The Transients

Winter storm number 2

2007-02-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

Looking down Avenue B

The second winter storm of the year has hit and we're expecting about 5 inches of snow overnight. James and I went out to play in it tonight before people started attacking it with shovels and buckets of salt. Here are some more pictures...

Lu by the corner of Avenue B and 11th Street

Lu on the other corner of Ave B

To make a snowman, first make a snowball...

...Then continue rolling it down the road...

...Until you finally have a snowball big enough for the body. Then repeat for the head!

The snow on 11th Street - look at the size of those snowflakes falling!

Same view of 11th Street without the snowflakes

Our first snow storm

2007-02-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

The view of Avenue B from our window

Today is the first snow storm we've seen in NY. It actually started coming through last night and was trying to snow when I met James in Chinatown to pick up the mussels for our Valentines Day dinner. Over night it continued to snow (we have about 1 1/2 to 2 inches) but this morning it has changed to what I think is "freezing rain". It looks like it's pouring with rain but the "rain" is actually tiny bits of ice, like small pieces of hail about the size of sugar grains.

The snow is fabulous but can you believe it is the "wrong" type of snow for making snowmen and snowballs??? Had no idea there was a right and wrong type of snow but the stuff that has fallen is very light and fluffy and doesn't stick together at all :( Can you believe it? Our first decent snow fall and it's the wrong kind!!! Still, it's lovely to walk in because it's so fluffy. If only people would stop putting salt down because all that does is turn the snow into slippery slush that feels like walking in quicksand - it feels like your shoes will be sucked right off your feet!

This afternon they are predicting "thunder snow". Never heard of that before, but John, the new Canadian at my work and resident snow expert has sent me a link all about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow

Apparently, it is like a thunder storm, but instead of rain falling there is snow. Also, the snow muffles the sound of the thunder so you can't hear it from as far away.

Here are some more snow pictures:

Can you believe it?

2007-02-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it - London has snow and we don't! So unfair! Here are some more pics sent to me by Christian from my work.

Tigerland

2007-01-28T07:02:00.000-05:00

After a hard long day shopping at Ikea (thanks to James who let me buy almost 200 scented and unscented candles - OK most of them were only little tealights that came in packs of 46 scented and the jumbo pack of 100 unscented - to make the flat a bit more girly) we decided to try out Tigerland, a Vietnamese/Thai fusion restaurant on Avenue A. We had planned to go there on Friday night but a combination of James having to work late and the weather being sooooo cold meant that we couldn't really bear to walk ALL the way to Tigerland that night. Yes, NY is making us lazy (and spolit for food choices!!) :)

The restaurant is a bit hidden and set back from the street so you only spot it just as you are walking past. We arrived in time for their fixed price menu which was a bargain considering how lovely the food was. We shared the stuffed Angel Wings (deboned chicken wings stuffed with prawns, pork, mushroom and glass noodles, fried and served with homemade sweet chilli sauce - see pic above) and the Banh Xeo (a Vietnamese crepe filled with with shrimp, fresh Berkshire bacon and oyster mushrooms). The crepes were one of our fave dishes at a Vietnamese restaurant called Tahn Binh in Newtown in Sydney so we had high expectations. Lucikly, we weren't disappointed. But we were a bit confused by how to actually eat it. We were told by our waiter that you are supposed to tear up the Banh Xeo and put it inside of the lettuce leaves that were provided and dip it into the two different sauces served with it. At least we think that's what he said but he spoke so softly neither of us fully heard what we were supposed to do. We ended up using knives and forks in the end but whatever way we ate it, it was delicous.

Then we had the Seared Normandy Duck Red Curry with organic butternut squash & oyster mushrooms and the Clay Pot Fresh Crab Spicy Glass Noodles with Calamari & Wild Shrimp. The glass noodle clay pot was fantastic - such fresh seafood and a level of chilli that grew on you slowly. The duck was beautifully cooked but wow! was that curry sauce HOT!!! Think I drank about 4 glasses of water just trying to get through it, along with the organic oolong tea we had with the meal. Have definately lost my UK curry stamina since we've been here :)

Just as we thought we couldn't possibly fit any more food in, they brought us dessert. A small bowl of light tapioca flavoured with coconut and served slightly chilled. It was actually quite refreshing and helped get rid of that 'I've eaten so much I think I'm going to EXPLODE!' feeling. Although I think we still had to waddle our way back home....

The nice thing about Tigerland is that all their food is organic, and not only is it cooked really well but the service was great; even though they had a huge birthday party going on in the restaurant while we were there and they were busy getting all the meals and drinks to those tables, we still had excellent service. We might take my parents to Tigerland when they come to visit at the end of Feb. Still having a fabulous time exploring all the restaurants and bars in the neighbourhood!!!

Tigerland, Avenue A between 4th and 5th

Max

2007-01-27T10:35:00.000-05:00

We went to Max last night for dinner. It was the coldest day (and night) in New York for two years so although we were planning to try somewhere else, once we were outside and felt the -20 degree C wind and the light snow that was falling we very quickly decided to eat somewhere closer to home. We'd heard things about Max, a cheap and cheerful Italian place a few blocks straight down avenue B from us and decided to check it out.

(If you want to see where it is, go to http://mondomap.com/mondo/ and click on Alphabet City. Then follow Avenue B down past Tompkins Square Park to the corner of B and 4th street - you can do this by holding down shift and scrolling down with your mouse to move the map - Max is on the right hand side, the second building down from 4th street.)

It was a TINY but cute restaurant with an open kitchen. We shared the tomato bruschetta ( a big enough serving for 2-3 people) and some sauteed spinach (this was supposed to be a side dish but for some reason they brought it out early). I had the fresh spaghetti with lamb ragout for a main and James tried the lasagne which was brought to the table bubbling in its own earthenware dish. Although both dished looked nice and tasted... well, OK... neither was a stand out and we both felt we could have done a better job ourselves. My pasta was overcooked, although the sauce was tasty, and James couldn't tell whether he had a meat or veg lasagne. Hmmmm...

The service was also terrible - probably the worst we've experienced so far in NY. Three university students who obviously didn't want to be there and as a result spent most of their time standing by the front door gossiping and talking about parties they'd been to than looking after the customers. We had to ask to place our order after sitting with the menus for about 20 minutes, had to ask for plates even though we'd said we were sharing the brushetta and spinach (not to mention it was pretty obvious) and then we had to ask for the bill. On the other hand, the mexican waitstaff delivering the food to the tables and re-filling the water were excellent.

Even though it was cheap, it was a bit disappointing (especially when there are places like Cafecito around the corner) and we won't be going back.

