Em and Gav Euro stylin'

Start spreadin the news.... NY NY

2008-10-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Few shots from our trip to NY in Sept to catch up with AY and Sal, Nat, Ev and Elliot...

View from the top of the Rock, Rockafella Centre

Row ya boat in Central Park

Team dinner out

Elliot and Mum and Dad. He's a v cute little man!

and hangin out at the shake shack w auntie Em

The boys with "the naked cowboy" in Times Square

subway girls

subway boys

Ev found a good place to change Elliot...

View on the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

Statue of liberty

Its business.....

Sicily - team fockerball Aug 08

2008-10-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

etape 2008....check

2008-10-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Heres a pretty long account of our trip to the Pyraneese to do the Etape du Tour back in July. If your not into cycling, might be best just to check out the pics...

The boys pre-ride:Thomo, Ian, Tom, Billo, Gav and Dickow

pre race shave-down..

After a massive carb fest cooked up by em and annabel and a last minute decision to shave the legs to get into the spirit we woke at 4.30am to the sound of heavy rain! so all our well laid plans over the last 6 months were sort of thrown into disarray with the realisation that we hadnt bought rainjackets! Suddenly our pink and white lycra outfit choice wasnt looking too appropriate either! After some last minute kit adjustments, i filled my jersey with 9 gels, 6 energy bars and 7 drink sachets to keep the energy levels up during the ride and we were in the car on our way to the start line. 7000 riders decended on the smallish french town of Pau and despite it being just 5.30am the roads were packed with riders on flashy bikes all making last minute adjustments (and impromtue toilet stops!) before the ride kicked off from the Pau Hippodrome.

At 6am the first gun went off for the start but we didnt get going till about 6.45am, only 163kms to go... Thomo stuck in a bike traffic jam

Despite the constant rain, it was a great feeling to be finally on our way riding in a 7000 person peleton on smooth roads with no traffic. The first 100km's went realy well, i was riding with Thomo and Billo, there wern't many hills and we had all avoided punctures (we saw people get punctures as early as the first 500m of the race!).

Stopping for some mid race provisions provided by Annabel and Em in the team support car

We had been taking it realtively easy in order to try and save ourselves for the 2 big mountains coming up and after 100kms and 3 1/2 hrs riding the first one finally arrived, the Tourmalet.

The Tourmalet as it normally looks (without the cloud!) the day before the race

It was a wierd feeling as soon as you start climbing beacuse suddenly all the noise that had been going on for the previous 4 hours suddenly stopped, no chatting between riders, no gear changes (we were all in our bottom gears!), no bikes whizzing by, just an eiry quietness as hundereds of riders pushed themselves against the steep 8-12% slopes. The first few ks felt good and i was surprised and spurred on by how many people i was passing, but after 10ks my legs were starting to feel the burn! The number of people walking their bikes started to increase, and the temptation to join them increased with it! But i was pretty determined to make it to the rest stop 3kms from the top. The mist and rain also made it hard to keep going, as there were no distractions and you had no idea how many more corners you had to go.when i finally got to the old ski station at La Mongie it was chaos, people everywhere trying to get energy drinks, bananna's and sandwiches, and bikes and bodies scattered all over the place. i grabbed a bananna and drink and collapsed on a heap on the floor for some rest.

The next 3 kms to the top felt like it took forever, but finally i made it to the top... and i was stuffed! after a 5 minute break stretched into 15 i decided it was time to take on the decent.

Dickow at the top

I was pretty disapointed in how long i'd wasted on my 2 stops and was determined to make up some time. Easily said, but with just a little guard rail seperating you from a steep rocky drop off the side of the mountain it takes a while to get your confidence up! But the hardest part wasnt the corners but the temperature. After 5 hours riding i was saturated and the temp at the top of the Tourmalet wouldnt have been much above 5 degrees, so as we decended all i could think about was how cold it was! As we got further down the mountain the roads started to straigthen out and the speed increased. At one point i got up to 75 kph, but was quickly bought back to earth when 2 frenchies flew past me at what must have been at least 85. Apparently the pro's get close to 100kpm!I managed to find a mid sized peleton at the bottom of the Tourmalet and sat on the back and slipstreamed to try and save energy for the last climb. I knew i needed to keep eating and drinking to get energy on board for the last mountain the Hautacam but the taste of the my 5th choc chip energy bar of the day was starting to loose its appeal and i was so sick of the sickly sweet taste of my energy drink and gels.

Having said that i was quite enjoying the scenery as we cruised through the valley, with rock cliffs on one side and a beatiful river running down the other side, and more importantly not needing to peddle very hard and getting sucked along by the peleton .

the picturesque ride along the valley

Just as i started to feel better the Hautacam came into sight. The crowds of spectators started to grow and the early part of the climb made u feel like a pro with people either side of the road chering you on. The excitement of being almost there was dampened pretty quickly though as the road steepened. The Hautacam is a bit shorter at just 16kms but way steeper than the Tourmalet and the signs on the side of the road that tell you the gradient of the next km are pretty deceptive. We rode past one sign that said next km av 12%, thats fine except for when you start going downhill for the for the first 200m and realise that the next 800m is going to be much steeper than 12%!Despite having to stop twice for cramps in my legs i finally got to the 1km to go mark and found a sudden burst of energy and stood up on the pedals the whole way to the end. It was a great feeling to ride under the finish banner and be finally done! 168kms, over 2600m of climbing and 8 and a bit hours later its all over!

almost there..

Despite the sore legs and a mild case of hypathermia it was definately a great day.

It was great to see everyone at the end and we had a great night eating high fat food and chatting about all the highs and lows of the day.The next week the pro's took on the same course in the Tour De France with Cadel Evans taking the yellow jersey after completing it around 3.5 hours faster than us!

Bring on la Marmotte 2009!

http://www.sportingtours.co.uk/events/marmotte.html

Portugal with the Youngs

2008-08-02T04:21:00.001-07:00

Just came back from a week in Portugal with Sal and Andy Young. Here's a little highlights vid courtesy of AY....

3 weeks to go!

2008-06-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Just 3 weeks to go till the Etape de tour!

Here's a few photos from our weekend away to the Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain to stay at our friend Annabels mum's beautifull hillside villa and do a bit of hill training with Tom (Annabels husband and fellow etaper), while the girls did a bit of tanning!

On the first day we decided we would take on the Sierra Nevada ski station. We climbed from 700m above sea level to 3,200m over 45km of near constant riding uphill. it was pretty tough work near the top as the altitude made it really hard to beathe once we got past the ski lifts. Our plan was to ride over the top but we ended up losing the road 400m short of the peak as it was totally covered in snow, and although we tried hiking through the snow to re find the road higher up/on the other side of the mountain, the sight of all the other hikers around in full mountain kit with ski poles and balaclavas while we were taking it on with lycra shorts, bikes and cycling shoes kind of put us off!

The decent back down was amazing, it took us over 4hours to ride up but only 40 mins to ride back down! riding downhill for 40 mins with hardly any cars, a smooth road and a beautiful view is a phenominal experience.

Second day involved more climbing, a bit steeper and a bit shorter, but really hot! touched 30 degrees while we were out there which feels very hot when you have been living in the UK for a few years! and to finish it all off we spent the rest of the afternoon playing pool volleyball, not a bad way to spend the weekend!

First blog of 2008... better late than never!

2008-03-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

It may already be April but better late than never for the first blog of 2008!
Here are a collection of pics from the months just gone including our trip back to Sydney, a weekend skiiing in Australia and a visit from the Don.

It's been a busy start to the year in all respects but life is good. The weather is finally warming up, daylight saving has begun, Gav's sister Lysh and her hubby Tim have arrived and are moving around the corner from us in London, and we have lots of visitors and Euro trips to look forward to in summer - so 2008 is looking good!

Drinks at the Opera Bar in Sydney. The sun decided to shine which was a bit of a treat as our 2 weeks back were pretty rainy and cloudy on the whole! Not cool after we were desperate to escape the long British winter!

One of the highlights of the trip home - seeing Em and Tom tie the knot. It was a very happy day. Em looked absolutely stunning and Tom looked fab too!

After all the talk we were keen to check out the new Shore Club in Manly. The combo of sea views, warm sea breeze, good drinks and great friends is definitely something we miss! Shared a cheeky cocktail there with the Dixons.

Was great to finally meet little James Fish. He's a pretty cool little guy and Clare is looking amazing as a new mum!

Lunch at The Bower.

Another big highlight of the trip was meeting our beautiful little baby niece, Amelia and of course catching up with her proud parents, Natalie and Matt. Big Uncle Gav makes her look very small!

Amelia at her christening with mum.

Managed to squeeze in a trip up to Copa and got to celebrate Warnsey's b'day with him.

Pre-wedding girls night out with Robbo.

Lunch at the Newport Arms with Em's parents and grandparents.

We were lucky enough to be treated to dinner at Tetsuyas for Merv's belated 60th. It was gud!

Gav went for a big bike ride with the boys. Starting at 5.30am in Manly to Etalong (near gosford), across to palmy on the ferry then back to manly! It was tough, especially after a late night at the opera bar the night before!

bit of off road riding...

waiting for the ferry

Onto our ski weekend in Austria....

The Austrian Ahlberg Alps were very pictureque and the snow was good. We stayed in a place called Lech and were able to ski both the resort of Lech and St Anton.

Trying to track down a bit of the fresh stuff.

Lunch on the mountain. Good schnitzel and beer!

The Austrians get really stuck into their apres-ski which makes for a great fun atmosphere and lots of singing, table-dancing and stein-drinking at about 4pm in the afternoon! It's crazy!

This is the way they serve and sell beer amongst the crowds outside the bar. This guy has to force his way through the crowds and actually take money/serve the beer while carrying this gigantic tray of drinks (Half litre steins, shots and gluwein!). Pretty bloody impressive!

Back to London... dinner out with the Don. I tried to find some other pics to post but they all involved too many bad blue steels and too many cocktails! Was really cool to spend some time with Kate in London.

Last blog for 2007

2007-12-31T08:29:00.000-08:00

Its been a while between blogs so thought we'd chuck a few pics on from the last couple of months.

In Nov we had a last minute weekend away in Paris.

We discovered this cool rent a bike system where you could pick up bikes from these unmanned stations for a Euro, and drop them off at any bike parking station all around town (almost every second corner!). Great and healthy way to get around and see the city. And over the whole weekend we didn't see a single vandalised bike (I wonder if that would be possible in Sydney or London?!).

Checking out the sites on the bikes!

We also had a chance to taste the much acclaimed Margaux for a decent price - it went straight into our top 3! A beautiful red from the Bordeaux part of France, it's a real winner!

And of course the cheese is always pretty good in france!

In December we had a quick one week visit from Em Robbo who was over in London for a fly by work trip. Not bad eh. It was great to catch up with her ahead of her wedding to Tom in Feb!

Dinner with Em Robbo and the team in London.

V cheesy photo in Borough markets.

And finally we celebrated Christmas with Em's extended family, the Dessons, in Guildord, just south of London. It was great to be able to spend christmas with family and they put on a pretty awesome spread! Gav now has a few extra kg's to loose before the Etape in July!

A flamin' good christmas pud!

Christmas blue steel.

Hapy new year to everyone and wishing you all a fantastic 2008!

Mrs Annabel and Tom Brigman

2007-10-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of the best things for us about living in London again has been the great chance to renew the friendships with some of my old mates from England from when I lived here over 10 years ago.

Last weekend we were able to go to one of my old friend Annabels wedding to Tom.

Annabel looking beautiful in her wedding dress.

It was a great wedding out in the country (Shropshire!) a good 200+ks north or london in an awesome old country manor.

Here are a few pics of the night and the action on the dancefloor:

Tom greeting the guests. Tom's also signed up for the Etape too!

Mr and Mrs Brigman working it on the dancefloor.

The old Enfield contingent. Gav, Paul, Paul W, Anna, Em, Kirst and Katie

Gav and Paul

The team on the dancefloor.

Ive got to get on of those "real" bow ties. Somehow the pre-tied bow-tie doesnt quite cut it!

We dont have a car in london so we decided to join up to this new car club called streetcar (http://www.mystreetcar.co.uk/) for the trip. Basically you pay a small one off membership fee and then u can hire a VW Golf for about 4 pound an hour. A whole lot cheaper than buying a car! The cars are scattered all over londons streets (there is about 5 within a km of our place) and all you do is book over the internet, rock up to the car with a special pin no and grab the keys out of the glovebox and you are away.

All went well and the wedding was great until we got in the car the next day to drive home only to realise that the car wouldnt start. At first i thought i had just left the lights on (classic GP) but further inspection suggested that i hadnt and the battery was fine. After a few calls to streetcar we discovered that there was a problem with their digital locking system, so all we needed was a mechanic to come out and fix it up. Easy if your in London, not so good your in the middle of nowhere.

Its never good when u are stuck with a broken down car a long way from home, surrounded by cows!

Em hangin out with the cows...

