Moose on the Move!

Last of the English summer...

2007-10-15T06:49:00.000Z

July and August meant that we had two months only until we would be flying home and we had so much to organise before we could leave.

On the first of July Chris got roped into playing cricket in Plymouth for a local team who were short a couple of members. He had a good time despite not knowing many people on the team and getting out for a Golden Duck. Such was the beginning, and ending, of Chris' English cricket career.

A few days later we were visited by my sister, Kiki's, boyfriend. He was in the UK driving like a man-possessed all over the country visiting friends and was able to squeeze in a visit to Exeter. It was our first meeting with him and was slightly unusual in that Kiki wasn't with him but we welcomed him in for the night - especially when we realised that he came bearing edible Australian gifts from Kiki!!

With the school year drawing to a close, the Year 6 cohort were using every spare moment to practice their end of year production and I was able to help by spending some of my spare time painting the set. I had several people looking at me disapprovingly and asking if I should be climbing the ladder - in my "condition". They really are a caring lot at that school!

Ebay is a fabulous place to buy large bundles of second-hand baby clothes! We bought a couple of bundles for little Squidgy, one for the 0-3 month range and one for the 3-6 month range. They are such tiny little items of clothing and it made us both smile and giggle to pull all the little outfits out of the box one at a time. The second last item out of the first box was a little t-shirt with "Little Moose" on the front - I guess it was meant to be!!

Our third anniversary was a much quieter affair than the previous two. No capital city, no fireworks, no stamps in our passport. We went out to breakfast, looked at an exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery, bought some maternity clothing, had a drink and a walk by the river and went to see the newest Harry Potter film at the Picture House. It was a lovely day in all and nice to spend the time together. Who knows what next year's anniversary will entail.

Each summer in Exeter a Shakespeare play is performed in Rougemont Gardens - the old moat surrounding the castle in the corner of the old city walls. This year it was McBeth and we were organised enough (thanks to Dayna) to get tickets to go on the 19th. It was a great show - the sets were simple but really effective and the use of huge puppets for the three witches was a really great idea because it gave them the ability to float and move in a much more eerie way than people ever could.

The last day of the school year was the 24th of July and the staff at the school where I'd been working celebrated with a river cruise from Exmouth up the River Exe towards Topsham. The sunset was gorgeous that night and it was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone. We were lucky to make it though. We were a little late leaving home and then got lost in Exmouth - luckily one of the other teachers had my mobile number, called to see where we were and held the boat for a minute until we arrived!

The last week of July saw me get on a plane to Denmark for a final visit before we headed for Australia. It was wonderful to be there and hear the language and I was really lucky to see the whole family together. They were all well and it was amazing to see how much the two little girls had grown since we saw them last summer. Anette's little girl, Laura, was intrigued by the idea of there being a baby in my belly and that she had come from Anette's belly. She wasn't shy to talk to the baby, imagine "Hi Baby" in the enthusiastic, high pitched strains of a two-and-a-half year old. More than once she tried to lift my top to 'see' the baby and when she couldn't feel him moving she'd tell me he was sleeping. Awww.....

August brought us some wonderful weather and we took advantage of it to walk by the river, soak up some vitamin D and to catch up with friends in Topsham. I was left on bench guarding duty by Topsham markets one weekend when we went to meet up with Kate, Lucy and Jim. I did my best but was quickly overwhelmed by three old biddies who sat and nattered beside me. Oh well.

All this time the baby bump belly kept growing bigger. Lying on my stomach was definitely not an option any more and rolling over in bed was getting harder. On the up side, the baby's movements were easier and easier to feel and Chris was able to feel his unborn child too. At times we were able to see little movements too, just subtle shifts in the shape of my belly but very exciting none-the-less.

A few days before we left Exeter Chris' work mates held a BBQ in a huge park in Exmouth. I take back everything bad I've ever said about the English not knowing how to barbeque! The actual barbeque was one of the best constructions I've ever seen - you'll have to have a look at the photos. We played rounders and giant Jenga and generally had a good time.

It's amazing how much stuff two people can accumulate in the short space of two years even when they're renting somewhere fully-furnished! It's a big job moving and even bigger when you move overseas and don't automatically pack everything. Decisions had to be made about what to throw out, to donate, to sell, to ship and to pack for Darwin. It's huge! We finally whittled down the 'shipping' pile to just five large boxes, one book box and a guitar case. We were able to sell on a lot of our unwanted bits and pieces to workmates, we donated a lot of things to the two closest charity shops and after much hoo-ha and price dropping we finally sold our car the day before we left Exeter. Nothing like a little bit of last-minute stress when you're moving internationally. We'd had low offers from a couple of dealers and could have sold to them if need be but luckily found a family who wanted the car. It's silly to get emotional over an inanimate object but it felt better to sell the car to nice people.

It was very odd to leave our house completely empty and clean, to lock the door and walk away, knowing that we'd probably never be going back in there. It was sad. I guess the fact that it was hard to leave means that we had a good time there. If we hadn't been happy in Exeter it would have been easy to leave.

Our last night in Exeter was spent with Dayna and Ben (we had curry from the Ganges - yum). It was hard to say goodbye to them, they've become such good friends, but we were excited leaving too because it meant that we were getting closer to home and to meeting Little Moose.

We spent a few days in London before we left for good. It was a great way to finish the trip - just taking it easy and being really touristy. We made a point of doing several things that we hadn't done on previous visits. Like going to the Tate, riding the London Eye, touring the city on an open-top bus and going to see a musical.

The London Eye is definitely worth a visit, the half hour ride was over quite quickly but it's an amazing way to view the city, especially if you're lucky enough to be in London on a clear day. The eye isn't appreciated by everyone in the city but it is an amazing structure.

The bus tour was great, despite us getting caught in traffic on Regent Street for half an hour. It was a real test for our guide - just how much can one man know about the toy store we were stopped next to? He was a great guide actually, very knowledgeable and funny and he got quite excited when he found out we were from Perth. He wants us to go into Clancy's Fish Pub in Freo and say 'hi' to his old boss when we get back.

If you're a Monty Python fan and you get the chance to go and see Spamalot - DO! Oh my goodness. Chris and I were both in stitches right from the start when the Finnish fish-slapping dance got going. The audience went wild for lines like "I fart in your general direction" and "I'm not dead yet". It was a great night with excellent performances!

It was a bit surreal getting on the train to go to the airport. Knowing we were leaving the city and the country for an indefinite time. Knowing we no longer lived in England. Knowing we were going home to see family and friends, that the baby would be arriving soon. Do you laugh or cry? Maybe a bit of both.

We have so many great memories from living in the UK and were lucky enough to be able to show 'our' little corner of the country to various visitors. We feel like we tried to make the most of our time there and mostly succeeded. We've got some good friends there now. And we've left a few little things to go back and see. Like Scotland and Ireland and all of northern England!

Ha - one final hurdle though - we had trouble when we went to book in at the airport. I was just over 30 weeks pregnant (well within their time limit) and had a letter from a doctor to say when she saw me two weeks previously at 28 weeks that all was well and the baby's head wasn't engaged. But the letter didn't state what my due date was, so there was much humming and hawing and rule book reading. They finally decided that my pregnancy record would be sufficient and let us through. Phew!

England my country, the home of the free, such miserable weather...

2007-05-27T13:40:00.000Z

The pilot announced over the PA system that it was raining in London as we descended into Heathrow Airport. Ah England! Despite the gray skies it felt wonderful to be coming ‘home’ – we were looking forward to getting back to Exeter, to our house, our city and our priory garden with the purple wisteria.

In the next few weeks the sun shone beautifully and we made the most of the weekends by walking down the river to double locks and going to visit Cheddar Gorge. The gorge is most of the way to Bristol from Exeter and was spectacular, in a smallish way. There are caves in the gorge but if you’ve been to any of the caves south of Perth you’ve been spoiled – the ones in Cheddar are not as spectacular although the story behind them and the local history is interesting. And of course we had to try some Cheddar cheese from Cheddar - it was good!

Once we were back in England we took steps to register with a local midwife and book in for an ultrasound. By the time we’d seen everyone we needed to see I was 16 ½ weeks pregnant before we finally got in for an ultrasound scan on the 22nd May. It was really amazing to see the little guy in there. The last time we’d seen him he was a centimeter-long peanut with a heartbeat. This time he had a head and face and arms and legs and heart and kidneys and stomach and everything! It was quite emotional for both of us and we left clutching two little pictures of the baby moose and the knowledge that he was doing fine. We both felt so incredibly in love with our unborn child and couldn’t help but grin at each other almost constantly in the following days.

There is a long weekend at the end of May and we decided that it would be a good time to head up to Wales. Unfortunately the weather was going to be a bit too wet for camping and, in typical Moose style, we left the booking of a B&B a bit late and were severely limited for choice. We ended up finding one and headed up there on Friday afternoon. We had spoken to them on the phone and booked in for three nights but on arrival we were disappointed with the place as a whole and when they told us that they’d knowingly double-booked our room and intended to move us into their own bedroom for Saturday night we decided not to stay!

We checked out the following morning and went to the Hay-on-Wye literary festival, a huge annual festival of books, authors, talks and so on. We got in to see a discussion between Monty Don and Rosie Boycott about her experiences on a small farm and then drove back to Exeter. It wasn’t a bad decision – Sunday it absolutely poured with rain.

On Monday when the sun came out again we went down to the quay to hire canoes and go for a paddle but the river was so swollen and rushing we had to settle for bikes instead. It was a gorgeous day for a ride and we went all the way down to Turf Locks (a first for us) for some lunch. It’s been a couple of years since either of us was on a bike and our bottoms and legs were sure to remind us of this in the following days.

Some months ago some friends of ours, Dale and Paul, move up to Bristol so we went up to visit them about a week into June, on the 9th. We spent a night up there and it was nice to see the place through the eyes of ‘locals’. We went to see the Clifton Suspension bridge - a feat of engineering and one of the much celebrated accomplishments of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We wondered briefly if that might be a good name for Squidgy but quickly dismissed the idea. It is a great city with a lot to offer. Even if the accent is a little funny!

Later that same week we had visitors from home! It’s always exciting when people we know really well from elsewhere, come and we get to show them all the special places we have discovered in the area. Mary and Spencer are some of our oldest family friends – they’ve ‘just always been there’. They came to see us for several days as part of a long tour to visit family in England and Ireland and to see a few places in Europe.

Unfortunately the weather had been really miserable – again or still. We took them out to Dartmoor but could initially not see anything because the fog was just so thick! I had to keep saying "there really is a wonderful view out there – honest!". We stopped by the clapper bridge and in the space of ten minutes the fog cleared completely and view was again magnificent. So Mary and Spencer were able to see the ponies, foals and sheep and the fabulous scene from the top of a Bone Hill Rocks.

The Exeter Summer Festival began about this time and a wonderful part of this annual event is the huge craft market held in the Cathedral Green. The variety and quality of the work is always amazing and we all enjoyed checking it out. Later we took Mary and Spencer out to Branscombe for Cream Tea and visited the old bakery and a rose garden that we must've driven past a dozen times and had never seen before. It was in need of a little TLC but was still a beautiful tranquil place with lots of different ducks and flowers.

On the 20th June we went to the new Women’s Health Centre at the RD&E for our 20 week anatomical scan. Poor Squidgy was looking a bit more cramped in there this time but was still gorgeous. He was moving around in there and looking spectacular! The sonographer was a bit of a grumpy-bum and got quite aggressive when Chris asked if he could take a photo of me having the scan done. So sorry guys, you’ll just have to use your imagination. It's incredible how clear the images are on these scans - they can show you the four cambers of the heart beating merrily away!

A week and a half later our next visitors (and probably our last over here) arrived. Michelle and Tarah were just beginning their European adventure when they came to stay with us for a couple of nights. The river was again swollen from all the rain we'd had and flowed really quickly when we went for a walk around the bridges.

Dartmoor was on the itinerary for these guys, as well as a visit to Paignton where we chuckled about the beach huts and the old locals enjoying the not-so-sunny summer weather! A ghostly red-coat tour around Exeter city centre was informative and amusing! Our guide took great pleasure in reminding us that neither she nor the city council could be held responsible for anything that might happen to us on the tour - or afterwards if we didn’t have rosemary in our pockets or if we should mention the name (E-T-H-E-L) of the local poltergeist!

I dropped Michelle and Tarah off in Bath to carry on their amazing tour and was more than just a little jealous as I thought about all the amazing places they were off to see in the coming weeks.

The end of June arrived bringing with it the knowledge that we had just two months until we leave for Australia. So much to do and so little time. Only two months to go! We'll be back in Australia on the 31st August, when we arrive in Darwin at 2:30 am. The plan is to stay in Darwin for the birth of Baby Moose and then move back into our house in Perth for some months. After that the plan gets a bit loose - we'll see how we're coping with the little man!

Aussie Aussie Aussie... Oi Oi Oi!!

2007-04-27T09:02:00.000Z

A quick reminder - click on any of the images within the text and you can see the rest of the photos we've loaded onto Flickr. When you're in Flickr, you can click on any image to see it larger.

After a mad couple of days back in England unpacking and repacking and doing laundry and passing keys to a friend we found ourselves back on the train to London for the trip home. Mid March saw us arrive back in Perth very early on the morning of Friday 16th for the first time in over 2 years. We had expected that things would all feel a little bit odd, but actually, things seemed surprisingly normal and quite familiar. It was really hard to believe that we had been away for so long.

We were picked up by our good mate John, who met us at the airport with a big smile, bigger sideburns and my long awaited Coffee Chill. Being home was bliss already. We made it back to Mum's place at about 2 am and while Elke had to go to bed to get some sleep before her mad dash down to Albany (a mere 5 hour drive) the next day, I stayed up chatting for another couple of hours.

The following morning, we got the opportunity to start spreading the news of our pregnancy. We were very excited about the prospect of becoming parents, and were very much looking forward to letting our folks know that they were going to be first time grandparents. Mum was very excited to hear the news. There were a couple of tears, but they were all happy ones.

That afternoon, Elke headed down to Albany with some friends while I stayed in Perth and caught up with Mum and some family. The purpose of Elke's visit to Albany was to attend a wedding. Wendy is a good friend of ours from University. She wrote to us around Christmas time to let us know that she getting married the weekend we arrived back in Perth. It was a great for Elke to get down to Albany to celebrate her wedding as well as catch up with all of our University mates that we hadn't seen for so long. The wedding was at a winery in Denmark which is a small town not far from Albany. It was an ideal location to catch up with everyone, but Elke had to keep passing up offers of wine on the excuse that she was very jet-lagged and couldn't possibly stay awake if she had a drink. Thankfully, no one pressed her on why she wasn't drinking, as we were trying to keep our pregnancy a bit of a secret for a while longer.

The next week was an absolutely mad rush around Perth trying to catch up with friends and family. There was so many people to catch up with, so much to catch up on, and yet there was a limited amount of time in which to get it all done.

As I mentioned previously, it was amazing how familiar things felt after being away for so long. For the most part, Perth hasn't changed much, and most of our mates are still exactly the same. Over the past couple of years, my good mate Pete had been telling us about his girlfriend Kylie, and it was great to finally meet her too.

So while there were a few things that had changed a little, I found the one thing that really had changed, was the kids. Before we left, there were some children who were so small they couldn't yet crawl or talk, and now they were walking and talking! There were some who weren't even born, and even they were now walking and talking!! At least one of my cousins children had now started high school and has a little mobile phone attached to his belt. My goodness, I was starting to feel old.

Initially, we had planned to keep our pregnancy a secret from everyone other than immediate family until we had passed the 12 week mark. While this was a great idea, it didn't really last. There were a couple of times where we were asked when it was our turn to have kids. I had no trouble lying. "Not for a few years yet", I'd say. A couple of times though, I think our massive grins gave the game away and we had to come clean. That was fine though, they are all great mates, and it was exciting to share our news.

We got to celebrate Mum's brithday towards the end of March while we were in Perth. She had a big BBQ at my cousin's place with lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and lots and lots of laughing. I think everyone really enjoyed the day.

We had dinner out most nights catching up with various groups of friends. We caught up with old friends and work friends and uni friends. We caught up with various aunties and cousins and my Dad down from Geraldton. It was wonderful if a bit manic. We went to a BBQ at Point Walter - it's still a beautiful spot. We went to Fremantle to explore the markets there and enjoy the sunshine. Oh yes! The sun still shines in Australia and our 'night-club' tans were painful to look at with the naked eye.

One other exciting thing we did while in Perth was to book in with an obstetrician and go in for our first meeting. The doctor we met was very nice and offered us an ultrasound. We jumped at the chance and could not hide our excitement when he showed us the tiny flashing area on the screen that was the baby's heartbeat. Wow! He gave us a picture to take home and we proudly showed it off to all and sundry (although we had to point out which bit was baby and which bit was not)!

A week and half after arriving in Perth Elke headed off on a mad intra-continental dash. To the untrained eye it looked like she was single handedly trying to speed up global warming. First stop was Sydney for the last couple of days of March. Her physiotherapist sister Kirsten met her there and they spent a couple of days enjoying the beach and the sights of Coogee Beach. Kiki was excited to find out she would be an aunt at the end of the year and quickly asked if she and Inge (Elke's other sister) could choose baby's middle name. We're having enough trouble deciding on a name with just two of us though so we might not involve anyone else. They walked from Coogee up along the coast path to Bondi - a longish walk if you're feeling the effects of a little morning sickness but still spectacular. They also explored Bondi Junction and went to see a movie. Kirsten stayed in Sydney for a few days after Elke left to see a visiting friend before heading back home to Townsville.

On the last day of March Elke headed north up the coast to Newcastle for Ben and Dayna's wedding. It should have been a simple trip up on the train, Dayna had told her which station to get off, but was complicated slightly by the fact that the trains were not running due to work on the track. Well that's ok - manageable too if you get on the right bus! Elke got on the wrong bus and instead of getting off at the prescribed stop she rode right into Newcastle and had to be picked up by Dayna's dad. 'Hello Mr Jenkins, it's nice to meet you'. The wedding on 1st April was a lovely affair with representatives from all over Australia and from the UK as well. Elke did a short reading at the ceremony and managed to get all the words right.

From Newcastle she flew north to Brisbane on the same flight as a few other guests from the wedding who were then kind enough to drive her an hour north and drop her right at her friends' Tsu Shan and Brian's door! Granted they lived nearby and were already dropping Dayna's Grandmother off just 5 minutes away but Elke was still very grateful. Tsu Shan is one of Elke's oldest friends - they've know each other since Yr 5. At the time Tsu Shan was about 8 1/2 months pregnant (due on the 17th April - two days before Elke's birthday) and Elke caught herself waddling around the house behind Tsu Shan on more than one occasion. Both Tsu Shan and Brian were delighted to find out about our baby news and there was much baby related talk in the next few days. While Elke suggested she would be perfectly happy for Tsu Shan to go into labour a couple of weeks early and have the little tyke while she was there, Vanessa Mae arrived safely a few days overdue on the 22nd April.

Elke arrived in Darwin at about 1am on Saturday 6th April and had to bite her tongue several times to keep the news of bump a secret until just after noon that day when I flew up to meet her. Over lunch we told Elke's parents about the arrival of grandchild number one and, as is inevitable with Elke's family in any mildly emotional occasion, there were many tears and much smiling and laughing.

We finally had a chance to slow down a little while we were in Darwin, there are many fewer people up there these days to catch up with. We went for lots of swims and had a couple of nice BBQs, there was a lovely sunset sail with the Keperts and breakfast with Jessica (who used to live in London), Fiona (another old friend) and her boyfriend Luke. We had an exciting easter egg hunt with the Denniss family - there was much whooping and laughing as we all raced around the garden looking for eggs and bunnies. While we were in Darwin we celebrated Jurgen's birthday at a BBQ with friends and got to spread the news about bump a little further.

Something we had hoped to be able to squeeze in was a camping trip. We got to go camping for a couple of nights at Edith Falls about 2.5 hours south of Darwin. It was a wonderful relaxed couple of days. lots of reading and swimming and eating and swimming and reading. I tried to get rid of my good English tan a little and ended up getting seriously burnt on my back, shoulders, upper arms and a couple of little bits of my belly. Hmmm. Ouch!

The 18th April the day before Elke's birthday we flew down to Alice Springs and were met by Inge, Elke's other sister. She is living in Alice with her boyfriend Tim and they seem really happy there. They both took the day off for Elke's birthday and had planned a little trip out along the West Macdonnell Ranges to see Simpsons Gap, the Ochre pits and Serpentine Gorge. It was a lovely day.

Saturday morning we flew back to Perth for a final day and a half before leaving. That night we met up with various friends in Kings Park - you might think that a park sponsored by the local electricity authority might have lights on after sundown, apparently not. We all ended up sitting around in the dark - an interesting experience for those in the group who didn't know everyone else!

Our final day in Perth we went down to have a quick look at our house in Kardinya (currently rented out) and then watched an Aussie Rules game on TV with John and Fay. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone again but we made it a little easier by leaving at 6am!

We had decided to break the trip back to the UK up a little by stopping in Dubai for a few nights. It turned out to be a really good idea. Elke got off pretty lightly in terms of morning sickness (a lot of slightly bleurgh feeling but no actual throwing up - until we were on the plane) but she was felling pretty tired after the round Australia trip.

We explored Dubai on foot, looking at the markets and the people and the little shops. We took a cruise on a Dhow up the creek and then caught a water taxi (an Abra) across the creek to see the other side of town. Dubai is an interesting and colourful place and we'd quite like to go back at some point to see the desert and some of the amazing new architecture.

What a trip! It was a bit of a whirlwind and we're sorry if we missed catching up with you. We're looking forward to coming home towards the end of the year for the arrival of bub - if you want to see us then I'm afraid you'll have to come to us at that point. Take care.

Oh Canada

2007-04-04T00:03:00.000Z

We wanted to go skiing this season but the winter had been so mild in Europe that many resorts had limited or unreliable snow conditions. So, we looked to go just a little further a field – and decided on Canada.

We left for Vancouver in the last couple of days of February, just after the finish of the Animation festival. The 10 hour flight over was not a good one – no sooner had the wheels left the ground when the family in front of us all put their seats all the way back and left them there for the entire flight. Arghhh! Also, there is something terribly confusing about leaving the UK at 1:30pm, flying for 10 hours and arriving at 3:30 pm on the same day. Needless to say we were completely stuffed when we arrived and were in bed at the hostel by half past six.

The following day we caught the ferry from the mainland to Vancouver Island and were met by Elke’s Uncle Jochen. The trip over is always stunning (provided there in sufficiently little fog) - the ferry weaves in and out of the islands and the gulls hover overhead.

We spent the next week with Oma and the Dous Family of Duncan. Oma had her 87th birthday the day after we arrived – she’s a very alert older woman whose hearing and eyesight is not quite what it used to be but who nevertheless has a sharp sense of humour. We walked the dog, Gem, and looked at the alpacas on a nearby farm. They are very odd looking animals who seemed to be almost as interested in us as we were in them. At one point a group of about 10 stared stalking closer to the fence as we went by and followed along when we turned the corner. If it had been a little darker it could have been quite eerie.

We took Oma shopping for a new jacket, she had finally decided that the one she bought in the 1600s was a little daggy and that she could do better. Success was ours and she found a snazzy navy number. We were also lucky enough to get to spend a whole afternoon replacing the elastic in her new knickers. Ahhh… it was an exciting week.

Towards the end of our visit Chris and I had something happen to us that we hadn't experienced before. I did a pregnancy test in my Uncle's bathroom and we discovered that we were expecting our first child! There was jumping, smiling and tears all in the space of about two minutes. What a strange feeling it was to find out, we'd been hoping that the test would be positive but to actually see two lines in the little window was quite surreal. I think we both had to keep checking it to make sure we weren't reading it wrong (although, admittedly it is fairly hard to read one of those things wrong...) We spent the rest of the day smiling at each other and were able to last a whole 36 hours before we told the Dous Family and Oma. It was very early in the pregnancy at that point but being able to tell those we love face to face was too good an opportunity to miss. Now we just had to keep the secret for a couple more weeks before we could start telling family in Australia! The due date we worked out was the 8th November 2007.

From Vancouver Island we flew inland to go back to Silver Star – the same ski resort where we learned to ski almost exactly two years earlier. It was as beautiful as we remembered – the snow was white and sparkly and the buildings were colourful in the sunshine. In contrast to the drab English weather which our now mole-ish eyes had become used to the brilliant sun and white snow of Canada and we were forced to buy ourselves each a pair of sunglasses. I got a very trendy pair of enormous purple ones which didn't look nearly as hideous when I looked in the mirror of the shop. Of course it was quite dark in there and I was wearing sunglasses....

We had a really wonderful week, the sun shone one day, it snowed (heavily by our standards) all day on another day. We skied and skied and didn’t break any bones. It took a while on the first day to get our ski-legs back, foolishly we had assumed that we would strap the skis on and be off like we’d never been away. We were wrong and spent much of the first day in the old faithful snow-plough position - adorable on three year olds, slightly pathetic looking when you're closer to 30.

As a treat towards the end of the week we caught a horse drawn sleigh through the forest to a little hut with no electricity for a home cooked meal. It was really wonderful listening to the bells on the horses tinkle as we slid across the snow. The sleigh was pulled by two enormous Belgian horses called Fred and Barney.

We slept well on our last night knowing that the following day, and indeed the week to come, was going to be completely exhausting. We were right. In the space of seven days we made two long bus rides, four long flights, three train rides and spent a whole lotta time sitting around waiting.

The upside of all this travel though was knowing that we were heading back to Australia after two years away. Oh it was so exciting. In preparation for our visit we’d made a list of people we wanted to catch up with, places we wanted to visit, business we needed to take care of and food that we wanted to eat. The top of Chris' food list read - Browne's Coffee Chill and Chicken Treat.

Fe fi fo fum.. February.

2007-03-09T01:19:00.000Z

Ah rugby - we didn't understand a lot of the last game we went to see but enjoyed it all the same. We went to see another game early in the month - an international match this time between England Saxons and the Italian A team. There are some very VERY big boys on both teams.

With our flights booked for home and no guarantee of being able to come back to England for work we decided it was time for another trip to Cornwall. It was just an overnight trip but we visited a few places that one or the other of us hadn't been to. We drove through various amusingly named villages and stayed the night at the hotel at Land's End. It is a spectacular location for a hotel... the hotel itself is less than spectacular though being mostly a bit old and run down.

The following day we went to see the Minack Theater built on the cliff edge almost single-handedly by a woman named Rowena Cade. She started hosting plays there in 1932 and it must have been really special at the beginning when the stage was basically a grassy little area part way down the cliff face. It was a bit early in the season for anything to be playing but it is a spectacular location none-the-less and we'd love to go back and see something performed there.

Littering the coastline of Cornwall are the remains of many old tin mines. We visited one called Levant, the wrecks of the old buildings make for some interesting images. We posed for a photo in a couple of neat archways only to find when we looked at the map by the carpark that we'd been smiling happily right by the old arsenic pits!

I worked for two more weeks back in the same year 5 class for two weeks at the beginning of the month. It was nice to see the kids again, and fun to tell them about our upcoming travels. I put a world map up in the classroom before I left and promised to send them postcards from each of the places we visited.

The last two weeks of February were spent working for the Animated Exeter Festival. It's the same festival I volunteered for last year and it was just as much fun this year. I spent the first week working as a guide for school groups - taking them from ma screening of animations to a workshop and then to see various exhibitions. It's always great fun helping kids get the hang of animation and watching their faces when they see their characters come to life when you hit playback.

One of the exhibitions that was part of the Festival this year was of Suzie Templeton's Peter and the Wolf. It is a beautiful new version of the story with the original music in accompaniment. I had seen the exhibition so many time in the first week that when the director walked in to the Festival during the second week I smiled at her thinking I knew her (while I tried to work out where I knew her from.) Oops. There was a set from the film on display as well as several of the puppets used. I didn't tire of looking at them throughout the two weeks - the detail and care taken was absolutely astounding.

It was a really great two weeks and I got to meet some really interesting people and see lots of fabulous films. At the end of the festival Chris and I had just a couple of days to clean the house and pack for our trip to Canada. Ah the whirl-wind of life continues....

HSMP hysteria

2007-02-17T18:42:00.001Z

January got off to a fairly slow start. The weather was fairly miserable and we hadn’t seen a flake of snow at all, not much of a winter. School started back at the end of the first week of January and I was back to travelling the county of Devon teaching at various out-of-the-way schools. Overhanging us all month was the growing need to submit Chris' Highly Skilled Migrant Program application. We had so many bits of information to gather and we were basically there - just waiting for one or two documents to arrive...

As a Christmas gift our friends Chrissie and Dom had bought us tickets to go and see an Exeter Chiefs rugby game at the new rugby ground, Sandy Park. On arrival at the ground we were issued with a TRY card (why do they call it a ‘try’ when they succeed in putting the ball in the right place??). The back of the card had instructions on how to behave when ‘our’ team scored and when the other team scored. It was a fun afternoon despite the fact that Chris and I know very little about the rules of the game… my uncle will be disappointed for sure to read that.

Not much else happened in the middle of the month, we went to the Quay one sunny morning with Ben and Dayna. Chris and I joined a free Red Coat Tour around the Cathedral Green – they are a series of free walking tours that you can go on to find out a little more about the history of Exeter. There are some really interesting things to find out and each tour is guided by a keen volunteer (ours was called Clive). We had to buy a new bird feeder after donating our old one to the French bird-feeding effort. We walked out our front door one morning to find a man and a woman eyeing our feeder. After we explained it was ours they asked if he could have it to take back to France – apparently you can’t find a good feeder there! We agreed and considered it our good deed for the day.

One big thing that did happen (finally) towards the end of the month was that Chris submitted his Highly Skilled Migrant Program application. It is the visa that we are hoping to return to England on when the Holiday-maker visas we are currently on expire in March. It’s a point’s based system which seems pretty straightforward on initial reading but is in fact a right pain to apply for. The amount of documentation required is amazing – when I took it to the post office the scales said it weighed 1.6 kg. Far out. Once it was in the post the waiting began, we’d heard stories about the application taking 5 weeks to come back and the miss rate being pretty high. We only had about six weeks until lift off to Canada and Australia when we posted the application. Nothing like a little January adrenalin!

“The Napoli was deliberately grounded off the Devon coast on Saturday 20 January amid fears it would sink in deep water, after holes appeared on either side of the vessel two days previously” - BBC. The news was reported around the world. Many containers fell off the listing ship and washed ashore near Branscombe leading to widespread scavenging. It made for some amazing news footage. On the 26th I was working the morning at a school near Branscombe so stopped in at the beach on my way home. By this time the police had stopped public access to the beach and the clean up operation was well underway. They are slowly taking the remaining containers off the ship and have pumped the fuel out of it to prevent further spillage into the ocean. The beach was an amazing mess and they say it will take months to clean it all up successfully.

We finished January by going to see a unique band play in a small village hall. The band was Jiggerypipery – an amazing mixture of drums, guitar, fiddle and bagpipes! It was a fabulous night with much jumping and jigging and highland-flinging. Ah, trust Kate to take us to the sort event you would never believe if you hadn’t been there yourself! They were so good we had to buy their first CD when the gig was over.

December in the dark

2007-01-15T22:35:00.000Z

As we worked our way through the darkest days of the year Elke found herself back in Year five at Ladysmith Junior School. This time of the year can be so depressing, it's cold and sometimes wet and getting dark at half past three in the afternoon. Ho hum. Still at least at this time of the year there's Christmas to look forward to.

This is the season of the Christmas party. Chris' work held a fancy pants party at the new rugby ground. It was meant to be a black tie event so we both went out and bought some fancy pants new clothes - Chris bought a suit and I got a pretty dress. Awww. You know, we look ok when we brush our hair and stand up straight! It was a fun night.

The following morning I left Chris sleeping in while I went up to Bath with Dayna to have a look around the Christmas markets there. Wow. I'd been disappointed by the 'German' markets here in Exeter but the markets in Bath did not let us down. There were dozens of stalls selling all kinds of craft and wears. It was a glorious day and we really enjoyed getting out of Exeter for a little while.

What would Christmas be without a Christmas fair at school? My class made cards and book marks and set up all kinds of stalls and games to help raise money. It was a chaotic and noisy afternoon but they raised some fifty odd pounds and had a fun time selling their wares to the younger kids. I took advantage of some of the stalls by having myself drawn as a super-hero and getting a flower painted on my cheek!

Christmas dinner with the staff from Ladysmith was a much less formal affair than the one we had with Chris' workmates and ended with guitar playing, maraca shaking and some attempts at blues singing. We laughed so hard and there were many giggles when I showed the photos and clips to others at school the following Monday.

I few months ago (while Eloise was here actually) I organised with the Exeter Central Lending Library to hold an exhibition of my photographs in the week leading up to Christmas. I agonised over which ones to have printed, then agonised over the grouping of them and finally I agonised over the title of each one. It was exciting putting them up in the foyer of the library and I left a little comments book to see what people thought. Basically the feedback was positive. It makes me a little more serious about trying to sell some of my work when we get back from our trip home.

We spent Christmas this year with Ben and Dayna. They had some of Ben's family visiting for a few days so we had drinks on Christmas Eve, Lunch and Yahtzee on Christmas Day and then met up with them all again on Boxing Day for another drink. It was lovely to spend time with them all and see how others celebrate Christmas. Dayna made an amazing pudding and lots of yummy chocolate truffles!

New Year's Eve was spent in a stinky little pub with some friends and their friends. It was a good night although in a slightly less exotic location than last year (Norway last year remember).

