Winter Wonderland - Sunday 16th December

Pictures of the ice skating - they are not very good quality, as none of us were that steady on the ice! Camera's a little shaky!

German Christmas Markets and rides in the background We had a quiet Saturday, spending the day organising Christmas, as Josh had to work. On Sunday we went to Hillsong and watched the Christmas show, it was really nice to be reminded about best gift at Christmas - Jesus! It hadn't really felt like Christmas to me yet, but despite missing my family loads, Christmas is about celebrating God's gift - his son and that gift is world wide - so bring on Christmas! In the evening we went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with Mike, Louise, Dave, Corney (friend of Dave's) and Browyn (friend of Dave's). Winter Wonderland had children's rides, the german Christmas market and an ice skating rink, which we all attempted to skate around! It was good fun and 'attempted' was definatly the word, except for Josh who can actually ice skate!

Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th December: Oslo, Norway

Oslo

Christmas tree in the square

The Palace

View down to the main square from the palace

Guards at the palace

Lou, I & Maud in the palace Gardens

Nobel Peace Prize Building

Christmas Markets

Harbour

Harbour - the boat we went on, on Sunday for the Christmas Cruise. Town Hall Pictures of the sunset from the castle

Photos from the sculpture park and the snow

View of ski jump from the top of the jump

Ski Jump View from the top of the ski jump - looking out over Oslo Pictures from the open air museum Open air museum Gol Stave Church

This weekend we went to Oslo with Mike and Lou. Before I tell you about the trip I must thank Mr Hawkins for another superb holiday, organised to the 'T'. Mr H organised flights, accomodation, top sights to see, metro routes to arrive at sights, places to buy tickets and all transfers! He even printed out information to read on each of the sights! So excellent and he does it every time. So thanks Mr H for yet another excellent weekend of sightseeing totally hassel free!

On Friday Josh sat his UK solicitors exam and went to his end of year work ball. After only a few hours sleep we got up at 3.30am Saturday morning, flew 2 hrs to Norway, the bussed for 2 hours to Oslo. On Saturday, we looked around the city, it was cold - 2 degrees! We went to the Royal palace - currently in use. We walked through the city and admired all the beautiful lights and Christmas trees. We went to some Christmas markets at the waterfront and had some mulled wine! very nice! We watched the sunset from the old castle on the hill and saw the Town Hall. We walked past the national theatre and paliament, both of which were closed, but in between was a lovely ice skating rink - it really felt like Christmas. Norway this time of year doeos not have a lot of sun, when we arrived it was dull and grey with the sun half risen, it remains this way from about 10am till about 3pm when it sets. We went to look at the Cathedral, which is supposed to be spectacular, but unfortunatly it is under rennovation and is all covered in scaffolding and sheets!

On Sunday we began the day at Vigeland Sculpture Park where it snowed on us! It was so exciting! The park contains 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all created by Gustav Vigeland. After the park we headed over to Holmenkollen Ski Jump Tower. It was still snowing on us there to - Josh enjoyoed throwing snow balls and lou made a snow angel, by lying down in the snow and flapping her arms and legs -it was hilarious! We then we back to the harbour and went on a 'Christmas Cruise' in an old style ship around some of the Islands and onto museum island where we looked around the Museum of Cultural History, and open air museum, where we saw traditional buildings and the Gol Stave Chruch from 1200 AD - the oldest church in Norway. At 6pm we headed back on our long journey home and got home by 1am! An exhausting but great weekend.

Shopping!!! Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th November

Dinner at Turkish restaurant Josh having some Sheisha pipe after dinner at our flat

Our Christmas tree and decorations

On Friday night Lou, Mike, Josh and I all went down the road to a great Turkish place for dinner and I enjoyed the most delicious dessert of dried apricots with a pastacio nut in them cream and crushed nuts wrapped around the outside - superb! Josh spent the weekend studying so Lou and I hit the shops on both Saturday and Sunday. We did Regent Street on Saturday and Oxford Street on Sunday, with the guise of buying Christmas presants, but really we throughly enjoyed shoe shopping - this time for Lou! We went to a huge sports store in Picadilly called Lilli Whites where we brought snow boots as we are going to Norway soon. We also enjoyed the make-up counters in John Lewis and Debenhams. A great weekend! On Sunday night we put up our Christmas decorations.

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November

This weekend we spent a lot of time eating! Josh and I went to West India Quay for dinner on Friday night. On Saturday, whilst Josh studied, Louise and I went to Romford to do some shopping. We went to the markets there and visited the 99p store where we got our christmas tree and decorations, a great day. In the evening Josh and I went for dinner in South Kensington and got an early night as we got up early for 10.30 church before meeting Jo, Nic and James for Sunday roast in Kilburn, this is where Dad went to grammer school!

Saturday 10th November, Lord Mayors Parade

Gog and Magog: These have been carried in the parade since the rign of Henry V and represent the pagan giants of early English Pageantry. These ones were made by members of the 'Worshipful Company of Basketmakers'! A float from Canary Wharf where we live! Battersea Dog Shelter - the oldest dog shelter, being established since 1870, caring for over 3 million dogs and cats. Look who's head is poking out the window and trying to jump out! The Late Lord Mayor, lots of other important people 'Aldermen' came in carriages before this procession but too many to put on the blog. The carriages all looked relatively similar. HCMR Royal Band The Royal Horse Guards Pikemen, formed from the oldest regiment in the british army

The Mayors Carriage On the waterfront after the fireworks

Inside the pub

Again today Josh stayed home and studied and Louise and I went to The Lord Mayors Parade, this is when the new mayor of london rides out in his gilded coach, with costumed escort from the guildhall to the Law courts where he swears and oath of Fealty to the reigning sovereign. Then the parade returns back to Mansion House. This has been occuring since the 13th century. We arrived just for the second leg of the parade as it took 2 hours for all the floats to go past. The floats ranged from charity groups, to countires, to the armed forces and of course the royal floats. I have included picutres of only some of the floats. It was good fun. Josh joined us at 5pm for an awsome fireworks display over the river. After the fireworks we went out for dinner to 'The old Cheshire Cheese' - the oldest pub in London and it survived the fire. Edgar Wallace used to drink here. Another good day in London.

Saturday 3rd November

Today Louise and I went to the Camden Markets, it's really funky there or should I say Punk! It's where Amy Winehouse lives, anyway it's a punk area of town and all the shops sell relevant paraphernalia, but it was heaps of fun! Josh stayed at home studying, as he is going to be doing his exam for entrance into the English Bar at the beginning of December. Before the markets Louise and I went to Leicester Square and purchased tickets at the half price booths there for 'The Phantom of the Opera', it was playing at 'Her Majesty's Theatre', Haymarket. Josh and Mike joined us in the evening and we had dinner at 'Cheers' in Piccadilly then walked down to Haymarket to see the show, it was brilliant! Really enjoyed ourselves. No photos allowed in the theatre sorry, they kept yelling out "no photos, no photos" - classy!