happy christmas

happy christmas one and all! we've just had a splendid, summery christmas here in port macquarie, Australia. becca's first hot christmas!

we've been having a wonderful time here with family and friends. my sister rachel and victor's wedding was wonderful, a real celebration full of australian and karen/thai traditions.
we have also seen a lot of the country. since being here we have been to the family farm, down to melbourne, driven more than any sane person should, lots of beach, fun meals, walks, chats, pressies, christmas feasting and pinata (today!) etc. we ended the day today watching an amazing sunset from the roof of mum and dad's.

tomorrow (boxing day) we are off to the beach for brunch with my aunty nancie and cousins and their kids. we then only have a few days before jetting back to London.

checking in: singapore airport

well, we've made the first leg of our mammoth trip to Oz. Becca is just having a lie down on the floor while we wait to board the same plane we have just disembarked. it feels nice to be able to stretch our legs, and even pop out to an outdoor space to get hit with the singapore stinking hot and wet air. very humid.

i think this next flight is about 8 hours, then we drive from sydney to port macquarie and then family, wedding, fun!

little edster

we've had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with little eddie lately. we babysat one day, for the whole day which was such a joy. he is such a delightful little fella, and kept us entertained all day (AND we didn't have to bribe him with biscuits!!) we took him to the fish shop where we get our tropical fish which he loved. it is lovely spending more time with him, and he is really familiar with us now which is wonderful.

bikes

sam got a new bike so is loving biking to and from work. here he is leaving home in the morning...

we went on our first expedition together in to town to a Taize service at Westminster Cathedral.

it was beautiful and the bike ride home was too, after a wee tipple in the pub. my poor little purple grape now has a punctured tyre so i'm on foot again to and from work which is annoying, although it has been so beautifully sunny that the walks have been lovely. i miss zooming through the streets and across the common.

in a few days we will be zooming over to Oz! :)

happy thanksgiving

sam made an amazing feast for thanksgiving last night. topped off with a whole tub of ben and jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream between the two of us...mmm we are thankful for ben and jerry's. and more importantly for a great first year and a half of marriage and a lovely home and amazing family and friends all over the world (that's you!) and our lovely fireplace.

happy thanksgiving to all of you... check this out for a great thanksgiving ditty...


also a plug for my sister .. triona is busy making pancake mix for fairs and selling well. her pancake mix makes the most delicious pancakes!! i think a bag of it is about £5 and you can order from her. so if you fancy some pancakes in the holiday season... topped with yoghurt, maple syrup and bacon, its a great way to start a lazy weekend...

walks are back

while i was off work with back probs, walking became a wonderfully soothing and restoring way to ease the pain. it was also a joy discovering more of our surroundings here in clapham/wandsworth. wandsworth common is but a 2 minute walk away, and perhaps my favourite london common. it has a lovely meandering pathway through a thin strip of woodland which i discovered and returned to several days in a row.










slightly out of place was a closed up, expired play ground. juxtaposed against the otherwise flourishing, affluent surroundings of wandsworth. it was slightly eery. kind of doctor who-ish. bikes and tows were strewn around the place as if kids had been suddenly removed in some bermuda triangle type way.













from the common i would cut across to northcote road (local hive of cafes, markets, little shops and our local) to have a coffee or lunch and a browse in charity shops (op shops) and a long time spent in the library. on one of my visits i discovered heaven and earth, an amazing book containing images taken of the detail of otherwise unseen bits of humans and earth and space. here are some of our favs. can you guess what they are of??