Forget Big Ben, it's all about the gherkin!

Good morning all,

We're about to leave London and catch a train out to the Cotswolds to start the 50km a day cycling trip for the next 3 days...here's hoping we survive!

So, the last couple of days have been a blur. After our last entry, we had grand plans of heading down to do some quick shopping at High St Kensington and then out for dinner. Needless to say, one shouldn't lay their head on the bed when jetlagged if they want to achieve such an aim!

14 hours later and we were up and ready to hit the streets of London Town. First a quick trip down memory lane, around the corner to High St Kensington. Not much doing there and after getting a SIM card, it was onto the tube for a trip into a part of town we had only been to once before - Brixton (on the south side). Here we hit the Brixton market and our senses were tantalised by the smells, sounds and tastes of the Caribbean and fresh food! Jeff loved it so much, before we knew it he had bought a little van and set up shop! He always claimed he could cook, but now he was making money from it! Or trying to...unfortunately it didn't work out...back on the train again!

As lunch approached and being hungry from the Brixton markets, we headed out east to Whitechapel to hit Brick Lane for a curry. Whitechapel Road is one busy place, fulll of people and good to see, like Brixton, a different side to London than just the West End. Brick Lane seems to have changed a bit since the last time we were here, but then again, it was probably because we had usually gone there for dinner when it is no doubt livelier. At least here though, you get a good view of the gherkin!!

We'd be seeing a bit of this building over the next few days from different points of the compass!

After a stroll down Brick Lane, we stumbled across a new and emerging market/art precinct in a disused brewery..the Old Truman Brewery. This place was fantastic - little bars and food vans, music and exhibitions. This is where we ended up having lunch, next to a broken down coupe. Lunch consisted of a couple of beers washed down with some thai food!! :) We then enjoyed a couple of hours looking at a photographic exhibiton and surveying the final year works of uni students that were involved in design, including new aids that were relevant to the world of OT and others that were relevant to the planning world...so we were at work on holidays!! Had a chat to a few of the designers/students - there are some clever people out there!

With a meander through Spitalfields and back to Liverpool St, we headed back to the hotel (that's what they call it) to get ready for a night at the theatre. We finished off Friday night watching the stage show of Yes Prime Minister which was set in the current era, Just like the tv show, this production was very witty and had us laughing most of the way through.

Saturday, another view of the gherkin and the east side of London...this time the Olympic site was our focus. First though, another trip down memory lane to the North End Road fruit & veg street markets that they hold on sat mornings and that we used to get most of our fresh food from...the stuff here looks great and is so much cheaper than home at the moment...yum!

Off to Stratford via a quick visit to Canary Wharf so someonee who shall remain nameless could enjoy some shopping. Jeff used this time to follow the live sccores on the Parra game and had put the phone away with 2 mins to go, thinking they had won for sure...but no they always find a way to lose!

Onto bigger sporting events and the london Olympics site was our next stop. We took part in a walking tour around the site and seeing the place being built and some of the regeneration works being carried out, with new buildings and cleaning up of this old industrial area. A few photos below (sorry the blog site isn't playing nice today so they're up the top!!)

To Top off a good day, we were very lucky that Kerryn invited us over to her house for some drinks and here we spent the night enjoying great wine, beer, food and of course great company. We had a great time and enjoyed meeting new people and catching up with Kerryn again - though this time kerryn and Jeff ddidn't get sea sick! We were having such a good time and with the sun staying up as it does we ddidn't realise the time, until someone pointed out it was 11pm! We hotfooted it to the bus to make sure we got home before they stopped...luckily we found a bus straight to West Kensington and home again!

Thanks for a great night Kerryn, hope you can make the trip to Oz soon!

To everyone else, hope you made it to the end of this long entry...sorrry it was a bit rushed - have a train to catch - keeo an eeye out for reports on our cycling trip!

Cheers

Stace and Jeff

4 words....

Good afternoon all (London time). Well, as we type this up we’re not in London, but cruising over the Russian Capital of Moscow, with about 3 hours to go. It’s a lot closer than where we thought we might have been 24 hours ago!! And – as for those 4 words – we’ll get to that, but they’re 4 words that have been repeated throughout the trip and have certainly made the trip more than the usual “just bearable”!

So, let’s wind back 24 – 36 hours ago. We had spent Tuesday night packing in a frenzy and making sure all was in order. Stacey had just got back from the doctor, who had warned her about flying on one hand and gave her strong drugs and a letter for travelling with the same on the other!

