Ice-skating at Sommerset House

We have ended our weekend on a high note. By heading to the open air ice-skating rink at Sommerset House. It was beautiful. Now I know ice-skating itself is not so beautiful...well not when your watching Liz and I attempt to skate gracefully around and around. But the rink is in the middle of the courtyard at Sommerset House and there is these lovely blue and green lights that made the ice glow and was therefore beautiful. What wasn't beautiful was the 150 other people we had to share the rink with...luckily we escaped without any collisions and we came off the ice after the hour without being knocked down OR falling down ourselves. HOORAY!

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone has had a great start to 2009! We saw in the New Year quite quietly. We went into Camden for dinner and then went to Primrose Hill, which was a short walk away, to watch the fireworks which were happening on the London Eye. We couldn't hear the fireworks but the we could definatley see them. So beautiful!

Liz and I are both doing well. School has gone back already and I have gotten a few set contract days at a couple of schools which is great and Liz is continuing with her nanny duties. We are still enjoying being here but are beginning to miss home especially with this cold cold weather, although, I'm sure once we're home we'll be complaining about the heat! Which brings me to when are we heading back down under....well first of all we'd like to say.....

CONGRATULATIONS!!! To Liz's brother Jeremy and his partner Allie who have become engaged!! We are sad we'll miss your engagement party but are looking forward to seeing you at your wedding!!

So.....this means we will be home for their wedding which we believe they are thinking early September so we will be home around then! We have a fair bit of travelling we'd still like to do so the plan is to do all that before we fly back.

Well that is the general news for now. Ciao :)

Mini Christmas in our apartment :)

Here is Liz and I celebrating our own Christmas before heading off to Belgium. We had so many gifts to open we thought it best to open them instead of taking them all on the bus! Thanks to everyone who sent them over, they were lovely, we had so much fun opening them!! And thank you to the people who sent us cards too!

Christmas in Antwerp

For our 2008 Christmas we headed off to Antwerp as we were invited by Ingrid and Tom to join them for the celebrations as they also had Emme and Lyn (Ingrid and Emme's mum) visiting as well!! What a full little apartment they had!

Our chosen style of traveling was by bus which when we planned it seemed like a good idea. We booked a night bus which left London in the evening to arrive in Antwerp early in the morning thinking that we would just sleep the whole way feeling nice and rested and ready to celebrate. Ha I hear you all say. Yep, I think we got THE worst bus in the world. We had a 4 year kicking our chair and pulling our hair on regular intervals as well as a teenager who continually stared at us (and no we gave her no cause to stare!). We also didn't think about getting on the ferry at Dover where we had to vacate the bus to go up on deck...then when we got to Calais, France we had to go through Border Control....this all happened between 1.30am to 3.30am. So I guess you figured that we didn't really sleep much at all!! But in saying that I was wide awake when Em and Tom came to get us, a friendly hug! It was just what I needed!

Our next three days were mainly a blur of talking, talking and more talking where in between we ate and drank and played games. In Belgium the main celebration/dinner happens on Christmas Eve, however we did not have a tradition Belgian meal but an Aussie one!! Ingrid cooked up a delicious Turkey with all the trimmings including real, that's right, REAL cranberry sauce! We concluded the evening with desserts made by Lyn which are Christiansen traditions...and no wonder they were delicious! We ended our evening with calls back home to Aus. Our Christmas day started off slow with presents and breakfast made by Emme - I tell you these Christiansen woman are welcome in my kitchen any day!! :) For Christmas dinner we were invited to Tom's parents place to have leftovers, of stew which is what they traditionally eat this time of year. The stew we had was deer stew with chocolate and wine I think...it was sooo good! And wine....all our meals were of course accompanied by alcoholic beverages :)

Boxing day we headed into Antwerp to watch 'Australia' at the cinemas...completely disappointed by the movie but we evened that out by treating ourselves to waffles..mmmm

Merry Christmas!

Instead of Christmas Tree (which I was a bit too lazy to go out and buy) I have improvised and made a Christmas shelf where all our delightful presents from you all sit. And thanks to Mum's package, we even have some lovely decorations! I think this is the most presents we have had since we were kids! We are so excited that we're even having our own Christmas dinner with the complete works-turkey, roast veggies, pudding on Monday night so that we can open then all. Thank you to Mother Jones, Mother Jucha, The Brownies and Nonna for sending the gifts over as it has really made it feel like Christmas and made us feel loved. We miss everyone so much and will be thinking of you all through the holidays.

We hope that everyone has a fantastic Christmas and a happy New Year.

lots of love Nicky and Liz

Christmas Time in London

So last weekend we decided that it was time to go into the city and experience some of the Christmas festivities. After searching the web we found that there were some German Christmas Markets along Southbank, which is where the the London Eye is situated along with lots of other cultural things to do (museums, galleries, aquarium). The markets themselves were fairly uneventful but what we did enjoy was a delicious bratwurst which if we are really being honest here, is all we went there for!! Mmm so good. AND I tried mulled wine....not really a fan, but glad I gave it a go. We spent the rest of the day just walking along the Thames, the weather was quite mild so it was quite enjoyable outside as long as you were rugged up. Also a warm cup filled with vanilla latte helped too :) I also took Lizzie to see the Trafalgar Christmas Tree as I feel that she missed out the other week!

Trafalgar Square Lights up!

So I had been told that a very London Christmas experience was to go and watch the lighting of the Norwegian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square. So last Thursday (6th Dec) I caught the tube into the city to watch this grand event. It was quite chilly but I was prepared with all of my layers and my new lovely warm coat and a rather delicious and hot cup of coffee :) I was there about an hour early so I actually got to a spot where I could see the stage and the Choir. The Choir sang while people were still filing into the square and then a different Choir sung after the ceremony which took forever! About 3 people spoke and each one repeated what the other said...which was basically, how wonderful a gift the tree was as it is given to the people of Britain by the Norwegians as a reminder and thank you for the help that Britain gave them during the second world war. This has now been a tradition for over 60 years. Lovely story but after the third one I got the gist of it!! But it was nice being there although, a little less eventful than I thought as the tree only has white lights on it! Where is all the tinsel and red and green decorations Britain!! Anyway, here are the pictures of before and after...awwwww

Enjoy!