Keeping You Up With The Joneses

Lauren Young's Christening - October 2008

2008-11-09T18:15:00.011Z

We headed up to Chatteris, Cambridgeshire the last weekend of October to attend the Christening of Lauren Young. Lauren is Ben's cousin, Donna's daughter. Donna and Mark had asked Ben and I to be Godparents to Lauren, and we were very honoured to be asked. It was a lovely weekend in which we were able to celebrate Lauren's Christening, as well as Donna and Mark's 2nd wedding anniversary and Ben's 2 years in the UK!

Lauren all rugged up for a walk around Ely after lunch, the Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral with a lovely rural park.

Lauren charming the camera!!

Lauren in her Christening dress and with Dad Mark.

Lauren a lot happier after the Christening, grand-dad Colin taking some photos.

Lauren exploring the church, with Mum Donna, and with Uncle Andy and Cousin Ellen

Ellen, Uncle Andy and Lauren, Uncle Andy welcoming everyone to the lunch, and Mum Donna with the cake!

Lauren's cake, Godparent Inge cutting the cake, Lauren having some fun and the church at Chatteris.

Last Night of the BBC Proms - September 2008

2008-11-09T17:46:00.008Z

Ben made a huge sacrifice by getting us tickets for the Last Night of the Proms in the Park! It was an unusually sunny and warm day, so a perfect day for a picnic. We arrived when the gates opened and with the thousands of other people found a place to sit and relax before the evening started. It was such a great way to spend the afternoon, especially as the weather was so good, and I had lots of fun singing along to all the songs!! Will try and do it again next year.

Enjoying the sunshine & the thousands of people having a picnic and showing their patriotism!

The massive stage, a pink Union Jack, and enjoying the wine!

Amazingly we're still wearing our sunglasses, Ben had to take this photo as one of his footy mates is called 'Worker', me singing along and the crowd getting louder.

Everybody dancing along to Bjorn Again!

Ben had to take a photo of the clear blue sky, and the beautiful light as the sun set.

Jose Careras singing and the fireworks at the end of the night!

Brad & Chrissy's Wedding - Scotland - 3 September 2008

2008-11-08T22:41:00.012Z

Brad and Chrissy's wedding was at Dundas Castle in Edinburgh. We had such a fantastic time there with the friends and family that had travelled from the US and Australia. The whole day reflected what was important to Brad and Chrissy, their family, friends, each other and laughter. I got to catch up with some of the girls from the New York hen's weekend and it was wonderful to meet the families on both sides.

Inge, Brad and Viv infront of Dundas Castle, the Keep where the ceremony was & the dark clouds failed to put a damper on the occasion!

Chrissy's beautiful dress was her mother's which had been made 57 years earlier! Chrissy getting ready, the boys taking their time relaxing and the amazing wedding cake!

Chrissy's Mum Mabel and her sister Yvonne helping her get ready. Chrissy having some pre-wedding photos with her family, sister Yvonne, brother Bubba, Dad Maccy and Mum Mabel.

Chrissy being walked down the aisle, Yvonne doing a reading, and the happy couple now married!

Bubba getting into the spirit, the happy couple arriving at the reception and Brad trying to cut the cake with the sword!!

Ben and Dazza, Yvonne and Inge, Jennifer and Kathryn giving their speech, Dazza displaying the tie he had to borrow from Ben after he couldn't tie his bow-tie!

Fireworks that had been organised, the first dance for the happy couple, and for the other happy couple, and Chrissy having some fun after all the stresses of organising a wedding!!

Everyone letting their hair down and enjoying the night. (LtoR: Chrissy, Keely & Brad, Chrissy & Ben, Inge, Jennifer, Chrissy & Keely, Nicole & Ben)

Dazza and Fran, the couple partying hard and Ben and Inge.

Manchester - August 2008

2008-11-08T22:32:00.007Z

Ben and I had planned to go up to Manchester to watch his beloved Fulham play Manchester United at the legendary Old Trafford stadium. Unfortunately the game was postponed, but we decided to head up there anyway and had a great weekend. Manchester is a fun place and we had fun exploring the city, doing some shopping and sampling the restaurants and bars! Highlights include the bad traffic on the way up due to the filming of Top Gear! Me forgetting to take any trousers other than the yoga pants I had on, so on the first night heading out in the yoga pants with my Jimmy Choos! Going on the Manchester Eye! And indoor skiing at the Chill Factore!

Relaxing in the Level 21 bar in the Hilton, me laughing about the yoga pants with the Choos!

The Manchester Eye

Another fun night out in Manchester

The indoor ski slope

Positano, Amalfi Coast - August 2008

2008-11-08T22:11:00.005Z

For the August Bank Holiday we headed to Positano for some much needed sun and beach time! The Summer in England had again been rather miserable, so it was wonderful to arrive on the Amalfi Coast to 30 degree weather and bright blue skies.

Ben and I spent most of our time either lounging on the beach or by the pool on our hotel's rooftop! We ventured out one day for a very strenuous (not!) boat trip along the coast to Amalfi, where a compulsory visit to the Emerald Grotto was included! It was a weekend of true indulgence as we treated ourselves to a dinner at the Michelin starred restaurant high up on the cliff, where the dessert was worthy of a photograph, and also managed to buy two new paintings from one of the many art galleries. Both paintings are by Italian artists.

We'll definitely be heading back there one day!

The view from our hotel room, getting some desperately needed sun & relaxing on the balcony!

Positano at night & from the sea, the cliff that the Michelin star restaurant is on!

The Emerald Grotto, Amalfi & Ben & I starting to get a bit of colour!

The amazing dessert and the end product!

Relaxing by the pool and soaking up the final rays before heading back to the rain!!

Memorial to Owen Hartley Jones

2008-11-08T21:10:00.005Z

After finding the tumor in his lung in France, Owen lost his struggle with the cancer on the 18 July 2007 having been able to say goodbye to all of his family and friends. Ben went home for the funeral, which I know his Dad and Aunty Helen really appreciated. We all loved Owen so much and will miss him dearly.

Owen Hartley Jones
24.11.1941 - 18.7.2008

Dusk
Now is the healing, quiet hour that fills
This gay, green world with peace and grateful rest.
Where lately over opalescent hills
The blood of slain Day reddened all the west,
Now comes at Night's behest,
A glow that over all the forest spills,
As with the gold of promised daffodils.
Of all hours this is best.

"The Sentimental Bloke" - C.J. Dennis

Chrissy's Hen's Weekend in NY - July 2008

2008-11-08T20:31:00.006Z

My next trip was to New York with our friend Chrissy for her Hen's weekend! Chrissy is from South Carolina, so her friends from back home organised for a great weekend in New York. The weekend consisted of dinner, Broadway shows, cocktail bars and lots and lots of shopping!!!! Thankfully then the exchange rate was still very good, so we were able to do a lot!

Dinner & cocktails with the Southern Belles! Y'all, I was the only person there that wasn't from the South!!

Have to end the night in a Limo!!

Shopping in New York, and getting ready for the evening!

Everyone that came for the lingerie party & Chrissy with her closest friends, Katherine, Jamie and Jennifer!

Chrissy with the bottle of bubbly Brad so kindly organised for her!

Lauren Young's First Birthday

2008-07-13T21:09:00.005+01:00

Last weekend we drove up to Cambridgeshire to visit Ben's cousins Donna and Mark for their daughter's first birthday. Ben was quite happy to drive up as that week we'd just gotten my new company car, a BMW 1-series! We could only stay a few hours as we had to be back in London for a theatre show, but it was wonderful to see Mark and Donna again, as well as seeing Lauren who was a few weeks old the last time we saw her. Mark and Donna also surprised us by asking Ben and I to be Lauren's God Parents. We were quite chuffed by this honour and will be heading back up in October for the Christening.

Lauren, Mark & Ben - Ben and the birthday girl

Ben and Lauren - Lauren wanting to go to Mum, Donna

Lauren's cousin - Me with Lauren

Ascot Races & George's Visit

2008-07-13T20:30:00.004+01:00

We joined my friend Mich and a few of her mates for a day at the Ascot Races. It had been very wet leading up to the Saturday, but thankfully it didn't rain for us, although it still was rather wet and cold! It was a fun day, although we didn't win anything. Transport to and from left a little bit to be desired, but otherwise it was a fun day.

The girls all dressed up - Me and Mich

Ben & I - and Mich

Ben & El from Melbourne - The Queen in her carriage (she's wearing purple)

Ben, Dan & Mich - The group cheering on the horses

Ben not impressed with the way the day finished - With the Union Jack after the traditional sing-a-long

The next day our friend George arrived from Melbourne. He was over in business and made the effort to come early and spend a couple of days with us. He arrived early in the morning, and after a couch catch up we hit the shops and walked through the park home. George was lucky, we actually had nice weather for the couple of days he was here. It was wonderful to see him again, we really miss having George and Anita around!

Normandy with Neil and Christine

2008-07-13T19:25:00.020+01:00

The weekend after we went to Istanbul we joined Neil and Christine again but this time in Normandy. We were supposed to be meeting up with Neil's brother Owen and his wife Helen who'd been holidaying in France, but unfortunately Owen and Helen had both ended up in hospital very sick. Initially Owen was in hospital with pneumonia and Helen had managed to get Legionnaires Disease! They were in hospital for several weeks, and unfortunately the doctors found a tumor in Owen's lung, so it was then a focus for them to get home and for Owen to get treatment. Neil and Christine did manage to get to see them for one night in Paris before they flew home.

We decided to continue to Normandy and started our trip in Dinan, a beautiful medieval town on the river. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the river and a walk along the old wall. When walking past a beautiful cathedral we heard singing and there was a local choir performing which was lovely to sit and watch.

The next day we headed East for the 3 hour drive to Rouen to visit Ben's Great-Grandfather Jones' grave. He had been injured on the Somme and then transferred to a hospital in Rouen where he ended up dying at the age of 33. It was quite emotional for Ben and Neil to visit the grave, and well worth the trip.

