Word jumble

There's this great program on the web called snapshirts which takes snapshots of words from blogs and puts them together like the picture above. I think the above is a pretty good representation of what Paul and I write about in here. Don't you?

Sugar and Spice

As mentioned in my last post one of the highlights of my Oz holiday was rummaging through old family photos at mum and dad's place in Country NSW. While doing so mum pulled out this one taken by the Windsor Gazette of my first day at school. I actually remember this day pretty well ... and even remember the photo being taken. Check out my school bag. Those of you from NSW will remember Paradise Gardens really well. What ever happened to those fun amusement parks? Paradise Gardens, Bullens Animal World. African Lion Safari, The Waterworks etc etc. Good old fashioned fun!

Highlights

Just when we were getting used to the 30+ degree weather in sunny Oz we head home to the UK and the (as MS so elegantly put it) "nipple crackling cold" hits us like an iceberg.

So as I reflect on the warmth that is Australia ... I think of all the fabulous friends and family who made our trip such a great one. Thank you to those who gave up their spare beds for us, cooked for us, ate out with us, drank with us and shared lots and lots of laughs with us. Although it was three weeks, it really felt like such a whirlwind tour.

Here are some of the highlights of my trip:

• Meeting the lovely little SGP, S&S's miracle baby and being privileged enough to attend her christening;
• R.bar with M&D. I've always loved that place;
• Friday night drinks with the old crowd at The Blvd;
• Checking out M&J's stunning new house in Flem. Congratulations you two. Engagement, wedding and first home in the space of 12 months. When you know ... you just know huh?
• Cooking up a storm with my brother B for mum and dad in Windeyer. And mum and dad scratching their heads wondering where we got our cooking talent from;
• Scouring through old photos of our fam and scanning them to take home (I now have a small photo album of childhood family photos);
  
• Playing cards til the wee hours of the morning with bro B, mum, dad, and their friends, B&S. Not to mention drinking way too much wine!
• Footscray market, girly chats, facials, bubbles of trouble, putting on a fabulous spread for N&J and H, A and little R and walking 5 kms in the pouring rain for DVDs and snacks with the gorgeous Miss KW;
• BUZZ! and other cool trivia games with P's fam. Miss ND - You are the GuessMaster!
• Feeling proud of CF and her triathlon accomplishments. All this exercising makes you positively glow - or is it the new beau?
• Hearing about KJ's new love of sailing and vet school. Your new-found escapisms from all the craziness.
• Longrain restaurant - and those oysters! Great choice TMcC.
• Becoming friends with Little Miss IMcC. A beautiful 2yo with the vocab of an 8yo!
• LG's great new courtyard and stories of the hard yakka that has certainly paid off. Congrats on your lovely home.
  
• Dinner at R&TS's house and picking up some great Europe travelling and UK savings tips from them - although I probably won't walk 1.5 hours to save £2.00! R - you still have to send me the recipes from that night.
• Hibiscus flowers and syrup in champagne (great choice again TMcC). Or, aliens as CF calls them.
• Lunch (twice) at the Boathouse (great choice again TMcC - do we see a pattern forming here?);
  
• And of course, mine and Paul's two night holiday within our holiday to Manton's Creek Vineyard in the Mornington Peninsula. The type of place I would love to wake up to every morning.

And those were just a few!

But alas, we are now home and getting over our jetlag before we get back to work next week. Thanks again all ... and also a big thank you to MS for housesitting our place whilst we were away - it was so cool to come home to fresh flowers in the loungeroom.

The above collage are just a few of the shots I took whilst in Oz. Unfortunately I didn't take many of people. More photos can be viewed on my flickr page, click here.

Until next time ...

Adieu Australie

From the Plaza Lounge in Singapore during the stop over I find myself with some internet time. Thus, the first P&M UK entry in a three weeks.

During those three weeks we have been catching up the inner sanctum and have been reminded that the inner sanctum is good. And for that we must thank and curse in equal measure (the curse being, of course, the difficulty of returning to the UK where the inner sanctum is much much smaller).

Special thanks to M&J B, M&D P, the McCs for giving us digs and - from my point of view - a special thanks to my own CD for saying yes to everything (well, almost!). Fingers crossed I have not forgotten anybody from this list (If I have forgotten anyone, I will blame the Mersyndol which is still in partial affect). Mel will have her own thank yous I am sure (looks funny, but I think this is grammatically correct) .

To everyone else, thank you very very much for either making the time to see us or having us over. Again, you have made it tough return to the UK.

Anyway, stand-by for pics and stories accumulated.