sw’as

Greetings everyone! Happy holidays to all my teacher friends (remember I’m not one of you anymore, so you’d better enjoy.) How are the rest of you? I know the weather has been quite mild, except for Toowoomba of course.

We have obviously had some excitement in our lives this past week, although it’s certainly resulted in a desperate bout of homesickness. It seems everyone but us has met my lovely new nephew Charlie. Simon and I were absolutely thrilled with his arrival. After seemingly taking so long to get around to being born, he was suddenly in a tremendous hurry. I received a quick call and a text at work, and then a couple of hours later, he was born! I don’t know how long skype will sustain us (Charlie bawled on first sight of me – brilliant), but we are certainly grateful for it and all the photos we have received so far. I’m afraid to say Haddons and Dowricks, but I think Charlie detoured us and looks like every member of Tony’s family that I know. And he is gorgeous and healthy and has made his mum and dad so happy and proud.

Nothing compares with that, but there have been some other highlights during the last fortnight that will make for lovely memories for us both. Our good friend Miriam celebrated her 29^th birthday with dinner and then a trip to an 80s roller disco. As I watched hundreds of fluoro-clad Londoners glide/shuffle past, I was reminded of Toowoomba Skatehaven Saturday session (2pm til 4pm – no pass outs.) Remember the Skittles and the giant pythons? The speed skate? The outfits in Battersea were just as outrageous, but admittedly there were a few differences. The $30 cover charge would be one. The surlies on the door who confiscated packets of chewing gum (“you’ll throw it on the floor and people will hurt themselves.” No I won’t.) and bottles of water (no reason.) Guns and knives fine, but absolutely no hubba bubba.

On Saturday we went to our long awaited performance of King Lear at the Globe. I had never seen my favourite Shakespeare play performed and was so excited to see how it could be done. Our seats were excellent. There are 700 seats for groundlings at only five quid, but the idea of standing for three hours didn’t appeal. We had front row balcony seats in the middle gallery with a perfect view of the stage. The performance was hilarious in parts, incredibly bloody in others and just so moving. I pretty much cried the whole final scene. Loved it.

On the Sunday we finally made a trip to the Victoria and Albert museum. The exhibition I went to see was disappointing and we got through that in about twenty minutes. But the rest of the museum is exquisite. I loved the historical fashion, the jewellery room and the cast court, where there are enormous, yet intricate, replicas of famous columns and buildings from all over the world. As usual Simon was mesmerised with the sculpture section and plans on creating a bronze statue in the future. How long would that take? Five, six days?

A few weeks ago, my friend Bec and I decided that a surprise was in order for our husbands. There is a famous cabaret club in Chancery Lane called the Volupte Lounge. The boys were told to don suits, Bec and I glammed it up a little and we tottered down a dark alley (it wasn’t really that dark.) The boys were suitably surprised and very impressed with their introduction to a burlesque house. It was such a fun night; we drank classic cocktails painstakingly made by the bartender, were shown to our seats by a Russian with feathers in her hair and enjoyed a delicious three course meal. There was also singing, dancing and lots of sequinned flesh. All brilliant and in such good fun.

If you’ve considered queuing in the sun for four hours, but didn’t know how it would turn out, you could ask us. Wimbledon makes crazies out of a lot of people and we are delighted to be part of that group. We dragged ourselves out of bed to meet Bec and Aaron on Saturday morning and began lining up at 8am. It was actually quite fun; it’s on a big oval, with people playing games and picnicking. A couple of people I know, Jason and Sarah M, camped the night before and were 135 and 700 in the queue respectively. Stewards come round to give you a queue card with a number (we were 6677 and 6678) and if you’re not there to get a queue card, no one can get it for you and you’re on your own (I seem to remember this creating a problem for aunty Pat and uncle Ken.) Painfully the ticket booths didn’t even look at our queue cards; they just took our general ground fee of twenty quid and we were in!

