20061113 Winter Warmer

Hi All,

This weekend has been the first in a long while, where we don’t have anything on our plate. Since our last update, when my parents were here, Gwyn changed jobs and is now happily settled at BSi (British Standards Institute) is looking after their HR SAP system and is enjoying the challenge We travelled to Brussels and Bruges for our 3 year anniversary, where large quantities of good strong beer and delicious mussels were consumed. We went to Richard and Keith’s wedding out at a fancy country estate in Tring (Keith is my colleague at Unilever and Tring is a small town north of London). We had a cool Halloween Party with Brendon (an old school friend who now lives in London) and boogied down at an Australasian pub/night club called Red Back Tavern. Our group was a hit as we were all dressed up from Crusaders to Ghost Busters, it was guaranteed that we would not be mugged that night. Then there was a trip to Paris for Bronwyn’s (Gwyn’s sister) birthday. Winter really hit us hard in Paris and both Gwyn and I picked up a vicious cold and are still trying to shake it off. Gwyn celebrated her 21st : ) birthday on the 7th of Nov, we still have to celebrate properly as the cold was weighing us down.

Besides the colds, all is going well with the two of us, yesterday we went shopping for warmer clothing, coats, boot, thermals and the like. Winter (or at least autumn) has hit the UK and our SA bones are not very welcoming of the cold (The poms however still walk around in T-Shirts!) I suppose the weather is probably one of the factors which hit the Springboks last night when they lost to the Irish 32 – 15, luck of the Irish you may think but NO, the boks looked like a fledgling team who were still trying to figure out how to tackle. Lets hope Jake sorts his experimental team ideas out or at least bins them and gets a rock solid team ready for next weekends match in Twickenham (Which we am hoping to attend).

You are probably wondering about what we have next on the cards in terms of travel, but unfortunately there is nothing as yet, we thought about going back to SA for xmas but the flight prices were ludicrous and are hoping to visit our family in England this Christmas, something which we have sadly never done. But not to be outdone, in 2007 we are thinking of New York for Easter and a big trip to Malaysia and Australia in the summer.

Other news is that Gwyn successfully baked her first fruitcake, (with her new Kenwood Chef that I bought her for her birthday). I am really chuffed with her baking skills (she’s turning out to be a good choice of wife), so Avril and Jean watch your backs!

Love to all

Lol & Gwyn

20061002 M&T visit

Hi Everyone,

Gwyn and I have spent the day indoors today, it has been raining cats and dogs here in London so hopefully the drought will be over! We planned on going to explore a canal not too far from where we live but hey ho, some chilled out time reading a book is also great. I forgot to mention I have found a new author whose books I am addicted to, Vince Flynn, who would have thought Lawrence would become a book worm.

As mentioned in our last update, over a month ago – apologies, my parents came out to the UK for a visit. They were greeted by typical wet and cold English weather on their arrival. Day one consisted of a tour into central London to see some of the sights, including a ride on the London Eye which my Mom amazingly enough managed, Leister Square & 10 Downing Street. The next day we hired an estate car and did a bit of a whistle stop road tour. Popping up to Birmingham to visit my Grandparents, then up to Manchester where we stayed the night with Gwyn’s Mom and Bronny. From there it was off to Wales, a short drive away.

Wales is a spectacular part of the UK, with scenic beauty something like that of the Natal midlands mixed with some Eastern Transvaal and a coastline. Lots of little rock-wall lined meandering roads, waterfalls, dense greenery, sheep, hills, and misty rain. The first 2 nights in Wales were spent in heart of Snowdonia National Park in a little town called Betws-y-Coed. Our guest house was situated on the banks of a crystal mountain stream, a fisherman’s dream! From Betws-y-Coed we explored northern Wales and all its little towns. Going up to the Isle of Anglessy where one can take a ferry over to Ireland from Holyhead, to Caernafon where we visited the medieval castle of King Edward the Longshanks (a hugely interesting world heritage site), through the Snowdonia National Park mountains, to one of the many slate mines and to a woollen mill to name a few of the highlights. We then travelled down the coast to Aberystwyth where we stayed on a dairy farm out in the country. The roads were a bit hairy with a couple ‘flip a coin’ moments but all good fun. From there we headed off to Hay-on-Wye, along the way stopping off in Brecon where Gwyn’s Grandfather was born, it was great for Gwyn to take a peak into her families roots. Hay-on-Wye was a wonderful little town, made famous by all the hundreds of second hand book shops, so you can imagine what we did here... From Hay we travelled up to Brum and stopped off at Iron Bridge to revisit some of my father’s childhood memories. That afternoon we visited my Dads aunt’s Jean and Joan who were really great, they did however think we were in dire need of sustenance…. I don’t think my stomach will be the same after all that food. The next two days were spent catching up with my Grandparents and touring my dads old haunts in Birmingham. Before we knew it we were back in London.