Wednesday morning came around and we were up and ready before 6.30, for Jeff to drive Stacey to work and then onto Camden for his own day of work. However, we did not make it out of the door – the chest infections and flu had taken their toll and we realised that we would not be able to survive a day at work and definitely not a 24 hour trip up the back of the plane if we had done so.

Wednesday turned into lying on the lounge watching quality tv, sleeping and seemingly inhaling and digesting every pharmaceutical known to man! At this point we were seriously thinking about postponing the trip to make sure we were well enough to travel.

A big thank you to Aharn Thai Shellharbour for Tom Yum soup for lunch and the feeling it (along with the Sudafed) gave us that made us feel like we were fine to go! So we packed the car and headed off to Camden to collect Jeff’s suit (apparently this is common clobber at Irish Weddings!).

We arrived at Fiona’s house before she had got home from work (yes a school teacher working in holidays – wonders will never cease!). Naturally, we made ourselves at home, and continued recuperation on her lounge, made some tea and plundered the pantry of biscuits.

When she came home, it was time to head to the airport, with the lure of a new terminal full of shopping and the comforts of the Q Club to look forward to. Checked in no trouble, although there were no upgrades despite our hopes! The new shopping at International Terminal is not much better as we discovered and we headed off to the Q Club for dinner and a shower. It was a long wait as our flight is the last one out of Sydney. Finally, we were called to board and our trip was about to begin!

We boarded the plane and found our seats. Then, the 4 words were spoken that have made this a great trip and a tribute to the professionalism and customer service of all involved. So – you probably want to know what those 4 words were?? Mmmm – trust me – they’re nothing special!

As we went to sit down, a flight attendant came over and said....drum roll...”You’re friends of Paul?” Closely followed by, “We’ve reserved some rows down the back for you – a row each so you can lie out and sleep! Ok – we didn’t admit that we do not know Paul, but we played along anyway. To put it into perspective, Paul is an attendant with Qantas, who plays golf and drinks with Stacey’s dad at Kiama Golf Club...that’s all we had for conversation with anyone that asked us that question from that point, but knowing that was enough!

So we had gone from being in 2 narrow seats to having a whole row of 3 to ourselves up the back away from the crowds. We were waited on by the supervisor Shane – nothing was a problem. We also acquired, from the big boss Marie, some bubbly from business class, along with a business amenity kit and pair of pyjamas each! They’re comfy things for sleeping in, but the big Kangaroo on the front of the shirt is a bit of a worry!

Finally made it to Hong Kong – second time we’ve been there – both times only to the airport! We should get out next time!

Spent some time in the Q Club as you do, knowing it was a full flight to old London Town. Time to board and line up as cattle once again – except this time there was a lot more cattle than the last flight...

Stacey goes first at the gate, and her boarding pass when scanned, unlike the others that went green, made the little reader bring up a scary red light! Looks like we’re not getting on??? No...of course not! Apparently, we’ve been bumped up to Premium Economy....score!! Thanks again Qantas!





We have been waited on throughout the flight by the 2IC from the Business Class cabin – Angie, who is a friend of Paul’s and likes to take care of other friends of Paul! So much so, we now have 4 x QF Pyjamas (going cheap – 2 new, 2 only worn once!) and 4 x business amenity kits. Oh, and she brought down some “Duty Free” (read 2 x bottles of French Champagne!)...What are we going to do with them??? Hmm...they probably don’t mix well with antibiotics – watch this space to find out!!


Well, it’s almost lunch time –again! Better be off and will post more over the weekend – since Stacey thought 3 days of 50k’s of bike riding is the best way to see the Cotswolds I’m sure there will be plenty of stories to tell!

If anyone wants the PJs, put in your bid below!




Finally, a big thank you to Barry – Stacey’s dad for having a few quiet chats with Paul over a few beers!

And to Paul – if you ever see this – we have four words for you: “Seeya at the golfy” (Our shout!)



P.S We are now at the hostel in West Ken just down the road from where we used to live, but at least our old place had a lift for Stacey's heavy suitcases! We're off now to get a sim card so we can send texts to you all!

Happy 60th Dad and bringing the blog back to life

Not long now and we'll be heading off to Ireland and a few other countries as part of the Jade Hunt wedding experience!

However, this little entry is to wish our Dad/Father in Law, Jeff Snr a Happy 60th Birthday! Dad has the best wit and sense of humour and loves to BS with the best of them - all traits that his children picked up instead of me of course!! :) Well, ok I got the wit and the humour but not the BS!

