La Pedrera - Barcelona

This is a shot of the front of La Pedrera, an apartment building that Gaudi was asked to design, which showed the growing consumerism of Barcelona in the 1920s.



One apartment is on display and is decorated with genuine 1920s furniture, although it is not the exact furniture used at the time. This is a light fitting in the hallway.



And of course there is the roof, which is very famous, and which captivates everyone who sees it. You can tell that Gaudi is fascinated by creatures of the sea, which are reflected in the shapes of the water cooling towers, smoke stacks and other functional constructs. If you ask me, some one them look like a cross between medieval knights and futuristic spacemen, while others look slightly phalic. You decide for yourself.

Sagrada Familia

The carnival is over

We are back in Australia and reinstalled in our Woollahra apartment, but packing up to move to sunny Randwick. Might I say it's more than a tad depressing! It would be very nice to still be wandering the streets of London, although we are very sorry to hear about the attempted car bombings. While must people be so cruel?

We have about 1000 photos in total from the trip. I will attempt to resize the files and put a few selections up on the blog. Especially the ones from Barcelona, which is basically a Gaudi fest!

Thanks all that have been reading and writing while we were away. Receiving messages from home definitely helped stave off the home sickness!

A brief review of holiday liquor

In Thailand, I recommend drinking Singha beer. Pet didn't like it that much but I thought it was grand. Cool and crisp and thailicious.

In England, Carling's been my beer of choice. I've opted for pints, which have served me quite nicely.

The first beer I ordered in France was a Leffe Blonde. "Une Leffe!" I said to the girl. She said something in return in French then gave me a beer. We were quite the team. The Leffe was quite sweet. Pet preferred this one. I also tried to regional beers around Brest, neither of which I can remember the name of. One was cloudy and like home brew. The other was less so.

I have no idea what I drank in Spain. But it was good. But that's probably because Barcelona's the greatest city on Earth. Ever.

The big kiss off

Well, we've had a top day in London. Contrary to popular belief, it was not dreary and raining today. Instead, we had a fairly constant blue sky, some warm sun at some points, and not a drop of rain.

We spent the day fossicking around at Harrods - again, which amuses me to no end. Who would ever have thought my husband would be BEGGING ME to go shopping? I sure married the right guy! For me, the highlight was the Ladulee room, which apparently originates from France. It is a patisserie of the highest order, where cakes are not cakes - they are art.

The counter was filled with macaroons, which I so enjoyed in Paris. But having just had icecream, I couldn't possibly indulge. Never the less, the macaroons were every colour of the rainbow. I am sure I have a recipe for these in a Jill Dupleix cookbook at home, so I will be experimenting with colours and flavours.

Incidentally, I found 25ml bottles of banana flavouring in Sainsbury's. I can only buy this by the litre at home, so I'm delighted to have collected a couple of bottles here. Of course what ever is created with them will have a limited life, owing to lack of ongoing supply!

For me, this trip is ending on a great note. I found it really difficult to get into London when we first got here (Thailand is a pale memory). I was glad to get to Windsor, but surprisingly happy to return to London from the countryside, and even happier to return again from Spain (thanks to the stinking hot weather over there, which doesn't suit me at all). London is restored in my eyes - but I won't feel the need to come back here for a long time. If anything, I might whip over to Harrods on a discount day trip whilst enjoying an extended stay in Paris, on the way to Rome, some time in the most likely distant future. Afterall, the last trip I had like this was seven years ago.

But I'm truly happy to come home. I want my bed! My bathroom! My kitchen!

Tonight we pack up and tomorrow we hit the road at 8.30am London time (add nine hours if in Australia). We don't touch down until 8.00pm Aussie time on Saturday night. Blah!!! It's about 26 hours transit time including the two hour stop over in Bangkok. Can you imagine 26hrs without getting horizontal??? Not to mention the controlled food... Well, that's the price we pay for the crimes of our forefathers who were so silly as to get transported to Botany Bay. Eh?

Bye bye and see you in the southern hemisphere!

