Sailing.. Well paddling....

Today GMHBA entered a dragon boat team in the corporate Head of the River fundraising day for "Give Where you live"

Our team of 20 raced twice winning the first heat, then coming 3rd in the final.
I took charge of the costumes for the theme of the regatta "ROYAL"
We decided the Royal Navy was achievable. So I volunteered to sew the sailor collar/bib things and sourced and added elastic to the hats.
Overall a very successful day!
Go team GMHBA!

And so this is blogging......

So, basically, My gorgeous Friend, Sharen, is all... "I LOVE this blog" and "I met my American blogging friend" and "You should check out this person's blog"... Then I remembered. I have one!!!

It took a while to remember the ins and outs of this whole thing... But the password etc. Came back to me and I have enjoyed reading our very few travel adventures that I bothered actually popping on here back in 2009.

It was intentionally to document our whole  6 months away. But didn't. I did write a travel diary in hard copy too. And lucky! Because I have what I would consider an alarmingly BAD memory.... There are things that just do not stick in my mind...

Anyhow, so here I am back again.. To sum up the last year and a half.... Got back from Scotland. Had an awesome time. Still miss it now, but not as much as I did for the first year back home in Aus...

I worked back at Kwik Kopy for a few months, then had a month stint at Ghanda clothing, then on to GMHBA in November 2010. Have been there ever since and work with the most amazing bunch of peeps!!! I actually am on secondment to FIT Health Insurance ( www.fithealthinsurance.com.au ) check it out!! Another brand int he GMHBA banner.

This weekend is the corporate head of the river event raising funds for Give Where you Live. There will be 20 of us in a dragon boat paddling for a win!

And looking to next year I currently have approximately 6 baby showers, 2 weddings and who knows what else coming up for 2012!!!

One of the baby showers is also this Saturday but the baby decided he would like to be there.
Joshua Quinn Connors was born to Dawn and Matt 4 weeks early. So he will be joining the festivities! Welcome little Joshua!

Enough from me for today. Endeavouring to get to work early tomorrow to finish early and get home to finish sewing our sailor attire for Saturday.

Thanks for listening!

And welcome back to Our  (When I say "Our" I mean "My") blog! xx

We are the England.... The Mighty mgihty England....NOT!

Welcome back to England Lyd and Jim......
Absolutely loved Paris and flew to Southampton Sunday night, stayed at the airport hotel and trained to Cosham where we got picked up by mums old freind... We're staying in a place called Waterlooville, about 20 minutes from Portsmouth. Saw the shop mum used to work in and went on the rollercoaster that Mr. Bean went on at the funfair! In Bournemouth today, resting tomorrwo and off to London on Friday. James just bought a ticket to day 4 of the final test! Yay!
Will update better in London... Ciao or Au Revoir, or something! LOL

Viva La France!!!!!

Iam writing this to you from Paris; Just a quick update. Once I am back on UK soil I will go back an dfill in all the details and fix up the typing mistakes from international keyboards!!!
But we loved Rome, yes, then Santa M. Also brilliant! The seaside is breathtakingas you will see when I bombard the photobucket- also when i get back to UK..... Had a day at a private beach that had no sand, a pizza the size of James head, aka pretty big!LOL and a migraine on the train ride from Santa M to Nice, bit of a bummer, but it could've been worse... Nice was fine, but reqlly hot and muggy, and our cheaper hotel had no air con and was particularly stuffy, Did a day trip to Monaco from there though which was awesome§ So beautiful!!!
And snuck a photo of the last family portrait/painting of the family before Princess Grace passed away.
Granma's gonna love it!! Paris is Spectacular, our hotel is right near the eiffel tower and if it wasn't for the big building right out the front you could see it!!! We were offered a discount upgrade to a superior room which we took! And are just planning whether to have dinner on a river cruise or up the eiffel tower tomorrow night....Hmmm... Decisions.......
Love you all and miss you stax... Stay tuned for more details to be added!!!!! xoxoxox

BONJOURNO FROM ITALIA!!!!

We arrived in Rome wihtout a hitch! Sorry again mum for not letting you know!!!
Our early flight from Manchester was fine! Glorious views from the plane although we didnt have window seats- either of us. We we opposite each other on the aisle! Still managed to gets some photos, but a littel too late- missed the snow on the Alps!!!
But pretty sure I saw Nice out my side and the beautiful Italisn coastline! Love it!
Rome was hot, but out hotel wasnot far from the train station, and was very nice for the price! James was thrilled! Thought it better than Birmingham hotel!
We relaxed and went out for an explore in the late afternoon, saw the sun setting behind the Collosseum- took about 500 too many photos of it!!! Youll see when I upload them all! LOL
Sorry cant find the apostrophe on the italian keyboard!
And ate a late dinner at the little place below our hotel! James loved his pasta! and we had an Open air Opera concerto just at the end of our street to listen to while we ate!
Didi the city bus tour the next day, will tell you about that in the next post, running out of net time! Love to All.... Arrivederci for now! Ciao!!

