1st Day Back

So much for having got the jet lag sorted....I was asleep before 9 last night and then woke at 04:31 and couldn't get back to sleep at all :( not ideal....although it was quite good in that I got up and made soup & salad for lunch and a fab smothie for breakfast, then went back upstairs and it was still before 7am! I took my time getting ready for work, and watched an episode of Waking The Dead whilst putting my face on!!!!

It's a bit tragic to blog such mundane things but I had occasion to buy a travel hairdrier while we were away, and I have to say it's the best hairdrier I've ever had, so after a 3 minute blow dry my hair is completely dry (this is something that only people with thick hair will appreciate!) it's amazing!

So anyway, the early start was good as I'm a morning person anyway, and we got to work before 9am - most unusual for me!!! 308 items of mail in my in-box were read & dealt with, and a good old chat was had with the guys who were in today. We had a deeply fascinating hour and three-quarter long meeting about receipts for refunds and exchanges - something I'd definitely been looking forward to all holiday - and then my "super tired" symptoms cut in...

1. numbness in right arm & hand alternating with
   
2. pins and needles in hands accompanied by
   
3. pins and needles in my NOSE!
4. nausea
5. faint feeling

this lasted all the way to Sainsbury's (on the way home) and I was getting more and more dizzy and faint feeling to the extent where I thought I was going to do my passing out trick in the car park, at which point I informed Dan I was either having a stroke or a DVT. The reaction wasn't quite as I had expected it to be....he was quite calm, looked me straight in the eye and told me that I shouldn't have had 4 cups of strong coffee today! Turns out he was probably right as I'm still alive & compos mentis at 10pm writing this blog!

Pictures for the Keanes

Thai Salad

Ingredients for the dressing:

• thai fish sauce
• lemon or lime juice
• pepper
• sesame oil
  

Ingredients for the salad:

• carrot
• cucumber
• watercress
• celery
• peppers
• any sprouts (bean, garlic, watercress etc..)
  

Chop all the ingredients finely & toss in a bowl, dress with a splash of fish sauce (instead of salt) and lemon or lime, a pinch of pepper and literally half a teaspoon of sesame oil (not too much because it's very overpowering).

To the above you can add strips of beef, raw fish, grilled chicken - in fact anything you can add to a salad!

Sunday Witterings

Well I think I've finally shaken off the jet lag. Last night I stayed up 'till 10:15 (wahoo!) and although I woke at 3:30 this morning, I managed to convince my brain it was night time and went back to sleep until 6:30. That's about normal for me so I reckon I've got it licked!

Yesterday we went to the Komfi shop in Birstall and finally bought our new bed! I'm very excited. It's quite hard for us to decide on anything at all so this is a major win! Not only have we gone for the mega storage bed, but also we've opted for a memory foam mattress which I'm hoping will relieve the 'Dan snoring' issue!!!! (Apparently you don't turn over as much on a memory foam bed and it's mostly when he's on his back that the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ starts!!!!)

There is a 4 week delivery lead time, so I'm contemplating a bit of a bedroom makeover. The bed is in a sort of coffee-coloured material so I'm thinking about all shades of cream, beige and brown. I wonder if we can get new doors for our horrible built in wardrobes????

Today I made my 1st Thai influenced meal! It's a lovely salad that Rukmini showed me how to make. The only thing I didn't have was the dried shrimp (this will be procured from the Chinise supermarket in Leeds at some point in the future) but I managed to get the seasoning just about right with the fish sauce (yes, I did say fish sauce on a salad!!!) and the lemon juice. It was very good! I've also just found out that the Weight Watchers point value for fish sauce is 'zero'!!! No bad thing when I think babout the weight that I've put on whilst I've been away!!! I think I'm going to try a 'Tom Yam' next which is a hot and sweet soup.