Max, corner of B and 4th.

cafecito

2007-01-26T09:06:00.000-05:00

We went to Cafecito last night: a cute Cuban restaurant on our block, right around the corner. I can't believe we've been in this flat so long and never even realised it was there!!

It has a nice looking (although smallish) bar and then you turn right into a bigger room with lots of small tables which is the restaurant. The cocktails are strong (I had a mojito and James had the Cuban Punch). We shared the Bollos (roasted corn and black bean fritters) as an appetiser and James had the Churrasco (char grilled skirt steak with Cuban chimichurri sauce and lime cured onions, served wtih yellow rice, black beans, and tostones) and I had the Ropa Vieja (cuban style beef stew made with pulled flank steak, fresh peppers, onions, plum tomatoes and freshly ground cumin, served wtih white rice, black beans, and tostones). The food was so yummy and James' steak was cooked perfectly.

Neither of us knew, in our ignorance, what tostones were but they turned out to be delicious slices of fried plantain - sliced quite thickly so they were still soft in the middle and not like plantain chips (which are also nice). It came with a delicious garlic dipping sauce too.

The prices were fantastic too - no wonder the place was packed and there was a long queue forming by the time we left!

Cafecito - Avenue C between 11th and 12th streets

Could this be the new Starbucks ad?

2007-01-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

First snow in NY for 2007

2007-01-17T18:54:00.000-05:00

This week we received our first (decent) amount of snow for this winter - setting new records for the latest snow during winter for well over 100 years.

Welcome to Washington

2006-12-31T18:36:00.000-05:00

The Capital Building

... DC that is. Between Christmas and New Year's we visited DC to see the nation's capital. We caught the "Chinatown Express" (cheap coaches that run to and from DC and other places along the East Coast. They run from Chinatown in NY to the Chinatown in the place you are travelling to) and stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. Unfortunately, just before we left, ex-president Gerald Ford passed away which meant that a lot of the city shut down to prepare for his funeral arrangements. As a result, we didn't actually get a chance to go inside the Capital Building but we still managed to get views from the outside and take lots of pictures. You can't go inside a lot of the buildings like the White House and the Pentagon since 9/11 which is also a shame. Lu's parents have been and they said they were both very interesting.

Below are some other pictures of our trip...

James outside the war memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The view of the Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial steps

Statue of Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial

View of the Lincoln Memorial

James by the Washington Memorial

Inside the War Memorial

Lu outside the White House

James next to an "old" Vax machine at the Air and Space Museum (James used to programme these in his first job at VicRoads!!)

Christmas turkey

2006-12-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your turkey was as yummy as ours (thanks Lu!)

Grab your scarf!

2006-12-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

Wow it's cold today! It was 18 degrees F when we woke up this morning (that's almost -8 degrees C) with a wind chill that makes it seem -17 degrees C. James just got to work and told me it felt even colder then when we went skiing in Les Arcs (France) a couple of winters ago. What are we going to be like in Jan/Feb/March when it gets properly cold???!

Although James is thinking that we might go to Miami or somewhere in Florida for my birthday in February - anywhere warm really!

We're also hoping to go away somewhere between Christmas and New Years as it seems a waste to have a week off and not go anywhere. The only problem is trying to find somewhere not to far away that the travel guides say is OK to go in winter. The best option so far is looking like Washington DC as there are heaps of museums all together in one area that we can shelter in if the weather is really horrible.

Well, we're also going to have to brave the elements tonight as its our first meet-up group meeting tonigh. We're meeting up with a bunch of other people that are new/relatively new to NY for drinks tonight and then we're off to look at the Christmas lights/tree at the Rockerfeller Centre (ie. outdoors). Brrrrrr....

Casimir

2006-12-06T22:45:00.000-05:00

We went out tonight for a few drinks at Bua (fantastic pomogranate cosmos which are a steal at $5 each until 8pm http://www.buany.com/index.html) and then to a little French bistro near us just a bit further down Ave B called Casimir. I had the mussels steamed in white wine sauce and James had the black boudin sausages with sweet potato mash. Both were tasty but the place was quite empty for a Wednesday night. Shame as it was a cozy place... you'd think it would be busier on a Wednesday even if it was pretty cold. http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=4871

Can't wait for Monday!

2006-11-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

I've never been so happy to see a weather forecast... yay snow!!!

So much food!

2006-11-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy past couple of days with Kewal from my work coming to visit for about a week. We've been to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art), Macys and Bloomies and quite a few other places hunting for clothes and digital cameras but mostly we've been eating and drinking (I blame him entirely for keeping us out until 3am last Sunday night....)

We've been back to Mercadito for some Mexican tapas veggie style, Paquitos for some tex-mex, Houstons for burgers, a nice little Italian on the upper west side where Kewal's friend Jeanette lives, Veneiros for cheesecake, Sugar Sweet Sunshine for cupcakes of course... the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures.. .think we were too busy eating and drinking to remember to take any...

Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes

2006-11-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

After seeing those yummy cupcakes last week (and not actually having any, tsk, tsk!) we decided we'd better go back and try some:

We had the red velvet cupcake with vanilla buttercream and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate almond buttercream. Wow, they were amazing. Having done some reading it seems that most New Yorkers rate Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes a lot higher than Magnolia Bakery (apparently the quality at Magnolia dive bombed after they were made famous on Sex and the City).

Ana's visit

2006-11-05T18:39:00.000-05:00

This week Ana came to visit us. During the day she was site seeing and at night we took her out for lots of food and drink.

Ana & Me at Tides restaurant in the Lower East Side

Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes

Me & Ana on the Brooklyn bridge overlooking Downtown Manhattan

James on the Brooklyn bridge overlooking Downtown & South Street Seaport

Me & Ana in Brooklyn with the Brooklyn bridge & Downtown in the background

View of Midtown from the Brooklyn bridge. The Empire State Building is on the left and the Chrysler Building in on the right.

Brrrr..

2006-10-13T09:26:00.000-04:00

Well, we've been wondering when winter would hit and I'd say last night it finally did. It went from a top of 21°C to about 3°C overnight. There were freak snow storms in Buffalo, NY, which is up north. Guess it's going to be a cold winter.

Plane crash

2006-10-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are OK as we've had a few calls from people in London and Oz... the plane crash was in the Upper East Side and we're a lot further down on the Lower East Side. Still, pretty scary and it's had a lot of people talking and re-living 9/11.

A walk in the park

2006-10-09T17:44:00.000-04:00

Luvena and James on a bridge in Central Park

It was the Columbus Day long weekend and the weather was gorgeous. We decided to go for a walk in Central Park on Monday it ws just so lovely. We caught the subway about half way up the park and then walked down to the bottom which took about 1.5-2 hours.

