February update

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Lucretia and Craig

Lucretia and Craig (Davin's sister and her husband) arrived in London in early February, landing in Heathrow just hours before the airport was shut due to snow (in the same night we were stranded in the Dublin airport thanks to said snow storm!). While a very exciting welcome to the northern hemisphere with neither of them having before seen falling snow, it was a bit of a temperature shock having come from 30 degree days on Thailand beaches. Plus there was the sheer pain-in-the-bum factor as they struggled their way through snowy streets with copious amounts of luggage and a non-existant public transport system.



Craig, a teacher, had a job lined up at a school about an hour north of London, and so started work fairly promptly. However, he had one week of work before hitting the mid-term break and so was on holidays for a week. As Lucretia hadn't started her job at that stage, they braved the English traffic and drove the 4 and a half hour drive down to see us for a few days. We were just a touch excited to see them as you can imagine, having been famly-starved for 5 months and very keen to hear that familar Australian drawl! So the Saturday night was mainly spend in a hurricane of words, as we caught up with each other's news and discussed future plans.



On Sunday we awoke to a fantasticly sunshiney day, and so, after a lovely breakfast, decided to go for a bit of a drive, showing off some of the local landmarks. We drove up into Dartmoor, out to Plymouth and then back up the coast to Exeter. Our day's mission, at which we failed miserably, was to treat them to a genuine 'Devonshire tea'... although the ice-cream we had on the headland at Plymouth was a tasty substitute (has been a long time betwen ice-creams let me tell you!)



Coming back along the coast we stopped at Teignmouth, where Craig, a keen surfer, watched from the comfort of his many layers of clothes, as the crazy English surfers braved the conditions. We walked out to the end of the pier in Teignmouth, on which a massive arcade games complex was built. Disturbingly, the building also contained poker machines alongside the kiddy racing car games... Not sure that these things should be grouped together in the minds of childeren..?? Plus some of the toy prizes were also a tad disturbing (I know I've used the word 'disturbing' a few times in a short space but there really was not other word for it.)



After much deliberations and number crunching, the big news to come out of the weekend is our decision to all travel together through Europe, and then head home. While Dav and I didn't have a definate plan as to our time here, our hope was to only use the money we earned whilst here to travel, leaving our savings from Aus (mostly) untouched on our return. However, given that we are not earning as much here as we were back home (and the backwards slide on the career ladder for me), we figured that we might at well travel now - as it is the whole idea of being over here! We would then head home a little earlier than the 2 year expiry of our visa, and knuckle down for a year or so to replenish the savings account. We figure that if we are going to be working hard we might as well be at home where we are closer to family and friends (and sunshine!).



Creash and Craig are in a similar situations and so it just makes sense that we all travel together, as this will cut the costs even further, meaning that we can travel for longer! So the plan is to camp our way across Europe on a shoestring budget... complete with tents and cookers and a heap of 2 minute noodles and baked beans! After a lot of thinking and sitting in our car, we have also decided that cramming Craig's 6 foot 4 body into our little car is just not feasible for 4 months straight, and so we decided to buy a larger people-mover van, so that we can comfortably fit ourselves, all our camping stuff and the odd parent into our travel-mobile. (see below for further details..!)



And so now we have lists and lists - what we have to get, what we have to do, etc etc - and I am constantly trowling Ebay for good deals on sleeping bags and self-inflating mattresses and wind-up head torches...

Ben and Lauren


The weekend later we travelled up to Brighton (about a 4 hour drive north of us on the coast) to catch up with friends Ben and Lauren, with whom we are doing the Camino in Spain at the end of next month. We arrived early afternoon on the Saturday and met them at the apartment where they were staying with a friend of theirs from Melbourne.



After checking into perhaps the worst and most expensive hostel ever (but the only available accomodation left in Brighton on a Saturday night), we drove just out of town to a pub situated on a headland overlooking the ocean. It was a gorgeous day, with the sun giving us all it had, although once again she was undone by the chilly wind factor... So while it was lovely to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, in the end the warmth of the open fire inside was a bit more tempting as we tucked into our pub meals.



It was then back to the appartment, so that we could compare packing lists and tent weights, and just gerneally discuss our mutual travel plans for the few months ahead. The plan is that we are to meet them in Barcelona at the end of March, and then travel up to near the border of Spain and France where we will begin the Camino, a 750km walk across the top of Spain to the Atlantic Ocean. From there, Dav and I have some free time for a couple of weeks in which we might laze around on a beach somewhere (with our poor feet up!), before heading back up to northern Spain to partake in the festivities that will be Ben and Lauren's wedding! On this note, back in the apartment, Ben popped the second-most important question..... asking Dav to be his best man! Dav was obviously quite chuffed at the honour, although now he was the nervous responsibility of looking after the rings for the next 3 months...



It was then back into town to yet another pub, where we met up with some more friends of Ben and Lauren's. Having lived in Brighton for a while back a few years ago, Ben and Lauren had plenty of old workmates and friends with whom to catch up. Was quite a fun nights, with bellies full of beer and crisps (thanks to the pub not serving any food and no-one wanting to venture into the cold), and some very extravagent characters (and that was amongst us!)



Dav and I stumbled into our hostel close to middnight, made our way through the stinky maze to eventually find our room. The hostel definately lived up to our expectations with a noisy night and sqeaky beds. Regardless, when one is tired enough, one finds no obstable to sleep!



Up the next day, we were once again greeted with gorgeous sunshine. We decided to walk back into town along the beach to meet Ben and Lauren for a hearty breakfast, before making our goodbyes. The rocky beach was quite unlike any I had seen, and the sound of the water running back over the rocks as the waves found their way back out into the ocean was really unique.



We also passed the old and new piers, both dominating the sea view. The old pier (the West Pier) was built in 1866 and had been closed since 1975 as it continued to deteriorate, with several fires and collapses making it a stark profile against the ocean backdrop. And apparantly I'm not the only one to think so, with the old pier being far more photographed than the new pier!



After a fantastic breakfast, we said our 'see-ya-laters' as we would be seeing them again in 4 weeks when we embark on our Spanish adventure!

New car!!

Given our new plans to camp our way around Europe together, and their need of a car to get to work (Craig's school is in the middle of nowhere), the task of buying our people-mover fell into the hands of Lucretia and Craig. And they didn't disappoint, finding a fantastic 7 seater - a 'Citreon Synergy'. With quite a spacey 'cockpit' and plenty of leg room, the back two seats also fold up, giving heaps of room to carry our belongings and camping supplies.

New house

As some of you may know already, at the end of January we also moved house. The people with whom we are renting (Jackie and Des) bought another house and we were given the option of staying in the old house, where each room would be rented out, or moving with them to the new house.



The new house, while being about the same distance from town, is about half the distance to my work, right cross the road from quite a nice little pub and, as we have since discovered, on the same road as the university where none other than J.R. Tolkein spent many years teaching.



It is a 3 storey terrace house from the Victorian era, and while it needs a little bit of love to make it shine, it has the potential to be a really stunning home. Jackie and Des managed to get it at an absolute steal as it was a deserted for quite some time, with ivy overrunning the front and back walls, and even managing to wind it's way in through some windows and continue it's journey within the house. With the ivy now gone (thanks to Dav and 1 week's free rent), the place looks a million times better, with valuations already much higher above what they paid for it. Definately inspiring us to do some further renovations back home!

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Photos

Exploring Cornwall
Craig, Lucretia, Dav and Anji

Icecreams in Plymouth
Lucretia, Dav and Anji

Look familiar...?
Brighton

Squirrel
Brighton

Dav's new hairdo
Been a while between trims....