jingle bells, batman smells....

this is our neighbours contribution to the christmas light displays. it lights up the whole driveway!
we walk past this house every night on our way home from work. and every night we look at it with amazement.

it's 4 degrees in london right now and it's the middle of the day! i spoke to soon about the mild weather. it's freakin FREEEZING! brrrrrr

it's beginning to look a lot like xmas

going for a muddy walk in richmond park. i can't believe how beautiful this picture is! must be the handsome man in it! :-) we keep commenting on how beautiful the silhouettes of the trees are with the low sunlight. obviously a perfect, crisp winter day enhances the beauty!
me pretending to shoot some deer. i forgot my gun...
awwww....we had a little 'we miss home' moment when we looked up and the saw the daily qantas flying into heathrow.
we went ice skating in kew gardens right by the main glasshouse. it was so beautiful and surreal.
skater lachie
it was a bit brrrr...

sorry we haven't updated for the past few weeks! we've been busy little beavers. leading up to christmas time means lots of people to catch up with (i wonder what it is that makes people so desperately want to catch up and have parties this time of year!?)

well christmas in London is definitely something to experience! there are people singing carols at waterloo station and on our high street. christmas carols in all the pubs and on the radio constantly. everyone has their lights up and christmas trees in their windows. in fact when we were walking home the other night we were walking down this BEAUTIFUL street full of massive houses and i looked in a window where there was a HUGE christmas tree and a father on a ladder with his son passing him ornaments to put on their tree. i actually stopped walking to watch this little cliche take place before my eyes. i don't know about anyone else but i think coming from australia i've never seen a whole city/country/continent take christmas so seriously! i don't know whether to laugh or join in. it's just so foreign!

anyway-i've been trying to get over a cold for the past 2 weeks. 2 weekends ago we went and saw some kickass dj's- plump djs at fabric nightclub (huge crazy maze of a club right next to where i work!) and then on sunday i took my nephews to see 'happy feet' at the IMAX. it was their first time to the imax so it was pretty exciting! lachie has been getting his car in tip top shape. getting a radio installed, servicing it. it's been given a clean bill of health.

during the week we went and saw the musical 'wicked' which is about the wicked witch of the west pre-dorothy. i'd read the book before i even knew there was a musical so i was really excited to see it! and lachie doesn't want to miss out on anything fun so he came along for the ride. it was fantastic! we've also gone to see 'borat' and the latest bond movie.

this past weekend, as you can see in the pictures, we went ice skating on friday night in kew gardens. as we were walking there, there were two girls walking towards us singing christmas carols loudly and as they walked past one of them joyously yelled out 'HAPPY CHRISTMAS!' to us and a bit taken back i mumbled 'merry christmas' back to them. hehe. ice skating was so much fun, so cliche with pan pipe christmas carols playing and really light rain which we pretended was snow. it all got a bit much for me when i crashed into a little brat and went flying face first into the ice. ouch! i had a wet bum, swollen knee and sore shoulder. but this didn't ruin lachies night! he kept skating until he was the last one left on the ice. i on the other hand sat on my wet arse in pain 'patiently' waiting for him to finish his fun. humph.

surprisingly i really thrive on doing a 'big clean' every weekend, which i haven't been able to do for a while. so this saturday was all about making the place sparkle! yay! it never seems to last long though.

saturday night ali, lachie and i went to a farewell for one of our mates 'wilko' down on the river in putney and then went on an adventure to BRIXTON (africa in london) to see the coolest dj. dj-shadow. we were blown away by his very cool performance and the stage set up. loved it!

sunday we happily accepted an invitation to paul's house for a roast (YUM). and it was YUM! lamb, root veggies, mulled wine, roasted pears and the best brownies for dessert (or pudding as they call it here).

and NOW. another week. the last working week for us for 2006! yay! very early saturday morning we fly to france for a week of skiing and celebrating christmas in the snow. we'll be back in london for NYE which we'll be celebrating with all our friends at a party in north london. we'll post pictures in the new year of all our adventures between now and then. on thursday night we are having our little 'family' christmas at home. roast chicken, lots of veggies, gravy, yummy desserts and on friday night we are going to holly's to have a 'proper' family FEAST which is exciting!

it's not too cold here still. we keep hoping for snow. we've decided that if it snows we'll take the day off to go play in richmond park with our 'deer' friends! it's about 4 degrees at night and about 8 or 9 during the day. so, cold enough to wear a coat, scarves, gloves but not cold enough for the thermals.

so we wish you all the warmest christmas greetings, love and happiness for 2007! may it be the best year yet!

lots and lots of love,

sally and lachlan

xxxxxx

nice one!

a blue sky sunny sunday.a giant picture of scout looking down on us while we sleep.
having too much fun at a bar in clapham for jonos farewell
sam ,lachie and jono
our new best friends mel and oliver
hollys super camp friend tristan at jeff and oscars 'crazy hair do' birthday party
oscar the tiger turned 6!
crazy hair do-holly
birthday boy jeff-contemplating his new 'do'. hmmm

as you can see we had another big fun weekend. it seems we never stop! there is always something going on. turns out on sunday we were invited to the world premier of 'miss potter' which is about beatrix potter. it has renee zellweger and ewan mcgregor (who lachie and i both LOVE) so that was really exciting getting to see them in real life. i keep smiling over my mental picture of lachie and i (running really late) running through leicester square and down the red carpet all dressed up and me wearing my sparkly shoes. we were born movie stars! teehee

the weather has been incredibly mild! we keep expecting it to be FREEZING, which it was for a few days while lachie was away, but it is SO mild! we hardly need to wear jackets.

