We are sitting here in the sun next to the Office de Tourisme in Chamonix, France writing this to you. It is a free connection and the number of travellers here sitting around in the sun is great to see. We are all frantically checking emails, blogging and calling home on Skype.

On Saturday, after an hour and a half delay our Easyjet flight finally took of to Geneva. We thought we might miss our connection from Geneva to Chamonix but it appears that others were running late as well. 

What can I say about the countryside and Chamonix but magnificent. The mountains are as spectacular as the South Island yet more accessible. What I mean from this is that you can climb, ski, walk, mountain bike, ice climb etc etc all with ease in this area. It caters for all levels of fitness and ability. 

The favourite things so far - Mer de Glace and the train ride up to this glacier. The walk out to the glacier was nice but more spectacular was the ice cave carved into the ice. The cable car was stopped midday due to high winds so this meant quite a hike up to the top, but we did it! 

Today, Monday was the trip up to Mont Blanc. The weather wasn't looking that great but as we got higher we cleared the clouds and were on top of the world. Incredibly breathtaking.

The cable car up to Aguille di Midi is well worth the 38 Euro. Tomorrow we head for Grenoble. Photos to be posted soon as this battery is about to run out. 

Bon Journee.

To be honest the title sounds more exciting than the facts but I was having a slow blog week. In the weekend as we were cruising in our high stylin' Rover (read - yeah right), we noticed that a police car had pulled off on the same road and was travelling behind us. As I had decided to take a slip road to get around some slow traffic I thought the police might have been a bit curious as to my speed but they didn't turn their lights on at all. Oh well - maybe they thought my idea was a clever one?

Anyway, at the round about, they went the same way as us. Turn left, they turned left. Do a right for fun, oops they turned right. You pesky police car, I'll show you. 100 mile an hour, crest the hill, hit the ground, drift through a few curves, hand brake turn 180 degrees, accelerate towards them...OK, so in reality we are still in our Rover that has a top speed of 0 to 60 in 1 hour driven by me (still frequently referred to as "safety mum"). We continued cruising at my grandpa speed of 30 mile an hour. However, I was now starting to get the feeling that they were following me.

We had managed to make it all the way home and still they continued to follow but not put any lights on to pull us over. Maybe they think we are on the lookout for business as we live near a rather dodgy area of town? I finally pulled into the street we regularly park our car in and the police car pulled up next to us. Slowly we rolled down the window to look at two of the most good looking police officers you will ever see. Steve and I wonder if the constabulary in our region has a "Baywatch" criteria for recruiting their officers as we haven't seen an "average" looking cop yet. Anyway, the reason they had been following us for the last 5 miles is that our brake light was out. Have a nice day, they said and drove off. Are you kidding me? All that for a brake light? Told you the title was more exciting than the facts. He he he.

Can you believe that this is the second carnival we have attended at St Pauls. I can't anyway. We did this on Saturday last weekend but I had forgotten to do a blog about it. Anyway, the weather was miserable but it stopped raining in time for the parade. We managed to get some photos before the parade of everyone getting prepared but they seemed quite scattered this year so we didn't know where to go to get the main photos of the main groups preparing. Anyway, this is a small sample of the colour and vibrancy that is the St Pauls Carribbean Carnivale. There was a rather large police presence this year due to some unfortunate incidents including alcohol and knives last year but we found the mood to be fun loving and happy. Welcome to England.

We are back from house sitting and had a lovely day in London to meet up with another friend from Australia.

Penelope was only in London for one day so we drove down on Sunday, parked at Kew and navigated the London rail system to Hampstead to meet up with her.  It was a rather miserable day so we chose to sit in a cafe, Carluccio's, for a coffee. After having placed our order Steve noticed that the barista had an Australian accent so he was quick to change our order to flat whites! We miss flat whites! The Aussie (from Brisbane but lived in Sydney for 10 years) was happy to make them and little did we know that it would create a huge debate amongst the italian staff wanting to know what a flat white was. Very humourous indeed. They were convinced that what we were asking for was similiar to an Americano. NO WAY! Next they believed it was similar to a macchiato. Close but not quite. 

So what is a flat white? 1/3 espresso, 2/3 steamed milk which has been volumised (therefore it is a bit thicker in consistency but def. NOT frothed) then served in a small cup (215-240ml size) so it is a relatively strong coffee. 

Anyway, we ended up having 2 of these each. Bliss. 

It was great catching up with Penelope and felt like we had seen her just yesterday not over a year ago. We then went for a few photos up on the heath before we departed. The Hampstead area is pretty nice, obviously a rather wealthy area judging by the homes and cars parked around the place. Steve is now convinced that the Maserati is his car of choice! 