Not happy Jan

Despite the wait we still had an awesome weekend and wish Annabel and Tom all the best in their new adventure together as Mr and Mrs Brigman!

Etape 2008

2007-10-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

The course has been released, stage 10 of the Tour, Pau to Hautacam in the Pyraneese. Ah no....thats one big hill in the middle!

http://www.letapedutour.com/2008/ETDT/presentation/us/parcours.htm

New challenge - Etape du Tour 2008

2007-10-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

After watching the Tour de France this year both on the TV and when they came past us in stage 17 in the Dordogne, Ive officially caught the cycling bug. Anyway over a few beers at the pub with some mates i somehow convinced myself that i could give it a go and do a stage myself! (in case you couldnt guess this is Gav writing here rather than Em!)

The Etape du Tour is a stage of the Tour De France (typically done a week before the real riders take it on) and is open to the general public. Each year around 8500 people from all over the world take part. The Etape du Tour features roads closed to traffic, and free food and water stops and is organised by the Tour de France organisers.

Last yrs stage was one of the toughest of the whole tour de France. Covering around 2o0km and including five huge Pyrenean cols (mountain climbs) all in 35 degree heat. The tallest summit was over 1700m, while overall you had to climb 4000m of hills and the average rider took around 10 hrs to finish!

Anyway this yrs stage is being announced on thursday but as a result of excess demand you have to commit yourself before the stage is announced. So as of today I am officially locked in!

Good news is that a few friends (including Caius) have also fired up so there should be a few other people to share the pain with. Anyway in preperation im going to have to loose some serious KGs and put in a lot of kms on the bike to get ready so plan is to keep a bit of a running summary of how the training is going so i can look back on it after hopefuly completing the race in July next year. So stay tuned.... only 8.5 mths to go!

In the meantime if your into cycling, check out this guys blog of his experiences and lead up to doing the etape du tour this year...

http://etape2007.blogspot.com/

I wanna be a wallaby

2007-09-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Last thursday i was suddenly faced with the realisation that i had absolutely no-one to watch the rugby with on the weekend because everybody was going to the game in Cardiff. So I decided if you cant beat them you might as well join them!

A quick search on ebay, a chance phone call to Dave Macca, and suddenly I had a couple of 9th row tickets, a spot in a car to Cardiff and a mate to watch it with. Good times.

The Millenium stadium in Cardiff is pretty awesome and when 70,000 Welsh fans start singing "bread of heaven" together it sends a shiver down your spine. Just a bit more classy than our Aussie Aussie Aussie! Having said that its even better when they all go quiet because we are wiping them off the field!

Anyway great game but one of the funniest moments was after the game when we all pitchside applauding the wallabies as they did a lap of honour around the field. Suddenly next to us in the crowd is this big guy dressed up in all the wallaby gear, mouthguard, footy boots and everything. He managed to con the security guard that he was a real wallaby and then spent the next 5 mins high fiving the players on the field, before the security realised he wasnt for real and haulled him off.

Very Chaser-esque!
Classic!

Some of the Aussie contingent. Tom, Macca, Dazman, Jo, Mike and Me above and Nick White, Nick and Tara below

The wannabe Wallaby
He's the guy on the far right on the pitch

Last hoorah of summer 07

2007-09-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

A destination that's been on our to do list for a while is Sardinia (Italian island south of Corsica) and late August was the perfect time to head there to soak up some much needed vitamin D before the long cold UK winter hits. With a cheeky flight stop in Positano on the Amalfi Coast on the way home, it was a perfect way to finish off the euro summer on a high.

First stop the beautiful Sardinia. Crystal clear water, blue skies and unbelievably fresh Italian food.

Sunset in Alghero

An old fort off La Pelosa beach near Stintino on the far North Coast of Sardinia.

Our secluded pad for 5 days on the East coast of Sardinia. Just 5 mins walk from the beach, awesome views and no one in sight. Noice.

Hanging out on the beach where we discovered that Italians never use suncream, opting for the coconut oil instead. As a result everyone seems to be ridiculously tanned, so much so that even after our two weeks of lying on the beach we still felt albino in comparison! If only we still had the ozone layer left in Australia!

After plenty of time on the beach we also learnt the art of beach tennis (using little wooden racquets and a rubber ball) which Em actually proved to be quite a natural at despite her normal lack of ball skills!

Lots of beaches!

What is it about gelato that somehow you don't feel guilty about eating it all day long as you're in Italy! Here's Em getting stuck into our third gelato stop in one day, and its only 2pm!

Next stop was Positano on the Amalfi Coast on mainland Italy. It was quite a relief to arrive there in one piece after a hair-raising bus journey along the winding road cut into the sheer cliff faces with just a thin rail separating us from 200m drop below. The overturned crashed car we passed on the way didn't do much to ease the nerves either!

Positano is like a bit like Cinque Terra but with a lot more bling. Lots of Italians all dressed up in white, with gold jewellery and aviator ray bans. You'd be quite bitter if you didn't get a room with a view here as the whole town is built into the steep cliffs that jut into the sea.

Our balcony

One downside is that the beach are all black and pebbled, but water is a beautiful aqua blue as a result.

Nice spot for a beer!

We also took a day trip boat tour to Capri.

Stopped for a quick dip in a blue grotto on the way (not "the" blue grotto though, which was closed again!)

Well that's it for the holidays now for a while :(

Grand Cru, Grand Cru

2007-09-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

After an absolute cracker of a summer in the UK last year, this year's summer has been woefull! Lots of cloud, rain and too much jumper wearing in the peak of summer. But the beauty of living in london is that you can jump on a ryanair flight for 20 quid and be in the south of France in just 45mins where the sunshine is a bit more reliable!

So it was pretty exciting for us after a pretty dull summer to have 4 of our great mates from Aus coming over to join us for a week and a half of sun and fun in the Dordogne region in south west France.

While the trip had been planned for some time, the logistics pre-departure were a little less organised. So with the arrival of AJT, the Kang, Mike "Bad Bad" Way and Bardots it was a bit of a concern as to where to put everyone! Lets just say that 6 people in our little one bedroom flat is a tres tres tight squeeze ...and leaves a hell of a funky smell in the morning! Not again thomo...

The boys getting ready to snooze in some v cramped conditions!

We stayed in an awesome old converted barnhouse in the Dordogne surrounded by what seemed like a couple of acres of manacured lawn and a massive pool all to ourselves!The pad

A good part of the week was spent eating. Whether it be the local french cheese, salami, pate, or taking turns trying to outcook each other with a series of great dinners including Mikes awesome margaret de canard. We also sampled a fair few of the local vinos and beers, earning us a few comments from the owners about how often they were having to clear out our bottle bins!

A few of the other highlights included a trip to St Emillon in Bordeaux on the advise of the Forta's who had visted on their trip last year. Great Merlot (never thought I'd say that!). We also spent an afternoon canoing down the mighty Dordogne river checking out the castles as we paddled, riding bikes past the sunflowers and even had a chance to check out the Tour de France which despite the 3 hour wait was well worth it even if the riders flew past in less than a 30 seconds!

But the best times of all were probably just catching up and having a lot of laughs with great mates that we hadn't seen for ages.

After a great week in france, the boys headed down for an awesome 3 days in San Sebastian (Spain) for some surf, late night tapas and a few v memorable nights out on the town.

San sebastian

Lots of fun and cant wait for another team holiday next summer!
Who's in?!!

The chicks take on Amsterdam!

2007-08-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is a very delayed post but a few months back Tara and I took off to Amsterdam while Gav was studying away for his CFA (everything still crossed for results which are due out soon!). We had a fab time checking out all the wierd and wonderful sights of the city and enjoyed the novelty of staying on a houseboat on The Amstel - the main canal that runs through the city.

Taking a canal boat tour. We may look quite relaxed here but we were actually freezing! Didn't quite dress right for 16 degrees!

We ventured out of the city for a day to check out the annual Keukenhof tulip festival.

Tara getting a bit cheeky at Keukenhof!

Amsterdam by night.

Say...what?!

2007-05-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Had a surprise visit from our mate Rich Say from Australia, who dropped into London at the start of his Euro trip. Despite just travelling 20 hours from Thailand Rich still managed to fire up for a few beers and was in great spirits despite having just got off the plane!

Rich has still got it!

We also had a great night out a few weeks ago to celebrate Catherine, Em's cousin's, 30th birthday and what better place to celebrate than at a 70's roller disco! Let's just say that rollerskating is much harder than we remember, and there were plenty of laughs and memorable stacks!

Em with the birthday girl!

Gav and Mike getting into the spirit!

Under the Tuscan sun

2007-05-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of our recent trip to Tuscany over Easter with Em's mum and dad and Aunty Di and Uncle Greg. We spent a night and day checking out Florence and then headed to the Tuscan hills where mum and dad organised a lovely villa for us all to stay in. Gav had to do a bit of CFA study but it was certainly much easier hitting the books in a singo and shorts overlooking a Tuscan valley than sitting in our little London flat with grey skies outside!

With plenty of sunshine and unusually warm weather for April it was nice to give our pastey english winter skin a bit of much needed vitamin D!

Florence

Big man, little car

The setting of our villa in Tignano in the Chianti region

Our villa - nice spot for some study!

The gang - dad's sister Di, Greg, mum and dad

Tasting the local Chianti at the very appropriately named Casa Emma!

Emma's vineyards

The towers of San Gimignango, the ultimate case of keeping up with the Jones' - one family builds a tower, the neighbours get jealous and before you know it you have 13 tall towers in one tiny town!

Paul and Anna

2007-05-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, our mates Paul and Anna got married and invited us along to share the celebrations. It was a great night and they both looked pretty glam!
here's a couple of pics from the night.

Mr and Mrs Wigget

A few of the lovely ladies

Kirst hangin out with the boys.

You cant beat a good "blue steel" on the coach on the way home! Paul, Kirst and Em giving us their best shot.

who's next....i dont know but ive heard rumours?!! :)

Sydney re-visited

2007-04-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics from our trip back to Sydney a few weeks ago.

While Gav headed back to London after a fly-by four day visit, I was lucky enough to have an extra week to spend hanging out with fam and friends and soaking up the 30 degrees blue sky days every day! A highlight of the week was spending a few days up in Port Stephens at mum and dad's new beach pad - just a stumble from Corlette beach and the perfect spot to spend some quality time chilling out and catching up with the folks.

Gav managed to squeeze in a few cheeky ones at the Wharf bar

Mum and I walking along the bay at Port Stephens

Mum and dad Richter + Kenji enjoying the serenity...

A great place to kick back with a beer and a book - the front balcony at the beach house

The ER's and Mrs Fish - the ferret lives on!

Reason for the season

2007-04-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

We are just about to head off with Em's folks for the easter break to Florence. Should be great, but at the same time its easy to forget the reason why most of the world celebrates by having two days off at this time of the year.

Here's a reminder...

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

http://christianity.about.com/od/holidaytips/qt/whatiseaster.htm

Lysh & Tim's wedding

2007-04-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a really short trip back to Australia (4 days for Gav!) to celebrate the wedding of Gav's sister Lysh and her new husband Tim.

The wedding was held in the Peacock Gardens, and after 6 months of almost non-stop gardening Mum and Dad had the place looking pretty smick!

It was an awesome day. Everyone had a huge smile on their face as Lysh walked down the aisle looking beautiful and Tim was looking his usual suave self.

It was fantastic for us to get a chance to catch up with my cousins and relatives from Melbourne and Perth that we don't get a chance to see too often, and most importantly to see my sister get married to such a top bloke. We wish you guys a long and happy life together!

Here's some of the shots from the day (the good ones courtesy of Brett):

Gav with Nan , Norm and Ky

Lysh and Brettster

Walking down the "aisle"

The moment we'd all been waiting for.

One more addition to the fam, only one left to go!

The wedding party

Mr and Mrs Mornane

It was a hot day, so the Coronas were flowing!

You ring, we bring

2007-02-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

Theres one great thing about indian and thai places here in London.. they all do home delivery. This is especially useful when you come home cold and tired from a days work and can't be bothered cooking.

The only thing is, we have discovered a bit of an unfortunate trend occuring with our indian orders..... no matter how hard we try to diversify our order or restaurant of choice, the 2 dishes we order always arrive looking exactly the same, whether it be butter chicken (nothing like the Aussie version), lamb Korma, rogan Josh or the Chicken Makani that we tried to branch out with tonight!

leaves me with a big hankering for the old Indian Pearl in Manly!

.... still tastes pretty good though, as shown by the small amount of photographic evidence left!

Les Arcs Round 2

2007-02-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a great 4 days skiing at Peisey Vallandry, Les Arcs, the French ski resort where we worked our season last year.

It got off to a slightly slow start when Gav managed to get a lost a few times without even leaving the Europcar carpark, which culminated in us being trapped between boomgates in the maintenance and carwash section! But after sweet-talking the confused maintenance man, we were freed and set off for the slopes in the Renault 'Kangoo' - our bakery van style hire car (apparently a VW Golf or equivalent!?) complete with overhead lockers in the back!

