Marseille - France

Lisa and I recently went to Marseille, France's second largest city. Our pass through Marseille airport was in record time as it wasn't big at all, felt more like a regional airport.

Marseille was famous for a few things, being Seafood, Bouillabaisse - a traditional Provençal fish stew, and Soap (Savon de Marseille) and it's the gateway to the provence region.

After checking into our hotel, we took to the streets and headed for the Port (Vieux Port) passing through the many shops, restaurants, bars, cafes and Pizza joints. Rumour has it, Marseille has some of the best Pizza's in the world, and a restaurant serving the best Pizza in in the world. Lisa and I didn't get to try this restaurant, but we did get to try some pizza nearby a local market, and we can definitely say, it was damn good! and for 1 € a piece, it was great value. I think it was one of the best pizza's we've ever tasted. We would've been happy to live the whole weekend on Pizza.

As we walked through the city, we explored a traditional French Christmas Market, which was essentially and outdoor market with little stores, all decked out in Christmas decorations (a European Christmas tradition), selling normal goods, and also Christmas orientated goods. The smell of roasted chestnut tempted many by passers... yummm!!


Vieux port (the main area of Marseille) streets were lined with heaps of Seafood restaurants . We had dinner in a restaurant by the port, and Lisa order the Bouillabaisse which she throughly enjoyed, and I had the Mussels, which was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing we didn't enjoy was the fact it too over an hour to get our meals, and the restaurant wasn't even that busy, maybe it was the French way.

Marseille was a medium sized town, with the traditional French architecture, small alley ways, lined with cafe's and restaurants, dominated by churches, and none bigger and more grand than the Notre Dame de la Garde perched up on the hills, which can be seen almost anywhere in Marseille. We didn't reach this Cathedral as it meant a steep hill climb, and we were in no mood for it. A perfect French get away.

Brrrrrr...tttthhheeee cccoooollldddd

This is today's forecast, and we have only just entered the European Winter season....oh we are so looking forward to experiencing the full chilly winter....not. Lately Lisa and and I have to wear 3 thick layers of clothing, just to go to work.

Every morning I have to check the weather forecast, just so we are prepared for the cold before we leave the front door, and every day the maximum temperature drops 1 degrees. For all those people who know me, I am going white... :(.... and I haven't been this white(r) since I was a kid, a very young kid.

Party time in London

Xmas party – posted by LP

Last Friday night, my company hosted a black tie Christmas party. Everyone at work got all excited about the venue, seating arrangements, menu etc. As many of my colleagues don’t live in central London, most brought their gear in to change into. I excused myself at 3.30pm to go home and pretty myself up. I was abit nervous that my dress is not formal enough, as some girls described their dress as elaborate gowns, but in the end I had nothing to worry about.

The venue was at Il Bottaccio, a posh place in the west end… the buildings here in London are beautiful, and you pretty have to dress up so that you are in the same league as the building itself!!

Overall, a great night, good food, gorgeous venue, and great company! It's nice to get dressed up every now and then!

Day out at the British Museum

Warm and Sunny - Barcelona!

The weekend past, Lisa and I finally set foot in Spain, Barcelona was our destination, and we were looking forward to some sunshine and warm rays.

Like many of our trips, our departure from London was delayed (by 45 mins) again and this time thanks to BA.

Going to Barcelona was exciting, a big city, heaps of tourist, and many interesting architecture. Being a big city, pick pockets are a problem, and I had first hand experience with that. When Lisa and I were trying to get on the Metro on our way to the airport, a group of guys decided to block my passage onto the train (they let Lisa on already). As I pushed to get on, I could feel a hand touching my pocket where my wallet is. When I realised what was happening, I backed off and hopped off the train, then the idiots thought 'oh bugger we stuffed up' and parted to make way for me to get on.

After sleeping off our slightly negative start to the trip, the following day, we wondered through the city, firstly to see the Sagrada Familia, a giant temple which is still being built since 1882 (still got another 30-80 years to go). This temple was designed by Antonio Gaudi, a famous architect who's work can been seen throughout the city, and the most unique building I have ever seen.

From there we headed down Passeig de Gracia, a famous shopping strip in Barcelona, with designer labels and big brands. Lisa enjoyed the stroll down this street the most. This lead us to Plaza Catalunya, a huge square which is the city centre of Barcelona.

Then we continued onto La Rambla, once of Barcelona's most famous streets, with a pedestrian footpath in the middle of the road, there were many people and tourist, and where there are many tourist, there are pick pockets. Lucky we didn't encounter any this time. We also went to look Gothic area, where the Gothic Cathedral is located. The architecture would have been quite stunning, however the whole Cathedral was under scaffolding. The area is interesting with many gargoyles looking down at you all the time.

For dinner, Lisa and I ate at a restaurant called Mikel Etxea, which I think was a Spanish restaurant. I finally had a Spanish Paella, a traditional Spanish style seafood risotto server on a big pan. (see below) It was so big, that Lisa and I shared it, and we were both stuffed! It cost us about 32 euros for that. It's been a long time since I've been out and truly enjoyed a hearty meal like that. We had dinner at around 4pm because the restaurants would close soon after, and re-open for dinner from 9 pm, we'd starve by then.