These tickets gave us access to either standing or unreserved seating at courts two to nineteen. It’s a beautiful venue, so green and bright and I’d seen it so many times it felt familiar. We parked ourselves on Henman Hill with Pimms and strawberries and cream (simply too complicated to make at home) and enjoyed the sweltering heat and the big screen. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun, with drunken Scotsmen in eighties wigs providing entertainment in the form of huge Mexican waves. In the afternoon, for charity, people from centre court and court one can hand in their tickets to be re-sold. We were very fortunate to pick up two great seats on court one and saw James Murray (Andy’s brother) play men’s doubles and Molik versus Stubbs in mixed doubles. A strange thing (bit too quaint for my liking) about Wimbledon is that the male players are referred to by their first and last names only, but all women players are referred to as Miss this and Miss that. Overall, Wimbledon was one of the best days of the year and worth every second of the four hour queue.

Cannot wait to see the Elverys in only eleven days now! We’ll meet them and Hannah in Norway on the 11th. Best wishes to you all. Hope you’re all well. Stay in touch!

Laura and Simon.

Well, it’s taken a while, but the Elverys are finally connected to this thing you people call “the internet”. Simon and I moved to Bayswater on the 28^th March, so it’s only taken the efforts of two very small, not-for-profit companies called Virgin and British Telecom to get us up and running. Eighty-one days: longer than it takes to go around the world, but less time than it took to build the Pyramids. We already think Jiselle and Tony’s baby is both clever and thoughtful. We are sure he or she waited until mum and dad were back from Cairns and for us to get the internet so we can skype the be-jesus out of it. So heads up, baby. Come on and be born!

The best part of the last two weeks was going to Denmark on the weekend. Last month I had found what I thought were tuppence flights to Aarhus, the country’s second largest city. Hmmm, I thought, tuppence. I hesitated, but then came the payments screen where they appeared, not as tuppence, but as GPB 0.00 plus taxes. That’s free plus taxes! So that was a good start. It was a perfect weekend with a flight that wasn’t too early on Saturday and a late Sunday trip home. On the train to the airport, of course we were sitting next to Aussies, and of course they were from Brisbane. They were following their son around the UK as he played for the under 20s Wallabies. I certainly didn’t dazzle them with my knowledge of the rugby union back-catalogue, but the lovely mum did stop me from leaving my phone on the train seat.

I would just love to go back to see more of Denmark. The countryside that we saw was just gorgeous, with dense forests growing right up to the edge of the highways. Aarhus itself is set on canals and is very pretty. It is a university town with forty thousand students and has a lovely, relaxed feel to it. Everywhere there are very stylish people on bikes. Every Dane we met spoke at least some English and they were very friendly and helpful, especially our concierge who rang around trying to get us tickets to “something, anything!” The city is known as the culture capital of Denmark, and I managed to see two dance performances on the Saturday night that were part of the Aarhus International Choreography Competition. That was awesome.

On the Sunday we headed to Den Gamle By (The Old Town.) This is the world’s first open-air urban and history museum and was brilliant. A range of real buildings (homes, businesses, mills, etc) from all over Denmark (the earliest I saw was mid-1600s) have been dismantled, transported and reconstructed in the old town. It was very impressive. I fell in love with the poster art featured in an exhibition there by Bjorn Wiinblad. He created amazingly bright, bold posters for things like theatres, charities and Olympic Games. After shamrock-coated Ireland and Eiffel Tower-dripping Paris, I had expected Lego, Hamlet and Hans Christian Anderson everywhere. I was really surprised to see none of the first two, and only half a dozen fairy tale books. No Princess Mary sightings either.

In Aros, the city’s art gallery and museum, we stumbled upon a great three-piece band playing in the café. We had no idea what they were saying in between songs (except for buy our CD now) but we smiled and pretended we did. The museum was holding a special exhibition on movie directors who have created famous film clips in recent years. But the best thing about the Aros was the sculpture Boy, by the Aussie Ron Mueck. He creates extremely life-like sculptures of ordinary people that do your head in because of their size. Boy is five metres tall in cotton shorts that have belt loops the size of birthday cards. The detail in his hair and skin and feet is amazing. He squats at the bottom of the staircase and took my breath away.

