I Have a New Friend!

And it beats Charlie! Yup, we have a new member to the Wysel household, and her name is ‘Butterfly’. She is a Specialized Myka, (for the boys…a girls version of a Spec Rockhopper). She is an aluminium hard-tail, 4”/100mm front suspension, Avid BB5 discs front and back, oh…and she has butterfly decals.

The Cold Weather is Not All That Bad....

It makes snow...

Shop Till...it Rains

A couple of weekends ago, I had a friend from work stay for the weekend. Though British, she has never been to Manchester, and sure enough her first impression of the place was rain…Manchester doesn’t muck around when it comes to being the ‘wettest place’ in Britain. Have I mentioned it rains here all the time? ;)

So...what do you do when it rains in Manchester? You shop! So…we did. After some very successful bargains, we met Matt in the evening for a pleasant ale, dinner and cinema.

Davina – you sure can shop! ☺

Parking Police

It seems there's a community action team (made up of Porsche and Mazda drivers) who have been policing the car park under our apartments...


(sorry for the lack of recent posts; we've both been frantic at work and asleep all weekend. Jo does have a few 'draft' posts that will be published in the next day or two...)

Praga

Prague was the last place we visited on our brief European tour, (yes I know it was about a month ago, but c'est la vie). Prague is an absolutely stunning place, and I definitely want to go back. We stayed with Jan , one of Matt's colleagues based in Prague.

The castle was a highlight with a unique beauty about it. We climbed to the top of the second bell tower to see the view over Prague. The King's Garden (The Senate), just down the way from the castle was like a fairytale, as was the very famous 'Orloj' - the medieval astronomical clock that marks the old town centre.

We were blessed with good weather (most of the time) and enjoyed strolling across Charles Bridge: a stone Gothic bridge that connects the Old Town and Malá Strana. It's construction commenced in 1357. Along with the local village talent in photography, jewellery and drawing, we met an American poet in a little caffe just off the main drag. He has been living in Prague for eight years, and has just published his third book.

Praga at night: Jan took us to a traditional Czech pub/restaurant. The beer they were selling is brewed on site, and along with a very potent 'herbal' spirit, it is the 'only' drink served...period. :) If your glass drops beneath 1/3 full, watch out, there'll be a big burly Czech bar tender slamming another dark beer down on the table in front of you. Grrrr.

On another night Matt and I had the magical experience of going to the Old Town Opera Theatre to see Mozart's Don Giovanni...wow...

Here's one of Jan, Matt and, a colleague of theirs, Scott, just down from the museum.
More photos here.

PS...the people next door eat lamb chops...every night.

Riding in Grizedale Forest...again!

Jo and I headed up into Cumbria for another day's riding in Grizedale Forest last Saturday. We almost have the packing down to routine: helmets - check, pads - check, tools - check, ...... Once we arrive in the car park at the Forest Centre Jo goes and rents her bike while I set up mine (and generally mess around :-) ).
Our hope has always been to ride as much of the 'North Face Trail' as possible - a moderately technical, mostly man-made, trail that climbs through the hills around the car park, but we've always missed bits out and walked a lot of the tough bits.

Not so this Saturday. Jo just stood up and rode off into the distance; up the goat's trail, up-and-over the rocks/roots/wild boars (almost) without even a dab (placing a foot down for support). Couldn't believe it.
We followed the whole trail as it climbed and dived around trees and down through gullies, stopping occasionally to catch our (my) breath, before diving back into it.

Jo even managed a bit of a stack; before getting up and re-riding the same section, just to prove that she could do it.
From what we could work out, Jo's front wheel just skidded out coming through a right-hand corner; it's a frustrating stack (one that I've done a *few* times). You're usually going relatively slowly and you feel the bike lying down and you know that you're going to loose a bit of skin off your elbow and there's not much you can do about it. Jo actually did contain it all rather well. Check out the photos (can't have a stack without photos...).

Once we rode back into the car park and swapped Jo's bike over (Jo snapped her first bike chain - about 20 yards from the bike shop - Praise God...), we climbed back to the top of the fateful downhill run - with a new bike and elbow pads from the car - and re-rode the same sections.

On the last downhill section I stopped and filmed Jo coming down and across a bridged gully. Enjoy!

Running Time: 24sec

Jo here: The video of me is on the last down-hill section of the day, so I was feeling pretty tired and slow. (That was the only reason I allowed Matt to get far enough in front to stop and shoot a movie :-) ).

Poland

From Belgium we flew to Warsaw in Poland to meet Adam, one of Matt's colleagues from work. Having a 'local' as a friend is the best way to see the heart of a place. We visited 'Lazienki Park' on Saturday and walked through some beautiful gardens, after a leisurely stroll around the lake, as well as visiting Chopin's Monument. :)

As you may be aware Warsaw was completely demolished in 1945 in the war. So, the city, while being re-built to the original blue prints, is really only 50 years old. We visited areas of the 'old town' of Warsaw that have never been restored. The statue of the little boy soldier (left) is a memorial of the many people, including children as young as this boy, who died in WWII, fighting for their Independence.
On a brighter note, on Sunday, Adam drove us to the south east of Poland to Wroclaw, a beautiful old town perfect for a night out. We enjoyed coffee and beer while watching street performers before dinner. Afterwards Adam took Matt and I to a couple of local night clubs. Dang; the Polish can dance!

Bright and early Monday morning (ouch!) Adam drove Matt and I to a train station where we caught a train to the into the Czech Republic and on to Prague!

...and photos too!

