, but there are a few shots of his cute little outfit on flickr and facebook, so check them out :) He looks very tall in that first one..

Friday 28 August 2009

Kerkyra, Greek Island

Our second-to-last day in Kerkyra today -- we fly out at 6am tomorrow morning -- and we're at our first Internet cafe, trying to operate a Greek keyboard and drinking a tasty local beer ("Mythos"). It's been fun, relaxing and very hot, even with a pool at our doorstep and a coastline full of various beaches. When we get home I'll try to upload some photos!

One slight problem with our flight tomorrow morning, of course -- we don't have a room tonight! Standard practise for this particular "package holiday", apparently: we checked out today, and a bus comes to take us to the airport at 3am tonight/tomorrow morning. Package holidays from Britain are not all they're cracked up to be, that's for sure. No wonder the Brits are always complaining...

We flew in a week ago, and we're bussed from the airport to our "resort" -- and the word "resort" has to be in inverted-commas for the simple reason that it was the most basic room and facilities any of us (Dee, brother Chris and I) have ever seen. Including the complete dive we stayed at in Amsterdam! Two narrow beds for Dee and I and a camp stretcher for Chris; empty cupboards without handles; an electric hot-plate which electrocuted me twice; undrinkable tap-water (so they say -- we've been boiling it and it tastes fine); a smelly toilet (you don't flush the toilet paper here, but rather drop it in a bin... good practise for China, where they do the same thing).

But on the positive side: a balcony with an awesome view across the ocean to the Greek mainland; a bright blue pool for early morning dips (and you need 'em, it's 36 today); friendly (enough) bar staff selling cheap Mythos, Ouzo (more about that later) and chilled local wine. So, despite our dismay at finding neither drinkable water nor anywhere to buy some we arrived at 3am on the first night (again, the package holiday standard) we were all feeling positive when we woke late the next morning.

And overall it's been quite a positive stay! We hired a car from the very start, so have been able to explore the island -- from Canal d'Amour in the north to the seedy little nightclub town of Kavos in the south -- and find some really good beaches (Issos -- seems to be the locals hangout). We drove one day into Corfu Town, the main metropolis, and almost drove off Mount Pantocratos one day too, but mostly we've just been relaxing. We're all kind of keen to get home now, however -- the heat gets to you in the end, and we're all brown enough (even after putting on sunscreen twice a day!).

But yes, photos and maybe a little more detail when I have longer on the Internet!

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Please Help Me

Can you please help me with an assignment im doing on the globe theatre and romeo and juliet?

Saturday 8 August 2009

Crossbows and winos



I wandered down to the Tower Of London from work one lunch-time last week, planning to mingle with the tourists and pretend/imagine I was one of them. Instead, I stumbled upon a demonstration of archaic weaponry! (Hopefully you can see the video above?)

Last night we had a nice, grown-up wine-tasting session at Vinopolis, a massive wine centre near Borough Market. We started with a "How To" session, where the most patronising (matronising?) woman I've ever seen outside of a kindergarten children's show taught us the basics of wine-tasting (hint: don't just knock it back in a single gulp, then belch loudly and ask for another). *Slurp-slurp-slurp* "Can you hear the noise I'm making, children? Can YOU make a slurping noise too? Big slurps for Madame Winey, that's riiight."

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When M. Winey had finished our lessons we were let out to play with the other kids. We walked from table to table, exchanging tokens for tiny glasses of champagne, chardonnay, pinot noir, then onto reds: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, rioja. The tables were arranged by theme -- usually location, but there was a "premium" table all by itself -- and our tokens gave us 3 champagne tastes, 5 wines, 2 premium wines. To round out the reds, and because 9:30pm was approaching, I swapped two of my tokens for a tiny glass of madeira -- a bit like port, and delicious! Sweet and honeyed, with hints of burnt timber... or so I deluded myself!

It's not the amount of wine (as each glass was a mouthful at most) but the fact that you're sucking air through your teeth and coating your tongue with the stuff. So we were all feeling pretty "mellow" by the time we walked into the Bombay Sapphire Bar for a complimentary gin cocktail (I had a delicious one made with pear-juice ... but I like gin. Dee had a different one and didn't like it!)