Two weeks later Mom & Dad caught the Virgin train from Birmingham to London, survived a trip in the underground and spent another couple days with us (One of the highlights was going to see ‘Guys and Dolls’ the musical with Patrick Swayze in the lead role). In between all of that, it was back to work. Gwyn had a busy couple of weeks because she interviewed for, and was offered another job. She will be leaving RWD on the 10th October and start with BSi (British Standards Institute) on the 11th October. She is taking a role as an HR Systems Executive, working with their SAP system amongst other things. She is very excited to be working in a team of HR professionals, so we will keep you posted on how it goes.

Other than that, we are rapidly heading for winter over here, but to brighten up our lives, we have booked two weekends away; one to Brussels to celebrate our anniversary, and another to Paris in November. Tessa and Bronwyn will be joining us in Paris, the excuse for the trip is to celebrate Bronwyn’s 18th birthday (can you believe it) and Gwyn’s third 25th Birthday (ha ha)….we are sure we will have a lot to report on from those.

Hope you are all keeping well…chat to you all soon.

Love

L&G

20060821 September is on our doorstep

It seems that everytime we write an update, we have to start with an apology. So, without further ado, here it is……

Sorry we haven’t updated the site earlier!!!!! But on the bright side, now we have lots to talk about. The last we spoke, we had just returned from Florida, in June and now it is almost September. Where did the year go? It is quite marked in the UK how quickly the year is going because it has turned cooler, the leaves are turning brown and the sun is setting earlier. Quite a difference to three weeks ago, when we had a heat wave and we were frantically searching for a fan. Always happens that the minute you buy a fan, the weather turns cooler.

So, since Florida, we have been to Wimbledon. That was a great day. We took a taxi at 5am and managed to get into the queue at 5.30 am. We were in the first 500 in the queue and managed to get entrance to centre court. Play started at 12pm (imagine the long day) but it was worth it after having seen Sharapova, Henin-Hardin and Goran to name a few. It was fantastic, and we are on track to do it again next year.

My mom and Bronwyn came down to London for a weekend in July (mom’s birthday) and we did a couple of touristy things, including Footloose the musical. It was brilliant, like a blast from the past for me and I was happily singing along to the songs. Lawrence was lucky that there was no space for me to do the ‘The footloose dance’ a la Kevin Bacon.

We also took a day trip to Dover. All the brits look at us funny when we say that we did this. The standard response is ‘oh, I have been to Dover, when I took the ferry to France’. There is more to Dover than the ferry. To start, we went up to Dover Castle (killer walk, never ever believe a local when they say that it is a short walk). The castle was jam packed full of history and the highlight was the underground tunnels. These were built hundreds of years ago, and are actually built into the white cliffs. They were mostly used during the Second World War as secret military headquarters ( they advertise-visit the secret war times tunnel as if this is still a secret) from which they planned the rescue at Dunkirk and the Normandy landings. Thom- you would have loved this. Apart from the tunnels, the next best thing was the pub that we found; on the inlet which served the best mussels (trust us to always find the good food).

Other than that, we have been reasonably quiet. Work has been absolutely manic for the both of us, and weekends have been purposefully kept quiet. We are saving all of our energy for September, when Margo and Trevor are coming to visit. We are going on a road trip through Wales, which we are very excited about. One night in Manchester with my mom, 4 nights in various villages in Wales and then 2 nights in Birmingham with Trevor’s parents. Can’t wait to show them where we live and where we go etc….nice to share those kinds of things.

We hope that you are all well, missing you all very much.