Bonjour

Our first day of holidays: we set off from Manchester to Brussels, in Belgium. We flew with Jude (a friend from church) who was meeting her Belgian fiance over there, Yves-Pascal (Y.P). We had the amazing pleasure of staying with Antoine and Linda, who are both Violin Makers. Antoine is French and works in violin restoration and Linda is and Aussie and makes original violins. How cool is that! We saw Antoine's workshop and were given a brief lesson of the process. Absolutely fascinating. (You can just see some of their tools in the background of the photo).

Belgium was beautiful. We 'did' all the 'must see/taste/touch/smell' things like waffles, beer, french fries, (which by the way does not mean fries from France; rather, the word 'french' actually translates to 'cut': 'cut fries'). One of the 'must sees' in Belgium is the 'Mannequin Pis' - which has many myths attached to it, and has been stolen twice. To be honest, it was a bit of an anti-climax; though the Grande Place nearby was impressive, not the mention Belgian Chocolate!

We spent a night in Le Da Panne with Jude and YP, just out of Brussels in a caravan on the beach! Beach! Beautiful quality time with them both, playing silly games on the beach and experiencing a true Belgium breakfast thanks to YP. I have never tasted croissants like it! I couldn't eat for the rest of the day! They are so rich!

We also spent some time in Brugge which is a beautiful little town, lined with cobbled stones and renowned for its lace and good chocolate. There is a horse and cart to take you on a trip around the town if you so desire. We sat in the middle of square sharing a baguette with ham and cheese: how very French of us!

Back in Brussels we packed up and had time to try one more beer at Antoine and Linda's 'local' which prides itself on their menu of 350 beers for sale.

Be sure to check out our Photos of our time in Belgium too!

Off to Poland!

Insane!

Absolutely insane!

Last weekend, to round off our action packed holiday, we went camping in Wales with some of the Evans guys and gals (bike shop Matt worked in in London) for a mountain biking trip. We tried out our new two-man, tent and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather; away from Manchester!

For Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday we basically just rode up and down a couple of crazy mountains; no 'along the flat' stuff. Just Up-and-Up and Dang-Down. Phew! Besides going skydiving, I don't think I have ever done anything so extreme. (Actually, thinking about it, I think this mountain biking was more extreme than skydiving. Yep, definitely).

The first hill we climbed at Machynlleth was steep and took about 1 1/2 hours to climb to the very top. And then...there's the down hill; single track, scary, and fast; my heart was certainly pumping. On Sunday, the ride was more advanced and I was constantly amazed at the technical skill of the boys riding, (especially Matt!) as well as their fitness; not to mention how fast they rode down the single tracks. Insane!

My riding skills have improved out-of-sight (which is good as this was only my second serious off-road ride) and I've started to enjoy it more each time, rather than just getting freaked out by it. I only had one stack this whole weekend and that was only because my legs were so fatigued that when my bike stopped at the bottom of a single track, I kept going - right into a waiting audience :-)

We had so much fun camping with the guys, cooking camp food - especially Dani's Couscous!, and drinking river-cooled cider and beer :-) Excellent way to finish the holiday, though now, I feel I need a holiday to get over our holiday.

Check out our photos of the weekend here.
Also worth checking out our good friend Dani's photos of the weekend for lots more riding shots (don't miss the Hardcore Riding photos of me!).

PS: Matt's just uploaded short video of the start of the one of the downhill sections from Sunday. Sorry, but the camera randomly cut out a short way into the ride :-(

Uploaded Photos (from a little while ago)

Just a quick one to advertise we just got around to uploading some old photos from 'The Best Few Days' series back in July...
Enjoy them here...

Home Again...

Just a quick one to let you know we're home, safe and soundly exhausted.

We'll post updates on our exploits in the next few days - sorry that it wasn't in real time, but we were having too much fun to stop and blog.

Here's a taste of the photos to come!

Brussels, and true Belgian beer... mmmm

Brussels again, and Godiva chocolate

Warsaw, Poland, enjoying the amphitheatre in the King's Gardens

Holidays

We're about to head out on holidays... how fun's that...?

We'll have to post updates on the way as we've just been buzzed by the taxi. :-) back soon.

Sunshine

If it doesn't rain tomorrow, we'll have had a week of sun (I think... I actually haven't been here for most of the week...)

If it doesn't rain on the M62, in Yorkshire, Middlesbrough and Huddersfield, and then Manchester tomorrow, I'll have had a week of sun.

(Saturday: It didn't rain, so we've had our first week of sun since... forever :) )

Our Second 999 Call

To mark the first time in our married life we were asleep on a Saturday night before mid-night, we were awoken around 2am by a highly excited, young chap drawing attention to the fact he and his friend had become caught in the elevator in our apartment block.

Owing to the cascade of expletives and insults, we initially put the excitement down to alcohol induced revelry on the access street down the road, but, no, it was in our apartment block - and quite close to our front door. Following the 999 call to the fire-ies we took up position behind the peep-hole in our front door waiting for action.

Now, in response to those who would have burst out, jimmy'ed the lift doors and rescued the poor souls: you generally don't do that in Manchester - unless you'd like to spend the rest of the night bailed up (back in the lift, in the lobby or back in your apartment), in hospital or both. Sad indictment of these parts of England; but still the best policy for staying safe.

