Bye-bye Dan & Gis

Instead of a sad farewell (as it certainly was), we farewelled Danny and Gisela in style. English football style. A Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest game and a win to Chelsea 3-0 -> no suprises there. Dan & Gis - I'm going to miss you guys SO much!

A happy 'stralia day indeed!

I've found that since leaving my sunny beach-side hometown of Sydney - I've become quite patriotic about Australia. So patriotic in fact that I'm willing to queue outdoors in the middle of winter for nearly 5 hours, in high-heeled pointy shoes, just to celebrate Australia day in it's truest London form -> at Temple Walkabout.

"Well, was it worth it" I hear you ask. For sure!

After standing in the freezing cold with people for that long you share a certain amount of comradery. We had great fun with our new found friends "district and circle", "the girl standing next to us", "the guys behind us" - even "the guys who pushed in" were friends of ours by the time we got in. We never managed to find out who "farty" was though ...

Happy 'stralia day everyone!!

It's snowing in London!!!

run run run ... oh-wow - snap snap - oh-crap i'm late ... run run run ... SMACK!

My morning started out SO well - IT WAS SNOWING!! Libby woke me at 6 and we giggled and ran around checking every window in the house to see which gave the best view of the snow. All the excitement was exhausting so I hopped back in bed, just for a few minutes. Of course I fell asleep. EEK - so late for work! So I had to run - camera in hand - for the station. That was until I hit ice and ... SMACK! So embarrasing!

A sightseeing weekend

London and I had some quality time this weekend. A ballet at the Royal Opera House, a very cold day on an open-topped double decker bus, lunch at covent garden, a thames river cruise, dinner and a night out with the girls at our local. Phew - I'm ready for a weekend!

Rugby Sevens baby!!

Hong Kong here I come!!

A friend emailed this morning as a long shot to see if I'd join them in Hong Kong for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in April. What are the chances ... it's the exact weekend I'm flying back to Aus. Yahoooooo HK here I come!

Nooooooooooo

So apparently it turns out Irish was never MIA ... it was me!! Something about last week was really bugging me ... it almost seemed as though he wasn't getting my messages?? But honestly - what are the chances of that happening?

So, to set my mind at ease I finally plucked up the courage to send him one last message - this time from a phone with delivery notifications. And yep - you guessed it - it failed. He's never recieved any messages from me. The number I've got doesn't exist .... nooooooooo. And to make things worse - I deleted his messages so I've got no way of contacting him. Bugger!

MIA

Well Irish is MIA. So, not losing any sleep over him - I took myself out on a date instead. I work less than 5 minutes from St Pauls and yet I've NEVER been! So we (that's me and myself) went and had a little lunch picnic on the grass. It was excellent - a perfect start to a long relaxing date-free weekend :)

Financial Times

Boss: "Jo, are you available this afternoon to do an interview with the Financial Times on Persona?"

Jo: "Hmmmm ... tough one. Let me just check my diary"

......... Yeah right!

Jo: "ARE YOU KIDDING ....... YAAAHHHOOOOOOOOOO .... CRAP CRAP CRAP ..... YAAAAHHHOOOOOOOOO.

They weren't clear on which day it'll be published .... so guess who'll be reading their Financial Times - end to end - EVERY day next week!

Irish

Tomorrow I have a date! Yes I said the four-letter-word not often heard from my mouth -> D-A-T-E!

Irish - who sweetly felt the need to re-introduce himself in a text this week (like I'd forget!) - was 'wondering if i felt like meeting up for a drink this weekend'.

Wish me luck! ;)

Libby's 25!!

Yet another birthday in our happy little household. Libby turned 25 in true Libby style (looking devine and leaving boys drooling left, right and centre).

Libs - you don't look a day over 21 (ask any of the bouncers who keep asking you for ID) ... :)

Of course - such a night should only be celebrated in one way ... at the Walkabout!

The usual suspects (navy shirt, white shirt, pink shirt, pink shirt with stain, collar shirt, the brother etc) were all in attendance and did a great job of wishing Libby happy birthday...

Vanessa and I took a much more international approach though and preferred 'Irish' (red stripey shirt) and 'New Zealand'

A top night was had by all! To all the people we met - thanks for helping us send Libby into her 25's with a bang.

Happy New Year!!

A new year with new hopes, new goals, new dreams and a new dress ... :) I fell in love with a dress that wasn't on sale. Don't you hate that! Everything else in the store was - but not my dress. After talking myself into what a good investment it was - they put it through and it was marked down from £80 to £10 - by mistake!! I LOVE IT!! A HAPPY new year indeed!