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with our good mates Caz and Dave who run a ski chalet business in Peisey. It was a real treat to be chalet guests this time and on the recieving end of some fantastic food and service.

Despite our lack of practice, our mates Claire and Dom and Nick and Jules who we worked with last year, and who are back running chalets again for this season, had organised for our first day back on the slopes to be a guided off-piste tour with our french friend and instructor, Fred P. So 3rd run of the day saw us taking on one of the biggest off-piste runs Les Arcs has to offer! Despite the lack of recent snow Fred still managed to find us some powder to make the rock hopping all worth it!

The rest of the week was spent enjoying fantastic food and hospitality from Caz, Dave and Gill and the rest of the guys at Chalet 73 and generally getting stuck into the French Alpine lifestyle again. Although the snow wasn't the best we'd seen it, there was enough to have a good time and the dose of sunshine, great company and some good fast runs made up for the lack of powder!

Jules, Em, Mel, Fred, Nick, Dom and Claire getting ready to take on the Bellcote mountain again.

Em surveying the view

Some of the scenery on the way down the Bellcote.

Enjoying a hearty french meal at our old favourite, L'Armoise restaurant, with Caz, our old boss Mel and the rest of the Ski Hiver gang.

Dave, Gav and Nick.

Dom getting stuck into the Groll.

Dave busting some air in the board park

Em checking out the view from the top

It's snow time!

2007-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a very mild winter so far with average day time temp around 14-15 degrees - not much different from a Sydney winter! But this week it all changed... it's been freezing and this morning we woke up to the great surprise of a completely white and snowy garden! We are clearly still tourists at heart as our immediate reaction was to jump out of bed, grab the camera and run outside to take lots of pics of our Narnia-like landscape (well kind of anyway). Unfortunately Em got a little over-excited and slipped on the first step out the door, giving her a lovely big black bruise on her butt!

The good news is that we are heading to the Alps next week for a bit of skiing/boarding action and to catch up with our mates in Peisey/Les Arcs. While the snow here in London melted by lunchtime, it's apparently looking pretty good in the Alps after a very slow start to the season. So looks like we might have timed it ok!

The back garden dressed in white - bit of a contrast to the summer BBQs!

Gav on the street outside our place

Summer fun in Sydney - Part 1

2007-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

We just got back from an awesome 2 and a half weeks in the big brown land of Oz. Lots of good times catching up with friends and family and generally enjoying having the sun around again. Here are some of the pics...

Catching up for old times sake at the indian in Turramurra with Ben, Beth and EG.

Celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary by staying at the Quay Grand overlooking Cicular Quay. Lysh and Tim also dropped by for a celebratory glass of champers.

summer fun in Sydney - Part 2

2007-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home, view from the ferry to our old pad.

Opening the pressies on Christmas Day at the Richters.

Dinner with the Dickens...
Fort and Jens Bling party.

Stevo's stylin it with the ladies, Sal, Em and Anne-Marie

Getting ready to take on the 4 Gorges ride, 80 k's of fun! Beautiful scenery, hardly any traffic and 4 massive hills, theres no better way to spend a summers day!

Drinks at the Opera Bar in circular quay, complete with our own fireworks display

Ev, Gav and Simo's

Dickow, Warnsey, Kang, AY and AJT.

see a few more pics in the next post....

Summer fun in Sydney - Part 3

2007-01-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more pics of our holiday back in Sydney...

Enjoying a sunset bevvy at the Wharf Bar with the Forts.

Mr and Mrs Warnes dishing out the good stuff at a dinner party with the Youngs

Ev and Nat getting ready to head off on their round the world adventure. (NB: new link added to this site on the right hand side to watch their travels)

Em G, The Kang and Caz at Cerutis.

Em and the class of 96 enjoying a night out on the town and dinner at the Barking Frog in Manly.

Dinner with the Warnses, Em Robbo and her new man Tom

After a couple of couple of years delay we finally got around to our promise to Gav's mum to throw her out of a plane for her birthday! Here's Lysh, Mum and Brett fresh from having decended 15,000 feet! Mum's trip was made all the more scarey by the fact that her tandem skydive instructor had had his name changed by depol to Fully Sic! (no joking!)

Love is in the air...

2007-01-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

Love was definitely in the air during our recent trip back to Sydney and we were lucky enough to celebrate two weddings in the first 3 days of being there!

First off the mark was the wedding of Em's good friend from uni, Fran and her (new) husband, Jon. With the ceremony and reception at Athol Hall overlooking the harbour, it was the perfect setting for a great night of celebration and a very picturesque homecoming for us!

A couple of days later, Em had the special job of being bridesmaid for her sister Natalie's wedding to Matt - the main reason for our trip back home. While the weather was looking a little touch and go the day before (felt almost as cold as London!), the rain held off for a lovely garden ceremony followed by a beautiful reception on the water at Brooklyn.

Both weddings were a highlight of the trip and a great chance to catch up with family and friends while enjoying a party! Both brides looked exceptional - and the grooms looked pretty sharp too! Here are some pics.

Fran and Jon saying their vows

Em with stylish ladies Clare, Caz and Katherine (left to right)

Natalie and Matt as the new Mr and Mrs Rowe!

Getting ready to leave the house before the wedding

Another lovely couple! (Mr and Mrs Richter)

Festive season

2006-12-10T04:31:00.000-08:00

You would think that london would start getting a bit depressing around now. It gets dark at 4.30pm, it's about 10 degrees and there's plenty of drizzle, but somehow London starts to look pretty good in winter. The christmas lights are on everywhere and the party season is definitely in full swing! Add to that a cranking start in the Ashes and things are looking pretty good!

Having said that we are still hanging for our couple of weeks in the sun in Aus in just 2 days time! Oh yeah! Looking forward to seeing you all very soon.

Heres a few photos from the last few weeks.

Em with Kirst and Annabel at a dinner party at Annabel & Tom's pad, just around the corner from our place.

Gav taking on the indoor snow slopes as part of a analyst property tour to Milton Keynes. Not quite Les Arcs but sure beats a day in the office.

Below are some pics of Christmas dinner with the team last Friday night. Roast turkey included!

Showing off the chris cringle pressies...

bruder

2006-12-10T04:18:00.000-08:00

Gav's bro brett was in town the other week for a mate's wedding. It was great to catch up with him and his mate Dave.

Here are a couple of pics from our dinner out at our local turkish restaurant "Gallipoli" complete with a turkish shisha pipe.

Socceroos

2006-11-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

Despite the Ashes being about to start back in Oz, Gav still mananged to see a bit of live aussie sport recently with the team when the Socceroos took on fellow world cup quarter finalists the Ghana Black Stars.

Nick and Katy, Caius and Tara joined the supporters crew and we were treated to a great soccer game (cant quite bring myself to call it "football" yet) with the socceroos dominating for most of the match despite missing quite a few of their star players. It was a great atmosphere with almost 14,000 mostly Aussie supporters and a fair few vocal Ghanaians (I had to check the spelling of that one on the internet!) playing the drums throughout the game! Not quite Eurokang in Germany standard but still good fun! And its even good to hear an Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi when you havent heard it for a while!

The Socceroos took the lead in the first half, through a John Aloisi penalty and came close to scoring again after some great shots. Ghana came back in the second half and a Schwarzer (our goalkeeper) mistake let them back into the Game. Despite some close chances the game finished as a draw at 1 all.

It was a great to see the team in action and I can see how they have gained so much support at home and given the way the Wallabies are playing at the moment they may be our best hope to be our next World Cup winners!

The supporters crew

The Socceroos defending a corner.

Mr Bump

2006-10-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your well wishes, thoughts and prayers regarding Gav's recent surgery on his ear. All went well, and Gav's now feeling pretty good although a little bored while resting up at home.

He was pretty lucky and was put up in a 5 star hotel style hospital room with sky sports, regular 3 course meals and room service, which made it pretty tough to leave! Sure beats the old NHS!

He's looking forward to a speedy recovery, and being able to be active again!

Lumpi ist mein hund

2006-10-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

We have just spent a great weekend in the Rhine valley in Germany with Tara and Caius.
Just a short 1 hour flight from london it was the perfect place to chill out, drink some great local Reisling, have plenty of laughs and eat a few too many schnitzels! It was a pretty amazing place with steep vineyard covered mountains either side of the river and a crazy amount of towering castles around every corner.

We managed to get by despite our very limited German which was restricted to: Guten Tag (good day), Auf Wiedersen (good bye), Danke (thank you), Sehr gut (very good) and the key one.... Ich bin Tara, Lumpi ist mein hund (My name is Tara and my dog is called Lumpi)!

At Castle Rheinfels in St Goar

The Rhine river

Reisling vineyards - don't know how they harvest without slipping down the hill!

Sehr romantisch!

Crossing the river on the car ferry

St Goar with yet another castle casually perched in the background!

Sehr Gut!

Having a bad day.....?

2006-09-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ever had a bad day? Let me tell you about mine (Gav's) on my first ever overseas business trip....

It all starts when I leave the office with a work colleague at around 2 for our 4.40 arvo flight to Budapest for a conference. I managed to juggle the underground train system and safely boarded a train for the 40 min train trip to Luton airport. Finally arrive at Luton station on time, help my colleague get her bag down, grab my suit bag, say good bye to the bloke I'm sitting next to and jump off the train. I catch the escallator down from the platform only to get the dreaded question "where is your bag?"...bugger... left it on the train!!

I run back up the platform just in time to see the train disappear into the distance. I managed to get the station master to call ahead but it was too late, the train had already gone past the next station and was on its way to Bradford (a good 30 mins away). For fear of terrorism they wouldn't even get somebody to take it off and send it back down on the next train.

So after a bit of uhming and ahhing I made the decision to fly to Budapest anyway. After all I've still got my suitbag with 2 fresh shirts and I could always buy some underwear and socks when I'm there. No worries.

So I jump on the shuttle bus that takes us from the train station to airport, and join the 30 min line for check in. We are just about to check in when I get a call from the stationmaster. The guy I was sitting next to on the train has turned up with my bag at the station! Great news! Disaster averted. He says he's going to bring it over to the airport. So I get out of the check-in line and wait at the shuttle bus stop for my bag to arrive.

After 5 mins I get a call from my colleague saying that they are going to close the check-in counter in 1 min and if I don't get there in time I won't be able to take the flight. So I have to run back into the check-in area without my bag, jump the queue in front of 30 unhappy people and beg the lady to let me check in. She finally abides but forces me to check my suit bag as luggage, despite me expressing concerns about its sturdiness. Five mins after that I'm finally re-united with my bag, only prob is I can't check it in (as check-in is closed) and it's too big for carry on. So I grab a few pairs of undies and socks and leave the bag in a locker until my return. Only problem is my return flight in 2 days time doesn't fly into Luton Airport, but a different airport, Gatwick, a good 2 1/2 hour train trip away on the complete other side of London! Not a good thought for the trip home.

Anyway I arrive at the boarding gate just in time but in a pool of sweat only to find the plane is delayed for a good 40 mins. Flight goes fine. Upon arrival I go to baggage collection and after watching everyone else collect their luggage I finally see my suit bag come around the corner.... with the zipper open and my two clean white shirts stuck in the black rubber moving belt...Not so white any more!

Next time I think I'll take the bus!

Old friends, good times

2006-08-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is a bit belated, but here are some pics of our recent visitors to London - Kingos in early July and then the Dixons in late July/August.

Kingos' visit inspired a trip to sunny Brighton with the Forts, complete with a long lunch and a wander around the cheesy Brighton Pavilion. Let's just say it's not quite Manly beach but the pebbles were surprisingly comfortable to lie on!

Was great to catch up and hear all about Kang's World Cup whirlwind adventures and all the latest news from home. Although we must say, Kang, you are well and truly due for an update on the Eurokang blog!

Beers on the beach

The boys preparing to brave the English channel!

Kang!?!

We were also fortunate enough to have a tanned and healthy looking Mitch and TJ come to crash on our sofa bed as part of their recent Euro adventure. Spent a great four days catching up, chilling out and sampling some London sights and sounds (including the world's best human beatbox - never heard anything like it... ask Mitch for a sample of 'Groove is in the Heart'!).

Post a curry dinner in the famous Brick Lane (free rice free rice!)

Tinks & ER on a night out with the Dixons

A bit of blue steel in the backyard

Enjoying the beach in the centre of London!

Dickens loves his cider!!

Gud

2006-08-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

You can't beat a good vino.

Thomo, AY, Fort and Dad this one is for you..

'96 Chapel Hill, McLaren Vale Shiraz. Our rating = 5 stars

...Pity you cant buy it very easily over here!

Bev's Bucks

2006-08-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots from Bev's bucks weekend up at copa during Gav's recent trip back to Sydney.