On Jet Lag

Hmmmm! I'm not very good at this jet lag lark. Those of you who know me well will know that I'm a kind of 'early to bed, early to rise' kind of person. I sleep when I feel tired (any time after about 9pm) and wake up when I'm not tired (any time from about 6am) and I've never had to set an alarm for work my whole career.

This whole changing time zones thing has got my head all of a mess. It took about 3 days in Sydney to get into the zone, and then the night that Dan and I stayed up in Ian & Lloyd's house drinking until 5:30am set us back another week! I'm convinced that jet lag is as much to do with the fact that you spend X amount of your night time hours sitting on a plane not getting any sleep, as with the fact that your day becomes night and vice versa.

There are many pices of advice available on the subject, but the main one seems to be 'stay awake during daylight hours at your destination'. The problem is....I CAN'T! I got to 6pm Thursday (yesterday) evening and I had a splitting headache, was seeing double and felt like I was going to be sick. Yes, these are my 'over tiredness' symptoms which have caused me to pass out on more than one occasion when I've stayed up late a couple of nights in a row. I don't really understand why my reaction to lack of sleep is so severe. Dan seems to be able just to switch of the 'tiredness switch' in his head at will. I just collapse. God help me if I ever had kids!

So this post finds me at 04:32 on Thursday morning, having been awake since 1am (and asleep before that since 6pm!!!!) completely and utterly awake, surfing, working out things we need to do over the weekend, and genrally not even beginning to get over the jet lag/missing night's sleep which has occured. I hate to think what a state I'm going to be in by Monday! OH JOY!

L x

Travel Stats

Just as a matter of interest we set off from Leif & Rukmini's house on Weds 25th at 15:00 NZ time (4am UK time) and flew to Sydney at 18:00 (NZ) = 7am (UK) and we've arrived in Manchester at 12:30pm UK time today on the 26th, home at 14:30ish

Door to door then, we've been travelling 34.5 hours in total, which given that we've travelled more than half way round the world, doesn't seem to bad!

Of that time, the flights are 3+14.5+7.5 which add up to 25 hours!!!!!

We had 3 hours at the airport in Christchurch, 2 in Sydney, 2 in Dubai, and 1.5 in Manchester and an hour getting home from the airport.

Home Sweet Home

Well I'm writing this last bit from the lounge at no 17. What bliss to be back after that long journey. We didn't get a chance to log on in Dubai; the internet stations had permanent queues and we only had about 2 hours in total there. We used our time well though, getting a pint of Guinness and a plate of chips....good job the waiter was used to strange people doing strange things at strange times of the day and night - it was only 6:30 am!

I had been dreading the 14 hour leg to Dubai and to be honest it wasn't bad. I watched 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' all the way through, and also we both managed to get some sleep.

Somehow I was thinking that the last (7.5 hour) leg was going to be the easy one - setting myself up for a fall I reckon. It was 'orrible. I was sat in the middle this time - some geezer covered in tattoos on my left, and Dan on my right. I couldn't get comfortable and didn't get a wink of sleep. The last 2 hours went soooooooooo slowly even though I was watching the bit where Daniel Craig comes out of the sea in the Casino Royale homage to Ursula Andress, which is usually enough to distract me from ANYTHING, but even that couldn't take my mind of the fact that every time I looked at my watch, the time went backwards.

Anyway, the time eventually passed, and after the best part of an hour going through customs and getting our cases, Marina was there to pick us up and bring us home. Totally wonderful. Dan's in the kitchen putting the kettle on, and all is well with the world!

The Journey Begins

Well we're on our way home - 1st leg of 3 completed - we have spent a frantic last 24 hours in Christchurch - cooking, eating, drinking, seeing Leif at work, learning how to make sushi and many other things. Leif came to say goodbye to us at the airport - it was a sad moment for us all.