Soho so long

Well, here we are. It's our last night in London. We just got back from an evening checking out Soho, where we had some tasty Japanese for dinner.

Today we went shopping in Harrod's (again). Let me just say that Harrod's could quite possibly be my favourite place in London. Whilst there, we sat ourselves down at the ice cream counter and had this amazing feast of ice cream. Called a Baci, it included a scoop of chocolate icecream, a scoop of panacotta icecream, and a big swirl of soft vanilla icecream. It was topped with chantilly (that's whipped cream for us Aussies) and roasted hazelnuts, and drizzled with hot chocolate which solidified as it chilled to the temperature of the icecream. On the side was a litte chocolate cup filled with soft chocolate sauce that had crispy something in it - all served in an extra big, extra tall kind of martini glass. Of course we got two spoons and cleaned the plate. The waiter told us it was the number one seller on their menu, and it's easy to see why! It cost us £10.50. Multipy that by 2.6 and you've got the price in AUD$. Having found £5.00 on the footpath this morning (actually dropped by a silly biddy wouldn't stop for me to give it back to her) I feel justifed in such a big splurge.

Then, after some hardcore shopping, we took ourselves off to see Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which was pretty darn good. We actually took the bus for a change, thanks to the help of a friendly old man at the bus stop who said the C1 would get us to High Street Kensington. And what do you know, it dropped us right at the front of the cinema. And even more amazingly, we arrive the minute the film was starting (well the ads at least). Talk about synchronicity!

So, all in all, an enjoyable last day of our holiday. It's hard to believe that it's come to an end. It's really been an absolutely amazing experience.

Last day in London

Last night we went out to dinner and we asked the waiter what he would do on his last day in London. He was utterly stumped! Being from Kosovo, he said he was really happy to get out of that place, but now he's been in London so long, he just wants to get out of this place... but what to do on his last day? He had no idea.

We caught up with Mark's friends who have been living here for two years now and we asked them the same thing - what would you do on your last day in London? Again, they had no idea. Sarah's boyfriend came close to a good suggestion - walk about the South Bank, get a bottle of wine, and enjoy the atmosphere. Sounds kind of good... but we've got to save our booze credits for a visit to SoHo tonight.

So what WILL we do in London on our last day? We'll go back to Harrods because Mark wants something else from the Thierry Mugler counter. Dammit - I do too, but I'm not williing to part with the cash. I am going to get myself to Spiral Guide to Paris though. I've decided that's essential and I'm not going home without it. Even though it took me 11 years to get back to Paris after my first visit, I'm convinced it won't take so long next time round.

A wrap up on yesterday - we went to Buckingham Palace and it was covered with people waiting to see the changing of the guard. Too many people, in fact, so we decided to skip the spectacle (because we saw it in Windsor) and got straight to the State Rooms. Only they weren't open, and won't be until August! Blast it. The Queen is still in residence so they don't do tours until she goes on holidays.

We walked down the long Mall and headed for Downing Street. We passed the horse guards and I stood next to one of them to have my picture taken. A sign behind me said the horses bite and kick so I wasn't too keen to stand there for too long. And the horse kept looking me in the eye! We checked the photo later - he's actually poking his tongue out at me!

At Downing Street there were more hoardes. Mr Blair and Gordon Brown were scheduled to go visit the Queen at 12.30pm. We didn't stick around, again, because of the crowds. We have been astounded at the disrespect for Mr Blair. People call him Tony or Tony Blair. Not the Prime Minister or Mr Blair. It's really rude.

Finally, last night we were on our way to dinner when some cops on motor bikes came down the street and stopped a woman crossing the road because a cavalcade was coming. As the black car came by I spotted Prince Charles - Mark got a good gander at Camilla. So there you go! We've seen royalty!

Well that's it for today. Hopefully the weather will hold and make a trip to the London Eye appealing. Yes we have seen all the reports of the flooding in the north here. One poor young bloke got his foot caught in a grate as the waters were rising. The rescuers held him up while they worked out what to do. They finally decided to amputate his foot when he drowned. It's tragic. The locals tell us because England is so flat the flood waters won't clear for about three weeks. I guess the drought is over.