We then drove back West to Caen where we visited the Memorial to Peace which is an amazing exhibition documenting the events from the end of WWI that lead up to and influenced the beginning of WWII. It was a very detailed exhibition and we spent about 3 hours going through the building. We then drove to Bayeaux, another beautiful medieval town where we stopped to see the Bayeaux Tapestry. I'd insisted on going there as I'd learnt about it in Year 8 history, and it's a testament to my history teacher that it had fixed in my mind for so long. And I was really pleased that we did. They had a wonderful audio guide which spoke in length about each panel and the detail that went into it as well as the story. It was quite amazing to see.

It was still light by this stage, so we decided to start driving along the D-Day beaches. The first few have quite resorty towns on them, but as we progressed further you could start to see the remnants of what happened. Specifically the Mulberry Harbours which were towed across from England to allow the landings to happen. We ended up finding accommodation in an apartment on one of the beaches as all of the hotels were fully booked. It was quite a find actually as it provided a beautiful vista over the beach.

The beaches and the remnants of the Mulberry Harbours

Some of the equipment the used - this is a bridge that made up part of the Mulberry Harbours

The beautiful sunrise - one can only imagine the suspense the troops felt on D-Day

Our last day we got up early to head to the American War Cemetery, and this was absolutely amazing. Firstly it was an immaculately kept cemetery and the percision lines that the graves where in was spectacular. Secondly, the 'visitor' centre was the most amazing and moving multi-media exhibition. They had movies, pictures, audio files of veterans recalling their experiences, stories of survival and escape, as well a memorials to the heroes that lost their lives. We spent 3 hours at the cemetery, and 2 of those were in the visitor centre. It is a must for everyone going there.

We then did a speedy drive back to Dinard to fly back to the UK. On the way we stopped at Mont St Michel, which was amazing to see. When we went it was better to see it from a distance as there were so many tourists there, once you were on Mont St Michel, because the streets are so narrow, it was hard to see anything. We only had half an hour, so we did a quick walk on the outside wall and then it was back in the car to head to the airport.

I really enjoyed this weekend because of the history ranging from 1066 to 1944. It was one of the most wonderful places I have visited.

Istanbul with Neil and Christine - Day 3&4

2008-07-13T19:13:00.009+01:00

Day 3 started out promisingly with blue skies and warm weather. We decided to head to the Dolmabache Palace which was built between 1843-1856 and housed the final 6 sultans from 1856 up until the abolishment of the Caliphate in 1924. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding leader of the modern Turkish republic, used the palace as a presidential house in summers and died there on 10 November 1938.

Outside the Palace and the changing of the guard

Ataturk's bedroom (the Turkish flag bedspread was added later!) & an ingenious way of hiding the bar!

The amazing chandeliers & Ben with the slippers that we had to wear throughout the palace!

A very ornate bathroom and state room

It was very different to the Topkapi Palace as it was designed in western style with elements of Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classical style. This palace would easily have fit in in France or England and was very much a mix of French design furniture and English Victorian period door-knobs and chandeliers. It was quite revolting at times! We visited the state apartments where official business was held and the Harem. It certainly wasn't as interesting as the Topkapi Palace and has we had to do a guided tour was a lot quicker. The best thing about the palace was the location with wonderful views of the Bosphorous.

By the time we came out and were ready for lunch there was a large black cloud over us. Thankfully despite the wind picking up, thunder and lightning, and a few spots of rain the storm blew over very quickly. We then walked to the Golden Horn and did a ferry cruise up the Bosphorous which was interesting to see the palace from the river and all the residential houses on the European and Asian sides of Turkey.

The bridge linking the European and Asian continents

We were all then exhausted so it was time to head back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

Day 4 saw Neil and Christine head off for Paris while we occupied ourselves before our late afternoon flight by going to Taksim Square then walking down the long shopping street to Galata Tower which has lovely views over Istanbul. From here you can look over the Golden Horn to the Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque and also over the Bosphorous to the Asian side.

Istanbul with Neil and Christine - Day 2

2008-07-13T19:11:00.008+01:00

Day 2 we visited Topkapi Palace which was the Ottoman's second palace in Istanbul. It is a beautiful and very large palace covering an area of 173 acres. It housed all the Ottoman sultans from Sultan Mehmet II (1478) to Sultan Abdulmecit (1856), nearly 4 centuries and 25 Sultans. It was turned into a museum in 1924.

Outside the Topkapi Palace

The visit to the Harem was the most interesting as this was where the family life was centered. The sultan had large rooms here and so did his mother, up to 4 wives, at least 300 concubines and his numerous children, oh and of course the Eunuchs!! Obviously it was a huge part of the palace.

Ben's wishful thinking, Christine wondering how much it would cost to do one a fireplace like this at home, and the ornate ceilings of the Harem

The sultan's mother was the most important and influential person in the harem. The eunuchs were mainly slaves from Sudan or Ethiopia, up to 200 of them, that guarded and served the harem. The main focus of the harem was as a family home and school. The children of the sultan where educated here as well as the concubines. After a sultan's death, the concubines that had given birth to a son remained in the palace whilst those that had a daughter or none where married out of the harem.

All of the rooms in the harem were spectacularly ornamented with Izman tiles covering the walls so they were all bright blues and deep reds. It was lovely. The baths were all marble and gold taps. In one of the sultan's private rooms there was an ornamental water feature!

A much needed rest after going through the Harem - just the rest of the palace to go!!

After the harem we went to the treasury where on display were gifts to the Ottoman's from other countries as well as swords, thrones, medals and jewels. The two main pieces were the Topkapi Dagger, which is encrusted with emeralds, diamonds and rubies, and the 86-carat, yes 86, diamond. It was apparently found in a bin and sold for 3 spoons, and then brought to the palace and was set in gold with 39 surrounding diamonds. Ben was more amazed at the small chest with uncut emeralds, all thrown in like a junk box!! Some of the thrones were quite amazing and looked like day beds rather than thrones. The Ottoman's certainly had comfort in mind for their designs.

The view from the Topkapi Palace

After the palace we went to the Cozy Pub for lunch. When Ben was here in
2003 with our friend George they came to the Cozy every afternoon for a beer.
The evening we decided to go to a restaurant with views over the blue mosque. Despite the earlier threatening rain it cleared for dinner and for Ben to get some night shots of the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia before starting to rain on the way home.

Istanbul with Neil and Christine - Day 1

2008-07-13T19:00:00.006+01:00

We flew to Istanbul to meet up with Neil and Christine after they'd finished their bus tour of Turkey. Our first day was a bit of a late start as we'd arrived very late the night before. We caught a taxi into the old centre and went to the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, the Basilica Cisterns and the Grand Bazaar. As it was a Friday (the main religious day for Muslims) the tour of the Blue Mosque was very quick. Here we'd been "befriended" by a very helpful man who tried to then invite us to look at his carpet store and drink apple tea!! We managed to lose him though!
Inge, Neil and Christine in the Blue Mosque & the ceiling

The Aya Sofia was very interesting as in Byzantine times it was a Christian church. When the Muslims started using it as a mosque they just plastered over all the mosaics and slightly altered the layout. Now it is a museum they have started to remove the plaster to expose what was underneath.

The Basilica Cistern is from Roman times and where they stored the city water. The construction is quite amazing and as usual very ornate. The highlight here was the two Medusa heads to warn off evil.
Ben being clever with the light and reflection in the water!

Medusa's head to ward of evil & the expanse of the cisterns

The next stop after lunch was the Grand Bazaar which was a maze of little alley ways with so many stalls selling a hige range of goods. The jewellery stores were particularly amazing. Ben was amazed at the store that sold outfits for boys who were being circumsised. This traditionally happens at the age of 8 and the boys wear this outfit everywhere for weeks before the event, after which they have a massive party. We saw a few boys wearing it, and they all looked so proud, I'm not sure they really understood what was going to happen!!

Outside one of the entrances to the Grand Bazaar & the circumsision outfit!

Christine checking out the circusision outfits & one of the insides of a bazaar stall

Our day ended with a lovely meal at a restaurant across the road with beautiful Turkish food before collapsing into bed.

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 4

2008-06-01T19:53:00.006+01:00

After another very long day, our fourth and last day was far more relaxing with a stop at the Blue Lagoon, which is not the same one as the movie! Here's some facts and photos...

"The Blue Lagoon geothermal seawater is a part of an ecocycle where nature and science work in harmony. The seawater originates 2000 meter/6562 ft beneath the ground where it is heated by earth’s natural forces. At this depth the temperature is 240°C/464°F and the pressure is 36 times the pressure on the earth’s surface. The geothermal seawater comes into contact with cooling magmatic intrusions and captures the earth’s minerals, resulting in this unique natural source known for its healing power and actives.The composition of minerals in the water is very distinctive and has a high level of silica. Its environment is characterized by high temperature and salinity level of 2.5% which is 1/3 of the ocean’s salinity level."

We've got a silica face mask on which they've got in big tubs around the lagoon!

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 3

2008-06-01T19:52:00.004+01:00

Day three was another early start with our second tour starting at 8am. Today we were off to the South Coast and the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. It was a very long trip there, about 7 hours with two very short stops on the way and the same back. On the way out we stopped at Skogarfoss waterfall which is apparently guarded by a troll (see if you can see him in the rocks!) as there is a treasure behind it. Our second stop was for lunch which for necessity was very short! On the way to the lagoon we had some stunning scenery of the Oraefajokull glacier where it comes down through the mountains. This was where it was unfortunate that we were on a bus tour and couldn't just stop to take photos. Luckily on the way back Ben managed to get some out of the window, as well as there being a conveniently located toilet stop!!

The first sight of the lagoon drew gasps from the whole bus. All of a sudden, from within a landscape of black rock we could get glimpses of brilliant blue water with thousands of icebergs floating in the water. The lagoon gets bigger every year with 100m of the glacier breaking off more icebergs and the icebergs melting relatively quickly as the lagoon is a 50/50 mix of fresh and salt water. We took a boat out onto the lagoon to get a closer look and also got to taste some ice. The ice is crystal clear and very compact and is apparently 1000 to 1500 years old. It was very refreshing to taste and of course very cold!! It was quite amazing to be so close to these things and to remember that the small amount sticking above the water was only 10% of the total size! After the boat trip we were able to walk closer to the sea to watch the seals lazing in the water. They were quite shy seals and very hard to get a good photo of as most of the time they only just had their heads above the water. Luckily Ben had his zoom lens with the little extra bit to give him even more zoom (there's got to be a technical and shorter word for that!) so he was able to get some shots.

