Midhurst

Here's some photos we took back in August when we visitied the nice little town of Midhurst. We actually stopped off to buy some lunch on our way back from the beach. At this time of year it's a little hard to imagine the weather can actually get so nice and warm..... bring on summer!



The Swan Inn (from the Pub photo collection archive)


The Spread Eagle Hotel (from the Pub photo collection archive)




The old place in the background is Cowdray a good place to watch a spot of polo apparently (chin, chin.. pass the Pimms please Mr. Bottingham)

Pea Soup and Fish Supper

We decided to drive into London last Sunday (Sunday's the day - free parking and no £8 congestion charge) to have a look at the ice rink at the Museum of Natural History. We were rather indecisive about it because it had been foggy around our place all day, and we weren't sure if we would be able to see much.

It should be about a 45 minute drive into town under normal conditions, but our indecisiveness meant we didn't leave until 4pm, by which time it was getting dark, and we decided to take the M25, which was living up to its reputation of being the world's biggest carpark in the fog, being a classic London pea-souper; so in the end it took us nearly 2 hours to get there. But despite dire predictions of our foggy demise from the front passenger seat, we finally made it, and found a park right out the front - ha!

We travelled back via the A3 - a much better option:
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It was quite a sight, with hundreds of skaters getting into it on a cold Sunday night. We enjoyed watching, but none of us had the heart to strap on the skates (I won't mention the fact you have to book weeks ahead anyway). But no worries, there was something for everyone... a Christmas market for Mum, a merry-go-round for the girls, and a public toilet for Keezee (who forgot to go before we left home).

We finished the evening off by eating alfresco in 0 degrees, as you do when you're hungry! We've haven't been eating enough fish and chips since we've been here, and the fish supper (as Nigela, Jamie and Gordon call it) is a national institution, so it was high-time to tuck into some cod.


Mummy and Lucy


Daddy and Caiti (who was fascinated by the skating).
Here's a short amateur photography anecdote for you........ We would have asked someone to take a photo of us all together, but it was too foggy to use a flash (honest - the flash lights up the fog - look at the photo below) and it was too tricky for a passer-by to get a good night-time shot on time exposure.



Arty shot of the merry-go-round with the museum behind, bathed in eerie green-light. Hmmm... the fog lifted a bit for this shot it seems.



Merry-go-round girls.


Fush n Chups!


Arty Shot 2: The nearly-empty rink between sessions.

Happy Christmas

We'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. We miss you all especially at this time of year and we're thinking of you all.

Here's a few pics of the Christmassy things we've been up to.....


Lucy met Santa at her school bazaar... Caiti was there as well, but was a bit too shy to be photographed.




Santa and her little helper


Christmas lights at a house near us.


Lucy made a Christmas hat at school (amongst other things).


And here's the snowy winter scene she made as well.

Another School Concert Video

We got some good feedback on the School Nativity Play video, so I trawled the archives for Lucy's other school concert, where all the kids were dressed as animals.

Lucy was the rainbow fish and had a starring role. She was fantastic, and is certainly in line for a Tony award or whatever the primary school equivalent is called. Unfortunately, a user error by the cameraman meant that we missed Lucy's star scene - I won't say which member of the family it was, but he was very unpopular for a while afterwards. We got some great video of the audience's feet though!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy. As usual, press the play button to start the video.

Birthday Girl

Lucy's birthday party was an event to be remembered. As much as she missed family and friends from Aus, it didn't stop her from getting right into it. We had a relatively quiet night on her actual birthday (at least by our standards) with a nice dinner and Scooby Doobie Doo cake...



But the main event was a week or so later when we visited The Big Apple.... no not New York City, but the much more exciting Big Apple indoor entertainment centre in Woking. The party circuit has been pretty hectic since Lucy started school in September, and The Big Apple is a popular venue with slides, ballpits and all the red cordial you can drink.
Actually, it's hard not to compare Woking with NYC: there's the world-class shopping (Woolworths, TK Maxx), sky-scrapers as far as the eye can see (the Council Chambers), local hoodlums hangin' with their posse in the mall, and of course the busy riverside port (The Basingstoke Canal); but its the Big Apple that sets the two apart... I don't think NYC has its equal.

Anyhow, here's some pics of the action from the big event......

Fireworks in the Bedroom

Just looking through some photos we dowloaded recently and found these shots taken on (or near) bonfire night, when most of the UK sounds like a warzone for a week or so.

These are shots of the bloke's house two doors down, taken from our bedroom - a good excuse for a humourous blog title at least. It acts as proof that my earlier comments about the availability of industrial strength fireworks were accurate. This guy had a few of his mates over for a bit of fun at 9pm on a rainy Sunday night... what a nutter. Still it made for some spectacular viewing from the boudoir.


To give some indication of scale, that's a proper full-size tree to the left




And that's the roof eaves to the top left, so we're talking fireworks that shoot a couple of hundred feet into the air here (we reckon)


The show went on for about 20 minutes.... more than enough time for Keezee to perfect his time exposure technique for fireworks photography

Frosty

December is winter-time in the northern hemisphere of course, and the cold weather has been hovering around for quite a few weeks now. But things got interesting earlier this week when we awoke to -6 on the trusty kitchen thermometer (which Keezee had strategically placed outside on the window ledge the night before).

It was a very frosty morning and seeing as though we haven't had any snow yet, this is the next best thing. Check it out.....



Brrr.... Compare the garden here with some of our photos from last summer! (see below)





Winter driving tips - buy an ice scraper and the de-icer spray - they really work! Another nice-to-have is anti-freeze in your window cleaner.... we bought this but didn't add it in time - d'oh.


All geared up for it.


Caiti's thinking pose

The School Nativity Play

This is a first for our blog! Our first attempt to post a video.
Please enjoy "Away in a Manger" from Lucy's School Nativity Play (as seen on YouTube).

If you're new to this, all you need to do is click on the "Play" button below.




The Nativity Play was a corker. Plenty of laughs and tears, even a birth - something for everyone really.


Some of the stars from the Dove team posed for the paparazzi after the show

Unfortunately, one member of the audience became a little unruly and had to be removed from the auditorium (you may hear the start of the commotion in the video). We won't say who it was, apart from pointing out that much drama could have been averted if her parents had have remembered to bring a bottle of milk.

Surrey Hills

Here's another chance to make amusing comparisons with English place names that are also used in Australia.... today we're visiting the picturesque Surrey Hills.

In Sydney it's spelt "Surry Hills" (apparently an unknown person put the 'e' in Joey John's pocket) and if it wasn't for the spelling you wouldn't be able to tell the two apart I'd say. They're both hilly, trendy and full of interesting pubs. I do believe the spelling is the same in Melbourne and what's more, the Minogue sisters are often spotted in both places visiting the nightclubs and boutiques.


These pics were taken in autumn, as you may notice.


For the geography buffs, we're actually at Denbies Hillside on the North Downs.



The scenery is lovely when the sun's out.


Rush hour on Crown Street.