L&G

20060702 Miami

Hi Y’all

We are back from our trip to the US and hit the ground running, having to go straight back to the office. Jet lag has just been shaken but after 5 days of work we need another holiday.

Our first impression of the US is that everything is huge, huge cars, huge food, huge space, and huge houses. We landed on the Friday and we were whisked from Miami airport down to the Pelican Beach hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Elza, Lol’s aunt, was waiting eagerly for our arrival. The hotel was stunning, set on an expanse of perfect white beach and beautifully furnished. We checked into a suite on the top floor, I might add, and before we new it we in the lobby meeting all the family and other wedding guests. Rob, Elene’s husband (now), entertained us all with a bit of fancy piano playing (scoring huge points with all the ladies!). We all then hopped into a car and drove 200 meters up the road to ‘Charlie’s Crab’ (hope I got the name right) for a rehearsal dinner and got to meet all Robs Family, we both enjoyed an out of this world fillet steak! The Americans commented on how we went straight for red meat. The next day started with a BIG American breakfast followed by a morning on the beach (spot the pale tourists), just what we needed. That evening Elene and Rob got married on the penthouse balcony of the hotel, under a white gazebo, with the perfect blue ocean as the backdrop! It was a small intimate wedding which allowed for a lot of emotion, making it all that more meaningful. Congratulations, you make a wonderful couple. But the one who stole the show for me was the little flower girl, Hallie, with her beautiful smile full of teeth (more like a grimace). Please take a peek at our photos to see the highlights of the wedding.

The day after the wedding, we made our way to Elza’s condo in Boca Raton. It is a very comfortable condo with 2 big bedrooms, both with ensuite bathrooms, kitchen, lounge, dining room and air con. Elza warned us how hot it is in summer, but us tough Africans thought ‘not a problem bru…we are africans’…

We spent the first 2 days just relaxing on the beach over the road from the condo. Elza had to work most of the week, but managed to take off early in the afternoons to take us around, she was really great to us. One the Tuesday, we took a taxi to Fort Lauderdale to take a boat ride through the harbour. We saw some disgustingly huge houses, mostly self made millionaires, which was inspiring to say the least. The sad thing is that these are holiday houses, only used during the winter for a couple of weeks…obscenely rich people, but if you have $8 million just lying around gathering dust, then why not? After the boat ride, we took a long walk down Fort Lauderdale beach. After about 10 minutes, we decided to find the nearest shopping centre. Not because we needed anything, we just had to find some aircon!

Did we learn our lesson? oh no! Because the next day, we decided to walk from Elza’s condo to the next beach, not far by car! 2 hours later, we were completely drenched, and we had not even swum yet. When we finally got the beach, we went straight to the airconditioned restaurant for a large coke (bottomless everywhere). This explains why a lot of our pictures are taken in restaurants.

Elza was able to take Thursday and Friday off, so we packed our bags and took off for Naples, which is a city on the west coast of Florida. A lot of Elza’s friends live there, and offered us overnight accommodation. On the way, we stopped at a ‘vibey’ place called Everglade City. We booked an airboat ride, and went to grab some lunch because we had time to spare. The city has 2 restaurants, one for breakfast and one for lunch. This was a scene straight out of the movies. You know, people who like their cousins a bit too much, drinks in huge plastic glasses where the special of the day is ‘gator nuggets, frogs legs and conch fritters. I loved it, we were all killing ourselves laughing. Nice to see how the other side of the tracks, or in this case swamp, live. The airboat ride was fantastic though, definitely one of the highlights.

Naples was the exact opposite to the everglade city, very posh and clean! We stayed in a condo block overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and what was amazing was the amount of hurricane damage that was sustained last year. They are still repairing a lot of buildings, and the new season is already starting ...the big downside of Florida.

Our trip to the states would never be complete without a trip to Miami. Elza took us through on the Saturday, and we had a look at Lincoln drive, deco drive and Miami beach. It is amazing how ‘spanish’ Miami is when compared to Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. Good news is that Dan Villians exist wherever you go, and the movies were not lying.

Then, before we knew it, we were on our way back to London. A week was definitely not long enough for a thorough visit, but it did wet our appetites for the next trip to the States. The country is so big though, we will have to plan the next trip carefully to see as much as possible. We are so glad that we went though, especially seeing as though we got to know Elza, Elene, Rob and the rest of the family a bit better. Thanks to all of them for their hospitality and friendliness, we had a great time.

