Sunday, July 01, 2007
Photos of our place
Sorry for these late photos of our little temporary home in London. We have been meaning to put these up for a while because people keep asking about it! So here it is, we are located on the River Thames in the Isle of Dogs. I'll take some outside pics so you can see what it's like on the outside. We live in the Docklands area and our block used to be a warehouse. There are tram lines outside our door where the trams would stop and deliver goods.
Happenings
We will be updating soon with things that have happened recently. It's just a case of downloading the photos onto the computer and minimising them all. Ed has just bought a new camera when he went back home and has been going crazy on it. So things that have happened:
Ed's trip back to Oz, the opening of the O2 Stadium here in North Greenwich, the Queen's Birthday parade, Summer bbq at Ben's place. I'll try to make it this week sometime!! Just need Ed to teach me how to minimise and do all that computer stuff. We are also going to Belgium next weekend from Thurs night to Sunday so we are looking forward to all the chocolate shops!! Gaining weight again...
Other than the events above, we haven't really been up to much. Just both working everyday and seeing friends and family at night. It has been WONDERFUL to see Jo and Steve here as well as having Kath back. Sad not to have Rosko back too. So we have spent as much time possible with them and I will post photos of them up as well!!
We have settled into a church now and it's called 'All Souls'. We were starting to go to one called 'St Helens' but realised we preferred All Souls. Tuesday night is the Newcomers evening there so will let you know how it all goes. I will be on holidays in 3 weeks and it will be my summer holiday (6 weeks long! - Poor Ed!) so I'm doing some volunteering with a local church for a kids club two mornings a week. It will be fun as it's work with under 5's, one of my favourite age groups. I'll also try to do some part time work so I feel like I'm making some sort of contribution to our finances! I guess I could be the dutiful wife and have dinner cooked every night, send him off with a healthy breakfast and make sure the house is nice and clean...but there must be more to life than that!!
Time to get ready to meet Jo, Steve, Katty and Ben (with Ed and Linda) at an Indian restaurant up the road from us for dinner. Kath is about to start an 8 week placement in North London so we won't see her for a while. Photos coming soon!!
Ed's trip back to Oz, the opening of the O2 Stadium here in North Greenwich, the Queen's Birthday parade, Summer bbq at Ben's place. I'll try to make it this week sometime!! Just need Ed to teach me how to minimise and do all that computer stuff. We are also going to Belgium next weekend from Thurs night to Sunday so we are looking forward to all the chocolate shops!! Gaining weight again...
Other than the events above, we haven't really been up to much. Just both working everyday and seeing friends and family at night. It has been WONDERFUL to see Jo and Steve here as well as having Kath back. Sad not to have Rosko back too. So we have spent as much time possible with them and I will post photos of them up as well!!
We have settled into a church now and it's called 'All Souls'. We were starting to go to one called 'St Helens' but realised we preferred All Souls. Tuesday night is the Newcomers evening there so will let you know how it all goes. I will be on holidays in 3 weeks and it will be my summer holiday (6 weeks long! - Poor Ed!) so I'm doing some volunteering with a local church for a kids club two mornings a week. It will be fun as it's work with under 5's, one of my favourite age groups. I'll also try to do some part time work so I feel like I'm making some sort of contribution to our finances! I guess I could be the dutiful wife and have dinner cooked every night, send him off with a healthy breakfast and make sure the house is nice and clean...but there must be more to life than that!!
Time to get ready to meet Jo, Steve, Katty and Ben (with Ed and Linda) at an Indian restaurant up the road from us for dinner. Kath is about to start an 8 week placement in North London so we won't see her for a while. Photos coming soon!!
Switzerland!!
Finally I am sitting down to update you all on our Switzerland trip that happened a while back! Maybe a month ago now. We went for a weekend from Friday night to Sunday night.
We flew with Easy Jet (you can't come to London and NOT experience Easy Jet and Ryan Air, the two budget airlines - Virgin Blue are fantastic compared to them!) to Geneva and the airport was about 10 minutes from the city centre. We left it till late to book accommodation and when we rung around, realised everything was booked out due to some big convention going on in the city. So we had to stay over the Swiss-French border in Annemasse,France at a nice cheap hotel about 800m walk from the border. Here is a picture of the border which we walked to every day and back.