On our trip back to Reykjavik we stopped at a little town called Vik for dinner. Vik is apparently in a precarious location as if there's a sub-glacial volcanic eruption it would cause part of the glacier to melt and that would then flood Vik! At least the glacier would have already cooled the lava flow I guess!! We also stopped at another waterfall called Seljalandsfoss which just ended the day perfectly. Despite it being 8 at night the sun was still fairly high and setting perfectly infront of the falls basking it in glowing evening light. This made for a perfect setting and from some angles you could even see a rainbow. Ben just thought this stop made our whole trip as for once on one of his latest holidays he had the perfect light for taking photos!!

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 2

2008-06-01T19:49:00.004+01:00

Day two was a quiet day for us. We wandered into the city centre and managed to bump into a girl I went to school with for 13 years, Mel Shaw!! She lives in London, but it was still funny to see someone from Adelaide in Iceland! We decided to do a whale watching and puffin tour to fill in our afternoon, it was supposed to last 3 hours but we ended up being out the for 5 as they were determined to see a whale. Unfortunately there were no whales, which was very disappointing as they did say we had a 98% chance of seeing one, but we did see some dolphins and we certainly saw a lot of puffins! I was very relieved to be back on shore though as I had gotten quite sea sick and it was so very cold. After a reviving meal it was time to watch the Eurovision song contest and get an early night as we were being picked up at 7.30 the following morning for another all day tour.

The odd things you see around Reykjavik

Thankfully this wasn't our whale watching boat - Ben trying to be funny by implying I'm a whale!!

The Puffins, the only thing we saw on the excrutiating 5 hours we were out at sea!

Iceland May Long Weekend - Day 1

2008-05-26T23:36:00.014+01:00

The start of our trip was slightly marred by us arriving at our hotel at 1.30am to be told that they'd overbooked for that night and we had to stay at another hotel. So for our first night we managed to get just 5 hours sleep before having to get up for an all day tour we had booked. The happy part though was after a spectacular day out, the hotel was able to check us in and upgraded us for our troubles!

The tour we had booked was one where we saw some of Iceland's main sights. Our first destination was Pingvellir which was the sight of the first Icelandic Parliament and the first democracy. It was also amazing as it is where the North American and Eurasia tectonic plates are slowly moving away from each other. The geography and geology of this was truly amazing with lava flows and rifts and valleys where the earth was separating. I knew Iceland had a lot of volcanic activity but I'd never realised how much until I learnt that it is 90% Basalt. Truly amazing.

After boring Ben with the geology and getting back into our amazing bus (above) we then went to Gulfoss (or gold falls) to see one of the smaller waterfalls in Iceland! It was quite spectacular, especially as you can walk right up to it and not just look from afar, and the spray was amazing and could be felt quite a distance away.

After a lunch of traditional lamb soup, it was off to the highlight of our tour and where our super jeep came in very handy. We were off to the Langjokull, or the long glacier. We went onto the glacier on snow mobiles as for most of the year it is covered in snow. This glacier is floating on a layer of water and the ice can be up to 700 metres deep in places. The snow mobiles were great fun, Ben certainly enjoyed driving it! We made a couple of stops were the vastness, isolation and peacefulness were breathtaking. At our first stop we all enjoyed the novelty of snow in May with a snowball fight. I'm in hysterics in the photos as when Ben wanted to take an action shot of me throwing a snowball, I managed to hit him quite hard where no man wants to be hit! All by accident of course!

Ben in the snow gear we had to wear, and on our snowmobile!

Ben's attempt at getting an action shot goes horribly wrong for him....

And left me in hysterics!!!

Ben getting creative and our Super Jeep!

The last stop on our tour was the Geysirs, after which all spouting hot springs are named. There are quite a few there, but only one, Strokkur, spouts frequently every 5 to 10 minutes. We saw about 7 and it was quite amazing to watch. There is steam everywhere as the water is about 150 degrees, and when the geysir is about to spout the water pulses and gurgles before it bulbs up and you get a brilliant blue light before bursting high into the air! Then once it subsided the water was sucked back into the crater like a whirlpool, quite a spectaclar thing to watch.

A geological explanation and one of the thermal pools - such a brilliant blue...
The geysir starting to get active...
The pressure starting to build up...
The water starting to burst.....
The start of the explosion....
And the dramatic climax!

Our day ended with us exhausted from the long day but still not ready for bed as even at 10pm it was still light, and I don't think it ever really got dark but stayed a sort of twilight the whole night.

Sheri's Impromptu Visit - April 2008

2008-05-13T23:04:00.002+01:00

I nearly forgot to mention the impromptu visit we had from our friend Sheri in the middle of April! Sheri and I did a lot of dancing together back in Sydney and she was one of my bridesmaids. She decided to make a 2 week holiday to Europe and came and stayed with us for a week. It was great fun and so good to see her again. We did the usual tourists stuff and some we hadn't done before. We did the Jack the Ripper walking tour (in pouring rain) and Sheri and I went to see Les Miserables. It was a fun week, and good for me to have something to distract me in my last week at UB!!

On the Jack the Ripper tour - Ben and Sheri were enthralled!!

Algarve, Portugal - 1st May Bank Holiday 2008

2008-05-13T22:53:00.005+01:00

For the first May bank holiday we thought it best to go somewhere we were pretty much guaranteed some sun, so we headed to Portugal. It was wonderful, a great resort, lots of sun and very warm! The resort was near Albufeira on the Algarve which has a great coastline with cliffs and beaches. From the resort we had access to the beach which was wonderfully long and made it feel like you weren't in a resort at all. We did absolutely nothing the whole weekend apart from lying on the beach and occasionally going for a walk along it. The water was a bit too cold for swimming, but that didn't matter. We both managed to relax completely so it wasn't too hard to head back to work on the Tuesday!

The view and path down to the beach from the resort (there was a lift for the really steep bit!!)

The beach and the cliffs

More beach and cliffs!

Inge trying to remember her yr 12 Geology & more cliffs!
Ben enjoying a drink at the sunset bar - completely relaxed from his beach lazing!

Paris & Greenwich April 2008 - week off between jobs!

2008-05-13T22:40:00.003+01:00

I managed to time my resignation to finish up at UB and go and join Mum, John and Abby in Paris for 5 days. It was a much needed break to detox from UB, and nice to spend more time with Mum, John and Abby. The weather was still cold and a bit wet, but when you're in museums and shops most of the day it doesn't really matter!

In front of the Arc de Triomphe and on the River Seine

When we got back to London, Mum and John went home and Abby stayed on for the weekend. Amazingly we had beautiful weather (we couldn't believe they had to come to London for sunshine!!) so Abby and I took a River Cat to Greenwich where we did a walking tour to find out the history and then had a lovely lunch in the amazing Park there.

Greenwich Park & Statue of Captain Cook - Greenwich was a major naval port

AFL Weekend in Copenhagen

2008-05-13T22:34:00.004+01:00

Well, Ben decided he wanted to start playing footy again, so he found an AFL club here (the West London Wild Cats) that he decided to join. To get to know the team, he signed us up for the footy trip at the beginning of the season (amazingly girls were allowed) that was to Copenhagen where they had arranged to play a game against the Danish International Team - yes there really is one and it's all Danes!!

It was a fun weekend and we met some great people. It was nice to go back to Copenhagen, Sunday was spent recovering after Ben playing his first footy game for 2 years by wandering through the shopping district!

Below are some photos of the game they played, they managed to win despite most of the team being incredibly hungover!

Ben is the 3rd from the right in black in the first photo - you know they're stuggling when Ben's playing the forward pocket!!

Inge's New Job - Again!!

2008-05-13T22:31:00.003+01:00

So during all these fun holidays, Ben and I had a very stressful time as I was looking for a new job. United Biscuits didn't suit me and I was eating way too many biscuits!! I resigned from United Biscuits and finished in the middle of April.

My new job is with 3M and I'm managing the Post-it(R) Brand. So far it is already a lot nicer than United Biscuits. It's a lot further out, it's at Bracknell, but the offices are really nice, and that helps a lot.

Hopefully this one will be longer lasting than the last two!!!!

Easter, Mum, John & Abby's Arrival & Trip to Ireland

2008-05-13T21:34:00.020+01:00

At Easter Mum and John arrived for their annual visit! It was a bit different to last year, about 20 degrees colder and snowing! We had a lovely weekend together wandering around London and going to St Paul's for the Easter service. Unfortunately John had to head home Easter Sunday night as his Aunt's husband took a turn for the worse. We managed to get him a flight home, and he made it back in time and stayed for just over a week before coming back to Europe to join back up with Mum and Abby.

Easter Sunday snow storm!

On Easter Monday, Abby arrived from South Africa and we all flew to Dublin for a weeks holiday. Ireland was lovely, mainly as it was a very enjoyable week spending time with Mum and Abby. We had typical Irish weather with it very rarely not raining, fortunately for Ben the sun did come out a few times, but the photos he managed to get were the only ones (not from a selection!!). We spent a couple of days in Dublin walking around seeing all the main sites, and to thank Ben for spending his holiday with his wife's family, we spent a couple of hours in the Guiness Brewery!

Initial good weather in Ireland! Trinity College & St Stephen's Green

Early Guiness advertising & the view of Dublin from the bar

Ben, Mum and Abby enjoying a well earned Guiness!
Ben infront of the Guiness Brewery

After Dublin we started our driving tour by heading to Gelndalough (or valley of two lakes)and it was stunning. Amazing mountains and two beautiful lakes as well as the ruins of a monastery. We thankfully had sunny spells here and managed to do some nice walks before the rain came in and we started the long drive to Cobh. On the way we stopped into the Waterford factory which was quite amazing.

Inge infront of the Monastery ruins and the larger of the two lakes with the spectacular mountains

Mum, Abby & Inge and the ruins

Cobh is where Abby's father sailed from when he left for South Africa, he never went back to Ireland. It was quite amazing to see the large numbers of people that emigrated from Ireland, some only made it to Liverpool, but the majority went to America, Australia and South Africa. The massive cathedral there was built with the donations from Irish Immigrants in the US! From Cobh we visited Blarney Castle near Cork to kiss the stone which when kissed is said to grant the gift of the gab - Ben and I kissed the stone, but I don't think we needed the help!!