Back in the land of the pale people, all is back to normal with work etc. Exciting thing is that we have both taken a day off work on Tuesday and are going to watch Wimbledon. We are determined to get Centre Court tickets, so we are leaving home at the crack of dawn…check to see if you can see us on TV and hold thumbs for clear skies!!

Chat to you all soon…Love

L&G

20060604 May

A month since our last update, with a lot happening since then. I am typing this update lying in our communal garden soaking up the sun. Today is the first proper summers day that we have had, not a cloud in the sky and a sweltering 24 degrees C, at long last. This morning we went down to Richmond to do a bit of shopping for our next trip to Miami for Elene’s, my cousin, wedding. Richmond is down on the Thames river and it is lovely to see everyone out and enjoying the day. Something as simple as good weather is almost taken for granted in SA, but here people really appreciate it.... Anyhow before I go too deep let me give you an update of our last month.

Starting off with the London marathon where we spectated for a change, this was due to my spiral fracture to my fibula and Gwyn deciding to give the other female runners a chance (Ja right!). Anyhow we had fantastic grandstand seats on the finish line, the first woman came in at 2h 19min , and the first man at 2h 6min, but giving me goose bumps was the 3rd man in, Hendrick Ramaala, a fellow South African only 15 seconds off the winning time!

Then Gwyn got a promotion, and is now the resourcing manager at RWD, which is really great as she can now focus more on the HR side of the business where she wants to develop herself. You go girl.

Last weekend, we took the train up to Manchester to see Tessa and Bronwyn. Monday was a bank holiday, so we had a long weekend to spend there. After having to stand all the way to Manchester (the train was heavily overbooked, but following Nadia’s lead we have complained and will hopefully get money back), we arrived in Manchester will a whole three days ahead of us. The weekend was rainy, but in true British style, we went out anyway! Tessa took us to a small village called Haworth where the Bronte sisters lived (think Withering Heights). To be honest, we did not know much about the family, but now count ourselves as experts. The village was an hour away from Manchester in the most beautiful countryside. The roads were harrowing, but Tess’ driving was even more so! We think that she has embraced the pommy driving style with both hands. Sidewalks are nothing for her Peugot.

We also managed to fit in a visit to an old country house in Manchester, called Dunham Massey. This is a worthwhile trip as it gives more information about how people lived than Buckingham Palace…in our opinion anyway. The weekend was very relaxing and we spent a lot of time with Mom and Bron, so a good trip in all.

When we got back we received confirmation and a picture of the trainee Guide Dogs which we have sponsored. His name is Edward, a Labrador / Retriever mix, and is now 8 weeks old. We are told that he is a very sociable pup who likes lots of attention and enjoys playing with a plastic bottle even though he has a lot of toys! So hold thumbs that, at the end of his training, he turns into a fully fledged guide dog.

Keep well y’all

Lol & Gwyn

20060423 Holland

Het hallo

Gwyn and I are back from our Easter trip to Holland which was totally awesome. We managed to see all the sites on our hit list and really got to enjoy some of the Dutch culture. But before I get into that I need to tell you about my adventure to the health spa (www.Champneys.com). The team I work with at Unilever went on an away-day last Wednesday to get pampered, and I had a Swedish Massage! Anyway we arrived at the resort to be greeted by some weird people dressed in white robes, odd, but it got worse. We were shown to our rooms and then told to change into our own robe in preparation for the treatment, so just imagine Lawrence climbing into a white bathrobe, 2 sizes too small with his little white slippers and then taken down to the beauty parlour to get a massage, sweet! I was quite nervous about the massage, expecting some sexy Swedish chick to rub herself all over me, but it did not work out quite as expected… A short little Korean sumo wrestler, who could pull down a lion in her sleep awaited me and sent me through the roof when she insisted on massaging the bottom of my feet, a rather painful experience, so guys, leave the Swedish massage for the woman to enjoy. The stay at the health spa had rather interesting meals, tiny portions of nuts, celery sticks, etc were served. Alcohol, fats, red meat and salt where banned and you had to go to the restaurant in a robe…. Anyway enough of that, back to our trip to Amsterdam.