After a short wait, the firefighter came, jimmy'ed the lift door and single-handedly lifted both lads up into our lift lobby. (That's why he's not afraid of answering 999 calls)

Jo and I returned to bed - and took the stairs on Sunday morning.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This place is crazy... Does it ever stop raining..? I've just parked the car in Nottingham after driving up from London and it's been like someone has been fire-hosing me for the last 3hours... April was the last time we saw any solid blue sky in the Midlands.
Praise God for the occasional escape to London :-)

(Mind you, we really don't have it that bad, see the main news on the BBC's website)

Cook-Off

On Friday night, some actor friends from our company had a cook-off! Most actors as you know have 'another job' while they are in between jobs and auditions; and Nathan (actor in another team) is a chef. So....Friday, after rehearsal we all went to Sainsbury (equivalent to Coles or Woolworths) and bought a whole lot of ingredients that Nathan and Paul (a budding cook in my team) could work with. Everything from a whole fresh chicken to organic chocolate, we had a 'Ready Steady Cook' moment and went a little crazy.
Nathan and Paul cooked away in the kitchen as the girls sat back and drank wine watching and waiting......for hours.

Around 10pm we finally sat down to eat!
Incredible! It was almost sensory overload with the amazing flavours the boys had created in the kitchen. We had leeks stuffed in brie and mushroom, mixed bean enchiladas, chicken curry, chicken stuffed with goats cheese wrapped in bacon; just to name a few.

Hats off guys. It was truly amazing!

Morzine, France

Matt has taken a much needed week off work and driven to Morzine, in the French Alps to go mountain biking with some of the lads from London.
He has sent me this picture just now which I think sums up the week he has had so far.

My Birthday

It was birthday on Friday 13th.
I was in rehearsals but was blessed with lovely surprises throughout the day. The company organised a cake and card for me, my team bought me a teddy called Cappuccino (can't possibly know why?!), and Matt met me after work to go for a few birthday drinks with my work friends. So all in all, the day at work wasn't bad at all!

Thank you so much to everyone back home for making my birthday so special, even when you are so far away. To Kyles for the Tim Tams (yes!!!), to Ros for 'Ritzy', the cutest toy dog I've ever seen; to Pat and Nomes, well, what can I say...I am now officially the coolest cat in town with my new sunglasses; to the Wysel gang for the beautiful singing (it was so special); to Nana who sent a lovely blue scarf (thanks Nana!!), and to Mum and Dad for your love and chats on skype.

And...to my beautiful Matthew for being my family, friend and husband when I was missing everyone in Aust so much.

The 'cake' (above) is actually a couple of ciabatta (yummy Italian bread). Matt knows me well, and he and Kathy (a friend here in Manchester) knew my aversion to cakes, and my weakness for yummy bread. Thanks guys!

xo

Best Few Days

Jo and I have had the best couple of days this last week; relaxing (for the most part) and different.

Tuesday night – after two long-ish days for us both, we headed up to the bottom end of the Lake District for a two days & nights of clean-air, walking and hiking. We lodged in the Mill Force Farm, a very peaceful B&B on Tuesday and rode some of the North Face mountain bike trail around Grizedale Forest on Wednesday & Thursday (big thanks to the lads at Grizedale Mountainbikes for all their help). Despite it being Jo's first time on single-track (think: a bike trail that looks like an off-road walking track), she handled the trail, weather and her husband’s high-maintenance bike like a pro. See her thoughts here.

After work on Friday Jo drove us from Manchester down to our good mate Tim’s place in south London – braving the worst traffic I’ve seen for a while (I spent the 6 hours on my laptop doing work :-( ).

Despite missing out on tickets to a matinee of Othello at The Globe, Saturday still ended up sunny and super-fun with a lovely bottle of white at Borough Markets and an hour or so watching the London Prologue of Le Tour de France. Crazy stuff. I’m told they averaged ~56kph over the day’s stage. There was some serious money and sponsorship there – with around £25k of ‘reserve bikes’ on the top of each rider’s support van.

Tim introduced us to his local curry house: Cinnamon - the best Indian curry I’ve had in England, which we ate as once again Jo tried (unsuccessfully) to watch the original StarWars movie (Esp 4). Funny times.

At Tim’s suggestion we headed off to the London Zoo today – which Jo will no doubt tell you all about. Afterwards Jo and I Tube’d back to Waterloo to grab her bag before she caught a train back up to Manchester.

I’m now finishing off fish-n-chips in one of Jo & my favourite restaurants, the Young Vic, The Cut, Waterloo and am about to drive up to Watford for work tomorrow.

Good photos; great times!

London Zoo

Today we went to the London Zoo with Tim (our host for the weekend). It was a blast! Among the highlights were the very social Meercats, the crazy African hunting dogs who seemed to be on heat for they didn’t stop running; the very wise looking monkeys because of their white long moustaches, and of course the lions and tigers, who by the time we saw then were having a sleepy afternoon, rubbing their tummies after lunch. My favourite, however, were the Gorillas. I couldn’t stop staring at the male sitting, munching away on his spring onions. Bad idea! Gorillas find it rude when people stare; they would rather we ‘glanced’ at them. This became evident by the way he walked casually to the window where I was crouching down, gave me a little glance and then WAM! completely rammed the window at the exact spot I was crouching. Needless to say, I was up standing quick smart!
There is something relaxing and satisfying about watching animals. It was a beautiful day, beautiful weather and excellent company. (the 3rd image was taken just seconds before Gorilla charged at the window)

Sunny Saturday

Saturday was a beautiful, blue sky, sunny, hot day….all day! After a much needed sleep in, Tim, Matt and I had planned to go to Shakespeare’s Globe to see Othello. Unfortunately, it was sold out! Great to see he’s still going strong! So, instead we strolled over to Borough markets and sat in the sun sharing some lovely white wine. After contemplating many options for the afternoon, such as the Zoo, the V&A, and so on, we ended up staying put and soaking up the rays. I think I even got a little burnt, can you believe it? Around 4pm we trekked to Knightsbridge to see the Prologue of Le Tour de France. (I’ll let Matt fill you in on that one). We finished off a very nice day with some Indian food, red wine and the Star Wars IV. Happy days.