Happy little Vegemites

Yesterday:

We found a little jar of Vegemite in Sainsbury's. Being good Aussies, we bought it.

Today:

We got to have Vegemite on our toast at breakfast. Damn it was good!!!

My baby takes the morning train

So what's a grey Wednesday morning like in London, you ask? It's grey.

So today we're off to Buckingham Palace, which will be the last palace we see for quite some time. It's actually become one long blur of all the places we've been and things we've seen this past month. Thank god we've taken so many photos! Although I must admit, I'm sick of lugging camera gear around and being a tourist. Yesterday we just hung out and went shopping in Harrods and Kensington again and had a ball. It was good to just relax and be somewhere for a change. But, if it weren't for all the camera gear there are so many things we wouldn't have a record of.

And blogging like this has been good for us, too. I'm looking forward to reading through it all when we get home and looking at all the pictures and saying "That's right - we did that!" Hopefully it's been an interesting read for you as well.

So now we've got two days left in London. I'm not counting Friday as we'll be checking out early and heading for the airport so that's going to be a bit of a lost day. It's going to be a downer to go home and not be in Phuket or England or Paris or Spain any more, but it'll also be good to be home. And to see Derek! We both miss that hairy little guy!

And, as soon as we get home, we pack up to move. For those who don't know, we're moving from Woollahra to Randwick the weekend after we return, so the chaos will continue a little bit longer.

So, now to Buckingham Palace.

I'll give the queen your regards.

Blogger gone mad

Well we've been trying to get into Blogger this morning and it's been flashing enough to give the average person an epileptic fit! But it's OK! Technical glitch over!

We had a great day in London yesterday - we left the camera "at home" and went off acting like locals. And what do the locals do round here? They shop of course!

We took a Tube to Knightsbridge and messed around in H&M on the High Street of Kensington for quite some time. H&M is kind of like Sportsgirl, Just Jeans, Portmans and Jeans West all rolled into one, but with a strong hint of SES - that Chinese shop that sells t-shirts and stuff for $10. They had loads of nifty accessories which were on sale. I got a cool satin hat for 99p! And a shiny scarf plus a few other trinkets. Mark got a nice shirt. We left there feeling like happy little consumers!

Then we headed to Harrods and made a date with the Thierry Mugler counter - right after we went to Watersons book shop. Annoyingly, we found a really brilliant pocket guide to Barcelona, which we could have seriously done with last week! If you're heading to Europe, might I suggest you look for the AA Spiral Guides on cities, which include city maps and maps of the trains/Metro/Subway, which are extremely helpful.

Back at the Thierry Mugler counter, we had the girls getting out all and sundry for us to try. I bought my first bottle of Angel from Harrods 11 years ago, and I always point that out when ever I buy more Angel stuff. Why - I do not know! But yesterday, it opened a great yak session with the staff and by the time we left, we had a bevvy of extra little samples in our bags, which made us feel very well looked after!

We are on the wind down now in many ways. However, we are still to check out Buckingham Palace, and that's where we're heading today. We'll be viewing the State Rooms, which should be fun. On the whole Palaces tour topic - I haven't seen as much as I wanted to see, but you know what? Being a tourist is HARD WORK. You can't just go! go! go! and expect that you'll be alright. Sooner or later the feet give out and the brain goes into over load. And lord knows one palace starts to look like the next one. Same thing with Cathedrals.

On a sour note - we have heard from our real estate that they intend to open our apartment to the public for a viewing in our absence this Saturday. Can you believe that? No matter how outrageous we told them doing that was, they wouldn't back down. We feel utterly violated.

Jolly long journey

Having returned to London from Barcelona today, I am delighted to say we have finally experienced all the joys of travelling on European discount airlines.