The weather has continued being very kind. The walk to work each day is still lovely through the parks. I’m no longer shocked to see large numbers of horses (and their riders – I’d be surprised if the horses were able to organise it themselves) trotting the perimeter of Hyde Park. The other day there were sixty of them, three horses-wide, trotting down Piccadilly in peak hour. Londoners are usually all over their horns, but they’re strangely polite and there’s never a peep out of them when it comes to horses. We spent a brilliantly lethargic seven and a half hours in Hyde Park one Sunday, reading, eating ice-cream and exclaiming, “It’s actually hot!”

State of Origin second time around was far more satisfying. There were fewer Blues supporters than last time and it was just such a decent thumping. Also, our friends over here are having a baby in October, so they had a Twelve Week Scan party, and we celebrated by going to a great club that let us in for free because we said Kelly had made us late by waddling. I was positively vilified last email for choosing Sex and the City over Mozart (Uncle Alan was particularly horrified.) But we’ve arranged a few future performances at St Martin-in-the-Fields, including some when the Elverys arrive in mere weeks now. I am also especially excited to be seeing King Lear at the Globe on Saturday.

Lovely to hear from a lot of you again last time – thank you for making the effort! I always look forward to reading every one. Hope you’re all well. Lots of love, Laura and Simon.

Hi to everyone! Thanks for the great news from home. Sarah and Pat, your emails are great and my RSHS staffroom pals, thanks for keeping me posted.

We now find ourselves in June, quite certain that our nephew or niece will be born this month. Jiselle has now finished up work and hopefully will have a bit of time to herself until she is a mum. We managed to catch a replay of the first, albeit disappointing State of Origin at a Walkabout pub. The UEFA cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow was on the same night and it ended in a most painful penalty shoot-out (at least for those who were interested). Let’s hope the second Origin is more worthwhile.

The second long weekend in May was last weekend and we managed to take advantage of the three days off. We decided with Bec and Aaron, two friends from Brisbane, to head north. After realising that our first preference, the Peak District was completely booked out, we suggested a trip to York, which had been one of our favourite places on our trip in 2004. Again, we borrowed the red beast, complete with Janet the Sat Nav, and drove north on the Saturday, stopping at a cute town called Southwell on the way.

We had a brief look around York on the evening – it wasn’t completely dark until 10:20pm – before heading to our hotel late that night. Aaron had spent Friday night flying back from Russia of all places, and was pretty well ready to get some shut eye. Unfortunately, we were greeted at our lovely converted manor house of a hotel with a lot of key cupboard opening and shutting – they had overbooked the hotel. Bec and Aaron found themselves in unfamiliar territory when the key they were given to “try out” opened the door to a room with other people’s things in it. There were a few more mishaps (getting charged twice for one room probably counts as a mishap. Simon leaving his mobile there would be another.) Overall though, it was a very good base to explore Yorkshire.

We were the lucky ones that weekend; for once the north had far better weather than London. On the Sunday we drove to Castle Howard, a very impressive home set amongst even more stunning gardens. It had a real ‘let’s go for a stroll unchaperoned while you court me’ feel to it. Acres of green lawns, several lakes, manicured gardens as well as a dense wood are all there to be explored. The castle remains in the Howard family, with not one but two of their ancestors having married Henry VIII. The current offspring are two little cherubs names Octavia and Merlin, so we’ll see how that goes. There was a fantastic local food fair on and we spent a sunny afternoon picnicking on the grounds eating cheese and bread and drinking Pimms.

After all that dairy and grog, I had a little snooze in the car and woke up as we began driving through the Yorkshire Moors, the setting for Wuthering Heights. It was amazing to wake up to, because it is so vastly different from the English countryside I’m used to. The Moors are breathtaking. They are black, high ridges, with steep cliffs and valleys below. They really are windswept and barren and threatening. The tourism officer told us to return in August when all the black we could see would be bright purple heather. It is tempting.