The migration musuem and the view of Cobh from the Cathedral
The Cathedral at Cobh, built with donations from US Irish immigrants

Blarney Castle and the stone you need to lean backwards to kiss!!

From Blarney Castle we went up to Gugan Barra where Abby's father grew up. It was the tiniest little place, but so beautiful. Set in a valley with mountains all around and a lovely little lake which has a tiny island with a chapel on it which is dedicated to a hermit saint that lived there. Abby's last name is Cronin and there was still a pub there with the same name.

The hermit's chapel & the Cronin pub

By this time the weather was really starting to set in, so we hit the road and decided to do the Beara Peninsula as we were making very good time with Ben driving!! The Beara Peninsula was lovely and spectacular, even with the rain! We stayed in a lovely B&B and the pub up the road had wonderful food. In all of our trip we had brilliant food everywhere except for one place.

Our first impression of the Beara Peninsula - greay and wet!

Allihies - where we stayed in the Beara

Scenery along Healy Pass through the Beara Peninsula

After the Beara Peninsula we went across to the Ring of Kerry, which wasn't quite as spectacular, but I think it was because it was raining so much we couldn't really get out and do any walking, but Ben still managed to get some nice shots - even one of a rainbow!

From there we went up into Clare to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. On the way to the Cliffs we had a brief stop at Lahinch and Ennistymon. Lahinch is a resort town with a beach - more like rocks. Despite the freezing weather there were lots of people there, and a surprisingly large amount of them were actually in the water surfing! Ennistymon was a brief stop to see The Cascades, which due to all the rain, were at full force. The cliffs were spectacular, but again we couldn't see much because of the torrential rain. We ended up heading on to a lovely spa town call Lisdoonvarna and stayed in a wonderful hotel which had a roaring fire - a mandatory requirement by this stage!!

Lahinch and the crazy people surfing!

Just to show how cold it was!! And The Cascades at Ennistymon.

The Cliffs of Moher, and Mum, Abby & Inge at Doolin in The Burren

On the way back down to Shannon where Ben and I were flying out of, we stopped to see the Showcave of Ireland, Aillwee Caves (The Burren is all limestone and there are lots of caves, tunnels and underground rivers and lakes). Ben and I were a bit disappointed with the cave as our memory of stalactites and stalacmites in the caves of Australia being about 6 foot, and this one that was 1000 years old was about 30cm! But it was drier than the outside!! We also stopped at Poulnabrone Dolmen, an ancient burial site about 5000 years old!

Despite the rain it was good to get away for the week and spend some quality time with Mum and Abby. Mum and Abby stayed in Ireland for another few days before heading to France where John joined up with them.

Visit to Berlin - end of February 2008

2008-05-13T21:03:00.005+01:00

Firstly, apologies for not updating this more regularly at the moment. We haven't had much time at home, which has been nice but also means we don't get the weekend to sit at a computer and upload photos!!

After the Cotswolds we went to Berlin for the weekend to catch up with Petra and Elly. It was another lovely Berlin weekend hanging out with them, and we even managed to have a night out without Elly who was down visiting her grandpa for one night. The highlight of this was definitely our night out at a very trendy bar/restaurant. So trendy that when the cab dropped us off at what looked like a disused warehouse on the docks, I feared that we'd just been stitched up by the cabbie and about to be set upon by his partners!! It was a great night which ended up at a nightclub and me meeting one of the most famous German actors (if any of you have seen Goodbye Lenin, he played the son in that).

Breakfast reading Elly & Inge; Morning coffee and coffee bean counting with Elly, Ben & Petra

Out and about in Berlin - park near Petra's & Potsdamer Pladz

The dodgy outside and very nice inside of trendy bar!!

Weekend in the Cotswolds

2008-02-17T21:24:00.010Z

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!

2008-02-17T20:35:00.004Z

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

2008-02-17T19:49:00.007Z

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!

Ben with Lukas, Lukas waking from his nap, and Lukas with Uncle Laki

George & Anita with Lukas, and all of us!

Inge & Ben xoxo

More photos of the twins

2007-12-06T22:41:00.000Z

From all accounts back home the twins and Mum are doing well. Still a few weeks till they can leave hospital, but they should be home by the time we get to Adelaide.

Jonty Kirsten Joshua Kirsten

Detlef & Cara - the proud parents

Sue - the proud grandmother

The Arrival of Joshua & Jonty Kirsten - My Nephews

2007-12-02T21:18:00.001Z

Saturday 1st December was an exciting day as my two nephews arrived safely at 1.45pm in Adelaide. They were very early, but are healthy and strong, and they're mother is doing well. The boys have to stay in hospital for the next 3-4 weeks, but I'm very much looking forward to meeting them at Christmas.

Love Inge & Ben xo

Joshua Kirsten

Jonty Kirsten

Birthday Surprise - A Weekend in Paris

2007-12-02T17:48:00.000Z

Well, after thinking our last weekend European trip was to Rome, Ben surprised me with a trip to Paris for my birthday. We got up early on the Saturday morning to head to St Pancras to catch the EuroStar to Paris. I would recommend this to everyone as it was so much easier and much more pleasant than having to go to the airport! We arrived in Paris mid-morning and after checking into the hotel we went for a long walk down the Champs-Elysees and along the Seine to Ile de Cite for a long, relaxing and delicious lunch at a brasserie we found. We were glad we'd walked so far, as after lunch, we certainly needed the walk!

Saturday evening Ben had organised tickets to the Ballet, but unfortunately, the workers of the Opera House were on strike, so the ballet was cancelled. This was a bit of a disappointment, and although we went out for a lovely meal, it just wasn't quite the same. The best part of that night was that our taxi driver had heard about the Australian election results and was as happy as we were that Howard was finally out of government!!

Sunday we had another lovely day and went out to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the sunshine and watching the artists paint in the square before re-visiting the Eiffel Tower and heading back home. It was a lovely weekend and wonderful to get out of London for the day and spend the weekend just with each other.

Now the countdown till our trip home begins!

Love Inge & Ben

Weekend in Windsor

2007-11-18T15:24:00.000Z

Last weekend (10/11) we went up to Windsor to visit Bethany and Andrew, who I used to work with at Reckitts. We had a lovely weekend wandering round Windsor and enjoying Bethany and Andrew's hospitality.

Windsor Castle & the gang (L-R: Chris, Carly, Andrew, Bethany, Inge & Ben)

The Crooked House - Ben & Inge on the Eton Bridge

The girls (Bethany, Carly & Inge) and the boys (Andrew, Ben & Chris) on Eton Bridge

Rome - weekend catch up with Anna!

2007-11-03T22:44:00.000Z

On the last weekend in October we took a long weekend trip to Rome as my friend Anna was on a European trip to visit her boyfriend who's been working in Italy. We had a great weekend in Rome, revisiting sights and seeing new ones. It was a lovely weekend, very warm, and it was great catching up with Anna and meeting Justin. We had some great food and wine, did some great shopping and arrived home exhausted but pleased we'd made the effort to catch up with Anna.

Our Rome trip was our final getaway before we head home for Christmas. It's starting to get colder, the days are shorter, so we're looking forward to having some summer for 3 weeks over Christmas. We're both keeping well. I'm enjoying my new job, it's very busy, but it's going well and I'm settling in. The next month will be spent trying to catch up with all our friends before getting on a plane for the long trip home.

Love Ben & Inge xo

Inge & Ben throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain & the Valentino 45 years exhibition.

The Ara Pacis forecourt & the Castel Sant'Angelo

The view from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo & the Pantheon

Piazza Navona - full of balloons for a politically rally

The Trevi Fountain at night.

The Colosseum, Justin, Anna & Inge on the go and trying to work out where to meet for dinner!

The amazing Roman Forum

Visit to The Youngs

2007-11-03T22:37:00.000Z

Now that I've got a car with work, we decided it would be a good opportunity to head up to Cambridgeshire to see Ben's cousin Donna, her husband Mark and their 4 month old daughter Lauren. We could only head up on the Saturday after we'd been to the Fulham vs Derby match (a thoroughly disappointing game of which Fulham drew with the worst team in the league), so arrived just in time to watch the Rugby World Cup Final of England vs South Africa (another disappointing match, but at least South Africa won!)

We had a very relaxing time at Donna and Mark's, and it was fantastic to finally meet Lauren as the last time we'd seen them she was still in Donna's womb and very overdue! Here's some photos of the proud new family!

Love Ben & Inge xo

France - Inge goes to the Dordogne & Ben goes to Marseille for the World Cup

2007-11-03T22:16:00.001Z

Well, after we got back from Spain, I had one day to get my washing done before heading to the airport again, this time to fly to Toulouse to see the Hardman's again for the weekend. They had rented a house in the Dordogne, specifically a tiny place called Nadillac de Rouge, with some friends of theirs (Craig, Kristen and their daughter Anna). I went for the weekend as Craig and Jeff were heading to Marseille, where Ben was meeting them, for the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals.

The weather wasn't that great, but we had a lovely time with a few outings (not very long as with a 2 and 1 year old it was a bit difficult) to Sarlat on market day and this wonderful town called Beynac with an amazing medieval castle perched high up above the river. The castle is still privately owned and lived in, which is amazing, and gives amazing views over the valley. Unfortunately it was very misty, so we couldn't see much, but the kids loved running around.

I really enjoyed my time there, especially getting to know Liam and Miss Anna and sitting down with the girls and a glass of wine in the evening once the kids had gone to bed!

Meanwhile the boys were having a great time in Marseille, despite the poor result for Australia. From the sound of it, I'm glad none of us girls went with them!!

The House in Nadaillac de Rouge

Jeff & Jacquie relaxing in the afternoon sun

Beynac Castle

A small dining room and list of the Barons of Beynac (still privately owned)

Looking down from Beynac Castle and from the valley below

Jacquie and Kristin keeping a watchful eye on Liam and Anna around the castle!

The Rugby Stadium in Marseille - Jeff and Craig enjoying a night out.

Love Ben & Inge xo

Madrid & Barcelona

2007-11-03T11:41:00.000Z

Well, in my last 3 weeks before starting work, we decided it was a good time to get some more travel in. I've been wanting to go to Madrid and Barcelona since we got here, so what better opportunity. We were there from the 27/9 - 2/10.