Our experience began last Friday with Ryanair, which leaves for France from Luton. Luton is a stinking long way from London, but other than that, it's a relatively accessible airport. The flight to Brest was relatively uneventful apart from the flight attendent spilling beer on the trousers of the passenger sleeping next to us. She looked horrified, but did nothing. When he woke I'm sure he thought Mark did it!

We took Easyjet from Paris to Barcelona, and thanks to our friend Sophie, this was a no brainer. For all those taking Easyjet from Paris to anywhere in Europe, Easyjet leaves from Paris Orly, which is a 20 minute ride on the shuttle bus if traffic is good. What few people know is that the shuttle bus is operated by Air France and leaves from Montparnasse train station. It's not on the side where the bus terminal is, but it's totally worth finding because it gets to the airport much faster than the train (which would have involved a few changes to boot). And it only costs €9.00 one way.

The only hitch for us was that Orly Sud - the south terminal - was blocked. So we had to leg it from the west terminal, which really wasn't a problem. What was a problem was the hords of people trying to check in. There are no orderly lines at these airports - just desperate people jockeying for position. Which is pointless, because the seats aren't numbered, so being the first to check in makes not one iota of difference to where you sit!

Easyjet comes into Barcelona airport, which is just perfect. You walk out the door and take a shuttle bus to Placa Catalunya for about €1.70. Cheap as chips. They leave every 10 minutes and drop you right opposite the taxi rank (on the right side of the street, my Aussie friends!).

When it came time to leave we were back with Ryanair and we'd already been warned that Ryanair left from Reus Aeroport, which is about 100km from Barcelona. Imagine putting an airport in Katoomba and calling that Sydney Airport. That's what this was like.

We were advised by some people to take a train, but Ana, our friendly host at the Cassanova Guest House told us we could get a specific shuttle bus from Estacio Sants - which happened to be just down the road from where we were staying.

So, taking a leaf out of Sophie's "How to travel like a Pro" book, we decided to head down to Estacio Sants yesterday and scope out the shuttle. Well, what a poop of an experience! First we couldn't work out the Metro and ended up taking a cab. Which worked out great because we discovered it only cost €5.00 to get to Estacio Sants.

Once inside the train station we set about trying to find this mystical Ryanir shuttle bus. We were pushed from pillar to post, dealing mostly in sign language because few people spoke English. In the end we were advised to take the train. We managed to get the timetable, and planned our day around that.

But on arriving at Estacio Sants this morning, we found we had plenty of time to spare and so we decided to give the shuttle bus another go - we knew it was cheaper and faster and didn't require a taxi ride at the other end. So I ask the guy at the Red Desk, which we were directed to yesterday, but which was closed. Today, the man tells us in clear English to go out the door and turn right. I was familiar with these instructions because several people gave them to me yesterday and they yielded no result. Today, we went out the door and turned right and this time, I decided to CROSS THE ROAD!!! What do you know? The blasted shuttle is sitting there waiting.

So we get on the shuttle and head to Reus, 100km away. The check in had been open for a half hour when we got there so we joined the thronging hordes who were crowding out the door. Again, the lines were all over the place and people were vying for position when there is no numbered seating! After one hour we were finally second in line. Yay!!! Then the electricity went out, the conveyor belt stopped, and the computers went down. I asked the girls what they were doing to fix it, and they said they'd called the engineer. Big deal! They said the plane wouldn't leave without us.

Marky and I were quite agitated so he went off in search of Coke. He came back with two big cups full of coke and ice so I fished our half empty bottle of Jack Daniels out of our suitcase. That's when things got a lot more enjoyable! After waiting another 45 minutes we were told to head to the old terminal to check in there. The was no electricty there either, but this worked to our advantage because they couldn't weigh our bags, determine they were over weight an charge us £27 for being naughty.

We rushed through security check and found all the other passengers still waiting in the departure lounge. We'd expected they'd be on the plane and thus had taken all the good seats. Not so! So we hustled through the crowd and once we got out the door, I bolted to get in front of as many people as I could. Thank you Jetstar for teaching us how to board a plane with no allocated seating! I was planning to go for the back door, but a bunch of pink fluffy cowboy hat bedecked hens party girls had the same idea. So I took the front door instead and saw that there were two empty seats in the front row. I asked the attendant were they taken and she said no. SO!!!! We sat in the front row!