It was around this time that we began to think seriously about booking tickets home. After a Christmas conversation with Oma in Canada for Christmas we began to think about trying to go and see her on our way home. Oh! And we could go skiing there while we were at it. We'd thought about going skiing in Europe somewhere before we head home but the snow reports had mostly been bad whereas Canada had lots of snow!
So we finally got organised, bit the bullet and booked some flights.

So - for anyone that we haven't told yet here is the brief itinerary...
Leave Heathrow 27th to Vancouver, one week with Oma and the Dous Family in BC then one week skiing at Silverstar. We fly back to London on the 12th March and out again to Perth on the 14th! We skip the 15th altogether and arrive in Perth on the 16th.
Then things get a bit hectic and crazy for me but we'll both be in Darwin on the 7th of April for a couple of weeks before flying back to Perth to head back over here. Oh and just for fun - we'll stop in Dubai for a few days on the way back.

Of course - the whole coming back bit is rather reliant on Chris getting his Highly Skilled Migrant Visa. The chances of us getting it will be much higher once the application is sent in. At this point we were close to getting it sent in but were waiting on a few loose documents. The whole process is mighty scary! Very specific and thorough and expensive. Chris found a forum online full of people who were having problems with their applications - not a positive environment.

So - 2007 looks like it's going to be a good year; a trip home to see lots of places and meet lots of people. Skiing again and Oma and summer is coming and weddings and and and and and....

November sunrises

2006-11-25T15:47:00.000Z

For Chris' birthday last year we went to Wales. This year we decided to kill two birds with one stone; go somewhere nice for his birthday and visit our friends Mark and Sharon in Spain.

We spent three great days there. This was the first trip to Spain for either of us and we had a great time. We flew down on Friday night (3rd November) and were met at the airport by Mark and Sharon in their new car. They live about an hour north of Alicante (direct flight from Exeter).

The next day - Saturday - we headed a little further north to Valencia (think oranges) to explore the city a little. Despite stunning weather in the previous weeks the last couple of days in Spain had been rainy and we discovered that the rain in Spain falls heavily in the city and not, in fact, on the plain - although it might have been raining there too... So consistent was the downpour in fact that we were forced to cease sight-seeing activities for a time and hunt down an open shop selling umbrellas.

Valencia (Val-en-thi-ah) was a lovely city, we visited the old town and saw lots of tiles, we walked past the bullring and viewed the Arts and Science centres by night. These are a series of amazing new buildings. I have often associated Spain with interesting architecture and this row of buildings did not disappoint.
Very modern in their design and quite nautical they sit amid shallow pools of water. I'm sure on a clear blue-sky day the white looks stunning, as it was we visited on a cloudy night and they were equally impressive. The surrounding water creates the most wonderful reflections. Evidently this it the place to have your wedding photos taken in Valencia - we saw no less than nine separate couples there in the short time we were watched.

The next day we stayed closer to Javea where our friends live (It's pronounced Hav-ee-ah). It's a nice little coastal town with a pretty old-town area, a harbour area and the newer part where our friends live. Mark and Sharon suggested that we could start the day by climbing a nearby 'hill' know as Montgo. It's huge and would have been great to climb but the rain had made things a bit slippery so we walked to the base and watched the clouds scrape over the top of it and promised to come back and climb it when the sun was shining.

Instead we went to walk out to the Javea lighthouse. Then we went to have a look at the old town where we drove down some incredibly narrow streets and ended up in a pedestrian area by the church before getting ourselves locked in an underground carpark! Who knew there could be so much excitement in a little Spanish town? That night we went out to dinner with some of Sharon and Mark's new friends - after seeing how much alcohol was consumed before some of them jumped in their cars to drive home I have this advice for you should you visit Spain - walk on the shop side of the pavement.

Chris' birthday, Monday 6th, we stopped in Albir on our way back to Alicante and walked out to the lighthouse there. It was a gentle walk with some amazing views back over the town, bay and hills. I think Chris and I were both surprised at how barren this area of Spain is - the hills are sparsely covered and quite rocky. I'm not sure exactly what we had expected but it sure makes for dramatic landscape! We really enjoyed our visit and would like to go back sometime - perhaps in summer when the sun is shining. Luckily for us Mark and Sharon seem happy there and set to stay for a while.

The day after we got back into Exeter I started at Ladysmith Junior School, again. This was the same school I taught at for two weeks in September and I was back in the same Yr 5 class for another 6 weeks while the teacher was off. Scary and exciting at the same time? Definitely! I almost didn't make it though - our late night flight into Exeter was delayed leaving Alicante and was almost diverted to Manchester because of heavy fog. If this had happened we'd have been put on a bus for the five hour journey back to Devon - eeep!

A week and a half later, I went with Ben and Dayna on the annual pilgrimage into the city to see the Christmas lights get turned on. In a clever move this year they gathered the waiting hoards in the the right area - last year we all waited in the cold by the Cathedral while they switched the lights on in the High Street! It was nice to see so many smiling people out in the city - there was a fireworks display off the Debenhams building and long-legged fairies on hand to grant wishes to passers-by.

We'd had some lovely clear weather recently so Chris and I made the daring decision to get up before first light to go out to Dartmoor and take photographs of the sunrise. Luckily in winter the sun gets up quite late so we didn't have to get up too too early. It was a cold, drizzly morning - harumph! However, we did get to see some ponies feeding by the tor, they didn't hang around for us to get very close though. To our delight as the sun came up a little higher and the drizzle passed away we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow coming down over Bell Tor. I guess we know where the pot o' gold is hidden now.

Towards the end of the month we got a lot of rain in Devon and the River Exe rose quite high. It was up over the footpath in many places and the weirs were rushing. The medieval bridge at the bottom of Fore street usually spans a grassy ditch but the saturated ground meant that for a few days there was actually water below the arches. The lights at night made for a stunning picture and Chris and I took several shots. We love this city!

The last morning of the month began with a most amazing sunrise over the Cathedral in the city. The colours were bold and stunning and I just had time on my way to school to stop and grab a couple of shots. It really lifted my spirits to see it. Sometimes I'm really pleased that I always carry the small camera in my bag!!

September and October

2006-11-11T16:35:00.000Z

Well...I guess it is about time I let Elke have a break and have a go at writing one of these posts myself. I tend to be a little more concise than Elke, so you can expect this to be a shorter (yet still amazingly interesting) entry ;)

With the beginning of September came the beginning of the UK school year. Elke was given a 2 week placement in a Year 5 class where the teacher was going to be off on sick leave. So for the first time in her life, she was going to be responsible for setting up a primary school classroom. She'd started lots of high school classes but it is very different in a primary school class.

Needless to say she was a little nervous the first day. As it turned out the class arrived in the classroom before her, when she walked into the room they were all talking and fussing to find their desks. Unsure what to say and feeling a little scared she just stood at the front of the room, and waited. Slowly the room settled, they found their seats, put their bags down and sat looking at her in silence. She said she just thought, "It's going to be alright".

For me, September was a little different. My focus was really two things; work and finals football. There is not really too much to mention about work. It is still going quite well and I still enjoy what I do. There is plenty more to be said about the football however!

In the Australian Football League (AFL...or just footy), September means finals time. The West Coast Eagles are the team I follow and for the second year in a row...we made it to the finals. There were some tense footy moments such as a 1 point loss to the Sydney Swans (who beat us in the Grand Final last year by 4 points), but this was made easier by the fact we had some mates down from London on this particular weekend. I was able to take my mind off the devastating loss by enjoying the company of Jess, Smithy and Sharon who had come to Exeter to escape the big smoke for a bit.

We had a really nice weekend actually. The weather was not too bad and we were able to take off to double locks (nice pic of the pub on this site) for a nice afternoon lunch. This is a fantastic pub! It is a little way away from our place, but it is a lovely walk down there as well. We walked down past the blackberry bushes and got to snack before lunch. The walk is pretty much all beside a lovely little canal where people canoe to and from the pub. They also do very nice food there and have a great selection of beers as well.

Not content with simply having quite a nice pub lunch, we decided to also have a nice dinner out. It was close to Smithy's birthday at this point and we decided it would be a good idea to go to our favourite Indian restaurant, The Ganges. This place is literally a two minute gentle stroll from our place, and the food there is AMAZING. However, there is also usually quite a lot of it. That is no big deal though as Smithy has hollow legs, an overactive thyroid gland and an appetite like no other I have ever seen.

On Sunday, Jess left us early on her way back to London, and we were discussing with Smithy and Sharon what we should do to take our mind off the previous day's horrible loss (even though I was the only distraught one)...as well as how to pass time. We discovered, that even though these guys had been in England for quite some time, they hadn't actually yet seen Stonehenge. Well, that was settled then. Stonehenge is pretty much a quarter of the way from Exeter to London, and with the weather being quite nice, we decided to take a road trip.

It was a great idea, as Smithy and Sharon had always wanted to see it but had just never got around to it. They were moving to Spain the following week, and therefore this was a fantastic opportunity to see a great English landmark before they left.

Not only did we get to see Stonehenge, but we also checked out the much older (although nowhere near as spectacular) Woodhenge, which was having an archaeological dig undertaken whilst we were there. Apparently, they had found flint pits dating back some 5000 years. Holy cow huh?

Well, we were on a roll! We drove across the Sailsbury plains with all it's military tank tracks and crossings to go and find ourselves a white horse as Smithy and Sharon hadn't seen one of those either. We managed to find one not too far away. He was a little fella, but nice all the same.

After some photos, it was off to the beautiful town of Sailsbury to check out the Cathedral (which was closed by the time we got there) and to have dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant (so Smithy didn't die of hunger). I finished my weekend with a lovely meal of Chicken and Chips reminiscent of Chicken Treat (one of my favourite fast food restaurants in WA for those who don't know). Ahhh, the simple things in life heh? We drove to the train station where Smithy and Sharon met the train that they would have caught from Exeter anyways, and we drove home. It was a great weekend...and a fantastic way to forget about the footy.

We also had some great footy moments over the next couple of weeks. We managed to defeat the Western Bulldogs comfortably, and we had a close tussle with the Adelaide crows. However, this did mean that we made it into the Grand Final this year against the Sydney Swans once again. Now we had to work out where on earth we were going to get to see this match. I could listen to it on the radio (via the internet), but it is just never the same. After several calls to the local Australian bar from both myself and another Aussie contractor from Perth who I work with, we finally heard the fantastic news that he would indeed open up at about 5:30am for us to watch the game.

We were told he would only be opening up for us to watch and that he wouldn't be serving. That was fine with us....we just wanted to watch the game. It was a mixture of people there at that time of the morning. Management, cleaners and a mad assortment of Aussies (roughly half Swans/half Eagles supporters). The guy who let us in actually gave us a couple of 6 am beers as well as some Bacon baps to help us enjoy the game. How mad is that.

It was an amazingly exciting game. The Eagles led comfortably right throughout the first half. The Swans were sloppy and the Eagles were exciting. This is just what I wanted. I was sick of all these close games...I am sure I was developing a stomach ulcer. Then something must have happened at half time cause the Swans came out fighting and for a while, the Eagles were quite shell shocked. They made a lot of ground in the 3rd quarter and the 4th was shaping up to be another close one...much to the disgust of my stomach ulcer.

The last quarter was a ripper. It was goal for goal and towards the end, the score see-sawed between 7 points the difference and 1 point the difference (always the Eagles in front). The atmosphere in the pub was very thick and very tense. We had some amazingly heroic performances from the Eagles players and I think every one of them can hold their heads high.

Late in the game and with the ball deep in the Swans attacking 50 metre zone, the ball was thrown in from the boundary when the siren sounded...with the Eagles one point up. We were...once again.....at last....premiers!!! Whooooo Hoooo. I threw my hands up and almost knocked a light off the wall. It was a fantastic feeling for the Eagles to win a grand final. We chatted with some of the other Aussies in the pub, gave our commiserations to the Swans supporters and cheered with the Aussies and then went and had a coffee and called everyone back in Oz to celebrate. It was an AWESOME end to a FANTASTIC season. For all those who want to read more about the amazing victory, you can do so here.
Here is a brief breakdown of the score for those who are interested, and I am sure you all are :) I know I am still interested!!!

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Sydney Swans	1.4	4.6	8.11	12.12	(84)
West Coast Eagles	4.2	8.7	10.10	12.13	(85)

October passed reasonably quietly, we heard from various friends at home that they are expecting babies, there will be so many new people at home when we finally get back there that it will be hard to keep track of who is who!

We helped a mate who had recently moved into a new house with cleaning and preparing the ceilings for re-plastering. It was nice to help out a friend, although we weren't to keen on the smell that attached itself to our hands once we'd finished pulling up all the old carpet squares. Jim had also roped his parents and another friend into the 'busy-bee'.

We visited Dartmoor and walked around Hound Tor. We did the same walk that Elke and Sandi did last month, it really is lovely every time we go out there. We saw sheep and the wonderful rock formations.

We carved our Halloween pumpkin again this year - Dayna came over and we gave it two faces (on opposite sides) this time - so when it was sat in the kitchen window we could make it either smile or wink at passers-by. It finally collapsed onto the kitchen bench about a week later, luckily the candle was already out so we didn't end up with wax all over the bench.

Elke has been doing lots of supply teaching in schools here in Exeter and is basically enjoying it still. My work is keeping me busy and providing me with challenges all the time.

August Arrivals

2006-10-08T17:26:00.000Z

August was the month of visitors. You might think that after a month touring around we'd like a little quiet time at home by ourselves... it was not to be. That's ok though - we like our friends.

Shortly after our return to Exeter, England was hit by a heatwave. They had a record high temperature of 36.6 degrees celcius - lovely for us but too much for some of the locals. We took advantage of the heat and headed to the beach. Unfortunately the water was no warmer than in the Arctic so our 'swim' was a quick, painful dip followed by a long stretch of thawing on the sand.

We tried to catch up with a few local friends we hadn't seen in a while once we got back to town. We helped Dayna and Ben move into their new home a couple of blocks away, we had lunch with Kate and a group of her friends (and a cute little dog) at Double Locks and I had dinner with Chrissie and Dom.

Our first visitor that month was Eloise, a good friend from high school. We were her first stop on a tour of the UK she was doing. We tried to show her all the best bits of the South West. After exploring Exeter - Cathedral, Quay and RAM Museum, we headed a little further afield to Dartmoor. We visited Castle Drogo and Becky Falls - it's always pretty and magical there. Bath was also on the cards for Eloise's visit. My fourth visit in 14 months, I manage to talk my way out of paying for my ticket into the Baths.

Land's End in Cornwall was also on the itinerary, a first for me too. We stopped at St Ives for a bit of exploring and got mugged by a seagull. They are very brazen there and I had one take a huge chunk out of my pasty before I even had a bite and another one lept over my shoulder and stole the last hunk! As we sat there dumbstruck the couple next to us said they had just seen one guy have his whole pasty stolen and when the guy behind him started laughing he'd had his ice cream stolen. I wouldn't be surprised if it is something of a local pass-time - watching the seagulls assaulting unsuspecting tourists. Anyway it's a pretty seaside town with an amazing tide.

The next day we visited Lanyon Quoit, an ancient, small stone structure. Figuring that we had seen the most Western point of England we might as well duck down to Lizard and see the Southernmost point of mainland England. So we did. It is spectacular landscape there - great towering cliffs, blue water, wild flowers and little butterflies. On the way back to Exeter we stopped in Dartmoor and went for a little walk over the Tors near Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

After spending a week with us Eloise headed north for Scotland and then ended up in London for the long weekend. It was great to see her here, but doesn't a week just fly by.

We had about a week to ourselves then. I spotted a squirrel in our back yard and then thought I saw a rat it our kitchen (though much searching failed to show any evidence of said rodent behind the washing machine). I took photographs of a lot of my jewellery to send to the sister of a friend who has a website (Lalika Blue) in the hope that she might be able to sell some of my work through there. I'll keep you updated with how it goes. My things aren't on the website at the moment, but it's still worth having a look at.

We were delighted when we heard that Chris' cousin Melissa and her husband James were going to be bringing their son over this way (to introduce little Max to James' Irish family). They had a stop over in London for a few days and we went up to meet them. Max is a beautiful little boy and very sweet natured. We went to see the Notting Hill Festival (yes, the same Notting Hill as in the Hugh Grant film), it is a big, colourful, annual event where you can get curried goat or jerk chicken for lunch.

After we said goodbye to Missy, James and Max, Chris and I took a walk through Hyde park and made our way to Speakers Corner. It is a corner of the Park that is traditionally a place where anyone can go and preach to anyone who will listen about any topic that they care to preach about. When we went there were a few guys talking about Muslim related issues, a couple of people promoting the Bible and some other guys who just seemed to be there to argue with people in the crowd. Very interesting and amusing.

We caught the train back to Exeter the next day, and Leia came with us. After several years living in London she was heading home but was seeing a few things before she left. She spent a week with us in Exeter, mostly relaxing and getting ready for her trip to Berlin.

The day after we got back to Exeter with Leia, a family friend of Chris', Sandi, arrived at Bristol for a few days with us. It was great having her here and being able to show her a few things that she'd really wanted to see. Sandi and I went for a walk near Hound Tor in Dartmoor it was about a two hour walk up and around. We saw Llamas (not wild)! There is a large area in Dartmoor where the cows and sheep wander freely over the road. At one point Sandi had to get out of the car and herd the reluctant cows off the road so that we could get past! Yay for Sandi and her way with large beasts.

Ah, we love Branscombe! Almost everyone who visits us gets to go there! It is nice though. So we went again, with Sandi and Leia. This day it was really misty and quite eerie on the beach. Sandi hadn't seen a pebble beach before and Chris got soaked by a wave while he was trying to feel the water with his big toe. (I caught the moment on the camera!) After cream tea Sandi, Chris and Leia climbed up into the clouds to see what they could see. It turned out to not be very much.

Sandi left us to visit some other friends in Dorset before going home to Perth and Leia left us to visit Berlin. It was a busy month but great to see so many friends from home! (hint hint to anyone else at home who is thinking about coming this way.)

We hope you're all well and happy.
Hugs from us.

Summer Road Trip - Episode four - The Mad Dash Home

2006-08-07T21:08:00.000Z

In the wee hours of Tuesday 4th July we staggered into a town called Bartoszyce and found ourselves banging on the doors of what seemed to be a closed hotel. Luckily for us, a cleaner was inside and called someone down to reception. Trying to summon all my German to mind and then make it understandable was an effort (hampered somewhat by the fact that the harder I tried the more Danish came out) evenutally I made myself understood and then ducked out to the car to bring in Papa, Mum and our luggage.

When we got up to our rooms Chris and I headed straight to jump in the shower. It was a dark alcove and after several strong tugs on the cord haning in the corner we discovered that it was an alarm cord and not the light cord as we had expected. We spent the rest of the shower expecting the door to be smashed down as the calvary burst in to rescue us. We found out in the morning that Mum and Papa had pulled their alarm cord as well!

First stop when the rest of the world had woken up that morning was to find someone to fix the bent rim on our tyre. We left the wheel there with him and headed for the Wolfsschanze - Hilter's eastern wartime headquarters. It was an eerie place, huge concrete bunkers loomed between summer green foliage and it was difficult to get a good view of any of the buildings whole, party because of their size and partly because many of them had been badly damaged by explosions. It is quite a big complex and was elaborately designed and concealed. There was a failed attempt on Hitler's life here in 1944, Hitler used it as an excuse to get rid of anyone who was involved in the plot as well as anyone he didn't trust. In the end 20,000 were either killer or sent to concentration camps. The plot.

Swieta Lipka is quite possibly the most hilarious church I have every been in to. It is a beautiful Baroque stlye building that has been a place of worship and miraculous healings for centuries. "Built in 1721, its baroque organ has figures of saints and angels that can be put in motion by a special mechanism. The angel on the central tower plays a mandolin, while the cherubs turn around." In fact one of the angles, I'm certain, was head-banging. Sound slightly bizarre to you too? I don't think I was the only one trying hard not to laugh out loud!

After getting the wheel back from the mechanic in Bartoszyce we headed south towards Krakow (having decided to give Warsaw a miss this trip). We stayed near a place called Plock (except that the 'l' should have a little line through it, a bit like a 't' and sounds like a 'w'). We were chasing a little tent symbol we could see on our map but it wasn't very specific and the women in the local grocery store didn't know anything about a campground. They did smile though when Papa asked for a Polski Ogorki (cucumber). Actually we had many giggles driving around talking about 'Polski Ogorki' (does anyone else know that brand of pickles?). I'd have bought a T-shirt with Polski Ogorki on it if I could have found one.

The next day was a big driving day but we made it all the way down to Krakow where we found a really lovely campsite called Smok (Dragon) just outside the city centre. We set up camp and took it easy that night.

The following morning we caught a taxi into the city and after wandering through the huge covered market in the centre of the main square (the biggest main square in Europe measuring 200m by 200m) we walked to the North end of the city centre to see the Barbican. This is the old entrance to the city and is basically a circular gate house that visitors would have to drive through to get into Krakow. They were esentially trapped in there until they were either admitted or expelled. It was a really interesting building - lots of places to throw things from!

From there we walked back down through the centre of the city, stopping to buy some pretzels. There were several old ladies sitting along the side of the road selling what looked a bit like pastries or breads. We asked what was in them and the woman smiled and said 'cheese'. Ok - so we took one. It weighed the same as a small iron brick and when I tried to break it open I realised that it wasn't filled with cheese, it was cheese. We had just bought a half kilo of smoked polish cheese for lunch. Oops.

We carried on and made it to the South end of the city where Wawel Castle stands on a hill. It is a huge complex and beautiful although it was full of toursits while we were there. One drawback of visiting places in Summer is the tourists. Still it was lovely and Mum and Papa went down into the Dragon's Lair to find out about the history of the Wawel Smok (I think the story involved damsels being offered for sacrifice...)

We caught a taxi back to the campsite, our driver's name was Henry, although that may have been a pseudonym (do taxidrivers have pseudonyms?). He lived in Sydney for about a year and was super excited when he found out we were Australian. He kept turning around to look at us all and would drive for long stretches looking at Chris instead of the road. He also had the habit of letting go of the steering wheel to wave his hand about wildly in the air, emphasising the point of his stories.

While Chris took a nap that afternoon, Mum, Papa and I headed out of the town to visit the famous Wieliczka Salt Mine. It has been worked as a mine for 900 years, is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site and is worth a visit if you're in the area. The visit begins with a descent some 65 metres below the surface and after walking about 2km you end up at about 135 metres. In total there are about 200 km of passageways most of which are well below the depth that we visited. They stopped working the mine commercially in 1996 but still produce a small amount of salt each year from the briney water that must constantly be pumped out of the mine to stop erosion and collapse.

That evening we went back into Krakow to have some dinner and take the city in by night. We burnt a lot of our photos onto CD and I bought a few traditional nesting dolls for friends at home. The city is beautiful at night, it was warm and was lit spectacularly. We took a few photos of St Mary's Basilica and the Town Hall Tower - "Built of stone and brick at the end of the 13th century, this massive Gothic tower stands 70 meters tall and leans just 55 centimeters, a result of a strong wind in 1703." Cool.

The following morning we packed up camp and headed away from the city. We'd love to go back to Krakow at some point, unfortunately two days isn't really enough - it's just a taster.

We had decided to visit Auschwitz, perhaps the most notorious of Nazi concentration camps. It is in a town called Oswiecim, and it is from this Polish name that the Nazi's derived Auschwitz. We visited two parts of the camp - Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. Both were truely haunting places to visit. I spent most of the tour trying hard not to cry. I felt like such a fake, crying at the plight of these people who were tortured over 60 years ago and none of whom I knew. The stories we were told by our guide were heart-wrenching and horrific.

We were guided through rooms full of the shoes and suitcases of those killed there. There was a room 20 meters long full of the hair of inmates (some of it was used to create blankets and coats). I think one of the things that I found hardest about it all was the cold calculation with which it was all carried out. People are killed in wars all over the globe everytime there is conflict, but rarely is it so carefully planned and carried out. Many Jews were told they were just being relocated to different areas in Poland etc, some were even sold their train tickets for the trip. They were told there was a limit on how much they could bring so they only brought their most valuable items and money. It's horrific. It was an emotionally exhausting day.

It wasn't far from there to the Polish/Czech border, although we were reprimanded when we left because we were apparently meant to have bought a permit for driving on the motorways in Poland. Oh. The border guard made us buy one on the way out!!

Heading towards Prague, the day passed quickly and we ended up pulling into a little town just off the motorway, called Humpolec. Funny name. Nice town. There was a very noisy wedding reception going on across the road from the first hotel we tried so we went a little further up the road and found a great hotel where the kitchen made us a spectacular dinner despite being officially closed.

Saturday 8th July, with less than a week before Mum and Papa were flying from Heathrow we left Humpolec headed towards Germany and Papa's sister Ulrike. We had organised to meet her the following morning in Heidelberg but reckoned that we had enough time to stop in Prague, at least for a couple of hours. Afterall, it's a place most of us hadn't been to before and who knows when we'd be back here.

It was packed with tourists but is still a fabulous city. It was amusing how many people were walking around doing their best to look bohemian... I have to admit that I too was wearing my loose red skirt! Within a few minutes of wandering around a huge market in the city centre I found a stall selling locally made glass beads in all kinds of fabulous colours and after pooling all our cash together I bought seven 250g bags of beads in assorted colours. Already my mind was ticking over with ideas about the things I wanted to make.

We spent a lovely couple of hours walking around the old city centre. We saw the main square, Franz Kafka's house from the outside and crossed the Charles Bridge looking at all the art and crafts for sale there. Unforunately we didn't have enough time to visit the palace, something saved for next time.

That afternoon in Germany we visited the picturesque village of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It was really a flying visit but apparently this is a specatular place to spend a little longer in.

We had trouble finding a place to stay that night. It was the final game between Germany and Portugal to decide who was awarded 3rd place in the World Cup Football. We watched the final part of the game in our room and when Germany won absolute mayhem ensued outside! There had been a small group in the pub under our hotel rooms and as soon as the game was over they were our on the street playing drums and dancing. In the next twenty minutes the crowds started leaving the huge screening in a nearby town and parading up and down the street outside our room with car horns blaring and flags waving. It was amazing sight and great fun to watch!

The next morning we finshed the drive to Heidelberg and managed to find our way to Ulrike's place, her landlord had recently painted the house a vivid purple which made it really stand out in the little street. We took a little walk to a small restaurant where we tried Flammekuchen - basically a really really thin pizza. It was good. We set up camp in a campsite right on the Neckar River and then the five of us climbed up about a million steps from the town centre to the Castle. It is a fabulous structure, really evocative and with great views down the valley and over the city.

That evening we found ourselves a place in a Bar in the centre of town to watch the Final of the World Cup. France vs Italy. We were going for the French team, mostly because it was Italy's acting skills that helped to ensure Australia's eviction from the competition. Unfortunately Italy won. Oh well - it's only football!

We dropped Ulrike at home and made our way back to our campsite - only to discover that they had locked the gate on us and we had to leave the car (with all our luggage) out on the road. Ah the joys of living out of your car!

Monday the 10th July we left Heidelberg heading north. We crossed the Rhein (famous German river) on a tiny little ferry and found our way to a little village called Undenheim. This is where Papa's family lived when they left Konigsberg, East Prussia, and we were treated to various stories about his early childhood adventures. "Here was where Ulrike fell into the stream" (she swears she was pushed), "Here is where the geese attcked my brother", "Here is where we used to toboggan down the hill - aiming not to hit the building at the bottom", "Up there's where the tracktor fell on he and that's how I got this dashing scar on my face". In true Monty Python style, life was hard and cold and hungry in Germany in the middle of last century. These are stories I've been brought up on and it was really nice to see the places in 'the flesh' if you will.

Chris was in charge of navigation at this point and there was some confusion because of all the -heims. Undenheim, Udenheim, Gabsheim, Kongernheim, and so on. Eventually we made it to Hahnheim where Papa's cousin and childhood trouble-maker Volker and his wife Marianne. We spent a lovely afternoon with them, visited the family grave of my Oma's parents and sisters, went to see where their great old house used to be before the block was subdivided. That evening we shared dinner and lots of wine. There was a lots of reminiscing and laughter... although some of us understood much less of what was going on than others!

Leaving Hahnheim the next morning we followed the Rhein north past dozens of castles and some really beautiful scenery. At St Goar we stopped for a leg stretch and Chris was quick to get his kit off and get into the river. "This is the river where I learned to swim" was Papa's contribution, it was much cleaner and nicer back then though, of course!

We made our way up to the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) in a place caller Koblenz which ironically is no where near any of the corners of Germany. It is the imposing point where two great rivers combine and flow together - the Rhein and the Mosel. It is the sight of a great battle in history and is now a signficant tourist spot. It was here that I decided to try out the Bum Bum icecream we had seem advertised elsewhere. It was pretty horrible, tasted like bubble gum and had a bubble gum stick. All a bit much really. Still it made us giggle... hee hee... I ate a Bum Bum (actually we all tasted it and Papa finished it for me).

From there we followed the Mosel back up stream past some really beautiful valleys and vinyards on increadibly steep slopes. We stopped in at Trier to see the roman ruins of Porta Negra (black gate). We camped that night just near Trier and Chris and I went for a swim across the Saar River, there was a bit of a current and half way across I started to imagine monsters in the deep...

Wednesday was something of an odd day - we had breakfast in Germany, lunch in Luxembourg and dinner in France! Luxembourg was quite a dramatic city, none of us had realised how spectacular a location it was in. Part of the city centre is surrounded by a very steep sided and deep valley called The Grund. We explored a little around the city, saw the Duke's Palace and burnt some more photos to CD. The rest of the day was a driving day to get us up to Dunkirque for the ferry the next morning. Thank goodness for audio books! By this point in the trip we had already listened to two other books - White Oleander by Janet Fitch and Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett - now we were listening to The Falls by Ian Rankin. It was a good book and we toook it in turns clarifying who was who, what the heck was going on and what we thought was going to happen next.

That night we found ourselves a hotel not far from the ferry terminal. It was in an industrial area, with smoke stacks all over the landscape (some with flames shooting out the top) and a really awful smell in the air. Ironically (or perhaps hopefully) it was called Best Hotel. What a joke. It was located directly below huge powerlines that you could hear buzzing from the carpark.

On Thursday the 13th we caught the ferry at 8am and had breakfast right in the prow of the boat where we could sit and watch the White Cliffs of Dover grow on the horizon. As we pulled in to the dock we could see that the baby seagulls we'd seen in their nests on our way out were mostly still there and quite a bit bigger than they had been a few weeks earlier. It was a little odd actually, being back in the UK after all the amazing things we'd seen on the Continent. We drove up through Canterbury and checked out the old town centre - it seems lovely - and then made a final mad dash towards London and the M25 to get Mum and Papa to Heathrow in time for their afternoon flight to Canada. We got them there in time and I'm pleased to announce that there were no tears until we actually got out of the car by the terminal. Of course, when we did get out, there were tears galore and a bit of sobbing. Goodness me!

It was sad to say goodbye and it seemed to have come upon us so suddenly... but I guess that's the way it happens. What an amazing trip! So many great memories and about a million photos (you know I'm not exaggerating - much). I guess it will only be about 6 months or so before we're back in Oz for a holiday and to see everyone.

So while Mum and Papa winged their way towards Canada, Chris and I headed into London City to a hotel for a few days before we went home. The day after we got back tot he UK was our second Anniversary and we figured that London was a great place to spend it. We took it easy, went to Camden markets, the Tate Modern, to see a Chigago in the West End and to the Tower of London. It was a lovely few selfish days together before we drove back down to Devon and normal life.

Summer Road Trip - Episode Three - Returning Opa

2006-07-30T10:35:00.000Z

Tuesday (27th June) we left Holbaek early and drove south to join the ferry from Gedser, to Rostock in Germany. We all took up our jobs again, driving, giving directions and so on. As it turns out some of us were better at our jobs than others - I somehow got us onto the right road going in the wrong direction and we had to go through (and pay) a toll twice!

We finally got going in the right direction and followed the coast to an area called Usedom. The campsite we stayed in streched 5 kilometers along the coast and provided beaches for everyone (those with family, those with dogs and those wishing to bath nude). The mosquitoes were horrendous but did abate slightly once we'd lathered ourselves in repellent and the sun went down. That night we watched the football on a huge screen set up near the entrance to the park for the locals.

Over breakfast the next morning I offered around the OJ but was the only one to really have a big glassful. It had been travelling with us from home and for part of the previous week was unrefridgerated, but I had a good sniff and it seemed ok.

I was wrong. Half an hour later I started feeling a bit off and as we made our way off I started to feel quite queasy. To make a long story short, I was quite sick that day. In fact I was sick four times and succeded in startling a few people in both Germany and Poland. I saw very little of Poland, except for the few small areas of ground that I got a very good look at as I knelt there feeling like rubbish.

Not long after leaving the campsite we passed out of Germany and into Poland - a first for all of us. The border crossing was a little more involved than the previous ones, in that we had to stop and get our passports stamped. Yay! One disadvantage of the EU is that you can travel through loads of different countries and never get a stamp...ok, maybe I was the only one in the car really excited about getting border stamps, but people know I'm a collector (Chris would say 'hoarder').

We drove inland towards the city of Torun but stopped before we got there and found a roadside hotel so I could sleep. While I spent the rest of the afternoon resting my eyes and my stomach, the other three went downstairs to try and decifer the Polish dinner menu. There was, by all accounts, much laughing as the owners of the place drew pictures and brought various ingredients from the kitchen. The whole affair was watched over by the numerous stuffed and mounted deer heads on the walls.