So now we're in Sydney - the flight was fine - at 3 hours, it's an easy one. This next one is the serious leg - 14 hours to Dubai. It's 20:15 Weds evening now in Sydney which means it's 11:15 on Weds morning in the UK. The flight leaves in an hour and takes 14 hours to get to Dubai; getting in something like 1am UK time on Thursday. Ughhhhhhhhh. Not looking forward to it too much, although there's a good selection of movies on the Emirates entertainment system! Hopefully I'll get onto a machine from there and y'all can check out our progress!!!!

Cheers me deers! L&D xxx

Last few days in Christchurch

Well it's Monday afternoon and we've been back in Christchurch since Saturday lunchtime. Our last blog was from Arthur's Pass - half way between Greymouth and Christchurch. We drove for another couple of hours over the pass - there were *some* hairy bits but nothing too scary - in fact the main thing that was notable from the journey was just how much the scenery changed with every twist and turn of the road. As we were traveling from the wetter West back to the East coast, it changed from lush tropical jungle, to drier scrubby land. We have some great pictures - alot of them a blur because I was trying to snap them every time we turned a bend in the road. So many of them will have windscreen wipers and a tax disc in them - reminds me vaguely of an old Victoria Wood sketch. (I'll look up a link to that next time!!!)

On arrival back here to no 21 we spent a bit of time explaining our route and the details of the trip to the clan, and we had some gorgeous dinner again. (Note: the fabulous Thai meals we have had here will be the subject of another blog entry) then we got ready to go out to the quiz in the local community centre; it was in aid of the family play centre which is like a pre-school nursery but it's run and managed by the parents. Me, dan Leif & Rukmini were joined by their friends Dave and Lynda to make our top team 'Simple Minds'. We did OK on round 1, and rubbish on round 2 but by round 3 the wine was flowing freely! Needless to say, by round 10 we were completely loud and lairy!!! We weren't really paying that much attention to the quiz activity but after the 1st prize was given out, we were surprised to be asked for a representative of our team to go up to the front - shockingly we had come in joint 2nd place and were up for the tie-breaker! Dave (our hero) went up and answered the question "Which is the largest land-locked country?" - we were all so relieved he went up to the front as none of us would have known the answer was Mongolia. He did though, so we won the 2nd prize which included tickets to various attractions in the local area - brilliant - and we divvied them up between us! Needless to say with my super raffle luck, we also won a prize of a basket of toiletries. Leif managed to swap a bottle of lavender water for some more wine (well done that man) and so the night ended with aplomb!

Sunday was a more subdued day for all of us - some hangover cures were needed and lots of water was drunk. There was even some mid afternoon sleeping! Tut tut!
That brings us to today, Monday, we've been out in Christchurch city centre for a great Korean meal at Mama24's with Leif, Rukmini & Orissa who is off school with a kidney infection poor thing. The had to leg it home to get Cyrus from school, but we hung out in the town for another couple of hours; visiting the aquarium where they have a couple of rare North Island Kiwis. Very cute and a bit difficult to see in the dark, but worth it! They're a bit wierd looking and as big as a cat! After that we went for a stroll along the river bank (I understand the Oxford/Cambridge references now I've seen the river!!!) and we had a lovely cup of coffee in one of the bars lining the river bank.

Now we're all back home and having a chilled afternoon/evening with the kids back from school and Cyrus wanting to show off all his new books and his star for reading!

I can't believe we've had all of this time away and now tomorrow is our last full day! It's seemed like we've been away a long time but all of a sudden the end is nigh! Tomorrow we're planning a better tour of the city centre, and then Wednesday we have to be at the airport for 3pm for our flight to Sydney...Dubai...and then Manchester! Hmmm looking forward to that!!!!

Goldmines and Glow-worms

Well we had a lovely day travelling around yesterday. After our last little stop, we were on the outskirts of Westport; we went in to the town but it was a bit like a 1940's holiday camp...a bit wierd!!! All we did was fill up with petrol and leave, heading down the coast to Greymouth, our ultimate destination for the day. On the way we saw signs for a seal colony at the delightfully named 'Cape Foulwind'...well we've never seen a seal not in a zoo, so off we went. Awwww, I'm so glad we did, there were HUNDREDS of little baby seals, flipping about in the water and on the rocks in a secluded cove that you got to by walking along a ledge high above the water. It was great as we were near enough to see them but far away enough that you didn't disturb them!

