Been to London to visit the Queen

Well last weekend was probably the last time that we will see the sun for a very, very long time! We made the most of the fantastic weather by sunning ourselves in the parks London style.

On Saturday we went and visited the state rooms of Buckingham Palace with Nat from my work. We were really surprised how beautiful and ornate the palace was inside as it looks fairly plain on the outside. The state rooms were just amazing and the dining room / banquet hall was set for a state dinner. The precision on the settings was incredible - everything was just perfect! It takes two days to set the table for 200 people!! That’s some turnaround time…….

We also went househunting on Saturday morning which was the usually pain of rushing around and seeing some really, really bad places. Thankfully the first place we saw was just perfect and we signed the contract yesterday! We move on the 25th Oct and (fingers crossed) that will be our last move for at least a year.

David went to Octoberfest last week two days after we came back from Rome and had a great time….
I arrived at the airport Tuesday night after work.  Bought a random book called “City Boy” which is basically an autobiography of a sex crazed, cocaine addicted London trader who made millions up until the credit crunch stopped the party. 

The beer festival was awesome.  Lots of Germans dressed up to party.  From babies in strollers to grand parents who were all wearing lederhosen (no idea about the spelling). Each day we had 2 beers and half a chicken. 

On the Friday the Expert crowd headed off to Berlin while I spent the day walking around the city and checking out as much as I could before I flew back to London.  Arriving in London was so fast for once - at Heathrow 90% of the passengers being either Europeans or British had to go through the slow lane.  Meanwhile there was an empty line for foreigners with work permits.  Ten minutes from getting off the flight getting my baggage and out of customs…  Is there anything better.

Mum arrived back on Wednesday afternoon while dad has headed home to watch his team win the grand final. They had a great time in Italy and survived their drive through Sicily unscathed!

Yesterday we hired a car and went for a lovely drive in the country. We visited Audley End (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.12088/chosenImageId/2) which was a beautiful old palace but it was so freezing being out!! Winter has arrived and it has been so, so cold over the last couple of days.

Today mum and I went window shopping around Knightsbridge. Had a great time in Harrods and bought a very yummy dinner from the food hall. We then met Erin for High Tea at The Wolsley and had a fantastic time - it is such a grand restaurant and quite nice for a spot of tea, http://www.thewolseley.com/

Tomorrow mum sets off for a trip up north for a couple of days to visit lots of historic houses and Hadrians Wall and then next weekend we are off to Paris!

Hope everyone is well - we have had 1000 hits to the blog since we started so it’s fantastic that people are keeping in touch! Would love to hear how everyone is so don’t forget to leave your comments.

Buckingham Palace

Good bye sunshine

Let by.....us!

Audley End

Mum & David all rugged up at Audley End

The beautiful cloud hedge

All roads lead to…

We headed to Rome for the weekend to meet up with mum and dad. Despite speculation all week that Alitalia would go bust at any minute we took off late on Friday night. It was pretty evident though that they had cut back on cleaning and general upkeep of the plane in order to pay for fuel!!

It was also an experience getting between the airport and the hotel - I’m sorry but as well as our taxis driver drove, I still didn’t feel safe overtaking someone, on the wrong side of the road, while going around the corner and all this while going 160kms an hour!!!

On Saturday we work up to the bluest sky that we have seen since we left Australia! We took the hop on - hop off bus around town which was great. We then joined the massive queue for the Colosseum and went off to the Roman Forum. All so amazing and we had a great time being noisy tourist. In the afternoon we visit St Peters Square and enjoyed the sites.

On Sunday we wandered around town and soaked up the atmosphere at the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. The weather was just perfect and we both really loved Rome.

Mum and dad are onto Sorrento tomorrow and then off to Sicily and David flew out to Munich this evening for Octoberfest - lucky things!!!

Starting house hunting this weekend as we are moving at the end of next month. This will be our 5th month in 4 months and hopefully our last in a while!

Happy Birthday Michelle - hope you have a fantastic day.

Julia & Jeremy - wishing you a wonderful wedding day on Saturday. I’m sure you will have a beautiful and amazing day.

