New Years in Ireland

After a casual email conversation with our friends Kat and Matt, "you're welcome to join us for new years," we actually decided to make it happen. So, on New Years Eve, we caught an afternoon flight to Dublin and a bus out to Dalkey, where Kat and Matt now live. It's a lovely suburb south of Dublin and Dun Laoughaire and they have a beautiful apartment overlooking the sea. New Years Eve meant we got to meet some of Kat and Matt's friends as they all came over for good food, good conversation, and a good time before seeing in 2011. So, some of the first things we did in the New Year... went to Kilinney and climbed the hill there to see which famous Irish exports (Maeve Binchy, Bono etc) we could see (none, not surprisingly); visited ancient burial sites at New Grange, Bru Na Boinne, Co. Meath; and celebrated our 6th (!!) wedding anniversary in the northern Dublin suburb of Clontarf where we treated ourselves to a night in a castle hotel.

Again, we were blessed with fantastic weather (it never seems to rain in Ireland while we are there..) and it was so great to just relax, unwind, and see our good friends.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

November and December 2010 definitely saw the coldest winter we have had so far living in London - it was a major headline if the temperature ever got above 0 degrees as we had all gotten used to -5 etc. The cold weather also meant a lot of snow! We had planned to go up north to a wee town near Durham, Northumberland for Christmas and fortunately the snow did not stop us from getting there. We stayed in a lovely house (apart from the fact that no central heating meant it was only really warm in 1 or 2 rooms at a time) and had a lovely time together. While it didn't snow again until Boxing Day, there was a lot of snow around on Christmas Day itself when we drove in to Durham and went to the matins service at the Cathedral - what an amazing building and a lovely town and just a very special Christmas. We spent the next few days driving to Hadrian's wall, the market town of Alnwick, the coastal castle at Dunstaburgh, and just enjoying the area in general. We also spent a fair amount of time indoors too, wrapped up against the cold. Up there it was more like -10! Hard to believe that this was the last Christmas we will have in the northern hemisphere for a wee while! Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Run Forrest Run

A few days after the folks left, it was back to Heathrow where I was heading off for a work trip to Minneapolis. This was where I attended the World Marrow Donor Association conference to learn more and network. It felt like a mini UN gathering with reps from around the globe - so many languages and accents! I was also doing a speaking slot about the benefits and differences we've found when using saliva kits to test those who join our register. It was a really insightful time and great to see that we're not alone in our aim to help save more lives from blood cancers.

This was my first trip to the US and my first impressions probably don't reflect what I'd find in other parts of the country. I felt Minneapolis city lacked a heart without much history, culture and so many concrete four lane roads everywhere. However it was amazing that some relatives, Dan and Ila Ronning, live in Minneapolis and that we had a chance to catch up over some dinner. They were such a lovely couple and so welcoming. On our last day my colleagues and I had a few hours to spare to do the tourist trail of Minneapolis, a sculpture park and the Mall of America, which is the largest shopping centre in the States. It was huge, including a massive theme park right smack bang in the middle of it. My favourite thing though was the cheesiness of Bubba's Shrimp restaurant with all things Forrest Gump adorning it.

Oxford

Well, we can hardly visit Cambridge without visiting the rival Oxford. In terms of our preference, well, the jury might still be out although perhaps favouring Cambridge slightly - to be fair, this may be due to the fact that it was Summer when we went there and full of vibrancy and graduation, and colour. In Oxford, it was COLD. That said, we again chanced upon a festival that was happening-One World Expo was on at the Town Hall so we got to see different charities and organisations, sample some food, and get new ideas before hitting the main sights. We visited Baliol college (not really worth it) and Christ College (definitely worth it!). The dining hall and the general size of the latter was very impressive. Unfortunately, some of the more famous places (like that cool pub down a lane and round the corner near the bridge of sighs where cool people used to hang out and apparently still do) were either completely packed, or closed (the Sheldonian Theatre). We did visit the Bodlein Library though and the covered market - some great food places there! Here are a few pics.

Cream Tea, Sea, and Family, in Devon

At the end of September, Daniel's parents arrived for a two week stay with us. It was so great to see them after 3 years!

Time flies in some ways but, at other times, it feels like forever. We spent a week together in London where Daniel was able to take a couple of half days to be the tour guide, before we all travelled together to South Devon, Kingswear, to be precise. We had hired a house there for the week so it made a BIG change from all sharing our wee studio and the house was lovely and spacious and right on the ferry slipway where cars can drive across to Dartmouth. It is a lovely part of the country and we all enjoyed taking walks around the village and along the coast to see Dartmouth castle and to just enjoy the scenery of lapping waters, boats and yachts. The weather was quite changeable while we were there and on one evening was the high tides - some of the highest they had seen in years - us foot passengers had to take a leap of faith on to the ferry and then hitch a ride in one of the cars to get off the other side! We really enjoyed spending a day driving south along the coast, Slapton Ley, and some beautiful spots, picnic on the beach etc.

Later on, in the week, we also spent a fun day in the historic village of Cockington. That said, probably the highlight of the trip was the "round robin" excursion that went from Kingswear to Paignton on an old steam railway, then by bus on to Totnes, before catching the boat back up the Dart river to Dartmouth. Paignton has an amazing 99p store but otherwise is very much a typical seaside town with entertainment arcades and a packed pier. Totnes, on the other hand, is the original Transition town, with a huge number of independent shops, eco stores, quaint old streets and lovely cafes where we enjoyed a traditional afternoon team - devonshire cream and all. The boat ride back to Dartmouth was quite breezy but so beautiful. The driver had great knowledge of the area and kept up a commentary. Graceful birds and athletic oarsmen were just a few of the sights we saw as well as a wee glimpse of Agatha Christie's home on the bank of he river.

Sadly, the holiday ended all too soon and we were back in London taking John and Wendy back to the airport for their flight back to NZ via Raro. Enjoy just a few of the pictorial highlights.

Serendipity in Bristol

We had heard great things about this city from all sorts of different people so we thought it would be worth having a look see on a quick weekend getaway before Dan's parents visited. Our neighbour, Brendon, went to uni in Bristol so he provided us a good list of places to go and things to see.

National Express made us happy with two cheap coach seats and we travelled from London Victoria on an average London day to arrive in beautiful sunny Bristol only a couple of hours later! As luck would have it, we discovered it was the Organic food festival that weekend AND an open homes day where lots of historic homes and sites were open free to the public. So, needless to say we spent a really great day on Saturday sampling food, listening to music and talks and getting all sorts of great ideas at the festival. We then took advantage of the open homes day and visited the family home of Charles Wesley, the great preacher and Hymn writer. It was really interesting and a great way to spend the afternoon. In the evening, we went to one of the "must-see" places on our list and enjoyed dinner at the Watershed cafe which is part of a cinema complex as well.

On Sunday, we decided to walk up to the slightly upmarket suburb of Clifton where we did some great window shopping, garden gazing, and meandering before heading to Thali Cafe (another "must do") for lunch - Indian Thali meals and curry - yum! We walked off our lunch as we walked further to the famous Clifton Suspension bridge. We then meandered back towards the town centre by walking along the waterfront and then jumping on a river taxi. While meandering from our hotel, we also discovered there was some muscle/classic car road show on as well so we got to see some great cars in the streets too!

Bristol is one of the cities that we decided that we could definitely live in if we weren't in London. We were so fortunate with the weather and all the extra bonuses that were going on while we were there - would definitely recommend it.