We had 3 days in Madrid, and really enjoyed this city. The first afternoon/night we just walked through the city seeing Peurta del Sol with the famous Tio Pepe sign (both day & night), the Peurta de Alcala (former gateway into the city, again both day and night), enjoyed a sunset beverage on the Hotel Urban's roof terrace (where we stayed - and would highly recommend), before setting out to try and find Chocolateria San Gines, apparently the best place to get the traditional Churros and Chocolate which my Mum had told me about. Took us a while to find it as she'd completely given us the wrong directions, but thanks to some fellow Australian travellers who'd been on a tour and seen it, we eventually found it, and it was very much worth it!

Our second day was a beautiful day, so we did more walking and took in the Palacio Real and the beautiful gardens behind it (which annoyingly only had one entrance/exit), the Monument to Cervantes in the Plaza de Espana, the Reina Sofia Art Gallery to see Picasso's Guernica - this was amazing and the gallery had a brilliant collection of Picasso's, Miro's and Dali's. Ben also had fun with the sunshine taking photos of the beautiful architecture. I imagined that much of the city had been destroyed during the Civil War, so it amazing to see it all so beautifully restored. That night we went to Teatriz Restaurant, which is designed by Philippe Starck. The food was beautiful, but for a packed restaurant it lacked atmosphere, a problem with minimalism.

Our last day started a bit drizzly, but eventually cleared. We went to the Plaza Mayor, where Inquisition Trials were held, the Parque del Retiro (similar to Hyde Park) and then the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which had an amazing collection of artwork. For our last night we went to a more traditional Spanish restaurant called the El Rincon de Esteban. This was a great night out, not so much for the food, but for the atmosphere. We were handed menus, then a few minutes later our waiter was back for our orders, we weren't ready, but he basically told us what to have! We decided to go with the flow, and it worked out well! At the end of the night, about a 3 hour dinner in total, we were given Grappa to drink (so potent that the cork popped out of the bottle itself!) and 2 pens and some olive oil to take home with us!

The next morning it was up early and to the train station for a 5 hour trip to Barcelona. I'm so glad we decided to take the train as there was some beautiful scenery to see on the way.

Our hotel room, Ben in front of 'Fat Tony's' (a character from the Simpsons), one of the many Ham Museums!

Puerta de Alcala by day & night, The Hotel Ritz

Palacio Real, from behind in the Campo del Moro, The Catedral de la Almudena

Statue in the Campo del Moro, Ben in front of the Monument to Cervantes in the Plaza de Espana, Me infront of the bronze bear & strawberry tree in the Puerta del Sol, and one of the many churches.

The Tio Pepe sign at Puerta del Sol, the Plaza Mayor and relaxing on the hotel's roof terrace.

The Chocolateria San Gines, at Teatriz Restaurant and outside Restaurant Estaban, the view from the hotel roof terrace.

The spectacular view from the train.

We arrived in Barcelona where it was an incredible 30 degrees! This would have been great, except for the fact we were both a bit ill (we blamed the Grappa - didn't drink a lot, but it was enough!). But we decided to soldier on and do a walking tour of the architecture of Barcelona, specifically Modernisme in the Eixample area. This includes some amazing buildings (mostly designed as houses for rich people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) by Gaudi, Puig i Cadafalch and others who we'd never heard about before! The most spectacular had to be Gaudi's Casa Mila, which has no straight lines and a roof top that was the fanciest I've ever seen, and the Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi creation.

Our second day was spent walking down the Las Ramblas (if you ever need an chicken, pigeon, hamster, fish or lizard, this is the place to go) and through the port to the beach at Barceloneta. This was a bit of a detour as we were heading to a cable car to take us up to Montjuic, but it was so hot (and the cable car was closed for lunch!!) we seriously considered stripping down and going swimming! Thankfully along the beach there are heaps of bars where we were able to stop for a refreshing ale and some shade! After the refreshment, we were ready to head up the cable car, and we were glad we did as it was a lovely view. Once at Montjuic it was time for more refreshment, this time an icecream, before walking up the hill (I think we were mad in the heat to do this as it's incredibly steep) to the old fort to get some more views over the city. We then took the new cable car down the hill (we did it the wrong way round I know) and a walk back to the hotel. It was definitely time for a shower and a relaxing lie-down before heading out for dinner.

Dinner has to get a mention as it was one of the best places we went to. We'd found it in the guide the hotel gave us, it sounded nice and not pretentious, and it was a lovely experience, so we would recommend Alba Granados to anyone. And if you go, you must have the Ox meat cooked on a red stone. Ben ordered this and at first was a little bit shocked when a massive slab of meat was brought out blue and cut into pieces. The waiter told us to wait and brought out a terracota stone plate that was heated and Ben got to cook his Ox to his own liking!

Our last day we went to the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, a subterranean museum of Roman ruins, these were some of the best ruins I've seen excavated (not quite on the scale of Pompeii and the Roman Forum, but amazing how it's all been excavated underneath existing buildings) and spent the remainder of the day shopping before having to head home. We enjoyed Barcelona, but preferred Madrid. They were two very different cities, but Madrid felt more relaxed and was much easier to get around, but we'll definitely be heading back to both in the future.

Arriving at the train station after the 5 hour trip & a statue in Placa de Catalunya near our hotel

Casa Mila from below....

And on the roof top... lots of phallic symbols!

More amazing buildings on our architecture tour

The Sagrada Familia - stunning, shame about the cranes though

Las Ramblas - an eclectic mix!

Barcelonetta Beach & The Cable Car to Montjuic

The view of Barcelona from the cable car: the harbour, port and beach.

Montjuic - The Fort, a statue and the view over Barcelona

Ben enjoying his Ox Steak at Alba Granados!!

The subterranean Roman ruins, Placa Reial and Restaurant Taxidermista - yes it once was a Taxidermists!

So that was Madrid & Barcelona. We're sorry for the delay in getting this update on the blog, when we were back in London and I had my final week off before starting work, our Sky internet again went on the blink and it took them 5 days to get it fixed! So quite a few more updates to get up on the blog as we've been quite busy over the last month!

Love Ben & Inge xo

The Hardman's Visit

2007-10-02T08:12:00.001+01:00

The Hardman’s Visit

Already it was the end of September, and it was time for our friends Jacquie and Jeff Hardman and their son Liam to come and visit us for a few days in London. Serious preparations where made for their visit, the house was thoroughly cleaned, new bed linen was bought and their room set-up and toys, nappies and stroller where bought for Liam. I had fun buying everything for Liam, and am amazed at the many different types of strollers out there, and it was funny seeing Ben’s face as I came home each day with new kids stuff!

Finally they arrived on the Saturday, and thankfully the weather warmed up for them. After an arrival lunch, Jeff and Ben went off to the Fulham vs. Manchester City game and Jacquie, Liam and I wandered down to Kensington for cake and coffee to eat in Kensington Gardens. We had a lovely afternoon there with Liam chasing after all the puppy dogs and having fun in the playground on the Pirates’ Ship.

Their second day was another wonderful day and we went to the London Eye and walked from there down the embankment to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. It was a good day for the London Eye, nice clear skies. The actual ride takes about 30 minutes, which is all you need really. Highlights on the walk down the embankment were the HMS Belfast (Jeff was able to give us detailed information here after serving in the Australian Navy), the fountain for Liam, clarification on London Bridge and the Tower Bridge, and for the boys taking Liam back to the Pirates’ Ship while Jacquie and I popped down to High Street Kensington for a quick visit to the ships and to pick up dinner!

Jacquie and Jeff’s final day in London before heading to Paris on the EuroStar was a typical London day, miserable and wet! Our original plans were altered and after a tricky start with tubes, we decided to take Liam to the Natural History Museum to see the Dinosaur exhibition. He was suitably impressed with all the dinosaurs, especially Dorothy the Dinosaur’s “brother”, T-Rex!!! Jeff took Liam back for his nap and then again to the park whilst Jacquie and I spent the next 5 hours shopping on Oxford St. This I really enjoyed as it was nice having someone else to shop with! Ben joined us after work and we had a lovely dinner at The Electric, where Liam showed he had a tendency to befriend tall men and people with dogs and proceed to follow them up the road!

Lunch on our roof terrace - Jeff, Jacquie, Liam & Inge

Ben & Inge on the roof terrace - Liam helping Ben take photos!

Liam enjoying his new Dora the Explorer book & Jeff at the Football

On the way to see the London Eye

Liam and the rare blue sky - Ben's artistic shot from underneath the London Eye

Jeff & Liam

View from the London Eye

St Paul's & the Millenium Bridge - Southwark Cathedral on our walk along the Thames Embankment

Jacquie, Jeff & Liam enjoying the Pirate's Ship in Kensington Gardens

Liam at Paddington Station & with Jeff at the Natural History Museum with Dorothy's brother, T-Rex!

It was nice having visitors again after quite a few months without! We don’t have anymore visitors now until next year, but we’ll be keeping busy until then. I start my new job on the 15th October and in between then and now we’re off to Madrid, Barcelona and France for the Rugby World Cup!

Inge & Ben xoxoxo

Inge's New Job!

2007-10-02T07:58:00.000+01:00

Hi all, I thought I should update you all and let you know that I've finally gotten a new job. I'll be working for United Biscuits, one of UK's largest sweet and savoury snack businesses, and I'm going to be the Senior Brand Manager for HobNobs, one of their largest biscuit ranges under the McVities name. They are based in Hayes, which is within the M25, but about 25km from Notting Hill. It's in a business park, so unfortunately I have to drive, but fortunately I get a car in the package, so I'll have one when I arrive. My first day is the 15th October, so I have a nice little break before I start, which will be nice, so hopefully by then I'll be wanting to go back to work!! I'm actually quite excited about it and I think I'm going to be very busy, which after the tedium of Mars, will be a shock but good for me!

What I'll now be eating a lot of!!!

A weekend away in Devon

2007-09-17T15:13:00.000+01:00

A last minute weekend away was decided on in between job interviews for me that we'd do a quick weekend away to give me a break from London. We decided to head down to Torquay in Devon to hopefully catch some of the sunshine that we've been experience for the last couple of weeks. Typically, when we set off on Friday it was raining!!

