The Craic was mighty!!!

Hi Kids, well we have just come back from a great 4 days in Ireland. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, checked our bags, and headed to the local pub (The Knightsbridge) to try some local Guinness and meet up with Corey and Lee. The afternoon turned to night, and the Guinness was still flowing. After trying some different pubs in the temple bar area, we moved to a night club to dance the night away.

The next morning we headed passed the General Post Office and the Statue of light towards Kilmainham Gaol. After visiting the museum and doing a guided tour we headed back to town for another tour, this one was all about the 1916 uprising. The tour was blahh but the guide was awesome, very knowledgeable and excited about the topics. From there we headed to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour and more importantly our free Guinness. At the top of the factory there was a great viewing platform to enjoy your beer. That night we went back to O'Connell St for dinner, Blue and Jarratt enjoyed a traditional irish stew, Bec had a Gaelic dish of chicken and potatoe and Rebecca had a Celtic dish, all very tasty.

Monday was the day of the parade and in our green outfits we got in early to reserve our spot for the parade. However one local lady and several little kids had other ideas, by managing to push in 10 minutes before the parade. However we still had the front row in the end. The parade came and went, with much colour and flare from a typical parade. However it was St Pats day and there was Guinness to be drunk, so we got down to business. A great day with many memories.

Tuesday was our last day, and our last opportunity to take in Dublin. So we headed to Trinity College to see the Library, the long hall and the book of Kells. We also took a look at the old Parliament building, the Dublin castle and St Stephens green. Before passing the statue of Molly Malone, who was featured in one of the many Irish anthems heard over the weekend, that continued around and around in our head.

All in all a great weekend was had by all and hear are some of the photos...

in the mean time...

Howdy Readers! Well it is the eve of our St Pat's debacle and before we forget everything due to large consumptions of Guinness we thought it best to update you on the week past.

Since our last update many memorable events have past including the festivities for the Birthday of Bec. The festivities included a memorable visit to the local Mexican restaurant 'desperados'! We also danced most of Saturday night away at zigfrids, although a few participants failed to remember much and others took off chasing a double decker bus, only to be boo-ed by commuters once aboard!

The weekend also saw us off to the exciting destination of Greenwich. Which does not offer much, except a small sleepy village looking suburb which is home to the prime meridian of the world (AKA Greenwich Mean Time - GMT). We took all the tokenistic photos of feet either side of the east/west divide and watched as the big red ball dropped to signal the start of time (1300hours). As riveting as it is we have included a video for your own enjoyment (you can all reveal in J's enjoyment at my stunt.) So sit back and enjoy... I'm sure you'll hear from us soon! Lots of Love, Us!

Bec and her birthday cake!

J didn't find this as funny as security at the Museum.

Where time begins...

<------------- Sydney is THATA way!!!

OLD AND WISE!!!!

Rock the (Morrocan) Kasbah!

Casablanca

We arrived into Casablanca at roughly 3pm, and after loosing time, gaining time, we were feeling a little dizzy. We made our way to customs and hit a line longer than the great wall. Seeing this Jarratt said "They need to sort this our before the Olympics" which made Bec and the few Australians behind us chuckle. Promptly after making this comment we were quickly waved through the diplomatic line and processed rather quickly. We then boarded a train headed for Casablanca's Casa Port.

After finding our hostel in the centre of the Medina, we dropped our bags and headed out to explore. Jarratt had found a wonderful walking tour that was meant to take 45 minutes, however I don't believe lonely planet had factored in the getting lost and domestic squabble that comes after 12hours of travelling combined with little to no sleep. After eventually giving up we decided to reward ourselves for not getting too lost (or killing each other) to a flash dinner overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at a seafood restaurant. Trying to order proved difficult when we were presented with a french menu! Thankfully our lovely waiter ordered a fantastic meal on our behalf and essentially tripled his tip! :) After dinner we feel straight into bed and slept happily.

The following morning we travelled out to the Hassan II Mosque which is the third largest mosque in the world. It is also one of the only mosques opened to non-Muslims. It is a remarkable building which towers to the height of Notre Dame and was built in just less than 6 years! In the one hour tour we visited the main prayer hall, the washrooms and a traditional hamman; it was well worth the visit.

Us at the Hassan II Mosque!

Rabat

After a short (one hour) train ride from Casablanca we arrived in Morocco's Capital, Rabat. Once again we dumped our bags and made a beeline for the old town. This time we found ourselves wandering a much more ordered Medina, full of spices, olives and all things typically Moroccan. We even felt brave enough to sample a brochettes (a sort of sandwich with cooked mince meat and spices) from a quaint hole in the wall place for lunch before continuing onward and upward to Rabat's Kasbah. It was at the Kasbah where we rocked out (hehe) and Bec's love of Moroccan doors, mint tea and sugary sweets began. The afternoon saw us head to Mohammed V's Mausoleum and the Le Tour Hassan, before getting caught in the rain and heading to our lush hotel room for a siesta. We awoke later in the night to sample our first tajines, which are famous Moroccan stews cooked in earth ware pots. We then spent the rest of the night camped out on our balcony eating ice cream and watching the donkeys wander past.

Bec and her Brochettes

Fes

We arrived in Fes just after lunch without having accommodation lined up and thought we'd just "Billy Wyatt" it! We managed to find a nice young chap who took us to a local family run riad inside the Medina. After getting settled in an amazing room, we again hit the old town to check out the sights. Along the way we scored ourselves a wonderful little guide, who wasn't all that wanted or familiar with the difference between English and French. Despite repeated "Parlez-vous l'anglais?", he continued to reply "oui!" and continue to speak to us in French. After tossing our tour guide a few dirham we headed towards a local dinner and show where we had our first taste of couscous.

