Hi All,
We're back from Belgium and we had an absolute ball!
Unfortunately We're having issues with our home internet so I'm writing this from an internet cafe and so can't spend long.
We took the Eurostar from St Pancras to Brussels - it stopped half-way at Lille, then on the first day it snowed!!!! It is real! Snow Exists! so we eventually found our hotel and checked in. we got a letter saying that our tour to Amsterdam had been cancelled but they'd refund us the money and give us a free additonal tour to Gent and Brugge. in hindsight, we're really glad we went to these towns rather than to amsterdam, they were absolutely beautiful.
We're compiling all our video footage and all our photos etc... It's certainly going to be our longest blog yet. be prepared to put asside about an hour to read it all and watch the video!
Anyway - no photos this blog because the laptop is at home...
Should be up by next week though :-)
until next time gadget...... next time.....
Friday 28 March 2008
Friday 21 March 2008
Video!!!!
Hey everyone!
It's been a while since I blogged properly. I've been sick the last week and a bit and have only just recovered. People seem to get sick more and take longer to recover over here than in Australia, it must be because of the Cold and lack of sun. Sometimes we go for days or even weeks without seeing the sun at all.
Anyway, so in preparation for a Brussels trip coming up next week I charged up the video camera, thinking that we could take some film anyway, dispite the fact that over the past six months I haven't been able to get it to interface with our computer. So I thought I'd give it one more try anyway, said a quick "God, please let the camera work", plugged it in and *pop* up came the dialogue box asking me what I wanted to do with the mass storage device connected to the computer! wooooo!!!!!! so I don't know what I've changed since last time I tried, we've been through a number of windows updates and I think I may have upgraded the USB drivers at one stage....
What this means is that we now have the ability to share video with you!!!! we havn't taken much arround London, mostly because we didn't know if we could get the camera to work with the computer, but now we can, there'll be heaps more to come.
I've put together a little compilation of us in Japan and our first two days in London. We're both really sorry for making fools of ourselves, our poor camera work, the sea-sickness you'll feel from the wobbleing and the pixelation that occurs when we move the camera too fast. but hopefully it should bring you some joy to see us in the flesh again :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBfv8DDUXms
In other news, We're going to Hillsong London now - we mostly changed back so we can interact with people our own age, All souls tends to cater for an older crowd and we're really missing having friends that we can talk with on the same level.
[Warning: Geekishness ahead!]
Also in other news, I've started to teach myself java. I'm having a bit of fun learning new things with Oracle also. I recently taught myself regular expressions, something that I've been putting off for a very long time, only because they looked complicated. Regular expressions are bits of code that allow pattern matching in text. in normal searching, you try to find an exact match for whatever it is that you type in - so if you wanted to search for a telephone number (for example) you'd probably not be able to find it unless you knew the one you were looking for, but with regular expressions, you can search for a pattern, rather than actual numbers or letters. here's a regex that defines the format for an australian phone number with area code and brackets: /^\(\d{2}\)\s\d{4}\s\d{4}$/ yay....
this comic was my inspriation to learn:
I've also been having a lot of fun learning new oracle stuff. Got some good advice the other day from one of the more senior members of the forums:
"give a man a fish, you feed him for a day
teach a man to fish, he'll spend all day drunk in a rowboat
beat a man over the head with a fish, he'll leave you alone"
[End Geekishness]
so anyway, not much to report.
oh - one thing - just about 20 mins ago it looked like it was attempting to snow.... these kind of tiny hail-like things fell for about 2 mins with a whole bunch of rain.....
not that we'd know what snow looks like.
in fact, We don't really believe in snow anymore.... we think it's something that people who live in cold climates talk about to make people from warm climates scared..... kind of like we do with the drop bears.....
anyway - see you after belgium!
It's been a while since I blogged properly. I've been sick the last week and a bit and have only just recovered. People seem to get sick more and take longer to recover over here than in Australia, it must be because of the Cold and lack of sun. Sometimes we go for days or even weeks without seeing the sun at all.
Anyway, so in preparation for a Brussels trip coming up next week I charged up the video camera, thinking that we could take some film anyway, dispite the fact that over the past six months I haven't been able to get it to interface with our computer. So I thought I'd give it one more try anyway, said a quick "God, please let the camera work", plugged it in and *pop* up came the dialogue box asking me what I wanted to do with the mass storage device connected to the computer! wooooo!!!!!! so I don't know what I've changed since last time I tried, we've been through a number of windows updates and I think I may have upgraded the USB drivers at one stage....
What this means is that we now have the ability to share video with you!!!! we havn't taken much arround London, mostly because we didn't know if we could get the camera to work with the computer, but now we can, there'll be heaps more to come.
I've put together a little compilation of us in Japan and our first two days in London. We're both really sorry for making fools of ourselves, our poor camera work, the sea-sickness you'll feel from the wobbleing and the pixelation that occurs when we move the camera too fast. but hopefully it should bring you some joy to see us in the flesh again :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBfv8DDUXms
In other news, We're going to Hillsong London now - we mostly changed back so we can interact with people our own age, All souls tends to cater for an older crowd and we're really missing having friends that we can talk with on the same level.
