A gastronomic experience

Saturday was Phil's birthday, and we took the opportunity to cash in gift vouchers for Rotherhams of Riccarton restaurant which we received for Christmas from Tim and Celia. We went all out and ordered the 5 course degustation menu (although not as 'all out' as the table next to us who order the 8 course with matching wines at $200 a head!!). It was absolutely amazing, every bite a delight! Definitely worth the small fortune we spent.
In other news, we are patiently waiting for the arrival of our first real niece/nephew. This weekend we are going on a tramp to the Mueller hut at Mt Cook, which I am SUPER excited about having never been to Mt Cook before. I'm a sucker for a good view and apparently its amazing from the Mueller hut so hopefully we'll have good weather.

Mrs and Mrs May (2nd Gen)

I think Facebook is sucking the will to live out of my blog. I'm tending to just put my photos up there.
We went up to Blenheim in the weekend for Frank and Em's wedding, which was an awesome day. The ceremony was really sweet, plenty of tears (eh Frank!), and the reception was great fun. Phil and I were the MC's, and I was a bit nervous, but once we got going it was fine. I quite liked the microphone by the end of the night! Afterwards the groomsmen and a few of us continued the party in town. Everyone had a great night it seems, and Frank and Em were really happy with how the day went.
We bought Gracie back with us, so she's with us in Chch for a few days.
Heres a few pics.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. Heres some snaps from our hols. Yep I know I'm getting lazy in my posts, less words and more pics etc but lets be honest, you really just come here to look at the pictures don't you?

Weekend in Wellington

Some pics from our trip to wellington for Gordons retirement dinner after being at SU for 27 years! We also caught up with Kathryn, Wilf and Maggie Robinson.

Dunedin and drugs

This week has gone by in a bit of a blur thanks to the pain medication Ive been taking. I don't know whats worse, the groggy gross feeling from the drugs or the pain itself. Anyway its all over now, seems to be healing up nicely and Im certainly not missing the ole wizzies!
Im still sporting a nice bruise which Phil feels he has to explain whenever we're in public ("I didn't do it!")


In other happenings, last weekend we went to Dunedin, Phil to a stag do, and me to see the girls. A great weekend was had by all I believe. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera to dinner so I don't have a good pic of me and the girls all together but theres a nice one Christine's facebook!

I gotta stop putting Anna on a pedestal...

Jase and Mais

Maisie Mitchell. Doncha love those cheeks?? shes so cute!

Dunedin in all her glory.

Muttons

its been a while!

We've been back for just over a week now. Its Monday morning and I took the day off cos I was supposed to have surgery (biopsy of a lump in my jaw + removal of 3 wisdom teeth) but it was canceled. So here I am with no excuses as to why I can't update the blog.
We had 4 nights in Singapore after leaving London, which was fairly enjoyable but we kinda just wanted to get home, we were pretty travel weary by that stage. Here are some shots of the Zoo, which was definitely worth the visit.




Also a few pics from our last few days in London with Tim and Celia:



Its been a pretty full on last week or so, got back from Singapore last Saturday, then straight to work 8am Monday morning for both of us! luckily it was short week - thanks Canterbury - but, in keeping with our never-ending busyness we traveled up to Blenheim on Thursday night and got back yesterday. whew! its actually just as well I'm not working this morning..still got unpacking from the last 2 months to do.
Here are some pics from Blenheim:

still singing...

The unforgettable story of forgiveness, redemption, love...ahhh. The Westend production of this was everything I hoped it would be! We had such high up seats it was kind of like having a birds eye view of the stage but who cares... we could still see everything and of course the most important, hear all the songs. Absolute highlight was Jean Valjeans "Bring Him Home". Just beautiful. Fantines "I Dreamed a Dream" didn't disappoint either. Some of Javerts songs were not what I'd expected though, a pity since he's one of my favorite charactors. Eponine was gorgeous and her "On My Own" was really good. It was all really good...

Some Photos Finally! (Nice and Switzerland)

Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco

Beach at Nice

Darren and Lizzis house in Switzerland

Me in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland (if you look closely you can see its snowing!)

The valley opposite the one we were staying in.

It sucks...

..Im in Paris but can barely appreciate it due to the incredibly nasty virus I seem to have contracted. Despite round-the-clock panadol I am unable to sleep due to the pain in my throat and ears, not to mention the nose going like a leaky tap. And oh..the injustice of being in the culinary capital of the world with faulty tastebuds!