The view from the car!

We left London Friday morning and it was a long drive down to Devon, the route we decided on being a popular choice and in part single-lane. We drove past Stonehenge and saw it from afar through the misty rain! And eventually made it into Torquay well into the afternoon, where it was still raining. We decided to stretch our legs and get a late lunch, and in our wanderings about town we stumbled upon the local AMF Bowling venue. Seeing as it was raining, and Ben had been practising his bowling on his Wii (and for those who didn't know he used to bowl for NT!!), we decided to have a few games. We didn't do too badly and it filled in some time before it was off to watch the England vs South Africa Rugby World Cup match in the pub. Much to my South African heritage pride, South Africa thrashed England!! We then had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant, Bianco's, before heading back to our Hotel.

Great bowling action by the Jones', all that practice on the Wii paid off!!
Inge and the impressive score, NOT!!

Our Hotel, the Haytor, was a nice little guest house which you could imagine being in an Agatha Christie novel (and incidentally she was born in Torquay), right down to Ben and I having a set table at breakfast! Saturday we woke to beautiful blue skies so we decided to do one of the coastal walks up the coast. We eventually found the coastal path but were a bit baffled when it seemed to end abruptly, and also have a large stone wall blocking the view! Apparently there were steps leading up at the end, but we missed them, so headed back and walked to Meadfoot Beach via the road, which was still nice and gave Ben an opportunity to use his macro-lens and take some photos of the flowers.

Views over Torquay Marina

Meadfoot Beach

Ben's macro photography - nice flowers...

From Meadfoot Beach we continued along the coastal path (we'd managed to find it again!!) all the way to Babbacombe Beach. It was a lovely walk, and thankfully at Babbacombe there were plenty of pubs to get some lunch and watch some of the Australia vs Wales game (which thankfully Australia won!) By this time Ben was exhausted from all the walking, so we headed back to Torquay by bus for a rest before heading out to dinner at a restaurant called The Orange Tree. This had been recommended to us by the hotel, and was a nice little restaurant, but we prefered the Italian place.

Hiking through the bush on the coastal path

The beautiful coves on the walk

On the Cliff Railway down to Oddicombe Beach

Sunday it was time to head home and we'd decided to drive down to Dartmouth and then to Totnes on the way. It looked like it was going to be another sunny day, however, by the time we'd driven from the hotel, down to the beach, stopped for Ben to take some photos of the bathing houses (below) and get back in the car, the clouds had come over and it was starting to rain! This lasted for the rest of the trip home!! But we enjoyed the drive to Dartmouth, where we caught the ferry across the river Dart, and up to Totnes (where I made Ben stop to visit the old Norman castle where you get lovely views - this he wasn't too happy about as the signage to the castle wasn't very good, so we drove around in circles for a bit and then it was raining quite a bit when we went up, so he wasn't too happy about taking photos!!!) But the countryside through Devon was beautiful, even in the rain!

The first photo stop while it was still sunny - the bath houses at Torquay

Inge waiting in the car while Ben takes photo and the view over the River Dart to Dartmouth

Dartmouth from the ferry and the big boats anchored on the River Dart

The Norman Castle at Totnes and the view from it over the town

Views of the Devon countryside

We then drove home via the M5 and M4 which took a very long time. We left Totnes about 13.30 and didn't get back into London until 19.00. Englanders have a habit of sitting in the right lane when not overtaking (on a 3 lane motorway) and the smallest thing causes a traffic-jam. But we made it back safely, just very very tired after the long trip sitting in the car!

But we've got a week to recover and then we have The Hardman's coming to stay for the weekend, which I am really looking forward to. There's a lot to do to get the house ready for guests, especially for a 2 year old, but I can't wait to see them all again.

In other news, I've gotten a job and from the 15 October, I will be working at United Biscuits as the Senior Brand Manager for Hob Nobs, which is a biscuit range here under the McVities name. So 3 weeks of relaxation before back to work!

Until the next update,

Inge & Ben

Long Weekend in Benidorm, Spain

2007-08-30T15:53:00.000+01:00

Well, since it had been a while since we'd been away, and Ben was getting thoroughly sick of the English Summer, or lack of, we booked a very last minute trip for the late August long weekend to Spain, and after looking at all the options, decided on Benidorm on the Costa Blanca.

We left an unusually sunny London (typical we thought!) to land in Alicante where it was overcast and raining, but at least warm. We'd hired a car to drive up to Benidorm, and lovely Hertz upgraded us to a 307cc! This was very exciting for Ben who hadn't had much of a chance to drive ours back in Sydney. Ben had also hired a SatNav, which was a complete waste of time seeing as where we were staying the street didn't exist in the system, and the road signs were so good it was easier using the road map!! (I bet you here though he'll mention that we took a few wrong turns, but I blame Ben for insisting on using it because he'd paid for it!!) (sorry Inge, I can't comment due to pending legal action!).

Above: Ben happy to see the sun for the first time in a while!

We arrived at the Westin Real de Faula Golf Resort & Spa where we were staying. This is a new resort that sits on the hill above Benidorm, so there's still areas of construction (mainly the Spa) and they're still getting used to things we think. We were checked into room 423 only to enter to find clothing strewn around the place, and on enquiring at reception we find out that we're actually supposed to be in room 428! It was rather amusing. Since it was still raining, we just wandered around the resort with Ben taking snaps with the camera until it was time for dinner (about 10pm!), and just hoped for a sunny weekend to come.

We were lucky and the rest of our weekend was very hot and sunny. We spent our time lazing by the pool in the resort and ventured down into Benidorm to the beach. Benidorm is amazing, and not necessarily in a good way! It's a major tourist town and from the hill above you could almost imagine that you're looking out over Manhattan, it's just a mass of skyscraper apartment buildings. The guidebooks likened it to the Gold Coast, but at least there are some reasonable looking buildings there, in Benidorm they are just revolting. From the hill you can't see the beach, and from the beach you can't see the hill!! I was expecting a pretty poor beach, but was pleasantly surprised, and despite the multitude of cigarette butts in the sand, was actually quite clean. It was so hot though and so crowded I wasn't surprised that the majority of people stood in the water the whole time!

View from the hotel over Benidorm (you wouldn't know there was a beach on the other side!)

Benidorm architecture at it's finest!

More beautiful architecture and the view from the water (no sign of the hills behind!)

Benidorm Beach - didn't expect this from the other side of the buildings!

Lazing on the beach (and no I'm not topless, Ben just cropped the photo badly!)

After a lunch of yummy Spanish paella (it was hard finding somewhere that did something other than hamburgers and English fish & chips on the waterfront!), we utilised the 307cc and drove up the coast for a few hours stopping at various towns and ending up at Oliva. This was more to our tastes with a sparsely populated beach and houses (not skyscrapers) right up to the beach. We drove back via Calpe to see the Penyal d'Ifach (large limestone rock) and a beautiful sunset over the marina, before heading back to the resort and our last day of lazing by the pool. It was good to get away for the weekend and we feel much better now we're not such a pastey white!!

One of the many bull silhouettes on the roads (complete with testicles) and the first stop...

Mucking about with the camera! And Oliva beach one of the stops on the road trip.

Penyal d'Ifach at Calpe

Sunset over Calpe Marina

In other news, I'm back on the job hunt with my contract at Mars finishing. I'm enjoying my time off, especially as the weather is nice at the moment. I'm trying to get out and about in London. Last week I went down to the Borough Markets and saw Jamie Oliver signing his new book then walked along the embankment, past St Paul's and on to Buckingham Palace and back to Notting Hill Gate. Took me 3 hours, but it was fantastic. This weekend Ben and I are off to Torquay in SW England, just for something different. And next weekend we've got our friends the Hardman's arriving for a visit! I'm looking forward to that and to joining them in France for the World Cup, so there should be a few more updates coming soon.

Ben and Inge xoxo

Update From Home - What My Little Brother and Sister Have Been Up To!

2007-08-17T10:59:00.000+01:00

Well, since my weekend in Berlin, we haven't been up to much. We did go to see our first football match of
the season at Ben's new club, Fulham FC. No photos from that as it was pouring with rain (and I mean
pouring for the whole game!) (hmm, Inge thought there were no photos but I took a couple with my
phone so here they are!):

....so I thought I'd put some photos up of what my little brother (Dom) and sister (Antonia) have been up to
in Adelaide! They are the two cutest kids, and I love hearing about their antics! Especially Dom's endeavour
to earn some money by 'washing' the cars, and coming in after about 5 minutes saying he was finished!!
They're turning 9 and 7 in October, which is making me feel quite old, and I'm constantly amazed at how
quickly they're growing up!! So enough of me raving about my younger siblings, here are the photos...

Dom & Tonks washing the cars for pocket money (Dom seems to be doing the older brother supervising! My
brother Detlef used to do the same thing to me, I distinctly remember being the one who did all the work!!)

Antics in the park with Dad, Sharon and Scruffy the dog!

Tonks & Scruffy seem to enjoy the water, but it looks pretty cold to me!

Tonks in fancy dress! Not sure what this was for, but isn't she gorgeous!!

Well, that's the news from us. There's a long weekend coming up, so we should have photos from that for our
next update. Not sure if we're going anywhere, but it's the Notting Hill Carnivale, so we might see what that's
like (and realise why we shouldn't have moved to the middle of Notting Hill!!) We hope you're all keeping well
and safe!

Lots of love
Inge & Ben xox

Pics of the 'Hood!

2007-08-06T23:02:00.000+01:00

The sun finally came out this weekend and Inge was off enjoying herself in Berlin, so Ben took a short break from studying for his work exam to take a wander around the 'hood with his camera and take a few shots of the contrasting architecture of Notting Hill Gate and Kensington Gardens!

Inge's Weekend in Berlin

2007-08-06T21:41:00.000+01:00

While Ben was studying and taking photos, I went off to Berlin for the weekend to visit our friend Petra and her daughter Elly. It also coincided with the arrival of our friends Jop and Amanda from Sydney (they lived around the corner from us in Stanmore!). It was a very relaxing weekend with beautiful weather, wandering or cycling around Berlin and catching up with friends. I love visiting Berlin, it's a wonderful city, and I feel very at home there with such good friends around. Also, the shoes are very cheap, I came home with 4 new pairs!!!

