Keeping You Up With The Joneses: February 2008

Weekend in the Cotswolds

A group of us living in London decided we needed to do a weekend away in England! The group consisted of Ben and myself, Carly and Chris, Bethany and Andrew, and Metra and Dion. The connection between us is that Carly, Bethany, Andrew and I worked together at Reckitts in Sydney and all moved to London with 6 months of each other. Metra also used to work at Reckitts, and Dion still works for Reckitts in the UK where Andrew now works.

After we all managed to find a weekend we were all in the UK (particularly difficult for Bethany and Andrew who are constantly travelling with work), we decided we were going to the Cotswolds, about a 1.5 hour drive from London, and found a suitably quaint B&B in Bourton-on-the-Water that would accomodate all 8 of us.

We had a great weekend and were very lucky with the weather. Very cold days, but glorious blue sky and sunshine the whole weekend made up for that! Bethany was our tour guide after having visited the Cotswolds a couple of times before and we enjoyed driving through all the little villages and walking between Upper and Lower Slaughter across the fields. It was very muddy, but great fun and the lunch at Lower Slaughter Manor was well deserved by the end!

Our host at the B&B had recommended a restaurant in the town which we went to for dinner on Saturday night. It was a fantastic meal, and testament that good food can be found in England! Sunday we stocked up with picnic food for lunch and headed to Blenheim Palace just outside of Oxford. Blenheim is the home of the Dukes of Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It is an amazing palace, and is set in a stunning 2,100 acres of land!

We had a relaxing day by the lake lazing in the sun. The boys played with the Sherrin Ben had brought, and Metra and I took a walk through the grounds and even managed to negotiate our way through the maze in the Pleasure Gardens. It's a fabulous place, and so close to London we'll definitely be heading back for day trips.

Inge & Ben xo

New Years Eve in Bangkok!

On the way back to London from home we stopped off in Bangkok for 3 days before going to Cambodia. We stayed in the beautiful Peninsula Hotel and had a very relaxing time doing nothing but sitting by the pool! We joined in the festivities on the lawns in the Peninsula for a show and fantastic fireworks over the river.

View of the NYE dinner location from our bedroom, view of the river at night

NYE Dinner, the singers and modern Thai dancers

Inge & Ben xo

Visit to Sydney & Christmas in Adelaide 2007

Well, it's been a while since we've gotten back from our holiday, but better late than never! Seeing as my nephews were born just before Christmas, we decided to head home to meet them. After a bad start to the trip (BA delaying our flight to Frankfurt so that we missed our Qantas one to Sydney and had to overnight in Frankfurt!!), it was great to finally arrive in Sydney, even if it was pouring with rain! That was a positive though as the cricket Ben was supposed to go to but missed because of BA had been washed out!! We spent the week in Sydney rushing around catching up with friends and doing a lot of paperwork with banks and rental properties! Not the most relaxing of weeks, but great to catch up with those we managed to see. It was also good we were very busy as the weather wasn't the best, so we weren't wanting to spend our whole time on the beach!!

Our last day in Sydney on Coogee Beach - this was the nicest weather we'd had all week!

Our bad luck with flights continued when we flew to Adelaide and were stuck on the tarmac in Sydney for 2 hours! But we finally made it to Adelaide where we went straight to the hospital to see the Twins! They were gorgeous and Mum and Dad were getting into the swing of things. We had a really nice time in Adelaide, really just relaxing with the family (Ben's parents and brother came to Adelaide as well) and seeing as much of the twins as possible.

Our first meeting with the Twins! I was holding Joshua and Ben was holding Jonty!

Cara unpacking all the baby clothes I'd brought from London (and Ben wondering how much I'd spent!!) and Detlef and Cara with Joshua and Jonty. They were still both so small!

Christmas Day was very pleasant, we all went to my Dad's place for lunch and had a great day sitting in the sun and playing cricket and table tennis. It was also great meeting all of Sharon's (my Dad's partner) family.

The sporting action on Christmas Day!

Christmas cuddles with the Twins! The nurses in the hospital had put them in Christmas outfits!

Me with my Mum and Mum's new puppy, Gwinny (she's a labrodoodle and a real princess!)

We really enjoyed our time at home and were pleased that the weather finally warmed up for us and managed to get some sun and beach time! We also managed to catch up with our good friends George and Anita and to finally meet their little son Lukas. It was great catching up with them and their family - although it was a very hot day, almost 40 degrees!