We travelled up to Rosemeadow on Sat night to celebrate Dad's birthday with a surprise birthday organised by his number 1 grandchild (out of ten). This was a great party and appropriate that Demi organised it (and the ipad b'day present) as dad loves his grandchildren big time and always has time for them. Of course, he loves Tommy and Phoenix as well - by feeding them lots of treats!

Happy birthday Dad and I look forward to your 70th!


Love Stacey and Jeff (Jnr) and those pesky puppies


Keep an eye out for more posts soon.

Home Sweet Home

Well we can't believe a month has come and gone so quickly...... we made it home following enjoying a last couple of days in Santa Monica before the long flight home. Unfortunately we had no such luck as to be upgraded for that final and most crucial leg, so after enjoying the luxuries of business and premium economy seats you can well imagine our chargrin as we squeezed into our little seats like battery hens and suffered 14 hours (13 in the air plus 1 on the tarmac) of noise, cramps and restless interrupted sleep.....all we can say is thank God for noise cancelling headphones! We have just finished checking out how many frequent flyer points we need to geta premium economy flight to Asia.....we must be getting soft in our old age!

And so now we have finished unpacking, washing, balancing the bank books and bills etc and preparing to slot back into reality when we have to go to work tomorrow, it is time for a few short reflections of the month that was our trip in America.

As always - a review of lost and found:

Lost = Stacey won this category for the first time, Jeff was unusally fastidious in accounting for his belongings, as afar as we can see, lost items included, keys, a pad lock for the luggage and the money belt with travel documents, both of which diasappeared in the same hostel room moments asfter having them in our hand...that room was dubbed 'the Bemuda triangle' as our things seemed to randomly appear and disappear at will. The good news is as they all reappeared they can be counted in the 'found' category as well!
Other lost things - a pair of sunglasses, computer and ipod cables, and some jewellery (earings and necklace) bought as a present for Susan from the Navajo Indians, plus we returned with several partnerless socks. Just how does that happen? Socks seem to be particulary skilled at escaping!

Found = not sure if technically speaking purchases can be included as 'found' items......but given we have just visited the spiritual home of capitalism we felt it only appropriate to partake in consumerist activities. And some of our shopping did involve a bit of searching! We did find a piece of volcanic rock after taking a slight detour off the highway through paddocks (if the car rental company ask, we NEVER took the car off-road), finding our way out of some of the more dubious parts of San Fracisco with our lives intact was also a particular achievement! We found a shop in Vegas where you can hire a gun, and at the time we found that both amusing and strange- but after visiting San Fran we began to think that perhaps the idea had some merits. A bit of orienteering was involved in finding "Fruity Pebbles" (think fruit loops on drugs) to bring home for Mindy, especially as we were searching in hoity toity Santa Monica where all the grocery stores were 'organic Wholefood markets!'

Favourite Sayings:
We always like to pick up a few words or phrases of the local lingo, and America was no different - our number one favourite would have to be about 'rooting in the stands' at the baseball - it brought us many minutes of laughter! as did if we said 'thank you' we were often treated to a response of 'uhhh hu' - first truly experienced from the good folk of Tonapah. We quickly learnt to modify our own speech after we were greeted with a few blank expressions when we asked for 'the bill', or when Jeff mentioned something a bout a 'bloke' to a perplexed fellow in a clothes shop as they both waited for their respective spouses to try on more and more clothes and when Stacey requested 'wholemeal' bread. But we got into the spirit of things and found ourselves asking where the 'restrooms were' ordered 'cawfee', enjoyed a 'soda' and declined some 'cotton candy'.

Favourite TV Programs = Well America is the home of over 500 cable tv channels---- did you expect that we wouldn't watch any tv?? We limited ourselves to only quality programs - a documentary on Schappelle Corby, episodes of Jerry Springer and the spin off show hosted by his bodyguard Steve, Judge Joe Brown, and for most creative fiction our favourite show award goes to Fox News.

Oh well, it's not going to be as interesting as trying to understand the japanese and their crazy tv shows on our next trip!!

Hope you enjoyed the blog - apprently it is too boring and will be receiving a makeover so watch this space!

Cheers

Stacey and Jeff - happy to be home to the sleepy dog...7pm, must be bed time!

The Mets of New York and other tales

Hello to you all...this blog is coming to you from the beginning of the end of our trip at JFK Airport NYC on our way back to LA for a couple of nights and a few days swimming and shopping with the bodies beautiful.



