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