Here are some pictures:

The view across the resevoir in the middle of Central Park

James enjoys the weather in Central Park

The turtle pond

Lu outside the Swedish Cottage

Pics from our flat

2006-10-07T18:01:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pics of our new flatand our view. We're on the 5th floor of a walk-up building (ie. no lift) so be warned, if you're coming to visit us you WILL get fit walking up and down all the stairs!

But it is worth it as we have a great view of the Empire State Building from our bedroom windows and can see the buildings in downtown from our loungeroom and one of the bedroom windows. Had the World Trade Centre still been standing we would have had a brilliant view.

The Empire State Building as seen from the bedroom window

View of the street from our bedroom

Food, food and more.....food

2006-10-05T18:01:00.000-04:00

We are having a brilliant time exploring all the zillions of bars and restaurants near us!

Some highlights:

Paquitos - 1st Ave between St Marks and 9th st
Cute little Mexican place. They give you free homemade corn chips and salsa when you arrive and the food was v tasty - I had the vela cruz enhiladas and Jame had his first chimmichanga (sort of like a deep fried burrito)

Prosperity Dumpling - Chinatown
Fabulous and so cheap! We had 5 panfried pork and chive dumplings for $1, 10 boiled pork and chinese vegtable dumplings for $2 and a sesame pancake (like foccacia with sesame seeds on top) stuffed with sliced beef and vegetables.

Caracas - 7th st between 1st Ave and Ave A
Great Venezuelan food which we'd never head before. It's an arepas bar so that's what we ate. Arepas are like small pockets of pastry, kind of like a pita but a bit more doughy, filled with an amzing variety of meat, cheese and vegtables.

No sleep 'till Brooklyn

2006-10-01T14:30:00.000-04:00

The view from our loungeroom window

"Well, we've been very busy recently preparing to move to the big apple. That's right, we're moving to New York!"

I started writing this entry back in July when Luvena and I were getting ready to move to NYC. Since then, we've had very little time to scratch ourselves.

But, we're here now and moved into our new apartment and loving it! We spent 6 weeks in corporate accomodation which was very nice, but there isn't much nightlife around the area we were living in. We've now found a place in the East Village, which is just north of the Lower East Side in Manhattan. It's a 4 story walk-up building and we're on the top floor, so be ready for some exercise when you come visiting!

We hope to get some pictures up soon - just as soon as we sort out our power problems. Most of our appliances have either Australian or UK power supplies, including the battery charger for our camera.

We're gradually exploring the area, which is hip and vibrant. New York University (NYU) has several campuses dotted around this area so it's mostly populated with students. As a result there is lots of nightlife, but it has also become very popular with young workers like us who love to be close to everything. The only downside is it gets very noisy at night, but it isn't much louder than the rest of Manhattan.

Work-wise I'm really enjoying it. I get to work on bigger, more diverse projects and the team I work in is great. Luvena is working from home and is loving that too. She's online for half a day and gets the afternoon to do all her writing, so it works out well.

I promise to write more often and post up some photos as soon as we have some!

Dave's new car

2006-06-05T06:12:00.000-04:00

My brother just bought a new car, so I thought I'd share with you all..

Dave and his new car

Mum and Dave

Southampton

2006-05-29T06:17:00.000-04:00

On Saturday night we went to Nat's 30th birthday bash. We had a great time - I had a chance to catch up with Harsha and Nat, and Luvena had an opportunity to meet some more of my colleagues. The music was great but we both drank a bit too much.

So at 8am we set off to Southampton on the National Express bus nursing our sore heads. Luckily we had a 3 hour coach ride to recover and were fine by the time we got there. Southampton is located in the south of England across from the Isle of Wight.

It is a very old town that was originally a walled city. The original town gates, known locally as Bargate, still stand and used to be shut every night at the ring of a bell.

A lot of the original town wall still exists. However, the rest of Southampton is very modern. There are a lot of large shopping malls and modern developments nestled in next to old stone walls and tudor houses.

This is the Tudor House museum, unfortunately it wasn't open when we were there.

We stopped for lunch at a 12th century pub called The Red Lion.

After lunch we wandered around the city for a couple of hours and ended up down by the marina at Ocean Village. Lots of expensive yachts and newly built flats lining the water.

Still alive

2006-05-21T13:10:00.000-04:00

Not to copy my mate Al's blog or anything, but I'm also still alive. Yes, I realise I haven't posted anything since about this time last year, but, hey, I'm lazy. I have also been incredibly busy at work and the two don't go well together.

Here's a picture my parents requested today of the building site next door. We now get to wake up to heavy machinery every Saturday morning at 8am. Luckily we're usually out of here by that time on weekdays. This photo really doesn't do the crane justice - you can't even see the top of it! It's over 60 feet high though.

When I wasn't working over the past month, I was watching the snooker. Yes, I'm one of those sad people who enjoys watching it on tv. And yes, Luvena hates watching it, but if I can sit through wife swap she can sit through snooker. It's coming up to the world cup soon too, Lu! Yay!

Now that Thorks is back from San Francisco he's planned some big nights for the world cup in our work bar - reminiscent of the Euro 2004 series. Should be good fun. I'm just waiting for summer to finally arrive so I can head out to Cuba Libre and drinks cocktails until late in the night.

This post has probably pushed the post that Lu wrote announcing her parents' driving trip from Australia to London. We've had some updates and photos from them so check them out at www.drivingtolondon.com.

Well that takes the cake... err cheese

2006-05-19T08:39:00.000-04:00

The merry month of May is host to some interesting festivals here in the UK and probably none more interesting (and frankly more than a little weird) than the annual cheese rolling races at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire.

Every year, at the end of May, people in Gloucestershire stand on top of a hill and roll wheels of cheese (Double Gloucester... what else?) down to the bottom. The winner gets to keep the cheese they risked life and limb to chase after. Second and third to reach bottom usually win a cash prize.

Cheese rolling 2006

Ahhh.... those weird and wacky Poms eh?

The best pizza ever

2006-05-16T08:04:00.000-04:00

I've just been having a quick skim read of today's SMH online (as I usually try to do at lunch times to keep up on what's been happening back in Oz) and came across an interesting debate which has made me homesick - where to go for Sydney's best pizza.

This is the life...

2006-05-01T12:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, another long weekend... I think we could quite easily get used to this long weekend, two weeks of work and then another long weekend cycle.

This time, however, it's just a 3 day weekend for May Day. On Saturday James and I did our usual domestic stuff and then we went for a longer-than-expected walk around the area.

For those of you who have visited our flat, you'll be familiar with the big building site that has sat threateningly empty for the past 2 and half years. But in the past few weeks, trucks have been arriving and there has been hammering and all sorts going on. Luckily it hasn't been too noisy but this weekend they are shutting off the street to build a 60-foot crane on the site and we're guessing this means that they're about to get down to some serious building. They are planning on building 6 big blocks of flats, each about 5-9 storeys tall, which will really impact our flat. Not to mention how noisy it will be coming into summer when we want to have our windows open.