A few Pics. Also have uploaded the lot to photo bucket!..

The view from our Hotel Room - Nice!

Our Hotel Room, 6th floor - Top Right

The Aussies!

Oh, no How embarrassing (for James!LOL)


Jimmy Finally Made it!!!

ENGLAND = BARMY ARMY!

Hey there! We are currently in Stockport, near Manchester. Staying with Sarah McCann, who's also putting up Leon from Jimmy's cricket team back home. they play for poynton in the next town and have been very hospitable! Will try to fill you in on our travels to date...here goes...

LAst Monday we had a day out "job hunting" in Leith at the ocean Terminal shopping centre, and St. James' square Shopping centre in Edinburgh. Put a few resumes in (Lydia) and we had lunch and a bit of a shop, didn't end up buying anything though!

Can't remember what we did Tuesday am, think we just stayed home and relaxed, had lunch with B&R.
In the evening I went to Bingo again with Aunty Rena and her old neighbour after deciding not to go to the movies with Jimmy, the one we wanted to see wasn't on at the right time... So, that was fun, didn't win though...

Wednesday we just chilled out a home and packed our things for England and Europe. B&R were out all day watching one of their club members in a boels final in Ayr.
And I went for a walk to Mataland shop. (got a bit lost for a bit and it turned out to be a bit like Dimmey's) and didn't buy anything there either! LOL

Thurday we got up and ready for our flight ot Birmingham, Uncle B took us to the airport at 7.30am for our 9am flight. James left his wallet in the car. Lucky we won't actually need it at all!
I'm glad it's one less thing to worry about losing in Europe! LOL
Our flight was good and we arrived at BHX around 10.30am and got the free shuttle monorail to the central train station! And then booked and paid our trips into Birmingham city and to Stockport for Saturday early am! Got a bargain for locking in our 7.30am trip! 10 pounds each instead of 28!
We walked to our hotel from the city station, and it wasn't far... We had to stop to wait for the shower to stop for a bit though. And after a bit of a rest, I went to the shops, where James met me, and we had a look around, eventually got some Krispy kremes and a coffee, then went back to our hotel to get ready to go out for tea!
We ended up at a place called Witherspoons, a pub chain, with good cheap food.
After waiting a while for our food, and them getting James order wrong, we got a free round of drinks, so that was good. We went back to the hotel for a cuppa and Krispy Kreme and to bed for our early start for the cricket. Alarm set for 6.30am! Argh!

Friday is ASHES day!
We got up and dressed by about 7.30ish (after being woken in the middle of the night by what sounded like a fire alarm in our room! We worked out it may have been a wake up call that we never ordered? It was approx 3am! Annoying but we fell straight back to sleep!) Then we grabbed some Maccas for breakfast on the way to the station where the Edgbaston shuttle bus leaves from... We caught the 8.30 bus and were at the ground by about 8.40 so we lined up with a few other early birds, got a couple of photos and went in at 9am when the gates opened.
It was a beautiful day and james was very excited to finally be there! We were wrapped we weren't there the day before; that was rained out most of the day!
The game started at 11am and we had seats about half way up the stand at "wide long on third man" according to Jimmy!!! Or see photos!
The day didn't drag too much for me as the game had enough excitement and people and things to watch and observe! We took our own food & drinks for lunch and snacks. We ended up with a vacant seat either side of us, and a guy behind us came and sat next to Jimmy for a fair part of the game. He looked and sounded just like Steve Coogan! So that was funny! i didn't get a pic of him though.
I had the full Aussie gear on and got a few comments from the England supporters, but it was all in good fun! It was a really great atmosphere and teh Barmy Army were in their usual form, but the ground is so much smaller that everything is closer to you!
I am looking forward to seeeing if you can see up in the TV footage! Thanks to those who taped it for us!
We had Maccas for tea on the way back to our hotel after a LONG bus ride home in Friday night peak hour traffic, and to bed for our next early start to catch the train to Stockport at 7.30am!

Some more from Edinburgh

Stockbridge - Local cricket match

(James says on the scale these guys would be like, 4ths or 5ths= Dodgey)

Have been a little slack on the actual manual journalling, intend to catch up on it in the next couple of days before we jet to Birmingham... Will update this with anything I forget now.
So, since I last wrote, Friday we have had lunch with Dr. Jayne Brassington (one of the Chiros I used to work with) At her and her partner, Dave's flat in Stockbridge in the North West of the city. Dave book us all tckets to the Scotland vs. Australia One day match at the end of next month too....