After the seals we were on a high, so we headed on down the coast and then stopped at the NEXT tourist attraction, Pancake Rocks and (apologies for the spelling again) Punakaki Blow Holes. This is a natural limestone formation which, at certain tides, causes water to blow up through the hols worn in the rocks. Again it was a spectatcular coastal walk, very well maintained path and viewing galleries. Unfortunately the holes weren't blowing!!! But we have some lovely picccies anyway!

Further down on the coast we hit Greymouth and armed with our MOTELs guide, we decided to try our luck at the Coleraine guesthouse. Unfortunately, every singel motel in Greymouth seemed to have no vacancies. As the next day we were planning to be driving over Arthur's Pass, a scary windy road thru the mountains back to Christchurch, we didn't really want to set off over the pass at a late stage in the day and risk losing the light, so we started up the pass road and then stopped at the 1st sign of civilisation we could find. This ended up being a small 'town' called KUMARA - population 450!

The Kumara Motel was run by Lionel, the man who also ran the post office, cafe, chippy and local store (actually all the one building!). We checked out the room and for $65 you couldn't really go wrong, so we took the room.
"Have you ever seen a glow worm?" Lionel said, apropos of nothing. "No" we replied. "Right then" he said "I'll pick you up when I've shut the shop, and we can go and look at them in the old gold mines"! Not an offer you get every day, we thought. So at 8pm, armed with my torch and a sharp knife in case he was going to rob and kill us, off we went to the gold mines.
We were concentrating on not slipping on the mossy track that he lead us down and so didn't really pay too much attention to the surroundings, until he switched off the torch.

WOW!

I wish we could have got a photograph. We were in a grotto, a bank of mossy ground under the roots of a huge tree, and all round us were little lights glinting brightly in the dark. Blue green twinkles like the milky way.
We then went into the gold mine (I gripped the knife tightly) but it was only to show us the 'cave wetter' spiders! In the cave Lionel said it was the glow-worms noses that glowed, but back in the pub afterwards the barmaid tols us it was their pooh! Good job I didn't find that out in the cave, as a couple landed in my hair, and then Lionel's torch gave out! Believe me I had my hand on the knife at that point!!!!

OK well we're in Arthur's Pass Village right now and it's Saturday 10am, half way home to Christchurch. Half an hour's internet access has bought a longer posting for today! More from back at Leif's when we get home!

L&D xxxxx

A town of 750 people

Yes, when we said a 'one horse town' we weren't kidding!!! However with a bit of lovely Hunter's Miu Miu special reserve it all got a bit nicer towards the evening - and sitting outside our lovely Motel room at the 'Merchiston Motels' and chatting to our lovely neighbours Ian and Lynne the evening couldn't have been nicer...sun shining and everything!
Today, Friday, we are en route for Greymouth - currently stopped at a little cafe called "Berlins" just outside of Westport on the West coast (funnily enough!)
We've just had an interesting experience on the way over here - with the Buller Gorge Swingbridge needless to say I didn't make it across, and Dan did it twice!!!! (He's just showing off!)
We've now got less than a week left :-( and we're in 2 minds as whether to get back to Leif & Ruckmini et al, or to travel for another day or so and maybe cross the country coming over one of the wicked passes that cut through the mountains.
We're SOOOOOOO coming back to NZ - next time though, we're going to do it in one of these
OK well the 20 minute internet ticket thing gets used up quickly, we've just had a coffee, and there's a goat standing outside the door. Time to goat I think! <--apologies for really bad joke from Dan)
L&D xxxxx

