Parksville

To celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday, we were all treated to a weekend in Parksville.

The whole clan was invited, and despite the 8 inches on snow on the roads, we all made it in one piece - staying in log cabins, 5 mins away from the beach. With access to an indoor heated swimming pool - just in case a spring time dip in the Pacific Ocean wasn't your cup of tea!

A good time was had by all, and it was a great weekend. I've got a very small collection of photos below.

The whole clan!


A view down on to the beach

The Beach - and Snow Capped Mountains




More Beach



And me!

New York City (better late than never)

We managed 4 days in New York before the Vancouver leg of our Journey. Took in the usual Sights and sounds of the city. To me, NY was a lot like London, only with a grid pattern of streets, and much larger cars!

Day 1 - Took a "hop-on / hop-off" open bus tour through upper Manhattan - was good, and allowed us to settle into the city

Day 2 - Took the same bus, but towards lower Manhattan, and jumped off at the ferry to Ellis island - purchased our tickets, and then decided NOT to wait the 2hrs it would take to get on the ferry, and instead took the free Staten Island Ferry.

Day 3 - Took the bus again (had 72hr ticket) to Museum of Natural History - spend the whole day there, looking at Dinosaur bones, and other exhibits. Followed by an evening stroll through Central Park

Day 4 - Went shopping! Mostly for new Camera gear (woot!), then visited the viewing platforms of Rockafeller centre at sunset.

Photos below!

Mullets, Museums and Snow

Our adventures since leaving the UK have ranged from sunburn in Washington to walking on a beach in the snow last weekend.

I really enjoyed Washington both for its fashionable locals ( read mullets) and those amazingly grand monuments. Kept feeling a bit like I was in a Hollywood film waiting for the aliens to blow shit up at any minute.

New York was exactly what i expected 'full on' from the OTT neon of Times Square to that fantastic collection of dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural History and a very romantic walk under the cherry blossoms in central park it was a lot of fun.

Thankfully Dave was around to interpret as I couldn't understand anything anyone said to me in the US , sadly no real time for shopping as it was such a short trip but managed to sneak in a few cocktails and the odd nice meal so it wasn't all wasted time being educational and all that boring stuff .

We landed in Vancouver last weekend for Dave's father's 60 birthday celebrations to be greeted by snow !!!! .

According to the locals this is very unusual weather for this time of year ........... sure guys, I believe you .....this is Canada after all.

The big family weekend was great fun, lots of noise, booze and food with 15 or so of us in 2 cabins. Walking on the beach full of snow is quite the experience I can't say I every expected that to happen in my life !

The plan now is to hang out at the farm for a few days waiting for the rest of the snow to melt before we trek off on more Vancouver Island adventures .

Day 1 & 2 - Washington

Well, we made it!

The flight over was great, only 1/3 full, so there was plenty of room - and there were no delays. All in all a very pleasant flight experience.

We're at our hotel in Washington now - slightly sunburnt, but still raring to go. We've spent the first 2 days just walking around the Washington Mall, taking photos of all those places we keep seeing in American movies.

Now, we are going to spend the Day visiting the Smithsonian museums, before boarding a train for New York on Monday morning.

I've put a few of the photos from the first day below

36 hours

Just 36 hours left in the UK. The flat is clean, the bags are packed, the boxes have been shipped. All that is left is to enjoy ourselves for the next few hours. The weather seems to be holding, so it might be a chance to hit the pavement, and walk the sights just the last one time.

While it took 2 years to get to this point, that last few hours seems rather tranquil, and almost anti-climatic. I should be rushing here, rushing there, packing this, phoning them, but this time around - everything just seems to be working..

The Final Goodbye(s)

This week saw the last of our visitors pop into Chez Peckham. Rebecca flew across from Germany to say hello (as she has just come back from 6 months in South America) and to say farewell. This time we didn't encumber her with out left over house plants, or our Goldfish, nor did we make her spend her last hours helping us clean the flat. It was just a friendly visit, where we finished off the remnants of the Alcohol cupboard.

Thanks for the help Rebecca, and we shall see ya in a few years down under!

Top 5 London - The Tube

Love it or Hate it - and sometimes on the same journey, without it I don't know how I'd survive in London. Its expensive, it is over crowded, it can be extremely hot in the summer, and freezing cold & wet in the winter, BUT, it goes EVERYWHERE, and it is so easy to navigate once you understand the tube map. When I first moved to London, I was often found to be wandering london randomly, never worried about where I was, or how I would get home, as I just knew that sooner or later I'd find myself a London Underground Station to take me back home.

Roof Top Garden Restaurant

Another weekend, and another Goodbye!

This weekend it was time for Sarah to come down to London for a weekend of packing boxes and cleaning the flat. But it wasn't all fun and games. We took some time out to visit the Kensignton Roof Top Garden Restaurant, a very fancy, very posh eaterie, on a roof top garden. Sadly due to the snow (AGAIN! Twice in 2 weeks!), the gardens & the outdoor seating area were closed, but the meal was very good, and we had a lovely 7th floor view of West London from our TableSarah & Lyn

And see what I (Dave) have to put up with?

So long to Sarah, thanks for your help with the packing, and we will see ya in Japan!

Top 5 London - Parks

5 - Parks

There are loads and loads of Parks in London, Regents Park, St James Park, Hamstead Heath, Hyde Park, Clapham Common just to name a few, and they are all central, and all very large - and on the days were the weather is 1/2 decent, you can find the parks full of people, trees, and flowers. Without quick access to a beach, or a swimable river, the Parks in London are as close as you can get to the "outdoors" during the summer months.

Greenwich Park (Summer)

St James Park (spring)

Regents Park (spring & winter)

10 Years in Boxes

Well, the photo to the right, is all we have to show for 10 years in the UK - about 10boxes, and 3 backpacks.

Lets just cross our fingers and hope it arrives in OZ in once piece - it is going via sea, so as long as there are no pirates! we should be okay - and everything is insured (costs almost as much as the shipping!)

Anyway, enough blogging, back to sorting out paperwork - then I can go sightseeing in the sunshine!

Not ALL banks are bad!

Got my Oz bank account today - so very painless

Just a brief time line

Thursday, complete a web application for an Australian Bank Account
Friday, a phone call from the bank, asking for copies of documents
Monday, documents are posted
Wednesday, the account is open!

I can only hope that this is a good sign of how things work in Australia (10 years in the UK my confidence in large corporate bodies is just a tad jaded!) Too many years of dealing with British Gas / BT / EDF / and the TV License people

A visit from P & L

The farewells continued this weekend. This time, a quick weekend visit from Paul and Lynsey, the two of them we have known since we moved to Edinburgh in 2001, when circumstances found us living in a shared flat on the Meadows in Edinburgh.

The weekend started off with a delayed flight, and ended with a rail replacement bus service to the airport, but inbetween, we managed to visit Hong Kong City - the best Chinese in Peckham, a day out at the London Zoo, dinner at a Mongolian BBQ in Covent Garden, and a nice sunday stroll along London's Southbank, with a final lunch at Nandos!

With Mr P and I have done a photography weekend, there were plenty of photos taken, over 700 at last count - below are just 4 photos of us enjoying the weekend.

Mr P

Hehe whoops!

This is Mr P (sunday walk along Southbank)


Ms Lynsey (in front of Houses of Parliment)

And too round it all off, a final group photo (Lyn, Lyns, Paul and Dave) on the Thames beach

It was great fun to have them down for the weekend, and we look forward to meeting again one day in Australia - we promise, there are no spiders!