Whitby, birthplace of James Cook, on the north-eastern coast of England was a great find. We had heard there was a famous abbey there and decided to take a look. We really liked Whitby; it is a gorgeous seaside fishing town with winding streets and a typically alleged British beach. The abbey was superb, an ancient shell of a place with a green-grassed interior. We then drove back down the coast through Scarborough, which has the UK’s largest hotel from Scarborough’s 1950s heyday.

York the next day was excellent. It’s such a beautiful city. We climbed the three hundred steps to the top of York Minster, which is one of the largest Gothic churches in Europe. There were so many people about for the long weekend and the sunshine was glorious. It wouldn’t be a long weekend without a couple of trips to the pub. At the Guy Fawkes, we enjoyed one of the best pub meals ever as well as some friendly service with that brilliant Yorkshire accent.

Early in the week, I booked two tickets to a classical music concert at St Martins in the Field on Trafalgar Square. Simon’s dad used to go to concerts there all the time and we’ve been wanting to do the same for a long time. Unfortunately I got my nights wrong, and was invited with a group of a dozen girls to dinner and then to go see the Sex and the City movie. As much as I wanted to go to both, Simon was a trooper and went to Mozart by himself. Sex and the City is absolutely brilliant. The cinema was full and the atmosphere was really fun; there were heels and fancy dress everywhere. Loved it, loved it.

On Thursday, my friend Margaret messaged me to ask if I was a fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I told her I hadn’t much thought about it, but she certainly had and was super keen to see Bruce for her birthday. I’ve decided to be up for a variety of things and we both had a terrific night at the concert. It was at Emirates stadium, the new Arsenal ground, which is very impressive. Bruce is nuts; he is fifty-eight and played for two-and-a-half hours straight. The crowd was very different from what I’d expected; more uncle than aunty and lots of young people. A highlight was walking home with the other, oh, 60 thousand people to the tube station and noticing a drunken yob cradling a beer in one hand and a speaker out the window in the other. He managed to lead the amused crowd in a wobbly rendition of Born in the USA.

Back to work today to keep paying for our lifestyle. We have a couple of parties next weekend, and then we’ve booked the following Saturday and Sunday in Denmark. We’re starting to plan what we’ll get up to when the Elverys arrive in the first week of July. Love to all. To the Dowricks among you, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a Digest more; it was wonderful to read and have a giggle at my desk.

Love, Laura and Simon.

A few random observations this week: 1. There are a lot of young people being stabbed in this country. A lot. 2. Brits use the word ‘bespoke.’ A lot. 3. To all my soon-to-be-wed friends, there is a website being advertised over here: youbuymywedding.com. Really want a 20 thousand pound wedding? Can’t afford it? Oh, you still want one? Get your guests to fork out for the privilege. Classy.

Hello everyone! We hope you’re all well. Many thanks for keeping us up to date on your comings and goings. Happy birthday to all the many April babes.

Well, mum and dad left two Mondays ago and I’ve been missing them ever since! Before they came over I had been missing Jiselle and the bub the most because I had mum and dad’s trip to look forward to. But Simon and I had such a fantastic time with them that’s probably made it difficult to return to normal life. Our friend Susan is a brilliant friend, not least for the fact that she has a car and took mum, dad and me to Stonehenge and Bath. I had hoped to take them to see these wonderful places; Bath was one of my favourite places on our trip last time and I think Stonehenge is magnificent. The Roman baths are truly fascinating and had this great new audio commentary by the writer Bill Bryson.

It was off to Ireland the next day. We had all been looking forward to getting out the city and had semi-planned a four day driving trip from Dublin to Cork, Waterford, Killarney, Limerick and back to Dublin. This takes in the Ring of Kerry on the south-western coast of the country. To be fair, we probably didn’t see enough of Dublin itself to be impressed by it. As the driver, it certainly didn’t impress dad; Dublin’s city centre roads are like a maze. Once we got out of the city though, we could were able to enjoy the gorgeous, green Irish countryside.