NYC is a magic place and way too big to cover in 4 days, we need another week to even touch on the things we wanted to do. The title of the blog is inspired by the themes of NYC...the subway (metro), the Met Museum and the NY Mets baseball team...not to forget the Met theatre off broadway.



Broadway was our introduction to NYC as we stepped off the train with heavy suitcases and it was the middle of the lunch hour...the place was busy and we never thought we would get to our hostel...the task of pushing 2 25 kilo bags through a crowd of pushy people at every corner was a difficult on. Our hostel was in a handy location just off Times Square and the last minute decision to switch to a private room was worth the few extra dollars.



The first Met that we experienced was the Subway....difficult to understand and navigate the first few times, b ut convenient a nd quick nonetheless. We headed to Little Italy for a bite to eat and thought we were about to see a few Carlton Blues jumpers around as it's very similar to Lygon Street. We passed up the opportunity of reflexology in nearby Chinatow n and walked up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Tip from Jeff is to watch out for cyclists in this part of town as you may - as he almost did, get knocked over if you don't pay attention. We wandered down to Wall Street and ran into a girl that had a puppy that was a sheltie cross and got talking to her and picked up a few tips on Manhattan (who knows if people in Manhattan get off the island to Jersey or the other boroughs? One gets the impression they may not!). We ended up on the river across from the Statue (you know the one with the girl in a big dress with a lit cigarette in her hand) and watched the sunset before walking back to the subway via the WTC. On the ride home we were ëntertained"by a group of breakdancers hustling for cash and also a few beggars...they're quite common on the trains from what we've seen.



As has been the theme of this trip we got up late the next day and as a result we only hit a few attractions like the continuous line at the Empire State Building...waste of time...lining up all day and not the best view anyway. More interesting in the afternoon was the visit to the Bodies exhibition where they had real cadavas on display and body parts in glass cases...it was an amazing experience, educational and thought provoking and didn't even feel weird to be so close to dead bodies in interesting poses, though you were n't allot to touch!! I think Stacey got a grope in somewhere..



We picked up tickets to a play - Mary Stuart - on thbe way home and hit broadway that night. The play was great and we were three rows back. Recommended, as are the shish kebabs that we had on the way home from there, bought from a street corner stand. According to the egyptian who sold them to us all the women in NYC are "b@tch@s because of the way they dress...hmmm tolerance is a wonderful thing!



Stace promised a trip to the Met the next day and I got all dressed up for the baseball. We walked through Central Park and she pronounced that we were there...no baseball in sight, just lots of artsy fartsy paintings and sculptures...lucky me. It was time for crisis talks. Sure her birthday was coming up but there was no need to play such games. As we walked through harlem we hired a few negotiators and ended up agreeing to hit the baseball that night. That and we better get outta there before dark hit.



And so on saturday night we went out to near the US Open stadium to Citi Field - the home of the NY mets, We had seats on the top of Pepsi Porch and enjoyed a great game...won by the Mets as a result of a "Grand Slam"by Angel Pagan (he had god and the devil on his side - how could he go wrong?)...The team song was going on about how we should root in the stand...but as it was our first time we decided not to, modesty! We filled up on hot dogs, soda and kettle korn. What a night.



On sunday we went out to Liberty island. It was a short trip - not too much exciting about a french gift to the US made of copper and holding a fag in her hand. That and it was puring down rain and jeff was angry at the deprivation of his liberties by security as they confiscated his grand canyon swiss army knife. Apparently it's a prohibited item....maybe he was going to stab the statue....only problem was the knife was no goood anyway...could never get it out!



Miss Maimse and her spoonbread delights in Harlem soon lifted the spirits! This place is a gem and thanks to Patrick for the tip. Jeff dined on Southern Meatloaf and Stacey the fried Chicken. Bill Clinton is a fan and we are now as well. Mind you the food was served in good size portions requiring a meander through and around central park to wear it off. Not to be put off, we still managed to go out for dinner to a cool brazilian place in Alpabet City (lower east side manhatten) where we indulged in cocktails as we enjoyed the entertainment.

We spent this morning exploring SOHO, with the plan to hit the shops for stacey's birthday. Unfortunately we didnt get to stay for long, as we needed to run the gauntlet back to the trains in ordr to get out to the airport.

We have been upgraded again (premium econonmy, but in business class seats- Qantas being nic e as it is stacey's birthday today) cant wait for the flight! hopefully we will get to post another blog entry before we head home where we are under no illusions that we will get another upgrade....we are sure the 13 hours in economy on the final flight will bring us back down to reality, but until then we will enjoy lliving the high life!