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So after all that you might think we were done for the night. You'd be right, but we still had two free tastings of rum to get through! Actually, that's not quite right -- we had two rums each ... but as you might imagine, some people (*cough*Tina*cough*) didn't actually want their rum, so it was more for meeeee!

(I think the major enjoyment I get from drinking rum is pretending I'm a pirate. Considering all the wine, gin and champagne I'd already consumed, it was just lucky for everyone that I didn't actually start singing a sea-shanty and hopping around on a wooden leg. "Yo-ho-ho an' a bottle o' rum!")

Anyway, I've just uploaded the pictures from this, and the weapons demonstration, to the ever-entertaining Life In London photoset!

Thursday 6 August 2009

Ahn-nyung-haseyo

Hello from Korea!

It took us a very long time (7 hr flight to Dubai, 3 hr stop-over, 8 hr flight to Korea) and we were all tired by the time we got here. Fortunately, we were met by two lovely Korean lads with a sign (as you can see) - they even pushed our luggage trolley for us. It was hot and humid, so we waited inside until the bus arrived to take us to the hotel.

There were some hassles with check-in - we'd been put into twin rooms so Lea was sharing with a spanish woman we'd not met. Unfortunately, we'd been put into smoking rooms, so they STANK!! peeeewwwwwww!! We asked to change rooms - Becs and I were moved straight away, but because Lea was sharing with someone, they said she needed to ask her "room-mate". No one had her number, we'd not met her and it was all becoming a bit much for us to deal with - especially after no sleep for 24hrs, so I asked if we could get a triple room. After much to-ing and fro-ing between the hotel and the organisers, they put an extra bed in with Becs and I and we're all sharing. Gareth is still sharing with a spanish man who doesn't speak english, but he said it's all fine. :-)

I've got more to tell about the Korea Science Festival, but I'll leave that until next time - hopefully I'll be able to get online again while I'm here. I'll just say that I'm keeping busy - not much time for sight-seeing yet, but we're going on a tour tonight. :-)

Hope everyone is well.
*hugz*
-d-

Monday 3 August 2009

Photos photos everywhere, and all the boards did shrink

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for the photographic evidence of our trip to sunny (actually quite freezing cold) Bendigo, here they are in all their glory. We took a lot more, but trust me, these are the best ;)





Sunday 2 August 2009

Happy Birthday Cheryl

Happy birthday beautiful!

I would have posted this yesterday but we were in transit.

And so ends the triumvirate of birthdays ;)

Friday 31 July 2009

Bon voyage, Dayna

We'll be thinking of you in Korea this week Dayna. I hope it is a fantastic experience for you and lots of fun even if it is work.
Lots of love
Mum and Dad

Happy birthday Trinity

Happy birthday Trinity.

Have a great day.

Lots of love and cuddles from Nanny and Poppy.
xxxxxoooooo

Thursday 30 July 2009

Happy Birthday Mum!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM
aka Mother-dear aka Mummy aka Nanny aka Ann aka Lady Ada aka Ann Of Green Gables aka The Dread-Pirate's Wife!

Hope you have a lovely day! On behalf of all of us, thank-you!!

Have a drink on us.
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Thursday 23 July 2009

I can stay in the country, huzzah!

About 2 months ago my entry/work VISA for the UK expired; two weeks prior I sent it away for an extension. Today I got my passport back and breathed a sigh of relief!

It's hard to believe it takes so long! I mean, they certainly took my money quick enough -- that was taken out of my account before the first biometrics interview. Worse, the application form warns that it can take up to 90 days, and that if you need your passport back before then they will cancel the processing altogether. Luckily for me, I was entitled to stay (and work) for as long as they had it, but with our next holiday coming up I was really quite worried I wouldn't be able to leave the country -- after Wales, we realise it will actually be cheaper to fly and stay in Europe than to drive around Britain. Which is of course ridiculous in and of itself, but what can you do?

I'm still not home-and-hosed yet, as the biometric ID card (which replaces a rubber-stamp in my passport and must be carried along with the passport) is being delivered separately, but at least I can leave and re-enter the country now.

We're "last minuting" our next holiday, as Dee's brother will be with us and we want something cheap and fun -- suggestions? So far I'd like to see Morocco or Greece, Dee is talking about Ireland (although I've already been there!) and Chris (her brother) will take whatever he gets *grin*. Especially since he's doing a 'round-the-world trip in Business Class thanks to about a billion frequent-flyer points.

