Snow Day

Well some of you may have read that we had a big dump of snow quite recently. There was no time for us to get into cambridge city but here is what work loks like snowy. There is a big dump apprently on the way by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

Too Cold for Aussies

Well this weekend we headed to Dover to check out the famous cliffs, castle and ariel battlefiled. Well I now know the cliffs are white cause they are frozen!

On the way to Dover we stopped at Canterbury to see the famous Cathedral and town center. we loved the typical random street directions and sizes, it seems that there is little sense to how old British towns are structured. We found a cute little pub called the hobgoblin (I took a photo for you Jordy)

We walked along the river at Sandwich the most complete medieval town in Britain. It was really cute and the way the buildings all seemed to lean into the street was amazing. We did get lost and couldn't find the car but eventually we found Harry hanging out with the rest of the boats.



We toured around some more little towns and eventually decided to tackle teh cliff top walk in the wind and cold. Fee was wandering along the cliff tops way to close to the edge despite my protests and despite being unco. At one stage she stuck the heal of her shoe in the hem of her pants and nearly went over. Didn't stop her being naughty. (we later found out that you are supposed to stay 5 meters away from the edge all the time)



The Castle was grand. Standing on the castle walls you could really see all the way to France. I expected it to be a blured blob on the horizon but even on the not so clear day we had you could make out buildings on the french shore. Amazing and reminds me how big Australia is. Dover I think for me is my favourite castle so far, we were able to tour the underground WWII headquaters which was really interesting but a bit let down by the guide. Believe it or not the best part of the whole castle was a unique backless crossbow tower. It was facinating. It started to snow quite heavily while we were there so we started the trip home.



Our funny moment of the weekend, as we walked down a muddy track on top of the cliffs, in the howling Siberian winds sweeping accross us, we met charming couple coming the other way. The Girl was wearing (yes it is fashion humour) a lepoard skin fur coat, mini skirt, sheer black tight and night club trit trot shoes.......we had to laugh.

Some Photos of aircraft

More Castles

As we love castles we thought we would post a few more pic's.

Edinburgh Castle from the North side.

The chapel on the top of the castle is the oldest remaning structure in the town

You can still see how good they were for defence

Scotland Christmas

Well this christmas we had to prepare ourselves to be away from most of our loved ones. So we decided to runaway for the week and do something different. We drove to Scotland to Edinburgh to have Christmas with Cousin Meg and Shona Mary. Driving into Scotland Christmas eve, after dark (5pm) was like driving into fairy land. There were lights of everycolour, beautiful buildings and the castle was a glow dominating the sky line. Market stalls and show rides were full of people bustling around. It was such a mezmorising site that we managed to drive down a bus and taxi only street much to the discust of bus drivers and predestrians a like. Fees exclimations of glee quickly turned to the familar pattern which I call CSOMG, that is Cringe, shrink down and say "Oh my God".

Christmas day was a hoot, meeting some of Megs friends, a typically eclectic group, she put on a great spread including some traditional Scotish delicacies. Hagas....... I was too afraid of decorating the Christmas table with chunks to try it but it smelled quite delicious...... if only Fee hadn't read the ingredients before it was cooked. I am sure none of the family will be surprised that the Canasta cards came out during our stay and now I am quite keen to teach Fee Samba so she can whip me at that too.

We loved what we saw of Scotland and we managed to tick off most of the touristy stuff in Edinburgh. The castle, Holyrood Palace, the Royal mile we even squeezed a ghost tour and underground tour into our time. There was only one minor hiccup in the saty when we were locked out of our B&B by mistake but Megs and SM saved us a night in the car when we banged on her door at 1 am (sorry guys).

Now unfortunatley there is not enough time to tell you all the stories and about everything we did but the Palace was great maybe even better than the Castle, they are however both a must see. What I will tell you is what happened to us in Mary Kings close.

