Prague Photos

Prague Photos are up so feel free to jump across and see them.... http://photos.yahoo.com/csmoyle

General musings...

Well just a quick one to let you know what is news in sunny (no really, at this second, it's sunny...wait, it's gone) London. The weather has remained ok, though the days are short (light at 7.45am and dark at 5.30pm) and daylight savings clocks off this weekend (so note there will now be 11 hours difference between Melbourne and London).

Jane's been crook but is on the mend and enjoying her mid-term week off. I'm now getting crook and am hoping the field of bacteria will protect me from the bird flu which has apparently been found in Stockholm where we are off to this weekend with Mark and Liese, his chicky.

Just had a great weekend in Prague. It's just a really nice city with the old buildings in good nick. Even went to the opera (c'mon, it was the Prague Opera House), though more on that in our Prague wrap-up.

Work is manic for me at the moment, which is good and bad. Still recovering from my last week where a work reception got me home late (3.30ish) on Thursday night, had a weekend of little sleep and long walks in Prague, got in at 1am Sunday night and then worked til 4am, before going to work again at 6.30am. Needless to say, I'm beat.

Last night we went to the ballet. It formed part of Jane's birthday present so we went along to Sadlers Wells and watched the Birmingham Royal Ballet's mixed bill (not mixed GRILL as I read, which made me salivate and very interested in ballet all of a sudden). Jane's old ballet school friend is a principal for the BRB and was a standout. If my head didn't feel like it was going to explode, even I may have enjoyed it.

Well that's all. As I said, nothing fascinating. We'll update you on Prague and Stockholm sometime soon....

Photos

Photos from Copenhagen are now up on our site so click here or on the link on the right to see them....

Copenhagen and Amsterdam

First up, let me start with an apology. I (Jane) have been receiving lots of emails but unfortunately I have been so flat out busy with work that I haven't replied to loads of them. So here is one just to fill you all in.

Just thought we would fill you in on the next series of our adventures. We have just spent three weekends abroad in a row and I must admit, we are looking forward to having a bit of a rest this weekend. It makes the weeks very busy and tiring as there is always so much to get through. Now we have heaps of catching up to do!

As Chris emailed, we spent three weekends ago in Paris with Chris folks and had a ball. Then, last weekend we were in Copenhagen and the one just gone, we were in Amsterdam. Copenhagen was lovely. Very Scandanavian. After Chris got up at 6am to go to a tacky Aussie pub to watch the grand final we ventured out on a canal ride around the city. We then walked through the shops and enjoyed the contemporary Ikea styles around the place. We decided to go over the bridge to Malmo for the afternoon and evening so we managed to squueze in three different countries in 24 hours. Malmo is in Sweden and we loved the place! The main square was alive and buzzing and we enjoyed a few drinks and some nachos whilst deciding which painting we liked most from the university students displays. We bought one and still haven't decided if it was the one we liked best. We are so indecisive! We also saw the Little Mermaid (totally over-rated), said hi to our Aussie Queen in Denmark and enjoyed the journey out to the Carlsberg factory. Chris enjoyed 4 free beers (as I couldn't drink mine) and was mighty happy by mid afternoon! All in all, a lovely town!

Amsterdam was also magnificant. We stayed in a lovely BnB owned by a middle aged couple who have converted two of their rooms in guest rooms. It was in a beuatiful place and we enjoyed the morning coffees and bagels. We did the European thing and rode bikes all through the town. Amsterdam has canals running all the way through it and Autumn was a beautiful time to visit. I do hope we can return! We visit the markets and Chris bought a big warm coat for our Christmas in New York. It was from this army disposal place and Chris asked if he could test the quailty of the Gortex. At that, the shop assistant, who was drinking a beer, poured his beer on Chris coat. Quite strange to watch. Chris decided to buy it [note from Chris: I felt the beer enhanced the value]! We decided to visit another beer factory; this time Heineken. Chris was very pleased to see that they sold stubbie holders. Throughout our whole overseas journey of 7 months to date, Chris has not been able to find a simple stubby holder! He was ecstatic with it and also with the free beer glasses that you received as a gift. Sunday was more relaxing and adventures to an ultra bizarre museum that was supposed to be a Rembrandt museum but instead contained some horrific stuff and then to Ann Frank's house. This was a highlight for me!

Work for both of us is going along steadily. I am still finding teaching terribly diffiuclt and am already looking forward to holidays. Chris is in the middle of some big deals at work and he seems to be quite positive about the whole thing.

Sorry to keep you so long. No other news really. We still all miss you heaps and love hearing how things are going. Even the day to day basics.

Jane [Chris' note: it was Jane's birthday today, 25 and counting...]