Row, Row, Row.... your houseboat!

The boat at the first base camp!

What a gorgeous day!

Sunset and Fishing - girls and boys happy!

River view

Sunsets.... perfect one day

Even better the next

Me in the gorgeousness of it all

Pretty desert succulent

Bonfire - all the better for marshmallows

Yabbie...such a poser

Red cliff reflection

And the cliffs

Post cooked Yabbie

Not so photogenic now are you Mr Yabbie

Oliver's Royal Adelaide Show Day

The Royal Adelaide Show is an Adelaide icon, that rain hail or shine, Adelaidians get themselves and usually their entire families to at least once every couple of years during its 8 day long Spring showing.  For those non-Aussies, non-South Australians, the Royal Adelaide show is a massive family event that encompasses a huge variety of fun for all families, young and old. 

Entrance to the show

On arriving off Rose terrace, the massive iconic Ferris Wheel awaits you beyond the gates, with which you'll need a $20 ticket to pass through.  First there is the childrens fair ground the the left and the adults to the right, with rides and carnival features galore, including a sling shot and other gut spining/slinging contraptions.

Towards the centre its fun fair food, complete with dagwood dogs (a hot dog bread battered on a stick dipped in tomato sauce), fairy floss (candy floss), curly fries, hot dogs, chips, toffee apples, donuts, ribs, corn cobs, pizza, pies, icecream and pancakes..mmmm.  Mouth watering just to think about. 

There is the poultry shed where prized chickens and pigeons hang out, the car pavillion containing the latest and greatest, the cow shed, the dairy (lots of yummy food to try out in there), theres pigs, a childrens farm with mini tractor rides for the kiddies and where they can pet piglets, chickens, lambs and baby cows.  There is the reptile display, tractor display, a cat pavilion, dog pavillion (with dog showing/competions daily), bunny rabbits, a flying pig display, wood chopping competitions, pie eating competitions, minature trains, wine and cheese tastings.

Meeting and greeting Mr Scarecrow

Towards the back is a large oval with seating for the grand parade, car dare devil displays (Ford and Holden utes battle it out), motor bike stunts, dog agility displays and the evenings grand finale of a massive fireworks display which is scheduled every night. 

Whew...but there is more, the other side of the show grounds, contains yet more food stalls, Italian, Thai, Chinese you name it and two large pavilions with everything from fashion parades, Banana's in Pajama's , a fire truck, ambulance, orchid displays, wood carvings, photography, home wares (like a massive home show too), and many more stalls selling everything from rain water tanks, to jewellery, to cards, candles, bubbles, make up, garden features, even canoes were on offer. 

Delighted with his showbag

The other massive hall contains show bags. Show bags, contain any manner of good things - bags and bags of sweets (candy) and chocolate and bad things, rubbish toys that break after one use.  But they range from $2 for one with just a few chocs and sweets up to $60 with branded Coopers beer paraphernalia.  Its mostly aimed at children with Hot Wheels, Toy Story, Dora and Wiggles all having a branded bag at the show with toys and sweets.  This was always my favourite part of the show and had much delight in saving up as much of my pocket money as I could to ensure that I could get as many showbags as I could hold to take home.

Well that is the show, but what about our day at the show.  Firstly it was possibly a the most hideous Spring day that I've seen in while, with lots of rain, torrential rain at that, gale force winds and even power outages.  Rides were stopped, show attendance was down, but it didn't stop us. 
On arrival after easily getting a park at my work, which fortunately is just nearby, Oliver kept asking "are we there yet...", every 20 metres only to be completely delighted on seeing the Ferris wheel and proclaiming that he simply must go on it.  Too cute. 

We waited for the other family members to arrive then headed on in, to stuff our faces with dag wood dogs before heading round to check out the cars and chickens first.  We didn't want to get too far away as Oliver was keen to get to see Banana's in Pyjamas in the main pavillion, after then we wandered around, chatted with Scobby Do, checked out the Ambulance ( the card board cut out of which Oliver would not let anyone touch) and started the Yellow Brick road (its a show bag that takes you all over the show to collect goodies and food along the way). 

Tractor rides

On heading outside we noted the weather had turned, it was just grey when we arrived and we were fighting heavy rains and whip you down winds to get around the show.  We rugged Oliver up in Mark's rain coat and plodded on.  We picked up chocolates and honey, yogurt and bread, we watch snakes in the reptile hut, we patted the lambs, drove on tractors (Oliver did), patted bunnies and saw the dogs.  We ate some more - toasted cheese sandwiches, before deciding that it was nearly time to call it a day. 

View from Ferris Wheel

The most important bit then was the show bags. Super exciting for Oliver who wanted to go a bit nuts in there, but on getting his Hot Wheels show bag, and several toys was suddenly much more delighted to stay longer, so while the others went home we wandered some more. We watched an amazing show of clothes made to look like flowers, ate donuts and went on the Ferris wheel finally.

