The cutest video ever (and other stuff)...

Hi all! It's hard to believe our 9 days back in England are almost over already! We've had a great time catching up with friends and enjoying these final moments of Englishness. :) The weather is cold and miserable, the sun sets at 4:30pm... but the "Christmas is coming" vibe is everywhere, our hire car has heated seats (!!), and we are relishing every last drive down those gorgeous narrow little country lanes!

On Friday we went into London for a final bit of sightseeing. We went to St Paul's Cathedral, Hyde Park, and the Science Museum.

St Paul's was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and it was where Prince Charles and Diana were married. It's massive and very grand - domed roof, huge columns, etc etc. We didn't pay to tour through it properly, but we actually went back in the evening when it was open for their Chorale Evensong, so got a bit more of a glimpse inside and heard some nice music. Incredible accoustics!!



Hyde Park was pretty empty and the trees were mostly bare at this time of year, but they were setting up a "Winter Wonderland" section with European-style Christmas markets - little huts with red holly-lined roofs - plus a haunted house, ice skating rink, rollercoaster etc. It was lovely to wander through that, and it brought back lots of memories of our travels through Europe at Christmas time last year! There was even a white "World Tourist Attractions" Ferris wheel there - exactly the same as the one at South Bank in Brisbane!



We didn't have much time at the Science Museum, but here are a couple of photos...



But the highlight of my day was the following moment...



Hope you enjoyed it nearly as much as I did!!!! :D :D :D

My, what a big Eye you have!

On the last night before we moved out of our flat in England, 17th July, Delle, Ben and I went up to London to ride on the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel - a ride on it is actually called a "flight") and see The Sound of Music on West End with Kat and Mel. We had tea at Covent Garden at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (try it if you get the chance!), and Delle raided the Australia Shop for some Tim Tams, having suffered severe withdrawal symptoms after going approximately two weeks with only the one packet she'd brought over with her. :)

Although it was right in the middle of a frantically busy time for us (tickets bought before we knew we would be moving the next day!), it was a fantastic evening. The Sound of Music was absolutely spectacular and the kids in it were SO so adorable!! It's definitely one of the top three West End musicals we've been to. Here are some photos from our second last night in London...



And here are some links to videos... the first is of some buskers playing under the bridge near the London Eye (note the percussion instrument on the left!), and the second was taken when we were at the very top of the Eye. What a view!!!!

Buskers video
London Eye video

Anyway, in case you're wondering, we had a good flight back to Australia last week! We left Heathrow Airport on Tuesday night, flew with Qantas via brief stopovers in Singapore and Melbourne, and arrived in Brisbane at 8:15am on Thursday morning.

Then we stayed awake all day - I studied for my online exam the next day and Ben got his teaching registration sorted out and signed up for supply teaching. On Friday, I studied and did my exam while Ben got his first day of work!!! So it was certainly straight into it!

That night we went to The Mikado in Brisbane with a group of friends. I think everyone else liked it - I, however, fell asleep about 15 times. Woke up at one stage to find a completely new character on stage halfway through belting out a crashingly loud song! "Who's tha...zzzZZ"!!!!

The next day, Saturday, we caught up with my family and saw my sister Roxy's flat for the first time, and that night we went to a 30th birthday party of an old school friend of Ben's.

For the next 3 months we'll be living with Ben's parents, Jim and Jenny, who live east of Ipswich (which is just west of Brisbane, Queensland, for you non-Aussies!). If anyone who is reading this has not been getting our group email updates (please email me if you'd like to get them!), our trip home was motivated by our friends' Tim and Chany's wedding, but we decided to stay on for a while longer. We hope to be in Canada by Christmas, but have not organised any further ahead than flying back to England on 17th November.

This week my priority is finding a job. Ben got his second day of supply teaching today, so we're glad that's working out. It's a strange thought that we're home, but it actually feels completely normal to be here. I'm trying to readjust to being in this timezone (the first couple of days, I was chatting to Mum at lunchtime and thinking it was teatime for her), and talking in dollars and kilometres. Everything sounds expensive and a long way away!!! :P Anyway, we'll keep you updated, and please keep in touch - especially if you're from England, because it could just be that we're missing you!!!

Guest blog entry #1 from Delle – THE FIRST DAY

A HUGE hello to all back home and to those who haven't met me yet, 'Hi, I'm Delle (obviously!) - I'm an Aussie girl from Brisbane, Queensland, and I am very very very VERY excited to be in England visiting Anna and Ben!!!!'

My adventure begins after many many many hours of flying - these I have attempted to block from my memory so we'll move right on to arriving at Heathrow at about 6am local time on Friday the 4th of July. I travelled over with Lachlan, the younger brother of Dotti (another Aussie girl living over here at the moment who has previously featured in this blog). Anna and Ben were quite easy to identify at the airport due to Anna's wild and enthusiastic arm-waving. :) Very handy!

After stuffing our assorted luggage into the car, we drove to a nearby station and caught the tube into London. Our next stop was the Russian Embassy where we were to meet up with Dotti and hopefully obtain a visa for Lachlan. Anna, Ben and I left them in the rather lengthy queue (see picture below) and headed off to explore a little of London. Our first stop was Notting Hill and the Portobello Road Markets (see photo below).





