Hogmanay

It's been cancelled!!!!!

*tears*

Edinburgh and hopefully Hogmanay!

It was dark when we got to Edinburgh, and thankfully Cousin Graeme found the right platform and met us off the train!

It was chilly, but not as cold as we were expecting - only because it was a lovely still night. We left the station and onto Waverley Bridge from which we first experienced Edinburgh by night - absolutely breathtaking. The whole area is in carnival mode - there were fair ground attractions - market stalls, ice skating rink, ferris wheel, christmas lights everywhere and of course the castle was all lit up. Quite incredible!

We caught a cab to Graeme's place, quickly "unpacked" and then wandered back (all uphill!) into town to find something to eat and have a look around. We were wandering around Princes Street and around came the corner was a pipeband who stopped right in front of us - great photo opportunity!

We carried on through the markets and up the hill toward the castle - there were lots of people around doing the same as us - just experiencing Edinburgh in winter carnival mode! We tried mulled wine ... Helena thought it was disgusting! We found a couple of pubs and saw some lovely sights of the city from the castle carpark. The weather was perfect - cold but still.

This morning we woke to cold stormy type weather and decided to go to Leith and visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. A tour well worth the visit. It was quite cool because as you go in you get given a handset which as you move around the yacht you punch in numbers and it gives you a prerecorded commentary of each part of the ship.

The yacht looks quite small from the outside but once you start wandering around you realise how big it actually is. The furnishings while very comfortable and nice were not overly ornate or oppulent.

Craig and Graeme always seem to find a bar, no matter where we go! Even on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

After our visit around the ship, Helena made a deal with the boys ... they could sit and relax over a beer for half an hour ... and she would go shopping! It worked and a couple of purchases (of both beer and goodies) were made.

It's now just gone 6:30pm - New Years Eve. The weather is seriously caving in - Glasgow, Liverpool and Stirling have all cancelled their celebrations, however Edinburgh are still planning on going ahead. It's bitterly cold outside and the wind has really got up. Graeme's flatmate Andrea and her partner Alan are in the process of cooking a german feast for dinner - we'll make the decision later if we'll walk up to the castle to watch the fireworks - if we do, we'll be wrapping up very VERY warmly.

Happy New Year everyone - may all your hopes and dreams come true for 2007!

Newcastle - Hexham - Spartylea!

We had an early up and rise on Friday morning to catch the train to Newcastle. Breakfast was at Kingscross Station. The train ride was great, nice comfortable seating. The countryside was lovely, dotted with churches and quaint little villages shot past the window every now and again.
Was a little nervous pulling into Newcastle to meet a cousin I havent seen in 28 years, however as soon as we hopped off the train I recognised him and after introductions of Craig and Paula we quickly made our way to the car and started our new adventure! The four of us clicked very quickly and soon all sorts of conversations were had as we weaved our way across the countryside!

Hands up those readers who have heard of the Hadrians Wall?

Well, we received a history lesson very quickly about Hadrians Wall, over 900 years old stretching from one coast of Britain to the other to keep the scots out while the romans conquered England. This wall when built was in places over 15ft high. The countryside around where Richard and Paula live is littered with remanents of the wall. I asked a very intelligent question about ... how come there are only bits of it left here and there? Many of the houses and cottages dotted around the area are made from the pieces of Hadrians wall. Ok so, there you have a very very quick history lesson - more information can be found at this Hadrians Wall website.

Our first tour stop was lunch! At a lovely little pub ... strangely enough called ... Hadrians Hotel!

After lunch we were given a tour of the countryside and that includes a visit to one of the many historical sites of the Wall. As you can see it was rather brisk - and just as we got out the car it started raining - however no snow in sight!
Richard and Paula live in a remote little village ... well its not even a village there are 7 houses in Spartylea! Most of the area around them belongs to Lord Allendale. The fells around them have many walking areas and this sleepy little place is well populated by walkers throughout the year. It was truely beautiful countryside.

