LOVE BOX

over the weekend we went to a festival called...yup, you guessed it. Lovebox. we can happily report that it was the best festival we've been to! it was like a mini Glastonbury, without the mud, 200,000 people and 300,000 tents. it turned out to be the most beautiful day, lots of grass to lie on, only good music, and a small crowd. so small that we kept running into our friends so no money wasted on texting everyone all the time. perfect! ollie, lachie, lachies old boss from compaq (way back in Sydney! totally random run in) and sally
groove armada, going off AGAIN. this is the second time this summer we've seen them. they are the absolute BEST live!
the presets. an australian duo that also went off!

sally with ali's brother greg

on my favorite ride ever! the swings!

ollie and i down the front with lachie and an old school mate of theirs, michael johnston

happy couple

with mel, ollie and a few of their mates

Tea with the Queen

After months and months of waiting the day finally came round and we headed off to Buckingham Palace to the Royal tea party all dressed up and excited.
With great excitement we saw the Queen, Phillip, Charles, Camilla, Sophie, Edward and a whole lot of other royals that I wouldn’t recognise.
We drank tea, ate yummy cakes with the Royal insignia on it, played in the gardens and followed the royals around.
Sal, Ali and I personally met Prince Edward and chatted for about 5 mins. I told him we moved to England for the weather! He asked if we all lived in Earls Court with all the other Aussies. And a few laughs thrown in to, he was very nice.
On the way out we actually walked through the palace, the courtyard and out the main gates which was fun, we felt very special.
We couldn’t take a camera so no pictures unfortunately.
By the way the Queen said to say Hi!

Bull Run 2007

Sometimes everything goes your way and this weekend certainly one of them. What a weekend! We arrived into small town Biarritz and there waiting for us is our brand new Mini hire car ready to get thrashed. We quickly crossed the border into Basque Country and the beautiful Pyrenees Mountains where the mini lapped up every winding corner. I had never thought of Spain as lush green forests and crystal clear streams besides peaking mountains. This is northern Spain..wow. We set up camp 10mins out of town; it was full of crazy Aussies, NZ'ers and Spaniards. We partied on well into the night and woke up with the alarm at 6am! We had to meet Mealz and Shareen who had just caught the over night bus from Barcelona. And as luck goes all the girls managed to get up onto a balcony over looking the run and have the best view in town! The town was absolute madness!!! It was so mad that once the run was over each day we couldn’t wait to get out of there, we had never seen anything like it. People asleep where they fell, rubbish piled a few feet high, drunken people with Sangria and flour all over them x 30,000. It was horrid. After the run on Saturday we slowly made our way to San Sebastian, did a little sight seeing, ate lots of Tapas and chilled on the beach. We really loved it there.Sunday 6am, all over again. This time Sal stayed in bed and Dan and I headed off to the run. We were a lot more prepared this run, so much adrenalin, so many Spaniards and so much fun!

What a weekend!!!!A beautiful Spanish sunset in the campsite 7km out of PamplonaVodka and nibbles in the tent with Sal and DanSal, Mealz and Shareen managed to sweet talk an old lady into letting them go up to her balcony for the ultimate view and managed to snap us, what are the chances of that!A sea of red and white, we were the odd ones out

And their off.. the bulls come in 4 groups of 4 let off at small intervals making their way into the bull ring, a rocket is let off to signal the start of each run

Such an adrenalin rush!

Dan and I pumped after we survived our first bull ran and made it into the ring. Little did we know the ring is where all the damage is done when the bulls are let loose!!The run is over by 9am so that left us all day to head to San Sebastian and see the sights and have a quick dip. We loved it there, especially all the tapas bars! And Spain is soooo cheap!A really cool looking church built into the hill.Dan after a big night remembered where he had left his headIt was so good to see Mealz even if it was just for one daySan Sebastian and the main beach. Its split by two beaches on either side of the town.

The second bull run!! We were a lot more prepared and pumped for this run. Running side by side with them. Masses of people at 7am on Sunday morning ready to take the bulls head on

Close call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This time we decided to get a better view and be out of the action in the ring, notice the guy getting horned!!Our awesome little mini handled the weekend with easeSunday afternoon was beach time in Biarritz while waiting for our plane home, it had been a long time since I had done a bit of body surfing with a decent swell

The Baltics

We had always wanted to go back east since our big trip last year so we decided now was the time. We went to Riga – Latvia, Tallinn – Estonia and then caught a ferry to Helsinki – Finland and then back to Tallinn. We spent basically all our time in the old towns, seeing the sights, the markets and just hanging out. Riga seemed to still be a little behind the times. Tallinn was quite interesting, such a mix between the west, east, Russia and Scandinavia. And Helsinki was very Scandinavian, expensive and beautiful, the buildings were Victorian, its right on the water and for some reason there was the most amounts of punks I have ever seen in my life!
It was quite cool to see the sun setting very late again, in Finland I think the sun didn’t even go down; it hovered for a few hours at about 2am and then came back up again.

The main square in Riga, lots of cafes and bars

The old Swedish gate in the wall of the old town. Latvia was ruled by Sweden back in the dayA beautiful sunset in Riga at about 11.30pmA birds eye view of the town from one of the Church spiresMe being sillyL & S, it was quite cold for our whole trip. Not like last year at exactly the same time when it was over 30 degThe Grand main square in Tallinn, that is the city hall. The were lots of tourists in Tallinn over the weekendNotice the 4 spires marking the city wall on the leftUp near the castle looking back down to the old townSal trying to decide where we should go for dinner. We went to this yummy medieval restaurant and ate Boar, elk and a few other yummy animals! Oh and drank very strong beer that was made with spices!A cute poseLooking at Tallinn old town coming back on the ferry from FinlandOn a small ferry to see the island of Suomenlinna, 15 mins from Helsinki. The whole area is dotted with islandsA grand old church that looks over the whole of HelsinkiSal taking it all inA little bit Swedish, a little bit Russian - totally FinnishHelsinki from the sea

Mud Fest @ Glasto

We went to Glastonbury with high hopes but knowing previous Glastonbury Festivals had been mud fests we didn't expect this year to be the muddiest of all the years! It was more of an endurance test than a festival. We made it out the other side and enjoyed our selves. Bjork and Damian/Steve Marley were stand outs.

The only time we saw the sun all weekend. When we first arrived!

Sal loaded up ready for our two hour trek from the car to the camp site. Pure Hell.
Ummm.. Which one was ours?!, can you notice the tents in the far distance, luckily we were on high ground

One of the shallow areas of mud around

An absolute gem of a picLooking good, ready to brave the masses