Bath - Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th March

Bath City

Bath Park

Waterfront at Bath

Roman Baths

Picture of the back of the Abbey taken from the roman baths

Bath Abbey

All the below photos are from Saturday when we went out to Stonehenge Keziah and I in the field next to Stonehenge I am standing ontop of a mass burial ground/pit that is in a field next to Stonehenge

Pictures from Stonehenge

Ekant, Unecia and Keziah The yellow is fields of mustard seed, it was really beautiful as we drove around to see all these fields of bright yelow

Over the last week we have been staying with Josh’s friend from law school in Greenwich. It’s a really lovely place. On Saturday morning we left Greenwich and went to Bath to stay with friends of ours from New Zealand – Ekant, Unicia and Keziah – thanks guys we had a really excellent time. We arrived about midday, had some lunch in Bath then went out to Stonehenge for the afternoon. On Sunday we went to church in the morning then had a look around Bath and visited The Roman Baths. Bath is a really beautiful city all the buildings are old and made from beautiful brick. We left Bath at 5pm after and catch-up with the Veers and this week we are staying again in Cheshunt with Rach, Steve and Tilly (the dog). We’re looking forward to having a week with Tilly.

HMS Belfast - Naval Museum Saturday 21st April

Before going onto the Belfast we saw the bridge being raised for a boat to go through

View of city from the boat - this side is where Josh works and where we were staying

View from the boat of London Brige Area - we had lunch there

Guns on the deck Josh is standing next to the Torpedo

Boiler and Engine Rooms

This morning began by catching a taxi and taking most of our stuff to Mike and Daves to store for a few weeks and Louise moved back with them. This is because we have to move out of our flat this weekend. After that we went around the HMS Belfast, it is moored between Tower Bridge and London Bridge - she is most famous for helping the advancing troops on D-day, she blew up the opponants as the arm approached. She apparently also helped in sinking the German ship Scharnhorst - but I don't know anything about that yet. In the evening Josh and I went out for dinner and visited some friends of his from work in New Zealand. Sunday 22nd April - we watched some of the London Marathon on TV today then we moved out of the flat and into a friend of Josh's for a week. We have 2 weeks of sleeping at other peoples places before we get to unpack for the last time for a while! It will be good!

War Memorial Museum and bar adventures - Friday 20th April

Today was the last Museum visit that Alex and I will be able to do as he is off to Denmark now - but this was defiantly the best museum. I learnt all about World War I and World War II. I became familiar with terms such as D day. It was fantastic. There was a really moving exhibit on the Holocaust - very full on. After work Josh, Louise and I all went over the pub. Louise was asked by a very lovely middle aged man if she would like to join him at his table. Louise decline with a very pleasant - "no thank you". The man then proceeded to tell her that he'd "only had a few lines of cocaine" - however, that was not all he had been taking, as when he returned to his table he proceeded to talk to and caresses his imaginary friend! Shortly after he was escorted out of the bar - but it was all very amusing for us! Louise had some sneakers she didn't want and was going to put them in the bin - i told her there were too many homeless people here so she needed to give them away. Josh decided to go one step further and put them in the middle of the pavement - so we could see them from our apartment and see how long it would take for someone to take them! Josh snuk out and left them there, in about 5 minutes the first person came, was ready to take them away and Josh yelled out "my shoes" - the guy promptly left them and ran. The next guy kicked them up the road. Both times we sent Josh out to pick them up and replace them. Then another guy saw us looking and asked what size they were - cheeky!! Then after about 15min some other guy picked them up and took them. I would like to point out that he was not homeless - he dressed just like us - I know we have been mistaken as homeless before (Brisbane) but he was all dressed up! A very fun night - Louise sat with her camera so when she e-mails me some pictures I will put them on the blog.

British Museum and Temple Church

British Museum

The Nereid Monument - a re-creation of the Tomb

Treasure from Sutton Hoo burial

Statue heads of famous philospohers - Sokrates on the left

True artifact - head of a big statue

Re-creation of big statue

The Rosetta Stone (a piece of) - really important discovery as it helped decipher ancient Egyptian Script

Real mummies in and out of their caskets

Real mumified cows!!! Piece of Art from the African Gallary - a chair made out of guns!!!

Picutres from the Temple Church and the courtyards

Today Alex and I went sightseeing again, only this time to the British Museum then along to the Temple Church. The museum was good, the Egyptian part was defiantly the best. We saw heaps so I’ve just put on a few of the really interesting bits. We also saw the sculptures of the Parthenon, the Nereid monument and the Sutton Hoo Ship burial. Temple Church is located where all the legal buildings are in London. The crusading Knights Templar built the church in the 12th century. There are some of the knights tombs in the courtyard, we walked around and saw them, but they are doing construction so I didn’t take any pictures – no doubt Josh will want to go back as it is all now the legal area of London as all these inns were built around the church. The inns are now office buildings. There is supposed to be a punishment cell inside the church but we couldn’t go in due to the renovations. We will wait and Josh and I will go back for some more photos and a better look around.

Church and Hyde Park Picnic

We began the day by going to Church at Kensington Temple and that was an experience. It has a basement, ground and mezzanine floor and when we arrived we had to wait outside until the ushers could find us a seat! Then we were seated right next to a couple in full African dress. The worship began and I tell you there may as well have not been a worship leader because people were singing and clapping and praying any old time they liked –it was truly amazing! I am told this is the way African churches do – well there was no polite reserved stand in a row and clap your hands! We had a fantastic time! After church we went to Hyde Park for a picnic where Louise, Alex, Tristan, Anthony and Alex’s sister and her two friends joined us. You will see from the photos that the boys enjoyed a bit of rugby in the park!!!! Louise and I went to bathroom – which in the park takes 2min to walk to and 40min to wait in the queue! By the time we came back Josh had made friends with a group of Hungarian people and had tied my sarong around his neck and was getting everybody to do the limbo! So ended the day at the park – you can see the sun going down in the background!

Diana Memorial & School Reunion

Louise and I checked out the Diana memorial in Harrods - when Josh and i went we missed this bit, it's a monument to them (the guy she died with was the son of the guy who own Harrods) anyway, in the box - diamond shaped thing is he diamnond ring that he had in his pocket! who know who for! anyway - it was massive, i couldn't capture the size on camera. Then the statue is of them releasing a dove. The first picutre is of an egyptian statue thing that is opposite because the stiars in Harrods are themed and the Diana memorial is on the Egyptian escalators.

Josh couldn't come becuase he had to go into work for a few hours - then got a haircut - which is quite expensive over here - it's dollar for pound equivalence so Josh haircut was 27 pounds which from what we have seen is quite reasonable, unless you go to a barber then you can get a cut for about 10pounds - Josh didn't want the shaved look so decided to bypass the barber option. Then we went and saw his friend from South Africa - Nicholas G (i can't spell his family name, he's Greek) but hopefully the Jones family will know who i am talking about. Josh hadn't seen him since he left South Africa in 1996! So it was quite a reunion. Josh was stoked and it was funny for me to hear stories that Josh was as much trouble in South Africa as he was at Howick Colleage! And that the Jones place was the "cool" place to go - so they could all work out what they were going to do for the day - besides going to school! - which by the sounds of things didn't happen much! i hear Josh used to get himself a jug (literally a mesuring jug) of coffee in the mornings before school! i heard other horry stories which are not fit for public reading or of informing "the parents" - ha ha - it was a good evening!