Bonjour Tout le Monde!

Hey everyone! Greetings from France! Since last blogging Liz, Roy's girlfriend has arrived, we spent a few days in London, and then zipped off very early one morning to Paris on the Eurostar!! We spent a few days in Paris and are currently in Colmar on the 'Route du Vin' in France. We spent today walking through the vinyards and tasting wine in Eguisheim (also on the Route du Vin). Tomorrow we are off to Switzerland for a quick stop before 2 weeks in Italy, and then back to London.

Word up is that Internet is VERY expensive in Italy, so this will probably be the last time you hear from us until we're home in London.

Photos will be posted upon arrival in London. Weather seems to be as warm as Sydney by the way, we had a toasty 15 degrees in Paris the other day!!

Out and about in England

Yes, well considering that we live here we thought we should probably go and check out some of the local sites that we have been meaning to see for a while. After getting back from Scotland we headed off to a few places like Winchester, Salisbury (annoyingly pronounced S-AUL-sbury, the English should really learn how to spell) and Bath.

On the way we visited Stonehenge and Avebury both sites of 3000-4000 year old mysterious man-made rock constructions. Stonehenge is good but a little disappointing due to the main road that is built right next to it and of course the £5 fee that lets you get about 20m closer than just standing at the fence and looking through. Avebury is much better but the stones just aren’t as iconic as Stonehenge, though you can go and touch them all. The West Kennet Long Barrow burial chamber is also really cool and spooky! Our day in Avebury was not just about the stones it also involved lots of mud and swampy marshes and a pair of Strugnell’s that were two wimpy to get their feet wet! Boo Hoo!

Aside from the ancient stones we also saw a bunch of Cathedrals, took a wander around the wonder of Bath, visited the ancient Roman baths and even got to drink the famous Spa water! Apparently it contains 43 minerals and 7 trace elements including radium! Yum! Actually not really that tasty so I certainly feel sorry for the people who had to drink 5 litres of the stuff before breakfast everyday thanks to their doctors and the wonders of modern medicine 200 odd years ago!

Winchester Cathedral

The crypt in Winchester Cathedral, currently housing a piece of installation art.

St Mary's Cathedral in Salisbury

Stonehenge

The ancient stones at Avebury

Walking out in Avebury... and getting very muddy

Finally, we all made it across the HUGE flood plain (all 3m of it), to see the huge man-made hill (Silbury Hill, in the background), they have no idea why they made it, probably just because they could!!

The Ancient Roman Baths in... Bath

The River Avon in Bath

What do you get when you cross a Kilt with skinny dipping in Loch Ness with a dislocated shoulder?

Our recent trip to Scotland of course!

Well as you can tell from the title of this post we certainly had ourselves a pretty wild time. But as always on these blog things most of you just like to look at the photos so I won’t bore you with details.

Soon after new year's Joanna, her brother Roy, and myself all headed off to Scotland for 6 days during which time we headed off on a 3 day tour up through the Scottish highlands and the Isle of Skye. We did all the usual stuff that goes on in Edinburgh like drinking and checking out museums and climbing big hills, but we also got to go and checkout a few other places around Scotland that we didn’t get a chance to see last time. Inverness, Loch Ness, Fort William, Isle of Skye, Glencoe, Hairy Coo’s, ruined castles and fairy glens plus heaps of other places!

But there is one or two other exciting things that I need to tell you all about...

When we arrived at Loch Ness we were all encouraged to go and have a dip in the balmy waters (approximately 4 degrees Celsius). As we were getting off the bus Roy turns to me and offers the appropriate challenge… “I’ll do it if you do it!” Well what else could I say? So it was on. As we both went to get our swimmers from our packs I was struck by a sudden memory

*Fade to dream-like flashback sequence*

… “Board shorts? Nah I’m not going to need to take them… It’ll just be extra weight”…

*Fade back from dream-like flashback sequence*

Well now I was in a ‘dilly-of-a-pickle’ (not sure if that is a Scottish saying) I didn’t have any swimmers but I did have several minutes of mental preparation and pep-talking to get me in the Loch, what was I to do? Well I did what any crazy person would do when surrounded by 14 strangers in a foreign country and with a blog audience back home to satisfy… I stripped down to my birthday suit, wrapped a towel around my shame and waded out into the very rocky and uncomfortably cold waters. After having trouble standing up, due to toe numbing temperatures, and a brief moment where I almost chickened out, I hung that towel on an overhanging tree branch and dived in!!! Liberating! I apologise in advance for the photographs of my naked arse!