So we are thinking of moving - either renting somewhere nearby or perhaps even buying a place. And we are heavily leaning towards buying a place as it seems a bit silly to keep paying rent when our mortgage repayments would be about the same.

So Saturday afternoon was spent walking around South Bermondsey which we'd both thought of as a bit dodgy but there seem to be some nice looking new-build flats there and all very reasonably priced. And well... let's say the area has lots of potential but it's not quite right for us as it is at the moment. Not to mention that the area only has a train station and no tube which makes getting around harder, especially as we don't have a car.

On Sunday James did some study, bought some bargains at Primark in the afternoon and in the evening we caught up with Karen and Dom who have recently bought a really nice 2 bedroom flat not far from where we live now. Their local pub does some nice Thai food and apparently it was used a set for an upcoming Mike Leigh film called Riddles (I think) a few months ago.

Today we've pottered around and just generally enjoyed having an extra day off.
I'm trying my hand at making falafels from scratch this afternoon :)

My parents are in the Esperance area and hope to be in Perth by Wednesday. Check out their website http://www.drivingtolondon.com

Today it's Tuesday

2006-04-25T08:13:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to give a quick update as we've both been a bit slack in updating this blog.

I went to The Sanctuary (a day spa in Covent Garden http://www.thesanctuary.co.uk) recently with some girls from work to use up the vouchers we got from work as a Christmas present. We'd booked for an evening session so we turned up at 5pm, got changed into swimemrs and fluffy white robes and had a wander around. The place was quite big with two swimming pools, one huge one for relaxing and paddling around in and an exercise one with underwater gym equipment and lanes for swimming laps. There were also two great jacuzzis and a steam room and sauna which kept us entertained for several hours. There was also a 'Koi Carp relaxation area' with couches, pillows, blankets and beds all designed around a large pool filled with fish - there were lots of ladies reading trashy magazines and some even sleeping when we got there. We also had some treatments - I had a facial - it was a really relaxing evening and we were all trying desperately to stay awake when we went for dinner afterwards.

The coots have built a nest in the canal right outside our flat (we fed them on the weekend) and we've booked our next holiday - a day trip down to Southampton on the long weekend at the end of May.

Work is busy for both of us and we're still waiting for the weather to warm up (apparently May is predicted to be cooler than normal with an average of 12 degrees)...

Canterbury Tales

2006-04-15T17:05:00.000-04:00

It's the Easter long weekend and we went down to Canterbury today - wouldn't you know it, we picked the day with the worst weather (grey and drizzly). Although on a brighter note we did go past the famed Bluewater shopping centre so now I know where it is!

We had lunch in a fab old pub and then spent quite a while wondering around Canterbury cathedral, which is quite impressive, and the Cathedral grounds which are massive. We also walked through to the other side of Canterbury where Canterbury Castle is located. This was no where near as impressive. In fact, it was just four crumbing walls of stone on the side of the main road. But you could walk around inside it and even climb a spiral staircase in one corner of the castle wall which was quite cool.

Pictures are coming soon!

In other news, my parents have set off on their journey driving around the world this weekend. You can read about where they are up to on their website: www.drivingtolondon.com

They are sending us updates of what they've been up to and James is posting them on the website.

Suits me

2006-03-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

This weekend we've been on a mission to buy James a new suit. He's got a black tie awards night coming up this week for work so we absolutely had to come away with something for him to wear. After starting off in Selfridges (nice suits but after spotting price tags of over £500 just for the jacket we quickly walked out) we had a browse in FCUK. There were two really nice ones, one a lightish grey and the other black but with faint pin stripes and a sheen to the material which made it look ideal for the black tie event. Unfortunately the cuts were all wrong - jackets sleeves and the trousers way too long. So we popped next door to Suits You and ended up walking away with a dark navy suit, a dress shirt, cufflinks and bowtie, and a blue checked shirt and a white and purple checked shirt. James wouldn't let me take a picture of him all dressed up but I'll try and get one when he goes to the awards night on Friday.

Had a bizarre dream last night - it was in full colour and sound so it was completely realistic and really freaky. I dreamt that James and I were catching a Ryan Air type flight to go on holiday, thought for some reason the plane was delayed/cancelled and so we had to look for a hotel for the night. Being a Ryan Air flight, the airport we were at was out in the middle of nowhere so we were walking down a dirt track in the dark looking for a hotel or B'nB. Eventually, we came across a house with the lights on so we rang the doorbell and this guy answered the door. We explained the situation and asked if he had a room for the night. He said he'd see what he could do and that we should come in anyway. We sat in his front room and had a drink with him. At this point he was giving me the creeps a bit. He had his back to the windows in the room but at one point I saw a scared and skinny woman cautiously making her way down the lane at the side of the house towards the street at the front. When she reached the road she ran off. The guy then went upstairs to sort out the room for us and at this point I was freaking out thinking he was a serial killer and told James. He agreed the guy was also creeping him out and so we gathered our stuff and were trying to sneak out of the house when the guy confronted us with a knife. We struggled with him and at one point it looked like we wern't going to make it when suddenly the woman who I'd seen running off reappeared with a big knife, distracted the guy and James and I were able to run full pelt back towards the airport with the woman following us (luckily the guy stayed inside the house).

Fast forward a few years and James and I had bought a house very similar to the one my parents owned in Melbourne. It was all one level with glass doors running down the sides of the house leading out into a paved garden that ran down the sides of the house and to a garden out the back. We'd just moved in and were having a house warming party and we had all the glass doors open so our guests could move in and out of the house as they pleased. Everything was going well until I heard a scream in one of the rooms and found one of our guests had been stabbed and killed. Instantly, somehow I knew it was the serial killer we'd escaped from years before - he'd tracked us down and he was somewhere in the house. I began to run around frantically trying to herd everyone inside the house, trying to lock the glass doors as I went but finding that no matter how many times I turned the keys, the locks wouldn't engage. As I tried to move everyone indoors wthout panicking everyone, I began to find that more of the guests had been stabbed and killed. So I ran into the kitchen, grabbed all the kitchen knives, scissors, even vegtable peelers, and began to give them out to everyone so they could defend themselves against the mad psycho who was running around.

I also grabbed the phone in the kitchen and tried calling the police when the murderer walked into the kitchen. The phone was portable so I grabbed it from the recharging cradle and ran out of the kitchen. I got as far as telling the operator that I needed the police and that some madman was in our house when the battery in the phone went dead. I ran past someone else and yelled at them to run to a phone in another part of the house and try calling the police from there. But for some reason I kept trying to remind them that they needed to dial 911.