Murchison

So here we are today (Thurs)in Murchison - it's a bit of a 1 horse town and looks like something from the wild west! Honestly! But it's alledgedly the white water rafting capital of NZ (if not the world!) we've driven today from Blenhim, up the Waipaui (i'm going to have spelled that wrong) valley, and past lakes Rotoui, and Rotoura. Unbelievably massive lakes completely in the mildle of nowhere. It's like something out of Lord of the Rings!!!!! Snow capped mountains and alpine views have combined to make today's drive particularly awe-inspiring.
We're just in the tourist information trying to sort out digs for the night! There are a couple of scary things to do here, including a swing-brige and 'cannoning' which sound just up Dan's street!
Will write again when next have access!
Love L&D xxxx

Blenhim

Next day we shook off our hangovers and got straight on the road to Blenhim - another absolutely stunning drive along the coast. The hills are quite brown and the rivers don't seem to be that full. We drove over a few 'fords' but there was nothing to ford at all. Every river seems to be dry. I don't know if the area is undergoing a drout; all of Aus seems to be on drout alert, but here, I'm not sure. The mountains seem to pour down right to the coastline though, if it wasn't for the road, they'd meet the sea. Beautiful. So we pulled into Blenhim - Marlborough (Wine conutry) and got ourselves a nice little B&B. We went for a japanese meal at a lovely restaurant in the town, and then headed off to the wineries. There are HUNDREDS of them. We vistited, Hunters, Fromm, Cloudy Bay, Alan Scott and Nautilus - some of which you winies (or winos) might know. We were educated on the local wines and the different grapes, we ate chees, tasted olive oil, supped some nice wine - oh yeah and came back with a case of mixed bottles, a few from each of the places we visited. As you can imagine, it was hell!!!!! ;-)
Dinner last night consisted of a gourmet meal in a lovely local restaurant; and we wobbled happily back to the Motel!

Kaikoura

So we set off on our intrepid journey round the coast & up to the North - our 1st stop being Kaikoura - about 150ks north of Christchurch....
We bimbled along - great driving, easy roads and even managed to stop for a cuppa in Cheviot (very good toasties!) and finally we emerged onto the coast. Absolutely stunning scenery and coastline. Pity though that Kaikoura main town centre is like a backpacker's haven. Everyone had dreadlocks and all the cafes seemed to be full of people half our age!!! Howold and crusty are we? Not to worry, Dan had spotted an Irish guesthouse in one of the flyers we got with the hire car, so off we bombed to the 'Donegal Hotel' Gread little B&B just North of Kiakoura - unfortunately a bit *too* Irish themed for my liking, but a really nice bar & restaurant and lovely rooms for NZ$125. Bargain. Or so we thought- until the old geezer at the bar insisted on putting a dire DVD of dodgy Scottish music on the big video screen. I'm not kidding, it was like a cross between Val Doonecan and Ricky Tomlinson - yes he played the banjo too! We complained (we had quite liked the traditional Irish music tape which had previously been playing) but to no avail! The old guy kept ignoring me when I said anything about it! Needless to say, the only way to cope was by getting drunk! As we were close to the world's best Sauvignon Blanc producing region, it'd have been rude not to!

Christchurch

So it’s Monday, 5pm in Christchurch - God only knows what time that makes it in the UK - I think 6am Monday - and we’ve just got back from an afternoon at the cinema - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (kowabunga)! We’ve spent the last 2 days with Leif & Ruckmini and their 3 delightful children, Lucas (14), Orissa (10) and Cyrus (5).

Arrival
We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday - Leif was at the airport to meet us. After a few insults shared between him and Dan (“specky tw*t“ was one) I was convinced they did know each other of old. They reckoned that they hadn’t seen each other for 8 1/2 years! A long long time! So to cut a long story short, we then followed Leif to a school where he was doing the AV support for a conference (yes all of Dan’s mates are geeks!) where we sat and chatted to him in-between his AV responsibilities. We then wandered a bit into the nearest part of Christchurch for some NZ $$$$s and some coffee to keep us going. NZ is 2 hours ahead of Sydney, so in theory, no jet lag at all, but given the previous 2 days of partying, with the wedding and Dan’s birthday, we were completely wasted!