To Mars and Beyond…… Or perhaps just Washington DC

Well we are currently en-route to New York via a very packed Amtrak train, enjoying the sights of Maryland and Philadelphia (oh we’re in Jersey now) as they fly by our window. Thus ends our time in DC, which after a hairy start, turned out really well. I have christened the hostel we stayed in as “Fawlty Towers” following our dramas with checking in, the eccentric rules around thou shalt take thy shoes off to enter, and not to mention the window curtain rod collapsing in the middle of the night (with a little bit of help from a rather odd fellow roommate), the mysterious case of the room lights ceasing to work and several cold showers, which although a little off-putting was strangely refreshing given the high humidity and temperamental air-conditioning system.


Outside the hostel confines was a great city, very easy to navigate by foot, lovely parks and architecture, friendly people, an impressive National Mall, good vibe and excellent (end even better - free) museums. Unfortunately 2 days wasn’t enough to explore everything we hoped to see, so we will have it note it as a place to return to in future travels. This was compounded by us still being on west coast time, a lack of quality sleep and late starts to the day despite our best intentions of hitting the town early.


Day 1 consisted of visiting the front (and back…..for some reason they wouldn’t let us go inside) of the White House. We were just in time to witness a protest against the treatment of Uhghers by the Chinese Government (but why they were protesting outside the White House and not the Chinese Embassy we couldn’t quite understand), along with the more typical anti-nuclear, pro-peace, anti- Israel, pro Palestinian agitators. We were pleased to hear that conspiracy theories are still in vogue….. Apparently it was a conspiracy by an unlikely coalition of Jewish bankers, the Freemasons and Catholic radicals that brought Obama to power…..those of the far right are claiming that Obama shouldn’t be President because he wasn’t born in the US…. That the validated birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii was a fraud….they even tried to get their ridiculous claims heard by the Supreme Court! We love American politics, much more lively than our dull Kev…..although it appears a restaurant in DC has been named in his honour FuddRuckers!!! Kevin from Queensland has made it to the bigtime!
While checking out the back of the White House we watched a cavalcade of police cars, secret service and what looked to be Obama going past….Jeff swears he got a wave……or perhaps just a finger??
We checked out Capitol Hill, the National Monument, plus monuments to Jefferson and Lincoln (all very Greco- Romanesque) and the Franklin Roosevelt monument which was my personal favourite. The Korean War Memorial was good too….lots of sculptures arranged as though the soldiers are advancing though a field. They are planning to build a monument to Martin Luther King Jnr which will be good to visit, but so far it is just a plaque on the ground. We also visited the Natural History Museum and enjoyed an exhibit on the peoples of Africa and lost track of time in the Air and Space Museum whilst marvelling at the mysteries of the universe, checking out the lunar landing module, astronauts suits, a test version of the Hubble telescope, plus some disturbing nuclear rockets, ballistic missiles and the Wright Brothers Original aeroplane. Jeff was fascinated by the logistics of Air traffic Control while Stacey checked out the little robot dude deployed on Mars. We had planned to visit a few other museums but didn’t quite make it…..I guess it just means we will have to come back.

And so start spreading the news….I’m leaving today…..its up to you New York New York!!!!

Utah Pics....and no mormon wore a suit - it was way too hot

The day starts with Stacey posing at the border after a short drive from Kayenta..the town in the middle of the Navajo reservation. Stace thought the sign said Don Juan not san Juan..hence the smile.

Jeff gets reacquainted with his 3 sisters...or maybe he's just missing echo point? Finally Australia has something bigger than the American equivalent!! Which one is which? Careful now...one's short but skinny...one looks like a beer bottle and the other one I cannot describe. Talking about the ones in the photo of course.

This is how we wanted to tour the valley....but we decided that 5 horsepower of the sewing machine was better than one horse. However, as far as our rental company is concerned we never went off road!

Can you see the scorpion? Look harder...you will find it! When you do let us know where it is...the first correct answer will be rewarded with a Hershey's Bar delivered to you personally on our return!

After a 2 hourphotography course at the Grand Canyon, jeff started to think he was a good photographer. Well, he may need just a few more (intensive) courses yet, but this photo isn't too bad.

Look...it's a pair of buttes!!

Stacey got artsy fartsy on the road...here is a canyon at canyonlands National Park, taken at 80mph in sepia...not bad....it's like a window to the blue sky...without the blue!

Different arch - this one is available in colour.

And as for this photo...it's just to prove to Mr Taxman that I did a bit of research to see what Gerringong may look like (perhaps).....