We arrived in Schiphol at 23h30 on Thursday night, caught a train into Amsterdam and walked through the centre of the city to our hotel in the middle of the night, feeling totally safe, quite a change from the SA life style. The next day we took a tour to a small coastal town called Volendam, on the way we stopped of at a monster windmill which we went into to see how the thing works, quite amazing. This was followed by a clog factory and an irresistible cheese farm. From Volendam we took a boat trip across to Marken. Interesting thing is that Marken used to be an island and now, due to land reclamation, looks like a peninsular. The most striking thing I picked up on the trip are how water logged and flat the country is and the number of bicycles. In Amsterdam we got to see most of the sights with the highlights being a canal cruise around the city, seeing all the romantic bridges (I preferred the canals in Amsterdam to those in Venice which are very cramped). The red light district was quite an eye opener - actually seeing the prostitutes selling themselves so openly and then people making use of the service! Hectic Stuff. We spent a lot of time in restaurants sampling the local food, excellent I might add, and drinking good old beer. Then on the Saturday we caught a train up to Castricum, a little sea-side town where Isabel (my moms school friend) & Wijnand live. They were wonderful, pulling out all the stops to make our stay pleasurable. We took a couple bike rides across the dunes landscape to the sea together, the sea is about 30min away by bike and for Gwyn and I quite a novelty to be back on a bike again, my rear end however was not that eager and had to get used to the saddle. Wijnand is quite a winey and pulled out some fabulous wines for us to taste, Isabel is a master chef who showed us what proper Dutch cooking is all about. Thank you for everything guys! From Castricum we went to Keukenhof (the world famous flower show) for the day and marvelled at the most amazing flower, tulips so big that I could not get my hands around them in every colour under the sun, fields of daffodils, perfectly manicured gardens, along with all the usual Dutch food. But all things need to come to an end and before we knew it we were back in London….

Gwyn’s mom is visiting us this weekend and we are now going to the Flora (a Unilever Product) London marathon….

Keep well and all our love

Lol & Gwyn

20060410 Viva Afrika

Hi Guys

It has been a rather hectic 2 months for us with no updates on Bowenz.com, but at least we have a lot of news and photos for all of you. Let’s begin a week before we left for South Africa….

Lawrence started at Unilever at the end of February and could not be happier. His team is split between London and Rotterdam and everyone is from different cultures and backgrounds. This seems to be a ‘London’ thing where you can start playing ‘find the brit’ in the work environment, because there seems to be so many people from other countries here. It takes some getting used to but makes for interesting lunch time conversation. You would not believe how much you can debate about the type of jam in a jam donut (apricot for SA, but strawberry here).

I was asked to deliver 2 days training in Geneva, which is the only European country for which we South Africans do not require visa’s. It was great to be able to go for 2 nights, and an interesting work experience. I could train everybody in English, but their home languages were either French, German or Dutch. This was challenging when the students were able to work on their own…I could not always hear when they had a problem. I think that I coped quite well just through observing body language.

Then we were off to SA for the weddings. We landed 2 days before Nic and Michelle got married and we hope that we were able to help with some of the last minute arrangements. After a bit of rally driving on Lawrence’s part (best man tasks on the day), the wedding went off smoothly and everything was just perfect. We took some great photos if you want to have a look.

Jet setters that we are, we were not satisfied to hang around Pretoria for 2 weeks, so off we went to the Kruger Park with Lawrence’s parents. It rained quite a lot while we were there, so the bush was green and the grass long, but we still managed to see elephant, lions, giraffe and lots of biltong/impala. Staying in the park was a great way to unwind, there is nothing like the absolute quiet under the stars.

On the day that we got back from the Park, I attending the best ‘kitchen tea’ for Carin (my brothers new wife). We had an x-stripper teach the ladies how to do lap and pole dancing. What a laugh! We had a great time, Lawrence keeps asking for a demonstration but the imagination may be better than the reality in this case.

