Skiing holiday to Soll

Well we took the plunge and booked a last minute 7 day skiing holiday to a resort called Soll in Austria. We were really looking forward to going back to Austria but weren't too sure about the skiing part of the holiday - were we going to like it, were we going to break an arm, was it going to even snow (given that it was the last week of the season). But all our worries were in vain cause it rocked and we had a great great time. Although our arms, legs, and backs (and okay, sometimes heads, what with all that jagermiester around!) didn't like it much, ouch!

When we arrived in Soll we were a little skeptical, there was no snow! But the following morning we woke up to a blanket of fluffy white as far as we could see and it was so beautiful. The first snow we've ever seen - we were so excited!! And it pretty much snowed (and got even close to a snow-storm!) the whole week.




Not knowing what to expect at the time of booking, we didn't book a full skiing package. However our advice to anyone reading this that may be considering a simlar holiday - book the full skiing package (hire, lessons, ski lift pass) as it really is cheaper as a package and not pay as you go. Also some other advice - definitely pay the extra dollar something to upgrade your skiing boots, omigosh does this make a massive difference. End of day one of ski school and Matt had to upgrade; and end of day two, I had to upgrade. And our feet and calves were much happier for it!



We started out in the nursery slopes and were being shown up by three year olds everywhere we turned! After a couple of days falling flat on our faces and trying to master the ski lifts (where you had to stick a pole between your legs and hold on for dear life) we finally graduated to the gondolas...ooo...aahhh... We then braved the 'easy' blue run and the 'hard' blue run and discovered that speed actually makes turns much easier as well as falling much easier! But we managed not to break an arm or a leg, although bruises are starting to show up now...



So definitely a highlight of our trip so far and we're now looking forward to going skiing when we get back home and possibly a trip out to NZ - we're definitely basic-intermediate skiers now, and can even dismount from the ski lift without poles! LOL ;)

Couple of days in Cardiff

I took some time off of work and Matt took some time off of job-hunting and being a house husband for a trip out to Cardiff to see my cousin Lisa, her hubby Jamie, and their wee one year old, Gracie.

To be honest, Cardiff was never on our list of places to visit and this trip was really more about seeing the Stephens' than seeing the sites of Cardiff.

And we had such a great time - drinking lots of wine, playing with Gracie, seeing a bit of the shopping district (and the "massive" Cardiff Food Festival, where they had Cardiff mountain meat - meat made out of a mountain? How do they do it? LOL).




The weather wasn't very inviting when we arrived and it seemed like a gale came through during the time we were there. And typically the sun came out the day we left. But regardless we had a great couple of days away and it was lovely to catch up with the family before they jetset their way to the Channel Islands!

Thanks Lisa, Jamie, and Gracie! xx

Happy Days in Hobart Road, Cambridge

We farewelled Newmarket and moved into our new flat in Cambridge about a week ago. And we really are loving the location - walking distance to the city centre, lots of yummy restaurants, local pubs, and close to all the action (well theatre, really).

So we thought it was time to upload some photos of our wee flat....




...and the lovely things to see in lovely Cambridge :) We can't wait for Spring to see all the blooming flowers, will upload more photos throughout our stay here.

New Years trip to London

We headed down to London for just over a week to see the city again and bring in the New Year. And what a trip! Not only did we celebrate the New Year, but we saw a great show, were tourists (again!), caught up with friends, and got engaged!

Yes, that's right, Matt asked me to marry him just after we had just finished our first bottle of Moet and celebrated the New Year. I promptly accepted and we continued to celebrate the night away. The following day we went engagement ring shopping together and went for a walk through Hyde Park and when we reached the banks of the river Matt slid the ring on my finger and our engagement was official. It was great to be able to celebrate with our good friends Bronwyn and Kimmi :)

We also took in our first London show - Avenue Q. Not exactly the most traditional or classical musical, but it was hilarious and quite worth the effort of dealing with crowds and windy weather. It's a musical that has a familiar look and feel to that of Sesame Street with it's very own crass and potty-mouthed muppets. With songs titled, "Everyone's a little bit racist" and "The internet is for porn" how could it not be brilliant?! Anyway we loved it.

We visited the Tower of London and the ice-skating rink. However we didn't get a chance to go into the Tower or onto the rink due to the very expensive rates and crowds everywhere! Although as the sun was almost out and the wind wasn't too wild, we took some time to walk over the Tower Bridge and down to the HMS Belfast. It was a lovely walk and we also got to see the bridge raise to let some ships come through. Excitment! LOL

I also caught up with a friend of mine from back home; Meg - it was great to see another familiar face and to catch up on her travels. Bronwyn, Kimmi, Matt and I also ventured into the rainy cold to devour delish sushi and tempura vegies and drink sweet sweet plum wine. It was such a great Japanese restaurant, not too expensive and very authentic, we were impressed with our find (thanks to Joe!).