[Warning: Geekishness ahead!]
Also in other news, I've started to teach myself java. I'm having a bit of fun learning new things with Oracle also. I recently taught myself regular expressions, something that I've been putting off for a very long time, only because they looked complicated. Regular expressions are bits of code that allow pattern matching in text. in normal searching, you try to find an exact match for whatever it is that you type in - so if you wanted to search for a telephone number (for example) you'd probably not be able to find it unless you knew the one you were looking for, but with regular expressions, you can search for a pattern, rather than actual numbers or letters. here's a regex that defines the format for an australian phone number with area code and brackets: /^\(\d{2}\)\s\d{4}\s\d{4}$/ yay....
this comic was my inspriation to learn:
I've also been having a lot of fun learning new oracle stuff. Got some good advice the other day from one of the more senior members of the forums:
"give a man a fish, you feed him for a day
teach a man to fish, he'll spend all day drunk in a rowboat
beat a man over the head with a fish, he'll leave you alone"
[End Geekishness]
so anyway, not much to report.
oh - one thing - just about 20 mins ago it looked like it was attempting to snow.... these kind of tiny hail-like things fell for about 2 mins with a whole bunch of rain.....
not that we'd know what snow looks like.
in fact, We don't really believe in snow anymore.... we think it's something that people who live in cold climates talk about to make people from warm climates scared..... kind of like we do with the drop bears.....
anyway - see you after belgium!
Sunday 16 March 2008
Happy 27th Birthday Andrew
On Wednesday 12 March, Andrew reached the ripe old age of 27! His week didn't start out as one would hope, turning 27, and infact, I even tried to get him to talk about his 27 years of experience on life. What was his motto that he lived by? What new found wisdom did he have? What profound revelations did he have of himself? But instead of his usual eagerness to discuss and contemplate life, he said nothing......
It started out last Saturday morning, the cough I mean. He was running wired temperatures, cold one minute and boiling hot the next. Resting in bed all day, I went around the house busily cleaning and tidying up. Sunday he felt better so we went into the city to go to church. We then walked to the Chinese place to have our usual feast of dumplings. After eating lunch, Andrew started to get tired (as it takes a lot of work to heave down 16 dumplings!) so we headed back home. It was then apparent that he should have stayed home to rest as the flu started to take hold again.
He went into work Monday morning, only to be sent home by his team leader who said he looked really pale (and I think that they all didn't want to catch what Andrew had). He rested all Monday, in between violent coughing which kept me awake most of the night. His only pleasure was opening some early birthday presents of a photo album (complete with photos of his brother Nathan, Jill and little Sophie), masses of Tim Tams/Mint Slice balls, a book, some lovely hankies and a really cool singing birthday card that sings "Andrew, Happy Birthday to you" etc...
Tuesday was like ground hog day as Monday was repeated, except Andrew couldn't even try to make it into work. Andrew would come home and plonk into bed until I called him for dinner, which he wasn't really in the mood for anyway. Tuesday night brought another eventful coughing episode and by now, I was thinking that I would have to resort to drinking coffee to get me through tomorrow.
So Wednesday morning arrives in all it's splendor. I had put a happy birthday banner up in the lounge and put his unopened present from me with his other opened presents from family all together underneath the banner. I kissed him on his forehead and said 'happy birthday sweetie' and made my way to work. Andrew struggled to get out of bed to go to work, still sick, but unfortunately unable to loose another day's pay being sick, he too made his way to work!
I phoned Andrew's work colleagues to make sure that they knew it was his birthday in an effort for them to make him feel a bit special. I also sent him a happy birthday word document with some really tacky happy birthday pictures from the UK clip art folder which I think Andrew appreciated the thought. Well the end of the day came and I went to the shops to make dinner of a simple kind tonight as Andrew was just getting his appetite back. I cooked beef sausages with a potato mash, broccolini and gravy! We both enjoyed it and had strawberries and kiwi fruit for dessert.
He opened up the present I bought him which was an black Oakley T-Shirt. We then watched a DVD called Planet Terror which was a pretty good zombie movie (even though I hate zombie movies). The main actress lost a leg but put a machine gun on the stump so she was able to kill all the zombies with her leg! Very impressive!!! Then off to bed it was for both of us who were pretty exhausted.
But I had to do more than that for Andrew. On Friday night as he was feeling much better by then, I booked a restaurant called Beach Blanket Babylon which a patient from Brisbane had recommended to me before we had left for England. http://www.beachblanket.co.uk. So we hopped on the tube and made our way to Nottinghill Gate and walked for about 5mins until we came to the restaurant. We went through these massive wooden doors to find a very elegant and boroque styled place. We had got there a little early so we had a drink and sat down at a table, next to a beautiful fireplace. Andrew ordered a creamy vanilla martini and I ordered a berry champagne. It was a lovely, eclectic place with the velvet and gold chairs contrasting with the raw brick walls and mosaic artifacts. We then proceeded to our table for dinner. We walked across a wooden plank down a spiral case to be taken inside this white cave like restaurant. There were little alcoves with private booths along the way called the crypt and scullery and candles were lit along the whole way which was so romantic. We were definitely impressed and couldn't wait for dinner.
