New Years Eve – London

“I’ll have a quite night in thanks luv”

Consisted of a trip into London for the two families, stopping at Waterloo and heading down South Bank, past the London Eye and all the other attractions. We have a nice lunch there and a visit to the Tate shop (well I did run up to the Rothco room). Janine, Sarah and the boys headed home mid afternoon and Bruce and I headed off for some happy snapping on my fun new camera.

I had to see some of the architectural high lights of London and two building that were built since I was last here were the new London civic offices and Swiss Re buildings both designed by Lord Foster. It just so happened that the Swiss Re building was right next to Richard Rogers masterpiece the Lloyds Insurance building.

A quick jaunt down Oxford street netted Bruce some shopping then back to Hampton for dinner and a few drinks. I was more than happy having a night in instead of trying to party in town (kids do that to ya), if for nothing else I got to see the UK tradition of the Jools Holland Hootenanny, with Madness and other acts on.

English Country Side

We were lucky enough to be invited down to Bruce’s folks place in the country south west of London (about an hour by train). It’s a stunning typically English setting. Rolling green farmland with narrow roads hemmed with hedge rows, a railway line (including steam train in the weekends), and horses. David and Hazel have 2 horses and a proper equestrian arena, in which the boys including Janine all got to ride the horses. We were treated to a show of horse jumping, then Sam had a ride, followed by Charlie for his very first time, and Jamie for his second sit but first ride on a horse. They both loved the rides to bits with smiles the width of the Thames. Jamie even managed to get into driving his horse with commands. The biggest smile however was reserved for Janine, when she got her turn up in the saddle, one happy tourist.

The place is beautiful, and I got up early the second day (after a marathon session of Trivia Pursuits in which the team from the Antipodes won) to photograph the sun rise and frost on the beautiful country side.

David and Hazel were amazing hosts, with the most amazing meals put on for us, and David (after much hassle from Sky) managed to get the Everton vs Arsenal game on the tv for me. It was a short but great trip, we won’t mention the vomiting bug that Charlie got in the middle of the night – don’t.

London post-xmas

More trips into London, Bushy Park, Football on the TV and lots of bus, train and tube trips are the staple of the last few days here in London. Jamie and I have explored all around the South Bank, London Eye and over to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, including another trip to Soho and Carnaby st and Saville Row. He’s a seasoned traveller our boy, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Regent St (of course Hamleys), Harrods, Oxford St etc etc.

We managed a family trip via the bus in Richmond to Kew Gardens, which has been one of the high lights of the trip so far for Janine (although we all loved it). The Glasshouses are spectacular, but the cool thing about it all was the size. Although huge, we managed to walk around the whole place in a good day’s exploring. The posh houses with Aston Martins and Range Rovers all littering the driveways was also fun to walk back down afterwards. There was also lots of fun stuff for the boys to do, including the Carousel and indoor exploration/playground. There was a Henry Moore exhibition all over the place, stunning huge sculptures littered the grass up and down the gardens – quite stunning. The Ice Skating was typically mad english – small and crowded, but the bizarre thing about it was the inch of water that meant it was more of a semi frozen swimming pool, yes I did see some people go belly up and emerge with no dignity nor dry clothes.

Christmas 2007 – London

Not to mention are we 12,000 miles from friends and family, but the different family traditions all make for this a different xmas from the classic Hayward-Le Comte affairs. The boys woke up (well Jamie did eventually) and Santa’s loot was rapidly but somewhat more dignified than the kiwi way, opened and admired. Everyone was spoilt. We had an amazing double chicken roast lunch and a great day all around.

London pre-xmas

Our Friends Sarah and Bruce live in Hampton, which is a stones throw (London relative that is) from Richmond Park and Hampton Court Palace. The house is great, with 3 bedrooms up top, in which Jamie shares a room with Sam (6 months older than Jamie and our God Son), and Charlie is in with us. They are also 5mins from a supermarket and the train station into town (London Waterloo – The Sheperton Line). It’s a beautiful city, Bushy Park (within walking distance) is one of the Royal parks with Deer roaming free about the place – we had a wonderful walk through one brisk morning. But not only that, the lanes and stunning history in every nook and cranny, it’s just great. The Brits on the other hand are just funny. My first morning, was a little frosty, but out buying a paper, an older man (think Last of the Summer Wine), the very first person I spoke to was “It’s a blinkin ice rink out there today”. There was Mrs Deal who’s husband had been buried in the cemetery that I was taking some photos at, who went on to tell me here life story and all about her dear Roberto who was a life long Chelsea fan.