Welcome
We got back to their place after the conference and met all the kids - the 2 littlies were going ack to the conference’s evening entertainments with Ruc lmini, and we hung out at home with Lucas and got a take-away. Lucas is going to be some form of IT engineer - at 14 years old he’s rewriting a games engine for a game which has goine out of copyright. Dan and I vaguely understood what he was going on about but basically he’s more intelligent than the 2 of us put together!

Our Pad
Leif showed us our new residence for the next 11 days - they have a ‘granny flat’ set up at the back of the garage - we have a little bedroom and a sitting room! Fresh fruit, tea and coffee, jazzy wall hangings and an iMac! A warmer welcome couldn’t possibly be imagined!

Sunday
After a mega lovely sleep (8:45pm to 11:20am!!!) we staggered out of bed and got ourselves washed and decent. The guys came home from the lat 1/2 day of the conference and we sat in the garden, chatting, drinking killer coffee (yes guys I’m hooked again!) and eating dips, some lovely rice & seaweed crackers, olives and some muffins & cake! Brilliant! Leif then took us for a swift tour up the nearest ‘hill’ (hill=big F.O. mountain) so look at the spectacular view down over the city. WOW!
The evening was spent then eating our dinner, chatting and drinking wine. Discussing such subects as ‘Joey Deacon’, movies we have seen, and house prices in the UK.

So that brings us up to Monday - some eating drinking and cinema activity!
More to come as and when it happens!

Heading to Christchurch

Well, I can't believe the wedding activity is over - Dan likened it to cooking a roast dinner; lots of preparation and careful timing all coming together in your lovely roast dinner....which you then eat and it's all over!!! I have to say I think the wedding was EVEN better than a mega Sunday roast...!
Last night we went out to Wildfire in Sydney with Relfy & Louise to celebrate Dan's 38th birthday! I'd put a link to the restaurant but I daren't tab away from this screen - it's the world's slowest internet connection!
Currently we are at Sydney International Airport, it's 7am and we're waiting for our flight to Christchurch at 7:50. 3 hour flight and then we're on to the next leg of our journey!
L&D xxx

Apologies....

....for not having blogged at all these last few days. Pen has had us on a mission to be here, do this, go there, sort that....she's really putting her delegation skills to good work! I'm going to try and go back thru each of the days in turn when we're in NZ, and blog them, but now I've sussed the piccies out I just wanted to get one up there of THE FROCK.....whaddaya think?????

Outrageous!

Oh wow, the hen day was VERY GOOD fun - it started out relatively civilised - sitting at the biotanical gardens having a lovely picnic within sight of the opera house - how very glam. Lots of champers and nice food. We were trying to lull her into a false sense of security! Unfortunately, the civilised part didn't last for very long - we ended up in a very posh apartment overlooking Wooloomooloo Wharf (I kid you not) with a rather lovely french lady called...Emmanuelle, ex stripper (again I kid you not), and currently teaching women all over Sydney to pole dance!
I'll leave the details to your imaginations...but needless to say the Bridesmaids worked out a routine that was subsequently performed walking up the aisle! (I seriously kid you not!!!!)

Henny Penny!

Monday 9:30am
Well it's the hen do today - off into Sydney for some outrageous fun. You know a day is going to go well when the invitation says to 'meet on the Opera House steps at 12:30'!
Can't divulge any details at this juncture as Pen reads the blog too, will fill you in later.
Yesterday's BBQ was fabulous - even the odd torrential downpour didn't really dampen things. The party was still going strong when we left at midnight - lots of great piccies taken (I have yet to work out the technological logistics for getting them on here)
That's all for now
L x
UPDATE: the pic is the view from Jon and Pen's appartment! Nice!