At night, we want to Montjuic to see the famous magic fountain (aparently similar to that at Las Vega's Bellagio casino but not as grand) which has the dancing water with music. It wasn't so magical because when we got there, we waited abut 45 minutes for the show, which I don't think happened that night (we were there at the right time). Maybe the Catalunyan's work on ish time or whenever they feel like time. We gave up waiting , and walked back to La Rambla which took over and hour. La Rambla was nice at night, with heaps of people walking around, and a great atmosphere.

The next day we went up north to see Park Guell, another place designed by Gaudi. It's a public park with some really interesting architecture once again. It was a warm day, and being so high up, we had a beautiful view, looking back at the city, and the sea in the distance. We sat in one of the Gaudi designed benches, and soaked up the sun. It did the trick, because I am getting some colour back into my skin.


We eventually made our way down to the ports, and the beaches, and it was oh so nice to be close to the beach again, to smell and feel the sea breeze, to see the sand, hear the waves, here the chatter amongst the people in the seaside restaurants........ it felt like being at home. In the few hours we had left, we wondered through the small city streets, finding little hidden shops here and there as we passed through an area called Barri Gothic.

We left Barcelona feeling energised, and full of life again thanks to a great weekend basking in the sun, and having good food. Upon arriving at Barcelona airport to fly out, our flight got delayed AGAIN, thanks to BA (we have flown with them 5 times now and 3 times they've let us down, they are now officially worse than Ryan Air in terms of time keeping, but service is still miles ahead). Barcelona airport was huge, luckily for us as we had so much spare time now. Shopping was good and we spent some money, I purchased a suit.... enough said!

Torino - caffeine capital of Italy

Lisa and I spent last weekend exploring Torino, in Italy.

We once again flew out late Friday night, and fearing the worse (because we're flying with RyanAir), we went early to give us plenty of time to check in. Everything at this point was fine... until we had to board our plane. Once again Crying Air (as more commonly know here in the UK, because that's you're reaction in general why travelling with this airline) didn't disappoint because once again, we were delayed by 45 minutes, waiting for their late arriving plane. Thanks to them we managed to get onto the last airport transfer bus to the city centre of Torino, and we arrived at our hotel after midnight. Needless to say, we were tired and I slept off my frustration.

The next day, we were greeted with beautiful-sunny-clear-warm Italian day. We headed for the town centre which was a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Starting off at 'via Roma' a boulevard lined with designer stores, and all manner of expensive things. Lisa worked her way through the rows of designer stores.

Most of the streets through the city centre was undercover thanks to 18 km's of Porticoes (built in the 16th century to provide shelter for the royal family as they walked through the city), but on this occasion we didn't need it. As Lisa shopped, and being in my home country in Europe, and number one coffee drinkers, I headed for a cafe. Cafe's in Italy is like a bar, you can have a coffee standing up at the bar (cheaper option) or sit down at the table.

'Uno Cappuccino per favore! and a minute later I was satisfied with what was the best cappuccino I have had for a long time, and for €1.20 a shot, I was even happier.... it just meant I can get another shot without burning a hole in my pockets.

Turin streets was very easy to navigate as they're all running parallel and perpendicular to each other so you can't really get lost. We did find it a little dusty and not as clean as other cities we've been too, because sometimes we felt like we were walking down some back alley. However, the architecture of Turin is beautiful thanks to the powerful 'Savoys' who used to live here. As you walk around the city, you can see buildings designed from with influence from the romantic, renaissance, Baroque, chaotic period.

Turin is famous for Fiat (the car manufacturing company), so we saw plenty of Fiats in the streets. Also or famous attraction is the Shroud of Turin, which when Lisa and I went to see, but were told by the museum that it is currently at one of the Cathedrals in Turin, but we still couldn't see anyway it because it was hidden away. So I found it a bit silly to have an attraction, that no one can see anyway. Turin is also quite famous for their chocolate, as the Ferrero (as in Ferrero Rocher) family originated from there... during the world war, to increase the amount of chocolate or chocolate spread they could sent to the soldiers they added hazelnuts to it, and voila, Nutella was developed!!

Turin in 2 days was good enough for us, we left happy knowing we had our fix of Italy, excellent coffee, gelato, and pasta. It will keep us both going till we get back to Australia and head for Norton St. The weekend ended of getting home on time, thanks to EasyJet, the ever reliable budget airline... now we look forward to the next trip!

Richmond

Lisa and I spent the day at Richmond, just about a 30 minute bus ride from our place. Richmond is a beautiful town, situated west of London, going towards Heathrow. There was all the usual shopping strip, cafe's, restaurants, bars and pubs, but tucked away along the banks of the river Thames, the quieter, peaceful, relaxing.