Here are some photos of the weekend...

Elly plays with her friends Xaver & Frida in the sandpit while Petra warily eyes barebottom
Elly (currently in toilet training!)

Saturday morning we met up with Micha & Julia at the markets for a coffee. Micha was half
asleep, so we attempted the photo again..........but he couldn't keep them open long enough!
So Julia and I left him with Elly & another of her friends on the swings while we went shopping
in the markets!

Elly's friend gives her a push, but she's not impressed and much prefers to have
Micha push her high like a bird on the swing!

Amanda & Jop arrived in the afternoon and we went on a walking tour of Berlin. Not sure how much Amanda
& Jop took in as most of their time (especially Jop's!) was taken up either carrying or entertaining Elly!!

Petra, Amanda & Jop on the river at the start of our walking tour.

Uncle Jop was Elly's clear favourite, and with talents like making a popping noise with his mouth, why wouldn't he be!!
It was hours of fun for everyone, well maybe only for Elly!!!

After a long afternoon walking, it was time to go to the largest beer garden in Berlin, Prater,
for a drink and to catch up with Micha. Amanda & Jop were impressed that the beer garden
even came equipped with a playground for the kids!

The next day we took Amanda & Jop to see the remaining parts of The Wall and the Beach Bars
that have been set up on the river next to The Wall before they joined their Contiki Tour of
Eastern Europe.

Then all of a sudden it was Monday and time for me to go home. Petra & Elly saw me off at the train station, and Elly gave me a special farewell, one of her many tantrums of the weekend!! She is ALMOST three after all, I wouldn't expect anything less!!

Inge gets glamourised!!

2007-08-02T22:58:00.000+01:00

Hello again. Thought we might shock you with a post about something that happened quite recently, rather than months ago!! Last weekend Inge and our friend Chrissy went to a photo studio complete with suitcases filled with about 5 costume changes each, had their hair and makeup done and had some rather nice photos of themselves taken! Here's a selection of them.

Oh, and now we've got your attention, there are 3 posts about our trip to the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup below!!

Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 3

2007-08-02T10:39:00.000+01:00

Well, you've made it to the third and final post from our Caribbean adventure. We left you last post having made it back to Grenada to see the match against the Kiwi's following day. This edition covers that match and our final sailing stint up to beautiful Bequia.

First up, the Aussies innings - Gilly failed again (obviously saving himself for that mammoth innings in the final!) but Ponting and Hayden were in fine form as usual....

First, the Ponting collection:

Now, the Hayden Collection:

Now for a bit of light relief.....

Big sunglasses.

Big ponytails.

Big.......ah.........ah.......

ah.................bikini!!

What were you thinking???!!!

Hayden bludgeoned the ball to all parts of the ground and scored his ton at better than a run a ball -
it was a beautiful display to witness first hand.

Symonds came in and decided to get in on the
act as well, trying to clear the fence with pretty
much every delivery he faced!

Below is a shot of the World Cup mascot, Mellow! Pretty craptacular mascot, particularly once you hear the spiel over the PA for the hundredth time about how he represents an attitude (ie - lazy islander!!) rather than any particular race, gender, age, etc, etc. I just pity the poor bugger who had to get around in that costume in that hot and humid weather! The other shot is my token shot of Daniel Vettori in action. He's crap and he's a Kiwi but I had to photograph him as he's Inge's favourite!

I also have to make a public apology here. For quite some time I (along with many others!) had been quite vocal that Shane Watson shouldn't be playing for Australia and why should we pick someone who's a substandard batsman and bowler, just because he happens to be able to both ok! Anyway, he decided to prove me wrong in a big way putting on a massive display of power hitting to put on 65 off 32 balls including 4 fours and 4 sixes. The second photos shows the Aussies impressive score of 6/348.

During the lunch break, they gave the volunteers a parade - must have been thanking them for doing a great job of keeping people from putting their feet on the seats, the most pointless enforcement I've ever seen at a sporting event - the stadium seats are plastic for F*@K's sake and were mostly empty!!! After that brief interruption to the cricket, the Aussies made light work of ripping through the Kiwi's top order and got plenty of opportunities to take a break!

Bracken was certainly enjoying himself.........while Hussey decided to get on
the phone and order the celebratory drinks so they had time to chill!

Ponting has also been hanging out with Glenn McGrath too long and
gave the thumbs up to the crowd after a comprehensive win.......
and Strauchanie was suitably impressed!

The scoreboard tells the story of how the Kiwis folded like a cheap suit at the business end of the tournament! The win was so comprehensive that Brad Hodge (12th or 13th man again!) decided he should take up footy rather than make a career as the cricket team's bar tender!

After a final evening moored in Grenada it was time to head off towards Bequia
and we overnighted again at Union Island after another solid day's sailing.....

.....and took the opportunity to snorkel from the
boat over to the Island Bar for a rum cocktail!

Here's a shot of the Island Bar close up - not sure if there
was any planning permission for this place which appeared
to essentially be a pile of concrete dumped on the reef with
a boatload of sand and a shack built on top! Still, quite a
novel idea and he got our ten EC Dollars!

Here's our skipper Jeff getting a little to close to the camera, after he handed over the reigns
to our new skipper, Inge (looking right at home!).

Finally we made it to Bequia for lunch, passing by some
beautiful old boats in the bay, most of which were
running cruises for the World Cup.

The outer harbour of Bequia was divine and we decided to pull up
just off a beautiful white sandy beach for a swim while Dany
whipped up lunch (it's a tough life!).

It was so nice it had Inge wishing we had more than one day in Bequia left before we had to go
home, and had Chris deep in concentration taking photos!

Here's a couple of shots of the beach at Bequia.

And a rather poor self portrait attempt!

There were quite a few restaurants on the island but the "Whaleboner" Cafe would have to win
the prize for most unusual name!

The sunset over the harbour was quite spectacular though.

We had a few Adelaide people Karl met at the cricket join us on the boat for the trip to Bequia so
we made use of Cam (who is a sports photographer for the Advertiser!) to get a few professional
shots of the crew before we departed Bequia:

And here's what we left Bequia on! So no inflight entertainment, but at least it offered some
magnificent views of the islands....

And finally, whilst we made it back safely to Barbados airport and on to London,
it was good to know that if we had had an accident during our time in the Caribbean,
they have EMERGENCY Ambulances, not just normal ambulances!

We had a wonderful time in the Caribbean and would love to go back again (when there aren't so many Kiwis, South Africans and yobbo Aussies for that matter all in the one spot!!). This was without doubt the most relaxing holiday we have ever taken. There is just something incredibly de-stressing (as opposed to distressing!) about being on a boat with such perfect weather and that crystal clear water all around you and being able to make it all up as you go along. Might have to call our travel agent now.......

Next on Ben's agenda - to catch up on his photo sorting and post some photos from our 2006 trips to the Football World Cup in Germany and the Kirsten Family safari to South Africa and Namibia.

Take care,

Ben & Inge

Welcome Lukas Yianni Papanikolopoulos!

2007-08-01T14:13:00.000+01:00

We're very excited to say that our very good friends George & Anita had a baby boy last Thursday! Lukas, despite being a few days old, now has his own blog (don't think he's on Facebook yet!), so if you know George & Anita, here's the link: h ttp://lu kasa dventures.blo gspot.com/ and a photo of the gorgeous guy!

We're just looking forward to meeting him when we go back home for Christmas! It will be a very baby orientated Christmas with Inge's brother Detlef and his wife Cara expecting TWINS! and her Mum and Step-Dad getting a new puppy!

Congrats again George & Anita!!

Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 2

2007-07-30T21:14:00.000+01:00

Back again with Part 2. We left Part 1 as we set sail for 3 days of island hopping on the catamaran between cricket matches. To kick us off, here's a shot of Inge enjoying the sailing with our ever watchful and rather hilarious skipper Jeff at the helm.

We worked our way up the east coast of Grenada passing some stunning and
rugged scenery along the way (in contrast to the long strips of beach along the
southern coast where we started)......

.....with Chris doing a great job of pointing out
the best scenery!

After a good morning of sailing it was time for lunch and Jeff picked a very ordinary
spot (deserted beach with crystal clear water) for us to stop and enjoy a bit of
swimming and snorkeling before climbing back on board for a beautiful lunch
(the beauty of it was that we didn't have to lift a finger!!).

After a quick post lunch dip, we then had another long haul in the afternoon
to get to Union Island where we moored overnight. Chris took over the
Skipper duties so Jeff could have a much needed nap, once we were out in
very open water and he couldn't possibly hit anything!

We arrived at Union Island just as the sun was setting which was
a nice way to finish our day's sailing before heading onto the island
for a few much needed ice cold Carib's (the local brew).

These are a few shots of Union Island as we headed off the next morning for one of the highlights of the trip (ok, the top highlights of a whole trip of highlights!) in Tobago Cays, a group of small islands (cays) with beautiful beaches, palm trees, crystal clear waters and loads of turtles to swim around with, as you will see in the upcoming shots.

The following shots are all of Tobago Cays and I hope they do it justice, as it truly
was stunning, as were the fine array of very expensive water craft moored in the area!

We also caught up with a few of our friends who Ben played footy with in
Sydney who had also hired a catamaran and were in Tobago Cays. The shots
below are of Worker, Sophia, Niamh, Bunny, Cash, et. al. on their cat.

Here's Worker and Sophia heading off for a bit of turtle spotting......
........perhaps they also saw this one?

Inge on our boat soaking up the serenity!

We all headed over to one of the beaches in the evening where one of the locals
whipped up a freshly caught BBQ Lobster dinner, as expertly modeled by Karl
below! The sunset at Tobago that evening was serene.

After a good night's rest we were off snorkeling on the Tobago reefs the next day - the
first shot shows Chris being surrounded by the fish (as he had a bottle of fish food in his
hand, not because he is some sort of Doctor Doolittle!). It wasn't quite the Great Barrier
Reef but there was some reasonably diverse marine life down there.

Next section - interesting creatures of the deep! First up, the electric polka dot fish.....
......then those nasty sea urchins (don't mistake this for a rock like Worker did!).......

........and finally, a Karl!

