Christmas Day

So this is Christmas, and what have we done?



We have cooked a turkey :) What a beaut! And we have erected a little Christmas tree and gathered around and sang carols. We exchanged gifts and had several heartfelt moments which we will all cherish (except for Paul as he only received several lumps of coal - although one was shaped like a PS2). Though for all of us it was just a little different this year, as for everyone of us, this was the first Christmas that we had spent away from our respective families.

Bristol, Bath and Beyonce

Well its December, which means Christmas lights and shopping. The girls had heard about the Christmas markets in Bath and thought it would be a good place to do some shopping. We also thought it was a good excuse to go on a bit of a road trip. So we ventured out one cold Saturday morning and went west. The trip had a bit of a misfire right as we set off, as I mistakenly followed the A3 instead of the M3 (one goes south, the other goes west). We had been driving for about an hour when we realised, so we had to circle around.

Anyway we finally were on the right track and made Bath around midday. No sooner had we arrived, we were involved in a minor traffic accident when a bmw ran up our rear, whilst we were all clutching our necks and pulling over they drove off ... bastards. Luckily though we weren't actually hurt and we continued on our way. Bath itself is a very nice town that takes its name from the baths there (go figure). We found the markets and they were crap ... and I don't use that word lightly, but they were crap. Full of all this kitch crap that could have been made by pre-schoolers. After about an hour of my life that i will never get back we decided to head on over to Bristol where we were staying that night. We circled around Bristol a couple of times and finally found the place before dusting off the skates and catching a bit of ice. We were lucky (well actually the kids were lucky) that we didn't catch a few fingers with it!! That evening we celebrated TAMMIE'S 27th BIRTHDAY at a very nice seafood restaurant. We ordered a few lobster seafood platters and capped it off with a nice drop.



Day 2 - and knowing that we weren't going back to the Bath markets in any hurry we decided that we should spend the afternoon outlet shopping in Swindon. As it happened, Stonehenge is on the way to Swindon (in a round about way). It also just so happened to be the coldest day ever in the history of the world. Not really the best day to pay £6 each to go and look at big rocks. At least now we can say that we have done it. On to Swindon and some shopping before heading home.

Oh and the mention of Beyonce in the title? No matter how hard we tried we could not get away from her music.

The All Blacks and the Baa Baa's

Not as insidious as the title may suggest. It is the autumn internationals series in rugby in the UK at present and since I went to watch the wallabies play (and lose), thought it wouldn't be right if I didn't go and watch the All Blacks round out their tour by playing the Barbarians at Twickenham. The Barbarians team this weekend was a who's who of southern hemisphere players including approx 9 Aussies, 5 South Africans and also strangely enough 2 All Blacks.

Paul, Tammie and myself had front line seats, and I mean front line. The playing surface was a mere 5 m in front of us. There is a something to be said about being close enough to smell the sweat, but when they play is down the other end you tend to miss out :( Overall the game was a bit of a let down given the quality of both teams, there was just not alot to get excited about even though the right team won by a handy margin.

On the upside Paul and I are closer to our quest of visiting the home stadiums of each of the 6 nations teams. 2 stadiums down, 4 to go.

Final Score: New Zealand 47 df Barbarians 19

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