We all loved Cork and Killarney, deciding to try our luck with accommodation when we got there. It is certainly true what is said about Irish hospitality, which was so noticeable after indifferent London service. The two B&Bs we stayed at had wonderful hosts (“Just knock on my door when you get back in at midnight and I’ll make you a cuppa.”) The Ring of Kerry is an absolute must to drive: rolling green hills dotted with white cottages and sheep, stunning coastline and dramatic skies. It’s genuinely breathtaking.

We arrived back in London on the Friday night and soon realised that we only had two more days all together. One of the wonderful things about London is that you can choose almost any central tube stop and find yourself in the middle of some amazing sights. We took mum and dad to Trafalgar Square one evening because it’s staying lighter and lighter every night. I love the huge bronze lions at Trafalgar Square, especially how there are always kids and adults crawling all over them. We walked towards the Thames and showed mum and dad the houses of parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

Mum, dad and I spent Sunday at St Paul’s and then parted ways: mum and I to Oxford Street for shopping and dad positively glowed after a full day spent at the Museum of London without anyone telling him what to do. Poor dad. Parting ways at the train station on Monday was quite unpleasant. We realised their train to Heathrow was leaving in about ten seconds so I managed to blubber something about “parents” and “Australia” to the platform master, who watched amused as we hugged and said our goodbyes. It probably worked in our favour though, as there was less than half a minute of dramatics at a time that could have been much more dramatic.

I think I last wrote when I had embarked on my quest for employment after two weeks ‘school holidays’ with mum and dad. I had an interview that same afternoon for a marketing assistant position at Robert Walters, a recruitment agency that had been working to place me in a job elsewhere. The interview went well, but they gave the position to someone with actual marketing experience (the nerve.) Semi-despairing I lined up an interview for a nanny position with a mum of three who looked like Sarah Jessica Parker and had a diamond the size of five-cent piece. She offered it to me, but the downside (really not a downside at all) was that I was “required” to travel for two months with the family over the summer to Vienna, Greece, Monaco and Israel. Strange thing to turn down, isn’t it?

I spent a frustrating unemployed week with uni mate Margaret who kept me sane by taking me to lunch and sitting in internet cafes with me (still not connected at home.) If ever you’re unemployed, invite Moogs around; she’s fantastic. Robert Walters called about a second job, again within their company, and I got the job. Thankfully my quest has ended! I haven’t taken to unemployment very well (does anyone?) It is tedious, worrying and frustrating. Funny though, how as soon as I got my job, I was looking forward to all those days off by myself to wander around the British Library and Hyde Park.

The man who will be my boss is called Jim, and I immediately warmed to him. He’s in his thirties, married to a Brisbane woman and has had a really interesting career. I think he’ll be great to work for. My job title is one of those ones that doesn’t really say much: I’ll be a business information assistant. “It’s basically data entry, isn’t it?” I said to the recruitment agent, who often try to make things sound a bit more impressive than they are. But I’m fine with what sounds like a nice working environment, with some pretty easy computer/telephone bits thrown in. Another bonus is that the offices are located just off Trafalgar Square, right near the river. Now I just have to get used to wearing a suit every day.

Having discovered the British Library last week and revisiting Shakespeare’s Globe, I am convinced I must work at these places some day. Teachers who I worked with at Billericay are involved in tutoring uni pre-service teachers and they invited me to a workshop day with them at the library and theatre last Thursday. I had an awesome day. The library receives over 30 000 items every single month that live in shelves underground that are serviced by – presumably – Oompa Loompas who whiz them up through tubes to the reading room when requested. Our guide took us through the Ritblat gallery of the library where some real treasures are kept: Shakespeare’s first folio, the Magna Carta, Scott’s last diary entry from Antarctica, Mozart music, Beatles lyrics on the back of a birthday card and an original Alice in Wonderland. The workshop at the Globe was brilliant; I was able to do some drama again and we saw the company rehearsing for their upcoming season. It was all very special.

Thanks for keeping in touch; we love hearing what you’re up to. Best wishes to you all. Love Laura and Simon.