The Romans are coming (or posing for photos at least)

Me at the Colloseum

Stairs to the nose bleed section

Inside the Colloseum

Roman Cat

David at St Peters Square

Mum and Dad

Look familar anyone?

Trojans Tower

Pretty Church

Pretty Skyline

The Pantheon - more old stuff!

Pretty street

Trevi Fountain

Mum and I making wishes

Time for a Bath….

Well we had a fantastic weekend in Bath. After a very yummy breakfast on Saturday we headed into town. While Dad and Dave watched the rugby at a pub, Mum and I headed to the Fashion Museum (http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/)  and Reception Rooms. Fantastic clothes on display - mum and I tried on a corset and hoop skirts! Very fun but the lack of breathing could  be a problem. The Reception Rooms were also lovely, straight out of a Jane Austin Novel!

We then wandered around the town which is so pretty. The afternoon was spent in the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey - both fantastic places. http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/ Took lots and lots and lots of photos.

Another yummy breakfast on Sunday morning and then we headed back into town. Mum headed to the Jane Austin museum while the rest of us wandered around for a bit.

We stayed in a lovely B&B while we were in Bath and would definately recommend it to anyone planning a visit - http://www.high-beeches.com/

In the afternoon we headed down to Longleat, http://www.longleat.co.uk/. On the way we stopped off at the Westbury Horse - it is one of a number of huge horse carved into a hillside. It was HUGE and on such a steep hill that it was a bit concerning standing above it.

Longleat is the home of Lord Bath who is a eccentric character (to put it mildly). As all Lords should have, he has his own safari park. It was great, you drive around and the animals all wander past you - giraffes, deer, lions, tigers, wolves, sea lions (ok, these don’t walk around the car but you do see them)!! There is also a great monkey enclosure where the monkey jump on your car and basically try to remove anything they can. Our hire car was lucky but a few cars going around lost aerials, trim and windscreen wipers!

We then went through the house which was just beautiful. On our way home we drove past Stonehenge. We didn’t go in as it was pretty late, but conviently the traffic was bad as we drove past so we got a great view anyway.

Mum and Dad headed to Venice yesterday and are enjoying themselves. We are heading to Rome for the weekend to spend some more time with them. Well, that is as long as Air Alitalia do not go bust before we fly out on Friday night so keep your fingers crossed for us!

River Avon

Weir on the river

Pretty Bridge

Playing dress ups - just wish I could breath!

Mum playing dress ups

Bath

Roman Baths

Ancient drain - not that exciting until you find out it is a couple of 1000 years old and still working

Look the sun is shining!

Mum and I having a bath....

Bath Abbey

Pretty roof in the Abbey

Spot the rabbit ears (thanks dad)

The Crescent

Pondering pig

Royal Crescent

Dave and our hire car

White horse in Westbury

Longleat house

Giraffes

Safari park in Longleat - I don't think it's that green in Africa!

Kissing camels

Vultures

Rhino - just to the left of this was a truck ready to head off any charging rhinos!

the same rhinos

Sleepy kittys

Like a tiger! It's a bit blurry as for safety we weren't allowed to open our windows when driving past the tigers

Mum on a stye

Stonehenge from the motorway

Where have we been, did you miss us?

Well I have been a bit late in updating our blog. The hard drive died on our new laptop (crazy cat hour and laptops don’t mix) so that has taken a to couple of weeks to be sorted out but it is all fixed now - thanks to an Indian call centre and courier.

The sunshine I mentioned in my last blog only lasted a day! So to cheer ourselves up I went shopping with Erin on Sloane Square and Kings Street in Chealsea. Lots and lots of fantastic shops so it was quite an indulgent day.

Mum and dad arrived on 4th September and have spent the last week traipsing around London Town being tourists. Last Saturday we did the “must see” sights - Westminster, White Hall, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace and all in flooding rain which was an interesting experience. On Sunday we went to Hampton Court Palace which was just beautiful. Had a lot of fun in the maze and all played the part of noisy tourists very well!