We ordered lamb and beef for our mains which unfortunately didn't seem to be good as we had hoped they would be. Don't get me wrong. The food was cooked well and was delicious, but it lacked that specialness. Against the surroundings and the price, the food seemed so average. There was even shepherds pie on the menu for the price of 17 pounds. Not to mind, we ordered a cheese platter and a white chocolate creme brulee for dessert. Well, there was only 3 crackers on the plate which I thought was a little cheap. But all in all, we had a lovely night and the service was wonderful and the atmosphere romantic and unique.
After our 2 hours were up, we walked back to the tube station were I tried to squeeze out of Andrew his thoughts on life after turning 27. He said he didn't have any and that was that!!!
He did manage to have some fun this week though as our friend Ed organised an all boys gaming day on Saturday to get out their frustrations and blast monsters, build armies and conquer the world!
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!
It started out last Saturday morning, the cough I mean. He was running wired temperatures, cold one minute and boiling hot the next. Resting in bed all day, I went around the house busily cleaning and tidying up. Sunday he felt better so we went into the city to go to church. We then walked to the Chinese place to have our usual feast of dumplings. After eating lunch, Andrew started to get tired (as it takes a lot of work to heave down 16 dumplings!) so we headed back home. It was then apparent that he should have stayed home to rest as the flu started to take hold again.
He went into work Monday morning, only to be sent home by his team leader who said he looked really pale (and I think that they all didn't want to catch what Andrew had). He rested all Monday, in between violent coughing which kept me awake most of the night. His only pleasure was opening some early birthday presents of a photo album (complete with photos of his brother Nathan, Jill and little Sophie), masses of Tim Tams/Mint Slice balls, a book, some lovely hankies and a really cool singing birthday card that sings "Andrew, Happy Birthday to you" etc...
Tuesday was like ground hog day as Monday was repeated, except Andrew couldn't even try to make it into work. Andrew would come home and plonk into bed until I called him for dinner, which he wasn't really in the mood for anyway. Tuesday night brought another eventful coughing episode and by now, I was thinking that I would have to resort to drinking coffee to get me through tomorrow.
So Wednesday morning arrives in all it's splendor. I had put a happy birthday banner up in the lounge and put his unopened present from me with his other opened presents from family all together underneath the banner. I kissed him on his forehead and said 'happy birthday sweetie' and made my way to work. Andrew struggled to get out of bed to go to work, still sick, but unfortunately unable to loose another day's pay being sick, he too made his way to work!
I phoned Andrew's work colleagues to make sure that they knew it was his birthday in an effort for them to make him feel a bit special. I also sent him a happy birthday word document with some really tacky happy birthday pictures from the UK clip art folder which I think Andrew appreciated the thought. Well the end of the day came and I went to the shops to make dinner of a simple kind tonight as Andrew was just getting his appetite back. I cooked beef sausages with a potato mash, broccolini and gravy! We both enjoyed it and had strawberries and kiwi fruit for dessert.
He opened up the present I bought him which was an black Oakley T-Shirt. We then watched a DVD called Planet Terror which was a pretty good zombie movie (even though I hate zombie movies). The main actress lost a leg but put a machine gun on the stump so she was able to kill all the zombies with her leg! Very impressive!!! Then off to bed it was for both of us who were pretty exhausted.
But I had to do more than that for Andrew. On Friday night as he was feeling much better by then, I booked a restaurant called Beach Blanket Babylon which a patient from Brisbane had recommended to me before we had left for England. http://www.beachblanket.co.uk. So we hopped on the tube and made our way to Nottinghill Gate and walked for about 5mins until we came to the restaurant. We went through these massive wooden doors to find a very elegant and boroque styled place. We had got there a little early so we had a drink and sat down at a table, next to a beautiful fireplace. Andrew ordered a creamy vanilla martini and I ordered a berry champagne. It was a lovely, eclectic place with the velvet and gold chairs contrasting with the raw brick walls and mosaic artifacts. We then proceeded to our table for dinner. We walked across a wooden plank down a spiral case to be taken inside this white cave like restaurant. There were little alcoves with private booths along the way called the crypt and scullery and candles were lit along the whole way which was so romantic. We were definitely impressed and couldn't wait for dinner.
We ordered lamb and beef for our mains which unfortunately didn't seem to be good as we had hoped they would be. Don't get me wrong. The food was cooked well and was delicious, but it lacked that specialness. Against the surroundings and the price, the food seemed so average. There was even shepherds pie on the menu for the price of 17 pounds. Not to mind, we ordered a cheese platter and a white chocolate creme brulee for dessert. Well, there was only 3 crackers on the plate which I thought was a little cheap. But all in all, we had a lovely night and the service was wonderful and the atmosphere romantic and unique.
After our 2 hours were up, we walked back to the tube station were I tried to squeeze out of Andrew his thoughts on life after turning 27. He said he didn't have any and that was that!!!
He did manage to have some fun this week though as our friend Ed organised an all boys gaming day on Saturday to get out their frustrations and blast monsters, build armies and conquer the world!
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!
Saturday 8 March 2008
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