On Thursday, stomachs all feeling fine, we made it to the Polish city of Torun. It is a really lovely city with a huge central square and is the birth place of Nicolaus Copernicus. Being summer, the resaurants lining the square all had tables set out in the fresh air. We had a bit of lunch and followed mum's instructions for a walking tour around the city, looking at various sights.

That night we stayed as close to the Polish/Russian border as we could with the aim of crossing early the next morning. The town where we stayed, Frombork, was right on the Baltic sea and we watched a huge flock of swallows dip and flow along the coast as the sun went down. Before leaving home we'd read that border crossings in Russia can take a long time and the guy on the desk confirmed this by telling us it would probably take several hours to get through to Mamonovo in the morning. Infact it took just two hours between 8am and 10am.

Now that Russia has opened it's borders, almost anyone can go for a visit or for business. Lots of Germans, in a similar situation to Papa, have made the trip 'home' in the last decade, most of them go on an organised bus tour from Germany. It's not as simple to get in if you want to drive yourself there. You need to get invited in order to be able to apply for a visa to visit Russia! How do you get invited to a coutry where you don't know anyone? You go through an agency, of course. Then you need to work out what kind of visa you need (tourist, transit, business, single entry or multiple). Someone told us we needed a visa for the car. Someone else told us we did't. Eventually we got all the right info and were able to get our invitations and then our visas, hooray! Our names in cyrillic script look quite odd.

So, inside Russia, we headed off for Kaliningrad (previously Konigsberg - where Papa was born). Alarmingly, one of the first things we saw once we crossed the border was a man get out of his parked van and shoot a dog that was lying on the ground, twice, with a rifle or shotgun. The dog was trying to push itself up as we passed by. It made us wonder if we really did want to be here.

Navigating in Russia where the signs are almost intirely in cyrillic script is tricky. We soon gave up trying to decifer and pronounce the names of towns and instead started giving directions like "We need to head towards the town that goes K-A-backwards Pi-backwards N-H-backwards N-H-upside down L-P-A-square boxy A, ok?" That spells Kalilingrad by the way. Other fabulous letters we encountered included - '3', 'six-legged spider', 'backwards R', 'little b' and the ever popular 'squashed 6'.

Apparently, before WW2 Kaliningrad was considered the jewel-in-the-crown of Eastern Europe; it was an educational and cultural centre and considered quite beautiful. Alas this is no longer the case. Now, Kaliningrad is insane! Our impression of the city was that it is busy, hot, dirty and ugly. Perhaps there is a softer side to be discovered if you scratch a little deeper, but when we arrived we had neither the time nor the inclination to do much scratching. The traffic was intense and it took all of us working together to navigate around the city and not get run into by other motorists - as it was we got bumped slightly from behind (no damage done though). After a mad dash past several important sights we decided we'd had enough and made a bee-line for the edge of the city.

This part of Russia, called Kaliningrad Oblast (and NOT East Prussia like I had been calling it) is an interesting but depressing kind of place. The area was German for hundreds of years before WW2 when it was invaded by Russian troops and all the German inhabitants were either chased out or killed. Since then, with communism first and now no communism it has fallen into a state of disrepair. There is evidence in many places that it used to be a delevoped and affluent area but now, old German homes stand crumbling and rotting, there are bomb damaged buildings and bridges in many places and a lot of horrible grey housing blocks built by the Soviets after the war. The people are mostly quite poor and there is a general sense of wariness; very few people would make eye-contact or smile at us in the street.

We based ourselves in the tourist town of Svetlogorsk and over the next three days we explored the area. Svetlogorsk is a little like any tourist town you might know from elsewhere except that the tourists were not international, they were almost all from Russia, many from Kaliningrad. Very few people spoke English, which of course they are entitled not to do, so we got by on a mixture of a few English words, a few German words and a lot of pointing.

Pointing is how we ended up with non-alcoholic beer one night. We had infact tried to learn a few Russian words and phrases before going there. We learnt, 'spa`sibo' - thank you, 'dosvi`daniya' - goodbye and 'zd`rravstvuite' - hello. At least, we figured, if we each learnt one word we'd be able to go into a shop, Mum could say 'hello', Chris could point at what we wanted, I could say 'thank you' and Papa could say 'goodbye', and we'd survive!

The impetus for this mad foray into Russia was to see if we could find the farm where my father's family bred Trakehner horses before the war. Papa had been able to find the old house using Google Earth (ah, modern technology) and was fairly sure we'd be able to find it. When we went back to the farm where Papa spent the first year and a half of his life we found that it looked very different to the photos taken in 1943. All things change over time, that's inevitable, but this house too was in the same state of disrepair as the rest of the Oblast.

Papa had scripted a few sentences in Russian to try and explain who he was and what we wanted to do. The welcome we received was less than warm but the woman we got 'speaking' to let us look around the property and even let us in to see her two rooms in the house. There were three separate people living in the one house now; the woman we talked to, a man who looked very displeased to see us didn't want to know anything about us and a second woman who arrived later carrying a big bunch of yellow flowers and laughed a lot and was very excited about us being from Australia. They were a funny mix.

Papa had brought with him a regular black film canister containing a very special cargo; some of my Opa's ashes. He died in 1997, never having returned to his homeland. It was special to know that a little bit of him made it back and is now resting as the base of one of the old trees in front of the house.

We found out later, talking to an elderly woman who used to teach German, that most people in the area do not own the homes they live in. They are allocated a house (or part of) by the state but have no rights to stay there. What happens increasingly is that weathly individuals from Moscow come and can decide to simply buy a property that they take a liking to from the state. The occupants are forced to leave. This could well explain why we were almost ignored when we initally arrived at the house.

This region is well know for it's amber and there is a large mine near Yantary. We visited a shop where they prepare the amber from raw and produce lots of different pices of jewellery and so on. We bought lots of amber and looked at even more.

The roads in Russia are atrocious! Pot holes abound and roads are poorly repaired. We managed to avoid an uncovered manhole in Svetlogorsk and dodged many small dips and rips in the roads all over. Road works are scare and when they do occur they are not signposted like they are in other places in the world. An operation that in England or Australia would close a lane, promt a dozen warning signs and the use of bright orange bollards here receives no mention what so ever as you pelt along the highway. The only indication that bits of the road might be missing somewhere ahead of you is the erratic swerving and weaving of the drivers in front of you - of course, they may just be drunk.

There is a long spit, half of it belongs to Russia and the other half to Lithuania, and it separates the Baltic from the lagoon. We decided on one of the days we were there to drive up and have a swim in the Baltic. Unfortuantely there was one nasty pothot that leapt at us on our way up the spit. It was a deep, sharp-edged one, lurking menacingly in the shadows. We hit it full on and heard a frightening thump and whop-whop sound. Pulling over at the first opportunity we discovered that, while we had not burst the front tyre, we had seriously bent the inside and outside of the rim. You could see exactly where the edge of the pothole had made contact with the metal. The impact had caused the seal to break and all the air to escape so we definitely had a flat. Out came the warning triangle and car-jack and in the few minutes following our accident four other cars pulled over to check their tyres after hitting the very same pothole. You could almost hear it chuckling at us all from back down the road.

Eventually we worked out how to get past the security bolt on the wheel and where to put the jack on our silly sport-model car and got the trye changed. We were on our way again. We visited the Dancing Forest and climbed the dunes to get a view of the Baltic and the lagoon at the same time. The beach where we chose to swim was stunning, mostly empty and quite warm on the sand. The water, however, could not be described as warm and although we all made it in at least up to our necks we didn't stay in too long. I'm sure I saw an iceberg floating past on the horizon...

On our last day in Russia we left Svetlogorsk and visited a new Trakehner horse stud. It was a very impressive set up and Papa was delighted to see the horses. Apparently the whole thing was basically kept running by a weathly man who did it as a hobby. There were hundreds of horses and they reguarly host big horse shows.

We made our way to the border dodging, as best we could, potholes that seemed to have been cut into the road with the specific aim of causing accidents.

At the border we were expecting that it might take a couple of hours to get out - like it had done to get in. We realised soon that we had made a seriously underestimation. We pulled up at the end of a kilometer long line of cars, three lanes wide. Slightly unsure but still optimistic we sat in the car, engine running. Our suspicions that all was not well were raised when we noticed that the people arriving behind us were parking their cars, getting out, locking the doors and walking away. Obviously they knew somthing we didn't. Papa and Chris went off to investigate what was happinging at the front of the line while Mum and I guarded the car.

They returned having seen a man in a tour bus show a small piece of paper to the guard further down the line and being waved through to the short lane. We left the queue and went back along the road a few kilometers to get a piece of paper for the 'schnell' line. We were getting excited as we drove past all the other waiting cars, waved our piece of paper and joined the line just ten cars long! Hooray!

The excitement didn't take long to fade as we realised that we were still in for a very very very long wait. Off to our right was the route that most people had to take, it was packed four cars across literally bumper to bumper, we counted 200 cars just in that section. Once you were in that area there was no way out. Many of the cars closer to the border had flattened cardboard boxes in the windows to shield those inside from the sun. At one point, several hours after arriving at the border Papa tried to sneak us in behind a couple of tour buses but we were turned away at the gate by a very young looking guard in an enormous hat. As the evening wore on and more and more people turned in for the night in their cars we started to get quite worried. One of the young guys in the car in front of us said in all seriousenss that we'd all be there until morning. Luckily for us at around 11pm Chris got speaking to a Polish truck driver who knew a few words of English and suggested that because we were tourists we should take our passports down to the border guards and tell them we had to go.

That's exactly what Papa did, telling them a tiny white lie (that we all had to catch a flight from Heathrow in a week) we were eventually ushered though and could begin the process of actually leaving the country. While our passports were being checked and stamped and our car export papers sorted out a Russian guard had a good grope around in the back of our car. We were loaded fairly high and he stuck his hand into every space it would go. We figure the only thing he could have been searching for, given that he didn't actually look at anything, was people. Luckily for us we hadn't tried to smuggle anyone out and were allowed to pass.

At the Polish border they were checking all the cars very very thoroughly, tapping on every surface, looking under the cars with mirrors, opening everything they could. We figured that with all the gear we had in the back we would be there until dawn. As it happened the guard opened the back and took a look at all our stuff. Pointing to the fridge, he asked "What's that?", to which Chris answered "A fridge". The guard said "OK", closed the back and let us go. I think most of Poland heard us whooping with joy as we finally made it out at around 12:30 in the morning, six hours after we'd arrived at the Russian border.

While it was an interesting and exciting place to visit I think it will be a while before we go back to Russia. And I don't think we'd drive ourselves there again.

Summer Road Trip - Episode Two - Stay right, stay right, stay RIGHT!

2006-07-23T18:20:00.000Z

... the story picks up in South East England...

Inexperience and overeagerness meant that we arrived at the ferry terminal in Dover a full two hours before our ferry was due to sail. It was quite exciting driving onto the ferry, a new experience for all of us, and after watching the famous white cliffs recede into the hazy horizon we wasted little time in checking out the whole ferry and then sitting down for some breakfast.

It was a two hour sail to Dunkerque (we had booked our ticket to there instead of Calais for a number of reasons, including price and the fact that we would be heading East as soon as we got off the boat) and it passed easily. Ferry is a lovely way to travel. Papa took responsibility for driving the first strech on foreign soil being, as he was, the most experienced among us of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.

We were a real team when we set off; Papa driving the car, Elke trying to navigate, Mum translating French Road signs and Chris being the little voice in the back saying 'Keep right, keep right'.

That first day we drove through five countries! England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, five! That's half last year's total in one day. And yes, we decided we could count all of them because we stopped for at least fuel or a pee in each of them. (I know it's a little flimsy but it's good enough for us).

That night we stayed with one of Papa's cousins (Birgit) near the Northern German city of Hannover. We arrived a little late, had a late dinner and then went to bed. The following morning we were shown around the doctor's surgery of Birgit's husband Martin. It has been installed in an old firestation. It's an amazing conversion with some really clever uses of the space.

Later that day the (Summer Solstice) we continued our mad dash northwards towards Denmark and my ex-host-family just outside Randers. During the middle of summer in Denmark the sun dosent go down until about ten thirty in the evening, I took a photo off the balcony that night of the sky at midnight still with sunset colours spashed across it. I love European summers!

We spent the next couple of days with my host family in and around Randers. We visited the high school I attended during 1997, we went to Den Gamle By (The Old Town) in Arhus which is a fabulous little park full of hundreds of years old buildings collected and moved from various sites around Denmark.

On the Thursday evening we were joined by the whole family for dinner. It was a lovely evening and we got to meet Andrea, the beautiful daughter of Martin (my old host-brother) and his partner Anette, for the first time. The evening was finished off in front of the TV watching Australia play in the World Cup. Are you seeing the football trend taking shape on this trip...?

Friday we headed as far North as you can in Denmark to a place called Skagen where two seas meet - the Baltic and the North Sea. It was a windy day and the waves were impressive, especially when they smashed into each other. Chris 'Eagle Eyes' Mooring spotted a seal floating in the waves, keeping an eye on all of us on the beach. The spit off the end of the land is constantly in motion (slowly of course), over time they have had to build several lighthouses because the coast keeps moving. A good indication of the amount the spit has moved are the concrete bunkers that were built on the north side of the spit during WW2 - they are now in the water to the south of the spit!

Every year in the summer the Danes celebrate Sankt Hans. It marks the summer solstice and involves the lighting of huge bonfires up and down the coast - this is to keep witches away - and generally a big party with music and dancing and a lot of good natured carry on. If you're ever in Denmark around the solstice I'd suggest getting involved in Sankt Hans. For this year's celebrations we went with the Andersens to their summer house in Blokhus and enjoyed the festivites on the strand there. Mum and Papa were caught on camera dancing in the light of the setting sun by the local news station!

On Saturday we bid farewell to the fabulous Andersens and drove off to the other side of Denmark (it's not a very big country) to visit Anette and Kent and their daughter Laura (who we visited in October of 2005 - for avid blog readers). Our hosts had a wedding to attend that night so we took the evening off, our first since we left home, and stayed home to relax. There may have been more soccer watching that went on that night.

On Sunday Anette and Kent took us into Copenhagen for a fantastic day exploring the city. We watched the changing of the guards at Amalienborg and took a fabulous boat trip around the city. After lunch we visited Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Palace) and took in the antique furnishings and crown jewels. It's brilliant that they not only let you into see them but allow you to take photos, just another sign of the commonsense and down-to-earthness of the Danes.

Back in Holbaek Chris took it upon himself to teach 16 month old Laura and her dad, Kent, how to play footy Aussie style. Laura was a little confused by the ball that refused to roll nicely away from her when she kicked it.

Monday was a miserable day weather-wise so we took care of a few housekeeping things, had a look around the town of Holbaek and made preparations to head south to Germany the following day. It was a great trip to Denmark and fabulous to show my parents and Chris all the places that were special to me when I lived there. Hopefully it won't be so long until we see all our friends there again.

Episope Three 'Returning Opa' to follow...

Summer Road Trip - Episode one "Arrivals and Departures"

2006-07-18T15:48:00.000Z

On the 14 June at a quarter past five in the morning Mum and Papa Dous arrived at Heathrow Airport in London. Despite having driven up the night before and staying in a hotel no more than a mile from Terminal 4, I still managed to be late picking them up. Not really a surprise for those who know me.

It was wonderful to see them after a year and a half (Christmas '04 was the last time) but because we had seen each other via webcam a few times over the year there was no shock at the way we looked to each other like there often is after a long absence.

We drove straight to Exeter that day and because of the early start we made it home, had a cup of tea and were in town before mid-day. We did a short walking tour of the city; Cathedral, Northernhay Gardens and the High Street. We had a pint of local ale in The Ship Inn (reputedly an old favorite of Sir Francis Drake) and then went home so that Mum and Papa could sit in our lounge room and pretend (between snores) that they weren't exhausted after their trip halfway aroud the world.

Over the next couple of days, while Chris finished off the week at work, the three of us explored Devon and Cornwall. We went to Branscome, where my English tan meant that I got badly burnt shoulders and neck after half an hour sitting in the beautiful sunshine, to Beer and to Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast where we looked for fossils on the beach.

On the way to Cornwall we drove through Dartmoor and took hundreds of photos of the ponies (absolutely no exaggeration there). Being spring a lot of them had foals and there is little cuter in the world than the tiny bouncy foal of a tiny pony. We climbed Bone Hill rocks and were rewarded with outstanding views. We also paid a quick visit to Dousland - just for the all important photo under the town sign.

We stayed in Port Isaac, in a slightly dodgy hotel room (with atrociously gaudy wallpaper) above a pub, and I got to sleep on the foldout couch! It was ok, and the view in the morning was brilliant. We took a walk down into the neighbouring bay before breakfast and watched rusted out tractors faithfully putting fishing boats into the water. We really thought they had been decommissioned and put in the bushes to rust slowly to nothing. Ah, life in a small fishing village.

Once in Cornwall we visited Tintagel; the ruined cliff-top castle reputed to have been King Arthur's. It looked quite different to when Chris and I visited in the beginning of the year. The whole top was covered in dozens of different kinds of wildflowers and the grass had been mown inside the ruins so you could quite clearly see where the buildings had been. The gulls swooped overhead and the sun shone, it was a really lovely day.

Back in Exeter, on Sunday, we took a bit of time to make sure we had everything, packed the car with much discussion and re-arranging. Locked the door, dropped the spare key with the neighbours and took off! First stop on our month long driving trip to various exotic places in Europe was the local city library to pick up a guide book that we had forgotten. Ridiculous. Second stop was home to pick up our pillows - we figured we might need those during the month.

Eventually we made it out of Exeter and the adventure had really begun. We headed north (those of you who are geographically minded might realise that north is pretty much the wrong direction to go for people who are aiming to get to Europe) towards Northhampton. Why? To visit friends before we left. The mother of a good friend of my sister's from university lives in a delightful little place called No Bottle Grange. We're not sure what happened to the Bottle.

We arrived a little earlier than planned in No Bottle, so pulled up the car in a nearby village, swivelled the front two seats 180 degrees (because we could) and listened to the first half of the Australia vs Brasil football/soccer game. Just to alay any fears the locals may have had about the suspiciously-loaded large white car with backwards-facing front seats, we hung our Australian flag out of the rear window, so that they would all know what we were up to. Australia weren't going well when we left and went back to visit Polly and her mother Val.

Val runs a really delightful B and B with a beautiful piece of land around it. We tried Pimms for the first time (yummy), had a BBQ in the garden that night and, after listening to the rambling colonial stories of neighbour Lance, retired for the night. The following morning Val took us on a stroll (read 'fast-paced walk') around the local area (read 'surrounding country-side'). Among other local places we walked by Althorp; the childhood home and final resting place of Princess Diana.

We left Val's after mid-day and headed south (I can hear the concerned geographers sighing with relief) towards Dover on Monday the 19th of June. We skirted around the east of London listening to the beginning of one of our audio books, and made our way to Folkestone on the south coast. After a little bit of a look around and a very late dinner we retired to our rooms, ready for the real adventure to begin it the morning with a ferry trip from Dover in England to Dunkirque in France!

Episode Two - "Stay right, stay right, stay RIGHT!!" - to follow.

Anticipation

2006-06-12T14:19:00.000Z

Much of May (and a bit more) has been spent in some way or other organising, ordering, preparing, planning, researching and generally getting ready for our longest trip yet - driving across Europe to Kaliningrad in Russia with my parents from mid June to mid July.

We finally sold our beloved Rosie, although unfortunately we had to settle for selling it to dealer, and upgraded to our VW Sharan. It's very differnt to drive and I always feel slightly guilty getting into it with dirty shoes but it is very nice to drive and should be a great vehicle for the trip.

I finished up my art classes at Winkleigh Primary and said goodbye to the kids there. I've promised to send postcards to the class from the various places we visit, we'll be going to some unusualy places and I hope they enjoy getting them.

I went on a girly weekend to London with a fellow teacher a couple of weeks ago. I was a last-minute ring-in to cover for an ear infection sufferer. After and hair-do and makeover each we had our photos taken looking absolutely gorgeous but not intirely like ourselves. The prints should be ready when we get back from our summer trip.

We've had Lian come to visit from Belgium, she's on her way to Bangkok for a conference. It's been good to catch up. We went for a walk in Dartmoor, over some of the tors, enjoyed the view and had a Cream Tea. When we parked in Widecombe in the Moor there was a pack of Dartmoor Ponies right in the village centre, just helping themselves to the grass. Several of them were accompanied by tiny foals, looking like children's rocking horses that had got tired of staying in one place.

Football (soccer) Fever has well and truely set in with the leadup to the World Cup in Germany. Cars and buildings all over the country are adorned with the white and red flag of St George. It's funny though because there seems to be quite a strong dislike for the flag (and I guess the things that it symbolises) by many of the people we know here. It will be interesting to travel through other countries that are also taking part.

I've been experimenting with some slightly different designs in my jewellery and the shop owner where I have left some pieces seems to think that they will sell well. So fingers crossed that, when we get back from our trip, everything will be gone and I can walk out of the shop with a clink and jingle in my pocket.

August is shaping up to be a busy month, we already have three visits booked in by people from home with a possible fourth still sorting out details. We think it's great! Hint hint to all those at home. The summer has been a little late starting this year, so hopefully August and September will still be wonderful and warm and sunny.

So - a brief one this time. I ran out of time before we left. The next one will be a whopper though! Make sure you have a cuppa with you when you sit down to read that one. (You decide what is in the cup).

Hope you're well.

Spring is sprung

2006-04-23T17:56:00.000Z

The birds are about, daffodils are looking glorious all over the county and the weather is beginning to warm up. We have had some brilliantly sunny days recently and we both agree that these days are good for the soul. It is so much easier to be happy when the days are long and sunny and warmer.

A few days after we got back from Switzerland we were invited to see the stage musical version of Footloose ("...footloose, everybody cut footloose..."). We drove down with friends Chrissie and Dom and two of their friends. It was a great show - lots of songs to sing along to and the dancing was great. Afterwards we went to find somthing for dinner and eneded up in a tapas bar. Chris and I had never had tapas before and had to ask for some instruction and suggestion... I guess in someways it's a little like a Spanish version of yum cha - lots of little dishes that you share with the others at your table. It was fun and delicious!

The following weekend was the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink (how's that for a name and a half?!)There seems to be a real pride associated with being from the south west and all that that entails. There was a huge selection of stalls showcasing and selling everything - chillichocolate, organic apple juice, fresh meat products, nettle cheese, faggots and all kinds of beer. There were also all kinds of samples for tasting! It was really an impressive display, the only problem was that because the festival (now in it's third year) is so popular that at times it was near impossible to move around the tents.

It was a beautiful day, the sun came out and so did the people. The number of people in the Cathedral Green is almost always a good indication of how goos the weather is. This day there were hundreds of people there - young goths, elderly locals, eager tourists - it always has a nice vibe when it's like this.

The week either side of the easter weekend were school holidays and so I tried to make the most of the days were sunny. On one such day I decided to borrow our neighbour Dayna's bike and try riding to Topsham. It's not all that far but it's not somthing either of us had done before. The sun was shining as I took off and it was quite pleasant. The suspension on the bike was different to my own at home and everytime I tried to pump the pedals I got a bit of rhythm going and developed quite a bit of bounce. I must have looked quite amusing.

I eventually made it to Topsham after a couple of wrong turns and dead ends and after avoiding a boggy path only accessible during low tide. I sat for about a half an hour in Topsham, watching the birds and the river flow past. The sun was glorious. The small flyikng insects that insisted on flying into my mouth and eyes on the cycle back were not.

We have decided to sell our car, Rosie, and upgrade to somthing similar but newer. We are planning a long driving trip in the middle of the year when my parents come to visit - our new car has aircon and a CD player and a few other nifty little things. We'll pick it up once we've sold our old Rosie. It's a bit exciting but also a bit sad - Rosie was good to us for the year. Mostly.

Leia came down for part of her school holidays and we walked by the river and generally caught up. With spring have come ducklings and we saw a delightful little family of them swimming up the canal while we walked. The cats in our neighbourhood have also been taking more notice of the birds recently, One that lives around the corner decided to stalk then by sitting amongst the daffodils. I am happy to report that said puss looks nothing like a daffodill and therefore has had no luck whatsoever in catching the birds he's been watching.

Over the easter weekend Leia was joined by two other friends from London and the three of them spent two nights in a vegetarian youth hostel in Dartmoor. I joined them on Saturday morning for a walk in the countryside - which ended up being decidedly longer than I had originally imagined. We were out walking for about 5 hours... although that did include a lunch break on the moor. We walked through some lovely landscape, but unfortunately it was not a sunny day and the haze prevented us from getting any really good landscape views or photos. We did get to meet some interesting people and see some genial cows with awesome hairdos!

The girls stayed that night in Dartmoor again and Chris and I went to dinner with some friends. It was our first BBQ since we left home - not including the little disposable thing we used in Bath about a year ago. It was great! The house was right on the river Exe in Topsham and the weather was warm enough for us to stay outside for ages. The BBQ itself wasn't an elaborate construction, a few bricks and a grill but it smelt just right, gave off heat in the right way and the marinated salmon tasted brilliant! The evening was topped off with a bit of bagpiping from Kate and two of her piping mates. Not sure what the neighbours thought but we loved it.

On Easter Sunday Leia and the others caught the bus back from Dartmoor. That night we went to a comedy club here in Exeter. It is a small place and there is generally a range of talent there. The first guy up was ok, the second guy was dreadful (bad timing, poor microphone manner and he was really crude and rude) the third guy was brilliant and really saved the day. I guess that is what you get for 5 pounds though and everyone has to start somwhere....

A few days later (Wednesday 19th April) was my birthday. Chris surprised me by hiding little presents in various places around the house and then sending me on silly pretend errands (like writing down the model number of the printer so we could order new cartridges) to find them. It was great fun, but meant i was looking suspiciously at every cupboard door and in all the corners. Several of the little presents were logic puzzles and the like which have been driving us all mad since.

That night we went to the Red Square restaurant in town. It is a Russian place complete with instructions for vodka drinking etiquette. The food was fabulous, though heavy. Deffinitely somewhere we will go back to. Dayna came with us and it was a lovely evening. Dayna gave me a beautiful silver pendant that she made last year. It looks stunning and is one of a kind!

My parents asked a few weeks ago what I would like for a birthday present. I thought about it and decided that a studdie holder would be a good idea. Summer is coming and so is the need to keep drinks cool. Also I thought they are light and cen be squashed for easy packing. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the postoffice to pick up a package that wouldn't fit through the the door, only to discover that it contained a big box with not 2 or 3 holders like I had hoped for - but 12! Assorted! Cool.

This last weekend (22nd/23rd April) we were visited by Jess and Jeff down from London. We havn't seen them since YNE in London and it was good to catch up. We went to Dartmoor for lunch and a little letterboxing, we walked around town a bit and we went out with a group of friends for pizza. That was an interesting evening - we got three other couples together who hadn't met before, but it was nice. Sunday was Jess's birthday - we sang the appropriate songs and went out for breakfast and coffee before they hit the road and headed back to London.

We're still trying to sell our car - haven't been having much luck so far... a price drop might be on the horizon. So that's about it for now. School has just started back, it's the last term of the year already... wow. We're looking to extend our lease here until the end of the year and Chris has had his contract at work extended as well. It's nice to know we're going to be in Exeter for a bit longer. We're both really looking forward to the summer and the longer warmer evening. It's getting closer!! Also my parents are coming for a visit in the middle of the year and we're planning a road trip through parts of Europe, very exciting!

Hope you're well and happy. We'd love to hear how you're doing and what's new in your life. Take care!

Feeding the birds, making jewellery and going skiing ... again!

2006-03-23T19:05:00.000Z

During the winter we bought a little birdfeeder and hung it in the back courtyard to try and attract some birds. All winter nothing came to eat at our diner so several weeks ago we changed tactics and moved the feeder into the garden that runs across in front of our row of houses. Success! There have been about four different kinds of little birds that frequent the feeder as well as robins and pigeons on the ground. It's lovely, and because the feeder is only a few metres from our kitchen window we've been able to take some nice close up shots of the little guys.

Now winter has come to and end and spring is here, or at least it is meant to be.... I think someone forgot to tell the planet. We had a few really cold days here before we went to Switzerland and even had a few centimetres of snow over a couple of days. Not enough to make angels or build a snowman, but you can bet that Chris threw a bit of it around.

I have been making jewellery - mostly for fun - over the past few months. There is a bead store not far from where we live and I have been experimenting with wire and beads to make rings and braclets. A couple of weeks ago I went into a small store here in Exeter with Dayna (our neighbour) and through a bit of careful conversation on Dayna's part we organised for me to take some of my pieces back the store a few days later to see if they can sell them.

I went back to the shop on the 16th March, just a few hours before we left for Bristol, to see what the owner of the store thought of my work and see if she thought any of it might be the kind of thing she'd be able/willing to sell. I ended up leaving it all there! A collection of necklaces, braclets, rings and hairclips. I have to give her a call back in four weeks and see if anything has sold. It's quite exciting. Could this be the beginning of a jewellery empire? Possible, but more likely it will just be a way for me to continue a hobby and perhaps recoup some of what I've spent at the bead store.

So - still grinning a few hours later, Chris and I caught the train from Exeter to Bristol on our way to Switzerland. We had planned to drive up early the next morning for our 7:30 am flight but our Rosie spat the dummy earlier in the week and we had to leave her at the garage. (A new key was the diagnosis and this had to come from France... taking up to 10 days!)

A restless night on airport benches preceeded our hour and a half long flight to Geneva in Switzerland. From there we caught a train to Aigle and from there a cog train up into the Alps to the village of Leysin. A cog train is quite neat. Picture train tracks... they're smooth right? Which means that they are no good for going up hills. So to solve the problem they put down a third track in the middle, this one has lots of cog teeth running along it which the train uses to pull itself up the slope and to slow itself on the way down. Very neat.

The chalet we stayed in was called Chalet Ermina and was in a beautiful spot. Only about a five minute walk from the bottom of the chair lift it was beside an empty plot of land which afforded us amazing views across the valley to the surrounding mountains. However - nothing ruins the first day of a holiday like a night spent sleeping in an airport. No sooner had we arrived at the chalet than we closed the curtains against the views, lay down and fell fast alseep for a few hours.

The following morning we were up early and off to get our boots and ski-lift passes. After asking the locals (who tend to know these things) where was a good place for slightly-rusty-but-slightly-better-than-beginners to start off, we headed almost all the way up the mountain behind Leysin. The views this first day were absolutely brilliant. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the air was clear, this meant we could see the mountains all around us for miles and miles. We had both rugged up well with thermals and fleeces and beanies and goggles but before long we were both quite hot.

After a few hours of getting our ski legs back we took a break and sat down at the little cafe/bar on the slopes and soaked up the sun. There were some world class slalom skiers taking part in a competition on the slope opposite the one we'd been using. Apparently some of them had been in the Winter Olympics this year. It was scary how fast they came ripping down the hill! We went back to the slopes and after a couple more hours of pracitce on our small(ish) slope we decided to pack it in for the day and ski to the bottom. After carefully considering our piste map we selected our route down and started off. Holy moly! Some of the sections we had to go down were considerably steeper or narrower (or both) than we had expected and we (mostly timid me) progressed more slowly than any truely self respecting skier would do! We both took a couple of tumbles on the way down but evetually made it all the way without serious injury.

That evening we realised that the sun had been a bit brighter up on the mountain than we knew at the time. I guess it was made even worse by our currently pasty English complexions but both of us were sun burnt! Even worse... because we had been wearing goggles almost all day we each now looked like inverted pandas. Who knew you could get sunburnt while skiing?! Well, apparently lots of people did - just not us!

We were reprimanded the next morning by our host in the chalet, she told us horror stories about really bad burns and blisters... eek. So we made sure we bought some sunscreen and applied it liberally all the second day. We went back up to the same slope near the top of the mountain but came all the way to the bottom a couple of times as well. It was a good day - we didn't fall as often and I felt more confident on the steeper sections. This was Sunday 19th and all weekend it had been quite busy on the slopes. Lots of people from all over making the most of the spring skiing over the weekend. It is increadible watching some of the kids coming down the hills. They have no fear and mostly do really well. It can be quite amusing to watch the different ways parents have of teaching their kids how to ski - hands under arms or ski pole across the chest or just leading the way. Watching a whole class full of kids following their instructor down like a kind of centipede on skis is also interesting.

That afternoon we enjoyed sitting on our balcony, sharing some cheese and crackers and watching the paragliders landing on the field right beside our chalet. How wonderful. At this point I will mention the fabulous footwear we had on. I guess partly to keep the place clean, the owner had a rule. When you come inside you take off your muddy/snowy/wet boots, but never fear, there is a whole collection of trendy slippers - and we could pick any pair at all that we wanted to use!! Wowzers! Chris' were quite a respectable black and grey while mine were pale blue and had a little blue bow on the toe. I felt like I should have been wearing hair curlers.

Our third day of skiing was almost as different from our first as it could have been - weatherwise anyway. As we headed up the chairlift it started to snow, it got heavier and heavier until at one point while we were skiing we could barely see anything. It's a very odd sensation skiing in a white-out! It was still a good day and we tried a different route back down to the village. We had thought, looking at our piste map, that the second route down we tried might avoid some of the steeper and less enjoyable sections on the first run. Instead what actually happened was that we had more. Bah! Still we made it to the bottom, smiling and uninjured.

