London Easter Sunday in Ireland On Sunday, the kids were very excited because of course, Easter Bunny had come to visit. Even in Ireland he still knows how to find the kids.As we’d been cruising back and forward to the B&B we kept noticing a sign post to an ancient stone
London Glendalough The B&B was reasonably close to a small town in the Wicklow Mountains called Glendalough which is home to an old monastery started by St Kevin in around the 6C AD. As we hadn’t got to visit it on the Friday due to the rain, we decided
London The Bed and Breakfast We met Sophie, Andrew and baby Alexandre (Sophie is French, so Alexandre is the correct spelling, not my bad typing for once), in a lovely restauraunt in Glendalough which is in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains. Shortly after it started to rain, which on top of the cold meant
London Dublin for Easter On Thursday we set off to Dublin for Easter. We went to spend the time with Andrew, Sophie and their son Alexandre. Andrew is an American who did an exchange in 1988 and lived with my family in Clare for almost a year and we recently got in touch again.
London Footy tipping Ella and Jasper style This year Ella and Jasper have joined the family footy tipping competition and are providing their own tips. I sat down with them this morning and was amused at the criteria for a tip which is quite different between the two of them.Ella has a complex hierarchy of clubs
London Happy Birthday Big Girl! Returning the favour, here’s my shout-out to Karina. Happy 36th Birthday! As she’s commented several times recently, it feels like the wrong side of the 30’s.She remains the single most wonderful person I know, and someone who is always full of life and surprises. Everything she
London Coming home We’ve been asked a few times when we are coming back, well I’ve confirmed the flights this morning, so there is an official date.We’ll be leaving London on Saturday 28th June, flying to Singapore and then staying over in Singapore with my Mum and Dad for
London Mudlarking on the Thames The Thames is a very tidal river, going up and down by several metres as the tide comes in and out. For the first time we found somewhere you could actually get down to walk on the bank itself while the tide was right out. It was fascinating just picking
London The Tate Modern We’ve probably said it before, but I’ll say it again, the museums in London are outstanding, and the Tate Modern no exception. Like most London museums it’s also free.Probably the highlight of the Tate Modern is the massive Turbine Hall (it’s an old powerstation built
London Borough Markets The Borough Markets is one of those places that when you visit, you wish you’d discovered it earlier. It really is the best place in London to go for fresh food and is a great place to visit on an empty stomach! At one stage, Jasper said to me,
London A grand day out This will be a post in several parts, but for the short version, we’ve just come back from a wonderful day out. We set off early this morning to the Borough Markets, then wandered down the southbank of the Thames over the rest of the day stopping to visit
London Microsoft museum Finally, to prove I did do some work while I was there, here are some photos of the final day. This, as you might recall, was the day I had hoped to go to the Boeing Factory, but instead I attended some final sessions with Microsoft after a realised that
London Quirky Kirkland I didn’t actually stay in Seattle, Microsoft are in Redmond and our hotel was in a small city next to Redmond (what we’d probably think of as a large suburb) called Kirkland. It’s hard to describe the feel of this area, but basically it’s affluent. Over
London In Seattle On Monday, I worked for the morning and then in the afternoon, went into Seattle with a retired Boeing Engineer, Ernie, who I’d met at the bar the night before. He kindly offered to show me around and I took him up on the offer.Seattle is a really
London Jasper and the cat Despite the fact we’ve never had one and I’m allergic to them, Jasper loves cats. He was thrilled the day I left for Seattle that this one came by for a visit. It kept trying to leap into his arms which he wasn’t too sure about, but
London Seattle... Ah Seattle, home of Starbucks, Nirvana, Microsoft, Boeing, soppy Tom Hanks movies, the Seattle Needle, Frasier and of course Aussie Rules…At breakfast this morning, this article on footy was FRONT PAGE of the sports section. It’s an interesting read, particularly the fact that one of the biggest restrictions
London World Book Day My ghoulish, dark children are dressed up today for World Book Day. They love having their hair spray-painted – it’s quite a transformation! Skeleton from ‘Funnybones’ and Araminta Spook from ‘My Haunted House’Arriving at school was fun as so many kids were dressed up. Harry Potter, lots of princesses,
London Birthday for Big Boy Happy Birthday to Tim for yesterday. 37yrs old. Where did that 20 years go? I remember when I first got to know Tim, he was living at home with his parents in Adelaide. He was at Uni (moving from a Science degree to starting an Early Childhood Education degree) and
London Going a-Mothering It’s Mothers Day on Sunday here in England, something that’s been a mystery for a while as of course, in Australia we celebrate it later in the year. The local paper was delivered this evening and I read an article explaining about Mothers Day, and I asked Karina
London Snow in Boston I’ve just returned from a very brief two day work trip to Boston. I left Monday afternoon from London, arrived Monday evening in Boston, then spent Tuesday and Wednesday in meetings, left Wednesday night and arrived back in London this morning at 5.00AM. On the way out to
London Visiting the Queen Well,………. she was in residence at Windsor Castle while we were there on Saturday morning. The Royal Standard flag was being flown which means that she’s at home, plus one of the toursist wardens said she was spotted riding her horses that morning before the tourists arrived. She spends
London The Big Guns A trip to the Imperial War Museum was highly recommended by school Mums, so we ventured off yesterday – the first day of school holidays. The big guns from a warshipAfter seeing the huge guns at the entrance we headed inside to see war planes mounted from the ceiling and a
London You can tell you're from Melbourne when... I was lying in bed this morning with Karina and Jasper. We were all staring out our bedroom window up at the sky, which means all we can see is a network of power lines radiating out from the pole near our house to connect the other houses near by.
London My Spelling Hero Get ready for some bragging from a devoted Mother…….Jasper is THE MAN. He’s my wonderful wordsmith, my clever cutie and a surprisingly good speller. Very surprisingly. When we left Melbourne he was nearer to the bottom of the class with his reading and had very little interest in
London Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster On my night out at Universal Studios with Ella, we had a great time. By far the highlight for her was the Incredible Hulk roller coaster. This is a seriously hard core ride in many respects — it goes upside down 7 times and is pretty quick.This video from YouTube