The Lakes District

After work on Tuesday, Matt and I drove up to The Lakes District for a lil’ two day break. Matt had organised accommodation at a cute little 17th Century cottage, I fell in love with it as soon as we arrived. In the morning, we hired a full-suspension bike for me (for those interested I rode a Gary Fisher the first day and a Rocky Mountain the second), and Matt rode his prized Cannondale and we went trail riding for two days. We were going to go hiking the second day but I loved trail riding so much on the first day, we went out again. It was my first time trail riding on 'singletrack' and on a proper bike. It was a little scary, though, with all the technique Matt had grilled in to me back in Sydney, at the park next door to 161 Botany St, a lot of the much needed tricks came back.

The trails were muddy and puddly but riding with Matthew was so much fun! The trail was quite challenging in sections, but Matt was very patient and encouraging through out. I appreciated the regular coaching from the front, telling me what was coming up and what I had to do: ‘stay to the left’, ‘weight back over your seat’, change gear!’, ‘don’t stack!’ he he he. I only had one very small stack, which was only doing something very silly anyway.

On the second day, we went on a few more challenging routes, and I found myself going faster than the day before; The end trail was fab – downhill slopes, jumps (that I just rode over), bridges over drops and man made ramps. I don’t like man made ramps, they scare me - I had to walk over a few of them. I think it’s the fear of the unknown – what’s underneath? How big’s the drop? How sharp is that corner?

On the Wednesday night, we drove to a local pub a couple of miles away, recommended by John (owner of the cottage). It was curry night! We certainly got value for money both the ‘curry’ part of the meal, but also because there was so much food, not to mention making friends with the cutest, and most energetic, two year old Border Collie I’ve seen in a while.

I was a little apprehensive about the trail riding, but I had an absolute blast! It was fantastic being out there with Matthew, seeing some of the countryside in a beautiful part of Britain, exercising and keeping the nerves in check!
I saw and experienced why Matt loves it so much.

I may have to buy a bike!

Floods

Floods similar to those in Newcastle, (NSW) have devastated much of the English midlands. There have been hundreds of people's homes and cars under water. Sheffield Football Stadium's pitch was 12ft under water! (I performed at the same football stadium only three weeks ago). Parts of the M1 Motorway have been closed due to flooding. A motorway....flooded?!

Now, it does rain a lot here, but this is ridiculous!

Matt and I have not been affected badly; Matt's 2hour drive to Nottingham, tripled in time, my trains were cancelled; and one of our shows was postponed. There have been some devastating stories however, and the death toll is up to 5 people.

One of the teams in our company got a 'little stuck' on the M1 Motorway, for hours. After being diverted, they, along with several other vehicles ended up waist deep in water. The car was afloat with sets, costumes and sound system in the back and had to be towed out by a lorry. The AA (NRMA equivalent) obviously had a backlog of cars to rescue and so never actually made it to them. They arrived home at 4am the next day. The car is a 'right-off' and the insurance company won't cover it because it is considered "an act of God".

A week on, and it is still raining. Thankfully God's rainbows are a reminder that He won't flood the earth again. Without this knowledge, you'd have to wonder.

Everything is So Old

At the beginning of June, Mum and Dad Moore made the long haul from Australia to England, to visit us in 'sunny' Manchester. They are tripping around Europe at the moment, but spent the first week or so of their trip with us. I had been so excited about their arrival, I counted the days down from about 75 days to go! It was so special spending time with Mum and Dad; I was missing them so much…what an amazing blessing to have parents so cool! ☺ It was great to just hang out together and share some fun times and adventures. From Wales, Scotland, Manchester and The Peak District we shared many fun and crazy times. After visiting Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, - the longest word in the English language and more importantly a very small railway station in Wales - we ventured north on a road trip to Scotland. Mum and Dad (and me) were stunned by the lucious, green rolling hills that seemed to surround the motorway for miles & miles. My fond memories as I was growing up of Dad's comments “they don’t make ‘em like they used to", rang true when all Scottish paddocks were all marked out by sturdy, carefully constructed stone hedges for 100s and 100s of miles. "It woulda taken years!" (pronounced in the best Aussie accent you can...!)
We visited Dundee, where Mum’s Grandma was born, and where the ‘Discovery’ is permanently docked. Dad loved Scotland so much, he commented he’d like to return for six months. We stayed in Glendevon that night right near ‘Roslyn’s Lodge’ (Hi Ros!), and had a good ‘ol Scottish Pub Dinner in a suburb with a population of approx. 10 people. The food was good though, even if Mum’s pork was drowned in gravy! (That’s how they eat it in Scotland Ma! ;))
Stirling Castle was quite a spin out for mum and dad, where the phrase “Everything is so Old” seemed to make its way into conversation every couple of minutes. Valid though, given the first building (a Chapel) on the land, was established around 1100! We visited the church Mary Queen of Scot's son was baptised, and saw the house Queen Mary's husband used to live in. Yup, Queeny, lived in the castle, while her husband slept in a separate cottage about 1/2 mile away. Darley's cottage is now a coffee shop, which I might add, does an amazing hot chocolate!
One of the highlights was our day trip in The Peak District where we ventured on a ‘walk’ that turned into a 12km ‘hike’, and 4.5 hours. We all slept very well that night, especially after Mum and I shared some good English cider.

Mum and Dad are now back in London after an amazing tour around Europe, and will go home via Singapore in a couple of days.

