Pat and Em's Wedding

As it has been about 4 weeks since we returned to the UK and it isn't looking like we will ever get around to making any sort of substantial post, we thought it best to just get the photos up... Anyways, was great to be back if only briefly, we hope it isn't so long between drinks (so to speak) from now on...

Pat and Em's Wedding - the kids

Pat and Em's Wedding - the family

Pat and Em's Wedding - the ceremony

Pat and Em's Wedding - the important stuff

Pat and Em's Wedding - the bride

Pat and Em's Wedding - the Reception

(Most of) the Warners Massive re-united at a Sydney 'must stop' Thanh Binh

Boys outnumbered at Love Supreme

Us - although jetlagged, pizza make us smile

Get the cranky woman a coffee!

Much better after a coffee...

Blink and you'll miss out. Family feast at yum cha, look at all those hands and chopsticks!

Melbourne Cup Day - before the third bottle

Happier Times...

The Millennium Stadium

Although it now seems like ancient history, it was only a few weeks ago that there was a happier time when Australia still had a presence in the World Cup and I wasn't constantly being reminded of Australia's inability to produce men of sufficient stature to support a scum. Yes, there was a time when the balance of the sporting world had been restored, the Ashes had been regained, England were looking doubtful for Euro qualification and the Wallabies were doing their national duty and seeing off what passes for northern hemisphere rugby. Unfortunately it took only 80 all too short minutes last Saturday for this balance was destroyed... Despite the pain of having to turn to the Saffas for any hope of restoring southern hemisphere pride, I still thought it might be worth taking the time in between drowning my sorrows in too many warm ales to revisit a time when the outlook wasn't quite so bleak...

The Wallabies manage a scrum without doing an ostrich impersonation

This happier time was best represented by Gerg and my recent trip to Cardiff to watch the Wallabies do the business against the Welsh. Having been ambushed into buying exorbitantly priced tickets to the match (Gerg called after I had already knocked back quite a few cervezas in San Sebastian, where the pressing need for fiscal prudence wasn't the first thing on my mind), we spent a week trying to work out how we were going to get to Cardiff and where we were going to stay when we got there. Not having much luck on either front, we were looking forward to spending a night in a car, until we found a campsite which was only a short cab ride from the centre of Cardiff. After this, the trip started to seem like a better and better idea, if only for the prospect of a few pints of Brains, undoubtedly one of the very best beers in the world...

Who's that fat man?

Having sorted transport and accommodation, it was an early Saturday morning departure for Cardiff, hoping to beat the inevitable traffic along the M4. Things were looking good, despite a few delays in picking up the car, until we reached the outskirts of Bristol, from which point there was congestion all the way through the Severn Crossing, Newport and Cardiff, which had us a little highly strung as kick-off rapidly neared, particularly considering the amount we had shelled out for the tickets. The prospect of having to drop the car off at the campsite in Penarth and then get back into Cardiff to collect the tickets was of particular concern and I don't think the very laid back campground staff really appreciated two anxious phone calls to confirm that there was a taxi waiting for us...

Anyways, after dumping the car at the camp site, jumped in a taxi back to town, picked up the tickets, inhaled a Big Mac and secured our four pints of Brains, we were finally seated in the Stadium a full 10 minutes before kick-off - it had only taken us a bit over 7 hours from bed to seat...

Gerg with Brains

As soon as the teams ran on to the field all the hassles immediately seemed worth it, as the roar was absolutely unbelievable, while not normally a fan of cliches, it truly did send a shiver down your spine... Unfortunately too much Australian dominance in the first half limited the Welsh singing, though on the upside this did have me starting to feel hopefully of a strong Wallabies run in the tournament (how silly this now seems). Anyways, the match ended up being a pretty close contest as the Welsh put in a pretty spirited comeback, unlike the garbage their eastern neighbours had dished up against the Saffas the previous night - a point that was frequently raised in a few pubs after the match.

A sea of red and gold go in search of a pub

For those that have not been to Cardiff, it is a pretty impressive sight after a match with most of the streets in the centre of town being closed off to traffic and rapidly filled with 80,000 odd thirsty people. As the Canadians played the Fijians the next day, there was a good combinations of Canucks, Aussies and Welsh out and about (though not too many Fijians). Wikipedia recons that the Millennium Stadium went through 77,000 pints for a 6 Nations match a few years ago and considering the scenes on St Mary Street, that number must have been given a good shake again...

Sculpture on Cardiff's Waterfront

The other notable late night feature of downtown Cardiff in the Chip Lane, which is wall to wall dodgy fish and chip and kebab shops (where for some reason chili sauce means curry?), however unsurprisingly after a few too many Brains that seedy kebab wasn't looking as bad as it should have been... The night was topped off by seeing Georgia almost knock off the Irish (they really should have if they had had a little more composure), which had the pub full of Welsh, Aussies and Canucks going crazy...

Eating's cheating, but who could resist such a dodgy kebab?

Next morning we headed down to the Penarth waterfront for a breakfast heart-starter, during which I managed to get told off for swearing by an old man heading to church (out of character for me i know!). We also squeezed in a few of the sights of the Cardiff waterfront including the new Welsh Assembly Building and Wales Millennium Centre, though we couldn't help thinking that the area is still a few years away from actually 'working'. Not being able to find parking anywhere, we decided to keep the Castle for another day and headed up into the Valleys for a short drive before heading back to London.

Penarth Pier

One final stop on the way back for a pub lunch near Boxford (after driving a good 10 miles down a B road, surely the longest distance in the UK without a pub) and that was it was a very good (if tiring) weekend all round!