As I was walking through Richmond, I found a sign out on the street saying 'Australian trained Barrista making coffee' and it was available at a cafe called Source, so off course I had to get and get myself a 'flat white'. As a approach the counter, I can hear an Aussie accent behind the coffee machine, I was encouraged. My coffee was being made, and the barrista poured the milk and did the good old leaf pattern. I am now satisfied that the barrista was a genuine Aussie, 'Cya mate' I shouted.... the coffee? great coffee.... the price? £2 for a regular (that's like $5 for what we get for $2 at home).... but at least it was cheaper than the cafe called 'Flat White' in SOHO.


Richmond seemed to be where every Londoner goes to escape the tourists, and where permanent tourists like us go to get away from the casual tourist. It was great to go for a stroll around through the small streets, the back streets, the lanes, and the riverside walks.

We wouldn't mind living here! but it seems even more expensive than where we are at right now, and further away from the city, which would've added more traveling time each day. Oh well, we'll just let Richmond be a place to go to, to get away from from the hustle and bustle of city life.

New Addition to the family

Special announcement!!! There has been a new addition to the Le/Phung family.

Harrison Le, born Friday 28th September at 5.22 pm weighing in at 3.810kgs. These are early photos of him.... cheeky bugger.

Congratulations to Chinh and Diane on a new bubs! and Lisa, another nephew to babysit one day.

Family time with twisted ending

weekend in Dusseldorf 21-24th September posted by LP

We knew after almost 5 months here, Joe and I will be craving for some family contact, so we in July we booked tickets to visit Joe’s uncle’s family in Dusseldorf, Germany. We’ve been to visit them twice during our prior European trip, so have done most of the touristy things already. We wanted to spend time with the family and relax, and that we did. We arrived around 9.30pm on Friday night, stayed up and chatted with the family. The boys (Hoang and Nhan) have grown so much and are so tall!!! I don’t remember the house being so spacious, but I guess living in a small unit in London, it is very big comparative!

Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast and being the glorious day it was Joe, his uncle and the boys played a game of tennis, whilst Joe’s aunt and I watched and chatted. After the match, we dropped into our favourite ice-cream store and I waited eagerly for my Eidbere (strawberry) ice cream, it was still as good as I remembered it!!

We all then packed into Joe’s uncle brand new car (he just picked it up the day before we arrived) and drove to Venlo, a Netherland town on the border of Germany, it was only 35km away!! We spent the afternoon there, and then headed back to Germany. After dinner, the boys performed on the piano and cello, they are both so talented! Hoang plays so much better than me!! His sight reading is fantastic, and Nhan is brilliant on the cello as well… I had to get and play the 1 song I could remember from memory… I do miss my piano.. I think I will buy a keyboard to play whilst I am in London.

Sunday was relaxing, the highlight was when the boys, Joe and I took cycled to the ice-cream store again, the bike lanes are next to the pedestrian’s and quite wide, so you can safely cycle. The streets were lined with rows of maple trees with leaves the colour of bright yellow, red and green… as we cycled along the street, the sunrays warmed our skin, and as the leaves fall from the gentle wind it was breathtaking..

Our trip was coming to an end, but we weren’t as sad as we knew we are only an hour flight away. We prepared to leave and whilst on the way to the airport, through miscommunication, we were going to the wrong airport and had to travel another 70km to get to the right one in 35mins… well Joe uncle tried his best (and driving us at 150km/h) we thought we’d just made it before check in closed, but the staff would not check us in. Trying to negotiate with them is impossible, and we accepted defeat and tried to find another flight without success. We then booked the first flight out on Monday morning and went straight into work. Anyone who knows me would know I hate things not going to plan, so I was a nervous wreck. The good thing was we got to spend another night with Joe’s family!

Is this for real?

Royal Copenhagen!

Copenhagen – 24-27th August posted by LP

It was our first long weekend in London, so one of our to go to destination was Copenhagen; pictures of the place always looked so pretty. We couldn’t afford to go here using $AUD, but since we were earning £, we thought, now or never!!

We left early on Saturday morning (there’s online check-in which we can pick our seats and print the boarding pass) and went straight through to security, very convenient. Copenhagen airport was lovely, but everything is so expensive!! Trying to find the city centre on the train map was hard, I was trying to find Central or Copenhagen central, but it was spelt Kobenhaven, we ended asking someone… Each time we are faced with a delay, I always say to Joe “we would have lost if we were on the Amazing race!”

We spent the day walking around the city, which was really nice, relaxing, fresh sea breeze, and had a bit of space when walking around. We didn't feel we were crammed in with too many people like in London. A lot of people got around on bicycles, and why not? They had a separate bike lane for cyclists, next to the footpath away from cars. It was amazing, I wish other cities was like this, I wish London and Sydney was like this. The city of Copenhagen even provided free bike hire for tourists, although finding one was a challenge as they were snapped up so early in the morning.

Our Canal cruise highlighted the difference between Old Copenhagen and New Copenhagen. Old Copenhagen is where the old town centre with all old buildings, New Copenhagen has all the converted warehouses to apartments along the canals which are lined with boats and yachts. It reminds me of many Woolloomooloo wharf joined together with restaurants and cafes at street levels. A great lifestyle!

We also visited Tivoli Garden, which is one of Copenhagen's famous attractions, it was a theme park, which caters for kids (rides, games, activities) and also adults (orchestra, Jazz, restaurants and many more). It was a great theme park, small, but intimate and we saw so many old people, just there to enjoy the entertainment.

