THE JAM ARRIVES !

Thanks to everyone who has emailed us or commented on our blog. It is nice to know it is being read.

This week has brought a bit of a change to the weather with cloudier and definitely cooler days. We are still without significant rain and there have been reports on the lower than usual reservoir levels as well as mutterings of ‘hose pipe’ bans. It has struck us that for most of the ten years we were in Canberra there were water restrictions, the spring of 2010 was quite wet. As we packed up to leave it poured for three days straight and apparently, on the Friday after we flew out Canberra had 80 mm in one day. Since we have been here there have been the huge floods in QLD , NSW and Vic and the drought seems to have been broken. Since coming here the Poms have had the coldest but driest December on record as well as the driest and warmest March, April and possibly May too.

Is it all our fault ?

HERE'S TO STREHLOW PLACE !

At the start of this week former neighbours from Strehlow Place came to dinner. Tricia & Laurie, who are up here visiting their son, lived across the road, sort of, from us and have been surrogate Grandparents to Aisha & William. They had a little dog, Zoe, who Aisha loved as a toddler while William received his first chocolate, at 18 months old, courtesy of ‘Uncle Laurie’ – a practice that secretly continued for years after.

We are happy to have the jam AND Nanna !

This week has also seen the long awaited arrival of Sally’s mother’s homemade jam which Mark collected from Heathrow on Thursday. Sally’s mother, Margaret, came with the jam too. Getting her priorities correct, Margaret carefully packed the jam away in her suitcase and it arrived safely. To fit other things in she inadvertently overfilled her hand luggage and ended having to sweet-talk her way out of a $500 excess baggage charge at Melbourne airport ! Margaret will be staying in UK for about 8 weeks although not all of it will be spent with  us. She is heading off for various trips to Europe while she is here.

Sally had the kids up until almost midnight last night watching the Eurovision contest. We have watched the delayed broadcast in Australia several years in a row but this time, not only were we able to watch it LIVE, but we were also able to exercise our constitutional and democratic right to vote as well. Sadly the kids’ choice, Finland, was beaten well & truly with, as we are sure you all know, Azerbaijan winning.  

After just going back to school we are now just two weeks away from another mid-term break of one week. Once the kids have gone back there will be just five weeks before the end of the English academic year and a whopping 8 weeks off.  Unlike Australia, the Brits still have a 3 term year with lots of holidays. Their school year is just 35 weeks compared to our 40.  Once the new school year resumes in early September Aisha will go into year 8 and William into year 5, both after doing only 6 months of a new grade!  Whilst there are broad similarities between the systems the British seem to be particularly fond of quite difficult maths and homework. Aisha, being in high school, has nightly work as well as assignments and essays. William has weekly homework but was given some over the three week end of term break ! He neglected to inform us of this work until a few days before the start of the new term and, unlike his weekly work, we were disinclined to make him do it.

Our house is semi-detached which means we share a wall with people on one side but not another. The people we do share a wall with, James and Helen, are very nice people of a similar age to us but with grown sons. They are keen environmentally minded gardeners who have chooks. The people on the other  side, Laura and Justin,  are younger with smaller kids. They celebrated Laura’s 40th last weekend. They invited us and a couple of other ‘street people’. At the party we met Carl and Emma from down the road, whom we had seen in passing but not actually met properly. It turns out Carl had grown up in #19 Shakespeare Gardens, moved away as a young adult then been able to buy back in a few years ago down the other end of the street. He loves the street and the area with his kids going to the same local school he did.

Yesterday we went to see The Lion King. It was a very impressive performance with amazing costumes and life sized puppets. 

Afterwards we took Margaret to the High Commission for a quick look and some photos. 

Margaret, Sally & kids outside the Hi Comm.

Being in London gives us endless opportunities to see quality theatre. Before Christmas we went to The Hackney Empire to see a pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. This show had all the audience participation associated with English pantos. We were lucky to get tickets for ‘Oliver’ just before it closed and of course we saw ‘We Will Rock You’ a few weeks ago. A few nights ago Sally and a colleague saw ‘The End of The Rainbow’ a musical about the last year of Judy Garland’s life when she tried to make a comeback in London in 1969. Sally was so impressed she recommended Mark & Margaret to see it also which they will this coming Thursday.

Spoilt Sally !

Sally’s mum arrived in time for Sally’s 47th birthday on Friday. Sally's colleagues made her feel very special and gave her some beautiful flowers, chocolates, 'bespoke' perfume as well as a lunch out. 

We had a small dinner and presents at home on Friday night and today Mark’s aunt Mary is coming around for a lunch. While we haven’t been away the last few weekends we have been entertaining each week. Having perfected a pavlova years ago for various wheat intolerant friends’ birthdays she has tried a chocolate version today.