Well now I've had my whinge ill get on with it. We had 2 days in Munich, nothing much to report really, very cold and grey. Did some shopping, looked at the sights, tried some of their infamous beer. We have been in Paris for 3 nights now, and today have moved out of our hotel into Sophie's apartment for the next 3 nights. Its a joy to be able to rest on the couch today and make myself cups of tea and peruse the free internet - just what a poor,sick girl needs. Thanks Sophie! We have done a few of the main things in Paris, went up the Eiffel Tower, to the Lourve, out to Versailles, all of which was good.
sorry for the mundane post, but i think i need to have a nap..
home in 2 weeks now,

Switzerland

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling wee sister who celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday. Hi Gracie!
Today we arrived in Munich after spending 3 nights in Lauterbrunnen. We went through no fewer than 4 countries today! Internet was expensive and rare in Switzerland, hence the silence on the blog.
We absolutly loved Switzerland. The small town where we stayed was very quaint, and in a valley surrounded by impossibly high snow covered mountains. It was straight out of the book "Heidi", wooden farmhouses, and farm animals with bells round their necks etc. The weather was a shock, coming from the sunbathing in the south of France. It was very alpine and even snowed one morning!
The first afternoon we were there we took a train to the town of Speiz where Darren (a friend from the old dunedin days) met us and took us to his place for a catch up. It was lovely meeting his wife Lizzi and baby Ana (4 wks old), I really enjoyed `talking babies´ with Lizzi and having a nice long cuddle with Ana. Ive been missing baby cuddles! Darren and Lizzi live in a farmhouse with amazing views over a lake, and they have animal (including wooley pigs) and grow stuff. We loved thier community lifestyle.
We spent the rest of our time exploring, visiting waterfalls and eating traditional Swiss food, which seemed to be very fatty and a little to heavy on the stomach for my liking, but the chocolate - thats another story..divine!

oh the frustration

Ok so i just tried real hard to get some photos on here and it wouldn`t work. I mananged to get some on facebook though. Im beginning to lose faith in this particular blog engine. In other news we went to a small seaside town called Villefranche-su-mer yesterday and it charmed our socks (among other items of clothing) off. Had a lovely swim and came home a wee bit sunburnt. Off to Switzerland tomorrow.

Monaco

We are in Nice at the moment, in the heart of the French Riviera. Sounds glamourous but if you saw our hostel you'd think otherwise! But nevertheless we've had our share of glamour. Yesterday we took a day trip to Monte Carlo (Monaco) where all the rich people roll around in their money. The city was so opulent, beautiful gardens which were free to get into, very clean, nice public toilets and SO MANY incredible cars. Almost every car was a head-turner and im not even that into cars. We saw limited edition Porshes, Bentleys, Maseratis and all the 'ordinary cars' were BMW's or Mercs. It was a Sunday and I enjoyed people-watching all the rich families on thier outings, impecably dressed mothers with perfect hair and cute shoes and fathers who were trying to dress casual but when you look closer you realise their polo shirt is YSL or Gucci or something, and the kids looking like catologue kids and playing with remote control helicoptors " just like daddys" (yes really). We had a good time, getting back quite late and managed to find a cute bistro run by a man with limited english who seemed to appreciate my attempts at French. We had an incredible dinner for a very low price. Go to the La Albatross bistro if you're in Nice!

Firenze part duo

No photos again today, havn't managed to download them yet.
We went to the Uffizi Gallery yesterday, which houses the Medici family's collection of paintings including some famous ones. Our favourites were the Tondo Doni by Michelangelo (pictured above) and one of Da Vincis early ones - actually I think it was his first commissioned one - the Annunciation pictured below


Also liked Caravaggios 'Sacrifice of Issac'. You could really see why the famous artists were famous from these pics, their paintings just leapt off the walls and outshaddowed most of the ones around them.
The top picture is of the main duomo/church thing here. Its really impressive, with green and white stripes of marble. We haven't been inside yet, thats tomorrows aim. Today we took a train to a town called Pistoia where the pistol was invented in the 1600s. Was a cute wee town and nice to get away from the city for a bit.
More to follow...xxx

Florence part one

I labelled this part one to make sure I do another update before leaving here, as this will have to be quick. Sorry no photos, we haven't been able to download any for a while.
We arrived in Florence yesterday via busabout and really enjoyed the ride through the Tuscan countryside. It was every bit as beautiful as I'd imagined: rolling hills with crumbling earthy coloured farmhouse, feilds of golden coloured dirt with a single olive tree in the middle etc. Very easy to fall in love with. We went on a walking tour of Florence with the busabout group and had dinner with them, it was really nice to talk to some other people in english. They were mostly Aussies. We've ditched the busabouters for now though, cos they are staying in a camping ground ages out of Florence and we wanted to be closer. We're staying at a nice Hostel which has free internet (although its in high demand) and breakfast. Phil likes this one more, although we are missing our Italian friend from our room in our Rome hostel. It was nice having a 'local' (he was actually from Milan) to get an Italian perpective on stuff, plus he showed us some nice untouristy sites.
I've nearly used up my internet allocation for today, so more will follow sometime in the next few days.
xx J