A visit to Copenhagen cannot be complete without seeing the statue of the Little Mermaid, we had to do it, although I find it quite intriguing how a part of a fairy tale has become one of Copenhagen’s famous landmark.

We climbed the Vor Frelser Kirke aka Our saviour’s church, which has over 400 steps up the tower - and the last steps are external spiral staircase around the roof. Scary if you afraid of heights. Now I am not afraid of heights (that much) however when a strong gust of wind came along, it did make me feel nervous, and I had to lower my centre of gravity so I won’t lose my balance! The view from the top is breathtaking, well worth the steep climb up and numerous mini heart attacks!

Copenhagen is a great city, beautiful, walkable, and yummy hotdog stands everywhere. If only it wasn’t so expensive!! Not sure if when we will ever go back, but glad to have finally visited this charming city.

Ah Paris, the city of LOVE

Magical Paris, 10-12^th August

Our 5 year anniversary was spent in romantic city of Paris!! We arrived early in the morning, and the first thing Joe and I could think of, was how to track down Pho!! Joe did his research and navigated through Paris metro system to the Viet town of Paris. The 2 restaurants on our to try list was right next to each other. We ordered and waited for our steaming bowls of pho to arrive. To our delight, it was delicious, fragrant and tasty broth, with slippery noodles and nice tasting meat with all the extra mints and sprouts.. ahhh there was silence for a while whilst we enjoyed eating and not didn’t want to waste precious eating time with talking!! After fuelling up, we were on the hunt for pork rolls (which they don’t have in London) we tracked a shop we’ve been to before down, and the best thing, it was in a proper baguette!! I was very very happy!!

Now for the site seeing, we headed up to Galeries LaFayette the beautiful department store, the interior was breath taking, Harrods is so over rated…. This is one beautiful shop!! Of course I was in heaven now, as I strolled through the huge designer shoe collections.. pity it’s so expensive, but a girl can dream! We then headed to the hotel to have a mini nap, as we’ve done it before where we just went and by 5/6pm we are dead.

In the afternoon we decided to take it easy and walk along the river and admire the gorgeous sceneries and atmosphere, I love the apartments in Paris, especially with the Juliette balconies… we decided to take a cruise down the river during twilight period, enjoying the slights from the boat cruise, great way to see the city, as we approached the Eiffel tower, it light up with lights.. it’s almost 10pm, and being the photographer Joe is, we navigated our way back to the Eiffel tower for night photos, which turned our spectacular!!

Sunday morning, we made our way to Arc De Triomphe, it’s nice just to sit there and admire the details of the monument. We strolled down the Champs-Élysées, I love it, but to Joe it’s just another shopping strip. We’ve walked the strip previously before, but I still find it magical. We made our way down to the Louvre, which we still have done yet, but I am waiting to go during winter so that there are less tourists. The stroll took a good couple of hours, and I was sad when we went to pick up our bags to make our way back to life in London. Oh well, at least I know that we will be back soon…

Tour de London

On Sunday, Lisa finally got on a bike again, to try out her new bike... and do as the Londoners do, I got her a folding bike. It's the best thing, since there's not much room in our apartment for 1 full sized bike, let alone 2 bikes and for £60, I think it was a good purchase. I used to laugh at seeing people back at home in Sydney riding a folding bike, but over here, it is the norm.

We went for a ride from Chiswick where we live, rode along the river Thames down to Hammersmith, and crossed Hammersmith bridge. We continued along a dirt track following the river, which reminded me of the rides we used to take with some of our friends along Parramatta through Rhodes. We got to Putney bridge, crossed that and headed home. It was a great sunny, warm Sunday afternoon ride along the river.....ahh...... feels just like as if we were home.

Cambridge day trip

On Saturday, Lisa and I went to Cambridge to see the famous Cambridge university. We caught a train from Liverpool St to Cambridge, which took about an hour and 15 minutes. It was nice as we zipped through the small towns, and the country side outside London, passing farms, rivers, and river house boats.

When we arrived at Cambridge, the station was full with people, trying to leave Cambridge. Getting to the city center of Cambridge was about a 5 minute bus ride, and once there, we just wondered through the stoned streets, lined with chapels, churches, colleges and shops. It was a nice, and relaxed atmosphere as some of the roads being closed to traffic, allowed you to just wander around.

We passed Trinity college where Sir Issac Newton once studied, we saw the apple tree (a descendant of the original anyway), in which an apple dropped on his head, and born the gravity theory. We also entered Kings college to see the magnificent chapel, and buildings in the college grounds.


As we walked the streets, we saw many students were sprawled along the road, trying to get tourists to join them on a punting tour. Punting was fun, and required quite a bit of co-ordination, we hired a punt and took to the river ourselves... it took about 15 minutes for me to get used to how to steer the thing. I rammed a few other punts a couple of times, and got rammed a couple of times, nearly fell off a couple of times too. We made our way up and down the river for about an hour, passing though the back of some of the colleges of Cambridge university. Passing under some famous bridges such as the Mathematical bridge, Clare bridge and Bridge of Sighs. After 1 hour of punting and trying to stay on, I was sweating and aching.

