Blogs from West Hampstead, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

All steps easy through to the underground at Terminal 4 of Heathrow. Onto the wifi and rapid contact with Alex. We always forget just how far it is from this airport to the centre of London. Also how noisey the Tube carriages are. Through to Green Park and onto the Jubilee line for West Hampstead station. Alex and Jill were there to meet us which was excellent. Both looking fit and flourishing in the environment. A few blocks past trendy and diverse shops and cafes and into there flat complex. Multi-storey terrace houses that had been 9 bed-sits after WWII. Now two generous apartments. Theirs, on the top floor is light and airy and surprisingly quiet given its inner city location. We rapidly caught up on the story so far and made plans to head out. ... read more

Greetings I am heading to Gondar, Ethiopia scarily soon to teach on an anaesthetics masters program and then am off to Kenya to work for AMREF. Super excited (she says with butterflies)! Will try and keep you updated with my antics abroad - if there are long gaps, it means I am busy saving lives, seeing the world, meeting new people and have totally forgotten about this blog ;)... read more

Well since I have had hundreds of my fans write in asking for the next installment, I thought I should keep you all abreast of things that are happening this side of the world. It can basically be summed up in two words. It’s cold. I was thinking the other day that winter started last October when London had its first October snow in 30 odd years, and it’s still going in February when we had London’s biggest snowfall in 20 odd years. 5 months of winter?!? It makes me extra glad I’ll be seeing a lot of the sun in Costa Rica in a few weeks. After I got back from New York, it was back to work to top up the funds before my long trip, but a week in, I was told the ... read more

Well following my tour of the sporting grounds, there has been a lack of sport around. It’s like the country has gone into hibernation waiting for the next football season to start. Oh well, only a couple more weeks to go! This blog was also going to include my weekend trip to Belgium, but I loved Bruges so much that it deserves its own entry. Following my trip to Dover and Canterbury with Leah, we welcomed a friend of ours from New Zealand over. Cara had decided to visit and see what our lives were like over this side of the world. She also came at the perfect time. Escaping the NZ winter and arriving in the very best of the English summer (if you blinked, you missed it. It’s over now, back to chilly wind ... read more

Not once, but TWICE it snowed this winter to delight the Aussies (and some locals) in London. This time, there was much more snow, apparently more than has been seen in 30-40 years. Amazing! However, the inconvenience factor was much higher this time with everyone in my department arriving half an hour to an hour late for our morning meeting. Some people's journeys were doubled, others trebled due to the delays and disruptions caused by the snow. I still think it's pretty and quite phenomenal. It was a bit hazardous walking to work, but on the odd snow day I can definitely handle it.... read more