That night we ate at the Cheese Museum in the village (where from 7pm you can watch them making cheese - and get involved if you want) and tried a couple of local dishes. We started with a small serving of Raclette each, it is a dish of boiled/baked potatoes, pickles, pickled onion and melted cheese. Then we tried a first for us both - fondue, (hugely popular all over the world in the 70s. It was a tasty dish but we were both soon very full and heavy feelin gon cheese and bread. I think I had always sort of imagined that you got somthing other than JUST bread to dunk... it was a bit of a surprise to realise that all the people we had seen eating Fondue all week really had been eating just melted cheese and bread. The waitress was a little surprised when we didn't want more bread (beyond the four large hunks we had each already eaten) to finish off the last of the cheese in the pot. At any rate, it had to be better than one of the other popular menu items we saw on several other menus in the village. It seems that "Cheval steaks" (otherwise known in English as "Horse steaks"), were quite popular. We declined to try it. We are obviously not that adventurous yet.

Our last full day in Switzerland was not a good one weather-wise, it was cloudy and grey and a little rainy. Instead of skiing we slept in a little, did a little bit of gift shopping and chocolate shopping. We thought about hiring snow shoes and going for a bit of a hike up to a lookout on a different part of the mountain but the weather was not encouraging. We caught the fully enclosed lift to the top of the mountain instead, a little higher up than we had been skiing. There is a revolving restaurant in dark building of interesting design up there and maybe because it was a quite day they let us buy our lunch in the cafeteria but eat it by the window in the revolving restaurant. It was great watching the white world glide by outside although it would have been even more spectacular had there not been so much mist and fog and cloud between us and the mountains.

That evening we packed up our room at the chalet and went for a last walk around the village. Leysin is different to a lot of other ski resorts in Europe because the village there is actually very old and existed in its own right for a long time before skiing tourists arrived, it was settled in the 6th century. It was primarily an agricultural village for several centuries. The visitors who did come did so because of health reasons. The village is high up, sunny and sheltered from the cold north winds, this position meant that it was proclaimed as a place to go to be cured of all kinds of ailments. In the 1820s many people in the valley began sending their children there to be cured of bone and other diseases. In 1890 the Climatic Society was founded and many clinics were built as a result. This is when things really started to change. The Grand Hotel was built to accommodate patients and people flocked from all over the world to be cured of bone and joint tuberculosis.

Many of the clinics were closed after WW2 and the discovery of antibiotics. This left a lot of buildings vacant and provided the opportunity for the tourism industry to develop which it did during the 1950s. Since then it has become a popular skiing location, but has not grown into a huge resort. The locals here were friendly and and there were lots of school groups that came after the weekend. It seemed odd to us to have skiing as a school subject, but we decided that it made as much sense here as swimming lessons at home. No wonder the kids are fabulous skiiers by the time they're 10!

We had a brilliant time in Leysin and would really like to come back here (or somewhere similar) during the summer months. It must look so very different and beautiful in a completely different way.

Our trip home was a fairly uneventful one, and we made it back to Exeter at a very reasonable time. We were able to pick up our car from the garage on Thursdsay afternoon, with a new key that locks and unlocks the immobilisers beautifully. Unfortunately when we got home we discovered that the old key - which was meant to be dead - actually works again. Hmmmph.

Letterboxing and the like

2006-02-23T13:29:00.000Z

Ok, so I said I'd tell you about letterboxing. To allay any fears - it does not involve a baseball bat.

We've posted some photos recently of some of our trips out into Dartmoor. You may have noticed that there are a lot of large rocks in Dartmoor. In fact we posted a photo of Chris standing on some large rocks in Dartmoor. Well, our neighbours Dayna and Ben told us a little while ago about 'letterboxing'. Apparently there are hundreds (thousands?) of letter boxes all over Dartmoor, mostly hidden amongst the rocks. Initially they were actually used for comminication. People would drop a letter addressed to so-and-so in such-and-such a village in one of the letter boxes. When someone else came along - perhaps on their way somewhere - they might pick up that letter and either take it to the village or at least to another letter box which was a bit closer. A bit like a really slow and unreliable postal service operated by volunteers.

These days it's just a bit of fun. All over Dartmoor there are now tupperwear containers and metal boxes and the like which contain a little information about the owner of the box, a rubber stamp and a little comments book. Now, 'letterboxing' is a hobby that people have. While you're out in Dartmoor you take a along your own little book and collect stamps from all the boxes you find. It's kind of fun. Kind of obbsessive, true, but kind of fun. It becomes very easy to just keep walking and wandering and looking in little crannies.

So a couple of weekends ago (12th February) I went out to Dartmoor with Dayna, Ben and couple of their friends (Claire and Mike) who were visiting for the weekend. Unfortunately Chris stayed home to do some work. So while Ben and Mike went bouldering (climbing on rocks) Claire and I were taken on our first ever letterboxing trip by our keen guide Dayna. I am proud to report that I spotted the first few boxes! The first one was especially hard to spot - a thin black metal box in a narrow space between two large rocks. Eagle Eyes Elke - that's me!! Amazingly we found 6 letter boxes in total, some less well hidden than others. Dayna was able to add significantly to her stamp collection and we all went home feeling quite contented.

The following day - Monday the 13th was the day we were booked on a flight from Heathrow, at noon, going home. We didn't get on the plane (obviously). That night we went out for dinner to celebrate/commisorate and think about the year we've had since we left. By and large it has been great.
When we got home from dinner we took our unused tickets out into the back yard, looked sadly at them and then put the lighter to them. We thought there would be something quite symbolic about burning tickets like that - certainly more dramatic than just tossing them in the bin. Despite trying several times, we have discovered that airline tickets (or at least these ones) are practically fire retardant. We eventually came back inside ceremonially unsatisfied with some slightly singed expired airplane tickets.

The other reason Monday was exciting was that the Animated Exeter festival began, marking the beginning of a really busy two weeks for me. The first week of the festival 13th - 17th was Schools' Week. I was helping out with groups from various schools (primary and secondary), we took them to a few exhibitions around town and then to a workshop where they got to have a go at making animations themselves. Most of them had a great time and really enjoyed themselves. I had a great time too - interacting with lots of different kids and watching them get a kick out of the magic that is animation.

After the schools' week I helped in some other workshops that were open to the wider public, these were also great and all the bits and pieces were edited together to be shown on a loop at the end of the festival. There have also been screenings of various animated films from the south west of England and from around the world. Most of the films have been brilliant but, inevitably, not all - I enthusiastically encouraged Dayna to come along to some very early Russian animations, one was a bit fun and interesting to watch, the other was a bit painful... but at least now we know that we don't want to see it again. (small plus but still plus!)

I've met some great people involved in the industry over the last few weeks, including one new friend - Julia Roberts. She's living in Denmark at the moment and furthering her animation skills in Viborg. She's also said to Chris and I that if we're in Denmark in the next little while we're welcome to visit. There's also a chance that she and her partner may be moving to Malta in the Mediteranean in the next couple of months, so if we fancy a summer holiday in the sun we have a place to stay there too. Great huh? Ok, enough messing around with you. Her name is Julia Roberts but she's probably not the one you're thinking of, (that's if you're thinking of the internationally famous actress from such movies as Pretty Woman and The Pelican Brief)

The festival finished with a brilliant screening of that clasasic animated film The Snowman (adapted for the picture book) in the Exeter Cathedral. It was accompanied by the Devon Youth Orchestra and Exeter Cathedral Choir and was a really stunning finale. We had a little party to celebrate the end of the festival afterwards and all went home tired...

So - school starts back this week after a week off. Half way through the school year already!! Six weeks until the next holiday - but we're going to go on a little trip before then. We have just booked a little trip to Switzerland for a few nights in mid March. It is the second ski trip of the season that Chris has been day-dreaming about. We've booked into a chalet with mountain views - very exciting!! Hopefully I won't fall over or be run into this time! Ha!

The feeble sun of February

2006-02-11T16:31:00.000Z

Yes it has been cold and a little miserable here in the last little while. We've had loads of overcast and hazy days - it makes you feel very closed in.
Friday 4th Feb was a freezing day, literally. I was working at a primary school about half an hour east of Exeter on Friday and just over half way there I suddenly saw a whole ridge of white trees. Once the day was finished I drove home to put on some warmer clothes and grab the camera. As it turned out there was a whole area on the top of the hill where the wind was blowing and freezing particles onto all the branches, bushes and blades of grass. It was really a beautiful sight and quite unique. Unfortunately the following day was just a few degrees warmer and the white was gone when I took Chris back to show him.

Despite the pevailing cold gloomy weather last Sunday was beautiful. It was still hazy but the clouds cleared a bit and there were proper shadows on the ground! It was quite exciting.

We went back to Dartmoor last weekend (on the sunny Sunday) with one of Chris' work colleagues, Hugh, from Ireland. There is a pub there that we'd spotted on previous visits that we were keen to try. It is called the Warren House Inn and is special because it stands alone on the side of the road. There is no village there and the location is quite isolated. It's been snowed in quite badly in the past, but on Sunday, with the sun shining, it was lovely.

There are several tables on the opposite side of the road from the Inn itself and this is where the three of us sat to enjoy our lunch. The view of the moor was great and so was the food... if only it had been about 10 degrees warmer! By the time we were all finished eating we were more than a little chilly and so a walk across the moor was in order. We could see from our table various stone walls on the distant hillsides and so we aimed for these.

Now I could tell you all at this point that we wandered off into the wilderness and had to fight our way through bogs and quicksand and wrestle with angry ponies and disgruntled sheep. That we got horribly lost and had to spend the next three days and nights surviving on nothing more than the dew we collected from the bracken and slowly eating our own boot laces. But that is simply not true.

In fact it was a delightful walk along a mostly well marked path, down to a crystal clear stream with nearby moss-covered ruins and then up a hill (at this point Chris and I were both glad we've been going to the gym more regularly recently) to some very interestingly shaped rocks at the top. Being as polite as possible - they look a lot like some VERY large, well fed cows had walked by at some point in the past and lightened their load a little, or a lot.

We are planning to do more walks in Dartmoor during the summer, there are absolutely loads of them. Hopefully the haze will be gone then and the weather will be a little warmer!

Starting this week (Monday 13th Feb) is the 7th annual Animated Exeter festival. It runs for two weeks and will showcase a lot of local and international animated films. There are also lots of exhibitions and workshops and the like going on. Pretty exciting stuff really. Well I have volunteered for most of the two weeks and will be helping with various aspects of the festival as well as getting to see a lot of the screenings... Yay! Tell you more about it once it's over.

This last week has also been a slightly emotional one for us... It is coming up to a year since we left home. When we left, Chris was granted a year's leave without pay and a job back at Motorola Perth when he/we went home. But becasue we are going to stay for the remainder of our Working Holiday Maker Visa (valid in total for two years) he has had to formally resign from Motorola. It was a slighly sad/strange experience for him I think. Chris enjoyed working there and still has various people that he counts as friends working there. I guess it will be ok for him to still be friends with them even if he doesn't work there any more though - right guys?

Technically Chris and I are still booked on a flight leaving Heathrow for Perth on Monday (13th Feb). It is the final leg of the Around-the-World tickets that we bought to come over here with. All week we've been 'teasing' each other with the idea of just getting on the flight and going home for a week or so. But the timing is no good and then of course we'd had to buy tickets to get back again! Still it has been kind of fun toying with the fantasy. Oh - does it sound like we're homsick? I guess we are a little - especially at the moment... one whole year and all that. It's the longest that either of us has ever been away from home. It's funny to think that 12 months ago we went staying with Chris' mum Fay, our belongings strewn all across her living room floor as we did our final packing and her garage full of our boxes of stuff. We are still having a ball here though and have big plans for things we want to do this year, it's just anniversary time, that's all. I think we might have a little 'ticket burning' ceremony in the back yard on Monday night to mark the occasion.

Other news.... Today we visited a new little art gallery in town - The Rougemont Gallery - it has an interesting collection of works for sale including several paintings by Sarah Jane Szikora. They feature a lot of large women and very thin men, almost all of whom have tiny heads. There are also a lot of gingerbread men in her work. She has a great sense of humour in her paintings and so we thought we'd put a link in here incase you felt the desire to have a peep.

Oh - we were wondering also if anyone had any luck downloading the videos we posted of our skiing trip? If they were ok and you didn't have too many problems it might be something try to do again in the future, but if it was too hard or the quality was just too rubbish we mightn't bother.
Let us know what you think if you get the chance. Thanks guys.

Australia Day!!

2006-01-28T14:08:00.000Z

In the lead up to Australia Day we had both started to feel quite patriotic...
We stayed up late on Wednesday night baking lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits, we logged into Triple J via the internet to listen to the start on the Hottest 100. Chris went over to the local corner shop and bought a few can of Fosters. Neither of us drink Fosters usually but what the hey! Just for fun we sent the photo to Triple J and have just discovered that we are on the Hottest 100 Parties list. Ha! Just the two of us standing infront of our brand new Aussie flag, each with an un-opened can of Fosters in hand. Here's the link if you want to see it - we are number 54 of 59 but you can look at them backwards.

We both had to go to work on Australia Day - but we each went armed with plates of goodies. I took a big plate of each lamingtons and ANZAC biccies to share with the kids and staff at my school and Chris took some to work too. Actually I took as much Australiana as I could find, a flag, our little Koala Bill, an Aussie cook book (thanks John) and a little bottle of Eucalyptus oil that I passed around the class for anyone to put a little on if they wanted... We all had very clear heads for the rest of the day!
I must have mentioned at school that Australia Day was coming up because one of my lovely Yr 6s brought me in a lamington that she and her mum had made for me. How sweet. It only had the chocolate and coconut on the top but it really a lovely gesture...

I shared the treats around the class at morning break time and had many of the kids ask for the receipes. Several staff memebers took some bits home to share with their family... (the following day one of the teachers told me she had taken home a lamington to give to her boyfriend and had told him it was a 'Lamingtons Bar'. "Lamington Spa?" he said, "I've been there!"). Lamington Spa is actually a place here in England.

That night we had a traditional Australian dinner (Chinese noodles with teriyaki beef) and then got wrapped up nice and warm and went to the local Australian Bar - the Walkabout. Nice for us because it is almost across the road from where we live.
We didn't hear too many Aussie accents that night but loads of people were wearing Fosters hats, carrying inflatable Fosters surfboards and other paraphernalia. If you bought two pints of the stuff you got a freebie. It seemed like a cruel irony that we left with two beach towels when it was forcast minus two that night.

Apparently the Scottish celebrate Burns' Night on the 25th January. What is Burns' Night? Well that's what we asked too - he was Scotlands favorite poet who died at the age of 36 in the 1700s. He had an increadibly prolific career and wrote many now famous poems and songs including the line about mice and men having well laid plans and that song we all sing (or try to) every NYE - Old Lang's Eye - you know the one.

Well our local Scottish friend Kate invited us over for dinner on Sunday to help celebate Burns by eating haggis and listening to her recite incomprehensibe Scottish poetry. I decided not to tell Chris what was on the menu, knowing full well that he would think of a solid reason not to attend if he knew it was haggis. As luck would have it he bumped into Kate in the street on Saturday and she let slip. Opps. He was only a little amused when I told him that I had know what was in store for us... I tried to explain that I was helping to broaden his horizons with new experiences, but that didn't cut much sway.

So Sunday evening we went along to Kate's house and found he in the kitchen boiling enough haggis and 'nips and tatties' (parsnips and potato) to feed a small army. They looked very odd in the pots, like large super stuffed sausages, but very dark.

There is a whole protocol for serving haggis on Burns' Night - the haggis is accompanied in by a bagpiper and all night people talk about what a great man he was and the wonderful insights that he had into humanity and society. Truth is he did write some fabulous stuff and I'm a little embarressed that I don't know more of it. We had a mini version of all that - Kate recited the appropriate poem and brandished a large knife around the kitchen a bit before stabbing the unsuspecting haggis and pulling it apart!
And as it turns out we both like haggis - perhaps not every day - but on special occasions like Burns' Night. So thanks to Kate for enriching our lives with a little (but important) bit of Scottish culture.

One last thing before I finish, a few months ago Chris picked up a book in the local postoffice that was wearing a post-it note saying "I'm free, look inside my cover". As it turns out this book was our introduction to the world of book crossings.

Not sure if you've heard of this before but there is a website where you can log on and register a book to then release intot he 'wild'. The idea is that each book registered is issued with a unique number and then you can log on and see where the book has been. You can pass a book to a friend or drop it in a public place to be found by a stranger. Some books travel all over the world and are read by many people. Others are dropped and never heard from again. Well, anyway, Chris and I logged on and registered our first four books this weekend! All ones that we had read and no longer wanted to keep. We dropped one of them right outside our flat and it didn't take more than two minutes for someone to walk past and pick it up! It was really quite exciting, silly, but exciting.

So close and yet so far - Cornwall

2006-01-24T17:02:00.000Z

We've been in England for most of a year, and in Exeter for more than six months but until last weekend we'd never made it to Cornwall - the neighbouring county to the west.

Last Saturday we packed an overnight bag and went west. We took the scenic route southwest through Dartmoor to have another look at the countryside and try to do a little pony spotting.

There are areas in the park where the ponies and sheep are allowed to 'run free' across the hills and dales... and roads. Some of the sheep do not have a great deal of road sense - we saw several attempt to cross the road just as a car was incoming. Luckily for motorists there are not many trees in the area and so it is fairly easy to see said sheep.

We also found some ponies standing quite close to the road so we pulled over and I slipped quietly out of the car to try and get a few shots before they got scared and ran away. We needn't have worried! Not only did they not run away but one of them proved to have a bit of a taste for car and after shoving it's head in through the window of another stopped car it began licking the dirt of the back of our Rosie! In the end it was us who ran away, scared that the little guy might want more than just a lick.

Our neighbour, Ben, told us about a beautiful spot on the north Cornwall coast called Tintagel (tin-taj-el) so it was there that we aimed for. Unfortunatly many of the roads that we were traveling on were quite small and we ended up inevitably making a few wrong turns and seeing more of the countryside on the way there than we had intended.

Reading through our English Heritage handbook on the way there we discovered that Tintagel and the castle there is alledgedly the birthplace of King Arthur and the location of the infamous round table. The short video presentation that we saw on arrival explained that this may or may not be true (it depends partly on if you believe in 'ole Arthur) but the local businesses are certainly milking it for all it's worth!

We paid for parking in King Arthur's Parking Lot (I bet he didn't even know he had one!!) and walked down the hill past Merlin's Gift Shop (we peeked in through the window but it must have been Merlin's day off...) towards the castle, or more precisely, what is left of it.

It is an amazing place to build a castle! On a rocky 'island' just off the mainland there are the ruins of many buildings including the main castle yard. It is quite a dramatic location, but unfortunately it was a bit too hazy to get any really specatular shots of the coastline. The ruins are gradually getting fewer as the coast erodes and bits of it fall into the sea below.

We weren't sure where to stay that night but we had heard of local town Boscastle so 'twas there we headed. We went for a little wander around the village when we arrived and noticed that there seemed to be a lot of construction going on. Then we realised why the name was familiar... the whole village was severly flooded in August of 2004. It is located in a narrow valley and when they received more than the average rainfall in a very short space of time the results were devastating.

Our SouthWest England book said nice things about a little place called Port Issac so we headed there next. Somehow we got completely turned around on leaving Boscastle and took off in a northerly direction instead of going south, which is where Port Issac is. Thank goodness for our dash-mounted compass.

Port Issac - a delightful little place where the village centre streets are scarily narrow and the main car park opening times depend on the tide. Yes TIDE, not TIME. After a few scary little turns and avoiding the waves in the carpark, we found a lovely little Bed and Breakfast right in the heart of the village. We had a nice dinner in a 'fancy' restaurant and then spent a couple of hours reading in bed. Fabulous!

The next morning we explored the village a little further and were delighted by the twists and turns and narrow passageways. It is a centuries old village. Over breakfast we discovered that the village has received a boost in tourism recently because a local television series has been filmed here. They weren't there this day though and in fact it was very quiet.

On our way home we decided to check out another moor and drove through the town of Bodmin and Bodmin Moor. Neither was all that exciting, but to be fair we didn't really get a good look at the Moor.

So now we've had our first taste of Cornwall we're keen to get back and see some more.

Christmas skiing in Scandinavia

2006-01-11T21:06:00.000Z

Note:Hi All! There are a couple of changes in this entry. One is that the links to the photo's now take you to a specific set of our photos for the blog. Click on the photos to see a larger size, add comments etc. Once at the larger size, you can click on "All Sizes" above the photo to view the original size. The other thing is that we have added a couple of links to some small videos we took of us skiing and of New Years Eve in London. Enjoy!

Apparently "SKI" is actually a Norwegian word.

The planning for our Christams trip to Norway began a long time ago and it took a lot of effort to organise the flights, acommodation, transportation, gear hire, skipass and so on.

Luckily for us someone else did all the organising! Thanks a million, Sharon! In fact, Sharon organised the whole thing for eight of us; Sharon, Mark, Ben and Kelly (all friends from Uni in Perth who are living in London at the moment), Hara and Janine (workmates of Mark and Sharon) and Chris and I.

Thursday the 22nd December, Chris and I caught the train from Exeter to London and were met by Ben and Kelly. We stayed at their place that night though none of us slept. The plane was an early one leaving from Stansted at 6:30 on Friday morning. That meant we had to be at the airport at 4:30 and that meant catching a taxi at 3:00. Oh my goodness!

We flew into Oslo Torp (which is actually quite a way from Oslo) and from there caught two buses to get to Oslo Gardemoen. There we were met by the tour operator Norwegian Wood and embarked on the final leg of our journey - a 2 hour bus ride - to get to our hotel in Oyer. It is a tiny place about half an hour north of Lillehammer but the hotel was only about a 600m walk to the base of the moutain.

Despite his intense enthusiasim, the travel time meant that Chris was unable to get 'out on the slopes' on the day that we arrived. He'd have to wait until the following day. We all settled into our rooms and then met in the dining room at the set time for dinner.

Our acommodation was half board which meant that breakfast and dinner were included each day. The hotel was run by a husband and wife team and their faithful entourage of helpers. The manager/owner insited on shaking everyone's hand as they entered the dining room and welcoming us each individually. Then, before dinner was served, all the guests were officially introduced to each of the members of staff, including the manager's "beautiful wife". We noticed over the course of the week that he almost always refered to her as "my beautiful wife".

The next morning (Christmas Eve) we all got up early and went to the base of the mountain to get kitted out. Because Chris and I have done a little bit of skiing before we didn't worry about taking lessons this time but the others each had five lessons booked and they had to meet their classes.

Chris and I headed straight to the smallest green slope on the hill which was just a short button lift ride up the hill. Unfortunately neither of us had ridden a button lift before and didn't realise that we were meant to sit on it. Both of us were worn out from desperately holding on to it with our hands by the time we got to the top and I was thinking there was no way I'd be able to do a whole day of this, let alone a week! On our second run though we worked out (by watching the little kids) how to use it and it turns out to be quite a fun way to get up the hill. It is essentially a rubber disk on a pole that you slip between your legs, you don't sit down but just let it pull you up the hill.

It felt odd to be on skis again and we were both a bit surprised by how uncoordinated we were. We gave the 'baby run' a few goes and then went to the top of the mountain with one of the guys from the tour company. The view from the top was brilliant, I was only going to be up there once though. After a pretty good run down I lost my balance near the bottom and caught myself badly on my right knee. I skied for the rest of the day but by that evening my knee had swollen up quite badly - it looked a little like I had an extra three kneecaps under the skin - and it was quite stiff. Me and skiing, huh?!

In Norway the locals celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We were given tradional Norwegian food for dinner and the owner told us that most home in Norway would be enjoying the same foods that evening. After dinner the beautiful wife read us a chapter from the bible in English and Norwegian. Then one of the waitresses read us the same chapter in Russian. Cool.

But the fun wasn't over. We were invited to follow the owner and staff into the other room for more tradition. Everyone was invited, kajoled or forced into holding hands and dancing around the Christmas Tree while singing Christmas carols. It was quite delightful but obviously not to everyone's taste. Once everyone was released from this activity (unusual for the English) I heard one woman from Birmingham say to her companion, "Now you know why English families keep their Christmas Tree in the corner of the room!" I'm sure I saw her smiling and laughing while she danced though!

Santa made a visit then, and he was the ugliest Santa any of us had ever seen. He had been borrowed from Paradox (the three piece band that had been playing during the dancing). He was wearing a super cheap Santa suit straight from the packet - you could still see the neat fold marks, and for some reason he was wearing a really scary looking mask. We swapped our own presents in the 'den' a little later and enjoyed the evening together with the rest of our group.

I took the next two days off to rest my knee and took the opportunity to take a few photos of the others on the slopes. They were getting a lot better and there was a lot less time spent on bottoms. Chris went up to the top of the mountain several times and tried a few different runs. Because we were so far north (on a par with Alaska) the sun only managed to get over the horizon for a few hours each day. The ski lifts opened at 9:30 each morning but the sun didn't look in on us until closer to eleven and left again at around three in the afternoon. It was very strange right in the middle of the day to have long shadows all across the snow. It also made telling which way was north a bit tricky.

The weather got colder and we had one day of minus 17 degrees celcius. It's a very odd sensation when your nose hairs freeze and crinkle every time you breath. Your breath collects on your eyelashes and freezes them together, your water bottle is almost solid when you get down from the slope and you have to bash it on the table to get a little drink. And it hurts. You don't notice when you're skiing because you're too busy concentrating but, when you ride the lift and just sit still, any exposed skin burns. Very strange. It's hard to imagine how people lived in this environment before all the modern comforts (like heating) that we have now.

It was amusing over the next few days to watch people coming and going from the dining room in the hotel. As the week progressed various people developed different limps and hobbles - members of our group were among them! Often in the evenings we would sit around talking or playing games and pass around the icepack from knee, to knee, to bottom. Luckily there was an abundance of ice and snow available for icing sore bits.

I was able to get back out on my skis a couple of days after Christmas and managed not to do myself any more damage. It was fabulous. We also took an afternoon off to catch the bus into Lillehammer. If you're interested in buying a reindeer skin for 500 Kroner (about 50 Pounds or 125 Australian dollars) we can tell you where to go. We settled for a key ring with an image of a Moose on it.

The last day and a half of our trip it snowed! Lots and lots of that lovely, big, clumpy, soft, slow-falling, white stuff. It was brilliant. Although a little distracting when it hits you in the face on your way down the hill! But, we loved it!! We made snow angels (some of us more delicately than others), had snowball fights, caught flakes in our mouths and generally behaved like delighted children. Snow really is magical. We've made a short video of our exploits in the snow and the link for it is here. It might take a few minutes for it to download to your computer.

Norway is not far from Denmark and there are a lot of similarities between the two languages. Most Norwegians and Danes can understand each other when each speaks his/her own language. I tried my best to do this and translate various things for the others in the group, unfortunately a lot of it came out sounding like I was just making things up! Also I had some problems with money. Three times I tried to give people behind the counter completely the wrong amount. Chris laughed and said that my bargaining skills are not very good - the woman in the bar didn't look espescially impressed when I tried to give her 109 Kroner instead of the required 190! Oops.

Our final day was the 30th December and after one final walk in the snow that morning we were all loaded back onto the bus to do, in reverse, the long trip we had made on the way there. At least in our favour this time was the decent departure time. We left the hotel at 2pm and had some great connections to get back to Oslo Torp. Here it fell apart a little. Because of the snow, our plane was late arriving, which meant that it was late leaving.

Ours was not the only disrupted flight arriving at Stansted that night, which meant that the baggage collection hall was full with passengers from about 17 flights, all waiting, waiting, waiting. Apparently not everyone was coping too well with the disruption, at one point a somewhat drunk man stumbled through passport control and began bellowing for Duncan and Dorian (whoever they are), he repeated it so many time that it turned into a song, "Duuuncaan! Doriiiaaan! Wheerree aaarre yooooou?". Even from the other side of the hall, where we moved to for a bit more space, we could hear him calling out, "Duuuncaaan! Doriiiaaan! I loooove yoooou!".

After the eventual arrival of our bags and the rigamoral of meeting up with the taxi driver we had organised before we left (the poor guy had been waiting for us for an hour and a half), we finally made it back to Ben and Kelly's place at about 3am. Blah. We could almost have travelled back to Australia in that time!

The last day of the year was a relaxed one. We slept in, enjoyed an amazing breakfast courtesy of Ben, caught the bus to Greenwich where we looked at the markets and had a coffee. That evening we caught up with Sharon and Mark again, and our friends Jess and Jeff and a friend of theirs, Beth. We had dinner in Soho and then fought our way down to the river's edge, via Trafalgar Square. There were so many people out - it was amazing. And a little overwhelming. Spirits were high though and people were generally well behaved and considerate. The fireworks were fabulous and Big Ben tolled through the first few minutes of it. Afterwards the crush was huge. They had closed the closest tube stations so we had to walk a bit further, to a station on the other side of the river. At one point, when the crowd got really thick, I just shuffled along behind Chris, head down, holding onto his hand. Still, people were being pretty good about the whole situation. Here is a link to a short movie of NYE 2005. Again, it might take a few minutes to download.

January 1st, we said good bye to Ben and Kelly and caught the train back to Exeter.
Chris is already planning our next skiing trip. He wants to go again in February!

and Amsterdam makes nine....

2006-01-05T11:58:00.000Z

OK, an admission, this trip was made so that after our trip to Norway at Christmas we would be able to say that we had been to 10 different countries this year. How selfish is that?! But anyway.

With christmas coming (and the enforced time off that comes with it) Chris didn't want to take any more time off than neccessary. We were lucky enough to find flights leaving from Bristol (only about an hour's drive north of here) at a reasonable 5pm. We arrived in Amsterdam and made our way via train and foot to our delightful little hotel in the southern canal belt, The Seven Bridges. Our lonely planet guide said it was one of the best hotels in Amsterdam and we felf lucky to get a room there as we'd only called that morning.

We checked in and were given directions to our room: along the hall, down the stairs, around the corner and it's the first door on the right. The door was ajar.

We have seen some interesting rooms in our travels, but never one that was covered, on three walls, from waist height up, with mirrors. Was the idea to make the room feel bigger (like they do in small elevators and airplane toilets)? Who knows. It was a bit strange. At least they had stopped before coating the ceiling too and we were able to sleep without looking at our reflections.

The hotel was located not far from Rembrantsplein so that was where we wandered to for a bit of late dinner and a little look around. It was a cold night and we didn't stay out very long. Amsterdam has an interesting way of addressing the issue of people (men) peeing in the streets after a night out; they have a series of porta-urinals. They are large moulded-plastic thingys that up to four guys at a time can step up to. Chris was kind enough to model the use of this invention. Back at the hotel, neither of us had a particularly good sleep that night in the room with all the mirrors.

The following morning (Saturday) breakfast was delivered to our room and we ate and showered before heading out into the city. It was a cold day and we were pelted with tiny hailstones before we got more than a couple of blocks.

The previous night we had walked past Dam Square, the sight where the River Amstel was originally dammed several hundred years ago, and we headed back there to have a look at the Christmas Markets set up there. All kinds of goods were for sale but I have to say that I as a little disappionted by them. There wasn't the array or quality of things that I was expecting. There was gluhwein though - mulled wine - and an iceskating rink. We spent several minutes watching people of all ages struggle to stay on their feet.

For the rest of the day we enjoyed wandering around the canals, just enjoying being in Amsteram. We stopped for a hot choc and a coffee and considered the map - what to do tomorrow? Once our plans were laid we headed back to the southern canal belt in search of an Indonesian restaurant that our Lonely Planet guide recommended - it was good!

Sunday, as we were not flying out until later inthe afternoon we left our bags at the hotel and went off to see a few more sights. First stop was the Rijksmuseum - the museum which houses a great many Dutch historical items. Unfortuntely most of the museum is closed until sometime next year for renovation (we don't seem to have much luck with museums sometimes) but they did have one small wing open displaying some of the finer pieces inthe museum's collection. It was actually kind of nice, we didn't have to stay too long or walk to far to see all kinds of fabulous stuff.

From th Rijksmuseum we walked up through the city towards the main train station and got on a boat for a tour of the canals. It lasted for about an hour and was a really nice way to see the city. Just for us the sun came out and we enjoyed it's imagined warmth. We saw a multi-story bike park; there are bikes all over this city (they pull a huge number of bikes out of the canals in Amsterdam every year) they even have some for peddaling onthe canals. We saw some of the narrowest buildings in the city - one of them was only about 1.5 metres wide! It's hard to imagine what it looks like inside. We saw various church spires and important buildings - including one called Nemo (it isn't orange with white stripes).

Want a quick bite for lunch? - just duck into a Febo. Here you can select your hamburger or sausage from behind a little window, once you have made your selection you put your money in the slot and open your little window. Weird. We decided to go for the more traditional hot chips with tomato sauce and (ooh exciting) mayonaise. it filled a hole.

Amsterdam is the city where Anne Frank and her family hid during World War 2. Neither Chris nor I have read Anne Frank's diary but it was a moving experience never-the-less. The musuem is in the building alongside the house where the Frank family and four others hid, but from there you are guided through the various rooms of the house and the secret annex. One of the most amazing things about this story is that the entire time they were in hiding, there was a business still in operation in the main part of the house. This meant that during business hours they had to be absolutley quiet. Tip-toeing and whispering only. No going to the toilet. No sneezing. Incredible. We both left knowing a little more about it all and feeling a lot more about it.

One of the major tourist attractions in Amsteredam is, of course, the red light district. We went for a brief walk around the area (don't tell Chris' mum!) and it was an interesting experience. The women inthe windows are so obviously on sale that it can make you feel quite uncomfortable if you're not expecting it. Neither of us was sure if we should look at the women and smile and say 'hi', or just avoid making eye-contact. Would they prefere it if we acknowledge them or ignore them? Probably they don't mind too much either way. We had been warned not to take photos of them though - so no-one poses in front of them like they do with the guards in London! Can you imagine?

