Look what I made

For Christmas, Steve organised for me to attend a one-day silver smithing class - it was last Saturday. After a bunch of hammering and banging and hammering and banging, with a bit of fire, acid baths (the pickle), etc. I made these...



Not bad for my first efforts. I know what I want for my birthday now - the next class!

London at night

London has recently woken up to the fact that they don't have a festival of light - so they quickly put one together. Although pretty lame, it was still cool to see some of London's landmarks 'up in lights'...



As we walked away from the blinding Tower Bridge we came across something funkier...



Just goes to show that London can be pretty at night, even when it's not trying!

Still pretty...

While everything is melting, it doesn't stop it from being really pretty. I had a wander around the area and our local park (South Park) at lunch time...











Oh yeah - we got outclassed by the neighbours!

It's melting

Well.... it never does last long.

It's snowing!

When Steve and I were both away from the UK, it was then that it snowed - on Australia Day! We were both gutted when we missed it.

Then the rumours started, around Tuesday, maybe earlier; there was a big snow coming - Woo Hoo!

And here it is - overnight the world suddenly turned white and pretty. I can say that - I'm working from home today. Poor Steve had to brave the English public transport system - who knows, it could be the wrong kind of snow.



Just to prove that not everything falls apart in the UK when it snows - our milkman still made it through!



Naturally we found the time to make a new friend, before I logged into work and Steve trudged off...

Why you shouldn't fall asleep at dinner...

This is Mark.
Mark fell asleep at dinner.



This is Steve and Karen posing for photos.
Mark doesn't know these photos are destined for the internet.

Back from Buenos Aires

My brother collects coke cans. "Bring one back from Argentina," he asks.

No problem. There's a shortage of space in my luggage, but I managed to buy one on the last day and stuff it in a corner.

Unfortunately it exploded in the hold.



Of course this can was in with the new suit, the presents for Bridie and a bunch of stuff that really shouldn't get wet, much less brown goo all over them.

I learnt a lesson about air pressure. And Bridie learnt never to put my luggage on her lap.

Having fun down under - sunny Queensland

Mum and Dad have been showing me around sunny Queensland - naturally my mum took me shopping and I had to share this place - it's a shopping centre built over a small river - you can even hire paddle boats to get to the other side!



We also spent a day travelling around the Queensland hinterland where I found this fantastic moth on a tree and some amazing views.





In keeping with the native wildlife theme, I manage to find a galah or two - though not flamin'!

Having fun down under - saying hi to Melbourne

Bridie spent the weekend in Melbourne with family and friends; checked out old haunts and discovered some new ones. Our wonderful, fabulous friends, B and Emily organised and hosted a party for me while I was in town and we had a fabulous night.

I also spent the day with my brother and his family and got to visit my favourite boy - Puck! He's looking particularly evil in this photo...



I tested out my new camera (a digital SLR) on Southbank at night - Melbourne is a particularly pretty city and more so at night...



I spent my last morning in St Kilda, having breakfast with more friends, getting a wee bit of sun and checking out the gardens outside Luna Park - and what did I find but some of our gorgeous wildlife (rainbow lorekeets) hanging around upside down in the palm trees...




One last look around Melbourne and I headed down to the St Kilda pier where Melbourne's ever changing weather started to roll in...



And finally, for all our friends in England - this is what drought country looks like - so brown and dry because there is almost no water to be had - we're losing more bushland than ever before to fires...

Home down under

Bridie has left Steve behind the UK and has landed in Queensland, Australia, where her parents now live.

They've bought a beautiful home in the town of Buderim, just outside of Maroochydore. It has everything a homesick Aussie could want - a pool, billiard room, big TV room, a beer fridge, dim sims in the freezer, and the list goes on.... I'm in heaven!

I've been enjoying the sunshine and the pool - check it out!

I'm not the only one that is enjoying the pool - here is an intrepid cane toad before Mum and Dad got him with the Dettol!

It was swimming around and around, trying to get out when Mum scooped him up and doused it - I believe it is currently feeding the denizens of the rainforest that's behind the house.

Buy your very own unicorn today

Happy New Year 2007!

Because of travel and school and stuff, we rarely get to travel anymore. But we made a special effort and went to Copenhagen for their New Year's Celebrations.

Check our photo website

Now it seems the Danish have a special love of fireworks. And going to the city hall square in Copenhagen with a truck load of them seems to be the thing to do. An exploding Acme Fireworks Factory has nothing on these Danish pyromaniacs.

It was like a war zone. Rockets over head, sparklers underfoot, and explosions all around. It seemed that the rockets weren't so much as going up as across. And into the crowd. Bridie and I did the only sensible thing; we hid behind a crowd of other people.

Let them be the shrapnel catchers. A technique I picked up in 'Nam.

Here's an example of the madness I nabbed off YouTube:

James Brown is dead

The world has lost the Godfather of Soul.

I used to do the Reverend Cleophus part in the Melbourne Blues Brothers group. It was my favourite part, it had the best outfit, and ... it was James Brown. I kinda miss it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjaIO2oXwg0

Slowly all the people from Blues Brothers are dying.