We had a good sleep but on Saturday I woke up with the works of the flu virus. Fever, sore throat, blocked chest, sore ears, muscle aches and pains...everything! So using my high school french, we went to the closest pharmacy to buy all the drugs we could find to limit my symptoms! I thank God for the invention of Nurofen which I was on constantly during our trip...maybe more than I should have taken but it helped me through!!
We had a nice start to the day with a french buffet breakfast in our hotel and then we wandered down to the border and stumbled onto some markets on the way. It was interesting to use a combination of euros and swiss francs on our trip since we were staying in France but sight seeing in Switzerland. Lots of converting to and fro in our heads all the time. Anyway, we always knew it was cheaper than pounds so that helped!! French is the main language spoken in that area of Switzerland so it was fun trying to communicate with the locals. On the way to the main train station in Geneva, a busker got on our tram and started singing! It was a bit strange. But we gave him some money so we could get a photo of him... he didn't look happy!
At the main train station in Geneva, we bought a 48hr ticket that enabled us to go to all the towns around the lake (70 km long) either via ferry or train and also to travel for free in Geneva with their public transport system. It cost us about 78 swiss francs each and it sounds like a lot but it was worth it! We got to visit so many places on the one ticket that would've been so expensive otherwise.
So we started our journey first to Lausanne, one of the most beautiful cities around the lake. It is built on a hill so there was a lot of uphill walking which is great for your bum and thighs!! Lovely cobble stoned paths and cute little shops lining them. We reached the top and found some beautiful old churches, electric buses that run on tram lines, markets everywhere and nice views. We stayed in Lausanne for most of the day till about 3pm then we made our way to Evian by boat(yes it's where the water comes from!!)
The playground in Lausanne was a typical one that we saw around the different towns on the lake. Wouldn't it be so cool if you were a kid again? I was tempted to have a bit of a go but too many little kids and parents watching.
We then caught a boat over to Evian and it was also a lovely little town but one you could probably see in about two hours! We went to the Evian information centre where we were taught about how Evian water was collected and bottled. And how it had cured some guy of his diseases! Interesting... We also went to this cute pub where a small band was playing outside (we think they were Italian) and the lady singer would give everyone at the pub these fake coloured roses. It was so sweet!
After Evian, we caught a boat back to Lausanne then the train back to Geneva where we wandered around for a bit (it's sort of just like another city though) and we had dinner at a place where we had cheese fondue!! (A national dish). They gave us some bread to dip into it and we also had some cured meat with it (sort of like prosciutto). The cheese had a really strong taste though and it was a bit more-ish for me and didn't give me a taste for fondue again...unless it's chocolate!
We had an early night as I was starting to feel really exhausted! The next day we were walking to the border and stopped in a patisserie for breakfast. The shopkeeper was really encouraging me to use my french and loved it when I said 'Pain au chocolat' correctly! She was lovely. We were on our way to some other little towns around the lake roughly 2 hours by train from Geneva. Our breakfast consisted of 3 different types of pastries (yes we gained weight that weekend). Croissant, almond croissaint and pain au chocolat..mmmmm!!
We went to see Montreux which is a beautiful seaside town that's quite touristy. We only spent about an hour there because we were just stopping over to catch our next train to Gstaad, a town in the mountains. Ed drank from a water fountain in Montreux that we weren't sure was used for drinking! But we saw other people do it and there were similar fountains everywhere we went so now we know they are for drinking!
The train trip to Gstaad was just so nice! I am running out of words for nice, lovely, beautiful. Sorry about that. As we got higher and higher into the mountains, we started to see some mountains that were still capped with snow! Gstaad is a ski town and it made Ed really miss skiing. It was our favourite town around Lake Geneva. We will probably come back one day although most of the runs looked like they were 'black runs' so I suppose Ed will just have to come back by himself! Since it took a while to get to Gstaad, we spent most of the day there walking around, drinking from fountains (the water was so pure), and having the most delicious meal that we had in Switzerland! I wasn't feeling well so I had a nice beef goulash soup while Ed had a steak cooked in garlic and herb butter served over heat with some really yummy chips. We finished the day off with some mouth watering pastries at a cute cafe. Then headed back to Geneva and to the airport.
After arriving at the airport early to check in we found out our flight was delayed and instead of leaving at 9:30pm, we left at 10:30 and we didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning! So next time we will be catching the plane much earlier as it was such a nuisance catching a cab home from the city!!