What a blessing to share such special times. Miss them already. Enjoy the photos. (when they come)

xo j

Still Alive

Hi there, just a really quick post to say that Jo and I are still alive - if a little preoccupied.
Jo's in some far flung place tonight (with work) and I'm off to Dundee, Scotland tomorrow morning for another couple of days... seems to be the story of our lives at the moment.
We still think of you... and will post again soon.
(Don't tell Jo that I'm still up blogging, or I'll get into trouble :) )

C2

Thought I'd send you a couple of snap shots of my team - C2. (Creative Team 2) We have travelled many many miles over the last couple of months, from right down South England to Stirling in Scotland and have performed at a variety of venues such as Universities, Theatres, a 'Park Farm' (yup, there were hens 'cock-a-doo ing', and pigs snorting, while we were performing), and of course at Frankland Prison. (I'll post some of these photos soon)


My team members are Paul (left), and Lawrence. They are both lots of fun and great actors to work with. If you are completely lost at all of this; here is a brief reminder:

I am working for a Training Company who use professional actors in their training workshops to create real life scenarios that can then be discussed and workshopped. The scenes cover issues of sex, age, religion, race, diversity and equality, customer service and so on.

I am absolutely loving my job and seeing the positive impact it has on people in the workplace. Not to mention I am getting paid to perform and travel the country side!

xo

(Downhill) Biking at Penshurst

Last weekend when Jo and I were in London we headed further south (and further from home...) for a spot of downhill (mountain bike) racing with the lads from Evans Cycles, the bike shop I worked at in London last year.
Click below to watch our good friend Matt-the-Moose** ride the Downhill course

Following Matt-the-Moose, down the course
(Running time: 1min06)

It was sooooo nice to finally get off road - and have a beautiful groupie to cheer/laugh me on (thanks Jo!).

(Running time: 0min03)

Click here for a few more videos - including a dusty, belly-slide by Brian (thanks Brian!).

**Matt-the-Moose used to ride for Moose Cycles, hence his nickname. :-)

Quiet Easter Weekend

Quick (belated) update from our Easter weekend:
Twas a busy one even though we decided not to head off for the weekend. Jo was acting in two dramas on both the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services at church as well as singing in the Sunday night service, so while we were tempted by Catchy & Sarah's romantic exploring in the Lake District we tried to stay home :-)
After church on Friday we slept (midday, 3-hour nap!), shopped, and exercised. Saturday we met up with Pete and Emily Horlock, great friends from church, together with their sons, Sam and Noah (g'day guys) for a picnic at Tatton Park.

Noah at Tatton Park

We've uploaded lots more photos so be sure to check them out too. We picnicked in Tatton Park's 1000 acres of beautiful parkland with millions of sun-burnt, English families, chased deer through rolling hills, laughed at sheep (who still had tails to wag), and generally wore Sam and Noah out.
After returning to Pete and Emily's the lads had dinner and baths while we grabbed some Thai and watched a movie. I can't tell you how nice it was to finally watch a movie with friends and eat some decent Thai food. Real blessing.

Sunday we had church in the morning and Easter dinner (lunch) with the James'. Sooooo good. We sat outside in the sun and had another fantastic afternoon with friends before grabbing a coffee and heading back to church.

The James' had invited us to share Monday with them at their house in northern Wales, so after a semi-sleep-in, we drove over and had a great walk around the surrounding area before lunch and then a longer walk up around some nearby lakes afterwards. See here for more photos of Wales.

Walking through Pine Forests near Rowen, North Wales

With work on the Monday, we headed back home and fell asleep for most of the following week.
Praise God for a fantastic weekend (with one and a half sleep-ins).

(Sorry for the delay. I posted this as a draft and forgot about it...)

The Great Futon Heist

Enjoy the story of the greatest Futon Heist of early May, 2006.



Caution: over-exaggeration of my receding hairline :-)

Thorn in My Side

Look what I pulled out of my tire the other day... hooray for the first puncture on my new bike.

It's Snowing!

March has been a funny month for weather.

The start of the month saw some beautiful days of sunshine (even if it was still cold outside), but within a week it was freezing again, and, snowing.

I wait in eager expectation to bring out my sunglasses for the first time in 12 months.
I wonder where they are?

xo

Chicken Burger

Just about to board a flight from Birmingham to Dublin and stopped in at Bates', a airport style restaurant, for a quick dinner.
I went to the bar to order a drink, peruse the menu and pay for the meal. Picking the Chicken Burger and a tall beer, I paid and started to return to my seat to do some work and wait for my dinner.
As I left the bar, I was greeted by a waiter carrying a chicken stir fry and a chicken burger - both with chips... No worries - until he stopped with me at my table and placed the Chicken Burger in front of me alongside my beer.
There was absolutely no time to make the meal, so I can only guess that they must have seen me coming... do I really look that much like a Chicken Burger guy...?

Oh well.

Carnivale and Milan

Well, I said I would let you know how it went...sorry for the delay, my trip to Milan was at the end of my first week of work with "Theatre and..." and things have been well... busy.

I arrived in Milan on Friday night and made the 1.5 hour bus ride from Bergamo Airport to the city centre to meet Matt. My first impressions weren't great; it was dark, smelly, crowded, and way too many old Italian men staring at me, being the only blonde around.

Matt saved me from all this and whisked me off to meet up with some of his local work friends who were drinking at their little local bar. The bar was soo cool. We would never have found it without Lorenzo and Diego who guided us through the local liqeurs and coffees. My first impressions were slashed and... I think I want to be Italian when I grow up. Thanks guys.

