Stanley Park

Stanley Park is a beautiful park just a stone's throw away from Keira's flat in downtown Vancouver. Its got it all: beautiful beaches, dense forest, a hidden lagoon and great rollerblading trails. Had a very refreshing swim and we hired blades - Keira is as fearless as me on two wheels so we passed a lot of cyclists on the way down the hills. The park also has some stunning "rock on rock" sculptures to add to the ambience. How the artist manages to get some of the rocks to balance I'll never know.

Granville Island

Granville Island is the "Covent Garden" of Vancouver with lots of markets and street shows. Had the best cappuccino of my life here - the Canadian sure know how to make good coffee. Ally was in 7th heaven with all the arts and crafts.

Hiking "The Grouse Grind"

We hiked up to the top of Grouse Mountain for beautiful views over Vancouver. The name of the hike "The Grouse Grind" should have been a warning. Three kilometers of straight up. Made Skeletons Gorge seem like a kids' picnic. The elation (and relief) at reaching the top was worth it though. Not to mention the $90 we saved on cable car fees. Was also a good warm up for all the hiking that's to come. There was an animal sanctuary at the top for wolves and bears. Got to see the wolf but the bears were sleeping.







Enjoyed a bird show featuring some impressive flying antics from a falcon and an owl with the most beautiful eyes. As you can see the zoom on our new camera (one of our purchases in Vancouver) was put to good use.




We also watched a "lumber jack" show with an awe inspiring demonstration of "log dicing" and"log climbing" from three world champion lumber jacks and some hilarious gags.

Kerry's birthday party in London

Our Pride and Joy

You may remember we spoke about our Orchid back in May. Well, we're deligted that it has finally flowered with avengeance - 5 beautiful flowers and one bud still waiting to open. It's our surrogate baby (that's what happens when you have neither kids not pets) so we're feeling like proud parents!!

Cambridge Boot Sale

Had lots of fun selling all our surplus stuff at the boot sale today. Amazing how much junk you accumulate during 5 years. We made £ 250 and met some cool (and some very strange!) people. When we get to Australia, we'll definitely consider boot sales as a way of getting hold of some bargains.

Lunch at Wilga and Norman

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Family and Dog portrait

Treacle, what a sweetie!

100 out of 100

At last I managed to get hold of Double Indemnity, 1944. Great movie!! That means I have now seen all 100 of the IMDB Top 100 movies. I have only 11 more movies to see and will have seen all 250 of the Top 250 list. It's taken 4 years and been a wonderful challenge to get hold of them all - I'm more in love with cinema than ever.

Sally comes to visit

Sally and Ally in Claire Garden, Cambridge. Ally took the day off to spend some quality time with Sally. Lovely to have her to stay for a night.

Mike's birthday outing up the mountain

Happy birthday Mike!! From mum's email, I gather it was rather chilly at the top with a strong wind that tried to blow Antony's ruck sack off the mountain. We were on the other side of the scale here in the UK - so swelteringly hot we had to take shelter for the day. Just got back from a lovely evening swim in the outside pool at the gym.

Ostriches, elephants and pygmy marmosets

Bronwyn is the new brand manager for the London Zoo and Whipsnade Animal Park. She's loving her new job. We visited it today and enjoyed it very much in the gorgeous sunshine. Lots of African animals including lions, rhinos and Springboks making us feel a little home sick. Also had a picnic as you can see.

Pimp Mobiles and Smart Cars

Daves new Alfo Romeo with it's red "love seats" Affectionately nicknamed by his sisters as the "The Pimp Mobile", it's a rather lovely specimen of a car and sports all kinds of high tech gadgets including a mobile GPS computer. Bronwyn and Mark have a new "Smart Car" that is very efficient on the gas and easy to park in those tight London steets.

It's Mr Wynne

James came through Cambridge on his trip to the UK. We all met up at Johnathon and Amandas for a South African braai. A good time was had by all with plenty of hearty chuckles and reminiscences from the "good old days".

50 years on the job

Peter has just retired from Volvo after 50 years of employment. Amazing and pretty special.

Sandringham Estate, Norfolk

We did an enjoyable day trip to Sandringham, the country residence of the Queen. Set in stunning gardens, we also did a tour of the house itself. A much more intimate interior than Buckingham Palace, we saw the board games they play and the dining room table on which they have dinner. Sadly the Queen couldn't fit us into her social dairy - she was in St Pauls today commemorating the women of the 2nd world war.

Oh for those Cape Town beaches!!

We dropped off at the beach on the way home and got this huge mud flat instead. Grey, rocky dirt for sand. No lapping waves, just ankle deep, tepid, mossy brine. No lithe, bikini clad nubile babes, just fat, frumpy middle aged men displaying builder's cracks. Hopefully Australia will provide better fare than this!

Lavendar Fields

English Lavendar fields, ablaze with purple. A lovely fragrance.