The first place we stopped at was a cute little hat stall and tiny shop – which turned out to be the site of my first significant and spectacularly clumsy moment. Now at this point I must defend myself in advance:

1. Take note that I had only maybe a few hours of sleep within the last 30 hour period.
2. That brief slumber was taken virtually upright on a plane and therefore not exactly what you would classify as the highest quality.
3. I have very poor spatial awareness at the best of times and so it wasn't particularly surprising when the following occurred...

Wandering leisurely into the back of the tiny shop, I browsed through the selection of hats – along the back wall were row upon row of them. What I failed to notice was that although the hats were in neat horizontal lines, the floor was not!!! As I ran my eye along the hats I literally stepped into thin air and tumbled down one flight of stairs, around a corner, and down a second flight of stairs, eventually stopping a few steps from the bottom and nearly ending up in the poor shop-owner's storeroom.

Ben was directly behind me and quickly ran down the stairs to check I was okay. Anna had been outside the shop but her attention was caught by the sound of a multitude of hats falling off the wall inside the shop. Upon realising that it was me as well as the hats that had fallen, she suddenly had visions of VERY terrible things having happened to me – and I had only been in the country about 3 hours!!! I did have to be helped to my feet as I was absolutely hysterical with laughter...this was just so typical! For Anna it was probably a relief to discover that I could still walk, talk and breathe, and emerged from the experience relatively unscathed – albeit with some minor bruises on my arms, legs and ribs and a couple of bumps on my head (don't worry Mum! - just assume this is a significant exaggeration of the true events :P).

That experience past, we wandered happily for an hour or so around the rest of the markets. Afterwards we headed via Baker Street to Regent's Park, where we had a lovely lunch and rejoined Dotti and Lachlan – back from their unfortunately unsuccessful trip to the Russian Embassy. We then wandered alongside the Thames and saw a few more of the sights of London.

After that, we caught the tube back to where the car was parked and headed north to Mansfield - where Dotti is currently living.

I have never felt so tired in my life and I have never been so glad to finally shower and flop into bed – completely and utterly exhausted!!!!

Jotting down June

Well, life is crazily busy and we are having a wonderful time galavanting around the country with Delle (just looked up actual meaning of galavant: "to travel around with no purpose except enjoyment"), in between counting down our last few days of work and preparing to move out of our flat and head across to Europe this Friday! Delle is meant to be writing a blog entry about what we've all been up to since she arrived, but I've got a few bits and pieces to fill you in on from June, so here goes...

My uni exam was halfway through June, and since I had to go to London for it anyway and our London-going days are fast drawing to a close, I decided to make it worthwhile! After my exam, I had a quick look aorund the British Museum (free entry), saw the afternoon show of The Phantom of the Opera on West End (ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!), wandered from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square via the beautiful tree- and flag-lined road that leads to Buckingham Palace, and went to an Intrepid Travel event night on Peru, Bolivia and Brazil at their Angel Islington store! Here are some photos from my day...



The next day was Ben's exam, and he also spent a full day making the most of his time in London. He went to the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, and saw Avenue Q on West End (which he really enjoyed). Here are some photos from his day...



Then, to celebrate the end of our exams, we went to see Les Miserables (booked before we'd thought of going by ourselves on our respective exam day to a show that the other one wasn't so keen on seeing - hence how between us we saw three musicals in three days!!). Anyway, was great to finally see Les Mis and understand what all the fuss is about. :) It was extremely good - but, Phantom having been a long-loved favourite of mine and the musical I've most wanted to see live ever since arriving in England, I'm afraid not even Les Mis could hold a candle to it (and certainly not a crashing chandelier)!

Also, the evening we went to Les Mis, we FINALLY found the Australia Shop in Covent Garden - it was about the third time we'd looked for it! Here are some photos from our day - particularly the moments of indescribable joy when we were reunited with Twisties, Chicos, Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and the visual familiarity of many other well known brands whose products we exclaimed over but were forced to leave sitting on the shelves...



The following week, we went to London again to see Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare's comedies that was being performed in the Open Air Theatre at Regent's Park. There were eight of us and it was a very enjoyable night watching a rather tangled web of a story about a girl who disguises herself as her twin brother. It started raining halfway though and a canopy of umbrellas instantly popped up over the heads of the well-prepared audience, but the actors carried on as though they hadn't even noticed they were soaking!

Before heading to Regent's Park that evening, we stopped off at Covent Garden again to raid the Australia Shop. Whilst there, we enjoyed a show by an amazing busking magician from Texas and saw some strange goings on outside of Lush (promoting an in-shop bath products party - London, I tell you...!!!). See photos below!



At the end of June, we stayed a night in Worthing (a coastal town south of here) with Mike and Jo, their daughter Charley and Jo's dad Gordon, and the following day we went to a picnic with them. We met a lot of new people, ate delicious food, and played rounders (a cross between cricket and softball). On the way home, Mike, Jo and Charley took us to Arundel - a quaint village with a castle perched in the middle of it - where we strolled around the streets for an hour or so and ate some dessert. A lovely day!



Well, that was June, and that's the least amount of words I've yet condensed a month's adventures into!! Time to do some packing. :) Goodnight!