As I was still running from the crazed killer, the front door bell rang and a man's voice called out 'police'. I ran and flung open the door and in stepped this man - but instantly I knew something was wrong. He wasn't in a uniform and then he brought out a big gun or knife and started to run towards me. I realised that the killer had overheard me trying to call the police and had called one of his other mad murdering pals and had got him to come over as well. Then I woke up.

I think I must have read too many Andy McNab books, coupled with watching Mickey Blue Eyes last night before I went to sleep...

Off to visit Myles

2006-03-05T15:10:00.000-05:00

Went to Myles' new place in Baker Street on Saturday for a late lunch. His place is right next door to the Sherlock Holmes museum and right next to the park where James' softball team has its matches in summer. Myles made us a baked salmon dish of his own creation with a tomato and olive sauce. Otherwise a quiet weekend as James and I had both been out on Friday night and needed to catch up on sleep (I caught up with two girls who had left my work at a great place with fabulous mojitos - the best I've ever tasted and James was at his work's bar).

A postcard from Prague

2006-02-19T17:29:00.000-05:00

James on Charles Bridge in Prague

We spent the the weekend in Prague - left on Friday after work and came back on Sunday night. It was a great city; lots of old, really interesting buildings, fantasic churches and very, very cheap beer (half the price of a Coke and cheaper than water!). We stayed at a little hotel near Prague Castle. It was actually a really good location - walking distance to Prague Castle and very close to where the airport bus drops you off and picks you up and to the metro station to get into town. We spent our first day wandering around the Castle grounds (it's the biggest enclosed Castle complex in the world) and the afternoon exploring Mala Strana where St Nicholas Church is. In fact we almost didn't go into the church at all becasue its so plain from the outside. But inside it was stunning. We had dinner in a pub/restaurant recommended by Fodor's guides - a place that was done up to look like a brewery, with lots of copper pipes and sections of the big copper brewing containers. Dinner was lots of red meat, gravy and dumplings. And beer. The next day we spent wandering around old town and new town, drinking hot chocolate (which was like a mug of pure melted chocolate) and drinking yet more beer.

On the way to Prague Castle - a bit of snow!

The main church at Prague Castle

Another shot of the church in Prague Castle

James inside the great hall at Prague Castle

Luvena outside the tiny shops in Golden Lane

Above and below - inside St Nicholas Church

Above - the roof and top of the walls in St Nicholas Church. Can you spot where the walls end and the ceiling begins?

A view of Prague Castle taken from town

Nosh at Harsha's gaff

2006-01-29T04:59:00.000-05:00

For those of you who speak English, that roughly translates into "Dinner at Harsha's house".

After 5 years, my colleague Harsha has decided to move to greener pastures and invited myself, Gary (my boss), Karen and David over for dinner on Thursday night. He made us a delicious fish pie and some cheesy mozzerella things as an entree. We had bread and butter pudding for dessert.

(From left) David, Karen, Gary and Harsha

We will be sending Harsha off in the usual style on Thursday night. So, I'll probably be putting up some drunken photos next week.

PS. Pictures of our holiday in Greece have finally been posted! See the Island in the sun entry...

A postcard from Spain

2006-01-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

Although we didn't go to Spain exactly recently, there are loads of holidays over the past 12 months that haven't made it on here. So to rectify that, here are some pics of our trip to Spain (Alicante, Madrid and Barcelona) in February 2005. Barcelona is full of amazing and surreal Gaudi architecture - as you'll see below (and from the picture above which is taken on the roof of a hotel Gaudi designed.

James at the beach in Alicante

The view from the jetty at Alicante

The view from our hotel - unfortunately we arrived two weeks before the Carnaval festivities

Some examples of Gaudi architecture above and below...

The Gaudi gardens in Barcelona above and below

Outside the Dali museum in the Gaudi gardens

Cape Shank

2006-01-21T10:40:00.000-05:00

While we were in Melbourne, we drove down the coast to Cape Shank:

We parked up and ate our lunch amongst a plague of flies

Then we went for a strole down to the water

On the way down we saw an echidna

After cape shank we went on to Sorrento, almost near the end of the Peninsula. Mum and Dad used to take us here during summer holidays. We visited an old haunt of ours - "Buckley's Chance" - a pancake parlour in the heart of Sorrento town. The name is described on this site:

[Sorrento] was in 1803 the site of the first white attempt to settle in what is now Victoria; the settlers struggled here for four months before giving up and moving on to what is now Tasmania. One of the convicts in the expedition was the infamous William Buckley, who escaped, was adopted by the local Aborigines and lived with them for 32 years. When the "wild white man" was seen again by settlers he could scarcely remember how to speak English; his survival against all odds has been immortalized in the phrase "Buckley's chance".

After Buckley's Chance we headed for the beach

Happy Anniversary

2006-01-18T07:42:00.000-05:00

It's our 3rd Wedding Anniversary today! Unfortunately we have to spend it at work and the weather isn't nearly as nice as it was three years ago today (we got married in Sydney during summer). Still, we're going out for a romantic dinner a deux at a restaurant down at Butler's Wharf in Shad Thames tonight after work so it will be a nice way to round off the day.

Stop press!

2006-01-16T06:52:00.000-05:00

Apparently there is a new flavour of Cheezles which I've never heard of before and didn't spot in any supermarket while we were stocking up on snacks to bring back to London - cheeseburger! I discovered this on my new favourite website http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?snack_code=1267 - a fully searchable website of worldwide snacks. Has anyone heard of this mysterious new flavour? Did they withdraw it because it was a massive flop or has this site stumbled across the Cheezles marketing plan for 2006?

Our next holiday!

2006-01-16T06:35:00.000-05:00

Now that we're back at work and still faced with the long grey days of winter ahead, it's easy to slip into the winter blues. So we've booked another holiday to keep us motivated! We're off to Prague in February. We tried to book it for the weekend of my birthday but by the time we compared flight and hotel prices on a few different websites, the flights we wanted had gone so we've had to book it for the week afterwards. We're just off for the weekend unfortunately but it looks like a brilliant place and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus, they'll probably be snow!

New year's eve on Sydney harbour

2006-01-15T06:52:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've written stuff on here, but since we just got back from Oz recently, it's time for some more piccies.

New Year's Eve in Sydney

View from Darling Point

Me enjoying the shade

Lu and Kris

Everyone enjoying dinner

Dusk over the harbour

The bridge pulses:

Finally, some fireworks (shaped like hearts)

We're baaaack!

2006-01-11T05:43:00.000-05:00

Well it's back to work again after a lovely 2 week break back in Aust. This cold weather (even though it isn't even that cold for London at the moment - it's an almost spring-like 11 degrees today) is a bit hard to get used to after all those 30 degree days back in Aust but hey ho.

