A long overdue post...

Back by popular demand. Well with only 20 days before we leave London it seemed necessary to complete to blog. Leaving it unfinished after all this time would seem pointless after all of the varying effort that has gone into it over the last few years.

The end of November 2008

For Vic’s birthday the three of us got her a ‘Big Cat Experience’ this was at a conservation park in Kent giving an educational experience for us and a chance for Vic to stroke (through the fence) and feed (also through the fence) a variety of different cats such as Snow Leopards and Tigers and Hybrids and such. I was thankful for the fence – they are a lot bigger than they look.

The big cat experience was on a Friday and so we thought as we were already out that we would make a weekend of it. So from Kent we went to the coast where we sat for 3-4 hours waiting for the eurotunnel. The service was still recovering after the earlier fires and the delays meant that it was 10 when we got to France and even before we had the long dark drive to Luxembourg. Granted I don’t remember all that much from the trip because rumour has it I may have been asleep, but the bit I do remember (when I was driving and not asleep was of a blustery road with sleet and rain all the way to the hostel. I suppose it was not a great surprise that we were the only ones in the hostel as it was Luxembourg on the verge of winter.

In the Morning we ventured to the capital. We became a little mis-directed (Duncan was driving – need I say more ;) and fortuitously ended up at the bottom of a gorge, one of the many levels that make up the city of Luxembourg. This area was quieter than the hustle at the top of the gorge and with a small river idling through it picturesque in its perceived isolation and solitude.

When we did make it up to the top level of what is purported to be one of the wealthiest cities in the world we found ourselves immersed in the chaos of a Christmas Market. So we did what all good people do in Christmas Markets, we ate, we drank and we were merry J

Following that we headed out to the Luxembourg part of the Moselle Valley, and I think that we all know what the Moselle valley is known for… Wi-ine!!! Visiting the Moselle was a little like visiting Margaret River for me, the wine was sensational and unlike a lot of the wineries that we encountered in France, tastings were readily available. We had a crazy wine tour and tasting experience at one of the local wineries before buying a couple of bottles and heading back to our hostel. We ate in a very quaint local bistro and were very impressed by the beautiful food and wine.

We spent most of Sunday taking our time to drive through the Belgian countryside. We tried to stay off the motorways to make the best of the scenery, although this plan was foiled by the constant attempts at snowing We did a little offroading ;) hit the supermarkets for some Belgian Beer, had some pomme frittes and made it back to the tunnel in time to get to our train. Some might say – Success!

December

The trip to Luxembourg seemed to mark the beginning of winter, this December semed much darker and colder than the others that we had experienced. Was this because it was or were we just tiring of London winters.

We did not have long to ponder this as the following weekend we were off on another road trip. This time to Germany. With our friends from netball, Alex and Lisa, we drove from London to Rothenburg ob de Tauber. This is an extremely well preserved medieval town famous for its Christmas traditions, and so romantic. We stayed just beyond the town wall down by the river in the old mill. Each day we walked across the river and up a steep path to enter through the impressive gateways. We drank mulled wine ate sausages and schneeballen and generally soaked up the festive atmosphere. The wall that surrounds the town is almost completely intact and has a covered walkway around it which was a good way to explore the town. We did also climb a bell tower which I think violated every health and safety regulation in the world, however the view at the top although a little grey was spectacular

The first night we were in Rothenburg we had the most amazing dinner from a german chef who trained in Sydney, and was serving kangaroo. It was a little bizarre but absolutely delicious.

As Christmas drew closer we had what turned out to be one of our last Restaurant clubs – Jimmy the Greeks, it also marked the farewell party of Rob and Anthony who had been regulars throughout the year but had now decided to return to Perth. I guess in some ways their leaving was sort of the beginning of the end, with Vic and Grant, Belinda and Gav and Duncan and I all planning our farewells to London to one extent or other.