We flew with Easy Jet (you can't come to London and NOT experience Easy Jet and Ryan Air, the two budget airlines - Virgin Blue are fantastic compared to them!) to Geneva and the airport was about 10 minutes from the city centre. We left it till late to book accommodation and when we rung around, realised everything was booked out due to some big convention going on in the city. So we had to stay over the Swiss-French border in Annemasse,France at a nice cheap hotel about 800m walk from the border. Here is a picture of the border which we walked to every day and back.
We had a good sleep but on Saturday I woke up with the works of the flu virus. Fever, sore throat, blocked chest, sore ears, muscle aches and pains...everything! So using my high school french, we went to the closest pharmacy to buy all the drugs we could find to limit my symptoms! I thank God for the invention of Nurofen which I was on constantly during our trip...maybe more than I should have taken but it helped me through!!
We had a nice start to the day with a french buffet breakfast in our hotel and then we wandered down to the border and stumbled onto some markets on the way. It was interesting to use a combination of euros and swiss francs on our trip since we were staying in France but sight seeing in Switzerland. Lots of converting to and fro in our heads all the time. Anyway, we always knew it was cheaper than pounds so that helped!! French is the main language spoken in that area of Switzerland so it was fun trying to communicate with the locals. On the way to the main train station in Geneva, a busker got on our tram and started singing! It was a bit strange. But we gave him some money so we could get a photo of him... he didn't look happy!
At the main train station in Geneva, we bought a 48hr ticket that enabled us to go to all the towns around the lake (70 km long) either via ferry or train and also to travel for free in Geneva with their public transport system. It cost us about 78 swiss francs each and it sounds like a lot but it was worth it! We got to visit so many places on the one ticket that would've been so expensive otherwise.
So we started our journey first to Lausanne, one of the most beautiful cities around the lake. It is built on a hill so there was a lot of uphill walking which is great for your bum and thighs!! Lovely cobble stoned paths and cute little shops lining them. We reached the top and found some beautiful old churches, electric buses that run on tram lines, markets everywhere and nice views. We stayed in Lausanne for most of the day till about 3pm then we made our way to Evian by boat(yes it's where the water comes from!!)
The playground in Lausanne was a typical one that we saw around the different towns on the lake. Wouldn't it be so cool if you were a kid again? I was tempted to have a bit of a go but too many little kids and parents watching.
We then caught a boat over to Evian and it was also a lovely little town but one you could probably see in about two hours! We went to the Evian information centre where we were taught about how Evian water was collected and bottled. And how it had cured some guy of his diseases! Interesting... We also went to this cute pub where a small band was playing outside (we think they were Italian) and the lady singer would give everyone at the pub these fake coloured roses. It was so sweet!
After Evian, we caught a boat back to Lausanne then the train back to Geneva where we wandered around for a bit (it's sort of just like another city though) and we had dinner at a place where we had cheese fondue!! (A national dish). They gave us some bread to dip into it and we also had some cured meat with it (sort of like prosciutto). The cheese had a really strong taste though and it was a bit more-ish for me and didn't give me a taste for fondue again...unless it's chocolate!
We had an early night as I was starting to feel really exhausted! The next day we were walking to the border and stopped in a patisserie for breakfast. The shopkeeper was really encouraging me to use my french and loved it when I said 'Pain au chocolat' correctly! She was lovely. We were on our way to some other little towns around the lake roughly 2 hours by train from Geneva. Our breakfast consisted of 3 different types of pastries (yes we gained weight that weekend). Croissant, almond croissaint and pain au chocolat..mmmmm!!
We went to see Montreux which is a beautiful seaside town that's quite touristy. We only spent about an hour there because we were just stopping over to catch our next train to Gstaad, a town in the mountains. Ed drank from a water fountain in Montreux that we weren't sure was used for drinking! But we saw other people do it and there were similar fountains everywhere we went so now we know they are for drinking!
The train trip to Gstaad was just so nice! I am running out of words for nice, lovely, beautiful. Sorry about that. As we got higher and higher into the mountains, we started to see some mountains that were still capped with snow! Gstaad is a ski town and it made Ed really miss skiing. It was our favourite town around Lake Geneva. We will probably come back one day although most of the runs looked like they were 'black runs' so I suppose Ed will just have to come back by himself! Since it took a while to get to Gstaad, we spent most of the day there walking around, drinking from fountains (the water was so pure), and having the most delicious meal that we had in Switzerland! I wasn't feeling well so I had a nice beef goulash soup while Ed had a steak cooked in garlic and herb butter served over heat with some really yummy chips. We finished the day off with some mouth watering pastries at a cute cafe. Then headed back to Geneva and to the airport.