Once we had finished in the redlight district we wandered back down to the hotel to collect our luggage and make the trek back up through the city to the train to the airport to fly home to Bristol in the UK to drive home to Exeter and into bed by a reasonable time. It always seems so odd to be in a completly different country by dinner time.

Amsterdam was great - we'd really like to go back in the summer time and see the country side, with the windmills and the tulips and the young people wearing clogs and singing "Tiptoe through the tulips". Maybe next year.

A few quiet weeks at home

2005-12-21T17:40:00.000Z

The following month passed a little more quietly. We stayed home in England and enjoyed some of the events (organised and natural) happening in the local area.

On the weekend of the 13th and 14th of November we caught the train up to London to
meet up with Lian and Laurent (remember back a few months... they are the one's who dumped us in the forest in Belgium). Lian had just got back from a short time in India as part of the final stages of her studies.

Lian was happy to be outside in fresh air and so we walked around the city visiting various famous sights. As we were walking along the river we were stopped by a family of German tourists and asked where was the best place to watch the fireworks from. Smiling sadly we all assured them that they were a week late: Guy Fawkes night had been the previous weekend.

Satisfied, we carried on along the river away from Parliament buildings. As we wandered, taking in views of the London Eye and the various musuems. As we got closer to the next bridge we were suddenly engulfed in a mass of people. We stopped to ask what was going on and were told that the Mayor's Show had been on that day and there was about to be a fireworks display. Oops. Hopefully the Germans had asked someone who knew what they were talking about and made it to a good viewpoint!

A few days later, back in Exeter, as part of the Winter Festival, the city was hosting the Festival of Lights in the Cathedral grounds. There was a procession of hundreds of school children carrying bamboo and paper lanterns and a huge dragon type thing that led the way. There was a large stage set up where various 'rocking' choirs did their thing. The host of the evening was a presenter was from local radio station, Gemini FM. We met up with Ben and Dayna (from around the corner) and two of their friends, Simon and Alison, to enjoy the festivities.

The big finale of the night was to be the lighting of the christmas lights in the streets and in the Cathedral Green. Well, after much standing around stomping our feet (it was very cold that night) and several practice countdowns (the lighting was apparently going to be shown live on the local news program) it was time for the real thing! Eagerly we jumped up and down and counted down with everyone else in the crowd, but alas, when we got to "1!" there was no great illumination... in fact there wasn't much of anything, except the host saying "Oh, I guess that was a rehersal too. No? Oh. Well we can assure you that the lights in the streets are now on!". What a dissapointment!

This month we expanded our camera kit by buying a 50mm fixed focal macro lens. For those in the audience not photographically inclined - we bought a lens that lets us get really really close to things and still keep them in focus. Cool. All kinds of things in and around our home became targets (boots, tomato, leaf, coins etc. etc.) and the results were quite pleasing! The neat thing about macro photography is that anything can look really abstract and beautiful.

We also had a play with our tripod and a slow shutter speed. There is an interesting piece of artwork in the high street here in Exeter, it is a tall narrow cone shaped piece. In cross-section it is a star. The whole thing is silver metal and highly refective. In each alcove there is a large silver ball. So - we took a photo with the camera aimed at one of the balls, with us and some of the Christmas lights. Chris and I both look seriously bent - but it is kind neat too! Love night-time photography!

A few days later the temperatures in Devon dropped. The weather forecasters started telling us about the way the wind was going to change direction and bring arctic winds from the north down across the country. They assured us that there was snow coming and that it would probably come down over the whole country. Excellent! Sure enough, the frost came down and a couple of days later the snow! Overnight the whole area was transformed!

That weekend (Saturday 26th November) we took a drive in the countryside. We headed first up to Winkleigh to visit the School for the Christmas fair. It was fairly similare to fetes back home except that it was completely indoors owing to the weather.

From there we headed south and drove around Dartmoor for a time. We went right down to the south-west corner of the park - a much more rugged and empty area than where we had been previously. I had spotted on a map some time ago, a small village that I wanted to visit, and it was towards that spot that I guided Captain Chris. Before long we arrived at our destination - DOUSLAND! (Dous is my family's name). It was a tiny village (and in reality, a little non-descript) that took about 10 seconds to drive through from one side to the other. Unfortunately the postoffice was closed so we wern't able to but a post card, but we did stop in at the local hotel/bar and convince the guy behind the counter to let me have one of their Christmas menus! It has Dousland on it! We also stopped by the town's welcome sign for a quick photo.

As we drove home through the Moor it seemed that the whole county had been out making the most of the unusual snow. We must have seen a hundred snowmen and women of all shapes and sizes. Also there were dozend of people out walking and having snowball fights and generally froliking in the 'winter wonderland'. If we're going to be honest, Chris and I also pulled over and tossed a couple of snowballs at each other. It was a really nice afternoon and did a lot to build our excitment about the upcoming skiing trip. Snow is great!

In posts to come - Amsterdam and Norway! Stay tuned!

Also - just a quick reminder about the images. If you click on any of the images above, or here , you will be taken to our photos page. Once you are there, you can have a closer look at any of the photos by clicking on it. In fact if you do click on an image you will be offered a choice of how big you want to see it. Cool.

Chris turned 30 in Wales

2005-12-21T17:21:00.000Z

Less than a week after we got back from Denmark, I sursprised Chris for his 30th birthday with a trip to Wales.

We drove most of the way in the dark because the sun is going down earlier here now but with Guy Fakwes night being the following night, we were surprised all the way there by random fireworks being fired off on both sides of the road all over the country side. I guess some people couldn't wait the extra day.

Because of the plentiful darkness we had a little trouble finding the right turn off and we had to stop in a small country pub (again - we always do this when we get lost here). We were a little concerned going into the pub because the Welsh accent is spometimes difficult to understand - also - as we approached the pub accross the dark carpark we became very aware that the whole building smelt strongly of fish...

The locals inside were very helpful and gave us some very complicated directions to basically go back down the road half a mile and turn left and then right.

Finally we made it to our accomodation, a small cottage in a coverted farm house. The owners knew would be arriving late and had lit the small fire inside the cottage so the whole place was beautifully toasty warm when we arrived. It was a great little place, complete with big bathtub, comfortable bed, large TV, DVD player and a welcome basket (bottle of wine, half-loaf of local bread, Welsh butter and honey and a few other bits and pieces). Wonderful!

Saturday we enjoyed a little sleep-in and breakfast of Welsh-cakes and tea. The view from the farm yard outside was beautiful. Our cottage (and the others in the complex) are situated half way up a hill and overlook the valley and river below. In the daylight we could see how swollen the river was from all the recent rain. Across the valley is the town of Lampeter and it was there that we decided to head first.

The weather was quite drizzly so we decided not to stop in Lampeter and instead carried on towards the coast and a town called Aberaeron. It was a nice town and after a quick look around we headed further north, following the coast until we got to Aberystwyth. (If you're having problems with the pronunciation - don't worry - so did we. Infact we had to resort to pronouncing the names in really stupid strong Aussie accents so that when I said the names Chris would know what to look for on the road signs...) The drive was a lovely one, Wales looks like England and yet it is different somehow as well. Even through the drizzle it was pretty.

In Aberystwyth we found a parking spot and headed into town. As we walked I spotted an interesting window display and we went over to have a look. There was an amazing assortment of items in the window - it looked like a second hand shop run by an eccentric with no sense of order. As we walked around the corner we spotted a sign in the other window of the building. Both of us chuckled when we read what it said. Apparently, none of the items in the windows were for sale, merely to keep passers-by interested as they walk past! (so it was run by an eccentric with no sense of order - but a good sense of humour).

We had no idea what we were looking for but we knew the New Zealand vs Wales rugby match was on (being played in Cardiff) so we headed for a pub, thinking the atmosphere would be great. The pub we selected seemed a prime rugby-watching spot - small, cosy and showing the rugby (very important). However, on entering you'd have guessed that the whole town was filled with adament non-drinkers. There was not a soul in the whole place, save for the barmaid, who was sitting on a stool at the end of the bar having a cigarette. (It never ceases to amazes us when bar/cafe staff smoke in their own establishments).

We settled down for an exciting game of rugby (neither of us is too sure about all the rules) only to see the Welsh team get absolutely trounced by the New Zealand team. We started to think maybe it wasn't a bad thing that we were the only two in there.

On leaving the pub we made our way to the seaside, avoiding grumpy, drunk and swearing Welshmen, looking for somewhere to have dinner. We found a spot overlooking the beach and from where we could see various firworks displays at the other end of the bay. It was quite nice.

All the way back to our cottage we were again surrounded by fireworks, it seemed like everyone in Wales was celebrating the imminent arrival of Chris' 30th birthday. We seem to get this everywhere - huh? (Remember the nice little display that the French government put on in Paris for our 1st anniversary?)

The following day we woke late again. Chris counted the grey hairs on his temple and decided that no new ones had appreared over-night. He opened his presents, among which was a hip flask emblazoned with the Welsh feathers. The idea behind the hipflask (not something I would ordinarily buy for Chris) was that he would be able to keep a little nip in his pocket when we hit the slopes at the end of the year in Norway. I had planned to make him a cake while we were here, but we didn't get around to it.

We headed back to Lampeter for a bit of lunch. Being Sunday after Guy Fawkes, almost everything in town was closed and we ended up have a late lunch in a pokey little pub. Several locals stopped in for a drink while we enjoyed our lunch and we had the opportunity to listen to a range of Welsh accents: everything from mildly welsh, through quite amusing to completely incomprehensible.

After lunch we headed back to the cottage, packed up our gear and the left over welsh butter and honey, signed the guestbook and heade home. We took a slightly different route back to the M4 and drove though the Brecon Beacons, a lovely country drive though impressive scenery, especially in the evening light.

That night at home we made and decorated Chris' birthday cake - blue icing because he's a boy (I know I know, what a stereotype), but also because he likes blue. It was yummy but took quite a while for just the two of us to get through.

Danmark (that's Danish for Denmark!)

2005-12-20T17:34:00.000Z

Denmark has been on our list of places to get to since before we left home at the beginning of the year. For anyone who doesn't know, Elke lived there for a year, after she finished high school, on exchange.

So we finally got organised and booked a a trip over to Copenhagen to visit Anette and Kent and their little daughter Laura who was born in March.

We decided that because we were flying out of Stansted, which is to the north London, we would drive to Cambridge and stay there the night before our flight. The idea behind this madness was that we would therefore avoid a mad rush in the morning to get all the way to Stansted and we would get to see Cambridge (a little bit).

So on Thursday evening October 27th we drove all the way to Cambridge, this turned out to be a much longer drive than we had expected. There was a lot of traffic on the M25 (the big road that circles London) and we ended up spending quite a bit of time comparing the motorhomes that were crawling along beside us. We did take along a book-on-tape thingo to make the trip that little bit more exciting.

We arrived in Cambridge late and after dumping our stuff, we took off for a quick look around the city. However, the 24 hour drinking laws hadn't come into effect just yet and everything was mostly closed and there were not too many people around so we decided to head home and get some sleep.

The next morning, we again went into the town centre to take a look at it's famous colleges and so on. Cambridge, like Oxford, is a University town. There are several very old colleges and buildings all over the place. As we didn't have a huge amount of time, we sort of just wandered around a couple of the main streets and had a quick glance into some of the courtyards of the bigger colleges, including Kings College. It was a nice taste of Cambridge and we will certainly put that on our list of places to revisit....when we get time :)

After a quick lunch, we jumped into the car and headed back to Stanstead airport. The flight to Copenhagen is only about an hour long. It still amazes me that we can fly to another capital city in another country in about 1 hour. Anyway, Elke was pointing out some of the sites and where she thought the airport was. However we flew straight over the airport and back over some water we then came over another land mass which confused Elke a little as she was pretty sure we should land in the airport we just passed. The plane then turned and headed back for the original airport Elke thought we should be landing at. The land mass we were currently over....was Sweden. It just so happens, that things are so close here, that you need to fly over another country...just so you have enough room to come down to land on the runway of your country of destination. Amazing!

We caught the train into the city and went to the hairdressers that Kent (our host) owns. He and Anette live in Holbaek, which is about an hour's drive west of Copenhagen. Here we got to see Kent and Anette's beautiful new home, and even more importantly, their beautiful new baby, Laura. It was fantastic to catch up with them all. We had a lovely feast and then an early night.

Saturday morning, Kent took off to work and Elke, Annette, Laura and I all walked down to into the town centre of Holbaek. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and loads of sunshine. Holbaek is a nice little place. We went to one of the grocery stores and got a couple of extra things for our traditional Danish lunch and headed home.

Anette whipped up a beautiful meal, which we shared once Kent came home. It included various types of herring (pickled, marinated etc), liverpostei and bacon, frikedeller, rugbread and remoulade. Yup..it all sounds very weird, but it tasted great. It was especially nice washed down with a cold Danish Carlsberg in one hand and some icy schnapps in the other. Lunch lasted at least a couple of hours so we just spent the rest of the day lazing around, playing with Laura and generally catching up.

On Sunday, we loaded the five of us (four and a little one) into their little car and drove out to see some of the beautiful Autumn trees on the way to Fredensborg Slot, one of the Royal Palaces.

We drove up to the palace, where the Danish Royal Family lives outside of Copenhagen, this, of course, now includes Aussie Mary Donaldson and Danish Crown Prince Frederik, and their newly born son. We arrived right on time for the changing of the guards. It was fantastic. First Kent got a great parking spot close to the gate, then we got to see the changing of the guards, and then...we heard some commotion and glanced over to see Frederik and Mary leaving one section of the house to go to the main palace for lunch with the rest of the royal family. Perfect. Elke did a quick lens change and snapped a couple of 'paparazzi' style shots, imediately afterwards suffering pangs of guilt. They didn't last too long.

A large portion of the Palace grounds are open to the public and we wandered around enjoying the sunshine and blue skies and fabulous autumn colours in the trees. As we were leaving we were lucky enough to see Prince Henrik (the Queen's husband) and Prince Joakim's two little boys, leaving after thier lunch. Elke respected their privacy this time and didn't take a photo.

After a lovely lunch in the park, we headed back to the car and took off to one of the other Royal Palaces in the middle of the country in a place called Fredricksborg. This palace is no longer inhabited but the church can be used. The gardens here are in the Baroque style and include a monogram made in hegdes for each of the royals. It was a peaceful place to visit and walk.

Laura was tired in the car on the way home and Anette had to sing to her most of the way back. Elke and I are now quite familiar with a whole range of Danish nursery rhymes and children's lullabies.

On Monday, Kent had to work again and so all of us went into Copenhagen with him. Anette, Elke and I went shopping and found a ski suit for me, for our trip to Norway at Christmas. I own a ski suit! While we were in the Copenhagen, we saw the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace (the Copenhagen residence of the royal family), we went on a canal cruise and saw the little mermaid, the new opera house, Marmor Kirke and various other Copenhagen sights. It was a nice day in Denmark's capital. We would like to go back at some point and see a few more of the highlights that we didn't get to this time.

That evening Anette and Kent dropped us off at the airport and we said "goodbye 'til next time". The flight home was uneventful, but because we didn't think about our flight times very carefully when we booked, we then faced a four hour drive home. We arrived back in Exeter in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and fell gratefully into bed.

October comes after September: Football to Halloween

2005-11-07T17:32:00.000Z

Catching up!

Another busy month. After the dissapointing loss of the Eagles in the Grand Final in Australia we heard from various people at home about an upcoming exhibition match to be played in London on the 8th October between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. Thanks to all who called/e-mailed to ensure we knew, but as it turned out we had already booked tickets several weeks previously.

So that Saturday we caught the train up to London to meet up with some friends. We got to see Leia's new place - much nicer and in a nicer area than her last place. As we left Leia's place we were a group of 8 or 9 but as we got closer to The Oval the number of blue/yellow and purple/green/red clad people inceased until we were walking amidst a thick current of mostly Australian fans (and a few slightly confused locals).

The atmosphere inside the Oval grounds was excited. We found our seats, got a beer and then Chris went off in search of Meat Pies. We'd heard rumours that they would be sold here (they'd have to be wouldn't they?) and he returned triumphant, from the hunt.

The game itself wasn't as exciting as we might have hoped, it took me an hour to get through the bar line to buy beers for the rest of the group, the quarters were only 20 minutes long, most of the big name players weren't on the field and the Dockers beat the Eagles ...! What!? None-the-less it was a fun day out and we got to share a bag of Twisties with some friends who had visited the Australian Store at the game. Oh my goodness! How good are Twisties when you havn't had them for eight months!? So very good!

The following day the two of us headed into the city centre to catch up with Jeff and Jess for lunch. Jess had suggested that we go to a Chinese restaurant near Leicester Square for a Yum Cha lunch (a style of eating where you order from a large range of small individual pieces of food to share with the others at your table - very social). It is wonderful having Yum Cha with someone who speaks the language and is willing to take responsibility for ordering for everyone. Thanks Jess!

The following week, back in Exeter we went to see a performance of The Ladykillers at the Northcott Theatre. It was quite different from the film (with Tom Hanks and that odd laugh) for anyone who has seen it - but was still very good. The set was quite amazing and the actors were very good, we were particulary fond of the 'big, dumb guy' character.

This month I finished my mosaic course. I am really quite happy with the final product - my terracotta dish looks really funky and now has pride of place on our coffee table in the lounge room!! Yay!

My Danish 'Family' (who I lived with for about four months while on exchange in 1997) were going to be visiting London towards the end of the month and as I hadn't seen them for over a year I headed up for a night. It was fabulous to see them and we had a nice day wandering around the city (looking for boots for Katrine...unsuccessfully) and just generally catching up. I left them in the afternoon, as they went off to get ready to see The Phantom of the Opera and I headed home to Chris.

With Halloween approaching and the shop windows decked out with orange we decided to carve our first pumpkin together. 'Jack' took shape on our kitchen bench and the next night we took him out into the countryside to take some photos of him lit up. We tried a few star-trail shots too, but it was a windy night and they didn't work as well as the ones we did in our back yard earlier in the month we did get some neat shots of 'Jack' though.

The last few days of October were spent in Denmark. That part of the blog will come in the next update... :) too much to add on here.

September in the South

2005-11-03T21:57:00.000Z

Well, the last couple of months since our previous post have flown past. We've been busy enjoying the tail end of summer and trying to get the most out of our time here.

So we'll just out-line the main events of the past months - lets start with September.

Firstly, we had a visit from Leia and Dave. Dave we know from Uni in Perth, he has been living and working the last three years in Japan but has finished there now and is off to his next adventure. He was visiting Leia (and his brother) in London and so the two of them came down for the weekend. He looks just like he did three years ago!! It was fabulous to see him. We had a quiet weekend around Exeter. Rosie was in being serviced - so driving was out of the question, but we ate by the river and explored the city. Dave was a little sick so it was really a quiet few days.

The following Monday (5th Sept) the new school year began here in England and I bravely drove out to my new school. Although in true Elke fashion, I'd forgotten what time school started. Therefore, not wanting to make a bad impression I arrived about an hour early and had to sit and read in the car until the rest of the staff turned up.

It is a small country school in the middle of Devon. It's about a 45 minute drive from Exeter through some lovely countryside, past cows and sheep and other farming parafernalia. And - how sweet is this?- it is on Farmer Frank's Lane. Yep, a real country village. Beautiful!!

I've been out there every Thursday afternoon since, teaching a Yr 5/6 class art. The class has some lovely students and I am really enjoying the time out there. It is very different from teaching in a high school though, the excitement levels are different and so are the things they get upset about. The kids in primary school cry at the drop of a hat!! It's incredible.

In the last month I've also been doing a mosaic course nearby - it's something I've always wanted try but hadn't got around to before. So far I've made a small piece with a frog in it, and have almost completed the inside base of a shallow terracotta dish. I'm loving it, even the small glass shards that keep being shot off across the room...

Half way through September we got a visit from some other Australian friends living in London. Ben, Kelly, Mark and Sharon all came down on the train to spend a weekend in the south west. This was the fullest that the house has been since we moved in. It was a fun weekend.

We took them (somewhat unimaginitvely) to Beer. Here Ben and Kelly saw their first really pebbly beach and Mark got buried. I decided that today was the day to try some of the local scrumpy so we bought a few different kinds, Bonking Billy, Rampant Rosie and Cripple Cock. The last one depicts a rooster leaning on some crutches and the line underneath suggests that it is a toe curler.

On the way home we stopped past the Donkey Santuary - yes it is a real place - and patted the donkeys. They all looked significantly warmer in their furs than we were. After dinner we tried the Bonking Billy. No two ways about it - that stuff was horrendous! It was a suspisious yellow colour, the fumes made our nose hairs retreat in fear the the liquid itself tasted much like I imagine the juice from a jar of pickled onions would taste - but stronger.

That week, after sending the four Aussies back home to London, we got to know some of our nearby neighbours a little better.

Ben and Dayna live around the corner to us in what used to be an old barn or stables, either way there are some really big doors in their bedroom and there is an odd pulley type thing on the front of the house....

We had met Ben in the street several times and were invited over for dinner, after a very brief consideration we decided that taking the left over scrumpy along would not be a good way to make friends. Dayna is from eastern Australia but has been living over here for a last couple of years. It was actually a really fun evening and it turns out that Dayna and I have a few things in common, we both collect empty jars and boxes (just in case) and are both interested in various crafts.

It was while Chris was descibing how, the coming weekend, he would be getting up very early to listen to the Australian Rules Football Final on the radio that they really won a place in our hearts. They offered for us to go to their place and watch the final on their widescreen TV on Sky. We said thanks but reminded them how early it started. 'No problem' said they, 'We'll be out this weekend anyway, just take the spare key and let yourselves in'. How cool is that! How cool are these people!

So we did and that Saturday morning the 24th September we got up ridiculously early (thanks for calling and getting us up in time Mum!) and wandered around the corner in our PJs, breakfast bowls in hand to watch the West Coast Eagles play in their first Grand Final since 1994 (when they won).

This time... they didn't win.

Despite it looking quite likely a couple of times in the end they were just beaten by the Sydney Swans. Chris has been giving dirty looks to the local swans on the River Exe ever since... We had to take a drive to the Exmoor National Park in north Devon to help takes Chris' mind of it all.

October to follow.

Weekend in Belgium

2005-09-11T15:20:00.000Z

Ever been to Belgium for a BBQ? We have!

Two and a half weeks ago we received an email from a good friend of ours, Lian, who is living in Belgium with her partner Laurent, inviting us to a BBQ and family party in Belguim that weekend. We thought it sounded like a fabulous idea and booked some tickets.

So friday the 26th August we left work early and rushed to the train station for the 1:30 to London. A bit of Sudoku and a snooze passed the time while the train rushed towards the airport. Although we checked in for our flight a bit over two hours early we left going through to the international departure wing until a little late. We were running out of time, the line to get through security was slow and when we got to the end of the terminal to our gate we discovered a small hand-written sign propped on the counter indicating that our flight had been changed to a different gate. Needless to say the two of us ran like mad, hand luggage bouncing, back down the corridor, smiling at everyone so as not to alarm them!

It was fabulous to see Lian and Laurent at the airport in Brussels and we caught up over a bowl of grapes and a selection of Belgian beers in their apartment. A little later that night two of Laurent's friends arrived from Oxford in England on the back of a motor bike - they had left work just after six in the afternoon and arrived a little after one in the morning. Wow - trip and a half!

The following morning we loaded into the car and drove about an hour and a half south to a tiny village called Porcheresse. The amazing thing here is that just an hour and a half is enough to get you almost to the southern border of the country! We also got close enough to the border with France to be able to see the huge plume rising into the air from a nuclear powerplant just over the border. Eeep.

The family house we stayed in was quite amazing. It used to be a barn and is a really interesting design, with split level living and amazing views of the surrounding countryside. We helped to set up for the impending party and met the rest of Laurent's family and a lot of the family's friends.

After lunch a group of the younger people went off to try para-gliding and we tagged along. There were four sails on the hill and about 10 -12 of us willing to give it a go. The instruction was good - especially because it was in English (remembering that the only French either of us speaks is 'Do you speak English?') and before long we were taking it in turn to run head-long down the hill madly trying to get airborn!

The field we were in was actually a farmer's cow field available to the public for just this purpose. Luckily for us the cows here are fairly familar with the sight of large, brightly coloured sails coming at them from above and on our arrival most of the herd were at the far end of the field and largly ignoring us. Lian assured me at the top of the hill that in Belgium the two most dangerous things are cows and thistles. Nervously I glanced around and realised that we were now sitting in a very dangerous field indeed!

Chris went before me and had two runs, the second one ending in a spectacular face plant at the bottom of the hill. Luckily nothing was broken and he limped back up the slope with some awesome grass stains on his shoulder and chest. By contrast my first run was reasonably successful and I got well off the ground for a short flight.

Unfortunately it was such a surprise not to be on the ground that I can barely remember it! My second run was much less successful and and I made the common mistake of trying to sit down while I was still running and ended up doing something that resembled a commando-roll down the hill badly grazing my shin on a patch of thistles and narrowly missing a large cow pat.
Chris had a third run just before we packed up for the afternoon and had a fabulous fly arcoss the field, landing neatly on his feet at the other side. I think he got a real buzz from his success. When he got back to us he said that his main thought had been to just keep running at the other side of the field and hope that he would get off the ground.

That evening back at the house we all enjoyed a sumptuous meal and more Belgian beers. It was a beautiful evening to be sitting outdoors chatting with some new-found friends.

Shorty before midnight we heard cheering and laughing coming from the kitchen. Laurent had just made the announcement that we were going to have a 'Dropping'. A 'what?' we wondered. As the excitment spread around us we heard phrases like 'in the forest', 'walking home', 'hunted by cars', 'hiding' and so on. Needless to say we were both a bit confused (and slightly scared) when we were offered a playing card from the deck.

Basically the game went like this - we were split into teams according to what suit we pulled from the deck. Amazingly Lian, Laurent's mother, several of the English speaking young para-gliders, Chris and I were all in the same team! We were driven out into the forest (just after midnight remember) and left standing in the middle of a muddy road. The aim of the game was go get home without being 'caught' by one of the three or four cars. So, we then began the long walk home. The distance wasn't all that far but given that it was very dark, we didn't know where we were and we had to keep running off the road to hide in the forest, it bacame quite a long ordeal. But so much fun!

We walked at times hand in hand so as not to trip over fallen trees, we threw ourselves face first into the dirt and brambles over and over to avoid detection by the crusing cars. We hid behind trees and under ferns and in ditches. We walked across cow fields and climbed over, through and under various fences, including at least on that was barbed wire and two that were electric! Was it scary? - no. It couldn't really be scary when the most dangerous things in Belguim are cows and thistels, and all around you in the dark you could hear people giggling. Two hours later we made it home, filthy, scratched, bruised, sweaty and grinning from ear to ear!

The following morning we had breakfast in the sun-filled garden and swapped stories from the night before. One of the guests had lost his glasses during the game but wasn't sure at what point they had come off. Because it had been dark, he couldn't see that he couldn't see. So we all wandered back to the forest in the hope of finding the missing spectacles and despite being assured by a super statistician in the group that it would be neigh on impossible, we did!

After another visit to the cow field to try flying again that afternoon we packed up the house and headed back to Brussels. It was late when we arrived but Lian and Laurent took us into the city centre to visit Grande Place. It is quite spectacular at night with the Town Hall and surrounding buildings all lit up.

We visited the Grande Place again in the morning with Lian. The chocolatiers were so tempting but I decided to get a waffle instead...oh my goodness...waffle topped with sliced banana and strawberry, topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate and icing sugar!!! Wow. It ended up serving as lunch too!

We said goodbye to Lian at the bus-stop with the picture of the flying bus and made our way back to the airport to get home again. That evening we arrived weary back in Exeter, but not wanting the excellent weekend to end we headed out for dinner in a restaurant by the Cathedral.

Fay from Faraway - a visiting mother!!

2005-09-06T21:29:00.000Z

A few days after we arrived home from Paris Chris' mum Fay arrived from Perth for a two week visit. The flight was a long one and after the bus ride down from London I was amazed to find that she was not sound asleep when I got home from work. In fact Fay didn't seem to suffer from jet lag at all!

She settled straight back into the role of mother and cooked a roast chicken on one of her first nights here - much to our delight. It has been a long time since we had eaten a Fay Mooring roast and despite being on the oppostie side of the world it tasted just like it does at home.

Fay enjoyed looking in the shops in the high street and walking around the city and we were very excited about showing her our new home. While she was here we visited the quay where Fay was surprised at the size of the local swans - until she discovered that the beastie she had spied at was actually a swan-shaped paddle boat being paddled up the river towards us. Oops.

During the evening we watched a few videos and had dinner at a really quaint pub near the cathedral called the Ship Inn. There are ceiling beams in here that Chris has to duck to get under.

On the middle weekend of her visit we did a couple of day trips out of Exeter. On the Saturday we went for a drive to North Devon, via the school I will be working at in the new school year, to a place called Barnstaple. As it turned out, the book that Fay had been reading on the way over was set in a number of the towns nearby. In fact the bad guys in the book were planning to rob all the banks in Barnstaple, so we cased the joint a little while we were there too.

On the Sunday we went a little further afield and took Fay up to Bath in Somerset. It was a pretty day and the drive was lovely - although some of the roads we found ourselves on were smaller than the map might have suggested. We all went in to explore the roman baths and enjoyed the audio tour. There were a lot of American tourists around this time, a lot of tourists in general. Including a small group of nuns in habit who were enjoying the view of the Abbey.

During the week we visited the Walkabout for a cold Australian beer and a chat. We also had lots more home cooked Fay style dinners. The neighbours must have thought we'de hired a maid - she insisted on cooking and doing the laundry and generally looking after us.

The Friday before the weekend she left Chris and I took the day off work. We took Fay to our favorite seaside village of Beer and had a lovely lunch in a sunny beer-garden. We also visited Branscombe - a new place for all of us, where the three of us shared a Devonshire tea. Of course, here in the shire of Devon they arn't called Devonshire teas, they are called cream teas. Yum.

We saw Fay off at the train station on the Saturday afternoon for her flight from Heathrow on Sunday morning. Unfortunately this time she didn't get to see London but with the current climate of fear there I don't think she was too worried about it. It is amazing how quickly two weeks can go by and it already seems like the visit was ages ago. Maybe she can come back next year sometime and visit us where ever we are then.

Anniversary trip

2005-08-18T23:01:00.000Z

What a romantic way to spend your first anniversary huh? Living it up in Paris on Bastille day. It was our first European adventure out of the UK and I have to say...we...had...a...BLAST! We finished work a little early on the day we flew out and headed off to Exeter International Airport to catch our flight. Our flight took just about an hour to get from Exeter to Paris. I still find this amazing. This may not sound like it is of much consequence to a lot of people, but it is pretty amazing to me when you consider how limited your choices are in an hours flight from Perth :)

For our first anniversary (I think it is considered the paper anniversary), we decided to get ourselves a combined gift. Our gift was a new flashy digital camera. We figured that we could get photo's printed on photographic paper (thus satisfying a gift representing the paper anniversary), and it would also be a great way to help take some nice photo's for the blog.

We arrived at our hotel at about 10pm and the sky was still light! Our room was on the eighth floor of a recently refurbished old hotel. Luckily for us there was an elevator. I think this is without-a-doubt the smallest elevator that either Elke or I have ever seen. It was fitted in the centre of the spiral staircase in the building and was just (and I mean JUST) big enough for the two of us to stand with our one suitcase between us.

The view from the eighth floor was awesome! We were up really high and could see over a lot of the surrounding buildings. We discovered that you could see both Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower from our hotel window. Very cool! The hotel was just a short walk from the Place de la Republique and about a twenty minute walk from the river and Notre Dame.

On the first morning (Bastille Day and our anniversary - a double celebration), we decided to take off down to the city center to where the action is and to see how the French celebrate their national day. The city center is extremely beautiful! Full of lovely old buildings, nice little cafe's and, on this day, festive French people driving tanks! (All part of the Bastille Day celebrations). There had been a long procession by the President that morning down the Avenue de Champs Elysees and throughout the day we saw fighter-jets and helicopters flying overhead.

We took in some beautiful sights like the amazing cathedral, Notre Dame (from the outside - the tourist line up to get in was incredible). Did you know it took around 200 years to build ?!? That is amazing! We walked around the markets looking at prints of various Parisian sights and checked out some of the street performers. We even got to see a guy playing a piano accordion in Paris. It is the kind of music that I always associate with France - may have something to do with the theme music of that old comedy 'Allo 'Allo.

That night, we went to find a good vantage point for watching the fireworks display and found ourselves an excellent spot on one of the many bridges crossing the river Seine. It was a beautiful display with fireworks launched off the Eiffel Tower and hundreds of people milling about and cheering with every colourful explosion. The mood was wonderful and there were people swing dancing in one of the open squares.

As well as the usual yellow all over lighting, the Eiffel Tower is covered in thousands of white strobe lights which are occasionally turned on and make the whole tower sparkle. It gives the impression that the tower is wearing a sequin covered dress. It is a really beautiful sight.

The next few days were spent just taking it easy and exploring around the city. We went to the Eiffel tower again, and this time, we climbed up to the second floor and got a birds eye view of Paris. The tower is a spectacular structure with breath taking views. The climb up to the first level was also breath taking (especially given our level of fitness), and therefore we decided to take the lift up to the very top (although that is the only way to go to the very top). From up high it is really obvious how light Paris is in colour. A lot of the buildings are made from an almost white stone that reflects the light, even the roof tops are fairly light in colour.