Following that night I had a ridiculously hilarious Christmas Party, after work we all got dolled up before hitting the town for some dancing. My chivalrous husband was only too happy to pick us up at some awful hour of night and to run my boss Kara home (in the opposite direction) an act that she has very little recollection of ;)

And finally it was Christmas!!!! After months of organising a group of ten of us headed to La Plagne in France. Dunc and I were celebrating the occasion with some new snowboards. I think the only person who wasn’t really happy was Craig, and that was because his partner Janine had not been able to get her passport back from Border Control (where it was getting a new visa) and therefore couldn’t go. A friend of theirs went instead, but poor old Janine had to stay in London.

Overall, once we got there it was a very successful boarding trip. To say that there was a hitch with the transfers would have been an understatement… an absolute debacle. But when we did get there, Dunc and I put in some good runs and managed to avoid serious injuries. Unlike those (sorry Brookie) who became extremely bruised and battered in an attempt to maintain correct orientation with respects to gravity. And then of course there was poor old Chris who broke his elbow L. But all in all I snowboarded, I butt-shovelled and I even tried skiing (yes even 15 minutes counts), I threw snowballs and made snow angels so I had a fab time. Our host was sweet and cooked some lovely meals and for Christmas we had a secret santa amongst the group to keep up the cheer. Especially for those who were missing their fams!

New Years was back in London. We were meeting with Belinda and Gav and some of their mates at their place before heading over the road to the pub to see in the new year. It was a curious evening… firstly it was so full in the pub that it took 20 minutes to get a round of drinks and that is not an exaggeration. And then there was no countdown…!!!! Who does that, the DJ would not stop talking all night and then somehow manages to miss the countdown… disappointing!

It is amazing how quickly another year ends... the speed at which time moves is alarming, yet it remains oblivious to our preferences. And so begins our last year in London

January

The thing about January is you gotta keep busy, Christmas is over but it is still so dark and cold and the warmth of springs seems as far off as it ever was. But this need to do things and keep busy is antagonised by the post festive season wallet blues. Nevertheless we have had a pretty good. As Vic and I were not ready to stop spending, when they arrived back from Canada, we went shopping online for kitchen ware to ship home when the time arrives.

Vic and I had been researching a new tourist attraction that had been opened in London – the London Bridge experience which was supposed to be an historical interactive attraction outlining the sometimes gruesome history of the bridge. In a word – crap! Well maybe that was a bit harsh, there was a history lesson, albeit a mediocre one, and then instead of being able to examine the excavations under the bridge that contained all sorts of human remains from the life of the bridge, they had turned it into a derisory haunted-house style amusement, with ‘monsters’ jumping out of corners to scream at you or make hideous noises down your neck. Don’t get me wrong it was quite startling in the pure sense of the word, and Grant was extremely brave to go first…. But a bit of a let down.

For Duncan’s birthday we went to Baltic restaurant for dinner, which was really lovely. I got Dunc a 4WD holiday for later on in the year and Vic and Grant got Dunc tickets to go and see a Milwall football game (our local club)… sort of.

A highlight for me in January was going to the theatre to see Oliver. The production was HUGE!! Not just sets but the cast as well. And the children were brilliant. But furthermore the character of Fagin was played by Rowan Atkinson and the performance was just sooo good. A little like Mr Bean in some ways but just fabulous.

The week after Oliver we spent the weekend in Berlin, we loved Berlin. It is a fantastic city, probably one of the most invigorating and inspiring cities in Europe.

We got in to Berlin on Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon exploring on foot. We walked down to the East Side Gallery to view the remarkable works of art the were commissioned of international artists to celebrate what freedom and unity meant when the wall came down. The pictures now are covered in messages from Berliners and people all around the world – is this graffiti or is this the evolution of art?? This was a question that repeated itself throughout the weekend.

We had dinner on Saturday night in a restaurant that doubled as a beer stock market. Filled with beers from all over Germany and Europe the prices of the beers changed every 7 minutes according to the popularity of the beers. And of course as the prices of other beers dropped they became more popular and their prices rose in response and so on. As I understand it several times during the night they will have a stock market crash where all the beers are incredibly cheap, however we weren’t there to witness that. We had our schnitzel, strudel and beer and made our way back to the hostel.

