So we won't need the walkie card anymore...

Well our return to the motherland, however brief, proved quite eventful. After leaving Bordeaux we made our trip into London Gatwick only to be promptly stopped by customs. After numerous questions we were asked to explain certain ‘discrepancies’ only to have our case taken to another customer’s official. Upon return we were given a polite dressing down and a naughty stamp that entitled us to 5 days stay, but not a moment more!!!!! A little rattled we headed off to Annie’s and Scotties who were amused to hear they had illegal immigrants staying at their house, until we told them that we had given their address on our forms. Not so funny for them!

Trying to make the most of our time in London, we headed off to a BBQ with Scottie where we ate the best steak, drank too much and rang home. Sorry Carls ;)

Monday saw us booked into a tour of Parliament, which turned out to be one of the coolest things we’d done in London. We visited the House of Lords, the House of Commons and learnt why they’re called lobbyists and that even Parliament officials can be given a time out. After the tour we parted ways, J to his favourite barber and me to my favourite shop. Primark sent me off in fine style where I waited 40 minutes for the last time, to purchase the goods. That night we had a final roomie dinner at home.

The next day we boarded London’s very own big bus tour to recap all the fun things we’ve seen and done! A fitting end to a two and a bit year stint in ol' blighty! We ended our day with thai, tears and beers with some faithful friends. The next day we packed our bags and headed for airport for the first leg of the trip home: Kuala Lumpur.

All aboard, the big bus tour!

Hands up, who can see big ben?

One last picture with the worlds prettiest bridge, just before it showed off by opening for us one last time. :)

It’s the final countdown….

Please mind the gap (hehe) between this post and our last, our last month in London has been busy, busy, busy!!! We’ve got a list as long as J’s…. arm to update you on. So forgive me if I forget to mention any of the wonderful things we have done with any of our wonderful friends. I’m going to do this in chronological order as I can best remember it…. *deep breathe* here goes:

We hit the track in our finest for Royal Ascot on 20th of June. Having won Royal Enclosure seats in the ballot we dressed up complete with top hat, tails for J and a substantial fascinator for Bec. So we could place our bets, shout silly horse names and wave at the Queenie (Queenie, who’s got the ball?) Bec was lucky enough to walk away a winner whilst J was left contemplating “Where does one leave one’s glasses?”

Before parting ways with Burbage (my school), I organised a class trip to London Zoo for purely selfless reasons *wink*. The day was great fun and left me sure that the only way to visit the zoo is with 30 odd 5 year olds in tow. Who knew butterflies, monkeys and giraffes could be SO exciting?!

On the 4th of July, we headed into Hyde Park for our first major London music festival – wireless. It sounds awful that it took 18 months to get to one of these, but boy was it worth it! We shook our booty to Oakenfold, wondered where our heads were at to Basement Jaxx, thought we were well fit during The Streets and saw many UFO’s during Sneaky’s amazing performance!!! It was a wicked day, one that won’t soon be forgotten! Also, on the music front, we headed to London’s leading nightclub, Pacha, for a pretty spectacular birthday complete with beach wear.

We have also spent some time escaping the London madness by heading out of town. We visited (again!) Bath and Stonehenge, thanks to our free tour won in TNT. We FINALLY made it to Oxford, where we followed Alice down the rabbit hole and visited many Harry Potter film locations, which was decidedly lost on Bec (Sorry to all my Farnham house friends ;)) The last trip, was to sleepy Rye. With a bit of time up our sleeve we decided to make the most of it and visit the coastal town. Rye is full of beautiful Tudor houses and little antique shops which was a great way to farewell Ye Ol’ England.