Mosman

So it's now Easter Sunday, and we've spent 3 full days here. We're staying in Mosman which is a lovely suburb of the city. It's a really trendy area, and the shops are like an old fashioned high street of 40 years ago - fishmongers, butchers, a hardwarre shop and a million fab coffee & cake shops. Not a supermarket in sight (well there's a tiny one, but it's less 'Sainsburys' and more 'Spar'. People actually walk into the little village and do their weekly shopping using all the local shops. There's a thriving trade here - it's not just tourist bits and bobs. So we've just wandered into the shops, had coffee and a fruit tart each, and bought a ton of veg from the spectacular greengrocers and are just about to laungh into a salad-making marathon for Pen & Jon's BBQ this afternoon. Fortunately the weather has decided to behave today; the last few days have seen torrential rain of the sort that makes us get up from our desks in work, stand at the window, and tut and shake our heads as we see Harry & Fortune sailing round the car-park in a dinghy. For that reason, yesterday was a bit of a washout - Dan went to the deli and got a load of nice things to eat, and we stayed in and read the papers. Here's hoping that's the end of it (can't do torrents in my LK Bennett heels!!)
HAPPY EASTER! L&D xxx

This is night blog.

We had a top day today! Down Balmain beach.
We walked from 103 to Pen's and then down to the seafront - met Lisa & Claire! Lunch in the Bather's Pavillion - we left at 5pm. I love this country - lunch ranges from 11am to 5pm!!!!!
Without putting too fine a point on it - it's now 4am and we're gone with the wind!
night night!!!!

Sydney!

Well we're here! Arrived yesterday morning at 6:30am (Sydney time) which was about 9:30pm Wednesday night UK time. Flight was 14 hours long - not too bad as the entertainment system on Emirates is superb. I watched 145 episodes of CSI (well if felt like that anyway) and apart from the guy snoring (no not Dan) we actually managed to get some kip!
Customs at the airport wasn't such an easy thing tho - even with 'nothing to declare' it still took over an hour to get through - so it was 8:45 by the time we made it. BUT then Pen was waiting for us with her auntie and uncle, and Barb was there too! Just like being at home. She took all our luggage bar 1 case and off we toddled to Circular Quay on the train, where we proceeded to suss out the Mosman ferry. Even though it was 9am, we really fancied a beer - and fair play to them, the Aussies are serving beer at that time in the morning! Even though I got some funny looks, we managed to buy 2 tinnies which we then drank wrapped in paper bags on the ferry! Not really like us to be winos!
The sea was sparkling in the early morning Sydney light and the ferry came out of the Quay, past the bridge and the opera house, and Dan turned to me and said 'well it could be worse'! Understatement of the century!
After getting the bus from the ferry stop up to Mosman village, and the really helpful bus driver had told us which stop to get off at and drawn us a map to Ian and Lloyds house (I'm not kidding, they're so lovely these Sydneysiders) we toddled down the road and let ourselves into no 103.

OH MY GOD! What a place....we walked into the design pages of a 'House Beautiful' magazine! Noone lives in a house like this, do they? Don't they just exist in the pages of magazines or in a photographer's lens? No, apparently not. I & L have the most exquisite taste, and, a view of the bay at Balmain. Photos to follow when we can work out how to get piccies on their Mac (I'm so not mac-tastic).
So today we're at Pen & Jon's super pad in Mosman, drinking champers...I've seen the final version of the frock! AGHHHHHHH it's so beautiful! Again, pic to follow when I can suss it.
Anyway, enough is enough for the 1st blog from Sydney...just to let you know we got here OK and the jet lag isn't too bad so long as I keep drinking! (I can hear you all gasping in shock). Thinking of you all,
Li & Dan xxxxxxx
UPDATE: pics of the house!