We took the ferries up and down the river Seine to our various destinations such as; Hotel De Invalides a very impressive building built in the late 1600s to house wounded soldiers.
Musee d'Orsay - Paris museum of 19th-century fine arts. Notre Dame (although we didn't go inside due to the huge lines). Arc de Triomphe, a memorial of those killed in WWI. And of course the ever present 'Aussie bar' that was showing AFL highlights (this was my first Aussie Rules Footy that I'd seen all season...carn' the Eagles!!!).

Everywhere we went the French people were friendly and helpful. We even saw a whole group of soldiers helping to push start their mate's Mirage 2000 jet outside the Hotel des Invalides. You'll have to go to flickr to see what I'm talking about :)

We ate lots of French food - Baguettes and morning pastries and Escargot (a.k.a. snails - tastes like algae smells). The implements we were given with which to eat the snails were impressive in their own right. We also noticed that none of the locals sitting around us in the restaurant were eating them....

Elke spoke a little bit of French, mainly "Parlez-vous Anglais?" (which means, "Do you speak English?"). I have to admit that I found it quite daunting being in a non-English speaking country. I had to try to avoid making eye contact with people a couple of times as I thought they were going to ask me something. Brave, I know!

Our second last evening in the city we decided that we wanted to try out our brilliant new camera on some night photography so we headed first to the Arc de Triomphe and then to the Eiffel Tower. We were pleased with the results and have posted a couple of the shots on flickr (click on any photo to go there). There were a lot of people out and we were surprised to see so many people just hanging out under the Eiffel Tower, even at two in the morning. It was really nice. We were briefly tempted to buy a multi-coloured flashing Eiffel Tower model - about 20 cm tall- but resisted the urge. They were so tacky that they almost became cool!!

The weather was fantastic for the few days that we were there. It was beautiful, sunny and quite warm and on our last day (Sunday) we went for a nice slow walk through the Jardins des Tuileries. Elke tripped over the curb crossing the street and rolled her ankle - hence the slow walk. There were a lot of people out and it was nice to just sit and watch them all go by - from a park bench of course, not the curb. There were children playing with old fashioned sailing boats in one of the fountains and people lolling around on public deckchairs. We ended up sitting in front of the Musee du Louvre, watching the evening sun turn it a beautiful colour and writing postcards home.

It was a really fantastic experience and a great place to celebrate our first year of wedded bliss. Like I said earlier, we really had a great time.

Our first month in Exeter

2005-07-20T19:43:00.000Z

Oh my, we are getting slack at keeping this journal up to date!

So we left off with us sitting in a cold tent, our fingers crossed about our rental application. Chris was due to start work the following week and I was heading up to London to meet up with Bev and Leia on the weekend.

So all week we hung around the campsite, got to know our city a little and hoped like mad that we would get the house. In the end the owners were happy to let us move in but were concerned about the fact that Chris's initial contract was only for 3 months and that I was unemployed. So they asked us to pay an extra three months rent up front. OK was the reply. And it was ours! We had a house and it rocks! We could move in on the weekend just before Chris started work! Hooray! What a relief it was to finally have a place that we knew we could settle into. A good friend of ours from Perth was coming to visit Europe and I was going up to London to catch up, so Chris was left to move in on his own.

I had a great long weekend in London. Bev and I stayed with Leia and it was great to see them both. We went to see a play in Leister Square and caught a boat down the river to Greenwich. We went out for dinner and did lots of walking around the city. It was great. While I was away, Chris had to pack up in rain on Sat 4th June and move into our new home.

When I got home our belongings (all removed from the car) were spread fairly evenly over the whole house. In his defence it had been raining when he packed up and unpacked and he had only been in the place for 24 hrs.

We got it sorted fairly quickly and Chris made it to work on Monday. First impressions - he likes the group that he is working with but is a little shocked by the amount of work needing to be done... I think this is almost always the case when a person starts a new job.

In the last month (you don't really need it blow by blow so here is the abridged version) we have joined the library, two video stores, been to both cinemas in town, tried the local Indian take-away (very good) and the local kebab. We have walked both north and south along the river and had a beer in several local pubs, (including the 'Walkabout' local Aussie bar). We have seen the fireworks down at the Quay for the start of the Exeter Summer Festival. We made dozens of calls home to people we hadn't talked to in a while (still working our way through the address book). We have been to craft markets and food markets. We have met up with the friend of a good friend from home, who is now living in Exeter (cool!). We bought a radio and a television and a DVD player. We went to a play at the Exeter Phoenix. We have watched over the weeks as a family of signets grows up. We have met a few of our neighbours and the guy in the local Subway shop.

We are feeling really happy here and really settled. This feels like home now.

After Bev finished her Euro tour she came down to Exeter for a couple of weeks. She got a bit sick on the trip and needed a place to chill out and get better.

A few weeks ago, Leia and a friend of hers, Michelle, came down from London for a few nights. The five of us had a good weekend, we visited the Exeter Cathedral and went out to Dartmoor National Park. There we visited Becky Falls. It was a dreary overcast slightly cold day, which turned out to be just perfect for the setting. It was a mossy little valley with cold water tumbling down over large glossy rocks. It was really the sort of place where you could believe that fairies might jump up from behind the rocks to greet you.

On the Sunday we went back to Beer. This time the sun was shining and it was really a beautiful day, the sort of day that is good for your soul. Fish and chips of a pebbly beach were in order! Yum.

Other good news... I registered with a temping agency here in town and picked up a few days of reception work at a car dealer. It was kind of fun and basically I did ok, other than answering the phone at one point and saying... 'Good morning, Bristol Street Renault speaking... no hang on, I'm Elke. Oh sh.. sorry.' The guy laughed and said that if I had worked out who I was he would like to speak to....

Since then I have also registered with teaching agency (that does cover Exeter) and have had one day in a Yr 5 class. It was good fun. I have also secured a once a week Art Teacher position in a year 5/6 class in a small country school to start in the new year in September. It is a very nice little school, it is on a road called 'Farmer Frank's Lane'. How sweet is that?!

For the last month or so I have been working full time at a company that installs water-meters. It is fairly repetitive and unexciting work, but it is regular and easy and the people that I am working with are good fun.

So things are good. They were a little odd a couple of weeks ago when London got bombed. We have friends there and the people we work with have friends and family there so it was a little tense for a while that day. Things have settled down somewhat and basically people are getting on with things here and in London. We are pretty sure we are totally safe here but everyone is keeping their eyes open a bit more now.

We went to Paris for our first Anniversary, we will tell you about that in a few days. Chris' mum, Fay, arrived here on Friday! We'll tell you about that later too.

Hope all is well where you are. Drop us a line when you get a chance.

Exeter or The Prelude to a Job

2005-06-20T08:24:00.000Z

We were both very excited (and relieved) about Chris finally getting a call for an interview! We needed to head to an Internet café for the recruitment agent to forward through all of the details of the interview, but we knew it was for the following Thursday in a place called Exeter on the south coast. That was good news as it gave us some time to prepare (buy Chris a new clean shirt) and maybe check out a few things on our way down there. Taking a closer look at our map to work out where exactly we needed to go, and work out what we could see on the way there, we decided to on a few stops we wanted to make.

First on our list of things to see was yet another white horse. The White Horse of Uffington was carved into a hillside about three thousand years ago during the late Bronze Age. It has a different look about it to the rest of the ones we had seen. It seems to be a little sleeker and carved in such a way that it looks as if the horse is in motion. On a little mound nearby there is a bare patch of white (chalky) ground. Legend has it that this is the spot where St George slay the Dragon and that as the dragon's blood was spilled on the ground, it seeped in and poisoned the soil, meaning nothing ever grew there again. The valley below the horse has a very distinctive shape, which they believe was created during the last ice age (and apparently it is where the white horse goes to graze at night). This area is also where Uffington Castle used to stand. Like so many of the castles around England, there is not a lot left of this one.

Next on our list of things to see was a town called Swindon. I had heard quite a bit about the town from some of Chris' work mates who had been on assignment there. They didn't have a lot to say about the town and I would have to say it isn't the nicest place we have visited since being here. It's not terrible, but it's not fantastic either. We stopped in at a little pub, had some lunch and then decided we needed to leg it to our last stop for the day - Bath!

It was great heading to Bath again. We didn't get a lot of time to explore it last time we were here as we took off to Basingstoke to meet up with some of Chris' work-mates. This time we had a good few days to look around, take in the sights and relax a little. We drove into Bath from the Motorway this time and had an awesome view of the town. It was late afternoon and the setting sun just lit up the scene of the hillside houses sprawling out from around the town centre. We headed straight back to the campsite we were at the last time we were here. It was getting late, and as usual, we hadn't planned ahead and booked anything. We made it with time to spare however, and ended up booking in for a few nights.

The following day, we headed into the town centre to have a look at the Roman Bath's for which the town is famous. The natural hot spring has existed there forever and was considered a sacred place by pagan locals. When the Romans turned up later they too recognised it as a sacred place and referred to the deity who resided there as Sulis-Minerva, a combination of the local pagan name and their own interpretation. They built a huge temple around it where local Romans could come and sacrifice goats in the hope of their wish being granted. Many people also tossed curses into the waters, scratched onto small pieces of pewter and often written backwards so that only the god could read it. Modern archeologists have recovered a huge number of these curses form the waters and some of them are quite amusing. Since then many people, Romans, monks, aristocracy and so on, have used the healing mineral waters. In more recent centuries the water was often prescribed to drink as a cure for various ailments - although in some cases the amount prescribed (5 litres before breakfast) was probably enough to scare patients into getting better! Today, for a small fee a man in tights and a wig can serve you a glass of the strange tasting water!

On our last evening in the campsite outside Bath we headed down to the little pub on the site for a quite drink and a game of backgammon. It was meant to be quiet! There was a group of (mostly) retired firefighters from South Wales filling most of the pub, chatting to other customers and trying to sell copies of their home made pub quiz. (This quiz had a difference, you could take it home and then send it in when you were done - one of the guys later admitted that they didn't usually get very many returned). Each year they do something outlandish to raise money for a charity that one or another of the group has a connection to. This year? They were cycling from their home in Wales to London - quite a distance.
Anyway, before long the guitars, banjo, washboard, spoons, wobble board, tambourines and (all important) the triangle, made their appearance and the rest of the evening was spent singing along to a whole range of folk songs, or at least making a lot of noise in time with everyone else. There was even a little Rolf Harris section with a rendition of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down' and 'Jake the Peg' (deedle dee) in honour of us and the other Australian family in the bar. Hours of riotous laughter!

From Bath we headed into Bristol for a day to check it out - it seems like a nice town (the accents wern't as extreme as we had imagined from what Stu had indicated) and I was able to find some small badges for Leia's nephew Tim.

Then it was down to Exeter to get Chris ready for his interview on Thursday. We tried the YHA but it was fullt booked and then some. So we followed the advice of our lonely planet and made for St David's Hill Road. Where all the best B'n'B places are.

The only one that wasn't fully booked claimed to be a B'n'B but didn't include the second 'B'. So sleep we could have but no sustenance come the morning.

As part of the interview proccess Chris was required to complete a 'Brain Bench' test online. I was quite excited to see what it was, thinking it might be an aptitude test including various logic problems that I might also be able to have a go at in the background. Unfortunately it was much more tailored to the job than that and was just a lot of silly programming questions that Chris seemed to understand but were in a foreign language to me.

At the library, where we went to print a fresh copy of Chris' CV, we discovered that despite all the help available, there are still some people who can't handle all the technology now available in libraries, and have to have special instructions left for them.

We elected not to stay in the breakfast-less B'n'B that night and instead moved up the road by a couple of doors to a place that did include both. The lady owner was a sweetheart the following morning and actually ironed Chris's shirt and pants before he headed off to the interview. He looked super smart in a new shirt and crease-free pants.

Chris came out of the interview feeling pretty confident and much relieved about an hour after he went in. By all accounts it had gone well - so began the bidding wars over salary...

I had earlier ogranised an interview with a second teaching agency in London for the following day (the Friday) but we decided it was silly to be so far out and not explore it any further. After all, Chris may not get the job and who knows when we might be back this way.

So I put the interview off until Monday and we spent the weekend exploring the area surrounding Exeter. Our budget didn't allow for a further three nights in a B'n'B so we moved to a campsite for the weekend. It was a nice looking site with a donkey padock (yes there was a donkey in it, and two little ponies and three goats - all of which seem to be ceaselessly hugry). However, despite the good looks we noticed that the site we had been allocated to set up camp on seemed to be on a slight slope. We discovered later on in bed just how slopy it was as the two of us struggled no to slide off the end of the mattress and out the door of the tent. Each and every move was risky!

We took the opportunity that weekend to visit a few of the towns surrounding Exeter. We went to Beer where, apparently, ocean watching is a popular pass-time. This was deduced from the rows and rows of deck chairs assembled on the beach all facing neatly out to sea. I know it is silly and immature but still, we giggled at that and were sure to send home a couple of postcards to friends who we thought might also appreciate the name. We also went to Dawlish and Torquay and Teignmouth and Sidmouth.

It was a bit of a tense weekend in that we didn't find out about the job on the Friday as we thought we might. Weatherwise it was also a bit miserable - it rained a lot that weekend and as we tried to reverse Rosie up the hill from our camp site on our last moring Chris left some huge rip marks on the grss and was only able to leave eventually by turning the wheel sharply and heading down hill, only narrowly missing the corner of the donkey padock.

That night we stayed in a B'n'B in Guildford and headed into London on Monday morning so I could attend an interview with a second teaching agency. It went well and from there we headed back to Leia's to get our mail. We stayed that night with Michael (a work-mate of Chris') and Tania and their two lovely kids in Guildford.

Very exciting!! We found out on Tuesday that Chris had got the job for sure in Exeter!!! It was such a relief and felt great to have that assured! We were both grinning like mad and I think I was very close to tears once or twice that day (bloody emotional genes)!!

So that meant that we had a few more things to organise in London. We had to set up a Limited Company for Chris (he is now managing director of Summerdale Contracting - daggy name I know, but we had to pick one of the ones that they had there already and the others were bizare). We went back to Leia's to pick up two cases we had left with her (thankyou SO much Leia) and we had to open another bank account for the business.

We got it done and were back in Exeter within a day or so. It felt different being back there and knowing that it was the place where we would be living for the next few months. We were looking at it with residents' eyes and we liked what we saw.

We booked ourselves into a different campsite (with no donkey paddock and no hills) and bought the local paper with the housing section in. We found a few properties that we were interested in having a look at and organised visits for that Friday/Saturday.

We had a few criteria that we were trying to meet. Fully furnished (or partly at a pinch), allocated off street parking, walking distance to quay or town, with public transport nearby.

The fourth and last place that we looked at was the one that we decided we had to stay in! It was great. Fully furnished? Yes! With everything! Off street parking? Yes! Walking distance to the quay or town? Yes yes! To both! Public transport? Yes! Hooray! Also it was only a block off one of the main roads in town but was somehow really quiet. It was bright, lots of natural light. It had a small backyard. Central heating. And three double bedrooms! I know that sounds really silly but the rent wasn't much more than the one bed/two bed places we looked at and it was just nicer all over!!

So First thing tuesday morning (monday being a bank holiday) we put in an application and crossed our fingers.

Toodling around

2005-05-21T13:40:00.000Z

So - the last day of April. Of my goodness! Already?!?!?

Saturday, we were feeling a little bit blah, so we opened up our map book and went for a drive. We went to a herb farm, (which was mostly just a herb nursery), we found an exhibition of Rolf Harris artwork (he can actually paint really well, no cartoons to be seen) and then headed off to Dorchester to see the local Abbey. It was really awesome. Very old, very beautiful, with a really friendly volunteer curator who liked to answer our questions with her eyes closed. Perhaps she could think better if she wasn't looking at us.

On Sunday we took the day off and decided to do some more exploring. We headed to Farnham Castle (which has nothing to do with Johnny). It is (like a lot of the hisoric things we go to see) largely in ruins, but still very interesting. In particular the design and evolution of the castle is different. Where as many castles are built on the top of a hill for obvious strategic reasons, the people who built Farnham Castle decided to build where there was no hill. So they built the hill too. It was originally kind of the shape of a christmas pudding, (the hill, not the castle) and what is even more interesting, half the castle, which started off as essentially just a 'tower' about 20 metres by 20 metres, is actually underground - inside the hill. Later on someone else decided to build a wall around the hill to expand the castle. They built the walls straight up around the base of the hill and for some hundred years or so no one filled in the gap between the top of the 'christmas pudding' hill and the straight walls. Weird. Maybe they were tired after all the wall building.... It was mostly used as a residence by the church, but was also visited by various members of the royal family and it is interesting to think about what important decisions were made within its walls.

From there we headed south to a little place called Petersfield, mostly we went there because we have a couple of friends at home called Peter, and because it was near by. There was a lovely little lake in the middle of town where we stopped to have a cup of tea and watch the local boys throw sticks at the swans. Lovely. I was very close to standing up and tossing in one of the little boys.... Where were the parents? Ah, yes, they were abusing an old man (who was walking his dog), for looking at them wrong and complaining that the poodle was getting scared.

The following day we packed up camp and headed off. We decided that there was no reason for us to stay in Reading, we can get on the internet from anywhere in the country and we have our mobile phones - so what the heck... we decided to head towards Birmingham. Why? Just beacause. But on the way north we stopped in a place called Abingdon, just south of Oxford, to catch up with Jess and Jeff who had hired a car for the weekend. When we got there they had also hired a little motor boat and were toodling up and down the river. They were kind enough to pull in and pick us up so we could all toodle together! It was very pleasant!

That night we checked in to a campground just outside Birmingham, as we lay there in bed we realised that we were much closer to the motorway than we had previously thought. We could hear almost individual trucks and cars racing past as we drifted off to sleep.

Tuesday morning we drove south a little way to visit Coventry. We stopped in at the markets and bought Elke a jumper/cardigan thingy. Yay. It has a hood. Then we went back up and right into Birmingham. The shopping area here is quite extensive - but many of the same chain stores as other cities in England. We felt like we needed a little culture after all this conusmerism so we found the tourist information office and then went off in search of the BMAG - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The walk was a nice one. BMAG is in a really old Victorian building with a wonderful set of sweeping stairs to get to the upper floor.

The first piece of artwork we saw on walking upstairs was really tricky to look at. At first glance it appeared to be a beautifully done perspective painting of three corridors leading away from the viewer, the walls of each were lined with various paintings. However, as soon as you took a step the corridors shifted and followed you around the room. And not just like the eyes on a portrait painting. It was hard to look at and move at the same time. It wasn't until you got up to within a metre or so of the piece and somewhat side-on, that you could see that the three 'corridors' were infact built out of the painting towards the viewer. So in fact the flat canvas was not flat but a series of three flat-topped pyramids pointing outwards. It is difficult to explain but was very interesting to look at. Apparently the artworks that appeared on the ways of the 'corridors' were a selection of the painter's favorites from within BMAG itself! Neat.

We also went to see an openair photographic exhibition. The photographs on show were from the 'Earth from the Air' series (which was also published in the West Australian newspaper some time ago). It was fabulous to see these big prints out in the sun decorating this particular walkway.

That night we visited the biggest grocery shop that either of us has ever been into. It must have been the size of a Bunnings warehouse (a big one)!! It took ages to find the milk and cola we were looking for.

Wednesday (4th May) we headed south towards Hertfordshire (which is just North of London). Elke had an interview in a place called Finchley (North London) the following day, so we figured staying just outside London would be a nice idea. On the way down, we decided to check out a few more places that looked like they may be of interest. The first place we stopped off at was Northampton. We had no real reason for stopping there, other than it has the same name as a town a little ways North of Geraldton, Western Australia. We have a few close friends from Northampton in Western Australia (which is largely a farming community), and so we wanted to get a postcard while we were there. An exceptionally funny thing that we found when we were there was that in the toilet of a local pub, there was a vending machine. That is not so unusual, as I am quite aware of such vending machines selling things such as condoms, shaving razors or mints. However, we were quite amused to find that the one in this pub sold 'naughty' inflatable sheep! We guess the local men of Northampton must be hard pressed to find affection in the town.

On our next stop, we came across one of the strangest towns either of us had ever been to. Milton Keynes is essentially one network of roads layed out in a grid. We tried to head to the "City Centre" by following the signs and drove straight through it without even noticing. It is not like any other town we had ever been to. The city centre consists of what appears to be a series of massive shopping centres. We didn't come across much in the way of historic looking buildings, and suspect that the town is possibly not as old as others in England. It has a feeling of being something like a "manufactured" type town. At least it looks as though it was designed, and quite possibly looked great, on paper. However, it doesn't have the same warm feel we have found with so many other towns. Maybe if we had stayed longer it would have felt that way, but, we needed to head on to Hertford.

Hertford (pronounced Hartford), is a really nice little town. It is not that far out of London, and on Thursday, we headed into the "big smoke" to get Elke signed up with a teaching agency. We drove into Finchley, had some lunch and Elke got ready for her interview. The interview was at 2pm, so Elke arrived a little early (to make a good impression and appear organised etc). However, the person who she was to meet (the same person who arranged the 2pm interview), was out at lunch and didn't return until closer to 3pm! In the meantime Elke was left in the foyer to fill out forms by herself. When the woman eventually came in, there was no apology for being late or anything. This was not a good first impression. Certainly not the level of professionalism or organisational skills you would expect from someone who is supposed to be finding work for you. As of now, we still haven't heard back from them regarding reference and police checks. Hmmmm. Hence, Elke is registering with another agency who is hopefully a little better :) More info on them later though ;)

The next couple of days we decided to stay around Hertford and use that as a base to apply for work, check out some other lovely local towns like Hatfield and St Albians and for Elke to do a "Secondary to Primary Conversion Course" in London. This is one of the few useful things that Elke did get out of her teaching agent friend. The company that she registered with has some free courses every now and then and on Saturday, they were running this course that taught you the basics of what it is like to teach in a primary school. After doing this course, Elke is now able to do some supply work in a primary school. This could be good as the kids might be a little easier to deal with that the bigger ones. Time will tell though.

After quite an enjoyable few days in Hertfordshire, we decided to head back towards the Reading area. This is where we had told Elke's teaching agent that we were likely to be based, and so we wanted to rush down there to make sure that we were in a position where Elke could get to a teaching job whenever her agent called. As I mentioned a little earlier though, we still haven't heard from this woman. Elke has been back in touch to find out where they are at with her reference and police checks. Elke's teaching agent was going to find out and get straight back to her. We still haven't heard :(

Rather than heading back to Reading and Wellington Country Park, we decided to head for Henley on Thames. It is a beautiful little place where we had spent some time a few weeks back.

We were lucky and had some awesome weather while we were there. We ran into a really helpful and chatty groundsman named Eric who we chatted to often and who answered quite a few questions we had about the local area and a few other things about England (such as confirmation of which bush was a stinging nettle...ouch). Eric was also a keen fisherman and so much of this advice was received while sitting beside the "fishing lake" which is regularly re-stocked with fish for campers and recreational fishermen.

We didn't do much while at Henley other than take off each morning to a nearby town called Marlow, where Chris would apply for jobs. Marlow is similar to Henely in that it is situated right on the river, is quite small and quite beautiful. We had a good look around the town while not hunting for jobs though. One time while at the library, Elke found they had a book sale on where you could fill a bag for a pound. It is quite surprising what Elke can squeeze into a bag. Our car now resembles a travelling library.

You can see and comment on all of our photos here.

On Friday morning while getting ready to head up towards Marlow for another day of the same....Chris got a phone call. It was from one of the recruitment agents he had dealt with on his very first job application serveral weeks ago. This time the agent had good news...the company had finally reviewed his CV and was interested in talking to him further about the position. This would be an interview done in person down on the clients site in Exeter in Devon. Whoooooooo Hooooooooo! Road trip to Devon and hopefully that would lead to a job! So we set off with a smile each and our fingers crossed. I think we laughed properly for the first time in a few weeks this day.

Cheap wine and a three day growth

2005-05-09T10:44:00.000Z

(Quick note to reader: we have added various links to maps in this entry so you can get a better idea of where all these places with strange names are. Once you get to the 'multimap' site you can zoom in and out on the maps and move around the country as well. Hope this is of some use to you.)

After leaving the Cathedral in Sailsbury (10th April), we went in search of a particular white horse which has been cut into the hillside just North towards Swindon. We had seen the photo in our guide book and thought it too interesting and unique to skip. We consulted our handy AA drivers atlas, and discovered that there is in fact an entire herd of white horses cut into hillsides all around that area! We were able to find 3 and would like to get back to that area to have a closer look at them at some point. After satisfying our equine curiousity, we headed west towards the town of Bath.

We spent a couple of days in the Bath area, and it is certainly a lovely looking town with a beautiful Abbey and Abbey Crypt. The history in this region is amazing with links all the way back to when Romans ruled the area. Unfortunately we were not feeling very touritsy at that point , so we didn't see as much as we could have... more left for another visit!

A couple of days later, we headed to Newbury. There is not too much to say about Newbury other than that we left it to go to Basingstoke to have dinner with Mel (a work colleague of Chris'). We stayed at a lovely little campsite called Bishop's Green Farm Campsite. The guy who was running the place was quite excited to be talking to someone from Australia. He had visited Australia a couple of times and loved the place.

Chris was keen to see a castle as he had never seen one in real life before. We consulted our English Heritage book and English map book to discover that not too far away there were in fact two castles. Fabulous! Chris had in mind the tall turreted towers and grand walls of movie castles and I was looking forward to the gorgeous gardens and decadent halls. We headed off to the first one only to find on arrival that it wasn't open to the public (despite many signs in town and along the road dircting keen tourists in its direction).

The second one was there, sort of. Donnington Castle is very old (like so many things in England) built in the 14C, and unfortunately for us it was mostly destroyed in 1645. So all that remained to satisfy our desire for romanticisim was one tower and a bit if crumbly wall. We could see where a couple of fireplaces used to be and a spiral stone staircase, we could see where horizontal beams used to meet the end wall to support upper floors and the main entrance gate was still standing. It is amazing actually how little it takes to conjure in your imagination all sorts of glorious images of the people who used to live there and the things that they might have done.

Henley-On-Thames is a lovely little town...believe it or not...on the Thames river. We arrived here on the 14th April. It's the setting for an enormous rowing regatta each summer. So big is this event, that workmen were busy constructing the large blue and white striped tents a full two and a half months in advance. That evening in the pub beside ourcampsite, we got speaking to a local. He wriggled his way into our conversation with some seemingly tame remark about soccer. From there, he sat down to tell us all about his life, his problems with his marriage, problems with his job and so on. He offered to get Chris a job as a security officer. He also assured us that he really is a good bloke and then in the same breath told us about he and a mate were "borrowing" fuel on regular basis from one of the places where he was working as a security officer! Nice. Honestly, he really was a friendly bloke and offered to let us come and cook in his caravan whenever we liked. We left the next day.

After Henley, we headed for Reading (pronounced Red-ing), as we decided that this was quite a good central location for us to be. This is especially true for finding Chris work as Reading is right in the technology corridor between the M3 and M4 that is commonly known here as the "Silicon Valley" of England. Our first trip into Reading was quite nice. The town has a little river that runs through it, and the main shopping area reminded us both of Perth and the Hay St Mall area.

We had in our possession a camping guide book which assured us that the campsite just outside Reading in Finchamstead was a lovely place to stay. We had to stop to ask directions three times and each time Chris came back to the car shaking his head and laughing. It seems that asking for directions in an English pub is not as simple a matter as one might expect. No, you might ask the bar maid for help but she will point you the direction of one of the grizzled looking locals who she tells you is "much better at giving directions". So you ask him, he sighs, holds his chin and says "I could tell you how to get there but that guy over there" indicating a pile of coat at the table in the corner "lives down that road so you should really ask him". Before long most of the pub will be involved in giving you directions (most of them indicating the same direction) and you will leave the establishment with enough information to get you a couple of miles down the road before having to stop at another pub and ask again.

Finally we found the place we were looking for, only to be turned away at the gate because we did not have a certified campervan. The woman justified their policy by saying they couldn't let in one comercial vehicle or they would have to let in more. With relief I explained that we were not in a commercial vehicle, simply a people mover, and that 'yes' infact the seats did fold down to make a bed. She looked suspicious and asked if it had curtains. It was very frustrating to have worked so hard to find he place and then not be allowed to stop for one night.

We decided that it was too late to try and find another campsite to we headed into Reading city to try and find a reasonably priced hotel room. Elke must have really looked tired and sad when she walked into the Comfort Inn reception because she came back out to the car to say that they were going to let us have a £59 room for £45. We had a nice warm room, with TV and a heated towel rack!!

The next day we enjoyed the cooked breakfast that came with the room and moved back to the kind of accommodation we were getting accustomed to, a campground. It was a lovely site with a large lake just nearby, home to all kinds of birds and other animals. Most of the following week was fairly unexciting. We spent a few hours a day on the internet in Reading's Coffee Republic, walked around the lake, made our way back and forth across a muddy road to get to the bathrooms. To keep our spirits up and to keep us warm, we were sampling several "cheap" wines from various different countries during the colder evenings.

The 19th April was Elke's birthday and it was a nice day where we broke from routine. We headed into the city after a little sleep-in, had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the river, went to a movie and to top it all off, got a parking ticket for £20. Bum. Otherwise it was a lovely day and Chris spoiled me with three great novels to read and a bar of Swiss chocolate. On the back of this bar sweet Chris had crossed out the fat and sugar content and made them both 0%.

A couple of days later, on Friday afternoon, we headed back into Thorton Heath. This was Rosie's first trip into the big smoke. It was not too bad at all actually except for trying to parallel park our tank on a crowded street :) We spent the night with our friend Leia, and decided to go on a bit of a road trip the following day which was the 23rd April.

Heading South from London we drove towards the coast. We visited Arundel which has a magnificent castle. Unfortunately, this magnificent castle is closed on Saturdays. Go figure. We stopped in Arundel for a bit of breakfast and checked out a couple of Cathedrals while we were there anyway. We then headed on to Chichester, which is a little bit further South West. One of the interesting things to see in Chichester is an old Church that has been converted into a pub/coffee shop. We decided we had to stop in and have some coffee. Chris wasn't so lucky on this occasion though. The first cup came with lumpy curdled milk, and when the waited brought the replacement milk, he promptly spilt it all over the table (and Chris and Leia). Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk. Ha ha. That'll teach us to complain about our food though.

South of Chitchester is an area called the Whitterings. We had been told that the Whitterings is a great example of a sandy beach and sand dunes in England. Going to the beach is certainly a different experience here than back in Australia. Firstly, we noticed that we were the only people not changing out of our shoes into Gum Boots. It seems a very strange custom. Chris tried out the water temprature by going in up to his ankles. By all accounts, it was very cold and there was no swimming to be done that day. The other funny thing is all the little beach houses that are lined up along the top of the sand dunes. Apparently, after having a dip in the water, people run back up the beach to their little beach house. All the beach houses were locked up and seem to be privately owned. We can't wait till summer when we can make our way to the beaches and see what it is like with all those little houses filled with people and their Gum Boots.

After leaving the Whitterings, we decided we had to visit the seaside town of Bognor Regis. We had no other reason for wanting to go there other than that it had quite a funny name. It turned out to be quite a nice town. However, we didn't stay long as we still had other places to see. We decided to head back towards London, but take a detour to the most famous of Englands seaside towns, Brighton.

Brighton seemed like a lovely place, although we didn't explore much other than the water front. There are two piers in Brighton. One has been devestated by a fire and is completely and utterly burnt to a crisp (but still standing in the water). The other has a mini fun fair/carnival type atmosphere with roller coasters, haunted houses, bumper cars etc. We decided to head to this pier. Initially we wondered why all this peripheral entertainment was here until we saw the beach. Nice and full of large pebbles and once again, not warm enough to swim in. We are wondering if it would actually ever be warm enough to swim in. I guess we will have to head back to the South coast once the weather warms up a little. After a quick beer overlooking a beautiful sunset, we decided to head back to London.

The next day, we left London and headed for a camp ground in Horsley where Elke decided that is was worthwhile for us to join the Caravan and Camping Club. Seeing we were doing quite a bit of camping already....and would like to do more when the weather is nice enough for normal people to want to camp...we joined up. Basically the club has many sites right across the UK. From our understanding, all of these sites are of a pretty high standard. Becoming a member entitles you to discounts at all club sites.

The next week, we went back to the same campsite we had been in previously (not a club site) outside Reading. However, in order for us to avoid causing offence we were advised to buy ourselves a tent before the bank holiday (a.k.a public holiday) the following weekend. Why don't people like it when we sleep in Rosie? Anyway, we therefore headed into Reading during the week and purchased ourselves a nice tent and airmattress. We are moving up in the world :) We also decided to get ourselves a wireless LAN card which means that we can get cheaper internet access and didn't have to pour our entire life savings into the hands of Coffee Republic. It has turned out to be quite a good move.

So we are not quite up to date but we will be soon. Hopefully, last week's adventures will be posted in the next few days. We'll 'talk' to you then.

Roving Rosie

2005-04-22T14:05:00.000Z

Things have been moving fairly quickly since we got Rosie. That is what we have called the car. Why? Because she is Red and a Renault and life got Rosier when we got her... ? That will do.

Actually not everything has been moving quicker - just things outside the windows.

One of our first stops on Saturay (9th April) was at a local shopping centre, to get some of the things that we immediately knew we would need...pillows, some plastic plates, a sleeping bag for chris and a book of campsites all over the country.

Our second stop was a service station with a vaccumm with which to clean out all the bits and pieces that the previous owners had neglected to remove. We found amongst the half eaten crackers and broken crayons, a little picture book (which we didn't keep) a funnel from the top of a jerry can (which we didn't keep) and a small black umbrella (which we did keep).

