A good Saturday walk in the park

Hi all!

Well, not much has been happening about these parts. Life has been tottering along, the days have been getting longer and warmer, which is nice.


Unlike the photos I have been getting of my new nephew, all wrapped up nice and warm in his knitted woolly gears. One lucky kid to have so many family members who can knit!!!

Enough gossiping.


Today was supposed to be the nicest day out of the long weekend, so Alex and I decided to go for a nice walk. We walked from home all the way up to the top of Hampstead Heath to Kenwood house for some chocolate cake. A long walk for chocolate cake, but it was very good chocolate cake!




This is Kenwood House, looking pretty in the sunshine :)

Alex looking up towards Kenwood house, by the very pretty lake.


mmm.... chocolate cake...

The Rhododendrens were looking FABULOUS!

FABULOUS!!

Anyways, pretty boring. It is now mid term break for me for a week, and we head to Oslo next weekend, yah! That should be exciting. :)



Hope all is well in the world!
P. and LX.

ANZAC Day and the Antiques Roadshow (photos to come!)

... well, not at the same time!







Friday was ANZAC day, and being the good wee kiwi bunnies we are, we dragged ourselves out of bed at an astonishing 0330 to catch a bus into Hyde Park corner and the NZ memorial where dawn service was to be held.



It was a fairly good service, the first to be held in front of the NZ memorial, and now it is going to alternate between the Aussie and the Kiwi memorials each year. A few interesting things...



*it was very dark



*it was very early



*there was a choir of school kids from Australia



*they weren't very good



* there were HEAPS of people there



*its the first time I have not heard people singing hymns at an ANZAC service



*the taped music was not the best (why couldn't they get a band?)



*the last post was played by a person from the London Irish Guards band (are there seriously no Kiwi's or Aussies's in London who could play the last post???? and if they could fly 2 bus loads of kids from Oz to sing - badly - surely they could fly out one more person to play the last post????? sigh...)



*the poor piper who almost seemed forgotten was playing his lament after the ceremony had finished and the Ngati Ranana were singing a waiata....



*it was the first time I have seen the words to the Australian National Anthem



*it was the first time I have tried to sing the Australian National Anthem



*I cannot believe how rude the Australians who were standing next to us were, they talked all the way through the NZ anthem (did I do that to their anthem? hmmm? did I? did I? sigh...)



*I ran into people I knew... hehehe....



*lastly... there is NOTHING open to buy a cup off coffee at 6am in the morning in Kensington...







Anyways, yes... made it to school and actually managed to teach all day (I don't think I would want to do that again any time soon...) And Alex actually survived his 10-6 shift - which I think is more impressive!

Then Saturday. And we decided to have another early start (although, not 3am...) and we managed to catch a train to Windsor. What a loverly train ride. I managed to get through none of my marking because the scenery was so nice. When we got to Windsor, it was quite busy. Not only did we manage to see the changing of the guards (with a drum and fife band) but there was a welcome home parade for about 500 soldiers of the 1st battalion, Coldstream guards, which made the town VERY busy, but was very interesting to see. It was such an amazing day that we both ended up sunburnt, very naughty!!!! (and quite odd, considering it was snowing only 3 weeks ago!!) We didn't visit the castle this time, as I have a friend who is going to lend us his tickets (its about £20 to get in!!!) as tickets are annual. We had a very nice lunch, sitting in the sunshine outside the castle and then had a wee wander about Eton (since some of the boys I teach will be going there!!!). We will be going back!!!!

We then had a nice ice cream and jumped on a bus to go to Ascot. Why would we go to Ascot?? Because the Antiques Roadshow were filming there!!!! A once in a lifetime opportunity to see a program that I have seen at least a hundred times (thanks to my wonderful mother!!!!) being filmed, very cool!!! I also decided that I would go and have the one valuable thing (grandma's engagement ring) that I have over here with me valued, just for the sake of saying that I have done it!!!! Think we might be in the background of someone else being fimed, so keep an eye out for the Ascot 2008 Antiques Roadshow episode!!!!