The rest of the afternoon we spent wondering through more colleges, shops, back streets, canals and parks. We enjoyed going to Cambridge, and was a long time coming after putting it off for so long due to bad weather. I am glad we waited for a nice sunny day to go, otherwise there would have been no where to hide from the rain. It was a great day out, and great to get out of the London concrete jungle and congestion.

The weekends are here, and quick as a flash gone again.

The weekend has just passed once again, and we got to explore another corner of London we've never been to before. On Saturday, in an area call called Ealing, there was a Jazz festival in the park, similar to that of Jazz in the Domain back in Sydney. It was nice lying out on the grass soaking up the precious rays, but could really enjoy the music much because too many kids were around and too many english people chit-chatting away. Worse still we had to pay an entry fee of £1 per person.....whereas something like that in Sydney is free!!!

Sunday was nice as we caught up with some friends for Yum Cha, or Dim Sum as they call it here, at a restaurant near Canary wharf called Lotus. It was a floating restaurant, you know, they typical asian kind of restaurant. The food was reasonable, and the price was fairly well priced considering. Over here they don't push the carts around for you to pick, you get a sheet that lists all the food they have, and you order and they'l bring it out... how cool is that! no more wondering if your favorite dish was ever going to come out.

Afterwards we headed for Greenwich, particularly Greenwich observatory, from there we had a great view of the London city skyline high up near the observatory. Greenwich observatory site, to most tourist is famous for one thing... and that is the imaginary line defining the centre of time, the Greenwich mean time (GMT). As typical tourist, we couldn't resist and took the touristy photo. The rest of the Observatory was intersting, seeing the history of the site, and the telescopes that were used, and my favorite, all the classic watches and clocks on display.

We ended the day with a stroll through Greenwich market, and through the streets....awwwhhh, the weekend was over!.... can't wait till next weekend, not sure yet what we're doing, but can't wait all the same!!!

searching for a good espresso in London

Lisa and I spent a day out and about in London, when we thought it was time to go searching for the mecca of coffee. We've heard about a cafe owned and runned by Aussies and New Zealanders, that makes the best coffee in London, and the only place where you can get a 'flat white' (hence the name of the cafe).

When we got there, we were drawn by the aroma of the freshly ground coffeebeans, and the ooozzzzzing espresso being extracted out of them, I knew I was close to home (well, sorta). We stepped in and can hear the funky music playing in the background, and felt the chilled out lazy sunday afternoon of the place. It Felt like as if we were in Melbourne!

What was on the menu? the flat white and Melbourne Latte, all excited, we went for the flat white. As I eagerly anticipate for the creation of my cuppa, I looked around around the cafe, looked at the Barista and was about to say "G'day mate"...... then I thought I am sure the guy would've heard it many times before and would have told me to shut it!

Well... at £2.30 a pop for a regular sized, or £2.70 for a large take away coffee (the most expensive coffee in London so far), it better bloody be a damn good coffee.... and it was! Luckily for me, I do not work anywhere near SOHO, so there is no chance of me burning all my money on coffee and having no money left for lunch. Oh well, home coffee is good too, so I'll enjoy that, just can't wait till one day, I get my ultimate home coffee machine!!!!!!!!

We'll, Lisa and I really look forward to going to Italy now, coffee, pizza, and pasta...yuuuuuuuummmm

Brussels weekend trip

Weekend in Brussels – 14/15th July posted by LP

It was our first trip away since we have arrived, so we were pretty excited. We woke up early to catch the Eurostar, great way to get to the destination without having to worry about catching a plane, and it drops you off in the city centre. At top speed it travels around 200-250km. After 2.5 hours we arrived in Brussels. We quickly worked out their metro system and was on our way to our hotel. The hotel was situated in the business district so was dead quiet when we arrived, it was weird not having so many around, but a nice change. The hotel itself was very nice. Great way to start our travelling adventures.

After checking in, we decided to hit the shopping strip as the shops were closed on Sundays. Shopping was fun (although Joe was itching to go to the square). After lunch at a brasserie (check out Joe’s huge pork roast, he only managed to finish just over half) we headed off to see the Mannekin Pis (it’s a statue of a little boy pissing, sometimes they dress him up). The Belgium adopted him as their mascot, nothing relating to their history, it’s been stolen by the French and the Germans a few time as well..

Brussels is a nice quaint town, with its beautiful gardens, cobbled streets and old architecture. We arrived at the square and Joe goes crazy with his photo taking. It is a great atmosphere with the buzz. We had decent summer weather, high 20’s with clear blue skies. Walking through the gardens, I can smell the trees and it brought back memories of home funnily enough.
Dinner was at one of the local restaurants off the square, Joe had mussels which were nice, but my seafood pizza was disappointing.

Sunday was just relaxing, browsing the market, eating different variety of good. We went back to the square just to relax, there was some competitive sporting event, bunch of boys throwing a ball around, like volley ball but with a tennis ball...I had Godiva ice-cream, so rich and creamy!!! ...by 4pm we were back on the Eurostar heading home..Great first trip.. Looking forward to Paris in 3 weeks!!