This has me reinvigorated about a big trip next year, too -- Budapest, Poland, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Happy birthday Dayna

Happy Birthday to Dayna.

Thought I'd better do this today even if i'm a day early. We're sending love and hugs and best wishes for a great day.
Love from Mum and Dad

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Happy Birthday Daria!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Dariaaaaaaa,
Ha-appy birthday to yooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu!!


*big hugz* from Aunty Dayna

Thursday 2 July 2009

Bendigo and birthdays and baby

Only a few weeks until we head over to Bendigo. Can't wait! :) It will be Oscar's first big trip and we're hoping he'll be alright with sitting in the car for a while. We're doing the trip over two days as we usually do and are prepared to do as many stops as Os needs. We're slowly getting organised... have made a list of things to take and will book accommodation very soon. Os may be eating some solids by the time we go, so we have to pack for that as well as pack everything he needs for his formula.
(I'm reading this out to Oscar as i type to keep him entertained, and he's just staring. Creepy!)
The trip to Bendigo is part of my brithday present from Damien. The other part is this laptop! It was a really nice surprise when Damien gave it to me. I was a bit confused at first because I thought that the "happy birthday cheryl" message on the screen was the present :) Oscar spends most of his awake time in the loungeroom, and now that he is moving around much more it's so good to be able to watch him and check out facebook at the same time ;) It has also been handy to do things like look up information for our trip etc and Damien has also put some shows and movies on there.
Apart from all of that Oscar has been doing well recently. He did a bit of a commando crawl the other night and tends to move around a fair bit when he's on the floor. He has also been sleeping much better this past week. We thought it might have been because of his immunisations, but he's stilll sleeping well so we'll see.
(PS Oscar was staring because he was tired. I put him to bed and he slept for an hour and a half!)

Thursday 25 June 2009

Holidays

Well these school holidays i have calisthenics because the saturday after that we have our mid-year concert and we now have 8 girls so we need lots of practice.
I also have math homework and pathways home work so no getting out of it.

Sunday 21 June 2009

Relaxing in Wales - yn llacio i mewn Cymru

It's day four of our holiday out of the city, and we're sitting in the Hawk and Buckle Inn reading historical fiction, sketching architecture and writing weblog posts. It's been incredibly relaxing.
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The town we are staying in, Llannefydd, is too small for even a general store. Apart from a handful of houses, there is the Hawk And Buckle Inn (where we are staying), a church and a primary school -- such a cute wee school it is too! Strangely enough, the Inn gets busy of an evening! I think everyone in town drops in at some point during the night, although the combination of enormous amounts of good food, a bar that has Australian wine (especially after we spoke to Stuart, the owner's son and wine-buff) and the peace and quiet means we've been toddling off to bed any time from 9pm ... and never later than 10:30!

p1000675.jpgOur room is nice: cosy, comfortable, tastefully decorated and with a large double-jacuzzi. The owners are lovely, quirky and friendly, and the chef seems gruff but creates delicious meals: sausages, potato and leek soup, chicken with Welsh cheese and bacon, lamb burgers with just a hint of mint. Good, honest food -- and today we might have a Sunday roast! Breakfast has been similarly delicious-and-epic. On our first morning here we opted for the Full Welsh breakfast which included sausages, eggs, tomato, mushrooms ... I even suspended any analytical-thought long enough to try black-pudding (it's yummy, just don't think about what goes into it -- kind of like haggis in that way then!).

p1000734.jpgThe GPS has had inestimable value, although we suspect it has a dark sense of humour with some of the roads it's taken us down -- tiny winding lanes which look more like someone's drive-way than a main thoroughfare but go on for miles at a time. With "navi"'s help we visited the castle at Conwy (Conway) on the bay, explored the local streets and sat on the shore for a spell. It's incredible just how much effort went into building an enormous stone citadel that once housed lords and ladies, only for it to become a giant birdhouse for pidgeons and gulls...
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After Conwy we drove to Caernarfon (seems to be pronounced "Carnarvon" -- like the Aussie one!). Caernarfon would be beautiful -- the centre of town is entirely within the castle walls -- but inexplicably it is more "bogan" than touristy, complete with dodgy little shops filled with the cheapest of plastic tat, pubs that a sailor would be wary of entering and pregnant teens arguing loudly and in Welsh in the street. I'm exaggerating a little there, but it's still hard to understand why such a place is not filled with tiny cottage cafes and tearooms, hand-stitched red dragons, tea-towels, tiny wrapped soaps and the friendly bustle of tourists, loud Americans, timid English-folk.