In Vancouver, on the streets but even more son on the busses and trains, people voluntarily offer conversation and continual smiles. Here one doesn’t even dear look at one’s fellow travelers. It’s not hard to figure out where is the more fun to travel. Having said that I just love my all day travel card and the train into Waterloo station, then on and off the Tube all day, then back to Waterloo to see which platform will the Sheperton Line leave from.

Janine is having a low-key approach to this holiday. Having lived here for a year and being back twice previously with me and also her mum, needs to see less of London than me. She’s had a great time catching up with Sarah, whom was in the Royal Ballet back in NZ and apart from going through school with her at CHCH Girls High, also flatted with her in Wellington (as I also did later on in our quaint Queen St flat). Sarah and Bruce also have a new baby, only a couple of months old, and Janine is loving all the new mum stuff (if nothing else to remind us 2 is enough).

We got to a Santa’s Grotto at a garden center, I got to watch Everton loose to Man Utd in a local pub, Jamie and I became seasoned train and tube travelers, and he’s now a veteran of the ye olde english pub lunch. Jamie and I know Soho and Carnaby and Regents streets intimately. We are having a ball of a time in London while Janine hasn’t really ventured much past the Sainsburys and Tesco’s in the neighborhood.

Vancouver – Frankfurt – London

Why the bloody hell would any airline (albeit code shared) send a young family an hour past it’s destination with an hour and a half stop-over – in what is essentially the middle of the kid’s night, I fail to understand. You may guess the tone of the flight from that. In reality it was a thousand times better than it could have gone, but with Charlie now a wee man (not a baby as he was Auckland to LA), things were a little less easy. For a start Lufthansa has the old big screen and drop down option for movies. So the Buggs Bunny show was just not watchable from 1ft from below the back of the seat in front of you. I also forgot the headphones for the laptop, so Luna Jim on DVD had to be loud enough for the kids to hear, which I assume means the people around us. The food was good and you actually get enough if the boys don’t eat all their food. The cold beer was exceptional.

One cool not was a young girlfriend that Jamie made as we were leaving Vancouver, and Italian Kiwi on her way to Italy had a daughter that Jamie made instant friends with, who ended up sitting across from us in the plane, and who managed to position herself to watch Luna Jim (without sound) – it’s one of her fav shows, very cute.

The stopover was strange, Frankfurt transit lounge is so 80s, but there was duty free shopping to do, and the flight back to London was only about 1/2 full, which meant it just felt less like sardines and so much quicker to get another one of those cold beers.

One last note. On arrival on London our good buddie we were staying with insisted that we could get all 5 of us and our maximum allowance of 9 bags in his car. Janine’s knees up in her chin and my legs numb with the full weight of a bag in the front seat made for a mad and extraordinarily cramped trip into London – we got there.

Leaving Vancouver

Our final couple of days in Vancouver saw my brother and sister-in-law fly over from Dublin as a stop over on their way back to NZ for Xmas with the family.

It was great to see David and Caira, as they have been in Dublin and London for years now, we just don’t get a chance to catch up. They stayed a couple of nights with us and on the day we left Vancouver, they headed up to Whistler for a couple of days in the snow.

The last few days were sad as we had made some great mates and had one hell of a time in Oh Canada. Of course making a couple of sports buddies myself, Jamie in pre-school, Jan over for 6 weeks, Nina’s work, and catching up with our old buddy Gerry, not to mention the travels within North America we both had, made for one hell of an expensive and unforgettable experience. It was really sad to leave Vancouver after only 6 months.

So back to the last few days, they were cleaning and last minute shopping, and of course the role of tour guide for Jamie and I with David and Caira. It was actually really nice to take them on the typical ‘tourist’ rounds of Vancouver, we got to see the town all over for one last time. Of course the weather did it’s best to show Vancouver in all of it’s winter glory and gloom.

