http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , United Kingdom , England , Greater London , Barnes en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:35:09 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:35:09 +0000 It is time to name the van...suggestions welcome We have a van...well we are getting it tomorrow but the deposit has been paid.The make is a '88 Ford Transit which is a commercial type vehicle with the modification into a camper van done professionally by a company that takes vehicle from factory and coverts them. The other option was some home brew van with much hippie character but much l http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-415576.html We are going to look for vans today. We explored a few options such as long term leasing and Euro rail but all either lacked the freedom we want or were too expensive. Actually the long term leasing was outrageous...one quote for the six months was 70 000Either way after some more internet detective work we found some good sites for buying vans and even got a reasonable quote for insur http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-414974.html This past weekend we discovered a wildlife preserve in the middle of London. The London Wetland Centre is a huge wetlands reserve located right along the Thames and close to our house in southwest London. There are beautiful walks through natural landscapes and amazing water birds from all over the world. The kids are quickly becoming our family photographers but I opted to include the one pi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-378875.html Our flight left SFO at 430 and we arrived at Heathrow airport in London ontime at 1000. The flight itself was very nice but uneventful. Annie decided to sleep the entire flight because she thought she would be able to avoid jetlag. However as I write this it is 1430 and she is fast asleep taking a nap which I guess is evidence that her plan didn't work out too well.Annie and I got into do http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-289933.html Hi all thanks again to all that made it along and sorry to those who didn't make it you missed out on a great start to the summer After torrential rain all afternoon the sky cleared up for a gorgeous eve of boozing barbequing and some pretty illuminating speeches. Man of the match goes to Alan 'frogman' Beverly who after losing his car keys during his evening of debauchery braved the ni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-171216.html Yesterday we went to the London Wetlands Centre which for us is an easy 15min bus ride and although you are obviously still in London it feels like some swampy open field. Full of English and migrating birds They have a board up like at the airport where you can find out which ones are departing arriving boarding or delayed. Cute. On Saturday Christine was taken there with a friend and her fami http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-166467.html The Last Supper has been eaten. The last hunks of meat have been eaten. The bag has been packed. The room has been tidied. The things to do list has been done. The general goodbyes have been said but people just will insist on calling. So I'm off at some unspeakable hour in the morning apparently we do have to get there 3 hours early despite having already checked in but ce sera laisse fair http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-124728.html Well after 5 years living in the UK I've decided to go back to Australia. Flight booked for 16th November 8pm. Scary After a brief visit to Sydney Brisbane Canberra and Tasmania it's off to South America Antarctica and New Zealand for 2 12 months. One month to go and still so much to do. I wanted to get this travel blog working before I left and hopefully update it with all my pretravel n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-95587.html Namaste Thats hello in Hindi see this can be an educational blog as much as an entertaining oneWell I never I fly out to Delhi today. Well tonight at 10pm. I've got a whole day in front of me to pack eat chicken get travellers cheques and play with getting some cds onto my pda. Lets hope I survive since I have on various occasions nearly thrown myself laptop and pda out the window in a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-69376.html Buy one way ticket to London ... checkOrganise work visas ... checkSign up for a UK bank account ... checkResign from jobs ... checkPack up house ... checkSell car ... checkSay goodbye to family and friends ... checkPack bags ... checkWeigh bags and have a mild heart attack ... checkRepack bags leaving out half of the contents and realise that they are still over allowed weight but decide to take http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-11325.html