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On the following day we saw Llannerwst, a beautiful little town with an brilliant tea-house accessible over an ancient stone bridge and all covered in green vines. We ate (and ate and ate) lunch there: a ploughman's lunch of ham and turkey and salad, and Welsh rarebit (toasted cheese and mustard), washed down with strong, rich tea. (The water tastes better out here, even when we filter the London water.) Then more: scones with jam and cream and too many slices of bara brith -- a fruitcake with butter that I'm sure Nanna has made before! We waddled out of the cottage and prayed that the stone bridge would hold us, then walked at least some of it off around the town.
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Today we're staying "home" -- Dee gets a rest from driving, I can upload the photos (see the Cymru set on Flickr) and we can both read, write, draw, play chess, argue, plan, laugh, doze. I think we're both recharging nicely, so are feeling much more positive about the rest of the year and living (and working) in London for just a little while longer. Chris (Dee's brother) is visiting shortly, so we'll be off to Istanbul and who-knows-where (last-minute travel plans are great!), and in the meantime we can hopefully find some fun things on weekends and public holidays. Before too long we'll be winging our way (er, railing our way?) back home to see you all!

Friday 19 June 2009

Geekin' it up on the way to Wales. I'm sitting in our hire-car -- a little Vauxhall Corsa, or as we all know it, a beep-beep Barina (the car that can go-go-go!) -- writing a 'blog entry on Dee's netbook ("noodle") whilst connected to the 'net via a 3G mobile phone. Meanwhile, Dee is navigating with our new GPS unit (a Garmin Nuvi) and listening to MP3s. Ain't tech grand?

Seriously tho', we've wanted a GPS thingy for a while, and when I couldn't get a USB one for noodle we decided to hire one from the car-hire place ... but they didn't have any! Apparently they go missing, who'da thunk?! The car-hire man was kind enough to point us towards a Curry's Electrical outside the congestion zone (who wants to pay just to drive through London?) so we got ourselves there (just barely) and geared-up. (Actually, we didn't end up buying the ol' sat-nav from Curry's, as the staff were by all appearances apathetic morons to a man. We went next door to Halfords. It still took longer to part with our hard-earned cash than we liked, but at least they actually had stuff in stock.)

Anyway, I'm using this as a test -- can we post from the road with mobile Internet? Can we keep in touch with people when we have no fixed address? Can we connect with you guys from a hut in Thailand, a caravan-park in Western Australia?

Let's see if it actually posts, eh?

Saturday 13 June 2009

Shopping and Dad

Hi all,
Dad has been driving and walking so much improvement. On Friday we went into town and he drove. We visited the Marketplace, then decided to get our printer cartridges refilled at Cartridge World. They can't be done because they have a chip that so far can't be reset. Since by then we were inGolden Square, Dad suggested a visit to Lansell Plaza. We had a coffee and two donuts as a rest stop after we'd bought some fruit and veges , NQR goodies and checked out Sams. We called to see Nana on the way home. She was very pleased to see Dad so mobile since just last Tuesday he wasn't well enough to go to Probus and he didn't make it to the funeral on Wednesday. Today we walked down the street inEaglehawk, where we met Nana and then came back here for coffee. After looking at the labels, he also bought a ticket for tonight's Lotto draw. Uncle Ron called in on Wednesday and suggested a product he uses called Alpha Lifeline. he and Mary returned on Thursday with the tin that should last a month.Dad has had two doses of that now. It's supposed to be good for digestive health.It contains colostrum. If it works we'll be getting more and may try the capsule version since Dad isn't fond of the taste. It tasted fine to me.
Glad to hear Dayna has drawn an update for the header. I look forward to seeing it.
Do any of you want to play Wordscraper on Facebook? I play with Lisa, Damien and Val at the moment.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Oscar's day on the farm


Hi everyone!