Le Tour De France

The Tour De France has officially started today, and for the first time, it has visited London. It was a great experience to see the Tour, the side shows, the festivities, and the riders in real life. I've previously watched the race on the box at home, but to be here in peron was quite a nice experience, and luck have it the start of the tour began in London.

It was amazing to see all the custom built racers, worth tens of thousands of dollars wizz past you. All the riders were in their colourful team Jersey's with the team car hot in persuit behind them.

Thousands of spectators all lined the streets of London to watch the event. The event today was the individual time trial where it's a race against the clock for the riders, as they race around the 9 mile circuit through the city of London. The atmosphere was like the Sydney Olympics all over again. With what has been going on the past weeks in London with terrorism, thankfully, nothing happened, thanks to the heavy police presence.

Tomorrow, the first Leg of the race departs from London and heads for Canterbury, while taking in some of London's most famous landmarks.
I am beginning to enjoy London, because if the special city it is and for all the events that is organised, which you can only dream of if living in Australia.... although... I am missing the good food terribly.

Finally.. a place to call home!

We have finally moved into our permanent unit!! Finally a place to call home! It’s a one bedroom unit with neutral furnishing, lots of natural light, and a bit more spacious than the other units we saw. Actually this was the only one, we could consider being able to live in, we inspected around 12 properties in one day. I am so glad we had a relocation consultant to organise all the viewings for us, otherwise it would have been a nightmare! Another painful experience was forking our almost 10 week’s worth of rent to the agent (6 weeks bond and 4 weeks in advance). To write out a cheque for over £3000 was painful and left my bank account barely on the credit side!

We’re in an area called Chiswick, closest tube is Turnham Green, and it’s in Zone 2. It takes me approx 30mins on the tube to get into work, so travelling time here takes abit longer. Chiswick is very similar to Leichhardt/Drummoyne/Chiswick!! Although a lot more boutique shops, the high street goes on forever. It’s very leafy and in a nicer part of London. It does have a familiar feeling about it and Joe even catch the 440 bus to work!! [There is a 440 bus from Rozelle into the city we use to always catch in Sydney]

Now, Viet restaurant here are OK, edible, but not something you have cravings for. We’ve tried 4 now, one in Hackney, and 3 in Shoreditch, of which only 1 I would return to. Joe has tried pho in almost all of them. Far from the standard in Sydney, but seeing as it’s something I can’t cook, we have to live with it. I’ve tried a few others banh cuon, bun bo hue x 2 and bun thit nuong. The bun thit nuong is the only thing I’d go back to have again.

Other restaurants, we’ve tried a few Japanese, we’ve been hooked on Japanese food ever since our trip to Tokyo last year. We’ve tried Kobe Jones here in London, pretty good but still not as good as Sydney. There are a few we will go back to.

Food I do enjoy here is their roast, and baked veges, it’s yummy, but quite heavy, not use to eating it too often. We’ll be trying more of the French restaurant but again, that’s pretty heavy as well.

Travelling updates, we’ve got a trip to Brussels booked in 2 weeks time… we’re going to stay at the Raddison, so that would be nice, and catching the Eurostar. Looking forward to eating the mussels, and the Belgian waffles. In August, we are going to Copenhagen for a long weekend, the accommodation there is so expensive!!!

For to my favourite part!! Shopping!! I am getting over the shock of how expensive everything is!! I think rent and getting around London is ridiculously expensive.
I have been fairly disciplined with shopping, I have only added 2 pairs of shoes to my collection, black going out heels which I forgot to bring (brought all black work heels) and a pair of cream and white flats (which are really cute). We’ve bought a fair few Burberry stuff as we’ve found the outlet, but still not that cheap if you convert to AUD, a pink checked scarf, a wind jacket, an umbrella (it rains often here so I could justify the $90 I paid for it!). Joe has picked up Burberry pants and shirt (you can’t tell it’s Burberry, but the fabric is of excellent quality). I also picked up an MP3 player which acts and looks like a USB stick…

My shopping list to search for: is a nice red coat, willing to spend top $$ for it if I find the perfect one and a vintage cocktail watch, both of these items, I have been searching for almost 2 years for! I am hoping to find something here. There is so much more tripled mill French soaps here, I love the creamy lather and the smell of them. I would highly recommend the L’occitane Lait or Verbena soap if you haven’t tried it. This is my little luxury in life!! What else? I’ll be picking up a little red Longchamp pilage bag when we visit Paris later this year and stock up on L’occitane handcream, surprising not much cheaper than Sydney’s price.

Joe and I are such snobs when it comes to coffee, my prayers were answered when our espresso coffee machine arrived in the air freight. At the moment, Joe makes the best coffee in London [however I have been told of a café called Flat White in Covent Garden, and guess what? Owned by Aussies!!]

Anyway, gotta go, take care!!

Britain on high alert!!!

