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

The weekend after Cardiff was spent recovering from a small cold that had mainly been caused by running around in a sleeveless top until 5 or so in the morning whilst in Cardiff. Surprised I have not learnt from that one as yet! To add to my woes the temperatures hit a sweltering 29 deg Celsius on the Sunday and so the pressure was on to be outdoors, tanning and eating ice-cream. This line up of activities was eagerly supported by the girls of the house, except me. Being South African does not automatically equip me with the ability to withstand heat, or to appreciate the sweat dripping down as I lay in the sun with a grin on my face. I failed at handling the heat, sat under a brollie for most of the time ... read more

Hi This is my first short and introductory entry. I feel I really need to make a start on this blog as a good motivator because it would be easy to not do "it" if no one knows that I want to do "it". Now I have made a statement it is official and not doing "it" will be public step down. "It" is the Pennine Way, early July 2011. I have only just decided and I will need some real planning so I will just have to get my skates on.... read more

Today we didn’t do much other than pack and wait. I did take a trip to Wimbledon to see if there was anything else I really needed but we mainly just packed and waited. I had a day to reminisce about being back in London and realised that I still love the place. The friendships I made back in the mid 2000's haven’t felt the effects of 4 years absence and I’m grateful that all my wonderful girlfriends still make me feel like one of the gang. Finally the time came for the taxi to take us to the airport, so having the whole day to prepare we were waiting outside at the designated time of 5pm. We were still waiting at 5.30pm and the likelihood of getting to Heathrow to catch an 8pm flight to ... read more

After having the last two days out and about, without an actual sleep time for the girls, we decided to stay local today and act local. We started by going to Southfields and getting a coffee in the “kids” cafe and of course doing some final Primark shopping. We then headed to the indoor playground Gymboree where Edyn learnt some more climbing and sliding skills and Mykenzie buzzed around like a bee looking for pollen! We then had a lazy afternoon in and a great Japanese Katsu curry for dinner with Luke and Tahls! ... read more

Last night Cristiano, our friend from Brazil was visiting for the night (he didn’t fly from Brazil for one night; he’s currently in France so flew in for a quick visit). He and Jas had a big night out so I quietly got the girls dressed and off we went in search of an adventure while the boys slept in. We were headed for the supermarket but very surprisingly, they didn’t open until 11am! Imagine that, a London supermarket not open until the middle of the day. We ended up having a cappuccino and babyccino so the outing wasn’t a total waste. By the time we got home, the boys were awake so I went for a run, again along the banks of the Thames to Fulham Football Stadium. It was easier to run this time ... read more

After a big day of travelling yesterday, we decided to stay local today. We simply went shopping at the closest shopping centre which provided two things. It was a little of our old stomping ground so gave Jas and I a chance to reminisce and also gave the girls a chance to stretch their legs and have a play. We wanted to make sure they had a normal day today with a normal mid day sleep. It was actually a very normal day and did give us a chance to just relax and unwind after a very full-on few weeks. Being in London doesn’t scare me! I feel so at home here and the familiarity of things is comforting. Seeing Boots, Marks and Spencer and H&M makes me feel at home. I don’t have a problem ... read more

Today we had a minute’s silence for our suitcases that were about to pass. Mine was 10 years old all the way from the Olympic Village and Jason’s was about 20 years old. It was sad to see them go but the new recruits stepped up to the plate wonderfully! We left Annecy to begin the next adventure, this time to the mossy rock that is the UK! We were flying out from Geneva airport. This is quite a unique airport in that it has two sides, a French side and a Swiss side and if you've rented a car in France it costs a whole lot more to drop it off on the Swiss side of the airport, because heaven forbid if a Swiss employee has to drive the car around the corner to the ... read more

I've been to London to visit the Queen! Ola! Well it has been a while between blogs but rest assured I am alive and well and we have been doing soo many activities. Alissa, Sam and I went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on Saturday which was such fun. I am very much looking forward to heading back to Lizzy's pad in the winter to get a closer look as there were sooo many people around it was impossible to get a good pozzie. The gaurds did look very dapper in their costumes though, I love! We then took a tour around Lizzy's digs to see where she hangs her hat and such. We got to see the state rooms and the gardens and where she does her fancy-smanshy knighting people ... read more

Jello! We have been doing so many activites since we arrived. Yesterday we were knee deep in sequins, hot pants and feathers. The Notting Hill Carnival. And.it.was.amazing! I loved it so much, so much colour, the weather was perfect, the atmosphere was electric and the costumes were incredible. There was a whole lot of booty shaking (not on my part) and some great dj's leading each float. Just another example of the many wonderful ways you can spend your time in a city like London. The day before we went to Cambridge for some punting. Manya pun' followed our journey. Amazingly enough the English do not really appreciate the Australian humour but don't worry, we well entertained ourselves with our shenanigans on our hour long punt trip. Punting consists of a long boat (which we found ... read more