The weather had cleared a little, but unfortuately when it was our turn on the ride the heavens opened and we went spinning around in rain, all in good fun. One final go on sideshow alley for Oliver and we headed towards the exit loaded with our goodies. Who says you cannot have fun in the rain!!?

Awaiting B1 and B2

and there they are...

Flower costume...humph, interesting

The sandcastle dinosaur

"Ohhh can we go on that!" The Ferris Wheel

Oops and down came the rain on the Ferris wheel

Sideshow Alley...

Checking out the Ambulance

Yo Scooby!

"Does this celery make my head look big?"

British bulldog in the Dog halls

"Look how big I am.... not"

Bella's First Day at the Beach

Since Mark's Mum has now moved to Seaford, mere minutes from one of South Australia's finest beaches, well actually they are all pretty good, but Moana is a particularly nice one. Aldinga and Seacliff are my favourites....whoa getting off topic.

Anyway, we were down there for lunch - delicious by the way Mum, fantastic homemade lasagna - and since it was a gorgeous and warm Spring day we popped over to the beach so Bella could have her first beach day. Unprepared as we were, there was no puppy swimming, though of course as Bella only under went surgery for her girly bits to be removed on Thursday, it wasn't an option anyway.

She was a bit hesitant at first, you could just see her little face go, "what is this squishy stuff, its not solid how do I walk?". I totally understand, I myself simply cannot walk on sand to save my life. She loved it, tried to escape and run along the beach too.

 

Car Trip... she slept most of the way there and back..

Moana from the car... almost there

Ah water, let me at it....

Family, Mark, Saroeun, Scott, Jess and Chris (much to his dismay)

Mummy and Bella

Looking windswept...

Longing look down the beach, "how far can I go..."

A hint of Austria

Kobenhavn - BBQ with Princess Mary

Just kidding, apparently she was out, so no BBQ or even an invite to afternoon tea for this bank holiday to Copenhagen. Finally we managed to arrange a holiday around a bank holiday long weekend.

We left London and a strangely not very busy Heathrow on Friday night and after a very short 1 ½ flight landed in Cophenhagen just as the sun was setting. It was lovely a bright red sunset just like home in Adelaide . Getting to the city was easy very simple and quick transport links helped too. Our hotel was right near the Opera house and the canals, so we quickly got settled into Hotel City Best Western and rugged up for a walk around, was a bit chilly being surrounded by canals and being close to the coast.

We didn’t see much at first but quickly found Nyhavn, which is a very picturesque restaurant and bar street right on the canal with lots of boats, very Amsterdam like. After a drink of yummy cider – Somersby, which is Carlsbergs branded cider – it was back off to rest up and plan for long weekends adventures.

Saturday morning we were in for breakfast at 9am, and it was delicious - more than delicious probably the best travel breakfast ever. Tasty tea/coffee, melt in your mouth Danish pastries (or Viennese pastries as they are called there), fresh fruit and yoghurt, tasty bread, ham and cheese, as well as bacon and eggs – oh and chocolate melted coated cornflakes. Yum.

We filled up and headed for the train station walking past the Copenhagen Opera house and right up the Stroget, which is the longest shopping strip in Europe (and very boring after the 10th time...not to mention depressing as the shops Sand and Malene Birger looked so very tempting) so we could head to Helsingnor (pronounced Elsinor). Its right on the coastal strip and very near Sweden, you can take the ferry there to Helsingbord, its only 2km away, we contemplated going, but were advised it was much of the same. Thinking back, not sure we could have as I am sure we would have needed our passports – which we didn’t have with us.

It was bright and sunny so we headed to Krongborg Castle - built by King Fredrick II in 1574. Its also known as Hamlets Castle, as what it is known as the original movie of Hamlet was filmed there and its also where the original stories of Hamlet came from, before Shakespeare time. Its a UNESCO world heritage site so its well preserved. We took a tour around the casemates and fortifications, very cold and damp and all under the castle quite deep too before taking another tour around the queens apartments, the ballroom was my favourite its 60 meters long.

Tours are quite good especially when you cannot read much in the way of the signs. Though my Danish has now improved – hahha – I can say a few words and will add those few words to my few that I can say for other languages too! Though my strong point is definitely the French and obviously the English, but they all spoke English well there so we were ok on communicating.

After wandering back into the town we found the town square and then a nice little place for lunch where we had local beer (me) and cider along with traditional fare of cold roast beef and pork with rye bread and coleslaw. All that walking had tired us out – are we getting too old for this – so we napped on the train back to Cophenhagen to get us ready for our late afternoon evening out.