Saturday was a blast too. Matt and I teamed up with two Colorado folk (who were at the conference as well), to explore Milan. It was the week after Fashion Week (fantastic for 'window' shopping) as well as being Carnivale. The streets were buzzing with people in costume, parades, and confetti. The Italians sure know how to party.

We saw the famous Duomo Cathedral which literally made me gasp as I walked up the stairs from the Metro. It was magnificent.

This is a very small section of one of the squares of one of the doors. You can see how some parts are tarnished were people touch Jesus for 'Good Luck'.

Saturday evening, we found a fantastic little independant restaurant where the service and food were amazing. With our funny accents, we were a bit of a laugh, so received lots of free food. We weren't complaining!
Did I mention the red wine? Wow! That's all I can say.

Oh, and next you visit, don't even think about asking for a capuccino after 10am!

'Espresso! Espresso! Only!'

Updated Video

Here's the updated video, thanks to YouTube :-) hopefully it will download a *little* faster than last time...

Quick Preview

While other's sleep, Jo and I are looking at updating our blog to include videos, easier access to photos and a few other features like email notification for posts...

Here's a movie that will soon be uploaded and incorporated properly: Long Trail, CO, 2006
Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the ride. :-)

Guinness

I just finished my St Paddy's Day Guinness. mmmm Guinness.

Confession

You'll be please to know that Jo and I turned down an opportunity to do something & go somewhere this weekend.
We came within a hare's whisker of booking Jo a flight to Dublin to join me this Saturday for St Patrick's Day in Dublin. I'm here for most of the week with work and as all the return flights back to Manchester were booked out for Friday afternoon/evening/night I had to book a flight out on Saturday - prompting a frenzied search for cheap flights and accommodation in Dublin this Saturday.

We were closing in on a fantastic deal (well the promise of a good time, at least) when we stopped to consider the prospect of spending our first weekend in 5 (or only our 3rd weekend since arriving in Manchester on the 4th of November... 20 weeks(!) ) at home in Manchester alone.

So that's the plan - at least till something else comes up...

( St Patrick's Day in Dublin would have been sooo good! I'm working on finding somewhere that will serve me a Guinness before my 9.30am flight )

The Catchpoles...in Manchester

Last weekend was just fab...Steve and Sarah Catchpole came to visit us in Manchester. (they have just recently moved to London)...I can't tell you how fantastic it was to see two very missed, familiar faces...what's more...in Manchester.

It was such a full weekend, I feel I need a weekend to get over it...;)
Matt and I picked S&S up from the station Friday night and took them back to our abode in the city. After reminiscing and sharing excitement about seeing each other, we turned into bed with a great weekend planned.
On Saturday we drove North to Bradford and went to the National Museum of Photography, with eight floors to explore from the history of television, to the development of the 'camera' and of course, an IMAX. We took the opportunity to see a documentary "Deep Sea" at the IMAX. It was just amazing...words really couldn’t do the 3D images of sea creatures I had never heard of, justice.

Stephen also showed us why he stayed in consulting and didn't take that job as a Weatherman... very funny :-)

Later that evening, Catchy and Sarah took us out to cocktails and dinner at a restaurant in Manchester City called 'Room'. Thank you guys! We had such a ball: excellent atmosphere & service, amazing food & wine and priceless company.... (is that all a bit cheesy..?) We went via Tesco for chocolate and ice cream to accompany a movie, augmented by the lunar eclipse around midnight.

On Sunday, we took S&S to our new church, which as always, was a fantastic service.

After hitting up the sales, we parted S&S at Piccadilly Station, however...only to London, not all the way back to Sydney. What a blessing it is to have friends so close! We really look forward to seeing our familar face friends very soon indeed.

New Job...

Ok...so while you were all thinking it was relating to the Children's Tour, there is another twist...

Last week I was offered another job from a Theatre company I auditioned for last November offering me a position in their next tour. wow! The only problem, was that the dates of the post would overlap with the Children's Tour I was already going on (but not signed contract).
The offer was working in a 'creative team' of three people, for a Theatre Company which develops a variety of learning and communciations interventions, which incorporate drama-based training techniques to deliver to a client's desired outcome. So basically, what that means is... a team of three actors go around to small to medium enterprises around the UK and encourage training through drama on issues such as Equality and Diversity, Customer Care, Sexism and Racism and so on. Bottom line: Drama based training.

It was a blessed predicament to be in having to chose from two fantastic jobs...but through much prayer I decided to take the second job. It is a six month post and well...it is now the end of day three and while being completely exhausted, it is just fab! I love it! It has already been very challenging on lots of different levels. One is that our team (myself and two other guys) have been given six scripts already! :) One of the best things is that we are pretty much given 'creative license' to do whatever we like.

off to bed for another early start....

It Puts a Rose in Every Cheek...

Very sadly, we have finished off our HUGE bottle of vegemite...it has only taken about 9 months, but we were strong to the end!

And..thanks to my sister Ros, we now have a new bottle to work through. :) Thanks Ros!

For...we...(sing it with me)...

"Love our Vegemite, we all adore our Vegemite,
It puts a rose in every cheek!"

Milan!

I've just booked some cheap flights to Milan, for 99pence (+taxes)!

Matt is going over for a conference and well, why not go over aswell!

I leave on 21st Feb (Matt will already be working over there) and then I come back with Matt on Sunday.

We'll let you know how it goes.

:)

Children's Tour

I had an audition last week for a Theatre Company based in Manchester, and...I found out a couple of days ago, that I was offered the role!!