And now, in dubious taste...
Music video of L.A. Style - James Brown Is Dead [1991]

fuzzy mohair catsuit

I've been sweeping our blog logs (which is not a type of ice cream).

Remember that post we had about the Fuzzy Mohair Catsuit? We keep coming up in the google searches, and people are landing on this blog as a result. Sure it's cold here, but we can't help you.

Get the goods here:
http://www.mohairknitter.com/Home.htm
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Mohairknitter

Tell Isobel that Bridie and Steve sent you.

The Royal Podcast

So we've come to the time of year where the Queen sends out a message to her faithful subjects

The latest 'episode' of the Royal Podcast will be the Christmas Broacast (The Queen's speech), which will be available from 1500 GMT on Christmas Day 2006.

To sign up for the Royal podcast, simply click on the icon below if you are using iTunes. Alternatively, please copy and paste the link below into your podcast software. Once you have subscribed, the latest podcast will automatically be made available to you from your podcast software, and can be downloaded onto your mp3 player if you wish.

The Christmas Broadcast 2006 was produced by Independent Television News. The audio file used for podcasting has kindly been supplied by the BBC.

You can subscribe by adding this to itunes or whatever podcast software you use.
http://clients.westminster-digital.co.uk/royal/podcast

Looking back over the year

2006 has been a busy year for us and we've not been very good about keeping everyone up to date – Steve has started his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and a new job; Bridie has been working hard in her job with new responsibilities.

In between we have included some traveling. For our 5th wedding anniversary, we hightailed it to Las Vegas and renewed our wedding vows with Elvis officiating at the Chapel of Love. We also took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam – it was truly amazing to see how big the Canyon really is.

In May we celebrated a belated birthday for Bridie in Florence. She has truly fallen in love with the place. We saw Michealangelo’s David – and it is as amazing as everyone says; we also saw Boticelli’s Venus De Milo and many other great artworks. We even managed to hop a train and have dinner in Pisa where we walked around the Leaning Tower.

We caught up with our friend Helen and spent Bastille Day weekend in Paris where we saw more military might parading down the Champes Elysees than we thought France had.

In August we spent nearly the entire month travelling, starting off with a week driving around bonny Scotland. It might have been wet, but it was absolutely beautiful. We think we will go back, one week wasn’t enough.

We also went to Germany to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Steve’s Aunt and Uncle and who should we meet there but his Mum and Dad who had flown over for the special occasion.

It was a very wedding focused year come to think about it – we also flew to Ireland and our old stomping ground of Galway to watch a friend get married and take part in that famous Irish tradition – the hooley (basically celebrating the wedding over a WHOLE weekend!)

England enjoyed another warm summer and we finally invested in a proper little barbecue – which saw a lot of action. Can’t wait for summer to come back.

We were supposed to head off to Stratford in September to see Patrick Stewart at a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest when a rather nasty little kidney stone gave Bridie her first personal experience of England’s National Health Service up close. Bridie was a week in hospital, and now back at work and recovering. Everything is alright now – but it was an interesting time. We have now booked to see the play in its London season in March.

We are still enjoying living in London – the variety of theatre, art and easy access to the Continent means life is always busy.

This year, we are spending Christmas Day with friends and then heading off to Copenhagen for New Year’s Eve.

In the New Year Steve will be heading off to Argentina to do some work for his MBA for a couple of weeks and Bridie will be winging her way home to spend some time with her Mum and Dad in their new home in Queensland. She intends to go down to Melbourne for a couple of days to catch up with friends and family.

We are both looking after each other and we hope you are all healthy and happy.

We hope you all have a cool Yule and a funky New Year!

With love from

Bridie and Steve

xxx

Christmas spirit

We bought a real Christmas tree!
Normally, we have a small plastic one; small, sad and artificial. Today Bridie felt inspired and bought one at Sainsbury's. The fun part is carrying it home on the bus.
Photo taken on my new phone.

Bunnies are cute

Random comment

And link

Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle is the setting for Macbeth. Which probably means I should read it one day.

Now it is the setting for tourism, as people come to see where the Queen Mother lived as a small girl.


It also has a spooky history of hauntings, and a secret chamber. From the outside there is an extra window that is bricked up, but is not visible from the inside. It is said that the chamber contains the bones of Scottish clansmen who sought refuge from enemies. They were admitted by the lord of Glamis, and led to this chamber.

The doors and windows were bricked in and the clansmen were left to starve to death.

Gruesome.

The grounds around it are also quite nice. But though we searched and waited, we couldn't find any red squirrels. Much to Bridie's disappointment.

And here's a cool photo that Bridie took in the formal garden.

Scotland... here we come

I have always wanted to spend a week driving around Scotland. Taking in the sights, testing the whisky, and maybe even....

Seeing a Highland Coo!


Isn't he gorgeous?

The plan was to fly to Edinburgh, hire a car for a week, zoom around, and return for the Edinburgh Festival.

A plan elegant in its simplicity. What could possibly go wrong?