Then we were off! We decided that with our new found freedom we ought to head off and see something that would otherwise have been difficult to get to. Also something that we both thought would be pretty cool to go and see - Stone Henge! Yes that mystical ring of rocks was calling us.

With me navigating and Chris doing an awesome job at the wheel we headed off. I spied in our handy driving atlas that (almost) on the way to Stone Henge there was another interesting sight and so I guided Chris in that direction. Before long we arrived at Wood Henge. Yes, WOOD HENGE. We had both pictured somthing similar to Stone Henge.

What we got looked a little more like a modern art installation. After reading the information on site we discovered that in fact it wasn't muck of a surprise that there was no wood left because it was even older than Stone Henge. In more recent times they have put short concrete markers where the wooden poles used to be. (So I guess it kind of is a piece of modern art).

From there we went to Stone Henge. It was somewhat more impressive. Actually it was awesome! We suffered all the way around the site though because of the amazingly cold wind that was blowing! This did do good things to the number of people there though. I can imagine that when the sun is warm and the breeze is only cool there are many more people oggling the stones. The audio tour was very informative, and helped to keep at least one ear warm.

That night we slept in Rosie. It was cold. There are no two ways about it. The seats were quite comfortable and our towels in the windows made good enough curtains, but our sleeping bags alone were not enough to keep us warm and we both woke up wearing quite a bit more clothing than we had gone to bed wearing.

That day (Sunday) we headed into the little town of Salisbury to visit the cathedral and have some breakfast. Not neccessarily in that order.

It is a pretty amazing Cathedral - they all seem to be. We discovered (by eaves dropping) that almost all of the stained glass panels were post medieval. Apparently some guy called Cromwell decided while he was running the country that there should be no images of Christ around so all the windows in cathedrals got smashed, statues were destroyed and so on. There are only four small pieces left way up near the top where he couldn't be bothered to finish the job, where the original windows remain. They have tried to recreate the remaining windows to match and have basically done a pretty good job. (The 'new' windows are still hundreds of yers old mind).

All photo's are here.

The other really interesting thing that we found out about the Cathedral (which has the highest spire in England) is that the foundation for the biulding is only four feet deep. Apparently the structure shouldn't be able to stand but because of the water table being high (?) it does. But they have to pull up a tile in the floor each week to check the water level and make sure that it is still ok. Cool.

Old Oxford and it's cool colleges

2005-04-14T09:28:00.000Z

The first night we arrived we dropped our bags in the room we had been allocated at the youth hostel (we were the only two in a room with fourteen beds) and went for a wander in the town centre. It seemed immediately like a cool town - and not just because we were shivering. Lots of really old buildings and little alley ways and at night it looked especially magical.

We headed back to the hostel and were looking forward to having the room to ourselves, but it was not to be. We opened the door of the dorm and were at once surprised by the startled looking face staring back at us from under the doona of the first bunk. Accompanying the wide eyes was a shock of straight but disheveled black hair and a thin face. We both said 'hi' (as is commonly acceptable in youth hostels) and received no response. After a moment more of staring at us the doona was promptly pulled back down over her face and she disappeared. But we could still hear her. As we readied ourselves for sleep we could hear her talking quietly in the bunk around the corner, she was not speaking clearly or loudly enough to make out what she was saying but she was definitely having a conversation. But with who? We decided that she had a mobile phone under the covers with her and was just speaking to a friend. Early the next morning (around 3am), she was once again having a conversation and this time she was speaking more clearly. Chris was awake at this stage and says that it went on for quite some time and she was talking to someone and laughing about something. He ended up having to get some ear-plugs out of his bag to get back to sleep. We figured at that point that there was nobody else - she was holding up both ends of the conversation on her own... We think she spent most of the following day sitting on her bunk and talking quietly to herself.

The next morning we decided to call around to a few car yards to see if they had what we wanted. By this stage we had mostly abandoned the idea of getting a camper van and were instead trying to find a station wagon (known as an 'estate' here). Of the ten or so car dealers that we called in the Oxford area none had more than one estate in stock and none were in our price range (which was admittedly quite low).

We decided that the following day we would hire a car to go a bit further afield to look at a few things we had seen advertised in the local Auto Trader.

So that night we went to the movies to see 'Robots', if you like animations, or Robin Williams, it is worth going to have a look at!!

That night our eccentric room mate was at it again but we felt a little safer because there were a few more people in the room. Apparently she was talking for a couple of hours that night and had greeted the new residents in the room with the same stare-from-beneath-the-doona that we had received.

Wednesday morning we headed down the road to Thrifty to pick up our hire car. They didn't like the fact that we were not English and wanted to see our passports, return tickets. OK. Except that we had left our return tickets in London. So we told them that we didn't have return tickets because we are going to be here for two years. They liked that even less. Eventually the manager of the store relented and let us take the car - as long as we left our passports and credit card details with them. When I joked and asked if we would get our passports back she turned and in all seriousness said "If we get our car back." I guess they have a lot of people 'borrow' cars for longer than intended...

We drove all over the country-side that day, to Woking (pronounced woe-king), to Reading (pronounced red-ing), to Slough (pronounced slaow). This last was the setting of the series shown on ABC TV 'The Office' (very funny but painful program to watch) and it must be said that the city looked very much the part.

We had no luck what so ever that day. As we discovered later, the magazine we were using was almost a week old so all of the vans/cars that we went to see had been sold. One guy rubbed it in by proclaiming that he could have sold it ten times over by now! Great, thanks.

We decided that evening to move to the YHA just down the road. They were a little more expensive but a whole lot cleaner and they had common areas that were non-smoking (unlike the place we had been staying at previously). As we were chatting to the guy working on the front desk and telling him our woes (they always seem lessened when you tell someone else) he mentioned that there was a car for sale up the street from where he was living which was just around the corner from the hostel.

So after dinner we went for a walk, and about three blocks from where we had been staying we found Rosie. Only we didn't know for sure then. We tried calling the number on the window advertisement but there was no answer. So Chris left a message on voice-mail and we waited.

The following morning we got a call from the guy saying that we could go and have a look at the car that evening after he got home from work. Cool, so we had the whole day to do the touristy things that we hadn't been able to do because we were stressing out about cars.

We spent some time wandering through the farmers markets that was on in Glouchester Green, we went to the Museum of the History of Science and into the Sheldonian Theatre from the top of which there were awesome views of the town's spires and green fields. It was a really lovely sight.

We visited the Bodleian Library (or one of it's halls) and were delighted (Chris somewhat less so) that it had been used to creat the 'hospital' in the Harry potter movies. Actually there are a lot of settings around Oxford that were used in the Potter movies and lots of other TV shows.

We also went into the church of Saint Mary the Virgin (...as opposed to Saint Mary the ?tart?). The architecture in it was fabulous and the stained glass windows were beautiful. We had a bit of a late lunch in a small cafe and basically enjoyed the day and being tourists.

That evening we went and had a look at the car. It was a Renault Espace with seven seats. It was full of kids toys and junk. But we took it of for a test drive anyway and decided later that evening that we had found our car!!! Yay. At last. We could sleep in the back, it had room to carry our gear, we could take other people on trips, it was new(ish) and didn't have too many miles on the clock.

So, Friday morning we went and paid for the car. And then began the saga of finding and buying insurance. We had made a few calls from London already and knew it was going to be difficult. A lot of companies say that you have to be a permanent resident and that a visa isn't good enough. A lot of companies say that you have to have a British driver's licence (which seems odd because all we have to do to get one is to send in our Australian licences) and in some cases have held it for a year.

Remember I said that we had found a £2000 campervan in London that we liked? Well the only insurance quote we could get for that was (fully comprehensive) £2500. More than the car cost to buy!!! Ridiculous.

The thing with insurance and cars here though is that you have to have it. It is illegal to drive a car without it. So even though we had paid for the Renault we couldn't move it because we weren't yet insured!

Eventually we got it sorted out and found a place that would insure us with our Aussie licences, being on a visa and that didn't cost both arms and both legs (just one of each).

Then we took Rosie for a drive!! Ahh the freedom of having your own car!! We were instantly happier. Even if she is a tank to turn, the peddals are close together so you keep stepping on the accelorator when you go to break and she smells like other peoples kids and cigarettes. She is ours!

The trials of buying a car - week two in London

2005-04-12T14:45:00.000Z

Sorry there are no photos with this entry yet, internet access is difficult at the moment but we will try to get them up here soon.

I will make this entry somewhat shorted than the last few have been - I am sorry my friends there was just so much that happened in the first week!

OnSaturday the 26th April Chris and I headed into London city to meet up with some friends of ours from Darwin - Jess and Jeff - who have also just recently arived here for a couple of years. They had quite a rough start to their experience but after a couple of weeks (by the time we arrived) they were gettig properly settled in to a new apartment and jobs. It was great to catch up and share the Cornish Pasty experience!

Easter Monday started off wonderfully - until breakfast when Chris' tooth fell apart on a piece of bacon (I can hear the vegetarians saying 'so there'). Literally a quarter of one of his molars came off and unfortunately was swallowed before Chris realised! As there was nothing to be done right away we decided to carry on with our plans.

It was a beautiful day so Chris, Leia and I headed to Battersea Park on the River Thames for a picnic and a gruelling round of Trivial Pursuit - Leia cleaned up (especially on the sport questions).

That afternoon we headed to the emergency dental clinic, where we waited for for three and a half hours for the dental practitioner to pop some temporary filling into Chris' mouth, tell him to get it sorted out properly soon, and to only eat mushy stuff. Poor Chris. Unfortunately it looks like it is going to be quite a major activity to fix and will probably take several visits to the dentist to solve. The thing is though that here you can't just go to any dentist, you have to be registered with a dentist in your area and seeing as we don't have an area and arn't planning to be in Leia's area much longer we will need to leave it for now and get it sorted in the next week or so.

Leia left early on Tuesday morning for a week in Germany with a friend. We spent most of the next week looking for cars on the internet, in the Auto Trader and going to see various vehicles in various spots around London. We had very little luck finding something which suited what we both wanted, what we needed and our taste and budget. It was a tense week, we were both getting frustrated and a little short with each other. There were however several advertisements that we saw which made us chuckle. For example: the little ford that was "very reliable, a good runner. Needs a jump start", the wonderful citroen which had "CD player, airbags, remote central locking and a toe bar". TOE? Foot finger? Then there was the one which sounded great all over but had "smokes heavily, still runs" added on casually at the end of the ad. There was the one which was fabulous but "pulls to the right when braking over 30mph" and so on and so on.

We did find one old (1992) Citroen campervan that was quite good, but by the time we had decided that it was what we wanted and then started looking into insurance it got sold to someone else. Bugger. Insurance here is very difficult to get if you are here on a visa like us - but we knew we deffinitely wanted to get one so....

We ended a miserable and tense week with a £5 comedy night. The host was a funny guy (useful if you want to be in the stand-up scene) who made mention of Chris' fabulous 70's Footballer haircut. There were some top acts on that night!

On Monday 4th April we decided we had to leave London - even if we didn't yet have a car. So we packed up our stuff, tidied Leia's flat and jumped on a late evening train to Oxford. Why Oxford? Just because.

I'm sure the scenery outside was lovely but we couldn't see any of it - because it was dark. It was about an hour long trip through several towns including Slough. (If you ever watched the English series on ABC at home called "The Office", Slough was the delightful town used as the setting.)

We arrived and were immediately surprised by the number of bicycles chained up by the train station! Literally hundreds! That's how you can tell this is a student based city. Or maybe they are just more environmentally friendly here. Or they can't afford the car insurance either! Anyway - we made it to our hostel and ....the rest of Oxford will come in the next (episode/issue/chaper) entry.

Little old London

2005-04-02T21:21:00.000Z

Little Old London

We arrived in London via Heathrow Airport at about ten thirty in the morning. It is an enormous airport and difficult to navigate. It is so busy in fact that when we pulled up our plane was not allocated a gate, we just pulled up on the tarmac and had to walk down some stairs to awaiting buses which would drive us to the airport proper. Except that they didn’t have enough buses at the ready… so the two of us, who had been sitting near the back of the plane, had to stop half way to the front doors and wait for the back-up buses to arrive. It was the last thing either of us felt like doing at that point… after a long flight, standing within sniffing distance of the outside but not able to get there!! Arghhh.

We did make it out eventually and cleared immigration and customs without too many hassles and made our way down to the city trains. So began our adventures with the London public transport system. Being exhausted from the overnight flight and the time difference we were very pleased to see that the train was almost empty as we boarded. With much relief we plonked our packs down on a seat, plonked ourselves down beside them and commenced zoning out. As we travelled closer to the city more people got on but we weren’t paying much attention until the middle aged woman next to me turned around and informed us that we were both very rude for having our packs on the seats when they were intended for people. Well. She was right, we shouldn’t have had them there, but it wasn’t an intentional insult, and nobody had asked us if they could sit down. We stood with our packs for the remainder of the trip and consoled ourselves partly with the fact that not all our seats were immediately filled when we stood up…but mostly by the fact that she had really ugly shoes.

The plan was to stay with our good friend Leia Sanders from home but, being a Friday, she was at work when we arrived. So we headed for Hyde Park in the city centre to wait the few hours until she finished. Many people had told us that England is a miserably rainy, cold, grey sort of a place. We have proof that it isn’t. Hyde Park that afternoon was beautiful. The grass was green, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. In short, it was the perfect place to snooze for a couple of hours, using our packs as back rests.

Photoson our photo pages.

We met Leia a couple of hours later in a slightly less delightful place, namely the food court at Victoria Station. It is amazing how alike food courts around the world look. We splurged and bought a small fries from KFC to share for a snack (the exchange rate is not good at the moment).

Leia lives in an area of London called Thornton Heath, it is about a half hour train ride from Victoria Station in a southerly direction. She had just moved into an apartment on her own, it is a one bedroom affair on the ground floor of what was once a fairly typical English city house. There are now either 4 or 5 flats in the one building. Leia’s is very nice. The kitchen is simple but looks like it was all installed not long ago and the landlord put in a washing machine when Leia asked. One thing that we were both a bit surprised (and also delighted) at, is the way that Leia pays for her electricity usage in the flat. She has a ‘vending machine’, a little box on the wall by the front door that takes £1 coins and deals out 3 units per pound. Very neat. What happens if you don’t put coins in? The electricity just cuts out.

Leia had dinner plans with a friend already that night, so the two of us walked her back up to the train station and then went in search of dinner type food. The kebab shop looked too good to pass, so we didn’t. There is a very culturally and ethnically mixed population in Thornton Heath and it was interesting watching people come in and order in one accent, have their order confirmed in another accent and then pay with pounds. The kebabs were great. We retired fairly early that night into Leia’s bed which she had insisted we take, we were very grateful as we slipped off to sleep, emitting only occasional kebab flavoured burps.

Before we left Perth we went to Thomas Cook to open an account here. We had to give them most of $4000 for the required opening deposit of £1500. OK. My sister, Inge, who is renting our house in Kardinya, had been faithfully gathering our letters and had sent a selection of the important ones over. Among them were a collection of letters from the bank and our first account statement. According to the paperwork, our £1500 had been deposited into the account, withdrawn from the account, deposited, withdrawn, deposited again and withdrawn once more and our grand total at the end of the statement was a whopping 6 pence!!! What??? And where was our money???

Needless-to-say this bank account was now our very top priority! The following day, Saturday, the three of us headed back into London town. It was another lovely sunny day and it felt like it had to be a great day. We took all the required paperwork from home to open our new UK bank account, and after waiting quite some time we finally got to speak to someone. She looked confused, took our papers and went out the back to try and sort it out. She came back and told us that our cards were ready, she wasn’t sure why the money had gone in and out but that there was $1492.06 cleared in our account. Big smile. Ok, good, but why is there £8 still missing? She said because it was Saturday there wasn’t a lot she could do but to leave it with her and she would find out. Hmmmm….

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, going to Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus… it is a little like being on a Monopoly Board. It was a nice day.

That evening, back in Thornton Heath, we decided to have our first real English pub experience. Chris and I had noticed that between the train station and Leia’s place there was a small pub called ‘Bar 68’. We had stuck our heads in previously and decided that it looked ok, so the arrangement was made to drop in for a quiet beer with Leia. When we arrived the door was locked but one of three guys at the bar jumped up and unlocked it for us. It was smokier inside than it had looked and as we tried to decide what to drink the three of us were all trying not to start coughing. I decided to duck off to the toilet for a bit of fresh air. On my way back to the toilet I saw some interesting informational pamphlets on the wall, I started to get suspicious. As I sat down with Leia at our little table (Chris was still paying for the beers) Leia leaned in and said “I think this is a gay bar”, my suspicions were confirmed. All of a sudden it became very obvious – the rainbow triangle on the door was not there to look pretty, the ‘All gay men need to know about condoms’ pamphlets, the signed photo of KD Lang, the photos of men dancing closely in hot pants and the trolley full of gay magazines all gave it away. We told Chris when he joined us at the table and the three of us sat there and contemplated the significance of our first pub experience being a gay bar. We finished our beers and left giggling at our good fortune.

Sunday we headed into the city (getting good mileage on our travel passes) to meet up with a couple of Chris’ colleagues from Motorola at home, Toran and Liam. They had been working just outside London for a couple of weeks and had the day off to come in and check out the city. We met them by Big Ben, from across the road when we first spotted them it looked as though the two guys were taking it in turn to propose to each other. They were down on bended knee and all. However when we asked Toran about it a minute later he told us that they both just wanted to have a photo of themselves in front of BB while he rang out 12 mid-day. The height of BB in relation to the height of photographer and subject meant that to get both faces in the shot the photographer was required to kneel. Not so exciting….

We wandered from there up the road in search of lunch and found ourselves a cosy little English pub. Not specifically for gay people this time… and got ourselves some good English fare. Chris and I were madly trying not to convert the price of our modest meals into Aussie dollars (my £3.50 bowl of wedges came to almost $10 – eeep!).

We left the boys there, with vague plans to possibly meet up again later, and walked up to Trafalgar Square, down through Saint James’ Park (it was gorgeous with the daffodils all in bloom) where we sat for a few moments on deck-chairs set out for public use. All of a sudden we were standing in front of Buckingham Palace. It was prettier this time than I remember it. My impression last time was of a big concrete block, it is still a big concrete block ( I don’t think that will ever change) but it seemed nicer this time. Despite searching the windows closely we didn’t see the Queen (she probably has better things to do – like painting her toenails) or any royals. We did see some of the guards marching around and swapping over posts. Yes they were wearing big fluffy hats.

We walked down to the River Thames where we saw the London Eye – a huge Ferris wheel that was built fairly recently and although it doesn’t fit with all the other old buildings in the city it is quite exciting. We walked along the north bank of the river to Cleopatra’s Obelisk which bears the scars of the first bombing raid on London in WWII.

Later we met Chris’ colleagues in an area of London called Earl’s Court for a few drinks and a bit of dinner. We ended up getting a little lost on the underground on the way home – some of the lines are not as straight forward as they seem, especially if you’re a little tired.

Monday morning we slept in a little, Leia included because she is now on school holidays – yay! Then Chris and I went back into the city to buy me a new mobile phone. The one I had at home had been progressively dying and the month that it wasn’t plugged in while we were travelling just pushed it over the edge. Poor little thing.

That evening the three of us decided to try out another local delicacy – Wimpy Burger. Yes, you read that right – Wimpy. It is a burger chain over here so we bravely headed up to give it a go (just so that we could report back to you, of course!). We went in and ordered take away from the man behind the counter who set to work making the burgers fresh. We walked them home and sat down to give it a go. Honestly – it was all a bit, well, wimpy. I guess you can believe what’s written on the signs!

Most of the rest of the week was reasonably quiet – we started looking at the internet for vans/cars, we hunted around for an adapter, a thumb drive and a case for ‘fat cat’ (Chris’ hard drive containing all his music files) – except for Wednesday.
The day after we arrived, Leia got a call on her mobile which was for me. It was the guy from the shipping company about our unaccompanied luggage. It had arrived the same day we did BUT we couldn’t pick it up until it had cleared Customs BUT customs are only open on Wednesdays (between 9 and 3), so they would have to hold onto our bags until then BUT because that is longer than the first two days they were going to have to charge us storage for the remaining three days. How is that fair???

This should have been a fair indication for how the whole day was going to go… We knew it was going to take us a while to get out there on public transport but we had no idea. It was seven hours from the time we left to the time we got home again with our bags. AArrrgghhhh….. The bus was tricky, the lines were long, we had to walk 20 minutes to customs, wait in line there, walk back, wait some more and then bus/train it home. The whole process was painful, with the added stress of knowing that if we didn’t get to Customs in time then we would have to leave our bags there for another whole week and pay £6.5 (about $15) a day storage….

Thursday night we went our for dinner with Leia and a group of her friends (almost all of whom are originally from Perth!) to the Covent Garden area. It was a really nice evening with some really nice people.

Friday afternoon, all feeling tired, we went to see the movie ‘Hitch’ at a local cinema, it was just like cinema’s at home. With yummy popcorn.

So all in all it was a good start to our time in the UK. We had started discussing what kind of a vehicle to buy, I thought a Mazda Bongo sounded too funny not to get, but Chris wasn’t convinced. We will get it sorted soon.

Time out in Toronto

2005-03-24T12:41:00.000Z

Our arrival on Sunday 13th March in Toronto was fairly standard, the nice Canadian airport official even let us bring in the last of our Seattle Beef Jerky (so there had been no need to eat as much of it on the plane as I did). Uncle Glenn picked us up from the airport and took us home to meet the rest of the family. The wonderful Tarvers had organised to have the whole family over for dinner, it was excellent for me to see them all again after 4 years and for Chris to meet that side of my family. Dinner was made by my cousin Laura who is studying to become a chef (it was as you might expect - excellent). Mark came home from Uni an hour away for the night, Kathryn came by after school and Brett came with his new wife Aleks. It was a lovely evening all around.

The following morning my Aunt Sharyn took us into the city. We had made plans to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), however once we arrived and Sharyn paid for parking for a couple of hours we discovered that it (like the Gallery in San Francisco) was closed on the day we had selected to visit. Bum. No worries - we are nothing if not flexible. So Chris and I wandered down the street to get a little lunch in China Town while Sharyn said she would wait to meet Kathryn.

While we had every intention of finding ourselves some quality authentic Chinese food we ended up in a Tim Horton's. (For those who don't know - Tim Horton's is a coffee chain in Canada that my Papa loves and that is definitely not Chinese.) So, we each had a sandwich, donut and coffee/hot chocolate. Mmmmm....

We headed back to the AGO and Kathryn (who had also paid for a couple of hours parking) took us all on a tour of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) which was just around the corner. The building recently had a rather large addition built. The original building is a fairly standard looking brick job but the addition sits over it like a table top. It is black and white checks on the outside and is supported by large brightly coloured pencil shaped poles. Kinda neat.

From there we headed to the Royal Ontario Museum, where Sharyn dropped us off. We spent the next couple of hours wandering the corridors, looking at old artwork, sculptures, insect displays, stuffed animals and stuffed people... That last bit was not a joke, they have a couple of Egyptian mummies which are pretty amazing to stand and consider for a few minutes. Chris found the Egyptian section the most interesting - in particular the fact that the collection included at least on sarcophagus which had been x-rayed but never opened!

When we got kicked out because the museum was closing we walked into the heart of town. We walked though Queen's Park which was just gorgeous. It must be pretty in summer when the grass is green and the trees are covered in leaves but this day it was really special. The ground was covered in a 20cm layer of white snow and the trees, although stark, were elegant. To make it all even better the sun had started to go down, so all the buildings beyond the trees at the edge of the park were reflecting a fabulous golden colour. How romantic.

We made it home a bit late that night - the trains/buses were easy enough to work out but just public-transport slow plus we missed our last stop and overshot it by about 20mins worth of travel, oops. I think we made my Aunt and Uncle a little nervous.

Tuesday morning Glenn dropped us off at the Ontario Science Centre which was several hours worth of entertainment. Lots of interesting exhibits including one on the science of roller coasters and why we scream and feel dizzy and why the loops have to be a certain size and shape - way cool.

From there the two us headed into town again to ascend the CN Tower. It (used to be at least) the tallest free-standing structure in the world. From the highest viewing platform, called the SkyPod, takes you up almost half a kilometre into the sky. The view is awesome on a clear day, which we were lucky enough to get. There were no cowboys at the top of this tower - I guess it must have been an American thing.

We got a good sense of the city from up there - we were able to see where we had walked to and from the day before and where we were headed that evening. As a new feature they have recently installed a section of glass flooring which allows you to look directly down between your feet to the ground hundreds of metres below. It was quite interesting to watch the way kids would throw themselves face down on the glass to get a better view while their parents stood back on 'solid' ground to take a photo. Brave souls!

More photos on our photo pages.

Chris's stomach demanded a stop in at another Tim Horton's on our way from the tower to Queen St to catch the trolley. I demanded that he be adventurous and try something other than the Boston Cream he had eaten and enjoyed the day before.

The trolley ride east along Queen St took us past all kinds of interesting stores and was a little bit nostalgic for me because the last time I rode it was with my Grandfather in 1993. He passed away a year later.

We took it all the way to where it terminates at Neville Park Blvd. This is the street that my Grandparents lived on for more than 50 years and where my Mother grew up. I wanted to show Chris the house but as we got close I knew I was going to burst into tears. Silly emotional Dous. I was trying to point out the various rooms of the house to Chris without letting on - but that just didn't work. I can just imagine the new owners glancing out their front window to see a blubbering woman pointing at their house!

At the other end of the street, on the other side of Queen St, just near the shore of Lake Ontario, live some of my parents' oldest friends - Helmut and Dianne. Papa was Helmut's best-man many years ago and in true Papa style he wrote the word 'HELP' on the soles of Helmut's shoes so that when he knelt down in front of the congregation during the ceremony he unknowingly sent out a desperate looking plea....well you can imagine.

We had a lovely dinner with them and their son Michael, catching up on news of the last four years and chatting. It is a great old house that has been in the family for years but it will be the last time we see them in it because they have decided that they are ready for change and a bit more travel. They will be moving in the next little while to a house even closer to a lake a couple of hours north of Toronto. The photos look awesome! We were discussed getting into town the following night to see Michael's band perform, they are called 'This Crooked Mile' (a little global plug for you there guys! :)) Their music is really good - check it out.
They dropped us home after dinner and we said goodbye - 'til next time.

Wednesday - already! This week was going very fast. We were a little slow getting going and so by the time we had caught the bus/train into the city it was lunch time. This time we had a proper Chinese meal in China Town (although we passed on the place that was advertising no added MGS. Good to know they don't add old cars to their food!)

We went to visit the AGO knowing that it would be open this time. It was great! They had a huge display up about the work of Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude. He is the guy that has been 'wrapping' things for the last thirty years or so. 'Things'? I hear you ask. Well he wrapped a large section of the coast in New South Wales, the Reichstag in Berlin, fully-grown trees in Paris, he erected hundreds of umbrellas in Japan and skirted a series of islands in Florida in bright pink fabric. I like this guy! Click HERE for Christo's work

From there it was back onto the Queen St trolley to visit Brett and Aleks in their new apartment. They had planned a super 'North-American' themed dinner for us. A lot of thought went into it - every ingredient had to be from Canada (preferably) or America, and the dishes were all Canadian as well. It was great. Three courses carefully considered and all delicious. Chris discovered that he likes smoked salmon (this particular type know as 'salmon candy') and I found out that some very alcoholic beers do not taste very alcoholic.

It was a really nice evening which came to include a bit of live guitar playing provided by their downstairs neighbour and Aleks playing Canadian DJ with their CD collection - some good music is coming out of Canada!

The next day (St Patrick's Day) was the day to spend some time with Laura. She took us to see a friend of hers - a girl I met in '93 who is now a kick-ass hairdresser. I had said to Laura that I wanted to get a trim before we left and she figured that going to see Fiona would kill two birds with one stone. It was awesome to see Fiona again and I ended up with an awesome new do. Although I am not sure if I will ever be able to make it look as groovy as Fiona did, I am willing to give it a go and to try parting my hair on purpose (not just letting it flop).

We raced back to the house for a lunch date with the family. It was a great meal at a nice little Italian restaurant (we seem to write about food a lot) after which Sharyn took Chris and I to their local shopping centre so Chris could hunt down a CD he wanted. He didn't find it - but, as though to make up for that, it had started to snow quite heavily and we were both pretty excited. It was the kind of snow we had been hoping to see. Big fluffy clumpy bits that floated down really slowly and made the world a bit quieter. It put down a beautiful new layer over all the older grey snow and was just wonderful.

Kathryn took us to the Bluffs on the lake for an awesome view of the cliffs and the lake and then to one of her favourite pubs for a green beer. We ended up settling for a Heineken which isn't green but does come in a green beer. It was a cozy little pub called The Dog House where dogs are welcome. We couldn't stay very long unfortunately because we had to get home and pack before we left for the airport about three hours later.

The last little while was a bit rushed, packing eating dinner, asking Sharyn if we could do a quick load of washing (!! My jeans were really grotty!!) and then we were off. Glenn and Sharyn dropped us off and we said goodbye. We are hoping that, England being reasonably close, we will be able to get back to Canada some time soon again.

So that was it. All of a sudden we were on our way to London. The city we had been aiming towards for such a long time. Less than an eight hour flight away. So exciting!!!

Sunny Seattle

2005-03-14T16:35:00.000Z

Thursday 9th March we were picked up from the Samesun youth hostel just before nine in the morning. We shared the shuttle bus with only two others this time and surprise, surprise, they were Australians. From Perth. (There are so many of us over here it is a bit scary). Anyway, they had got married just two weeks before and this was their honeymoon. He had rolled his ankle quite badly and she had fallen and bruised her tailbone. As we were discussing our respective trips they expressed surprise at the length of time we are intending to be away and sugested that perhaps we had no-one at home to miss. I was a bit offended but didn't say so. Just incase anyone at home thinks the same, WE DO MISS YOU. Of course we have people at home that we will miss but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go and see the world!!
Chris has just told me to stop ranting... so I will. He is very wise.

At the Airport in Kelowna we discovered a very interesting selection of local delicasies - Beaver Droppings, BigHorn Droppings, Polar Bear Droppings and Black Bear Droppings. Curious, we investigated further and discovered (with some relief) that they were infact a selection of choc-coated nuts and raisins. Mmmmm.... animal droppings.

The flight back to Victoria was fine and we were kept giggling most of the way by our Steward (yet another entertaining guide)who assured us all that we were all happy to have had them as our crew during the flight and that we should be careful to take all our belongings with us because anything left behind would be evenly distributed between the staff.

From Victoria on Vancouver Island, which is actually south of most of the US border, we caught the Victoria Clipper. It is a ferry that takes about two and a half hours to get from Victoria to Seattle in the US. The trip takes you down through various islands and as the sun set it was a beautiful sight.

Photos here

We arrived in Seattle ok, and even made it past the suspicious customs guy who was tempted to go through our bags simply because they were pad-locked. Yes, security consious travellers are always the most suspicious! I guess he couldn't be bothered though because he didn't. It was cold in Seattle that night as we headed out to find Becca.

Rebecca is a friend of Chris' who he met at Uni 9 years ago when she was in Australia for a year. He had arranged to call her on our arrival in Seattle, and she would come and get us from the Ferry terminal. He didn't get her address, figuring that she knew where she lived so we didn't need to. However, when we went to call, the phone was out of service. So what to do? We asked a local at the terminal if she could try calling on her land-line, perhaps the problem was something to do with the phonecard we were using. Nope - same result. So we checked the phone book to see if we could find either an address or an alternative phone number. No luck there either. We decided it wasn't a good idea to leave, perhaps show up unexpectedly at Chris' aunt's house, a) because that might give Chris' aunt a bit of a shock and b) because if Becca showed up she wouldn't know where we were. No worries, we would just wait and see if she came anyway. Then Chris remembered that he had told her our ferry would arrive an hour later than it actually did. After investigating various other options and finally getting to the point where Chris called the phone company ("how did you get this number?") Becca arrived. Becca my hero.

She took us to a pub for a late dinner and then to her place. As it turns out she lives not far from the ferry or the city and we probably could have walked it if we knew where we were going.

The following day (Thursday) Becca and her house-mate Colleen (the pocket-rocket) had to work so the two of us walked into the city to check out the sights. It was an easy walk and we passed a lot of interesting places and characters. Our first destination was the Pike Place Markets in the heart of the city. It is a vibrant collection of local artwork, produce and fish-throwing. Lots of taste testing was done (fruit, beef jerky, jellys, honey etc.) and we bought a huge(ish) bag of jerky and some yummy plums.

Chris had heard about something called a 'piroshky' in our guide book, so when he saw the sign across the street for them we decided to give it a go, even though neither of us had any idea what they were and they sounded kind of scary. They were good. Essentially a kind of Russian pie, a kind of pasty crust wrapped around a multitude of different fillings. We both enjoyed ours and took a photo to prove it.

From there we walked up to 4th street to catch the monorail to the Space Needle. It is not like the monorail in Sydney that goes in a loop around the city and stops in several different places. This one does a straight (and speedy) run from one end to the other. So those of us who were hoping to make our tousist dollar go a little further and ride a whole loop extra were a little dissapointed.
We were not dissapointed by the Space Needle though. The elevator to the top itself was an adventure as it is on the outside of the tower and provides an excellent view of the city dropping away below as you rise up. At the top we saw cowboys. No kidding. At least half a dozen individual people were spotted walking around in cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Interesting. Especially the one who was wearing pink boots, pink hat, pink midrif-bearing top and white jeans...