Here's some more fish if you're not sick of them by now!

Inge relaxes in between snorkeling expeditions, and presents the Jones blog
"Spot the Fish" competition!

Worker fully submerged - looking for pearls(?) and a final fish shot for you!

We then raced "Worker's crew" back to Grenada to see the match against NZ.

We arrived into Grenada after dusk and Ben was bored after a long day's sailing so decided to play around with his camera on the boat. The first shot is a long exposure of the moon which created an interesting shape from the movement of the boat. The next shot is of the lights along the shore with the long exposure creating a Jackson Pollock-esque piece, which is dedicated to George as I know how much he loves Jackson Pollock's "work"!!

Well, that about wraps it up for Part 2. In our final installment there's highlights from the drubbing we handed out to the Kiwis in the last Super 8 match and our sailing to beautiful Bequia where unfortunately we had to leave the boat and commence our journey back to London whilst the boys headed on to St Lucia and the semi-final against South Africa. Hopefully we'll have the last installment up in the next day or two.

Take care,

Ben & Inge

Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 1

2007-07-28T01:09:00.000+01:00

A lot to get through from our April trip to the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup so will do this in a few parts. Our brothers Chris and Karl had organised their 5 week tour for the cricket months ago including a couple of yacht charters. About a month before the trip Karl had a few withdrawals from his tour which left some space on the boat for us and some spare cricket tickets....how could we refuse the opportunity to see the sun again, relax on a boat for 10 days and see a bit of cricket (and our brothers) in between?? So off we went (thanks to a very understanding boss allowing Ben some time off during a very busy period). First was the 8 hour flight to Barbados followed by a four hour wait at the airport for our connection to Grenada where we joined the boys with one night in a hotel before we joined our chartered catamaran for the next 10 days.

First day in Grenada we did a tour of the island by taxi (read toyota van) including Annadale "Falls" where we had a refreshing swim and Chris and Karl took the opportunity to have one of their few showers for the trip as you can see in the photos below:

Ben also used the opportunity to practice some action photography as Chris and Karl took the leap
off the viewing area (while Inge, in fancy new pink hat, watched on!):

Here's the "professional" doing the jump into the very shallow water from the top of the cliff about
30m up - these islanders will do anything to make a few bucks! We also spent a nice afternoon at the
beach and swimming in the crystal clear water whilst watching some beach cricket, West Indian style
(where they were actually playing 11 a side and bowling 6 ball overs from opposite ends of the pitch!!).

Here is the taxi we got on our way somewhere - apparently
he didn't have any seats in because he had just been transporting
cricket gear for one of the World Cup teams and hadn't had a
chance to put them back in yet!

Next it was off to our first match (Australia v Sri Lanka Super 8 Match) at the new Grenada stadium which
looked a lot better that the old stand in the picture below which was ruined by the cyclone a few years back.

There were plenty of Husseys in the crowd but these girls decided they needed to advertise the fact,
just in case we weren't sure!!

Finally the cricket got underway with Shaun Tait wondering why he was in the Caribbean.....
.....and with figures like these, no wonder!!

At least Bracken was holding it together for us......
....and has been taking "thumbs up" lessons from McGrath!

The legend himself meanwhile was soaking it all up in his usual hands on hips style!

Before coming on to bowl another useful spell.

Tait also managed to get things back on track and picked up a few useful wickets.

And with Hogg in great "tongue out" form, the Sri Lankans never really got on top and posted a fairly
ordinary score given the scared little buggers rested Murali and Vaas who couldn't face being
destroyed by Hayden and Ponting!

So Inge resorted to her usual pose at the cricket when it doesn't meet her high standards -
out came a book!

The Auusies made a pretty good start of the run chase and Hayden and Ponting played some nice shots....

Prompting one yobbo on the hill to bare his arse, possibly asking that old Abba question
"can you see the buns, Fernando?" or should that have been hear the drums??!!
Jayasuriya was looking suitably worried.....

........as Ponting cruised to another fifty and soon the Aussies needed only 1 to win
with plenty of overs remaining....

......so Punter decided to finish it off in style with a massive six, giving the Aussies a convincing win
and the psychological edge over Sri Lanka going into the finals.

Chris lets us know how much we won by......while some other Aussie spectators celebrate at the
House of Lords - the first combined mechanic and bar I have seen so far in my travels! Well, as
they say, any port in a storm!

We then walked back to our boat around the harbour at St Georges

And here it is!

Actually, we did a little better than that - Karl had chartered
a fantastic catamaran with 4 double cabins with their own
ensuite and including skipper (Jeff) and our hostess for the week,
Dany. Here Inge asks why we didn't take the previous boat??!!

After a great day's cricket and some well earned rest overnight, it was time to get underway for 3 days of sailing before returning again to Grenada for our second match, the final Super 8 match against the Kiwis. So I will wrap this first part of the "Caribbean Series" up with a couple of pictures of the boat as we headed off towards Union Island.

Coming up in the next posts: Union Island, Tobago Cays with lots of underwater shots, Australia v NZ and beautiful Bequia Island, our final stop. Until then, enjoy!

Ben & Inge

Isle of Anglesey - Wales

2007-07-27T23:24:00.000+01:00

Way back in April we drove to the Isle of Anglesey with Inge's Aunt Abby to visit some more of Ben's recently inherited "relatives in law" (if there is such a term) in the Cronin's (Mike, Charmaine, Connor and Emma). First I must apologise for taking 3 months longer than Charmaine to post anything from this weekend, but as you can see in our previous post, Sky is to blame for much of that!

Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend and some lovely weather (did we get Summer in April???!!) and it was great to meet some more family - thanks for the big friendly welcome and wonderful hospitality. Ben also enjoyed hiring a car and attempting to make Abby and Inge sick by practicing his racing lines through the winding mountain roads of Wales! It was dark most of the way up fortunately so they couldn't see the large drops from the edge of the road!

Here are some photos taken of the weekend. Ffor Charmaine's photos of the weekend, see: http://the-cronins.blogspot.com/2007/04/abby-inge-and-bens-visit.html. Our first excursion was to the nearby Beaumaris Castle with some fine modelling work by Connor, Mike, Abby and Emma and Ben finding himself on the wrong side of the camera...

Next on the agenda was a nice lunch where Inge and Emma got acquainted and then a wander
through the town where Abby found a doorway where even she'd bang her head!

Next up, a bit of wandering around the neighbourhood and a chance for Ben to take a few
landscape shots:

We then wandered to the local church which has been there since 630AD - people must have
been much shorter then (or severely hunched over) as again, Abby had to crouch down to fit
under the doorway! It also seems in Wales you don't need to go far to find a Jones - unfortunately
this one was dead but shares the same name as my Uncle so I felt compelled to photograph it!
There's also no shortage of slate in these parts - hence everything is made from it!

Sunday was fabulous weather wise and Ben had enjoyed the previous evening watching
the Aussies win the Cricket World Cup, much to Connor's disgust as he'd gone to great
trouble to design and print a go Sri Lanka poster! We took a tour around some lovely
gardens at Plas Newydd (Mum - we managed to get some use out of our National Trust
memberships!) and enjoyed the sun (something we haven't seen in a while!).

So Cronin's, thanks again for a lovely weekend. We hope you're well and that we can find
the time to head back your way soon!

Ben & Inge

Sky Broadband in Just Ten Easy Weeks

2007-07-27T23:04:00.000+01:00

Well, before we begin writing posts for all the things we've been up to recently, I just need to give a right public bollicking to the completely useless effing twats at Sky Broadband who somehow managed blunder after blunder (usually the same one repeated) to turn what should have been a relatively simple task of transferring our internet connection from our old flat to our new one (less than a mile apart), into a 10 week odyssey whereby the good people of London are lucky there isn't easy access to automatic weapons or Inge and I may have gone postal on them.......... glad I got that off my chest. So sorry we haven't been on Skype, emailing much or updating this blog to keep you all updated - you can blame Sky and tell everyone about it - Rupert sucks!

Ok, so here's a nice calming ocean shot from the Caribbean to get me back on track - a post on our trip to the World Cup Cricket with Chris and Karl sometime this weekend I hope.

But first, we need to cast our minds back to April and the Isle of Anglesey as I have less photos to go through of that trip.......

Ben & Inge

Photos from London

2007-04-12T20:54:00.000+01:00

Well we hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. It was very sunny and warm here, which was fantastic. We had a few photos from past weekends so thought we'd just dump them in for everyone to see.

Arsenal vs Reading at Emirates Stadium

Ben went to his first football match on a ticket he scored through a work colleague. It was Arsenal v Reading at Emirates Stadium. As usual, Arsenal tried to blow a good lead late in the game but unlike previous matches, they held on to win! Here's a couple of photos from the match.

Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens Outing

On one of the rare sunny days we decided to go for a walk through Hyde Park so Ben could get his camera out and we could soak up some sun. It was a nice day out, especially as while Inge was standing around waiting for Ben, she met an old friend from Adelaide uni days, Scotty Dawkins. It was great running into someone from home in the middle of Hyde Park, and we've caught up a few times since.

Inge in front of some statue Ben liked! The sun was on a coffee break....

Inge & Ben at the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk

Ben being artistic & the many daffodils that have been springing up!

The Albert Memorial at Kensington Gardens

Easter Weekend

We had lovely weather over Easter, which was good as Inge's Mum and Step-Dad came to visit. They arrived Good Friday and we spent a lovely weekend walking around London. They went to see "Guys & Dolls" on the Saturday afternoon and we went to the Easter service at Westminster Abby (Ben decided to stay home and do some work!) and then we all enjoyed an afternoon in Kew Gardens on the Sunday, although John either had quite a well used London guidebook or there's been some steep inflation lately at the £12 per person entry fee was a little higher than we were expecting!!!

Photo: Mum and John arrive at Notting Hill

The family at Kew Gardens (Ben felt left out so took a photo of his shadow!)

Flowers at Kew Gardens - exciting stuff!!

Other attractions at Kew Gardens - all this and more for just 12 Pounds!!

Well, I think that was everything. The next update will be in a few weeks when we get back from the Caribbean and the Cricket World Cup! So hopefully there will be pictures of sandy beaches and sunshine. I apologise now for our pasty white English winter bodies!!

Inge & Ben xoxo