Also wrapping up our final week we spent an exhausting 3 hours wandering Hyde Park taking in Royal Albert Hall and monument, Kensington Palace and Gardens, Diana’s Memorial and the Peter Pan’s Statue. We have also down a mad run around town visiting some more Banksy locations, taking in the wellington arch and watching those silly guards change at Buckingham Palace one last time. Yesterday, our final day was spent at Shakespeare’s globe watching Troilous and Cressida, where finally after 5 performances the heavens opened briefly scattering the crowds leaving us with front row space and our heads to rest on the stage – woohoo!

Over the last month we’ve had plenty of visitors, farewells and fun. We’re looking forward to this last trip but, more importantly seeing you all soon.

Love always, Us.
xoxo

Our attire for Royal Ascot.

Binta and Bec ride the bus to the zoo.

I love it! Just before seeing sneaky and loosing our damn minds!

Where's your head at? WIRELESS

J in Hogwarts Great Dining Hall.

I'm late, I'm late.... for a very important date!!!

Grrr.....Knights of the Rye Tower

Pretty, pretty, ye ol English country side in Rye.

I blame Dean.

It’s been a week since Deano left and I still don’t think our liver’s or wallets have recovered, but nonetheless we had a wicked time with him whilst he was in town.

He arrived Friday (8th) and we welcomed him in style, we joined forces with the regular stockie crew as well as Azz, Nath and Wood and made our way to Temple Walkie for a wild night of drinking and debauchery. We were introduced to an interesting drinking game where last names, pointing and drinking with the right hand was not allowed – and boy! Did it get messy! The next morning, a little worse for wear (I think we all got bitten by a snake bite!) we headed out to enjoy the fine London sunshine by climbing about 500 steps to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral before heading to Azz’s local on the Thames for lunch. That night we returned home for a BBQ in the park where Frisbee and football got the better of the boys.

Sunday, with a dusty Aaron in tow we headed up to Camden markets – a packman hoodie, a cool banded watch and a few souvenirs later, we pulled into Lock 17 to enjoy the sunshine and a few quiet drinks, which (again) got messy.

Monday, we were both happy that Monday had come around so that we could escape Dean and the excessive alcohol consumption. But by Tuesday we were having Deano withdrawals so sick calls were made. Tuesday was spent in the craziness that is Primark and returning to Camden for lunch and another look around. Wednesday night we shifted our regular Thursday fun day so we could all attend a burlesque show in Holborn accompanied by a few *cough*too many*cough* bottles of wine. Friday rolled around far too quickly and we found ourselves once again out with the lads for a night of shirt swapping fun in Clapham starting at O’neils and finishing at Vodka Revolutions at around 3:30am – did we mention Deano’s flight check-in was 9am the following morning? Poor Dean.

After Dean’s departure, we returned to Vodka Revolution for another farewell that had a little somethin’ somethin’ for everyone. As well as a pretty fun drinking session in Camden – 2 cocktails for 7 quid, can’t really blame us for that one! But between the destruction of our liver’s (hehe), we have also been busy sightseeing. We have visited a number of Museums’ – National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of London; as well as Westminster Abbey - Tick, Tick, Tick, and Tick. With our “To Do” list now dwindling and the finish line for our time in London near we are making plans for our final trip home. We depart London on the 16th of July and travel through Greece, the Islands, Italy and south of France before shooting off to Sydney via KL and Perth. We arrive into Sydney on the 27th of August, put it in your calendar, we’re coming home (country road)!

We have plenty planned between now and then but our next stop is Croatia!!!!!!

Hope your all jealous :)

A little excited over the arrival of Dean.

Come on baby, light my fire! BBQ in the park!

Fun in the Sun at Camden (Lock 17)

The boys are back in town. (At Vodka Revolutions - Friday)

Again at Vodka Revolutions (Saturday night)

Yummy (and cheap!) cocktails.

Pints and Punts

Well hello there! How are you all? Jarratt and I are well - living it up in the land of London. Even though we are both sick feeling ill and have been refused by the doctor to get a course of anti-biotics (!) These last few weeks the weather has treated us to a bit of sunshine and we're just about falling over ourselves with excitement. So we have tried to make the most of this fun, sunny weather by slipping across to our park on the odd occasion and catching up with friends. So here we go with a few more tales from what is the chronicles of Where is Bec and J?