The role is to be part of a Children's Tour, based out of Manchester (yay!) aimed at children ages 6-10, and has a Christian focus. There are three plays; Noah, Daniel and the Lion's Den and an Easter Story. There are only three of us in the cast so we will double-up roles, and also get to know each other really well.

We start rehearsals on 12th March and then start touring aroung 2 1/2 weeks after that.

This is really an answer to prayer, and really exciting, I can't wait.

-4

Just thought I'd all let you know it is -4 degrees celcius here....

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine!

:)

Dublin

As Matt is spending a lot of time in Dublin for work, I thought it a good idea to take the opportunity to visit while he was there. I had heard so many stories about hotels, hospitals, the people he'd met and the amazing restaurants in the city; so I grabbed some very cheap flights to Dublin on Friday after work - £3!!! (plus taxes of course!)
I met Matt in Howth, where he was having pre-dinner drinks with one of the surgeons he has been working with, in a gorgeous Yacht Club in the little fishing village. We all met up with an anaethetist - who was also the surgeon's wife - for dinner at one of their favourtie local restaurants. Wow, amazing food! I had a whole fish! It was an excellent dinner; great conversation, good food and excellent wine.

After leaving the restaurant about midnight, we went back to the hotel to the funky bar at The Morrison Hotel. The interior design is so unique and contemporary, I just loved it. The music awards had been on in Dublin that night and 'The Pussy Cat Dolls" and "Snow Patrol" (both bands if you're not aware) had both won awards and were staying in The Morrison Hotel, and were celebrating at the same bar we were at!

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, as Matt and I strolled around the city. It was great to discover new things in Dublin with Matt; it was all new for him as well. When Matt travels to Dublin he goes to the airport - hotel - sleep - hospital - airport....and so doesn't really have much of a chance to see outside. It was fun exploring the Irish Film Festival, and capturing the character of the city; I could definitely live there.

We grabbed some pizza (possible best I've tasted), and a Guiness before catching a cab to the airport for the trip back to Manchester.

Fun times.

Snow!

Last Sunday, the sky churned down the snow!
Now, unfortunately the only reason we know this is because when I took Matt to the airport for his trip to Dublin, all the cars were covered in fluffy white stuff! :) We were both having a very lazy Sunday afternoon after seeing Ros off at the airport. I had fallen asleep and Matt was tinkering away on the computer...so we missed it :(

However it was pretty cool when Matt called me yesterday to let me know he was driving through Newcastle Upon Tyne and it was snowing, and strips of grass were completely white and trees were sprinkled with snow flakes. (sigh)

While the winter has been quite mild up to this point, I think the cold has finally snapped.

Bring on the snow!

Third Time...

We took Ros to the airport today and she didn't come back!
Ros has managed to travel to the airport on three separate occasions with the attempt of getting on a plane back to Australia, and two out of three times, she has ended up back at our apartment.

You would have heard about the devastating storms all through England last week. The worst day was the day Ros was booked to fly out. Manchester airport was closed, roads closed, and trains suspended. 11 people were killed, many homes, schools and buildings torn down, trees across tracks and lorries overturned due to the wind.

We were blessed greatly, we ended up with two more nights to spend together and Ros was able to (after a little bit of hard work) reschedule her flights and has arrived back in Australia, safely.

I miss her already.

NB: The photo above is taken from my phone in the taxi we and four other people squeezed into when our train to the airport had to come back in to the station after a tree had fallen on the track.

Biking is (still) Emotional

Just got news that my bike will be okay - although that's not what I was told originally...

James (bike mechanic guru - hi James!) called and asked if I was sitting down (it was a safe bet as I'd spent most of the day in re-directed traffic jams), before saying that they "had to re-tap the threads to the larger diameter Italian thread, which" - he hastened to assure me - "was fine except that when we pulled the bike from the work stand and sat it on the floor, the whole bottom bracket just fell clean off..." "Nah...." He was "just joking about the falling apart bit..." (my heart started beating again).
I casually asked if the new Italian threads would work the same (I was trying to keep my voice from shaking even though I was still holding my breath) and - after a bit of a pause - he told me "the 'Italian part' that had been a joke too... Your bike is fine."
"Italian cups??" I asked again (Somehow, I didn't believe him), "Nope, still the original cups - everything went fine; we chased, cleaned and greased the threads and the cups slid back in like new.
"There must have just been some swarf or something in the threads on Sunday... You can come and collect your bike whenever, or I'll bring it up and we'll go riding together..."
I was speechless - and if I wasn't still trying to drive, I would have probably danced around and hugged strangers. Going from new-frame to a friend-to-ride-with in 3 minutes, was almost as big a rush as riding through downtown London at lunchtime. It took quite a few years off my life I think.

Biking is emotional - and I haven't even ridden it in England yet.

Update on our Flatmate :)

Super-storms lashed most of England, Scotland and Western Europe, closing many airports - including the airport Ros, Jo's sister, was due to fly out from.
Ros was meant to fly from Manchester to Heathrow and connect to a Virgin Atlantic flight back to Australia...
Long, long story, short: She rebooked on standby for today (Friday) but then couldn't get that, but was able to book and confirm a flight from MAN-LHR-somewhere-SYD for this Sunday. Praise God. That's really quite a miracle as the next regular economy seat wasn't available till the 12th of February.
It was great to see God help her through all that - guiding her about whether to take tickets (at one stage when it looked like the next available seat wasn't till Feb, she had to punt on a Business Class ticket worth an extra AUD5000 that the insurance company may not have reimbursed) and about which calls to make and which to leave. Good stuff.

Missing London

A couple of weekends ago we made a trip to London. We had forgotten how much we missed it.

