A quiet day

Today was a quiet day as we had a well deserved lie-in and did all our domestic chores. We also went for a nice walk around where we live and got some nice pictures of our local wildlife.

The canal that runs past our block of flats.

Contrast this to the view of the canal in February this year when we'd had a sprinkling of snow.

To the right is Canada Water (the lake) with the local swans and cygnets.

To the left are some of the local ducks - this poor mum has 11 ducklings to keep track of.

We also watched the movie House of Flying Daggers which had gorgeous cinematography... not so sure about the story line though!

A British BBQ

Mum and Dad left today.
We saw them off at the airport - here they are on the tube to Heathrow - and then went to Sarah's BBQ. Although this wasn't officially our first BBQ in London, it was our first taste of BBQing with typical English weather ie. we were completely rained out. There were many jokes made about Wimbledon as the hosts rushed to cover the table tennis table with plastic covers as the rain started to fall. The brave carried on with umbrellas and sheltered under a tarpaulin, but eventually we all admitted defeat to the elements and piled into the kitchen and cooked the rest of the food in the oven.

St Pauls

Met Mum and Dad at Borough market for lunch today and then we walked down along the river to St Pauls Cathedral. This photo was taken on our walk past Shakespeare's Globe theatre (the building with the thatched roof in the background).

We saw a play called Pericles Prince of Tyre there last Friday. It was the first time James and I had been to the Globe as well and the play was excellent. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll be able to take James' parents and Nanna when they arrive in October as the Globe's season is so short.

St Pauls is a beautiful and quite impressive cathedral - although I'm not sure it quite compares to St Peter's Basilica in Rome. I'm not sure anything can compare to that.

We took Mum and Dad out for a Chinese meal and then to The Comedy Store to watch some comedy. The MC and most of the acts were pretty good, although the Canadian guy in the second act was pretty bad and the guy with the double bass we'd seen at Malcolm Hardie's Up the River club (he tried to this new comedy club down the road from where we live - never go there... it is truly awful). It's a bit sad when a comedian only has enough material for one show so if you've seen him once you know all his jokes.

Thorks' farewell

Today is Thorks' farewell as well as the day my parents get back from Copenhagen for their last few days visiting us in London.

It's also one week since the attempted bombings here in London and everyone at my work was commenting on the number of police they saw on their way in today. While I found it kind of reassuring, a lot of other people were saying that it made them feel more nervous because it made them think that the police knew something they didn't and had reason to be concerned.

On a brighter note, the sun is out and it's almost the weekend so things aren't all bad.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! This is a blog for friends and family of James and Luvena.

We will (hopefully) be posting regularly to keep you up to date of our travels and life outside of Australia.

Currently we're in London enjoying the balmy summer (not!).

Here is a picture of us in Les Arcs, France in January 2005.