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......