The last day itself was madness and you could imagine. Had it not been for Janine’s hard work and forward packing the days before we left we would have been in the poo. I had been selling all of our stuff on Craigslist, only for people to email that they only wanted one or two things from the Kitchen loot, or the TV and not the Vacuum etc. However posting the Kitchen stuff at midnight before we left, I had an instant sale, so all we needed was for people to arrive not to early (one last sweep of the Vacuum) or not too late (plane). So all morning there were knocks on the doors of people collecting stuff. Dave and Caira helped clean and pack stuff up, then took the boys out for a walk so Janine and I could clean the shelves and bathroom etc etc.

The with all of our bags packed, and with the help of Joe our friend whom we met at Dunedin the week before coming our here, who helped for a huge part of the morning lugging things about and in the end taking our luggage to the airport in his buddies pick-up he had borrowed for the day, we finally got to the airport. We got there with heaps of time spare, check-in was a breeze and then we sat down from some relaxing before the potential horror of the flight to London via Frankfurt, but that’s for another post.

So cheers Vancouver you were a blast, and our boys really had one hell of a time there, they loved it even more than we did. This was our third time there and we WILL be back even sooner next time.

Mum Dad and the family unit from NZ to Vancouver and loving it.

Joe with his biggest Kiwi fans.

More Batman

The photographer from the store emailed the pics of Batman and Batboy.

The cuddle was when he first met him, and all the staff went “ahhhwwwwlllll”. Very cute.

The second one Janine is intensely embarrassed as Batman was asking who made his outfit. The fleece cut-out bat on the back is cool in NZ.

The last one was when I was taking a pic of the two of them (you get some idea of the size of the guy), but don’t you just love the intensity in his face, he was so proud of being dubbed Batboy.

Happy Birthday Nina

So the day after getting back from an exhausting but worth while trip in the blizzard to Toronto (& Kitchener), it was Nina’s birthday today.

As Charlie puts it Hassy Birday, they boys were very excited giving mum her presents this morning, some shortie PJ’s, her Ralph Lauren Gloves (essential in Toronto snow) and a coffee flask from our fav cafe.

It was a nice morning, the weather is really amazing for this time of year they tell us (apart from the snow). We went exploring a part of UBC we haven’t been to with a nice cafe park and trees. There’s a very cool little Cedar plantation that may have been a ropes course or something that is great to explore in.

The poor thing had a boring afternoon with the boys who managed to deteriorate at the end of the day, so we had a quiet night in in the end. I managed to get some Dry Ribs from the famous Cactus Club as they were our fav last time we were in Vancouver. I also found some yummie Clarins stuff for her.

Looking forward to a big BBQ with our mates back in Dunners next year though, a little boring just the 4 of us.

Jamie and Charlie came out on their bikes today. Charlie’s died (well it was plastic), thankfully we only have a couple of weeks left here. The pic is of Jamie on his bike, whom despite not having been on his bike for a week or so was right back on it – how does the saying go. He’s still to figure out a dismount that doesn’t resemble Evil Kenevil.

And it snowed…

{ed update – so I’ve just checked the Dunedin weather and it’s 22°C and slightly nor-wester, hmmm}

Ok without a doubt this is the heaviest snowfall I have ever been in. It’s incredible. We’ve all seen those images from american TV where the town is under several feet of snow, I can now see how this happens.

It snowed over night, but Janine’s flight got away ok, but then started again this morning while we were at Granville Island for the ritual coffee. Then with UBC being quite high up, the bus ride home was a little hairy to say the least. They are big powerful machines, but when they start going sideways, they go sideways. Still we got home and everyone is safe and warm. We’re going out for one last play in it this afternoon and get as many pics as possible, as there is rain and warmer temps due tomorrow. So 12°C with up to 80mm of rain with all of this snow will bring flooding and all sorts of mess down town.

With Janine in Toronto, the boys are just going to hunker down to some TV over dosing. I wonder if Rum in their Eggnog is illegal – most other things in this country are.

4th and Fir @ Granville Island

Outside Agro Cafe, Granville Island this morning before the big dump

Outside our apartment

Winter, and…

Spring (more or less the same trees)

Outside the apartment, kids having fun

Feeble attempt, no decoration but still big (that’s what it’s all about)

stuck

brrrrrr

Big enough for ya

So then to really make things messy, the rain has started and we are above 0°C for the first time today with 90-100mm due by tomorrow late afternoon, what a mess we are in for.