Yesterday we took Oscar to the miniature farm barn for a friend's 2-years-old birthday party. We dressed Os in some cold weather gear and he met a lot of animals for the very first time. The first part of the party was a bit of a tour and feed then it was pony ride time. All of the kids were too scared! Apart from Oscar, who sat on one for a little while. They were really cute ponies (I know what I want for my birthday!) and if they could have held my weight I would have been up there in no time as well! ;) Some of the little girls ended up putting hair clips into the pony's mane and leading it around the yard. Next was farm equipment time. I think Os enjoyed the tractor ride the most :) Then all of the kids went inside for some morning tea and cake. Oscar had his milk and then sat next to his little friend while he played with a serviette. It was a very cute party and it tired the little guy out. He fell asleep on the way home, so instead of trying to get him into the house without waking him we drove to the local shopping centre and Damien and I took turns going in to get lunch and eating in the car while Oscar slept (sneaky! :) We took heaps of photos, of course :)

Today we've had a quieter day. We went to the shopping centre for lunch and spent the rest of the day at home. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow. Probably enjoy the public holiday indoors with the heater on :)

Saturday 6 June 2009

Nantes

Hello from France!
Tentacles
We arrived in Nantes at around lunch time on Tuesday and spent the afternoon wandering around the city - just to see what was where and to get our bearings a little. Wednesday we decided to head to Le Machine de l'Ile - The Island of Machines. It's on l'Ile de Nantes and has only been open since 2007. It's a workshop/gallery working towards a major interactive attraction - a carousel/merry-go-round with three levels and lots of creatures that visitors can interact with and 'run'.

Can you control the crab?We saw eight of the creatures. They're a strange combination of Leonardo Da Vinci's mechanical creations and Jules Verne's imagination - my favourite is the squid, but I think Bruce's favourite is the crab (because he got to control it for a bit). The combination of wood and metal looks really cool and there's so much articulation in the moving bits via pulleys and levers - what a good use of physics!

Chateau des ducs de BretagneThursday we headed over to the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (The Castle of the Dukes of Britanny). We'd walked to it on Tuesday, but decided to use the Bicloo rental bicycles (pay £1 for the day and the first half-hour of each rental is free). There are docking stations all around the city centre, so it's easy to keep your trips under half-an-hour. The Castle was amazing - it's only recently been restored. The Nantes History Museum is housed in the Castle, so we spent the day discovering the history of the Mermaid city (with strong ties to the land and to its port). We also wandered through the special exhibition - I found some hammocks. Dad, I'll join your pirate ship if I get to sleep in a hammock! ;-)

SnoozingFriday we headed away from town and went to the Planetarium. The show went for about an hour and the graphics were fantastic. It started as a simple night-sky - what stars you can see at night. They then took us on a journey to each of the planets. It was a very entertaining show and it would have been even better if I understood French.

Lunch time gamesAfter lunch (and watching some French guys play boules in the park) we headed to the Musee Jules Verne. It was cool to learn more about him and to see some of his old manuscripts and sketches. Although one of my favourite bits were the moon-related toys from all over the world. Wish I knew where to get the TinTin game! It looked fun.

The food while we were away was pretty tasty. The only problem was that there weren't a great many vege options. In fact, I think I had more cheese in this week than I have had since the start of the year! Crepes were my favourite, especially the ones made from black corn with potatoes gratin as filling. Yummo.

We headed back to England on Saturday morning and found the lovely weather was there too. We had a BBQ for lunch because the sunshine was so good. In fact, the good weather lasted until a couple of days ago (I got saturated walking to the bus from work yesterday). So it's back to grey Manchester weather but at least I had a week of fun and frivolity in France (photos here).

*big hugz* to all.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Ken's birthday pub hike

Last weekend was a long weekend, and also friend's birthday, so on Monday we high-tailed it onto the tube and down towards Hampstead Heath. His name is Ken, and (strangely!) he went to primary school with Dee. Now, I hope at this point you're thinking something like, "Wow, they stayed in touch for that long!", but the truth is much more serendipitous ( may have already told this story) -- Ken was a student at Swinburne when Mark, a Uni buddy of mine, was tutoring. Mark recently moved to London and "dossed" at Ken's for a while. So at Glenda's birthday -- Mark's girl -- both Ken and Dee knew fewer people than everyone, so started chatting. So. Very. Bizzare!

p1000608.jpgAnyhoo, it was his birthday last weekend so we headed out of our precious safety-zone ("the city") to a suburb. Turns out they've got sun, people,  cafes, greenery! So we arrived at the beer garden and met some of Ken's friends, then I supped a wee dram of uisge whilst Dee enjoyed the red wine. We chatted, ate little nibbly things (calamari, salmon fish-fingers, lamb koftas) and generally enjoyed the sun -- although as the afternoon wore on it threatened rain.