After arriving at the airport early to check in we found out our flight was delayed and instead of leaving at 9:30pm, we left at 10:30 and we didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning! So next time we will be catching the plane much earlier as it was such a nuisance catching a cab home from the city!!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Bath and Blenheim Palace
On the first weekend of May, we took a trip to Bath and Blenheim palace (near Oxford) with our friend Tram and Tze-Huei.
We hired a car and it was upgraded to a Saab Sports (I think)...I like these upgrades! It took us roughly 3 hours to drive to Blenheim Palace which is where Winston Churchill was born. It is a beautiful place with huge lovely gardens that we explored all day! Luckily the sun came out for the second half of the day as we spent the first half inside exploring the palace. Here's the website for those who are interested: http://www.blenheimpalace.com/ There was a jousting tournament on that day as well and it was alot of cheering and yelling. Heaps of fun!! I gave the thumbs up to our knight as he walked past and he gave me this big grin and made a funny face. We had a beef burger for lunch and when they say beef burger here, they mean beef in a burger and thats it..no salad or anything! You could have it with cheese if you wanted to...in the end I couldn't finish mine cos it was just too much meat!
That night we stayed in a little cottage called 'The Cheese House' which was just outside Bath and it was off the main road down little winding lanes which were so narrow only one car could pass through... luckily we never met another car going the other way.
The next day we went into the city of Bath and visited its main attraction, the Roman baths. It's so full of history but it was very smelly! The main one was filled with lots of moss and fungi.... but if you felt the water, it was very very warm. We also took a boat trip down the canal and it was interesting seeing how old Bath really is. Even if you want to build a new building there (houses/flats) it has to be made out of the same material as the old buildings (some sort of stone - sorry I wasnt paying too much attention) so as to retain the character of the town. So it's very expensive to live in Bath unless you've been there a very long time already.
In the middle of the town square, there was a guy performing doing some juggling acts, balancing etc. I don't normally find street performers too entertaining so I walked off and did something else while Ed stayed. He found me later and said I really should've stayed because the performer called Ed into his act! Ed had to wear a tutu and had to do a little dance then hold a ladder for him! Oh how I regretted not staying so I could take photographic evidence.
The next day we drove home and passed by Stone Henge. We didn't want to pay to get in as we could see it from the road. It was an awfully cold, windy and rainy day so I just wanted to get back into the car. We took a few photos from the roadside and thought we might see it another day if we get the chance!
We hired a car and it was upgraded to a Saab Sports (I think)...I like these upgrades! It took us roughly 3 hours to drive to Blenheim Palace which is where Winston Churchill was born. It is a beautiful place with huge lovely gardens that we explored all day! Luckily the sun came out for the second half of the day as we spent the first half inside exploring the palace. Here's the website for those who are interested: http://www.blenheimpalace.com/ There was a jousting tournament on that day as well and it was alot of cheering and yelling. Heaps of fun!! I gave the thumbs up to our knight as he walked past and he gave me this big grin and made a funny face. We had a beef burger for lunch and when they say beef burger here, they mean beef in a burger and thats it..no salad or anything! You could have it with cheese if you wanted to...in the end I couldn't finish mine cos it was just too much meat!
That night we stayed in a little cottage called 'The Cheese House' which was just outside Bath and it was off the main road down little winding lanes which were so narrow only one car could pass through... luckily we never met another car going the other way.
The next day we went into the city of Bath and visited its main attraction, the Roman baths. It's so full of history but it was very smelly! The main one was filled with lots of moss and fungi.... but if you felt the water, it was very very warm. We also took a boat trip down the canal and it was interesting seeing how old Bath really is. Even if you want to build a new building there (houses/flats) it has to be made out of the same material as the old buildings (some sort of stone - sorry I wasnt paying too much attention) so as to retain the character of the town. So it's very expensive to live in Bath unless you've been there a very long time already.
In the middle of the town square, there was a guy performing doing some juggling acts, balancing etc. I don't normally find street performers too entertaining so I walked off and did something else while Ed stayed. He found me later and said I really should've stayed because the performer called Ed into his act! Ed had to wear a tutu and had to do a little dance then hold a ladder for him! Oh how I regretted not staying so I could take photographic evidence.