Last night (Friday) David and took the train out to Bath to meet Mum and dad who had driven out in the morning to see some historic houses. We are staying in a lovely Georgian guest house and am currently watching the mist (sounds so much nicer that fog) rise off the fields from our bedroom window, very pretty. This morning dad and David are off  to watch the rugby while mum and I go to the costume museum. Really looking forward to having some time out of busy, busy London.

Our stuff that we shipped over finally arrived! It came on the same day as mum and dad which was lucky as we needed the extra sheets and towels but our flat is bursting at the seams. David is very happy because his XBox and golf clubs have arrived. He and dad played a golf during the week in Richmond - very, very green golf course.

Time to get up now, I can smell breakfast….

Our local tube stop

Westminster Abbey

It kept stalling so you it was good they weren't rushing to a real fire!

Entrance to Hampton Court Palace

I think I took exaclty the same photo of the chimneys last time I came to Hampton Court!

Mum and dad in the centre of the maze. Now, how did we get out again....

Hampton Court Palace

Dave and I at our new home (I wish)

Sunny Day!

Summer has finally come back, even if it is just for a day! Today has been 26 or 27 degrees and we spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the sunshine in our backyard. Tomorrow is meant to be a similar temperature but stormy so we enjoyed  the sun while we could!

Last Monday was a Bank (Public) Holiday so it was great to have an extra long weekend. We stayed overnight at my work as part of my induction so that was fun. Enjoyed the restaurant, went swimming, sampled room service and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Both of our works are going well and are keeping us busy. I came down with a sore throat yesterday so missed a staff party which was annoying.

My mum and dad arrive this Thursday which is really excited! They are with us for two weeks and are then off to Italy for about three weeks. Dad is then heading home and mum will come back to London for about two weeks and tour the UK. Planning lots to do. We have a couple of weekends booked with them - we are going to Bath and also meeting them in Rome for a weekend. Mum and I are also planning to go to Paris for the weekend which will be great.

David is also getting into the blogging, although his blog is a lot more techie that this. I don’t get it but some of you might - http://www.pebblesteps.com/

Now for some funny pics of Prism trying to catch clothes in the washing machine (while it was on)!

Ohh, it is spinning

It moves - I wanna play

Almost got it!

Birds eye view

Westminster

Big Ben

London Eye

Our London Eye tickets and guides

Embankment Station

River Thames

We had a great afternoon when we arrived in London on this boat which is a floating bar

City Skyline & St Pauls

another shot of Westminster

Me on the London Eye

David & I enjoying our champagne cruise

Looking down!

Anyone home...

View from the top

We live near the dome (Earls Court) in the distance

Us and Ben

River Thames

David

County Hall

County Hall

Playing with David's camera - love this shot

More fun

Dance party on the banks of the River Thames

London Skyline by night

Me & lovely fairy lights

St Pauls & Blackfriars Bridge

Southbank and the London Eye

Waiting for the bus outside St Pauls

There in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane… No it’s Kaija and Dave.

We have settled into Fulham and love the area. Lots there heap of great restaurants and shops so there is plenty of activities to keeps us busy. Lots of Aussies and Kiwi’s around, so all the pubs play AFL and Rugby Union games. All in all it makes the place very familiar.

My work is going well. There seem to be seeing to send me on a different training course every week. The latest is in Sheffield. I leave Tuesday night for the training on Wednesday. No chance for site seeing but hopefully there will be lots to see out of the train on the trip.

The weather over the weekend has been incredible which dovetailed nicely with a packed weekend. Yesterday we went into the heart of the city for some shopping – starting at the sports store Lillywhites, then we went to Hamleys (http://www.hamleys.com/) and finally a long wander through Oxford Street.

Last night we booked in for our champagne flight on the London Eye – thanks Tour Hosts! We were on an 8pm “flight” and it was perfect. It was lovely and clear and as we were going round the city’s lights started turning on – it was an amazing way to see London and gave us a better perspective of the city layout.

The summer atmosphere was on display as we walked along Southbank. There were lots of people out and about. The best part was a dance party on the banks of the Thames. There about a hundred people that had brought their own drinks, dancing in front of a group of professional DJs. David wants to check out their website so he can go to the next one.

Today was fairly laid back day, we did play squash for this afternoon. We have been invited to a couple of squash games but thought we should get some practise in first (well for David it was getting practise and for me it was really just learning how to play). It was good fun.