So in my fancy little black number I headed off for dinner with Rox & co (super scrummy - thanks Roxy) and onto a 'black tie and tiara' party with the housemates (only we weren't told about the tiara part). A great party - what a sensational way to see the NY in!

Road tripping round Wales - day two

We set out on day two feeling better than we should have (the beans did the trick!) and went on down to Tenby. It is such a cute little surfing/fising village - with cobbled road and a castle!

We stayed in the dodgiest B&B and were woken at 3am by a thud. Apparently a chunk of roof had fallen onto the TV in the room upstairs. Problem was - at that EXACT moment the guest had decided to get up and turn off his TV. His only comment: 'damn - we were going to have sex!' Dude - your heads bleeding - you have bigger things to worry about!

After an eventful and not-very-restful nights sleep - we headed home for NYE celebrations ... it rained the entire way back - I don't think i've ever seen so much water!

Bye bye Wales - I'll be back in summer for surfing season for sure!

Road tripping round Wales - day one

With some days to kill, a new Chrissie present (Lonely Planet guide to Britian) and an aussie who'd been in the UK for all of 24 hours - we decided to head off on a road trip. Libby, Tracey (the newby) and me ... and of course Cleo - my lil car.

Our first stop was Cardiff. Well really I should just say 'Walkabout' because that's just about all we saw.

As with all these nights - there were all the usual characters: 'White shirt', 'stripey shirt', 'collar shirt', and even 'Robbie' (Williams)!

And how should every big night end: well with beans on toast of course. It's just a shame we then had to burst into song and sing 'beans beans are good for your heart' to Aarons answering machine at 3am in the morning ... sorry Aaron. Please, please, please delete that message!

Boxing day at the beach

Yeah ... English beaches are not much to write home about!

The gesture was so sweet though - to give the Aussie her Aussie Christmas tradition - Christmas at the Beach :) I think in future I'll save that for when I'm home...

Christmas in Grimsby

After several attempts to get to New York, I finally gave up and settled for Christmas in the UK. And what a Christmas it was - New York - Shmew York - I wouldn't have swopped it for the world. To be with some of my favourite family and to finally experience the cold christmas they always raved about when they visited us back in SA - it was perfect!

There's something about the twinkling lights that come on at 4pm when it gets dark; the warm mulled wine which smells soooo good (and tastes even better!); the full traditional turkey Christmas meal and of course the presents under the Christmas tree in front of the fireplace. By far the best for me though was being with family :)

Snow Patrol

Thanks to the Foxs gallivanting off to SA - I was left with two tickets to Snow Patrol. They'd recently entered the 'top 25 most played' list on my itunes so i wasn't complaining! They weren't amazing on stage ... possibly influenced by the guy four seats down with chronic BO problems - but their music is fantastic nonetheless.

DD flashback

A few days after going iceskating with Sarah & Mitch - Tammy arrived to stay for a few days. I felt like I was back in the Rocks - it was great! I miss DD Aus so much. I've realised how fortunate I was to have a place I genuinely enjoyed going to - everyday for 18 months. Thanks to all the people who made that one of my happiest times ...

Ps... Don't you love Tammy's new look :)

Housemates Christmas Party

We have a great Aussie flatmate called Libby. It's her first Christmas away from home so she decided to cook us a proper Christmas dinner. Her and Anton went shopping for an authentic turkey and veggies - the works.

And what a dinner they made us! Cooking started at midday and went right until we got home. Tammy (from DD) was there to help and they cooked up a storm. Not bad for a first attempt at turkey - even if the seasonings were picked based on their colour :)

We had a great night - with cheesy christmas music, crackers, hats, games and even a silly string fight. Thanks Lib, Anton and Tammy for all your hard work!

A 21st, 29th & Christening

The 21st celebrations continue ... this time coinciding with Leanne's 29th and Grace's christening. This happens when you have a family as big as mine - there just aren't enough days in the year for each person to have their own day.

The 21st was a riot. I managed to catch up with family I haven't seen in 4+ years. We even scored our own private bar in the hotel after everything else shut down. Loved it - nice work Ness!

Inevitably we were late for Grace's Christening ... setting a great example there Godmother Vanessa! A lunch with more Champagne ( oooo keep it away ) and a 6 hour drive home - kept interesting with the responsible Godmother flashing poor unsespecting passers by. Good to know you're there to be a role model for Grace :)