A quick change back at the hotel then we headed to the Tivoli Gardens , which is a beautiful gardens with Theme Park built in that has existed since the 1800’s. It was just stunning lots of fairy lights, elaborate buildings (including a mini Taj Mahal), flowers, trees, ponds, lakes, open air theatres, bandstands, 40 odd restaurants and lots of ride for big and small kids – thus Mark was quite eager to get on the super speedy roller coaster! Its also very good for the environment with a big windmill that generates all the power for the rides and a cup deposit scheme.

We wandered around, me in photo heaven and Mark sussing out where to eat. We eventually chose a place that did ribs and steak, so had one of each to share. Again yum. I could not find fault with the food there, nothing was bad – not even the hotdogs they sell in stalls everywhere in Copenhagen (of which Mark had 3 on the last day). After dinner I did a few night shots (photos) and after listening to a proper band playing all the songs from Sound of Music (still cannot get them out of my head – but that’s ok will be in Salzburg in 3 weeks!) we plunged in and went on a ride – the sky flyer. Well its basically a chair lift that goes way up above the park, one of my favourite rides from growing up – but its high, it was night time (so pretty), but so so cold!! That was enough and after establishing that they no longer did fireworks (they used to every evening) we got ourselves a body warming coffee and headed back to our hotel.

Next morning back to the train station (on our 24 hour ticket, that was care of the helpful lady the day before this allowed us to get a cheap ticket, so we could travel to Helsingnor return and to Roskilde on the Sunday quite cheaply) we headed to Roskilde which is quite well known for the music festival it holds each year. It also has a very lovely church - Roskilde Domkirke - which is resting place of many of the Fredriks and Christians of Denmark along with their wives.

We firstly wandered past a sea of children and parents setting up stalls throughout the town for a mass toy jumble sale, before we made our way to the harbour for the Viking museum. This was actually really interesting and mostly for the fact that they re-created (almost painstakingly the same way) one of the boats they salvaged and actually sailed it between Copenhagen and Dublin . We did a little sailing trip, where we had to row like the vikings would have (hard work!!) and our captains both did the Dublin boat trip and said it was very hard work – and oh so cold. I can only imagine!

After yet more cider and traditional food sitting in the sunshine we returned to Cophenhagen. After more wandering and a drink we had every intention of going out for an early dinner, but we both fell asleep, woke up all grumpy, trekked across town to find a restaurant that no longer existed (in the RAIN!) and ended up just having a quiet drink - at a bar called Obeliks -before taking a taxi back to the hotel. Sigh....

Monday we packed up early, stuffed ourselves full of food and wandered to Christianstown to attempt to go to the Vor Freslers Kirke. At the church there is a gold spiral staircase on the outside of the steeple that you can walk up. Unfortunately despite the sign saying, that it was open (it only had re-opened after being closed for 3 years) on the Sunday, it was not open for us on the Monday – pooh. Oh well we consoled ourselves with coffee and more yummy pastries before taking a walk around the town.

We made our way through the centre to walk through the Kings gardens, where Rosenburg Castle is - it houses the crown jewels - then over past the Amelienborg to the Castellets (a 17th century fortification) where we walked around across the top. It was beautiful and sunny too. Then we returned for the changing of the guards at Amelienborg, which was good a there was a band because someone Royal was at home. Not Freddy and Mary though – they were out as their flag was down.

After that we had hotdogs, the first of 3 for Mark went to the *snore* Danish Design museum (which was rubbish – basically an exhibition about not using light bulbs!!). I was very disappointed as I expected so much more as there design is second to none really, well maybe Sweden. Then Mark had hotdog number 2 before we hit the shops for the rest of the afternoon.

I found one store that I really liked and the Illum department store and homewear shop was very cool – much of what I actually hoped to see at the Danish Design center really, shame my house to furnish is too far away in Australia. Finally we had time for a drink back at Nyhavn before making our way back to the airport for our flight back to London . On Monday I actually felt like I had been away ages, so I guess it was a trip worthwhile, not too stressful and we still did quite a bit too.

Oh pictures will come when my lovely brother in law provides me with Photoshop...so stay tuned...this blog will get more interesting once I add pics!!

Once upon a time...in my childhood

There was an Easter Bunny who came along to provide the good little children of the world ADD inducing chocolate eggs and bunnies on the very day that the Christian (most of us!! - no political correctness on my site) world celebrates the re-birth of Jesus.

The children were very happy. Their parents would trawl through supermarkets to purchase said Easter treats, filled with other irrate parents and their ratty children tearing their hair out of choices between the Humpty Dumpty egg, Smartie egg or an Easter Egg train. The said oblivous children are generally in tow and not quite with the whole marketing ploy and the non-existance (whoops to those under 5 or those who were never told) of the Bunny dude himself.