The next morning, bright and early we headed out to the tanneries, that were really spectacular! The tanneries is where animal hides are taken, stripped and dyed to be turned into leather bags, slippers, coats, cushions, everything you can imagine! After having the owner explain to us the process and his top retail man pushing the hard sell on us we left empty handed. We then headed back to our riad where our hostess treated us to an ENORMOUS homemade couscous which she packed up for us to take on our 7 hour train ride to Marrakech!

The Tanneries

Marrakech

We arrived in Marrakech, a little late and a little scared. When we eventually found our hostel we desperately wanted to fall into bed and straight to sleep, unfortunately a few british birds with wafty blonde hair prevented that until the wee hours of the morning. The following moring over breakfast we met a lovely Australian couple who had been just as impressed with the previous nights antics as we had. We decided then and there to accompany them for the day... together we explored the Palais de la bahia (palace ruins) and the Saadien Tombs, but after a while J got the shits with it all (literally) and we had to head back to our hostel. Later that night we all went to an amazing Moroccan/Thai fusion place that overcharged for beers and chased us down over 10 dirham (roughly 1 Australian dollar), it had been an interesting day!

The following day we trekked out into the Atlas mountains for a visit to a berber village, a camel ride and a mountain trek. We are proud to report that another mountain has been climbed by Bec in her thongs... you think she'd learn...hehe. On our final day in Marrakech we wandered the souks, where Bec took nearly a million photos, played with snakes and the snake charmers in Djemaa el-fna square and found a wonderfully lush hotel that gave a very memorable kind of hamman and massage.

Our last day of the trip was spent travelling 15 hours by bus, train and plane to arrive safely back to our house on the monolopy board.

Us with the snake charmers in Djemaa el-fna square

Til next time... take care of yourself, and each other!!! :P

last stop.... cockfosters

Where do I begin? A lot has happened since we spoke last, and I'll do my best to recall most of it.

Trying to make the most of a beautiful Saturday afternoon, J and I decided to head out and voyage up the London Eye. I was so anally organised as usually that I checked the forecast for sunset and booked us aboard the 3:45pm pod for us to watch the sunset over the Thames. When we arrived we skipped the purchasing queue with out internet booked tickets and headed over to the eye; only to be told to step out of the million person long queue to wait 10 minutes to rejoin for the 3:45pm pod time. Thats London for you! But after 40 odd minutes in line and missing most of the sunset we were aboard our bubble. The view was amazing, as you can see in the photos. We went up in the light and came down in the dark. It really was a magical experience! And sure enough it started to pour rain when we disembarked and we high-tailed it across the bridge into Westminster tube and headed home for the night.

A few weeks later my lovely cousins came to visit, Jack and Harry Hill. Gosh, how they've grown! While they were here we went to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham and wandered around Westminster. Jack was less than impressed with much of the sights constantly claiming "I thought it would be bigger!" and poor lil' Hazza was just very concerned with finding a sausage roll. However, they were fantastic house guests who really need to learn how to say thank you ;)

Shortly after we parted ways with Harry, and temporarily Jack, we attended a little known festival here in London known as Australia Day. We started at Walkabout in Angel with Blue, Beccles, Corey, Lee, Ric and Michelle in tow. Where many a bucket and flag were purchased and the festive spirit was in full swing. I managed to have zinc spread across my face, a temporary tattoo of the Australian flag rubbed onto my arm and beer rings placed on my earrings. Needless to say I was looking pretty classy by the time we left the Walkie, however not as classy as young Jarratt with his bucket hat! We then moved onto the no sleeves fiasco in Southwark, where not much was remember by myself! But "apparently" songs were sung and clothes removed... none of which can be substantiated with evidence!!! It was after this evening and a messy Thursday at work drinks that Bec's "no drinking til my birthday" vow began. There are running bets on whether she will or will not achieve it! We'll see.....

We also celebrated our 3 year anniversary this month by grabbing one of those fantastic lastminute.co.uk deals of theatre and dinner for 30 quid. We managed to get a pretty amazing 2 course dinner at an italian restaurant in Leister square and then attend the world's longest running musical. For those not so good at trivia that equates to Les Miserables! It was pretty amazing although Jarratt felt there was too much music and singing, which left me wondering what he had expected of a musical (?). It was an amazing night and something we want to do much more of... hence we've booked ourselves in to Moulin Rouge for Easter. I was quite surprised that Jarratt was so keen to see a singing/dancing production after seeing Les Mis, until I found out that much of the cast in Moulin Rouge is topless! It seems the jokes on me....

This weekend just gone we headed into the city to check out some of the Chinese New Year festivities. Bec managed to get a balloon and that all elusive photo of her and a panda! We also headed down into chinatown, where there were more people than China! We had some fortune cookies and Bec ate her favourite chinese breakfast special; a pork bun! But we spent most of the day 5 minutes late for everything, the parade, the fireworks... the last spring roll! Tired and a little disheartened we headed home for Nandos!!! hehehe

Saturday we're off to Morocco, which kicks off the first of our many trips planned (and paid for) already this year. But I'm sure you'll hear all about them as we rub it in post after post... ;) Til then, try not to fall asleep on a tube heading for cockfosters.... you know how frustrating that can be at 2am in the morning, right Jarratt?

Us on Westminster Bridge with the London Eye in the background.

Us on the Eye, with the Houses of Parliament in the background.

Jarratt in his bucket hat with Corey (left) and Lee (right)

Bec's beautiful beer ring jewellery

Bec (finally) gets a photo with a Panda!