 

This weekend we are house sitting for a friend. Well in effect house sitting would mean that no one else is here, and considering another flat mate is still here we are really probably just keeping her company. Had a great sleep last night, the first time in ages without having to wear ear plugs to bed! It is pretty incredible what you can hear in the dead quiet of night. It was so silent that I could hear the blood pulsing in my ears. Does that make sense? Anyhow, very interesting. 

The house also has Sky TV. The joy of channel surfing. Woo hoo. Small pleasures I know. We don't watch telly at our house as there is nothing on. In fact, there is not much on Sky TV either come to think of it, just the pleasure of pushing all the buttons to see what pops up. 

Sunday we head to London (yet again) this time to meet up in the afternoon with another friend from Australia. Unfortunately she is not here for long so it will be a fleeting visit before she goes to Scotland then France. For having been in the UK for over a year now, we have not really spent much time in London at all. However, over June and July I will have been there 7 times (3 times for work, the rest for pleasure). 

Anyway, it is time to get back to my channel surfing, maybe even make myself a delicious jam crumpet for breakfast. Speaking of crumpets, did you know that another X-Files movie is being released. Looking forward to it. 

Cheers - Carleen

P.s. A bit of trivia for you in case you are wondering what a crumpet has to do with the X-Files. The character of Scully played by Gillian Anderson was referred to as "the thinking man's crumpet".

First off, loved this even more than "The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe"! The graphics were amazing, stunning scenery of NZ of course, enjoyed having the same cast back from the last film, costuming marvellous, musical score fabulous...

Check out the Disney website for the movie. I would go back to see this movie over and over again. It captures the images I had made up in my head as I read the books as a kid, the creatures are magnificent and the story telling keeps you engaged through the whole film. 5 out of 5.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/

I was really looking forward to another M Night Shymalan movie especially one with Mark Wahlberg in it. To be honest though I spent most of the movie with my hands over my eyes as person after person in the movie commits suicide in the most horrific ways. Sorry, not seeing this again. The twist at the end was a non event, the acting rather poor on the part of all, the story interesting enough but the usual suspense was missing and just replaced by gore. It didn't come across as intelligent in any way, shape or form and please what's with the idiot wife to Wahlberg's character? Was she supposed to be acting like a child bride? 1 out of 5.

The Aussies have departed us and from what I hear via email they are enjoying Paris and were last heard of on a cruise down the Seine. Thanks for your email Paul, and yes I am sure we will thoroughly enjoy work this week which will in no way be spent thinking about you two tripping around beautiful France ;)

For our last day we drove them down to London via a favoured spot, Kew Gardens. Our memberships had arrived by the time we got back from Wales so that was great timing. The weather was looking rather dull leaving Bristol but by the time we hit London it was positively warm (see we do get a "summer" on occassion - this will be counted as summer day number 10)

Kew was looking spectacular as always and I think we all had a nice relaxing time. Paul and I even managed to get a wee kip in. Then it was off to Kew Gardens Station underground to drop the travellers before departing for Bristol. 

Day two of pouring rain in the Snowdonia National Park. Actually the day started out as a sun shining day with a bit of warmth to its rays however by the time we had finished breakfast the cloud cover had rolled in, then by the time we got to the car the temperature had dropped and it was raining. Four seasons in one day.

While passing through the Snowdonia National Park we stopped at a great lookout and a number of curious birds came out to accoust us for food. I have included a photo of one of them.

We were intending to head for the Snowdon Railway again but it was obvious that the view would be minimal and possibly the train even cancelled. Instead we headed to Ffestiniog where some well known railway tours run from. http://www.ffestiniograilway.co.uk/

We arrived in time for a cup of coffee and the arrival of the 10.50am steam train. So it was cameras to the ready for lots of photos. Paul even got the opportunity to stand in the drivers area (including swapping caps-coal and all) for some quick snap shots before the train departed for another station. We were rather keen travellers and ended up meeting the train at its next stop, Blaenau Ffestiniog. The smell of a steam engine is wonderful. A number of months back I posted my favourite smells, I think I need to add this one to that list.

Another notable stop was lunch at the Red Lion in Dinas Mawddwy. The rain was still pouring down but we talked away a fair bit of time in here eating a Ploughmans lunch or a homemade pie, a pint of cider or ale and a homemade dessert to finish. Dating from the 12th century this place has seen famous bandits and many travellers in its time.

Tomorrow our aussie mates continue on with their journey until we meet up with them in France next month. Guys, it has been wonderful travelling with you both. We have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with you both, your sense of humour, your incredible toleration of the early morning starts and generally just spending time with you. Viva la France.