I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

Oh no not dreaming its acttually gonna happen.... This is so exciting, four sleeps till christmas and its snowing hard right now. Even if it doesnt snow on Christmas Day we are definately counting this as a white christmas.

The snow is causing so much disruption all over the country but for us (well mostly me) its just "YAY its SNOWING"!!!!

We had a bit last week, everywhere else got heaps and Shepherds bush missed out only a light sprinkling, we went out to Ealing on Saturday and there was quite a bit but now... its 10 to 5 so i'm about to go home and it has been snowing for the last hour and there is heaps built up on the path outside my office window (by heaps i mean less than an inch but still) and its still going, big fat fluffy flakes. I'll try take some pictures on the way home.




On Saturday we had a pre Christmas Christmas Day with Auntie Kath, Pam and Andrew which was really lovely, Pam cooked up a big turkey dinner and we had table presies and crackers and a slide show of old family photos. J and I had to walk down the road in the snow and ice with lots of snow still in gardens along the way so that was white christmas number 1.

Sunday was the St Simons candle light carol service which was just beautiful, the church looked so pretty all lit up with just candles all around and the singing was super.

So Merry Christmas to everyone, whether you're enjoying winter wonderland or summer sun. Have a lovely Christmas filled with lots of family, friends and food

Lots of Love

Gem XXXXX

We're leaving, on a jetplane, don't know when we'll be back again.

Yup, its official, we're leaving. We booked out flights on Sunday night and will be flying home on the 21st February, arriving in Auckland around lunchtime on the 23rd.

It was a really difficult decision which we have been thinking about for a while, we have always planned on coming home for Julia's wedding and it really came down to finances whether we could afford to return afterwards. Tn the end the decision was made very quickly once we realised that flights were very quickly getting more expensive as the cheap ones sold out. So we booked.

We're left with pretty mixed feelings about the whole decision. On one hand we are really looking forward to seeing our families and friends and to living near to them again. We are looking forward to settling back into real life with proper jobs and a proper sized house with a sink in the kitchen and a bit of disposable income. There are a lot of aspects of living in the UK which we are not going to miss, like banks and accents and attitudes and being called 'love' by old men.

On the other hand there are lots of things we are really going to miss, particularly the friends we've made. It seems that each time we go somewhere and just start getting to be good friends with people, we leave. We have loved living in London, there are so many opportunities here that we haven't yet taken advantage of, even the 20 or so restaurants within less than a minute walk of our house. And there are still so many places that we want to travel to all throughout the UK and Europe. It might be the end of another phase in our lives but it doesn't mean we will never travel again and we've still got plenty of time to see the rest of the places we want to.

Well that's it really, we're sad and we're excited, we don't want to leave and we can't wait to be home.

Winter Wonderland

This weekend we visited the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It was very wintery and very wonderland like. There were heaps of fair ground rides all (actually only most there were pirates too) with a christmassy or wintery theme. There was a rollercoaster and an observfation wheel (like a mini London Eye) and carosel. Plus there was a German Christmas Market, whcih was mostly food stalls (mulled wine, frites, saussages, candy floss), but also a few crafts and stuffed toys. There was even one selling fake snow!!! All the stalls were in wee wooden cabins which were really cute and there were heaps of fairy lights everywhere. It was very festive and really got us even more into the Christmas Spirit!!!








We have our Christmas Tree up at home now, its only a foot tall but it has lights and is really cute. We just need to get some pressies under it. (anyone want to send a care package???)



After the Winterwonderland we walked along the park and down Knightsbridge, the plan was to go and see the ice skating outside the Natural History Museum. It started raining which was a bit miserable and we came accross the Victoria & Albert museum which we havent been to yet so we diecded to go in. Turns out its actually right next to the Natural History museum so we were in the right place but that'l have to wait for another weekend.

The V&A was really amazing, such a beautiful building and so many differet collections, such a wide variety. We arrived just at the right time for a free tour so we got a bit of an explaination of some of the exhibits including a 500yr old persian carpet, some historucial dresses, cartoons by raphael (lifesize plans for tapestries, not like comics!!) modern occsional chairs as well as some sculptures. it was facinating.