We went to Sydney first where we caught up with friends Pete and Bettina and Alex and Louise for dinner down at King Street Wharf in Darling Harbour. Amazing how quickly that area has changed. Last time I was there the wharf just ended but now they have extended it and the King Street area is packed with trendy restaurants and bars (so many we had to do two laps before deciding on where we wanted to eat). We also caught up with my bridesmaid Kris who flew down from Brisbane on New Year's Eve to watch the fireworks with us. James chose a great spot to watch them - at McKell's Park at the end of Darling Point Road. We had a fantastic view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and there even fireworks at the little island across the water from us (photos coming soon). We were in Sydney for a week before flying down to Melbourne for a week where we checked out all our old haunts and managed to sneak in a fleeting catch up with our friend Dave on the day we left.

Although it was the longest trip back to Aust we've had since we left it still went by too quickly - and I was just getting used to all that hot weather. Mum and Dad have given us a 2006 calendar of Sydney with lots of shots of beaches etc to make us home sick :)

Hoping to catch up with everyone in London again now that we're back. We've been extremely slack at keeping in touch with everyone just before Christmas because work was frantically busy but things seem to have settled down a bit now. Famous last words!

Monday nights

2005-11-29T11:24:00.000-05:00

Just killing time waiting for our sparky to arrive. Last night the power point which connects the hotwater heater and water pump to the wall came loose. When James touched it sparks came out so he turned it off to stop it sparking and causing a fire while we were out. Unfortunately, when we got home we couldn't turn it back on again - every time we tried, it tripped all the fuses in the flat. So we had to boil water in 3 saucepans and the kettle in order to have a hot bath. Excellent considering I've got a cold and if you've been watching the weather over here. We haven't actually had any snow so far in London but people were stranded yesterday in Gloucestershire because 5cm of snow in just a few hours and the roads weren't gritted properly. Joy, I'm off to a meeting in Bristol on Thursday - I wonder if it will be snowing when I get there?

And because of the recent cold snap, we've been tending to spend more time indoors and have discovered that there are some great programmes on TV on Monday nights (being the couch potatoes we are). Our newest discovery besides Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Have I Got News for You (which is what Good News Week in Australia was modelled off) is Broken News http://www.brokennews.co.uk/bbc_02.html

Of course, James favours more cerebral game shows like University Challenge and Mastermind. Guess what one of the questions was on UC last night? What is the name of Iceland's main airport, west of the captial Reikjavik? I was jumping up and down because I actually knew the answer as we'd flown through there on the way to New York just the other week.
(The answer by the way is Keflavik.)

Make me a million

2005-11-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

Not sure if anyone has been following this programme on TV (http://www.channel4.com/4money/realdeal/makemeamillion/). Basically a bunch of people who saw themselves as entreprenures had to come up with an idea (or several) pitch it to one of 5 mentors and if they were successful, the mentors would work with them to set up a business and get their idea on the market and hopefully make them a million.

It's quite an interesting programme to watch actually and I find myself getting quite involved and yelling at the screen at one so called entreprenure mentor who has absolutely no people skills and is clearly not a team player. Two women with kids who had been friends for years had an idea for creating a children's shampoo that was based largely on natural products. One was a single mother who lived in Ireland, the other lived in England but in the country with her hubby and kid. So they started the business, but the woman who lived in Ireland was trying to work from home there and she only had one phone line with dial up Internet access. The other woman was lucky enough to be able to leave her kid with her hubby and move to London. The so called entreprenuer mentor offered this woman the flat above his office which they are using to run their new business while the woman in Ireland gets nothing. Then, the two working out of the London office start complaining that the one in Ireland isn't pulling her weight. But yet they aren't helping her do anything about it.

In the most recent episode, the woman from Ireland takes a loan from her Mum and moves to London to be closer to the business and puts her kid in day care. Still the other two have it in for her and after a few days they finally gang up on her one last time and sack her. Understandably, she was pretty upset.

I just can't believe this entreprenuer who supposedly is an experienced businessman didn't have the management skills to sort this problem out before it got to the stage where they felt they had to sack her. What kind of lesson is it sending? Surely if someone has to work from home, the business could pay for her to have broadband access so she could do something simple like use the phone and use the Internet at the same time? And couldn't he have made them have regular update calls rather than depending solely on face to face meetings or waiting for her to call in? Obviously she didn't have much experience working from home but there were so many common sense things that he, as their mentor, could have done to help them make the business a success for both partners.

OK rant over now :)

Some photos

2005-11-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm on a bit of a roll tonight. I've found a selection of photos from past trips to liven up the site a bit. Enjoy!

Gaudi building in Barcelona

Snowy day outside our window

Vatican, Rome

That'll do for now...

Cumbria visit

2005-11-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote something (yes, I've been slack). My parents came to visit just before we went to Greece. We drove up the M25 to Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. We stayed in a lovely B&B and visited my Mum's cousin, Christine (after exhaustive Google searching I found out she is my first cousin once removed and her children are my second cousins).

She took us off the beaten track around Cumbria, driving through loads of small lanes with dry stone walls on either side and just enough room to fit two cars through. We saw some great country side and ended up at Was Water (below).

After 3 days in Cumbria I drove my parents back to London and Christine took my Nana off to Newcastle. We then spent the rest of the week seeing the sites in London, including a couple of shows - Woman in White and Les Miserables.

You can see more of my parents' European adventures at http://thegriswolds.blogspot.com/

We'll be off to New York to do some shopping at the end of next week, so I promise I'll do another entry then!

Remember remember the 5th of November

2005-11-05T18:56:00.000-05:00

This year marked the 400th anniversary of when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the House of Parliament so naturally the fireworks were out in force. We met up with Karen and Dom for drinks and dinner before setting off to see the fireworks at Blackheath. James and I had never been to the heath before but it looked massive from what we could tell (it was hard to get a sense of space because it was so dark). The fireworks were great and because we were on a hill, we could look 360 degrees around us and see other different fireworks displays going on in the distance. To me, Guy Fawkes night always marks the start of autumn - it's the first time we spend a significant period of time outdoors at night and it really makes you aware that it's getting cold now!

Docos

2005-11-01T12:53:00.000-05:00

Watched another interesting documentary last night, this time about couples with a big age difference (at least 20 years). Interestingly it only featured couples where the man was younger. There was one couple with the man aged 31 and the woman was in her 80s which is quite a big age difference. Another couple met because the man (21) was one of the woman's (40s) daughter's friends. It was very sweet to see them all so happy and just saying that they didn't really think about how long they had left to spend together, they were just having fun and taking things day by day.

http://www.five.tv/programmes/hiddenlives/dirtyoldwomen/

Next week's doco is about a girl who is slowly being paralysed becasue her muscles are turning to bone. Freaky stuff.