On Sunday we went on a free walking tour of Alternative Berlin. We both found this tour very interesting, it explored the more bohemian aspects of Berlin, from artist communes, to famous street art (like Bansky) as well as other areas of Berlin which may have had a more infamous role in Berlins history but have now become ruined or abandoned and adopted for another purpose. We finished the night at one of Berlins famous Markets.

Before we had to catch our plane on Monday, we were able to sneak in another free walking tour – this one a more conventional history tour of Berlin; from the age of the Prussians through its role and dissection through the wars and its resurgence to the dynamic energetic city that it is today. This year is the 20^th anniversary of the wall coming down and there is certainly to be one wicked party there.

The last weekend in January we went camping. After being inspired by watching so many Bear Grylls tv shows we decided that a couple of nights in the Peaks District in the middle of winter was the perfect challenge. So a group of us (Me, Dunc, Vic, Grant, Belinda, Gav, Mark, Godo and Katie) drove up on Friday night after work. We had booked a camping barn which had a slightly ineffective gas heater, they were all going to stay in the shelter of the camping barn, while Duncan and I tested our roof tent.

It was a chilly evening for those in the camp barn, and ironically, Duncan and I who were sheltered by a mere sheet of canvas were quite warm. It wasn’t so much the subzero temperatures than the gale force winds whipping across the moors and threatening to remove the tent from the top of the cruiser.

On Saturday Grant had planned a pub tour. This was a walking pub tour we had to follow an ambiguous map through the peaks district which allowed us to take in the scenery and the beer (well for the boys anyway). I fear we may have spent too much time taking the beer because I don’t even think we made it half way before we started to think we were going to run out of light and turned around. Sure enough we did run out of light but the grant followed his nose and we made it back to the pub we started at in no time.

We had dinner in the camping barn – Chilli, mmmm yummy and it appeared that the accompanying wine and beer and music that accompanied the dinner remedied the cold, because everyone reported sleeping much better that night. Not so much us though. Again, not because it was cold we were quite warm in our tent, but merely because of the wind. It blows relentlessly there… I seriously thought that take-off was a certainty a matter of when not if!

As we packed our tent up in the morning there was the very occasional snow drop. By the time that we were doing our scenic drive back to London the snow showers were occurring at fairly regular intervals.

February

We arrived back in London right on time about 5pm. We were so lucky at about 6pm the heavens opened and it snowed for about 24 hours straight. An unlikely occurrence in London, we expected the pristine white to have been replaced with slushy grey by the time that we woke up in the morning but no, Snow Day!!!!! This meant no work. No work because no tubes and no buses woohoo. Well no work for Dunc and I anyway. Grant decided to walk the four hours into work – and Dunc and I went and frolicked in the snow at the Park. One of the most entertaining aspects of the snow day was the traffic. For those of you who don’t know we are on an intersection which has lights. The teeny little one wheel drive, 1L engine cars would come sliding up to the lights. The approach to the lights is probably on a 2 degree incline so once these small little cars paused they could not get going again. But I ask you what sensible person thinks that their small one wheel drive, 1L engine car with no chains or snow tyres is going to be able to do that!?!?!?!

I had an appointment with the physiotherapist during the month who advised me that I needed an MRI on my ankle and I should give up all fun activities like netball and snowboarding in the meantime. This posed quite a problem as Dunc and I had planned to go boarding at the end of the month. I felt it was worth the risk so we booked tickets to Morzine region in France

The hotel we stayed at Le Viking was on top of the slope, you actually needed a lift pass to get there. This was perfect for getting a good start on the slopes. It was sunny on arrival and then we had a quite a bit of snow which made the conditions just perfect. But the best bit of the whole week was coming round the corner on one particular run and finding a pig! Yup a big pink pig just wondering up and down the slope. Hilarious.

The service wasn’t fantastic at the hotel, it was staffed by 18-20 year olds doing their ski season, but as we had got a last minute deal we couldn’t really complain too much J

So that gets us up to March... more to come :)