Ha ha to everybody who paid £10 for priority boarding. They sat BEHIND us! If not for our seats, we would have written Ryanair off. As it turned out, the flight attendants told us the plane had been delayed by weather! Not by the debacle at check in. England had a storm this afternoon with 40mph winds.

The moral to this story is: if you use discount airlines in Europe make sure you know where the stinking airports are. And if you're okay about them leaving from the desert, make sure you're happy to take the long and winding road to get there!

How I love thee, Barcelona! Let me count the ways...

16, 17, 18... We're now back in chilly London. But before I get to that... Yesterday afternoon, Pet and I took a long stroll through the streets of Barcelona to take a look at Sagrada Familiar, a cathedral which was designed by my good pal Gaudi. Amazing! Interestingly enough, the building has never been finished and work is still continuing on it to this very day, funded by charities and donations. Pet took a plethora of photos, so watch this space. This morning we went for another wander through the Barcelonian streets, heading into the main tourist street of La Ramblas. We noticed that in the centre of the city many of the streets are narrow little laneways, just big enough for one car to pass through, with rows of tall buildings on either side. Basically, the sun never hits the street, which in a city this hot is a very good idea. Out in the residential areas, where we were staying, the streets are three or four lanes wide and one way so the sun just bakes everything. But now we're in London again, with Barcelona just a fond memory. I can't wait to go back. I'd happily live there.

Flashback: The little sparrow

No, not Edith Piaf.

Our second night in Brest, I think it was a Wednesday, we decided to head out for some karaoke after dinner. So we wandered across the road to this karaoke bar, full of young French people, singing, for the most part, French songs. So, Petrina, as is her wont, boldly steps forward, selects a song and puts her name down. before too long, it was her turn and she got up and sang "Knock On Wood", so the delight of the French boys and girls who started to sing along with the chorus. I never thought I´d say this, but my wife really knows how to please a room full of French girls.

After that we had some more French beer and Pet sang another song before the smoke just got too much for us and, like squares, we left for the clean air of out hotel, never to return again...

Smoker´s Paradise

And not wanting to only blog about the bad things, but here is another shocking fact about Europe : THE SMOKER IS KING.

Everywhere we´ve been, we´ve had to battle against inhaling secondary smoke, thanks to the totally riddiculous laws that allow smokers to partake anywhere, anytime, any how. Cafes often have an inside and out side seating area - you´d think it´s smokers outside, non-smokers inside. But no! Smokers can sit anywhere they like and to hell with the people that want fresh air.

In France a maitre D tried to seat us at a table with two smokers and was not impressed when I refused and went elsewhere. In Spain, there was a big no smoking sign in the airport - and a guy smoking right next to it. And in England, well, the pubs are filled with smoke. It´s not possible to enjoy a pint without secondary smoke inhalation.

Again, our Government has looked after us. For healths sake? I´m not sure. Maybe it was more to avoid litigation. But the benefit for us non-smokers is the ability to enjoy a fine meal without someone blowing filthy smoke all over it.

In Europe anti-smoking laws kick in on July 1. There will be no smoking in enclosed areas. Brilliant. I suspect they will have a bloody hard time enforcing that law. They should focus instead on getting people to not smoke in the first place.

El hombre from Atlantis

Today we went to Casa Mila "La Pedrera", which is this amzing building designed by a guy by the name of Antoni Gaudi between 1906 and 1912. This was the most fantastic place I´ve ever seen. It looked like some insane child´s sandcastle come to life, like somewhere Aquaman would live. Words simply cannot do it justice so keep an eye out for when the pics are posted. The building´s design is based on things like conch shells, palm trunks, a cobra´s spine and ribcage... Absolutely, utterly amazing.