One of the most amazing facts that we learnt about this tower is that despite its height (Top of the Space Needle: 605 feet, Observation Deck: 520 feet)its centre of gravity is only five feet (less than two metres) above the ground!! They did that by digging an enormous hole and filling it with concrete to base the needle in. Pretty cool.

From there we walked back to Becca's place to relax on the couch for a bit and watch some TV until the girls got home. Ordinarily we consider ourselves to be reasonable technology savvy but Becca's remote control was scary. It was a monster of a thing that had about a thousand buttons for seemingly every electical appliance in the house. After a little deliberation we decided to push the button called 'All On' hoping that it might just be that simple (and that the house wouldn't implode). It was that simple.

We went out that night for dinner at a great mexican restaurant, I figured that it was just dinner and we didn't really need to take the camera. This is a decision that I may regret for the rest of my life. The burrito that I ordered was one of the most amazing things that either of us has seen on this trip. It was enormous. It was gigantic. It was delicious. Even so, I could not eat more that a third of it and after Chris had a go there was still a third of it left. It was (completely without exageration now) the length of my forearm and about thirty centimetres in circumference. Although we have no photographic evidence of this monster we do have three eyewitnesses who will testify to the accuracy of this account if we pay them enough.

The following day, which was Friday, we got started a little late. We went into an area of Seattle near the University. We ate at another place that Chris had become enamoured with while in Chicago a couple of years ago and we just had to go there. It was mexican aswell (which after the last night's effort you might think would be too much) and the burritos were a much more respectable size. Both Chris and I had a couple of problems ordering though, due largely to the speed with which questions about our order were asked. "Doyawanmilehotbeanchillicorn?" After asking for each of three servers to repeat what they were saying I ended up just nodding. I am unsure exactly what I got in my lunch but it tasted good, Chris ended up with a little less in his burrito than he would have liked because he answered yes to the question "Izhatallyuwaninit?" The napkins in this restaurant were easier to understand. They had pictorial instructions on how to go about eating the burrito that you just 'ordered'.

From there Chris and I wandered down through the university district a little, checked out a couple of second-hand book stores on the way and bought ourselves a book on the south of england (to help us start to get organised) and one on France. We walked a few kilometres through the residential area between the university and an area called Fremont. We were looking for a troll.

Several years ago a group of people got together and with community help built the head and shoulders of a hugr troll under the Fremont Bridge. We found him and he really is worth a visit. From there we walked back to Becca's place and she took us on a driving tour of the city.

First stop was a drive-through Starbucks... we were tired. She took us out to West Seattle for a great (but freezing) view of the city centre, we went past Alki Beach and Madisson Park. Part way through the trip we noticed a very interesting, and slightly disturbing, phenomenon. There were several houses that we drove past that were under construction and in the front yard of each of them was a portable tiolet (know in Australia as a 'porta-loo' or 'porta-potty') for use by the men and women working on the site. This is not unusual. What was unusual, as far as we were conserned, is that the 'brand name' of the tiolets was 'Honey Bucket'... how weird is that? 'Honey Bucket'. And slightly gross...? Ahhh the wonderous things that travel can expose you to!

That evening we took it easy infront of the TV, we watched a couple of movies through the 'on demand' feature and drank a bit of beer.

Saturday was the day of the big reunion. The last time Chris saw his Aunt Suzy and Uncle Roy he was about three years old. So we were both excited. We had a lovely lunch at a place called Ray's with Cousin Mike and then went to the government locks to see the boats coming in to lake Union from the bay. We saw a salmon ladder. Salmon are an amazing fish, they come back years after they were spawned to the very same place to do their own reproducing. Since the locks were built to help the boats the ladder had to also be built so that the fish can still get in. Unfortunately it was the wrong season to see any fish jumoing but I imagine that at the right time of year it is a really amazing sight!

We had a really lovely afternoon catching up and even though we barely knew each other at first, by the time Suzy and Roy dropped us off they really felt like family.

We had a BBQ that night on the deck out side Becca and Colleen's place. It overlooks Lake Union and is a really special spot. Chris wrestled with the BBQ (and heat beads - right Becca?) for a while, until one of Becca's friends introduced a whole lot of lighter fluid to the mix. Then it burnt willingly. We got to meet several locals that night, a whole bunch of really neat people who were a lot of fun. We didn't stay up too late, except to pack, because we had to get up at about six to make it to the airport for our flight to Toronto. (Thanks for the lift Ed.)

Skiing Adventures - part 2

2005-03-11T18:38:00.000Z

I forgot to mention at the end of the last entry that after a long day skiing (which may only be a coule of hours if you are a beginner like us) there is little better than a soak in a hot tub (spa). I think we mentioned that our hostel had one. It was fabulous, largely because it is outside and so you sit amid the snow, steam rising slowly around you and feel yourself relax. Yum. Actually - if you stay in for a little while and get good and warm, then you steam too when you get out!!

The next day we had a bit of a later start. Elke was not feeling good at all (head and tummy aches), and we were considering giving the skiing a miss. However, after a light breakfast and a little walk around, she started to feel a lot better. We went into the ski school and signed up for another lesson. This time....we went for skiing level 2 ! Basically this means that you no longer confine yourself to the kiddies magic carpet ride, but instead, you take off and hit the slopes (the basic green runs). We figured we deserved to be able to step it up a level as we were both now spending more time on our skis than on our bums :)

Our instructor John turned out to be a great bloke. We arrived for our lesson, and found out there was only going to be one other person in our group. What's even better, is that the other guy never showed up, so it ended up being Elke and I with the instructor. He was happy for us to take things at our own pace (which happened to be a lot faster than I expected, due to the steepness of a couple sections on those green runs).

We headed off down the first green run which took us direct to a chair lift that takes you to the top of Silver Star where you can pick and choose which runs to go down. The run that we took to the bottom of the mountain was called 'Easy Street' - it wasn't as easy as we might have hoped. After several little crashes on the way down we made it to the big ski lift (known as 'Six Pack') and had our first experience of getting onto a chairlift. Not quiet true - we rode one in Threadbo a couple of years ago but we didn't have skis on. Getting on is not too bad, you just kind of ski up to a certain point and then sit down when the chair comes around behind you. Getting off again is not as easy. You have to not just stand up, off a moving seat but you immediately start to slide when you put your wait on your feet. We`both managed to pull it off... the first time. The next one we both fell over and although Chris was alright again after that, I continued to fall every time for the rest of the day. It got a bit embarassing.

Our instructor, John, was execellent and gave us each lots of very specific feedback on what to fix with our technique - bend your knees in the turns, hands low, hands wide, look forward etc etc. It was about forty five minutes into the lesson, carefully practicing turns, when I got cleaned up by a snowboarder. The little bugger was going way too fast for a green run. He came shooting down the hill and ran across the front of my skis. I think I put my left arm up to shield myself and got knocked around and down and out of one of my skis. Poo-bum-head snowboarder tumbled down the hill a little. John (my hero) after checking to make sure I was ok took off after the kid and after checking to make sure he was ok, laid into him. He told poo-bum that he had been irresponsible and took his name and number and promised to call poo-bum's dad and tell him what young poo had done. Despite my best efforts I cried a little and I think that scared Chris as much as the collision...

I thought I was ok, so we carried on with the lesson but I could tell I had lost my nerve a little, I wasn't being as brave as I had been before and everytime someone came down from above I got nervous. I kept falling over and after a bit I noticed that my left wrist had got quite stiff and it was hurting a lot to push down with my ski pole. We ended the lesson a little early - one more advantage to have a personal lesson - and Chris and I went down to the village clinic to see if there was anything we could do for my arm.

Basically the diagnosis (by our Australian medic) was that it was just a sprain and nothing life threatening. He strapped it and we went to have a very late lunch at the village pub 'Long John's'.

Sunday morning the wrist was quite swollen - my knuckles had all disappeared under a layer of fluid - and very stiff. We returned our ski gear, luckily we were able to postpone the third day of our renting, and then bummed a lift into the nearest town of Vernon to try and find a pharmacy for some anti-inflamatory medication. Vernon is a very small town (I think I offended a local by asking where the centre of town was "this is the centre of town")with lots of cool murals, and not much open on a Sunday. We did find a pharmacy though and got what we were after. Then we just wandered. The shuttle back to the village left at three thirty so we made it back quite early. We made dinner, Chris beat me at Chess several times and we went to bed early.

The next day was even slower. We decided to rest the wrist for another day so we spent our time playing a new game on our Gameboy Advance, reading, blogging, plaing chess - oh and we slept in for the first time in a while which was also really nice.

Photos here

That night after dinner I looked out the window and saw what we had been hoping for - falling snow!! We both raced upstairs from the common room to get our warm gear on and grab the camera - Chris was so excited that he almost ran out of the hostel in his t-shirt, beanie and gloves, forgetting his jacket altogether. It didn't last very long but it was lovely while it did.

Tuesday, come hell or high water, we were going skiing. I took an pill with breakfast and we headed down the hill to get our gear back. By this time I had two of my knuckles back and my hand was starting to look less like a bloated frog and more like a hand. Skiing that day was brilliant. We started on the Magic Carpet again until they kicked us off to bring in some more snow. Brown patches were starting to show through all over the hill and I guess they thought it was getting a little dangerous for the kiddies (and us). So we headed over to a green run that we hadn't been on before but that was nice and even and wide. We practiced our skills there for a hour or so and then after luch we decided to go back to the scene of the crime... back to the runs we had done a couple of days before.

It was AWESOME!! We had such a good time! Even though we only had a couple of hours until the slopes closed we were able to do the really long run called 'Far Out' twice and a couple of other little bits and pieces. It really was great. We practised turning and stopping and going fast. Going fast is fun. Chris got a little tired of staying on the flatter bits that I was aiming for and started trying jumps and weaving in and out of the trees. He ended up on his bottom quite often and spent much of the afternoon giggling. It really was great - he even got air at one point. A little bit. I took it a little easy on the wrist and it held up fine!! Yay! We ended the night with dinner and some beer at Long John's. Yay!

It was a really great day to end a mostly excellent week. We both love skiing and are hoping that we will get much more opportunity to do it again in the next couple of years. (We are sure to get more of a chance in Europe than if we were still in Perth!!)

(We have had a few issues getting photos uploaded so there are still none from Silver Star, but they will be there soon. Sorry guys.)

Silver Star Ski Resort - Yes....we are in a SKI RESORT!!!

2005-03-07T09:20:00.000Z

Thursay morning (3rd March) began very early. At least very early by our standards. We were up by at least 6am, for anyone who knows us, 6am is very early. Jochen and Helgi very kindly drove us in to the airport in Victoria where we had a bit of breakfast before our flight. Mmmmmmmm, airport breakfast's are lovely :) It was quite sad to say "Goodbye" and the Dous trait of bursting into tears at any slightly emotional event was once again evident.

The 50 min flight to Kelowna in BC took us over spectacular snow capped mountains and Elke went mad with the digital camera. Despite having seen this sort of thing on television before, seeing it for real was still a breath taking experience. Chris was not so keen on the turbulance associated with flying over mountains and claims that this is why he was short of breath.

We spent a little bit of time in the Kelowna airport (not a very exciting place) waiting for our shuttle bus to take us to our resort. Yes, it is our resort...we have now claimed it as our own :)

The bus trip took us past the shore of Lake Kalamalka, a stunning sight. Picture this - still waters iced over in some places and cristal clear reflections of the hills on the far side. Beautiful.

We were a little concerned by the apparent lack of snow in the area. However, as if by magic, no sooner had we entered Silver Star Park, the snow was thick on the ground. Snow is great.

We arrived and checked into our backpackers called the "SameSun Hostel". It is quite a neat place with a big common room, ski in/ski out and an outdoor hot tub ! Feel free to check out the link above and take the virtual tour of the Hostel.

The village is just a short stroll from the hostel, so we immediately headed down there to see if we could sign up for an afternoon ski lesson.

The village itself is mostly made up of one main street with a few stores, resturants and a couple of pubs, all of which are painted in various bold colours. There are turquoise walls, yellow window sills, blue trim, green, orange, pink and so on. It really looks like something out of a christmas story and when the road is covered in a layer of snow, as it is now, it is spectacular!

Ski Dazzle apparently was the place to hire skiing equipment so we headed in there to investigate (although we figured that seeing as how this was going to be our first time skiing we were unlikely to be dazzling anyone). A Discovery package proved to be the way to go, for $149 (plus tax... it is always plus tax) we could get three days of gear hire, lift passes and lessons. Yay!

So with that organised we decided to spend our afternoon tubing. What is tubing? WELL... tubing (at the appropriately named Tube Town)involves being towed up a steep snowy hill by mechanical lift, being dumped off at the top, waiting in line for your turn and then racing flat-strap down a steep snowy hill, all while riding inside a large truck innertube. Snow is great. We spent three hours doing this and it didn't even start to get boring. If ever you get the chance... take it!

We decided to splurge a little on dinner that night and and went to a place called 'Clementine's', funnily enough on Main Street. It was a faboulous evening with flaming prawns at the table and the most amazing cheesecake for desert.

Friday morning we rocked up to the rental shop to get our gear organised for our first Skiing lesson!! We arrived a few minutes later than we had hoped and got stuck behind a group of about a million school kids. We got through eventually and were kitted out with the gear we needed. Ski boots are very heavy. Ski poles are quite long. Skis are both long and heavy. It all comes together quite nicely once you have them attached to your feet but trying to navigate through a hoard of excited kids while carrying this gear in your arms can be a trial. We did make it outside for our ten o'clock lesson without too many injuries.

There were only four of us in the group which was great because it meant more of a chance to get assistance from our instructor. We started off scooting up and down main street trying to get our balance on flat ground and then learnt about stopping by creating a wedge shape with our skis in the snow. The both of us were smiling continuously at this point, we kept looking at each other and mouthing 'we're skiing'.

From there we progressed to the 'Magic Carpet' - not as exciting as it sounds. It is essentially a small slope for beginners to try out their new found skills in a safe environment and so that they don't spend all day trying to climb back up the hill (a tricky thing to do when your skis keep wnating to slide backwards) there is a converor belt type thing that runs back up the middle of the slpoe that you literally ski onto at the bottom and off again at the top. Neat.

We spent the remained of the lesson in this little area and by the end we were able to make sloppy turns on our way down the hill and mostly avoid any obsticles. This is quite strange... the beginner's area is not really very beginner friendly. Firtsly, to get to it you have to ski across one of the major tracks leading into town, then it it quite small and is fenced all around with orange 'stay out' fencing. There is very little room to come to a gentle stop at the bottom and if you were to not stop and accidentally slide out eh opening at the bottom of the run you may well find your self shooting off down one of the Green runs on the hill. As a last little excitment-adder there are lots of large trees growing out of the run. Let's just say that you learn how to turn and how to stop fairly quickly!

After a lunch break and a change of boots for Elke (the ones she had originally were a size too small and made all the toes of her right foot go numb and the bottom half of her leg feel like fire - fun!) we headed back to the magic carpet to practise some more. Both of us came a cropper many times but luckily, other than a grazed thumb and a bit of a bump on the head for Chris, we came away unscathed. So our skiing career seemed to be off to a good, if somewhat wobbly, start.

Vancouver Island and the little town of Duncan

2005-03-05T19:44:00.000Z

Saturday morning was a beautiful day and,we were told, quite unusual for this time of the year. So we took advantage of the lovely sun to go and climb a mountain. A little mountain, yes, but a mountain none-the-less. Diane assured us that the view from the top of Mount Prevost (pronounced pre-voe) was beautiful and that we would drive up to a little carpark near the summit and then it was only a short climb to the summit and the breathtaking views of the Cowichan Valley. Uhuh.

We set out from home and drove through Duncan, a small town in the Cowichan Valley towards Mount Prevost. After a couple of dead ends we found the right path only to discover a steep looking hill that was covered in ice, snow and some dodgy looking tyre tracks (dodgy looking in the sense that the car that made them was more sliding around than progressing forwards). So we decided to leave the car and set out for the summit on foot.

The climb to the top proved to be a little more difficult than we initally anticipated. There were LOTS of steep climbs, mud, ice, snow and tracks that resembled those of a cougar (we are almost positive it was a largish dog, but it sounds so much better when we say COUGAR)! All in all, it was a pretty tough climb for two very unfit people (Diane did quite well I think), but the view from the top certainly was worth it.

Upon reaching the summit, we found a group of paragliding who were taking off from the top of Mt Prevost and using the thermals and breezes to take them down to a large field at the bottom. It was pretty cool seeing them launch from the top of the mountain and float out over the trees.

The trip back was much more relaxed, but still took us 45 mins to get back to the car. We slept quite well that night :)

The next couple of days we spent relaxing with the family and pretty much just taking it easy. There was a little bit of sleeping-in happening which was very much enjoyed.

However, on Monday we all went to lunch at the Pioneer House (a huge log cabin with several animal heads mounted on the walls and a mexican theme. The menu included buffalo burgers). The reason for the lunch was to celebrate Oma's (Elke's grandmother) 85th birthday.

On Tuesday, we were very brave and borrowed the car (Jochen and Diane were even braver to lend it to us) and took a trip into downtown Victoria. Luckily for us, this didn't entail to much in the way of navigation as the main highway out of Duncan took as straight into Victoria and right to our car park. We wandered through the streets of Victoria, down into Chinatown as well as past the harbour. It is really quite a pretty city and we are hoping to explore it a bit further when we come back after our week skiing. We have about 5 hours to kill there while we wait for our ferry ride down to Seattle.

During the week, we also planned our skiing trip to Silver Star. We were trying to work out how to plan a ferry ride back to mainland BC and time it right so we could then get a bus ticket to take us to Kelowna and then a shuttle ride to the resort. Just out of interest, we checked the cost of flying and found that we could get a one way ticket for just $69! Another big bonus was that our travel time would be seriously cut down.

Elke's Uncle Jochen used to be a rescue helicopter pilot, and likes to keep his skills sharp by flying around the world using MS Flight Simulator 2004. We also had a go at flying and while taking off is not too bad, landing is all together another story. Between us we must have destroyed many thousands of dollars worth of flying machine, Chris even managed to "land" a helicopter completly upside down (the passengers weren't very happy). We decided to fly by Perth to see what had changed since we departed and it now appears that the city has completely disappeared. There are no tall buildings there at all :( That is OK though, cause there are now serveral dozen bridges crossing the Swan. Good ol' Microsoft ;)

All in all, it was a great week and we really enjoyed spending quality time with the Dous Family in Canada. We also really enjoyed eating some home cooked meals for a change. While it was sad to leave, it was also quite exciting to be going to spend some time on a ski resort.

Photos will be added to our photo page in the next couple of days. You are also now able to comment on each post without having to register with the site.

Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

2005-03-03T01:58:00.000Z

This will be a slightly shorter bit... we were only in Vancouver one night. Actually we should have written this several days ago but we didn't. So you get it now.

We saw Mountains with snow on top!!!! Way cool. The flight between San Francisco was great and took us past several snow capped peaks. Checkout our photos to see!!! Way cool.

Photos

We arrived in Vancouver at about three in the afternoon and, on the advice of Elke's Unkle, we did not head straight for The Island. Had we done this we would have arrived, most likely after dark and would therefore have been unable to see either the city or the lovely little islands from the ferry.

Chris, while spending a few hours in the Vancouver airport some years ago, left a small love note for me tucked into a crack in a desk (in the internet room, of course), so the first half hour in the airport this time was pent trying to locate first the internet room and then 'the' desk. It was not a successful search. 'Why' I hear you asking 'would Chris leave a love note for Elke in a hidden place on the opposite side of the world to where they both live? Didn't he WANT her to find it??' Well, because Elke was travelling at the same time as the note was being written and was infact passing through Vancouver shortly after the the note was left, it wasn't as crazy an idea as it might at first sound.... Crazy Chris.

So back to this trip.

The essential difference between the US and Canada? It can be boiled down to this simple experience. After the failed love-note finding excursion, I was looking at a tourist map of Vancouver wondering about how to get in to the city centre and within a minute of standing and looking (only slightly) perplexed, a friendly man in a neat green jacket appeared at my elbow and asked if there was anything he could help me with. I like Canada. (Of course I don't want to generalise, that isn't fair either).

After deciding to catch the public bus, not the expensive airport shuttle, and trying to catch the said bus from the employees-only stop, and then getting kicked off the bus for not having exact change and minding some other poor sap's bag while he went to get smaller notes for the change machine, and battling our way down the isle with our big packs on our back.... we were on our way into the city. Yay.

We'd learned from our accommodation problem in Hawaii and booked ahead so we knew exactly where we were headed to, sort of. The two maps we had didn't seem to quite match so there was a little confusion but we made it. The vote was unanimous upon arrival - this was the best hostel we had stayed in, and we hadn't even stayed in it yet! We dumped our bags and headed out for a walk in Vancouver.

It is always amazing to me how coincidental life is at times. If we had turned back sooner, or later, or not gone out, or stopped to look in a window, or (well you get the point) we may never have bumped into Dean Commons and his pertner Amanda. Dean is/was a colleage of mine from Leeming Senior High School. As it was I was so excited about seening a familar face I couldn't remember his name until it was almost too late, and then I almost called him Dave. They have been here for the last couple fo months trying to get work, and we agrred that after dinner we would meet up again for a couple of drinks.

Here I need to mention that Chris, for the last half hour or so, had been almost continually discussing the $3.50 pints of beer that we saw advertised on the door of the competing youth hostel across the road from ours. I guess it was a good deal. So we decided that was the place to head with Dean and Amanda when they came to meet us at the hostel at 8.

Dean had a better idea and promtly marched us off to Gastown. It is a really neat area of town which Dean (an extremely well versed tour-guide considering their short residency)told us was the perfect place to open up a little theatre, and infact he had the perfect little place picked out. Backing onto (get this) Blood Ally!! Lots of atmosphere!! We headed to a little brewery for a drink and a chat.

We left Dean and Amanda on a quite road and headed for home. As we approached we became aware of the huge numbers of young party people out on the road. We joined in and Chris got his $3.50 pint of a local brew called Beaver Beer (or somthing equally as Canadian and loopy). Actually we each got several of them and after a plate of nachos and a chat with a Tasmanian girl we were both feeling a little tiddly. Actually, I think I was considerably more tiddly than Chris.

Across the road things had really picked up at the two pubs beside our hostel. The guy on the front desk, when asked, said that it was a fairly standard Friday night and that earplugs were available from him if they were needed. We declined, knowing that our room was at the back of the hostel away from the street and walked off down the wildly vibrating and thumping hallway. After an extended giggling fit brought on by the aforementioned tiddlyness and something funny said by Chris (although I can't now think what it was) we both slept well (despite dreams of being stuck in a techno dance club hell).

The next morning we made it to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. Now reportedly this trip is very pretty with one leg of the hour and a half long journey being through a fairly narrow channel between some small islands. We didn't think we were going to see any of it. As we got closer to the ferry terminal the fog closed in and by the time we got on the boat we could barely see from one end of it to the other. It must have been our day though because the fog lifted completely just as we were reaching the island channel and the view really was fabulous. Lots of water birds (even seagulls can look romantic when you are in the right mood), wooded hill sides and smoking chimneys. It really was wonderful.

We were met at the terminal on Vancouver Island by Elke's Unkle Jochen and Aunt Diane. See if you can guess which side of the family they are on... Jochen, Jurgen, Elke... It was great to see them after so long and also to see their kids, Helgi and Johannes (more hints as to familial origins) and of course good old Oma.

OK, so it wasn't as short an entry as I had anticipated. Sorry. The next one will be shorter by comparison. Promise. I hope.

I just get so excited telling everyone about what is happening. Plus my journal in the old fashioned book form is not going well so this is to remind us when we get home too.

hugs to all.

San Fran - part two

2005-02-25T05:05:00.000Z

Yes, we thought we would break it up a little so you could take a break if needed.

So, wednesday we thought we would take it a little easier, Chris wasn't feeling too hot (thinks he is getting a cold) and I was tired too, from another night on that crappy matress. So (after quite a late start) - we decided that going for a walk around our local area would be a good idea.

On the way out of the Hostel Elke went and spoke to the guy on the front desk to explain our general dislike of the mattress we were given and explain how poorly we had slept the last couple of nights. The guy, with cool dredys, said no worries, they would change the mattress over for us while we were out today. Excellent.

We stopped in by the Yerba Buena Gardens, a lovely inner city spot that is proabably even nicer in summer and then headed around the corner to find the Ansel Adams Centre. It is meant to be a centre dedicated to photography as an art form and to Ansel Adams in particular. We couldn't find it. It just wasn't where our six year old Lonely Planet Guide said that it was meant to be... bugger.

So we figured that the Museum for Contemporary Arts would be a good substitute, a bit of pop art and that stuff. But they are closed on Wednesdays...bugger.

So then, after a coffee in Starbucks to get over so much disappiontment and double-check our guide, we headed a few blocks to the south to find the Asian Art Museum. This proved to be an excellent choice - A) we could find it - there was a very large red dinosaur outside, B) they were open and C) the displayed work was an excellent range of stuff and just so damn old. They also had an interesting display on about forensic testing of artefacts to determine if they really are old or not.

Pretty cool stuff.

Ever since we arrived in the US Chris has been talking about Quizzno's, it is a subway type takeaway store that he discovered when he was living in Chicago a couple of years ago. So tonight was the night to hunt down this illusive store and see if all the stories are true. It was ok. Actually it was pretty good and certainly filled a hole. Then it was back to the hostel to meet some more of our fellow 'packers' and hear a little about their stories.

Our mattress hadn't been changed as promised, so we organised to change rooms with the (different) guy on the front desk. This room has a mattress that, under the protector, feels as though it is covered in vinyl. It squeeks slightly every time either of us rolls over. Or breathes. Ahhh ... youth hostels!!

Thursday started out looking gloomy and overcast. Just as they had predicted. And actually that is how it stayed all day. We caught a bus towards Golden Gate Park. It is huge!! It took a while to work out why our map seemed to show a relatively square shaped park when all other maps we had seen showed that the park is infact about three times as long as it is wide, (the makers of our map had seen fit to squash the western side of the peninsular so that it fit better on the page).(In their defence there was a small box on the map explaining this - but we've never seen it before) It is a lovely big park and contains within it the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. We went for a wander between all kinds of very familiar trees and shrubs, we were in the Australian section of the garden and it was so nice to see paperbarks, gums and kangaroo paw!! It was a bit spinny then to see squirrels running up and down a New Zealand Pohutakawa (sp?) tree. Kind of neat too. They were very hungry and not shy in the least running right up to us and climbing all over the bench we were sitting on. Squirrels really like cashew nuts.

This evening we have spent a great deal of time in the internet lab, updating this blog (twice, because Elke didn't save it the first time and closed the application - good work Ms Media Teacher!! :))and trying to get the new photos onto the site.

Now we are heading back to our room with the sqeeky vinyl mattress to re-pack our bags and get ready for the next leg of our journey - north to visit Elke's Oma, Uncle and family. It should be a bit colder up there (we have been easing into it slowly) and hopefully the week after we will see snow.... fingers crossed.

Chris is concerned - Let us know if these are too long for you to be bothered reading. We can try to cut them down. Also there is a link you can click on at the bottom that lets you comment on each post. We would love to hear back from you... hugs.

San Francisco - the beginnning

2005-02-25T03:26:00.000Z

This city if beautiful.

We left Waikiki on the same shuttle bus that dropped us off on our first night. It was abit sad to be leaving but we were off on another adventure so that kind of made up for it. Our driver was a character, he kept laughing at the other drivers and because there are so many one way streets in Waikiki we were literally driving in circles to get to all the hotels he had to stop at and to get out of the city. he had a really infections giggle, so Chris and i were smiling most of the way to Honolulu International Airport. this airport is nothing to write home about, so I won't.

The flight over was fine, full but fine, and the view of the sunrise on monday morning was pretty spectacular. We arrived at about seven that morning and although we couldn't check into our hostel that early we were able to locker our luggage and head out for a few hours.

Here in San Fran (which is what it shall be referred to from now on) has regular buses, electric buses and cable cars (which look a little like trams in Melbourne). The cable car, while a little slower is by far the most fun one to ride. They are literally moved along the street by grabbing hold of a cable that runs underneath the city streets. We have our doubts about how well the driver can control the speed of the beast, this being the case, but they seems to bdo well and we had no accidents. Chris and I had the best seat on the cable car, this means that we were actually standing up and hanging onto the outside. Very cool, just watch out for parked trucks and pedestrians and street signs and and and... Still, yay!

More photos here .

It must have been our day for funny drivers because the one we had ont the cable car was also a hoot, partly though I think it was his dry delivery and cool american accent that made it all the funnier.

The streets of San Fran are laid out in a neat grid, all running either north-south or east-west, and you could be forgiven for thinking, looking at the map, that the city was built on a nice flat piece of land. It isn't. The hills here are amazing! The are so steep that even the fittest of you would be panting and wheezing by the top! It is awe inspiring to watch the cable cars climb these hills and believe me, you want to hold on tight when they start heading either up or down!

The view down some of these streets across the city or across the bay are very pretty and as you get closer to Fisherman's Wharf you gat an excellent view of Alcatraz.

We went for a wander when we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf (nothing like the one in Darwin) and found a guy selling tickets for a cruiose around the bay, so after we had booked our tickets for Alcatraz for the Tuesday we went back and boarded his boat, 'The Wacky Jacky'... We liked the name. The sun was shining but the wind was freezing, even underneath the complimentary borrowed blankets.

The Wacky Jacky sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge (so named because it was built over the gateway to the gold rush area, not because of its colour). The rush of water under the bridge is huge, which if you look at a map is not surprising. The bay is huge and so must the amount of water be that tries to get through there each time the tide changes. From there we sailed around the island of Alcatraz, it is actually quite pretty, our amusing captain (yes another one!!) gave us a running commentary on which movies were filmed where and who lives where and so on. It was well worth the $10.

From there we wandered around some small local markets and inspected the photography and jewellery. Some nice pieces but nothing that demanded we buy it.

That evening we found our way to a club called 'Bisuits and Blues', surprise surprise, it was a blues club. Playing that evening was Natasha James and Band. They were quite good so we stayed and ordered some biscuits to go with our blues. For the un-enlightened (which included us until a couple of days ago) a biscuit is a warm, baked, breadlike thing which at home we commonly call a scone. It was a really cool evening and we tried a couple of samples of a local beer called, Sierra Nevada... yum.

The next day we got up feeling really blah. Not beacuse of the Sierra Nevada... The mattress we slept on was mostly collapsed on one side and so we kept rolling into the middle or risked rolling off altogether. We made it down to Pier 41 for the Alcatraz tour in time and had our photo taken by the staff as we were boarding the boat (we later found out that we could buy that very daggy photo for a mere $15, or six copies for $20 - no thanks).

The tickets included an audio tour of the prison once we made on to the island. This was excellent. We heard from several previous inmates and prison wardens about their experiences. It was really well put together and very informative. The buildings there started out as a military fort to protect the bay, it was then turned into a military prison when it became clear that a fort was nolonger needed. The it was turned into a prison for the nation's nastiest criminals. There were some very intersting stories included on the audio tour and we were both really pleased that we got to go.

We went for a wander on Pier 39, some interesting shops, but all very touristy and we were still not feeling well so we found a drug store (pharmacy) and bought some drugs (paracetemol and cold and flu tabs) and headed for home. We decided to hang out in the hostel common room and watch TV for a couple of hours. You meet some interesting charcters in hostels...

Our first post !

2005-02-21T03:47:00.000Z

Yay, our holiday is off to a brilliant start! We have just had a fabulous week in Waikiki on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. But let me go back a bit and fill you in...

We left Perth on Valentines Day at 6:45 in the evening on a six hour flight and arrived twelve hours later in Auckland, New Zealand. Needless to say we were both pretty tired because for us it was about one in the morning and neither of us got much sleep on the plane (uncomfortable seats and movies on the screen all night).

We met up with Eloise Healey and Cherly Hayes (good friends from Darwin High School) for breakfast in Auckland. It was very cool to be sitting with two good friends in a foreign city (yes, NZ counts as foreign) eating and catching up. We hadn't seen either of them since our wedding in July so it was nice to just sit and chat.

Our flight to Hawaii that afternoon was better - we were able to get seats with a bit more leg room and both of us slept quite well. We arrived late on Monday night (the night before we left) and had to take a dodgy yet expensive room in a hotel. Our choices were severly diminished by the fact that the whole town is full because of a Pro Bowl football game that was on the day before we arrived. Nevertheless we slept well.

Tuesday morning we donned our packs and walked to the other end of Waikiki to a hostel which turned out to be a god-send. The Polynesial Hostel is great.
Now, before we bore you too much and you stop reading, here comes a brief outline of the things we have done in the last six days...
We have swum in beautful clear water, sun-bathed on wonderful warm sands, we climbed up to Diamond Head (an extinct volcano crater) for sunrise, we went on a sunset sail in the bay off Waikiki, we took a tour with the hostel up to the North Shore where we were able to see (and feed) sea turtles up close (very, very cool) go to a big surfing beach and swim at Waimea. We went to Pearl harbour and saw the USS Arizona memorial. We have been into about 1000 ABC stores (convenience stores more prolific than braidsin Bali or sand in the Sahara). We have spent some time working on our tans because we know that it will be some time before we see the sun again.... All in all it has been a wonderful relaxing week, which is how we had hoped to spend our honeymoon!

We plan to come back here when we have some more time to get to the other islands... It is really beautiful... Chris is going to try and attach a link to some photos (fingers crossed) so you can see!!

Tonight (Sunday 20th Feb) we fly to San Francisco for four nights and hopefully a trip to Alcatraz. We will update again soon, so be sure to check when you get a chance! Be safe! We are having a ball!!

Photos here...I hope