Dubai Airport

Well we're here! The airport is incredible. Pity we're only here for 2 hours! Yes 2 hours, not 3; the plane was delayed taking off for over an hour because of a massive lorry fire on the M62 that we were sat in for the best part of 3 hours with poor Marina. Good job we set off early - 3:30pm for a 5:50 check-in. We actually made it to the checkin desk for 7pm. The lady I was sitting next to on the plane left Harrogte at 3pm and just checked in at 8:15pm. Shit!
Flight itself was mostly harmless; I slept for over 3 hours and Dan got a couple of hours of shuteye. Coming in to land in Dubai we saw the coastline and I actually saw the Burj - next time I'm stopping over for a visit! The skyline looks like something from Blade Runner, very futuristic. I want to visit.
Anyway, it's 9:30am Dubai time, 3:30am UK time and our flight is at 10am, so I'd better go and check in. This next leg is 14 hours!!!!!!
Liza @ Dubai

All packed and ready to go

Marina gets here in an hour to take us to the airport! I'm excited but
a bit fraught - when we weighed the cases I was about 2 kilos over; which meant I had to go chucking things out of my case on a 'what does it weigh' rather than a 'do I need this' basis! I've ended up chucking my trainers and my running gear. I guess the resurection of my running skills will have to wait 'till we get back. Not only that, I went to put my makeup on after my shower and realised I've missed out my makeup brush (that's OK it's gone back in) and my favourite makeup remover; not OK, it weighs too much so it's OUT! I'm sure I'll have forgotten something important. Mental list....bra that my bridesmaid dress was fitted over, bridesmaidy shoes, passport, tickets, earplugs for Dan's snoring, lipgloss, absolutlely essential eyshadows. OMG I'm sure there'll be something critical I've forgotten!
Anyway, next post will (hopefully) be from Dubai airport, we land there about 3am UK time, 6am UAE time. 3 hours stopover for a shower & freshen up, then the next leg to Sydney which gets us in to Sydney at 6am Thursday morning which, I think is about 9pm Wednesday night UK time. Cheerio!!!!!!!

New Shoes

Well here they are, the bridesmaidey shoes! I can only hope that they're the same ones as Claire has bought, after me having legged it to Harrogate to get them today!
They're certainly very nice! I just hope they match Claire's!
It's a pity we didn't get our act together a bit quicker as they also come in silver and they'd look great with Les's dress. I wonder if LK Bennett is in Sydney? They're called 'FOXY' so if you are reading this Les, then got over to LKB! Anyway, I love them! Hopefully I'll be able to walk in them all day. I'll be bringing my 'party feet' with me anyway, and failing that, by 10pm I'll be in my flip flops!

I've had a lovely day today. Manicure and pedicure for the wedding; sparkley fingers and black glisteny toes! (Diamante bits as well!) Getting pretty excited now. ONE MORE DAY to go. I was talking with a lady in the beauty salon who has flown with UAE
and who says they're very good!

So on the to do list; all the washing is done, just a couple of bits to be picked up from Sainsblobs tomorrow - some jewellery for the bridesmaids to wear, and a prezzy or 2 for the various people we're going to be staying with. In addition, I think my dodgily acquired Ventolins have arrived at the post office - not too dogy but purhased without a prescription - from t'internet, which is good news as wheezing bridesmaids are never an attractive thing!

I may blog again tomorrow but if not then the next one will be from Dubai airport on Wednesday morning - we arrive at about 3am UK time.

I woke up this morning and thought....

.....ughhhh work? And then my head cleared and I had the most brilliant thought ever....I don't have to think 'ughhhh work' for the next 4 weeks!

Apologies if you're reading this as a distraction from your working day - I'm not usually a gloater!

Anyway, the pre-holiday preprations are warming up - today has been a day of ironing, panicing over where the tickets/credit cards/passports are, and activating our new SIM card; see contact details ------>

A few last bits to be picked up tomorrow & then a nice day of packing!