It doesn’t feel like we’ve been back in Sydney all that long (probably because we haven’t!) but it’s time for us to get moving again.
We’re heading north again back to Europe. This trip will only be a short 5 or 6 weeks though – nothing like the massive 15 weeks we were here earlier in the year.
This trip, we’ll be catching up with friends in the UK, heading over the Italy for a wedding (keep your eye open for next Monday’s story on that – it’s going to be pretty special. We’ll also be seeing how much more of Europe we can get to while we’re on the road.
We hope you enjoy this Weekly Edition.
Jim & Christina xx
We’ve got our trip to Sydney Airport down to a fine art now. Rather than battle with traffic, we hop on a ferry, then a train and we’re at the terminal in about 25 minutes. It’s potentially a bit more expensive than a taxi, but it’s much less stressful and the ferry ride is always a good way to start a journey.
It’s a beautiful day here in Sydney. I hope London’s as friendly weather-wise. We were lucky to enjoy the heatwave England had earlier in the year. Will it still be there?
We’re only a few hours from finding out…
Hello England! And what a journey. We thought it would be a good idea to choose a flight that would land at an appropriate hour for my mum and dad to pick us up. What we didn’t look at properly was the layover in Abu Dhabi. Thankfully we’ve got status to use the business lounge, but 8 hours is still a long wait.
Christina managed to get some sleep in and I somehow did a load of work while sipping whisky, but it still added so much time to our trip.
Anyway, we’re here now. Let the good times roll!
It’s great to see Mum and Dad again, and it’s lovely to see our friends Clare and Dave, who we’ll be staying with while we’re here. But it’s even better to see these two idiots again! Ruby and Flo are Clare and Dave’s dogs, and they’re the best.
As you can see, Ruby the Irish Terrier is a very chilled dog, whereas Flo the Springer Spaniel is a little more intense!
Tip #1 for staying with friends: always buy them a gift to say thank you for their hospitality.
Tip #2: buy them a gift that you can enjoy too! We bought Dave a paella pan the last time we were here in June. Our first meal with these awesome guys: yup. Paella. How good does that look?
Dave’s been honing his skills the last couple of months and I’m very happy with his progress! This chicken and chorizo paella (no seafood unfortunately since Dave discovered a new allergy to enjoy) is incredible. And even more incredible is how fast Clare and Dave knocked this up.
I’d ask them for the recipe, but I’d much rather be here and they make it for me!
We’ve only been in England one full day and we’re off again. Mum and Dad are whisking us off to the airport, but before we fly, we’ve stopped in at their favourite cafe – the Jubilee – for a hearty breakfast.
Now this is what I’m talking about. How about this for a breakfast?!
I know Christina has a differing opinion to me on what constitutes the first meal of the day – in fact we’ve written a comparison piece on what makes a good breakfast – but this makes so much sense to me. Christina is adamant that Australia makes the best brekkies, and I agree that the range of things you can have there is impressive. But there’s nothing quite like a full English fry-up done well.
After breakfast with Mum and Dad, we drive to the airport on our way to Italy. Our lovely friends from Sweden are getting married on Lake Iseo in the north of Italy, near to Lake Como. Watch this space for next week’s Weekly Edition – I think there are going to be some pretty incredible photographs.
It’s pretty hard to say goodbye to these faces though – at least we know we’ll be back soon. Flo is hitting me with her best puppy dog eyes and Ruby, who’s been suffering a bit of detachment anxiety, is never far away from Clare these days. She’s even sleeping with her head on Clare’s chair so she’ll wake up if Clare moves.
It can’t be very comfortable, but it a boobytrap (or perhaps that should be ‘Ruby-trap’) that works!