The week was filled with friends and family, but we still did not get to spend enough time with everyone! Luckily we live in the age of technology so we can still keep in touch. And then, off to Magoebaskloof for Thomas and Carins wedding. We arrived at the hotel with a couple of hours to spare before the wedding, and we wish that we had arrived the day before in order to appreciate the area. This is a fly fishers paradise (Jonny and Russell pay attention). Water, water everywhere and gorgeous scenery. Just mountains and forests where you look. T and C really picked the spot for their vows. The wedding went off so well, and the receptions was so relaxed, it was a great way to spend our last night in South Africa. More photos…. What else do you expect from Lawrence

The day after the wedding, we woke up with a monkey in our room (not Lawrence), enjoyed a breakfast over looking the Magoebaskloef valley and then shot off back to Pretoria for a couple hours before hopping onto a plane bound for London. We thought that 2 and a bit weeks would be ample for the holiday, but we could have done with a lot more.

It was great to see everyone again, and we are happy to know that you are all doing well.

All our love

L&G

PS: We are off to Amsterdam and Castricum this Easter Weekend…so watch out for the next round of photos from happy snapper Lawrence.

20060219 A day in Bath

Hello All

It has (thankfully) not been too long since our last update, and once again, never a dull moment in the Bowen household. We have settled in very well in our new flat, but unfortunately, our washing machine decided to refrain from spinning ever again. Our friendly landlord is buying us a brand new washing machine which we was promised last Monday. Can you believe that repair men are the same wherever you live? Well, you should have seen grumpy Gwyn when the machine did not arrive as promised after I arranged to work from home in order to receive it. We should be getting the machine on Tuesday, a week after the original delivery date, but I think that I made myself clear now. In the meantime, Lawrence and I have been traipsing down to the local Laundromat to do our washing twice a week. On Thursday, I took the washing down myself (2 huge bags including a blue IKEA bag…some of you know how big that is). I think that the neighbours thought that I was leaving Lawrence and taking all his clothing with me. However, I did return later with Lawrence and clean washing in tow.

Lawrence is into his last week at Sky now. He will be starting at Unilever on Thursday. I think that the move is bitter sweet for him. He is going to a fantastic company in a great position, but he learnt so much at Sky and met some great people. I suppose, career progression is why we are here.

I was invited on a trip to Aberdeen this week, to visit a client. I was able to fly there and back in a day…which is the way that like to travel for work. I enjoyed the trip, and met some interesting people in the oil business as well. Lawrence was quite impressed with my professional look when I left the house before the crack of dawn. I was a bit disappointed that it was not snowing in Aberdeen. Everyone warned me how cold and miserable it was…not at all! At least, nothing like Edinburgh over Christmas.

Today, we took a coach trip to visit Stonehenge and Bath. The coach was full of students, but luckily everyone on the trip was there to see the sights, so it was not like the average University trip. Our guide was a different story. She came across as a nervous squirrel. Repeating everything three times, not quite the guide that you should put with a group of young people, but she was a source of entertainment regardless.

When we arrived at Stonehenge, it was misty and cold. I thought that it was ideal weather in which to view the stones as you can just imagine a procession of druids walking across the valley at sunset. Lawrence was disappointed that the stones were not bigger…I thought that they were large enough, but I am smaller than him.

From the stones, we made our way to Bath. What a beautiful city. Similar architecture to Edinburgh, but with brighter stones used in the buildings. The tour included entry to the Roman baths, which were interesting to see, and then we had a couple of hours to wander around. We found a quaint coffee shop for lunch and Lawrence managed to find the only Fly Fishing shop (Orvis), which we had to visit.. he has eyed out a 9 piece rod. I was convinced that we were going to have Cream Tea in the Pump house ( formal tea room next to the Roman bath), but £14,95 per person for tea, scones and sandwiches sounded a bit extravagant, so we bought the best cookies and walked around the town instead. I definitely want to go back to Bath again, but on our own time. It’s a bit difficult to appreciate a place fully when you are working on someone else’s timetable.

So, that was the week for us. We hope that all is well with everyone across the globe. One more month to our visit home…can’t wait.

All our love

L&G

20060206 The Move

Hello Everyone,

This week deserved a weekend, we started last Friday packing up our room at Abinger court, what an exciting way to spend a Friday, it was a prelude to what the rest of the weekend would consist of, packing, unpacking, packing and more unpacking…. The good news is that we are now settled in the fabulous Wye Court, we have a lovely spacious 1 bedroomed flat on the first floor.