The next day we drove home and passed by Stone Henge. We didn't want to pay to get in as we could see it from the road. It was an awfully cold, windy and rainy day so I just wanted to get back into the car. We took a few photos from the roadside and thought we might see it another day if we get the chance!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Ed's first actual blog entry
Hi all,
Well this is my first ever blog entry (all of our blogs so far have been written by Di). I've done something you'd expect from an IT professional, I wrote a massive blog entry and uploaded pictures and all....hit 'save now' which it apparently did, and then modified the html and tried to re-load the blog page..and it all mysteriously disappeared and I lost the lot! Great job Ed!
So now I'm going to summarize the whole blog into a much smaller one. Here's a picture of afternoon tea in a classy hotel (London - The Sheraton) two weeks ago with Tram, Tze-Huei and Linda.
Last weekend we went to Cardiff, capital of south Wales. Linda got a job there as an OT, and was given a hire car (for work) here in London and had to drive herself to Cardiff...so we went with her, and hired our own car to get back. On the way there we went to Windsor Castle, which was pretty awesome. Here are some pics. We have passes that give you unlimited visits for the next year, so Katty/Joey/Loosh/Celz/Grace if you want to we can take you again! (or more specifically Di).
On the way back from Cardiff we hired a car and it was upgraded, and upgraded again to a brand-new C-Series Mercedes Benz!!! So of course Di and I were pretty stoked. All giggly, we jumped inside, cranked the music, wound down the windows and ...ahem... checked the acceleration was working (which it was). Of course the fun faded after Di fell asleep (20 mins into the 5hr journey) and the highway was my lady.
We stopped off at burger king on the way home to have a break after 2hrs of driving. Di decided to stay inside the car (asked me to lock her in) and I went and got the food. Just when I was returning to the car, Di ran up to me frantically. Turns out the alarm had been sounding loudly for ages and she had been searching for me for 5 mins feeling very embarrassed.She needed the keys to turn the alarm off!
Took 2hrs to drive 140 miles to London, and another 3 hrs to drive across London to where we had to drop the car off! Crazy drivers over here, had a few near misses in the suburbia traffic. But thanks to my classy aussie driving skills (and a defensive driving course) I brought home the Mercedes without a scratch.
Both Di and I are well. Di was sick earlier this week and I was sick last week, but finally we're both feeling well. We're having a house warming this coming Monday, since it's a bank holiday. So should have around 10-15 people over from work and around the place.
Missing you all.
Ed
Well this is my first ever blog entry (all of our blogs so far have been written by Di). I've done something you'd expect from an IT professional, I wrote a massive blog entry and uploaded pictures and all....hit 'save now' which it apparently did, and then modified the html and tried to re-load the blog page..and it all mysteriously disappeared and I lost the lot! Great job Ed!
So now I'm going to summarize the whole blog into a much smaller one. Here's a picture of afternoon tea in a classy hotel (London - The Sheraton) two weeks ago with Tram, Tze-Huei and Linda.
Last weekend we went to Cardiff, capital of south Wales. Linda got a job there as an OT, and was given a hire car (for work) here in London and had to drive herself to Cardiff...so we went with her, and hired our own car to get back. On the way there we went to Windsor Castle, which was pretty awesome. Here are some pics. We have passes that give you unlimited visits for the next year, so Katty/Joey/Loosh/Celz/Grace if you want to we can take you again! (or more specifically Di).
On the way back from Cardiff we hired a car and it was upgraded, and upgraded again to a brand-new C-Series Mercedes Benz!!! So of course Di and I were pretty stoked. All giggly, we jumped inside, cranked the music, wound down the windows and ...ahem... checked the acceleration was working (which it was). Of course the fun faded after Di fell asleep (20 mins into the 5hr journey) and the highway was my lady.
We stopped off at burger king on the way home to have a break after 2hrs of driving. Di decided to stay inside the car (asked me to lock her in) and I went and got the food. Just when I was returning to the car, Di ran up to me frantically. Turns out the alarm had been sounding loudly for ages and she had been searching for me for 5 mins feeling very embarrassed.She needed the keys to turn the alarm off!
Took 2hrs to drive 140 miles to London, and another 3 hrs to drive across London to where we had to drop the car off! Crazy drivers over here, had a few near misses in the suburbia traffic. But thanks to my classy aussie driving skills (and a defensive driving course) I brought home the Mercedes without a scratch.
Both Di and I are well. Di was sick earlier this week and I was sick last week, but finally we're both feeling well. We're having a house warming this coming Monday, since it's a bank holiday. So should have around 10-15 people over from work and around the place.
Missing you all.
Ed
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