We made the 4 1/2 hour drive for a few reasons, the first is one I am sure you all know already...the bike! It was delievered to Matt's work's office just out of London so he took the opportunity to do some work at the office, almost bursting with the knowledge that his bike was in an unopened box! I spent the day doing some dance classes which was just fantastic...(I am yet to find a dance studio in Manchester).
That afternoon I met up with Matt Mackay & Lou who are travelling and happened to be in the UK that weekend, (the other reason we went to London) and later that night met up with Hadley and Jess White!! Yay!
The night was still young when we left everyone, so Matt and I went to a club in Camden where one of the IT guys from Matt's work was DJing - go figure?! He was excellent and it was a fun night; albeit late. We made it back to Tim's house (friend from Evans), to sleep the night, and found that he wasn't home either, so we chatted with his flat mates into the wee hours of the morning.
Matt had a fantastic time on Saturday, hanging out with the guys in the Evans workshop tinkering with the new member of our family, while I strolled around all my favourite parts of London and met up with Lou and Matt again. The party continued when Matt and I met up with the Evans boys that night visiting the good 'ol local - "The White Hart" - happy memories.
Sunday..a beautiful day with Matt and Lou - hi guys!! What a pleasure to spend time with two amazing people in our old home, just before they go off to Kenya!
It certainly was a jam-packed weekend filled with so many good times, friends, and bikes and dance classes!

Biking is Emotional

I picked my bike up last Friday. It was emotional.
Mixed with the obvious euphoria of collecting my steed from the clutches of international shipping, there was a new fraustration of having to throw the unopened box into the back of the car (it fit by literally half an inch ... I was shaking) and driving the rest of the way to London - straight to the bike store I used to work at. Where, because I only made it to the store 5min before closing on Friday evening (thanks largely to London traffic), I only had time to unwrap it, hug it, wipe a tear from my eye, hug a few other people and set him rather nervously onto a bike stand in the workshop - promising to return first thing in the morning.
As Jo blogged, we were juggling quite a few things last weekend, but I managed to squeeze some time in to rebuild him before tearing myself away for another appointment.
Sunday afternoon Jo met him for the first time (and said all the right things :) ), while I stole another few moments to check over a mysterious creak in his bottom bracket (BB) that had appeared in CO. What should have been a straight forward, clean-and-regrease, became a heart-rendering race against time when the cups from the BB binded while re-entering the recently-chased BB threads. (In layman's terms, it looked like the screw threads in the frame had been cross-theaded; ruined. equals: pick a colour for your new frame).
At 5 o'clock I was still working - and honestly, not getting anywhere - and the guys had started closing the shop up... leaving Jo and I to drive the 4hours back to Manchester - minus our new friend.
James & Frank - both fantastic bike mechanics - said they'd have a better look at it and get back to me in the next couple of days....
Biking is emotional.

Kilts, Haggis, Castles and Whisky

It was Boxing Day and we left for our adventures to the land of William Wallace, who now can be mistaken for Mel Gibson (because of the film Braveheart). We had an amazing trip with lots of stories to tell, so I’ll give you a brief outline of what we experienced in each place. (You can follow along with our photos)

York: Yes, I know it’s still in England! I had been to an audition in York recently and just loved it, so we went along to see the Tower and walk along the walled city at twilight.

Stirling: What a beautiful little city! After remembering all food at locals pubs finishes at about 7pm, we found a little Indian place for dinner. We stayed at a youth hostel and the next morning, we visited Stirling Castle, and enjoyed learning the history of the Empire all the way back to 1200, being reminded that Mary Queen of Scots was only 9 months old when she was crowned Queen!

Glasgow: Arriving at our hostel in the dark, we went in to a little alternative area out of the city, to a restaurant called The Ubiquitous Chip., recommended by one of Matt’s work friends. It was excellent food; Ros tried some vegetarian Haggis, and just because we were in Glasgow, we all tried some Whisky! Phew! Each of us ordered one from three different parts of Scotland. Ros tried one from the Lowlands, Matt from the Highlands and I tried a Bunnahabhain, which was perhaps the smokiest of them all, and boy, did it burn!

Oban: The road trip from Glasow to Oban was definitely one of the high points. We drove along narrow roads in to the Highlands, and either side of the road we could see snow capped mountains for miles. It was magnificent. Just when we thought we were in the middle of nowhere and only the mountains could hear us, a little village would pop up our of nowhere for a mile or two with a village hall, a pub, and sometimes a school. That night after arriving at our hostel, we found The Oban Inn. A gorgeous little pub that has been there since the 1600s and is now heritage listed.

Aviemore: Another couple of hundred miles north east to Aviemore, the scenery was fantastic. We saw some of Ben Nevis (Ben means Mountain in Gaelic), and met a couple of guys who were about to set out to climb it. Nevis is the tallest mountain in all of the UK at 4409 feet, which is only a bit over half the height of Mt Kosciusko. :)
Early to bed tonight, Ros and Matt both had picked up a nasty cold.

Visiting another couple of Castles on the way to Edinburgh, we arrived at Nikki’s parents place. We were completely blessed with Nikki’s mum’s home cooking, yum!
That night we went up to the street events in Edinburgh City. Even on Saturday, the weather was crazy. We saw a grown man struggle to control his umbrella, and a small child almost lifted off the ground because of the wind.
We were disappointed about the cancellation of Hogmanay, along with the other thousands of people in the UK who also had celebrations cancelled. We met up with Lou and Matt though along with Tash White and some others and watched the fireworks from Sydney on the television! How ironic!

Happy New Year.

Bike

I think my bike may be on it's way... I'm having trouble sleeping at night...
More details soon.