Then it was a rush home so Alex could go out to a dinner with the London Scottish Band.

Phew, what a weekend!!!!

Love to all!

P.

Last Day of School Holidays - Paula

And I have been doing the teacher thing and procrastinating writing this blog, so, my apologies.

We have been getting up to a few adventures over the past few weekends, so I will update them backwards.

Last weekend, IT SNOWED!!!! Yes, it snowed, in London. In fact it was eough to stay on the ground around our area. So, Alex got woken up by an excited Paula jumping up and down. Well, I am not really used to snow...

Picture of our back yard and Alex on the front steps - in the snow (just before he threw a snowball at me...)

Also on that Sunday, we decided to make an effort and go and see the Olympic torch relay. Well, yes, that was a wee bit interesting. Stood outside the British museum ( in the cold, melted snow conditions) and I'm not sure about Alex, but I certainly felt a wee bit unsettled. There were plenty of free Tibet protestors and there were also plenty of people who supported China's point of view. So, the politics were a lot more interesting than the whole 5 seconds of seeing the flame go past, with its entourage of about 40 police and bodyguards. I do have to admit to laughing out loud when I saw the number of people surrounding the flame. It was one of the funniest things I had seen in ages!

can you see the flame??? And some of the free Tibet protestors

Right, well the weekend before that (the 29-30 March) was a fun weekend. We got up early on Saturday and made a mission out to a car hire place. The part that was even more fun, was trying to navigate Alex back to our flat! We made it back safely and set off North to Nottinghamshire for my friends wedding.

Well, yes, the wedding... Just a small church, really... Celebrating its 900th anniversary later this year (it is also going to be on Antiques roadshow, so keep an eye out!) It was fantastic!!! Southwell Minster. Absolutely amazing! And to be able to see a wedding in there was awesome. Especially with Clare's choir singing her up the aisle and performing throughout the service. Very nice. Then there was about a 40 minute drive to the reception in Lincolnshire. This was in a marquee attached to George's parents house. Very nice. :) Had a great time.

On the Sunday, we decided to go back to Southwell (we had found a very nice cafe the day before and wanted to have a wander about Southwell). It was a loverly day, sun shining, not much wind, beuatiful! After Southwell, we drove to Barkston, where Mum and Dad lived for a year when they came out here. We wandered about a bit, parked by the post office (I wonder if it was still the same one Mum used?) and finally found the right street. Wandered down until we found the house that we think Ma and Pa lived in. After that, we deicided to eat our little lunch in the chair on the village green. Very nice. :)

Alex sitting in the village green. Mum and Dad's house (I think...)

The Barkston pub. Is it the same Dad?

Then we headed home and called into St Albans on the way. Had some very nice dinner after deciding that we had seen enough of one cathedral that weekend and we will have to head back to St Albans some other time.

Right. Last interesting thing... Easter... Well... yes... We planned to head up to Suffolk over Easter for a nice quiet, sunny weekend away. However, we did not expect lots and lots of snow... But we got LOTS of snow.

The Pipes and Drums of the London Scottish Regiment

So as it says on the tin above, I have recently been going along to the London Scottish Pipes and Drums.

They practice in Horseferry Road Westminster where they have an impressive hall. Here is the floor of the entrance.

There is a fire place surround that is a WWl memorial. Of course when I say fire place surround I mean I think it started out that way and wound up being...Well, more of a wall with what I calculate to be 1200 odd names on it. With two Hays and a Crawford. (no wightman's).

A little boring history for you the London Scottish regiment was the first TA regiment to hit the trenches of WW1(Messines Oct 1914 1st Battalion) were they sustantined 394 casualties (including 4 Pipers) only one piper remained after 6 months out of the original 11. They then decided to take band members out of the line.

I only had my cell phone camera with me so the pics are a little bad sorry.