Last Wednesday (25th) thanks to our very nifty phone company Jarratt and I managed to swindle some free tickets to a Ben Lee gig at the O2. Pretty cool huh? So since Dave, Bec, J and I are "all in this (London thing) together" we thought what better pals to "Gamble everything for love" with and head off "Into the dark" to the O2. Haha - that one was for Bec (Make sure you bring some apple candy on Friday, ok?)

On Sunday we headed to Cambridge for a look around the "prettier" university town. With Dave and Bec in tow we headed to Liverpool Street bright and early to board our 8:30am train that was really 7:30am (because fortunately this daylight savings change we we're wise to and not suspecting all the clocks to be wrong - hehe). Our first hurdle was met before we even picked up the tickets.... the cheap tickets we had bought in advance, as the booking was not showing up under any name. So we prepared ourselves for the worst and prepared to buy x'y tickets but SHOCK HORROR for tickets purchased on the day for groups of 4 .... you only pay for 2!!!!! Hurdle, hurdled!

We then headed to Cambridge and began exploring the universities where you DO NOT walk on the grass! EVER! First was Christs College, where we discovered the door to the Secret Garden and Jarratt pondered evolution in Darwin's own college. Second was Kings College, where we were wowed by the amazing architecture that had us jumping for joy. Our final college visited was Trinity, we were very excited to visit the college that Issac Newtons famed apple tree lives at as well as the original manuscript of Winne the Pooh. But much to our dismay the library was closed and we were left to play silly bugger statue games to amuse ourselves just outside the largest great court of its kind. We ended our tour of Cambridge with a rather eventful Punt (a fancy word for boat ride) down the Backs, where some sticky mud nearly had us paddling to the shore. We ended the day watching the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race that I'm sad to say Cambridge lost :( A few pints later we boarded a train back to Kings Cross Station in London where we disappeared into a wall at the 9 and 3 quarters platform.

Last night we headed into Kingsbridge for dinner at Gordon Ramsays Claridges. It was a wonderfully extravagant affair for lobster ravioli, quail cooked three ways and a dessert that was to! die! for! However, the whole experience was a little too la-di-dah for Jarratt and I, right down to the bathroom visit, where a lady not only prepared the sink for me by running the water, personally handing me a towel and flushing the toilet so I didn't have to. CRAZY!!!

Friday night we are being reunited as an awesome foursome as Dave and Bec move into our place, but Saturday we part ways as Jarratt and I head off to Copenhagen for a 2 week break crossing Russia, Czech Republic and Hungary.

At our recently discovered local.

Ben Lee, free and easy!!!

Door to the Secret Garden - am I right?

Joy jumping at Kings College.

The great court at Trinity College.

Silly Bugger statues.

Punting, or trying to at least.

La-di-dah!!!

Its a fine, fine life.

So I think I'm alergic to London, since being back these last 3 weeks I don't think my nose has stopped running the whole time. Whereas J was excited to return to routine and the daily slog.... despite living the dream for 8ish weeks, that or he missed the money (hehe). And while the last 3 weeks have been mostly uneventful, there are some minor highlights to update you all on.

Our first weekend was spent celebrating 3 of our close friends birthday parties, Bluey, Bec and Nicole. Being back only 48 hours we started off the weekend with a few brews at Camden head in Angel, before shortly stumbling across to the walkabout on a not so wise empty stomach. We ended up widdling away the hours and making a mad dash to the last tube where a cake fight preceeded to unravel. The next night we backed up for another party and not so cheap cocktails, but some fine entertainment at strawberry moons.

Since being back we also made the most of being in London by spending a free Sunday walking through the Churchill muesum and the cabinet war rooms. This included a look at churchills life and the decisions he made throughout the second world war. It was a hit with Jarratt, not so much with Bec.

