The first 4 weeks in the UK (OJG)

*** Happy New Year ***

Hi everyone,

I know it has been a while, but as most of you know we have been in the UK for the last 4 weeks, and although we planned to keep the blog running with interesting articles on UK life, it never happened. Let's just blame jet lag and heavy commitments.

So, what have we been doing?

Well I will give you all a quick summary, and also our next set of plans for Oz.

We arrived at Heathrow airport around 5am, and the temperature outside was 5c. The temperature in Cairns, where we boarded had been close to 40c. The mammoth flight over had not been that bad at all. The plane from Cairns to Darwin had been almost empty (So Emelie and I sat with an empty seat between us). Then we picked up a few passengers in Darwin, including a truly enormous sweating American with a ton of carry on bags, who had somehow managed to piss off the check-in girl, and was promptly seated between the two of us, even though there were plenty of completely empty rows! It took a few chats with the stewardess, but in the end they could see how silly it was, and moved him. Emelie had to wipe his seat with a towel.

So apart from an anxious first 20 minutes, the rest of that flight to Singapore was pretty easy going. I saw some really amazing cloud formations from the window, it looked like a set of islands in the sky.

Singapore was it's usual busy self; get the transfer sorted, buy as many gadgets and Christmas presents as possible, run to catch the next flight. After a little bit of wrangling we got a set of 2 seats together at the back of the plane, so although this last long leg (14 hours) was painful on the body and the mind, at least we didn't have people constantly wanting to get past us, or falling asleep on us. We arrived in the UK fairly fresh... more or less.

The day after arrival we had an amazing Christmas lunch with loads of close family from both sides. A true Christmas feast with an enormous turkey (which caught fire in the oven, but that is another story), a huge gammon, and what must have been at least a dozen vegetables and side dishes, all cooked (and smoked) to perfection. Boxing day and New Years Eve were both similar.

And that was the beginning of our downfall with regards to food!

Since we arrived in Oz, we had slowly but surely been eating much healthier. We ate a lot more fruit, more fresh meats, even more vegetables. And there were no processed dishes to be seen anywhere. Also we had been eating smaller amounts, in some cases in the outback probably too small, but overall we had found a nice new happy medium. And we felt wonderful for it, we had both lost weight, for me personally about 12kg, and 3 inches off the waist! And that was without even trying. Seriously.

So, coming back to the cold land of the UK, lots of time indoors, socialising, etc... food and drink always available. I have no idea if we have put on weight since being back, but it sure feels like we have, the body feels slow and cumbersome again. For that reason alone we cannot wait to get back to Oz :)

Oh, and yes I realise that this is all our own fault, and with a little... well a lot of self control this should not be a problem, but we have just succumbed to all the delicious dishes that we have missed since being away. We are weak, but it tastes so good!

So apart from eating half our body weight each day, we have been fairly busy meeting up with all our friends and family in their various abodes. So far we have been to London, Crawley, Balcombe, Guildford and of course Brighton. And it has been really great. Just like the good old days, except that we were never this social, so really like the old days x 10.

In addition to that, we have been busy sorting out all the bits that we left behind from last time. As most of our close friends in the UK will know, it all got a bit hectic in the weeks and days before our original departure to Oz, especially with the flat sale. I am sure some people would use other words to describe it. Anyway, what wasn't sorted, got put into storage and left for us to sort out upon our return. So plenty of eBay, lots of bin bags, paper filing, phone calls to various companies, and of course a complete re-sort of our storage. In all seriousness our goal is to make sure that when we return to the UK in future visits, we don't have to worry about any of this stuff. What fun.

With regards to weather... well I guess it would be a little unfair to have a major dig as it is winter, but in all seriousness, apart from a few good days, it has been a constant grey in the sky. Sometimes with drizzly rain, sometimes without. And two days ago we had the worst storms for 10 years, with between 10 and 14 dead (depending upon which paper you read). Apart from the first few days it hasn't been too cold, yet.

And that is pretty much the last 4 weeks in a nutshell.

Although we had originally planned to be out here for only 3 weeks, I got it all wrong booking the flights back, and we will not head back to Oz until the 5th of Feb. As it turns out, getting all the bits done has been fairly time consuming and our remaining 2 weeks are going to be chocka!

Although nothing is set in stone, when we get back to Oz we hope to spend a bit of time in Cairns, do a bit of diving, get Henry tuned (we hope that is all he needs, the little bugger), go up North a little bit, and then head down along the coast, back to Townsville, and on to Brisbane, Sydney and so on.

We really can't wait!