Missing everyone so make sure you keep in touch!

Happy Birthday Penny, we hope you had a great day.

(PS - We will post the photos tomorrow, when David brings the USB cable home. There are some great photos from the London Eye).

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been….

Very excited - Prism arrived today! She flew in a Qantas flight, had a booked pick-up from Heathrow and was dropped off at our place today - travelling in luxury. Ok, well the luxury of a cat carry box.

She seems to be settling in well and has had a great afternoon exploring our little flat. Have to say though, two months of not having a cat and we had forgotten how much white cat hair shows up on everything! That’s ok though, it is so good to have her back and their have been lots of cuddles so it looks like she has missed us too!

Sleepy - do cats get jet lag too?

Relaxing in my new home

I want to win the Gadget Show prize!!

We moved to a lovely one bedroom garden flat on Wednesday evening. After work the we filled a mini-cab with all our belongings and said goodbye to the tiny attic studio in Hammersmith. We have rented the flat for three months while the owner is working in Spain. The place is fully furnished so we won’t have to worry about buying utensils etc for a while…

Its been a bit of a relief to be able to unpack our suitcases and settle in somewhere which has made our life a bit more normal. We’ve been living like back packers without the beer and the nudity… (Dave added that bit in) On Thursday night had a slight disaster when the front door lock got stuck and no amount of moving would open the door so a locksmith had to be called to change the lock (£££££).

Lots more training ongoing at work. On Wednesday I am being sent up to Leicester for a training course which should be interesting.

On Saturday night we had Ged, Erin & Luch over for a mini-house warming / BBQ. We had a great night enjoying the garden and late sunset, even if the BBQ was a bit smoky. Summer is quickly coming to a close already dusk is an hour earlier than when we arrived. So we are going to party hard before Winter kicks in and we will be leaving home and coming back from work at night.

In preparation for Prism’s arrival this week, we stocked up on kitty things – scratchy posts, toys and stuff. Can’t wait for the cat to arrive.

On Sunday afternoon we went to the British Motor show. Lots of very sexy cars, Holdens….oops I mean Vauxhalls and even some pretty impressive boats.

We had started to plan trips away while mum and dad are visiting soon. We have book trips to Rome and Bath which I am really looking forward too. David has also booked a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest so I am sure he will have some great stories afterwards……..

Fingers crossed we win this weeks Gadget Show prize draw – you don’t had to know what that is but it is the most amazing prize draw ever!!

Lounge room

Kitchen (yay for a washing machine)

Our backyard

Quick Get-away - Somewhere for the Segways

Another quick get-away - Somewhere for the skis

Stand builders - Loved this build

Cool man - The car is made of hemp

Transformers - It really does look like one

Vrroom-vrroom - Love my WRC

Gangstermobile

Our favourite concept car

And from behind

Starting to get a routine

A tourist shot - Big Ben

Well the rest of my week last week was filled with training for me so nothing too exciting to report for work yet. The team are lovely and I haven’t gotten lost back-of-house yet!

The weather has been really hot – 30 degrees over the last couple of days. We had a fantastic weekend

Enjoying Sunday afternoon at the pub

enjoying the heat. On Saturday morning we tried to watch the rugby but the Walkabout at Shepherds Bush was just to pack so you couldn’t seen the screen. Instead we sat at another pub and dad regularly sms’d the score through – thanks dad!

Saturday afternoon we had a farewell for one of David’s friends who is heading back to Australia.

David on Brick Lane

On Sunday, some of David’s colleagues took us to Coalfields to visit the markets and have a great lunch. We headed to another pub to enjoy the afternoon – enjoying the Pimms!

And now, a word from David…
I went to my first London .NET Users group on Thursday – 65 Guys and 1 Chick – Nerds are the same everywhere… Its basically mandatory to go to community groups events at the company I am now working for. They are trying to be a “Google light”. For instance they have Friday afternoons set aside for the permanents to work on Opensource projects and they are heavily involved in the Agile, .NET and Java users groups within London. My boss has informed me that I need to do a .NET talk in the next couple of months so that will be interesting…