It was an awesome weekend of crankin surf, a 49-nil wallabies victory, a bit of trivia, a massive meatfest barbie and a few beers. No better way to send the Bevinator off into marriage! After being away for almost a year it was great to hang out with the fellas and see that great mates never change!

Nice work AJT, Bardots, Jake and the Kang on organising a top w/e.

Boys checkin the surf. Which way is the beach Roggers!?

Team surf.

Bev shakin his beehind....

Bev and Bozza

Heading out for a quick ride in the new lycra to ease the nerves before the big day!

Mr and Mrs Beevanator

2006-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from Ev and Nats wedding. A great day was had by all and we are all sure u guys will have a great marriage with many awesome adventures!

There is also a few other pics from the days leading up to the wedding.

The fellas all looking sharp for the occasion!

GT, Robbo, Warnsey and Roggers at the church

Mr Evan and Mrs Nat Snow! Perfect sunshine for a pretty top couple!

Also getting into the wedding spirit was Gav's sister Lysh and her boyfriend Tim. Here is a pic of Lysh with the Peacock clan at their engagement party in Paddington. We are getting pumped for your wedding in March guys!

The team catching up at Ash's cafe in Manly! U cant beat a good Paesana pasta!

stu's bucks part 2

2006-08-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last 2 photos from stu'd bucks in Deutscheland

The golf ball striked again...

Stu all ready for a night on the town!

Mr and Mrs Barnett

2006-07-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

On one fine Sunday arvo in July, Stuey and Claire tied the knot and committed their lives to each other!

Congrats guys and we are all sure you will have a fantastic life together filled with good times and many great memories.

Here are a few piccies from the celebration that followed!

Stuey and Claire

Kirst, Paul, Stevos and Anna.

A few of the lovely ladies..

The blokes..

And the team...

World Cup fever

2006-06-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

The World Cup, its all over now but it sure was a good party!

Gav's mate Stuey Barnet got married a few weeks ago and to celebrate his last few days as a single man, 12 of the fellas headed over to Hamburg in Germany for a long weekend of football, German beers and plenty of laughs. Despite almost missing the flight and leaving one of the guys behind it was a great 3 days. Staying in a 5 star hotel was definately a major step up from the standard boys holiday away and I think the hotel staff are only just recovering from the 12 of us raiding their lolly jar at reception every few hours!

Here are some of the pics from the weekend

Ghana fans celebrating a goal at the Hamburg Fanfest.

The boys enjoying some of the local produce in one of the beer gardens

Stuey getting into the world cup spirit with a few Portugese and Italian fans

Enjoying a bit of Fussball on the worlds biggest table (11 a side!).

Watching the footy at the Hamburg Fanzone.

Did you throw that coaster?

Paul checking out the local cop car. Good for parking, speed in a car chase...?

Our new pad and other random pics

2006-06-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Just squeezing in a quick update before GP heads back to Oz for a whirlwind week of fun.

Here are a few pics from our new pad in Islington. It's pretty small but it definitely makes the housework easier!

View through our kitchen window

Lounge/dinning/guest bedroom - all in one! Note the fireplace works (even though it's fake gas style) so we're looking forward to cranking this one up in winter!

Back yard and the shed

Em's cousins' dog Isla wandering through a carpet of bluebells in the English countryside near Bramley

Em's uncle doing a little bee keeping in the Bramley back garden (Just for you bev & nat!)

Passing time on Greenwich mean time

Em and Tars

GT on his short london stopover during his latest round the world in 180 day adventure.

Landing in London

2006-06-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

The last two months have gone by very quickly. After leaving the Alps in late April we flew straight into London and had to face the harsh reality of looking for jobs again! Getting back into the suits, skirts and ties for interviews certainly took a bit of getting used to after 8 months of jeans and t-shirts.

Gav has been very fortunate to have lined up a 3 month contract role with his old company First State Investments in the City and is looking to land a permanent role soon. Meanwhile Em is now into her third week of new job with a listed softdrinks manufacturer. One of the company's brands is a key sponsor of Wimbledon, so on Em's third day at work, she was taken on a backstage tour of Wimbledon and then this Friday will be spending the day going between centre court and the corporate suite! Tough life for some! Unfortunately for Gav the hospitality doesn't extend to family.

The accomodation situation has all been going well. We were really lucky to have been able to house hop between the Em's Aunt and Uncle's, family friends the Atkinsons', Tara and Caius' and Em's uni mates Katherine and Sarah . Thanks heaps guys!

But at the same time it was great to have found a place of our own and finally unpack all our bags. We are renting a little 1 bedroom flat in Islington (in zone 2, just north of the centre) which is only a 15 mins bus or tube ride from the centre of the City, or the West End. Islington seems to be a pretty cool neighbourhood so far and we've been checking out all the funky bars and restaraunts at our doorstep.

The flat itself is pretty small, but it definitely feels like home and has a lovely green garden out the back - perfect for a summer barbie and even comes with its own shed! The weather has been cranking and we have had hot (even by Aus standards) sunny days for about a month now! It's been good getting back into the singlet tops and walking around in thongs - a big change from the big jackets and snowboots in the alps!

Catching up with Tam and Jake and the London contingent at Fort and Jen's local pub

The boys firing up the barbie in our garden (shed in the background!)

Chilling out in the backyard

Last days in France... long overdue part 2

2006-06-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Its been a while! Here are a few more parting shots from the alps, even though its starting to feel a bit like a fond distant memory!

When all the fresh snow has been tracked out and the sun is shining, there is no better plan than to grab your board, a few beers and a shovel and set up an off piste "kicker" jump! Soft snow on the other side reduces the chance of injury and the presence of our mate Dave's video camera meant that everybody throws themself of the jump that little bit harder...

Gav hitting the Kicker

Dave having a go at a 360 grab.

Em taking on the jump......

..and Em landing the jump.... well kind of!

Girls hanging out in the sunshine

Clair and Dom, our NZ friends working in one of the other chalets on their last day in the mountains. Poor Caire broke her thumb with 1 week to go in the season! But at least they have another season in Les Arcs to look forward to next year.

Hannah, Dave, Caz and Em at the Mont Blanc watching the seasonaire's end of season ski movie.

Last days in France - Part 1

2006-05-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

With our ski working holiday coming to a close we spent the last week cleaning the chalet, catching up with friends and trying to get as much skiing and boarding in as we possibly could!

The clean up itself was a pretty almighty task. The top 3 worst jobs would have to be;

1 - Cleaning the industrial sized overhead fan - it's amazing how much grease that builds up in this sucker after cooking for 18 people, 6 days a week!

2- Scrubbing the massive (40cm diameter) frypan. While we cleaned this everyday after use, it took 3 hours, 4 pieces of steel wool and a whole lot of elbow grease to get the bottom of the pan looking silver and shiny again. Same story for cleaning the industrial sized oven!

3- Cleaning out the grime from the inside of the commercial-style dishwasher. Not pretty!

But after a solid 2 day cleaning marathon, we managed to pass the chalet inspection by our bosses and were free to enjoy the rest of the week free from working!

Here are some piccies of our last couple of weeks in the Alps.

Em putting the finishing touches on our Friday night entree - "Goats cheese parcels with a reduced balsamic and apricot sauce on a bed of mesculin lettuce". How's that for a mouthfull!

The last supper - Gav eating dinner with a bumper 20 guests on our last night of cooking in the chalet.

Being the last week of skiing, it was time to try all those challenges that we'd been holding off doing through the season. One of those was the water jump - a 15m pool of water about a foot deep where the aim is to fly across, water ski style, without falling in and getting saturated. It was a 30 min ski home from the pool, so a particularly cold journey home if you fell in! The fact that the pool was also set up right next to a restaraunt so that people could laugh at those who failed only raised the stakes higher!

Gav midway across the pool, on his snowboard.

Nick (a mate of ours working for the company) successfully taking on the pool on skis.

Dave and Gav looking very stoked to have made it across the pool without getting wet!

Gav, getting some air in the board park .

First tracks on the Belcotte

2006-05-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

After 4 months in the Alps there was still one mountain face we had yet to take on - the north face of the Belcotte.

Our chalet was named after this very mountain, and we saw it every day as we walked to work, often thinking about how good it would be to ski/ride it. It stands in the neighbouring resort of La Plagne and is rated one of the longest and best off-piste trails in France. It is also quite dangerous if attempted in the wrong conditions and without an experienced guide and had already claimed some lives this season.

And so it was with much excitement, but some hesitation, that we accepted an invitation to ski the mountain with one of our friends at the local ski school. Fred P (a local legend with about 25 years of local guiding experience and a squeaky clean safety record) kindly offered to take the whole Ski Hiver team on a guided morning descent of the mountain for free, complete with our own avalanche rescue beepers.

It takes about one and a half hours to get to the top of the mountain via a series of long cable cars and it almost went disasterously wrong for Gav when one of his snowboard toe bindings broke on the way over there! Fortunately he was able to tie it back together with a shoelace without too much trouble.

Despite being one of the last weeks of the season there was still plenty of snow and we were very blessed to have 25cm of fresh powder the night before to help us on the way! Pics below don't quite do it justice but let's just say, the almost 2000m descent, getting first tracks with not another soul in sight (apart for our group of 7) the whole way down was easily the best and most exhilerating run of our lives! It was an experience that we will definitely never forget.

Fred P, our guide for the day, giving us a few pointers before we started the descent.

Em carving up the fresh powder at the start of the descent.

Gav in action.

The team; Mel (our boss), Paul, Em, Nick, Dom and Gav taking a rest 3/4 of the way down.

Gav, making first tracks down the Belcotte

The Belcotte North Face. The red line tracks our excursion, from 2600m down to 1000m!

Taking a breather at the end as the snow started to get pretty dodgy.

Feeling very stoked having just completed the run of our lives! The avalanche rescue beepers are the blue devices strapped around our chest. Having to wear this gear, combined with a quick run down on what to do in an avalanche, was certainly a good way to get the adrenalin pumping pretty hard before we took off!

Family fun in the Alps

2006-05-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a while between updates unfortunately, but here are some belated photos from our last month in the alps. More to come soon.

The month of April started with a visit from Gav's parents, who came all the way from oz just to spend the week with us. Particularly impressive considering they had to share our tiny studio apartment with us for a few days before moving into a quirky french apartment where they had to deal with a serious water leak and a french plumber who couldn't speak a word of english!

Despite a 7 year absence from skiing the guys were straight into it and managed to time their arrival perfectly with a fresh 30cm dump of snow! It was a week filled with great food and wine between skiing and working, and both mum and dad seemed to be pretty stoked that their bodies had held up to skiing 7 days in a row with no real injuries!

Passing each other at Geneva Airport, Em's sister Natalie and her fiance Matt arrived straight after Gav's parents' departure. Nat and Matt stopped off to see us for 4 days as part of their own 5 week Euro adventure. Despite a 20 hour flight and 3 hour car trip from Geneva, the guys shook off their jetlag and we were very impressed with their enthusiasm to get straight onto the slopes for a bit of tobbogganing!

Having only skied for one weekend before arriving, Matt was very impressive with the ski's, moving straight past the traditional snowplough to high speed carve turns... albeit without learning how to slow down or stop! It was great to catch up with the guys and celebrate their recent engagement. Congratulations!!

Enjoying a picnic in the sun on the slopes

Em, Gav and Merv outside the Blanche Muree restaurant on the slopes

Spring skiing with a beautiful backdrop

Em and Merv in the chalet

Kerry and Merv showing off their style on the slopes, with Kerry in her funky new jacket!

Matt charging down the hill on the snowsurfer!

Nat and Matt on the slopes.

The Richter sisters at our local restaurant "L'Armoise"

March madness

2006-04-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

March has been a great month for us, full of a wide variety of weather conditions, chalet guests and ski outfits!

The weather has been up and down with numerous heavy snowfalls mixed in with some very summer like temperatures (14 degrees on one day!). The first signs of spring inspired us to have our first barbie of the season. Given the BBQ was covered in a couple of metres of snow this proved to be a bit of a challenge but with 6 hungry people on the case we eventually managed to excavate the hot plate, pick away at the 2 inches of ice and 2 hours later we were sitting down to enjoy a selection of smoky barbecued goodies.

The warmer weather has also enabled us to ski in considerably less layers, with Em loving the novelty of stripping down to just a t-shirt on the slopes on one particularly warm day.

On the topic of clothing, March also gave us the opportunity to join the locals in their love for one piece ski outfits. Our local pub, the Flying Squirrel, held its annual “Chase the squirrel” charity race where teams compete to catch-up with a guy skiiing around in a squirrel outfit, drink beers or shots in a series of pubs on the mountain and generally look as stupid as possible... all while raising money for a charity which funds wheelchair skiiing opportunities. We entered a team with our work mates and had a fun day hooning around the mountain, three of us in extremely tasteless one-piece suits and the other three dressed as ghosts with gold chains! Gav's extremely tight (particularly around the buttocks) stars and stripes one-piece drew plenty of stares from the crowds while Em was more concerned that her fluro pink suit was blending in a little too well with the French locals in their equally retro numbers. We didn't win the race but had a lot of fun and the day raised over 900 euros!