Rome

Hi to you all. special shout out to Anna today! thanks for your comment, i was thinking about the central library the other day for some reason. felt like going to the link for a coffee.
So we've been in Rome now for 3 days. We met up with Tim and Celia when we arrived and spent our first few days sightseeing with them. They've finished their holiday now though so we're back on our own. It was nice spending time with them, and we saw some pretty cool things, the Sistine Chapel and the Collesseum being the highlights. Im really enjoying Rome, its a fun city, with lots to look at and do. Phil is struggling to get used to living in a hostel dorm so I fear his view of Rome is tainted by that. We've had nice, friendly people in our dorm so far though, so it hasn't been that bad. We've got a bit of time here so are kind of taking it a bit easy, not rushing round the sights too much. We still havn't reached the halfway point yet and it feels like we've been on the road for ages, but its been fun so far, wouldn't mind popping home for a night or 2 at times, for a break - if only it was that easy!
Ciao and Love..
Jenn

Venice Pics

San Marco Square
The first pic was taken from the top of this tower

Thats me lurking in the corner of the doorway
Phil inspects his pizza

Boats

Its friday night and we're at a camping ground in Venice. The last few days have been pretty tiring but interesting and a good experience. On Tuesday we left the Islands and went back to Athens on a ferry that quite possibly could've been a retired Interislander. We arrived late after a 6hr trip, and left early the next morning for Patra by bus. Once in Patra we were informed by a very animated travel agent that we could get very cheap tickets (and even cheaper since we're under 26 - ah the benifits of youth) on the deck of the boat which left for its 33hr voyage to Venice that night at midnight. He assured us it was 'BEAUTiful BEAUTiful boat' and there was no need to waste our money on the more expensive ticket options as the deck would be fine for two spring chickens like ourselves. We bought the tickets and after giving us directions to the local sights and bidding us to 'spend good your time here' we spent the afternoon exploring Patra. That night we boarded the Ikarus Palace which looked like a slightly dilapidated cruise liner only to find that deck tickets actually meant literally that - on the deck outside. Imagine spending 2 nights and a full day outside on the Interislander ferry. After contemplating that awful thought and realising our sleeping bags would take none of the hardness off the steel floor not to mention the puddles of water everywhere we enquired about and upgrade. Luckily for us it was pretty cheap to change our tickets for ones which entitled us to an airplane-type seat each. We arrived in Venice early this morning and have seen a good bit of the city today. Really love it here and can't wait to explore more tomorrow.
Love to you all, arrividerci xx

some words

Ive decided that posting photos is the lazy way out. As im not keeping any kind of diary while im travelling I really need to add some written documentation to aid my memory.
So..
At present we are on an island called Milos, staying in a sleepy port town called Adamas. Tourist season is over, so many services and shops are closed, but there are just enough locals and a wee smatterings of tourists to keep the town ticking over. One of the interesting observations we've had while staying here is the complete shift in the pace of life. The town seems to wake up around 6 or 7am, with the bakeries selling freshly baked breads, and the old men sitting outside the tavernas smoking and drinking coffee. Between the hours of about 1 and 4 or 5pm the town shuts down again with the locals going home to thier main meal of the day and a siesta to escape from the heat of the day. Then from 5 til 10 or 11pm the town wakes up again, with the tavernas filling with diners from about 8pm. We've mananged to adjust fairly well and now the thought of going home and eating lunch at 12.30 seems strange. Here we have lunch at 3ish and dinner at 8 or 9.

I've got a new understanding for the mentions in the bible of feet washing.. the dust gets everywhere here and the first thing you must do when arriving home, in order to feel civilized again, is to wash your feet. The wind has been fierce the last few days as well.

Today we have been exploring this hillside full of half dug up roman ruins and cute wee ancient whitewashed churches. We had intended on seeing the Catacombs where 5000 early christians are buried but they were closed for repairs. It was fantastic morning, we had the whole hillside to ourselves and coming across a really well preverved roman ampitheatre looking out over the sea and a small fishing villiage made it feel like we'd discovered it ourselves.

This island is volcanic and quite barren and kaikoura-esque with huge cliffs in parts. Its full of the white cubist architechure with blue windowsills and doors you see in postcards. A charming place really. We are off to Sifnos for a few nights tomorrow, before returning athens, then travelling overland to Patra where we hope to catch a boat up the Adriatic sea to Venice.

I dreamt about the children I nanny for last night, I think I miss them quite a lot. We are also missing our wee goddaughter and her mum.
Love to you all reading..adio

and some more...

Milos at dusk
Some old pillars somewhere...
Phil showing you where we are staying on the Island of Milos
The Med..

while we're in a fast internet cafe i might as well...