Island in the sun

2005-10-26T09:38:00.000-04:00

Ahhh... this is the life

We've just got back from a wonderful week long holiday in Greece on the island of Rhodes. This is the resport we were staying at. Unfortunately the beach wasn't quite as nice as I'd hoped - it was a shingle beach which meant that there were heaps of stones mixed in with the sand. It wasn't that bad but we've been spoilt by Australian beaches so we've got high standards. However, the beaches on the other side of the island (we went to the town of Lindos - pictures below) were much better. There was less wind so the sea was calmer and there was actually proper sand. The water was amazingly clear at Lindos - even when the sea was too deep to touch the bottom you could see every little stone or mark on the sand beneath you. And there fish! Knee deep in the sea there were shoals of little silver fish that swam around and further in there were white/silver fish about the size of your hand and fingers with blue and yellow fins. Two were swimming around my feet and legs and one swam up to my and tried to nibble on my big toe! They were very tame and followed me around by swimming underneath me and when I put my feet back on the seabed they swam around my legs again.

It was a really relaxing holiday - can't complain about all inclusive deals which include cocktails and all the ice-cream you can eat ;)

James in Rhodes Old Town above and below

Lu at Old Town

The view of Old Town from the outside road

The resort we stayed at

James relaxing by the pool

The view of Old Town from the jetty

Lu taking in the view from the jetty

The view of Lindos Bay

The Acropolis above Lindos

Something I miss about home

2005-10-04T08:22:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the year when the weather starts getting warm and there are heaps of excuses to go out and eat in Sydney... which I really miss as the nights are drawing in over in London. My favourite Good Food Month things were the night Noodle markets where you can try dishes of all sorts of food from expensive restaurants for $5-6 each, usually against a fantastic backdrop like the Opera House. Each restaurant has a small stall churning out their signature dishes and everything is lit by chinese lanterns and everyone sits at long communal tables or wherever there is room. My other favourite was the big brunch held in a park, again where restaurants have small stalls selling brunch-type food: eggs benedict, buttermilk or ricotta pancakes, fresh fruit salads, smoothies, champagne, fresh bread, croissants, muffins, coffee etc. They often had a jazz band or a string quartet and it was a lovely way to spend the start of a warm Sunday lounging on the grass under a tree with friends.

A spot of rain

2005-09-30T07:04:00.000-04:00

James' parents arrive tomorrow. They land at Heathrow at6.30am and then we're driving up to Barrow-in-Furness.

Good to see that they've arrived just in time for some good 'ole UK Autumn weather (although note that these are Barrow temperatures, not London).

Le weekend de poulet

2005-09-26T12:41:00.000-04:00

It was Bec's hen's do on the weekend. Yes, five girls in Paris. I got a hideously early Eurostar train (got the first tube at about 5.30am - joy) but got to Paris just in time for everyone to catch up for brunch and then hit the shops for the next 7 hours. Excellent. We had dinner, champagne and lots of wine at a French brasserie and then hit a club called Montecristo on the Champs Elysee. I'd forgotten that clubs in Europe are generally open a lot longer than they are in the UK so we danced until our feet gave up - around 5am. I went back to the hotel, had 3 hours sleep then hopped on the Eurostar to come back home. A really fun weekend and it was great to catch up with girls I haven't seen since high school. Stay tuned for pictures - including the male bar staff at Montecristo wearing Bec's tiara.

The world's biggest curry

2005-09-09T07:20:00.000-04:00

The Brick Lane Festival is on this weekend and this year the drawcard (apart from the usual yummy food) is the attempt at breaking the current world record for the world's biggest curry - which currently stands at 3 tonnes. THat's right, this year the attempt is to cook 5 tonnes of curry. It's on this Sunday so I'm sure we'll smell them cooking it from our flat!

The Tardis

2005-09-08T07:44:00.000-04:00

Well, it's made it on to Al's blog (courtesy of Fraser) and Thorks' blog, now it's done it again. The Tardis has yet again been a source of amusement at work. Today I passed Colin Nimick in the hall carrying some freshly heated chicken drumsticks and I wondered why he was eyeing me off. Turns out he was eyeing off my food and he came to my desk about 10 mins later and asked "Where did you get those chicken drumsticks?". I told him a brought them from home and he replied, "I've been upstairs in the canteen looking for these fabulous chicken drumsticks! Now I don't know what to eat!"

For those of you who don't know what the Tardis is, it's a nickname for my lunchbox. It was dubbed that on account of how much food we're able to stuff in to it each day. It's been a regular topic of conversation during lunch time at work (okay, we don't get out much).

Sin City

2005-09-04T10:35:00.000-04:00

Just watched Sin City last night for the first time and I must say I was very impressed. While the plot(s) were a bit lacking in detail, I was blown away by the cinematography - it really does look and seem like you're ready a comic book!

I think you could pretty much pause the movie at any point and add a bubble with the dialogue for that scene. As a consquence, the dialogue is a lacking, but it's an amazing way to film. You can also tell that Quentin Tarantino was a guest producer. Well worth watching. All comments appreciated, I'd like to know what you all thought of it.

Nothing much has been happening in my life recently. I've been very busy at work on a website for one of our new clients. I did go out a couple of times in the past couple of weeks though, which was great, but I can't remember much about those nights.

Luvena has been very good and diligently adding entries every week. I'm a bit lazier. Without much going on, I find it hard to think of stuff to write. I do enjoy watching movies though, so here's a few others I've watched recently:

Hide and seek - mediocre horror film
Shaun of the dead - brilliant UK comedy that coined the term Rom-Zom-Com (Romantic Zombie Comedy movie), even better second time around
Hitch - quite amusing romantic comedy starring Will Smith
Se7en - good for getting Lu to cuddle me during the scary bits
White noise - okay horror film, a couple of good scenes that make you jump

We'll be watching World of the Worlds, Wedding Crashers, The Machinist and Batman Begins soon, so I'll write about them next if they're any good.

Carnival weekend

2005-08-29T16:17:00.000-04:00

It was the 'end of summer' long weekend this weekend - and time for the annual Notting Hill Carnival. Although we didn't go this year, we did go last year and it was great fun (despite the rain, although they had clear sunny skies this year). The drumming was very loud and the costumes were amazing. There were also sound system displays, where every man and his dog chucks his huge sound system out the front window of the house and plays very loud bassy music right from the front lawn. There were also heaps of stalls selling Carribean food and we sampled out first taste of plantain, black beans and jerk chicken. Below are a few more pictures from this year's Carnival.