Stockbridge =Amazing op shops!!!

I did leave my umbrella in one of them, but we got it back the next day! And I bought a jacket.. not the red leather one though.... decided against the £55 price tag.
A green and black checked longline bomber style with a big roll over neck, lined to keep me warm when the cold sets in! And it was only £3.99 at an Oppie!!!!! Love it!

So that was Saturday after finding my brolly, and then James found a local cricket match in the park, so we ate our picnic there! See attached picture above - Beautiful!

Um, then, let's think..... Saturday night we had a cabaret at the Lawn Bowls club. And I played a game of bingo! I am totally 25 years old - NOT!!!! LOL

But the cabaret was good... the main entertainer was a big Glagow guy who sang and did a comedy act! Boy was he funny too!!!! A bit crass, but he did a fart and a couple of poo jokes in amongst it!

I can't remember who but someone told us the Scottish really didn't appreciate fart jokes etc.. so we were a bit wary at first. But we now know - they love it! Just the same as Aussies do! LOL

Dave & Sharice - Mission acomplished!

Today (sunday) we went to church at the Charlotte Baptist Chapel in the city. It was good, but a little on the old-school side, not quite Barro! But we'll suss some of the others out after our European adventure! After that we took our picnic down the Royal mile to the 2009 Scotland Homecoming "World class Highland Games" But we were doing the true Scottish thing and being a bit tight, so we didn't pay to go in, we watched on their big screen from up the hill!
See Picture below...

Either tomorrow or Tuesday or both we will be pounding the pavements on our job search!
I have found a few advertised jobs in a shopping centre overlooking the water at Leith... So I'll give those a stab! And I will put our names down onthe temp jobs recruiters databases... But there actually seems to be plenty around, and for a lot of the temp work- it is still too early to apply as we cannot start till late August...

Anyhow, I appear to be babbling!

GTG, will put some pics here for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!!!

P.s
Also have uploaded all our photos so far onto "Photobucket".com will give you the URL when I work out how to find it!

Lyd and Rena at the cabaret



Our view of the Highland gathering
(why pay £30 when you can see all the action for free! )

EDINBURGH DAY 2

The Advernturers Aboard Etihad flight Melbourne to Abu Dhabi July 20th 2009

Lyd at the George St. Scottish Lighthouse place mentioned in Peter Hill's book

Jimmy enjoying the view of Princess St (facing waverly station) in between showers!





Just a few happy snaps to prove we are in fact over here nad not just hiding at home! LOL


Off to Musselburgh today for a little explore.


Having lunch with Jayne Brassington tomorrow at her place!
Then another walk through the city! Love it!

EDINBURGH DAY 1

We have arrived! Our new home is cozy - Well we actually live in the roof! Our room is the attic, with everything we need, Bed, and a place to stash our stuff!
The little room downstairs is our sitting room with telly and computer and the rest of the house is ours to share also! It'll be great! Today we've just slowly settled in and had a shower, full cooked breakfast and are now thinking of heading out to town. Our ASHES tickets arrived today - I got to sign for them myself! And my parcel, a little battered with an extra customs charge attached...

Note to all... It is rather embarrassing when you totally forget about the little padlock keys in your pocket when going through airport checkpoints! I (Lyd) clean forgot and kept beeping though them!! Had to be scanned and patted down in Abu Dhabi and Heathrow! Thats when I twigged about the keys! LOL.

LONDON BABY!

Well we made it this far... 24 hours later and we are waiting for our flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh.. In another 3 hours we will be at our new "Home" LOL!!!!
Will tell of the funnies etc once we've had a good nights sleep!

A little preview

... I shall call him "Jimmy" Och Aye the Noo!!!!

Update....

Our flights are booked for Monday 20th July at 10.30pm flying Etihad to Edinburgh via Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow. We will be in Edinburgh for 9 days and then flying to Birmingham for the ASHES Edgbaston test, day 2 (james choice - not Lydia's!!) Then up to Poynton for some local cricket action...

This will be followed by Manchester to Rome flight then travelling back up through Italy via Santa Margarita then on to Nice with a day trip to Monaco, and finally Paris where our first Europe adventure ends...

We will then move up through England and finish back in Edinburgh to commence the job search!

Will keep you informed if anything changes, but stay tuned!!!!

Welcome

Welcome to the blog of James & Lydia.... This is where all the action of 2009 will take place, we welcome you to share in our various travel adventures using the world wide web as our meeting point!