The nearest pub is 3 miles down the road - now this truely was a country English pub. The locals had their dogs sitting under the tables with them.

Richard and Paulas cottage below - they've done an incredible job renovating it. We spent a lovely evening in by the fire and met their baby Sheba a 7yr old German Shepherd who wasnt quite sure what to make of Craig.

After a great nights sleep (and a "few" bottles of wine) we awoke to a bright, blue sky day! The second time we've seen blue sky since being here! After a warming breakky of sausage butties we drove into Hexam, their nearest town (about 100,000 pop) - a market town and very pretty. We spent some time in the beautiful abbey built 674AD - even ventured into the crypts below. After a wander around the lanes and shops we carried on to the railway station where we then caught a train into Newcastle to connect with our train up to Edinburgh.

The time went far too quickly, it was absolutely wonderful to have the opportunity to meet Richard and Paula and their hospitality was out of this world. Thanks guys!!!!

Day 2 - Ole London Town

Update is a day late, we were absolutely knackered by the time we got home from the pub last night that I couldnt be bothered doing an update. (Knackered NOT pissed thank you).

We started at the London Eye, it was really fascinating. It takes about 30 mins to go round and although it doesnt feel like it was moving very fast, Craig said it was moving 4 ft per second. The day was good, the fog had lifted and we were able to see quite away around the City. Karen our built in guide was absolutely fantastic at pointing different bits and pieces out. The pods hold about 25 people, there would have been about 15 in ours so we didnt have to fight for viewing spaces hehe

We became very efficient on trains, tubes and buses today - again due to the knowledge of our wonderful guide Karen! I snapped a couple of piccies of us on the underground and the found out later photography isnt permitted - oops!

After the London Eye we quickly made it over to Madam Tussauds. We had pre purchased tickets and waited in a queue for about 20 minutes, the people who didnt purchase tickets were lined up about a kilometre down the street! Bugger that for a joke! We got our tickets for £16 each because we purchased them through the city tour bus company, normally tickets are £28 pounds. Personally I could have been really disappointed in the waxworks if we hadnt got cheap tickets. While the wax works were fascinating the crowds of people and the constant pushing and shoving got a bit tiring after a while. Karen and I both agreed they needed a bit of an intro about the wax works, there was nothing, nothing showing the history, how things are made, information about museum etc. However, I was happy to have a wee drink and giggle with Sean as you can see below.

I also managed to have a chat to Blair and Bush to sort their shit out, if they listen or not is another story, watch this space ...

After Tussauds we jumped back on our open top tour bus and finished a leg of the city we didnt do yesterday. This is just coming into trafalgar square ... just people, cars - congestion everywhere!

We jumped off the bus at Westminster and tubed over to Hyde Park - I wanted to see the New Zealand memorial. On TV when it was unveiled ... is that the right word? It looked like huge carved wooden pieces, but its not ... they are steel girders with inscriptions and things on them. Some of them lovely, some of them um ... different. Each one had a cross on the top - it felt quite special being there.

After the memorial we wandered over to Buckingham Palace, Queen wasnt home but we snapped some pics of her quaint wee house in her absence.

There was a brief discussion about hoofing it over to Harrods, but it was just past 3:30pm and getting dark (I still cant get used to that part) so we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and then tubed back to Waterloo Station and onwards home.

I finally got my shopping look around in Wimbledon. I bought a pair of leather gloves and a lovely little travelling jewellery box for £10 - I'm wrapped with that!

We went to the Alexandra Pub for dinner with Karen and Graham. Thats it London sight seeing is done and dusted - didnt even scratch the surface really but saw enough to say we came, we saw, we conquered.

We're all packed to head to Newcastle by train tomorrow - to meet the coussie I havent seen since I was eight!

Not sure when we'll get a chance to update again - Happy New Year!

