p.s.

my sister is giving birth RIGHT NOW! we are both SOOO excited and waiting waiting waiting to hear what sex the baby is, what it's name is, what looks like, how cherry is feeling etc! yippie!

and now it's friday again...

we can't believe how fast this week has gone and now it's friday again and ready for another weekend of fun!
this week has been spent applying for jobs and looking for a place to live. we have found a place to live and we move in hopefully on tuesday depending on when we get our funds together.
it's an old coach house about 10min walk from holly's. it's so gorgeous and we are all soo excited to move in (we are moving in with our friend ali).
lachie's had a few phone interviews as have i but nothing has eventuated. we are feeling a bit stressed out and on edge about it all but we know its all part of the FUN of moving somewhere new. woo...
this weekend there is a 'combi cruise' that finishes in brighton. we are leaving tonight. it will be fun to have a good perve on all the super done up combis.
will post more after weekend.
adios...

a weekend in the forest...

before we left there was a massive storm which then blew away and made the sky soo blue.
last friday at 4pm we all piled into the combi and took off south to new forest for a weekend of fun! as you can imagine it's pretty crazy in a combi full to the brim with camping gear, two kids, 3 adults, a dog and creedence clear water cranked on the stereo...

we got to the campsite, set up camp and then chilled out with a few drinks.

i'd say it ended up being a few too many as i was hurting a bit the next day...

we went camping with my brother and his girlfriend and our friend nick (who's b'day it was) and his girlfriend.

Saturday we didn't get going till late.

in the campsite there are horses roaming around and big forests surrounding the area.

we headed off to the coast for some greasy fish and chips and then we went to a special island that is a sanctuary for red squirrels. over here you always see grey ones which are an introduced species from america and which are so aggressive they kill the red ones which are now almost extinct. so we crept around the island with the kids trying to spot them (they are really shy) and ended up seeing 6 or 7! that was pretty exciting.

and then for the first time for lachie and i we went swimming off the coast of the UK! (near the isle of wight/bournemouth)

it was chilly but so exhilarating! we jumped and whooped and laughed for as

long as we could (about 10mins) before we got out.

and headed back to camp for a night of FUN!

all saturday holly and i had been organising a treasure hunt for nick that had him end up in the middle of the forest with a big leather trunk full of party goods-blanket, champagne, stereo, cds, cake, party poppers, candles and lanterns. we had big branches pointing as arrows and compass and maps and champagne glasses to help him get to the destination of fun.

we cooked hamburgers, drank and then when the time was right we gave him his first clue. once he was out of site we ran up into the forest in the pitch dark all holding hands (for alcohol induced support) and hid behind a tree near where he would end up.

when he finally got there (after his head torch died and they couldn't figure out the clues)

we came out singing happy birthday and then had a full blown party in the forest till late into the night. with lightning flashing every few minutes and the lanterns and the music in the pitch black forest it was all very exciting and spooky and mystical.

(sharon has all the amazing fun photos from that night that i'll share with yall another day as paul and sharon are in Pisa right now.)

there was a MASSIVE storm in the night and the next day we were all a little slow but so happy with our fun day. we packed up and headed home around 4. home by six, unpacked and ready for another week of job and house hunting...

feeling a bit weak on sunday morning

yesterday was a perfect sort of day...

train tracks at north sheen

(the only place we get free train rides from, the overland near holly's)

in front of windsor castle with the flag up!
pretty swans on the thames in windsor
queens guard
sunset in the city shakespeare globe theatre

yesterday we woke up to the most beautiful day either of us have ever experienced in london. as it's coming into autumn the leaves are changing and the weather is a bit cooler. yesterday there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining, it was warm but a tiny cool breeze so it wasn't muggy. we decided to NOT spend it sitting in front of the computer getting frustrated about no good places to live.

we got outside and headed to windsor by train. lachie's been to windsor before but i never had and finally got to see what he always talks about. it's BEAUTIFUL there. the weather helping this perspective. it was a tiny bit more exciting with the flag up on the flag pole, meaning that the queen was in residence!
we spent most of the day there and then headed into town to view a RANDOM art show (ie.videos of a guy with a micro phone in his mouth lying next to a speaker, or a dark room with lots of plants, a black light and bleep, boing ding noises and the artist telling us to walk barefeet and hear the plants talking to us....hmmm)
but after that the best part of the day we went to the shakespeare globe theatre to see 'anthony and cleopatra'. another thing to add to your lists if you've never been. this place is excellent as they have reproduced the original shakespeare theatre style with the open roof and wooden stalls and floors and people standing in the front and the actors wearing amazing traditional costumes and people playing traditional musical instruments and singing traditional songs and them all doing a traditional dancing at the end. BRILLIANT!
today, friday, we are packing up and heading to 'new forest' for the weekend camping with all our friends. we are so excited to be using our lovely new/used tents that we found! one of our friends nick is having his birthday so it will be a party in the forest and celebrating the equinox. it is nice that people are really aware of the seasons here. more when we get back, ciao!

4 years of lovin...

yay! today is a day worthy of celebrating.
-it's our 4 year anniversary
-it's james loves 17th b'day (happy birthday j!)
-it's my auntie and uncles b'day
what a day!
today: i had to wake up with an ALARM for 7:30am. i went to register with a recruitment agency/interview. turns out they really only have customers in richmond (far out of the centre of london) which means i'll not be getting more than £7 an HOUR! which isn't really very much when you consider that £7 is about equivalent to $7 (AUD) when your 'living' here.
so that was a bit of a failure but good to get back in saddle. the corporate world. the dress up and pretend i LOVE being an office. woooo.
afterwards we met up with Ian and Chris and their friend Andrew in Kew gardens.
if you haven't ever been there you MUST go as this place is really rather extraordinary!
we had such a pleasant afternoon picnicing, laughing, drinking M&S wine, strolling and admiring the amazing gardens.
after that we went to the kew inn and enjoyed a few more drinks before they headed off for 'porn idol' and we enjoyed a romantic dinner at the pub. reminiscing about the past 4 years. how much we've done. where we've been. what we've been through. we both feel so happy and lucky to have each other. people said before we left australia 'ohh this is the MAKE OR BREAK'. i'd say this is the make.
xx

uptodate-goodness me!

yesterday-saturday we went into the tate modern (where my brother lives) where the thames 10th anniversary festival was on. my sister holly and her husband jeff do outrigger paddling and yesterday they did their first race ever. they have been training for a while now so it was a pretty big deal for them. we took the kids in to watch them race and also did a 5km charity walk around all the bridges and paths along the thames. below is a hazy picture of all the boats paddling past london bridge.

afterwards my brother took us to what we would call 'lachie heaven' a bar called rake that had so many beers lachie almost died of excitement. this turned into a full blown beer tasting session and plans for future trips to belgium to try the best beers in the world. sighh it never ends.
today we just did normal things like take the dog and kids to the park and hang out. the weather this weekend has been beautiful! warm and sunny.

festivals

at south west 4 (SW4) with all our new friends in london at V festival with sharon (pauls girl) and ali surrounded by a million tents

this is my desperate attempt at trying to catch up so that we can be only posting current pictures. these are the festivals we mentioned a while ago that we went to and had a blast at...

croatia-on land

oscar in an alleyway in splitsplit at night

the plivitiz lakes

beautiful debrovnik

croatia-perfect sailing

check out below how ripped that babe is

here is the j crew portraits. we were all a little drunk and tired...especially the little ones.

oscar
samuel
sally
lachie
paul
holly
jeff
marti
peter
these were some lakes we stopped at in the week of our sail

lachie went up the mast to take this winner
floaties put to rest for the night