Christmas in London

Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas!

We headed across to London on the 21st to catch up with the fam over there - Martin, my older boet by about 6 years, his wife Inge and their two kids - Kiara (3) and Jake (1).

Loaded up with Christmas prezzies, we went across for a few days and had a ball, although I got my usual winter cold the day before we left and spent the days blowing my nose.

It was way colder in London than in Cork - which they say is how it usually is due to Cork having so much rain which helps keep the temperature up. We went out for a walk with the fam more than once and were lucky to get back with our fingers and ears still intact.

HAD seen each oWe also caught up with Kerri and Russell while in London as Kerri was keen to catch up with us. It seemed like ages since we had last seen her and when we tried to figure out when we lastther, Kerri realised it was at our engagement party in late 2004 / early 2005!

Just goes to show how time can fly. Anyhoo, we went out to GBK in Wimbledon (or little Cape Town as I call it), the area of every South African in London it would seem, and we each had an AMAZING BURGER. Then we did a bit of shopping and wandering about.

Of course, while we like Mart and nge, the main reason we went across was to see the kids... Kiara and Jake are so cute - they follow each other around, always curious as to what the other is up to. Jake emptied all the pots and pans from one of the kitchen cupboards and then tried to climb in ...



... which saw Kiara then try and follow suit.

Fortunately, Kiara already knows that her place is behind the vacuum cleaner and so she climbed out and headed for the cleaning aparatus. Inge's obviously taught her well. No Jake - that's Kiara's place!

Martin had bought himself a Nintendo Wii game - a type of computer game (without wires) where the character on the TV react to your arm/hand movements in real life.
It was great fun - we played boxing, ten pin bowling, golf, tennis and ... I can't remember what else. I was pretty good at golf but sucked at tennis. Cath kicked my ass at the bowling - even though she basically through the ball through the air onto the pins instead of rolling the ball.
Sigh, there's no justice!

The only negative was when Cath swatted my shoulder when going for a MASSIVE forehand in a game of tennis. I'm not SO SURE it was accidental....

Every now and again though the games would be interupted as the traffic came through the lounge... Check how curious he is. It was like this with him all the time - from TV remote to TV screen, from pot plants, to anything that makes a noise... He's so cute - but a real terror!

We also went out for some cool meals and Jake would often chose these moments to perform his scream ordeal. We the went for some walks to walk off the 5kgs we had just put on. I chose one of these moments to climb a tree. If not, why not...

On Christmas we went to the local church and Mass was different from what we've grown used to back home. Whereas in Plumstead we were slightly spoilt by the fantastic youth folk group. In London, however, we were tortured by a man and a lady who decided they were good enough to sing 'Oh holy night'. They weren't.

Why do non professional singers try and sing that song? It's like thinking 'I have a driver's licence, I'm sure I can reverse that 18-wheeler lorry' or 'I was in one or two fist-fights in my day, I bet I could fight Mike Tyson'. Anyway, the highlight of the song was when Kiara sat up and asked Inge "Mommy, why is the lady screaming?" Shame, I wanted to know the same thing.

But at least when it came to opening the prezzies, Santa came through.

Not only did I get some Hugo Boss make me smell EVEN BETTER stuff, I also got Jake White's biography, the new Lara Croft tomb raider game for PS2 and a few other bits and bobs.

Cath was also well-spoilt although for the life of me, I can't remember what I gave her - no wait, now I do - she got a collection of National Geographic DVDs.

She also got Brother Bear 2 on DVD from Santa. Do you know no-one we've met in Ireland has heard of Brother Bear - c'mon!?

Inge then cooked us lamb for lunch - mmm - my favourite. Hint, hint to anyone out there thinking of inviting us round! It was delish! Luckily Jake's still on soft foods or I may have had to wrestle him for his lamb. I would have done it - it would have been as easy as taking lamb from a baby.

Cath was enjoying herself...

It was a bummer when we eventually had to leave. But Emma was coming so we had something to look forward to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAMES...

Well, they do, but everyone doesn't give direction by street names,

they're given by pub names.

With the Christmas street lights having been put up in about October, I also wanted to go and get some photies of them and went out one night when Cath was at a work function (she eventually staggered in at about 3am and slept with a bucket next to the bed.

Even City Hall seemed to look nicer than usual and the cranes behind it even had Christmas lights up on the extending part of them.

Walking around the streets at midnight carrying a tripod, I attracted attention that (for once) I did not want.


Every Tom, Dick and Lisa wanted to know what I was doing and then wanted their photo taken. One girl was like: "So you work for a newspaper if you're taking photos, take our photo." So I said: "No I don't work for a paper - well, I do, but... (I gave up and took her photo)".

And then on the walk home, down one of the side roads, I came across these two fellas taking a slash against the shop windows. They weren't even trying to hide, this was about two metres from the corner of the main road! What's with that! Forgive the blur, I didn't REALLY want to set up the tripod for this one, I just wanted a 'Welcome to Ireland' photo.

But seriously - this isn'ta once-off type thing - even in Dublin, the amount of times we had people stopping for a pee in the lane outside our old place - well, I lost count. We used to dread Friday and Saturday nights cos so many people chose our lane to wee or puke - and we were in a nice block!

On Saturday and Sunday mornings (and into the evenings if no-one has come round to clear up) you have to play 'dodge the puke' on your walk anywhere. It just seems to be the norm, which is pretty sad. Indicative of a country with a drinking problem methinks. Such a pity. Maybe that's just me always living in the city centres - but I haven't seen it anywhere else around the world.

Anyhoo... can't end on that note... hands up if you think Alan's the greatest thing
since cheese on toast.