For my birthday, the celebrations kicked off on friday and continued way into saturday culminating at Shebu walkie. Friday I shopped til I dropped (my phone) and had an initimate dinner at my fave thai resturant with Jarratt and a nice bottle of wine - thanks Cazzie and A'sy. Saturday we celebrated in style with a bunch of friends, live music and one inflatable hot pink guitar - I had an awesome time! Thanks everyone!

Last night we went to Oliver! a new west end show with Rowan Atkinson playing the part of fagin. Before leavin home, we ate some "food, glorious food" and then headed to the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. We took our seats and "considered ourselves at home", the tickets were a belated birthday treat for Jarratt as he really wanted to go and as I always tell him, "I'd do anything, for you dear, anything, for you mean everything to me."

Tomorrow we're off to Belfast and will update again soon.
Lots of love, Us.

Us at Shebu.

J and Pipes get down with their bad selves.

Ouch! Bec birthday bumps!

Snakies in style!!!!

Start spreadin the news...

We’re leaving today…. Well, tonight – but its sounded good anyways. In a few hours we’ll be at Heathrow checking into our New York (New York) bound flight which is part one of our adventure home. Boy, are we excited!!!! But first, lets catch you up on our last few days in ol’ blimey.

Hansel & Gretel
We recently bought tickets to what we thought would be a good panto for Christmas. Turns out we were wrong (horribly wrong). There was no “Booo! Hisss…. WATCH OUT!! He’s behind you!” to be called out. Instead we were ushered around the woods chasing two obnoxious kids in beanies. But in all fairness it was an interesting concept, which was done well – basically you are part of the show and instead of the scenery moving on and off stage you move from one scene to the next by walking around a large studio. But, in the end we were left feeling a little gutted for the above mentioned reason and the price.

Orphan’s Christmas
The following Saturday we had organised for a group of friends without family here in London, to get together to celebrate Christmas before we all took off in different directions. But London’s weather really turned it on for us! Having been nice all week (that’s London speak for overcast but not rain), a downpour Saturday morning meant our first planned activity of Ice Staking, left us staking around in a swimming pool. No Joke! But I’m proud to say (yet again) no falls occurred and we all left the rink relatively dry. After a sneaky pint (or two) in the festive bar at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland we dashed across the park to Lancaster Gate. We arrived at the pub shortly after 2pm and didn’t leave until midnight which meant we had to make a mad dash for the last tubes. At the pub we exchanged gifts, had Christmas lunch and played a few simple math games. All in all, we had a great day which ended drinking away the early hours of the morning with two good friends.

The Nutcracker
Last night we attended our first ballet production, the Nutcracker, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Although Jarratt was a BIT annoyed that the main performers got less of an applause at the end than the Prima Ballerina, who with her partner performed the grand pas de dux – the most impressive performance of the play, however significantly shorter than the main characters parts. Regardless, all of them got far too many claps in our opinion as they returned to stage time and time again leaving J saying “Get off already!”

Well,… that’s it, I guess we’ll see you all soon, xoxo

Swoosh, swoosh... at the swimming pool at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.

Orphans Christmas Dinner.

Simple Math Game... :)

At a fancy scmancy dinner before the Nutcracker.

Inside the Royal Opera House for the Ballet.

In Brugge

Well its been a wonderfully festive weekend just gone. J and I made the mad dash across the channel and up into Belgium to live the good life of chocolate, sweet beer and waffles, as well as some beautiful Christmas markets. We left ye old London town at around 7am and arrived in Brussels (our first destination) a little after lunch. In Brussels we were treated to some pretty good chocolate, Frittes wrapped in paper (that's hot chips to those playing at home) and a rather cheeky little boy pissing in a fountain. We spent a few hours wandering around the Christmas markets and came away with some pretty ornaments and a major headache! It didn't take us long to deduct that the reason Belgium's created good beer and chocolate was too soothe themselves after a day shopping at their ridiculously stressful and crowded Christmas markets. We boarded our bus shortly after 7pm and headed for Brugge.