Mary Kings Close is a street that runs down away from the Royal Mile (the main street) that runs the spine or ridge of Edinbourgh city. It was one of many streets inhabited by the poorer residents. During the plauge years, there was an extremely high mortality rate and like much of the old areas, when the city came out the other side they built over the top, in tombing the old buildings under the "new" city and using there walls as foundations. This street and a few others have been recently reopened for historical tours. So totally under ground walking around streets which were lost for hundreds of years learning about the old city and hearing stories of the residence. Very Cool. It was a great tour weaving our way around dimly lit caverns standing in peoples houses and hearing stories of treachary, tradgedy, love and murder. We came to a last house on the tour, a series of tenaments which were bought by a family and turned into one large property. Large groups are not alowed in because of the arsnic in the wallpaper but the guide wanted us to be able to see so we gathered around the door way to peer inside. Fee and I beinging dorks were right at the front of the group and as the door opened a cold rush of air washed over me and the guide. I would not have raised an eye if it wasn't that the guide was imediatley flustered and as she struggled on, she then apologised and told the group what she felt. It then dawned on me that there really shouldnt be a breeze underground!!!!!

After this we were moving out towards the stairs back to the city and as we made our way up the street we stopped at a workshop. Fee and I were At the back of the group now, closest to the exit and as the guide told us about the workshops and how they were used fee suddenly looked at me, looked at my hand and then looked back at me with a quzical look. "did you just touch me?" she said. I think she the knew the answer considering she had hold of my hand, I looked behind her, no one was there. So whos small hand was it that touched her leg.....?

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Push Bike Adventures

Today we joined the rest of Cambridge and bought bikes. We decided that having bikes gave us more options and a better chance to explore. Of course we got them on sale and we intend using them every weekend. We made sure we bought lights as it is illegal not to have them and a way we went. Riding back into the centre of Cambridge the Christmas atmosphere was great the city centre was so packed that we felt it best to get off and walk the bikes. We scouted around and had trouble finding a park, yes for our bikes, but eventually we found a spot in a lane way off the main square by a church and a great little second hand book store. The place is electric with food stalls everywhere in the main square. It is liking walking from one aroma to another, spicy Jamacain, to fresh bread, to sausages, to roasting chestnuts. All the market sellers seem to be doing a roaring trade. Our favourite busker is out singing again. He is very good with a very melodic voice but not prissy. He reminds me of wes from Idol. But the buskers are out in force for christmas. There is one street which is like busker alley and they all spread out along a 150m stretch. No one competes they just take their turn a couple of songs each. The old 40 something rockers with a full band, the dude with the weird lut bagpipe, harpsicord cross. the bloke with the organ and the singing dog and the salvos brass band. Christmas lights, music, hot food and its warm enough to not have a jacket. Christmas is great here.

Apache distraction

Well sometimes Duxford is an unusual place. Near by in a place called Ipswich where there is a helicopter unit that often use duxford as a training are It just so happened that whilst I was sitting having a meeting in my bosses office the other day the Apaches arrived. As I tried to put forwardsome quite serious ideas over her shoulder, through thewindow I can see between hangers 4 and 5 up to the runway and it was this moment that an apache appeared. It would seem that on that day the practice mission was to simulate attcking my bosses office. It didn't just fly past, it emerged facing directly into the window from behind a hanger. Red lights flashed from either side of the machine gun mounts, at swayed and then dissapeared sideways behind the next hanger. Unfortunatley the target, ie my boss and I were seemingly unaffectted by the imaganary machine guns so it emerged again sideways from the other hanger to launch a few missiles at us. it then pulled out upwards and away it went. Of course when the imaganary smoke cleared it seemed that they needed to check that the target was indeed neutralised because just when i thought the distraction was gone the apache came back, wagged its tail and then headed west behind the hangar, then returned flying directly accross the window west and then again back east. Mission accomplished because by this time I couldn't keep a straight face, my train of thought was derailed and on fire and I had to finnally tellmy boss what was happening behind her shoulder.

Here is a photo just to show you how low the aircrfat get just for fun. This is a french plane used in the late war period, oh and by the way an Apache is a helicopter in case you didnt get taht :-)