The past couple of days has been interesting, and a little scary for a bunch of Aussies like us. We're experience terrorism right at our doorstep, unlike when we were at home hearing it only on the news. Then we here about an attempted attack of a Glasgow airport, where a Jeep was driven, while on fire, into the airport. So it's been quite am eventful weekend in the UK.

The past weekend was all about seeing a hearing Police and Ambulance Sirens all over the City. The city did have less people around Picadilly Circus, but there were still a lot of people. Now the city is on high aleart, luckily for us we're living on the outskirts of London, so hopefully we're safe.

The weekend is here!

This week I started working again for an IT company, so life if getting back to normal for me now. Lisa and I just have to settle into our more permanent apartment, where we know we have a more permanent base, we'll be happy. The new place is West of London in Chiswick Park. It's a little like Leichhardt, where there's heaps of little shops/restaurants in the area, so it'll be just like home.

We were starting to enjoy living in Kensington, but prices here are just a little crazy. On Kengsington High St, a new gourmet organic food hall called Whole Foods (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/UK/kensington/index.html)just opened up and it's a massive complex. Lisa and I went in last night to look at the food, has lots of food, good cheeses (plenty from France), a good selection of Wine, even some great brands, like Brokenwood, Cullen, Katnook, etc. Very impressive. However Lisa and I are hear to get stuck into the European wines. Pity we're not going to living in to live in Kensington much longer, or else we can just go and stroll down to the store.

Tonight, we'll hit town, go out to dinner and see the city at night. We haven't done so for a while because we've been old farts and usually go home before the sun goes down. Maybe try and do some night photography tonight.

Some new photos have been added to the web.

London Week 4

Another weekend has just ended, and the weather was a hot 24 °C for both Saturday and Sunday. Quite amazing that London could string 2 really good weathered days together. Lisa and I spent the days exploring London city, walking around near Chelsea & Brompton, Oxford St, Regents Park and Marylbone St. We also went to Harrods to get a bacon and cheese role for lunch. It came straight out of the oven, hot and steamy.....yum!!!!

I think we’ve seen most of London on the north side of the River Thames, we’ve just got the south side to go. We’re getting used to the bus and tube lines so have become not so reliant on maps.

I’ve been offered a job as well last week, so will be starting work this Wednesday. It’s good to know I will be working again..... maybe that’s because I was not working, but somehow when I am working I wished I enjoyed my time off, but I couldn’t enjoy my time off without money to spend. One great thing about this place is it’s quite close to where we will be permanently living on the outskirts of London. I should be able to cycle to work in the future. The only problem is it’s so far from the City.

I can now enjoy 2 days of unemployment, knowing I have a job to go to, and earn some important mula!

Life in London after 3 weeks .....

Lisa and I are settling in, and getting used to the way London works, and accepting all the negatives and positives of being here.

We’re in the middle of yet another Bank holiday long weekend (this is the second one in may). London hasn’t quieten down because quite a few Londoners would have left the city for some other city in another country for the weekend. For Lisa and I though, we spent the weekend exploring more of London. We went to Borough Market, Burberrys’ factory outlet in Hackney (slightly dodgy borough, or suburb as we Aussies know it). We went to check out Canary Wharf, which is the new London, but looks nothing like London… the buildings and offices there look like Sydney or Singapore, quite modern, and a lot of glass and steel.

Camden Market however is our favorite, it’s bustling full of people, from ALL walks of life. There is a multitude of food from all different cultures, European to African, which we’re really looking forward to taste testing. Vietnamese food however has been disappointing so far, but we knew that, I just needed confirmation. I miss my Pho and Lisa misses her Bun Bo Hue.

Japanese has taken off here in London, but the fresh seafood cannot compare to Australia seafood, so the Sashimi will have to wait till we get back home.

In the UK here, they’re quite big on Fair Trade and Organic food, a lot more than home, and a lot of things is fair trade this and fair trade that. I suppose they have to be since they’re so close to Africa.

Throughout the UK and especially in London, there is a hell of a lot of CCTV. There are apparently 1 camera for ever 14 people, located on the streets, on buses, and trains. Feels like BIG BROTHER is watching you. There’s a new camera that they’re trialing as well, it’s installed on a little remote controlled helicopter, and flies around , and the person controlling it can see where it is going because there is an on board camera to show where it is going. Another trial is for car ticket inspectors to have cameras installed on their hats, so that it records incidents of abuse, or record to provide photographic evidence, in case people dispute infringement notices. At the moment, they’re thinking of installing CCTV cameras to monitor speed cameras as the one’s in the country areas are being vandalized. It seems, they’re first choice solution to problems here, is to install cameras.

Ah, that’s life over here I suppose.

The Sun's out Marge!!!!!

The sun has finally come out today, I just couldn't resist and had to take a photo..... I've missed the sun sooooooo much!!!

When it came out, I had to get out of the building and go for a walk and currently sitting outside my friends place to soak up the sun's rays while it's out. Funny enough, across the road is a private park for local residents, and all the mothers and kids are out in force, enjoying it.

Also, I am using someone else's wireless network at the moment, as most people here tend to use wireless routers, and someone is bound to have it open for the world to use. Thanks neighbours!