We then went and had lunch down by the beach and the Olympic village. Madre dios, I´m loving the Spanish food!

My opinion, if you go to Europe or the UK, make sure you come to Barcelona. It´s fantastic.

Barcelona on fire

Last night was the Night of St John - a wonderful night for the very religious Barcelonans, who celebrated by hitting the streets armed with crackers, bungers and throwndowns.

The festivities began around 5.00pm when we rolled into town. We thought it would hit a peak around 10pm and then everybody would go home and we could get some sleep. But no! The bungers got louder and louder and more frequent as the night wore on, finally reaching a crescendo in the park outside the hositpal across the road from where we are staying. And is seemed to be specifically about the noise - not the pretty sparkles.

There were plenty of times my heart lept into my mouth the noise was so sudden and loud - dare I say it was like living in a war zone. Imagine what is was like for the poor patients lying sick in bed in the hospital. Every now and then we´d hear the sound of a police siren or a fire truck and we´d think that was going to be the end of it, but no such luck.

We switched the light out at half past midnight. I chose to consciously not hear the carcophony, but Marky couldn´t block it out. He said he could see families with children aged three to five gathering to watch the madness. I am not surprised - I had seen a boy of about eight walking down the street earlier, a box of throwdowns tucked under his arm, his hand reaching in and grabbing them to throw on the footpath, all as he walked along casually with his parents.

Suddenly I see why the Australian Government made it illegal to posess fireworks in Australia. They are downright dangerous and what´s more, if their use is uncontrolled, they are a total nuisance. Never mind the blowing off of hands, eyeballs, and people´s letter boxes. At least with Sydney´s regular fireworks it is limited to one area, it has a predetermined start and finish, and everybody can then get some sleep.

Not so for us last night - another burst went off at 4.00am, then again at 6.00am. I think this can´t be a Christian celebration because it´s too violent. Maybe it´s a cover up for some long lost ancient paegan ritual that required people to make loud noises to scare away the bad spirits before harvest... or something like that. Whatever. Muchos gracias Spain!

Catulunya architecture

Barcelona is the home of some of the most brilliant architecture in the world, thanks to Gaudi. Today we've seen what his inspiration was : creatures from the sea amongst other things. In the attic of La Pedrera is an exhibition of python skeletons, goat skulls, nautilus shells, sea sponges which are the key to the shapes he uses throughout his designs.

We heard that Gaudi could not draw that well, architecturally speaking, so he used objects to de,onstrate what forms he wanted to create. We saw what appeared to be a chandalier made out of chain with great loops connecting to make a three dimensional downward sloping castle. Underneath it was a mirror, and when you look inte Pedrerq ry shape of the python skeletong and you have a stunning attempted at a natural insulation system.

Despite being a miracle of design, the attic in La Pedrera was converted to aparlents at one point. Thankfully when the building was bought by La Caixa Catalunya in 1986 they realised the apartments were hiding a national treasure.

Those Spanish eyes...

Hola senors and senoritas! Why am I speaking in fluent Spanish, you ask? Because we´re now in Barcelona!

The good people of EasyJet brought us here and I must take this moment to say that EasyJet are superior to Ryan Air. There´s just that little bit more space between you and the seat in front of you, you see, and when you´re 6´1", like myself, that sort of thing really helps.

Speaking of being impressively tall, I´ve been whacking my head a lot lately. And, quite frankly, I´m a little sick of it. All through England I felt as if I´d hit my head. I hit my head on the bedhead in Brest. I hit my head in Paris. And I hit my head on a ceiling beam at dinner here in Barcelona. Thank God it hasn´t affected my matinee idol good looks.

So. Barcelona. Thankfully, we seem to have left the rain in France (or maybe it´s just that here in Spain the rain falls mainly on the plain) and the weather here is hot hot hot! Like a tamale. Sophie and Fred will be joining us here tomorrow morning, after taking a twelve hour train trip from Paris, so when they arrive we´ll probably board one of the tourist buses and take a tour of Barcelona. What we´ve seen of the city so far looks great. It must´ve been crazy here during the Olympics.