Ah memories, the blissful time where you really had no idea that the Easter bunny was indeed your parents having spent hard earned cash on mountains of overpriced chocolate shapes (that in a block would cost less than a third of the price) and then spending several hours placing them in and around the garden for you to hunt for on Easter morning at about oh 5-6am...

Where has the wonderment gone, I can barely remember, though I certainly remember that I got more than my fair share and more after visiting various aunts, uncles and grandparents. This Easter, I had 2 cadbury creme eggs of my own purchase, about 4 hot cross buns (in February mind you) and even forgot it was easter to the point where we didn't even say HAPPY EASTER.....BUT....

To everyone out there....I have remembered Easter, its a joyful occassion of child grinning delight, of sparkly coloured tin foil covered eggs on the grass, sparkly eggs filling a wicker basket, school holidays, baby bunny rabbits, Easter bonnet parades and grinning chocolate covered faces.

Happy Easter (belated) everyone!!!

Whether the Weather!

Well I believe we are due another weather update, as discussion of the weather is a very English thing to do. In fact last night they were advertising a TV show that is coming up just about English Weather, a series, the first show to be about rain. Hummm, not sure what they will cover over the rest of the series.

Though I hope they cover clouds, seriously! Over London some days we have what I like to call Simpsons weather. Sounds weird, close your eyes put your mind to visualise the opening credits of the Simpsons episodes, where the clouds part and then there is a clear bright sunny blue sky with fluffy silver and white clouds. That is precisely what it looks like here AND it is really lovely and they are my favourite days, as it adds such character to the day.

As for the show, well am sure there is plenty they can cover, after all we had severe floods a couple of years ago and this year was some serious snow (...never complain about snow....Marks rule).

We have been having lovely weather over the past couple of weeks, ever since daylight savings kicked in and its light till nearly 7pm now. I noticed it the first night back from skiing, it was like London had come to life, restaurants were full, pub beer gardens were pulsing, parks were bustling and tourists were returning (in droves) to London. A switch had been flicked on, bring on London summertime.

So we have ourselves been out and about a bit more. I have walked home across St James Park a couple of times, I have been out running, we went out in Angel for a few drinks in the garden and per my last blog wandered around St James Park in the sunshine.

Alas with Easter approaching, so are rain clouds. The original forecast was to rain all weekend, but yesterday it was due to rain today, and rain it certainly did. So it was not quite as fun roaming around Covent Garden and Camden markets. Though I was planning to do nothing, we ended up having a drink at the Hawley Arms before heading to Cuba bar in Camden markets for a late lunch.

We are in Chesterfield on Saturday and its expected to be sunny - so the camera is coming along too, hopefully we will get some beautiful countryside views.

Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms

Last Saturday Mark and I visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms on Horse Guards Parade, sounds exciting! Well actually it was quite interesting. We went that particular weekend, as my lovely friend Natasha works there and gave us a heads up that its the 25 year anniversary of the war rooms being open to the public and you could get in for £2, which was the price it was back in 1984. They had themed the day too with all the staff dressed in 80's outfits blast from the past style. Unfortunately we were not early enough for the free bacon sarnies!!

The rooms themselves are set out just as they were when Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill used them to run the war back in the 40's, complete with wax models, so you get a true feel for what it was like in a step back in time manner. You press the buttons on the audio guide and it leads you through all through the narrow dark corridors full of tiny rooms.

Rooms such as the war room itself, map rooms (a massive map of the world on one wall was covered with pin holes for locations of all the ships), bedrooms, mess rooms, a tiny fully functional kitchen (Winston expected 3 full meals a day!), even with a room called the lavatory where Winston called up the US president, not much bigger than a broom closet. There was even an assortment of green, red and cream phones that they called the "Beauty Chorus" in one of the ancillary rooms.

The museum dedicated to Sir Winston pretty much covered everything anyone could want to know about him and what an interesting bloke. Just a few facts; he was madly in love with his wife Clemmie, his father was the Chancellor of the Exchequer before he was Prime Minister (twice, actually), he was involved in politics right till his 80's and was given right proper State funeral after he died when he was 90.

Mark had been meaning to go for a while, and we were presented with a good opportunity so we went, though the Arsenal game was on at 3pm, so we nearly didn't go. However, we ended up having plenty of time, even for a wander among the flowers in St James park before heading up to Piccadilly Circus to head back up home.

Ps no Arsenal game for me, I left Mark in the pub and went shopping!! woohoo
Pss Just a couple of photos in St James park.

Sping arrives at last...

This is here are the first blossoms of spring on Chetwynd Road, and now London streets and parks are beginning to blossom left right and centre, with daffodils, cherry blossoms, and magnolia blossoms. Beautiful.

And a week later...still lovely..