Our guests over the last month have generally been great and we have had some fun nights out with a series of guests around our age. We've also had some interesting dietary requirements with one bumper week including 2 gluten free, 4 vegetarians and 1 dairy free food diet! We also had one interesting guest recently who openly claimed to be anorexic and then proceeded to finish most off her meals on top of her special request for a side salad with lashings of mayonnaise!

The days to the end of the season are now counting down rapidly and while we will be sad to leave here, we were pleased that this Saturday was our second last time of making 17 beds! Gav's parents and Em's sister and boyfriend will both be visiting us in the next two weeks which should help us finish the season on a high note.

After our final guests leave and we clean up the chalet, we will have a few days to chill out and enjoy the last snow of the season before heading to London where we have decided to give the whole working and living thing a shot for the moment.

More pics to come in the next few weeks as we finally replace our broken digital camera. Ev agree with your sentiment that insurance rocks!

Pics this time courtesy of Nick and Jules.

Claire, Dom, Em and Jules at Val D'Isere where our mates, Caz and Dave, took us to see the "Big Day Out" snowboard comp.

Gav, "The Squirrel" (aka Andy) and Nick getting ready for the race

The ghosts - Claire and Jules

All in one piece, second bar down on the race

It's such a drag getting around when you look so good!

Dom and Gav sporting their finely crafted mo's for the Squirrel Race

The team - frome left to right: Gav, Claire, Jules, Em, Dom and Nick

Em taking on the powder today

Gav busting some air

2nd of April and still plenty of fresh powder to be found. Nick, Dom and Gav creating fresh tracks today.

Another big announcement....

2006-02-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

After the big announcement of Bev and Nat's engagement, another big announcement here in Plan Peisey has been the discovery of a water contamination issue. This is a pretty major outbreak in the water unlike the Sydney Water issue we had at home (circa 2001) and has effected more than 50% of the village. This is a huge relief to us after countless episodes of gastro which have struck down Em, Bev and more recently Nat on top of more than half of our guests 2 weeks in a row! Apparently the local mayor has known about it for over 2 weeks and hasn't broken the news until the busiest two weeks of the year were over, so stay tuned for some potential backlash on the streets from the locals!

While the announcement is probably a major dampener for the local toilet paper companies it's a big relief for us and we are hoping the discovery could make the toilet cleaning in the chalet a much less horrific task than the previous few weeks!!

Big Dumps

2006-02-26T02:25:00.000-08:00

After much anticipation we've been very lucky to have our good mates Bev and Nat from Oz come and stay with us for the past week in our apartment. It was great to hang out and catch up on whats been going on back at home and relive the good times of old. It was awesome to see that after being away for almost 6 months, hanging out with good mates is just as good as ever.

Team photo in the cable car

Unfortunately there had been a serious drought of snow here in Les Arcs for about 3 weeks, so while we were both stoked to have Nat and Bev staying, we were a little sad that we couldn't show them the mountain in its true white covered form. Particularly as the snow had been so good for them on their previous stop-off with Helen and Warnsey in Fernie, Canada. That all changed a day after the guys' arrival as we were greeted by not one, but three arctic fronts which dumped almost a meter of snow and ensured that we would have plenty of white fluffy stuff to play in for the next week. Unfortunately the first dump of snow coincided with Evan's first dump of gastro! This saw the Bevinator having to make countless rushed journeys up and down the ladder from his bed in the loft down to the bathroom. But like the trooper he is Bev was back in true form a day later, just in time to catch some of the best skiing sessions of the season..

The skiing was fantastic and we managed to squeeze in quite a few runs in between work shifts, despite the large school holiday crowds. To escape the holiday makers we took to the off piste and did one particularly epic back country run down to a local village called Nancroix. The run ended up being a bit more off the beaten track than expected thanks to Gav's wayward directions, but after a bit of bush bashing in waist deep powder we popped out in a clearing to find over a km of relatively untracked powder all the way into town with no-one in sight (very nice!). We also got a bit lucky and managed to be one of the first ones to ride a perfectly unpisted black trail just after it was opened. The feeling of looking back up the hill to see just your tracks and those of your mates is a pretty good one! (for more details see Bev's blog).

After watching plenty of the winter Olympics on TV we decided we'd have a go at a bit of cross country skiing. Lets just say its tougher than it looks! Those ski's are mighty thin and having a handle on traditional skiing doesn't really help. Having said that it was still an absolute hoot. The scenery was pretty special and everyone seemed to get plenty of entertainment watching me stack it countless times on the downhill sections. Bev and Nat were naturals at it and left Em and I for dust most of the time. Better watch out for them in Smiggins Holes 2014!

And to top the week off, Bev took the plunge.... and did a bit of paragliding.... oh yeah and he asked Nat to be his wife! Great news and gives us a pretty good excuse to come back to Oz at least for a holiday some time this year. So all in all a pretty awesome week!

Plan Peisey by night

View from the top

Em and Nat having a rest in the trees

Nat busting through the powder

Gav getting a bit of air

The boys soaking up the powder

Bushbashing through trees on the way to Nancroix

On the way to Nancroix

Bev making relatively new tracks after a hike up the Grand Col

The lobster pots

Bev and nat getting into the cross country skiing

Very appropriate!

All photos courtesy of Ev and Nat, apologies for any repetitions from their blogs!

Congratulations!!

2006-02-26T02:16:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Nat and Ev on your engagement!

We are very proud that our little village played host to such an exciting event – definitely a highlight of our season so far. We are all really stoked for you both and wish you all the best for the prep for the wedding and all the exciting adventures you'll come across in your future married life together! We are sure you'll make a great team.

Champers in the apartment to celebrate the big announcement!

Getting some serious air in the alps

2006-02-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about running a chalet in the Alps is the many freebies you can pick up. Lots of restaurant's offer us free meals if we send our guests there, we get free ski hire for the season and the occasional free drink at the local bar but the best one we have got so far is a tandem para-gliding jump “pour gratuit”!

It was a little nerve racking taking off with a pair of ski's strapped on but once we took off the views were awesome. Arnout, our local french para-gliding rep was a big fan of ensuring that the surrounding skiers could see the glider and sent both em and i on numerous swoops to within 15 feet of the skiers and boarders on the piste, while Em actually touched down on the snow several times during her flight. Great fun and strangely peaceful, that was until he gave us the controls to have a steer!

Everything else has been pretty good. We just had our friendliest set of guests yet (apart from Adrian, Michelle and Jen of course!) and we have been enjoying our new found freedom after finally finishing 24. We are still getting over the fact that Nina was the dirty mole, who would have thought!

Below are a few piccies from our para-gliding adventures.

Gav in action over the slopes.

Em preparing for take-off!

Em with a real birds eye view!

Em hovering above the piste

Paragliding for free on a perfectly sunny Wednesday lunchtime, it doesnt get much better than this!

few Pics

2006-01-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

Well we survived the week with 18 guests despite a few stressful moments trying to get out 18 carefully presented plates, and we even managed to pick up a much needed tip!

Snow has been a little quiet lately so we have spent many hours getting hooked on the first series of the tv program "24". Unfortunately someone lent us the DVD box set and it has subsequently taken over our lives for the last week and has seen us rushing home early from both the chalet and skiing to get the next griping instalment. Sad but true!! only 3 more hours to go...

Not much other news to report here, so we thought we'd put up a few pics from our last 6 weeks here.

The countdown has begun for Bev and Nat's arrival in a couple of weeks. Getting very pumped!

A few belated pics from our NYE celebrations at the local bar.

Em partaking in a local tradition - a communal drink called Groll containing numerous spirits, coffee and the local liquer, Genepi. Not particularly tasty, but if you put it down before passing to the next person, you have to finish it off on your own!

Dom, Jules, Claire, Nick and us enjoying a beer on Australia Day. Not quite Shelley beach on a 30 degree day but fun nonetheless.

Some of the scenery during an off piste run to Nancroix (local village)

Gav taking a breather during a bit of back country off-piste boarding, local monastry in the background.

The team at the Aguille Rouge, the resort's highest point - 3220m. Great view but pretty cold at -21 degrees!

View of Mont Blanc mountain from the local Mont Blanc Bar! (it's the one with the pink sunset cloud)

After an overload of rich chalet food and always cooking for others, the craving set in..... (we have only succumbed once!)

First Visitors

2006-01-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

After a month of cooking and cleaning for a new bunch of strangers each week it was a pleasure to have our first batch of familiar faces come and stay in our chalet. Jen and Forta came to stay for a week while Michelle Nielson made a last minute decision to stay for a 3 day long weekend.

It was a lot of fun cooking for the guys and being able to relax in the chalet for a few beers and a bit of Sauternes sticky wine after dinner. It was also a great time on the slopes with Jen taking to the skis for the first time and managing to master the local blue runs with style despite a few memorable stacks. Meanwhile Fort was all over the 180's in his twin tip skis and was regularly seen charging down the mountain in his orange jacket in a style that we nicknamed “tuck-a-la-orange!”. Both were looking very bling in their freshly purchased ski threads although fort did look a bit like the Incredible Hulk in Gav's extra large sized ski gloves! A few photos from the guys' time with us are below and for more photos check out the Forts blog (weblink on right hand side of this site – excuse the repetition of pics as our digital camera is unfortunately broken).

The end of the week also brought a great surprise visit from Em's cousins, Dave and Mike, and with plenty of beautifully pisted smooth runs, some fast-paced family fun was had.

After all this activity we had to have a couple of days of rest (reading, sleeping and catching up on email etc), which ended up being perfect timing as 2 days later we were greeted with some solid fresh snowfall - just in time to give Em a very white birthday! Bit different to the usual summer drinks and beach trips she is used to at home! We spent the day working but managed to have a great celebration at night at the local french bar with our new friends, enjoying a few “giraffes” (beer towers with their own tap) and lots of laughs. This was followed by our weekly day off which brought with it perfect blue skies and knee deep fresh powder! Can't get a better birthday pressie than that!

On a sadder note, we had a stark reminder of the power of the mountain when we heard that 5 English guys were hit by an avalanche boarding off-piste in a dangerous and secluded area on a very high risk avalanche day, and unfortunately 3 of them lost their lives. Not somewhere we would ever considering skiing but still very sad and brings home the importance of respecting God's powerful creation.

We've been spoilt over the last week with only 9 lovely guests staying in the chalet, so we are currently getting mentally prepared for the 18 new guests arriving at 7.30am tomorrow! Should be interesting!

Pics below courtesy of Forta and Jen

Sunrise from Jen and Fort's room in our chalet

Our first familiar chalet guests....Forta, Jen and Michelle

Gav cooking up some Coq au Vin in the chalet kitchen

Em and Jen on the slopes

View from the top!

Not a bad way to spend Monday arvo - kicking back on the slopes on deckchairs in the sun!

Update from the Alps

2006-01-06T08:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since our last blog update as we've been pretty busy getting into the swing of our new lives in the Alps. We are now into our third week of our jobs as a chalet couple and after a busy few weeks are starting to get the hang of cooking for 16 people 6 nights a week and figuring out how much gear to wear for -12 degrees!

Luckily things have improved dramatically from our first practice night of cooking in our chalet (no guests – just a rent-a-crowd luckily) where we took 6 hours trying to figure out how to turn on the oven and stove (we felt a little better when even our boss couldn't figure it out!), smoked out the chalet with the fire, put wine that was off in our main course sauce a minute before serving it and then to top the night off, our crème brulees didn't set (due to the late start), forcing us to serve up runny vanilla custard with toffee on top!

Fortunately the cooking has gone pretty smoothly ever since and we've been very lucky to have had two great sets of guests so far. Even on Christmas when it was really tough to be so far away from all our family, friends and church working most of the day, our guests were really cool and bought us both Christmas pressies and made us feel part of the family for the week.

While we've been missing everyone we've still managed to have a pretty awesome time so far. Our typical day here involves leaving our apartment at a 7.45 for the freezing 5 min uphill walk to the Chalet as the sun rises. Breakie at 8.15 and then we do general prep for dinner, tidy the chalet and cook cakes for afternoon tea. This gives us between around 11.30 and 5.30 free for hitting the slopes, catching up with friends or just having an afternoon siesta (which has been a common occurance as our office bodies aren't used to all this physical work!). In the evenings we get the chalet fire going, talk to the guests, clean up the multitude of tea bags (saying english like their tea is a major understatement!) and cook a 3 course dinner. After washing up we tend to get out around 10.30 and if we have the energy we head up to our local bar “the Flying Squirrel” before hitting the sack. Hopefully we will be able to refine the process to trim off a few more hours for skiing/relaxing/sleeping!

We've managed to make a few friends while we've been here. The company we are working for has 3 chalets in total and we spend a fair bit of time with the other two couples who run the other chalets – Nick & Jules from the UK and Dom & Clare from New Zealand. We've shared plenty of laughs swapping funny cooking and guest stories and reminiscing over our daily stacks on the ski slopes! Have also met a few french and english locals and there is a general good community vibe around here.

