I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS...

London - 21st - 28th December, 2005

First Impressions:

**It's almost 8am and it's still dark!
**It gets dark here at 3.30pm, what's going on?!
**It's great to be able to drink tap water again after drinking bottled water for the past 3 months in Asia.
**All the front yards of houses are just like those on the show "Keeping Up Appearances"
**Very typical English houses (I really am in England now!)
**Superman phone boxes everywhere!
**Red double decker buses everywhere (I have to cross the road with care now as the traffic won't just drive around me like it would have in Vietnam!)
**Policemen just like on "The Bill"
**Look at all those streets from Monopoly!

On the day we arrived I caught up with Olivia and she introduced Bern, Liz and I to the tube and trains. I think I get it now! The transport system still confuses Olivia a little sometimes so I think I'm doing okay. It was certainly lovely to spend time with Olivia again. We hadn't seen each other for 3 years. Olivia and I met at Guides in Melbourne when she was only 10 years old! Olivia has been living in London for the past 5 years and married Jason last year.

Olivia took us in to central London and introduced us to some important shopping areas and showed us the Christmas lights at 3.30 in the afternoon! We also visited Hamley's Toy Store which had a big stand full of Paddington Bears (some of you will remember that Olivia's nick name in Guides was Paddington because she had just moved from England and on guide camps would wear her guide hat turned up at the front, her wellingtons/gumboots and red anorak/raincoat).

During the lead up to Christmas I enjoyed some carol singing around the piano with some of Olivia's friends, lots of Christmas drinks, some fantastic carol singers in a beautifully decorated church at midnight mass on Christmas Eve and watching an ice-skater in the window of Harrods. Rang my grandmother on Christmas Eve (Christmas morning Melbourne time) and she got quite a surprise.

Christmas day was lovely. Rang my family who had their first Christmas in Adelaide with my brother and his family. Didn't cry too much!
I spent Christmas Day at Olivia and Jason's along with Jason's mum and sister and Bernadette and Elizabeth. Enjoyed crossiants with ham and cheese for breakfast (a Fitzgerald tradition back home!). Olivia and Jason cooked the biggest turkey I have ever seen which we were able to continue to enjoy for the next week. It was my job to make the gravy from the turkey juices only the juices were almost lost when the foil tray that the turkey was cooking in was accidentily pierced! Olivia's home made stuffing was a big success - Olivias was a little stressed about this the night before.

It was almost a white Christmas! On the 27th of December Bern, Liz and I went on a big bus tour around central London and at about 9.30am it started to snow! It was very pretty. I had Olivia ringing me to make sure it was snowing where I was and I texted home to let everyone know.

We've enjoyed lots of sights around London since our arrival including;
**A Walk along the Thames from Twickenham to Richmond
**The London Eye
**Big Ben
**St. Paul's Cathedral
**Madam Toussauds
**Trafalgar Square
**Royal walking Tour including Buckingham Palace
**Ghost walking tour
**Tower of London
**10 Downing Street

I'm now living with Olivia and Jason in Twickenham for the next little while which is fantastic.

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