Day 1 Tour of Ole London Town

London is quite big isnt it?! ... We started off quite technical by catching a train ... not a tube ... into Waterloo Railway station. From there we wandered up to the London Eye and made the executive decision that it was too foggy and that we had heard tomorrows weather is going to be better, so we've taken a punt and put that on the agenda for tomorrow. However, there is always a photo opportunity! It was bloody cold this morning - about 5 degrees, we were all thoroughly wrapped up and still our fingers froze! We were brave though and caught an open air double decker for a tour around the city - The Big Bus Company - one of those hop on hop off tours that you have a map and self guide yourself.

We took the red tour first, seeing all the wonderful architecture of London and finding the monopoly board - fleet street, the strand etc

Our first stop was tower of london - wow that was amazing! Spent a good couple of hours wandering around buildings over 900 years old. Blood thirsty lot they were back then ... the history is quite gorey, interesting but some of the stories not very pleasant.

With all unpleasantness there is always a photo opportunity with a cuddly toyyyyyyy! Trust us to find it - had to push children out the way to get in there!

Amazing how many red phone boxes are still around, I'm so colour co-ordinated with my scarf! We stopped at a pub for late lunch - Dickens Inn - Helena had to try the Fish'n'chips (very nice) Craig had the bangers, baked beans and chips - not too bad apparently. The day kind of ran away on us, we had to cut our touring short as it started getting dark (3:30pm) and the photo opportunities were running out. Madame Tussauds also had to wait until tomorrow. We ended up in Oxford Street - pretty lights and fantastic sales going on, but our mission was to get Craig to a HMV (music) store - brother Rob would be blown away by this store - two storeys with escalators! We then had dinner at a lovely little italian restaurant a couple of streets back from Oxford St - pasta and pizza - very nice.

We then met up with Pete and Helena and got to the Queen - We Will Rock You Musical. What a stunning display of performers. It wasnt what we expected, actually we dont know what we expected, but we did enjoy it very much. Had fantastic seats and the performers had the most amazing voices - to reinact Freddy Mercury and get away with it is no easy task. After the show we stopped in at a small English style pub for a quick pint before heading down the underground to get to Waterloo Station and then transferring onto a train and back to Wimbledon. We did it and didnt get lost!

Been up since 6 this morning, its now 1:00am! As we said, theres plenty of time to sleep on the way home!

Boxing Day

A very quiet day today. Got up early - took all the decorations down in the dining hall. Had a fantastic feast breakfast of turkey, sausages and left over stuffing ... had the same for lunch too actually! Karen picked us up and we left Petes after lunch. Weather was a little cooler, but still mild (i.e. NO WIND!) and no rain either for that matter. We were going to head to Hyde Park this evening, as there was a carnival advertised, however, Craig's foot is playing up so thats being rested up in preparation for a big day of sightseeing tomorrow instead! We received London Eye Tickets for our Christmas present so we'll be using those tomorrow!

Tomorrow night is the Queen - We Will Rock You musical, which Pete and Helena are going to meet us in town and come to with us.

Craig and Karen are watching EastEnders ... best I go and find out what's going on - it'll only take a few minutes to catch up on who is who and it will feel like I havent missed an episode in years!

Christmas Day :)

The infamous dining hall erected by Pete on the back of the house! Helena and Helena did a fantastic job of decorating (if we may say so ourselves)

Even in England, in winter, at Christmas ... Craig is still the master of the barbie - we spent the day shouting (in a very bad australian accent) - throw another shrimp on the barbieeeeeeee!

Menu was absolutely outstanding! The chefs outdid themselves.

The Christmas Dinner menu:


Nibbles with champagne (Lindauer with Peach schnapps)


Starter – smoked salmon/blinis/crème fraiche


Turkey (bbq'd)
Graham’s Roast Potatoes - hassleback
Roast parsnips with parmesan
Carrots with honey
Brussel sprouts with pancetta
Stuffing
Sausages wrapped in bacon
Cranberry sauce
Bread sauce
Gravy

Xmas pudding with brandy butter and cream and custard

Mince pies

Coffee and After Eight Mints

So now its just gone 11:00pm and Christmas Day seems well and truly over for this year. Keep thinking about all the left overs we'll be eating for breakfast tomorrow! or they might be midnight snacks at this rate.