The larger resort itself is fantastic with so many runs we've only been able to scrape the surface after 3 weeks. The snow has been great so far with last weekend producing almost a metre of snow, fingers crossed it keeps falling!

Our studio apartment is pretty cool – modern, comfy, under-floor heating and a loft with spare beds! We are sleeping on a fold out couch but it's a pretty good one! The best feature is it's only 5 mins walk from the lift and our chalet and you can ski right to our back door. Although at times we do miss the 100m walk to take a dip in the ocean at home!

Looking forward to our upcoming visitors during the season – next being Jen and Fort who have taken up the last minute out-the-door offer in our chalet for next week!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year – we are thinking of you all and if you get a chance, shoot us and email and tell us what you've been up to.

Restaurant with a view on the slopes of Les Arcs

Gav with Dom (from other chalet) on the chairlift

View from a chairlift - snow is pretty good!

London catch-up

2005-12-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Leaving the cold weather of Berlin behind, we have been blessed with a great week of sunshine, catching up with good friends and plenty of laughs in London.

It's been a whirlwind week and we've been lucky enough to have stayed and caught up with various friends and families in all four corners of London. A huge thank you to the Atkinsons, the Dessons, Jen & Forta, Katy & Nick White and Tara & Caius for putting us up and spoiling us with great food, great company and comfy beds. A massive step up from our hostels and 1 star hotels of the last 3 months!

One of the highlights was a celebrity visit from AY who came to London for the weekend all the way from Manly via a business trip in Frankfurt care of Qantas (it's business!). We had a jam packed weekend together bunking down on the Forts living room floor, wandering Portobello Rd, feasting at the Borough markets, riding the London Eye, going out for a rowdy pub dinner and enjoying some classic Aussie red!

After a great evening last night catching up with many of our London-based friends at the Dragon Bar in town, we are now trying to fit all our luggage into just two bags for our trip over to the Alps! Going to be an almighty squeeze with all that big puffy snow gear!

We are excited about starting our new job on Monday and getting ourselves mentally prepared for getting up pre-7am every day (wake-up time has been hovering around 10am for a while now!) and cooking for 18 people every night. Thanks to Aunty Di and Lindsay Atkinson we are feeling well-armed with a stack of tried and tested recipes so looking forward to trying them out!

Heres a selection of pics from the last week.

The Enfield gang enjoying a few beers at "The Cricketers" pub in Enfield

A long way from Manly but there was still a little sun around...! Outside Adrian and Jen's pad in Parsons Green

Jen and Em in their new coat purchases

Enjoying a quiet Ale at the "Barowboy and Banker" next to Borough Markets

Youngos (AY), a long way from home!

Aussie reunion, with a pub dinner and lots of laughs in a Fulham pub with the Forts, Cristoes, Michelle Nielson and AY

City skyline from the London Eye

Mike's birthday dinner at the Desson's (Em's cousins) in Bramley, Guilford

Tinks, Caius, Tara and Katy reclining at the Dragon Bar at our London connection catch-up drinks. Enfield gang and Tinks below.

Last stop... Berlin

2005-12-01T04:36:00.000-08:00

The last stop of our Euro journey was Berlin. A fascinating city with heaps of history, made even more interesting for us by the early arrival of snow!

We thought 6 days in Berlin would be too long - particularly as Em has been there before - but it turned out to be just right. We spent the week exploring many of the classic tourist spots, eating plenty of 1 euro bratwurst rolls, and trying to uncover some of the more underground style bars and shops in the east side where we stayed. We also spent a lot of the time trying to keep warm as it barely got above zero degrees and Em regularly ventured out in about 8 layers of clothing! (taste of things to come for the ski season I suppose!).

Highlights included:

- A bike tour around Berlin where we learnt some of the quirky sides of Berlin's history and the fall of the wall.

- Walking in the famous Tiergarten just after the first snowfall.

- Discovering a cool bar with live dj and great cocktails in the backstreets of Prenzlauer Berg (apparently one of the more happening night spots in east Berlin at the moment) with no name and a dodgy alleyway entry.

- Visiting the crazy checkpoint charlie museum and reading the stories of some amazing east to west escape attempts, including tunneling under the wall, jumping out of 5 story apartment buildings, hiding in suitcases and flying a hot air balloon across the border.

- Visiting the Pergamon Museum, one of the best ancient history museums we've ever been to. The museum features the amazing and massive Gates of Babylon and throne hall built by King Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 562 BC) as well as the anicent Greek Pergamon Altar (2nd century BC) and other ancient relics that blow your mind. Well worth going to if you're ever in Berlin!

Back in London now for a busy week of catching up with friends and family before we start of our ski season in the alps!

One of the many Christmas markets in Berlin

The famous TV Tower in East Berlin

Walking in the Tiergarten after the first snowfall of the winter

Thought this was a cute one!

The Brandenburg Gate on the bike tour

Riding out the front of the Reichstag, the German parliament building

Em walking down the East Side Gallery, the longest stretch of wall in Berlin

These guys have a pretty tough job, trying to sell bratwurst sausages for just 1.35 euro, in the bitter cold and snow with a bbq grill and gas bottle strapped to their backs! Very convenient for a tasty pit stop for us though!

Hundreds of bottles of beer on the wall!

2005-11-24T04:59:00.000-08:00

You know you´re in a good place when you´re visiting a chocolate museum in the morning and a beer factory in the afternoon - with samples included of course! Belgium was definitely a treat for the tastebuds.

Apparently there are over 300 beers in Belgium. We were like kids in a candy shop with all our favourite beers from the Belgium beer cafes in Sydney, and more, on offer for only 2 euro each! Winners included the infamous Kwak, Grimbergen, Judas and Bush (12%!). The handmade chocolates, hot waffles, frites with mayo and flemish beef beer stew all confirmed that Belgians sure know how to eat well!

Scenic highlights included seeing the grand square of Brusselses and bumping into a massive street party of 2000 or so uni students moving down the street with a line of 10 open semi-trailers that were pumping out dance music and serving out gallons of beer to the students holding up glasses, plastic jugs, buckets and anything else they could find! Who said Brussels was boring!?

We also visited the smaller towns of Brugges and Gent where we wandered the cobble stone streets, admired the gothic architecture, explored the canals and took in the ghostly city lights at night.

While it all might sound very glam, there are definitely down sides to being a budget traveller... one being the bedbugs that took a liking to Em´s shoulder and arm. The other downer is that it´s getting very cold and we are running out of warm clothes to layer! As a result Em has invested early in a pair of fluffy snow walking boots which she is sporting under her jeans!

Following up from our last blog, the prize for the fastest and best french translation goes to Julia Mackie who perfectly translated our french spiel with the following....

"Paris was great! We were busy because we were learning lots at French school, we made new friends and of course saw all the sights of Paris. We tried to discover as much as possible about French culture, even though once we ate fast food and also went to the cinema to see the American film, '40 year old virgin'. We hope to come back to Paris soon, but above all we hope that we will have able to have a conversation when we take the cable car at Les Arcs! We will have to practice a lot for the next month!"

Thanks Julia for also confirming that we actually made sense!

After a quick overnight stay in the Dutch town of Maastricht, we are now in Berlin where it is forecast to snow on the weekend! Fingers crossed that we get this novelty as compensation for freezing our butts off!

Huge main square of Brussels, Belgium

A small section of the student street party in Brussels - well and truly cranking at 5pm!

The canals of Brugges, Belguim

Array of beers in a Belgium bottle shop

Like a pig in mud!

We like the simple answer the chocolate museum gives to this age-old question! Nice in theory.... (Click on picture for closer view)

Gent, Belgium

The canals of Gent at night

The nightlights of Gent are so good that they´re UNESCO listed (although admittedly everything seems to be UNESCO listed for something around Europe!!)

Parler la française à Paris!

2005-11-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

**Bit of a long one this time as we've been here for a while...

For starters, we know there are a few of you who've been firing up a bit of french recently - or not so recently for others - so we've started with un petit peu de français! The first 3 people to email us back an accurate translation will make it onto an honour roll next blog update! No internet translation cheating allowed! Bonne chance!

Paris était super! Nous avons été très occupés parce que nous avons appris beaucoup à l'école française, nous nous sommes faits de nouveaux amis et bien sur nous avons vu tout les spectacles à Paris! Nous essayions de découvrir autant que possible le culture française, bien que, un fois, nous avons mangé au fast food et aussi nous sommes allés au cinéma regarder le film americain, " Quarante ans, toujours puceau!". Nous esperons revenir à Paris bientot, mais surtout nous esperons que nous pourrons avoir un conversation quand nous prendrons le télésiège aux Les Arcs! Nous pratiquerons beaucoup pendant le mois prochain!

We've spent the last 3 weeks in Paris and have loved every minute of it! It's actually felt a little like a home away from home as we've got back into a routine with daily french classes and homework; have spent some time hanging out with new friends; and have been able to communicate much better with the locals than other euro countries! Despite the stereotypes, we have found the Parisians to be the most friendly bunch yet, often striking up conversations and always being patient with our slow, and sometimes weird, responses!

Some highlights have included:

1. Attending a two week intensive french course and meeting a great bunch of people from around the world. While our french is very far from fluent, it has given us a great boost.

2. Meeting up with an Aussie university minister, Daniel Mullins, and his wife Debbie and cooking for 60 christian french uni students on a weekend away camp, run by Daniel and his team, near Versailles. Camp food takes on a new meaning in France with full hot 3 course meals for lunch and dinner and 10 litres of milk that needs to be heated for breakfast! It was hard work but was great to see so many energetic and passionate young french christians meeting together.

3. Meeting Sylvia, a french-egyptian med student, on the camp, then being invited to her place in Paris for dinner.

4. Seeing some of the classic Parisian sights, eg Tour Eiffel at dusk, L'Arc de Triomphe with a spectular french flag flying under it on Remembrance Day, wandering the streets of the Latin Quartier and Montmartre, and taking in all the spectacular architecture and churches.

5. Staying in a studio room for a week and cooking up some cuisine to accompany our recent wine purchases from Burgundy.... although the studio wasn't much more than a bedroom and a bathroom with a stove and barfridge in it! (Dishwashing was done in the bathroom basin!)

6. Attending an english speaking church in the middle of Paris and finding the people so friendly we could barely get out the door! We started chatting to an english guy, Dan, who gave us the classic line "Oh I've got two friends in Sydney... you might know them" and then found out he was talking about Tam and Jake Jonker!!!! It is an extremely small world!

7. Enjoying the local bars, cafes and restaurants and discovering one particularly cool, always packed and most importantly cheap Vietnamese restaurant.

8. Great shopping... we tried to hold back, with our limited budget, but just couldn't go past a pair of great G-star jeans for GP that were half the price than in Aus!! (plus they are actually long enough which is a minor miracle in itself!)

9. Finding out Australia are through to the world cup soccer finals next yr in Germany! makes up a little for all the heckling we've been getting for losing to England in the Rugby and cricket recently. And from GP's memory last time we played the poms in Soccer we won 3-1!!

Next stop is Belgium. Beer, chocolate and moules frittes here we come!!!!

A typical morning break at our french school

The Sacré Coeur

Arc de Triomphe by day

Arc de Triomphe on the night of Remembrance Day

Candles in the Notre Dame cathedral

The group of french uni students sitting down for lunch on the camp. Our new friend Slyvia is the one in the pink/purple top at the front!

Montmartre

Champagne Paris!

Take one new hat, a fresh baguette, a drop of red and GP.... and this is what you get!

View from the top of the Tour Eiffel at dusk

Self-take in front of the T.E

All safe in Paris

2005-11-07T02:24:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
We've had a few questions lately asking whether or not we are safe here in Paris with all the riots etc going on.
see article attached

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chirac-heads-crisis-talks-as-riots-escalate/2005/11/07/1131211968577.html

The riots are happening pretty much outside the centre of Paris so we haven't been affected at all. From talking to some locals here it's directed at the police rather than citizens and is not expected to escalate into the centre of Paris with the execption of those small incidents. So no real worry for us fortunately.

Certainly an interesting discussion point here at the moment though.

Everything else is going well and we will write another proper blog update soon!

Thanks for your concern
Cheers

Gav & Em

Drinking and driving through the vines

2005-11-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

After a week with the Peacocks we continued the wine tasting trail in search of some classic french wine. We were not disappointed.

First stop was Beaune, a beautiful town in the heart of the Burgundy wine region. Beaune is surrounded by rows of golden vineyards and underneath the town is an incredible labyrinth of underground wine cellars, plenty of which are open for wine tasting tours.

We were lucky enough to have wheels again so were able to tour the surrounding world famous vineyards and sample some great drops, our favourites being the Mersault chardonnay and the Volnay Pinot Noir. We also sampled more than our fair share of premiere cru grapes straight off the vines!! Very tasty.

