Sat 9 - Friday 24

Well, our life doesn't seem to have been any less crazy since i last wrote. I beleive when we left you we had just been for drinks on Southbank in London. Saturday we went outdoor shopping - I wanted new hiking boots, so not to be undone, Dunc decided he wanted new ones too. Vic and Grant bought a tent and some sleeping bags.

Sunday we had a 'Tennis Bbq' with the crew from our mixed netball team. This involved meeting at the park down the road which has the free courts, with little disposable bbqs, and all that would be associated with a picnic in the park. Then we just all rotated on and off the courts for the afternoon.

Monday to Wednesday were normal mundane working days, then wednesday night we went to Norway woohoo!!!!!

We flew into Bergen (After meeting Yvette and Turan - friends of Becky on the plane) and took a cab to Jermyn's (Yvette's cousin) house. It was amazing right on the hill looking out over Bergen. Bergen is the 'gateway' to the Fjords in norway, and apparently it rains like 280 days a year... i don't know of the exact figure but it was raining when we were there! On Thursday we did the Norway in a Nutshell tour which involved trains and mountain railways through the norwegian mountains (up where there was still snow), to Flam (pronounced Flum) which was only 2m above sea level. We tried to hike to a waterfall but were unsuccessful and after a lot of steep uphill climbing we decided that Duncan was about to turn into a sultana he was sweating so much. So we headed back and caught a boat through the fjords.... absolutely sensational!!!!!

The next day we were back in good old rainy Bergen for a few hours exploring the old town including the fishmarket. Yvette tried whale, i didn't though poor whales... and there were lots of seal skins... i assume they were not the endangered ones... but i did buy some new hats!! Three infact, I know i know a little extravagant it may seem but they are all practical hats. There were yellow rubber rainhats a virtual necessity, a funky traditional norwegian hat, so that the others don't lose me when we go boarding next winter and a normal beanie for next winter....

We caught the train up to Geilo, which in the winter is a big ski resort, but in the summer is home to 'outdoor junkies' like us ;) for hiking and stuff. We met with Becky and Rasmus, and headed to a cabin in the woods. The next morning we went hiking looking for another waterfall.... still didn't find it, but in true style we got lost - ish, and ran out of time.

In the afternoon we went white water rafting which was soooo freezing... damn that glacial water. They were fairly intense rapids though so scary and so much fun!!! A few brusied noggins, hands and noses.

We flew back to London on Sunday night, and back to work on Monday morning. And the excitement still kept coming.

We bought tickets for the Australia v Wales game in Cardiff for the rugby world cup!!!!

My contract was terminated!!! But before you can say "oh my goodness how will you pay for those incredible expensive rugby tickets?!?!" I got another job! I will be starting at St Heliers next Thursday whoohoo!!!!

Watch this space :)

The last 2 weeks (29/07/07 - 12/08/07)

I know I know it has been sooo long since I wrote. Basically because I spat the dummy and didn't want to write out of order, and I still haven't finished organising the notes to write my diary stuff from the trip with mum and dad, but that is taking longer than i thought so I am just going to have the bite the bullet :)

Firstly Congratulations to Matt and Maggie on their engagement
and Congratulations to Gemma and Richie on their wedding.

We have a fairly busy couple of weeks. We went down to our 'local' on Wednesday 1/08 night... well ok it is not really our local in the sense that there are three pubs closer than it, but it is the closest nice one. So we went down to the Angel to meet with Belinda and a friend of hers Gavin for dinner and drinks. The pub is one of the oldest in the area and is built right on the river, the balcony overhangs it.

That Friday we went down to the Blackfriars Pub, which funnily enough is in Blackfriars for another dinner and drinks for Magnus' birthday. The pub was pretty funky right on the corner of a major intersection, a little triangular shaped building that was so small that everyone just spills out onto the side of the intersection. The only annoying thing though was that it was so busy they shut the kitchen so the chef could come out and serve drinks..... this of course meant we had to find another place to eat. So we walked over the Blackfriars bridge toward Southwark and were lucky enough to catch a fantastic sunset.......

On Saturday we decided we were going caming, it was the 2nd fine weekend this summer. We packed our bad and set our sat nav for the New Forest. Oh what a nightmare, while we were talking sat nav directed us into London (we didn't want to go through London), and then there was traffic, and then there was more traffic, and then there was detours to avoid traffic, and then there was more traffic and it took us about 40 mintues to travel 8 miles!!!!! We made it to the tourist beureau and found the contact details for available campsites, we went to one and it was full, we called another and it was full, all the b&bs were full.......arrggghh. One guy we spoke to told Duncan we would have better luck looking for accommodation in Scotland! For some reason everyone had decided to go to New Forest that weekend.

So we went to Bucklers Hard, and old Port village where in the war against France they used to build ships in secret. We had a drink each looking out over the quiet ocean bay, before getting in our car and driving home.

We were gone from home for about 11 hours and we spent about 10 of those in the car :) Fun day!! In saying that though the New Forest is lovely. It is Britains newest national park. It is largely land owned by the crown, but in days gone by the people used to breed and raise horses. Now the horses roam free and wild... once you get in the new forest off the major roads (which are separated by fences and 'cattle grids') you have to drive fairly slowly because they just meander down the road as they see fit.

Being a little grumpy, we didn't have an early start on Sunday (05/08) morning, but later that day we made it to a Latin American festival in a nearby park. Us an 100,000 other people - bu-sy! It was hot and crowded and loud so we didn't stay long, but Vic and I did get our fortunes told by a budgie.... yup for a mere £1 a budgie will pick out a fortune for you.... Mine said:

"You are thinking to travel in you interest. About business, be aware of someone whoe wants to ruin your ideas and business, but do not listen to him. Refuse anything from him, cause he does not mean you well. Luck will be with you. You are lucky on Thursday and Saturday. You'll get news about your business and you'll gain a great amount of money. Lotto: 3-9-13-23-33-27"

Well here's hoping! :)

A friend of mine from Canada, Jenny and her friend stayed on our futons on Tuesday and Wednesday night. On Wed we headed back down to the Angel for dinner however we were a bit late for dinner, so we were directed 5 min down the road and bonus! New Local discovered - the Mayflower.

On Thurs one of Duncs friends came round for some physio, so I waved my healing hands and hey presto!

Friday ended up being a fantastic night despite getting off to a rough start. I had organised a whole heap of friends to meet at the Trafalgar hotel for after work drinks because it has a roof top bar which looks over London. When we got there however the bar was full, and they weren't letting anybody even join the queue. So we had to wait to round everybody up and we walked across the river to the Southbank, near London eye and all caught up there....

So that is the last two weeks.

Stay tuned :)