The Notting Hill Carnival parade

One of the drumming groups

Bird food

2005-08-27T08:11:00.000-04:00

I think I may have gotten a bit carried away with my most recent purchase - a 1kg bag of sunflower seeds.

OK, now first off, they were on special at Holland and Barrat and secondly, Kim, one of the girls who works part time at my work and is training to be a nutritionist, reckons that sunflower seeds are actually very good for you. Probably not if you eat the whole bag at once but I'm not planning on doing that anyway.

And according to a website I found about squirrels, they like sunflower seeds so if I don't eat them all, at least I can fatten up the local squirrels before winter. Apparently squirrels also like pine nuts but considering they cost an arm and a leg, I'm keeping them for me (yes, they were on special too).

It's Friday!

2005-08-26T07:48:00.000-04:00

The sun is shining and it's Friday. I might have to pop up to Borough market for a brownie to celebrate.

Last night was Myles' birthday - he had drinks at a pub near Liverpool Street station called the Drunken Monkey. Most apt.

We've booked yet another holiday... this time back to the Big Apple for a long weekend in November. Hopefully it won't be completely freezing yet and we might even catch the Thanksgiving sales.

My friend Bec's hen's weekend is coming up fast (it's in September). A bunch of us girls are heading to Paris which should be fun and an opportunity to practice our dodgy high school french. Someone really needs to take the idea of the Eurostar back to Australia. It's quite amazing that you can jump on a train from the middle of London and then be in a city in the middle of a completely different country in just a few hours. Much more civilised than the old rickety trains I used to travel on between Adelaide and Melbourne that went overnight for about 12 hours and used to get overtaken by ancient cars driven by little old ladies.

Things I like about London - part 1

2005-08-24T07:33:00.000-04:00

The amazing documentaries on TV.

Forget Lost and Big Brother. What's got me hooked here are the great documentaries. We watched a really good one last night. It was the last part of a three part doco following the lives of several disabled children and the impact that constantly having to care for them had on their families. The first episode was about when they were born, the second when they were about 2 or 3 and last night they were about to turn 5. Some of their parents never thought they would see their kid reach that age.
Born to be different

We also watched an amazing one about 2 boys, one of who stabbed the other friend because he believed that he had been recruited as an undercover agent and his mission was to kill the other boy. It turned out that he had received his instructions from a woman in a chat room who purported to be another secret agent but was, in actual fact, the boy who was stabbed. In fact, the boy who was stabbed invented a series over 100 different characters who interacted in the chat room with the boy who believed he was a spy. Completely compelling viewing.
Psycho - Kill Me If You Can

Things that still puzzle me:

Why people insist on asking 'are you alright' when I first meet them. I always have a panic and think that the reason they are asking this is because, clearly, I don't look OK. My first reaction is to think that I must look incredibly clumsy and have just tripped over something and hurt myself, or that I look ill or that something dramatic has happened and I've just missed it. Weird.

All in a good cause

2005-08-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

Breakfast this morning was pancakes cooked in a "skillet" with strawberry "jelly"... all to help us with our pub quiz general knowledge. Each week, without fail, there is a question about American words and usually they are related to cookery so we're studying hard.

Mayflower quiz

2005-08-17T14:28:00.000-04:00

Last night we received a call from Karen asking us to join her down at the Mayflower for their pub quiz. The Mayflower is a pub near us that's been around since 1620 under various names and now takes its name from the first ship to go to America with the Pilgrim Fathers on board, which was launched from Rotherhithe Quayside near where the pub stands today.

We came 6th in the quiz which wasn't too bad. My knowledge of English general knowledge is fairly lacking, but credit to the rest of the team - especially Luvena who knew quite a few!

Farewell Kev!

2005-08-13T12:26:00.000-04:00

Last night we said farewell to a colleague of mine and long friend Kevin Phillips. He's off with his sweetheart Katie to see what life is like in her home country, Australia. All the best Kev and we'll probably see you at Christmas time! We had drinks for their farewell last night, so hopefully I'll get some photos of that up soon.

Lu and I have been pretty busy with work the past couple of weeks. Earlier this week I played in the advertising league softball quarter finals. We came very close to winning, but lost in the last inning by 2 runs.

As we have done quite a bit of travelling in the (almost) 2 years that we've been here, we have some catching up to do with our photos. So, every week I'll try to put up a few photos from each of our trips.

New York (first trip)

Luvena and my good friend Al in a restaurant around the corner from his pad.

Luvena and I inside the United Nations.

A large brass woman that just won't leave New York.

Me overlooking Ellis Island and Jersey City.

Us in Times Square

Luvena and Marion (and some strange guy wearing goggles)
outside the Rockerfeller Centre.

Luvena, Anna and Arthur on the Statton Island ferry over to visit the statue.

New York (second trip)
I managed to score a trip to New York with a colleague and good friend, Barney, for some training. Here's some of the sites we saw. It was much colder than when Lu and I went (-18C in the wind at one point).

Barney and Al in Central Park. This was during an exhibition called The Gates.

Barney in his hotel room (yes, our eyes really did look like that most of the time)

Barney and Al having a cuddle (I'll leave you boys alone next time! :-) )

Barney and Al taking a stroll through The Gates.

The forgotten holiday

2005-08-02T15:29:00.000-04:00

We had a really lovely holiday in Florence, Rome and Pompeii during July, but when the bombs in London went off 3 days before we were coming back to the UK we spent most of our time letting people know that we are OK rather than sending our holiday snaps out. So, belatedly, here are some of our pics:

Here is a picture of the Duomo (cathedral) in Florence. Our hotel was right near the square it was in. It was quite amazing, bright white during the day while the afternoon and evening light brought out the darker green colours.

And here's the beautiful view from the Ponte Vecchio bridge across the main river through Florence.

To the left is the view from the hills in Florence looking down on the town.

Some of ruins just in the middle of a street in Rome. When we were wondering around we kept stumbling across such amazing sights.

Left is the view from the top of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The walk up to the top is long, hot and claustrophobic at times but well worth it in the end - the view, as you can see, is spectacular.

The next two pictures, right and below right, are inside St Peter's Basilica which was far and away the most amazing of all the churches we went to.

To the left is the Colleseum in Rome. It is amazing to find it and the Roman Forum right in the middle of a street.

The Roman Forum as the sun sets. The ruins are remarkably intact for something that old and are proof that the Romans really just didn't bother building anything small.

Some of the amazing frescos in the galleries surrounding the Sistine Chapel.

More frescos near the Sistine Chapel.

James in the hot ruins of Pompeii

A quiet day

2005-07-31T11:29:00.000-04:00

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

2005-07-30T18:55:00.000-04:00

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

2005-07-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

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

2005-07-28T08:27:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-07-27T18:05:00.000-04:00

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.