While wine tasting we tried to sound like informed and sophisticated wine connoisseurs, which proved particulalry difficult given that it was all in french! Things took a turn for the worst when Em got her french a bit mixed up and asked one of the local wine makers if he was a toilet!!

Next stop was champagne where we stayed in Epernay and did the infamous Moet and Chandon champagne house tasting tour. All very glam and also fascinating to see how enourmous their underground cellars are.

We are now in Paris for 2 weeks having narrowly avoided driving around the Arc de Triomphe on our arrival!

The Cote D'or, Burgundy

Our treasured bottle of Mersault (bit of a step up from the 3 euro bottles we've been drinking!)

The good stuff

The man behind the bubbles

Family fun in France

2005-10-29T03:22:00.000-07:00

After 11 weeks on the road there is nothing better than coming home to family. We've been lucky enough to have spent the last week hanging with the Peacock family and friends, the Day's and the Atkinson's, in a hired french house in the village of St Maure (2 hours south of Paris) that could almost be described as a chateau!!

It was a trully global affair with Brett travelling from Sydney, Mum and Dad stopping off after their trip to Mauritius, Lysh and Tim dropping in as part of their Italy/France Euro trip and the Atkinson's and Day's coming all the way from north London!

The week was spent sharing lots of fine food, sampling the local wines and St Maure goats cheese, staging our own French Open doubles tennis tournament on the house's "clay" tennis court, visiting the local Chateux and sharing plenty of laughs over our nightly post dinner party game. We are sure Brett's "Charlie the chicken" will be recounted over the dinner table for many years to come!!

A great time was had by all and it's going to be tough getting used to not waking up to a table pilled high with croissants, pain au chocolate and baguettes; the constant laughter and the familiar faces of family and friends. Thanks guys for a great week! And a big thanks to mum for organising it all.

Following the wine trail we are now in the Champagne region having just toured through Burgundy. Sante!! (Cheers!)

Brett and Em sampling the local vin rouge

Shot of the house... ( thanks to those on the April France trip for borrowing your photo idea!)

The kids

The extended Peacock family

Considering the next point during the tennis

Brett keeping us all entertained with his t-shirt. (click on the photo to read the writing)

Outside one of the wine cellars

Enjoying a grand pression beer in one of the local bars

"The team"outside our local Chateau

Young love!

Walking the streets of Tours

Race around Bavaria

2005-10-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

Due to some ambitious time planning on our behalf and spending a few too many days in the Czech Republic we were left with just a few days to see Bavaria in Germany before heading off to France for our planned rendez-vous with the Peacock family and friends. As a result the last week has felt a bit like the TV show race around the world, complete witth many a road block and fast forward. (Just for u, ev and nat!).

We spent the first 2 days touring the romantic road as part of a whirlwind coach tour. The tour was hilarious as we were the only non Japanese people on the whole tour bus and as each stop was rarely longer than 15 mins per town it turned into a frantic photo fest! It was made even funnier by the site of Gav towering a metre over everyone else and he soon became a photo attraction all on his own!

We spent a great night in the town of Rottenburg surrounded by vineyards, enjoying the beautiful old buildings and cobblestone streets, bratwurst sausages and the medievil crime museum where we found out a bit more about Em's heritage as her maiden name, Richter, means judge in German!

At the end of the romantic road we went to the Neuschwanstein Castles of Ludwig II. They are famed for apparently inspiring Walt Disneys fairytale castle. We were told that this is Germanys biggest tourist attaction and that 6-8000 people visit the castles every day. As a result we got up in the dark at 6.30am the next morning to beat the so called crowds. After buying our tickets early we were quite proud of ourselves and were optimistic that the thick fog which was blocking all views of the 2 castles and surrounding landscape would soon dissapear. However as the day went on our spirits dampened as we realised the fog was getting worse, the crowds failed to appear and it was about 5 degrees! So we had to settle for postcards and our imagination.

We then embarked on a complicated journey to Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps to check out the infamous Eagles Nest and the area of Hitlers second command post during WW2. Again we were faced with dissapointment as Eagles nest had been closed 2 weeks earlier than normal for renovations... yup! Despite the setbacks we still really enjoyed checking out the amazing history museums about Hitler and Germany leading up to and during WW2 and the stunning mountain scenery surrounding Berchtesgaden.

Last leg of our mission was a 17 hr train trip from Berchtesgaden to Paris to meet the Peacocks. Luckily it has been a very relaxing and fun week so we are already feeling recovered from our race around Bavaria!

A stop on the Romantic Road in Bavaria, Germany

Em enjoying the local bratwurst and beer

Vineyards surrounding Rottenburg, Bavaria

The classic european cafe set

Playing around with shadows on the horse!

Bavarian countryside

The way the Neuschwanstein Castle should look......

How it looked for us with the fog! GP not happy Jan!

Swans in the lake surrounding the castles.

Picture of a standard military rally in Germany before WW2; using 130 spotlights around the stadium with spotlights meeting in the sky as a dome. At Berchtesgaden museum.

River in Berchtesgaden, Germany lake in Berchtesgaden

The carb overload continues in Czech!

2005-10-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Our last minute decision to include the Czech Republic in our travels proved to be a winner! Beautiful views, great architecture, friendly locals and some ridiculously cheap but great meals have made our last week a very memorable experience.

Our first stop was Ceske Krumlov, a beautiful little medieval town 3hrs south of Prague. Highlights included a traditional Bohemian dinner, kicking back in the hostel enjoying beers and hot chockies, roaming the old town, checking out the view from the castle and cruising along the river that goes through the town on a raft for two. The lowlight was getting drenched on the same raft after we went through some rapids! Walking back home in wet jeans in the freezing cold left us both in a pretty damp mood!

We then spent a few days in Prague where we did a walking tour of the city, scoped out the local bars and saw a bizarre Czech black comedy movie with english subtitles. We stayed at a pretty rowdy hostel and realised that we are definitely getting older when we had to tell the crowds yelling and rumbling outside our door to quieten down two nights in a row. It was at 3 and 5am in the morning though which hopefully provides some justification!

The overall highlight of our time in Czech would have to be our last two days in a small town called Loket in West Bohemia near the German border. It's a cool little medieval town right on a bend in the river and the good thing is it isn't in our lonely planet which has meant a lot less tourists... and definitely no rowdy backpackers! Was great to spend a couple of days chilling out, feasting on more Czech beer and food (including a massive roast pork knuckle) and enjoying the amazing Autumn colours.

A couple of final observations from the Czech Republic...
- You know the beer is dirt cheap when you give the barman the equivalent of A2.50 for 2 half litre beers and he gives you back change.
- It's quite normal for people to drink beer before 10am. - They love their carbs here... every meal is laden with bread, potatoes, rice, dumplings and of course beer with just a token pickled onion on the side for salad!
- They also love their whipped cream. We ordered a simple brownie and ice cream and were greeted with a massive plate piled with what looked like a full can of whipped cream. After 5 minutes of digging we found the brownie underneath!

Next stop is the Romantic Road in Germany and probably weight watchers!!

View of Ceske Krumlov through the castle walls

The real Budweiser

Canoeing down the river in Ceske Krumlov... before we hit the rapids!

A picturesque reminder of Jesus' sacrifice in Ceske K

The Bohemian feast for two we shared in Ceske Krumlov

Great view of Prague

Just another amazing in Prague... a sculpture of a guy hanging from a roof over the street in the old town!

The town of Loket

Glass-like river surrounding Loket

The Heathrow injection has begun...

2005-10-05T03:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from our last 4 days in Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria.

One of the biggest highlights has been the food. Great paprika french fries, goulash and dessert wine in Budapest and massive schnitzels, sausages and Gosser beer in Vienna. The Heathrow injection may have begun!

One of the other highlights was visiting the hot thermal spas in Budapest and trying out the 10 different indoor pools / baths, 3 outdoor ones, 5 saunas and whirlpool. All ranging in temperature from 12c to 45c. Nice and toasty!
There was also an even diverser range of body shapes and sizes with plenty of massive hairy hungarian men with rediculously saggy swimmers! Very relaxing nonetheless.

Next stop Czech Republic...

Emma taking on the almighty Don Carlos Schnitzel at Schnitzelwirt restaurant in Vienna! And she almsot finished it too! May look familiar to the 2001 Euro trip girls!

Vienna by night

Gav... blending in in Budapest, Hungary

Matthias Church, Budapest

Gav chatting to the locals in Budapest!

One of the many thermal baths in Budapest

Sky high in Slovenia

2005-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

To get from Croatia to Slovenia we were faced with a choice of a 12 hour cramped stuffy bus ride or a 1 hr flight for $A150 extra. Not a particularly hard decision.... Air Croatia all the way!

On our journey we met a couple of friendly local girls who took us under their wing and gave us all the tips on where to sleep, eat and drink in town and when we arrived at Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia) at midnight they introduced us to the street snack of Burek (a delicious mince or cheese filled pastry) and even gave us a free taxi ride to our hostel. Not a bad start!

Having said that our first night in Slovenia was spent in a jail cell.....

The hostel we were staying at was an artisticly converted old prison, complete with metal doors and barred doors. Very funky!

In our jail cell in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Next day we hired bikes and toured the many sites of Ljubljana before jumping on a bus to Lake Bohinj.

¨Now things might get a little wierd here.... i want to see two dragons! '
Ljubljana.

Bohinj had been given a pretty good wrap by Caius, Tara and GT and we were very stoked to find that it well and truelly lived up to our expectations. A beautiful lake surrounded by huge towering mountains! Kind of like the NZ of Europe.

Slovenia is also known as the cheap adventure sports capital of Europe so decided to make the most of it and go paragliding - made all the more tempting as it was under $A100. We were all pumped to go but started getting a little worried when we got to the top as our tandem instructors um'd and ah'd for about an 1hr over whether or not the strong winds would be safe enough to fly in. We got especially worried when we realised that it was the end of the season and we were the only paying customers of the day!

Not surprisingly they decided it was safe to go and before we knew it we were off hovering 1000m above the ground with beautiful views of the snow capped mountains, green fields and the lake. It was a truelly awesome exhilerating experience and we'd recommend it to anyone!

Em preparing for takeoff
If you look closely u can see a small dot just above the middle of the horizon which is em in flight! Click on the pic for a better view.

Enjoying the serenity of Lake Bohinj

Em looking sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle made for two!
Enjoying the local brew, overlooking Lake Bled.

Next stop was Bovec. It is notoriously difficult to get to by public transport, so hard in fact that we decided to give hitchhiking a go in an effort to get there faster! (dont worry mums, its apparently quite normal and even legal in Slovenia). After quite a wait we eventually had some success and finally made it.

Em attempting to put on the hitching charm.

Bovec was another beautiful picturesque mountainside town but the highlight for a pair of travellers like ourselves was our apartment which had MTV, a kitchen, a bath and a separate loft bedroom for just E30. pretty gud!

Unfortunately it rained a bit while we were there but we still decided to hire some mountain bikes to go on a ride. We set off on what was supposed to be an easy short ride and made it back 4hrs later drenched, tired and muddy after some serious mountainbiking. Made the Manly dam ride seem easy! Great views though and Gav managed to get some of the seroius mountainbiking adventure he was after while Em got plenty of walking practice in!

We are catching an overnight train tonight to Hungary. Looking forward to the goulash and hot spa's as recommended by our Hungarian native friends, the Dicko's!

Getting close to nature in Croatia...

2005-09-26T02:50:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is a bit longer than previous ones... (been an absolute mission posting the pics so thought we'd make the most of it! )

After leaving Italy, our fears of finding a place to stay in Split were soon eased when about 20 Croatian ladies surrounded us at the port with offers of rooms in their houses. We battled through the crowd, determined to find a better price, and ended up finding a friendly Croatian man, Ivo, who was more than happy to take less, and throw in a welcome beer, so he could lock in guests for the night and head off to the footy.

Split was very beautiful but we were keen to check out the surrounding islands so next stop was Hvar Island. Bolting to only just make the high speed catamaran to get there brought back memories of legging it to the Manly jetcat to work every morning!

We were enchanted by Hvar from the moment we got there. Our planned 3 days quickly turned to 4 after we scored a cool apartment with the view of the sea and a kitchen to satisfy our cravings for home cooking and a bit of red meat! Highlights from Hvar included:

- Sipping cocktails at sunset at bar with the water lapping at our feet and the sounds of funky tunes from a DJ

- Crusing around the town on mountain bikes with dodgy brakes

- Probably the top moment was hiring a little motor boat to cruise around the small islands surrounding Hvar. On the way we passed a nudist island where we observed many nudist activities including the standard sunbathing, but also fishing, sailing and even nude hiking complete with backpack, boots, hiking stick and nothing else!
We found ourselves a secluded bay with noone in sight where we had lunch and decided to follow the locals' lead. Although there was definitely no hiking or fishing involved, it was a very liberating feeling and the whole experience went straight to the top 3 moments of our trip so far.

