22 to 23rd Apr - Weekend in LDN (3)

Graham had a seminar on Saturday in London and we had a work party on the Saturday night so we decided to treat ourselves to a weekend in London. That way, we did not have to worry about making the late night train home in time (the notorious 'puke express) nor worrying about getting up at sparrows to catch a train in the morning. They had engineering works on the tracks (just for a change) so catching a train is like playing Russian Roulette, except you are more likely to shoot yourself than catch a train.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and G left early to trek across London and I went for a run. Whilst he was trying to pay attention on how to make some millions, I walked along the Thames to Chelsea to see people spending their millions at Sloane Square! All designer shops, designer people, designer kids, designer shades and all busy on the mobiles whilst casually strolling down the pavements carrying bags with LABELS. Funnily enough, most of them were either speaking English with foreign accents or were speaking languages other than English, but then it is Chelsea and probably explains why the football club battles to field Englishmen.

I then made my way across town to Oxford Street, the City, back along the Strand and crawled into the hotel feeling like a sleep but no such luck. We had to go to a pajama party. I didn't know of anyone who had pajamas but Graham and I thought we'd dress up anyway. When we got to the party, a lot of others had specially bought all t hese pretty jamies and things whilst we were ..er...not so glamorous as you can see. The party was held in a flat close to Tower Bridge and was a farewell party of one of the Canadians on the project. Great place to stay! Apparently 'cheap' for that area at £550 a week. Cheap because the kitchen is small and the bathrooms don't have doors...but that is another story all on its own...

Below are some photies, we had quite a lot of them but couldn't load them all in case someone sued us (not serious). We hauled ourselves out of there early hours of the morning, only to wake up to the sounds of loudspeakers...the London Marathon was under way. We were too lazy to go out and watch on the streets, and besides it was raining, so we watched in the safety of our room instead. We met up with some more people for brunch and then wandered off back to Egham surrounded by limping happy people dangling medals and big smiles as they made their way to warm baths and cold beers.... a great weekend....I guess that was Spring then !

The Photo Album of the weekend

Saturday morning, bright and early!! Might not sound special to you...but guess what? This was a weekend day...in London...after a miserable winter...and we had the sun shining into the room. It was so exciting, we took pictures!!

Nat, Gabi and Jenny. Gabi is the wife of one of our colleagues (also Ozzie). She was wearing a wig so most us had no idea who she was. Graham said it was hard to take a picture as he had to wait to catch her at a moment when she wasn't looking in the mirror. Nice lady, but a bit crazy.

22 to 23rd April - Weekend in LDN (2)

Jenny & Jeanette being told to smile right after we had stuffed some chocolates into our mouths.

Graham and the guy I nearly knocked out by accident.... he walked into the room behind me when I had just decided to dance sort of like Tony from Men Behaving Badly (who dances like David Lee on a good day). My hand flapped back and I heard him hit the deck behind me, very embarrassing... I was trying to kiss his skull better whilst he was crawling away to get away from me.

The view from the flat of Tower Bridge. The marathoners would be hitting that exact same spot the next day, about to reach the half way mark of the marathon. The next day when we were watching the marathon on TV, we saw Perry's flat in the screen!! What a view and it was such a beautiful evening, can you believe that we were walking around like that outside on the balcony as well. I sometimes can't even bear it (and bare anything) INSIDE without a fleece on in the middle of summer.

22 to 23 April - Weekend in LDN (1)

Seeing that it was St George's day the next day, G tried to add a bit of Brit to his 'jamies' and had on these very bright union flag socks which everybody loved. Jeanette is originally from Hong Kong and is always so well groomed, even in her pajamas she looks glam & they were her real pajamas.

However as most parties deteriorate when one is wearing pajamas which invariably have elasticated pants, there is always someone ready to be tempted into...er..full exposure....and no Nat is not taking his temperature despite the fact that Graham looks as surprised as a poor pet poodle on a vet's table. It looks worse than it is, she was pointing to show everyone that G had lost some of his clothing. See what happens when you work with Australians, very dangerous people and this wasn't even in a scrum.

The pic of the 3 below is of Nat, Eloise and me. We work together - Eloise is English.

14th April 06 : Walk on the Moors Good Friday

The start of the walk at Commondale.
And people don't believe us when we say the UK is having a drought! The heather hath the mad hatter in her hearty clutches..
One of the many picnic breaks where Karin and Graham take in the view whilst sitting prettily perched upon some sheep pooh.

14th - 16th Apr 06 : Easter Weekend

We drove up to Karin late on Thursday night to avoid the Easter Rush and managed to get there in good time. It seems like everyone else left earlier in the day, or they went abroad or down south, so we got lucky.
On Friday we packed a lunch and set off on a 4hr walk across the Moors starting with a gentle uphill across this barren landscape with windswept views to the sea in the distance. We nibbled our way along the tracks and were more interested in finding places to swill down our tea instead of admiring the flora and fauna. The second half of the walk turned into a beautiful stomp across green valleys and gentle streams piddling their way through old farmhouses and next to stone walls. The sheep are so laid back in this part of the world they should be on surfboards and smoking dube! I must have had a lot to eat because normally the only type of board I imagine a sheep on, is a breadboard at the end of a carving knife.
It was a good stomp and somehow we seemed to think it gave us licence to consume more than twice our body weight in food the following day when we set off to Whitby. I wanted to buy some Whitby jet and some fudge, Graham wanted to wander around before finding some warm place for fish and chips and Karin was happy as long we fed her! We landed up going to the same place for fish and chips that we went to with Lyn and Maurice and again we giggled at being given a cup of tea as part of the meal instead of a cooldrink or water. We avoided the Abbey this time as I think it is one of the most photographed UK monuments in our albums so we thought we would look out for other things to take pics of and landed up not taking any that day at all!
It was a typical Spring day, blooming cold and a light wind that made your eyes water, but at least it wasn't raining.
The next day we slept in until the Easter Bunny had hidden our easter eggs and we marvelled at how the big eared fellow knew that hiding Graham's eggs under the tea cosy was the perfect spot for him!
The weekend flew by all to quickly and we had to head back down south but not before we subjected Karin to a photo shoot!

14th - 16th Apr 2006 : Easter at Karin's

Karin and the Gargoyle in the garden, accompanied by a small statue.

Karin in her back garden under the photoshoot direction of Monsieur Jones!

Photos from the CPC in The Hague 25th March

I can't seem to order the official photos so these will have to do! Note David wearing his racing stripe!