Brugge (in short) is AMAZING! We arrived in quite late but quickly dumped bags and made our way into town with 2 fellow couples. No sooner had we arrived in the main market square had J handed me my first (of many) Leffe beers - a traditional Belgium wheat beer. The late night quickly turned into early morning and we fell into bed at around 5am only to be awoken 4 hours later. Sunday was spent roaming the markets for more souvenirs and chocolate, hehe. We passed on the tranquil looking boat ride around Brugge's canals as (quite frankly) my stomach probably wouldn't have handled it well. We ended our day sharing a quiet hot chocolate and waffle before boarding the bus and ferry home.

Other than living it up in Brugge we have also been playing happy tourists here in London. We have done yet another ice-skating extravaganza, this time at the Tower of London. J is finding his feet and all this preparation seems to be paying off. By the time we hit Central Parks ice-rink in New York he should be able to land a triple axle.

We have also visited a number of museums, The London Transport Museum and The Imperial War Museum - both Jarratt's picks! As riveting as it was to find out about the omnibuses and creation of the underground *enter eye roll here* the saving grace was watching J reprimand a 9 year old for pushing in front of me when it was our turn for one of the interactive games.

Finally, London has truly turned on the festive spirit for us. Not only have we been lucky enough to wake to snow falling in the park opposite us one Sunday morning. We have also seen the Christmas lights of the most amazing tree (for 4 obvious reasons) be turned on by the Lord Mayor of Oslo and good old Borris.

Next up we have the Orphan's Christmas kindly organised by yours truly, a Christmas Panto (Hansel and Gretel) at the Barbician, The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House and of course the long awaited trip home!!!! 13 sleeps and counting.... love and kisses, Us.

Bec and her Frittes with Mayo - Did you know Belgium's claim they invented this lovely food?

One of the many window displays advertising their chocolate goods in Brussels.

Us at the Christmas Markets in Brussels.

"This one goes out to all my homies in Brugge"

J driving the train contently after giving a 9 year old a tellin' off...

Angel. ;)

Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Winter's Tale

Hi all, here's a quick catch up on our recent activities here in ye ol' London town.

Jamie Oliver
After arriving back from our 9 day drive around the UK, we celebrated our anniversary in style at Jamie Oliver's restaurant 15. There we were treated to an amazing 7 course meal which included the likes of sweet potato ravioli, Snowdonia lamb ragu and the most amazing duck/meal we've ever had.... SERIOUSLY! Sorry A'sy your Gloucester efforts were beaten.... only slightly ;). It was all capped off with a chocolate cake, coffees and more chocolate!

Lord Mayors Parade
We also braved the cold, rainy weather to get a peak at the new bossman himself, the Honorable Lord Mayor. Planting ourselves just outside the Bank of England we watched as he rolled by in his fancy coach and greeted the military men of various outfits, complete with feathered hats. We ended up calling it quits halfway through the rain drenched parade and in true Aussie style made our way to the closest Walkie for a pint and feed. There we waited until 5:30pm to watch the "most amazing fireworks London had to offer".... not!

Liverpool vs Tottenham
After work one Wednesday, J and a few fellas headed out to Tottenham to watch a Carling cup match between Tottenham (obviously) and Liverpool. Bec opted out since her last trip to a Soccer match had been oh so successful, so Big Blue escorted young JJ to the game. Tottenham won 4-2 with some of Liverpool's biggest players missing.

Wallabies vs England
Late one Thursday I received a message from a friend informing me of 2 tickets to the Wallabies vs England in the rubgy, going cheap. Keen as I quickly snatched them up and the following Saturday J and I found ourselves ringside at Twickenham Stadium cheering on the green and gold. The stadium was chockers (with mainly English supporters) and although we felt slightly out numbered we still came out on top winning 24-12!

