It seems you just cant keep me away from the place..... I enjoyed my 11 days in Chamonix at Christmas/new year so much, I could not pass up the opportunity to return in February. (Actually, that is not quite true, I would have quite liked to check out another resort - it is just that Chamonix is so easy to get to - only just over an hour drive from Geneva airport.) This time my travel companion was a mate from work, Deano, who has not yet seen the light and is still a skier. Still, our standards are not that [View Full Entry]

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I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. And, as I was unlikely to get one in London, I figured Neddy better go to the mountain and try to sort one out. As it turned, out, it was not an uneventful adventure but a great time was had by all. High First off, a high - managed to book the flights from City airport, my favourite airport in the whole of London. Why? Two reasons. First, it is very easy to get to - you can get there in about 40 mins from my place just using ordinary London Transport (tube and DLR). [View Full Entry]

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For my next Christmas market experience, I headed to Copenhagen, to celebrate Richard's 30th birthday (love all the birthday weekends away you get invited to when you live in London!). The Christmas markets in Copenhagen are held in the Tivoli, which is a big park like area in the middle of the city - with rides! They are therefore much bigger and more spread out than those in Nuremberg. The stalls are in more permanent structures and sell a bigger range of goods - including more clothing, toys and gifts. There is also much more space between the stalls which, as [View Full Entry]

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December 2007 was the month of the Christmas market for me. First, mum and I headed to the Nuremburg Christmas markets to celebrate mum's last weekend in the Northern hemisphere. They are one of the oldest in Europe (dating back to 1628) and are held in the square in front of the Frauenkirche church. They work hard to keep them traditional. All the stalls have to have the same striped red and white roofs, they are not allowed to sell certain things (like war toys), there are rules about the way that the wares are displayed (no tatty cardboard boxes) and [View Full Entry]

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In an attempt to replace my devastating memories of Australia's defeat to England with happier recollections, I again headed to Marseille - this time by plane - for Renee's 29th birthday celebrations. I am happy to report success! A crew of 8 of us stayed in an awesome villa at Carry le Rouet, about half an hour from Marseille itself. The villa had great views across the Med to Marseille itself. Luckily for the rest of us, Rich and Rhona (who flew in from Frankfurt - we are such an international crew) had arrived early and sussed out the way to [View Full Entry]

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Not sure if you were aware, but I had a very adventurous childhood, including a stint living in Spain with the family. So, of course, when the parentals came for a visit in November, it was time to get that part of the family living in London (ie my bro and I) together for a trip back to our old stomping grounds. My brother, his girlfriend and I flew into Malaga, on the Costa del Sol in the South of Spain (how posh does that sound?) and met the parents, who had already had some time in Spain, brushing up on [View Full Entry]

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The months of September and October saw the Rugby World Cup being hosted in France (with some help from Wales and Scotland - who co-bid with France to stop England getting the hosting gig). Of course, I had to get a piece of the action! Way back in November last year I purchased tickets to the Australia v Wales game in Cardiff and quarter-finals for the winner of Australia's pool (a leap of faith at the time, because the Wallabies were not performing that well!!) Finally, September 15 rolled around, and a group of 16 Aussie mates (among many, many other [View Full Entry]

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Some more random fun times in London. The pictures tell the story. [View Full Entry]

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For the August bank holiday weekend Yolande, Phillips, Trav and I headed to Rye about 2 hours drive south east of London. I would usually plan to go overseas, but my passport is with the Home Office while I try and become highly skilled. So, it was a good chance to check out some more of England and take the tent-mahal for its last outing before Ben and Yolande head back to Australia. For once, the weather on the long weekend was fab - we even managed to get a bit sunburnt (who knew that that was even possible in the [View Full Entry]

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Another weekend, another festival. This time Brigid and I headed to Staffordshire for V Festival. While not as muddy as Glastonbury, I was certainly happy to have my wellies with me. V was also a lot wetter than Glastonbury - it rained off and on on the Saturday and for most of the Sunday. It was all a bit much really. Another annoying thing was that they made you queue for beer vouchers and then queue again for beer - I didn't like that system at Livid in Sydney, and the English version did not impress either. On the plus side, [View Full Entry]

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