We crashed late afternoon again, seems to be when the sun sets and it gets dark, however we get our second wind around 9:00pm. We managed to sleep from midnight last night until around 7 this morning, although we woke a few times. Guess it will take us a few days to come right.

Tomorrow (Boxing Day) we'll be heading back to Wimbledon - boxing day salessssssssssss ... hmmmmmm

The Stratties are signing out for another day. Hope everyone enjoyed theirs as much as we enjoyed ours.

London or Bust!

We're here!

We made it in one piece and without any hassles!

On Friday, we met Sandie in Auckland for a drink and lite bite to eat. Was awesome to catch up with her and the two hours just seemed to fly past. The plane to LA was full, only a couple of empty seats. We checked in at Wellington and were allocated seating together and on the middle three configuration so we were pretty happy about that, we were also in the front section of economy so didnt get the engine noise by being further down the plane. Sleeping was disasterous to say the least, I think the both of us only had about 3 hours sleep max. Security at LAX was a piece of cake ... there was none! We were finger printed and retina scanned, but otherwise it passed uneventfully, only confusion was Helena couldnt work out her left index finger from her right in her jetlagged state! However the Homeland Security dude was very patient. There were a few young children on the plane, but they were pretty quiet the whole trip - thank god!

The flight from LA to Heathrow was chocka - not a spare seat in sight. We sat next to a New Zealand couple travelling with their kids. They had no idea Heathrow was fogged in, they were travelling on to Zurich, but all internal flights had been cancelled at that stage. Met a scots couple from Wellington, they were carrying on to Glasgow for Christmas, a surprise for her family. Had quite a bit of turbulence on this leg of the journey - the cabin crew were told a couple of times to go to their seats. There were no pre dinner drinks either! Helena got about 2 hours sleep on this flight - Craig got none!

The plane was more comfortable than what we expected, there was a bit of leg room and the screens on the back of each seat helped the time go more quickly. They were a bit distracting though and after a few hours of staring at a bright screen it was kinda offputting. The cabin crew were lovely on both flights, especially after we kept stuffing up the arrival cards - just tired and not able to concentrate too well!

We landed at Heathrow on time. Pete and Helena met us at the airport, it was chilly outside about 8 degrees. We arrived after a little tiki tour (Pete got lost) just on lunchtime and Karen and Graham were ready for us with Pea & Ham soup for lunch!

We started to fade a couple of times in the afternoon, so we went out for a walk into Wimbledon - about a 3 minute walk - there were so many stressed pre christmas shoppers that we didnt hang around inside the shops too long. The thing that struck us was how dark it was at 3.30pm - it felt like 6.00pm and that wasnt just because we were jet lagged. We showered and Karen & Graham took us to Earls Court by tube and gave us good directions for getting home again!

Earls Court holds about 50,000 people and the Iron Maiden concert, the last of their European tour was sold out. The concert was amazing, loud and full on. Helena managed to nearly fall asleep a couple of times, but kept getting a second wind at the last minute (thankfully!) - Craig got his souvenir Tshirt £20 - very pleased!

We got home, on the right train about 11:15 and felt quite awake! Had a drink with Karen and Graham and headed to bed just after midnight - we'd been awake for 57hrs - through 3 time changes and 3 countries - with about 8 hours sleep between us. We got up just after 8am, slept solidly for 6 hours and went out for a walk up to Wimbledon Village - very very pretty and quaint - took photos - saw a couple of squirrels and about 7 pubs, which we are keen to try a few of over the next week or so!

Just about to have some breakfast (its nearly 10am) and we are heading to Petes.

Happy Christmas Eve - by the time you kiwis read this it will be Christmas Day - Happy Christmas and love to you all.