The other story I have to tell is equally embarrassing but far more painful. It involves me climbing up a steep hill on the Isle of Skye to get a good look at a rock formation known as ‘the old man of Storr’. The rock formation is likened in myth and legend to a giant penis that belonged to a really big guy who fell on his back after being turned to stone by God for dancing on a Sunday…don’t ask. Despite the number of jokes I could make about this it was I who really cocked up, pardon the pun, when upon descent of the hill I slipped through some grass and mud and fell on my arse and my elbow. At the bottom of the hill I sat on said arse and tried to evaluate the damage, after being unable to bring my arm around in front of me but not really experiencing a great deal of pain (that I would assume comes with a broken arm) I asked quite coherently “does anybody know how to put a shoulder back in?” Then a red-headed Angel appeared not two metres in front of me and said “I can". This Angel's name was Shauna, she is a physiotherapist from Perth (in Australia not Scotland) and after a quick investigation found that I had indeed dislocated my shoulder and set about putting it back in. After a couple of popping noises everything was good as new (except for the pain of course and my wanting to throw up!). I would just like to issue a public “OMG thank you so much for relocating my shoulder Shauna! You are like the most amazing person in the world!” and I say that with full sincerity because without Shauna I would have had to walk 20mins back to the bus then another 20-30 minutes to the hospital where they would probably have to give me heaps of drugs in order to put the thing back in due to all the subsequent swelling and pain! I was really lucky and don't I know it!

“Kids don’t try this at home!”

Jeremy going for a dip in Loch Ness...

...and the rush to get out of the freezing water before permanent shrinkage takes place.

Eilean Donan Castle, aka the castle from Highlander

The river Sligachan

Jeremy dips his face in the river Sligachan meant to beautify whatever part of the person that is dipped in... we'll see if it works! so far no results...

The hill that Jeremy took a little tumble down...

The Faerie Casltle in Faerie Glen

Hamish the Hairy Coo

Jeremy thought he looked retarded in this photo, so he wanted a disclaimer put in that this photo was taken the day after he dislocated his shoulder and subsequently his arm was in a sling.

And finally Jeremy in his new kilt.. we thought we would spare you the photos that prove he was wearing it the traditional way :)

NYE Shenanigans

Well Since getting back from Germany we’ve been showing Jo’s Brother Roy around London and the surrounds. Spent a day wandering the city and visiting a few places like the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and the British Museum, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus and all your Monopoly favourites! We managed to squeeze in a day trip to Oxford and another one to Greenwich, both of which are really nice but probably nicer in the summer as is most of this country.

Then it was time to say hello to the New Year!! Without much idea of what to do or where to go or who with this New Year, we managed to attach ourselves to a party that our flatmate knew about. It was a fancy hat affair at a pub in Angel, and although many people were too cool to where a hat, we certainly weren’t!!! We actually had the best hats at the party, everybody thought so, well, we did anyway. See my instructional notes on how to construct the best New Years party hat!

How to construct the best New Years Eve party hat…ever!

Step 1: Look up a pattern for making a newspaper hat on the Internet

Step 2: Go down to the corner shop and buy the sleaziest tabloid paper available.

Step 3: Search through the paper for all the pages that have big half-page colour photos of girls with big boobs dressed in their underwear or bikini’s.

Step 4: Use the pattern from the Internet to fold the be-boobed paper into a hat (ensuring that maximum boob and ass is visible)

Step 5: Be proud of your hat and point out regularly to people you have never met before that your hat has boobs on it!

New Years was great, not only because of our hats and the fact that Jo’s brother was in London (loved the dance moves Roy) but also because our old friend Ian was there, dancing up a storm with some of the lovely ladies. He also brought along an equally cool guy, Constable Mikey! Hey guys just want to say thanks for the champagne! There were loads of other cool people at the party that need a mention too there’s our very cool flatmates Shannon and Brett, Our Queue-buddy Debbie (you would have been cooler in one of our boobed hats), Renee who fed us before the party and of course the omniscient Jef (great party, thanks for the 4^th generation invitiation)!

Queue buddies! The Boys in their Boob hats with Debbie

Ian's hat had it all, Boobs and it said 'Happy New Year'!

We're in, finally!!

And pleased to have some drinks!!

I'll leave the rest to your imagination, but it's safe to say a good night was had by all!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Christmas in Germany

So following our previous adventures in Germany we settled down for a few days of solid eating over Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner. Click here to see a video of this awesome drink we had as well. Basically you start with warm red wine, place a cone of compacted sugar over the top, douse in 80% rum, and set on fire!! The caramelised sugar drips into the wine!! Yummy!

The Boys hungry with anticipation (Lars, Roy and Sven)

Christmas Day lunch

Mmm... Yummy!!

Phew! That was good!

A few drinks round the fire.. Jeremy and Roy were given so many they didn't have enough hands!!

Christmas Day dinner, where we got into the singing and dancing!

And finally Boxing Day lunch.. we were so full after eating solidly for 3 days, we thought we would never have to eat again!!

Down the Autobahn, Whee!! (Oops, don't think Mum will approve of that one!)

Going for a walk...

To a pretty German castle!! Click here to see everyone there.