So, until my next posting... adios!

The Dogs Of Thailand

Being the dog lovers that we are, we have been carefully observing the antics of the dogs of Thailand. We got a great shot of a splendid black dog in Patong yesterday, who was flaked out on the sidewalk, and didn't stir once as I snapped his photo. Then there was a mother dog - who looked like a big Jack Russell - who ambled across the road like she wasn't taking her life in her paws while cars, tuks tuks and motorbikes were whizzing up and down the street in both directions.

Today on the way to our Elephant Safari in the jungle somewhere past Karon Beach, I noted DOGS DO WHAT THEY LIKE. They are sometimes near people, but they're not involved with people. They trot up and down the streets, cross the roads, kind of hang out together, sunbake like they are in a coma and basically run their own lives. None of them are fat - none look like their Nanny has jammed a chunk of cake in their mouths. They are everywhere, and yet they are no one.

They definitely lack the joyousness I accredit Australian dogs with. There's no happiness, no jumping, no excitement, no barking. They are here, they are living, and they are getting on with whatever the heck they fancy. I haven't stopped to talk to any of the dogs, or pat them, and I guess they don't speak English anyway. But if I did, I wonder if they'd even respond? It's like they are ghosts here. Or something.

Living here would be bad for me. I'd be running a dog holiday camp where they come to have fun. I'd have chew toys and big lounges and snackies. I'd give them baths and wrastle the towel with them to get them dry. Maybe that would cheer them up a bit.

I once heard someone say all dogs have a collective soul. These dogs, they don't share the same soul as Derek. He's got an Aussie soul. These dogs clearly have a foreign one. Thai, no doubt.

So much to say and so little time

We are quite behind with blogging, owing to having left London and wandered into a mostly internet free regional area.

I'm sure Mark is giving an extensive update. For me, the highlight of the last few days has been Westminster Abbey. We attended a service, which was incredibly moving. We were even blessed by the priest, which felt wonderful, despite us having no affiliation with the church at home. I lit candles for Dad and my grandfather, mainly because they were very top of mind as I sat through the service.

We were in Windsor yesterday and I was delighted to GET MY HAIR WASHED. I paid for it with a credit card and today have received an email from my bank telling me someone is using my card in Windsor. Good on them!

Windsor was so lovely we both agreed we could easily live there. I could open The Cupcake Cafe. Mark could run an internet cafe, because there isn't one. And then I could go off to work in London doing my usual thing.

In Salisbury today - a beautiful town. Much bigger than I realised when I first came here in 1996. We've been to Stonehenge this morning, which was much smaller than I remembered. And we've been to Old Sarum, which was really cool. It overlooks Salisbury, which was originally established by the Cathedral as a market town to raise money to pay for a new Cathedral. Which we've also visited today.

This afternoon we head for Avebury, and I hope the weather holds. It's certainly threatening to rain, though the heavens haven't opened up quite yet.

On another note, we have caught a couple of episodes of Big Brother here. Can I say that ours looks like a meeting of Mensa members in comparison. The house is dominated by twenty something girls who are NASTY pieces of work. One in particular, Charlie, looks entirely unhinged. She speaks like a gattling gun and is clearly suffering from an inferiority complex which makes her extremely aggressive. I think she's unfit to be in the house - she's seems quite dangerous and overly confrontational.

Back on the cupcake topic - there simply are none around here. I could make a killing with my cupcakes here. But you know what - I'm thrilled not to be baking. I may never bake again when I get back. I don't think people have to bake here anyway - the quality of special cakes in Marks & Spencer is absolutely amazing. Princess cakes, teddy bear cakes - they're all available off the shelf for about £4.99. Very impressive.

Last but not least - I hear the power is back on in NSW. Thank goodness. We've been watching the news and worrying about the storms and the damage. Hopefully nothing untoward has happened at our place. You never can tell with Oakwood Apartments.

Thanks everybody who's been emailing. It's wonderful to hear from home!