Getting There

• Ironing Done! *tick*
• Suitcases are packed - just the toilet bags and sneakers to get thrown in on Friday morning!
• found out carry on luggage security requirements today ... very strict because we are going through the US. We are allowed one carry on bag each up to 7kgs. We cannot take any liquids, lotions or gels on board, unless they are less that 100mls per item (maximum 500mls per person) and they must be carried seperately in a clear plastic resealable bag. Hmmmmmmmm so I'll be taking a small tube of toothpaste, a small jar of moisturiser, some wet wipes and um I'll think of something else. Duty free may also be confiscated in the US, so it will be easier just to pick something up @ Heathrow if we want it. Otherwise my perfume and stuff will be preordered and picked up in Auckland when we come back through at the end of our holiday.

Found out today we have NOT had seats preallocated to us (although I requested my travel agent to about 6 months ago!) , potentially we could end up not sitting together! I DONT THINK SO! So we'll be checking in a little earlier on Friday and demanding to be seated together, or an upgrade to business class might be nice! Apparently the flight is also oversold ... so some poor bugger is going to miss out being in London for Chrissie - it aint gunna be us!

3 sleeps to go.

4 Sleeps and yep still counting

Our day started at 5:00am this morning, I woke up and couldnt get back to sleep - must be excitement.

Work is really getting in the way of things right now, would have been a lovely day to stay at home I'm thinking!

Apologies if you received my email twice or even three times, I'm having issues with email for some reason ... grrrrrrr

Speaking of email, looks like my emails are crossing with my Cousin Richard and Paula in Newcastle, got an email from them this morning saying they hadnt received an earlier email - explains why I hadnt heard anything for a while ... technology!

Today I/We

• spoke to Karen on the phone, it was 5:30am here - their 4:30pm Sunday - she was out of bed, but still in her jim jams - lucky devil I would have given anything to stay in my jim jams today! I wonder if they'll think it odd if I do it over there?
• double checked our passports with a travel agent to make sure they were machine readable through US immigration - they were *whew*
• bought flourescent luggage tags and an eye mask
• ate chocolate and biscuits *blush*
• photocopied all our documentation
• popped up and saw Carol, got our lovely present from her and the kids. Wished the kids a happy christmas and told them to behave themselves for their mum, if they dont behave they wont be getting any pressies from Disneyland! (how many kids actually know what Disneyland is these days?)

nothing has moved off the spare bed and nothing has made its way onto it ... I didnt get the ironing done :(

5 Sleeps to Go!

well here we all are then!


Five sleeps to go until our White Xmas Tour!? (affectionately named so by Cousin Karen!). I still remember the conversation myself, Craig, Karen and Graham had in January over lunch at a lovely cafe in the Wairarapa ... it went something like ...



Karen - So when are you two going to come and visit us?
Us - we'd love to come over someday, its on our plans
Helena - it would be lovely to have a "white Christmas" *dreamy sigh*

teehee

It still blows me away that in just five days thats exactly whats going to be happening! Ok, so maybe its not going to be a "white" Christmas, but its going to be winter ... so steamed pud and brandy butter will seem right!


So ... five sleeps out and whats going on?


Well lets see - today ....

1. We have pulled out all the clothes we want to take and some have gone in the wash
2. All our documentation has come out the safe and I'll be taking it to work tomorrow for photocopying
3. The last Christmas presents for the cousins has been finished and wrapped
4. Helena went shopping and bought slippers for the plane! (exciting stuff)
5. Downloaded more music for our MP3 players
6. About to pick up the other suitcase from Bill & Raynors
7. Started piling stuff on the spare bed for packing!

Yesterday I took a pic of the beginnings of our packing, took another one today and things have advanced some what!

and then today ... complete with Jack having a nosey

so things have progressed somewhat!

Welcome to the new comers to the online life of "blogging". We plan to update most days we can get hold of a computer. The fantastic thing about this web space is we can access it from anywhere in the world to update. So as long as you, the reader remembers the address (URL) you can keep coming to visit and check up on our adventures. Feel free to leave a comment or two, simply click on the post a comments tab. You dont need to be a registered user, just click the anonymous button and leave us a message ... but make sure you type your name in so we know who you are!

Happy reading!