my feet are sore and the camera has died

Went for a bit of a wander around london today - actually walked around for a couple of hours non-stop. the weather is still perfect. took a few photos, but now the camera does not want to work properly. Have managed to get the photos off the memory card however.

Fairy Land - from a little bridge over a little lake (amazing roof line in the middle of town).

a garden photo for Fi

this little garden jumped up in a walk around the place we might live. it was clearly a "Fi" garden

lov u

images of london town

I love London - it has some truly superb architecture, great parks and beautiful people. It is fashion week in town this week, but it doesnt matter this can be a really glam place (i saw my first 10 bottom today - sorry there is no picture but believe me this was a picture perfect derriere). now for the lame stuff:

The contrasts are amazing - pity about the tree which is "out of place"
















A great window in the back of a "church" i think



















Sue and me (covent garden)

Our mates if they make it

opera (for a gold coin) in covent garden (buy some lunch and a beer and be entertained - for free)

cool bike (park lane - i think)

hyde park - great place in the "centre of town"

memorial to the Bombing victims - sad but serene

a "forest and brook" in the middle of the park (complete with friendly squirrels)

cant wait for tomorrow (there has to be another 10 out there somewhere and another interesting image).

Mr B and Richmond

Today we met up with Mr B (a friend from Australia) and we had a wonderful lunch on the banks of the thames today (thank you Mr B). the weather has blessed us as we have had 5 days straight of mid 2o days.

After lunch we went back to Balham and signed up for a house. Subject to reference checks we have somewhere to live at least for the next 12 months.

tomorrow we will sleep in, have breakfast/brunch at home and then have a "cultural day".

winning by small steps

the three of us are trying to get settled by doing the basics. to date we have set up bank accounts, i have agreed to start work next week (part time) and we have looked at a range of places to live.

the rent is not going to be cheap but we have seen a couple of places we could live in. tomorrow we are going to see more.

today we got a uk mobile phone number - hooray.

while we have had some wins we have also had a couple of losses. Sue's phone is locked to Optus (it shouldnt be it has been out of contract for months). Ash's iphone is locked to vodaphone and its proving difficult to "crack".

our next target - choosing somewhere to live and getting a reasonable rent.

my next target - settling into work

jeff

flying sucks

we left perth on 5/9 (months after planning to leave). Sue and I left Alf and Allison's house about 3.30am to catch a 6.00am flight. Ash was there when we got there with Cam.

our first challenge of the day was overweight luggage (we were 15 kg over). Sue negotiated with the airline and got the weight down to 10kg but they charged us $70/kg so it cost us $700 before we left the airport.

After coffee with Nicky, Emilio, Lauren, Michael and Cam we left to go through customs. it was pretty easy really (except for a few tears for Ash).

the flight left on time, but took 11 hours to get to Dubai. Ash and I managed to get some sleep, but Sue didnt. being compelled to sit down for 11 hours is a pain. When we arrived at Dubai it was about 40c (even in the airport) and we had to struggle our way from one plane to the next. we notionally had 90 mins to do this, but in reality we just walked from one plane to the next through the security and promptly sat down for a further 7 hours. No sleep for anyone on this leg.

our third challenge was transport to our accomodation. We had booked transport, but it either didnt arrive or we couldnt find it. the last thing you need after about 20 hours is for arrangements to go awry. In the end we caught a cab.

our fourth challenge was actually finding our accomodation. we did have directions, but we could not locate them in all our packages. the cabbie was fantastic, but it took a while to find the apartments, and then it took about 15 mins to actually find our apartment.

after lugging our bags into the room, we went out grabbed some dinner (although everyone was almost too tired to eat), had a quick shower and then fell into bed.

that was our first day over.

its on

the plans are made, the boxes are packed, the tickets are bought, we have a roof over our heads (for 3 weeks at least) so the game is on

jeff, sue and ashleigh arrive - 5 sept
miss g - comes later (well we hope)

south kensington is a start, but who knows where we land (bit like monopoly)

wish us and them luck (everyone will need it)