There is also a wall of clan plaques. So I took some pics of that two. Can you spot the one in the middle.

Last Thursday they had a group of visitors so the band paraded in "day wear" (basically dressed up but any kilt you like) here is a very short video of that.

I'll try and keep you updated with what happens here.

Be-lated update

Kia Ora. (well, we were in NZ only a few weeks ago... )

So... VERY long time, no entry. Sorry.

Quick update on the last month or so.

Very 'quick' trip back home, was amazing to see so many people again, and SUNSHINE!!!!! very nice! and Mel and Tim's wedding was fantastic! I had such a good time! Felt very honoured to be a bridesmaid and get to do fun stuff (like the hens weekend, and, the best, helping Mel get ready on the day... sigh... going all girly now...)

Family was also high on the agenda back home and seeing new homes and bumps and things, all very cool.

Getting off the plane and seeing not only Alex's parents (which was so good!) but also Aunty Nette and my mum, yeah, very good!

Anyways, a few photos from the short visit... might add more later when I get the photos off Alex's camera...

The afternoon of the Hens weekend, on the balcony over looking Kapiti Island. Notice we are all wearing very stunning tiaras.... :)

Later on in the evening, watching the sunset after a fantastic dinner of Hells pizza... what happened after this photo was taken can neither confirm, nor deny....

Mel and her survival kit that Rachael very kindly put together, some very cool things in there that we did end up using...

All the girls walking along the beach on Sunday in the sunshine (yes, I did get burnt :( ) Good view of Kapiti though....

yah, getting Mel dressed, hair all done, makeup all done, just Rachael and myself trying to up buttons...

Mel looking gorgeous! :)

Apparently, according to some of my students to whom I showed this photo... I scrub up okay.... (although some of them found it hard to pick me out of group shots.. because I was looking 'too pretty'... awww.... sometimes I do love my students!)

Anyways, yeah, that's probably enough.... although I am waiting on some better photos of Alex... hmmm.....

last photo is in Singapore, where it was hot and sticky.... very sticky... although it was great to have a good bed and a shower to break up the flight back to London.

This is Sir Thomas Stafford Raffles, and the statue is on the sight on the river where he landed in 1819, so, yeah... cool.

Anyways, enough for now... we have booked in a little trip over Easter, and then the weekend after, we are off to another wedding (in a fairly old church... more later...)

And we are trying to do more museums, last week was the V&A, this weekend has been quiet, as I have been quite sick, never mind, getting better now...

All good.

time for Brunch...

P.

Ice skating :)

Welcome to the outdoor icerink at the London Natural History Museum. Today was the last day it was running and Alex and I both (finally) felt well enough to venture out and have a go.
These are a couple of photos from Alex's camera taken after we had had a go ourselves, and then sat in the cafe and watched the next group have a go.





Lots of people fell over... but not us!!!! yah!!! We had a bit of a shaky start, as I have only been once before in Dunedin with hel-sis (and that was before I had my knee fixed) and Alex has never done ANY skating (rollerskating, roller blading or ice skating) before. So, he had to get used to it all a lot more than me.
It was both easier and harder than the last time I went. The hard part was that, although it wasn't raining when we were there, it did rain yesterday and some parts of the ice had rather large puddles. They were definately to be avoided!!!!

However, Alex proved to be a natural, and after starting off holding the fence to get used to the skates and the ice really seemed to speeding (well, cruising would be a better description) around and having a good time.

We forgot to take a camera out on the ice with us, but took some photos with the camera on Alex's phone.


My rear view... note the frozen leaves in the ice :)

Action shot of Alex, looking a wee bit fuzzy, sorry.

Action shot of me.

Thats all for now. Back to normal life this week. Not long till we are heading back to NZ for Mel and Tim's wedding, all very exciting!!! (well, except for that looooooong flight).

See ya!
P. and LX.

Hola! Notes from Barcelona

Firstly, Happy New Years to everyone!