Nicely located near a small ‘high street’ (Pitshanger Lane) with lovely little coffee shops, fish mongers, butchers, and about 20 restaurants and all this just far enough to be out of the hustle and bustle of the Ealing city centre. We have a sleeper couch so if anyone is interested in coming to the UK, free accommodation awaits! Shawn and Nadia have been using this facility for the last week or so before they head of to the USA for their 4 week holiday and will then be returning to SA, we are going to miss our roomies...

On to why it was a bad week; firstly our previous landlords decided to play funny buggers and try keep the monster deposit, frankly I don’t think they had the money to give back to us, then kept stalling, then had excuses, and then decided to charge us a for cleaning an already clean flat. It was a bit of a situation where you are at the mercy of a bunch of aspiring politicians. Anyway after a whole lot of head banging we managed to get 75% back. Yesterday our washing machine decided to throw in the towel, so now need to sort that out. Fortunately, we have a laundrette just round the corner, so will be fine. Shawn and Nadia made breakfast the other morning and if it was not for the smoke alarm, would have burnt the place down.

But it was not all bad, we now have a fabulous landlord who is totally organised, a proper gentleman (we still need to tell him about the washing machine – hold thumbs). Gwyn is going up to Aberdeen (Northern Scotland - almost at the North Pole) for a work trip which is just fab. I got a new job at Unilever which I am really excited about. I have always dreamed about working for the company and am thrilled. Just a pity about leaving Sky as I was really enjoying the position. I start the new job on the 23rd of Feb. Then it is almost time for our trip back home we are arriving on the 16th of March and am looking forward to seeing all the africans, the wedding celebrations, the Kruger, some sun and hopefully a spot of fly fishing.

L&G

20060114 2005What a year

Hi All,

It has been a while since our last update and almost a year now since our move to the UK. 2005 was probably the most hectic year of my life; moving to the UK, starting new careers, acclimatising to British weather and our travels to stunning Paris to see the final stage of the Tour de France cycling race, to Venice to celebrate our second wedding anniversary, then all over England visiting family and the sites, back to SA for a short visit to see Oupa and recently to Edinburgh for our Christmas celebrations. Then both our little brothers got engaged, yip Nic & Michelle and Tom & Carin are getting married and we are so pleased for the all of them, just a pity we missed out on all the engagement celebrations.

Now back onto our trip to Edinburgh, we flew up the day before Christmas with more luggage than you can imagine, we had all the Xmas presents along with everything we needed for the Xmas lunch (gammon, Xmas crackers and all) just imagine what the guy at the airport was thinking when our bags went through the x-ray machine. We stayed in a lovely apartment on what felt like the 6th floor of a terraced house. The house felt very stately, almost as though you needed a ball gown to walk down the steps. It had all the luxury bits and bobs we needed along with a phenomenal view over Edinburgh. We managed to see most of the sites from the Castle to the Royal Cruise liner (The Royal Britannia) and went on a tour to some of the stunning lochs - but it was freaking freezing with snow and even some of the lochs freezing over. Oh, I managed to get me a bottle of some fine whisky too (Blair Athol, 12 year old, single malt). I did not manage to try out the traditional ‘Haggis Neeps and Tatties’ but I brought one back which is now sitting in the freezer – still need to build up the courage to cook and eat it. There are lots of photos loaded up for you to have a look at, all taken on Shawn’s Camera as mine was out of action… another rather amusing story.

Just before Xmas, Gwyn and I had taken up ice skating on all the wonderful outdoor ice rinks here in London. So we had booked to skate at Kew Gardens, a really stunning location with an ice rink built around a Xmas tree. So with all the skating practice I began to get a bit confident, taking on the speed skaters and started to show off to Gwyn - doing pikes and spins, it felt great, until WHAM, I lost all control and was lying face down in ice cold slush. This of course was something which would never happen to me and in my over confidence thought that I could safely carry my camera with me, which was now practically cracked in two. The good news of this whole story is that I sent it off for repair (keeping the battery and memory with me) and got a brand new camera back with additional battery and memory. So get ready for even more photos….

Before I babble on even further I just want to wish you all a fantastic 2006 ahead and would like to thank you for all your support in 2005, we couldn’t have done all of this without you.

L&G