- We also managed to meet up with some new mates, Caz and Dave, who will be working in our village in the Alps during the season. Had a great lunch and swim with them and got the lowdown on life on the slopes. It's great to already have some friends before we even start work.

After Hvar we went to Korcula Island, famous for its dessert wine. Great town and very picturesque but a bit tainted by a full on bearded lady who ripped us off when we were buying our standard breakfast fruit. We were so taken a back by the wealth of hair on her face we didn't question it when she charged us $20 for some grapes and nectarines!

Our last stop was Dubrovnik, a beautiful ancient walled city right on the water. Amazing to think it was war ridden just 14 years ago. Apparenty during the war of 1991 with former Yugoslavia 70% of the buildings in the old city had at least one direct hit although you wouldn't know it looking at it now.

We have been very blessed to have great weather to finish our time by the sea. After a great week we are very keen to come back to the Dalmatian coast again. Maybe even cruise the coast on a yacht with a bunch of mates ...Kang charters perhaps ??!

Next stop Slovenia...

Scenic coast of Hvar Island, Croatia.

Port of Hvar from the ancient fort which towers above.

Hvar Island by night.

Em catching a few more rays on the rocks.

Bikin' it through Hvar.
The cruisy bar in Hvar where we watched the sunset with beers, funky tunes and swing chairs.

The skipper (sorry AY!)

Cheeky shot of GP getting into the local spirit in a secluded cove off Hvar.

Our new alpine mates, Caz and Dave enjoying our favourite beachside bar in Hvar.

Korcula Island, Croatia.
Em on top of the wall surrounding Dubrovnik.

spaggetti, sunsets and stracciatella

2005-09-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

Just arrived on the shores of Croatia after a great week in Italy. A couple of highlights from the week just gone....

After arriving in an ugly port town of Livorno we had no idea where we were going and no idea how to get there. We were lucky enough to land ourselves on a bus full of friendly italians who quickly took up the task of directing us, in italian, to stay on the bus when we were about to hop off. Just when we thought we were about to end up in another industrial port city, the bus turned a corner, the sun came out and we arrived in a beautiful beach side town called San Torenzo in La Spezia. 45 euro later we scored a great room overlooking the sea - see the pic below!

After San Torenzo we met up with Jen and Forta in the stunning Cinque Terra. We spent 3 days living it up with: a 2 bedder apartment complete with balcony overlooking the town; numerous lunches and dinners out; lots of gelato; plenty of swimming, rock jumping, and walking the "Via del Amore". It was great to catch up with some friends from home and there were plenty of laughs. Certainly a taste of "la dolce vita" as the italians say - the good life!

A couple of quirks of italian life...

We decided we might bling it up on a beach in San Torenzo where you pay to lie on sunbeds at a private beach. That was until we found out it would cost $25 each for the privledge!

Italians do definitely fit their stereotype of style gurus with everyone styling it up from Nonnas (italian grandmas) through to bambinos, policeman and even the ticket collectors. Big shades, open collars and white suits are definitely in! We even managed to bump into a Miss Italia contest on the street one night (much to Gav's delight!).

The emphasis on style and all things nice definitely does not translate in the toilets! there is nothing worse than busting for the toilet, finally managing to find one, opening the door only to find.... another dirty squat toilet with no toilet paper! worst invention in the world ever!

The other thing about italy is that you don't have to go to a night club here to be hit up with cover charge... they have this lovely thing called "coperto" (translated in english as cover charge) which is charged at most restraunts and can be as much as A$5 per person. As a result we havent been leaving many xtra tips though italy!!

The last one would be the italian church bells. seem lovely and romantic at first, but when then they ring every hour, ringing 12 times for 12 o'clock etc, 24 hrs a day, it can start to get a little painfull. they even give a celebrity ring on the half hour, just to keep things interesting!! Forta was a particularly big fan, and it always made for funny breakfast conversation.

Gav walking the streets of Bologna (the home of spaggetti bolognese!)

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terra, Italy
The Forts and Peacocks doing the via del amore in 5 Terra
Fort and Gav taking the plunge in 5 Terra
Sunset drinks in Cinque Terra

Em in San Torenzo
view from our room in San Torenzo

Nothing 'boaring' about la Corse...

2005-09-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

On our last night here in Corsica and have had a great five days on the island although a little hampered by the weather and injuries! Had a great time swimming in the clear turquoise waters and exploring cliff-side towns.

Unfortunately the sneaky little steps that seem to be everywhere here in Europe finally got the better of me (Em) and I had a very embarassing stack in a very short skirt which drew many cries of 'ooh la la' and has left me hobbling around a bit over the last few days - bit of a dud when you're on an island full of great hikes and water activities!

They were definitely right when they said the beaches can be pretty untouched here. We spent about an hour hiking down a cliff (me hopping) to one particular beach only to find that it was so windy it was kinda like a sandstorm in the sahara desert when we finally got down there! At least it was pretty empty!

The gale force winds on the coast which are apparently common here in September (for some reason no guide books seem to mention this...) forced us into the centre of the island to Corte for a few days of chilling in the rain, catching up on emails, sampling the local Pietra beer and trying the local delicasy - stewed wild boar. It's surprisingly good!

View of the beach we are swiming in below.

Gav working it in the budgie-smugglers!

Turquiose coastline of Bonifacio, Corsica. You can see the old town on the cliffs in the distance.

The very tight road we drove on to get to a hike near Corte - the centre line was very token as there is only really room for one car!

Some of the scenery from our short hike.

Adventures in the alps

2005-09-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

Looking out from an ancient fort build into the cliff face, La Roque Gageac

Cruising down the Dordogne river in a canoe, all downstream with a bus to bring you back!

La Roque Gageac, Dordongne region, France - spent a few nights here

After a long long drive today we are finally in Nice and getting pretty excited about heading to Corsica early tomorrow for a week of relaxing on the beach before hooking up with the Forts in Cinque Terra, Italy.

The last week of travelling through France has been pretty awesome and we've been totally astounded by the range of spectacular scenery. We are loving this country!

From the Dordogne region we headed over to the Alps last Friday to do our much anticipated cooking interview for our chalet couple role for the coming winter season. Bit of a stress having to cook a 3 course meal for 11 people, mostly seasoned chalet hosts, a chef, the potential bosses and a range of their French friends!!

Much to the answer of our prayers it all went well and we have now secured a job for the season!! When it rains it pours, because we were actually offered 3 jobs within a week but the winner for us was with the company we just did the cooking interview with. So we are all lined up for the season, cooking and hosting for 16 people 6 nights a week, between just the two of us. not sure if thats great news now come to think of it.....!

But the mountain is fantastic with loads of off piste runs, the resort is very beautiful, the company seems really friendly, and the chalet we will be managing looks great. The other good news is that we get our own appartment for the season right next to the ski lifts which we are hoping will be able to host any of you guys who would like to come stay with us. (not quite 5 star though!) if you're after the 5 star treatment however, you are more than welcome to book into our chalet for a week and we can cook and clean after you - family and friends get discounts apparently.

For more details check out http://www.skihiver.co.uk/
we will be looking after Chalet Bellcote in Les Arcs.

Chalet Bellcote, Plan Peisey, France (in Les Arc resort)
Another pic of 'our' chalet for the season... check out the view!
Classic lunch baguette picnic by the side of the road
a shot we took on the long drive from the Alps to Nice today (around Provence) - if you look carefully there is a pretty massive church built right on top of the huge mountain.

Goodbye England, Bounjour France !

2005-08-31T04:33:00.000-07:00

We've just spent the last week crusing around the Basque country in South West France and nth Spain. The first stop was Biarritz, France - the surf capital of Europe. Gav was pretty stoked to be back in the water on a 'planche de surf' surfing in just his boardshorts. Meanwhile I enjoyed soaking up a bit of sun and sussing out all the yummy cheese, chocolate and Gateaux Basques! We've been practicing as much French as possible and feel pretty confident until people start talking back to us really quickly, at which point we realise we have a lot to learn!

We then headed down to San Sebastian, Spain, where we explored the crazy Parte Vieja (old town), gorged on Tapas, Sangria and Rosados (rose). They party pretty hard in this town so we found ourselves dancing to Bon Jovi Living on a Prayer, Guns n Roses Sweet Child of Mine and other classic tracks until 3am... complete with cowboy hats. And if we thought we were out late, we were wrong as the noisy street parties continued till daylight just outside our pension window! And even when we left town the next day at 7am, the train was full of people just ending their night!!

Gav was also pleasantly surprised by the cranking surf in San Seb so had a nice long session out at a 4 ft point break. Apparently the locals weren't quite so pleased about having a 'tourist' take their waves. Unfortunately for me the sun vanished and I had a long, cold and rainy wait on the beach!! The price we pay for love hey :)

We're now back in France and having taken on some wheels (thanks Bev), have been cruising around the stunning Dordogne region. Will write more about this later in our next blog, but a big highlight was floating down the Dordogne river yesterday in a canoe, cruising past huge chateaux and old bridges. Also staying in a gorgeous cliff side town on the river with an excellent restaurant, plus the sun has returned again in full force and it's now officially hot!

Below are just a few pics from the Basque region. More to come.

Pqrte Vieja, San Sebastian (Spain)

Biarritz (France)

memories

2005-08-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

Given that we have both lived in London at various stages of our lives, most of our current trip to london has been spent catching up with friends.

Earlier in the week we caught up with Gav's English mates for a good night out on the the town in Islington to celebrate Stueys 28th birthday.

A few of the guys and girls had been out to Australia but many of us hadnt seen each other for over 12 years!! despite the time gap it was just like old times and a lot of memories, laughs and good times were had by all!

Thanks guys for showing us such a great night out! We look forward to being able to shout you back a few beers either in the slopes or back in London!
the lads (...alright son)
Laura, Katie, Anna and Gav
Paul, Annabel and Kirsty

Matt charming the lovely ladies. (Jen and Em)... sound as a pound
Ella, Claire, Steve, Stuey (the birthday boy!) and Em

just like old times

2005-08-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Its amazing how even after a few years of not seeing someone, it takes no time at all to be right back to normal!

Tara and Caius put on a feast once we arrived in London and a lot of laughs were had over dinner and a few vinos with tinks and G.T.

Em robbo the ferret is especially for you!

"the ferret"

Singapore to London...via Glasgow

2005-08-18T02:46:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived in London on Friday after an absolute mission!

Thanks to a well timed British Airways catering strike we had to fly from singapore to the uk with no food or drink, then we were diverted up to glasgow airport rather than heathrow.
After waiting 2 hrs to pass immigration (one guy on his own stamping 400 passports!) we had a lovely 10 hr coach trip down to London! Welcome to the UK!!

Anyway on the bright side at least I guess we got to see more of the english countryside! The good news is that we managed to make it back in time for Marky Mac and Pippa's wedding. With flowing Pimms, lots of air guitar moves on the dance floor to some crankin' tunes, catching up with Gav's Enfield mates and also the Australian contingent, and of course a glowing bride and groom, it was an awesome night. Great speeches too. Check out the pics below.

The rest of the weekend was spent chilling at Em's Aunt and Uncle's place in Bramley, Guildford, enjoying their hospitality and some lovely country walks complete with tasty Blackberries to pick and eat along the way!

We're now at Tara and Caius' very funky flat which is just a stone's throw from London Bridge. They've been looking after us very well so we feel a bit spoilt. Have spent the past few days catching up with Tinks and GT, the Enfield crew, enjoying lots of pimms and pints and basking in the London sun which has come out in full force!! Have even had to put sun screen on!

Woke up to the very exciting news this morning that Gav passed his mammoth CFA exam so are in top spirits and all is looking up for the journeys ahead. (Gav wanted me to take the "mammoth" reference out but having been through the build up with him - I reckon there's no othey way to describe it!).

the groomsmen "the band"
the Aussie contingent
Mr Mark and Mrs Pippa Maclennan !

last days in sydney

2005-08-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about heading O/S for a long time is that it's a good excuse to catch up with a lot of old and new friends in one very, very busy last week! here some shots from our farewell drinks at Industrie, some of the Pulse work gang and a bank holiday shot from clovelly beach.

singapore fling

2005-08-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Em and i have arrived in Singapore for a quick 2 day stopoff to work on our tan's and make sure we are sufficiently relaxed to take on london. So far so good, after a pretty hectic last few weeks it's been nice to hang out by the pool with the shirt off, having a few tiger beers in the sun and listening to the new ipods! Everything here so far has been pretty good. Warm weather, great deals on electronic goods (pitty we paid top dollar before we left oz!) and good food. Only lesson we have learnt so far is not to bother with the chicken sausages or the spam style bacon! I dont think breakfast is Singapore's specialty! Tonight we are heading to try this place called "Carnivore". Apparently its a brazilian cavary style place where they carve the meat from big skewers straight onto your plates (15 different types!). now thats my type of restraunt! Should be nice with a few caprihana's (like caprioska's) to wash it down! see picture below!

Gav getting stuck into some brazilian prime beef!