we are feeling really settled now. loving our house which seems to get cosier all the time. lachie bought a bright red futon/couch on saturday which has added warmth to our living room. we also bought a beautiful baby blue lambs wool blanket in scotland for our bed. so it's lovely and cosy. we are all in routines now with lachie swimming 4 times a week and myself walking the streets exploring new areas and enjoying peeking into all the beautiful houses! we pretty much cook at home every night. i'm loving being an apprentice 'domestic goddess'! lachie and i meet at waterloo station every night and catch the train home together which is really always a big de-brief of our latest travel ideas! i'm not even going tell yall anymore where all the places we are going. you'll just have to keep reading this space!

xx

The Land of Scots

ah yes! scotland!

we went to edinburgh for the weekend and had an absolute BLAST!

like my dad said 'we are creating wonderful memories'

well...with all the alcohol consumption i'm not sure how many actual memories we'll have but we are pretty sure we had a fantastic time!!

we flew there on saturday morning. dumped our bags, had a big pub lunch and walked to the footy stadium for the big match between Australia and Scotland.

for those of you who don't already know...we absolutely kicked scotland in the back side! something like 37-15!

such great atmosphere with all the scottish men in their kilts and bagpipes and those little purses they wear in the front with their hip flasks of whisky to keep their 'nether regions' warm. it was FREEEEZING cold!

turns out we were sitting right next to a guy lachie went to school with Oliver (and his girlfriend mel)! massive co-incidence!

so we ended up spending the rest of the arvo and night with them and meeting a few of the wallabies players. won't go into details as...they are a bit fuzzy. but the photos are fun!

the next night, after a day of wandering around german and french christmas markets, hanging out with our new/old found friends, we went for dinner with an old friend of the Love family-Pam. we learnt that the history between Pam's family and the Love family goes back 5 generations and 150years! we ended up meeting her whole family and extended family and dogs. we had the best roast-ever. eating good beef these days is like swimming in fresh water. BEAUTIFUL!

we were lucky enough to stay till monday and do the 'sites' like the castle and the underground streets. lachie had black pudding (LovED it!) for lunch and then we flew home.

we had a 'unforgettable' experience with our CRANKYass taxi driver from the airport-home.

finally tumbled into bed around 11pm so happy with our fantastic weekend! we really loved what we saw of scotland and will for sure go back with our car and explore properly. it's so wild, rugged and the people are absolute characters.

yay! life is good!

ohmygoodness! the 'non-kids' kiddie swing. it went sooo high and so fast! i had tears running down my face from fear, wind and laughter. so much fun!

lachie and lovely pam

the magnificent edinburgh castle. it's built on volcanic rock and there used to be glaciers going through the valleys so you can imagine how rugged, wild and beautiful it is.

edinburgh-there was christmas markets, rides and ice skating

that's about as high as the sun got all day! it was COLD!

with the man of the match-stephan larkham

he was a bit of 'alright!' robbo is the no.1 prop for the australian team(between us) went to the same school as lachie.

i was pulling this face because i didn't really dig the young, arrogant, wanker.

no offence! before the game- bagpipes and a big marching band!
a beautiful building we later found out is now apartments but used to be a school

big fun weekend

lachie going a bit crazy with some blue lights in some trees by the london eye! Ahhh...big ben and westminster abbey
NOW you can properly see st pauls cathedral, the gerkin and oxo tower
london eye and westminster abbey (awesome pics by lachie, the night pic pro)
(i love) richmond park

more big fun weekend!

richmond park

(can you spot the deer?)

on the wharf at brighton
Anna, Jen and me at WINDY brighton

wild sea at brighton
autumn trees in richmond park

what a big fun weekend!!

Back in Ye ol' London town

Straight back into the swing of things. I arrived back into London at 6.30am on Monday and was in at work by 9am. Dedication. I managed to get 4 seats from Bangkok to London and rested all the way. I'm very use to flying so 24hrs on a plane these days is no big deal. I brought the London weather home with me and brought the Sydney weather back, its so warm, 15+deg.
I had such a great time at home catching up with everybody, seeing my family and friends and doggies :) I even managed to do white horse cup and marathon board a Palmy. Thanks everyone for such a great time!

Some great friends - Anna, Heather, Dave (Glaso) and me

This was at the pub while we were waiting for a table at Phamish (Sal's and my favourite restaurant in Surry Hills) I love going there as its the whole experience. You can't pre-book tables so you go early, put your name down, head up to the pub for an hour and then they call you when the tables ready. Perfect night out!

Down at Collaroy with the friendly life saver Brent

Cherry, Brent & little ScoutScout and IScoutMum and I at U2

Sally's cousins Carla and Corey (they were a bit freaked out when they saw me as I sold them our tickets after U2 cancelled the first time and didn't know i was home)

U2 on stage - The concert rocked!

While i was waiting in the massive Qantas check in line I spotted this. There is actually a section in the airport dedicated to my great grand father Nigel Love, but I'm always in a rush and never can find it.

I think I packed a whole years worth of stuff into 10 days at home!

So back to the grind. We have Edinburgh on the weekend of 25th Nov for 3 days to watch the wallabies smash Scotland. Our great friend Jenny is arriving tomorrow from Germany for the weekend. Camilla's friend Griff coming for a few days early Dec. Skiing in France over Christmas. Hopefully Switzerland in Jan, Skiing in Aspen late Feb and about a million other things in between. So much to do, so little time!

canal walk

pretty swan surrounded by autumn leaves

yellow tree in hyde park mcmansions in primrose hill
going under the bridge