Basquing in the Sun

The Bilbao Guggenheim and Jeff Koon's little pup

Having not had the best of summers (as well documented in previous posts :), and having arrived at the last week of August, we decided it was time to go searching for some sun in the Atlantic Coast of France and Spain. Maybe not the safest option, considering the variable weather the area gets, but definitely the best available considering the potential for waves and sea temperatures below 30 degrees... The area also happens to be the heart of the Basque Country, which on the subject of waves (for the trivia buffs), competes as an independent nation at the Rip Curl Boardmasters in Newquay!

Vineyards around St Emilion

Windows in Bordeaux

Aimes taking a rest in St Emilion

Flying into Bordeaux, we felt we couldn't head to the beach until we had sampled a little wine, so we spent the first day wandering around the villiage of St Emilion in various states of sobrietry. We didn't manage to do any of the planned cycling through the vineyards as we felt that the 34 degrees and plentiful wine combination could have been a little dangerous, so had to content ourselves with a bottle of red (Grand Cru of course) and some carpaccio. While undoubtedly a beautiful village, we couldn't help feeling that the lack of any local people and hoards of bussed in tourists somewhat took away from the charm of the place... although the massive underground monolithic church and catacombs were truely impressive.

Crowded beach action in Biarritz

Sainte Eugenie Church

Is that a tan?

The view from our hotel room in Biarritz

From Bordeaux we headed to Biarritz for some much lacking beach action and we weren't dissappointed, 35 degrees, sandy beach and even waves! Being peak season the beach was a sea of people, which combined with the casino pavilion building gave the place the feel of Bondi on a summer weekend, although a little more posh perhaps. The best part was however, that after three abortive attempts at swimming in the ocean so far this year (yes Belgium, Cornwall and Brighton aren't renowned for their warm water) we finally found somewhere that you could stay in the water for more than 5 minutes! Which was fortunate, as 18 months in the UK has obviously re-set our thermostats as we were struggling much more than we should have with the heat...

Pintxos

Us in San Sebastian

Kursaal Auditorium

Windows in Constitucion Square

More Pintxos

San Sebastian's harbour - a great place from which to watch a boat race (or not)

After Biarritz it was on to the Spanish Basque Country and San Sebastian. Unfortunately the good weather hadn't followed us, with the temperature dropping some 15 degrees and the clear blue skies being replaced by the more familiar grey. Fortunately though there are plenty of other distractions in San Sebastian to keep us busy, primarily some bar hopping through the old quarter, and trying to decide which had the best pintxos (the Basque form of tapas with what seems to be the obligatory 'x').

Aimes in Bilbao

The Guggenheim Bilbao

Titanium tiles of the Guggenheim

On the way to the final stop of Santander, we stopped over in Bilbao to check out the Guggenheim, which was primarily of interest due to the crazyness of the Frank Gehry designed building (which makes the Opera House seem quite mundane), but which also housed some impressive exhibitions, if only for their scale...

Harbour Beach - Santander

El Sardinero Beach

Our last couple of days in Santander provided further opportunity for us to variously work on our tan and hypothermia, as that water that had felt warm a few days earlier was now seeming pretty damn cold. While not boasting the historic architecture of San Sebastian, the less touristy feel was definitely a positive, as was the reduction in Australian accents...

The Santander Bank Building

You call that a BBQ?

We don't like summer...

We love it!

A few friends, drinks and our garden bathed in summer light

and who wouldn't - rain, rain, rain and a decent dose of coldness, what more could you ask for? Apparently three quarters of the average annual rainfall has fallen in June and July alone - not particularly conducive to those BBQ's and sinking beers in the sunny evening which we had been awaiting all winter...

However, despite the lack of summer type weather there has been plenty on recently (as generally happens when you try and cram 12 months worth of events into 4 or 5 months, as they seem to do over here). There have even been a few decent sunny days thrown into the mix, which seem to be over-represented in the photos we've decided to post, suggesting that our aforementioned complaints about the weather would seem a little unfounded....

Brett, Bec and Hobbes at Daft Punk in Hyde Park

Daft Punk crowd

Summer + Festivals = Beer

Daft Punk - can't get enough of those space suits!

In between dodging the dogy weather we have been trying to make the most what's been happening and of course we've had the usual mix of people coming and people going, working too much and trying to squeeze some travelling in between (although not particularly sucessfully recently). It's been a while since a general post, so to avoid boring people senseless you can probably get the gist of what's been going on from the following photos....

The latest addition to the extended family, welcome Archie, congratulations Sid and Simone

Men's business - racing Scaletrix

Although, before we finish it is probably worth noting that just to make our claims of being ripped off by the weather sound even more unfounded, the weather decided to turn on the best day of the year last weekend, 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky - a perfect day for a BBQ!!! If that keeps up for the France-Spain trip in a few weeks then there wont be any more complaints from us (.... for a while).

Meeeeeeaaaaaaaaat!

Pimms replaces cider as the summer drink of choice

We managed to see a some Federer action at Wimbledon...
...but it wasn't long until the covers came out

Aimes living the Wimbledon cliche - strawberries and cream, washed down with Pimms

A full house at the Academy for Basement Jaxx


Brixton Academy signage

One of the best exhibitions of the year, Antony Gormley takes over London roof tops

Crowds at Hyde Park trying to catch a glimpse of the Tour de France prologue

Somehow through the crowds, we managed to see something, not once...

... but twice!

Hobbes's thongs (flip flops) enjoying the sun

The Millennium Dome re-opened - notable for the smooth operation of the surrounding road network

A visit to the Tower of London with the olds

Sitting back and taking in the audio tour