London still

Lisa and I spent the weekend exploring London city. We went to Portobello market, which is world famous for Antiques, didn't quite find anything we like. There was also a fresh food market at the end of that, which was really nice and cheap... comparitively. We went to the British museum as well and had a look around at all the displays. It's not as enjoyable to go see because there are so many people going through that it feels like walking through a market place...similar to that of Portobello market, but the antiques here are even older and more precious.

We walked along Regent St, Oxford St, and Charing Cross, it's sort of funny to be walking around area's and streets we know from Monopoly. The weekend was cut little short thanks to the bad weather you get here, and it feels miserble to trek through the rain and people. Now I have to think about what we're doing for this weekend. Our friends Ed and Lyn are moving to a new place so I think I'll be helping the out a little.

London....

(Note: Click on title to see all pictures of London)

Lisa and I are here in London.....the gateway to Europe!.. we've spent the past couple of days trying to re-adjust, get over the jet lag and see the city again.

London is a BIG city with heaps and heap of people. Not only do you have to work your way through heaps of locals, you run into thousands of tourists and also other holiday workers. London just doesn't seem to belong to the Londoners anymore, it's a place where the rest of the world travelers meet.

Everything is approx 2.5 times the price of home, so being unemployed in an expensive city like this does hurt the hip pocket... but there are many jobs around, just have to find it, and the right ones.

London city feels like New Years Eve on the weekends, people everywhere.

Singapore 2007

Lisa and I just spent our 2 days in Singapore to chill out before we head off to London. Thanks to Qantas, the flight is running 3 1/2 hours late, due to depart at 3:25 am!!!

Well, luckly, one of the benefits if flying business class is the use of the Lounge, and because the business class lounge is closed, we unfortunately have to sit in the First Class Lounge. There is an abundence of alcohol, and some food, snacks, and free internet!!! hence, using this oportunity to upload my photos.

Singapore the last 2 days have been qute humid, and I think we're in their Monsoon season, hence raining stop and start. The humidity wasn't too bad, thanks to the rain. We spend the days going around shopping centres to hide away from the unpleasent humidity for the comfort of air conditioning. Singapore is not fun when you don't have intentions to buy anything.

The first day we visited Chinatown and Little India, and ate out at food courts. The food in Singapore is so cheep compared to Australia. Last night we went to Clarke Quay and had dinner, Singapore's famous Chilli Crab, which was nice.

The second day, we spent time exploring the shopping centres around our Hotel area, Marina Square, and also Orchard st. I didn't take too many photos, as the humidity just kills my enthusiasm for photography.

Goodbye Sydney!!

On Tuesday 1st may 07, Lisa and I left Australia bound for the UK and a new life in London. It was a sad farewell to our family who was there at the airport with us.

The past few weeks has been long and exhaustive, trying to wrap things up at home in Sydney for our move. There was so much work to be done, and there's only the two if us to worry about.

Anyways, Bon Voyage!!! hope to see you also again soon, whether in London or in Sydney.

Farewell Luncheon

Farewell lunch on Anzac Day with the gang. It was an enjoyable day, with a beautiful lunch prepared by Linda, Chicken pie with side salad, and good wine. Desert was a Vanilla ice cream with almonds. Yuuuuuuummmmmmmm!!!!

Following lunch, the boys had a couple games of Poker, and thanks for the donation guys!!! the winnings will help with the move to London. I can afford a Macca's meal..

Photos of previous trips from around the world

Here are some select photos from trips Lisa and I went on in the past few years. Click on the title above to see the all the photos.

Two Weeks to go.....

Well, it's now only 2 weeks to go before Lisa and I are off to the UK for a new life in Europe. Can't wait, we'll be able to see the rest of Europe and revisit some of our favorite cities.

Farewell to a dear Friend

On Tuesday 10/4/07 at 7:10 am, Father Jim Fallon passed away peacefully at Darlinghurst Hospital. A dear friend to my family and many others, as I found our last night at his vigil.

Father Jim was a man who always saw other people's needs before his own, and always caring for those less fortunate. He was the man who helped my family, as well as many other Vietnamese families, who migrated from Vietnam, to settle into Australia. We owe him a great deal, as we've met some wonderful people through him.

I've known him since I was about eight years old, spent a lot of time with him in the early years, and has been an important part of our family. We were very fortunate to be able to spend some last moments with him in February, little did I know that, that night would be the last time I see him. Father Jim was also there for Lisa and I when we were married.

Thank you for everything father, you will never be forgotten.

Bon Voyage!

Well, exciting news ahead... Lisa and I are moving to London for a 2 year stint of work and life in Europe!

We'll be heading off in May, and have been busy getting ready for the big move, so watch this space!

Lisa and Khamy's birthday lunch - 2006

Lisa and Khamy's birthday luncheon with the gang - 2006

For some unknown reason, I never put it up on the web. Lets blame it on old age.

Note: Click on title to see full web album or click on the collage to see bigger version.

Ryan's 1st Birthday bash

A Photo collage of Ryan's birthday. Click on the collage below to see larger version or click on the title above to see the invididual photos.