Blogs from Knightsbridge, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Hands up all those who've circumnavigated that London racetrack known as Hyde Park Corner... Come on, you can do better than that – I was hoping for some audience participation! So, once again: Hands up all those who've circumnavigated that London racetrack known as Hyde Park Corner... That’s better – quite a good show of hands this time. Now, hands up those who spotted the large white arch that's planted in the middle of the racetrack (Clue: It has a huge statue of four horses and a chariot on top). And now, how about the big, cream-coloured house with an Acropolis-like portico that stands grandly on the opposite side of the road - just before the chicane that takes you into Park Lane and down the long straight to that other arch, the Marble one, where ... read more

I wrote a thing and it got deleted, but long story short, i'm here, got picked up, went tolondon, then Westcliffe on Sea, then back to London, made a bit of a fool of myself when i couldnt recognize a pound in a handful of canadian change, and then saw touristy things. Tower of london, London Bridge, Tower bridge, Buckingham palace, hyde Park, Harrods (the shop where those guys bought that lion), a posh market thingie where cally got serenaded by a guy with a fiddle. There are castles littered all over the countryside, and i got to see the Sea. Another neat thing is that the light switches are funny here and so are the streets. They're small and so are the houses and cars but it all looks relative, the cars may even look ... read more

Taking a page from the Amazing Race today we would be racing across the country dragging our suitcases behind us as we switched modes of transport time and time again. To fuel or frenzy we started with yet another marvelous full English breakfast. No need to detail our orders as we pretty much decided on the same stuff every day. While we waited for Cassie to pack-up and perform her morning ablutions, Tyler, Grandma and I walked a short way up our street to take a look at the local parish church. Just as we walked up the custodian showed-up and let us inside. It was a beautifully decorated little church; more ornate than many cathedrals that we'd seen on the Continent. The church janitor noted our interest and started to tell us something that I'm ... read more

Well Friday was a mixed day. The last of the children finished school and so the family took off down to their house in the Country for the holidays. So it was the last time I would cook the 3 youngest any meals there, or get them up, or put them to bed, or more importantly, it was the last time that I would EVER have to pack them off for a journey. I HATE HATE HATE getting them ready for a journey. I always ask the day before or in the morning 'what time would you like to leave by?' and what ever the answer is the 4 children are always ready and in the car at the time stated. But there is always pfaff and they never leave on time. It usually ends up ... read more

Oooo my first every blog entry! How exciting. Well today was hardly an interesting day, I took 3 of the children I look after to see Father Christmas. Other than that, it was well pretty normal. The youngest has a rotten cold so he was all fun and games this evening. Although, saying that, he did take his first steps with out support with me today!!! He took three steps this morning, although the last one was more of a fall onto me, and two steps tonight. HA - the mum wasn't even around to see it. Score one for me. Well my room is all packed up for tomorrow evening when it will be taken back home for me to sort through into what is going into the attic, what will stay in my room, ... read more

London We arrived this morning to the London Heathrow airport. After about 30 minutes of staring impatiently at the television screen showing where the plane was on the map, I couldn't believe we were actually (finally) here! I hadn't even made it out of the airport, and I must have looked like a child just entering Disney World for the first time. In all honesty, I felt like I had just had five cups of strong coffee. Knowing that a crash was coming on soon (due to my sleeping a grand total of 25 minutes on the overnight flight), I fully planned on enjoying every second of my high. Thankfully, it was only enhanced when, after retrieving our luggage, we found a man holding up a large sign with my name on it. Not just ... read more

Woke up to a warm and sunny Monday morning with the sound of seagulls outside my window. The English seagull is much larger than the Australian variety and whilst the noise they make is quite different to the Australian bird, it is no less annoying. First stop today was Canary Wharf in search of a coffee (as the hotel coffee isnt great) and whilst it is a short boat ride away, I weirdly chose to catch the C10 bus to Canada Water, followed by the tube to Canary Wharf. All up about a half hour journey. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I intend to take the ferry, which I think might only take six minutes. For those of you who don’t know until the mid 1960's, Canary Wharf was a cargo warehouse at the centre of West India Docks ... read more