Andrew and I have had a little trouble re-acclimatising since returning to London. Two weeks ago, Andrew and I were swimming at Clovelly in the sunshine and under blue skies. Last week, Andrew and I spent a beautiful sunny morning at Maroubra beach with the Goldy crew. We surfed in the waves and played ultimate on the sand.

Yesterday morning, we awoke to a typical London morning. It was grey. It was raining. It was cold. As Andrew and I wandered up a deserted Portobello Rd to our favourite brunch spot, we tried to remember what sunshine felt like. In the afternoon we headed to Frisbee training and ran around in the cold, the rain and the mud for 2 hours. I had the feeling we were getting a big fat "Nyer nyer nyer, you should have stayed in Sydney" from London.

But maybe a reintroduction to cold weather is a good thing. We are off to Latvia, Estonia and Finland this weekend. I just checked the weather forecast and they're expecting snow. Sunshine to cold to freezing is easier then sunshine to freezing? I'll keep telling myself that.

I've been told I'm a bad, bad girl. I didn't blog once during our visit home to Australia. I will try and make it up to you now. Well kinda make it up to you, as I'm a bit lazy. Presenting OzFest2008: a summary of our trip in photos.


Albums in full can be found here: Aussie Kids 2008, Sydney, Emily and Goldy's Wedding, Birdies in the Blue Mountains on Flickr and Sydney 2008, Mr and Mrs Goldy - Wedding after party on Facebook.

If anyone would like quality copies of the kiddies photos they are also on Flickr in the Aussie Kids 2007 set. The Flickr versions should be big enough to print photo quality. (Click on the photo, select All Sizes from above the photo, select Original from Available sizes, click Download the Original size and print.)

Kiddies! It was great to catch up with all the kiddies while we were home. We met the newbies Isaac, Jude, Summer and Ella. Lots of cuddles there! The big kids are lots of fun. Sarah, Hannah, and Oscar are now old enough to take part in some playground games. I can't remember the last time I played "What's the time Mr Wolf?" or "Red Light, Green Light". I struggled to remember the rules. (Sarah and Hannah made us play "What's the time Mrs Wolf". They must be entering the "boys have germs" stage.)

Most of all I enjoyed hanging out with my nephews. Leo has changed so much and is an adorable and very affectionate little boy. One very special memory is of Leo throwing his chubby little arms around my neck and covering my cheek with kisses. It makes me happy and just a little bit sad. Oscar is very talkative and a little precocious. His reasons for getting his own way weren't always entirely rational but always amusing. My favourite reason was "but Daddy is always right." Nice training Richie!

Isaac! A new nephew! Cause for celebration. Baby Isaac is only 6 weeks old. There is nothing quite like a little one falling asleep in your arms. I love how he struggles to stay awake; he doesn't want to miss out on all the fun.

Of course, we took lots and lots of photos of the kiddies. I've put them all in a gallery for your enjoyment. (Just for you Alison!) (photos)

So we're back in London! We had a surprisingly non-boring flight with Singapore Airlines. They have a fantastic entertainment system and I was able to watch movies and TV shows the entire flight. Andrew slept most of the way (he can sleep anywhere that boy!)

London gave us a true UK welcome with a horror trip back from the airport. We circled for 15 minutes before landing, sat on the tarmac for half an hour and then waited to clear immigration for about an hour (this was in the speedy EU line too!). To top it all off, we were turfed off our train back to Ealing because of "signal failure". We then had to walk for 1km, dragging our entire luggage, to try and find a bus. It was London payback, I'm sure.

I'll leave you with a few photos from our trip to Brisvegas.



Andrew no longer has his red mohawk... phew!