So once again another trip to London came to an end, however we did manage to start plans for a potential skiing trip to France and St. Patrick's day trip to Dublin - we'll see though!

Hope everyone had a great New Years and all the best to all for 2008.

Our first [non] white Christmas

So even though it didn't snow we still had a great Christmas, all cosy and warm, in Newmarket. We slept in (cause there was no sunlight coming through the windows to wake us up bright and early unlike back home when you can't sleep past 5am!), opened all our lovely presents, and planned lunch. Like all good roasts though, it ended up taking two hours more than we had originally estimated, but it was worth it cause we were famished by then! And it was pretty much the best roast turkey Christmas we've had, if we don't say so ourselves, we were quite chuffed! And UK tele on Christmas day pretty much rocks as well!

Boxng day was spent like every other Boxing day - getting over Christmas lunch and lounging around not doing too much. Except I've gone through two boxes of tissues as I've managed to pick up a head cold and a sniffly nose, ugh! Matt was on the computer playing his new game and I had set myself up a wee bed on the couch and watched our new Friends DVDs - isn't that what you do when you're sick? :)

We head down to London at the end of the week for New Years and hopefully we'll get in a show, some ice skating and some more sight-seeing.

So I hope that you all had a happy Christmas and have a great New Years. And thanks to those who sent us Christmas cards and presents, we feel very loved! xx

Newbies in Newmarket

So we've been in Newmarket (our new home away from home for the next couple of months) for about 2 weeks and so far we're loving it. Such a nice sleepy hollow of a town with a high street of shops and pubs and a Christmas fair as well!

We're about a 15 minute walk from the high street which is handy and so far we haven't had to deal with any bad weather (bit chilly, but no horrible rain or snow...yet). We're enjoying not doing too much of anything and catching up on sleep from our 3 months of traveling.

Our plan is to base ourselves in Newmarket and find some work either in the town or in surrounding areas such as Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds. They're both quite a bit bigger than Newmarket and only a 20 minute bus ride away. So far I've applied for three jobs, so just waiting and seeing. Matt's gotten a hair cut (LOL).

Hopefully we'll get a chance to travel a wee bit in the next couple of weeks, on our list are: Edinburgh, Leeds, and Cardiff, but we'll have to wait and see. We're also only a 2 hour train ride away from London so we'll be going down there as well I imagine.

We haven't taken too many photos of the town but we'll upload some as soon as we do.

Getting round about in Milton Keynes

When we arrived in Milton Keynes it was pitch black (and only 5:00pm!) so we didn't get to see much of the city, but we did get to go through about 20 roundabouts on the way to my Aunt Irene and Uncle Charles's place. The city, if you haven't heard already, is based on American town planning so has a lot of roundabouts, hardly any traffic lights, and the roads are build in a repetitive grid shape. Although this sounds boring, it was far from it. All the roads are lined with trees (and if it weren't winter I'm sure it would have been gorgeous!) and there are pedestrian and bike ways throughout the city so that you would never have to be on a main road if you didn't want to be.

Unfortunately we were only staying for the weekend, so we tried to make the most of it by doing a bit of road trip out to Oxford. On the way we stopped into the Xscape Centre that houses a massive indoor ski slope and wind tunnel for indoor sky diving. Very impressive for both Matt and I as we've never skied nor sky dived (although we didn't attempt either of them there and then, maybe on our next trip!).

After our eventful search for a car park in Oxford we wondered round the town and visited the Christ Church which was quite impressive, even in the dreary day. We walked down to the river and were lucky enough to see a bit of rowing race going on. The guys looked freezing gliding fast through the water.




We then decided to take in a bit of a late lunch in a wee cafe where I recognised our waitress. Although I just couldn't figure out how I knew her. Charles couldn't help himself, so asked her and it turned out, after lots of 'do you know such and such' and 'have you been to such and such' we figured out that we'd met at Oktoberfest in Munich. No wonder we didn't know straight away, we'd obviously had too many steins. Small world though, eh?

On our second day Irene and I sent the Matt and Charles to Bletchley Park - where they did a tour of the museum and grounds where the Enigma code was broken during the war - while we went shopping. And the shopping centre and Milton Keynes was very grand - again everything is in a grid shape but there are lots and lots and lots of shops. I would have been happy to spend the day there!

In the afternoon we left Milton Keynes and took a drive to Newmarket to visit my Aunt Isabel and settle ourselves into her wee house, which we'll be house sitting while she's out in Australia.