Hope you all had great New years celebrations and that the year has been good so far. Unfortunately, Alex and myself have been a pair of sick old people and have been hacking and sniffing all year (so far...) never mind.

So... onto Barcelona... well, when we finally got there anyways...

To start the story, we got up far too early to get to Heathrow by 0630, and managed to check in ok, found a coffee and then boarded our flight. So far so good. However, we then got to sit on the plane for at least 2 hours, because of a broken thermometer... Eventually we get shifted to another plane and took off! yah! finally on the way! only about 3 hours late... sigh.

Found the bus that went to Plaza Catalanya and jumped on. Jen and Alex very kindly met us at the bus stop and we went to their apartment.

Had a great walk about for the afternoon, walked through the Barri Gotic. Very nice to just finally be in Barcelona, hanging out with Jen and Alex, walking along Las Ramblas in sunshine that actually has some warmth in it! AND it was still sunny after 4pm! Shocking!


A picture of the Gothic Cathedral, as Jennifer's Alex said, it was probably going to be the last one they visit, for us, it was probably going to be one of the first. Very cool! The next photo is 'Coloms colon' hehehe... still makes me giggle. It is Columbus on a column... nothing to do with intestines. never mind.

The next day was Gaudi day. Starting off with a visit to Sagrada Familia. Oh my gosh! What an amazing building!!! Soooooo impressive!!! It was started in 1882 and is still not finished. In my opinion, Gaudi was one amazing guy! Very impressed with the building, I even appreciate the 'new' front that has been built. It is still very Gaudi-ish but in a much more modern and cubist way. It was also nice to know that since Jen has been there over 10 years ago, they have actually done quite a bit of work on the place. I would LOVE to come back when they finish, but who knows when that will be.




The inside of the building is fantastic! all very organic and alive. The window colors are FANTASTIC!!! I can only imagine what it will look like with all of them in there.



After lunch opposite the Sagrada Familia, we went to Park Guell, which is full of Gaudi's work, and also has the house where he spent his last years. I enjoyed walking about the park, and the views were great (including Sagrada Familia). Pity about all the annoying people who kept climbing all over the reptile...





The next day we took a trip up Montjuic, so named after the Jewish cemetary that was there during medieval times. We went up the funicular (funicule, furnicular, funiculee, funicu-LAR!) and then the cable car up to the very top. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to play conkers with the cable cars (Jen's Alex is such a spoil sport!) The castel at the top is now a military museum. The views are unbelievable from the top, and there was a lot of modern guns (Vickers) up there.

We headed back down and then walked around the gardens and towards the Palau Nacional and Museu Nacional a'Art de Catalunya, in otherwords, a great big building. After we had found a nice pub for a sammie, we headed back up the mount (using the outdoor, yes, outdoor, escalators) to do some more exploring.

Unfortunately, the Olympic stadium was shut. A bit of a pity, as some of my students said it was a really good place to visit. Never mind. As we walked down the hill in the sunshine, I found some toi-toi. So, this photo is for mum and dad :)

After another good meal at Jen and Alex's and some really good conversation, another day was over. The next day was Jen and Alex's last :( It was sad to see them go. One of the best things about this trip was spending time with them, just hanging out and chatting.

After they left, Alex and I wandered about for a bit, had a look at some shops, went to the Picasso museum (but the queue to go in was horrendous!) so had coffee at the Picasso cafe instead! We then went and had a nosy in the Hardrock cafe, where Alex found a wall devoted to Paul Stanley from Kiss.

Unfortunately, by this stage we were both feeling sick, so decided to head to the airport and chill. Then it was home, and surprise, surprise, the plane was delayed. Not too long this time, someone apparently looked too suspicious for the airport security to be allowed on the plane. Very odd.

So, that was our adventure in Barcelona. It was fun, sunny, warm and the company was what made it perfect.

One last photo for you all. The most bizarre (and expensive) fusball table I have ever seen! All the players were pop stars. With a whole row of Kiss people, who could resist?

Love to all!

P. and LX.