Portobello Rd Markets
The following Sunday we headed into Portobello Markets for a bit of a sticky beak. But the slight rain had kept some vendor's away. With a brief look around the stores that were open Bec still managed to come home with a knit dress, pair of boots, ballet slippers and a belt and J came away with a roast lunch (probably the worst ever) to compensate for Bec's impulse buying!

Ice-staking at Somerset House and Canary Wharf.
Well we have officially welcomed the festive season with a spot of ice-staking... so far we have visited Somerset House Ice Rink on opening night and Canary Wharf today, with a few more left to tick off. A little rusty at first and no stacks to report as yet, we can both now spin on demand... well sometimes at least ;).

We will let you know how our adventures continue.

Jamie Oliver 15 logo - so cool! I bought a hemp bag for 4 quid with it on it!

Bossman himself!

Liverpool vs Tottenham.

J, me and Pipes at the rugby.

I have no idea where this photo is taken - but i like it! :P

Us looking happy and wet on Portobello Road.

On the ice at Somerset House.

Watch him go!!!!

London's calling...

Hi there campers! How goes the madness that is the big bad world? J and I have been sneezing, spluttering and coughing our way into another dreary, cold and miserable London Autumn. The only highlight is that we will miss Winter almost entirely as we ring in the New Year with all you merrymen and women in Sydney. Yes its true we're coming home for the 'I Do's' of both brothers (and sisters to be) but *sigh* we will return to London promptly after the last glass of champers is downed. But other than booking (rather expensive!!!!!!) flights home we have been busy bees yet again, working at that list of things to do/see in London before we leave. I'm happy to say that with the help of one Emma Hollows we were pretty darn successful this last fortnight.

Two Saturdays ago, with the sun shining brightly London was definitately calling us, so we decided to head down to Big Ben and treat ourselves to a lovely cruise along the river. For the AMAZING price of 7 quid we got a 3 hour round trip from Big Ben to Greenwich, with commentry and all! We learnt some odd and quirky facts such as the meaning behind the word WHARF and that London Bridge has been replaced 5 times!!! That night we wrapped up our relaxing Saturday with a nice evening of thai and a few tiddly winks.... cockney for drinks ;) The following Sunday we met a few fellow Australians for London's answer to Oktoberfest. By the end of the afternoon we were all merry from the singalongs (or the steins - you decide), had had far too many pretzels and Bec had managed to land her face not once, but twice in this weeks TNT.

This week saw the arrival of Miss Ejay the Dejay and also the crossing off of not one, not two, but THREE items from our list. We started off with Camden Market where I purchased ear warmers in preparation for New York and J tried on some questionable hats. We then made a mad dash across town to watch Tower Bridge rise and fall for the Dixie Queen before continuing on down the Thames visiting the Tate Modern briefly. That night we found ourselves on a Jack the Ripper tour which saw us relive the hellish nightmare that was Autumn 1888. We visited the still preserved murder site of Catherine Eddowes (his 4 victim) which J was lucky enough to be standing on top of! As well as visiting the now carpark multiplex that was 13 Millers Street and Mary Jane Kelly's murder site before moving on to a narrow lane in the area of Whitechapel for more atmospheric effect. There we were lucky enough to stumble across a Banksy and managed a quick happy snap. The tour ended in Spittlefields market right by the ten bells pub, the local prostitute hang out of the time, we then boarded a train and wearily headed back to Stockwell for a cuppa tea and some amazing biscuits.

This weekend we are road trippin for 9 days through various regions of the UK we have been hanging out to see. But will update you all soonish as to that adventure.

Missing you all lots,

Bec and J.

The Eye from our river cruise.

Yours truly in a magazine!!!! YAY!!!!

Jay Jay with Ejay at Camden Markets

Just after watching the Tower Bridge Lift! We're such happy tourists! :)