After lunch (and a delicious chocolate cake courtesy of Glenda --  thanks!) we all decided to walk off the meal in Hampstead Green, a nearby park -- although it's bigger than any park I've seen in Aus, just like Hyde Park in London central. We wandered across field and dell and came across a fair! Ferris-wheels, skill games, spinny-aroundy and upside-downy rides! Dee, Ken and I all tried the archery. None of us won a prize, but Dee did have the dubious achievement of almost hitting a "carny" (i.e. fair worker) with an arrow! Remember kids: wine and bow & arrows don't mix. (I kid, I kid, we wouldn't want to get rolling drunk on a school/work day/night -- really, the carny almost got himself shot by ducking out in front of us to retrieve some arrows from the targets. I mean, come on! He was asking for one in the behind!)
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It was weird being in the middle of a green space and looking back towards the "urban jungle". It was also getting muggy -- the rain was on its way but taking its sweet time about it. We got to the edge of the park, grabbed some drinks from the supermarket and had an impromptu picnic in a field, while around us people threw frisbees and kicked soccer balls. Decided we'd come back another weekend and play tennis and/or lawn bowls! How sophisticated!

When the rain started, we bid adieu to Ken and company, boarded a bus and headed back home. As always, more photos here. (And I'm not if you need to be on Facebook, but Glenda put some photos up too.)

Friday 29 May 2009

round 4

Hi all. Dad has now finished round 4 of the chemo. He's been feeling strange so they checked his blood pressure, which was a bit low and decided to skip the metawhatever that was meant to stimulate his appetite but which had wiped out what little appetite he had. Now we wait and see for the next week. It would be good if he didn't get diahorrea, an elevated temp and become dehydrated. I guess we're more ready to treat the symptoms if they happen than we were the first round. Only one more round to go and that's not for three weeks. Don't think we'll manage Adelaide this school holidays since that final round is the last week of term and I don't want to travel if Dad is feeling unwell. We'll see how he goes. He's started grumbling about my driving again so I think he'll be back behind the wheel by next week. If only he'd start eating more. He still has at least two cans of 2cal a day to keep up his nutrition.
Dayna looking forward to hearing about your holiday in France.
Glenn and D, thank you for the photos you left on our computer. We had a voucher for 25 prints in May and we haven't taken any since the last batch of developing. I used some of yours and some of Dayna's. I'll pick them up when I get to town next.
Thinking of you all.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo...

And stretch.. It was a vaguely sunny Sunday, the middle of a long weekend - no better time to take a trip to the Zoo. Vicki, Steven, Bruce and I all jumped into Bruce's (mostly) shiny new car and off we went. About an hour later, we arrived and parked on the grass (?!) as directed.


SwimmingIt was fairly cold and windy for the first part of the day - but that didn't stop us enjoying watching the elephants! They were so funny! Initially they were messing about in a little pool. It had a small waterpipe and they were stepping on it to make the water spray everywhere (clever things). Next thing, two of the elephants ran into the pool by the waterfall. One moment they were there, the next they disappeared - they didn't teleport somewhere, it was just the pool was a LOT deeper than it looked! It was fantastic to watch them playing.


PonderingWe didn't follow any particular plan - we just wandered around the zoo, watched random animals and took lots of photos. Well, I took photos until my batteries went flat. :-( My photoset is here. And since Vicki's batteries didn't go flat, her photoset is here. Sometimes it's sad to see animals in cages but it's obvious that Chester Zoo looks after the welfare of the animals - they have inside and outside spaces, there are toys to play with (even HUGE toys for the elephants) and at least some of the habitats are designed for the animals. It's been ages since I'd been to the zoo - think I might not wait so long until the next visit (probably to another zoo). :-)

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo
You can come too too too...

Monday 18 May 2009

Leamington Spa at Easter time

Oops, forgot I hadn't linked to this -- our Easter weekend away in Leamington!

Update: Some photos from "Lem".



We also popped over to Coventry, since Dee's Dad was originally from there.